Story 3: Chapter 9: Duel (Patreon)

Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 9: Duel

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- Arthas -

“We have decided the terms of the fight. They will bet the Boots of the Blessed Sun and a sum of Gold Coins for our Shield of the Blessed Sun in the first round. If they win, they will bet both the pieces for the Armour and the Bottom and finally, if we wish to continue, they will bet the Boots again for the Sword.” Shiroe explained the deal.

I raised an eyebrow. “They are extremely confident, aren’t they?”

“Yes. It was the first term. We had to agree to fight all the battles in case they win and we cannot back down. They must have some kind of trump card which they know we can’t beat….at least in such a short amount of time. I asked around a few of my contracts and there is news that Dwain solo’ed a T4 monster in the Raid. We don’t know the exact method he used but this information was verified by several people who were on the same wall as his team.”

“A Skill of some type then. You wouldn’t lose, would you, Arty?” Star asked.

“Nah, I’d win.”

Congratulations Traveller.

You have discovered another secret!

Traveller.

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

+8 to all stats.

+16% to Exp Gained.

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

Reward: Reverse Cursed Technique

Reverse Cursed Technique[Level 1/100]

Heals all physical negative buffs from the user and 20% of the User’s Health.

Cooldown: 2 hours.

Even with my self-control, I couldn’t help but laugh.

They took my laugh as a sign of confidence which looking at the current skill, I did have.

Shiroe still looked a bit worried so I reassured him a bit. “I haven’t told you about the Skills I got from the level ups, did I?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“I was thinking of keeping it as a surprise for the hunts. Anyways, don’t worry. I got this one.” I patted his shoulder.

By that time, everyone had gathered.

I looked in the corner of the field and saw Gareth and his team.

Even Veena had returned after talking to her friends.

We walked towards Kenneth who was ready with his team of Knights with Dwain and his team already on the other side.

Kenneth’s face looked completely emotionless as he stood judge.

“Both sides, present the terms of your duel and the stakes.”

We did.

Veena went over the contract once more before we agreed.

“How many gold coins will be paid along with the boots as a stake for the Shield?” She questioned.

“Hmm, fifty thousand Gold Coins should be good?” The guy smiled at Veena.

“Not really. Even if we go by the standard rates, fifty thousand is too low. At the very least, it should be one hundred and fifty thousand gold coins for a fair stake. If you don’t agree, we can compare the prices with the blacksmiths and verify.”

A slight frown appeared on his face but he quickly covered it under a fake smile and raised his hand in surrender.

“Alright alright, fine you win. Actually, how about I use two hundred thousand and you go on a date with me if I win?” He winked.

I narrowed my eyes at the guy and Shiroe and Star looked offended too.

“Mr. Dwain, you are talking out of line.” Shiroe

“Oh, please. I am talking to the lady here. She would have company with men her own age rather than the kids in your team. It’s her own choice after all. Why are you getting all pissed off?” He scoffed at Shiroe’s words.

Veena however just smiled. “Men my age? Where? All I see in your team are insolent children.”

He frowned but she continued.

“But you know what, I will accept your terms if you make it five hundred thousand gold coins.” She smiled.

“Veena, you don’t have to….” I tried to speak but she looked at me with a smile. This smile however felt unlike her previous smiles.

It felt dangerous.

“Oh my, are you saying you will lose, Arthas?”

“That’s not….”

“Then it doesn’t matter, does it. If he wants to take me on a date, this is the least they can do. Obviously, if they are broke then it’s not my problem.” She looked at the guy challengingly.

“That is a bit costly.”

“Oh, your team, the so-called Blood Knights are broke. You know what? there is a place nearby where you could borrow the money. There is a shop nearby which offers loans….with some interest, obviously. Nothing much, just five percent.”

His frown increased.

“Obviously, borrowing money also requires resolve and guts. Money one can get slowly, the other two….not everyone can have them.”

The three of us looked as she continued to rip the idiot’s team apart with words.

His frown had been replaced by an angry look and he forced a smile on his face. “Oh, I wasn’t aware that I could borrow the money. In that case, give me thirty minutes. I will arrange for the amount. Let’s confirm the stakes by then.”

“Do it Arthas.” Veena said without any change in expressions.

“Are you sure?” I asked, one last time.

She just looked at me and smiled. “I trust you.”

With a sigh, we confirmed the stakes with Kenneth and the other team went to get the money while we separated into a different corner.

“You all look upset.” Veena asked as we took seats in an empty corner of the place.

“I don’t like this.” I said directly.

“I am with Arty on this. That asshole was too much.”

“He crossed the line.” Shiroe added too, slightly angry which was rare for him. I had very rarely seen him angry.

In return Veena just laughed. “You children need to learn so much about deals. Sigh, let me explain.” We looked up at her.

“While you people were going around doing your own research, I was looking for information about laws and how they are carried out. Turns out that several laws are similar to the outside world. Now, how does it matter in this case? Well you see, there is a thing called The contra proferentem.” I looked around and all three of us were confused. 

“It is a legal doctrine that states that if a contract term is ambiguous, it should be interpreted against the party who drafted or introduced the term. This rule favours the party who did not draft the contract, as they are not responsible for the ambiguity. This rule is applied when the parties have equal bargaining power and are represented by counsel. Now, tell me who was the one who added the five hundred thousand for a date to the contract?”

“Dwain.”

“Exactly. Now, can anyone clear for me exactly what a date means? For some people, meeting over tea and leaving can constitute a date and for someone else, simply walk down the road and guess who gets to decide this ambiguous situation in the contract?” She smiled. “If Dwain is ready to pay three hundred and fifty thousand for a walk down the market with me, and that too after defeating Arthas, don’t you think it’s a fair deal.”

….

….

“He just got swindled, didn’t he?” Star asked.

“Not yet, dear. But he must be in the process of getting swindled.” She smiled. “While it’s true that the shop I referred to him loans high amounts of money. It charges five percent interest….per week.”

“Fuck!”

“Language.”

“So now, Arty just has to go and beat him up just as we had planned….only he will suffer more this time around?”

“I have heard that those who are not able to pay off their debts often get sold into slavery. In this aspect, this world is just like the mediaeval ages.”

….Holy crap.

I was right.

That smile was dangerous. She was really pissed off at the guy.

In the meantime, Shiroe told me about the Skills of Apprentice Archers which he had bought from some of his friends. Nothing too much, just the basic knowledge of the skills.

After around thirty minutes, the guy returned with his team. Some of them looked unsatisfied but didn’t say anything against the guy.

“We have all the funds.” He handed the money to Kenneth who checked the bag and nodded.

“Then we will commence the match.” He confirmed, leading us towards the field.

“As one of you is an archer, they will be provided with a place to cover for himself. It will be a raised platform and you will start the fight at a distance of one  hundred and fifty metres. The first one to give up or get their health in the red zone will be considered the loser regardless of any complaints anyone has. No potions or healing items are allowed in the duel. Any doubts?”

“None Sir.”

“Get in your positions. Match begins on my signal.”

- Shiroe -

They took their place on the stands and looked at the match.

He looked around and saw the rest of the players filling up the stands too.

“You think Arty would be fine?” Star asked. “I mean sure he was confident and all but….”

“Don’t worry. Arthas is not the type to talk nonsense….especially in this kind of situation. If he said he will be fine, he will surely be fine. I am just thinking of the skill which he said he unlocked.”

“Skill?”

“Hmm. Arthas….has a Unique Class which he got as an achievement. The Skills of that Class were one of the reasons for our astronomical scores in the World Quest. I wonder what Skills he unlocked during the raids.”

They concentrated on the field where both Arthas and Dwain had taken two sides of the field.

The field was more or less clear so there would be no place for Arthas to hide. He will have to dodge the Skills.

It’s just that Apprentice Archer’s had a skill at higher levels, Aim. It took four seconds to prepare but it makes their next shot, undodgeable unless the target has some other type of skill to counter it. The strongest part of this Skill was that it could also be used with other skills. Obviously there were several restrictions on this skill. It could only be used with Archer Skills and no instant death or one hit skills will work with it. The accuracy also fell down when the level difference between the targets was a lot.

Arthas would need to reach the guy before four seconds or he would be open to any one skill of that guy.

No….probably less than 5 seconds.

“Your partner is going to lose, Shiroe. That Dwain has him exactly where he needs him.” A voice came from the side.

He looked to the side and saw Gareth and his team coming towards them.

“That remains to be seen.”

“It’s not a matter of chance. I might not like that bastard but there is no doubt about his skill. I have seen him soloing a T4 Monster with my own eyes. Even if your teammate is a Knight, he might not stand a chance.”

“Oh you saw that fight?” Shiroe asked.

“It looked so easy. That monster wasn’t able to do anything to anyone from the moment Dwain hit him. Even Dwain’s teammates fighting right beside it were unhurt while he engaged the monster from over the walls. As long as your teammate gets hit by one of his attacks, he falls in a trap and it’s all over. The guy could kite him till the end of the day.”

“So he inflicts some kind of status effect on the other side.”

“That bastard got some kind of skill from one of his quests and without any items allowed, your teammate wouldn’t be able to throw it off. He would just be a fish on the chopping board. In a matchup like this, against a melee class, Dwain is almost invincible.”

“Look, it’s starting.” they heard someone say and looked at the field.

They did just that.

Arthas was standing on the other side of the field.

Kenneth drew his sword and swung.

“Begin!”

With the word, Arthas rushed straight ahead.

On the other side, Dwain was aiming but not firing.

Anyone with a good eyesight could see a skill being invoked.

“Holy crap, the boy’s fast.” Someone commented as Arthas three fourths of the field in less than four seconds.

“Too bad, he isn’t fast enough.” Gareth commented while Shiroe concentrated on Arthas.

Dwain looked like he finished his skill as the arrow on his bow took a dark tinge.

He shot the arrow and it headed directly towards Arthas.

Arthas however didn’t dodge. He….just slapped the arrow away with his off hand.

“That’s impossible!” Gareth exclaimed.

Even Dwain looked stunned and flumbled nocking his arrow. It took him over two seconds to recover.

By then Arthas had already been on his face.

Dwain fired another arrow but Arthas just gripped it with his left hand and crushed it.

Arthas however surprised everyone as he sheathed his blade instead and picked Dwain up by his face….and banged his head through the wall.

Shiroe shivered a bit at the cruelty.

What came next weren’t attacks with a sword or any weapons but just raw punches, straight to Dwain’s face.

Arthas sat on his chest and rained a flurry of punches on the man’s face.

His cries could be heard throughout the duelling grounds and it was only stopped by the shout of Kenneth.

“Match. The winner is Arthas!”

….

The entire field was silent.

No one expected the duel to be….this anticlimactic.

Arthas stepped back and started walking out of the field. Dwain also got a chance to stand up and as soon as he did, he pointed a finger at Arthas and began shouting accusations of cheating.

He quickly went into the ground to meet Arthas.

“I am telling you this bastard cheated somehow!” Dwain shouted at the Knights who were taking him to the stage.

“There has been no cheating. The entire duel was monitored by Knights of the Kingdom. Accusing Arthas of cheating would also be accusing the judgement of the Knights incharge of judging the whole duel so I suggest that you choose your words carefully.” Kenneth warned.

“Fuck you! You are all in the same team. This bastard is also a Knight like you people. You all must have fixed the match.”

Kenneth looked at the guy with a stone-like face. “Are you accusing the Knights of the Kingdom of fraudry?”

“Damn right, I am. Everyone saw how none of my attacks affected him. Not even his HP went down a bit and all his attacks….his barehanded attacks were hitting me more than sword attacks from other players. He is cheating for sure and you bastards are covering up for him.”

“Knight! Take this fool away for insulting the dignity of the Knights of Llyne. He shall remain in prison for one year.”

Shiroe didn’t expect the Knights to immediately get on work as they dragged the guy away.

Kenneth then turned towards the rest. “Arthas used a Skill to nullify the damage a moment from when Dwain launched the attack. The Skill lasted over four seconds in which he had already disarmed his opponent and never gave him another chance to attack.” He looked at Arthas who gave him a nod.

“As for the details of the Skill, I do not know. I cannot and will not force anyone to reveal their skills against their will. Skills are a very personal matter and unless the other party is a criminal, he cannot be forced to reveal his skills. I hope you all will keep this in mind as doing so is a criminal offence.”

Shiroe reached Arthas by then. “Really? You got an Invulnerability Skill?”

“One of the Skills, yes.” He smiled.

“You ass….no wonder you weren’t worried about him from the start.” He punched Arthas’ shoulder jokingly. “You have got to tell me the details later. I need to add them to my plans.”

“Damn it, I was planning to scare you during a hunt.”

Shiroe rolled his eyes.

“No joking during hunts. Not even for these. Someone can get hurt.” He scolded.

Arthas just smiled.

Shiroe had noticed that Arthas was showing more emotions and the more he did, the more he noticed that his friend had a mischievous side to him.

“Anyways, let’s collect the reward. We still need to hold the meeting.”

“Hmm.” They walked towards the Knights while Star and Veena came there too.

“That was quite brutal….exactly what that bastard needed.” Star laughed. “Well done.”

“Ah, about that….I wasn’t sure if he would survive hits from my sword due to the difference between our stats so I used fists instead.” Arthas said, scratching his head.

….

….

….

….

Kenneth handed over the items and gold coins to Arthas and left.

“You should go and address the crowd before they get any rowdier.”

“Right.”

Shiroe took charge of the crowd at this moment.

- Arthas -

I stepped back to the rest of my team while Shiroe went and gathered the crowd in one place.

“That was one heck of a trump card you were hiding.” Star fistbumped me.

Veena didn’t say anything. She was just smiling and waited till Star was done after which he came forward and gave me a light hug. “I knew you could do it.”

“Thank you.”

“Let’s go. We need to address the people. They have already waited more than they had to. Let’s not make them wait anymore.”

“Alright.”

We gathered behind Shiroe who was talking to the crowd.

“I am sorry for the delay. As you all already saw, there had been a situation we needed to address first. Now, I know you all have questions about the World Quest so let me give everyone a basic outline of what happened in the whole quest from our point of view.”

Shiroe then went on to explain how we had been the first party to get a T4 Ranked player, me.

This was easily verifiable as many people had seen me going into the Knight’s Academy back then. It was when some people had started stalking us so there were already rumours around the place.

“In that quest, we rescued some hostages from the Goblins and Arthas became the first player from this town to become a Knight….however, that wasn’t the only thing that happened. During the quest, he unlocked another Class. A Unique Class was unlocked due to some kind of achievement. This Class is called Goblin Slayer and is also a T4 Class.”

Murmurs ran through the crowd.

We had discussed and decided to reveal the Class and some of the Skills of this Class to assuage the other players.

“I won’t disclose all the Skills or even the Stats of the Class as it is Arthas’ personal information but I will tell you all about two of his Skill, which he has allowed me to. These two Skills were also the ones which played the most important role in our scores being so high.”

“The first Skill is called ‘Fated Enemy’. This Skill allows him 50% more damage against Goblins….even in the damage of usable items. This means, he can increase the damage of attacks, even traps against them, if he just touches them.”

“Seriously, there is a skill like that? That’s broken.” Star commented softly to us.

“Just wait for the second one.” I replied and he looked forward towards Shiroe.

“The second Skill is called ‘Sweet Revenge’. This Skill gives him 25% more experience when killing Goblins…..even with traps. Yes, that was one of the reasons behind our insane scores. Arthas’ Unique Class was tailor made for this occasion.” He gave them some time to grasp the situation for themselves then continued.

“Apart from this, the hostages we had saved and Arthas’ connection to the Knight's Academy gave us a chance to get an audience with the City Lord. There we explained our plans to protect three of the gates with minimal soldiers. It wasn't easy as Arthas had to put his life on line. Had we failed….he would have been executed by the City Lord. Thankfully, despite facing up against several thousand goblins, we were still able to defend the three gates with our well placed traps and plans. This was a result of several factors coming together. While we are sure that even without these factors, we could have scored in the top three due to our levels and Skills, our scores might not have been this high then.” He finished.

We looked around the people and several people looked like they wanted to ask questions.

Shiroe pointed towards one of them. “Yes.”

“You said Arthas was a T4 over a week or so before this whole raid. How did he level up so fast?”

Shiroe looked at me and I nodded.

“When this whole….game started and everyone locked themselves inside their own houses….I was out there, hunting alone….in the middle of the forests. I stayed inside entire weeks and camped on trees to kill as many animals as I could. You all on the other hand started hunting at best a week after that bit most of you at least two weeks later when you all ran out of money and even then you were only hunting on the outskirts of the village. This involved hundreds of players jumping on a single rabbit or piglet and then waiting for them to respawn. I totally avoided such problems.”

People were listening intently at my words so I continued.

“Then I met my teammate, Veena. As some of you might know, she was a Herbalist. She started helping me with baits and different types of poisons, further increasing the speed of our levelling. By the time I left the beginner's village, I had already completed the task to become a T3 and we have been hunting here since then.”

I looked at the guy who had asked me the question. “It's not like I magically became the highest level player around. I have been continuously risking my life for it. So if you are expecting some kind of shortcut method….I will have to disappoint you. Any more questions?”

“Can you share the information about different class trees?” Someone asked.

“No. Those types of information are sold for money and we had to use lots of gold to buy them too. Sorry, but we are not running a charity for anyone.” I directly denied.

There were several complaints raised due to this but no one came out and said anything overtly so we didn’t care either.

Some morons think they are owed everything, even things which others have worked and risked their lives for.

It’s better to ignore such idiots.

“Anything else?” Shiroe asked out.

“What strategies do you use while hunting?” Someone from the group asked.

Shiroe thought for a moment and answered. “We use baits and large scale traps to hunt a large number of enemies at a time. I won’t be telling anyone the details as they are the personal secrets of our teams although I will give everyone a piece of advice….several things which work in the outside world….also work here. Make of that what you will.”

“Just that….that tells us nothing.” Someone complained.

“Let me clarify something first….We are not here to babysit anyone. This is all the help you will get from us. You people are not our team members. We don’t owe anyone anything so don’t expect anything more from us.” Shiroe clarified in a loud voice.

Now that the stick was out, Veena took charge. “No need to get so down. While it is true that we are not going to babysit anyone….there is indeed something we can do for some people.” She hung the carrot in front of them.

As expected, the people latched onto her words immediately.

Everyone was looking at her as she explained.

“I am pretty sure all of you have seen the Global Announcements of the first player made guild formed yesterday.” She asked and many nodded. “As of now, we are looking to invite ninety players to the Fairy Tail Guild.” She announced and the crowd burst into a cacophony of noise.

“Are you the people who made the first guild?”

“What is Fairy Tail?”

“How can we make a Guild?”

“What did you people do to get the Guild?”

“Marry me, Miss Veena.”

….

Several comments flew around the place and these were the only few I was able to pick out….although I wasn’t able to find who said the last one.

She let them clamour around for several minutes until they quietened down.

“I will answer the questions one by one. First, yes. It was our team who established the Fairy Tail Guild, the first player-made Guild in this game.” She finished and let them grasp the words.

She continued after a while.

“The conditions to establish a Guild are very difficult. There has to be one player of T6 or above to act as a Guild Leader. ”

As expected, the conditions brought forward a barrage of new questions.

“Do you have a T6 Player among yourselves?”

“How high are your levels?”

She raised a hand and the crowd calmed down after a while.

“There are obviously some exceptions to these rules although they are stringent. First, you need to have at least a T5 Player as the Guild Master. Second, they have to have a house or property to act as a Guild Base and third they have to need an official permission from the City Lord and the country to establish a guild. This is the hardest part as generally people have to make some huge contribution towards the country to be allowed this….or just pay one million gold coins and get the Guild Order. We were lucky to get the last requirement completed with the reward from the country and form our guild.”

“Do you all have a T5 Player?” Someone asked.

“Yes. As of yesterday….Arthas has become the first T5 Player in this city.”

Actually, I was the first T5 Player on this continent but we had decided to keep the information about my target a secret between us.

“Why should we join your guild? You all said that you weren’t here to babysit? What advantages would we get to ally ourselves with you?” Someone shouted.

I noticed that this guy was Dwain’s team member and was currently standing near Gareth’s team.

Seriously now….these fools are still trying to cause trouble?

But sometimes the crowd just needs one voice to rally behind.

Several people were already dissatisfied with our explanations. Some were angry, some were plain jealous. Those people started making noise.

We were however making a note of these people in the crowd.

This was something Veena had suggested.

Playing the good cop and the bad cop.

We didn’t want to bring troublesome people in our guild unless it profited us in some way or the other. To separate these people, we had Shiroe play the rude guy and then Veena would come in with the Guild invitations but wouldn’t tell them the information about Perks.

The annoying ones would no doubt make noise and try to cause trouble and we just need to identify them and keep them in mind when recruiting the members of the guild.

And boy, was the plan working.

Several people were causing trouble.

I even saw Gareth and his team trying to fan the flames from the side along with the remaining members of Dwain’s team.

Too bad we need those two armour pieces so we cannot push them aside right now.

“Very well, those who do not intend to join us….can leave. Anyways, since we only have a small number of members, we are collecting a small fee. One thousand Gold Coins for registration and five hundred Gold Coins every month after that.” Shiroe continued.

And this was probably the biggest hit yet. Over half the crowd went away. Some even hurled cuss words at us.

Most of them had gathered with Gareth’s team while several others formed teams of their own.

It was fine.

There were still more than enough players left who were still discussing among themselves and once in a while, sneaking a few looks at us.

Many of these people were friends of Shiroe and Veena as well as the people we had sold our stuff to during the World Quest. They had stayed back despite the unpleasant looking deal and hadn't made any trouble.

I can work with these kinds of people.

Finally, seeing that no more people were leaving, Veena spoke once more.

“Obviously, there is a reason we are charging these prices.” She spoke with a smile, attracting the attention of several people.

Seeing that they were paying attention, she continued.

“Guilds have several features which only the members of the guild can enjoy. One of these features is something many people might know….Guild Chat. A very convenient means of chatting with other friends even when away. You don’t need to be in any parties to do so. I am sure you all understand the importance of this Skill.”

Some people were faltering so she continued.

“But this is just one of the features of the Guild. The best part of being in the Guild is….Blessings or as players call it, Perks.” She smiled. “You get perks for being a member of a Guild. These Perks vary greatly from one another and can be selected by the Guild Master of the Guild. With each level the Guild gains, it gets Perk Points which can be assigned by the Guild Master to any Perks of their choosing.”

She gave them time to understand as well as let them shimmer in their curiosity before adding more details. “These perks can be anything, from Reduction in Price when buying items from NPCs to Increase in Gold Drops to Increase in Production Speed of Crafting or even something like our Guild has….Increase in Experience Gain when in a Party with other Guild Members.” She dropped the bomb.

“Yes. You have heard it right. The members of our Guild will gain a 10% increase in Experience Gain when in party with any other members of the Guild. I am sure, five hundred Gold Coins per month….is not too big a price for that….wouldn’t you all agree?”

There was a moment of quiet before the players jumped to pay the money.

“Now now, don’t make any ruckus. Please line up properly. The chaos will only delay the process and harm you.” She chided the crowd.

By this time, Shiroe and I had already prepared two registers to note down the people coming in to join.

In thirty minutes, we had over eighty members. There were still around thirty more people in line and more people were arriving bit by bit.

“Star, stop the line and call the next ten people in and note the names of the last twenty people. When the Guild levels up, they will be given the first slots. Till then, we cannot take any more members.”

“Got it.”

Veena too went ahead and talked to the people in line, explaining the situation. Some were a bit annoyed but they understood.

We had already offered them the chance. It was them who waited till the bait of the perks were thrown. We had already told them there were limited seats and we would only be recruiting ninety people.

We could technically get six more people but we had decided to keep some extra seats in hand for potential team members or friends we might meet in this game.

By the time we were done writing everything down, the crowd had started to gather there again.

The people who had just left were now starting to gather back, no doubt after hearing about the Guild Perks.

“10% experience is quite a good bait.”

“Quite? No no, it’s an amazing bait. I bet they will be hounding us outside the Guild to get in for days.” Star said as he looked at the gathering crowd.

“Oh, look at that. The idiots who had followed Gareth are returning too.”

“It’s going to get annoying. Let’s bring the members inside.” Shiroe suggested.

“Alright.” I agreed, directly speaking in the Guild Chat. “Everyone, get inside the Guild Halls. We will be holding the first ever Guild Meeting of the Fairy Tail Guild.”

They all looked surprised at the sudden message but then turned towards me as I waved them to follow us.

We went inside the Guild Halls and closed the door outside, not that it was necessary.

Guild Halls was a property where only members of the Guild could enter.

Even if the others wanted to enter, they couldn’t.

It was a place only for the members of the Guild with the only exceptions being the NPCs and during sieges of the town when the town is not a safe zone but in those cases, everything is a fair game.

They gathered on the ground floor and I took the first floor to have a clear look at them.

“Welcome everyone….to the Fairy Tail Guild.” I addressed the crowd.

It was already decided that I was going to address the Guild Members as the Guild Master.

“Most of you might already know me but for those who don’t, I am Arthas, your Guild Master.” Some people listened while some clapped.

“As you all are already aware, we are an extremely new Guild and as such we only have a basic outline of rules for the Guild. You can check them on the wall in front of you.”  The rules were put there by Shiroe and me.

Calligraphy was a really useful Skill for these types of things.

“As you all might know, no organisation can stand without a set of rules. These are the basic rules of the Guild and we might add some in the future. We expect everyone to follow these. In case of violations, they will be investigated and first they will be given a warning. If they violate the rules again, they will be kicked out from the Guild. Does anyone have any questions?”

No one said anything. I looked at my team and then continued. “If anyone has any doubts, you can talk to Shiroe, Veena or me. In time, we will add a ranking system and give roles to different Guild Members accordingly.”

Star was also a new member so he denied any administrative positions.

“Regarding the Guild Halls, the ground floor is for everyone. We plan to make the first floor for labs for production based players and the second floor will be for administrative purposes. Please don’t make it a place to skip out on your Inn expenses. There might not be enough room for everyone.” I added.

This part was reminded to me by Shiroe as he knew how many players were still staying in the Inn and would most likely put up a sleeping bag anywhere to save up on that cost.

“Maybe we can buy some properties nearby for the Guild Members to stay. A dorm of some kind.” Veena suggested. “We do have the funds for it, courtesy of Mr. Dwain.” She smiled.

All three of us, Shiroe, Star and me shivered as we saw that smile of hers.

“I….will ask around for that.” Shiroe nodded at the idea, a bit hesitant.

Finally, when everyone looked settled, I spoke once more.

“Our Guild is new and you all are the first members of the Guild. I sincerely hope that we can work together and make Fairy Tail the best guild in this whole game. We will make it so that when people talk about Fairy Tail, they don’t just remember the first guild established by a player but rather the best Guild there is in the game. Will you all lend me a hand?”

“Yeah!” The crowd cheered loudly.

“Thank you.”

_________________________________x____________________________________

Over the next two hours, everyone went around checking the guild hall.

Meanwhile, we took a seat in one of the second floor rooms and looked outside the Guild windows and saw many people waiting outside.

“What do we do with them?” Shiroe asked.

“What can we do with them? The slots in our Guild are already taken and we have already accepted money from everyone. The best we can do is reserve seats for them when the Guild Level increases.”

“I think it would be better to collect some money from them as a reservation charge. It will help us sieve out people who are just here to make trouble.” Veena suggested.

“Hmm, that sounds good. At this point, I am sure many would agree. Just keep an eye out for the troublemakers.”

“Even Gareth’s team is there.” Star pointed out towards one of the corners. “Are you going to call him for a trade?”

“Nah….let him stand there for an hour more. He will be the one to offer us the deal…”

“Exactly. Now you are learning.” Veena nodded proudly. “We have the initiative now. Let them be the one to propose the trade from their side or we come on as desperate and they can use it to increase the price. Just make sure their names are registered in the Reserve List but they don’t get recruited to the guild. Their names just stay at the bottom of the list.”

“Got it.”

And we did just that.

It was almost the time for our dinner and I was even tempted to sneak away just to see his face the next day.

- Akeno Himejima -

“Yay! I levelled up. I am now a Cleric. Onee-chan can make all your pains go away with her magic touch~”

She smiled as she watched Marielle dance around happily. 

Marielle was a tall, slender, and voluptuous girl. She had long, wavy green coloured hair, hazel-coloured eyes and an ever present smile on her face.

She was around six years or so older than Akeno and had just passed out of her university.

Marielle always had the way of making people laugh with her personality.

It was probably this personality of hers which attracted Akeno to her in the first place after she got separated from her friends and trapped in this world.

Despite her happy go lucky behaviour, Marielle was an extremely caring and kind person who actually wanted to do good for the people.

For example, while they hadn’t seen anyone below twelve years of age in this game yet, probably due to the warnings by the game company, there were children who were just that old and completely scared out of their mind when they were caught in this whole mess.

There was also the less known fact that these kids had a Passive Skill called Puberty which gave them 20% more experience gains till the age of fourteen. For this reason many of them chose production classes and levelled up faster than most adults.

But this was not enough as many people paid very less for their services, far lesser than they would for other adults.

It was so bad in some cases that it became difficult for the kids to even earn enough to feed themselves.

Marielle purposely took quests which took her to the beginner villages and brought these children to their town so that they could be kept in the orphanages and their team often distributed food for these kids.

She then went on to establish an organisation where these kids could work and not be exploited.

Currently, this organisation has twenty three kids from all eight villages around their town and they finally had a place to grow stably.

One would think that they would lag behind other teams due to all their extra activities?

Well they would be wrong.

They were by no means weaker than any team in the city.

They made up for the lost time by putting in more effort when levelling. Their team often hunted for extra hours to make up for the time they spent helping others and their dedication soon reached other people too who began donating and helping out the kids as well.

And all this was started by one person’s thoughtful effort.

For this alone, Akeno respected the captain of her team a lot.

“Oho. Would that include the pain in my heart too?” Naotsugu asked with a hand over his heart in mock pain.

“Eh, Nao-kun. Are you in pain? What happened? Did you get rejected by another girl?” She smirked.

“Ah….the pain just increased. Akeno-chan, you are really ruthless.” He pretended to fall.

Marielle on the other hand kneeled beside his fallen form and actually checked him. “Hah, you can always come to me, you know. So, what would it take to heal your broken heart? A hug, a kiss or….so-me-th-in-g more~”

Poor Naotsugu became red with her teasing and backed away quickly, laughing awkwardly.

Quite an irony that their main tank, the self proclaimed ‘warrior of panties’, was weak on the defensive….or at least weak to Marielle’s attacks.

“Pervert.” Their fourth member whispered on her side, glaring at the fallen man.

Akatsuki was an adorable girl who reminded Akeno too much of Koneko. Even her height and age were the same as her adorable kouhai, as was her intolerance for anything remotely perverted and being called short.

Their team had been formed by coincidence.

She had encountered Marielle in the beginner’s village from where they journeyed to the nearby town together.

On the way they had met Akatsuki who was fighting off some wild animals by herself and assisted the girl, earning another team member and finally they had met Naotsugu in the town.

Both Naotsugu and Marielle had some mutual friends in the previous games they had played and despite his usual behaviour, he is apparently a very good person and an incredible player too so Marielle recruited him.

He didn’t disappoint them either as he was like a wall, taking all the damage and yet remained firm.

It’s just that he, being an open pervert, was always on the receiving end of Akatsuki’s beatings. Not that he took any offence to it.

If anything, he was proud of it.

“Can you be less of a pervert for just one day, pervert?” Akatsuki sniped at him.

“Hahahaha every guy is a pervert at heart, Akatsuki-chan. If they are not open perverts, they are closet perverts. You should be more wary of the second kind.”

“Shut up!”

And there they went at it again.

Then again, it was this bickering and playful banter that kept her mind off more painful things like their current situation and the worries of how the rest of her peerage members were….if they were even….

No.

She shouldn’t let these thoughts take root in her mind and disrupt her resolve.

Akeno was going to become stronger and find all her family members in this game….and bring them all out of this alive.

Rias, Koneko, Gasper….just wait.

- Arthur Pendragon -

He sent the final slash at the monster, finally killing the boar that he had been fighting all this time.

As the monster fell, he looked at his sword with worry.

“This is not going to last long. I need to get back to the village to restock and get another sword.”

Sigh.

The game was turning out to be completely different than he had imagined.

He had imagined a place where everyone would be continuously fighting against each other for the whims of the Game Master and while it was still the same….he wasn’t expecting it to be this….game–like.

Levels, Equipment, Classes, Skills….it was totally like the rpg games which he had played during his childhood.

And yet, even with all the game-like factors, sometimes Arthur couldn’t help but feel as if this place was a completely new world. It just felt….too real.

Whether it be the NPCs or animals in the forest, the way they reacted was just too real for Arthur to consider this as something else.

He stored the animals in his inventory and checked the area before slowly tracing his way back.

Arthur’s journey in this world in the last two weeks hadn't been very easy either.

The village was mostly full of casual players who were content with doing basic quests and hunting easier prey, not going out to risk their lives against stronger foes.

This meant that all easier quests around the village were always taken and he had to risk his life on harder quests to level up.

His experience did carry him through the beginner’s period but not everything was so simple.

When some people noticed that he was levelling up quicker, they started pestering him for ‘Protection Charges’ and what not, basically a way to extort money out of him.

Arthur knew that he was no match for these thugs who were quite a bit above his level so he bore with them for a few days before planning a way around them.

He lured them with the promise of a false treasure which he had encountered on a quest and led them to the den of a mutated animal in the forest.

Those people were obviously no match for the vicious T3 and were almost wiped out but not before severely weakening the animal.

Arthur also got a strike in and that gained him a new T2 Job, Militia and several levels of the Class too.

Currently, he was going back to the village after staying inside for three days.

He planned to restock and then leave for the nearest town to check for better places to hunt.

As he trekked his way back to the village, his thoughts went to Ley Fay and Eliane.

How were they?

Where even in the world were they?

He hadn’t even been aware of the random spawn of the players and that put a heavy damper on his plans to rescue his sister. Now even Eliane was stranded somewhere in this world, who knows how and all he could do was hope that they would be well.

No.

He needed to get stronger and he needed to get stronger faster to find his family in this world.

He wondered if Kuroka was having a better time than him in her search for her sister in this world.

__________________________________x_____________________________________________________________________x___________________________________

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Author’s Note:

Another chapter of ‘Soul Art Online’ is up.

The duel is over and as expected, Arthas trashes the opponent with ease.

Veena, as expected of the devil, dragged the guy into debt for his misconduct against her. [Beta Note: A Toad trying to eat Swan meat, heh.]

We got to see Akeno and Arthur’s pov which tells us about how their lives have been so far inside the game.

Next time maybe we will see Grayfia’s pov and some regular game progress as we explore the new Manslayer Class and hunt with new teammates.

There is also the trade with Gareth and the challenges of managing a new guild.

People are stupid and someone is bound to cause trouble and then get beaten up for it.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.