Soul Art Online

- Arthas -

"This is the place?" Shiroe said as we looked at the gates of the castle in front of us.

The Knight Academy looked like a castle.

"Yes."

"I am afraid we cannot get any further than this. Best of luck for your exams, Arthas." Veena wished me good luck.

"Best of luck." Shiroe joined in too.

"Thanks." I nodded towards them and walked in.

I knocked at the smaller gate beside the main one.

A small window opened. "Yes."

"I am here for the Knight test." I said. I already had the maxed out Squire Class equipped.

This was one of the places which didn't open until the people met certain requirements.

The requirements to enter was to either have a maxed out Squire Class or a Knight or any of its advanced classes equipped.

The gate opened and I was met with two Knights in full plate armour.

One of them pointed to the place where I needed to get registered first which was an easy process.

It involved me filling up some forms and showing that I possessed enough efficiency in the Skills of a Squire.

I have been using this class for almost a month or so. I had no difficulties in passing this part of the whole test.

The receptionist Tyra explained the rest of the process to me.

"Since you are already registered to the academy, you just have to pass a quest to get your certification. This part is just a way to show that you are contributing towards the prosperity of the Kingdom as its Knight." She spoke as she bought out a bunch of files from the cupboards behind her. "This one looks good." She whispered to herself as she placed the piece of paper in front of me.

"A Knight has to be capable of both attacking and protecting people. A bunch of goblins have infested the forests near the western part of the town. They have settled inside the caves and are extremely annoying to hunt. Several teams have gone missing there. Your job will be to clear the goblins. If you are able to save people, you can get bonus rewards. Now, this job is a bit hard for someone to complete alone so you can hunt in a team of five or less. Good Luck."

I took a look at the paper, reading the contents when the receptionist spoke again.

"I would hurry if I were you. The last team wouldn't survive long enough. They have three more days at best."

I looked back at the receptionist and then back at the piece of paper and quickly left the place.

___________________________________x__________________________________

"So we need to complete a time-limited instance dungeon to get you passed with good marks." Shiroe spoke but it was mostly to himself as he read the quest.

He had the habit of talking to himself loudly when he was in one of his planning sessions.

"I guess we would need to prepare a lot of healing and attack items for the attack."

"Poisons might not be a good idea. We don't want to accidentally kill off the hostages." I added.

"That's unfortunate. My plan was to flood the whole cave area with poisonous gases. Would have been far easier." Veena smiled far too serenely at the dangerous idea.

"Yes. That would have been too easy. In fact, we could totally do that but that would take away whatever extra rewards Arthas can get for a perfect score. I believe it could be a requirement for some quests or even Advanced Classes." Shiroe commented, not removing his eyes from the piece of paper.

"She told me that we can use a team of five." I offered.

"Five? I wouldn't say no but it would only slow us as we wouldn't have any experience of co-operating with them and we don't have enough time to practise our teamwork. We would be better off going in just by the three of us." Veena spoke and even Shiroe nodded.

"We just need to plan for it. Maybe we should check out the place first." Shiroe suggested.

"Then I will go out and prepare some non lethal attacking items like sleeping powder and paralytic powder." Veena suggested. "We don't know how big the whole dungeon will be so it's better to be on the safe side."

We nodded and Shiroe and I left the house together to go and check out the sight together,

On the way, I noticed something off.

Shiroe, noticing the change in my movements, nodded towards me.

We had developed a great teamwork in the continuous hunting the last month so one look was enough to know what the other was thinking.

We left the town gates and quickly walked towards the forest area to one of our pre-prepared hiding places and waited.

The ones who were following us didn't come out further.

"I guess they were just keeping an eye on us and not coming after us right now." He broke the silence after some time.

"Any idea what that might be about?" I nodded before asking.

"There were some people keeping an eye on us since you entered the castle first. I thought it might just be other players trying to find out information that would leave after we went back. I didn't expect them to secretly follow us."

Several thoughts came to my mind. "Their motives could be anything. From information to…."

"Robbing us. If you can enter the Castle, everyone would know you are the highest level among players in this town which means our team must have more they could get."

"If they knew I was at such a high level and even then they dared to come after us it only means they have more people or…."

"They are going to use items."

"Or both."

"Did you see anyone among them?"

"I was able to see the Classes and levels of two people. One was a Hunter and the other was a Thief. Both T3 level 3."

Everyone in our team was far stronger than those people. Shiroe was a level 14 Scholar and Veena was a Level 15 Herbalist and I was a T4 if we considered my stats due to my Shingen-ryu Skill bonus.

"I guess they were probably scouting us and are planning to ambush us. Since they had a hunter and a thief, they could see our names and levels. They wouldn't come out so blatantly. Veena-san doesn't come out of town without us so she is safe. We can inform her when we get back." Shiroe analysed the situation before letting out a sigh. "Why can't these idiots just do their own thing and leave us to level up in peace? The Game Master has set enough events for us to deal with. There is no need for any more."

"And who told you this is not one of them?"

"Hmm?" He looked back at me questioningly.

"Other players are the real danger in this game. When all law and order is removed, humans become more dangerous than the worst of beasts." I said, recalling the day I had met Veena for the first time.

"Do you think they will go that far?" Shiroe asked….hesitantly.

I looked at the guy and he matched my gaze for a few moments before looking the other way and sighing again.

"I don't know how I feel about….killing. Here people actually…." He spoke softly, leaving his words at that.

I looked at the guy and remembered that until just two months ago, he was just a simple college student. He had changed a lot to adapt himself but he still hadn't crossed that line. I looked towards the sky as an uncomfortable moment of silence lasted between us before speaking. "The first day I met Veena, we encountered a similar situation."

He turned towards me at the sudden reveal.

"Trust me when I say, losing our money and equipment would have been the tamest thing which could have happened to us…." I took a deep breath before adding. "Losing our lives would have been the second worst…."

He took a moment before his eyes widened. "They weren't…."

I nodded.

"Twenty eight seconds."

"Huh?"

"We took down those ten attackers in twenty eight seconds." I actually counted it later.

He had his mouth open for a while and stared blankly at the sky in front of us.

I brought out a pouch of water and passed it over to him. He took it without a word and drank a few gulps and washed his face.

"It was either them or us. When you are in such a situation….you truly realise what and how much you are truly capable of. All of us have monsters within us, Shiroe. Some of us get to confront it, some might not even know of it for their entire life. This world….however, drags that monster out of us and throws it at us to wrestle. What makes us civilised is our ability to keep a reign on that monster." I took back the pouch and drank a few gulps of water myself.

I let the guy contemplate. A few minutes later he broke the silence.

"Was it hard?"

"The killing part? No. They were Villagers. Highest Level 9 and lowest level 5. Even Veena was Level 9 back then while I was a Level 20 Apprentice Hunter. It didn't take us more than two good hits with my weapons and stat advantage. What was difficult was what came afterwards….the scene kept repeating in front of my eyes. I could feel those sensations over and over again and had to use calming incense to even get a bit of sleep. I did wake up several times that night but by the end of it, I was in so much hurry that I didn't have time to think about it. I guess I was keeping myself busy to forget about it. It was Veena who supported me back then."

We stayed in that place and let him get used to the situation. The guy is tough from what I had seen of him.

And as expected, he resolved himself before getting up.

The rest of the journey was easy. We investigated and found the dungeon entrance. Shiroe could only see the entrance when he was in a party with me.

Since the quest would have started with us entering the dungeon, we left without making much progress.

On the way, we changed our clothes into hooded ones and even changed our class to throw off anyone keeping an eye on us and only let out a breath once we were inside.

We entered our house and I closed the door behind us while Shiroe slumped on the chair.

Veena raised an eyebrow at this. "Looks like you two had an adventure."

"We were being spied on and followed." I said.

"Oh. Are they the same ones who were looking at us outside the castle?" She asked Shiroe.

"Maybe. I didn't see their faces but Arthas says one was a Hunter and the other was a Thief who was following us."

"Both with the ability to see through the levels of other people, hmm. Did they chase you into the forest?" She asked.

I shook my head. "No, they stopped inside the town gates."

"Then it could be anything, dear. They could be trying to find out information about our quest so that they could see it at the Black Market or they could be trying to find more information about you two, perhaps trying to see how we hunt to be at such high levels. We are the highest level players in this town. Some people are bound to be curious."

….

We both stopped for a second and looked at her in thought.

Yes.

She does have a valid point.

Especially I, who had almost finished planning to reverse ambush and end them by the time I reached home.

I suddenly paused at a frightening thought.

Was I so ready to kill all of a sudden?

The stimulation from this game was bringing out my emotions. I was not blind to see this. But apparently it was causing something more than just that.

"....has."

"Arthas."

"Arthas."

I was broken from my thoughts by the voice of Veena. "Yes."

She looked at me and came towards me, placing a hand on my cheek. "I know that incident is still weighing on your mind somewhere but don't let it guide you into always doubting people. That kind of life is miserable."

Was that why I was so ready for a fight? I know I have been trying my best to keep that day out of my mind but was it actually affecting me?

"It's not a bad thing to be careful but don't let that incident drag you down. Maybe we should take some time off after completing this quest or get some other hobby."

"Actually, you could pick up a non-combat class." Shiroe suggested and we looked at him and he explained further. "Pick something which you like. A hobby of some kind."

"That's a great idea." Veena chimed in.

"Alright." Under the pleadings of my team members I agreed. "I will search for a non-combat class after this quest is done."

"Great!" She cheered.