Soul Art Online
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 4: Goblins
______________________________________________________________________
- Arthas -
"Wow, today was amazing. I gained three levels in one day." Shiroe said as we walked back towards the town.
He was not wrong. It was indeed amazing.
It was almost evening and I was not expecting to level up twice today with the rising experience requirements for each level.
This was almost as good as the hunts on which we splurged Veena's Status Effect pouches.
"It was mostly because of your planning." I replied. And I was not lying either. It actually was because of his planning.
The guy was calculating everything, skill cooldowns and my fighting style to support me exactly as I needed.
"Umm…." The guy started to speak before hesitating.
"Yes?"
"Can I add you as a friend?"
"Sure. Why not?" I sent him a friend's request and he accepted.
He was a very good strategist from what I had seen and has a lot of experiences in games, especially mmorpgs.
I could learn a lot of things from him.
I looked at my friend's list.
Only two people on it.
We stopped when we reached the gates of the town.
"We generally go out to hunt around the same time everyday. You can join us if you don't have a set party." I offered.
"We? You are with friends?"
"Hmm….yes. Someone I met in the game. We generally hunt in a team."
"Thank you. I will be happy to message you." He nodded.
We shook hands and left our own ways.
He was going towards the inn area so maybe he didn't have a house yet.
The sun had just set by the time I reached my house.
Veena was not home yet so I decided to get cleaned up first.
The game was realistic in several odd places. Even the feeling and smell of the sticky blood and sweat was on point.
This is why a bath was welcome. This place was even better as it had a furnace to get hot water in our baths. We just needed to put in some wood 10 minutes before we went in and let the water heat up for a few minutes.
I put some wood in the furnace and let the water heat up while I removed my equipment and cleaned it all.
By the time I was done, the water was at a good temperature so I took off my clothes and walked inside with a towel.
The warm water on my body made me groan in pleasure.
Yeah, getting the house was so worth it.
Too bad this place could only help us till T4, which might take four months or so to complete as an estimate. But six months was not good enough for us to want to buy a house here.
The classes were getting harder to level up so we might need to settle down in the next area if we get both T5 and T6 Classes there.
The amount of time each Class was taking to level up was insane. I wonder how much time it will take to level up the T5, T6 or even higher tier classes….years, maybe a decade? And that's if and only if we could even find these classes.
Then there would be Race and Racial Levels.
At this rate it might really take us a decade and half to be at a high enough level to complete the game….if we somehow gathered enough players to go that far.
For now, I can only try to get all the benefits I can from the Traveller title and stay ahead.
I shook my head of the thoughts and closed my eyes, relaxing in the warm water for a few minutes before drying myself and coming out with a towel around my waist.
"Oh my. I didn't realise you were back home." I heard a familiar voice and turned to see Veena sitting in the living room.
She didn't seem shy or anything seeing me in just a towel. In fact she had a small smile as she looked at me.
"Yes. I came back a while ago. And was getting cleaned up." I replied, trying not to show any embarrassment. "Did your assessment go well?"
"Oh yes. I passed and I am now officially a T3 Herbalist." She smiled, showing me the badge.
"Congratulations!" I congratulated.
"Thank you. By the way, today we are eating outside. Let's celebrate."
"Sure. Gimme a minute to get dressed." I replied….as casually as I could. This was probably one of the only points I felt my slight mutism coming to my advantage.
She giggled, probably catching my embarrassment. I didn't stay there for long and went to my room quickly to get dressed.
__________________________________x___________________________________
We headed out together.
"This reminds me, we don't have any clothes apart from our casual ones and equipment. It's a bit odd going out for celebratory dinners in our casual clothes." She chimed.
"Yes, it is." I nodded.
My parents were quite rich and I had a habit of dressing well when going out. My mother made sure to teach me.
It's just that I haven't been able to think about those things in this world.
"We can get something good in the next town. I have heard the capital has many good clothing shops." I said.
Good clothes did go a long way when establishing connections with other people.
As I said, this game was very particular about these small details.
I wouldn't doubt if we needed to possess a certain amount of money or dress in a certain manner to even be able to access certain areas of this game.
She hummed in agreement. "Sounds quite good. I have heard good things about the capital city too."
We talked about random topics as we reached the restaurant.
At the door of the place, I saw a familiar figure.
"Shiroe." I called out to the guy.
"Arthas!" He turned back, surprised to see me and nodded before taking a look at Veena.
I noticed the gaze so I introduced her. "She is my friend, Veena."
"Friend? How hurtful? I thought we were partners….seeing as how we are living together."
I opened my mouth in surprise, making her giggle. Finally recognising her prank I shook my head with a smile.
"Hello. My name is Veena. Nice to meet you." She offered a hand to the flustered boy in front of us who bowed quickly in his nervousness.
"Hello. My name is Shiroe. Please take care of me." He stuttered.
"Nice to meet you, Shiroe. Are you a friend of Arthas?"
"We….we just met today."
"Shiroe is a very good player. We were able to hunt a lot more than we usually do due to his strategies." I added before sending a look at Veena.
"Really?" She asked, surprised. We did hunt quite efficiently as a team so doing more than that was actually a surprise for us.
"Ah, it's nothing. I just have some experience with MMOs, that's all."
"Oh! That's something I would like to hear about….if you don't mind that is. We were having a celebration for me getting a new Job Class. Would you like to join us, Shiroe?"
"No no. I wouldn't impose."
"You are not imposing. You can join us. I remember you saying that you didn't have any teammates or friends here. Eating alone can suck."
With a few more words from both of us, Shiroe was dragged along for dinner.
"You guys are renting a place here?" Shiroe asked. "Do you know where I can find a place to rent? Living at an inn is taking a toll on my already limited expenses."
"I can ask around but I make no promises. I suggest asking any of the locals you are close to."
"Locals?" He asked, perplexed.
"She means NPCs. They have a lot of functions. For all matters and purposes, consider this as a totally new world. You will have to establish a good relationship with several NPCs to unlock any quest they could give out. I haven't tested it yet but I think it can work for even the unnamed ones."
"Really? But that amount of data…." He started speaking before pausing and remembering where we were. "I see. Thank you."
Over dinner, we exchanged several discoveries of the game.
"So I would need to level up a Scribe Class to get a Scholar Class and then Mage?" Veena asked.
"Umm….I am not sure if that's the only way but at least I got it that way."
"We were also able to find out only this method of getting the Mage Class. I would have preferred to look for other ways but I think getting started on a Scribe would be much better than to go around searching for things which may or may not exist. Anyways, my Herbalist Class gets experience even from making products so I will not fall behind in levels."
"That's applicable for the Scribe Class as well. But may I know which path you want to take going forward?" Shiroe asked.
"Hmm, I don't know the names of many classes but I want to use some destruction oriented magic class if possible."
"Going for the DPS. Alright. Actually, if you don't mind, can I suggest something to you?"
"Sure. Suggestions never hurt."
"There is a place where you could get the information. It's just that…." He spoke before hesitating a bit.
"What is it?"
"I found out about this from less than pleasant sources so I doubt this is legal." He whispered.
"Oh! Can you elaborate?"
The guy looked around to see if we were being heard then leaned in slowly. "There is a Black Market in this town. There you can buy all kinds of contrabands and information, even throw in bounties for people, all for a certain price that is. I found out about this from one of the villagers in my starting village."
"A Black Market?"
"Yes. There are all sorts of illegal things there. I have even heard of the existence of a Thief's Guild. It's near the entertainment district of the town. You have to go there at night and know the password."
He explained everything over the next fifteen minutes.
"I was only able to get some names of classes to choose before I finally selected the Mage Path. Maybe you guys can find something there."
We looked at each other and then back at Shiroe and nodded.
During the dinner, even Veena invited him to join our team, especially hearing from me how good he was.
After the dinner, we separated from Shiroe and I looked at her.
"Want to check out the place?" I asked.
"Nothing to lose." She shrugged.