Bab 28: The Meeting Point
The woman's pupils slightly dilated when stating that she was by herself and her body language felt forced at certain points. Most people would be unable to perceive such a small change, but after having reached the second stage of the 'Heavenly Golden Body' physique Izroth picked up on it with ease.
Izroth kept his eyes on the woman in front of him but his senses were actually focused on searching nearby.
"Fools..." Izroth thought to himself when he noticed three other people observing him from an alleyway not far away, he knew exactly what kind of people they were. "If you want to plot against me, you have to put in a little more effort" Izroth said within his mind. During his younger years of cultivation when he was very inexperienced, a beautiful girl approached him and asked if he would like to accompany her on a mission. Being his naive younger self, as well as being drawn by her beauty, Izroth agreed without hesitation.
Izroth soon after found himself in a situation where he almost lost his life after being ambushed and betrayed by the beautiful girl he was with. He walked directly into a trap in which the girl lured him away from safety and then her acquaintances all attacked him at once. He promised himself from then on that he would never let beauty sway him again.
Thinking back to such a memory Izroth could only internally shake his head from how ignorant he was. Normally he would ignore such a thing, but some people wanted to the source of their own destruction.
Izroth gave a slight smile, "I already have two other players in my party. If they agree to let you join, then I have no issues with it" there was no way that Halls or Luna would disagree with letting someone Izroth brought along with him join their party.
The woman feigned relief and an excited expression when Izroth responded to her. "That's alright, you can discuss it with your party members first. I'm called Scarlet, may I know your name?" she spoke in an understanding tone. On the inside, she was a bit annoyed that Izroth had others with him, but there was a chance they could still go through with the plan. If they turned out to be too strong then she would just make up an excuse to leave and find another target. However, if they were able to be handled without issue then this could be an even bigger catch than normal!
"Izroth" he responded while starting to walk once more towards the gate to meet with Halls and Luna.
For some reason when she heard that name it sounded incredibly familiar to her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it while thinking to herself, "Why do I feel like I've heard that name before...?" a small frown appeared on her face as she tried thinking but came up empty. "It may just sound similar to a name I heard before.." she thought to herself. "Nice to meet you, Izroth" she followed after him as she held tightly onto the spell staff in her hands trying to catch up with Izroth's walking pace.
Soon after Izroth and Scarlet left, three figures stepped out from a nearby alleyway. There were two of them with a dagger on their waist and the other one had a bow placed upon his back.
"This is a big score! That's a rare weapon, I can tell by the aura around it! Hahaha, this is our lucky day boys."
"Heh and to think that we were just getting ready to leave after not finding any decent targets. Such a big fish walks itself right into the net to be caught."
"Scarlet sure knows how to play her role properly. That guy is probably blinded by her beauty and has no idea what awaits him. Well, he can only blame himself for flashing such a thing around."
The three men names were Coldface, HappyTimes, and FatalSymmetry. Along with Scarlet, the four of them went around Amaharpe looking for potential players to make a profit off of. So far they've only come across small targets that did not have much to offer, but this time was different. They discovered someone who possessed a rare weapon!
How valuable was a rare weapon this early in the game? Most likely only those big guilds managed to obtain a few for their core members and they did not dare think about stealing from them. So when they saw Izroth moments ago leaving from the Combat Master class building, they knew the chances of him being a part of a strong guild was extremely low. One had to know that most large guilds banned their members from playing the Combat Master class because of how unreliable and unpredictable it was. So much so that they decided to just regard it as a trash class.
"Hehe... We'll make a killing off of this boys. We can directly sell something like that without the auction house and earn a large profit! Once we convert the gold into real money, who knows how much we can make?". In RML there existed a system that directly linked players bank accounts to the game when they first registered for it. This was because coins could be exchanged for real-world currency! At the moment the currency for gold to RMB was 1:1000.
This meant for every 1 gold coin exchanged, players would receive 1,000 RMB in return. If they sold that rare weapon to the highest bidder, the minimum received would probably be around 50,000 RMB! The best time to do so was this early into the game when gold coins were not commonplace amongst the vast majority of players. As more and more players began to trade in their coins for RMB the value would naturally lower. The bigger guilds would do whatever was needed to stay in the lead ahead of others. Right now rare weapons were the strongest available weapon and they were not numerous. All the largest guilds were sponsored by incredibly wealthy companies who felt the investment was worth it for a game like RML.
...
Izroth reached the front gate where Halls and Luna were already waiting. Though when they saw Izroth brought along someone with him they were surprised. Wasn't he a loner? How come he came back all of a sudden with someone else?
Luna frowned and felt uncomfortable when she saw the person Izroth returned with was a woman! Not only that, but she was very pretty with a nice figure. "Maybe that's more his type..." Luna thought to herself. But she quickly cleared her head of such thoughts while questioning herself. Since when was it her business who Izroth kept in his company? Luna wouldn't admit it to herself, but at that moment she felt a little emptiness in the pit of her stomach as though a small hole had formed.
Izroth approached Halls and Luna with Scarlet trailing right behind him. "This is Scarlet, a Mage. They are alone and wish to join us. Is there any trouble with this?" Izroth gave Halls and Luna a meaningful look. Although neither of them understood his intentions, they had no reason to not allow another member into their party. Plus, that person was personally invited by Izroth! There was a high chance that maybe he fell for her.
Luna was reluctant to agree, but when she saw the meaningful look Izroth made she could only give up on any signs of protest. "I have no problems with it" Luna forced out from her mouth.
Halls was a bit surprised when he heard Luna give her approval before he even spoke. He may have been a bit dense sometimes, but not so much that he didn't realize the way Luna had been looking at Izroth. If she agreed already, how could he possibly not do so as well? Halls nodded his head before saying, "If she's a friend of yours Izroth then, of course, we'll invite her" he sent a party invite to Scarlet and she soon accepted.
When she first arrived at the gate, the first thing she noticed was the sword at Halls waist. That was a rare weapon! Two rare weapons in the same party? Her heart started racing as she noticed that and couldn't help but ask, "Are you all a part of a guild?" she could not risk offending one of the big guilds and so she had to understand exactly what she was getting herself in to.
Halls shook his head, "None of us are in any guilds. Our meeting was based purely on fate" when Halls answered Scarlet, she felt a huge relief in her heart. But when she realized what their levels were she felt kind of silly for even asking the question. There was no way those big guilds would give rare weapons to someone who was only level 12 and level 13.
Party:
Name: Halls
Class: Warrior
Level: 13
HP: 1500/1500
MP: 100/100
Name: Luna
Class: Cleric
Level: 13
HP: 600/600
MP: 625/625
Name: Izroth
Class: Combat Master
Level: 12
HP: 900/900
Energy: 100/100
Name: Scarlet
Class: Mage
Level: 15
HP: 660/660
MP: 830/830
Luna and Halls were a bit shocked, she was actually a level 15 Mage! They expected her to be at the same or lower level than their own, but she was actually a higher level. Although Halls did not find it strange, Luna found the situation bizarre. It all didn't add up to Luna that a Mage higher leveled than them would be without a party and wanted to join a group of people with a lower level. She had a bad feeling about Scarlet, but since Izroth was the one to bring her here she could only silently endure.
"Did you guys manage to find any good quest? I found a few that are C rank and pretty easy to complete. The EXP isn't too bad, but the loot isn't that great for it" Halls said sounding a bit dispirited. He spent most of the last one hour searching for a quest to do. He was hoping to find at least a B rank quest but came up empty-handed.
Luna nodded, "I found a few C rank quest. But I also managed to find a B rank quest by chance".
Halls let out a long sigh, "Can I have some of your luck please Luna? Some of us were born under an unlucky star" Halls joked around.
"I have an S ranked quest" Izroth spoke in a nonchalant manner. But when Halls, Luna, and even Scarlet heard that, their eyes all widened in shock! An S ranked quest? Did they hear correctly?
"Haha...ha... Sorry sorry, I think my character's listening function broke for a moment. I could have sworn I heard you say an S ranked quest hahaha..." Halls was in denial.
Izroth nodded, "I do have it. But I can only share it with two other people. Since the three of us formed a party first, naturally it would be you two" this was a lie Izroth told. In fact, he could share the quest with up to 5 people, but why would he give benefits to someone trying to scheme against him.
When Scarlet heard that her facial expression turned grim, but quickly fixed it. An S ranked quest was something she could only dream about! The rewards were sure to be incredible! She had to find a way to make Izroth choose her instead of one of his current party members. "Hey... Since I'm the highest level here and will be of most help, shouldn't you give one of the quest slots to me? No offense, but I'll be far more useful than either of them" Scarlet said with a voice full of confidence.
When Halls and Luna heard what Scarlet said, their impression of her hit an all-time low and a frown revealed itself upon both of their faces.
Izroth shook his head, "We have been in a party since 'Opal Town'. It's only fair that the two slots go to them" Izroth sounded extremely firm and set in his decision. This made Scarlet scowl but even more so she felt angry inside that Izroth could dismiss her so easily.
"Fine, enjoy your stupid S ranked quest. Hmph, we'll see if you can even complete it..." Scarlet's heart turned cold but she didn't continue to press the matter.
Izroth shared the quest with Halls and Luna, however, soon as they saw the quest they felt cold sweats on their backs. This was an authentic S ranked quest! The EXP and rewards were amazing, especially the rare piece of equipment. Another thing that caught their attention was that at the very bottom of the quest they noticed that it could be shared with up to five people. This confused them since Izroth just said a few moments ago it could only be shared with two other people.
Halls and Luna both exchanged a small glance before looking at Izroth. He currently had a carefree smile on his face as they watched at him. Although Halls didn't completely understand the situation, he knew there was no chance Izroth hadn't noticed the quest could be shared with more people. Luna, on the other hand, pieced things together a bit better than Halls. Even if Luna wasn't able to grasp everything, her feeling from before told her something was going on that Izroth decided not to tell them about. It was strange considering his straightforward attitude, but he must have his reasons so Luna did not question him about it.
Halls was all pumped up and ready to go with the motivation of an S ranked quest! "Mountain region here we come! Hahaha!".
Izroth, Luna, Halls, and Scarlet exited from the gate of Amaharpe. Their destination? The mountain region to the west!
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