Leveling up [3]

Ding!

[NEW! Unread message!]

[Deadly Musician: Boss, are you in a raid dungeon?]

Deadly Musician barely sent the message the first time when the public announcement board announced a new public record.

'F*ck! A 25-hit combo record?'

'He truly is God Noah!' Nightingale felt like crying on thinking back to how shamelessly he bragged of his skill before this player.

'He truly must have seen me like an incompetent fool shamelessly blowing my horn back then, sigh'.

Noah's leveling speed was at the very forefront of the 11th server players but due to his deliberate leveling speed delay to relay his message to his friends first, other players of big guilds in the server got the first kill of the Red King Kong.

This was why he and his raid party did not get an announcement for it.

But still, his incredible combo move to take out the Red King Kong at the end was recognized by the game system as an incredible show of skill, making them to double their rewards at the end and for it to be announced.

This was how Nightingale knew.

Despite how ashamed he felt at his previous ignorance; Nightingale had a thick skin though; this did not prevent him from messaging Noah.

[Deadly Musician: Boss, to think you'd go ahead and create a new record in the game, you truly are an unmatched expert blessed by the heavens!]

[Deadly Musician: Are you free? We want to dungeon.]

"Brother expert, you want to dungeon again?"

"Please please, let's go again!"

One of the random gamers in the raid party that he joined requested exuberantly, he was clearly a teenager.

Noah didn't mind who he raided dungeons with but since Nightingale and the others already requested, he relented.

He chuckled. "Not now, I already booked a session with someone else. Maybe some other time".

The teenage player who controlled seemed disappointed; his in-game avatar was an Elementalist. "What a pity," he sighed. "Ok then, I can't wait to learn more from expert next time!"

"Ok". With that, Noah left to join Deadly Musician and the others.

Nightingale and his friends were not the only ones in charge of their accounts. After seeing how much they lagged behind compared to Noah's leveling up speed, pressured, they hired a group of gamers to level up their accounts for them.

This was why their in-game avatars were already at level 10.

Once they arrived at the rainforest outside the beginner village, they met up with Noah before entering the Monkey Rainforest dungeon.

As soon as they entered the dungeon and as Noah led the way again, killing monsters, Deadly Musician started talking.

"Boss, to think you were such a big shot in the game".

"Haha, I'm just so-so".

"If you're so-so then I'm just a grain of sand in a desert!"

Noah chuckled. "Your skills are good too".

Nightingale felt like crying. "You're mocking us?"

"Of course not," Noah said even as his Lord Doom used the shockwave from Mana Brust to damage and make the monkeys surrounding them stagger, setting them up for a focused attack.

{Flame Spiral=}

Flame Spiral is a Battle Mage skill that summons spinning fire around the mage's weapon, dealing AOE burn damage with each melee strike.

With that combo, Noah killed 4 Monkeys at the same time even as he continued speaking like he didn't even exert any effort to do it.

"You guys have good hand speed. All you need is to shore up on your understanding of different class skills and the effects of different skill combinations".

"Once you do, you'll become much better in the game".

"But this is not something that you can rush, you take time to master it. You'll only get better through experience".

"Ok boss, I'm willing to learn!"

Nightingale said all of this to bait Noah to say more about himself but he never did, most of his focus was always on the game.

And if he asked a question, Noah answered, he almost never adds to the basic answers, content with giving simple answers only.

'This guy…, maybe this is how all experts are'.

'Yes! Experts usually don't talk much, right?'

In the end, he was forced to say it. "You're God Noah, right?"

"Haha," Noah chuckled. "A lot of people do call me that".

He was not surprised to learn that this raid party already knew his identity, he never intended to hide it in the first place.

First, he already told them his real name and besides, once they learned Genevieve's name, it would take only a fool not to make the connection.

Nightingale looked at Lord Doom seriously. "Boss, I want to confirm, you really don't know Nightingale?"

"Nah".

'So casually!' This musician felt like crying but he laughed. "You really are different from everyone else!" He gushed.

"So, you're retired?"

"Yup".

"What are you doing in the game then?"

"Playing".

"Playing to do what?"

"To play".

"…"

Nightingale chuckled awkwardly. "You don't perhaps have intentions of coming back to the pro scene, right?"

"That is what I intend to do".

"How?"

"I'm not sure yet".

"You'll create a new team?"

"Maybe".

"Wow! Do you have the funding to create a new team?"

"No".

'Such basic answers!' Nightingale felt like crying.

In the end, he got something, answers. Genevieve was right, Noah saw no reason in lying. Instead of lying, he would rather not talk.

Nightingale was able to learn a lot about his plans through the many raids that they went on together.

And from that day on, their relationship deepened.

Every day, Nightingale and his crew entered the game to play and level up with Noah even as they kept on causing a frenzy in the 11th server.

The big guilds of the new server struggled to keep him on a leash.

At first, they thought it was only him but their misery mounted when new experts were discovered in the new server.

"Captain Batman?"

"Enlightened Flame?!"

"Reckless Storm…? Who are these guys?!"

…

1 week later…

The Warstar community boiled with activity, this was because the first round of the 1st edition of the Warstar World Championship finally started.