It came in like a battering ram! Hydra suddenly realized that he forgot to ask the child where the Liza clan was. He suddenly ran as fast as he could back to where the child was supposed to be. Unfortunately the young boy was already gone, with no other choice Hydra started to ask the local NPC’s if they knew. The results didn’t turn out as favorably as he hoped, and in fact some NPC’s even though responded quite negatively.

“What do you think I’m a map or something?”

“Why would i sacrifice myself to find out the destination of the Liza clan? Do I look like fresh meat to you?”

After quietly with standing the rude remarks of NPC’s for the 100th time he had a faint aura of depression hovering over him. And because of that, users even came to flock him thinking he was a quest giving NPC.

“Hey are you alright? Would you like me to help you? No matter what the Great Drake can help you!”

‘I watched you get defeated in less than 5 seconds. I highly doubt you could’

Although Hydra thought that there was no way to he was going to voice it. He was too depressed to get into a fight and he didn’t have time either! The time limit was just under 24 hours, he didn’t even have time to be sulking in the corner however being snapped at by 100 people was enough to make even the toughest of people feel hurt inside.

‘Whatever, as much as it sucks I’ll just have to leave town and look around. I refuse to fail my first quest!’

Hydra was just about to get up with new determination when another group came over to him.

“Hey, umm I don’t know what happened but don’t be too depressed. It’s your second life after all!

‘oh she’s too bright!’

Hydra was unconsciously blinded by her goodwill. Just as he was squinting his eyes she held out her hand.

“Would you be willing to party up with us?”

Hydra looked up towards the kind girl. She was average looking girl but her kindness was overflowing.

“Actually the reason the reason I’ve been depressed is I needed to find the location of the Liza clan. So I won’t be able to party up with you as the quest I have has a time limit. Sorry for making you come all the over here for nothing.”

“Umm…”

As the girl put his finger to her lips she rushed back to her party. Hydra who had explained his reasoning for rejecting had gotten up and was about to leave when the girl came rushing back.

“My friend knows the location of the Liza clan. Would you be willing to party up with us now?”

“YES!”

Hydra grabbed onto the girl's hands and shook them enthusiastically. The girl happily nodded and called out to her friends.

“Hey guys Shadow agreed to join us!”

“huh Shadow?”

Hydra immediately questioned.

“Oh you haven’t heard of your nickname? We watched you fight those three goons and because of your shadow arm everyone’s

been calling you Shadow. Oh but please don’t misunderstand we didn’t just invite you because you were strong. We sincerely felt depressed looking at you so we decided to say something."

‘No I’m not sure the later of those two is better but in the end I’ll find out where the Liza clan is so I don’t care.’

While the girl was trying to clear up the misunderstanding the rest of her party gathered. It was a balanced party from what Hydra could see. it was 2 girls and 2 guys. When they noticed Hydra was staring at them they suddenly realized started to introduce themselves.

“Hey Shadow I’m the knight Goliath. Nice to meet you!”

He was a big burly man who radiated justice from his neck down he was covered in shiny silver armour. The man beside stepped forward next, he was covered in a typical mage’s robe and to top it off he had the wizard hat as well.

“Can I shake your hand please!”

“uh sure?”

Following his consent the boy shook his hand so many times Hydra was sure to receive a -1 to his health.

“Don’t mind Lockon. He became a fan of yours after your fight. By the way he's a fire mage.”

“Hey that’s rude Goliath. The way Shadow won with a landslide is something to be respectful off! Could you do the same thing?”

“Uh well no but I don’t think that's the point here.”

Goliath tried to retort what Lockon, the mage, said to him but frankly it was true the fight to them was quite one-sided and worthy of praise.

“Now now boys, let’s not worry about that anymore. I think Shadow is personally getting shy over it. Look at him go red! How cute!”

The lady other than the girl to originally call out to him teased him lightly. Although he wasn’t blushing originally the moment she started to tease him he felt his face slightly warm up.

“I’m Lila as you can see I’m an archer and an elf!”

“Yes, we can certainly see that!”

“I didn’t ask you, you pervert!”

The reason Goliath answered for her was she was in a green ranger outfit specially fitted around the curves of an elf that showed the belly. Worst yet she was extremely attractive. While the virtual reality small minor things couldn’t be seen therefore people generally look more attractive than they were but it couldn’t be said for Lila. She was a natural beauty together with her outfit it was definitely something that would attract the gaze of men around her. Hydra was no different and tried his utmost to look around to avoid embarrassment as well.

“I’m Rina!”

Feeling slightly jealous of the gazes around the girl who met Hydra first introduced herself last. Usually it was the other way around but it seemed that Rina was slightly slow in this regard. Although Hydra didn’t notice earlier she was a cleric dressed in a white robe and had a small wand with a sapphire on top.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Hydra.”

“Can I please call you Shadow.”

Lockon quickly disagreed with Hydra’s name.

“If that’s what you want. Just don’t get angry when I don’t respond.”

Hydra chuckled while the rest giggled. Goliath slapped Lockon’s back. But Hydra wasn’t going to disappoint him too much and spoke again.

“It doesn’t matter just try not to do it in public. I’d don’t want to become some kind of celebrity!”

“Okay!”

“Well now that that's settled. I know where the Liza clan lives. Although it's a monster infested area we were looking for a way to hunt fast anyways. Is it okay with you if we leave immediately?”

“Yeah let’s go”

After walking together and chatting, Hydra quickly grew to like his new party members. While he wasn’t sure if they would party for long they all quickly added one another on their friend’s list. Lila was usually teasing Lockon or Goliath, while they could only depressingly accept it. Rina like to chip in once a while when she thought of a good joke or add-on towards Lila’s teasing. The group definitely had a fun environment, it was something Hydra never experienced before as the only people he knew while growing up was his sister’s and later, when he started working at the Old man’s, Sarah. But it wasn’t like he regretted not being able to hang out with others more often he was just slightly glad to be able to join in with a group like this.

“Ah that reminds me. Hydra you don’t have a lot of equipment right? What level are you?”

Rina curiously asked.

“You didn’t check when you added me?”

“Uh no it’s more respectful to ask the person in then to do it unknowingly.”

“Oh I didn’t know that.”

“Really?”

“Yeah I just started playing yesterday after all.”

“”What!?””

Lila quickly grabbed onto Hydra and interrogated him harshly.

“As expected of my hero!”

Lockon was quickly having delusions in his own world.

‘He’s a lot lower level than we thought’

Goliath felt a headache coming on but because they had already became friends he wasn’t about to do anything disrespectful. Rina on the other hand was too shocked to speak.

“Well the circumstances are a little weird for me.”

Hydra explained what he went through yesterday, his luck stat, how he got killed by the NPC, and how he woke up in the cave and finally defeating the Spider Queen collecting the sword, profession and glove. How ever this time everyone copied Rina’s reaction and they were all too shocked to say anything. The first to recover was indeed Lockon

“As expected of Shadow.”

Hydra somehow felt this guy's expectations of him were slightly getting out of hand. Lila nodded as if coming to a conclusion to something.

“I didn’t realize that Hydra would be the ‘Dead nub’ people were so crazily talking about yesterday.”

“Wait what?!”

“People were talking about it crazily how someone somehow hurt a Quartermaster and was killed for it. It was quite the topic after all even if a level 100 hit a Quartermaster they still wouldn’t be able to damage them.”

Hydra had no idea about that until now but it made sense that it would be popular to talk about if it was that hard to damage them after.

“Well more like they made fun of him because he was stupid enough to hit an NPC.”

Lila quickly chided making Hydra suddenly feel hopeless.

“She was just joking, Right Lila!”

Rina gave the glare or at least she tried her best because the moment she did Lila ran over and started to hug her calling her ‘cute’. Goliath pondered for a moment before getting back on track.

“Anyways, you might only be level 7 but you’re definitely strong. So it shouldn’t be a problem getting to the Liza clan. Although I don’t recommend you fighting them.”

“Why what level are they?”

Hydra curiously asked Goliath.

“Not to high only level 50.”

“Ah only 7 times my level this time no biggie.”

He sounded confident but at this moment Hydra felt this mission was going to be a lot more difficult than he originally thought.