Soul Art Online

- Arthas -

Players on the other hand….they were quiet.

I guess one hundred and fifteen thousand points was just that absurd.

On the stage, I was faced with the Holy Knight.

Thankfully, Kenneth had instructed me how to greet the guy.

I kneeled on one knee, with my sword placed beside me on the ground.

The man drew his sword and placed it on my shoulders one after another just like I had seen royalty knighting people. Then again, this guy was a Marquis too so maybe this was just that.

As I was thinking of this, I heard the voice say. "Rise."

I looked up and stood to my feet.

"Knight Arthas. You and your group were the ones who investigated the disappearance of our scout party and alerted us to the brewing chaos among the goblins. Without this, we would have been caught off guard and countless lives would have been lost." He said in a noble voice, loud enough for everyone to hear.

I looked at the crowd from the corner of my eyes and saw many of their eyes widen in realisation but didn't pay attention to them as the man continued.

"Not only that, when you found out about the danger to the town, you stepped up once again and with your team, did the impossible and stopped around five thousand goblins across three gates with barely any forces and even took down one of their commanders in the process. This Commander, Gurthak, the Cruel, was wanted throughout the province and had a reward on his head. Your bravery and quick wit has saved the life of every citizen of this town. For this….you will be rewarded. I, Conrad Black, Lord of Greenfrost, by the right vested in me by His Majesty, the King, present you with a piece of land in Greenfrost as well as the rank of a Baron. May your blade cut down the enemies of the Kingdom and your shield become an invincible wall to protect the peace of the Kingdom."

With that he presented me two scrolls for the said deeds.

Woah.

I took a moment to realise what had just happened.

He then handed me several things.

An armour, a sword, shield, three Skill Books and finally a scroll of some kind tied with a Red Ribbon.

Before I could check what they were, the City Lord stepped forward so I stored them in my inventory.

"From the town of Llyne and the Knight Academy, you are awarded a mansion in the residential area to congratulate you for your achievement." He added while presenting me with the deeds to the house too.

I bowed to him too and then I stepped down before walking towards Veena and Shiroe.

"And with that, the Award Ceremony for the day is finished. I urge the rest to collect their due rewards from the stand outside the Knight Academy based on your achievement points. Thank you all for helping us again. Have a good day."

With his last words, the quest was updated once more.

World Quest - 1

The Beginning of the End

A great danger is opening its eyes as chaos has started to spread all over the continent.

Brace up and fight against the approaching darkness for a chance to survive.

Objective: 1. Attend the City Lord's Summons.(Completed)

Objective: 2. Choose a Gate to protect.(Completed)

Hidden Objective: 1. Talk to the City Lord and become the guardian of a Gate.(Completed)

Objective: 3. Defend the gates after the start of the war.(Completed)

Objective 4: Attend the Award Ceremony.(Completed)

Congratulations on completing the first of many World Quests!

Reward: Skill Book: Devotion Aura x1, Skill Book: Holy Blade x1, Skill Book: Dragon Skin x1, Blessed Armour of Sun x1, Blessed Sword of Sun x1, Blessed Shield of Sun x1, Guild Order x1.

Hot damn!

Is that Devotion Aura from Warcraft?!

And the Guild Order!

Did I just get the Guild Order, just like that?

Even the house was done.

Was this quest designed so that the winner can make a guild directly?

Congratulations!

You have discovered a glitch in the game!

The Developers thank you for your efforts to make the game more perfect for everyone.

Reward: +100,000 Exp Card, Man Slayer Class Unlocked.

Glitch?

What Glitch did I fix?

Also, Man Slayer?

That sounds awfully suspicious. Is it an illegal class?

I didn't have enough time to check the rewards as I had to step down from the stage. I will have to do it at the end of the day.

Sure enough, as soon as the City Lord and the Marquis left, the crowd went wild.

We were surrounded with questions.

How did you get such a high score?

What level are you?

How did you level up?

Did you find any loopholes or glitches?

Where do you people hunt?

What are your skills?

Did you get some new classes?

Do you have any unique items or skills?

What colour are your panties?

….

I couldn't find the one who asked the last question or I would have broken his nose.

The only reason we could even understand everything was because of our high stats.

I wasn't used to these situations but I had enough experience with people to not be overwhelmed.

Shiroe on the other hand looked troubled.

The one who was the most comfortable was Veena.

She took the lead and addressed all of them.

"I know you all have questions and we are willing to answer some of those questions as long as they are not personal. This….however is not the way to ask questions. So, let's all take a step back. Right now many people have to collect their quest rewards and take care of things. If we do any meetings now, we wouldn't be able to address everyone at once and it will just prolong the problem, so, we can gather in the park outside the Knight's Academy tomorrow evening and address everyone's questions once and for all. I hope everyone will understand this and cooperate."

There were some grumblings but people did settle for the words when the Knights came in to clear the crowd.

I personally think most of them wanted to get their rewards.

As they were leaving, I looked at the place where that Shooting Star guy was standing previously.

He was still there and looking at us.

Shiroe sensed my gaze and questioned me. "Are you planning to recruit him?"

"If possible. I want to see if we can work together. He is a ranged fighter and we might need one to reduce the pressure on you. And if we get along, we can discuss the recruitment."

"Sounds like a good idea."

Veena was still talking to some of her friends who had helped us make the products before the raid so we just informed her before approaching the guy.

"Hello, my name is Shiroe and this is my friend Arthas." Shiroe was the one who greeted the guy and I gave him a nod.

"Yeah. I know. Well, it's kinda hard to miss that after all that has happened today." He smirked, offering his hand for a handshake.

We shook hands. To be honest, till now, he seemed to be quite friendly.

"Could we have a bit of your time?" I asked.

"Sure. I was getting hungry anyways. Let's go and grab something to eat. We can talk over food."

"That sounds like a great idea. We just need to get our third member."

"The beautiful Lady, right? Sure, I'll wait."

Veena joined us after some time and half an hour later, we found ourselves in the inn, talking over apple pie.

"So, you have been hunting all alone, all this time?" Shiroe asked.

"Yeah. Other people were just too slow and I didn't want them to drag me down. I guess they were too busy being scared of being trapped in this game to do anything about it and I wasn't going to wait there on my ass and do nothing. By the time everyone woke up from their daze, I was already too far ahead of them. Joining any team would have dragged me down."

"Oh my, that sounds awfully similar to someone I know." Veena laughed as she threw me a look.

Shiroe merely laughed.

"Oh, you were hunting solo too?" The guy looked interested and turned towards me to ask.

"Yes. I wanted to get ahead to avoid being crowded in the hunting grounds."

"I don't think anyone was crazy enough to go to the middle of the forest to hunt in the first week of the game. Being crowded was the last thing you had to worry about. Although I might not mind another one of those adventures."

"The middle of the forest? Seriously? I only got there after three weeks. I generally camped around the forest area and hunted."

"So that's why we didn't spot you in the town earlier."

"Ah, that was due to the Hunter's Quest. It was a pain in the ass to hunt a Mutated Panther." He shook his head. "All the planning and preparations and the several tries took me two weeks to finally shoot that cat down. Slowed me down a lot."

"Yes. That quest is annoying. Especially since there are generally other followers beside the mutated animal." I remembered my own hunt. "I was lucky to meet Veena back then or I would have been the same."

"Oh, you are a hunter too? I didn't realise that."

"I got it in the starting village as other jobs were not easily available."

"Yeah."

"It annoyed me to no end when I learned that I could have passed the test much more easily if I had come here instead."

"Wait what?!"

"The quest requirements are different here than in the first village. It's much easier."

"Say what. Did I fucking waste two weeks of my time for nothing? Damn….that sucks." He grumbled as he shoved his apple pie down his throat, eating with a huff.

"This game is too elaborate. Information is power….quite literally. We can save a lot of time if we have the correct information and waste weeks if we don't. No wonder they charge so much for information in the Black Market."

"Black Market? There's a Black Market?"

….

"Star….do you mind if I call you that?" I asked, not trying to go completely on a tangent once again.

"Hey, who would mind being called a star. Certainly not me." He smirked and I rolled my eyes and couldn't help but smile. It was funny.

"Then I will call you that. Would you like to work with us" I asked.

"Straight to the point, eh. Good, I like that. Going round and round is not my thing either." He took the final bite of his apple pie and drank his mead before facing me. "So, I assume that you are trying to recruit me?"

"Yes. If I have to trust my back to people in a fight, I would like them to be competent and not drag me down."

He laughed when his words returned back to him.

"So, why me? Why not someone like the baldy or that casanova wannabe from before?"

"Excuse me, who?"

"Number five and six. Sorry, don't remember their names." He waved his hands.

"They already have their own teams and I doubt they will join us. Not to mention, combining two teams together will be harder and can mess up our coordination."

"Hmm….yeah, that makes sense. They did look like they were trying to show off a bit too much. Probably trying to recruit. Let's see….well what the hell, I'm in. You people seem decent. As for the trial period, I understand. In fact, if you guys are not good, I wouldn't want to drag my feet for you either and if I am the weaker one, well, I deserve to be trashed."

"Alright, we are in agreement then." We shook our hands. We discussed when and where to meet early in the morning tomorrow for the hunt.