And so seven months passed since the tournament which was an eventful time period which also marked the 2 year mark since they had started playing Royal Road. Since that time, they had reached the level 150 point in their character development. To be precise, all of them passed the level 150 point with some having one or two levels at maximum higher than the others due to the increasing experience requirements to level up.

Since then, the three that didn't gain a title yet recently which were Sain, Raven and Shadow also gained new ones as well after various events.

The charge of beasts that gathered under the ruler-ship of a giant boar, the tracking of a money launderer that stole from many and the towering block against a giant ancient golem that threatened a village.

Sain now had the title 'Unexpected Leader', Shadow with 'Silent Stalker' and Raven with 'Unmoving Tower'. Due to all of them gaining a new title, the old ones effects were replaced as well but for the better.

Unexpected Leader

Something that seemed like a side character and yet is actually a person that is the main star of the show! Those who process this title will be unexpectedly good at leading others due to their ability to see beyond the norm

Leadership +20

Ability to command other +20%

Silent Stalker

A dark being that has no hesitation to cause grief and torment in a target. In the day or night, the target will be tracked no matter what. The person stalking in question can blend into crowds itself and this title is proof of it.

Agility +20

Stealth is 15% more effective

Unmoving Tower

With great strength and endurance, a person with this title can take on a large beast without moving. Strength, balance and endurance are the three things that are used to block attacks and only when they are perfected, this title is granted by taking down a large beast.

Endurance +20

Damage taken while blocking -20%

The titles that they gained during their first month in the game only increased all of their stats by 1 and another effect as well. But with these better titles, the effects of them are much better as well although they lost a slight bonus to other stats in the end.

As such the group was not at all sad that they weren't able to get the effects of their past titles...though according to what they found, there were titles that still had an effect on you even without it being the 'active' one.

These were usually negative titles but there were a few like the 'Bookworm in Training' title that Miriel gained early on as well that were the same. These titles are insignificant individually but when stacked up are extremely powerful.

Other than that, their fame increased by around 200 points each in this 7 month period. As such their status windows were as such now.

Status WindowSainShadow[quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 152,Level: 151]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Unexpected Leader,Title: Silent Stalker]Fame: 835,Fame: 820[/quart][quart=Health: 5887,Health: 5456]Mana: 2487,Mana: 994[/quart][quart=Strength: 187 +30,Strength: 182 +46]Agility: 202 +60,Agility: 526 +70[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 181 +24,Intelligence: 15 +13]Wisdom: 181 +48,Wisdom: 15 +13[/quart][quart=Vitality: 196 +13,Vitality: 175 +13]Stamina: 93 +16,Stamina: 115 +16[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 60 +21,Fighting Spirit: 70 +21]Endurance: 27 +13,Endurance: 23 +13[/quart][quart=Leadership: 17 +33,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 9 +13,Luck: 35+23[/quart][quart=Offense: 237,Offense: 245]Defence: 81,Defence: 50[/quart]

Status WindowRavenLyndis[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 150,Level: 150]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Unmoving Tower,Title: Bomb Maniac]Fame: 810,Fame: 810[/quart][quart=Health: 9993,Health: 5828]Mana: 1044,Mana: 1924[/quart][quart=Strength: 340 +59,Strength: 347 +45]Agility: 200 +25,Agility: 230 +20[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 15 +18,Intelligence: 171 +41]Wisdom: 20 +18,Wisdom: 17 +16[/quart][quart=Vitality: 341 +58,Vitality: 185 +13]Stamina: 125 +21,Stamina: 100 +16[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 65 +26,Fighting Spirit: 66 +19]Endurance: 50 +38,Endurance: 30 +12[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5+18,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 5 +18,Luck: 7 +13[/quart][quart=Offense: 370,Offense: 144]Defence: 430,Defence: 86[/quart]

Status WindowMirielSerena[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 152,Level: 152]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Tournament Winner,Title: Born of Blood]Fame: 1025,Fame: 830[/quart][quart=Health: 2609,Health: 2295]Mana: 4172,Mana: 3768[/quart][quart=Strength: 20 +30,Strength: 19 +47]Agility: 179 +50,Agility: 196 +30[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 492 +59,Intelligence: 338 +23]Wisdom: 179 +35,Wisdom: 348 +48[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 22 +28,Fighting Spirit: 22 +24]Endurance: 20 +23,Endurance: 20 +13[/quart]Concentration: 40 +22Concentration: 49 +13[quart=Vitality: 30 +23,Vitality: 30 +13]Stamina: 70 +26,Stamina: 65 +28[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5 +23,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 5 +23,Luck: 7 +13[/quart][quart=Offense: 56,Offense: 59]Defence: 84,Defence: 59[/quart]

Seeing this the differences between each member of the group was becoming more apparent. Raven's health is at the top with Miriel and Serena's health at the bottom with the rest having roughly the same amount.

As for mana, Miriel and Serena were at the top with Sain and Lyndis at the middle and Raven and Shadow at the bottom of that list. Stat wise, the group had barely gained any due to them not doing particularly straining activities like fighting hordes of enemies for hours.

Another thing to note is their skills window. Over the last 7 months there had been some progress but nothing like the giant leaps and bounds that came with Viv helping them train their skills and spells.

Skill Window[third=Serena,Miriel]Lyndis[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (15/100)

- Nature Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (15/100)

- Mediation Beginner level 8(19/100)

- Mana Burst Beginner level 3 (12/100)

- Minor Health Regeneration Intermediate level 2 (470/2600)

- Moderate Health Regeneration Beginner level 3 (1450/2900)

- Minor Stamina Regeneration Intermediate level 1 (1351/2400)

- Moderate Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 1 (1450/2500)

- Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100)

- Language Comprehension Beginner level 3 (17/100)

- Blood Burst Beginner level 8 (877/1500)

- Root Bind Intermediate level 4 (522/3000)

- Heartbeat Healing Intermediate level 1 (59/100)

- Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100)

- Poison Removal Beginner Level 2 (88/100)

- Health Restoration Beginner Level 7 (85/100)

- Poison Coating Beginner Level 5 (167/900)

- Blessing of Strengthened Night Beginner (10035/100 000)

- Blessing of Invisible Torments Beginner (8734/100 000)

- Blessing of Eternal Suns Beginner (2500/100 000)

- Leaf Slicer Intermediate Level 1 (221/2500),- Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (19/100)

- Whip Mastery Beginner Level 7 (24/100)

- Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 6 (32/100)

- Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 7 (22/100)

- Barrier Magic Mastery Beginner 5 (32/100)

- Ice Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (13/100)

- Magic Control Mastery Intermediate 1 (32/100)

- Mediation Beginner level 8 (12/100)

- Cooking Beginner Level 5 (63/100)

- Identify Beginner level 3 (12/100)

- Mana Bolt Intermediate level 1 (52/2400)

- Clairvoyance Beginner level 7 (1056/1300)

- Melody of Sound Intermediate level 1 (730/2500)

- Cracked Barrier Intermediate level 1 (1020/2400)

- Fortified Barrier Beginner Level 3 (333/2900)

- Shriek Beginner level 9 (199/1700)

- Ice Bolt Intermediate Level 4 (60/3000)

- Ice Burst Beginner Level 8 (345/1800)

- Freeze Beginner Level 5 (111/900)

- Ice Barrier Beginner Level 8 (91/2200)

- Sound Tunes Variation Beginner Level 6 (11/1300)

- Muffletone Beginner Level 4 (23/700)

- Glacier Strike Beginner Level 5 (91/900)]- Sword Mastery Intermediate 2 (72/100)

- Fire Manipulation Mastery Intermediate Level 2 (28/100)

- Cooking Beginner Level 5 (25/100)

- Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (154/700)

- Fire Blade Intermediate level 3 (873/2800)

- Life Burn Beginner level 5 (380/900)

- Power Strike Intermediate level 2 (440/2600)

- Speed Strike Intermediate level 2 (470/2600)

- Power Stance Intermediate level 2 (460/2600)

- Speed Stance Intermediate level 1 (310/2400)

- Precision Stance Intermediate level 1 (355/2400)

- Burning Touch Beginner Level 7 (622/1300)

- Flame Strike Intermediate Level 1 (523/2400)

- Sword Dance Beginner Level 9 (310/1700)

- Fire Bomb Intermediate Level 1 (513/2400)

- Bandaging Beginner Level 8 (12/100)

- Flame Coating Beginner Level 5 (18/900)[/third]

Skill Window[third=Raven,Shadow]Sain[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Intermediate Level 2 (84/100)

- Shield Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (55/100)

- Shield Bash Intermediate level 2 (121/2400)

- Double Strike Intermediate level 2 (353/2600)

- Footwork Intermediate level 2 (544/2600)

- Repair Beginner level 9 (572/2500)

- Ram Beginner level 9 (85/100)

- Shield Parry Intermediate level 1 (61/2400)

- Spear Parry Intermediate level 1 (657/2400)

- Body Reinforcement Intermediate level 3 (15/2900)

- Anchor Howl Beginner Level 9 (240/1700),- Dagger Mastery Intermediate 3 (651/100)

- Stealth Intermediate Level 9 (74/100)

- Hearing Intermediate level 3 (59/100)

- Dark Vision Beginner level 5 (35/100)

- Night Vision Beginner level 5 (88/100)

- Locate Trap Beginner level 7 (25/100)

- Disarm Trap Beginner level 7 (42/100)

- Backstab Intermediate level 2 (881/2600)

- Double Strike Intermediate level 1 (674/2400)

- Climbing Intermediate Level 1 (89/100)

- Become Mist Beginner level 4 (16/100)

- Burst Speed Intermediate level 3 (225/2800)

- Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100)

- Pin Point Hearing Beginner Level 5 (26/100)

- Shadow Step Intermediate Level 1 (127/2400)]- Compressed Magic Mastery Beginner Level 7 (15/100)

- Mana Control Intermediate Level 2 (75/100)

- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 8 (22/100)

- Identify Beginner level 4 (70/100)

- Party Scan Beginner level 6 (20/100)

- Mana Bolt Intermediate level 3 (355/2800)

- Mediation Intermediate level 1 (8/100)

- Summon Familiar Beginner level 5 (4/900)

- Minor Heal Intermediate level 3 (822/2800)

- Moderate Heal Beginner Level 5 (215/3300)

- Weaken Intermediate level 1 (1046/2400)

- Bursting Will Beginner level 7 (50/100)

- Wolf Summoning Beginner level 5 (47/100)

- Magic Arrow Intermediate level 2 (923/2600)

- Water Fill Beginner Level 5 (164/900)

- Iron Skin Beginner Level 8 (75/100)

- Swift Legs Beginner Level 8 (75/100)

- Berserk Fury Beginner Level 8 (75/100)

- Poison Removal Beginner Level 2 (21/100)

- Paralyse Shot Beginner Level 9 (132/900)

- Poison Shot Beginner Level 9 (479/900

[/third]

There were several new skills and spell that they had learnt during this time as well. Miriel gained these two spells, one of them which she made in the tournament. She had been working mostly on training her various mastery skills as she had seven of them.

Glacier Strike Beginner Level 5

Created ice at the ground to shoot up at an angle at an target. The impact will cause the target to fly away with the possibility of stunning if not knocking them unconscious.

Mana Cost: 100

Fortified Barrier Beginner Level 3

Create a sound barrier around the target that will block damage and disappear when the barrier's health is depleted.

Damage Blockable: 1500

Mana Cost: 150

On the other hand Serena really only gained some spells due to the next stage of it unlocking.

Moderate Health Regeneration Beginner Level 3

Heals 1300 Health over a total of 100 seconds or 10 Health per Second

Heal: 1300

Mana Cost: 50 Mana

Cool Down: 20 Seconds

Moderate Stamina Regeneration Beginner Level 1

Heals 1000 Stamina over a total of 100 seconds or 10 Health per Second

Heal: 1000

Mana Cost: 50 Mana

Cool Down: 20 Seconds

As for everyone else, they had gained no new skills or spells due to them only using their current ones. In terms of progress most skills and spells that are at least of the Beginner Level 7 range would increase to the Intermediate Level. Skills and spells under that are increased by a range of 4-5 levels in the intermediate and those already in the intermediate levels increased by a range of 2-3 levels.

xXx

Coupled with the girls of the group, they were now fairly well known in Lily City for good and bad reasons. But at the same time they did not desire this at all.

Because of this they were in their current situation. Sain was racking his brains out trying to think of a way out of this right now while the others kept watch of anything that may come near.

“Damn did they find us again?” Shadow whispered to the others. He was hanging on the side of the building they were on and had a better view of everything else on the ground then the rest of the ground. Right now the group was strangely enough in an alley way to which was due to a certain quest they were doing.

“Shadow are there anyone nearby?” Sain asked having an headache on what happened recently. Before this, they were chased by a dozen players all trying to drag them down shouting for information, money and the quest itself.

It was quite a frightening sight that would make you lose faith in people. The decent ones at least backed away when asked to, they almost had to cause a massacre in the middle of the city.

“Remind me again how we got into this situation?” Miriel asked as well with a slight accusing gaze at Sain. The group knew that this problem began with Sain...though did not end with him.

To this, Sain had to sigh and said, “Because I wanted to get some materials from a quest that would be quite useful in making a better weapon for me to use. I didn't know that it happened to be a rare quest that lots of people seemed to want in on.”

It was indeed a rare quest but not an unique one. There had been similar quests that popped up before and the rewards were posted online which meant anyone with the right mind who knew of this would want in with the quest.

“Yes, perhaps next time you should tell us if a quest would result in every player from under level 200 to try and leech off us else try to steal the quest from us!” Lyndis almost shouted with stress.

“Shhhh!” everyone else stopped Lyndis from shouting where they were.

There were two ways of gaining quests in the game. The first was the traditional way of getting it and so on. The second way was something that is considered a bad taste though acceptable at times. It is to steal the quest from another player.

With enough fame and contributions to the faction that gave the quest you can take the quest from a player after killing them and gaining information and collect the reward when you complete it.

Naturally this would not work if the quest had been already completely since that would just be reaping other people's rewards. You need to do it while they are on the quest itself.

“It's not like you helped as well seeing that YOU were the reason that the other players knew that we had this quest” scorned Shadow, “You and your big mouth was actually the main reason we're hiding here in the first place!”

Lyndis looked away a bit at his words. Actually it was mainly her fault that they were chased around so early. With a quest like this, information being slipped was inevitable and as such they would have been chased already.

However being chased while being unprepared was something else since Sain did not complete the preparations with Alena after accepting the quest a few hours ago. They were chased after they reached some of the lower layers of the city from Alena's place.

Seeing the nothing was going on now, they were waiting for the right chance, Shadow finally said, “Anyway I'm going to check the surrounding area for a bit” while disappearing into the night with his stealth skill.

Nearing the Advance levels, he was able to slip into buildings without notice as well. Now all he had to get was a pickpocket skill and lock-picking skill and he was the perfect thief not that he would admit to such a generic class.

“Sigh...” Sain started remember the events a bit...

Listing down the events that happened...first it was him with Raven talking to a local blacksmith about some arrangements for Raven to train his 'Repair' skill. He was very close to the Intermediate Level and thus could learn the 'Blacksmithing' skill soon after.

However to do so with this blacksmith which one of the higher rates of experience gain under him as said by Alena you need to do a favour for him. As such it turned up as a quest.

Sain accepted a quest didn't think much of it. He told the others about it and headed to Alena to tell her about it as well. When Alena heard of this, she paled and made some preparations immediately.

And then Lyndis talked about it a bit somewhere else which attracted the attention of certain players. This led to numerous players trying to get the quest as well and the group decided to run away.

In Sain's inventory was a map to the location of the quest. The quest itself was simple but the reward was something else.

Locate the Magitite Ore

Given the map from an old blacksmith, find the mine and collect the ores for the blacksmith to use.

Quest Rank: C

Requirements: Level 150, Fame +800

Reward: Magitite Ingots or Weapon made by Magitite Ingots

From what Sain could tell with some research, Magitite was a material used for lightning based magical weapons and it was considered a high class item for those under level 400. The quest rank itself wasn't high since it wasn't so difficult but the mines location was the real prize here.

Another thing was that the damage factor into a weapon made by one was high enough that warrants such weapons being sold for a hundred thousand gold. The main reason for this was the passive effect of increasing mana and mana regeneration.

Along with this was that the damage a weapon made with this material would have double the attack of his current spear which was high quality but made from common materials in the end. Plus judging by the content of the reward on the forums, he could make his new weapon a custom spear that doubled as a staff as well.

'Well in the end I could just sell it if it doesn't work that well...' he thought as well if the quest reward didn't go as well as he thought.

'Miriel would be very happy if I did sold it though...' Sain smirked a bit thinking about it. Thankfully since it was dark they couldn't see his face right now which would make thing awkward for him.

Naturally this attracted certain players that wish to get the material for selling later on and certain blacksmiths that want to quickly improve their blacksmithing skill due to the fact that higher quality materials will give back more experience in blacksmithing.

As such this quest and the material itself was something that was highly craved for.

“There are too many people around” Shadow said returning. Hearing this the rest of the group sighed. This meant that the chance that they would get out of the city would be too low to even try now.

“S-Should we l-log out?” Serena suggested to the others. Sain considered this and really did not want to since it would waste time...but at the same time it looked like the only choice right now.

“Yeah...I think we do” he finally said seeing that there was only a low chance of things going right currently.

With that the group logged off the game and back into reality.

xXx

“Waaaaaaaaah.....” Peter let out that sound as he exited the game. His body was quite stiff if not for his real body not moving but also his virtual body being stiff as well when he logged off.

Peter was quite tired when he got out of the capsule. It was mainly due to the fact that recently he had been in the game too long without sleep that he was in this state. The reason for this was simple, he wanted to train his skills a bit more.

“I guess there still won't be many chances to train some more...” he muttered under his breath.

The increase in the group's skill level dramatically decreased with time, no it was the increase in the requirements to increase the skill levels. From the intermediate level point in a skill or spell, it would take the equivalent of 3-4 levels of the late beginner levels.

“Speaking of which...we got another quest...”

Ever since the tournament, the time they spend on training decreased and the time they spent running around the place and doing different quests increased. In the last seven months, Sain and the others had probably done around 30 or so quests in total which would each take up a few days to weeks to finish.

They were things from hunting some monsters in certain areas to protecting merchants from bandits and monsters alike as they travelled. Such quests were low on experience compared to the extremely difficult Guild Quests but they did give some good rewards on occasions especially if they were a chain quest.

These results were mainly in gold and less so in materials and items. Even those items and materials were of no use of them so they sold most of them elsewhere since they were lower quality goods most of the time.

The real reward for these large number of quests was the increased relationship with the NPC and the city itself which granted them a small discount here and there. Plus they gained some interesting information such as rumours at the same time and access to other quests.

Right now, adding onto the amount they had before the tournament and gained due to it, the group has around 7000 gold in storage, safeguarded by Alena. Even for a level 200 player, this amount of gold could get them a good set of armour and weapons to use. However this was split between a group of six so in reality it was more that they had a little over a thousand gold each.

“With this quest...we should try to hunt a bit in the mines...” he continued to mutter aloud to himself. According to the some sources, the monsters there are in the level 150 range. It could be a good chance to clear it out in around a month and gain around five levels as a result.

Ten straight months of doing this, hopping to other stronger dungeons, the group could be able to reach level 200 and have some time to spare as well.

“Is everyone all right? You all are awfully quiet right now...” Peter heard Maria say in a long strained voice. It did not, Peter noticed, have the usual loud and energetic feel to it that she would normally have whether they were in a pinch or just relaxing. To be honest it was quite annoying at stressful times.

Getting out, Peter saw Maria stretched her arms and then proceeded to see if the others were all right with a bit of a hurry.

“Just verrry tired so shut it” Ian replied as loud as he could when Maria came to him as well after checking with Hina, Grace, Mark and himself.

“Ian there are other people in this dorms sleeping you know. Don't talk so loud” Peter had to remind him walking towards him as well.

“How can you continue to talk so much like this?” Ian had to ask with a surprised tone.

With no response from Peter there was a sigh coming from Ian the conversation was cut off there.

Eventually one by one, the rest of the group gathered on the sofa and chairs that were around the room and slumped on there. They were gathered in a circle facing each other. Most of them were droopy looking with some of them falling asleep and watching one moment to another. Peter himself was one of the most affected since he had the least amount of sleep out of everyone accounting for many things.

What happened around in the game, what places would be good to train at, what skills and spells that they should learn, the classes and their advantages and disadvantages and so on were on his mind. Most importantly were of the guild related stuff and what Eden and the others planned with them.

These were the things that were on his mind most of the time.

“Damn I am too tired to talk right now....” Ian muttered wishing to sleep right now. Peter felt the same way but his sense of responsibility to the rest of the group was too much for him to sleep.

Hina sighed and said in a sarcastic tone, “We DID run around the city for an entire half day without rest...I guess the strain is getting to us right now.”

Peter nodded. They did run around the city for that long and in the end was forced to log off to escape.

However once again, since this was something important, Peter reminded them, “We still have school tomorrow as well...” he looked outside the window and it was night...around 12 am to be precise of the clock was correct. They could just rest in the game for a day but seeing that it was not a wise idea right now, they had to do so in reality.

“There are 10 hours...” Ian thought about it for a second before continuing, “Until that homeroom thing starts...don't tell me you want to attend it” Ian said surprised at Peter's ability to want to go to school.

“I think we should” Peter said bluntly.

“Do we have to?” Maria has to ask.

“Besides that combat class that Alexandra hosts for us I don't think there are any classes that we should take at all” Hina said however Peter said, “There are other classes on Royal Road there as well. History lessons and otherwise that might be useful as well.”

“Which we have researched beforehand already” Hina interrupted, “Those classes that they give are just a waste of time which is why we don't even attend them.”

Peter pointed out, “But not all of them though. There are some classes that might be useful. For example there are VR classes on production classes that allows you to practise out of game with in game features.”

“....”

Hina thought about it for a bit and then said, “Speaking of production...are we going to pick that up as well? I mean Mark intends to learn blacksmithing when he gets his repair skill high enough right?”

Mark nodded.

“Aside from blacksmithing, there is tailoring, sculpturing, fishing, mining, enchanting, writer, painter, alchemist, scholar, weaver, jewellery, carpentry, architecty, merchant and so on, I think some of us should pick one up later on” Hina suggested.

“Personally I would take up being merchant to get the discount on money and such but unfortunately it is nearly impossible to get the skill without changing class to one” Hina further explained.

Hina waved her hand while looking bored and continued to say, “As for the other professions, maybe one or two of them are worth the effect but they are highly specialised in that they would take too much time to train. Basically it would be nice to achieve one of them in our spare time.”

Thinking of this some more. she looked at Mark first, “Fishing which grants a good bonus to health and some other stats as well when it reaches the intermediate level.”

“True but it would take a few month of non stop fishing to get it to that point and besides there isn't exactly a good stop nearby to do so. Plus it would be extremely boring and a waste of time to do so” Ian pointed out rejecting the idea of Mark fishing for that long that only that.

“Or we all could do so at the same time and get those bonuses” said Maria a bit hopeful on the idea.

“““No”””

Peter, Hina and Ian all rejected that idea quite quickly.

One person wasting his time on this activity was one thing but the entire group doing so no matter what benefits it might give so was another thing itself. Plus with more people fishing there is a slower pace of experience gain in the production skill itself at a single location which gives even more problems.

In other words it was something that would be taken as a hobby instead. Plus Mark would take up blacksmithing first.

“Fine then” Maria said seeing the reaction of the others, “I'll take up fishing on my own then.”

“Wait” Ian stopped to stare at Maria, “YOU want to take up fishing?”

“Well...” Maria was a bit hesitant, “Other than moving my body a lot, I do have a thing for staying still and can't always be known as a sword freak to the rest of you.”

“I don't think that will help anymore” said Peter thinking back at the last two years where she had been only focused on the sword. She had proven quite a number of times that she was quite used to the heat of the battle and even more so to violence.

However at the same time it would be nice that Maria was not always acting like she wanted to pick a fight continuously.

“But if you want, make sure that you don't drag your performance down with it” Peter advised to which sparked an argument from Hina to not waste time altogether.

After a few more minutes of them arguing on various things of what to do in the future, it was decided once again for the nth time that it would be best to let it go as it goes. With this, the six retired to the night.

xXx

“This is KMC news and we are live on report on the Imperial Palace that after recent events and including an evacuation of the city itself” said a good looking reporter. The group did not pay much attention on her but the news she brought instead.

“Since yesterday, we have been given reports of a large scale army of unknown origins invading the capital city and the Imperial Palace itself. The Emperor Weed was not present on questioning but...”

The news continued to say several things like who might be the cause of these events, the effects it will have on the rest of the continent and what could happen later on which was purely rumours on their side.

Peter brought the controller and switched channels several times to over Royal Road news channels as well. All of them were reporting the same thing.

The last line was one particularly catching.

“Is this the fall of the Invincible Emperor Weed?”

xXx

The next day the group did not enter back into the city immediately when they woke due to fears that they may be still chased. It would be better to take some time off for once since it seemed that they were spending too much time in the game.

“Come on, let's go” Peter reminded the rest of the group again after breaksfast.

As such they had no reason not to go to homeroom. The thing was that the number of times they came to Homeroom increasingly decreased as time passed and the last time they came was a week ago and the time before that was a month ago

“I see that you decided to appear again” Lisa said seeing them after entering. There were a few stares towards them but they mostly ignored it.

Because of this fact it was quite uncomfortable for the group to have Lisa, the homeroom teacher to raise her eyebrow at the appearance of the group. It had just been two months since school started and yet they missed out on half of it.

“Anyway for this homeroom I have to direct your attentions to some things that happened in recent times...”

Some time passed and what Peter at least got from it was that there was a slight increase in fees for the school to pay for some new equipment. Otherwise some classes will be shut down due to no members attending. This would mean around a third of the classes will be shut down unless there are any students attending them.

Eventually they were called to their combat class with Alexandra. But before they got into the VR space where physical damage did not really matter, she had some words to the group.

Unlike homeroom, they did come to every class here for good reasons. The first was that the class was useful to them in fighting overall. The second reason was that if they did not, Alexandra as their guildmaster would not be very happy.

Plus the girls at least got along with Alexandra well enough.

But right now there was something else going on.

“You guys really need to attend some other classes other than this one” she simply said to them. It was a statement that they did not want to hear after Peter was saying that a couple of times throughout the last few days.

Most of the group groaned and Hina said, “You sound like Peter here....”

“That's because I told Peter to plant the idea in your heads early on since you insist on missing so many other classes” Alexandra took out a terminal and then showed the group several pages. There were their names and also a list of classes that they were enrolled in.

All of which aside from this one, they didn't go to. Plus there were lists of other students as well with similar circumstance.

Flicking through it Maria asked, “What is this?”

“The students that will be cut off by the end of the year.”

“....”

“And...we are...”

“Very close to it right now” explained Alexandra, “You need to attend some other classes...even if it is an easy one. There are many classes that cater to certain skills in Royal Road. For example a blacksmithing class, Tailoring class or Cooking class to attend.”

“So...me and Maria can attend the cooking class then?” Hina suggested to which Maria nodded.

“Blacksmithing class” Mark said thinking about how it could be useful later on.

“This really sounds like a pain to do...” Ian muttered with a sigh. He really did not want to part take in this.

“Well you can take an Alchemy related class since you said something about that before” Hina said with a cold tone.

“I heard how difficult it is to learn the skill though it would work well with the 'Botany' skill that I gained as well” Ian said.

“Or you can take lessons involving Royal Road again with Eden and Viv. Both of them actually have their own classes and they can pass you if there are things you have to do in Royal Road” Alexandra suggested.

“...Wait, those two are teachers as well?!” Peter was quite surprised on this. Viv was a guidance councillor and Eden was the chairman after all.

“Eden teaches history as in history of the continent in Royal Road while Viv looks at the applications of classes, skills and spells at certain circumstances. Both quite useful to you all and with some people are attending them, they more or less have free time to do so” Alexandra said with a grin on her face.

It would at least make it so that she did not need to report to the two of them about the state of the group in front of her. It would lower her stress level a bit.

“Anyway I'll talk to those two about this since you guys are part of the guild. Honestly taking these two classes as well, all you need is another class to fill up the empty slots. You have another 3 months until finals to which should be simple” she further explained.

“However if things goes wrong for the first time, Eden can probably take care of it” When Alexandra said that, the group was a bit reminded about the time of the tournament.

“I want to ask....” Peter started to say, “Did you know about how Eden can...”

Alexandra looked at Peter with understanding and then said, “Yes all of us knew. However at which point to say, you usually learn about the time you reach level 200 in which case Eden or me or Viv comes to explains the new duties that you have. You still currently have the ranks of recruits in the guild do you not? When you reach level 200 you get promoted to regular member and thus the safe and boring days are over~”

“Then if we are unable to-”

“Rather than focusing on that. Focus on now and now you need to learn how to better use your weapons. Due to recent events we still have a year to do things.”

“A year?”

“Well there are two things that will probably happen in a year in game or rather 3 months in this time speed. One of something only certain people know and is related to the recent commotion at the capital city and the second is that you guys will probably reach level 200 by that time.”

“You mean the news that the capital city of the kingdom was invaded and it fell or something along those lines?” Hina had to ask.

“Fallen?” Alexandra was surprised, “What do you mean fallen. We repelled the enemies for now though they will come back in a year. Took 6 months of planning and stalling to get this result.”

“All of the news stations are saying the same thing” Mark explained.

“Hmm...” Alexandra thought about it for a bit and muttered, “I need to get a talk into those guys then...” before focusing back on the lesson itself.

Right now the group was at the stage where they were sort of competent on hand to hand combat and moved onto armed combat with their choice of weapon. Not much of a surprise, they were rapidly getting better at using them since they also used those weapons in game.

With this thought in mind, Alexandra worked the group harder than usual.

xXx

By the time they got back into the game, it was morning and they appeared at the same alleyway that they came out of.

“You think we still have to sneak out?” Lyndis asked in a low voice just in case.

Miriel nodded and then said, “Most likely. It has only been a certain amount of time so some people may remain. I suggest we change into something less...attention grabbing” she pointed at the equipment that they wore.

However the problem was that they did not have much equipment that they could wear instead of their current ones. They were stored away just in case which was a mistake at this point. But at the same time Sain took out some cloaks and passed them around.

“I asked Alena to give some a while back just in case” he explained with eyebrow raised.

“Why didn't you give this to us before?” Shadow asked. It would save them a lot of trouble before.

Sain shook his head and said, “There was a good chance to be caught even with these on. This can really only hide the flashy stuff we have on and most of our faces. It will also be hot underneath as well and six figures running off like this into the night is super suspicious isn't it?”

“Anyway” Miriel started to saying putting on the cloak that was quite...unpleasant to the fashion sense of humanity, “How long should it take for us to get to the mines?”

“Well...” Sain took out the map.

“According to this it is located up north, a week's worth travel on carriage to get there. There is a town nearby as well but it is a three day walk from there. I think we should catch a ride to that town then leave from there to avoid people questioning where we are going.”

“Hmm...what's the town's name?” Shadow asked.

“Moonight Town, a place that has a strong luna energy” Sain answered.

xXx

Sneaking out of the city was easy, too easy to the point that the group questioned a number of things since almost no one was searching for them. There were only a couple of players that stuck to trying to find a hint of them but they avoided those kinds of players like everyone else like the plague.

“That was easy” Shadow muttered following behind Sain and the others. He felt quite disappointed recently as there was barely any interesting things going on where they had to risk things to get to the end, but on the other hand he liked it since the stress levels were falling down.

He was walking next to Serena which was a strange thing since she didn't try to run away the moment he comes too close.

The problem was that she still did that when he tried to talk to her which leads to another conversation with Lyndis and Miriel about how he treats her, therefore he didn't in the end though he could tell that she was fighting about something.

“Speak already” he simply said and nothing more to it to Serena.

“....”

As though she not hear him Serena continued on without saying a word. This had happened before in the last couple of months when he tried to talk to her.

'Well...at least she's not running away completely from me now...' he thought with a sigh seeing the low goals he had at this point which was very very sad to him.

“Don't say things so blunt” Serena replied after a while which was a large surprise to Shadow. If it weren't for the fact that he was sure that it was indeed Serena who was next to him, he would have thought that it was a prank or some monster in disguise to get his guard off.

“You are actually speaking to me...and not shuttering?” Shadow had to question her.

“....”

Serena made a face full of strain and after a while said, “Takes time but in short sentences...” she stopped again for a few moments making the same face and then said, “Able to speak...with you fine...”

“Hmm....”

Shadow found this interesting. It looked like Serena was making a real effort that everyone did not notice on trying to speak to him.

“Well I guess this is better than the shuttering all the time..though from what I gathered from Miriel and Lyndis you are fine with them. What about Sain and Raven then?”

“Raven fine..doesn't speak...Sain...speaks too much...”

Shadow let out a small chuckle at the thought of Sain hearing those words and having part of his confidence crushed even though it was a bit cruel. Other than that it was interesting that Serena's speech patterns to him are either extreme shuttering or extreme gaps in talking.

xXx

An hour passed since the group left the city. Since they, as they determined that there was really no use on wearing the cloak anymore since there doesn't seem to be anyone following them, they took them off.

“That was way to hot for comfort...” Lyndis muttered even though she was a fire user and therefore must have some resistance to it.

“These cloaks are quite cheap and I got them in a hurry” Sain said explaining the main reason, “Otherwise I might have gotten some that had a better cooling feature.”

He started looking around. There were now in a populated place in which merchants would stop by first before heading to Lily City. There were a number of merchants, new and old, trying o barter for a few more coins and many leaving and coming from many places.

Searching through the crowd, Sain eventually found one merchant that was transporting some materials to Moonight Town.

“Aya, there is really no need for you to come with me and pay for it as well” the fat merchant said, “There is little danger in going to Moonight Town. In fact I would pay for your services in other circumstances.”

“Don't worry about it” Sain said handing over 10 gold to the merchant. For merchants, guards were of the highest importance as they themselves have little to no fighting skills. For a group of level 150 player like the group the cost to hire them would be around 50 gold for a week's trip.

Furthermore adding onto the fame the group had, this amount increased to around 70 gold instead. Basically with Sain handing over some coins the merchant is saving 80 gold coins in total with this.

However there was another interesting thing that Sain noticed. There were two more groups like them though both in the level 100 range instead that this merchant hired. Sain greeted them for a bit as the others looked around as well.

“Nice to meet you, I'm Sain, level 152 Shaman” he said to the two leaders of the other two groups.

One of them were a brawly looking man, a Barbarian who said, “I am Lowne a Level 103 Warrior.”

The other person was a young female mage that honestly looked a bit average and chubby saying, “I am Mise, a Level 98 mage.”

With that each of them introduced their team-mates to the rest of them. Naturally as some of his own group's classes were...strange or out of the norm, but Sain decided it was fine to tell them.

On the brawly man's side there were two more warriors and two clerics and finally a mage as well. It was quite an unusual combination that focused very much on the physical attack side. From what Sain could see, the mage only played a secondary role for ranged attacks at time.

On the mage's side, it was the opposite where there were another cleric and 2 mages in the team with an archer and a warrior in place as tanks as well. It was the opposite of the other team where they focused on the ranged attacks rather than close range attacks.

Sain found that the merchant intentionally hired these group since they could work well in certain situations. It was a smart move not to completely have balance teams when you can hire cheaper more specialised groups that can't get more jobs due to their teams make up.

Some more time passed and there were a total of five carriages in which the merchant had. The merchant himself sat at the front leading the rest of them. The brawly man's team was split between the first carriage and the third carriage, the mage's team was split to the second and last carriage and finally their group was gathered onto the fourth carriage.

“Okay then, let us go!” the merchant said to his drivers which led bulls rather than horses due to their larger stamina, health and endurance but not in speed.

xXx

And so a week passed on the carriage with nothing much happening. Most of the group, at least Sain, Miriel and Serena took this chance to further train their magic skills during this week. As for Lyndis, Shadow and Raven, they were doing their own things.

Or rather they took this chance to relax more than the others or help out when the other two parties were in a small crisis. The level of monsters in the area to Moonight Town was quite low to the group but was of the right level for the other two groups.

It was around level 70-120 towards the later when getting closer to the town.

Most of the enemies were common wolves, goblins and some giant spiders on the way. Wolves and Goblins attacked in packs which usually meant that everyone had to help out else a carriage might be damage but the giant spiders were different.

“More Spiders!” one of the players shouted with cold sweat.

Most Giant Spiders hunted alone and as such when one died, most of the time, another did not appear. But when they did not...

“There's a swarm of them! Help!” another player cried. At this point the group could not stay back and let the others die. The bulls were also startled by the appearance of so many foes.

“Let's do this!” Sain said, “Magic Arrows!”

Bang! Bang! Bang...!

A total of 10 Magic Arrows were shot out by Sain. Upon reaching the Beginner Level 10 point, he could fire only 5 of them at once but when going to the Intermediate Level, this doubled to 10 of them at once and the mana cost decreased from 20 to 10 and the cool down was at 3 seconds instead of 5.

His attack made holes in several of the spiders but the their numbers...around 20 or so, they would be overwhelmed immediately.

“Flame Strike!” Lyndis fired that skill out above the carriages which melted some of the web that was quickly covering them all. Meanwhile Miriel was buffing the other parties and then themselves so they wouldn't die.

“Backstab! Burst Speed! Backstab!”

Shadow on the other hand was chaining up his kills by hitting the critical point of a giant spider and then leaping to another one and doing the same over and over again. Several more minutes passed after this when the giant spiders stopped coming.

“Damn I really hate these spiders even if they are weak...” Miriel muttered.

The appearance of the spiders caused many people, mostly the girls to refuse to fight for a while at least when giant spiders were involved.

“Yeah...that's true” Sain muttered in reply. He thought he felt a tiny bit closer to Miriel thanks to that fact though the cause wasn't so...noble.

Sain himself almost lost it before when a pair of them grabbed him and strung him up in the air in web where Shadow quickly cut him down and Lyndis willingly burnt them the web and the spiders into pieces.

“Ha...ha....are they all dead?” one of the warriors asked. He was completely covered in web and took the time to rub it off their armour.

“Thankfully” one of the mages said in reply though there was no need to.

As for the other two groups, their teamwork was kinda rough but it was similar to the themselves a while back.

The warrior based group was as expected quite explosive in short battles especially against all kinds of foes that had little to no defence. With three swords coming down on them and clerics and heal them up, they are able to sustain themselves for a long battle.

The mage based group was the opposite. They were better on long battles where they can cast multiple powerful spells at once near the end of the battle. Three strong spells and even the group with a 50 level gap could not go through unhurt. In terms of damage potential, this group was much higher than the other.

Because of this, the group did not need to interfere that much as they knew that fighting would give them experience and with their level, there would be little experience to gain from such 'weak' monsters.

The time on the carriage was spent in peace due to these facts.

xXx

“Thank you for letting us ride on the carriage” Sain said to the merchant once again. A little red in the face to the kind gesture, the merchant said some words of encouragement and then left to sell and later buy things and go back to the area around Lily City.

“See you later” one of the mages waved at them leaving. The thing was that all of the mages in that group were female which caused Miriel to glare slightly at Sain when he waved back.

Ignoring her look for the moment and Lyndis' giggle at the scene and Shadow's sigh, Sain proceeded to say, “So should we go to the mines immediately or stay a bit to see what this place has to offer?”

But before anyone could answer, a battered knight on a half dead horse came rushing into the town.

“What's going one?”

“An event?”

“That person is hurt!”

The murmurs were countless as the battered knight eventually came up to the group and Sain in particular.

“Thou are part of an Independent Guild...?” the knight asked with his life slipping away. Noticing this Sain immediately casted 'Moderate Heal' but the wounds wouldn't close even with Serena and several other clerics from the warrior group.

In the end Sain had to say, “Yes we are part of one.”

“The emblem...” the knight muttered.

Sain realised that the knight wished to identify which Independent Guild they were a part of. He took out the pitch black emblem and showed it briefly to the knight. To this, the knight smiled and said his final words.

“Danger comes to this town...the wronged have come back for vengeance....in three days....”

Defend Moonight Town from the Dangers that comes to harm it!

The unknown knight, on his last breath has warned you and the other people of the town of a danger that comes to harm this town for vengeance. It is unknown what kind of foe but in three days there will be some sort of attack. Lead and help the defence of this town

Guild Quest Rank: C

Restrictions:

- Moonight Town must survive the attack

- The threat must be eliminated

You have accepted this quest

A Guildmaster of your Guild has approved of accepting this quest, reinforcement will arrive in 5 days

“What....?”

There were many things Sain wanted to ask right now but now was not the time....

Everyone was now relying on him on what to do.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 9100~

- First chapter which I finished a bit before posting so there hasn't been any major editing here so point out any mistakes. I think I missed a few things here and there...

- Anyway this is the third Guild Quest that the group has done/is doing in the series..