Chapter 5: Part 1

Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 5: Goblin Slayer

______________________________________________________________________

- Arthas -

I slumped on the ground while Veena and Shiroe checked the condition of the survivors.

After a moment, Veena put a hand on my shoulder. "This is not real." She reminded me.

I knew that already….and yet….seeing all that made me angry….so angry.

"Close your eyes. Breathe deeply."

I did.

"The sense of reality in this game is messing with everyone's mind. Don't let it catch you off guard." Shiroe said, after finishing up.

A few minutes later, I was more in control, I nodded.

"Thank you. I lost control there for a moment."

"No worries, dear. Such sights making you angry just proves that you are still sane." She patted my back. "That said….this kind of scene….although unpleasant, is how things happen in the real world too. Let's not talk about monsters, even humans do this kind of thing. And right now we are trapped in this….game with millions of such people."

We looked at her surprised.

"Hard times bring out the monsters in people. You should take this opportunity to strengthen your resolve. In such times, excessive anger will only be your enemy. Use it as a motivation but don't let it rule you. If I am not wrong, this is just the first of many things you will witness. Losing your temper later on can lead to losing your life."

We sat there for a few more minutes, each with our own thoughts, the atmosphere growing sombre.

After a while, I got up.

"Let's go. We need to complete the quest."

They nodded as we decided on what to do with the hostages.

By the end, we decided that we will carry one person each while the last one will walk after some healing from Veena.

We used the Monster Repelling Pouches that Veena had prepared and carried the women on our back while I supported the last girl, helping her walk.

The rest of the journey was quiet.

None of us wanted to speak, each of us had our own thoughts in our mind.

I used the chance to check the rewards I had received in the dungeon.

Going back on the list, I saw something that took me by surprise.

Congratulations Traveller.

You have discovered another secret!

Reward: Goblin Slayer Class Unlocked.

Keep working hard.

Traveller.

A Special Title given to those who complete the Hidden Quests, Man of Culture.

+3 to all stats.

+6% to Exp Gained.

Note: The Effect of the Title can be enhanced the more secrets the Traveller discovers in the world.

Goblin Slayer?

They noticed my steps pause for a moment and stopped too.

"Did you sense something?" Shiroe asked, looking around.

"I….unlocked a new Class." I said, after thinking for a moment.

"Knight Class is unlocked already? I thought we have to take them to the castle for that." He asked, confused.

"Not the Knight Class. Another one. This is called….Goblin Slayer."

"....Goblin Slayer?" He asked, unsure, and then as if sensing something, his eyes widened. "A rare class. Is it a Rare Class? How did you unlock it?" He asked quickly.

"I don't know." How was I supposed to tell him that this was the result of that Achievement.

I could only insist that I had no idea and make them think of alternatives.

"Hmm. Was it because of something we did in the Quest?" he thought for a moment then shook his head. "What Tier is it?"

"T4."

"The same as Knight? Could it be a first time completion reward or a Perfect Completion reward since we didn't allow any Hostages to die. Anyways, let's complete the quest and then we can check it out. Just don't switch classes. I remember that you needed to do the Quest while using the Squire Class. It could be a bait. Do it after you complete the quest."

I nodded and we went ahead.

Surprisingly, we didn't encounter anything on our way back.

That said, we definitely attracted many eyes as soon as we reached the town.

By the time we had reached the Knight's Academy, many people were following us from a distance but didn't approach us.

I went and talked to the guard at the gate to submit my quest and they carried the hostages from there.

"Come with me and submit the quest." One of them led me to the reception.

The Receptionist was the same one who gave me the quest, Tyra.

The guy who had led me there told her something and she greeted me cheerfully.

"Congratulations, Arthas. You completed the Quest perfectly and even saved all the missing people. You are officially a Knight from today."

"There were two more people who were already dead. It looked like they had been dead for a while though."

"Yes. Some people from the surrounding areas had gone missing. We will send someone to investigate those. The quest we had was to retrieve the four people you rescued, so congratulations."

She brought out a badge and gave it to me.

"This is your identity plate. Now for your bonus," She brought out a book and placed it in front of me. "This was posted by the family members of the Party whom you rescued. It is a Skill Book of the Skill, Parry. Use it well."

"Thank you." I thanked her.

Knight's Badge.

+10 STR +10 END +10 DEX

T4 Class: Knight Unlocked

To test the class, I changed to the newly unlocked Knight Class.

Congratulations on being the first one from your Country to advance to a 4th Tier Class.

Title Gained

One Among Ten Thousand

+30% increased Exp Gain.

Keep doing your best, Traveller.

Sure enough, there it was.

A 36% increase in EXP Gain was a lot but as classes branch more and more, I would need to level up more than one class to unlock higher level ones and I can lose my advantage in the long run.

Moreover, this message says, first in the Country. Which means there would be others too, in different countries.

Even now, they must be rushing forward to get the first place for the next class change.

I wonder how long I can maintain my advantage?

Since the quest was completed, I took a moment to check the information about Class Advancements for the Knight Class.

I went directly back home after that.

Both Veena and Shiroe were waiting there for me.

They had returned ahead of time to avoid the crowd following us.

I changed into my cloaks and sneaked back in.

"So how was it?" Shiroe asked as soon as he opened the door for me to enter.

I removed my cloak. "I got it. There was also a bonus Skill Book for a perfect completion."

I replied as I sat down on the couch.

"A Skill Book?" He asked.

This was the first Skill Book I had encountered so I guess those were rare.

I just showed him the book.

"What Skill is this?"

"Parry." I replied as Veena poured me some lemonade. "Thank you."

He returned the book back to me. "Then you get the Skill."

I nodded and kept the Skill Book in my inventory.

Next, I went on to explain to them about what I had found out from the Knight Academy.

There were Sword Knight and Shield Knight, depending on which Skill the Knight was more proficient in when they took the Advancement Test.

If their Sword Proficiency was more, they became a Sword Knight and if their Shield Proficiency was more, they became a Shield Knight.

In the rare case however, if they had equal Proficiency in both Skills, they got an option to choose.

In an even rarer case, if they had both Skills Maxed out before taking the Quest, they get the Lord Knight Class.

One can already guess which class was the best among the three.

"Say what one might about this Gamemaster person, but he was quite detailed when making this game. Even if we hadn't been….trapped here as we are, I could still see myself playing this game rigorously." Shiroe commented lightly.

He was not wrong either.

The game was indeed a marvel.

"By the way, did you find out about the Goblin Slayer Class?" He asked, suddenly remembering something.

I shook my head. "No. There was no information about it in the records."

"Really? A completely new class then. A Rare Class. It might be the first Rare Class we have encountered in the Game so far. Do you really have no clue on how you unlocked the Class?" He asked again.

I shook my head. "None."

"That makes it so hard to narrow down. If we knew how to get this Class, we could have totally sold the information and made it rich." He sighed.

"Sorry. I will try to think about anything that might be useful." I lied again.

"So, which Class do you think I should go for for my T5 Advancement? Lord Knight? Or do we research it more?"

"We research obviously but…." He paused for a moment and looked at the two of us. "I think you should go for the Goblin Slayer Class."

"Huh?"

"Alright, listen to me." He explained. "Such Classes will always have advantages over other Classes and we never know what Classes it can unlock when levelled up completely. Knight Class is still mostly known and we don't know if there would be an easy route to T8 or even T9 Advancements. Hell, we don't even know if we could get an easy T6 Advancement for it. Goblin Slayer on the other hand is completely in the unknown. Even if we get nothing out of it, just selling the information about the Details of the Class and its skills will be enough to compensate us for the hard work."

"Hmm….makes sense." Veena agreed too.

"Alright, if that's what you think is good." I agreed.

"We need to address another thing." Shiroe began when the discussion of the Class selection was over.

, "Hmm?"

"We might need to recruit some more members to our team soon." He said quite seriously.

Seeing that we were paying attention to him, he continued.

"The dungeon made me realise that while our three man party is good and can probably handle such dungeons, going forward, three people is just too little. For starters we need another frontliner, preferably a tank and someone who can do AoE damage, a mage probably and finally a Healer. We definitely need a good main healer."

"But aren't you planning to become a mage yourself?" Veena asked.

"I am more of a control type than a damage type." He shrugged.

"So a mage, tank and a healer." I concluded.

"For starters….we will need to get others too. Several DPS, Support Classes and a sub healer for the final team." He confirmed.

"As long as they have decent personalities, I don't have any problems. If that takes us a bit of time, I'd rather wait than take someone untrustworthy with us."

"Right. That's why I suggested this early on. We are still in the starting stages of development so we have some time on our hands."

"How many members do you think we will need?" I asked.

"That depends. What exactly are we aiming for? What exactly is the focus of our guild? Are we going to be explorers and raiders or are we looking to be a casual guild? What scale do we want? Do we want a guild of a dozen highly skilled and well equipped members or do we want a large guild with elaborate management or just a regular guild. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages." He explained.

This led us to think.

I knew a thing or two about managing a business due to the influence of my parents. It might have been due to my personality which was more mature than other kids of my age, that they started teaching me a thing or two from the start. That said, I wasn't sure what I would do about recruitment.

"Can you explain a few advantages and disadvantages of both systems?" Venna asked.

Shiroe nodded and started. "Small Guilds means less members, a small number of people which in turn means more trust and a greater degree of teamwork and understanding between the members. Management will be relatively simple. The rules are lax since everyone is basically friends. Also, since the levels of all members will be more or less similar, it's easier to move from one place to another. The downsides are that we might not be able to take large scale quests. We will need to choose the members very carefully so as to balance the team and in case someone leaves or…." He paused.

We looked at him and he took a deep breath and continued.

"In case someone leaves or….dies, we would need to train more members to take their place and it would leave the team completely unbalanced. There are other things too."

"What about the big guilds?"

"Spending power. The big guilds will have an enormous spending power. Their large numbers will mean that they can always have enough members to grind. They can occupy areas of maps completely for private use and fighting them will be hard. After all, numbers do matter….at least in the starting levels. They command a massive influence in the game. They can have their own production side which produces potions and weapons and with that many people farming, the raw materials for the production side is never low. The downside is that management is a terrible pain in the ass." He sighed. "The rules of the big guild are stricter and there are many restrictions on the members."

He went on to explain several things.

"Have you….I mean were you in any guilds?" I asked.

"In my last game?" He asked and I nodded. "Well, a few. Generally small guilds. I was more of an independent player. We did have a group of friends from different guilds who you used to gather together and clear difficult raids but….we never formed a formal guild." He had a smile on his face when he said this as if reminiscing about those times.

I looked at Veena. "So, what do you think we should do?" I asked.

"Hmm….both sides have advantages we cannot deny. Then, how about this. We find good players first. Skilled and trustworthy. We form a team and level up to get a significant advantage over others. These members will form the core of our guild, the ones who will concentrate on levelling and clearing the game. Then we invite smaller teams to join us and expand. Let's see it this way. This is a place where anyone can work slowly and become extremely strong. I am sure that with your T4 Class, you can take down a dozen T3 players in just a matter of months. Weaker players will always be attracted to such power. Groups will form in this way."

We looked at her confused and she continued.

"Not all players are fighters, Arthas. People like us….are rare. If the danger of dying is as real as we think it is, not many players will be daring to risk it. You don't realise it but among over three thousand players, only a few dozen have reached this town even now and most of them are not even T3. By this point, most players have just accepted their reality and yet only a few have the courage to fight forward. That said, everyone has their uses."

Shiroe seemed to have understood something and had a look of realisation while Veena continued.

"We target those players who don't want to risk levelling up in dangerous places. The production classes. They are not as strong as fighter classes and will obviously be exploited if they have no support. This will cause them to gather around stronger players for protection. We target them first. They might not have raw power but controlling the economy is a great power in itself. Money will allow us to keep our advantage over others as well as train new members."

"So a big guild." Shiroe answered.

"More like an alliance of sorts." She explained.

"But the question still remains. Would we be able to maintain such a guild?"

"I happen to have some experience in managing and recruiting people." She answered.

She always did seem like that type to be honest.

"Very well. If you all don't have any problems, I don't mind either. Arthas?"

"I don't mind either." I shook my head.

"Great. Then we look for potential teammates. I will keep an eye out for other production class people."

"That only leaves us with one last question." The two of them looked at me.

"Huh?"