Soul Art Online

- 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.