Pride Online

Chapter 53: Guidance Part I

The horror atmosphere was getting more threatening.

The three travelers were sitting sheepishly on the maroon sofa in the magic warrior office. They were in no different state: huddling together, their knees weak, and their faces horrified.

Especially Manoch who seemed to look the worst, glancing around the room that Sander insisted that it was a ‘living room’. And no matter how he looked at it, this room was still more like the ‘torture room’!

The room was painted dull-looking dark blue. Every window was covered entirely with the curtain. The only light source in the room was from the storm lanterns at the corners of the room. They were shining upon the stuff, making the long creepy shadow on the walls. But the thing that Manoch could not stand was the stuffed monster heads displayed in the room. Also there were actually torture tools, too. For example, the nail hammer, guillotine, and even the iron maiden!

The one who always talked big right now went awfully quiet. Manoch moved closer to huddle up with Wisana, without even keeping his look anymore.

And for someone on the right like Maysa,

She was clinging on to her buddy’s arm, trembling so hard that her upper and lower teeth were bumping against each other. The grey eyes did not look around like the merchant did, but they were staring at the tall, thin man who looked like a kind young uncle(?).

“Sorry for keeping you waiting. Here, would you like some cool drinks?”

Sander said with a smile. He was pulling a small cart with four cups on it with him.

“It’s okay.”

Wisana was trying to sound as normal as he could.

“Well, Where’s Lala?”

“Oh, she’s dy...” at this point, the three flinched. “I mean, she’s lying around in the other room. She felt bad that she made a mistake in her job. But don’t worry. I’ve already given her a lesson. This won’t happen again.”

“I... is that so?”

Wisana went along with a shaking voice. He could sense that his clinging friends were terrified. Especially Maysa, her tiny arms were holding on to Wisana’s arm tightly. Her small figure looked even smaller when she was trying to huddle so closely with him. She would probably duck into his shirt if she could.

He thought then he let out a long sigh.

No matter how he looked at him, the man in front of them here looked just like a kind uncle, that was all. If he did not just witness how he dragged Lala in a room with her terrified scream, he would not believe it either that this man was a psycho!

A second later, Sander took a seat on the sofa opposite them casually.

“How was it? Our class quest wasn’t too hard, right?” He started a conversation.

“Uh... well.”

The one who got asked stuttered, catching eyes with his friends.

“No, not really.”

“I know right! Everyone keeps saying that my class quests are too difficult, or that they’re nonsense. But I’ve never heard the players who take the quests complain about such kind of thing.”

Yeah, who would have done that!

He guessed that the players did not want to be buried under the trees somewhere either!

“I heard you said something about the second quest. Could you tell me what it is?”

“You wanna know?”

The other one raised his eyebrows; a soft smile appeared.

“Yeah...”

“The second quest is simple; you need to fight me.”

“Fight you?”

“Yup.”

He was so lucky that he already passed the second quest!!!

Wisana yelled happily in his mind. The master gave him a little smile like he could hear it.

“I’m not too tough to beat,” Sander said as he shrugged. “I’ve been the master for only two years, and the number of the players that could pass my test are... 8 players.”

“8 players?!”

The man repeated aloud.

“So, there were 8 players that could beat you?”

“No.” Sander shook his head. “Those 8 players could survive me.”

A gentle smile appeared on the sun-burned face of the master. His sharp eyes were looking at the young man in front of him the entire time, and there was never once that those golden-brown eyes looked away from him.

“Not really 8 players though,” he continued. “To clarify, only 2 players survived me, and the other 6 passed my expectations and didn’t have to take a second quest, like you, for example.”

“Well, I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to ask you this.”

“What is it?”

“Why are there so few players signing up for this class? Well, looking at the number of players who could complete the quests, like... is this class not so popular?”

The honest question went straight right in the master’s face.

The young uncle got stunned by that, never before expecting the question to come out. The tense aura was spreading out from the tall thin man, making the other couple, the glasses guy and the girl, flinch away from Wisana in no time.

Moron, why did he ask something so disrespectful like that?!!

“What’d you just say?”

Sander asked with a monotone voice, but it made the listeners feel a shiver down their spine!!

“Uhhh, well, you don’t need to answer that. Maybe I must have crossed the line.”

He had not finished speaking when the tall man in front of him suddenly dashed toward Wisana, making the travelers break away from each other, all exclaiming out loudly.

Crap! He was going to get killed now! He should not have asked something so stupid!!

“BRUHAHAHA. You’re so straightforward!”

That did not happen. Not only Sander was not mad, but he also seemed to like Wisana a lot. The big hand was patting harshly on the shoulder of this gasping brat.

“Y... yeah?” He said as he was dripping sweat.

“Yeah, this is why you’re suitable for my class! Your body, your personality, and your brilliant senses! You’re like a raw diamond waiting to be cut!”

The master said, still hitting the younger man’s shoulder many times. The one who got all the praise, making an awkward face at his friends.

Because to be honest, Wisana just could not catch up with this man’s mood! Damnit!

“You wanna know, right?”

“Yeah?”

“About why there’re not many players sign up on this class.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s right.”

“Well, it’s not that there’re few players interested in this class.” Sander shrugged. “They came here, couldn’t complete the quests, then they just gave up and never came back.”

Hearing him say that made the three of them pause, looking at each other.

“Could you tell us more about that?” Maysa asked.

“Well, when I first established this class office, I advertised the class on the internet and on posters in many towns. And that worked, many players were interested in my class. Would you believe that there were about five thousand players coming here to take the quests?”

He said with a dreamy look in his eyes.

“Are you serious, uncle?!” Manoch’s eyes widened. “That was immense.”

“That’s right, boy.” He sighed. “At the time, I was so happy that many players wanted to play in my class. However, I didn’t know why there wasn’t anyone who passed the exam.”

“No one in those five thousand?” Wisana asked.

“Yup, no one.”

Sander said, looking a bit withering down. Maysa caught eyes with her buddy.

“May I ask what the quests were like back then?”

“Back then?” Sander raised his eyebrows, rubbing his chin while he was thinking. “There was nothing much, really. I’d assign them to find a Solomon’s scepter in the Pharaoh’s dungeon, or to kill some desert plants around here, or send them to deliver a quest in the ancestor cemetery dungeon, something like that.”