Soul Art Online

Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 19: Levelling Up

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- Arthas -

I used Soru and reached the last monster and slashed its head from the rest of his body, ending its life.

"That's all of them."

"With that all the first kill bonuses for all the field bosses in the area are ours." Star said.

"Now we just need to do this in rotation until at least half of us are Tier 5." Shiroe nodded.

Three weeks had passed since the fight with the tiger.

We had to delay hunting the bosses for a while because Shiroe had reached his level cap and we had to do the Quest for him to get the Sorcerer Class. It was quite similar to the Knight Quest but had added components as in he had to take a theory exam.

Seriously, this game had an extensive theory for magic.

The most surprising part about it was that… all these magic theories… they were real. As in they were exactly what was taught outside in the human world.

Elaine identified this. She recognised some of the spells as things which she had studied in her time in the Golden Dawn. From there, Bina, Rose and Veena read the texts carefully and found that several other systems of magic were included in the texts too. Overall, it was a hybrid, more advanced system of magic which included several types of magic from the human world to create something completely new… which could… actually be used in the outside world.

The implications of this… were frightening.

Just what in the world was the Game Master thinking?

Since this discovery, we had started to hoard every magic book we could find and make copies of them. We were even planning to explore as many magic classes as possible.

Our team became stronger with Shiroe becoming the next T5 in the town. The Sorcerer had slightly higher power than Mage but its real power lay in field control.

To put it simply, even when I knew I would win against Shiroe in a fight… I would never fight him… because I will be half dead from annoyance by the time I win.

Sorcerers are annoying… if they were fighting against you.

No.

That's not true.

Normal Sorcerers are fine. They can be killed easily.

Skilled Sorcerers are annoying.

Shiroe… he could be mind numbingly frustrating to fight.

That's why we were glad that he was on our side.

The quest to become a Sorcerer was hard too.

The magic theory exam was hard. Shiroe actually took classes from Elaine and Rose to pass the exam and even then there was a matter of luck involved.

According to him, there was a chance that if he took the exam again, he would definitely fail. The fighting was divided into two parts. The first part was not that hard… at least for him.

He had to defeat four T4 Mages alone.

Shiroe had far more skills than an average Mage due to our Sabaody Trip and enough potions to help.

The next part of the quest was to hunt down… the Rhino…

There was however a problem with it too. The maximum size of the party could only be five members and the team would be restricted to T4. My level was locked to T4 and I couldn't use the Man Slayer Class and its Skills during the fight.

That wasn't the only bad thing either.

We had thought that the hole we had our guild members dug while we were going to Sabaody would be enough to take the monster down but as my luck would have it, the hole disappeared as soon as the Quest started so we had to do it the old way.

Shiroe obviously was far more prepared for the monster this time.

I won't lie but it was the best performance from Shiroe I had seen so far.

The guy had the potential to be one of the best magicians in the real world, Veena's words, not mine.

The way he used the environment in the battle, with even the most basic spells to damage a foe which was more or less immune to magic or T4 Class… It was stunning to watch.

For example, there was a time when the monster was about to use an attack in which it raised both front legs and stomped into the ground, creating a shockwave which could throw the enemies around as well as cause temporary stunning effects.

Shiroe used the moment it was raising the front legs to create an earth wall right under the hind legs, making the monster lose balance and fall on its side. Once it fell, we started bombarding it with our best attacks, using poisons and status effects on it.

Shiroe guessed that this Advancement Quest was a test to see if the Mage was qualified to become a Sorcerer. Sorcerers were someone who were masters of field control and that was the only way a team like ours could defeat that Rhino.

Safe to say, I pity anyone who tries to go for the Sorcerer Class next.

Having a Sorcerer on a team was absolutely amazing though. They could make the fights extremely easy.

For example, they had a spell called Shallow Bog which decreased the speed on anyone caught in it.

It made the ground soft and the monsters could get stuck in it, reducing their speed by almost 75% while they were there.

This Spell worked very well with Poisons which Veena sometimes used during fights.

"And how long would that take?" Star asked, while checking for the loot.

"Around half a month. Veena would probably get it in a week at best. The only reason she is even delayed is because she needed to level up both the Mage Class from level 1 while I had a seventeen level lead."

She was also a Level 32 Pharmacist, something which she levelled up by making medicines alone.

The amount of experience we needed grew as we reached higher levels. With more members in the team, the amount of experience also became lower for each person. That said, the safety and speed of hunts increased.

Lives were the most important.

None of us wanted to lose ours because we were running ahead in a hurry.

I had however kept up my levelling speed despite being the highest level character here due to the experience bonuses.

"The next in line to get a T5 Class will be Star. Followed by Suikazura-san and Whistler. We can move to the next area then. By then things with the Guild will also be established."

Coming to the Guild.

Fairy Tail was doing more than just good.

The Guild Members had loved the Guild Dorms idea. In fact, just because of this there were several other people who had come and inquired about when the next Guild recruitments will be. Both of the Fairy Tail dorms have been renovated and the second dorm started operating just three days ago.

In fact, seeing the popularity of this system, we bought another rundown property and began the renovation to accommodate new members when the Guild levels up.

At the rate we were going, it would probably be in two more weeks at most.

Elaine, Bina and Rose were extremely good assistants while Veena was excellent in management. Under them, our guild was getting quests all around.

I on the other hand spent most of my time in levelling up my skills. Kenneth accompanied me whenever he could but apart from that I even fought the City Lord a few times.

Arnold Straight, the City Lord of Llyne, was a Level 50 Lord Knight.

I understood what Kenneth meant when he said that the guy was given the position of the City Lord because he was as strong as a T6.

That guy was a beast, a true monster in terms of fighting. He was well balanced in every aspect, whether it be offence or defence, strength or speed. His reflexes were lightning fast and instincts sharp enough to match mine with Observation Haki. It was as if there were no holes in his fighting style at all.

I was always getting beaten up by him but that also meant that my Skill level increased rapidly and I welcomed this.

Fighting him not only gave me Skill Levels but also experience.

For a game which was mostly about gaining Classes and Skills, it focused too much on learning the things rather than just using the menu to cast the skill. In fact, there was even a way to invoke skills by just using our power instead of using the menu and while it might be harder to do so… once practised, it was a lot faster.

The detailing given to the game was insane.

Due to these spars, I came to know more about Arnold. He was actually someone from a very humble background, the son of a woodcutter.

He was almost killed by a monster when he was a kid and he was saved by a kingdom knight.

That's when he decided to become a Knight himself… and what a Knight did he become. He performed exceptionally in a war and was offered the position of a City Lord. The Knight who saved his life was actually Richard's father and that's why he asked for Llyne as his territory when he was given an option. Too bad Richard's father passed away a few years later. He seemed like a nice man from Arnold's words.

As for Arnold, he was a very humble and down to earth man when he was not on duty. This made him quite famous with his Knights compared to some other stuck up nobles from the Kingdom.

He was the reason the Knights of Llyne were so cohesive.