VRMMORPG: Dragomancer Reborn



Arthur looked at the beast corpses and knew he had to butcher them.

"Do you know how to butcher?" Arthur asked. "And do you have the skill for it?" 

"Ah… I can yes. But I don't have the skill." Val answered.

"Hmm… you can butcher those Bone Blade beasts," Arthur spoke. "Do you know what you're supposed to take from them?" 

"Uh… The blades?" She guessed. "This is my first time seeing them, so I'm not sure."

"It is the blades yes." Arthur nodded his head. "Cut those off." 

"Y-yes!" Perhaps because she was intimidated by Arthur being a higher leveled player, she took his words as orders and quickly got to work.

Arthur too harvested the Blood Mane Sickle Beast.

>Player Arzhur has obtained Mid Quality Blood Mane!<

>Player Arzhur has obtained Mid Quality Beast Sickles! X 2<

For Arthur, it was easy work and was done in just fifteen minutes. Val on the other hand was struggling with just the first Bone Blade beast. She had only cut off one of the Bone Blades and was having a hard time.

Arthur let out a light sigh and got to harvesting the other remaining ones. Val noticed that and was surprised.

'He's already done? He's really fast… He must have that butcher skill he was talking about too.' Val felt a bit inadequate. "Sorry, I'll try to hurry." She apologized while continuing to work.

Arthur didn't answer her but just glanced at her for a moment. He continued his work at harvesting the Bone Blades but took a few peeks at her from time to time, observing her work.

The more Arthur thought about the girl, the more he found her peculiar. 

It only made him take a closer look at her, hoping that he might be able to eke out some clues from her appearance.

'Considering her build and appearance of the avatar, she should be fifteen or sixteen… of course, she could have changed her avatar to look this way, but her behavior also matches with it.' Arthur started to analyze.

The girl named Val had mousey brown hair and dark brown eyes to match. She was about 160 centimeters tall and was rather slender. While Arthur couldn't tell her physique from the armor she was wearing, he did manage to take a close glance at her hands.

It was there that he noticed something.

'Wait a second… Callouses?' Arthur looked straight at her hands.

He looked at both her hands and saw that the formation of callouses was different on both hands. Arthur looked at his own hands and remembered a few things.

'Those callouses… they aren't formed normally… especially not in the game this early.' Arthur had seen plenty of players have callouses on their hands and he himself had them too.

Players would form them naturally as they used their weapons. And the formation of the callouses also depended on which weapon they used the most. 

In the case of Val, she had callouses one would get from using a bow regularly.

'But there's no way she would have them this early on in the game. And I doubt she spent the effort to modify her avatar to have them either.' Arthur thought to himself. 'Which only means… the avatar had them carried over from her real body.' He figured out.

Having come to this point, Arthur started to link more clues together.

'For her to have such callouses, she must be practicing Archery for years in the real world. This verifies how she managed to obtain the title this early on… She simply has the real skill associated with it.' Arthur wondered just who Val might be.

In the massive player base of Morpheus Online, there was no lack of actual athletes as well as sports players. In fact, the more the game grew the more the players realized how valuable such skills could be in the game.

As such, more and more athletes and sportsmen started to play the game, intending to take advantage of their hard earned skills.

But that only came several months later when the game became popular.

'For Val to be able to obtain the One who shot a Hundred Heads title, her archery skills in the real world must be very good too. That narrows down the number of candidates…' Arthur tried to think of professional Archers that fit the bill, but still couldn't come up with any.

'Hmm… I'll have to search for it once I've logged out.' Arthur concluded after his memory failed it.

It couldn't be helped as he wasn't exactly focused on something like that in his past life. Even the sportsmen and athletes he remembered about most were those that had become famous in Morpheus Online.

~Sigh~

Another sigh escaped his lips, which was noticed by Val.

She clenched her fingers for a second before thinking of something. 

"Did I… Bother you too much?" She asked hesitantly.

Arthur heard her meek voice and looked at her before shaking his head. "No…"

"Then are you angry with me?" Val asked next. "I… I can compensate you for the experience that I gained." She hurriedly spoke.

"You can take all the loot— No wait, what am I saying? This is all yours in the first place." Val stumbled. "Umm… I have some coins, you can take those." She tried to come up with what she could offer him.

"It's fine." Arthur shook his head. 

He didn't want whatever she had, plus he didn't think she would have that many coins in the first place. Even with the guides that Arthur had provided, the players would at most have enough coins to support their equipment and perhaps a few consumables.

They wouldn't have many spare coins after that. 

"I don't need your coins," Arthur stated.

Val pursed her lips upon hearing that and thought of something.

"Then… I'll help you out!" She suddenly said.

"Help me out?" Arthur raised a brow. "With what?" he asked.

"Anything! I can help you carry items and stuff. So you don't have to carry the extra burden. I'll be a porter." Val replied. "Or, or… if you are willing I can also help you hunt enemies!" she said with a little hope in her voice.

"Hmmm…" Arthur didn't answer her right away though, instead taking his time to think.

His silence only made the girl more nervous, and she waited for his answer with bated breath.

'Considering she's managed to reach this point this early and also has the title, it is in my advantage to keep her close.' Arthur thought to himself. 'After all, there is always a chance she was one of the bigshots and I just don't remember.' He reckoned.

"Ummm…" Just as Val was finding it hard to wait, Arthur spoke up.

"Alright." He answered.

"Really!?" a smile appeared on her face along with a look of excitement.

"Yes. You can help me out." Arthur confirmed. "Now that I think of it… I do have a lot of items that need to be carried." He said, remembering all the beasts he had killed but not gathered in the Trunel Woods.

He had left them behind because he didn't wish to carry the extra burden and didn't think he would gather them later with how labor intensive it would be. But now that he had a second person to help, he reckoned it might just be possible to get at least a few of the corpses.

'Considering the conflict, the beasts will stay in hiding and the corpses should mostly stay undisturbed during this time. I should get at least half of them. Even those would be worth quite a lot when added up.' Arthur thought.

"I won't disappoint you and will work hard!" Val said with enthusiasm.

"We'll see," Arthur replied. "First we have to finish this up and head back." 

"Ah yes!" Val nodded her head, finally finishing on her second corpse. 

But when she looked for another one, she realized they were all gone.

"Huh? You're done already?" She couldn't believe her eyes. 

"Yep. You took too long." Arthur said while storing the Bone Blades in his bag.

"I haven't harvested that many beasts. I promise I'll get faster." Val hurriedly replied.

"You'll get there, I don't doubt." Arthur didn't mind her slowness as it wasn't unusual.

If anything unusual it was Arthur himself as no other player should be able to do what he could right now. Having the knowledge and experience of harvesting made him faster than most.

Not to mention, his proficiency with the skill was also higher than before.

"Let's head to the town now," Arthur said standing up.

"Yes!" Val stood up as well.

The two made their way to the town, while Brambles walked alongside them. 

Val looked at the beetle from time to time, finding it rather unique. She wanted to ask more about it and about Arthur, but she was too intimidated to do so.

'I'll ask him once we're at the town.' She thought.