Chapter 192 First Friend
Arthur and Val set out towards Roran town.
Along the way, they were attacked a couple of times too, but they were just Long Claw Trunel Crawlers that Arthur killed with ease. They came out when it was dark, thus they had not been affected as much as other beasts.
Not to mention, they were quite far away from the site of conflict and as such, the beasts here were still a bit unaffected.
Regardless, Val was stunned at the speed that Arthur showed, along with his accuracy. It was dark in the forest since the sun had gone down, and yet, Arthur was able to hit the enemies accurately.
She even wondered if Arthur could see in the dark.
To her, it didn't seem out of reason for there to be a skill like that in the game, though she wondered how Arthur had obtained it. She had barely been with him for a couple of hours and had already been surprised several times.
The more she learned about him, the more she was surprised. Arthur seemed to know the Trunel Woods like the back of his hands and easily brought them to the forest.
And when they finally reached the town, she was in for another surprise.
"Adventurer Arzhur! You're back!" The town guards standing at the gate greeted him with enthusiasm.
'Huh? Why are they so close with him?' Val was confused.
"How did it all go? The Captain returned just half an hour ago. Why did you not come with him?" Another guard asked.
"Things went well. As for the captain, we took different paths, hence the difference in time." Arthur replied.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"I see… well, then it's great that you are back safely. We've been looking forward to your return." The guards said with a smile.
To them, Arthur had gone out to mess with the bandits for their safety. As such, they couldn't help but feel grateful to him. Then there was the reputation of Arthur which was already at a favorable level from earlier.
This also contributed to the positive behavior of the guards, which was unexpected for Val. After all, for her and most of the players, reputation gain was hard. And since she had just arrived in Roran town, it was even more obvious for her to be ignored by most NPCs.
"I assume nothing happened in the town while I was out?" Arthur asked, just in case.
"Thankfully nothing. Though Captain did bring 2 captives with him." The guard replied.
"Oh?" Arthur didn't think he would bring someone. "Do you know who they were?"
"They were dressed in robes, so probably some mages. You can go talk to the Captain himself. I reckon he's just dropped them off." The guard answered.
"Alright, I'll head in." Arthur gave a nod and entered.
Val, who had been silent this entire interaction, had her eyes gleaming.
"Did you… get a quest?" She assumed from their conversation.
"You can say that," Arthur replied.
"No wonder the town was weird when I arrived in the morning. They almost attacked me too." Val revealed.
"You showed them the Writ Of Entry, right?" Arthur inquired.
"Of course. Though they were almost at my neck by the time I showed them." Val said with a hint of fear in her eyes. "I didn't think the Town Guards would be that fast… though you are faster than them." She added.
"They are town guards for a reason. And they were just low ranked guards. The stronger ones will surely be faster than us players." Arthur informed.
"I'll keep that in mind… the Inspect skill doesn't work on them, so it's hard to tell otherwise," Val stated. "Though it doesn't work on you either." She said in a low voice.
~Beep~
A notification sound was heard a second later that stopped Val in her tracks.
Arthur looked at her frozen and gazing at something invisible in the air.
'Someone contacting her from the real world?' Arthur knew it was not a normal notification and was instead a message beep.
It was a particular one where people outside the game could contact the players. It was specially set to have a peculiar sound so that the players would know it in case of emergencies and more.
Val seemingly stared at the air for a few seconds before a frown appeared on her face.
"Sorry, I'll have to log out early," Val said to Arthur, showing an apologetic expression.
"It's fine, we're just an hour from log out time anyways," Arthur replied.
"Can… Can I add you to my friends?" Val asked with hesitation.
Her fingers trembled as they clutched around her tunic.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm'Will he accept?' she wondered. 'Of course, he won't. I shouldn't have asked! He's such a high leveled player, why would he be friends with someone new like me…' she couldn't help but think.
But a couple seconds later, she was brought out of her thoughts, as a notification popped up in front of her.
>Player Arzhur has sent you a friend request!<
"ACCEPT!" She blurted out.
>Player Arzhur has been added to your friend list!<
Arthur looked at her with raised brows, making her flush red with embarrassment.
"I'll… I'll talk to you tomorrow when it's login time!" Val said hurriedly before logging off.
~SHUA~
Her avatar disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Arthur behind.
"Guess she didn't even book an inn upon arriving." Arthur realized, seeing her sudden logout.
Normally, players should logout at an inn to be safe.
'Though she's now, my first friend in the game now…' Arthur looked at the window floating in front of him that showed Val's information.
He dismissed the window after a few seconds and went towards the Guard Captain's office.
'Considering he brought two robed individuals with him, they should probably be the cultists. Guess he managed to capture them instead of killing them outright.' Arthur thought to himself while walking. "We just might get more information from them. Things are gonna be interesting…"