Soul Art Online

- Arthas -

I went back to my room and closed the door.

Suddenly the safety of the room didn't seem that comforting anymore.

My heart was beating fast.

Suddenly I recalled the advice Veena had given me and forced myself to calm down and took a deep breath.

Once I calmed down, I analysed the situation over and over and came to the conclusion that… worrying didn't help me at all.

If the guy wanted to harm me, I would be dead no matter what I tried since I was almost surely exposed.

But if he didn't… then I would just be wasting my time and energy worrying.

The thing I needed to do now was to concentrate on the game and find a way to clear it.

When this thought came to my mind, slowly but surely my worries settled down.

I shifted my attention to the next thing on the list.

With a T3 Job now, I couldn't stay in this village anymore so I had to move from this place to the nearby town.

Technically I could have moved right after I had achieved a T2 Class but Hunter was a very useful Class and this place had it and I was also in a race against time to get to the T3 Class for the bonus.

20% Exp Gain boost was a lot especially considering how much exp I would need in the next tiers.

There was also the Shingen-ryu Skill.

And damn was it broken.

Shingen-ryu [Unique Skill] [Level 1] [Exp: 0/1000]

Shingen-ryu or "Style That Originates From The Heart" is a school of Martial Arts in which the practitioner learns hand-to-hand combat as well as the ability to control their aura for combat.

Passively Increases +2 STR +2 END +2 DEX +2 INT +2 WIS per level.

I didn't even know what the max level for this Skill was. At this stage, it was like gaining another T2 Class on the side.

I remember that this was the martial arts used by Issac Netero.

And the best part about it was that it was a Passive Skill.

This actually encouraged me to search for more references.

I had sold most of my drops from today's hunt except the ones from the Mutated Boar.

The tusks and the horn could be used to make a weapon with special attributes and the hide could be used to make armour with Fire Resistance, but Braham couldn't make those and I needed to go to the nearest town to find out about it.

I still needed to figure out what the next Job Class would be.

Militia sounded a good bet so maybe get it to full level on the way.

I had already obtained a map to the nearest town, Llyne.

With everything decided, I took some rest since it was almost evening and went out to eat at night.

In the restaurant area, I saw Veena dining.

"Arthas." She greeted me when she saw me coming there. "Come here, Join me."

I did.

"How was your hunt?" She asked.

"It was successful."

"Great. So, what are your plans now?"

"I am planning to leave for the town."

"Already? Then again, this village doesn't have anything more to offer you so that makes sense."

"How is your leveling going?"

"Better than I was expecting. I put up a small stall near the village centre, offering to make medicines and items for people who could bring me raw materials and pay a small fee. They were quite excited and offered me several jobs. I levelled up by three levels today."

Three levels just by sitting in safety and making some powders…

Production Classes could be such utter cheats.

"Are you planning to go the Production Routes all the way?" I asked. From what I had seen of her, she was trained in combat and I didn't think she would let that talent go to waste.

And just as I had expected. "No. Production Classes can only help me so much. I decided to use this to gain some levels first as, while not comparable to combat classes, these classes still give decent stats. And having a way to earn some money safely never hurts. Although the speed of levelling is slowing down a bit in this place. I think I might move to the town too. Could I hitch a ride?"

"Hmm. Sure. The route to the town is relatively safe."

"Then I will provide for the items we need on the way."

"Deal."

"So when are we leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"You don't waste any time, do you? But then again, as the saying goes, the early bird catches the worm. Sure. I will inform Madam Martha about it."

"At the village gates at 6 in the morning. It would be the best time to leave so that we can cover the most distance while it's daytime."

"Alright."

We talked for a bit while we ate our dinner.

She left early as she needed to pack her stuff.

I didn't mind her tagging along as making connections was essential in a VRMMORPG. I couldn't beat the game alone.

She seemed like the social type.

As for myself, I sucked at it due to my condition.

Surprisingly, she didn't seem bothered with it, almost as if she was used to it, and thus it felt comfortable to talk to her.

__________________________________x___________________________________

Next day, I was at the gate of the village by six in the morning.

Veena came soon after.

"I prepared some food for the way." She showed me a basket before putting it back into her inventory.

I always carried some emergency food to last me a week or so but this helps I guess?

I nodded at her. "Let's go."

There was a fairly clear path from the village to Llyne.

"Do you know what you are going to do after reaching Llyne?" She asked me.

"Hmm, try to find out information about advanced Tier Classes. T3 is not enough."

"Any ideas on what route you want to take?"

"Combat. Hunter is a good and balanced class but lacks the damaging skills necessary. I might try for other classes. Maybe a Knight or something. What about you?"

"I prefer fighting from a distance. I might search for any magic classes."

"Oh! You know how to gain those?" I asked, surprised.

"Hehehehe I talked to Madam Martha as well as her circle of friends often and they told me a way to get started if I wanted to learn magic."

"How?"

"Become a Scholar." She replied.

"Huh?"

"At least for the basic Magician Classes, getting a Scholar Class is the first step. It opens up several routes. From there one can decide what kind of path they want to follow. There is an academy in the town which can give you the Scholar Class on completing a quest."

"I see. It does sound reasonable." I replied, while in thought.

On the way, we discussed several topics.

"Are you not going to join any groups? Hunting is going to become progressively challenging at the higher levels. It won't be easy if you want to solo things."

"I….might join a guild if I find a suitable one." I said after some thought.

Right now I have too much going on in my mind.

"Yes. Getting along with your team members is the most important thing or you won't be able to trust them with your back in live combat." She replied, getting a faraway look in her eyes.

This girl….she was really experienced in combat.

In fact, this should have been obvious when she wasn't shaken from killing those thugs that day.

But that also made her a reliable partner if she somehow joined me.

"I was planning to level up a bit on the way. Do you mind?"

"Oh why not? While making Herbal Mixtures is a good way to gain experience, it's terribly boring. Do you have somewhere in mind?"

"There's a place nearby with a pack of wolves."

I opened the map and showed her the place and we decided on a spot to hunt from.

We were in a hurry so I didn't have the time to dig a hole and camp there.

"We will need something to hide our scent."

"Scent?"

"The wolves have a very sharp sense of smell. They would easily catch us if they smell us."

"Then what do you suggest?"

"Normally, I use mud to cover myself….but even some strong smelling leaves wrapped around our bodies work." I added, knowing that ladies would generally be averse to getting dirty.

She apparently sensed this and looked at me with a smile.

"I can see why you are so ahead of others. You don't mind getting yourself dirty to reach your target. Something a lot of kids from my place could learn. Don't mind me. Leaves might work but they won't be as good." She pointed to a pond nearby. "We can get ourselves clean here after the hunt. Anyways, I haven't had a chance to experience this for a long time. It's like I am starting my training all over again. Brings back some memories."

I couldn't help but ask. "You have experienced combat? You look very young."

She smiled. "Oh my, asking a woman their age is a no no."

"I am sorry." I quickly apologised.

"Hehehehe don't worry. It was nothing."

She didn't speak anything further and I didn't probe either. We were not that close yet.

We quickly got ready, equipping our armour and covering ourselves in mud.

I saw that she didn't hesitate even for a moment and my respect for her grew a bit.

We ventured inside the forest and I found a tree for us and quickly made ourselves comfortable.

For bait, I brought out the meat of the boars I had hunted and tied it to a nearby tree. Veena brought out a pouch of poison and smeared it on the meat.

Huh.

I wasn't doing that before.

But then again, I used to hunt for boars whose meat could be eaten.

Wolf Meat is hard and tastes like shit so it didn't matter.

Finally, I looked at her and decided to test something for the first time.

I opened the Party option and sent her an invite.

She looked surprised for a moment but accepted it.

And then the hunt started.

The Grey Back Wolves of this area were all T2 beasts and actually had a good sense of smell. There were sounds of growling from the nearby bushes within minutes and we waited with bated breaths.

A pack of five wolves appeared and I was about to shoot when Veena stopped me, shaking her head.

"Let them eat."

I looked at her for a moment and agreed.

The wolves bit and tore off the bait from the tree and started eating it then and there and within minutes, they began stumbling into the ground.

"Sleeping Powder." She smiled.

Oh!

So that wasn't poison.

With such easy targets in front of me, I started the attack and within seconds the entire pack of wolves were down.

I went down and replaced the bait and Venna did the same but she actually gutted the wolves in the place and let the blood cover the area.

"The smell will attract more wolves."

With this in mind, we quickly stored the body of the wolves in our inventory and got back up on the trees.

Five hours in, we had hunted twenty five wolves.