The players had seen the videos and pictures Arthur posted on the game’s forums. They knew he wasn’t in a snowy kingdom. It couldn’t be Aldora.
Yet someone with the nickname Cinder was standing right in front of them. How was that possible?
Suzy poked Tower in the back. She leaned closer and whispered, "He has the same cloak from his profile picture. Isn’t that too much of a coincidence?"
Arthur couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he noticed the change in Tower’s gaze. He looked thoughtful as he studied Arthur.
"Look, I’m the real Cinder, alright? So, do you know where this Shadow Cloak guy is? If not, it’s fine. I’ll just keep looking."
It wasn’t like he needed their help. It would be useful, sure. Considering how few players the Aldora Kingdom had and how high Shadow Cloak was in the leveling rankings, there was a good chance this group knew him. That could speed things up for Arthur.
"If we help you, what do we get in return?" Tower asked.
Louise was starting to lose her patience with them.
"Do you want me to kill them? They’ll come back to life, right?"
The group retreated a few steps, frightened by what Louise had said. No one wanted to die and lose EXP, especially players aiming for first place or trying to reach the city before everyone else.
Arthur hadn’t expected Louise to be so direct. He thought she would only help him against monsters, but apparently, she was really committed to helping him.
That was a good opportunity.
’I can use her strength to threaten them.’
"Now that you mention it... maybe we should just kill them and keep looking. I don’t think they know anything."
Louise wasn’t stupid. She immediately understood what Arthur was trying to do and played along.
"Agreed. Do you want me to cook them with my fire spells or cut them down with my sword?" Louise said, smirking at the players.
Point Blank, the ranger in the group, finally spoke. She didn’t want to lose her precious EXP. If Tower wasn’t going to say anything, she would.
"I know where Shadow Cloak is," Point Blank said. "Want me to show you?"
Tower tried to stop her.
"What are you doing? We can get something in exchange for that information! Don’t give it away for free."
Point Blank rolled her eyes. "Free? If we don’t tell him, we’ll die and lose our progress. Do you want that? We want to reach the city before everyone else, remember?"
Suzy stepped in.
"I’m with her. And remember, if we help Cinder, we’ll be on good terms with him. I’d like to think that means something."
She was right. Arthur wasn’t the type to backstab people who helped him.
"I’ll remember you," Arthur said. "I might even help you out in the city. That depends on whether you prove your value beyond just giving me information."
"So..." Arthur crossed his arms. "Where is Shadow Cloak?"
Tower finally gave in. Their group didn’t have a leader. They were just real-life friends playing the game together.
"Alright, fine, fine," he said. "We can show you where he is. It’s not far from here."
A smile formed on Arthur’s face.
"Are you sure you want to waste your precious time showing me? You can just tell me."
"We wouldn’t be wasting that much time," Suzy said. "Ten minutes at most. It won’t make that much of a difference. And we can keep killing monsters along the way."
"If we’re going to show you where he is, we might as well do it properly."
Arthur had barely met them, but this Suzy seemed like a decent person. He wasn’t sure he could say the same about the other two.
Out of all of them, Tower was the one he liked the least, but that was only his first impression. Things could change.
Anyway, the group of players entered the forest. Arthur and Louise followed a short distance behind them.
"You don’t have to stay so far away," Tower said, turning his head to look at them.
"For all I know, you might be crazy enough to kill me. I doubt it, but you never know. There are all kinds of crazy people out there..."
Killing another player meant gaining PK status. At the beginning of the game, that could seriously affect someone’s progression. That was why few people were crazy enough to try killing another player this early.
They didn’t insist on Arthur staying closer. Suzy, however, decided to approach him. As soon as she got too close, Louise drew her sword and held it between Suzy and Arthur.
"Don’t try anything funny," Louise said.
Arthur felt great having such a beautiful and powerful NPC protecting him. That had never happened before. Bram and Ray being such good friends had made it possible.
The reputation he had gained in the city also made a difference, but the nature of their relationship was the most important part.
"You can lower your sword, Louise. She’s a priest, so she won’t deal much damage even if she tries something."
Suzy now walked beside Arthur as they went deeper into the forest. No monsters had appeared yet.
"Are you really Cinder?" Suzy asked.
"Yeah, that’s me. Why?"
"C-Can I take a picture with you?"
Louise didn’t understand a thing when the two stood beside each other and looked at Tower, who took the picture using the game system.
Things like that didn’t exist for NPCs.
Just like in his profile picture, Arthur gave a thumbs-up. It was already becoming his signature pose.
"Tell me, how did you record all that stuff? It didn’t look like it was in this region. You were already flying on a mount! It was incredible. I want to be able to fly someday too."
Suzy’s smile was cute and innocent. She genuinely seemed happy at the idea of being able to fly one day.
"I can’t reveal that secret," Arthur said. "I hope that’s not a problem."
"It’s fine, it’s fine. I understand. Can I add you as a friend?"
Arthur saw no problem with that. He accepted Suzy’s friend request.
Before they could say anything else, a group of monsters appeared. The players fought the creatures, which turned out to be spiders.
The spiders were level 4 and completely white. Besides the poison they could spit from a distance, they could also shoot webs covered in ice spikes from their asses.
They weren’t that easy to deal with. Luckily, there were only two. The group of players worked together.
With one tank, one DPS, and one healer, their party composition was pretty good. Arthur watched them and found himself slightly impressed.
They clearly weren’t moving as well as they could, since they were still getting used to the game, and they also needed better teamwork, but they were already considerably good.
After dealing with the spiders and walking a little farther, they finally reached a cave.
"From what we know, Shadow Cloak is using this place to level up. Since he’s alone, there are fewer monsters here, and they usually appear by themselves," Tower explained.
They seemed to know quite a lot about Shadow Cloak. Arthur was starting to suspect they were friends or something.
"Alright, thank you very much. You can go back to what you were doing."
Tower and Point Blank didn’t add Arthur before leaving. Maybe they didn’t see the need since Suzy had already done it.
With Louise by his side, Arthur entered the cave and began searching for Shadow Cloak.