Chapter 10: Part 1

Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 10: Testing Skills

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- Arthas -

"Oh come on, there has to be more slots open." I heard the first thing as I walked out the Guild Halls.

"Unfortunately, we don't have any empty slots yet. You all need to wait till the Guild level increases or someone quits the guild. Until then we can do nothing." Shiroe replied.

"You know that's not true. Some of the people in the Guild told us that there were still six slots left. There are only ninety four members in the guild currently. It means you can get six more people in." Someone argued.

He was not wrong either.

Guild Members could see the list of names of the guild members at any point of time. It was part of the Guild chat system. It was simple information in the Guild menu.

It was easy to find that we had empty slots.

The reason we kept those was in case we got any team members or found any real life friends of the main team.

Looking at the group, I recognised several of them were the same people who were the first ones to leave. In fact, coincidentally, the one questioning Shiroe was the same guy who was asking what advantage we could give them for them to join our guild.

"Those slots are for private use." Shiroe replied firmly.

"What do you mean by private use? So you are just going to leave people out while there are obviously empty slots in the guild?" The guy argued back.

I took this opportunity to intervene. "Obviously not. That would be foolish."

They all turned to look at me and on realising who I was, a smile formed on the guy's face while Shiroe remained stoic.

I gave them my best smile and continued. "Not using things when we can….would be incredibly foolish, not to be a waste of resources."

"See….that's what I was saying." He said looking back at Shiroe. "But some people are just too dumb to understand."

….

It was during these times that I was somewhat grateful for my difficulty to show emotions.

It took significantly less effort to hide my annoyance.

"Exactly….so tell me, what do you bring to the table?" I asked, looking at him.

"Huh?" The guy was obviously not expecting this.

I explained. "Not using our resources is obviously foolish….but why should we use them on you?" I asked. "We have hundreds of people lining up to join our guild and will have thousands more in the future so….why should we give you the slot we have reserved for our main team members. What makes you so special? What can you contribute to the guild to warrant that kind of treatment?" I questioned in an even tone.

"What do you mean? I want to join the guild."

"Eh….was that too many words for you? You are the same guy who was angry that we wouldn't babysit anyone and asked us what advantages we could give you all. Then without waiting cursed us and left with your entire group." I asked, looking at the group behind him.

Most of them turned their eyes away from me, not matching my gaze.

"Now I am asking you….what advantage can you give us that other members of our guild cannot? In even simple words and pardon my language….who the fuck do you think you are?"

His mouth opened like a fish but no words came out of it. "I am an archer…." He tried to argue.

"And so are many others." I replied, cutting him off immediately.

I could see his stats.

T3 Level 6 Apprentice Archer.

It was decent but nothing to write home about.

Why the fuck was he even acting so arrogant?

By now the members of my guild had gathered outside too and all of them were listening to the argument.

Running my gaze over the crowd who were arguing with Shiroe, I spoke again. "You people seem to be forgetting something very simple here. Fairy Tail is our guild….not a public property. If we say there are no empty slots….there are no empty slots. End of the discussion. Or perhaps do you think you bunch are more special than the ones who lined up here for so long to sign their names up and then queued their names for when the guild expanded?"

Seeing the entire crowd become quiet, I finished my speech. "The recruitment of the guild will be carried out as per the rules we have set. The extra slots are a private matter of our guild. Thank you for your time."

I turned towards Shiroe. "Will you take care of this?"

"Sure."

The rest of the crowd settled easily after this.

Shiroe and Star had decided that they will be staying in the second floor of the Guild Building till the matters of the guild were settled. This way they can save rent and invest in their equipment.

By the time we left the Guild Hall, it was already too late for us to cook so we ate our dinner at the Inn and left for our respective houses.

While eating at the Inn, we spotted one of Gareth's men keeping an eye on us from a distance away. They didn't approach us however so we didn't approach them either.

As usual, we cleaned up and went to bed and it was then that Veena asked me.

"So….any guesses about my identity?" She asked with a smile.

Was she really doing this again?

I looked at her, slightly wet hair, stunning face and figure and then I remembered her cunning from the evening where she practically ruined Dwain with just some words.

"Hmm….If you were to be a Supernatural being, I would say you would be….a nine tailed fox." I guessed. "Charming and yet extremely cunning."

"Oh my, that's quite the praise….but wrong unfortunately." She laughed.

"Ah, I was quite sure about this one." I smiled too.

"Too bad. You can try again next week."

"Sure." I rolled my eyes.

She just giggled at my reaction and hugged me and I allowed myself to fall asleep too.

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"Are you sure that we need to go out this early? It's still dark outside." Star said as we left the city through one of the back gates, dressed in black, at 4 in the morning.

"We have to do this to avoid people following us. This will be even more so now that people want to find out our so-called secret of levelling." Shiroe said, making air quotes.

"It's better to avoid all the unnecessary drama." I added.

"And what of the guild? Who will take care of the guild while we hunt?"

"I have asked some of my Herbalist friends from the Guild to keep an eye on things. If they need anything, they can just message us through the Guild Chat."

We might have to hire some people to manage the guild when we go off to hunt. Another thing to think about later.

Managing a guild was not an easy task.

It had been three days since the Guild was formed and we spent most of the time hammering out the details but there was only so much one could do in three days.

An organisation needed a lot more time to get established and all of this was delaying our levelling time.

That was our main priority so we decided to take on some quests and leave for a levelling trip.

Coincidentally, the Knight's Academy had issued some missions.

After the goblin raids, the defence of the province had been at an all time low.

This has caused many bandits to come out and attack the outskirts of several villages and hide.

We were given a mission to patrol certain areas and eliminate the bandits if we encountered them.

The quest was seven days long and at our current pace, we could cover the distance in three days but Shiroe had planned the route for us that would let us hunt in between.

"This is the starting point." I said as we reached the place to start. "Our job is to go from here to Brightwood Village and then to Redwick Village and then back to Llyne to report. Shiroe."

"Alright! We are going to go from this place to here and then cut back to Redwick. Arthas and Veena were originally from Redwick and according to the map we have and the information from him, there are no monsters above T3 in this area….or rather there weren't. I have marked some places which could be possible bandit hideouts. A common factor between these places is that all these points are by the riverside. We need to be careful though. Bandits will be far more smart than goblins or other animals. We should be expecting traps. I guess we can count on Star to check those out."

"Got it."

"If things go well, we can get your Ranger quest done by the third day."

In the past three days, Shiroe had gone out with Star to see his list of Skills and how to accommodate them in our team's dynamics during the hunts.

In doing so, they had obtained the last bit of experience needed for him to get to Level 30. The next thing they did was going to the Black Market and finding a Class suitable for Star and the conditions to get it.

Unfortunately that Class was T5 and he would need to become a T4 Ranger and T4 Swordsman for it.

He took the Ranger quest before leaving and we intend to complete it before we head back.

His quest was to track down a group of smugglers in the forests who have been selling illegal stuff in Llyne.

After some research we found the place to be between Redwick and Brightwood and that's the reason we took this quest from the Knight's Academy among all others of the same kind.

Now we are seeing how difficult it is to raise the classes at higher levels and it makes me realise how lucky I was that I was getting such great classes from the Traveller Achievements.

I wonder how many classes we have to level up to get higher Tier Classes and how much time that would take?

I need to keep on trying to get the Traveller Achievement.

I did notice something though.

Just saying something at random times does not activate the achievement.

The references have to be said at certain times and in different scenarios. This is what makes it harder to get the achievements so easily.

And with some more instructions, we proceeded forward.

Star was a hunter but he was also adept with Swords.

The Class he was aiming at will let him use both a small crossbow and swords, a perfect fit for his fighting style.

He was pretty skilled with the bow too. He used a crossbow unlike me.

It had a shorter range but hit harder.

All of us felt the decrease in load when he was covering our backs during the hunts.

"Arthas pull back and heal, I will cover for you." Shiroe shouted.

I just smiled. I still hadn't used my new skills yet.

Raising my sword above my head, I shouted. 'For The Light!'

A flash of light fell on us as our HP went back to the green zone.

"Holy fuck!" I heard Shiroe shout.

"Nah, it's Holy Light." I joked before sending a Focus Strike at the monster in front of me, knocking it back again and taking a look at them.

Shiroe was grumbling but getting to work. Star was just laughing.

Veena….well, she was checking herself with an amazed look on her face.

"Arty, you ass. Is this what you were hiding?" Shiroe shrugged as the fight completed.

"One of them, yes."

"You were really waiting for this, weren't you? Do you know how much trouble it is to calculate the skill rotation timings? Just tell me about your other Skills already."

"Alright. I just wanted to see your face." I laughed.

"You are an ass." He rolled his eyes.

I obviously wouldn't have done it in a dangerous situation.

"Alright, apart from this, I have a few more skills." I explained my new Skills to him.

"Two Healing Skills. That's insane. And it's instant healing too. Until we get a Cleric, we can pull through with this. This, matched with your Dragon Skin Skill, Devotion Aura and the Limitless Skill, if we can get the last two pieces of that Blessed Sun Set, you would become a nigh Unkillable Tank."

"Man….that Dwain guy really had no chance." Star shook his head.

We laughed a bit at it and then went out to hunt again.