Story 3: Chapter 4:  Goblins (Patreon)

Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 4:  Goblins

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- Arthas -

“Wow, today was amazing. I gained three levels in one day.” Shiroe said as we walked back towards the town.

He was not wrong. It was indeed amazing.

It was almost evening and I was not expecting to level up twice today with the rising experience requirements for each level.

This was almost as good as the hunts on which we splurged Veena’s Status Effect pouches.

“It was mostly because of your planning.” I replied. And I was not lying either. It actually was because of his planning.

The guy was calculating everything, skill cooldowns and my fighting style to support me exactly as I needed.

“Umm….” The guy started to speak before hesitating.

“Yes?”

“Can I add you as a friend?”

“Sure. Why not?” I sent him a friend’s request and he accepted.

He was a very good strategist from what I had seen and has a lot of experiences in games, especially mmorpgs.

 I could learn a lot of things from him.

I looked at my friend’s list.

Only two people on it.

We stopped when we reached the gates of the town.

“We generally go out to hunt around the same time everyday. You can join us if you don’t have a set party.” I offered.

“We? You are with friends?”

“Hmm….yes. Someone I met in the game. We generally hunt in a team.”

“Thank you. I will be happy to message you.” He nodded.

We shook hands and left our own ways.

He was going towards the inn area so maybe he didn’t have a house yet.

The sun had just set by the time I reached my house.

Veena was not home yet so I decided to get cleaned up first.

The game was realistic in several odd places. Even the feeling and smell of the sticky blood and sweat was on point.

This is why a bath was welcome. This place was even better as it had a furnace to get hot water in our baths. We just needed to put in some wood 10 minutes before we went in and let the water heat up for a few minutes.

I put some wood in the furnace and let the water heat up while I removed my equipment and cleaned it all.

By the time I was done, the water was at a good temperature so I took off my clothes and walked inside with a towel.

The warm water on my body made me groan in pleasure.

Yeah, getting the house was so worth it.

Too bad this place could only help us till T4, which might take four months or so to complete as an estimate. But six months was not good enough for us to want to buy a house here.

The classes were getting harder to level up so we might need to settle down in the next area if we get both T5 and T6 Classes there.

The amount of time each Class was taking to level up was insane. I wonder how much time it will take to level up the T5, T6 or even higher tier classes….years, maybe a decade? And that’s if and only if we could even find these classes.

Then there would be Race and Racial Levels.

At this rate it might really take us a decade and half to be at a high enough level to complete the game….if we somehow gathered enough players to go that far.

For now, I can only try to get all the benefits I can from the Traveller title and stay ahead.

I shook my head of the thoughts and closed my eyes, relaxing in the warm water for a few minutes before drying myself and coming out with a towel around my waist.

“Oh my. I didn’t realise you were back home.” I heard a familiar voice and turned to see Veena sitting in the living room.

She didn’t seem shy or anything seeing me in just a towel. In fact she had a small smile as she looked at me.

“Yes. I came back a while ago. And was getting cleaned up.” I replied, trying not to show any embarrassment. “Did your assessment go well?”

“Oh yes. I passed and I am now officially a T3 Herbalist.” She smiled, showing me the badge.

“Congratulations!” I congratulated.

“Thank you. By the way, today we are eating outside. Let’s celebrate.”

“Sure. Gimme a minute to get dressed.” I replied….as casually as I could. This was probably one of the only points I felt my slight mutism coming to my advantage.

She giggled, probably catching my embarrassment. I didn’t stay there for long and went to my room quickly to get dressed.

__________________________________x___________________________________

We headed out together.

“This reminds me, we don’t have any clothes apart from our casual ones and equipment. It’s a bit odd going out for celebratory dinners in our casual clothes.” She chimed.

“Yes, it is.” I nodded.

My parents were quite rich and I had a habit of dressing well when going out. My mother made sure to teach me.

It’s just that I haven’t been able to think about those things in this world.

“We can get something good in the next town. I have heard the capital has many good clothing shops.” I said.

Good clothes did go a long way when establishing connections with other people.

As I said, this game was very particular about these small details.

I wouldn’t doubt if we needed to possess a certain amount of money or dress in a certain manner to even be able to access certain areas of this game.

She hummed in agreement. “Sounds quite good. I have heard good things about the capital city too.”

We talked about random topics as we reached the restaurant.

At the door of the place, I saw a familiar figure.

“Shiroe.” I called out to the guy.

“Arthas!” He turned back, surprised to see me and nodded before taking a look at Veena.

I noticed the gaze so I introduced her. “She is my friend, Veena.”

“Friend? How hurtful? I thought we were partners….seeing as how we are living together.”

I opened my mouth in surprise, making her giggle. Finally recognising her prank I shook my head with a smile.

“Hello. My name is Veena. Nice to meet you.” She offered a hand to the flustered boy in front of us who bowed quickly in his nervousness.

“Hello. My name is Shiroe. Please take care of me.” He stuttered.

“Nice to meet you, Shiroe. Are you a friend of Arthas?”

“We….we just met today.”

“Shiroe is a very good player. We were able to hunt a lot more than we usually do due to his strategies.” I added before sending a look at Veena.

“Really?” She asked, surprised. We did hunt quite efficiently as a team so doing more than that was actually a surprise for us.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just have some experience with MMOs, that's all.”

“Oh! That’s something I would like to hear about….if you don’t mind that is. We were having a celebration for me getting a new Job Class. Would you like to join us, Shiroe?”

“No no. I wouldn’t impose.”

“You are not imposing. You can join us. I remember you saying that you didn’t have any teammates or friends here. Eating alone can suck.”

With a few more words from both of us, Shiroe was dragged along for dinner.

“You guys are renting a place here?” Shiroe asked. “Do you know where I can find a place to rent? Living at an inn is taking a toll on my already limited expenses.”

“I can ask around but I make no promises. I suggest asking any of the locals you are close to.”

“Locals?” He asked, perplexed.

“She means NPCs. They have a lot of functions. For all matters and purposes, consider this as a totally new world. You will have to establish a good relationship with several NPCs to unlock any quest they could give out. I haven’t tested it yet but I think it can work for even the unnamed ones.”

“Really? But that amount of data….” He started speaking before pausing and remembering where we were. “I see. Thank you.”

Over dinner, we exchanged several discoveries of the game.

“So I would need to level up a Scribe Class to get a Scholar Class and then Mage?” Veena asked.

“Umm….I am not sure if that’s the only way but at least I got it that way.”

“We were also able to find out only this method of getting the Mage Class. I would have preferred to look for other ways but I think getting started on a Scribe would be much better than to go around searching for things which may or may not exist. Anyways, my Herbalist Class gets experience even from making products so I will not fall behind in levels.”

“That’s applicable for the Scribe Class as well. But may I know which path you want to take going forward?” Shiroe asked.

“Hmm, I don’t know the names of many classes but I want to use some destruction oriented magic class if possible.”

“Going for the DPS. Alright. Actually, if you don’t mind, can I suggest something to you?”

“Sure. Suggestions never hurt.”

“There is a place where you could get the information. It’s just that….” He spoke before hesitating a bit.

“What is it?”

“I found out about this from less than pleasant sources so I doubt this is legal.” He whispered.

“Oh! Can you elaborate?”

The guy looked around to see if we were being heard then leaned in slowly. “There is a Black Market in this town. There you can buy all kinds of contrabands and information, even throw in bounties for people, all for a certain price that is. I found out about this from one of the villagers in my starting village.”

“A Black Market?”

“Yes. There are all sorts of illegal things there. I have even heard of the existence of a Thief’s Guild. It’s near the entertainment district of the town. You have to go there at night and know the password.”

He explained everything over the next fifteen minutes.

“I was only able to get some names of classes to choose before I finally selected the Mage Path. Maybe you guys can find something there.”

We looked at each other and then back at Shiroe and nodded.

During the dinner, even Veena invited him to join our team, especially hearing from me how good he was.

After the dinner, we separated from Shiroe and I looked at her.

“Want to check out the place?” I asked.

“Nothing to lose.” She shrugged.

__________________________________x___________________________________

The Entertainment District of Llyne was like a whole other place, especially at night.

The entire place was cheerful, with colourful lights and some occasional music giving the entire place a festive mood.

This was the area which had the more….adult aspects of the game.

Brothels and Bars were common.

Women sat behind the glass windows and made signals for us to come in.

“They didn’t say anything about the R18 Rating.” I commented.

“Ufufufufu these girls are trying too hard. Just goes to show these are not good places.”

“Huh?” I looked at the woman puzzled.

“Truly good places would never place their escorts outside like this.” She replied as if I was supposed to understand everything with just that.

I am not an expert on these things, lady.

Seeing my confused look, which according to me was no different than my normal look, she explained. “Which cars do you have at home, Arthas?”

I was taken aback at her sudden question.

“A Rolls Royce for my father and a Porsche for my mother.” I replied.

We were from a pretty rich family.

“Oh yes. Those are quite good. I have a few of those myself.” She agreed. “Have you ever seen any advertisements for Rolls?” She asked.

A few of those?

Seriously, who is this woman?

I shook my head.

“Exactly. It’s because the people who can afford a Rolls, don’t go around selecting things by advertisements. In the same way, the truly high class places don’t need to put their products out on a show like... this.”

“Ah….I see.” I said….because that was the only thing I could think of.

What else was I supposed to say? I was with a woman, talking about brothels and escorts. This is a bit new for me.

“Still, this place is modelled after mediaeval Europe so this is quite apt. Back then these kinds of places were for rich merchants and landowners while the higher up nobles and royalty generally kept maids.” She smiled.

While discussing these things, we reached the place Shiroe told us about.

We needed two things to enter the place.

One a particular outfit and second, a specific password, both of those would have needed us buttering some NPC for over a month to get it out of them.

Thankfully for us, Shiroe did that job for us.

And so, dressed in a black hooded cloaks, we walked on the streets of the Llyne Entertainment district. It was strangely not out of place as several other people were also using the same to hide their identities.

“I feel like some sort of cult member planning to summon a demon or something.” I joked looking at my attire, trying to change the awkward topic.

“Even they have upgraded their fashion sense nowadays, dear.” She smiled, returning my joke….although I somehow felt weird with the level of seriousness in her voice.

“There, that looks like the place.” She pointed towards a door.

And indeed the place stuck out like a sore thumb.

A red door with a totally black building.

Anyone would think there was something wrong with it and they would be totally wrong. 

The Game devs were not idiots.

“Nine houses left from the house with the red door, excluding the red door itself.” We found a completely unassuming door and knocked eight times. One knock with my hand, four with the iron ring and finally three again with my hand.

A small slot opened at the side of the door and Veena put two gold coins on the hand which came out of it.

The slot closed and the door opened.

On the other side was a man in similar clothes. He moved to the side and we walked inside.

The door was actually connected to a bar. The bartender saw us and moved aside, opening a door behind him without a word.

Behind the door were stairs.

It was when we reached down the stairs that we finally reached the place.

“Wow.” I couldn’t help but say.

The entire place was built below the Entertainment District.

“No way the higher ups of the city don’t know of this place.” I said.

“They obviously do. It might even be one of the biggest sources of their income.” My partner replied.

On walking forward, it looked like the place was supposed to be a collection of tunnels and rooms made inside were actually designed to be prisons but were now changed into makeshift shops.

Shiroe’s directions were quite precise so we found the place we were looking for.

Night’s Whisper.

The shop in front of us was the place where Shiroe said we could find the information about Classes.

The shop in the Black Market was different from the normal ones in more than one way. Even the shopkeeper, or at least the one I was assuming was sharp and only spoke what was necessary.

“What are you searching for?” The woman in black veil asked.

“We are searching for information about T3, T4 and T5 Jobs.” I asked, getting straight to the point.

“Which class do you want the information on?” She asked.

“We are looking for anything other than the normal ones found in the guild. Maybe for Hunter, Knight and Herbalist Advancements.”

She looked at us calculatingly for a few moments before stating.

“Five hundred Gold Coins for the T3 Jobs, two thousand for T4 and twenty thousand for the T5 ones. No haggling.”

“Twenty thousand!” I asked, stunned.

Our whole month’s rent with all expenses was around three thousand and she was asking for twenty thousands.

“Be grateful you are even getting this information. Twenty thousand is cheap considering the classes you named. Had it been the advancements for the Mage Class or some of the rarer ones, it would have been far higher.” She scoffed.

I looked at Veena who stepped forward. “We will only take the information T4 advancements for Hunter, Squire and Herbalist and possible ways to get the Mage Class other than the one circulated outside.” She asked.

“Six Thousand Five Hundreds.” The woman extended her hand.

I took a breath and handed out the money.

Six thousand five hundred was almost seventy percent of our savings, enough for us to live off for two months in luxury.

The woman checked the folders she had and placed a few sheets of papers in front of us.

“Check and return.”

The two of us sat down and quickly took a look at the hunter advancements.

Manhunter. It was as the name suggested. A class which specialised in killing people.

I don’t need anyone to explain why this class was deemed illegal.

The condition for unlocking this class was killing five humans with headshots in a single fight.

The information also explained their basic skills for the job as well as the ways to obtain it.

As for the other Mage classes, she needed to get a new T2 Job either way so we decided to get her the Scribe Job later.

Squire could get a few other jobs. Apart from the usual Knight Job, there were also the Swordsman and Warrior Job Classes and a few other illegal ones.

We did get some potential Classes for Veena though.

“Poison Master sounds good.” She said after taking a look at the papers.

Hmm. It was.

To be honest, this was the way she fought till now and she was getting quite good with it.

We took a look at the requirements and then memorised everything we could.

Six thousand five hundred gold coins for these….sigh.

We left the place after checking everything.

“Look at it as spending the money to buy the time which we would have lost trying to search for all this information. Moreover, this information can later be sold as well.” Veena cheered me.

Yes.

We could totally sell the info later.

With my pain of losing our hard earned money subsided, we toured the place.

There were several things which couldn’t be found outside. Hell, this place even sold monster eggs and slaves.

We just walked around, taking a look at everything before returning back.

- Venelana -

She put another mix of herbs aside and started preparing the next batch.

It has been two months since she was stuck in this place.

There was no information about rescue arriving from anywhere.

Even by the time difference the Game Master had given them, if that was true, it would be three days in the outside world.

Her body was discovered without a doubt but it seems they are not having any breakthroughs.

Then again, for someone to pull something of this scale, they must be equally if not even stronger and more resourceful.

At this rate this holiday of hers was going to last for a year.

She wondered how the children were?

Did Rias even enter the game or were they able to escape this by some chance?

Oh who was she kidding?

She knew her daughter and how much she was looking forward to this game.

There was no way she missed this.

Were her peerage members inside too?

And what of Grayfia?

She had dragged her along into this mess.

Grayfia was strong but this world didn’t let them bring along their strengths. She could be stubborn at times and an unbending attitude wouldn’t work in this place where they were reduced to the same level as others.

She just hopes they learn to adapt and all remain safe.

At this thought, her eyes went outside the window towards the backyard towards her partner.

The young boy was practising some kind of Martial Arts katas which she didn’t recognise.

While the game did give an increased damage with weapons if the player were to select specific classes, it didn’t teach them how to wield those weapons efficiently.

Knowing and not knowing Martial Arts could make a huge difference in how efficiently one could use their skills and Arthas seemed to be quite good at handling all his abilities.

In the last month, she had learned a lot about the boy, while living with him and all that had only served to make her opinion of him even better.

The boy was actually opening up more about himself and was slowly but surely showing more emotions. Although her favourite parts are still trying to tease him.

It had been two weeks since the day she had gained the Herbalist Class and their visit to the Black Market. Several things had changed in these weeks.

Dozens of players had reached the town in these last two weeks.

The areas outside the town are starting to get crowded now with the easier prey taking longer to spawn.

She could see why Arthas was always so in such a hurry to push deeper for stronger enemies to level up.

She hadn’t realised just far ahead of others she was when she had reached this place but she was starting to understand just how ridiculously insane their ways of hunting truly were.

Arthas was already at Level 30 for his Squire Class and could get promoted to the Knight Class tomorrow easily after taking a test while others were still struggling to get a T3 Class of their own.

The boy was talented, so much so that she would have recruited him into her peerage if she could.

He was a perfect knight, starting from his strength to his manners.

She was sure he alone could take down at least a dozen or so T2 players in a straight fight.

Match it with her assistance and Shiroe’s support and their team was practically invincible in this town.

She didn’t like being in a supporting role in a fight but her long life had taught her the importance of every position on a battlefield.

She was not against being the support for the sake of the best performance of the team and it showed.

Their levelling speed hadn’t slowed down as much as they were expecting even with the addition of one more member.

Shiroe has been a very welcome addition to the team.

Arthas was not kidding when he said the boy had experience. But even beyond that, the boy was a born strategist.

People like them were rare.

Warriors can be trained far more easily than strategists. It was one of the main reasons behind starting the Rating Games, to train more people who could lead in times of wars.

Someone like him could easily make a name for himself if they participated in the Rating Games.

The boy himself was very humble and friendly and had become an irreplaceable part of their team.

Her thoughts were broken by the sound of the door opening and she turned around to see Arthas walking in, all sweaty from his practice.

“Still working?” He asked.

“Almost done. Just completing the last batch of goods. A few minutes more.”

“I will take a bath first then.” He excused himself before entering his room and returned a minute later only to enter the bath in his towel.

She smiled at this.

He had come a long way. A month ago, doing the same thing would have made the poor boy blush.

Seems like she would have to raise her game if she wanted to get reactions out of him.

- Arthas -

“This is the place?” Shiroe said as we looked at the gates of the castle in front of us.

The Knight Academy looked like a castle.

“Yes.”

“I am afraid we cannot get any further than this. Best of luck for your exams, Arthas.” Veena wished me good luck.

“Best of luck.” Shiroe joined in too.

“Thanks.” I nodded towards them and walked in.

I knocked at the smaller gate beside the main one.

A small window opened. “Yes.”

“I am here for the Knight test.” I said. I already had the maxed out Squire Class equipped.

This was one of the places which didn’t open until the people met certain requirements.

The requirements to enter was to either have a maxed out Squire Class or a Knight or any of its advanced classes equipped.

The gate opened and I was met with two Knights in full plate armour.

One of them pointed to the place where I needed to get registered first which was an easy process.

It involved me filling up some forms and showing that I possessed enough efficiency in the Skills of a Squire.

I have been using this class for almost a month or so. I had no  difficulties in passing this part of the whole test.

The receptionist Tyra explained the rest of the process to me.

“Since you are already registered to the academy, you just have to pass a quest to get your certification. This part is just a way to show that you are contributing towards the prosperity of the Kingdom as its Knight.” She spoke as she bought out a bunch of files from the cupboards behind her. “This one looks good.” She whispered to herself as she placed the piece of paper in front of me.

“A Knight has to be capable of both attacking and protecting people. A bunch of goblins have infested the forests near the western part of the town. They have settled inside the caves and are extremely annoying to hunt. Several teams have gone missing there. Your job will be to clear the goblins. If you are able to save people, you can get bonus rewards. Now, this job is a bit hard for someone to complete alone so you can hunt in a team of five or less. Good Luck.”

I took a look at the paper, reading the contents when the receptionist spoke again.

“I would hurry if I were you. The last team wouldn’t survive long enough. They have three more days at best.”

I looked back at the receptionist and then back at the piece of paper and quickly left the place.

___________________________________x__________________________________

“So we need to complete a time-limited instance dungeon to get you passed with good marks.” Shiroe spoke but it was mostly to himself as he read the quest.

He had the habit of talking to himself loudly when he was in one of his planning sessions.

“I guess we would need to prepare a lot of healing and attack items for the attack.”

“Poisons might not be a good idea. We don’t want to accidentally kill off the hostages.” I added.

“That's unfortunate. My plan was to flood the whole cave area with poisonous gases. Would have been far easier.” Veena smiled far too serenely at the dangerous idea.

“Yes. That would have been too easy. In fact, we could totally do that but that would take away whatever extra rewards Arthas can get for a perfect score. I believe it could be a requirement for some quests or even Advanced Classes.” Shiroe commented, not removing his eyes from the piece of paper.

“She told me that we can use a team of five.” I offered.

“Five? I wouldn’t say no but it would only slow us as we wouldn’t have any experience of co-operating with them and we don’t have enough time to practise our teamwork. We would be better off going in just by the three of us.” Veena spoke and even Shiroe nodded.

“We just need to plan for it. Maybe we should check out the place first.” Shiroe suggested.

“Then I will go out and prepare some non lethal attacking items like sleeping powder and paralytic powder.” Veena suggested. “We don’t know how big the whole dungeon will be so it’s better to be on the safe side.”

We nodded and Shiroe and I left the house together to go and check out the sight together,

On the way, I noticed something off.

Shiroe, noticing the change in my movements, nodded towards me.

We had developed a great teamwork in the continuous hunting the last month so one look was enough to know what the other was thinking.

We left the town gates and quickly walked towards the forest area to one of our pre-prepared hiding places and waited.

The ones who were following us didn’t come out further.

“I guess they were just keeping an eye on us and not coming after us right now.” He broke the silence after some time.

“Any idea what that might be about?” I nodded before asking.

“There were some people keeping an eye on us since you entered the castle first. I thought it might just be other players trying to find out information that would leave after we went back. I didn’t expect them to secretly follow us.”

Several thoughts came to my mind. “Their motives could be anything. From information to….”

“Robbing us. If you can enter the Castle, everyone would know you are the highest level among players in this town which means our team must have more they could get.”

“If they knew I was at such a high level and even then they dared to come after us it only means they have more people or….”

“They are going to use items.”

“Or both.”

“Did you see anyone among them?”

“I was able to see the Classes and levels of two people. One was a Hunter and the other was a Thief. Both T3 level 3.”

Everyone in our team was far stronger than those people. Shiroe was a level 14 Scholar and Veena was a Level 15 Herbalist and I was a T4 if we considered my stats due to my Shingen-ryu Skill bonus.

“I guess they were probably scouting us and are planning to ambush us. Since they had a hunter and a thief, they could see our names and levels. They wouldn’t come out so blatantly. Veena-san doesn’t come out of town without us so she is safe. We can inform her when we get back.” Shiroe analysed the situation before letting out a sigh. “Why can’t these idiots just do their own thing and leave us to level up in peace? The Game Master has set enough events for us to deal with. There is no need for any more.”

“And who told you this is not one of them?”

“Hmm?” He looked back at me questioningly.

“Other players are the real danger in this game. When all law and order is removed, humans become more dangerous than the worst of beasts.” I said, recalling the day I had met Veena for the first time.

“Do you think they will go that far?” Shiroe asked….hesitantly.

I looked at the guy and he matched my gaze for a few moments before looking the other way and sighing again.

“I don’t know how I feel about….killing. Here people actually….” He spoke softly, leaving his words at that.

I looked at the guy and remembered that until just two months ago, he was just a simple college student. He had changed a lot to adapt himself but he still hadn’t crossed that line. I looked towards the sky as an uncomfortable moment of silence lasted between us before speaking. “The first day I met Veena, we encountered a similar situation.”

He turned towards me at the sudden reveal.

“Trust me when I say, losing our money and equipment would have been the tamest thing which could have happened to us….” I took a deep breath before adding. “Losing our lives would have been the second worst….”

He took a moment before his eyes widened. “They weren’t….”

I nodded.

“Twenty eight seconds.”

“Huh?”

“We took down those ten attackers in twenty eight seconds.” I actually counted it later.

He had his mouth open for a while and stared blankly at the sky in front of us.

I brought out a pouch of water and passed it over to him. He took it without a word and drank a few gulps and washed his face.

“It was either them or us. When you are in such a situation….you truly realise what and how much you are truly capable of. All of us have monsters within us, Shiroe. Some of us get to confront it, some might not even know of it for their entire life. This world….however, drags that monster out of us and throws it at us to wrestle. What makes us civilised is our ability to keep a reign on that monster.” I took back the pouch and drank a few gulps of water myself.

I let the guy contemplate. A few minutes later he broke the silence.

“Was it hard?”

“The killing part? No. They were Villagers. Highest Level 9 and lowest level 5. Even Veena was Level 9 back then while I was a Level 20 Apprentice Hunter. It didn’t take us more than two good hits with my weapons and stat advantage. What was difficult was what came afterwards….the scene kept repeating in front of my eyes. I could feel those sensations over and over again and had to use calming incense to even get a bit of sleep. I did wake up several times that night but by the end of it, I was in so much hurry that I didn’t have time to think about it. I guess I was keeping myself busy to forget about it. It was Veena who supported me back then.”

We stayed in that place and let him get used to the situation. The guy is tough from what I had seen of him.

And as expected, he resolved himself before getting up.

The rest of the journey was easy. We investigated and found the dungeon entrance. Shiroe could only see the entrance when he was in a party with me.

Since the quest would have started with us entering the dungeon, we left without making much progress.

On the way, we changed our clothes into hooded ones and even changed our class to throw off anyone keeping an eye on us and only let out a breath once we were inside.

We entered our house and I closed the door behind us while Shiroe slumped on the chair.

Veena raised an eyebrow at this. “Looks like you two had an adventure.”

“We were being spied on and followed.” I said.

“Oh. Are they the same ones who were looking at us outside the castle?” She asked Shiroe.

“Maybe. I didn’t see their faces but Arthas says one was a Hunter and the other was a Thief who was following us.”

“Both with the ability to see through the levels of other people, hmm. Did they chase you into the forest?” She asked.

I shook my head. “No, they stopped inside the town gates.”

“Then it could be anything, dear. They could be trying to find out information about our quest so that they could see it at the Black Market or they could be trying to find more information about you two, perhaps trying to see how we hunt to be at such high levels. We are the highest level players in this town. Some people are bound to be curious.”

….

We both stopped for a second and looked at her in thought.

Yes.

She does have a valid point.

Especially I, who had almost finished planning to reverse ambush and end them by the time I reached home.

I suddenly paused at a frightening thought.

Was I so ready to kill all of a sudden?

The stimulation from this game was bringing out my emotions. I was not blind to see this. But apparently it was causing something more than just that.

“....has.”

“Arthas.”

“Arthas.”

I was broken from my thoughts by the voice of Veena. “Yes.”

She looked at me and came towards me, placing a hand on my cheek. “I know that incident is still weighing on your mind somewhere but don’t let it guide you into always doubting people. That kind of life is miserable.”

Was that why I was so ready for a fight? I know I have been trying my best to keep that day out of my mind but was it actually affecting me?

“It’s not a bad thing to be careful but don’t let that incident drag you down. Maybe we should take some time off after completing this quest or get some other hobby.”

“Actually, you could pick up a non-combat class.” Shiroe suggested and we looked at him and he explained further. “Pick something which you like. A hobby of some kind.”

“That’s a great idea.” Veena chimed in.

“Alright.” Under the pleadings of my team members I agreed. “I will search for a non-combat class after this quest is done.”

“Great!” She cheered.

__________________________________x___________________________________

We prepared everything for the quest and left the town at four in the morning in hooded cloaks just to avoid any unnecessary scrutiny.

A distance away from the place, we equipped our equipment and headed towards the cave.

On reaching the entrance, I looked towards the two of them. “Ready?”

They nodded.

We lit up some torches, covered our faces and eyes and entered the cave.

The scene around us changed completely.

We were right to bring the torches as the caves were dark.

Thankfully my vision with the Hunter Class was coming in handy.

I took the lead while Veena fell behind me and Shiroe took the rear with a torch in one of his hands, lighting up the path in front of us.

Shiroe made the first move and sent a Flash Spell towards the end of the cave, briefly lighting the whole path.

The passageway seemed clear but we heard strange sounds at the end of the turn and sounds of footsteps.

We carefully went forward but unlike expected, there were no traps. It was just the turn in the cave which made it impossible to see anything behind it.

As we reached the end, we exchanged looks and with one swift move, I brought a wolf corpse and threw it towards the turn.

Sure enough, three goblins jumped towards the corpse from the corner at the corpse as two arrows hit it.

We finally saw the figure of the creatures.

They were the size of a ten year old human kid with the face of a deformed old man and completely green in colour. They wore a rag around their waist and one of them didn’t even do that.

A surprising thing about them was the agility with which they attacked. They were surprisingly fast.

I jumped in with my shield and bashed two of them away while slashing the last one with a Swift Strike.

Veena followed behind me with a spear, covering my back while Shiroe threw another Flash Spell in the corner.

Shrill screams rang out in the place and I turned to look at four goblins holding their eyes. Three of them had bows and arrows while the last one had a dagger coated with something in its hand.

“Four.” I shouted before I shot forward immediately and used my Heavy Blow Skill cut through the archers.

Veena right behind me struck the one with a dagger right through its eyes.

The last archer had not recovered from the effects of the flash so we took it down with simple attacks.

Shiroe had to conserve his mana as we didn’t know how long this dungeon would take.

The seven goblins were taken down within moments.

Shiroe checked the weapons.

“Poisoned.” He confirmed. “Be careful to not let them hit.”

We nodded as I stored the Goblin Corpses and the Wolf Corpse back into my inventory and headed forward.

The entire place was a network of caves and these pesky little buggers were always ready in an ambush

This made our progress very slow.

There was also the fact that our general tactics of hunting, poison and kill every fucking thing was out since we were afraid of hostages dying.

The further we went inside, the darker the cave became with only occasional torches here and there.

The place branched off in many ways with rocks here and there, making many blind spots for us to see which made everything even harder.

More often than not, we had to check our backs to make sure we killed everyone.

Thrice we had encountered sneak attacks from the shadows and I had to fall back to support Shiroe.

Finally, we reached a place where the cave branched into three paths.

“Which one?” I asked.

“Let’s test.” Shiroe and Veena came forward.

He cast a Flash Spell while she threw Pepper Bombs inside the three pathways.

Shrieks ran from all of them but surprisingly it was the rightmost one in which some coughing sound came from.

We looked at each other and raced forward towards the last pathway while Shiroe boosted us.

My steps faltered when we reached the end.

Eight Goblins were clutching their eyes or coughing violently.

They had sharper noses than humans and Veena’s Pepper Bombs used this against them.

But what I was looking at wasn’t that.

Six human bodies were in the room. Two boys were already dead and they had their stomachs gutted and partially eaten while the four girls were either unconscious or almost on the verge of unconsciousness. They were completely naked and I didn’t need to be an expert to know what was done to them. There were bruises all over their bodies with dried blood and semen or at least that’s what I assumed it was on their privates.

Three of the women’s eyes looked almost dead while the last one was unconscious.

And as if to laugh at their situation, three newborn goblins were suckling on their breasts, their entire breast was full of bite marks, deep ones, leaving them infected.

Veena was right.

Something about this game had changed me, maybe even made me more aggressive but right now I didn’t think my anger had anything to do with that.

I let out my Shout Skill.

It raised my attack and speed for 12 seconds and used Rush almost simultaneously, thrusting my sword right through the head of one of the goblins. Pulling back, I used Swift Strike on the one beside it.

One of them jumped on me but was bashed away with a Spear as Veena covered my back.

“Shiroe!” I shouted, finally getting the attention of our last teammate, breaking him out of his shock and he cast Bind on one of the enemies and Stun on another and I used Shield Bash on the last one before hacking it’s head with my next strike.

Veena fought the one she had swatted away and Shiroe lent support while I went down to take out the stunned ones.

The whole battle didn’t last much longer, less than thirty seconds but as soon as it ended, Shiroe threw up on the side.

I didn’t throw up but stepped forward towards the newborns.

“Are you going to kill them?” I heard Shiroe speak slightly hesitantly.

“Yes.” I spoke seriously and asked without looking back. “Do you think I shouldn’t?”

“It just feels a bit strange. I know this is a game and a quest but….they look like children. I know I shouldn’t feel like this but it feels so….dammit, couldn’t there be any good goblins?”

I know his emotional turmoil.

It proved that my new friend was human.

And that’s why I wanted to get it done myself.

He will get used to it one day but if there is a chance to reduce these complicated feelings, I will take it.

I suddenly remembered a line from another anime in my past life.

For once I didn’t care if this was a reference or not.

“A good goblin? I guess there might be one if you looked really hard. But in the end, the only good goblins are the ones who never come out of their holes.”

Sure enough another notification appeared in front of me but right now I was too angry to pay attention to it.

That fucking Game Master really had to put these types of goblins in the game….

In my anger, I stomped on the heads of the abominations, crushing them one by one.

Veena, in the meanwhile, covered the girls with clothes she had brought out from her inventory.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get much time to sort out our feelings as we heard several footsteps rushing forward from the tunnel towards us.

Veena quickly threw several of her special pouches towards the entrance.

“We need cover.” Shiroe shouted and I, quick on my feet, I brought out animal corpses and stacked them in front of us.

These would protect the hostages behind us, give us some means of protection from their arrows and narrow the passage so that they cannot easily reach us.

One by one, twenty three of those abominable creatures rushed in.

The strangest ones were the two larger ones, the size of an human adult donned in leather armour, carrying spiked wooden maces. Hobgoblins. Behind them was a hunched back one with some kind of totem or staff in its hand. A Goblin Shaman.

All were T3 Monsters.

Shiroe shot another one of his Flash Spells which had recovered from the cooldown period and I covered the gap through which they could enter.

The Flash Spell hadn’t done too much as there were too many goblins and some got covered behind the taller ones.

“I will take down the Shaman first.” Shiroe commanded and Veena thrust her spear, right from my side, to throw back one of the goblins who had escaped the Flash Spell and tried to climb the corpse of a bear to attack us while she threw a few more of her bombs in the crowd.

I slashed the one in front of me with a Swift Strike and kicked another one of them away.

The bigger ones had recovered and came forward to attack.

Thankfully, due to the size of the passage, only one could come forward.

It raised the spiked mace above its head and a slight light gathered on the mace.

“A Skill!” Shiroe shouted and I didn’t need another reminder. The mace came down.

I too raised my Shield and used a Skill of my own.

Counter.

The Mace clashed with my shield and was rebounded back as the Hobgoblin lost its balance and I used a Heavy Strike directly on its chest.

It fell back on top of two goblins and crushed them under it.

This was the first enemy which hadn’t died directly from my Heavy Strike attack in a long time.

That was my strongest attack and with my stats and buffs right now, I was comparable to a T4 monster. Just goes to show this quest was not easy.

Veena thrust her spear on its legs and attacked it while I covered another attack from the other Hobgoblin behind it.

Shiroe was still sniping the Shaman who was having a hard time casting spells due to the effects of Veena’s pouches and Shiroe’s attacks.

My Skills recharged and I let out a volley of Skills on the Hobgoblin, finally taking it out with a Swift Strike, decapitating it.

The fight lasted for several minutes and we whitted down their numbers one by one.

Shiroe took an arrow to his shoulder while I felt my armour heat up and burn my arm due to a fireball from the damned Shaman but continued fighting and finally, we struck down the last monster.

Messages of completing the dungeon appeared in front of us and only then did we take a breath of relief.

I looked at Veena. “Can you please check the condition of the survivors and see if you can do anything?”

She nodded and went forward, feeding antidotes to the survivors and applying some salve on their wounds.

I checked the notifications in the meantime.

This quest was….very annoying.

___________________________________x_____________________________________________________________________x__________________________________

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Author’s Note:

I am back with another chapter of SAO.

This chapter was mostly focused on world building and some communication between the members of the team.

I wanted to take some time to develop their relationship and show how they develop as people as they go forward. There was also the point about how the world changes them.

Next chapter we will see the progress on Sirzechs’ plans and perhaps introduce new characters….or have I already done that? 😏

I know some people may feel that the story is a bit slow and I apologise for that but I am writing this as I would write a full story because I think this story has just as much potential as Isekai Restaurant and I don’t want to rewrite the chapters if I pick this up someday.

Don’t worry, the story will pick up pace in a few more chapters as we will meet more characters from the DxD world in the game.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.