The guildhall had acquired two new problems while Liam was in the kitchen negotiating basalt access, and both of them were standing on the central platform as they owned it, which they did not.

Barbosa was the larger one, a mountain of crimson plate with the energy of a man who had spent the last week power-levelling on spite and had arrived here to make that everyone else’s problem. Beside him stood River Soul, his second-in-command, an eagle-kin swordsman with long blue hair and the specific smirk of someone who had decided he was the protagonist of this world and was waiting for everyone else to catch up.

Berry was standing slightly to the side with her tail doing the controlled slow movement that meant she was unhappy about something and was being professional about it, and Noir was beside her with her tail doing the uncontrolled fast movement that meant Liam had walked back into the room.

River Soul looked at Liam the way people look at things they have already decided to dismiss and are now finding inconveniently large. His eyes moved over the platinum armour, the Vulcan Gauntlets, the silver hair still carrying the faint scent of a Level 30 Rare Spawn, and he smiled with everything except his eyes.

but River Soul stepped forward, his hand resting on the hilt of a shimmering rapier. "So this is the ’Vanguard Chef’ I’ve heard so much about?" River Soul sneered, his eyes scanning Liam’s armour with blatant jealousy. "He looks more like a decorative statue than a soldier, Saffron. You really want this guy leading a section of the Vanguard? Barbosa and I have three hundred men ready to march. We don’t need a cook cluttering up the formation."

Without acknowledging River Soul’s outburst, Liam stopped ten feet from the platform, towering over the front row. He kept his focus solely on Saffron. "I’m not leading a section of your army," Liam grumbled, his voice dropping into that deep, terrifying bass. "I’m doing what I want. My party, Mirra, Rogue, and Ellie, are moving as a separate unit. You and your three hundred ’veterans’ can handle the mob clear on the perimeter. Stay out of our way."

Barbosa growled, his voice like gravel. "Separate unit? We’re a merged guild now, boy. You follow my lead, or you don’t go."

Liam shifted his gaze to Barbosa. He didn’t draw a sword he simply stepped forward. The [Weightless Forge] made his heavy basalt boots sound like a giant’s footsteps, tightening the pressure in the room. "I don’t follow anyone," Liam said, his red eyes glowing with his new [Fox King] authority. "And I don’t need your permission. The Iron Hearth knows the contract: my party gets first dibs on all loot from their side. If the Ruby Eye wants to participate, you can have the scraps I leave behind."

River Soul let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "First dibs? On a 300-man raid? You’re delusional, chef. Maybe the fumes from your kitchen have..."

Liam moved. It wasn’t a run but a dark obsidian blur. Before River Soul could even draw his rapier, Liam’s massive, gauntleted hand was clamped onto the man’s face, lifting him off the floor. Liam slammed him backward against a stone pillar with enough force to crack the masonry. "I wasn’t asking for your opinion, River Soul," Liam growled, holding the man pinned while his HP bar flickered from the sheer physical trauma. "I’m telling you how it’s going to go, and if you get in my way in the Catacombs, I’ll treat you like a mob and clear you myself, and I’ve been needing to get some more EXP" Liam let go.

River Soul slumped to the floor, coughing and gasping.

Barbosa’s hand went to his axe, but the sight of the Fox-kin girls in the room, all of them staring at Liam with looks of pure, religious devotion, made him hesitate.

Rogue, seeing the tension, decided to "smooth things over" by sliding up to Noir. He gave her a wink and leaned against her desk. "Hey there, beautiful. I see that tail whipping. You like what you see? I’m free after the raid if you want some... private coaching."

Noir didn’t even blink. She reached out, placed a hand on Rogue’s chest, and shoved him away with cold indifference. "In your dreams, little man," Noir shrugged him off.

Rogue stumbled back, grinning. "Oho! I like them feisty! Feisty is my middle name!"

SMACK! 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Mirra’s staff connected with the back of his head with the practised efficiency of someone who had been waiting for the right moment and had found it.

"His middle name is annoying," Mirra said to Noir. "Ignore him."

Berry cleared her throat with the authority of someone taking the room back. "After the Catacombs, we’re relocating the guild base to Areos. The regional capital. It has the infrastructure for a Tier 3 Hearth upgrade."

Liam looked up from his inventory. Tier 3 Hearth. The Smoked Ogre Marrow Toast. The recipe that had been sitting in his log since he pulled the core out of the Golem with his bare hand, waiting for the right equipment, and this was the path to it.

"Fine," he said.

"That’s it?" Berry said. "Fine?"

"It has the Hearth upgrade," Liam said. "What else would I need to know about it?" He turned the stream on, angled the camera at River Soul still on the floor, and set the title. "Forty-eight hours. I need legendary basil from the Lich’s burial chamber before we go in i’m not serving an Undead Lord without a proper garnish."

Elizabeth, who had been standing at his shoulder since the pillar incident with an expression of visible satisfaction, straightened up and looked at the room full of fox-kin guild members watching Liam, at the Ruby Eye leaders reassessing their life choices, at River Soul doing an inventory of his dignity from the floor.

Her tail flicked once, sharp and pleased.

"You heard him," she said, to nobody in particular. "We’ve got a garnish to find."

[Hestia: "The pillar slam was very masculine, little wolf. Tell the pink cat to stop touching your arm, though. It’s distracting me."]

Liam closed the notification and kept walking because he had a stove to build and a world to eat, and River Soul was already someone else’s problem.

[Tool tip]: Live streaming

Engagement Pulse: For every 1,000 "Live Viewers," the user receives a +1% buff to Mana Regeneration. The roar of the crowd is literally a fuel source.

The ’Face-Slap’ Capture: The node has a built-in AI that detects high-tension social moments. If the user shames or physically dominates a rival (e.g., slamming River Soul into a pillar), the node triggers a Slow-Motion Replay for the audience, doubling the "Clout" points earned.

Ad-Rev Conversion: Automatically converts viewer "Donation Gifts" into in-game currency (Gold) at a rate of 100:1.