Chapter 63 - Assembling an Army

Chris was in complete shock when he saw that pegasus tied to a tree inside the elven settlement.

"How do you have this?" he asked, stroking the horse’s mane. "It’s so beautiful. If I had one of these, I could fly far away from all these damn players."

He wasn’t that different from Arthur in some ways. Both of them just wanted to explore the world far away from the endless crowd of players in these starting areas of the game. But unfortunately, getting far away wasn’t that easy.

"It’s not mine, at least not for now. It’s just borrowed," Arthur replied, then looked at Point Blank. "Take the reins. I need to post something and start gathering a group of players before we even get to the city."

"Got it," she nodded, and climbed onto the pegasus right after.

Arthur was the second to get on. He was in a dangerous dilemma...

’Either I accept that Chris is going to sit behind me, or I let him sit in the middle, but then he’d be behind her... Not worth it.’

He didn’t want anyone holding onto the beautiful Point Blank’s waist.

Chris didn’t say anything, but his look gave a little away. As soon as all 3 of them were on the pegasus, Point Blank flicked the reins, and the horse started running and took flight.

There was a whole commotion with Chris flying like that for the first 1st time, a classic reaction that would happen to every player who used a flying mount one day.

"How can I understand what Chris is saying?" Point Blank asked.

That question had been stuck in her head since the moment she saw him. As far as she knew, you had to learn the language of each kingdom.

"You can talk to any player since the system itself helps with communication. But to talk to NPCs and everything else, you need to learn the language. In other words, if you want to enter another kingdom, pick up quests, and play normally, you have to learn the language."

"And how hard is it to learn another language?" Point Blank asked.

That was the tricky part. Even though the game somewhat helped players learn new things, it still took a long time to learn another language, and nobody wasted time on that. Very few players even bothered.

If they were going to do something other than kill monsters and level up, there were plenty of other things that were more fun and rewarding than learning another language. That was why the game company itself made everyone unlock the languages once they reached the dragon kingdom.

That way, after completing the expansion, everyone would return to the continent knowing the languages and being able to explore anywhere on the map.

"Crazy hard, as far as I know," Arthur replied, trying not to show that he knew too much.

Arthur knew he had to take advantage of this perk until the expansion dropped. He was the only player who could speak every language!

’I need to get a disguise, since I’m way too famous.’

Inside another kingdom, if players found out he wasn’t from there, they could attack him without penalties since he would be considered an invader. So if he wanted to visit another kingdom to do business or pick up specific quests, Arthur would need another identity.

Anyway, that was something for him to think about later. For now, he focused on making a forum post calling for at least 100 players to help him fight the invading kingdom’s soldiers.

Arthur made sure to pack the post with lines like ’we need help defending our kingdom’ and things like that to get players hyped to join the battle.

And the funny thing was, the quest he had received, the main quest, had the current objective: deal with the invaders. In other words, it would only be completed after he killed that group of soldiers.

But as soon as he started looking for help from other players to clear the quest, his quest log updated! The system gave him another quest.

[New special quest linked to the Main Questline]

[Gather enough players to face the army attacking the elves]

[You can share this quest with: 0/100 players]

[Rewards for all players present when the quest is completed: +1 level, 10 gold coins, and 1 piece of random gear based on the player’s class and level]

[Quest Rank: A]

That was exactly what Arthur needed to rally all the players.

He opened the level rankings to check out the current situation. There weren’t 100 players at level 15. The highest level was Shadow Cloak, who was at 16. And in 2nd place were Arthur and Point Blank!

The 2 of them broke into the top 3 of the ranking, passing Suzy and Tower. Both of them were also level 15, but Arthur and Point Blank’s EXP bars were further along.

Arthur saw that there were 100 players between level 13 and 15. Most were at level 13, some at 14, and a few at 15.

So he decided to set that requirement in the forum post, adding the fact that he had a quest that guaranteed great rewards, like +1 level for everyone.

When the players read that, everyone got hyped and started heading back from their adventures, making their way to the city.

"Wait for me, Cinder, I’m on my way with the boys. Be there in 15 minutes."

Similar messages flooded the comments of his post. In case he came up short on the 100 players, Arthur was willing to accept people with lower levels.

It didn’t take long for Shadow Cloak to shoot him a DM as soon as she saw the post. She read it super fast, so she definitely had notifications turned on for his posts.

"Is the reward really 1 whole level? If so, I’m coming. Save a spot for mommy here, hehe."

Everyone was hyped about those rewards. The comments on the post were piling up. And not just from players in the kingdom of Aldora. Players from other kingdoms saw the post and started complaining.

"Why don’t we have a player like Cinder in our kingdom so we can get rewards like this? This sucks. I should have started in the kingdom of Aldora."

Chris, sitting on the pegasus, was also reading all the comments and the buzz around the post.

"Are you sure they won’t attack me the second they see me?" Chris asked. "How am I going to stay safe?"

"First, don’t tell any player you’re from another kingdom. There’s no indicator showing them that you’re an outsider. Second, I’m taking you to talk to Ray, the town mayor. He’ll help you."

As soon as Ray and Chris talked, Chris would definitely get some sort of reputation to at least get protection from the guards if needed. He would be a valuable spy for the kingdom of Aldora, so Ray would do everything in his power to help him out.

At least that was what Arthur hoped would happen.

As they flew over the vast snow-covered plains and forests, Chris watched everything from above, his body shivering from the cold.

"It’s really pretty, can’t deny that," Chris said. "I even considered starting here, but the weather debuffs scared me off. Turns out it wasn’t impossible to deal with at all. If I knew a player like you would be around, I would’ve started right here."

Arthur chuckled at his comment. It seemed like everyone wanted to be around him now.

As soon as Arthur flew the pegasus over the city of Snow Pine, he saw a crowd of players waiting for him in the main square right in front of his shop. That was where he had called the meeting.

Before heading down there, however, Arthur flew toward the main tower where Ray lived. Ray flew up toward him before Arthur even reached it.

"Why are there so many Chosen Ones in the square? Did you say something to them?" Ray asked.

As the current ruler of the city, he wanted to know everything going on in his town.

"We need to talk in private. It’s serious."

Arthur said it in a completely serious tone. Ray knew that for Arthur to act like that, it really had to be a big deal.

"Come with me."

Ray flew up to the top floor of the tower. That was where his home was. On the roof of the tower, there was a special spot with food, water, and shelter for the pegasus.

"So this is where the pegasus was kept," Arthur remarked.

After tying up the pegasus, Arthur went down a small set of stairs leading straight into Ray’s house. It was the same place he had visited a few times before.

The first thing Ray did was grab some wine glasses and hand them to everyone. He loved having some wine, especially when discussing serious matters.

"Tell me, who is this guy beside you? I don’t know why, but I get the feeling he’s from the Rashk Kingdom judging by his clothes. Is he a prisoner?"

Ray glared at Chris aggressively, making Chris shiver.