Soul Art Online

- Arthas -

I clapped my hands and the crowd's attention gathered towards me.

"I have another announcement to make on this day. We have noticed that most of the players in our guild are staying in the Inn and due to the rise in the number of players in the town, the Inns are charging more money than they used to charge previously. This is becoming a problem for the players who wish to save up money for the equipment and consumables."

There were several nods of agreements and grumbling among the players for this reason. The game did become harder the more the players went forward.

"To solve this problem, our Guild has decided to open up dorms for the Guild members." And just like that the crowd erupted in discussions once more. Several questions were thrown at me.

I raised a hand to calm them down.

"Let me finish. Most of you can get the answers by then." The crowd was slightly placated and I continued. "Currently the charge of living in the Inn with food served is eighty gold coins per day. This amounts to two thousand and four hundred gold coins a month. We are offering the same for twelve hundred gold to two thousand gold coins a month depending on the room you choose. We will have room for eighty people in less than a week and for the rest in around two weeks. You can register for the places in the guild tomorrow morning."

"We will be putting up a list with all the rules and queries on the guild board and you can read them from there." Shiroe added too.

At this time, Veena stepped forward. "Apart from this, we are opening up shops with the Fairy Tail Guild's name to sell the items made by our guild members. I would like to clear it out before anyone asks anything. You will not be forced to sell your items through the guild but you can do so if you desire. We will take a smaller cut than the ones taken by the Alchemist Guild for the sales. The details will be put up on the board too. But if someone has any questions, they can talk to Elaine, one of our Guild Officers." She added.

"That brings me to the last announcement. Our Guild will have dedicated roles. I as the Guild Master will be at the top. Below me will be the Guild Administrators. Under them will be the Guild Officers who will manage the day to day affairs of the Guild, basically the staff of the Guild. Then comes the Veterans of the Guild, basically people who have been in the guild for a long time. Finally will be the new recruits. There will be privileges for Veterans which will be added later on. This is just a basic structure for now. We will expand more of this as time goes on. Thank you all for joining our Guild. Let's all work together to make Fairy Tail, the best guild in the game."

"Yeah!"

The crowd cheered.

The party ended a while later and we all left for our homes.

- Rossweisse -

She held her spear above her head to defend against the swipe from the tiger. The attack was heavy. Far heavier than she had been expecting as she was flung to the side from the impact and hit a rock.

They were out to hunt a T5 Boss, the Gray Striped Tiger.

They had gathered all the information they could about the tiger, which was not that much. It was not hard to understand why either.

Their group was the strongest in the town and probably the entire game right now. Other players wouldn't even dream of confronting T5 Monsters let alone a T5 Boss.

As they fought, they realised that this tiger was no less troublesome than the Rhino which Arthas keeps complaining about.

In fact, she hadn't seen him complaining about anything else. Too bad that none of the participants of that fight ever speak of what they did to defeat the Rhino. The only clue she had was the blanching of Arthas' face whenever that topic was brought up… which was a big testament to something crazy happening.

Arthas apparently had muted emotions that improved over time but the effects were still there.

He didn't easily show off his emotions, always tending to remain stoic. It reminded her of Bina in a way.

This tiger however, while not as sturdy as the Rhino, was equally troublesome. The first move it used was a Roar Skill which cast a strength and speed debuff on them, making it hard to deal with its already insane speed. Second, the longer they fought, the darker the stripes on the tiger became and the stronger its attacks.

And when the stripes became completely black, it let out the roar again, recasting the debuff on them.

The tiger didn't stay in one place either and was always on the move, often jumping behind the lines to attack the ones at the back.

This made it harder to pin it down somewhere.

The solution they had thought for this was to create Walls of Earth or Ice in front of it whenever it was about to leap forward. Right now all three Mages in their group had the skill, Bina having learned it using a Skill Book.

Obviously the wall didn't trap it. It just made it fail the leap and fall down on the ground, stunned for a while, a chance they exploited by raining their strongest skills on it.

The impact against the rock disoriented her slightly and the tiger didn't miss this. It jumped on her and she tried to put her spear in front of her to defend or at least reduce the damage. But at that moment, a figure appeared in front of her.

Arthas raised his shield and faced the tiger's attack. The clash between the two sent shockwaves around the area, blowing her hair. Arthas however didn't move back and held his ground. His sword lit up with a golden light as he used a skill directly on the tiger's leg, making it howl.

He then raised his hand and a ray of light fell on him and illuminated them both and she saw her health rise back to the green.

Rose also noticed the damage that attack had caused to the monster. It was almost equivalent to a dozen of her own skills… He really is the strongest player in the game.

All the previous times they had seen him fighting, it was against enemies of a lower level so she wasn't able to feel just how strong he was.

She had seen him fight against Kenneth, the Knight Captain of Llyne and that battle was a draw but then again, Kenneth was over twenty levels higher than Arthas and even then he was lacking in strength and speed. He was only keeping up with experience, something which Arthas lacked due to only being self taught for several months.

Rose had rarely seen such talent even among the warriors of Valhalla. In fact, if he had been a warrior, he would most definitely be the top of his class. Then again, with his manners, he would never fit in with that rowdy bunch.

Suddenly several vines shot up from the ground and bound the tiger in its place. She quickly used this chance to get up and rejoin the fight.

One of her skills had become available again and she used the Focused Strike, on the Tiger's eyes.

It howled and tried to sweep her away but the vines got in the way and Arthas was there, shielding her from another attack, this time pushing it back before jumping away.

The tiger stumbled and at the same time several blasts of magic landed on its legs, both injuring it and destroying the vines, causing more damage to it. Next up was Suikazura who jumped and hit the tiger once more in the eyes, making it roar in anger. Suikazura was normally such a sweet and calm person but when fighting, she completely changed. She reminded Rose of some of the older valkyries from Asgard.

In fact, everyone in the team were people who could make great warriors even by Asgard standards and that was saying something.

The tiger tried to jump away but this time it suddenly stumbled back.

"It's injured. Go all out." Shiroe shouted and they began attacking in earnest.

Finally, Arthas thrust his blade to the ground as his fist lit up, lightning gathering around it. A sound similar to thousands of birds chirping sounded as Arthas disappeared from his place and thrust his fist directly into the tiger's head.

The beast collapsed with a final howl.

With that, all of them collapsed on their backs.

She had trained with some of the best of the warriors in Asgard to hunt down fierce magical beasts during her Academy days. This was like living it all over again.

Only this time, her teammates didn't try to talk her down for being boring or a bookworm or not having a boyfriend or…

"Rose." She heard Suikazura's voice and looked up at the woman who wouldn't have been odd even if she were to sit among the valkyries of Asgard looking at her worriedly.

"Huh?"

"Are you alright?"

"Oh… yes. I was just caught off guard by the strength of the attack."

"That's probably because its strength increased as the stripes got darker. After it roared, the strength reset back to the usual level. It's an annoying boss." Shiroe replied as he stepped forward and looked at Arthas. "Is that why you were tanking all its attacks with skills later on?"

"Yeah… I thought it was going to do some other super charged move so I tanked it with Limitless the first time."

"Hmm… I will have to change our strategy more to accommodate it."

"Anyways, let's check the loot. This is the first kill of this boss. The experience gained was good. Let's hope we get something good." Star added.

They checked the loot and Rose found a Skill Book.

"It's a Skill Book. Intimidating Roar." She read out the description. "Reduces the attack and movement speed of the opponents. Is this the Tiger's Skill?"

"Yeah. Sounds like that. We got the Rhino's skill after the first kill too. I guess the chances of dropping those skills are the highest on the first kill." Star said.

"Hmm, another Skill Book. Stored Power, increases attack the more the user is in battle up to a total of 5%. Resets after 30 seconds if the user doesn't attack the opponent in that time." Arthas said as he read the description. He thought for a moment and then threw the book towards her.

She caught it hurriedly and looked at him confused.

"This skill will suit you better."

"I… thank you."

"A pair of boots. Increases Jumping Power." Star said as he picked up a piece of equipment.

"Give that to Suikazura-san." Shiroe said. "It suits her fighting style."

Rose agreed with it too. She often used leaps and jumps in her attacks.

They harvested the Tiger's fur and teeth which were quest items and crafting materials and headed back towards their home.

Rose looked at them, talking and joking with each other… and it didn't feel bad.

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Beta Note: The advance chapters are in order of what is updated, a first Tier will not get 2 advanced chapters for every story, only the next two to be released.

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Author's Note:

I am back with another chapter of 'Soul Art Online'.

This chapter was mostly returning back to the usual pace after the Sabaody Arc.

I tried exploring some classes for a bit to add to the lore.

Feel free to drop any ideas for the lore or Class Trees which I can use.

I will be concentrating a bit on Territory Development next and then we will move on to the next World Quest so there will be some small time skips in between.

We will also see what other groups are doing and the condition of the real world and maybe get some development with the valkyrie and the maid.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.