Chapter 112 - Boris' Troubles

The issue came to be known to many immediately and it was new source of excitement for many players. It was a quest which was given to everybody who entered the Blackrock town and mass quests usually provided very good rewards for the players and it depended on the number of monsters that they killed. As soon as the announcement came a special notice came into the mail of all the player in Blackrock Town providing the instructions of the quest to the players.

These quests are enticing to many players as such quests provide the rewards based on the kill count and the rewards they could gather would depend on the number of kills or collecting something that would drop on the death of the quingols. In case of the quingols, it was their heads.

The game made it so that the quingol head would drop on its death which could be collected by the players and it wouldn't take any bag space either. It was similar to a kill count except that it could only be looted from the carcass of the dead quingol. There was a stall set up at the back gate of the blackrock town by the guards where the players could exchange these for rewards and also a new leaderboard set up by the side for the purpose of the quest depicting the kill counts of various players.

It was both an opportunity and a headache to Shadow as he knew the consequences of this announcement. He had already known about the escalating conflict between the players of Foedus Rex and Crimson Realm. This announcement was bound to promote this competition.

In general, Shadow also considered competition a good thing. It was a necessary element for the growth of the players skills. The problem he had was that their prime competitor was Foedus Rex which was a super guild and two of the players in the area were from the main roster while one of them clearly didn't like the players of Crimson Realm being able to get first clear in an area which he got sent to.

In fact, Shadow had underestimated the problem from Foedus Rex. Boris Blade was an experienced player and he didn't really care much about the first clears. He had failed to get first clears many times in other games and he was quite rational about it and didn't have any specific issue against the guild Crimson Realm. He was a celebrity in the guild and didn't play much role other than standing as a role model for the other players.

Boris Blade had two other reasons for him challenging the Crimson Realm guild and instigating fights between the players belonging to the two guilds. Both the reason involved Merlin. The first was the fame that Shadow had gathered. The video of him fighting so many people along with Raging Blade, him managing to get the first clears and also the first announcement in the light race region also involved him gathered him quite a number of fans. But Boris didn't even put Shadow in his thoughts due to these. It was only when a proposal from Merlin came in the Bicker messenger that he started to put consider him as an opponent.

Bicker messenger was the most widely used messenger in the interplanetary alliance and had a lot of features including the virtual reality video messages. There was a group in the messenger that only had professional game players that were crazy about player vs. player battles. It was named "Fight Club."

The thing was that only certain player who had good technical skills were allowed into the group. Else, there would be a lot of players who could use money to become professionals and get into the group defeating the purpose of having it. The admission into this group is considered a mark of the players skill in the gaming circles.

Merlin who was one of its members had already suggested that they bring Shadow into their ranks. He had already vouched for the strategic and tactical gaming sense that Shadow had as one could have accomplished the same thing that Shadow did through money and a bit of luck. So, to enter the group one always had to be recommended. Even Rudra and his companions were never a part of this group. Tetsujin also had supported him.

With their recommendations, some were already considering him a possible candidate. A few playful members mentioned in the group that even with Foedus Rex in the vicinity, the fact that Shadow was able to snatch these achievements at least merited a test for him to join the group. They snidely remarked that Boris was losing his touch which riled him up starting up the animosity that Boris had for Shadow. Shadow had become a small itch at his pride.

Thus, Merlin had been culpable in initiating this bitterness in Boris' heart. Apart from that Merlin was also responsible for the growth of this hatred and provided another reason to Boris Blade for challenging Shadow. This second reason was the issue of talks going on between Merlin and Sultan-e-Shehzad.

Sultan was a member of his farming team and the pair of them though were quite good in cooperating with each other in the game had few personality issues and always quarreled. The fact that he is considering joining a new team was quite irritating to him.

Sultan always wanted the fame that Boris had, but he never got much of a chance at it. So, he had actually told that he is considering joining Merlin and if that didn't work out join Crimson Realm and pair up with Shadow and form a new team to participate in competitions.

Sultan was just tired of being the player on the bench, a substitute. It was just bad luck that he couldn't be on the main roster because of the strong players in the team and slowly everyone in the industry began to see him as such, a substitute. So, he wanted a fresh start and a new and promising team. As he came to know about Merlin he was far too tempted to let go of the chance and to make sure he didn't look back, he intentionally got into a quarrel with Boris and cut ties with guild before he contacted Merlin.

This caused Boris to think that Merlin and the new player, Shadow might be considering him an easy target. It was one thing to get the first clears which he could just consider as good natured competition but having plans on his team member irrespective of his personal issues with the so-called member felt like a matter of looking down on him.

Though he was a strong member, he couldn't just be mobilizing the force of the guild behind him to vent his anger. Such a thing would be an ugly mark on both him and his guild. Moreover, the fact that Shadow could do these things implied that he also had decent back of a moderately guild and such means would cause a war between guild which Foedus Rex would also condemn as it was not much profitable at this stage.

So, the best option that he could see was to challenge Shadow himself. With Merlin suggesting Shadow to join the group, someone had to test him before he was accepted. So, he wouldn't be joked upon in the professional circle for challenging a newcomer and also many normal players would see that it was just a senior playing a friendly match with the new guy if it was in the arena.

Thus, he publicly invited Shadow to join him for a fight at the arena in the White Heart City. This happened in the past few hours and Shadow who had other things like the meeting on his mind didn't check upon the forums and was ignorant of the invite.

As Shadow had not responded to his invite, Boris Blade decided to find him. He felt that he wasn't given enough face but was aware that Shadow might have missed his post in the forum, and it is best if he personally met him once.

He contacted the person in charge of his guild at the White Heart City, but he didn't have any leads even from the spies that he had planted. Later, Boris found out that a number of players of the Crimson Realm guild who are at level 10 had been back to the Blackrock Town and went towards the lake at Canterbury plains.

So many level 10 players at Canterbury plains seemed a bit off to him and he decided to investigate it and try to get Shadow's attention. This soon led to the incident of him entering the bandit camp and getting killed by the bandits. He normally would have been quite careful, but once he reached the camp, he heard a player saying Shadows was ahead and he couldn't help himself from proactively trying to find him.

Right now, Boris was at the White Heart City grave just resurrected after death. "Maybe I have been a bit too hasty," thought Boris as he remembered the horde of Quingols that had attacked and killed him. He could have waited there for Shadow to come back, instead of barging into a large group of monsters in stealth. Even for an assassin, that was a suicidal move considering the number of monsters.

As he was thinking about what to do next, a few messages popped up in the group for PvP experts. It was Merlin again.

Merlin: Haha, I was sent something hilarious from a friend.

Ballad (Administrator): Dude, you send another stupid creature doing stunts, you are off the group!!!

"+1"

"+1"

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Merlin: "Well you would enjoy this one."

It was followed by a video of Boris Blade being surrounded by bandit and being beaten to death. It was taken by Roll from an angle that looked like he ran into bandits while running away from others.

Merlin: "Never seen an assassin run into midst of monsters for fun."

Merlin: "Congrats to Boris for starting the first mass quest in vita-nova."

Yaeger Bomb: "What?"

Nix Maester: "Was he sneaking to get a shot at Shadow?"

Mass Raja: "I thought it was the Crimson Realm guild that was responsible for the mass quest???"

King Rex: "Hey! Let us give him a chance to explain."

Merlin: "Fine. I was hoping to get a statement too. He screwed up my friend's quest."

Nix Maester: "What's there to explain. He went for Shadow silently and got caught on camera!"

Blue Sky (Administrator): +1;

Nix Maester: "Oye! Boris! You are keeping your fans waiting."

Merlin: "I am thinking of putting this in the forums. ???? Hee Hee Hee"

(He also added a maniacal laughter to his post.)

Merlin: "Hoping to show that though Foedex Rex guys want to screw others, they somehow helped all the players."

King Rex: "How does this show that? The video shows none of the other players in it."

Nix Maester: "I concur. Merlin bro, you need better footage for that."

Merlin: "Of course, I got better footage bro. I was just giving some face to Boris by holding my peeps from posting it. He fell all over the ground in it trying to crawl away."

Though Merlin didn't have it, he told others that he had so that he could put some pressure on Foedus Rex. There were some rules for the chat group and making such blatant lies would be cause to be banned for a few days, but only if someone could prove it. So, Merlin didn't really care about it.

Nix Maester: "More footage! What are you waiting for? I hope it is better than this."

Nix Maester: "Do have any fights between Boris and Shadow."

Boris Blade: "How would there be? We hadn't even fought yet. Would I be there if Shadow had responded to me or didn't avoid me."

Nix Maester: "Ah! He finally talks."

Red Dagger: "Aiiyyaa! Did he accept that he was stalking a newbee?"

Clear Sky: "He definitely did."

Red Path: "A veteran stalking a newbee. Boris brother, you need to maintain your image."

Nix Maester: "Boris! Stalking a guy! I never you knew that you swung that way!!!!!!"

Red Dagger: "!!!!"

Red Path: "!!!!"

Clear Sky: "!!!!"

Dead Sea: "!!!!"

Captain RoundTree: "Brother Boris. We are close knit community. It isn't an easy task to come out of the closet. Allow me to welcome you to our group.

Nix Maester: "!!!!! Congrats! Brother Boris. Looks like RoundTree is interested in you."

Boris Blade: "Stop talking nonsense. I wasn't stalking him. Do you see him anywhere in the video?"

Merlin: "Of course, not. That would be impossible as he was taking your video after we noticed you."

Oceanis (Administrator): Really!? He took that video?

Merlin: "No. He took the one that I didn't put on yet. Thinking of updating it directly in the forums."

Red Dagger: "!!!!"

Red Path: "!!!!"

Clear Sky: "!!!!"

Dead Sea: "!!!!"

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Nix Maester: "I bet Boris wishes that he had been the one stalking Shadow and not the other way round. Ha haha ???? "

Dusk Sabre: "It looks like Boris had lost his edge."

Clear Sky: "Wow! If he was able to sneak behind Boris, he might be a good fit for the group."

While the others were commenting on Boris and Shadow, King Rex was having a group video call with Boris and the others on the side. Rex had never thought that Boris would end up in such a situation nor did he think that after challenging Shadow in the forums, he would try to track him.

These still weren't something that he considered to be of much consequence. the only thing that he felt uneasy about was the video that Merlin had talked about. There were two members in this group call that were at the White Heart City, Boris Blade and Big Blaster who were both star players in the guild.

"What were you thinking doing something so stupid? Why did you go after him? You just had to wait till he responded to your challenge? It was totally unnecessary. Merlin already sent me the video. If he puts it in forums, you will be a joke," shouted King Rex at them both. He even considered Blaster responsible as he was Boris' teammate and should have advised him not to run after Shadow or at least let the others know about it.

"Merlin was playing his tricks as usual," said Tristar He was one of the founders of the guild and was one of its oldest members who was close to retiring. If not for the somnium tech which allowed even the old to play well, he would have already retired.

"I was very suspicious about the was Sultan left. Most probably, it was Merlin who asked Sultan to insult Boris before he left. Though it serves to cut ties with Boris, it also was sure to agitate him," he said shaking his head as he looked at Boris. "You were played by him."

Unexpectedly, Merlin was getting a lot of credit for things that he hadn't done. He had a reputation of doing things by crook, which led to this misconception by them.