Chapter 44 - Becoming a Ranger

Point Blank arrived first. She was closer to the city, having reached level 10 recently along with the rest of the group.

Arthur called her over to the shop to talk. He figured Tower and Suzy would show up too, since the three of them were always together as a group, but only Point Blank appeared. Arthur spotted her through the window.

She started making her way through the line of players that had formed in front of the shop. Even after all that time, the players kept coming. The price of HP and MP potions was lower than anywhere else, and those resources were used constantly by every player. Potions made leveling so much easier, since waiting for your health and mana to recover naturally took forever.

All the players were afraid the potions would run out, since so many were buying. So when they saw Point Blank cutting in line, they immediately assumed she wanted to get in front to buy items before they sold out.

"Hey, you," one player shouted. "Get in line. Everyone here has been waiting for over half an hour."

Plenty of players turned to stare at her. Most said nothing when she was cutting in line, but a few did, and that was already enough to draw everyone’s attention.

On top of that, the guards standing in front of the shop were ready to keep Point Blank from entering.

Arthur watched everything from the window.

Arthur came down the stairs and went to the entrance to meet Point Blank. Even if she explained that she was there because he had called her, no one would believe it.

Only when he showed up did the players stop shouting at Point Blank to go back to the end of the line.

"She’s here to talk to me," Arthur said. "Let her through."

The guards at the door nodded at him and went over to Point Blank to help her into the shop, pushing back a few players who were trying to block her way.

In the end, she made it inside, sighing and putting a hand on her chest.

"That scared me. I thought they were going to attack me out there. What’s with everyone? Is all this just to see you?"

Arthur laughed.

"I think it’s because of the cheap potions and items. A discount draws a lot of people. And maybe some are here for the attendants too."

Point Blank frowned. She had been busy killing monsters to level up, so she hadn’t seen anything about his shop. When she looked around, she quickly understood why people wanted to see the employees...

"Whose idea was it to have all the female staff wear those kinds of sexy outfits? I don’t want to be anywhere near the person who thought of that."

Arthur coughed, clearing his throat.

"Come with me to the top floor. We’ll talk up there."

Point Blank was the first player to ever go up to the top floor of the shop. Aside from Arthur, of course. She was blown away by the place. There were so many items on display, from the first floor to the third.

"Are you really the owner of this shop?" she asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Business partner, but yeah, practically an owner too."

"How the hell did you get the money for this shop? I mean, this must be worth a fortune, right?"

"No money was needed, just influence. Reputation can get you a lot of benefits."

"Impressive," Point Blank said, looking at Arthur with reverence.

Everything he was doing was admirable. There wasn’t a single player in the entire game who didn’t want to uncover his secrets.

’I’m so lucky to have him as a friend,’ Point Blank thought.

There was a room on the fourth floor that no employee could enter. It was the perfect place for private conversations.

That room was Ray and Arthur’s office. But since Ray was rarely at the shop, having far more important things to take care of, Arthur was free to use it.

No one said a word when he walked to the office, went inside, and locked the door.

The interior looked like an ordinary office, with a desk and two chairs for a private talk, plus several strange books and papers scattered around.

What Arthur liked most was the huge glass window overlooking the plaza again. He could see all the players, people walking through the city, some going about their normal routines while others just watched the players from a distance, trying to figure out who the hell they were.

The glass was made from a special material. Arthur could see everything outside, but no one could see him inside. In other words, nobody even knew he was having a private conversation with Point Blank in that office.

Arthur stopped in front of the window with both hands behind his back.

"You have some idea of how my class works, I presume."

"Sort of," Point Blank replied. "You mentioned something about contracts and stuff, but beyond that, I have no clue."

Point Blank seemed like a trustworthy person. Arthur knew that keeping his class hidden forever would be difficult.

Of course, he didn’t explain every detail, like the percentage of attributes he gained, the number of skills he took from the contracted person, and so on.

He just gave her a general idea so she could understand how the class worked.

"So you can combine classes? Isn’t that way too OP? I mean, some classes have benefits for certain types of content, others for different ones. You, though, could do well in any kind of content."

Exactly. That was the charm of Arthur’s special class that he loved so much.

"Yep, that’s right. Anyway, I called you here because I want to make a contract with you. For now, I plan on staying a Ranger for a while. Not forever, but for a while," Arthur said, still looking out the office window.

"I’ll lend you a powerful bow so I can get your class, and I’ll keep you stocked with updated weapons at all times. In other words, you don’t even need to worry about getting news bows to use. You can just sell them."

"The only downside to all this is losing 5% EXP from all monsters you kill, but I think that’s a small price to pay. The quests still give you full EXP."

To help convince her, Arthur showed her the bow he had crafted for her.

Point Blank was shocked when she saw it. Her blue eyes widened, and her hands almost trembled as she read the item’s stats.

Arthur wanted to shock her even more, so he showed her the bow he had already made for himself to use, the one with the ice elemental damage.

"If our relationship keeps going well, I might one day make you one with those elemental bonuses too."

"But why me?" Point Blank asked, looking him straight in the eyes.

Arthur needed a few select players he could trust. There would be quests and content that required the help of other people, and it was always good to have people to count on if he needed help against other players or to solve some other kind of problem.

Tower, Suzy, and Point Blank were players who didn’t belong to any guild. That was exactly the type of player Arthur wanted around.

They didn’t need to answer to anyone above them. In other words, his secrets had a better chance of staying secret.

Arthur explained this to her, and also shared one of his ideas.

"We could create a small guild one day, just ours. What do you think? Only trustworthy and powerful people. Do you think Suzy and Tower would want in?"

Point Blank loved the idea. She was already picturing the small group traveling together, camping in the middle of forests and having fun while they explored that vast world.

"Suzy is a sure thing. She really likes you, and she doesn’t want to join any big guild either. She prefers having more freedom and being more casual. Tower probably feels the same way, but he still doesn’t like you that much. I don’t know why."

Arthur already had an idea in mind to get around that problem.

"I’ll craft a steel sword for Tower, I think he’ll like that," Arthur said.

He would try to give it to him as a gift, that way he’d gain some benefit from it without spending one of his contracts.

Arthur had no idea if it would work, after all the system itself had said he needed a good relationship, and that didn’t really seem to be the case with Tower...

Anyway, Arthur prepared the contract and showed it to Point Blank. She had already made up her mind to accept after seeing how strong the bow was, and knowing she would never have to worry about finding weapons again...

With that, Arthur activated his second contract.

[+20% of the contractor’s highest attribute]

[Current amount: +15 points]

[Please choose 3 skills from the Ranger class]