Soul Art Online

- Arthas -

By the time I got back, it was late in the evening.

Veena didn't seem to be in the mood to cook due to whatever happened in the morning so I got something from outside.

Contrary to what I was expecting, she was back to her usual self when I returned. Either that or she was just that good at keeping herself controlled.

"How did your visit go?" She asked.

"We got quests. Turns out there are bounties for those Bosses. We got money for the Boar Boss we had killed. Shiroe expects that we can earn at least fifty thousand more if we can take down the Rhino Boss. The Blacksmith will buy everything. Shiroe asked me to tell you that we would need some strong poisons to take it down."

She nodded.

The atmosphere was still relatively quieter than other days.

When it was time for bed, as a daily ritual, both of us took baths turn by turn.

I waited in the bedroom for her. The memories of last night were still fresh in my mind, although I doubted there would be a repeat of that today considering her mood.

I was pleasantly surprised when she entered the room, in just the towel. Then again, this much was normal for her by now.

"Oh my, are you still dressed?" She asked, looking at me.

"I….thought you might not be in the mood considering the news in the morning." I replied.

She smiled. "While I appreciate your concern, I think a long night of lovemaking is just what we need to get the serious topics out of our head. As the people nowadays say, fuck the worries out of our minds."

….

Who says that?

Not that I'm going to complain.

If anything, her using those words only made me harder.

I was out of my clothes in seconds and she giggled and she got onto the bed, directly into my chest and captured my lips with hers.

"Today, I want you to not hold back. Be as rough with me as you can." She whispered and my dick twitched at her words.

"Yes my lady." I replied, gripping her hair tightly and pulling her into a ferocious kiss.

In minutes both of us were lost in seeking pleasure in each other.

This time, unlike yesterday, the sex was wild, without any restraint.

It was like having sex with a wild animal.

She was really trying to vent everything out today and I was more than happy to indulge her with all her wishes.

While I was no match for her in terms of experience, I made it up with my greater stamina. In the words of Abridged Kirito, my numbers were greater than hers.

The stamina of T4 and T5 Players was quite a lot.

According to Veena, my strength was in the mid ranges of the Middle Class level according to Devil Standards and was only growing.

It was evident too as we only stopped after three hours and when we did, she was completely covered in my cum and our sweat.

Unfortunately both of us were too tired to care and fell asleep.

We might have to find a spell to clean ourselves next time.

She was right though. The sex did help release all the stress we had accumulated from the information of the outside world.

__________________________________x___________________________________

"That's a rhino?! That thing is the size of a truck. No, now that I look closer, it's bigger than a truck." Star said as we looked at our target from a distance.

"It's a T5 monster, what did you expect?" Shiroe asked but the tension in his voice was apparent to me after knowing him for so long.

And I could understand their worries.

The Iron Horned Rhinoceros was far stronger than the Mad Boar we had fought a few days ago.

It's sheer size made it impossible for us to use our normal methods against it. Normally, we dug pits to fight against heavy enemies like this and baited them to fall inside.

After that we could shoot them down as we wished.

This time however, pulling something like that in this place didn't seem to be possible. At least not with our skills.

"Don't worry. Our plan will work." Shiroe said after collecting himself again.

Our plan was simple. Since we couldn't dig a hole, we used a natural made one.

Star and I will attack the Rhino from a distance and then I will close in to draw the agro.

After it's focused on me, I bait it towards the location of our choice, a nearby cliff.

Obviously the Rhino wouldn't just jump and commit suicide itself. That's where our real plan comes in.

We will block away its vision using Earth Wall, Ice Wall, Mist Spells, Poisons and Aim Eyes, making it follow our sounds and attacks all the while trying to shave off its hp bit by bit.

The only reason I even agreed to this crazy plan was because of all my Skills.

Any other group using this skill would die without a doubt.

If things turn awry, we quit the mission and run away.

_________________________________x____________________________________

"I am never doing this kind of mission….ever again." I complained as I huffed for breath on the ground.

That fucking Rhino was a mad beast, completely beyond anything I had faced before.

Even that Mutated Goblin Chieftain was easier than this….whatever the hell it was.

My attacks barely made a dent, only decreasing its HP in tens.

Tens! Not even hundreds.

Hundreds were for my Skills.

Yes, my skills only did hundreds of HP of damage against a beast which had above one hundred and twenty thousand HP.

I am pretty sure that if it were not for the plan, we wouldn't be able to fight it off without an army.

For the first time in this world, I felt real danger breathing so close to me.

A large truck sized monster chasing you, crushing everything in the path can do that to people.

Its attacks were taking down a quarter or so of my HP every time it used a Skill and it connected to me.

And most of its Skills were AoE ones.

Star was doing an amazing job of keeping it out of the way and Shiroe and Veena were working overtime to stop it.

"The plan wasn't supposed to be this hard. We just didn't know about its passive skill which reduced the time for normal status effects by half. This monster really was a tank." Shiroe said as he sat beside me.

He had thrown some assisting spells in some crucial times, saving my hide or things could have gotten trickier.

We all sat down beside the corpse of the beast which towered like a small hill in front of us and wondered how we did this at all.

"The fall took down most of its HP and induced severe status effects on it. Thank goodness that the beast was as dumb as it was or we would be running for our lives." Star said as he went ahead and looked at its body.

All the drop items were still laying around the beast. We were so exhausted that we hadn't even picked them up yet.

Star did that for us today.

"2 accessories, both rings, 1 Hammer and wow, are those two skill books? Let's see. Iron Guard and Reckless Charge, both tank Skills. Well, I guess we did take down a tank type beast. Here you go, Arty?" He threw the books at me.

I checked the Skills. Iron Guard was like Dragonskin and Reckless Charge was an upgraded version of the Knight's Charge Skill with the added benefit of reducing the duration of Common Debuffs by half.

So this was the Skill the monster was using. No wonder our plan became so difficult.

"I will use one and keep the other one for sale or for when we get another tank."

"Sounds Good."

We checked the list of drops. Thirty five thousand Gold Coins and fifteen thousand Gold Coins first time bonus. So a total of fifty thousand Gold.

That was what we had expected to earn after selling the body of the Iron Rhino.

With this, we will have a decent amount of Gold for our trip.

"And it looks like Elaine got levelled up too."

Sure enough, she had gained 14 levels all of a sudden.

I guess even shared exp from a T5 monster was something extremely high for her.

Even I got two levels with just this monster alone. The Rhino gave a very high exp with the first kill bonus.

"Great, at this rate, we will only need a few more bosses to get her to max level."

"It doesn't have to be only bosses, you know." I shook my head.

Maybe I was getting a bit overconfident in my strength. This boss did a lot to remind me that I was still very weak in this….world. There are numerous others who are far stronger than this Rhino and could take me out with a look.

"Yes. We need more preparations before facing any other bosses." Shiroe nodded too, a serious look on his face. "This fight was….a bit too close for my liking. We are already far ahead of the other players. It would be foolish to risk ourselves so much."

"Exactly."

We stayed there for a while before collecting everything and leaving. On the way back we kept hunting everything we encountered and I gained one more level while doing so.

That Rhino really did give a lot of experience.

If only we could lay a trap and farm it…."Yes!" I shouted reflexively as soon as I got this idea, attracting everyone's attention.

"What?" Shiroe asked, looking at me.

"I just got an idea."

"Oh?"

"The bosses will take a while to respawn, right?"

"Well, yeah. Around a fortnight." He nodded.

"Can't we just dig a hole that big in that time? The only reason we couldn't do that before was because we were afraid of attracting the attention of the boss and that we didn't have enough time. That area will be relatively safer for the next few days. Maybe we could post it as a request. Get some guild members and have them dig a hole the size which could trap the damned Rhino the next time we face it. Then all we would need to do is keep hitting it till it dies or just fill it with water and let the monster suffocate to death. It will be a one time investment and we could get an easy area to farm the Boss. In fact, we could probably do the same with the Boar Boss from the last time."

….

They looked at me with an open mouth.

"Arty….could it be….that you are smart?" Star asked, making me roll my eyes.

"Well, it's possible. It will be a bit of an investment but nothing impossible." Shiroe said after some thought. "We could probably assign some people to do so before we leave."

The plan actually felt more feasible the more we thought about it so we hurried back to Llyne and the first thing we did was post the Quest in our Guild.