The entire battlefield was in silence. Since the players weren’t so much to start with, it didn’t take the goblin army much time to eliminate them. In the end, there were only bodies scattered allover with blood spilled on the battlefield. For a hemophobic [1] individual, this scene would be enough to knock them out or cause an irreparable trauma. The mixture of goblin blood and flesh together with human flesh and human blood was quite a grisly and nauseating sight.

The cloaked creature stared at this sight and it’s bloodlust intensified. It took a while for it to restrain itself before it floated to the centre of the battlefield, where it spread its arms apart, as if hugging a humongous tree, and then sucked in a huge amount of air. Within a second, the blood in the entire plain gathered together towards it and compressed together, forming a huge ball of about a diameter of 4 metres.

Once the blood ball was completed, black gas oozed out from the creature’s peritoneum region. The gas dissolved into the blood ball and formed black runes on it’s surface. The runes forcefully compressed and purified the blood ball till it was slightly bigger than a basketball. After that, the creature stored the blood ball away and stared in the direction of Riverdale looking at the lavish primary town of Black Rock city. However it didn’t make that move as if something was holding it back.

. . . . .

[[ The Goblins’ Invasion (Series)

Quest rating : S

Intro : The goblins have always been waging war against humans, slowly trying to acquire more territory from them. As a result of the greed from both sides for more land and resources, the flames of war has been ever-burning, reeking havoc to both sides with no final victor decided.

1st Chapter :

You have discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Report to the City Lord, Patrol General, Town Chief or anyone of suitable/equivalent rank about this. Once accepted, further missions pertaining to this quest can’t be rejected.

Reward : 3 bars of Star Gold, 1 Silver Core and 20 Silver coins.

Time Remaining : 1 hour 15 minutes left.

Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

Loss of 5 levels with reduction of experience gained by 50% for 2 months

Relationship level with human forces at [Unforgivable]

Mission status : Accepted; not yet completed.

]]

“Let’s hurry up here and then head to the Town centre.” Sato said while glancing at his System Interface before opening the door into the store.

“I’ve been wondering, why did you pick this store over all the others?” Fudo asked while passing through the door.

“It looked stylish and trustworthy plus I asked around earlier on.” Sato expressed.

The producers had informed the general public of some of the similarities between Infinite Realm and reality in the editor’s forum platform. One of this happened to be scams. Just like reality, players can be scammed in the game. There’s even a subclass for that! You might see an NPC store and decide to sell your earnings there, but you might end up getting scammed either selling your materials for fake coins or buying fake materials. As such, it is important to be careful when trading in-game. However such occurrences aren’t so come on.

“Apparently, Grynx has a branch in the city so I doubt they’re scammers.”

Grnyx Merchandise was one of the very few city scale NPC merchant stores that had a branch in towns. The building was 4 storey building that was quite wide. It was built with quality stones capable of surviving a monster attack[2]. Even the plaque that held the store’s name wasn’t ordinary as it was made with a high quality 3 star material, Great Dawn wood and the ink used to write on it was actually a 4 star material, Jirel Ink. In front of the door stood 2 guards in high quality Paladin armour who both held a spear in their hands.

The interior was properly designed with a white coloured background that perfectly outlined the interior and placed focus on the goods. There was some distance between the doors and the shelves.

The store was packed with tons of display shelves and cases that held various weapons, equipment and materials. The equipment and weapons were mostly within the rank of Mid tier Mortal rank to Upper tier Mortal rank. The materials on the other hand were between 1 star to 2 star materials. Most of the customers present were high levelled NPC characters(level 12-20) and wealthy NPCs.

“Can I help you?”

As Sato and Fudo walked in, they were stopped by a smiling blond haired female NPC who was dressed in a uniform. Her clothing was a brown and beige styled uniform with a grey badge made up of a single chevron with a carriage beneath it. Despite smiling, they could still see a tinge of disdain in her eyes.

[[ Name : Sophia

Race : Human

Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

Level : 17

HP : 340

Class (Job) : Elementalist (Mage)

Subclass : Sales Clerk (Merchant)

Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom ]]

‘Damn. For a town branch’s clerk, she’s quite high levelled and pretty too.’ Fudo inwardly exclaimed.

Ignoring the look she was giving them, Sato replied “We are here to buy some equipment and if the price is good, we would sell some materials.”

“Hmph, I wonder what you can sell if your equipment are these bad. Get out before I call the security on you guys.”

“Hey missie, we just wanna buy something. Haven’t you heard of customer rights before?” Fudo complained.

“Hmph! Customer rights are only for customer’s who actually have money. Looking at you guys, I’m pretty sure you’re like the last bunch that came in here ogling at the cases. You’re just here to walk around and stare at items you’d never buy; just go back to the fields or wherever you came from.” Sophia lashed back.

“You…”

“Sophia. What’s going on here?” A tall man walked over. He was dressed in a similar clothing as Sophia the only difference being that his badge had two more chevrons.

“Uh. Brother Aaron, this guys are loitering around here without any intention to buy anything.” Sophia answered the man.

“That’s it bitch. First you try to chase us away and now you lie against us. One more word and I will toast you here.” Fudo yelled, clearly outraged at her words.

“Bring it on fatso.”

“That’s enough; both of you.” Sato and Aaron said at the same time.

Aaron they faced the other customers behind him and bowed slightly while saying “Apologies for the disturbance; the store would add a 3% discount on whatever good you would be purchasing in the next 15 minutes.”

Clearly, Aaron knew how to run a business as the customers were clearly pleased with the offer and went o with their purchases with none of them bad-mouthing the store for its lack of control.

Aaron then turned towards Sophia and said ” First of all, in work I’m your boss. Second, I know you’re lying. ”

“But-”

“Don’t interrupt your boss, Sophia. Go back to the locker room and meditate on you wrongdoings. Now !” Aaron commanded.

“Okay broth- I mean boss.” Sophia said somberly and walked away.

After she was gone, Aaron faced Sato and Fudo and bowed slightly at them while saying “Apologies for my younger sister’s behavior. Earlier on, there were a bunch of newcomers who walked into the store and kept touching everything without buying any. Even worse, some of them tried to rob the store and the plaque in front; some even tried to chip off some of the buildings blocks. Most of them were dressed like you guys, as a result, Sophia was harsh on you. I hope you understand.”

As he said so, Sato and Fudo were stunned; not knowing whether to cry or to laugh.

It’s true that most of the players were rugged and lawless so it was not so much of a surprise to hear that they had tried to rob the store of it’s 3 star plaque and blocks. Despite being warned that they couldn’t do as they pleased in Infinite Realm, since it is different from the others, some of the players refused to listen and reacted as a did in other games. Hell, even East Crow guild, Halo’s Dawn and Warmongers underestimated the game and reacted as usual. As a result, they experienced a massacre that became a warning to the various players.

“No problem. I would react the same way as her even.” Sato smiled and brushed the event behind.

“So what are you here for?” Aaron questioned.

“Originally, we were here to purchase some materials but seeing as how you guys cater to the rich, I feel that your prices may be a little too much for us. So we would just like to sell some of ours.” Sato stated plainly.

Aaron frowned before asking “And what might they be?”

“Can we get a room first?”

“This way please.”

Walking into the deeper parts of the store, Sato and Fudo finally got a view of things. Most of the weapons and equipment were Mid tier Mortal rank to Upper tier Mortal rank with the materials being 1 star and 2 star ones as such, Fudo asked “Are these all you guys have?”

Aaron answered “No. The first level are just meant for this classes.” (AN : By level, I mean storey)

“What about the other levels?”

“The 2nd level houses Low tier to Mid tier Rare-Steel rank weapons. As for the materials, they are capped at 3 stars. The 3rd level serves as the administrative sector. The 4th level serves as a restricted level for higher materials and weapons while the basement is the storage facility.” Aaron answered. “We aren’t scared of anyone robbing us, so telling you all these doesn’t matter.”

“Haha.” Fudo chuckled awkwardly.

“We are here. After you.” Aaron stopped at a room on the 2nd level and gave way for them to Sato and Fudo to enter.

The room wasn’t so luxurious but looked simple as it only had 2 windows, a small book shelf, 1 couch, 2 sofas and a single coffee table placed at the centre of the seats. However, if ‘Simple’ is what you would think upon entering then you are definitely wrong. Despite looking so simple, the price tag of the furniture here weren’t so cheap as they were all made with high quality 2 star materials at the very least. Even the coffee table at the centre was made with Black Alder wood, the same wood as Fudo’s Black Alder staff. Rather than being described plainly as ‘simple’ the room would better be described as ‘expensively simple’.

After taking their seats, Aaron asked them “So what do you have to offer us?”