Story 3: Chapter 6: World Quest -1  (Patreon)

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Chapter 6: World Quest -1 

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- Arthas -

I woke up to a soft feeling on my face.

On opening my eyes, I saw white.

It took me a moment to realise what it was and I pulled away quickly.

The movement broke Veena’s sleep and she looked at me groggily.

“Arthas. Did you wake up?”

I nodded mechanically while my brain was catching up with the events of the previous night.

The incidents with the Goblin had really affected me a lot more than I was expecting.

“Did you sleep well?” She asked again.

I did. It was probably the first peaceful nap I have had in a while. It might be due to finally letting my heart out about the whole thing.

“Yes.”

“That’s great. Not sleeping well can be very bad for our health. I am glad you are alright now.”

“…. Thank you.” I sincerely thanked her.

She looked at me slightly surprised before a bring smile dawned on her face. “Oh my. You look really handsome when you smile. You should do that more often.”

“Huh?” It took me a moment to realise what she meant and my eyes widened.

I touched my face.

Was I smiling again?

________________________________x__________________________________

The morning went by quickly while I was feeling a lot fresher than before.

I could smile again.

Even if it was just barely, I was recovering my ability to show emotions.

This fact alone made me feel a lot more comfortable.

By breakfast time, Shiroe had also arrived there.

He ate his breakfast with us nowadays.

While eating, he looked at me curiously.

“Hmm? Is there something on my face?” I asked, tilting my head.

“No. You just….feel different somehow.”

“Ah….I guess a good sleep does help a lot.” I smiled.

His eyes widened. “You’re smiling.”

“Yes….I am.”

“....that’s great. Glad to have you back.”

“Thanks.”

We ate our dinner and talked about many things.

“You are level 25 and Veena is 28, right?” I asked and they nodded.

“In that case, we will get her to level 30 first.” I suggested.

“Yes. Anyways, we will need to test out other classes for her while the Mage Class is already set for me.” Shiroe agreed.

I checked my Shingen-ryu and it was level 21.

Shingen-ryu [Unique Skill] [Level 21] [Exp: 11001/21000]

Shingen-ryu or "Style That Originates From The Heart" is a school of Martial Arts in which the practitioner learns hand-to-hand combat as well as the ability to control their aura for combat.

Passively Increases +2 STR +2 END +2 DEX +2 INT +2 WIS per level.

Current Increase: +42 STR, +42 END, +42 INT, +42 WIS

This skill was seriously broken, at least at this stage.

This kind of increase was similar to having an extra T2 Class Stats added on my already existing stats.

Obviously, the advantages will be evened out at higher levels. But at this stage, it’s absurdly broken. And it was not even at full level yet.

It’s just that it takes too much time to level up as I can only practise it at night.

My mind went on to the other two rewards I had gotten from the ‘Man of Culture’ Achievement.

The ability to use Undead Classes while not being an Undead myself and the Goblin Slayer Class.

All three of these were related to the references I made to get these.

I should make a list of the references I can think of and test them all one by one.

“By the way, did you guys find anyone following or spying on you?” I asked, remembering the problem.

“Some people did look from a distance after we bought the hostages from the quest and some did ask me about it but nothing more than that.” Shiroe accepted.

It had been a week since that day and whoever it was that was following us, didn’t show up after that.

We had still maintained our usual routine of going out in disguise just to be careful.

“I see. By the way, do you know who among the other players is the highest level, outside our team, that is?”

“Hmm.” He put a hand on his chin and thought for a while. “That must be Gareth and Dwain. They are leaders of two other teams, Azure Blade and Blood Knights. Gareth is a Martial Artist and Dwain is an Archer and each of their team has around six members. That said, the level of their members vary a lot. Three of their members are production classes or those who are probably being raised to become a Scholar and then a Mage. They are still T2. They are recruiting people quickly though so we must also start or we will be left behind.”

“Hmm. By the way, do you have any name for the Guild?” Shiroe asked.

“Name?” I shook my head. “Hmm, let me think.”

Which one should I do?

I thought of several things and decided on one of the most iconic ones that I knew.

“Fairy Tail.”

“Fairy Tale? Because this world is no less than one?” Shiroe asked.

“No. Not tale. A Tail.” I explained.

“Do Fairy even have tails?” He asked.

“That’s the question. Do Fairy have tails? Do they even exist? It’s an eternal mystery. An eternal adventure.”

“Just that?” He asked sceptically.

“Well yeah….” I nodded.

“Sure. I don’t see why not.”

“Umm. Fairies do exist….those annoying bunch. Some of them do have tails too….but why not. This name is good.” Veena said and we looked at her oddly while she just smiled.

“Great. Then I will register our guild after our hunt today.” Shiroe agreed.

I smiled.

We got ready for the daily levelling and went outside as usual only for something odd to happen.

The gatekeeper at the gate stopped us.

We looked at him confused. This was the first time such a thing had happened.

“Excuse me? Is there something wrong?” Shiroe took the lead and questioned.

The guard nodded. “The City Lord’s scouts have found traces of Goblin settlements merging. It is expected that a Goblin General was born”

“A Goblin General?”

“They are high tier 5 Monsters, incredibly strong and smart. They can rival a Lord Knight in terms of power but their most dangerous skill is the ability to lead goblins and other monsters. They can command Goblins of lower tier than themself and control hoards of such goblins. Previously, the largest hoard under a Goblin General was known to be around seventeen thousand goblins and they had destroyed a Mid Level City.”

A Mid Level City was far bigger than something like Llyne. They had at least one Tier 6 person leading and several Tier 5 ones. Was a T5 monster that dangerous?

“And now you think the goblin settlements merging is the sign of a Goblin General being born?” Shiroe asked.

While it was called ‘being born’, it was actually some T4 Goblin Commander evolving into a General but such things were very rare.

“It’s most likely. The City Lord has sent several scouts to different towns and we will be getting an update by this afternoon. Till then, by the orders of the City Lord, no one is allowed to leave the city.” The gatekeeper insisted.

“I see. Thank you for telling us everything.” Shiroe pulled out a gold coin and gave it to the man who casually slipped it in his pocket and looked around and then whispered something in his ears.

I merely raised an eyebrow while he turned around and we left back to head towards our home. He signalled us to wait till we got home.

“What was that about?” I asked as we reached home.

The guy brought out a piece of paper, ink and a feather pen. “The gatekeeper said that the City Lord will draft the players to face the Goblin raids. It’s probably a large-scale quest. We need to make preparations in advance. How much funds do we have?”

“Around twenty eight thousand gold.”

“I have seven thousand five hundred myself. We need to get as many supplies as we can. It will probably be a city defence type raid. Veena-san, can I ask you to prepare as many attack type consumables as you can? We are going to need tons of them. If somehow my predictions are wrong, we can always sell them to other players so we won’t be suffering any losses. We will also need tons of healing items. Can you tell us what ingredients we are going to need and the prices?”

Veena nodded and started to make a list.

“Getting the ingredients will not be a problem but I don’t think I can process so many of them even if I were to work all day. This much would take me working for a week to get everything ready.” She said after completing the list of ingredients.

“Hmm….that can be solved. Can we recruit any other Herbalists?” I asked.

“I do know three other Herbalists. One of them is a member of the Blood Knights so that one is probably a no go. I can contact the other two.”

“I have some acquaintances from the guild too. They are NPCs but I think I can hire them for some gold.” Veena added.

“Then we discuss the price and get them to work but first we need to buy these items as soon as we can. Others are going to know about the raid soon and they will probably all jump on the chance too. With the demand of the item rising and supply being limited, the prices will rise. We need to be quick on our feet.”

It was a good thing that we went out hunting very early in the morning to avoid getting tracked. It was a habit we had made since the time we were followed. We had even bought special capes which prevented appraisal type skills under a certain level although the price of those things had made us bleed.

Most of the players didn’t even wake up at this time so we still had time on our hands.

We prepared everything and went out as soon as we could.

First we bought everything we could buy of the ingredients of the healing items and then attack related items. Veena went ahead and went to contact her contacts in the guild while Shiroe went to get in touch with the other two herbalists.

I in the meantime, went to get our equipment fixed at the blacksmiths and get some extra spares.

By the time everything was done, it was late in the morning and everyone had found out that we couldn’t leave the town and some among them had figured out that it was related to some quest.

They were rushing to buy stuff.

Veena had consigned most of the items to be made by the npc Herbalists while she worked on some herself.

Shiroe and I were working on some plans and strategies for the raid. We didn’t have anything concrete as we had no idea what this quest was.

This changed soon.

In the afternoon, the City Lord held a gathering in the town square and every player simultaneously got a new quest.

World Quest - 1

The Beginning of the End

A great danger is opening its eyes as chaos has started to spread all over the continent.

Brace up and fight against the approaching darkness for a chance to survive.

Objective: 1. Attend the City Lord’s Summons.

There were no rewards and the objective was numbered so that means it was going to be a long quest and we will get our next objective when we reach there.

I looked at Shiroe who was done reading too and just looked at me and nodded.

“Let’s go.”

We soon reached the town square and found Veena already there.

Many players were gathering slowly so we took a place in an empty corner to observe things quietly.

I took the chance to see everyone and their levels as well as classes and told Shiroe who noted everything hiding behind me. We even made note of some ungrouped players who we could recruit.

Around an hour later the City Lord, a man in full plate armour with a red cloak came to the stage. He was followed by two other Knights. One seemed to be a Sword Knight while the other seemed to be a Shield Knight or at least they looked like one from what I had seen of the description in the Knight Academy books. As for the City Lord, the man was a Lord Knight. I knew about it already. It was mentioned in the same book.

“Dear citizens. Today I have called you all here to inform you of a grave danger approaching us. The scouts have found that the goblins in the settlements around the town have started moving. They have suddenly merged into one. This indicates the birth of a Goblin General. It is a being who has the power to reign in those vile cowardly beasts into a force to be reckoned with.” The man continued and everyone looked at him for information.

“Do not underestimate them as the usual pests you fight. Under a Goblin General’s Command Aura, their power and teamwork is boosted. They will be a far greater challenge than the ones you have found before. Not only that, expect to encounter many higher types of Goblins too. Goblin Shamans, Hobgoblin Warriors, Goblin Riders. It will be a full on war.”

Murmurs ran throughout the crowd.

“I have sent requests for assistance but by the time they arrive, it might already be too late. So, my citizens, I request you all to join hands with the guards and help protect the city and the commoners. Rest assured that you will be rewarded handsomely according to the contribution you make. Your first task will be to help fortify the town walls and help the guards arrange everything. After an hour, contact any of the twelve guards in front of the Stage. Each one is responsible for guarding one of the twelve gates of the town. Remember, the number of people at each gate is reserved.”

As soon as his words ended, a message appeared in front of me and I assume in front of all other players in this place too.

Objective Completed

World Quest - 1 Updated

I opened the Quest and the second objective was updated

 World Quest - 1

The Beginning of the End

A great danger is opening its eyes as chaos has started to spread all over the continent.

Brace up and fight against the approaching darkness for a chance to survive.

Objective: 1. Attend the City Lord’s Summons.(Completed)

Objective: 2. Choose a Gate to protect.

“Let’s go.” I said and was about to walk but Shiroe put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me.

“Hmm?”

“We need to think about the gate we want to guard. The difficulty will obviously be different at each gate or we wouldn’t have been given this choice and just appointed at a random gate..” He said analysing the situation.

“Let’s move to a different place first.” I said and we moved to a room in the nearby inn. Our house was a bit further and we didn’t have time.

Shiroe spread out the map of the entire town in front of us.

“See, these are the twelve gates. The gates one to five are facing the eastern forest and gates nine and twelve are facing the forests from other directions, probably the main places the Goblins will attack. Chasing them in forests will be suicidal. Gates six and ten have an open ground in front of them, making ambushes impossible but it just leaves an empty ground for larger monsters to attack. Gate number seven faces the river and eight faces the mountains from which the river comes down and finally gate eleven faces the farmlands. Seven and Eight will be the safest but we might not get enough contribution points. So, which one should we choose?”

“The farmlands.” Veena said.

“Hmm?” Shiroe looked at her and I understood.

“You just said that the farmland had settlements which means there must be people there too.”

“Yes, but they will be given refuge within the town walls. The farmlands will most likely be abandoned.

“But the livestock will remain. I don’t think they will be allowed to bring everything in. The goblins will not miss the opportunity. They will absolutely focus on that.”

“Hmm, that sounds plausible. So, are we going to use that?”

“The goblins are moving in large groups so they will need supplies to support such a huge army too. Normally that would be the victims of the war but no one will leave livestock in such a situation. Not to mention the crops growing there.”

“Are we going to save the crops? Because I don’t think that would be possible in such a fight.” Shiroe said.

“No. We don’t protect anything.” Veena interjected. “Instead, we use the crops to stop the goblins.”

“Eh? Wait, you don’t mean….”

“Yes Shiroe-kun. We burn the crops when the goblins enter the zone, trapping and killing them all.” Veena finished.

“Hmm, we could also add some oil and other inflammable substances in the farmland to make the fire spread faster, maybe some chilli powder to make the smoke burn their eyes.” I added a few more points.

“But the fire will spread. It could reach the forests and it would result in a massive forest fire, endangering the city too.” Shiroe quickly interrupted.

“No it won’t. See, here, at this point.” Veena pointed at a spot on the map. “The river has a dam in this place. It was made to stop the water from flooding the farmlands.”

“....that….can work. But that would mean we would need to divide into two teams. One will be responsible for taking charge of the farmlands while the other will be responsible for the dam. We need to time it perfectly too or the whole plan will be a dud.” Shiroe concluded.

“Will destroying the farmlands get us in trouble with the city?” I asked.

“I don’t think so. They wouldn’t be able to save the farmlands either way. We just need to confirm the plan with the Knights. I think your Knight Class will come in handy at this time, Arthas.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You are technically a part of the Knights of the City. You may be able to talk to them and arrange for this.”

“I….see. I will try.”

And that’s exactly what I did.

Talking with the Knights helped. One of them, Kenneth, was related to the hostages we had saved and that earned us a lot of advantage.

For one, the Knights were short handed in this fight and they didn’t have enough soldiers to station at Gate Eleven so he was quite receptive to my plan.

He took me to the City Lord to discuss the plan.

I bowed after entering the room where the man was sitting.

“Rise. What’s the matter, Kenneth?”

“Milord, this is Arthas, a newly knighted individual and a new member of our Knight Academy. He was also the one who freed the hostages from the north western goblin cave during his test.”

“Ah, him. Yes, I intended to meet him after this danger was taken care of. After all, it was due to the information from the hostages that I had sent the scouts and discovered the danger to our town. Thank you for your hard work, Arthas. Now, how may I help you both?”

“Sir, I just found out that we plan to spread our soldiers across all the gates.”

“It is more of a necessity. Apart from the eighth gate, all other gates can and will be attacked by the goblins. The number of enemies is over ten times ours and once they break through the gates, it's over. They will without a doubt surround us and force us to spread our numbers and unfortunately we have no other choice but to dance to their tune.” The man really looked tired and if I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was real.

“Sir….if I am allowed to speak, I might have a solution to free some soldiers from gates seven, eight and eleven. Not only that, I can take down most of their numbers on gate eleven with only a tenth of the soldiers.”

The man looked at me and narrowed his eyes and spoke. “If you plan to demonstrate your sense of humour, I would like to point out that it is not the correct time.”

“I wouldn’t dare joke about such a thing at such dangerous times, Sir.”

He stared at me for a moment before nodding. “Speak. I will be the judge of whether you jest or not.”

“May I have the permission to call my teammates in, Sir? Our Strategist would explain things better.”

“You may.”

Fifteen minutes later, both Shiroe and Veena were inside the room and we explained the plan to the man.

“The plan is indeed plausible. Do you have confidence that you can do it with only a dozen people?”

“Yes, Sir. As long as they are able to follow the plan to the letter, I can assure you that these three gates will be out of the goblin’s reach.”

He looked at Kenneth. “Kenneth, you will be responsible for assisting him in the plan. Choose eight of your best Knights and accompany him and his team members. Bring the rest as you see fit. If the three gates can be freed in this way, the soldiers will be a major help to the other gates. Anything else?”

“Sir, we will need the help of some people and some raw materials to set everything up before the actual fight.” Shiroe quickly asked and went on to explain several ideas.

“Very well, you can ask Kenneth and he will be responsible for arranging everything. Since this is your plan, you three will be appointed as the guardians of those gates.”

“Thank you, my Lord.” We bowed before we were escorted out of the room.

Kenneth led us to meet the guardians of gates seven and eight. He himself was the guardian of gate eleven.

Finally, one of us was assigned to the seventh gate, eighth gate and eleventh gate each…as guardians. No other player was permitted to join the gates.

At the same time our quest was updated.

 World Quest - 1

The Beginning of the End

A great danger is opening its eyes as chaos has started to spread all over the continent.

Brace up and fight against the approaching darkness for a chance to survive.

Objective: 1. Attend the City Lord’s Summons.(Completed)

Objective: 2. Choose a Gate to protect.(Completed)

Hidden Objective: 1. Talk to the City Lord and become the guardian of a Gate.(Completed)

Objective: 3. Defend the gates after the start of the war.

“A hidden quest!” Shiroe said.

“And look, it says Hidden Quest 1, which means there can be more. Now we need to think about what those things can be.”

“Probably to defeat the enemies without letting even a single one pass or completely kill the ones coming from our side.” Veena pointed out.

“That….will take a lot of work.” Shiroe sighed as we walked out.

I was seriously thankful to be wearing the cape right now. Even the high price didn’t seem like much, seeing the number of eyes and especially the glares thrown our way.

“Well, that went better than I was expecting.” Veena said as we got out of the eyesight of other players and into one of the garrisons reserved for the Knights.

“Not even close. The real work starts now.”

Kenneth was given a list of things as well as people he had to arrange and we took this chance to rest.

The rest of the day is going to be busy and it was doubtful if we could get any chance to rest.

An hour and half later, we stood in front of two hundred people who had been gathered by Kenneth with several raw materials to prepare the farmlands for the assault.

The first thing we had done was have them dig several ditches in the farmlands.

They didn’t have to be too big or even deep for that matter, just around a foot deep and wide and then filled them with wooden spikes.

Goblins are generally smaller than humans and even this much was enough to trap most of them but what we did was cover them with wooden boards.

Hay was then widely spread all over the ditches and traps were made quickly.

There was only so much we could do due to the lack of time but the main thing came after that.

By the time this was done, it was already past midnight and Veena went in to get the consumables we had ordered.

Thousands of pouches of paralytic powder and chilli powder were spread under the hay as well as the crops.

In fact I made sure that I did that personally.

We were obviously compensated for the items. In fact, we were given more than the standard rate.

Meanwhile, Shiroe was working on the mountain with several workers to move rocks to facilitate the movement of the water from the dam to the area we wanted.

With everything handled, we had taken all the bulls and other larger livestock inside, just behind the gates to prepare for the attack.

All that was left was to wait for the attack to happen.

Veena used this time to sell the healing items to the players….at double the price.

Due to the reckless buying of raw materials yesterday, the prices of items had increased.

There weren’t many people with a stock of healing items and many of them wanted but there was not much stock in the town and thus the price of the items increased.

We were able to make almost three times of our initial cost with only seventy percent of the items sold.

Seriously, production classes are incredibly good money makers.

As we were done, we heard the sound of horns from the Town Walls and ran to our own posts.

I quickly took the place above Gate number eleven and looked at the scene in front of me.

It was as if a wave of green was approaching us.

Goblins….

All those were goblins.

Just how many were there?

“It must be around four thousand. Why are there so many of them on this side?!” Kenneth exclaimed.

The answer was at the back of the army.

A T5 Monster.

It was a rare named Monster at that, similar to the Red Wolf and the Boar I had killed.

Bagbeet.

“Is that the general?” I asked Kenneth but the man shook his head.

“No. The General is stronger. That one is a mutated Goblin Chieftain.”

It was on a cart drawn by T3 Ranked Wolves.

Behind him were over fifty Goblin Shamans and hundreds of Hobgoblins.

Those were probably the elite of the army.

On our side, we had eight Knights, five Mages and a hundred Villagers recruited as Militia equipped with Bows and Arrows. 

I could feel my heart beating faster as the army approached.

The Goblin Slayer Class was made specifically to kill Goblins.

The two most defining skills for this Class were Fated Enemy(Goblin) and Sweet Revenge(Goblin).

Fated Enemy(Goblin) allowed me to gain 50% more damage against Goblins….even in the damage of usable items and that’s what made the Class truly broken. I could see why it was a Class gained from one of the Reference Achievement Rewards.

The Sweet Revenge(Goblin) Skill on the other hand gave me 25% more experience when killing Goblins…..even with traps. Yes, that was the reason why I made sure to have a hand in all the traps. I don’t know how much exp I will get for participating but I will get something for sure. That’s why, the wave of disgusting beasts approaching us which was no different than the shadow of death for most people, looked like a bunch of free experience points to me.

I got a message in the Party Chat from Shiroe at this time.

“Arthas, how does the situation look? How is their power?”

….

“It’s over 9000!” I replied.

“What?!”

“Just joking. It’s around four thousand. We have a named Goblin Chieftain on this side. It’s a T5 Monster.”

“That’s….a lot more than we expected. Do you think you will be fine?”

“Don't worry, I’m the strongest.”

….

The guy laughed awkwardly on the other end. “Well….if you are that confident.”

“Just be ready, we will need that plan to work or we are dead meat.”

“I hope so too.”

“If I die, I will haunt you to death.” I joked, as my hands trembled as the wave came nearer.

I had received some notifications but I didn’t check them. I couldn’t.

The scene in front of me was too much to remove my eyes from.

There was a sudden change which changed things however.

“They are slowing down.” Kenneth voiced out the problem. “Are they planning to send the smaller ones to attack first?”

If they did that, half of their forces would be outside the range of the strongest area of attack.

No.

I needed to do something.

“Mage. Do you have any spells which can transmit my voice over large distances?” I quickly asked.

One of them nodded quickly.

“Quick, open the gates and come with me. Help me transmit my voice.” I shouted as I went down to the gate.

“Arthas! What are you planning?”

“Just wait there for me and be ready to close the gates when I say.” I shouted behind my back.

I stood alone in front of the open gate number eleven and looked at the wave of goblins in the distance.

“Prepare the spell to transmit my voice.”

The mage nodded and did so quickly. “It’s ready, Sir.”

I took a deep breath and shouted.

“Goblin Chieftain Bagbeet….You're so ugly, you scared the crap out of the toilet.”

….

….

….

….

There was a period of silence in the whole place. Even the mage who was transmitting my voice was stunned at my action.

But I didn’t give a fuck.

If those green ass fuckers stopped there, most of our plans will be ruined and we will be dead.

So I continued cursing. I used everything I knew to cuss at that green motherfucker at the head of their group.

- Game Master -

“Bwahahahaha…..” He laughed as the guy cussed at the Goblin Chieftain.

“Which sexual position produces the ugliest children? Ask your mother.”

“Do you wanna lose ten pounds of ugly fat? Cut off your head.”

“You should need a licence to be that ugly.”

“You are so ugly that when your mother gave birth to you, she got fined for littering.”

“Hahahahaha that was hilarious.” Beside him, even Red was rolling on the floor laughing.

He had gotten the notification that someone had triggered the Man of Culture Achievement….twice within seconds and he had quickly changed the screen to check and lo and behold, his Junior was going to fight an army.

The scene however changed into this and took them off guard all of a sudden.

As expected, the Goblin Chieftain got furious and ordered a direct charge of the entire force at full speed.

Arthas however made an unexpected move. He took the staff from the Mage’s hand and drew his sword, crossing them over his head.

His eyes widened as he understood what was about to happen.

“You….shall not….passsssssss!” Arthas shouted as he slammed the staff on the ground.

“SHITTTTT!” He exclaimed.

“What! What happened?” Red asked, surprised at his sudden outburst.

“I….forgot to add that reference.”

“Huh?”

“I can’t believe I forgot to add the ‘Lord of the Rings’ reference! Dammit. How could I?”

….

“It’s not a big deal.”

“Well obviously it is. It’s one of the classics. This was a meme before memes even existed.”

“....I don’t get it.”

So he explained it in a language she understood. “If memes were Greek Gods then this was a Titan.”

“Ah….”

It was Tiamat however who gave a solution to his problem.

“You can add any rewards you want to give him in the Quest Completion Rewards….if he completes the quest that is. If he doesn’t….well it won’t matter, would it?”

“Yes. Yes, that is a good idea.”

“Great. Now, let’s watch what they are up to.”

And they did just that.

The horde of goblins rushed forward with reckless abandon.

Several Hobgoblins and Goblin raiders, falling into the traps dug on the ground injuring themselves.

“I don’t understand why they used the wooden boards to cover the ditches. More goblins would have died if they removed those.”

“Hmm.” He nodded, not understanding their plans.

He did however notice that the ones who had been hurt by the traps were all poisoned so all those spikes were likely laced with poison.

It was when the hoard almost reached the gates, the soldiers quickly closed the gates and Arthas rushed to the top of the wall and quickly picked up a bow and arrow.

“Archers, light the arrows!” He commanded as he did the same.

“Take positions!”

Everyone took stances.

“Fire!”

Arrows ripped through the air, falling on the group of charging goblins and taking tens of them down….but most importantly, lighting the hay under their feet on fire.

The fire spread too quickly for it to have just been simple hay.

“They used oil with hay.” Red said as she observed closer.

So that’s why he was taunting them to come forward.

“Mages, take positions. Use a wind spell. Spread the fire!” He ordered and the mages all began casting spells in tandem, further increasing the speed at which the fire spread.

The goblins realised that they had fallen into a trap and wanted to retreat but their retreat was slowed by the pits they had dug. The wooden boards had caught fire and were breaking easily when pressure was put on them and more and more goblins were falling into the trap.

He noticed something else too.

“Something is wrong with the smoke.”

A small twitch of his finger and all the information about the smoke appeared.

Chilli Powder and Paralytic Powder.

The smoke contained the vapours of both these things. It was making the smaller goblins fall like flies while the eyes and vision of the bigger ones was affected, making them attack those around them in panic.

The entire battlefield had turned into a chaotic mess.

Add that to the rain of fiery arrows and spells from the top of the walls and the farmlands had become a place where goblin lives were being reaped.

The larger goblins ploughed through the hordes of the smaller ones and tried to rush back.

And that’s when a thundering sound was heard.

The group looked at the side, towards the mountains where the sound was coming from. The dam which changed the course of the river was blasted and a huge wave of water came rushing from the mountains, right towards the retreating goblins.

It washed off the goblins which had just come out of the water while effectively trapping the path of retreat of the ones fleeing.

The attackers on the wall kept firing arrows until they ran out of them.

When the fire finally died down, the gates were opened and what came out was surprisingly not soldiers but rather the hundreds of cows and bulls who charged directly into the burned down fields, crushing the goblins who had been too injured and incapacitated by the paralytic powder and poison.

Finally, Arthas appeared on the gate, the Knights and the Militia behind him.

He drew his sword and shouted. “For Lordaeron!”

….

The Knights and Militia looked around at him in confusion.

Ah, they didn’t know Lordaeron.

The guy seemed to have realised it too and looked awkwardly before raising his sword again. “Justice shall be done!”

The Knights and Militia all shouted behind him this time as all of them rushed forward to take down the head of the Goblin Chieftain who had been riddled with injuries all this time.

The torrent of water had downed it before crushing it against the rocks, destroying one of its hands completely.

“Heh, that was quite well done. And he had the Goblin Slayer Class equipped. He was already the highest level player around that area and with this battle he might have reached far beyond others.” Red commented finally.

“They did deserve the gains. He was in a party and the other two members also gained a lot of experience. Anyways, I need to decide what reward he should get for….figuring out a glitch in the game. Yes. A glitch.”

“…. Are you really that bothered with the reference thing?”

- Arthas -

I fell on my backside when the gate finally closed shut after we had retreated after clearing out the leftovers.

Shiroe and Veena had already messaged me that the fight on their side had been taken care of too.

There were only a few hundred goblins on their side and they had easily been taken care of by the militia.

So they were coming here right now.

I took this chance to look at my Status.

“Hahahaha….” I couldn’t help but burst out into a loud laugh.

The others looked at me and they chuckled and then started laughing. Although all of us were laughing for different reasons.

They were laughing because they had just escaped with their life and overturned the entire pace of the war, taking the win against an army over twenty times their size.

I was laughing at my level.

Level 38.

I was level 3 when this fight had started.

35 levels in one fight.

I couldn’t do anything else than laugh my heart out.

But that was not all.

I scrolled through the notifications and reached back to the reference rewards.

The one for the Dragon ball reference was a unique skill.

Congratulations Traveller.

You have discovered another secret!

Reward: Unique Skill: Scouter

Keep working hard.

Traveller.

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

+4 to all stats.

+8% to Exp Gained.

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

The Skill allowed me to see the information and stats of other people, three Tiers above me unless they specifically had Skills or high Ranked items to obscure them.

It really was a scouter.

It couldn’t be levelled up either.

The one for the JJK reference was another skill.

Congratulations Traveller.

You have discovered another secret!

Reward: Unique Skill: Limitless

Keep working hard.

Traveller.

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

+5 to all stats.

+10% to Exp Gained.

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

As much as I wished it was actually the Limitless Skill….it wasn’t.

Limitless [Unique Skill] [Level 1] [Exp: 0/1000]

Divides the Space between you and an incoming attack infinite times to slow down and stop any incoming attacks.

Skill Duration:10 Seconds

Cooldown: Two Hours

Cooldown is reduced by one minute for every level.

With a total of one hundred levels, this Skill could allow me to spam it every twenty minutes at max level and stop any kind of attack.

Damn, that’s OP.

It was a perfect Skill for me who was at the lead as a tank for the team. It reminded me of the Divine Shield Skill of a Paladin from Warcraft.

And talking about the Paladin Skills from the Warcraft world, last but not the least, the Warcraft reference’s reward was another Skill and this was the Skill we needed badly in the team.

Congratulations Traveller.

You have discovered another secret!

Reward: Unique Skill: Holy Light

Keep working hard.

Traveller.

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

+6 to all stats.

+12% to Exp Gained.

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

This skill was exactly the same as the one from Warcraft.

Holy Light [Unique Skill] [Level 1] [Exp: 0/1000]

Call upon divine aid to heal your allies and smite the creatures of the dark in a certain area.

Heals 30% of the total health of the target. Damage dealt depends on the stat difference and resistance of the targets.

Cooldown: 90 minutes.

Cooldown is reduced by 1 minute, 1% extra damage is healed and 1% extra damage is dealt to dark creatures for every level.

This Skill went up to a max of 50 levels.

Another incredible skill.

Seriously, until now, all the Skills I had received from the Reference Rewards have been overpowered.

There was one surprising thing though, there were no rewards for the ‘Lord of the Rings’ reference.

Has someone else already claimed that?

Or was it something else?

Anyways, I had gained a lot already so it didn’t matter if I didn’t get one reference correct. It wouldn’t be the first one. I had tried many others previously and had not received anything from them either.

Apart from that, there were tons of drop items that I had from the whole thing.

Very soon, Shiroe and Veena appeared from their own posts.

“Arthas. Are you alright? Has everything ended?” Veena asked as she reached me.

“Yes. More than alright.”

These two had gained a lot too.

Shiroe had received the Mage Class already and was a level 15 Mage while Veena had also completed the Herbalist Class was also maxed out and she was now a level 18 Pharmacist.

I don’t know how other teams and players did in the fight but I doubt it would be this good.

“Should we go check out the other gates?” I asked but Shiroe shook his head.

“Won’t work. We had to choose the Gates we wanted to protect. I doubt they would put that in if we could just run around to other gates.”

“The line of command in such situations is very harsh. You cannot intrude in other people’s positions without their permission.” Veena said too.

“Alright.” I nodded. “By the way, you chose the Pharmacist Class?”

“I had to use the experience somewhere and we need someone to prepare the consumables either way. Our fighting style is deeply dependent on this so I chose to use this Class.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mind, dear. I can always get other Classes later on.”

I nodded and looked at Shiroe. “How is the Mage Class?”

“Amazing. The fire power is far better than Scholar. There is a thing about learning better skills through Skill Books and outer sources but hey, the best things need us to work for it.”

“So true.”

“What about you though? You are almost at level Cap. Guess the Goblin Slayer Class in a Goblin raid was just too broken. I doubt we would have received so much experience if it hadn’t been for your Sweet Revenge Skill.”

“Yeah. I didn’t expect it either.”

The fight at the other gates continued for several more hours.

We returned to our gates and waited for any more goblins who may attack but there were none.

Finally, at the end of the day, reinforcements arrived.

An entire cavalry of two thousand Knights marched from the main roads and cleared up any remaining enemies.

All of them were at the very least Tier 4 while the stronger ones were Tier 5 and the leader was a Tier 6, the highest Tier I had seen yet.

Thanks to my newly acquired Scouter Skill, I got the information about the Class of the guy.

Holy Knight.

At least that was a clue.

We were all given the day off to retire and take rest.

The City Lord announced that the town was finally safe and all the attacking goblins had been taken care of. There will be a ceremony for rewarding the ones who had participated in resisting the attack after they took care of everything.

Till then, we were told to rest and not leave the town as the Knight battalion which had arrived was scouring through the forests and cleaning up any and every goblin settlement in the nearby area.

We had been awake for over twenty four hours at that point and while my new fitness could easily allow me to be awake for three days or so, I was too mentally exhausted so we separated and left for our home too.

This mission had changed a lot of things.

Our identities were barely a secret at this point. It just hadn’t spread throughout the town yet but even then I had observed many people trying to observe us from a distance.

They didn’t approach us in the town though.

As we entered the house, I quickly closed the door behind me.

“Those stares are indeed getting annoying.” Veena said as she removed her equipment and set it aside.

Our equipment was covered with blood and grime and while Veena was relatively clean….it was still very dirty.

“It will get even worse after the Award Ceremony as they would probably reveal the rewards. Maybe….”

“Hmm?”

“Maybe we should think about changing town.” I said hesitantly.

“And how would that change anything? Instead it would get in the way of making a guild. Most of the players are Tier 3 right now and I doubt anyone else apart from us is Tier 4. They will probably stay here till they reach the level cap for Tier 4. If we want to recruit members, we can only hire from them here. If we go to a higher level town, we won’t see any players there for months. That would set back the creation of our guild by months. Not to mention, most of the people would already be part of other guilds.” She explained.

And she was not wrong.

She came to me and caressed my hair lightly. “Don’t worry about the stares. As long as you are strong, you can take care of those kinds of stares easily. I believe that even with my current stats, I could take down at least two Tier 3 attackers easily.”

And that’s when she has been using a production class all along.

She walked to her room and came out after a minute, dressed in just a towel.

The scene from yesterday morning came flashing in my mind.

I quickly shook my head and removed my own equipment and cleaned them first. Plate Armour needed a lot of maintenance.

She came out of the bath in the same towel, although her wet hair made her look even better.

I shook off the thoughts and went to the bath quickly to cool myself down.

My thoughts were drifting a lot. Need to control that.

While I took a bath, she prepared something quick to eat. Although extremely tired, none of us wanted to go out to eat right now.

Finally, when it was time to sleep, I was about to go to my room when I heard her voice.

“Oh my, did you not enjoy your nap the day before?” She smiled.

“Ah….it’s not like that….”

“Then come and join me.” She said and didn’t give me any time to say anything as she dragged me by my hand to the bed.

Well….who was I to say no to such an invitation?

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Author’s Note:

I am back with another chapter of ‘Soul Art Online’.

Arthas and the team took part in the first World Quest.

The quests will start branching off and become more rpg-like than just hunting and levelling from now on. We will see more soon.

Arthas’ Skillset is also looking more like the Warcraft Paladin.

The GM realised that he had left some things behind.[BN: That he done goofed]

We will see what rewards Arthas and the team gets next.

Also, more characters will start appearing from now and the team will increase.

Finally, Arthas is going to have another good nap.
[BN: It should’ve been me…. Not him!!!]

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.