Soul Art Online

Soul Art Online

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 18: The Return Home

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- Arthas - 

We reached Llyne three days later, spending some time on the way on hunting.

"Man, I am tired. I will take a day off today." Star said as we entered the gates of Llyne. The past three days were spent on hunting.

Both Rose and Star got to T4 on the way here. Star got the Swordsman class and Rose got the Warrior Class. Bina got her Mage Class too.

We had enough Skill Books for them to get a decent Skill Set. Bina was using Veena's spare equipment while Suikazura-san had extra equipment for Rose.

Apart from that the rest were getting close to their T5 Classes too. It's just that the enemies on the way were just too weak for our team and so I only got one level.

I had more than enough swords for Star too so the equipment was not a problem for us. All that was left was for Star to level his Class to max level so he can select the T5 Class of his choice.

These levels however took us some time to grind.

Funny enough, by the time we reached Llyne, the Guild actually levelled up.

The new Guild level gave us one perk point which we decided to save. There was still the Power of Friendship Perk Level 3 with 15% Exp Gain Boost which needed three points. We had planned to get that first.

The second thing which happened was the number of members increasing to two hundred. With that all the members were added to the Guild.

"You head to the Guild then. I will show Suikazura-san and Whistler to the Inn." Shiroe offered.

Normally we would have more room at the guild but we had offered those rooms to the girls we had rescued. They had no place to live and had offered to work for the Guild so we offered them the empty rooms.

"We need to buy a property for Guild Dorms. I am very sure people would easily pay a lot of money to stay there." Star said.

"That's a good idea." I agreed. It could be another privilege our guild offers, attracting better players.

"Hmm. We can do that but we should consider developing your territory in Greenfrost with the money we have if you want to make an investment. That's the place you can earn the best returns." Veena offered.

"Develop territory?"

"Yes. You did get a territory, didn't you? Do you know where that territory is in Greenfrost?"

"Well, it's on the outskirts. Greenfrost is a province and I was given undeveloped land on its outskirts."

"Hmm. We need to check the map. We were going to Greenfrost to sell our wares either way. It wouldn't be a bad idea to check the area too. Not to mention, Greenfrost is a higher level area. We can even stay there and hunt."

"Then we go there after a month. We have been away from the guild for a while and need to work things out."

With that, we parted ways, with Star and Elaine taking Damon to the Guild to act as a gatekeeper.

Bina and Rose followed us to our house.

I opened the house and they followed me in.

"I guess we would need to clean everything before resting." I said looking around.

We had been away for a while and it showed. Everything had a thin film of dust on it.

"I will get that done." Bina offered, already in her maid mode.

"I-I will help out too." Rose offered.

"Well, we can all lend a hand. It will get things done faster." Veena said and Bina looked like she was about to deny when she added. "Moreover, I am dying to test my new magic… properly."

"New Magic?"

"Yes. It's a nifty Spell called Clean." She snapped her finger and the dust on the couch disappeared immediately. "Very convenient and versatile." Veena threw me a discreet wink.

Rose looked confused while I recalled the versatile use of the magic making me hard. Seriously, she never stops with her teasing.

We got to work and within half an hour, everything was cleaned.

"You two can stay in the other room. It's mostly unused as Arthas and I mostly share a room. We can shift to a bigger house soon." Veena offered. Bina nodded while Rose was slightly embarrassed at the reminder.

We were tired and it was already late evening by the time we were done so we took turns to take our baths and retired for the day.

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"Is it usually like this?" Rose asked me as I watched the crowd surrounding our Guild Building to get an invite.

Last time many had been doubtful, not that I had made it any easy for them but this time, they have had the chance to see the effects of the Guild Perks and thus the crowd in front of us.

"It's larger this time, not something unexpected though. Unfortunately for them, we already have people who had reserved their seats. These people will just have to reserve their seats and wait for the next Guild Update."

Shiroe was taking care of the crowd with Elaine. Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with them myself.

Normally this kind of situation would have caused fights to break out but I had already contacted the Knight Academy and they had increased the patrol in this area to prevent anyone from acting stupidly. And on top of that, we had our hammer in Damon, standing behind Shiroe and Elaine, glaring at anyone who tried to cause a ruckus. The guy was channelling all his inner hate towards the crowd and a T6 was not someone any of these people wanted to provoke.

It was the day after we had returned and the news of the Guild levelling up had spread almost immediately.

Safe to say, the Guild Building was surrounded within an hour so we had to announce that we would be recruiting people the next day.

None of us was in the mood to work after the whole ordeal we had been through.

"Well, no sense in wasting any time here. Let's go. We need to check the place we are planning to buy. Will you be joining us?" I asked.

Veena was busy with work and Bina was helping her. Star was off to the Black Market with the new members to check for any information about T5 Class Change. So that only left Rose and me.

"Alright." I had talked to Kenneth and asked him for any properties which were for sale and he pointed us to a few properties around the area.

We roamed around and checked the places and Rose made a note of everything.

She really is good as a secretary.

It was evening by the time we returned home where a strange sight greeted us.

Bina, in a maid uniform, was cooking while Veena was working on her medicine.

It was strange to me for two reasons. First, I was used to seeing Veena cooking and second… where did she get the maid uniform?

"Where did you get that maid uniform, Bina?" Fortunately Rose was also curious about the same thing.

"In Sabaody. I got it from one of the shops there." She replied not turning back.

"You are both back. How did the search go?" Veena asked, noticing our presence.

"Quite fruitful. Rose made a list." I signalled the girl who brought out the parchment and placed it on the table.

"We saw eight properties and five of them are buildings in good condition, two are abandoned and in bad condition. We will need to renovate the entire thing and the last place… well, people called it haunted." She reported.

"I personally think we might have a quest in that house." I added.

"Oh. And these are in the budget too. I think we can buy one of the buildings in good condition first and make it a dorm for our Guild Members. The money we get from that can be used to buy the abandoned property and slowly renovate it. As for the haunted building, while the possibility of it being a quest is high, we still don't know what level of quest that is and how long it will take us to complete it. Delaying this project for long is just wasting time and money."

"Hmm, I was thinking the same. In fact, we can use the monthly rent from the first building to renovate the second building over time. In a few months, the players would have enough money and level to move away from this town and we will lose the best time to earn." I added.

"Exactly. We can finalise the deal tomorrow."

"Hmm. How were things on your end?"

"Oh, a lot of pending work. Mira has been maintaining everything well but she is new and there is only so much she can do alone. Now with the new girls in the management, things will be progressing soon."

"Good to see they are settling down well."

"Oh, they are drowning themselves in work to get a resemblance of normalcy after what they have been through and we have several new projects to start. I was thinking of establishing a brand with our Guild's name and using it to start a business chain. Shiroe and Elaine have specifically been looking for tailors and blacksmiths this time around to add to our guild so that we can use the new blueprints we got from Sabaody. We are also opening a shop to sell the Medicine and items we import from Sabaody."

While we were talking, Shiroe and the rest returned too.

"Everything done on that side?" I asked as they took seats. "We are short of seats. Remind me to get some more chairs." I realised as there was no place for me and Bina to sit by the end.

"Eh, we can manage."

"So, how were things?"

"Oh they were annoying. They were paying up to five thousand gold coins to book the seat. Charging only two thousand was painful." Shiroe said.

"It's a matter of principle. We are not short on money so I'd rather not change our rules for just this much."

"Well I understand and agree with that… didn't make it any less painful. That was almost five hundred thousand to a million gold coins."

Yeah… that was painful.

"Anyways, we got the members. I left ten slots for emergencies. Five hundred people booked for the next round even when I told them that we would only have three hundred more places open after the next update. We have a million and five hundred thousand gold coins including the first month's guild charges and the reservation charges."

…damn.

"Star."

He pulled out several parchments from his inventory and placed them in front of us.

We checked the parchments while he explained on the side. "Rose can try Magic Warrior Class. It's basically similar to the Magic Knight. Needs a Mage and Warrior. She can easily get the Mage by using the Class Change Card and keep working on her Warrior Class and directly change when she is a full level warrior."

Rose looked at the information of the Class and was happy too.

"If it's really like Magic Knight then it might even have higher classes. I think you should go for this first."

"Yes. This is good."

"We actually found something good for Veena too. A Pharmacist and Mage can actually unlock a rare Witch Class. It's a T5 Class which can craft and also use curses and dark magic."

"Oh… that does sound interesting." She took a look at the Class and the skills it could offer and was actually considering it.

"Mage has a T5 Class called the Sorcerer which can be obtained after taking a test in the Magic Academy. I am going for that." Shiroe had already decided on his path so we didn't search other classes for him.

Bina decided to go for the same but instead of the Sorcerer option, she decided to go for the High Mage which was an alternative route of Sorcerer.

We also explained to them the plan about the Guild Dorms and the business plans which Veena was thinking of implementing.

"That sounds reasonable. We can get it done in the next two days while we scout the next field boss. Oh and you have to address the new Guild Members too."

"Ughh… is that really necessary?"

"It is. The whole Guild runs on your face right now. We need to increase your brand value so that our products can be trusted more." Veena explained.

"Sigh… okay. We can have a party for the new members and I will address them there." I agreed.

And thus step by step, our plans formed.

We all had dinner and I won't lie, Bina was a great cook… even better than Veena.

It was late at night when everyone left for their own residences.