"So, what is this oath of existence business?" The pink-haired woman arrived after a few minutes as Zack sighed.
"You don't check forums, do you?"
"This is on the forums?" She asked with a surprised expression as the latter nodded.
"There are many posts regarding this but the main one is pinned on the forums."
"How did people know about this though?" She asked while tilting her head a little.
WolfHeart had never visited the forum since she had thought that it would be full of teenagers bickering around. Or at least that's what happened on the other forums she had seen.
If she had known that it had such important things, she would be opening and refreshing it every day.
"The game developers create alternate accounts sometimes and post the information there. They have mentioned that in an interview but not many people watched that. But those who watched it know that most of the stuff on the forums might be real and could be from their alternate account."
"Damn…" WolfHeart looked as though she was ready to slap herself for being this stupid but prevented herself from doing that because of being in the number one player's presence.
'This means that there will be many players who would be using these things to their advantage. How naive I was to think that the forums would only be full of teens.' WolfHeart thought with a sigh as she then looked into Zack's eyes.
"Then will you please explain to me what this oath of existence is?"
"It's an oath in which both the parties state some terms and they are then bound by their avatar's life. So if any of them breaks the terms of the oath, their avatars would get destroyed and they would have to restart the game. It's the best insurance you have in the game." After finishing his explanation, Zack waited for WolfHeart to process his words.
The pink-haired woman looked deep in thought as she was measuring the pros and cons of this. In the end, she decided that teaming up with the number one player on fair terms might be more beneficial.
"Then I only have three terms. You have to help me reach the top three positions and also make sure that I don't die. As for the last one, I just want to complete this quest and get a strong weapon alongside all that exp."
"Well, those are easy. As for my terms, I want you to give me cover in this place and also tell me about all the plans you overheard earlier. Also, if you become a top-three player with my help, you will have to stay in contact with me. We might help each other in the future." Zack then stated his terms as the pink-haired woman looked deep in thought.
But he couldn't see her expression because of the helmet she was wearing. However, she soon replied.
"I guess that's fair. I will send you a friend request right now." She muttered and seemed to open her system settings.
[ Player WolfHeart is sending you a friend request.
Accept
Decline ]
Zack chose accept as WolfHeart appeared on his friends' list. Now that the terms were set, they just had to shake hands to make the oath.
"Shake my hand and say, 'Oath of existence' together." He then extended his hand forward as WolfHeart extended her own hard.
'Soft.' She wasn't wearing any gloves on her hands so Zack could feel her soft skin. This came to show how hard Hikari's developers had worked.
Even the smallest touch with another player gave the same feeling as touching another human being. But whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, that would only be revealed later on.
""Oath of Existence.""
A blue light extended from their palms and went ahead to cover the rest of their body. After a few seconds, the light vanished and the oath of existence was placed on both of them.
"Let's go then," Zack said as the two of them then started moving towards the middle of the forest.
The dungeon boss was supposed to be at level 12 so Zack had to make sure that he was at least at that level before battling the boss.
WolfHeart on the other hand was five levels below him so he would have to push her up too.
On their way, they started encountering many beasts between level 5 to level 7.
"I will deal the first blow and you can then kill them. The one who deals the last blow will receive a little more exp than the damage dealer." Zack said as he took out a rare-ranked steel sword.
( A/N: the weapon ranks are common, uncommon, rare, super rare, epic, mythological, and legendary. The last two have similar power. )
He was not going to use Firerager at that moment and was only going to use it in a secret location inside the forest.
"Leveling up feels so easy now…" WolfHeart muttered as the two of them were taking a break.
After an hour of killing beasts, WolfHeart was now at level 8. She had passed the number three player named Lazy Panda and was now the rank 3 player. Honestly, it did feel as though everything was too easy.
But this was because they were still at the lower levels.
"Then what are we going to do now?" WolfHeart asked as Zack started walking again.
"We are going to visit a secret place in the forest."
"Secret place?"
"Yes, a secret place or rather, one that is hidden in plain sight. Try using your map to see whether you can find it or not." Zack replied as he opened his own map of the forest and marked their destination.
They had long since left the cherry trees behind and were now surrounded by oak trees. But the place they were going to was a little special.
After fifteen minutes of travel, they reached a swamp-like section of the forest.
[ Would you like to fight the dungeon mini-boss? Both party members must select yes to enter the mini-boss fight. ]
"Now how did you know that? There is no way the game developers released such an important thing." WolfHeart asked while carefully looking at Zack's face. But the latter remained extremely calm.
"If you check the map, you will find that this is the only swamp in the entire forest and unless it was intentional, why would someone put this in the middle of the forest. You just need to think it from a gamer's perspective."
"I guess you are right about that…" WolfHeart muttered as she chose yes. Zack on the other smiled and also pressed yes.
'Looks like I have become a master at bullshitting in front of others. Maybe I should hone my skills to the next level.' He thought with a smile as their bodies soon started to flicker.
With a blink of an eye, they vanished and appeared in the middle of a swamp. However, they were somehow able to walk on it.
"This feels weird and gross…" The pink-haired woman commented as she saw a bubble rising in the swamp.
"Well, the rewards would be worth it and it's not like we are standing in a real swamp."
"True."
As they were talking, a creature was looking at them from the bottom of the swamp.
[ Miniboss fight is about to start in 5 seconds. ]
[ 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… ]
[ Boss fight has now started! ]
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