MONSTER MMORPG: Mayhem Online

Reaching the city would take some time, so I decided to bond with the boys on the way.

"So, when I didn't have any money to support my own studies, I decided to drop out and lessen the burden on my mom. I want my brother to have the best education for the same reason."

I spoke as we were walking out of the forest. I had to go to the Dukedom of Wenselm, and it would be disastrously slow if I wanted to go there on foot or on a horse carriage.

So I told them it was best to go to the royal capital of Crisedia and then decide how we wanted to go.

Gomchul didn't have a place to return to, and although I was an enemy to his prince, he was smart enough to realise that I meant no harm to him as long as he didn't bother me.

On the contrary, I kept getting famous without making any effort, so I needed people by my side. Even if they weren't players, I needed as many people on my side as possible to not be pushed around by guilds and nations.

Not to mention the reason I had avoided guilds till now.

I felt like Gomchul would follow me as long as I made him stick around. He didn't have any other place to go right now, and he was as clueless about the world as a villager NPC. So there were high chances that Gomchul would like to travel around.

On the other hand, I couldn't say a thing about this eccentric chuunibyou.

Nameless was a guy who had been getting famous lately for his oh-so-rightful deeds. I had seen videos of him saving people from bandits, stopping bad guys NPCs from raping women, and just about any random heroic things a person could do.

He was being called a hero in [Mayhem], seeing the people in distress.

'If only you heard your hero speak.'

Anyways, the point was, although Nameless was always moving around alone, he had quite the fan following. Not to mention that it was quite strong.

Currently, these two people were getting sad after hearing my sad story.

—-Sniff Sniff!

"How brave of you to give up on your studies for your little brother. How gallant and admirable."

"I don't even know what a school is, yet I feel very sad listening to your story."

Nameless and Gomchul suppressed their tears as they talked about how they felt.

After that, we kept on walking as the other two shared their experiences.

"I was always strong, and that's why prince Zultan would keep bullying me out of jealousy. He even took away Kyra from me. I loved her, but she fell for his fake promises as he was the prince. All in all, because of my low standing in the tribe, I was never really treated well. So this freedom right now feels nice."

Gomchul said in his deep voice, even with that robust body and monstrous frame, he managed to gather both mine and Nameless' sympathy.

After all, there was no man who couldn't relate to a first love story…. right?

"Don't worry, big man, Kyra will regret it soon!"

I said as I patted his giant back, and he looked at me with emotional eyes.

"She regretted it as soon as she did the deed with him. He was too small for an Orc."

"....."

After a minute of awkward silence, Nameless started telling his story.

"So after that, the bullies would always target me. I don't even know what I did wrong. I had to take martial arts classes to beat them and stop the bullying."

'Maybe your way of speech ticked them off?'

"Hah! Good thing you taught those thugs a lesson!"

After that, we kept on talking as we walked out of the forest at a steady pace. We talked about various experiences in life, and some of them were straight-out absurd and funny.

'It's working.'

I thought as I looked at these guys' faces. Both of them were merrily talking, laughing and sometimes would turn towards me to see if I was enjoying it as much as they did.

I was never a social person, but I had to start somewhere. The goal was to get rich and become famous in-game. I didn't have to put much effort into the latter, but I still needed to maintain a good image.

On the other hand, I was nowhere near rich, and the most important point was influence. Being famous doesn't necessarily bring influence, criminals were famous too, but they didn't carry any kind of influence that would make people want to support them.

I needed a lot of influence to avoid being pushed into a corner by the guilds and kingdoms. It is still the early phases, and people would keep up pretenses for some time before it all breaks down, and they would go in straight for the kill.

After all, everyone wanted a piece of the pie, namely the legendary class. Even if, out of some miracle, another Legendary class appears anytime soon, they wouldn't be as hard-packed as me to these power seekers.

I was the first legendary class, I was also the first guy to find a hidden dimension, and not to mention I was the ONLY guy that had an independent race. It was also made sure there wouldn't be any more independent races.

There were obviously chances of getting evolved races from others, but there was no more chance to get a skill that would make someone continuously evolve, that too from their own independent race.

At this point, I was actually considering the chances of getting Dukedom. That can be a good reward for starting my journey and forming a group.

Just when we were about to reach the city, I stopped them and said.

"From here on out, you two proceed alone and meet me at the portal in the city square."

People already knew who I was, and my popularity right now was at an all-time high. So it was better for me to enter the city while being invisible.

"What? Why?"

Gomchul blurted out. He seemed like he was having fun and suddenly seemed reluctant to part. Realising that he sounded too desperate, he scratched his head.

"I mean, why do you want to go alone?"

"Well, I'm a legend's successor, and people already know what I look like. I'll stop by a shop in the city first to get some clothes that can help me morph my appearance. As I said, I'll meet you at the portal near the city square."

I replied, and Nameless nodded his head in understanding. As a player, he was aware of my circumstances and didn't want to make it more difficult for me.

"Then see you at the city square in an hour. Let's go, Gomchul."

Nameless seemed to be getting along well with Gomchul for someone who had been fighting with the orc gang for months of in-game time.

Soon, they departed for the city alone, and I turned on my [Camouflage]. It had been days in-game since I changed my race, but I was still roaming around in what remained of my black assassin clothes after my metamorphosis. I needed to get a dress that could hide my appearance and didn't stand out much.

Reaching the city in a rush, the market area was the first place that came, as usual. I looked around to see any shops that sold magic gears and clothes. I suddenly saw a familiar name among the shops.

[Cyeven's Miscellaneous Item Store]

It was the store that I had been to in Azler Town, I was surprised that they even had a branch in the royal capital. They must be some kind of big chain store to get a shop in Royal Capital's market when most of the others were just hawkers without a shop.

Without thinking much, I entered the shop, and a beautiful lady who looked to be in her mid-twenties greeted me. She had brown hair and brown dog ears, with a furry tail of the same colour behind her.

She looked extremely cute, and she reminded me of someone.

"Welcome, customer!"

She said with a cheerful smile, welcoming me. The central continent was filled with different types of races, so to the normal NPCs, I was nothing but one of the many races they haven't seen.

Even if my appearance was out of the ordinary, it was still in the 'normal' category of people who had seen all kinds of racial traits, including animal ears, horns, tails, big canines, to just about anything.

"Hello, I wanted a cloth armour of my body size. Am I at the right place?"

I asked politely. One thing to note in [Mayhem] was how it was designed for the NPCs. If someone is being nice to them and has earned their favour, no matter how low grade the NPC was, there were good chances that that NPC would end up giving you a good quest.

So the key was to be nice to the NPCs, it wasn't just limited to being nice though. If one was friendly with NPCs, then they would still end up gaining a quest, then there were some knight NPCs who liked straightforward and uptight people. So it all actually depended on the NPCs' nature and the players' approach.

"Yes, yes, Cyeven's store is a well-reputed store, and we have the best of everything. We have a good tailor inside who'll personally make a cloth armour to your body size and liking. The advance will be 100 golds."

She said with the same polite smile as if she hadn't just asked for a hundred gold coins for nothing.

Without complaining, I handed over a hundred gold coins, and she put them in a pouch. After that, she told me to follow along in the big store.

This store was considerably bigger than the one in Azler town and had all types of items from swords and spears to clothes on display to even some options and materials.

It truly sold all kinds of miscellaneous items!

"If you don't mind me asking, do you know Loqa? He's from the Cyeven's store at the Azler town's branch."

I asked curiously as I followed behind her. Her eyes suddenly widened with surprise as she turned around and asked me with a bright face.

"Do you know Loqa? Are you guys friends? How is he doing? Has he gotten any healthier? I feel like he isn't eating properly these days."

The woman, who I have guessed to be a kobold, let out a string of questions.

"...and who are you?"

I asked again, this time. The woman seemed a bit embarrassed as she went back to her business demeanour and replied.

"I am Loqa's mother, Qarin. Sorry for my earlier outburst."

??!!!

This woman was Loqa's mother? She looked so young…

Wait… Loqa is half kobold and is only six years old, although he looked a lot older than that. According to their genes, Kobolds grew up fast and got old at a very slow pace.

"I passed by Azler town's Cyeven store two months ago, that's where I met Loqa. Sweet kid."

I replied, trying to hide the surprise on my face. Then Qarin started telling how Loqa's father was a human warrior and they fell in love during her adventure days. Although she retired from being an adventurer, Loqa's father didn't retire and one day ended up dying in a dungeon, without his corpse ever being found.

Qarin was the daughter of the Cyeven store's owner, and her father extremely despised the human. So much so that he even kicked out the brat that he dared to have with his daughter.

Qarin somehow managed to convince him to let Loqa work at an outer town's branch, and they haven't met for over a year now.

'That's sad, I want to comfort her.'

I thought and immediately shook my head at how wrong those words sounded.

"Meet Mr Trypen. He's an Arachne and is a master tailor of our shop. He's famous enough that he even tailored the prince's birthday attire.*

Qarin introduced me to the half-human half spider-like man. He was from the Arachne race, where the whole race consisted of half spiders.

'I've even heard of some players with leg fetish who like Arachne women.'

The man in front of me looked like a Centaur just with a spider's lower half instead of a horse's. Even he had pointy ears, and he had a handsome face that had glasses on.

"I'll be in your care then, Mr Trypen."

"For sure, customer."

Trypen smiled as he started to feel up my body….. to take measurements…. probably.

...

//DreamNote//

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