Story 3: Chapter 5: Goblin Slayer (Patreon)

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Story 3: Chapter 5: Goblin Slayer

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- Arthas -

I slumped on the ground while Veena and Shiroe checked the condition of the survivors.

After a moment, Veena put a hand on my shoulder. “This is not real.” She reminded me.

I knew that already….and yet….seeing all that made me angry….so angry.

“Close your eyes. Breathe deeply.”

I did.

“The sense of reality in this game is messing with everyone’s mind. Don’t let it catch you off guard.” Shiroe said, after finishing up.

A few minutes later, I was more in control, I nodded.

“Thank you. I lost control there for a moment.”

“No worries, dear. Such sights making you angry just proves that you are still sane.” She patted my back. “That said….this kind of scene….although unpleasant, is how things happen in the real world too. Let’s not talk about monsters, even humans do this kind of thing. And right now we are trapped in this….game with millions of such people.”

We looked at her surprised.

“Hard times bring out the monsters in people. You should take this opportunity to strengthen your resolve. In such times, excessive anger will only be your enemy. Use it as a motivation but don’t let it rule you. If I am not wrong, this is just the first of many things you will witness. Losing your temper later on can lead to losing your life.”

We sat there for a few more minutes, each with our own thoughts, the atmosphere growing sombre.

After a while, I got up.

“Let’s go. We need to complete the quest.”

They nodded as we decided on what to do with the hostages.

By the end, we decided that we will carry one person each while the last one will walk after some healing from Veena.

We used the Monster Repelling Pouches that Veena had prepared and carried the women on our back while I supported the last girl, helping her walk.

The rest of the journey was quiet.

None of us wanted to speak, each of us had our own thoughts in our mind.

I used the chance to check the rewards I had received in the dungeon.

Going back on the list, I saw something that took me by surprise.

Congratulations Traveller.

You have discovered another secret!

Reward: Goblin Slayer Class Unlocked.

Keep working hard.

Traveller.

A Special Title given to those who complete the Hidden Quests, Man of Culture.

+3 to all stats.

+6% to Exp Gained.

Note: The Effect of the Title can be enhanced the more secrets the Traveller discovers in the world.

Goblin Slayer?

They noticed my steps pause for a moment and stopped too.

“Did you sense something?” Shiroe asked, looking around.

“I….unlocked a new Class.” I said, after thinking for a moment.

“Knight Class is unlocked already? I thought we have to take them to the castle for that.” He asked, confused.

“Not the Knight Class. Another one. This is called….Goblin Slayer.”

“....Goblin Slayer?” He asked, unsure, and then as if sensing something, his eyes widened. “A rare class. Is it a Rare Class? How did you unlock it?” He asked quickly.

“I don’t know.” How was I supposed to tell him that this was the result of that Achievement.

I could only insist that I had no idea and make them think of alternatives.

“Hmm. Was it because of something we did in the Quest?” he thought for a moment then shook his head. “What Tier is it?”

“T4.”

“The same as Knight? Could it be a first time completion reward or a Perfect Completion reward since we didn’t allow any Hostages to die. Anyways, let’s complete the quest and then we can check it out. Just don’t switch classes. I remember that you needed to do the Quest while using the Squire Class. It could be a bait. Do it after you complete the quest.”

I nodded and we went ahead.

Surprisingly, we didn’t encounter anything on our way back.

That said, we definitely attracted many eyes as soon as we reached the town.

By the time we had reached the Knight’s Academy, many people were following us from a distance but didn’t approach us.

I went and talked to the guard at the gate to submit my quest and they carried the hostages from there.

“Come with me and submit the quest.” One of them led me to the reception.

The Receptionist was the same one who gave me the quest, Tyra.

The guy who had led me there told her something and she greeted me cheerfully.

“Congratulations, Arthas. You completed the Quest perfectly and even saved all the missing people. You are officially a Knight from today.”

“There were two more people who were already dead. It looked like they had been dead for a while though.”

“Yes. Some people from the surrounding areas had gone missing. We will send someone to investigate those. The quest we had was to retrieve the four people you rescued, so congratulations.”

She brought out a badge and gave it to me.

“This is your identity plate. Now for your bonus,” She brought out a book and placed it in front of me. “This was posted by the family members of the Party whom you rescued. It is a Skill Book of the Skill, Parry. Use it well.”

“Thank you.” I thanked her.

Knight’s Badge.

+10 STR +10 END +10 DEX

T4 Class: Knight Unlocked

To test the class, I changed to the newly unlocked Knight Class.

Congratulations on being the first one from your Country to advance to a 4th Tier Class.

Title Gained

One Among Ten Thousand

+30% increased Exp Gain.

Keep doing your best, Traveller.

Sure enough, there it was.

A 36% increase in EXP Gain was a lot but as classes branch more and more, I would need to level up more than one class to unlock higher level ones and I can lose my advantage in the long run.

Moreover, this message says, first in the Country. Which means there would be others too, in different countries.

Even now, they must be rushing forward to get the first place for the next class change.

I wonder how long I can maintain my advantage?

Since the quest was completed, I took a moment to check the information about Class Advancements for the Knight Class.

I went directly back home after that.

Both Veena and Shiroe were waiting there for me.

They had returned ahead of time to avoid the crowd following us.

I changed into my cloaks and sneaked back in.

“So how was it?” Shiroe asked as soon as he opened the door for me to enter.

I removed my cloak. “I got it. There was also a bonus Skill Book for a perfect completion.”

I replied as I sat down on the couch.

“A Skill Book?” He asked.

This was the first Skill Book I had encountered so I guess those were rare.

I just showed him the book.

“What Skill is this?”

“Parry.” I replied as Veena poured me some lemonade. “Thank you.”

He returned the book back to me. “Then you get the Skill.”

I nodded and kept the Skill Book in my inventory.

Next, I went on to explain to them about what I had found out from the Knight Academy.

There were Sword Knight and Shield Knight, depending on which Skill the Knight was more proficient in when they took the Advancement Test.

If their Sword Proficiency was more, they became a Sword Knight and if their Shield Proficiency was more, they became a Shield Knight.

In the rare case however, if they had equal Proficiency in both Skills, they got an option to choose.

In an even rarer case, if they had both Skills Maxed out before taking the Quest, they get the Lord Knight Class.

One can already guess which class was the best among the three.

“Say what one might about this Gamemaster person, but he was quite detailed when making this game. Even if we hadn’t been….trapped here as we are, I could still see myself playing this game rigorously.” Shiroe commented lightly.

He was not wrong either.

The game was indeed a marvel.

“By the way, did you find out about the Goblin Slayer Class?” He asked, suddenly remembering something.

I shook my head. “No. There was no information about it in the records.”

“Really? A completely new class then. A Rare Class. It might be the first Rare Class we have encountered in the Game so far. Do you really have no clue on how you unlocked the Class?” He asked again.

I shook my head. “None.”

“That makes it so hard to narrow down. If we knew how to get this Class, we could have totally sold the information and made it rich.” He sighed.

“Sorry. I will try to think about anything that might be useful.” I lied again.

“So, which Class do you think I should go for for my T5 Advancement? Lord Knight? Or do we research it more?”

“We research obviously but….” He paused for a moment and looked at the two of us. “I think you should go for the Goblin Slayer Class.”

“Huh?”

“Alright, listen to me.” He explained. “Such Classes will always have advantages over other Classes and we never know what Classes it can unlock when levelled up completely. Knight Class is still mostly known and we don’t know if there would be an easy route to T8 or even T9 Advancements. Hell, we don’t even know if we could get an easy T6 Advancement for it. Goblin Slayer on the other hand is completely in the unknown. Even if we get nothing out of it, just selling the information about the Details of the Class and its skills will be enough to compensate us for the hard work.”

“Hmm….makes sense.” Veena agreed too.

“Alright, if that’s what you think is good.” I agreed.

“We need to address another thing.” Shiroe began when the discussion of the Class selection was over.

, “Hmm?”

“We might need to recruit some more members to our team soon.” He said quite seriously.

Seeing that we were paying attention to him, he continued.

“The dungeon made me realise that while our three man party is good and can probably handle such dungeons, going forward, three people is just too little. For starters we need another frontliner, preferably a tank and someone who can do AoE damage, a mage probably and finally a Healer. We definitely need a good main healer.”

“But aren’t you planning to become a mage yourself?” Veena asked.

“I am more of a control type than a damage type.” He shrugged.

“So a mage, tank and a healer.” I concluded.

“For starters….we will need to get others too. Several DPS, Support Classes and a sub healer for the final team.” He confirmed.

“As long as they have decent personalities, I don’t have any problems. If that takes us a bit of time, I’d rather wait than take someone untrustworthy with us.”

“Right. That’s why I suggested this early on. We are still in the starting stages of development so we have some time on our hands.”

“How many members do you think we will need?” I asked.

“That depends. What exactly are we aiming for? What exactly is the focus of our guild? Are we going to be explorers and raiders or are we looking to be a casual guild? What scale do we want? Do we want a guild of a dozen highly skilled and well equipped members or do we want a large guild with elaborate management or just a regular guild. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages.” He explained.

This led us to think.

I knew a thing or two about managing a business due to the influence of my parents. It might have been due to my personality which was more mature than other kids of my age, that they started teaching me a thing or two from the start. That said, I wasn’t sure what I would do about recruitment.

“Can you explain a few advantages and disadvantages of both systems?” Venna asked.

Shiroe nodded and started. “Small Guilds means less members, a small number of people which in turn means more trust and a greater degree of teamwork and understanding between the members. Management will be relatively simple. The rules are lax since everyone is basically friends. Also, since the levels of all members will be more or less similar, it's easier to move from one place to another. The downsides are that we might not be able to take large scale quests. We will need to choose the members very carefully so as to balance the team and in case someone leaves or….” He paused.

We looked at him and he took a deep breath and continued.

“In case someone leaves or….dies, we would need to train more members to take their place and it would leave the team completely unbalanced. There are other things too.”

“What about the big guilds?”

“Spending power. The big guilds will have an enormous spending power. Their large numbers will mean that they can always have enough members to grind. They can occupy areas of maps completely for private use and fighting them will be hard. After all, numbers do matter….at least in the starting levels. They command a massive influence in the game. They can have their own production side which produces potions and weapons and with that many people farming, the raw materials for the production side is never low. The downside is that management is a terrible pain in the ass.” He sighed. “The rules of the big guild are stricter and there are many restrictions on the members.”

He went on to explain several things.

“Have you….I mean were you in any guilds?” I asked.

“In my last game?” He asked and I nodded. “Well, a few. Generally small guilds. I was more of an independent player. We did have a group of friends from different guilds who you used to gather together and clear difficult raids but….we never formed a formal guild.” He had a smile on his face when he said this as if reminiscing about those times.

I looked at Veena. “So, what do you think we should do?” I asked.

“Hmm….both sides have advantages we cannot deny. Then, how about this. We find good players first. Skilled and trustworthy. We form a team and level up to get a significant advantage over others. These members will form the core of our guild, the ones who will concentrate on levelling and clearing the game. Then we invite smaller teams to join us and expand. Let’s see it this way. This is a place where anyone can work slowly and become extremely strong. I am sure that with your T4 Class, you can take down a dozen T3 players in just a matter of months. Weaker players will always be attracted to such power. Groups will form in this way.”

We looked at her confused and she continued.

“Not all players are fighters, Arthas. People like us….are rare. If the danger of dying is as real as we think it is, not many players will be daring to risk it. You don’t realise it but among over three thousand players, only a few dozen have reached this town even now and most of them are not even T3. By this point, most players have just accepted their reality and yet only a few have the courage to fight forward. That said, everyone has their uses.”

Shiroe seemed to have understood something and had a look of realisation while Veena continued.

“We target those players who don’t want to risk levelling up in dangerous places. The production classes. They are not as strong as fighter classes and will obviously be exploited if they have no support. This will cause them to gather around stronger players for protection. We target them first. They might not have raw power but controlling the economy is a great power in itself. Money will allow us to keep our advantage over others as well as train new members.”

“So a big guild.” Shiroe answered.

“More like an alliance of sorts.” She explained.

“But the question still remains. Would we be able to maintain such a guild?”

“I happen to have some experience in managing and recruiting people.” She answered.

She always did seem like that type to be honest.

“Very well. If you all don’t have any problems, I don’t mind either. Arthas?”

“I don’t mind either.” I shook my head.

“Great. Then we look for potential teammates. I will keep an eye out for other production class people.”

“That only leaves us with one last question.” The two of them looked at me.

“Huh?”

_________________________________x____________________________________

“A bard is a no go. I can’t sing to save my life.” I denied.

“A musician is also good.” Veena said.

I did have experience in playing a piano but I don’t see myself doing it.

What Shiroe wanted to discuss was a subclass for me. Although, we were having a bit of a problem in doing so.

We wanted something which would keep me from killing and exploring to help me calm down my mind so our choices were cut in half. 

The waiter came and kept three mugs of his honey mead on a table in front of us before coming to us and taking our order.

“Hmm, how about a blacksmith? We don’t have one in our team and weapons and armour do take a lot of money to make.”

“Blacksmithing is quite hard in this game. We need to practise a lot and it will take a lot of time away from levelling.” I argued. I didn’t want to give away my advantage in levels.

“What we want is something that will take your mind off of things, something that you enjoy. Perhaps you can try out some hobbies and we can think of some classes related to those.” Veena suggested.

“Hmm.” The idea sounded good. “Alright, let’s go with that.”

I did have a hobby.

A very odd one.

___________________________________x__________________________________

“Calligraphy?” Shiroe asked again as we walked towards our destination.

“Why? Is there anything wrong with Calligraphy?”

“No….there’s nothing wrong per say. I just didn’t think you were the type to have such a hobby.”

“My grandpa had gifted me a set on my fifth birthday. I liked doing calligraphy in my free time. It helped me focus.”

“Calligraphy would mean a Scribe class. You already have the Villager Class levelled up. I needed to go to the Head of the Village but here we need to go to the Mayor’s office or the Scholar’s Academy.”

And that’s exactly where we were headed towards.

When we figured out what I wanted, Shiroe led me to get the Class while Veena went back home to practise her own Herbalist Class Skills.

The process was easier than I thought.

They offered the Class to any maxed level Villager.

After that we bought a ton of materials for me to practise Calligraphy. Shiroe told me that he copied several books to level up his Class Skills and even sold them later on.

In this place, there was no printing press. All the books were written by hand and copied by Scribes. The Academy even offered quests for it.

By the time we returned, it was late night. Shiroe separated from me and went to his own home.

He had found a small place to rent nearby. The place was not as good as ours. It didn’t have a bath and had only one small room but on the plus side, it had a lower rent, allowing him to easily rent it out.

- Kuroka -

“Are you sure you both want to do this, Kuroka, Arthur?” Vali asked her once more.

She took a deep breath and answered. “Yes.”

Arthur was just his usual stoic self and nodded, his eyes never leaving the bed where Ley Fay lay, unconscious, that abomination of a gaming helmet on her head.

Kuroka remembered that the girl had been extremely excited about the first VRMMORPG in the world and couldn’t wait to try it and how happy she was when she finally got the gaming helmet.

Who could have thought….?

And as if this was just the beginning, bad news just kept coming.

Vali came with the information that even her own sister, Shirone was in a similar situation right now, along with the little sister of the new Lucifer and her other fellow peerage members.

She had almost rushed and invaded the Gremory Mansion had Vali not stopped her by force….not that going there would have helped.

Everyone had seen how the Game Master dealt with anyone trying to interfere with his game. Not only would she kill herself, she would also endanger her sister’s life by going there by herself.

Kuroka was at her wit’s end on what to do.

The next piece of information he brought gave her some hope.

He told her about how the Satans were planning to send people inside the game and how it was also approved by the Game Master.

All they needed was to order a VR set from the official website and they could go inside the game and rescue everyone by completing the game.

He became silent for a moment before speaking. “Then take care. We will make sure your body is protected here.”

They had offered help but she wasn’t sure what she would face inside the game and if their strengths would even be of any use inside the virtual world so she didn’t accept their help.

Ultimately, only three people were going to go inside the game.

Her, Arthur and Eliane Westcott, Arthur’s maid and lover. She was the descendant of one of the founders of the Golden Dawn Magician Organisation as well as Ley Fay’s maid and magic tutor. She had become a maid in the service of thePendragon family and was the one who took care of Ley Fay all this time.

Her relationship with Arthur was not accepted due to the difference in their statuses so Arthur had left his house so as to not implicate her due to their relationship.

When she found out about Ley Fay’s situation and that Arthur was planning to go inside the game, she had pleaded to accompany them.

She was also a master magician with enough skill for other members of the team to recognise her.

After all, this was the person who had trained Ley Fay into the excellent Magician she was today.

She looked at Vali and Bikou, the latter waving her goodbye as she closed her eyes and darkness overtook her.

The game started and she was asked to choose her name. She chose her character name as Kuroneko and logged in.

When her eyes opened again, she found herself standing in the middle of what looked to be a village.

She was taken aback for a moment as the surroundings looked too real for it to be a virtual world.

Perhaps the only thing which prevented her from thinking that she had been teleported to a different world altogether were the two bars at the corner of her vision.

She looked towards the side and saw her own reflection in a window pane.

It was almost the same as her usual appearance except the absence of her Cat ears and tails. She was dressed in coarse faded clothes which wouldn’t look out of place in a mediaeval villager.

Over the next few minutes, she checked several functions of the system to get familiar with everything and then looked around to check the place.

Her appearance attracted the eyes of quite a few players. They stared at her wide eyed but didn’t approach her, instead choosing to stare at her from a distance.

She wondered what was up with those looks and went ahead and talked to a few of them.

One of them, a woman who looked to be in her forties, was helpful enough to explain everything to her.

What she found out next sent shivers down her spine and increased her worries even more as she thought of her sister’s safety.

Anyone who dies in the game, died for real.

Then there was the thing about time passing quickly inside the game.

What had looked to be less than a week from the outside, was already more than three months in the game world.

Was Shirone already?

No.

Shirone would be safe.

She wasn’t weak.

….at present, Kuroka could only console herself with the words.

She had to grow stronger as soon as possible and find her sister.

She went around and asked for a few things and made plans to level up faster.

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Two days later, Kuroka found some problems.

First, she wasn’t even remotely near her full power. To gain power, she needed to level up.

She had already read everything she could about the game and knew what  she needed to know about the class system.

That said, without her strength, hunting was difficult. Hunting around the village borders was too slow.

There were several people who were in the starting village, still hunting to get a T2 Job Class and they often hunted the weaker prey near the borders of the starting village. And with the spawn time being what it was, it made levelling up very difficult for the people.

If she wanted to level up faster, she had to use some other means.

What she had found out was that this game offered a large degree of freedom in the actions of a person. She was about to test out just how much that freedom was.

Over the next week, she spent all her time hunting. Especially at nights, when there were fewer people near the outer parts of the town.

The level of monsters also increased slightly but that was only for the better.

She might have lost her power but her experience was every bit as useful as it was in the real world.

When they were younger, she had survived in the Underworld slums, protecting and feeding her sister all by herself.

Hunting and escaping others is not difficult for her.

She found out that she could use poison to hunt and used her money to buy poison from the Village Shop. It cost her a lot but she could manage.

She didn’t spend her time in the village inn and that saved her a few extra bucks.

After getting poison, she could easily hunt higher level animals, although she had to hide and wait for them to slowly reach a near death state where she could just end them with a single strike.

It was an exhaustingly slow process but it did give her more experience than anything she could get while hunting near the village borders.

Once in a while she saw a few players coming to the forest but they never did so at nights and they were almost always in teams so it was easy to avoid them.

_________________________________x____________________________________

“N-no….please forgive me. I won’t do that ever again.” She looked at the guy begging her feet.

Two others beside him were too scared to even speak.

He was a level 8 Villager while the other two were level 7. They had followed her while she went out to hunt.

She could smell the scent of alcohol from them even from this distance, although it was getting replaced by the scent of blood every second.

Just outside the village, she sensed someone approach her and quickly placed a trap for them.

She was still only level 6 while even their weakest member was higher than her in level. Even their equipment was better than hers but she noticed that they were obviously amateurs. It was evident that they had lost their sense in their drunken state and were intending to assault her.

Too bad they were no match for her experience. She had survived in the Underworld when she was a child. Taking care of these types of people was nothing for her.

Although, it did take her all her paralytic powder to bring them down.

She had spent everything to prepare to hunt bigger prey but had to use it on them.

For people like them, she had no mercy.

“Plea-se I will do anything. Money. Yes. I have gold. Here.” He threw out gold from inventory at her feet which was followed by equipment and other things.

She eyed them and raised an eyebrow.

Well, who was she to deny such a harvest.

She was already short on money as it is.

Without another word, she stored everything in her inventory.

The game only had a small chance to drop the equipment of the players when they died or were killed but she suddenly found out that there were no limitations on this kind of thing. A loophole? Then again, it was understandable. After all, she didn’t rob them. They offered the items themselves.

His followers looked at her keeping everything in her inventory and the guy himself smiled, thinking he was forgiven.

She let him think so while she looked at the other two, drawing her newly gained dagger and slightly narrowing her eyes.

“W-we have gold too. Yess. Take it. But please let us go.” The two followers begged and brought out their own gold and laid it in front of her.

She took everything and kept it into her inventory and looked at them once again and then in a flash, she stabbed the eye of one of the followers.

A few stabs in his eyes and he was down.

The other two looked at her in horror.

“No…..I already gave you everything I had. You said you would let me go….” The other follower shouted.

“I said so? When? I am sure I would have remembered making such a promise. Why is it that I don’t recall something like that?” She replied before slashing both their necks.

There was no way she was going to leave them alive after what they were planning.

_________________________________x____________________________________

“Yes. We can make a custom order for you at that price.” The owner of the shop told her. “Unfortunately I am busy with other orders so I can only let my apprentice work on it. Are you okay with that?”

Apprentice?

She raised her eyebrow.

“I would like to meet your apprentice first.”

“Hmm….that’s tricky. You see, my apprentice is a bit of a wimp, always staying holed up in the workshop and never going out, but I am sure I can work it out. I will arrange a meeting. The Blacksmith Class Advancement is going to need a test and a Custom Order of this scale is just the thing we need.”

The man told her to wait and went behind the door at the back of his shop and into his workshop.

She was pretty sure she heard a scream from a girl or something and her hand instinctively went to her new dagger, preparing to defend herself from any sudden attacks.

“Get in.” The shopkeeper's voice came from within.

She hesitated a moment but remembered that the village was a safe zone and she wouldn’t be hurt inside so she resheathed her dagger and went ahead.

Inside the workshop, the shopkeeper was standing and behind him was a face she didn’t expect to see here.

Dressed in clothes which wouldn’t look off on a girl, the blonde haired kid who was obviously a boy stared at her.

“Aren’t you that Dhampir from Rias Gremory’s peerage, Shirone’s friend?”

The boy’s eyes widened at her words.

“Y-y-you know Buchou?” He asked hesitantly.

“You could say that. I do keep tabs on her. After all, my cute sister is a part of her peerage.”

“Your sister?”

“Ah….you call her Koneko.”

“Koneko-chan’s sister? But isn’t she….” His eyes widened as he hid behind the shopkeeper again. “Hiiiiiiiiiiii don’t eat meeeeeeeeeeeee!”

….

….

….

….

“Huh?”

- Venelana Gremory -

She watched as Arthas hacked down another goblin with his sword before trampling on the skull of the beast, crushing it completely.

Goblin Slayer.

As the name suggested, it was a class which excelled in killing Goblins.

She didn’t even realise that there could be a profession solely to kill Goblins. Then again, there was a profession to kill pests so how was this any different?

From a technical standpoint, the Goblin Slayer Class was a mixture of a Squire, Hunter and a Thief. It was a hybrid Class of sorts, or at least that’s what Shiroe had said.

With it, Arthas could use bows, swords, daggers and traps, all the while covered in plate armour like a Knight. Its stat gains were lower than a Knight’s but not by much but the sheer diversity of skills it offered more than made up for it.

Then again, he never had any problem with stats, being the highest levelled one in the team.

What she was worried about was his anger at the Goblins.

How much of it was due to his new Class and how much is due to that day.

Shiroe had noticed it too but hadn’t realised the severity of the situation clearly. In fact, he himself was struggling to cope up with everything.

Arthas is a very kind boy with a great sense of justice.

She had seen it on the first day itself when she had met him the first time.

He could leave whenever he wanted and could do so easily but he fought to protect her honour, even when he was scared of killing for the first time.

Perhaps he himself doesn’t realise it but it was the main reason which attracted her to make a team with him.

Now though, this very thing was becoming an unnecessary burden for him.

It was especially so when everyone was trapped in this….game, where the limits of their mental fortitude were tested every day. One could easily forget the difference between reality and fiction here.

It was very easy for someone to channel their repressed fears and frustrations into hating something. Such kind of hate can slowly change people, make them more cruel, more vicious and self centred.

The dungeon with the goblins appears to have had a very deep effect on him.

Her words did help him calm down but she knew that he was not completely alright.

He had stayed awake the whole night on the day they had completed the quest.

Even now, after almost one week had passed, he still had trouble sleeping sometimes. There were dark circles under his eyes even now.

She didn’t want him to break down due to this.

Over the last few months, she had come to appreciate and even cherish his companionship and she didn’t want to see anything bad happen to him.

They cleared out the outskirts of the goblin establishment.

It was their quest this time.

They had to completely clear out the whole Goblin establishment near Llyne and bring an end to this menace.

“I will check out the buildings.” Arthas said as he slowly went in and threw a smoke pouch inside one of the huts to smoke out anyone who was hiding there.

What they were not expecting was a coughing sound….a human.

Arthas looked at Shiroe and then at her and nodded.

They quickly took positions behind his back, ready to attack anyone at a moment’s notice while Arthas prepared himself and kicked the door of the hut open in one kick.

The door flew off its hinges and the scene behind was revealed.

It was a scene reminding them of the day of the quest.

Naked women with swollen bellies, laying on the ground with lifeless looking eyes.

This time however they were truly dead and gone.

Parts of their bodies were eaten up, the stench of the dead filling the whole place as soon as the door was opened.

Arthas froze for a moment and she quickly went beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?”

“....hmm. Yes….yes, I am alright.” He shook his head and went ahead to check other rooms while they checked the house for any loot.

For the rest of the day, Arthas looked a bit lost in his thoughts whenever they were not hunting.

They returned back to the town by the time the sun was setting.

Shiroe separated and went ahead to order new equipment.

He was nearing the level cap for the Scholar Class.

She herself was near the level cap for her Class but her equipment was already better than most so they had decided to save more and get her something better after she got a T4 Class.

They got cleaned up after reaching their home, taking turns to bathe.

Unlike other days however, she saw that he was still lost in his thoughts.

Even the sight of her in a wet towel which would normally make him flustered didn’t make him break out of his reverie. Sigh.

They had a simple meal and Arthas went ahead to work on his Scribe Class.

Although she was planning to talk to him, she decided to do it later. Calligraphy did help Arthas relax so she decided to let him take his time and retired to bed herself.

Today’s quest was long and exhausting and she needed her rest too.

It was late at night when she was awakened from her sleep.

She walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water and noticed that the light in the hall was still bright.

Opening the door, she saw Arthas sitting on the chair, staring blankly in space.

“Arthas?”

He was shaken awake by her voice and looked at her for a moment before speaking. “Yes?”

“Are you alright?” She asked, walking towards him.

She noticed that his eyes were red and the dark circles under his eyes were more prominent. She took a seat beside him quietly, waiting for him to speak.

There were a few minutes of quiet before he spoke.

“I….see their faces every time I try to close my eyes.” He spoke after some time. “Those women….they turn from happy living people to the corpses we saw during the day.”

He took a deep breath.

“And on top of those corpses, I see the goblins, laughing, sneering and playing around with them….even in death.”

He hesitated for a moment. “But the worst part is when I see real people in the same situation. Mother, my relatives….you, the faces of those women change and I wake up everytime I try to sleep. I….haven’t been able to sleep properly in days.”

She pulled him in for a hug and lightly caressed his hair.

He didn't reject it either, wrapping his arms around her.

After a few minutes, she separated from him and held his hand.

He looked at her confused.

“Come with me.” With just those words, she pulled him along to her room. “I have been feeling a bit lonely sleeping alone all this time. Accompany me.”

“Huh?” Despite his state, he looked surprised but she didn't give him any chance to deny as she pulled him into the bed and hugged the boy close to her chest.

He looked totally caught off guard at the sudden development but a moment later he let out a breath and returned her hug, closing his eyes.

“Good boy.” She caressed his hair lightly for a few minutes as she felt his breath become even and then he drifted off to sleep.

- Sirzechs -

“Is this everyone?” He asked as he looked at the group of people gathered in front of him.

Ajuka nodded.

“Yes. They were given a full rundown of the situation. Their task will be to complete the game and rescue the people trapped inside. We have already provided everyone with a list. Each member they rescue will increase their reward and the ones to complete the game will get a reward granted by the Three Factions together. All of them have agreed voluntarily to join the mission. Should anything happen to them, their families will be compensated for the next three generations. Most of them are people who have their own family members trapped inside the game or have debts or are people who have had injuries and had to leave their normal lives due to it….and some of them are criminals who wish to be pardoned. Some of them wish to achieve a high rank in the underworld.”

He nodded. “ A Rank of upto High Class will be rewarded to anyone who rescues anyone from the list and Ultimate Class to anyone who completes the game.” He promised.

“We will also offer them a reward from our side.” Michael came forward and added.

“Well….we will throw in something from our side as well.” Azazel added.

They had ordered over two thousand nerve gears but due to the shortage of time, only five hundred people were gathered within the week.

They plan to send four batches of five hundred people inside to allow the ones going ahead to make some progress while the later ones arrive.

Many people were trapped inside the game even among the Supernatural factions. This included not only the members of the Three Factions but also some others from different factions.

He had sent messages to all the other pantheons to inform them about the deal with the Game Master in the hopes that they would also send some people inside the game to rescue others.

There had been no reply till now due to the short amount of time passing.

Most of them were hesitating to make any moves after seeing the retaliation of the Game Master against the Devil Race due to the actions of Rizevim.

He hoped that the successful entry of the first batch of people inside the game would also give them hope and they would lend a hand to the cause.

“Lord Lucifer.” He heard a voice beside him and looked to the side to see his sister’s knight, kneeling before him. “Please….please allow me to go inside to rescue others.” He begged.

The boy had been feeling guilty since the day he found out about what had happened.

He had been out due to a contract and had escaped the fate of being trapped inside the game. The others hadn't been so fortunate.

This had been eating away at the boy.

Again, when knowing the boy’s past, it was understandable.

Survivor’s guilt.

He had once lost all his friends due to the actions of a madman and once more, the same thing was being repeated with him.

It must be even harder on the boy.

That said, he, in his right conscience, couldn’t allow him to do so.

He knew how much his sister cared for her peerage members. Losing even one of them would leave her devastated.

The rest of her peerage is already trapped inside. Now, if he were to send even the last one in such a dangerous situation, she would never forgive him when she came out.

He let out a sigh and patted the boy’s shoulder.

“They need you here, Yuuto-kun. I promise nothing will happen to them. I will….we will save them all.”

The boy tried to argue but he shook his head.

“Tell me, Yuuto-kun, do you think Rias would ever forgive any one of us if anything happened to you inside the game? Will Akeno, Koneko or Gasper forgive us? No. They would never wish for you to endanger yourself. What you can do in the meantime is stay here and train. Become stronger and wait for them to come out. While their minds may be trapped inside the game, their bodies are still outside. Please stay here and protect them while they are inside.”

He reassured the boy and finally sent him away.

Looking at the departing back of the boy, he sighed.

While he did so, said all those words to the kid, he himself was very nervous inside.

Right now, he could only hope that everything goes well with this mission.

- Game Master -

“Eight hundred people have entered the game in total. Five hundred from the Devil’s side and three hundred from other independent factions. This number is only going to increase when others learn of the successful entry of the devil’s side inside the game. I expect the number to be in the thousands when the different human governments and rich businessmen send people inside to rescue their family members.” Red told him as she looked over the list.

“Well, we have prepared for a total of forty million people so it's not a big deal. I seriously doubt they would send that many people inside. Anyways, the more they send the better for us.”

“I wonder what the world will look like after the game ends. There is sure to be a great upheaval.”

“That’s for sure. And they will have to deal with it and overcome it. If they can’t even do so, then their fates at the hands of the Machine and Spirit Gods would be the fault of no one but their own. I can just give them a chance to gain power. If they cannot unite even in the face of world destruction level danger and continue to plot against each other….let them go extinct. I will not stay here protecting them and wiping their asses forever.” He replied.

“Well, I don’t want to do so either. I am a dragon, not a guard dog.” Red scoffed.

She had been the one who was most pissed when she found out about her possible future. That had led her to train in earnest and gain the power she had today, which was almost twice of what she had the first time they had met with each other.

Ophis and Tiamat were the same.

That said, none of them wanted to be stuck in this world after knowing of the vast multiverse outside. All of them wanted to go out and explore.

But if they did so, this world would be destroyed for sure. They wouldn’t stand a chance against the Machine Gods and if by some strange miracle they did survive, they would become a slave of the Spirit Gods.

He had already seen another world facing such an end.

Being targeted by the Machine Gods and used as the pawn of the Spirit Gods who used them as cheap soldiers to thin out the numbers of their enemies.

Ultimately, nothing was left of the world.

While he was sure he could fight even the strongest of the Spirit Gods and Machine Gods with his current power and the help of his lovers, the rest of the world was not strong enough to even survive the clash between the two sides.

To prevent this from happening, he and all his lovers decided to think of a way to empower the world itself so that they could face the dangers of the outside world.

He was slightly grateful to this world for making him what he was today but none of this was handed to him on a silver platter. He had to fight from the bottom, as a human on the verge of death due to getting caught between the fight of the two Heavenly Dragons to the strongest existence of this world, he had carved his path with his own two hands. So he was returning the same favour to the world.

Those who were capable would use this chance to become stronger.

He had done his part in the background too. He had trapped the messengers of the Spirit Gods who had already arrived to this world a decade ago in a never ending illusion to keep the other side in the dark.

This game, Soul Art Online, was his wish as well as the last chance of this world to survive their imminent destruction of the whole world.

“Number of people reaching T3 Class Jobs has reached the mark.” Tiamat interrupted their talks and he looked at the screen.

Every region has twenty T3 Class people now.

“Start the first world mission.”

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Author’s Note:

I am back with another chapter of Soul Art Online.

Things are heating up bit by bit.

Arthas became a Goblin Slayer of all things.

The Game is forcing them to face their fears and the months of staying in the game doesn’t make it any better. They will struggle and grow up in the process.

PS: Snuggles help.

On the other hand, Kuroka is inside the game and meets Gasper.

I will write some parts in the future chapters telling everyone’s side of the story and what they are doing in the meantime.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.