Chapter 231 - Tier 1 (1/2)
As Harley got out of the room, she immediately came to talk to Kiriti, while she sent Karma into the room to sign a contract with Balthazar. Though Karma was the one who had the quest and was a professional player, she valued Kiriti more as he was player who helped develop the guild in the town the most and was the liaison with the Ardent Ronins.
She was always the tough one who pressurized the opponents while he was made the deals with others. It was a game of good cop, bad cop played by them in the guild. He handled most of the problems that cropped up due to overexcited players in the guild and was a very responsible employee. He was also one of the few players whom she recruited personally into her guild as she observed his potential. So, she valued his view on this new player, fleet-footed Rogue who was currently being a problem.
”What do you think of him?” she asked as the both of them got out of the bar and started walking in the direction of the forest.
”He is a tough one and it is not worth fighting him. Recruit if possible, else have a friendly relationship,” answered Kiriti. ”We also need to keep on the lookout for his actions. He seems to be tough and unrelenting, but if that was the case, he wouldn't have been so amicable after killing Hard Head. He intends to form an amicable relationship with the guild, else he would have continued to fight others after killing Hard Head. Based on what I was told by Puba, he definitely had the guards of the town on his side at that time and it would be a good opportunity to deal with us. But he relented, which makes it clear that he understands that he can't fight against us. He just isn't one to get pushed around.”
”So, he has his own plans,” agreed Harley. ”Just keep a look out for him as you suggested, but why do you want to be so passive. Previously, you would have forced a player to accept your terms by using my name. What is different?”
”It is the game. The nature of gaming has changed. It is not the same as the previous ones where almost all players have a similar skill set or the strong ones are limited by the physical restrictions of the gaming systems they use. A simple headgear without much need for maintenance does bring a lot of people into the game, who wouldn't have been the slightest bit interested in such things previously,” answered Kiriti. ”It is the same reason that you suggested to your brother to search for new blood for the guild for the sake of competitions.”
”You think, he is one of that kind. It is not possible. Those kinds hardly spend lot of time in the game and it would hard for them to be proficient in a secondary occupation like making potions. Smithing and sewing skills can be developed fast for such people if they had experience in real-life, but this is different,” replied Harley.
”Yes, that is what I also thought, but he did tell me he was a combat medic and I looked into antivenoms production. Currently, we use pico-tech to dissolve all kinds of venom in real-life, but there are old school methods which could be employed. Such skill would be learn't by a few rangers or explorers,” said Kiriti. ”It is just the vibe that he gave me during our first exploration of the marsh. He seemed very adept at it and he also made a personal antidote. So, I am bit concerned.”
”Still is it necessary to consider him as one of the possible options?” asked Harley still unconvinced of Kiriti's explanation.
”It is just a theory, but better safe. If he is what we suspect, then he might be adept at guerrilla warfare and the forest and the marshes are both really good place for someone like him. It is unnecessary trouble to mess with him just for Karma's quest at the start of the game,” said Kiriti.
”In that case, continue with your plan. See if you can recruit him. Money isn't something of issue if we can recruit a good asset. Most professional competitive players of our club like Karma aren't that much independent. It would be good to have one of him. He will be a definite improvement,” said Harley.
”That might not be really possible. He doesn't seem to be much cared about a constant source of income like us. He also did tell that he needs to attend to his actual job during daytime. So, he might not consider this much important,” said Kiriti. ”Even money can't buy a few things, but it would be good to have him as a friend. At the very least, if he is an elite, he could coach our players in his free time.”
”I understand,” said Harley waving her hand as she went back to her team to continue farming experience. Kiriti understood that she left it to him and didn't care much. He knew he had to take care of things and it was the reason that her brother didn't let her manage the club which participated in gaming competitions, even though he would rather let her handle it to get some free time. She always had ideas, but rarely followed through them. She lacked patience to see through it till the end. Else, she would be been made the owner of the guild and club by her family already.
In the bar, Karma and Balthazar had signed the contract and Balthazar went back to the tamer. He planned to make a few more of the antidotes for the day before he went out of the game. He had a meeting with Herschel early in the morning and he needed to create enough antivenoms to satisfy the according to the treaty. So, he thought it was best to make the necessary amount of antivenom required by the contract first and give them to Agua as he wasn't sure if he could be busy trying to get to Ryan Rowley.
He quickly contacted Agua who had been collecting the required supplies for him and went back to Kiran's and started with the production of the antidotes. Four hours later in the game, he managed to produce about 90 doses of the antidote and he finally reached level 20.