Chapter 132 - Stay Toasty

'Wait, actually isn't this the perfect opportunity?' Arthur thought to himself as he watched the developers pondering over their notes.

'The streamers will be joining us in six sessions.' He thought, 'If I try stream later like I did in the past it would take me far too long to grow again, and it'll be impossible to compete with these massive streamers right away.'

'So the ideal scenario would be to stream before them.' He concluded, 'But I'd rather not give too much away.'

"Oh, I had an idea." Arthur stated. "Since you guys can't see inside the game from your end, and the information you're getting sent isn't helping at all, what if you just watched from my point of view?"

"What do yo-- Ohh..." One of the developers was about to ask what he meant, but quickly realised. "True! You could stream it, that would let us identify anything strange right away."

The developer turned to the other developer with a curious gaze, who turned to Arthur. "We are currently setting up the streaming modules for room four's machines. I don't see why we can't set one up in your machine as well, if that is what you want."

"That's fine by me." Arthur said with a smile.

"Very well, I'll bring that up with the maintenance team. It should be done over the week, hopefully by the first session of next week." The developer said while writing notes on a sheet of paper.

'Jackpot, there's my future career secured.' Arthur thought to himself.

By this time a large group of players started filling the room, and the developers scrambled off to set up the briefing quickly. Arthur took his usual seat and his expanded friend group started taking their seats around him and began chatting while the briefing was getting sorted.

"Alright, could I get everyone's attention please." One of the developers spoke up.

Fortunately there wasn't much to be briefed on this time around. The biggest change would have likely been related to Arthur, but it wasn't like they could announce that, so only a few small things were mentioned before they moved right over to the rankings.

"Starting off at fifth place, at level five with one soul, Zankoku." The developer began reading out the top five rankings. "At fourth place, also at level five with only one soul, VoidJade."

"And here we are at third place, yet another level five, this time with two souls, Typhoeus." The developer said, turning the page once more. "The second place, once again level five with two souls, Snowbunny."

"And it seems as though nobody has reached level six yet." The developer flipped the page once more, staring at Arthur's information sheet. "In first place, at level five once more, with a total of three souls, Merlin. And it seems as though the top two are no longer neck and neck."

"Well, I hope you've all enjoyed, we'll be seeing you all tomorrow at the same time as usual. Enjoy the rest of your day." The developer concluded.

Everyone was asked to leave the briefing room within a few minutes so that the next briefing could take place shortly. Most of them left, Arthur's group included, while a few stayed back for a moment while grabbing refreshments before leaving.

The group of friends Arthur had made were all chatting along as they continued outside. Arthur was thinking that they'd eventually make a great guild if they all decided to group up in the main game. Although out of all of them, he only knew of Typhoeus and Snowbunny, either the others quit the game early on, or just didn't end up making a name for themselves, which would have been surprising as they were pretty skilled already.

Eventually the group scattered, and Donovan was there by the curb to pick up Arthur. After a few greetings, Donovan drove Arthur home.

He went through his usual schedule of watering his plants, working out and playing games with friends. And by the time it came time to eat, he was called down to the kitchen.

As Arthur made his way down the stairs, he found that his father was actually home this time around. The family began eating, but Arthur noticed that Anna didn't seem that talkative today, so he asked her what was wrong.

"It's nothing." Anna said while poking at the peas on her plate. "I'm just still worried about Mallory. Doctor Hudson said she seemed to be healing fine, but her EEG still hasn't stabilised. It shouldn't be that high and I don't understand what is happening."

"Annabelle." Their father spoke up. "Please. Not at the kitchen table."

"Sorry." Anna said meekly while going back to picking at her food.

The family finished off their meals in an awkward silence, and Arthur eventually vanished back into his room, performing his night time routine before heading to bed.

The next day, Donovan picked Arthur up and brought him back to the facility. It didn't take long for the morning briefing to end, and then everyone was allowed back into the game.

When he loaded back into the world, it seemed to be in the middle of the day, and he was standing in front of the stone door frame. The script on the stone surface didn't seem to be giving off any more light, so Merlin made his way out of the ruins before he got a notification message in regards to his merchants association receipt telling him that his item was ready to be picked up.

"Well time to see what they whipped up for me." Merlin muttered to himself as he made his way down the path towards the large building.

Merlin made his way into the store, greeting the person at the front counter before making his way to the counter at the back of the store.

"Good afternoon, how can we be of service?" The man at the counter spoke in a friendly tone.

"I've got an order that should be ready, I'm here to retrieve it." Merlin reached into his inventory and pulled out his receipt, handing it to the man.

"Alright, let us see here..." The man glanced at the receipt for a moment, before vanishing behind a door behind him, coming back moments later with a nicely folded fluffy black square. "This was your purchase correct, the cloak?"

The man began unfolding the item, revealing a large fluffy black coat that seemed to have kept the nice sheen of the panther's coat. It featured a hood as Merlin requested, and also a fancy silver clasp at the front featuring a beautiful red gem, which Merlin identified as the crude fire stone.

The man handed Merlin his purchase, and Merlin gave him the receipt in return. Excited to see the stats, he inspected the item.

┌───────────────────

[Warm Panther Cloak (Rare)]

A cloak made from the fur of a panther, a stealthy predator, that was then enchanted with a crude fire stone.

• Abilities: ⟪Overheat⟫ 

• Stealth: +20%

• Cold resistance: +10%

• Protection from the elements: +70%

└───────────────────

"It's perfect." Merlin exclaimed while reading over the stats, which seemed to put a smile on the cashier's face.

The stats alone were amazing, especially for what amounted to only three gold, six silver and six copper, he didn't know how much the excess material took the cost off, but it must have been a fair amount if he even managed to get an ability with it.

"I'm glad you like it, would you like to wear it now?" He asked.

Merlin obliged, taking off the apprentice's black cloak that he had been wearing all this time, throwing it into his inventory before putting the new cloak on.

The first thing Merlin noticed was that unlike the last cloak, that was somewhat rough and scratchy due to the materials and poor crafting, this cloak was incredibly soft.

The next thing he noticed was that it was quite warm, whether that be the work of the fire stone or just the fluffy material, it was pleasantly warm.

"My, that suits you very well." The cashier complimented him.

"Thank you." Merlin said with a smile.

He eventually made his way out of the building, and while he was there he checked the ability that the cloak had.

┌───────────────────

⟪Overheat⟫

You inject mana into the fire stone attached to your cloak, causing it to produce hot air that gets trapped within the fur, keeping you warm and protecting you from extremely cold temperatures.

• Increases your cold resistance by +50%.

• 10 mana per minute.

└───────────────────

'Interesting' He muttered to himself, 'I don't think anywhere on this map gets cold enough to need this though, but it'd probably protect me if I got blasted with ice magic.'

Merlin made his way to the rangers guild, which for once in his time in this city didn't have a crowd gathered around it. He made his way inside and greeted the ranger who was sitting at the front desk before making his way down the hallway.

According to the ranger, the guild master wasn't currently in, she seemed to have left for the field once more only a few hours ago.

'It is very difficult to find her.' Merlin groaned in his thoughts, 'and she was the one who wanted an explanation.'

Merlin eventually bumped into Tuli, who was making her way into the medicine room with what he could only imagine was another new recruit.

"Oh, hey Merlin!" She greeted him. "Nice cloak, looking good."

"Thanks.." Merlin smiled, before asking her a question. "I've got plenty of free time now, do you need help with anything, more supplies?"