Chapter 29: The Hunting Party

That afternoon, I went to several different stores and browsed them for anything that interested me. Of course, I didn't have enough gold to buy anything right now, but I was about to get a huge sum. Might as well look for something now.

In the end, only one thing ended up catching my eye: an outfit set. More specifically, it was an armor set, but it didn't look half bad either, which was why I called it an 'outfit'. I had seen it when looking through an armor store.

The set came in three different parts - the clothes, the pants, and the boots. Excluding the silver armor plating, the outfit mainly consisted of sturdy, strong black fabric, with a hood that could go over my head. The shoulders had light metal plating on them that jutted outwards to my sides in a triangular shape, and the chest part had light armor as well. The stomach portion was layered with chainmail underneath the fabric, so it was well-protected as well.

As for the lower body, all my joints would be nearly completely covered in light armor if I put it on, but the rest would only be protected by the thick fabric. This made my legs and thighs somewhat vulnerable, but defense wasn't the highlight of this armor set anyway. The boots were made out of leather, then dyed black to match the rest of the outfit, with metal silver linings here and there for decorative purposes. It seemed that this world had a lot of the same materials as back on Earth.

According to the label next to it, this outfit was called the 'Assassin's Cloak'. A suitable name for an armor set made to be light above all else. Unlike the other bulky and heavy armor in the store, my agility and movements wouldn't be hindered if I wore this one since it was so light - the perfect attire for assassins. However, at the same time, my vitals would still be offered some protection. Moreover, because the majority of this outfit was black, it made it harder to see me at night.

All these factors considered, I decided to buy this outfit as soon as I got the money for it. After checking the price tag, I found out that this set cost 350 gold - just a small sum compared to what I was going to receive very soon.

As an aside, while I was browsing various stores, I came across Furuwa. However, despite both of us looking each other straight in the eye, neither of us made a move to start a conversation, and instead just brushed past one another as if we were strangers. However... I did discretely use 'Inspect' on her.

[Name: Chiaki Furuwa]

[Gender: Female]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Knight]

[Level: 10]

-

[STR: 21]

[AGI: 21]

[INT: 21]

[DEX: 21]

[MAG: 1]

[LUC: 11]

Hm... so she discovered the 'main skill path' option as well and decided to go along with it. The 'Knight' class did indeed suit her though, since all her stats were pretty balanced. She also seems to have purchased the 'Way of the Knight' passive skill, seeing as how her stats had increased since the last time I used 'Inspect' on her, even though her level was still the same.

Not bad, not bad at all, Furuwa.

*****

6 PM rolled around faster than I had expected. I had been in the middle of browsing a library, marked by a book icon in my minimap, when I looked at the time displayed in my System and realized it was 5:58.

I hurried over to the western gates, where we were meant to meet. The majority of the other players who were there this morning had already gathered, Qin Yao and Furuwa included. However, there were also some new faces... well, to other people, anyway. I recognized them - Ichigo and Horiya. They had both joined this 'Public Event' as well, in the words of the game.

A.R.X.A. must've predicted that Captain Ling Ye was going to launch an extermination party to go into the forest sooner or later, even if Qin Yao hadn't proposed to lead it. That's why she scheduled a 'Public Event' to happen right now, and gathered all the players via this method.

''Alright. It seems everyone is here," Qin Yao said at last, scanning the crowd that had gathered before him. "Some of us here now weren't here for the meeting this morning, but that's alright. I've already determined their strength, and made groups accordingly. So, without further ado, here are the teams..."

In the end, we had 35 people. There were quite a few players online in this region of the game, probably because it was a Saturday. However... I've had this inquiry for a while now, but from the research I did while I was still in the Earthen reality plane, Ascension: Online was an insanely popular game. It didn't make sense for there to only be such few players here. If this was really just a video game, I'd assume there were multiple different servers players could play on to avoid overflooding, but... this was a real, alternate world. I'd have to ask A.R.X.A. about this later.

In any case, the total number of players here participating in this public event was easily divisible - seven groups with five people each. However... there was just one problem:

And that was my group members.

My team consisted of the four people I least wanted to be with, unfortunately. Indeed - I was forced to work with Chiaki Furuwa, Qin Yao, Mazami Ichigo, and Yamato Horiya. I really didn't like it, but my request to switch groups probably wouldn't be approved, especially with Qin Yao as the leader here. I just had to grin and bear it, I suppose.

"Oi, Igarashi. What a coincidence, huh? We're in the same group," Ichigo chuckled once Qin Yao had finished announcing the groups, and walked over to me. "You sure you can handle this quest? We ain't going in there to fight some sickleboars, y'know."

"Thank you for the concern, but I'll be fine," I retorted in a mockingly polite manner.

"Heh. We'll see about that," Horiya added. "Just don't expect us to save your ass when you're about to die and lose your whole inventory, yeah?"

I smiled. "Of course."

It seems they knew about the consequences of dying as well, probably from reading that Database entry. However, they clearly didn't read it properly, since it said that you would only start losing things upon death from level 15 and up.

"Tch... why am I stuck with this group..." Furuwa muttered from beside me.

I blinked in surprise. "Hm? What's this? You, proactively trying to start a conversation with me?"

"You're the best one in this group. And when that's the case, you know there's a problem," she replied mercilessly, shooting me a deadpan glare.

I shrugged. "I can't argue with that one. Our fellow group members are quite... troublesome."

"Hmph. Who'll be the troublesome one when you need our help?" Ichigo scoffed, sending Furuwa a condescending look.

"I'd rather die than accept your help," Furuwa shot back, rolling her eyes.

Ichigo snorted in response, and neither of them said anything further.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Qin Yao asked, walking over to us after he had confirmed with the other groups.

"As ready as ever," Horiya replied. "Let's get some loot. And XP too."

"Yeah, there's this skill I had my eye on... I just need 1 AP to get it," Ichigo smirked.

"In that case..." Qin Yao looked around at the other groups, then raised his voice.

"Everyone, let's head out!"