Chapter 17 - 15 : An Encounter In Riverdale Town

AN : It's been awhile people. Sorry for the late upload.)

"Looking for an MT class to go levelling at Letion Plains. Level 2 MTs are acceptable but Level 3 players are more than welcomed."

"Party with a level 3 assassin, level 2 cleric and level 3 berserker. All we need are an elementalist and an MT class. Level 2 players are welcomed but level 3 players would have priority in loots with level 4 players getting a higher share."

"Purchasing materials at a fair price. 1 star materials at 15 coppers a piece, 2 star materials at 1 silver 30 copper a piece."

Walking into the town, Sato and Fudo were greeted by the bustling atmosphere in Riverdale. Unlike Black Mountain town which had it's economic and trade centres right at the town's centre, Riverdale's shops and stores were located at the west side of the town which was close to the Blue mist salt lake. The little lake close to the Ghost mansion was actually formed from the Blue Mist salt lake showing how massive Blue Mist Salt lake is (AN : Refer to chapter 10).

As a Primary town, Riverdale was huge and lively. Don't be fooled by the term 'town'. Despite answering such, the scale of Riverdale town is on par to some of the cities in reality. As a town that houses both players and NPC, it has to be large enough for both parties.

Riverdale Town has 4 major points of entry and 5 major districts. The North district that houses the North gate, is the location of the town's barracks. The East district together with the South district, are the residential areas housing both the civilians' homes and some of the public building like the hospital, school etc. The West District housed the town's entire economic and trade buildings including but not limited to the public market and merchant stores.

As a Primary town, the West district of Riverdale town has a Bank Of Hearts which is the official bank of the Fallen Heart Kingdom. Apart from this, there are a few other banks owned by Wealthy, powerful families and individuals or groups.

The Central district, which happens to be the smallest district, houses the Town Hall, a few administrative offices and the homes of the few wealthy noble and merchant families residing in Riverdale Town.

Because they arrived from the west side of the town, they were able to witness the city's liveliness together with the players enthusiasm.

"The prices here are quite convenient. If I wasn't planning on getting a sub-class now, I would have sold my materials." Looking at the somewhat reasonable prices players hawked and bought goods Fudo was tempted to sell his goods.

"Indeed. Normally, you could sell a 1 star material at a price between 10-12 copper coins at most NPC stores. If you find the right dealer who might need it urgently, you could even sell it 20 copper coins but buyers like these are quite rare. So a price of 15 copper coins is fairly acceptable. However, once these goods are processed and used to forge a weapon or an equipment, the products could be sold at 2 times the initial price. If the quality gets any better, you might go for 3 times the initial price. To be able to purchase a lot of materials at this price, I'm pretty sure these buyers are either guild players or experts otherwise they wouldn't be able to afford doing such a business at this stage in the game. " (AN : Initial price here refers to the materials price before it becomes processed)

"Yeah. I can't wait to get my sub-class now. I see silver coins waiting to be in my embrace."

"By the way, I thought you said most players are closing in on level 4? What I see are mostly a bunch of level 2 and a few level 3 players."

Hearing the statements of the various advertising players and taking a look at the levels of the different players, Sato was surprised since this differed from what Fudo had earlier told him.

"I said most players and by most players, I meant most guild players. Since when did I ever care about noobs?"

"...so that means we are among the group of high levelled players eh?" Sato asked with a weird face neither knowing whether to cry or to laugh. Since he was planning to develop in Infinite Realm steadily and silently, he wasn't planning to garner attention any time soon especially this early into the game.

"Whoa. Are my eyes deceiving me? Level 4 players?!"

"Damn. I have been seeing a few of them recently. It seems like it's true, the guilds are indeed going to make a move."

"If I could be this skilled, I wouldn't have to worry about picking up girls in a dungeon." (AN : Play on words with the anime "How to pick up girls in a dungeon". One of my favorites…)

As Sato had said, they were indeed one of the highest levelled players in the game. Where ever they went past, the players nearby would stare at them in awe for awhile, wondering which guild experts they were. However their reactions weren't so absurd as to keep staring at them. Most of the players just gave them a 5 second glance before resuming to their activities. Even so, for a guy who doesn't like attracting attention, this would be bad if he were further noticed and as expected, they were.

"Hey." A voice sounded out.

"Hmm." Sato turned his head backwards to see who spoke.

"You guys aren't guild players are you?" The man who asked, was a level 4 Guardian with a burly body and huge height reaching almost 2.2 metres. He walking up towards them and beside him were 3 other players; a level 3 cleric, a level 4 assassin and a level 3 ranger. Such a line up is capable of ranking among the top at this stage in the game.

"No." Sato narrowed his eyes.

Hearing his response, the man smiled and said "That's good. I'm One Sword and these are my crew members. How may I address you?"

"Sky blade."

"Emperor Wolf."

"... I see." For a second, One sword didn't really know what to say in regards to Fudo's naming sense but he still reacted in time since as a professional gamer, he has definitely seen worse. "I'm a captain of Mountain Rift and I'd like to invite you to join us. What do you think?"

"Sorry. Not interested." Sato answered.

"What about you?" The man faced Fudo with a smile still on his lips.

"Same thing."

"Are you guys sure? As solo players, it might be easy to level up now but in the later stages things would get quite difficult. You sure you won't consider it again?"

"Captain !" The assassin called out.

Rather than answering, One Sword lifted his right hand to silence him.

Facing Sato and Fudo, he continued "Mountain Rift isn't actually an official guild. We are more of an adventurer's guild or group so our regulations aren't so strict. I've sent you a friend request. In case you change your mind you can contact me anytime or leave behind a mail at Shed 47 at the Public market. We won't keep you guys anymore, so let us take our leave." Saying so, One Sword began to walk away with the other players sticking close to him.

"Do you plan on accepting the friend request?" Fudo faced Sato.

"That guy is quite smart don't you think so?" Sato asked while still staring at One Sword's group as they left.

"Yeah but you did say you're gonna play solo didn't you?"

"That was the plan but what my grandpa told me has got me thinking. Either way, if I was really gonna play solo, you wouldn't be here."

"Hehehe."

"Let's be going, we still have to get our sub-classes and get used to them before going to level up."

"Aight." (AN : All right = Aight. One of my favorite made up words.)

Taking one last glance at them, Sato thought 'Mountain Rift eh? I think I've heard of them but I don't remember a captain named One Sword. Never would I have ever thought a peak tier guild would scout me.'

Meanwhile…

"Captain, why did you still bother to invite them after they rejected us?" The level 4 assassin asked. "Even if they are level 4 players, that's just for now. Who knows, maybe later on they might be even worse."

"You really don't understand, Silver. Is that what you all have on your minds?"

The remaining players nodded.

"Haha." One Sword chuckled, " Then I'll let you all in on a secret. How long has it been since Infinite Realm went online?"

"A little bit above 4 hours and a half." The assassin, Silver Sky, replied.

" In the last captains' meeting, the Head revealed that we should all try our best to bring in new members especially those high level players in the first 6 in-game hours ."(AN : 3 hours real time)

"And why is that so?" Seeing their captain stop right there, the level 3 cleric, Ao, asked perplexedly(AN : Ao; The Maori's personification light. If you live in New Zealand, then you should probably know this.).

"That's because from the information he got, it will supposedly be harder to level up from level 0 to 5 for the very first 6 in-game hours. That's why despite it being almost 5 hours, mainstream players are still at level 2 with a couple of them at level 3 and quite a few of them at level 4. Apparently, this is just one of the edge the upper class has been given, to enable them spot talents and pros in the open to recruit.. From what I know, this game hides a lot of secrets."