“…” Arthur’s face was completely blank as he looked at his name. He didn’t know if he was supposed to be happy or sad at what he was seeing. “3250 points… I don’t even feel like I should be surprised.”
The difference between him and the second place, the player named ‘Darkmoon’ was so vast, it didn’t even sound funny. He was now ahead of them by more than 2000 points and it all happened in a short period of time. ‘And here I was a little happy that I wasn’t number one. That didn’t last long.’
Facepalming, he closed the ranking and looked around him. He could hear grasps of shock everywhere.
“You have got to be kidding me! 3250 points is insane!”
“What did he do to get that many points this quick?!” One player asked.
“Tsk, he must’ve cheated! There is no way someone can gain this many points this quickly! I have gone out to hunt and the most I gathered are a few dozen points from killing horned rabbits!” One player scoffed. “Persona is a cheater! Or they’re one of the developers and they know exactly where to go to gather the most points!”
The player’s claim was received with mixed reactions. Some agreed with her, while the others seemed apprehensive. But, nobody can deny nor confirm her claims. After all, Persona was an unknown player.
‘I’m not a developer, girl. If I was, I would have far more points than that. Don’t underestimate me, hmph!’ Arthur snorted. ‘But, now that I think about it, why am I being called Persona? Is that some kind of nickname? Well, it sounds cool so it’s not a problem.’
Arthur knew how people liked to give others nicknames based on different things about them. Even he had been called nicknames before in his life. Granted, most of them weren’t flattering, but he didn’t care.
‘Well, if I meet that guy who called me ‘0.5 boy’ I may or may not break his face.’ Arthur thought to himself as he continued walking to Nina’s shop. When he reached it, he found the woman sitting behind the counter, reading a book.
“Looking good with those glasses on. I like it.” Arthur smiled as he approached her.
“Hm?” Looking up with her glasses, she raised an eyebrow. “You’re already back?”
“In the flesh. I almost didn’t come back, though.” He said. “That was brutal!”
“Brutal? Were there many orcs?”
“Forget about the orcs, those were the easier part. The goddamn young orc you told me about was the problem. That thing was something else!” He grumbled. “You didn’t tell me orcs are born stronger than their older counterparts.”
This fact Arthur discovered only after beating the fetus. It seemed when orcs are born, they’re born very strong and slowly grow weaker with age. It was quite surprising for him as the logic said that as a creature grows older it should be getting stronger, and yet for some reason, the orcs defied that.
“Hm, what do you mean?” Nina was a little confused. “I assumed since the orcs in that cave are old, they should’ve not been a problem. Even the younglings aren’t that strong since they should be at least a few years old. After all, the lifespan of an orc is around ten years or so.”
“… Well, I found no younglings. There were old orcs that I had to fight for almost an hour and then, when I was able to kill most of them, one female orc was ripped open and a giant fucking fetus came out of its stomach. That thing was ridiculously strong.” Arthur replied. Although he was complaining, he wasn’t really that angry about it.
In the end, he won and gained a lot of benefits from this battle.
The boy also didn’t want to know everything about his enemy before actually meeting them. He wanted the element of surprise to remain there as this was a part of exploration. ‘I had a lot of fun fighting it. Totally wo-‘
However, as he was remembering what happened, Arthur noticed that Nina had gone completely quiet. Looking up, he saw a stunned expression on the woman’s face. She was staring wide-eyed at Arthur.
“Nina? Oii, from the Divine Realm to Nina, do you copy?” Snapping his finger in front of her, the girl finally blinked.
“A fetus? A fetus orc? You’ve found a fetus orc?”
“No, I didn’t only find one. I saw it being born and then killed it.” Arthur replied. “Oh, also, here is its eye. Sorry if this isn’t what you’re looking for. Blurgh, it’s slimy.” Saying that Arthur pulled the eye out of his inventory and put it on her table.
The woman stared at the black eye for a moment before she picked it up and inspected it. Her face was completely frozen with surprise. “Arthur, I… I didn’t know that there was a pregnant orc in that settlement… I thought all the females died before they could give birth… The old male orcs should’ve been the only ones left there.” She said.
“Oh well, I guess there was one female hiding amongst them that was going to give birth. Anyway, is that the item you wanted?”
“Huh? This is far better than the item I’m looking for! Actually, I cannot believe you were able to kill a fetus orc on your own. That is a very strong foe in this region that requires an entire group of hunters to take it down.”
“Haha, praise me more, I’m the best.” Arthur laughed jokingly. “Well, I was very lucky, and I also used some underhanded tactics to take it down.”
“I don’t even know what to say anymore.” She muttered as she finally smiled. “You’re quite the strong boy, aren’t you?”
“… I don’t like how you phrased that.”
“Fufufufu, good boy is a good boy, and you deserve a pat.” Saying that, she stood up and walked around the counter before she wrapped her arms around Arthur’s body, pulling him into a hug. At the same time, she started rubbing the back of his head gently. “That’s a good boy.”
Arthur was a little confused, but he didn’t deny her. ‘Why would I? I’m getting hugged by a beauty. You don’t get that every day. This feels really nice.’
After a few moments, she pulled away and said. “You definitely deserve an extra reward for doing this flawlessly and even getting me something far more powerful than I could ask.
[Ding!]
[You have finished Nina’s quest successfully!]
[You have gained +100% experience points.]
[Ding!]
[You have leveled up!] frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
[+2 Extra Points.]
“Good,” Arthur muttered. “What’s the extra reward?”
“I’m going to give you a third scroll apart from the two you wanted. Also, they’re all for free so you don’t have to pay me anything.” She said.
“Wow, so generous, Nina!” He smiled.
“Fufufu, wait here.” She said as she walked into the back room. Meanwhile, Arthur sat there, excitedly waiting for his reward. “Three abilities! I wonder what the third one will be.”
As he was sitting there, humming to himself, the door to the shop opened and the boy heard the sound of the bell ringing.
A//N: Hand me all your PS!