Chapter Hundred and Eighteen

The dungeon raid took a long time. But all the members of the team were now level six and could handle level six elite monsters, even if two of them were in the same section of the dungeon.

Artha was jungling two things simultaneously. One- dungeon raid. Two- his siblings. They were having a lot of fun. They died once too. But as it was their first day, there was no death penalty. They were already in chicken coop.

When Artha rejoined the family in the chicken coop maps, they shared an exciting news.

"Evermore guild has conquered the dungeon."

"But there is no Evermore guild in this village. And there was no celebrations outside the dungeons too."

"Haven't you heard of that guild before?" Sam asked.

Of course he had heard of it. They were his potential customers.

"There was big announcement in the sky. So many shenanigans."

"Bet they had to pay through the nose for it though," Artha thought but what he asked was, "But if they are not from this village, why is there announcement in the village?"

"I wondered about that. So I jumped a bit to see the news. It's trending out there."

"Wait! What do you mean jump?"

"It's not jumping. He logged off to VR lobby. From there, he saw the news. Don't you know how to assess the news?" Danny t

"Well...there was no need before. But it's a good trick. What happens to this body when we go to VR lobby?"

"If this was an old fashioned game, there would be zzzzzz floating around. But, here you look spaced out. And whatever happens to your body, you won't know."

"How do you know that?" Sam asked. Then realising how they could have tested that theory, started checking himself from top to bottom.

Nidhia and Danny snickered. They had done that and destroyed the evidence. Only few videos and photos remained in their hands, for fond rememberance.

Seeing nothing was wrong, Sam started explaining to Artha.

" Well, a bunch of villages share the glory. Or something like that. Probably, feeder villagers of a same town. So, when we go from this village, we'll have to face the guild from Evermore."

"There were actually two announcements. One was in their village. Next one for many villages. Okay, town level. I saw that from the post of Evermore guild. They got some rare items, lots of coins. Curiously, there was no mention of prestige or reputation points."

"What are those? I haven't heard of them in ." Artha asked.

"Seriously? Is this the first game you played since school ?"

"I think so, yes. Why?"

Nidhi answered the query. " Typically, any game with world building, growth etc, will have option for reputation points or prestige points which will let players to get closer to power. Become nobles like many NPCs."

"But seriously, why?"

"Nobles have extra power. You want to run a shop in the game, right? For that you need to buy or rent a shop. Even after that, you need to play taxes to the local government.

Nobles get option of choosing better places to buy or rent the place. The purchase price or rental price would be less and most importantly, the tax paid is also very less."

Danny added, " And let's not forget that few NPCs will only interact with nobles. They issue quests if you have certain noble ranking. And, in one of the games I played, the players needed to be nobles before making a guild. So, you see these prestige points or reputation points are important.

But even the first clear in the dungeon raid doesn't get such things. I wonder what great feats are needed to get them?"

"This game is not like others. So are you sure that there'll be something like reputation or prestige?" Artha just had to ask.

Others became silent at that question. It had a valid point. While others were pondering on the question, Artha was now thinking of some thing else. When he had finished the quest for Zoya, the reward was certain probability of getting a better deal later on, or something to that effect. Was it related to these prestige or reputation points? But he didn't know whom to ask to clarify his doubts.

After murdering chicks and hens, all walked back to the village. The siblings had destroyed their novice weapons. Even Danny had destroyed his staff. Why would you even think of using it as a stick or a rod? Artha had denuded a patch of the map. The spawn rate of monsters would be affected a lot thanks to him altering the environment. Lots of task handovers, getting new tasks. Artha was spending even the afternoon with his siblings. Had a small talk with Sun Lord about postponing his last 'kill stealing'. He okayed it.

Not many were out in the fields though. All the guilds were under serious pressure to complete the dungeon raid. The pressure raised to another level after Evermore guild succeeded.

Artha pushed his siblings into interacting more with NPCs, to consider them as normal people. He also.wanted them to try for any lifestyle jobs. Nidhi and Tavish hit off very well. Didn't see that one coming. Artha expected her to be close to tailor rather than a blacksmith. But he brightened up. He could use her to have a short cut. If Nidhi becomes a apprentice there, he could buy concentrates and essences from her. Later on, he could use her as selling source too.

After running around all the places, watching players haggle over virtual items, making merry and mayhem, the siblings decided to rest and retire. Artha just went out for a break, to finish his stint in training halls and rushed back. Today, he would enjoy what other players had enjoyed before. A happy evening with entertainment set by NPCs.

It hadn't got old. The NPCs tried many things each day and every day it was different. The open minded players joining in singing and dancing. Their friends would immortalise this portion later on. So you better perform well. The Murphys had a running gag on being tone deaf, so no one tried singing. But dancing...yeah, you sway your waist, you sway your hips, you move your limbs slowly - if the song is slow. You kick it up a notch if the beats are fast. Artha had to disgrace himself as Nidhi pulled him and others to dance with her.

Curiously, the siblings enjoyed all the activities which were free but didn't even go near places where they had to spend the coins. The whole family was descendants of Scrooge.

No reading books, no haggling for deals. Artha was just happy to spend time with his family.