"Let me ask you something. Do you know Captain Xarus?" asked the mayor.
"Yes, we met when I helped with the underground armory," Ikky replied.
"Hmm, he reported to me that he was greatly assisted by some young individual with a bow. Looks like you helped me with that too," he pointed to the bandit headband on the table.
"I must report this to the higher-ups in Reld city. You have done so much good in this town that you deserve some kind of reward!" The mayor nodded to himself.
"That is not nece.." Ikky wanted to refuse and then remembered that every reward was money for his family.
"Thank you very much," he said in the end.
"I will be contacting them tonight through the magic crystal, you can visit me tomorrow or whenever you pass by," the mayor said, extending his hand.
The two shook hands and Ikky received a new message.
[Achieve unlocked
-Condition: Reach 200 fame or be acknowledged by at least 3 important people in a single town.
-Unlock a
---
Ikky and Josh left the mayor's residence, "What did he want?" Josh asked.
"Nothing much…just a few questions about the bandit leader," Ikky said, checking the Fame Shop feature as he walked.
[Fame Shop]
-Buy a Charisma stat
-Buy a Noble status
-Buy a Property
-Buy a Land
-Buy ...
There were a lot of things, but they were also expensive. The title of nobility alone cost 300 fame points. Ikky only got 115 so far, he could have traded some for the Charisma stat, but it seemed useless to him so far.
"Should we go and meet with Norm?" Ikky asked.
"Huh? He's in town too? How do you know?" Josh was confused.
"I met him when I was at the Testing Center, he asked if we were interested in joining the guild," Ikky said.
Josh hesitated for a few moments, but in the end, agreed to go.
"A-Alright, let's go," said Josh after a few moments of hesitation.
Ikky watched Josh walk away, not knowing the destination. He shook his head and texted both Lyra and Norm that he could meet them whenever they felt like it.
---
Norm was the first to answer as Lyra was still offline and they agreed to meet at the fountain. When Josh and Ikky arrived at the fountain, they were greeted by several familiar faces.
"Hey, why are there so many people from our school?" Josh asked quietly so that only Ikky could hear him.
"People from the same city seem to appear in the same or the closest town in the game," Ikky replied.
"Shit…" Josh cursed as he never expected to meet so many people from his hometown.
"HEY! Over here!" Norm yelled as he saw them standing 20 meters away.
As the two approached, they were surprised to see a lot of people not only from their class by also from the next classes standing near Norm, and he soon understood why.
"Hi, there," said Rina while being occupied by both males and females.
"H-Hey," said Josh visibly stressed out.
'What's up with this guy?' thought Ikky.
"There seems to be a lot of people," Ikky said.
"Mhm," Norm confirmed looking around.
"Where is your friend?" Ikky asked Rina hoping to see Yuri.
"Hm? Which frie..- Oh, you probably mean Yuri. She's not in the game yet," she answered a bit confusingly as she had many friends, but only one was always sticking to her at any cost.
Josh was talking to other classmates, but soon casually revealed something he wanted to keep to himself the most.
Ikky was about to say something else but was interrupted by a shout from the guy in the next class.
"Look at him, he named himself Dragoner! HAHAHA!" yelled the guy as he overheard the conversation between Josh and his classmates.
A small group of people started to laugh, but they soon stopped as they noticed that Rina was not laughing.
"That is a good name, right Lotus?" said Norm looking at Rina who selected Lotus as her in-game name.
"Yea, this is a fantasy world, we should have fantasy-like names," she smiled.
The person who previously yelled was now nowhere to be found.
"So what are you guys up to? Do you want to join our guild?" Norm asked.
"We haven't thought about it yet," Ikky said.
"Another noob joining? We already have too many bag carriers," someone said and people laughed.
Norm frowned and was about to say something, but someone was faster.
"Noobs? Are you sure? Look at their gear, it doesn't look like any newbie gear to me," said Viktor who was Norm's close friend.
"What level are you?" Rina asked.
A moment of silence followed. Neither of them wanted to reveal their level, but they both had two different reasons. Josh was ashamed that he had barely reached level 9, meanwhile, Ikky didn't want to say that he was just before level 12.
As the silence was getting awkward, Norm decided to step up and break the silence.
"Ikky told me he's level 10 but it was some time ago, I think he'll be level 11 now," he said.
"Impossible! We're barely level 10, how can HE be level 11!" someone from the next class said.
"Wait, chill down. There is a way to confirm this." now it was Harald who spoke. Everyone hated Harald because he was a cunning person from the next class.
"If he's over level 10, he should already have a classpath, correct? So Ikky, what's your classpath?" he asked with fox eyes.
"Mystical Bowsman," answered Ikky without batting the eye.
"Mys,... what, I've never heard of that. He must be lying," said the previous loud guy and they all started talking over each other again.
A very big discussion broke out, people were yelling over each other depending on which class they were. Harald frowned as things got out of his hands.
At that moment, Ikky took out his bow and pulled the string, an arrow began to appear in his bow from the air.
When people noticed they were staring at him with their eyes wide open, but the real surprise was yet to come. He used a multishot and additional four arrows started to appear. Just before the skill was ready to fire, all the arrows disappeared as Ikky canceled the skill.
Silence followed. Without saying anything, Ikky put the bow down and turned to Rina.
"We don't seem to be very welcome here, if you want us to join the group for the dungeon we are happy to join. However, I won't decide to join the guild yet," said Ikky.
Rina wanted to say something about the people from the next class not being important in her eyes, but Ikky had already turned and left while Josh followed him.
Ikky was neither angry nor furious, more disappointed. However, he had already expected something like this to happen.
At that time, Norm caught up to them.
"W-wait..," he said trying to catch his breath.
"I'm sorry about what happened, but they're not part of the guild. I mean, we haven't decided who will join and who won't, yet." he tried to explain, but Ikky stopped him.
"No need to explain, I already said what I meant. I don't plan to join the guild yet, if you want me to join the party I'm happy to come, but nothing more. At least until I decide." Ikky's voice was full of certainty, there was no room for argument and Norm could feel it.
"Alright, I'll let you know when we plan to have the dungeon party, it should take about three to four days to reach level 12," Norm said goodbye and returned to Rina and the others.
Just then, Ikky received a message from Lyra, who had just come online.
[Lyra: Can you meet me at Easter Gate?] 'Very plain message...' he thought.
"I don't like Norm, he always acts like a polite kind person when he is in front of Rina, but when they are separated he is worse than me," said Josh out of nowhere.
"Oh? Is that jealousy that I hear? And since when do you care about Rina so much?" asked Ikky in curiosity.
Josh fell into silence and looked at his friend, he wanted to say something but Ikky stopped him.
"I told you several times, I do not feel anything to her. You should hear it out finally." Ikky said with a strict voice.
"Pfff.." Josh made a laughable tone and Ikky just shook his head.
"I have to go meet with a friend, who might need my help. Wanna tag along?" Ikky asked.
"Nah, I want to level up. For some reason, I'm fired up to beat somebody's expectation.", a fire could be visible in his eyes as he probably thought of the other classmates.
"Okay see you later," Ikky said his goodbye and went towards Easter gate.
When he arrived, he saw a person leaning against the wall of the gate. This person wore a white cleric robe with a hood and a mask. For some reason, everyone kept their distance from this person, including the guards. That person was Lyra.
Ikky stepped toward Lyra and as he was getting closer everybody around gasped with surprise. The show was about to begin.
"What is going on here?" he asked her while looking at other people.
"Nothing, just some fly was bothering me." is all she said.
Ikky was surprised, for some reason she felt a little different than before but he wasn't sure. After all, she didn't talk much before and she always had this cold aura around her.
"Come," she pushed herself from the wall and stepped toward the forest.
Ikky's eyes followed her back and he sighed as he confusingly followed her into the forest.
***