Nobody expected Arthur to say something like that at all. It came out of nowhere and it even surprised the girl sitting on the tree. However, the boy didn’t seem like he was bothered as he continued.
“How can you not be clear enough on what your group should and shouldn’t do? I almost killed them all by mistake just because one of your idiots thought ten extra potions are a matter of life and death.” Arthur shook his head with a disappointed look. His tone sounded like a parent reprimanding their child after they did something wrong.
It almost turned into something comical.
“Hey, you bastard! Don’t insult her! I will kill you!” Danny yelled loudly as he glared dagger at Arthur. He felt outraged that this nobody insulted his leader in such a blatant way.
“Well, I’m not the one that attacked an innocent player out of nowhere, am I?” Arthur retorted. “It’s either you get blamed for being a complete moron, or she gets blamed for having a complete moron in her group and not being aware of how stupid they are. Either way, you’re a complete moron.”
“You!!”
“Danny, enough.” At that moment, the girl spoke as she lifted her finger. “He is right. This has been a mistake on my part.”
“Huh? You don’t have to listen to him! He is just blabbering nonsense.”
“No, I should’ve been clear with what you should do in case you couldn’t find enough potions.” Then, with a simple move, she jumped from the branch and landed gracefully on the ground.
That was when Arthur noticed the armor she was wearing. It was by no means extravagant, but it was still slick and beautiful, accentuating her ridiculously good looks. Then, she walked slowly toward Arthur.
“To that, I want to apologize for any inconvenience my group has given you. They might be hot-blooded sometimes, but they aren’t bad people.” She said.
“…” Arthur blinked before he nodded his head. “It’s fine. I also overdid it a little. I’m glad I didn’t kill them by mistake, hahaha.” He laughed awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head.
The girl stared at him with a blank expression. “Now that I think about it. How were you able to defeat them all on your own? I don’t like to brag, but they’re top-notch players.”
“Eh…” Arthur looked away. “It’s not your problem. Anyway, since this matter is settled, I will excuse myself.” He then turned around to make a quick and tactical escape. ‘I can’t let her ask me about anything else or she would definitely realize who I am. She must be an extremely high player.’
Arthur felt like he would easily fall for her questions if they spoke long enough so he decided to save himself before he blunders. However, he soon realized that his escape wasn’t going to be easy.
“Wait, can I at least know your name?”
“Hm?” Arthur looked back at her. “No. I don’t like talking to strangers. I have severe social anxiety. Bye.”
Then, he quickly dashed away before she could even say anything else. ‘Good, I made a run for it! She would’ve got more information out of me if I stayed another second there.’ Gulping down a mouthful of saliva, Arthur laughed to himself as he crossed through the thick bush, going deeper into the forest.
‘Now that I think about it, I didn’t see her name.’ He thought to himself.
Meanwhile, back where the other group was, the girl stood there as she looked at where Arthur vanished with a blank expression. Nobody knew what was going through her head at that moment.
“Leader… I’m really sorry…” Danny approached her with an ashamed look on his face. “Because of me, you had to apologize to that bastard. I should’ve not done that!”
The guilt he felt at that moment was very deep, mainly because he wished to be useful to her and to have her back when she needed him. But, instead, he made her bow her head to someone who didn’t deserve it. In fact, nobody truly deserved her bowing her head or apologizing.
“Don’t mention it. It was my responsibility to be clear.” She replied coldly as she turned around. “Thank your luck that you didn’t die.”
Danny looked at her with an amazed look for a second. Then, he said. “Did you see the entire fight?”
“…” The girl didn’t reply. However, he took that as her saying ‘yes’.
“… Do you think that he’s…?” Danny didn’t even need to finish his words for her to understand what he was trying to imply. After all, it was as obvious as day to both of them and even to the other two.
“Could be.” She replied. “I can’t say for sure. But… What he did is something I don’t think I can do and that can only lead to one thing.”
Her tone made Danny frown visibly as he quickly looked at the spot where Arthur vanished. “To think that he’s… Of all people…”
For some reason, this realization made his loss even more bitter and painful. It was truly a horrible day for him on all fronts.
***
For the next several hours, Arthur roamed the entire forest, fighting monsters and collecting items everywhere he went. Sadly, he wasn’t able to find anything truly interesting the entire time and there were multiple reasons for that.
The first obvious one was that players were already reaching these areas and discovering them. This particular part of the forest wasn’t that deep so they were able to go there and be able to stay alive. The second reason was that Arthur didn’t go deep enough to actually find more mysterious stuff.
However, even with all of that, he was still certain that the forest hid a lot of secrets everywhere and people were finding them every single moment.
It was simply not his lucky day that day.
“Ugh, nothing! Nothing! I found nothing!” Sitting near a tree, he watched the sunset with a sour look on his face. Arthur’s mood was foul after a long hunting trip that ended up being merely a hunting trip.
‘Tsk, I know that I shouldn’t expect to find new stuff every single time. Still, I want to explore more and this is getting quite addicting.’ He thought to himself as he opened the map.
“On the brighter side, I was able to expand my map a lot. It looks quite amazing now.” He muttered as he examined the details present in it. He had easily tripled the area his map had shown before which was going to be very useful in the future.
“I also gathered a lot of items, and even leveled up twice.” He muttered. “I guess it wasn’t too bad in the end.” He sighed as he closed his map, stood up and dusted his armor.
Then, inhaled a long breath and opened the settings to log out. “It should be very late at night now or even early in the morning. They said we have to get ready for today so I should stop for now.”
Saying that, Arthur logged out of the game and left the capsule. As he expected, it was around 4 AM at the time.
“Hmm, I’m not really feeling tired. Should I eat a late-night dinner and then go to sleep?” He asked himself as he stood there near the window. The outside was surprisingly well-lit up.
Up the mountain, the institution looked like a beautiful beacon of light that shined upon the entire island. It was a mesmerizing sight to look at. For a while, Arthur admired the scenery silently as he rested his arms on the window frame.
It was certainly a beautiful moment of relaxation that he hadn’t had in a while. That moment also gave him a very good idea that made him smile widely.
“Or… Better than wasting time sleeping. How about I start… training?”