- Rias Gremory -
"Phew. That was tough." She sat down on the ground and collected her breath.
Two level ups. The first kill bonus was really something else.
"Level 11. I should have been in level 30s of T4 by now." She sighed.
"Feeling frustrated?" Chief Nyanta asked as he looked at the rest collecting the drops from the boss they had just hunted down.
"I… feel like I have been dragging the group's hunting speed down due to my new class." She said. She was really frustrated for the past few days.
While she had gotten adjusted to her Knight Class and was taking on the role of a front liner much better now, she felt that the speed of their leveling was dragged down due to her and she absolutely hated the feeling of becoming shackles for her team.
"Well, it was only obvious. A Mage is a full damage focused Class, while a Knight has to balance both attack and defence. It is only normal that you feel that our levelling speed has slowed down because it actually has."
His words made her feel even worse but he continued.
"But you are completely ignoring the other benefits we have received from you becoming a Knight. Our front lines have become very strong. Le Fay and Henrietta haven't taken even a single point of damage since you have become a Knight. Secondly, having a Cleric even as an inactive class has helped us save up a lot on potions and consumables. Once you become a Templar, you can change your Knight Class to Cleric and then we can get a permanent healer in our group which will be a great boon in any fight. Treat the current situation not as shackles but rather like using training weights. While it may drag you down a bit at the start, it will only benefit you in the long run."
"I… thank you."
"As for the damage output. Don't worry about that. With Henrietta levelling up, she will get newer buff spells and our DPS will be back up in no time at all. No one is blaming you for our reduced DPS. Your changing Class was something which was agreed upon by everyone in the group."
She nodded. "It's just that…"
"You are thinking about Fairy Tail, aren't you?" He asked, turning to the group who were collecting the loot.
"Hmm. Everyone of us is struggling in T4s while he is fighting someone who rivals T6 opponents. Are we truly that different?" She asked. The information from the City Lord had caused a great impact on their morale.
Everyone was fired up at the information about the current Strongest Player in the Game, the Guild Master of the Fairy Tail Guild.
They had started hunting for longer periods of time to make up for the difference in levels. In fact, even today's boss hunt was a result of this very fact… at least partly.
And yet, the more they fought, the more they realised what kind of goal they were chasing behind.
"Hmm, there are many ways to become stronger in this game. Levels are just one part. There are also Skills, Achievements, Titles, Equipment, Skill of the Players, their strategies and relations with the NPCs. Oh and most of them all… Luck. All these come together to form what we see. So, what you are seeing as the achievement of just a single place… is actually a full fledged organisation. Obviously, I am not denying the skill of the Player himself. One doesn't reach that kind of position without having some genuine skill for himself but I can bet one of my paws on the fact that they have an excellent strategist in their group. Someone who understands the intricacies of MMOs very well. Apart from that they must have a very good support team too."
She looked at him, looking as if he was remembering something. "But still, this much..."
"Not out of scope at all. In fact, we had a similar Strategist in our previous game. I was a part of a group called the Debauchery Tea Party. We were basically a group of people from different guilds or even independent players who gathered together to take on hard quests and raids. Our strategist back then was a true genius. His strategies were a reason for us clearing more than half of the raids we took part in."
"I see. I will work harder then."
"You don't have to push yourself too much. Everything is good only in moderation. Don't worry. I am level 44 now. In two or three weeks. I think I can take the next Class Advancement Quest too."
"Oh yes. You levelled up too. Congratulations, Chief." She wished.
Chief Nyanta was like an elder figure in the group, and that was not just due to his experience in gaming but also due to his personality.
He always had a way to comfort anyone when in doubt.
That's why, even though she was the captain of their team, even she respected his opinions a lot.
"Well, let's concentrate on the bright side now. Imagine the look on the Black Sword Knight's faces when they come to this place and find no boss." He smirked, making her smile too.
Yes.
How could she forget that?
She had been extremely annoyed by the last encounter with Issac in the Blacksmith's shop. Koneko went ahead and told the team about it and they were annoyed too.
Most of her guild disliked Issac. Even the usually calm Henrietta who knew him from the last game disliked him. According to her best friend, he was an idiot who tried too hard to push people away.
This was something even Woodstock told her.
Ultimately, they decided to take revenge this time… it's just that their method of taking revenge was not quite normal.
Issac had spread the news everywhere that their group was going to take in a certain field boss, a T5 boss for the first kill bonus and rewards.
Actually, it was more of a publicity stunt to attract new T4 Players to join their guild… in other words, a large-scale publicity stunt for the players.
Thus their way of ruining it was very simple… take down their prey before them. Let their preparations be for nothing.
And ever since they came up with the idea, they began working on it.
She knew they would come here in two weeks so they had decided on the time of attack to be exactly twelve days later. Scouting was done by Chief Nyanta and Koneko while she and Henrietta made plans for the raid.
Finally, today, their preparations came to fruition as they finished the whole raid with just the five of them compared to the twelve man team of the Black Sword Knights.
"Knowing him, he would be incensed. That man's ego is the size of a continent." Heniretta said, pushing her glasses.
"Hmph, serves him right. Annoying fellow." Koneko said, looking pleased with their actions today.
Le Fey was the only one fidgeting. "He is like Vali… just more annoying though."
"Well, we are done. Let's leave."
"Are we going to spread the news about us conquering the boss before them?" Henrietta asked.
"No. It would be more fun to make them come here and then return back empty handed. I am pretty sure there are some other players who want to watch their raid from a distance to collect information about the boss too. All we need to do is stay in town and wait for them to return and watch the show. Didn't we get a drop from the boss?"
"Yes. It's a cape for Knights." Koneko said, handing over the Cape to her.
"Great. Just what was needed."
With that, all of them gathered their belongings and set off to the town.
The show two days later was going to be awesome.
- Elaine -
She closed the doors to her room and checked the room again before opening the Private Chat of the Guild's Chat Menu.
Kuroka.
What the hell?
The person they had recruited was actually Kuroka?
How could that be?
Elaine had been sleeping last night when she was suddenly messaged by the newbie recruited by Lady Veena and Arthas but who would have thought that the person they would recruit would be her?
Revealing her identity to them during her drunken state was one of the most embarrassing things in her life.
Alcohol has always been against her. It was just that she was too stressed back then after being captured by the bandits and then almost encountering that… All those incidents had left her emotionally exhausted.
Her life in the game hadn't exactly been a walk in the park.
She hadn't played many of those games as a kid either. The only reason she even knew what she did was because she had played some while babysitting Le Fay.
In fact, it was only after joining the Fairy Tail Guild that she was able to gain control of her life again.
So overall, that incident of losing control of her tongue had actually helped her a lot this one time.
But even then, she had not told anything about her being in a team with Kuroka. After all, this Guild had the mother and queen of Lucifer. To tell them that she was with an SS Ranked Stray Devil… yeah, she wasn't that much of a fool.
So her heart almost stopped when she got the message.
In fact she hadn't even replied back to the person and instead pretended to not know to test if this was just someone pranking her. Only after she had told her the details about the time they had entered the game did she believe that she was real.
A moment later, another thing came to her mind.
If Kuroka was there, then that meant she must have encountered Veena too…
On asking everything, the matter became more clear to her.
Kuroka or as she was called now, Kurumi, then told her that she was out on a hunt with Arthas and Rose and found out about her through Arthas who was telling her about the people in the guild who knew about the Supernatural World.
Apparently, not only did she encounter them, she had even met one of Rias Gremory's peerage members and had been living with him since then.
On meeting Veena, she had pretended to be here on the orders of Sirzechs Lucifer who was offering pardons to anyone who could rescue his mother, sister and her peerage members from the game world.
She had then said that she only knew Elaine because she was contracted to gather information about Arthur Pendragon and anyone around them by some people. This was so that if they slipped anything by accident, they could have their stories straight.
Really this…
Finally, they discussed some things and made a final story for everyone.
This was also the reason why she offered to go and meet Kuroka first as she wasn't sure how Bina would react to her first and if she hadn't volunteered, it would be Bina as she was the one who knew the most about the whole deal other than her.
On checking the messages, she was relieved.
It seems that Veena was just testing her and that they have given her a chance to join the team.
Although she had told her to not reveal their relation and background to anyone or it could lead to unnecessary complications.
Elaine agreed to it too.
Finally, when all was said and done, she fell on the bed and closed her eyes.
At least she had found one of the three people she wanted to meet in this world.
Now all that was left was finding Arthur and Le Fay and then fighting their way out of this game.
After a long time she had seen hope once more.
She was going to keep working to achieve their goals.
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Author's Note:
I am back with another chapter of 'Soul Art Online'.
We have the short Akeno side arc end with this.
I also tried to show what was happening on the other side with Rias.
Some povs with Shiroe and Elaine tell us what they were dealing with.
I will wrap everything up in the next chapter and start the Second World Quest Arc.
Things are finally converging and although all might not come together as soon as everyone expects, they surely will.
Enjoy the new chapter.
Good Day, Peace Out.