Chapter 3: Llyne (Patreon)

Story 3: Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 3: Llyne

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- Arthas -

I woke up to the sound of Veena’s call and quickly gathered myself.

We had camped after taking a bath.

While I normally slept in caves or at the top of trees in a sleeping bag, she had somehow ordered a tent from her recent income.

I didn’t even know the beginner’s village would have such things.

Still, we both didn’t share the tent….despite her invitation.

I offered to guard her while she slept and she would do the same for me.

This was still a forest area and we never knew what could happen.

She liked the plan and agreed. Although before sleeping, she scattered some kind of powder which I later found out was a Repelling Powder.

It did exactly as the name suggested.

A low grade repelling powder kept animals of Tier 1 away.

I woke up and stretched before leaving the tent only to see Veena cooking something on a bonfire.

“Good Morning, Arthas.” She smiled at me as I came out of the tent. “It was already morning so I decided to prepare some breakfast for us.”

She removed the pot from the bonfire and opened it to reveal boiled eggs.

There were already two plates ready with sandwiches and she added the eggs after peeling the shells off to the plates. “There, all ready.”

“....thank you.”

“Oh don’t mind it. I did say that I will take care of the expenses of the trip, didn’t I?”

“You have already done more than I could ask for during the hunt. This is….”

“And I gained experience from the hunt too. It was something we both agreed to. Now wash up and get ready. You don’t want the food to get cold.”

I nodded and went to the pond to wash.

We had a simple breakfast and while she cleaned everything up, I packed the Tent and gave it to her.

We talked about some random topics.

Finally, we set off for the Town of Llyne to complete our journey.

The rest of the journey was quite uneventful as we didn’t stop anywhere to rest or hunt.

While we would have loved to do so, first, we were in a different area now, and the level of animals near the area was higher. Secondly, Veena didn’t have any of her special pouches anymore so we didn’t dare take any risk.

It was late in the afternoon that I saw huge walls in the distance.

The Town of Llyne was up ahead.

After arriving, we saw a big wooden gate with two guards.

Veena took the lead and spoke to the two guards.

We had to pay some money at the gate and were easily allowed entry.

Welcome to Llyne

A message flashed in front of my eyes and I stopped for a second.

Veena’s steps halted so she must have seen the message too.

We looked at the town which looked like a town right out of mediaeval Europe. Stone buildings with red tiled roofs, people going around the place using carriages and horses.

The roads were paved with a stone which looked quite similar to granite

“What’s the plan now?” She asked me.

“Let’s find a place to stay first. Then we can go around and search for information and share whatever we find. And finally, we can sell the things we’ve hunted.” I proposed.

She was good at communicating with people and thus could get information from places which I couldn’t. I wasn’t so arrogant that I wouldn’t accept that she was better at such things than myself.

“That sounds like a good plan.”

We asked around and found an inn.

The cost of renting a room in this town was ten times more than back in the village.

It was understandable but surprising.

We booked two rooms and left outside to collect information.

I asked for the Hunter’s Association or as they called it here Hunter’s Lodge to try and see if there was a quest for T4 Class for a Hunter.

From what I learned, the town had a separate commercial area where most of the associations in the town were.

With some directions from the people, I was able to walk there in twenty minutes.

I saw the Archer’s Guild, Adventurer’s Guild, Blacksmith’s Guild, etc, each grander than the other.

The Merchant’s Association was on the other side of the town near the market.

The Hunter’s Lodge was a similar building, completely made of stone.

It had the emblem of the Hunter’s Lodge on top of the huge gate.

On entering the building, I directly went to the counter.

The receptionist was named Sasha.

“Hello, what can I do for you?”

“My name is Arthas. I am from the Redwick Village.” I placed my Hunter’s Badge on the desk. “I recently became a Hunter and wanted to register here.”

“Oh! A new hunter from Redwick. How is that old man Gunter doing?” She asked, as she took the badge and started the procedure.

“He is fine. Mostly enjoying his semi-retired life.”

“Hahahaha he has always been like that.” She handed me my badge back and laughed. “At the Llyne Hunter’s Lodge, we have eight advisors who assist the Hunters. I am your advisor. You can submit your quests to me as well as ask me any of your doubts. I look forward to working with you, Arthas.”

“Thank you. I did have a few questions and was wondering if you could answer them.”

“Sure. Ask away.”

“What is the next class advancement for Hunters?”

“Oh! Thinking about a Class Advancement already? Quite ambitious I see. Good, I like it. Class Advancement is a complicated thing. There can be several branches you can be qualified for and several rare ones are unknown so you will have to figure them out for yourself. We, at the Hunter’s Lodge do have a few standard ones. You can check and see if you see something you like.” She brought out a brown coloured leather bound book from one of the cupboards behind her and handed it to me.

I opened the book and took a seat nearby.

The book explained about the Job System in quite details.

As Sasha told me earlier, the Job Trees were complicated.

Methods to reach till the T5 level was available quite easily.

It was when people wanted to go beyond T5 that the real problem began.

Not all classes had the same upper limit and if one cannot unlock a higher Class, they can never advance.

This makes a huge difference in their power levels.

For example, a level cap T5 will be level 150 while a level cap T6 will be level 210, getting 60 extra levels from the T6 Class.

And generally, all classes which are that advanced give a huge stat gain which makes a great difference.

Hundreds of stats of difference can make T6 Players be in a league of their own when compared to a common T5.

This is why most people kept the way to advance to higher Classes a secret and any type of knowledge about them was one of the most valuable products in this world.

In fact, the social hierarchy of this world was greatly dependent on this as well.

For example, anyone with a T6 Class could be given the title of a noble by the government and they could rise in Rank as their Tier Increased. They could also open private Guilds of their own.

To put things into perspective, the King of this Country was a T8 Swordsmaster and was the strongest person in the country and there were only six such countries. Other countries only had T7 Kings and were far smaller.

Tier 9 Jobs were legendary and Tier 10 was almost the thing of Myths.

The Hunter Class Tree was also only up to T5 in this book.

It had several options for a T4 Job.

The standard one was the Ranger Class.

It was basically an advanced version of the Hunter Class.with greater stats and skills.

There were a few non-standard ones, one of which was something I qualified for example, Bounty Hunter and Mercenary.

There was also the fact that this book only contained the legal Class Trees Apart from these, there were the illegal Class Trees which are not included in the books.

Apart from this, many Jobs are race specific which means only people of certain races can get those.

For the Ranger Job, I just had to level up my Hunter to the max level and pass another test at the Hunter’s Lodge to get the badge.

The Ranger Class further branches off in three parts, Combat Ranger, Snipping Ranger, and Trapping Ranger. Unfortunately, the method to reach those was not recorded here. I will have to go to a bigger town or maybe the capital to find that.

Apart from this, the rarity of Classes also mattered as rarer Classes gave a greater stat gain and allowed someone to fight ones with higher Tier Classes.

There was also the fact that once someone reached T6, levelling up became extremely hard.

I also found something important.

Turns out that people are supposed to take their Hunter’s Test in towns not the villages.

There are however certain exceptions which can be made and that’s when someone hunts a Mutated Beast solo.

Originally, the Hunter’s Test in this town is actually easier than in the Redwick Village.

Fuck.

I didn’t know or I would have left for the town earlier.

I did note that I could change into a Knight after levelling up my Squire Class to full level and taking a test at the Knight’s Association.

I noted down whatever I could and bought several necessary things like the maps of the nearby area before leaving the building and checked out the other associations, before returning back to the Inn.

- Azazel -

“The contract was made through a virtual interface. How did he do that?” He pondered as he moved away from the hospital bed.

Baraqiel was still sitting beside the bed, looking at his daughter.

He felt bad for his brother who finally got a chance to meet his daughter but it was under these circumstances.

Shaking his thoughts away, he decided to face the other people in the room. “So, any idea where this guy came from?” He asked Sirzechs who was standing between two beds with his mother and sister.

The guy had been under immense pressure.

The son of Lucifer was killed and hung on his very castle and the entire mine of their magic mineral was whisked away. The entire Underworld was in a state of alert.

People were terrified and riots were happening in several places and the four of them have been working overtime to soothe the rising tensions of the people.

The man couldn’t even spend time beside his trapped family member’s bodies…

The answer came from Ajuka instead. “There were no records found about this person. Who he is, where he came from, everything is unknown. We don’t even know how he formed contracts with those three or that Goddess Tiamat… was even alive for that matter.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. I was the one who personally led the attack on Babylon under Father’s orders. We wouldn’t have dared to do so if she had been alive. Both she and her first husband were strong… far stronger than any of you can imagine. If they had been alive, even if Heaven had won, it would have been pyrrhic at best and we would have been slaughtered by other Pantheons. She was dead. If not, there was no way those guys in the Mesopotamian Pantheon would still be alive. She would have killed them without a doubt. She died and the Dragon King Tiamat was born from her remains.”

He took a deep breath. “And yet… she is somehow back. Did that guy…”

“How did he do it? Not to mention, Great Red and Ophis?”

The more he thought about it, the more of a headache he got.

He turned to look towards another person in the room. “Was… was Father actually exhausted from sealing that… that thing?”

Michael’s face took on a sad look and he nodded.

Azazel couldn’t even imagine a being that could force their Father to that extent… and that was just to seal it while it was asleep.

They moved out of the hospital room to a meeting room.

“What do you all know about this game?” He asked.

Ajuka shook his head. “As much as others. We checked and it turns out that not even the employees who work in the company knew who they worked for. Everything was fake. The owner of the company didn’t know anything either. They were checked thoroughly and there weren’t any signs of tampering with their memories… or at least any that we could notice. They are currently under custody, being questioned by the governments of different countries about the way to end the game. It was due to this that several governments contracted us. Several other supernatural beings were contracted too.”

“Yes. We received several requests as well. Not that anyone would dare to accept those.” he shook his head.

The entire Supernatural world was shaken due to the example made of Rizevim. He might not be the strongest one in the world but he was quite up there on the Totem Pole. Not to mention the threat of releasing that thing and then coming out to deal with everyone by themselves.

“ By the way… what about that Thanos guy which the Gamemaster spoke of?” Michael asked.

“The Mad Titan, the purple guy and someone who had erased half the life of the universe?” He shook his head. “No. There has never been any records of any such beings. Not even the oldest of Gods knew of such a being. The Greeks are running around trying to find out any clues about this guy but to no avail.”

“I have heard that several Pantheons have taken to aim at Zeus after the mention of the Titan.” Michael said.

“Oh they did. People from all over the world were so publicly endangered. There has never been a case where a supernatural force had taken a direct action of this scale involving humans. Zeus is running around, panicking at the slightest of things since the reveal of that name.”

“I personally think that he was just trying to throw us out of the loop. I mean if someone had actually erased half the life of the Universe… we would have known.”

That was probably something he said to throw them out of the loop.

“Would we?” Ajuka asked and everyone in the room turned towards him.

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t notice the word he used. He said ‘universe’. Generally when we refer to our world, we use the word… ’world’, in some cases ‘planet’ for the human world or even ‘dimension’ but never ‘universe’.”

“So you mean…” He narrowed his eyes.

“We have never been able to find out what lies outside the Dimensional Gap because…”

His eyes widened in realisation. “Great Red guarded it.”

“But Great Red is now with him… so he… did he mean the ones… outside the world?” Suddenly realising the true meaning of the words and then understanding the implications of the words… he found his mouth open.

“It is still my guess but it does make a lot of sense. I mean… how does such a powerful figure remain unknown? This explanation does provide a reasonable explanation for this.”

“The Mad Titan… are you saying that there is truly a being who erased half the life of the entire Universe?” Michael asked, shocked beyond words.

“But that kind of power… no. No, that’s impossible. It’s…”

….

….

….

….

No one spoke anything, still trying to wrap their minds around the idea.

And that Game Master had spoken of such a being as if it was a casual thing….

“Do you all have any plans for… rescuing the ones trapped inside?” Baraqiel asked, breaking the silence which had enveloped the room.

He looked at his brother and sighed. “It’s not like we don’t want to, Baraqiel but you must understand what would happen if anyone interrupts the game.”

“Then we don’t interrupt it.” Baraqiel replied, gaining the attention of the people in the room.

“What do you mean?”

“The Game Master said that we cannot interrupt the game and that the game will only be stopped when it is completed… so… why don’t we send in some people to assist in completing the game?”

….

“You want us to send people inside to who knows what kind of danger? Baraqiel, I understand that you are worried but this is…”

“How is it any different from any missions we did before this? There is always the danger of the unknown, always a risk of life.”

“Well, for first, we don’t even know if what the Game Master said was true.”

“Do you think someone like him would have any reason to lie to us? You saw his power. The guy has the entire world in his hand right now. Why in the name of Father would he even lie?”

“But…”

“That’s a good plan, Baraqiel.” A voice interrupted his sentence.

Sirzechs had a serious look on his face. “What you said is without a doubt a viable plan. Can we have other people enter the game, Ajuka?”

Ajuka stared at Sirzechs for a while and then replied. “If we use other sources, it might be considered as interruptions but… if we could find other unused consoles and use those to connect… then maybe the Game Master wouldn’t interfere?”

“You guys want to risk it all on a ‘maybe’?”

“I am willing to risk my life.” Sirzechs stood up and then turned to Ajuka. “Do you have any plans?”

Ajuka thought for a second… he was actually considering the insanity.

“Their official website wasn’t under the control of the employees and we couldn’t crack it. No one could find the place where it was being operated from. We could perhaps try contracting the Game Master through it. It’s a long shot but maybe we could ask permission.” He suggested.

Sirzechs nodded. “Then we do it. If there is no reply in a week, we will discuss what to do next.”

“Alright.”

Azazel closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

This… was much better than just running in blind.

“I will try to do the same. Maybe some other factions will be interested in joining this….operation if we actually get a permission.” He spoke finally, looking at Baraqiel who nodded. “But you will not be going in.”

“Azazel!”

“No arguments on this, Baraqiel. I will send the best people we can find but I can’t afford to lose you at such a time.” he replied firmly.

Baraqiel stopped the argument too but he knew that he was not happy.

This whole mess was turning out to be such a pain.

- Arthas -

“And that’s all I could find out.” I completed my side of the report.

“That’s a lot of information to take in. I talked with some people around the town and visited the Merchant’s Association and the market. I had a letter of introduction from Madam Martha and found a place where I could work as an Apprentice Herbalist. The shop is actually run by her grandson, Luther and his wife Greta.” She explained.

A letter of introduction?

Gunter never gave me one of those.

Was it because of the affection levels?

Did the game even have such things?

I will have to find out more information.

“Will you be staying with them?” I asked. In the village, she stayed with Madam Martha so maybe she will stay there.

“Unfortunately they have no empty rooms at their place. It was different with Madam Martha as she was living there alone and I was offered a place. Luther and Greta have a whole family here. So I guess I will have to find a place to live till then. What about you? Where do you plan to stay?”

“I… don’t know. I will try to see if I can get any information about a fifth Tier Class change in this town or else I would have to move to the next town after I complete my T4 Class.”

“But that would still take around a month or two.”

“Possibly. I don’t know how much experience I can get from the monsters around this place.” My usual hunting methods will not work as the T3 and above Monsters would just knock down any trees I use as my base and they could also jump out of the holes so my levelling speed will be reduced by a lot.

“I was thinking about renting a place. Staying in the Inn is not economic. I found some places which are being rented. They are cheaper than staying in the Inn. It’s just that the budget is not something I can afford alone so I wanted to ask….will you like to share a house with me? I can cook.” She added with a smile.

I looked at her with a surprised look.

“You want to share a place with me? You don’t even know me well enough.”

“I like to think that I am a good judge of character.” She smiled.

I just looked at her blankly.

“Oh come on. Don’t tell me that you are planning to continue the rest of the game by yourself. You will look for teammates, right?”

“That….yes. It’s just that I hadn’t thought that much about it.”

But now that I think….she is a good option for the first party member.

She had fighting experience and could even teach me things and she had a good production class on the side.

And the thing she said about the budget was also true. I couldn’t stay in inns all the time.

I thought about it for a few moments and nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Great! Then we can go and look at the place tomorrow.”

“Okay.” I nodded.

We had dinner and left for our rooms.

I wanted to explore the areas in the Town at night to find information about the less pleasant side of the society but decided to refrain.

With my T3 Job, I could be a hot shot in Redwick but here? Things were different.

The absolute safety of the Beginner’s Village, didn’t apply to any other town.

The only places we could be safe were private houses and these inn rooms.

_______________________________x___________________________________

I woke up the next day and went downstairs for breakfast.

The inn offered a bucket of water for a coin to clean myself but no bathing facilities so I just brushed my teeth and wiped my body with a wet towel.

I will have to find a place to take a bath later on. I stink.

This game was extremely realistic which meant that the feeling of sweat and blood was also as real as it could get.

Sometimes, it was very inconvenient.

Veena was already down there, waiting for me to order.

We had a quick breakfast and left to sell the things we had gotten from the hunt.

She took me to the Market area. As expected it was far bigger than Redwick.

“Llyne has eight villages under it similar to Redwick. I think each village must have players who will gather here. There were around four hundred players in our village alone so three thousand or so people are expected to gather here. This town also has a Teleportation Array so players can reach this place from any other big town of the Estar Country. The properties in this town are cheap right now but I think the prices will rise as more people reach here.” Veena explained as we walked through the market.

“You are planning to buy a place here?” I asked, surprised.

“It would be a good investment.” She commented offhandedly as we reached the place which she was searching.

Colt Blacksmith Shop.

“Luther suggested this place as the owner was a friend of his and from the Redwick village too.” She explained before entering.

I followed her.

Unlike the shop back in Redwick, this one had a counter and a room exhibiting all the things the shop sold.

There were several weapons and armour lining the walls of the shop and more in the glass cases placed in the middle of the room.

The weapons here were grades better than anything Redwich had. There were even some magic weapons.

A burly man came out after hearing us enter. “Whaddya two need?”

Veena stepped forward. “Hello. Are you Mr. Callum?”

“Tis me.”

“I was recommended to this place by Mr. Luther.”

“Luther, that brat?” he asked, taking another look at us.

“We are from Redwick Village and caught a few things on our way here which we wanted to sell a few things and commission some equipment.”

“Ah Redwick. Been a while since I went there. How is old Braham doing? Still kicking?” He laughed.

“Yes. Mr. Braham seemed to be in good health. He is currently teaching an apprentice.”

“Oh, the old fellow took an apprentice. Good for him.” He nodded.

I watched her talk with the guy as if they had known each other for ages. Seriously, this woman had a Speech Skill of 100.

“Come with me.” He led us to the back of the shop, his workshop I think.”Aight, show me what ya got.”

She looked at me and I nodded. Pointing to an empty place in the corner of the room, I asked. “Can I use this place?”

“Sure.”

I unloaded everything from the inventory to the ground.

The man raised an eyebrow. “Ya two hunted this while coming here?” He got up and picked up a wolf hide. “How many weeks did the two of ya hunt?”

“We were lucky.” She smiled.

“Oh, I don’t doubt that. This is the hide of a mutated Redwolf. That thing was the reason behind the name of the village. It is by far the strongest Mutated Beast in the area. Ya two are lucky beyond words to even survive let alone hunt all these.”

I raised an eyebrow at his comment.

No wonder the experience gained from that wolf was not reduced even when I was at a higher level. It was stronger than the boar.

Damn, I was realising how big of a shit I would have been in had I been alone back then. I looked at the woman beside me and felt thankful for her presence.

Suddenly, the idea of having a teammate felt quite good.

She haggled for the price of the goods and we equally divided the money between us. I offered her the hide and fangs of the wolf for her equipment.

Since she was going to be in a party with me, I would rather that she is well equipped.

The man said that he would get everything ready in a week so we just bought some general equipment for her.

Then she took me to the Alchemist Association and stocked up on some ingredients to make some of her special pouches for the hunt.

Next up on our list was the Adventurer's Association.

The Adventurer’s Association or ‘The Guild’ as they called it, was not a Association of Adventurer Class users only. Rather, it was a place where people posted their Quests and anyone who registered with them could take on these quests. Unlike the other Associations, Adventurer’s Guild took all sorts of tasks as long as they were not illegal.

In return, the guild collected a small fee for doing the job.

Yes. It was a classic rpg Adventurer Guild.

Veena looked around the place curiously while I asked someone about where I could register and was pointed towards the registration counter.

The receptionist, Sena, gave up a form to fill and in fifteen minutes, we were officially Adventurers.

“Now, there are a few things you need to know before starting. Firstly the Ranks. Both Adventurers and Quests have different ranks. From lower to higher, they are Copper- Iron - Silver - Gold - Platinum - Mithril - Orichalcum - Adamantite. Your ranks can be seen from the colour of your identification plates.” Sena put a small metal plate in front of us and I paused.

“You can only take quests of your rank. Each quest has different conditions so be careful before taking them. Make sure you read the quest details carefully.” She explained several things to us and while she was doing all this, there was only one thing going on in my mind.

Is this an Overlord reference?

Was this a chance?

Will it trigger another achievement?

I was exposed as it is. There was no Hunter x Hunter in this world and I made a reference which was so far out of the blue that it would be strange if the Game Master didn’t catch me….and that was if the guy was blind enough to notice my name.

Arthas.

Fuck.

Using Arthas as a short for Arthur Strass was a stupid idea.

I even got the shitty luck of that poor bastard.

But back to the current situation… since I was already in deep water… I’d rather go with the flow and get everything I could out of this.

“So… with this, I welcome you… Mr and Miss?”

At this, I decided to take a dive of faith.

“Momon… and this is Nabe and we are… Ainz Ooal Gown!” I spread my arms and said in a grand manner.

There was a sudden period of silence in the whole guild as the people looked towards me suddenly.

Veena looked at me weirdly but I was looking at something else entirely.

Congratulations Traveller.

You have discovered another secret!

Reward: Undead Racial Classes will be unlocked without Race Change.

Keep working hard.

Traveller.

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

+2 to all stats.

+4% to Exp Gained.

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

….

It worked.

It fucking worked.

Just how did this whole thing work?

Would it work anywhere or if I had said anything else?

I will think about it later.

For now, I smiled. “It’s a meme.” None of the two understood so I added. “Just joking. My name is Arthas and this is Veena. Nice to meet you, Miss Sena.”

The receptionist didn’t take my joke to heart either and completed the registration.

We left the place after asking her a few things.

I looked at her. “Where to next?”

“The house.”

“Okay.”

Unlocking Undead Classes without Racial Change?

That was… awesome.

________________________________x__________________________________

A week had passed since we reached Llyne.

In the last week, Veena and I have been hunting regularly.

From my time in the Hunter’s Lodge, I found out that using lots of bait powder and camping in one place was a recipe to summon mutated animals. It was highly inadvisable. Sasha had coached me on some rules to follow while hunting and told me about the behaviours of some common animals around the town.

Seriously, that old fart, Gunter was just skipping work.

As for the hunts themselves, Veena was quite good at them.

She levelled up her Militia Class and then started working on her Apprentice Herbalist Class instead of going for another combat based class. I was the one who suggested this as we needed her to be able to make healing items soon.

Those fucking things cost a kidney.

Just the antidotes I had to buy cost me my entire day of earnings.

We generally hunted during the day and she made things to sell during the evenings, levelling the class from both sides and so we could get the class to full level in a week.

“So you have to take an exam for the Herbalist Rank at the Association?” I asked as I bit a piece of rabbit meat we had hunted yesterday.

“Yes. It won’t be hard as I have had enough practice. It is mostly for those who brute force the levelling of the class without actually practising the Skills.”

“... it’s called Power Levelling.” I corrected. I had come to realise that she didn’t know much about gaming after being with her for a week. She had just played this game because she was bored… and got caught in this mess.

The strangest thing however was that she didn’t look very worried about the situation itself and was actually enjoying herself.

According to her, this situation only had two ends. First, it gets solved, in which case, she would like to enjoy what little time she had in this world experiencing this novelty or second, it doesn’t get solved and we are stuck here for a while, in which case, we need to work hard to establish ourselves in this world first.

Either way, worrying and crying was not going to solve the situation.

It was cold but… there was truth in what she said.

In that way, Veena was quite strange. I always got the feeling that I was talking to someone quite old when I talked to her, despite our looks being exactly like our original bodies which meant she would be in her twenties at best.

She also had an odd sense of privacy.

We had rented a place on our third day and moved in together.

It was a small house with two rooms and most importantly… a bath.

More than once I had seen her in a towel, coming out of the bath or just a thin robe.

It wasn’t as if she was trying to seduce me or anything. I was extremely sure of that. It was more like….this was normal for her.

Oh she wasn't a slut or anything….just odd.

Another thing was that she was a good cook and we often saved a part of the game to cook for ourselves, saving us a lot of money.

She just laughed at my comment. “Yes yes. Power levelling. Anyways, I have already learned all the recipes and can proficiently make those items so there is no need to worry.”

“Yes, the items you make are almost comparable to the ones we can buy.” I agreed.

Some Skills needed to be practised to raise their levels to make them more proficient.

More difficult skills had a higher level cap and sometimes, these skills got a special effect when levelled up completely.

For example, the Aim Eyes Skill which I had gotten from the Hunter Class had a ten percent chance of inflicting a Severe Bleeding Status on the target for 20 seconds.

My Shingen-ryu Skill had the highest level cap I had seen on any skill until now. It could be raised to Level 50 which meant I could gain 100 stat points in each stat at max level and an extra effect on top of that.

Shingen-ryu [Unique Skill] [Level 3] [Exp: 200/3000]

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: +6 STR +6 END +6 DEX +6 INT +6 WIS.

I practised the skill when Veena was busy practising her Herbalist Skills.

I was realising how much of a cheat that one reference got me.

“Alright, I will go out and hunt alone then.”

“Be safe dear.”

I nodded.

I left the house headed for the Adventurer’s Association first.

On the way, I saw another guy going towards the forest.

He had black hair and wore a pair of glasses. He looked like he was almost the same age as me.

The boy looked at me and stopped.

“Umm… are you also a… Soul Art Online?” He hesitated before asking.

“A player, yes.”

He breathed out, in relief.

“Hello, my name is Shiroe.” he bowed lightly.

“Arthas. Are you from Japan?” I asked.

“Uh yes. They mixed up all the servers and I don’t know where I am.”

“Yes. Well, considering what happened later, this is quite tame.”

He winced lightly but collected himself quickly.

We walked inside.

“Do you have any party members? Do you mind if we hunt together?” he asked, after hesitating a little.

I looked at him for a moment before asking. “What class do you have?”

“I’m a Scholar.” He answered, surprising me. He noticed my surprise so he added. “You can get that class in the Academy after maxing up the Villager and Scribe Class.”

“Oh, I know that already.” Both Veena and I took our time and received the class but didn’t level it up.

We had too much on our plates.

She was planning on levelling it after we max out her Herbalist Class.

“I just didn’t think anyone would get it this early.” After all, Scholar is a T2 Class just like my Hunter and Squire.

“I was able to utilise some things. As for the Scholar Class, it is mostly a support class. So I was looking for someone to team up with.” He said, embarrassed.

I thought for a moment and then decided to send him an invite.

He accepted and I saw his eyes widening. “Squire Level 20?!”

“Do you have anywhere you want to hunt?” I asked while checking his level. He was a Level 1 Scholar just as he had said.

“Umm, yes. There is a settlement of Goblins a bit away from here. We could hunt there. They are mostly T2 Monsters although some of them do use poisoned daggers.” He explained the plan to me in detail while we walked that way.

“How were you going to hunt them by yourself?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They generally hunt in a group of three so I was planning to bait one group at a time, use a status effect and then finish them off. Before that, I needed to make maps and scrolls to level up my Scribe Class so I never had to fight.”

….

“Say… do you have any real fighting experience?” I asked, pausing a bit.

“Umm… I fought the boars… in a team.” he added lightly at the end, realising the situation.

I stopped.

“Let’s hunt something easier. Goblins are smart creatures and hunting them can be tricky if we have no understanding of each other’s skill. I think we should practise on normal enemies first.”

“….alright. I….didn’t think of that.”

We went to one of the places which I found in the past few days.

This place only had wild boars, something I had the most experience with.

I told him whatever I knew of the area so that he could take a good position, preferably on the top of a tree.

“Are you sure you want to face them alone?” he asked, unsure.

“Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Then why don’t we use that area?” He pointed towards a cluster of rocks.

I looked at him questioningly and he explained.

“If we could move the rocks into a circular formation, we could leave only one entrance and you wouldn’t be in any danger of being surrounded from other sides. I can get on top of the rocks and support you as well as keep an eye out for enemies from other sides. On a tree, the branches might cover us but it will also impede our viewing area.” He went on explaining a few things and I had to agree that the guy made some solid points.

“Alright, then let’s do it your way.”

We spent an hour making the setup and placing some traps according to his advice. In that time, I killed a few boars who had come across the area.

“This seems good enough. Alright, I have a few skills as a Scholar. Minor Fortification which increases Strength and Endurance by 5 Points for 15 seconds, Flash which blinds the target for 4 seconds and Stun Bolt which is my only attack Skill at this level and it has a 5% chance of stunning the enemy for 5 seconds.” He explained his skills and devised a strategy for the hunt.

I threw in the names of some of my skills and he changed his strategy to accommodate them.

The guy even knew about the appearance of stronger monsters in an area if we hunted too many of the same kind of monster.

Was he just that smart or was I just an idiot?

With everything ready, we decided to go big.

I brought a bait and threw it in the circle between the rocks and waited for the attack.

A minute later, Shiroe called out. “They are here. Five boars. All T2 Brace up. Minor Fortify.”

I felt a sudden rise in my strength and brought out my shield and held it high. We had some rocks in front of the entrance to break the charge of the boars.

As expected, they charged directly into the rocks and tumbled. I stopped the first boar with my shield and used my attack Skill, Swift Strike to chop down the first boar, beheading it in one strike.

- Shiroe -

Amazing!

He took that down in one attack. As far as he had calculated, it would have taken Shiroe a dozen attacks per Boar with his Stun Bolt.

Then again, Squire could change into Knights and they were front liners and damage dealers. It would be weird if he couldn’t do that, especially since Arthas was by far the highest level among any person he had seen till now.

When coming here from the Blackwood Village, he hadn’t expected anyone to be in the first town, let alone someone like this.

A Level 20 T3 Squire.

Reaching level 20 in a T3 Job would take him around two and a half months….with a decent party.

Was this guy soloing everything till now?

Putting aside his thoughts, he cast a Stun Bolt on the highest level Boar and waited till Arthas dealt with the second one with the Skill he assumed was Shield Bash.

“Close your eyes.” He shouted.

A second later, he cast a Flash in the middle of the recovered group of three boars, blinding them.

Arthas was right on the follow up, charging his next attack for three seconds and slicing through the highest level Boar with ease and even throwing it on the other two.

The two boars recovered from their blindness and were thrown back.

He took this chance to cast another Stun Bolt on the higher level Boar and a stunned sign appeared on top of its head. “It’s stunned.”

Arthas didn’t waste any time either, using some kind of buff before jumping out and puncturing the eyes of the remaining boar.

The Skill reminded Shiroe of the Aim Eyes Skill which he had seen a guy, an Apprentice Hunter back in the Beginners Village using… but didn’t it use a bow and an arrow?

But he didn’t have much time to think as he took down the boar in his next three attacks, right in time for his Swift Strike to recover from the cooldown and use it on the Boar which had recovered from the Stun, taking it out in one blow.

Match.

The whole team of five T2 boars, which generally took a team of eight to collaborate for half an hour with traps… was taken out in less than a minute.

Shiroe suddenly had a new understanding of the game.

Despite whatever shit it had thrown them into… this game was far beyond anything he had faced in Elder Tales.

They quickly gathered the drops from the boars and got back in their position where he rested to recover his mana.

Fifteen minutes later, he saw another group of boars rushing in.

Those baits were quite effective.

Well it was time for the grind.

“Incoming, six boars this time.”

- Game Master -

“Oh! They have become smart.” He heard Red say and looked at her.

She in turn pointed towards the screen on which the forums were open. Not that they would be of any use with all the players trapped inside… but this was a Game he had designed. How could it lack anything? So he made a forum and let it be for the sake of formalities.

He checked the screen and saw a message.

It was some guy asking for permission to enter the game… enter the game?

He read it again and it said the same.

Oh!

“Who sent this?” he asked, as he read the rest of the message.

“Ajuka Beelzebub.”

“Heh! That guy is a smart cookie alright.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“Well… they want to play my game so I will let them play. Let them enjoy themselves.”

“I doubt they are going to enjoy it.” Red rolled her eyes.

“Oh they are not. I know that. They are more than likely thinking about sending in reinforcements to complete the game quickly. The guy found the opening I had left in my warning. Just leave it to the Devils to find loopholes in contracts. But… what has that got to do with me? As long as they don’t disturb my game, they could sign Baby Shark in a pink tutu for all I care. Give them a go.”

“... Are you sure? If the number of people increases too much… would it affect the endgame plan?”

“No. I have prepared enough for twice the number of people. The endgame will not be affected. In fact, know what? Ask them to place an order for Nerve Gears on the forums and send in as many as they want.”

She shrugged.

He made some adjustments to the system for the new people.

Since they wanted to enter the game, he would also accommodate them properly.

“Why do you think they are doing this?” She asked while replying to his question.

“Hmm, are any important devils trapped inside? Let me check.” He did a quick check and saw that almost half the family of the tomato head was inside the game. Apart from him, there were several other devil children.

Ah… that makes sense.

He checked the location of the people and saw an interesting thing.

Oh, was this the Mother of the Ketchup Head Satan?

And with him was….

“Momon… and this is Nabe and we are… Ainz Ooal Gown!”

Pfft….

He actually said that!

Looks like he has accepted the situation and was looking to milk the whole thing for everything that it was worth.

And he was with Satan Ketchup Head’s Mother of all people…

Was Gremory luck even a thing? But wasn’t she a Bael?

How did she find the one possible reincarnator in over twenty million people?

Yes. The people dying permanently, was a lie.

They just got a different start…

He couldn’t let people die willy-nilly or it would defeat the entire purpose of the endgame plans he had in mind.

Shaking his head, he concentrated on his junior’s recent exploits.

He searched for a few things and a smile formed on his face.

Oh they were living together…

This was an interesting development.

Let’s see if anything comes out of it during the game.

Being a Game Master was quite an enjoyable job.

________________________________x__________________________________________________________________x__________________________________

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Author’s Note:

Happy New Year to everyone.

Look who’s back.

Arthas has accepted his situation and just as the Game Master said, he is going to milk it for all its worth….and it is going to be hilarious.

Both Arthas and Mama Gremory are out of the Beginner’s Village and are now working towards establishing themselves.

Arthas is not a Gary Stu so there are many areas which he can learn from and the characters he meets in the game and situations he encounters will help him grow into something greater.

In the meanwhile, the entire world is shaken.

The Game Master doesn’t hold back and now everyone is searching for the Mad Titan.

Zeus is shitting bricks at the mention of an unknown Titan with that much power and everyone is after his ass as well.

Ajuka’s guess….was so close and yet so far….poor guy. Sometimes being smart can be a pain.

The story will slowly pick up pace and we will be encountering some familiar faces soon.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.