Steven was watching the webpage in front of him, waiting for an update to happen. It has been a week already since the interview with KK Tv.
He was waiting to see how much the other players advanced; after all, he was playing the game too.
He was one of the Level 2 players overshadowed by Vladi and, most of all, Ardha. He did many quests and also trained a lot, as even he only knew about the basics of the game. At most, he knew a few more bits, but even that was minute.
Thus, he rose to level 6 in the one-month span; he also got some skills like Archery as he liked being a sniper and adventurer skills to help for… well, adventure.
Maybe he wasn't the highest leveled player, but he got many stats and honed his skills along with it. But even so, who wouldn't want to be in the Top 100 Ranking ladder?
And then, suddenly the page refreshed, and the updated ranking showed.
Rank 1. User name: Ardha Level: 15
Rank 2. User name: Vladi Level: 9
Rank 84. User name: Strike Level 6
82 and 83 rankings separated them respectively but how!? Adding 4 more levels already being level 11 must have been incredibly hard.
But that Ardha did it, and even Vladi was level 9! They were in a place of their own, as they were the only ones with those levels, the others were mainly level 7 players and below.
Gritting his teeth, he logged into Parallel, waiting for the one-month restriction to end to ruthlessly kill every monster in his way…
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When the Ranking ladder was mentioned, I was really surprised as I was having dinner, then I thought I would be one of the top ranked players as I was level 3 because of a chain quest that is still going on.
But then, I got stunned, I wasn't surprised of being second, in fact, it was really good, but that Rank 1 was 8 levels beyond me! How could he!?
I logged on to see a man who had a stupid grin on his face, maybe because he was among the rankers…
Realization hit me and I thought, 'He might be that Ardha!'. After a few seconds entertaining that thought, I shook my head with a bitter smile. 'How could that be? Coincidences can't be that great'. But I went up to him anyways and asked
"Hello ~ sorry to bother you, but I saw you smile joyously and couldn't help but get close to ask, are you in the Ranking ladder?"
The man flashed a wide smile and said, "Nope~". I do have to admit that he was pretty handsome, having light brown hair, eyes that had a mix between green and sky blue, and a seemingly toned body that wasn't completely hidden by the wardrobe he used.
At this I got curious, why is the man smiling then, and with a stupid grin too, so I asked.
"Then why are you smiling like that?
"Well, a friend of mine is in the ladder, and he didn't pick up my call, so I think he logged on before the update, it will be hilarious when he sees his ranking" Said the man with a teasing smile.
"Ohh, what's his ranking then?" I asked now, really curious.
"Number 1" Said the man in front of me.
"You know Ardha!?"
"Yup~"
At this I got stunned, the man in front of me was a link between me and the Rank 1. I feel my blood boiling, I wouldn't let this chance pass! I wanted to know how he leveled up so quickly.
"Wow, and you, what level are you?" I asked
"1" Answered the happy guy in front of me, I got quite discouraged at this, after all, he might be faking to know Ardha.
"Ohh, so you know how he was able to level up so fast?"
"Nope, but even if I knew, I wouldn't tell that~"
At this I got really doubtful of him, but when I saw him with that smile, I somehow believed him.
"Then, would you mind me meeting him?"
"Nope, but he is in another part, to the west of here" He said.
"Then, can I add you to my friend list?" I said, after all, if he was an impostor, I would kill him! Time and time again, to make him know of his mistake of deceiving her.
The man got surprised at seeing the name and then he smiled widely and said
"Okay~"
- Arksen has been added to your friend list.
And thus, the time went by, I spoke with Arksen once in a while, he was really a happy-go-lucky guy, and even when time passed, he was still level one. He seemed to be caught in a spar with a master and then he was forced to become his disciple. Once I saw him training and it was quite weird.
After all, the Master seemed to be some kind of Monk, but then he used ranged attacks, used skills that shamans had, then used buffs, and sometimes attacked with magic. He even wore amours and capes, if I could say something, he was some kind of jack of all trades, different from a magic swordsman and shamans… But he only used his body, sometimes reinforced with something, but never used a dagger, sword, wand, spear or stuff like that, even when showed to be quite proficient in them.
Time went by and I finished the long low-level chain quest, and I got a Hidden class to my liking with it. It seems that Arksen also leveled up after finishing his training with his master and got a class too.
Hey, I'm going out of the city to meet Ardha, you coming~?
"'Course I am, after all, he again surpassed me by quite an amount of levels!" I said with an annoyed voice, after all, he leveled up 4 more times!
"Bahahaha, your encounter with him will be fun ~. Well, I'm going for some provisions, let's meet up at the west entrance~
"Okay, I'll get ready" I prepared myself thoroughly, from provisions to equipment. My new goal now was to surpass Ardha! And I really like the saying 'Know thy enemy as you know thy self'… or something like that.
I prepared myself for a long journey, after all, by Arksen's estimate, we would take around 2 months in game time to get to our destination, and that is only if everything goes perfectly… which probably won't happen…
With renewed confidence and motivation. I got to the gate where he was waiting for me and we set off.
User Name: Vladi Level: 9 Female human. Class: Gunslinger
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It has been a couple of days RL time since we left the village, we have been killing every monster in our way, as their level isn't so high, but bit by bit, higher level monster appears. Seems that Master had that in mind for us to train along the way, after all, it will be quite hard as we still haven't gotten to the cave because we are getting delayed by hordes of monster.
Nicolas called me to say that he is going towards my direction along with an interesting individual that wants to meet me.
But for now, I am watching my cell phone ring, with a familiar name in the contact log… Seems today is Judgement day. With a sigh, I answered the call.
"Why didn't you tell me you went off to live alone!?" Came an irritated female voice on the other way of the phone
I shrugged inside and answered, "I am fine, thanks for asking, how are you, did you have fun on the trip?" trying to hopelessly avoid the topic.
I could hear a sigh before she answered, "Okay okay, it was fun… now let's meet, I have called Nicolas already, tomorrow morning at 10 AM in Dammeys, don't you dare slip away!" and she hung up…
'Uff, thought it would be worse, and if she called him, then he will suffer more than me at least…' I thought.
I went to the capsule and I logged in. Zenith and Peko were awake and ready to keep going. We managed to catch a glimpse of the place when we got near of it. It was infested by monsters lurking out of the cave that seems to be a lair and many others guarding it.
That was just the entrance! They were mostly kobolds, but mixed in between were some big ones, seems like an upgraded race of them? Anyways, they were more of the commanding type, as kobolds where around them, so we went to hunt their groups…
It was really hard! They had tactical ways of attacking; Kobolds with rusty swords and some with spears to make do of the range difference, the giant one had a huge mace and swung it around as if it was a stick…
And even when we killed some, when we came back to see, there was a new group forming around one of the giant ones. There were some big groups too, of around 30 kobolds and 2 giant ones. The kobolds must have been around level 30~40 but the giant ones were easily level 70+
So, we started thinking of a plan to mass kill them and made traps with curses of Peko and medium sized orbs of fire to weaken and kill them. But even with all that we were still too weak to manage a full big group.
Thus, instead of cleaning the place for now, we started training on the surrounding. We hunt the Kobols one by one, increasing our levels as much as we could, even during night when they were stronger, maybe by a buff they got because of their race? But the experience was well worth it. As Peko and Zenith were citizens of this world, they became tired after two days of constant grinding, so I told them I had business to do and won't really be back after two days, they nodded and said they would hunt some down and try to make bigger traps.
"See ya"
"Later~"
It seemed that our relationship has been getting better, at first, we all were stiff as we didn't really know anything about each other, but now we have shared many things in a short amount of time, they became my friends. I could feel warm in their smiles and in mine as I waved off to them.
I logged out and went to sleep, after all, tomorrow will be a long day with Isa here…
After waking up and getting ready I went toward Dammeys a local place to hang out and eat, their food was really good, and it wasn't that expensive. When I got inside the place, in a table I saw a man with light brown hair with his face on the table and a girl with short black hair with her hands crossed... Yup, they were Nicolas and Isa… They always get early and as I am punctual, they are always there when we meet up
As I went to them and sat beside Nicolas, who perked up at the moment and said
"What took you so long!? I got nagged by this annoying woman for almost half an hour!" said Nicolas.
"What? The meeting point was at 10 AM, and its 10:00 AM now, it is your fault for getting early to get extra nagged" I said.
"Hey! I am here!" said Isa annoyed.
"" We know"" We answered to the girl in front of us, we always tease each other like this…
"Hmph! Now, why didn't you tell me you would move away!?" Asked the girl a year younger than us but with a personality of a tyrant.
"Yeah! It is you fault I got in this too!" Added Nicolas faulting at me.
'Thanks for backing me up, bro…'
"Well, you travelled abroad so I couldn't tell you…" I said and got glared, and thus I added "… And I knew you would react like this, so to avoid trouble for as much time as possible I kind of forgot to tell you…" I finished trying to sit farther with each word that came from my mouth
"That's mean!" She exclaimed indignantly and sighed while saying "Well, after what happened of course I would have been against it" looking down she said.
"Don't worry, if something could have happened, I would have called you ignoring Ezequiel's plead~" Said Nicolas aloof, but with seriousness behind
"Thanks for worrying" I told them upfront to the two people that were sitting in this table
Sighing again she pulled up her head and said "Well, what's done is done, now you are living alone, and it seems you are faring well… SO! Are you playing Parallel? I think that should be one of your reasons to not tell me" She asked
"Heh, he is not only playing but he is also the number 1 player~" Said Nicolas with a grin while letting such a bomb explode
"What!?, You are Ardha!?" She asked me baffled, many people looked our way thinking if they heard right
I looked at them and then looked at Isa, who seemed to not notice the surroundings, at this I said helplessly "Yes, I know the person that has the Ardha character" I said, hoping she catches the indirect answer… and that bastard of Nicolas is humming, it's your fault this is happening, you know?
Isa noticed about her tone and went along with it "Ohh, you have to arrange a meeting between us some day… So, how do you guys look in the game?" She asked while moving on with the topic.
"Same~"
"Same, but with white hair and my eyes changes with my mood"
She looked at me and tried to imagine me without my black hair and my so dark brown eyes that almost were black.
"Hoo, you will be a lady killer in game~" Said Nicolas.
"Yup" Added Isa
Ignoring their comments, I asked "And how do you look in game?"
"Same" She said very aloof, it was as if all the tension we had some minutes ago dissipated.
So, we continued talking and found out that she was in Parina city that was at west from the Vicuña city that was where Nicolas started out, so we made a date to meet ourselves later.
As I went out after paying the divided bill and everyone going our different ways, I heard something from a TV in a shop store.
- "And the players are still frantic to find this Ardha fellow, to make him or her join their guild, what do you have to say, Mr. Claudio?" asked the female locator to her partner
- "Well, it seemed that this fellow focused too much on levels more than grinding his skills and status, so s/he might have a level advantage, but he should be weaker than anyone who took their time to train and grind this past month when they catch to his or her level" Answered Claudio
- "You say? Well, there might be many more variables, well moving on to another topic…" Was the last thing I heard before going off while shaking my head.
'People always like talking and putting other down whenever they can' thought flashed inside my head. But even while thinking that, I flashed a grin.
'I'll just have to show them!'