- Arthas -
My eyes twitched at her words and I waved my hands. "Just call me Arthas. I don't like that whole Lord thing…"
"Hahahaha don't boys have the fantasy of being called Sir, Master and Lord. You don't like it?" She asked with a smirk. Her words made Rose go red, something which didn't escape her eyes as she smirked even more.
She's one of those… hah…
In our team, Star was like this too and I had plenty of resistance to teasing after being with Veena these past few months so this much was nothing.
Not to mention, I have been called Master and Sir by plenty of our servants so it wasn't uncomfortable for me but to be called that by people I didn't even know was a bit odd.
"I prefer to keep my fantasies private, thank you very much." I replied with a smile, not giving her any more ammunition.
"Oh! So you do have fantasies of that kind?" She however didn't give up and pushed.
"Now that I think of it… that's…" I paused, taking a thinking posture and even the girl looked curious.
…even Rose was taking peeks at me.
"...a secret." I completed, making their faces blanched. She did recover and burst out in a laugh and I too smiled and ended the topic there.
I bowed deeply in front of her. "Thank you for saving Rose yesterday. We owe you."
"Don't worry about it. I saw an npc kidnapping someone and was curious too. I didn't know NPCs could do that. This game never ceases to surprise people."
"NPCs can do worse than just kidnap people." I said and Rose looked slightly sad so I held her hand reassuringly and then looked at the girl. "Think of this as a real world and it would serve you well."
She looked curiously at us.
"We have encountered NPCs selling players as slaves and even about to… assault them." I said, making the girl's mouth open in shock. She did help Rose. So this information was nothing.
Perhaps it could help her someday in future?
We sat down and the girl looked more in thought at the news, her previous joking persona was replaced by a serious one.
She asked us a few questions and I answered them. It wasn't a lot, mostly about where we were from and how we got to Greenfrost.
"Our team is from Llyne, more towards the east. We came here to attend the former Marquis Daren Black's birthday as I had attained the rank of a noble as the reward for the previous world quest. From there, I encountered a quest for the Tournament although I wasn't expecting to win it. I guess I was lucky there."
She rolled her eyes. "As if. Who doesn't know about the Fairy Tail Guild, the first player established Guild in the game? Everyone has been curious about what kind of person the Guild Master of the Fairy Tail Guild was and how he could achieve such a level, a T5 while everyone was struggling in T3. You know how much the gap between the higher Tiers increase and the experience requirements increase for level up too. And yet you managed to reach such a height. Many people had many theories about it."
"Oh, what theories?" I asked.
I had only heard bits and pieces of this as we had spread the information in Llyne and people there didn't question much.
"Some think you discovered some kind of glitch in the game. Some think you are cheating. Some even think you are with the team running the game."
…
"Really? With the team who are running the game instead of me getting some rare item, skill or class?"
She just shrugged. "What can I say? People will just say anything to hide their own weakness rather than accept someone else is better than them."
"Hmm, and what about you? What do you think?" I asked.
"I personally think they are just salty. Jealousy can be very ugly. It can turn closest friends against each other let alone strangers who don't know each other. So… what is it?" She asked.
"Oh, are you interested in the reality of the matter or my secrets?" I asked.
"The reality, but I wouldn't mind the secrets if you offer."
"I… didn't stop."
"Hmm?"
"I didn't stop for one moment to sit and cry when we were trapped in the game. While other players were locking themselves up and crying, I was out there hunting. When others were lining up for hours on the outskirts of the beginner village to get a rabbit, I was risking my life, hiding in the middle of the forests to hunt… for days on end without returning back to the village. While everyone was treating this place as a game, I was treating it as a real world and using everything to go forward."
She became quiet so I added something else.
"Apart from that, I got a Unique Class called the Goblin Slayer which gave me extra bonus and damage against Goblins… and guess what the enemy for our town during the First World Quest was?"
"Goblins?"
"Hmm… I leveled up from the early stages of T4 to almost the end stages of T5 due to the planning and tactics of my team combined with the bonus of my class."
The girl stared at me dumbly. "You… just gave away your secret like that?"
I shrugged. "What was there to hide? It's not like keeping it a secret could help me get stronger, can it? Our success is not something which can be replicated so easily so disclosing it is not a problem for me."
The girl was quiet for a second. "So… you guys were just better than the rest?"
"As much as it would sound like bragging, that's the truth. Our initial members, a genius strategist, an experienced businesswoman and me. The three of us complemented each other well and that's what led us to this point. Obviously a large amount of luck was also involved in this." Then I looked at her and smiled. "By the way, there was also the fact that joining a Guild allows a person to acquire Guild's Blessings and gain 10% Exp. gain extra too. So… would you like to join us?"
The girl was taken aback at the sudden invitation.
"What are the criteria for joining your guild?" She asked, not accepting directly, something which actually made me approve of her.
Others had almost instantly joined when they heard of the extra Exp gain.
I brought out the set of rules we had decided for the Guild and passed the list to her.
The girl took a look at the list carefully and then looked at me after finishing reading. "Do we have any obligation to hunt as per the Guild's orders? I mean in terms of forming teams or such things?"
"Apart from not interfering with the other guild members, there are no restrictions. You can form teams with whoever you like. It's just that teaming with other members of the team gives you an extra 10% Exp Boost. The only time we expect you to follow orders will be during World Quests."
"What if you or someone wants me to do a mission I don't want to?"
"You can deny. No actions will be taken as long as you don't break the rules of the Guild. If you have any problems with other Guild Members, you can bring it to the Guild Management and we can solve it."
"Hmm, reasonable. Then what if I have a problem with you directly?" She asked.
"We can talk, but if it doesn't work, you will have to leave. The Fairy Tail Guild is my Guild. If you have a problem with my ways of running the Guild then you can obviously leave the Guild and find another one. We will not stop you. You haven't played MMO's before this?" I couldn't help but ask.
"I have, but didn't you just say that I should consider this world as a real one?"
"Touche."
"Do I need to move to Llyne to join your Guild?"
"This… if you want to then I don't see why not. The Guild owns several boarding facilities there where you can live for some extra fees. The Guild also owns a shop which sells products made by the members of the Guild and the guild members get a five percent discount on those. If you go there, you will have some advantages. Although, as you have already heard, I have become the City Lord of Alverton, so our Guild Headquarters might move to that place. Do you perhaps have any problems with it?" I asked.
"Hmm, not me personally. Which also brings me to my last question."
I nodded.
"Can I bring my brother with me? He is a Blacksmith, trying to become a Master Blacksmith. He has all his Skills Maxed out."
"A Blacksmith? Sure, I don't see why not." We didn't have any blacksmiths yet. It was a time consuming class and people mostly preferred Herbalist to that. Finding one who had all his skills maxed out… it was only a boon.
"It's just that my brother was accepted as an apprentice by a Master Blacksmith recently and is training here. So it could be difficult for us to move."
"Hmm… that… could be difficult." I paused in thought.
"Actually…" Rose interrupted.
"Yes?"
"We are planning to establish a business in Greenfrost. Our initial goal for coming here was for Arthas to develop a piece of land he had received here as a reward. This however was side- tracked as we got dragged into the whole tournament. We are still going to develop the business here so we will need some members to stay here. I can talk to Veena and you can stay here to help out."
That actually works.
"Will that not be a problem?"
"Not really. This is the least we can do." I answered.
"Then I will thank you in advance." She agreed.
With that I invited her to the guild and she accepted.
After talking for a while, we decided to go and meet her brother and invite him to the Guild too.
- Akeno Himejima -
She passed over a bottle of water to Akatsuki-chan who was sitting on the couch.
"It was just as annoying as the last time." Naotsugu commented as he cleaned up the area.
"At least it wasn't the goblins."
"Well, seeing humans do such things… was worse in some ways."
…
No one denied his words.
They had just completed Arthur's quest to become a Knight. The quest had changed from when Naotsugu had taken the quest but it was still similar in some ways… she hoped that wasn't the case. At least when looking at Akatsuki-chan's face.
"At least it's over now." She patted her back, assuring her.
"Yes, fortunately now it's all over. With Arthur-kun becoming a Knight, we have a pretty decent team now."
"We will still need a dedicated Mage or a Healer. Akeno cannot keep on juggling both sides or she will fall behind." Naotsugu commented.
"Hmm, we will have to find a solution for that when we shift to a different town. Right now we don't have the time to recruit any new members." Marielle said after some thought of her own.
While she was normally very bubbly, even appearing air headed at times, Marielle was very capable when it came to managing the guild in her own way.
"Hmm… the plan is ready. Nao-kun has already talked with the Knight's Academy of the city and they have agreed to help us when we move, for a price. We have also managed to hire some help from the Black Market. All that's left is to plan a route and collect the provisions for travelling. We will need enough tents to stay at night and food to eat on the way for the kids. Will our funds be enough for everything?"
"We have enough funds. I have already talked with Nina and she can get the provisions arranged for us in just two days at best." Akeno interrupted.
"Oh. Have you decided on the location?" Mari asked.
She nodded and brought out a map from her inventory.
It was quite hard to get the map of the kingdom. While small maps were easy to get, large ones were quite hard to come by and were expensive too.
She placed the map on the table and pointed to their current location.
"This is where we are. Grantsburg is a city in the southern part of the kingdom. It comes under the territory of Redwood." Then she pointed to a location in the upper left corner of the map. "And this is our destination. This place is the hometown of Nina's mother. She has written us a note of recommendation for her maternal grandfather. We can get his help there to establish ourselves. I asked around and this place has good hunting areas nearby and is quite safe as the border's Military Camp is just two days away which is always manned by high level knights who run regular patrols every few months and use this town as a base to restock. Due to this there is no danger or corruption in the town according to Nina as the city is almost always under inspection from high level knights. The kids will be safe here."
"Hmm great. Then we will do just that. Have you decided which route of travel to take?" Mari asked.
Akeno nodded and pointed to the map.
"We need to move North from here through the Blackthorn territory and to our destination, the Greenfrost territory. There we will pass by the towns of Amberville, Coppershed, Alverton and we can finally reach our destination… Stratholme."
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Beta Note: The advance chapters are in order of what is updated, a first Tier will not get 2 advanced chapters for every story, only the next two to be released.
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Author's Note:
I am back with another chapter of 'Soul Art Online'.
So, many things happened.
Arthas got his rewards and celebrated.
Rose and Arthas had a date and met Kuroka who joined the Fairy Tail Guild.
Finally, Arthas will be going to the capital and then on to become a City Lord.
Oh and Akeno and others are deciding to move…
I will wrap things in the next chapter or two and do a short time skip later to reach the second World Quest.
Enjoy the next chapter.
Good Day, Peace Out.