Chapter 139 - 135 : Meeting Up

"Over here." Amelia pointed at a door as she approached it.

"Hmm."

Amelia opened the door for Sato to get through it. As he walked through the door, Sato was greeted by the sight of a huge and impressive hall.

The library was huge hall filled with wooden bookcases almost 2 and a half metres tall. Despite so, it looked quite sturdy and the wood didn't seem to be an ordinary one or something on oar with cedar or mahogany; it looked way more expensive and better. At the side of the book cases, a few words were painted on them, signifying the central topic of the books on the cases. On each of them were a ton of books and manuscripts of different ages, all focused or associated with Blacksmithing. These were writings or experiences from predecessors on Blacksmithing, containing enough knowledge to raise a Master level Blacksmith.

The library wasn't only filled with book cases and books. At certain intervals on the side, a pot of flowers was kept on the side to beautiful the environment. At the center of the library, was a small fountain that created a pond there. Apparently, the essence of the fountain was to use the sound of the water flowing to calm the minds of readers and to combat that excessive feeling of silence. [1]

Apart from the sound of water running and a few footsteps, nothing else could be heard here.

"So what would you like to begin with?" Amelia asked Sato.

"I'd like to read some past experiences of other Blacksmiths. I'm having a bit of trouble in my work." Sato replied.

"Hmm...past experiences. I think there are a lot of them here and there are a few specific ones at that. Over here."

Amelia then lead Sato a bit deeper into the library before stopping at a book case.

"Right here." Amelia said to Sato.

"Hmm." Sato nodded in acquiescence as he walked closer to the book case. He began scanning through the books and manuscripts, in search of one to take with him.

"Hmm. Hieler's words, Masic's Procedures, Master Dorian's Experience in Forging, Etihad's Savoir-faire on Blacksmithing. There sure are a lot of books...Hmm? Juggard's Hammer strikes?" Sato brought his eye on a small insignificant booklet.

"Oh that? That's a simple manual from the Grand-master Blacksmith Juggard. He is known as the Father of modern day Blacksmithing and forging since most beginners rely on his manuals." Amelia explained.

"A Grand-master Blacksmith?" Sato was surprised. "Why is his work tossed here just like this?"

"You seem to misunderstand. This book has been copied all over the world. This isn't a special copy or anything and it's only useful to beginners and apprentices so it isn't as valued as the others."

"The others?" Sato asked.

"The good ones. You should have guessed that this isn't all the ones the guild has right?" Amelia smiled mysteriously.

"That's true. Alright then. I will take these two. Can I borrow them from the guild?" Sato said as he brought out the two books: 'Juggard's Hammer strikes' and ''Master Dorian's Experience in Forging'.

"Well, usually, you can't unless you're an official Blacksmith but Master Owen permitted you guys." Amelia replied.

'He really is helping us that much huh...'

"Okay then." Sato nodded.

"Then follow me to finish up the procedures." Amelia said.

6:35 PM. RT (Real-Time)

It didn't take long for Sato to be done with the procedures before he could take the book.

[[System : Incoming Audio call.

Caller ID : Emperor Wolf

Accept/Decline ]]

As he left the Blacksmith guild, Sato received a call from his System interface, an In-game call. To be exact and one from Fudo.

[[System : Audio call accepted]]

"Hello."

"Hey, Sato what's up? Where are you?" Fudo's enthusiastic voice replied from the other end of the call.

"I'm at the Blacksmith guild. It shouldn't be so far from you so come on over." Sato replied him.

"Hehe. Guess who I found here?" Fudo chuckled mysteriously.

"Seiichi." Sato plainly replied. When he had got back home, he sent Seiichi a message asking him to head over to their location at Riverdale. Seiichi was a hardcore gamer so Sato wasn't worried that he would come late.

"...How the hell did you know that?!" Fudo yelled, shocked that Sato had guessed it in one try.

"I sent him over there. Bring him with you while coming. Oh and also, what about Takehasi?"

"Tch. No wonder you guessed it so quickly." Fudo grumbled. "As for Takehasi, he already has an account in the game but he's positioned elsewhere, Maple leaf Kingdom or something. I think he said it was at the Western side of the continent."

"At the West? That's far." Sato sighed. The Fallen Heart Kingdom where Sato was, is located at the South-Eastern side of the continent, way far from the Maple Leaf Kingdom. The kingdoms neighbouring Fallen Heart were just Reiss and Belarusia, both kingdoms under the Brahman Empire. There was also another piece of land though but this was directly under the Andare, a rival power to the Brahman Empire.

"What about Natsuo?" Sato asked again.

"Same with him but he's a bit closer though. The Reiss Kingdom. If I remember correctly, they should be one of our neighbours." Fudo answered.

"Yeah. Put the call on speaker let me talk to Seiichi."

"It already was." Fudo replied.

"I'm here." Seiichi's voice sounded from the call.

"Oh? Seiichi, how did it go with Katsuo?" Sato asked him.

"Good I guess. Katsuo should be setting up his avatar and he will be done in the next 5 or so minutes."

"What class?" Sato asked.

"I don't know but he did mention it's an MT one; either a [Paladin] or a [Guardian]."

"Okay then. You can wait for him while I stock on supplies. We don't have a healer yet so we would need a lot of vials." Sato sighed. When it was with him and Fudo, the expenses were still slightly manageable but with a few more numbers, things would get a whole lot more expensive.

"Later."

[[System : Audio call terminated]]

Sato glanced up to face the skies as he began to think of how to go about things from now.

'Oh, I forgot to ask about Yato. Hai…'

While Sato wen about to go purchase a few goods, unbeknownst to him, a commotion had arisen from Yukino's actions back then. The forums were heated up discussing about her as various different news with appealing headlines appeared all over the place. While there were a few that had an 'okay' title, some of them took things a little bit too far.

"Shocking, Emperor's Might Top beauty attacks in Town and doesn't get arrested."

"The Snow Goddess has seized her place as the untouchable player of Riverdale."

"Did the Snow Goddess have an affair with the Town's head to escape punishment? Find out now!"

"The Love story of Town Head Arman and the Snow Goddess."

"The Snow Goddess; even her charm knows no bounds as she seduces her way out of jail with her beauty."

As dumb as some of the headlines sounded, they all focused on one fact; the Snow Goddess, Akihira Yukino, had attacked a player in town but didn't receive any punishment despite encountering the Town guards.

Some players had thought thus was a glitch or a bug and so tried to replicate the exact same scenario but oh, were they disappointed as they got caught and jailed in prison. A few others, the envious guild players to be exact, wrote an aggressive report to the developers, claiming that the System was rigged. However, the developers had released a statement claiming that nothing was wrong with the System and it was only the Snow Goddess' efforts that set her free. This didn't succeed in calming the players down as there were more criticism and complaints filed to the company. Until they finally released the reason to her being free.

"The top 10 players of the Most Kills award in the Individual category all received the basic reward and this included the title [Humanity's Friend]."

It was just a sentence but as more players researched on it and recalled the title from back then, they finally understood why. The title made their relationship levels with human forces to be at an [Honoured] level. So almost like a noble, they would be respected where ever they went, as long as it was a human settlement. In other words, so long as Yukino explained to the guards about what she did and why she did so, together with the fact that she only injured a player and didn't commit murder, there was no reason for her to be jailed. After all, her merits had already surpassed her crimes. There was only one sentence left in the minds of players once they knew this; Why didn't I try better back then?

AN :

[1] Excess silence here refers to pure silence or rather, true silence. Silence is good, yeah sure. But I'm not a fan of total silence. I prefer nature's silence. You know, the silence you get at the beach, close to the sea or in a forest with the occasional rustling of leaves.. PS : I coined all these terms.