"You said that the Darklight Host has ’good stuff’, but what does that entail exactly?"

"Wait, let me bring the Karl. He’s good at the sales pitch."

"What am I selling them?"

"Guild Membership for the pack. I bet that they’re actually really good craftsmen once we get them pointed in the right direction," Rae explained.

"I see. Well, the Darklight Host is primarily a crafting Guild. But we have a number of bonuses to our Guild Houses, and a Guild wide bonus that is quite popular with the members.

You see, we have an item that grants the whole Guild the physical stats of their peak development, which was actually much more important to the Mortal branches. But we also have an incredible Guild Skill.

It’s called Ancient Wisdom, and it allows a member to grant one skill from themselves or one of their summoned creatures to their entire party.

So, you can have the healer grant the whole group a healing skill. Or the Druid grant them all increased regeneration, or even just have everyone learn how to cast Chaos Vortex. But mostly, we use it to allow apprentices to use high-ranking trade skills so that they can pick the one that is most appealing to them.

Or, so that we can draft them into helping one of the teams."

The Elder blinked slowly, and one of the Peak Immortal Elders who had been shadowing Leo came over to join the conversation.

"You’re saying that you could grant the entire pack the ability to use an advanced crafting skill?"

Karl nodded. "Blacksmithing, Inscription, Alchemy, Runecrafting, Mystic Cooking. There are a lot of options available that can be taught to the Pack. Not just temporarily.

We are a crafting Guild, so if your pack members would like to join us, we would also teach them to use advanced crafting skills to make them self-sufficient.

If your pack was making Epic Grade items, I suspect that you would not be short on funding to rebuild the compound we are offering.

However, we also have educational facilities for the children, and an arrangement can be made to integrate your children into the New Home’s schools if you would prefer not to have them mingle with our mortal members." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"You keep mortals?"

"We have branches in mortal worlds. But also, we’ve got bunnies."

Elder Blackwoods chuckled. "You’ll get a kick out of this guy. He can just pat bunnies on the head, and they don’t run away. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like he doesn’t process as a threat in their brains. Even the clerics with [If Not Friend, Why Friend Shaped?] struggle with that."

"We will need to put it to a vote.

Any matter this large, especially when the pack leader is incapacitated, requires a two-thirds majority. That’s how we’ve been doing things while he recovers."

"And when he’s awake?"

"He’s a Lycan Pack Leader, both in title and in class. He has the authority to just issue orders, and we will follow."

"Ah, I see how it is now.

Alright, if you want to gather your pack here, we will wait for you to explain the situation, and then you can put it to a vote. If your people don’t want to move, we will help you rebuild the village.

We’ve got the skills to make it as good as new in a few hours."

"That is very generous of you. Far more than I would expect of strangers."

Rae laughed and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

"Your daughter is sitting with my little brother, wrapped in silk that I made. How could you call us strangers? But really, it’s so easy for Karl and Leo that they literally could reassemble the houses in a matter of minutes."

The Elders looked skeptical, so Karl made a dramatic waving gesture, and then used [Earth Manipulation], [Repair Object], and [Plant Growth] to rebuild a stone house with wood floors and roof tiles.

The houses here had been incredibly simple to start with, so that was actually an improvement on what it had been.

"See. Not a big deal. I could do dozens at a time, but if you’re leaving, there’s no need."

The Lycan pack gathered, and began to animatedly discuss the possibilities of moving to a new location. Most of them knew where the Hyperion Sect had been, even if they’d never been inside the compound before.

What mattered was that it was technically within the training area that the New Home Merchant Clan used, and there weren’t any close neighbours.

That made them much more remote, though they were near the shore.

That was a selling point for the Lycans. They didn’t like being surrounded by people all the time, as they were very attuned to nature.

While the compound was likely to be in poor shape, as they didn’t know that the few surviving Clan members had evacuated before being forced, they were sure that there should be enough housing for them.

Especially if Karl was willing to help.

However, that meant that they would have to move away from their usual hunting grounds, and the dungeon that they had gotten quite used to using.

They could still come back, but it wouldn’t be nearly as convenient.

"I think that we need to wake the Pack Leader for this. Moving is too big for just a vote." One of the other Elders suggested.

"What if waking him makes his condition worse? He’s already like that, just trying to mitigate the damage. If he wakes, he might lose years of progress."

So, it had been some time since he was injured, Karl realized.

Well, they were Immortals. Technically, they had forever.

"I believe that I can wake him without damage. His aura is stable, and he’s not taking ongoing damage. So, the worst of the lingering damage will be to his mind and progression." Karl explained.

However, that didn’t reassure them much.

If the Pack Leader’s mind was damaged, it wouldn’t matter if they woke him, but he might be feral, and that would be a danger to everyone.