Black Online-Chapter 104: Ground Rules

The door closed with Machary’s departure, and now it was only Fang Raon alone in the room with Della, Waylen, Rickard, and Rock.

"With your new position as team leader, your new pay is 20,000 coins per week. Here you go."

Della placed a pouch of 20,000 coins on the table, and Fang Raon accepted it gratefully and stored it inside his interface.

[+20,000]

[Coins: 40,521]

’I should probably go check out the stores in that Snowberry Village and see if I can find some new gear.’

Fang Raon thought to himself.

He now had coins worth 400 dollars, and if he wanted to, he could transfer that money to his real-world bank account.

However, for now, he had no need for money in the real world, but if one day he recovered, he would be in need of some.

"You’re now responsible for the Fourth-Liners, and if you don’t perform as expected, you can still be replaced. Is that understood?"

Della asked.

"Yes, guild master."

Fang Raon said.

"...And regarding that tarnished reputation of yours. You want me to tell the Fourth-Liners what Machary said was false?"

Della asked.

"No, I don’t think that should be done. It will just ostracize him, which would’ve happened to me, and it is just bad for the party."

Fang Raon said.

"Then they will keep thinking that you’re someone untrustworthy. It’ll be quite hard to lead a party like that."

Della said.

"They might not trust me, but that is fine. They trust you. And you’re the one who made me a team leader. It’ll take some time to get them to trust me, but I’ll get it done.

"I don’t think whatever Machary said about me will hinder us in any way."

Fang Raon said with confidence.

"...If you say so."

Della nodded.

...

The next morning.

The sky of the 15th floor was light blue. It looked like ice. The sun was scorching down, but it barely brought any heat.

Cold winds of the north mountains were blowing into the villages, giving the air a crisp chill, and fireplaces were crackling with fire in every household.

Frost formed on the windows. Inside houses, the windows were trickling with the melted frost that was forming water droplets.

"...Good morning, Old Rufus!"

"...Miss Agnes, how are the kids?"

In the snow-covered streets, the village people greeted each other with smiles and laughter while children ran outside to play.

"Whoo..."

Walking down the street, Fang Raon breathed cold air and looked around the winter wonderland with a sense of peace.

He came down to the Snowberry Village to check some new gear, but for the past twenty minutes, he’d just roamed about.

This village was just so beautiful.

It was something that is nowadays impossible to find in the real world. It all had been ruined by the rapid industrialization and urbanization.

’...I have one hour before I need to head back. There is still some training to do today, as I’ll officially start my push to level 3.

’Tonight I will also have my first meeting with Fourth-Liners, and I will officially introduce myself as their team leader.’

He ignored all the shops selling skill scrolls, as he didn’t want any more for now, and just went to check out armors on sale.

While his Bear Hide Armor was alright, it wasn’t going to last that long for him, and he wanted something stronger.

"...Huh, what is that?"

In the store, Fang Raon came across a quite interesting piece of armory dangling from the wall.

It was transparent—like water—chainmail armor.

"What the heck?"

"Young man, interested in this one?"

At that moment, the store owner walked over and saw him look at the transparent chainmail armor.

"Yes... But how come it is transparent?"

Fang Raon asked curiously.

"Chainmail armor is usually wore over a layer of clothing, but this one is made with special materials that make it transparent, so no one will see that you’re wearing it.

"It still looks visible when dangling by the wall, but once you wear it, it will become completely invisible."

The store owner said.

"Ah..."

Fang Raon sounded intrigued.

He then checked the price tag and quickly swallowed his saliva as he realized how much it cost.

[Price: 22,500 Square Coins]

Fang Raon took a deep breath, wondered whether it really was worth it.

"Can I test it?"

He asked.

"Sure thing!"

The store owner took it off the wall, and Fang Raon put it on.

If it was any heavier than he liked, he wouldn’t purchase it, but to his surprise, it was extremely light.

And just like the store owner said, it turned invisible when he wore it, and others would just see him wearing his Dark Blue Winter Clothes.

"I’ll take it."

Fang Raon said with a smile.

"Excellent!"

Without even taking it off, he paid the full amount to the store owner and then left the store with a happy smile.

’That was basically a week’s pay that I just spent, but for now, I don’t really have to worry about getting better armor for a while.

’This one will last me a while.’

Fang Raon thought to himself.

Then, before heading back to the Rose Records mansion, he went to quickly visit a blacksmith to restore the durability in his weapons.

They were starting to get quite low in the durability department.

With that done, he headed straight back to the mansion and met with Rock and his other students.

Since there were still a couple of skills that he had at level 1, he decided to spend the rest of the day training and mastering them.

They were Sword Stab and Throwing Sword skills. Luckily, they were both quite easy to learn, and he started to master them quickly.

Before the orange evening arrived, he had already managed to get both of them to level 2.

There was still one skill that he had at level 2—Aurel’s Blade Dance—but he had nobody to teach him Selevian Waltz just yet.

Rock told him that he was trying to find someone—local or player—to teach him, so it would take a while until he found someone.

While the Selevian Waltz was a dance style of the real world, the Black Online’s developers also included that dance to be part of the game.

Thus, there were some locals that knew of the dance and would be able to teach him as well.

At the end of the day, he was now 54% through level 2, and while there was still a way to go, he was happy to see some signs of improvement.

His stamina increased by 1. It was now at 36.

His attack increased by 2. It was now at 31.

And his defense also increased by 2. It was at 22.

...

Pushing open a door, Machary entered the mansion’s common room and saw that everyone from Fourth Line had already gathered.

"Hello, Machary!"

"How’s it going?"

They greeted him in a friendly way.

After hearing about Machary failing to become team leader, they were empathetic towards him, as they knew how much he wanted to become one.

With a nod, Machary greeted them back and sat down on one of the couches in the common room.

They were all summoned here by Fang Raon, and since he was the team leader, they had to listen.

’It doesn’t sound like Fang Raon has revealed to them that I lied to them yet. I guess he will do it now in front of everyone.’

Machary thought with a serious look.

He was seriously contemplating just leaving Rose Records and trying his luck in another guild.

There were two other guilds on the 15th floor—Grinding Grief and Monsieur Rascal—and he believed that at least one of them must want him.

Maybe he could even become team leader in one of their parties.

"...I wonder why the guild master and they eventually decided to make Fang Raon the team leader."

"...Yeah, I don’t really know. I wanted Machary to become one."

"...Same, I also wanted him to become the leader."

"...I guess Machary didn’t tell them those things about Fang Raon to them. He is too kind to do that sadly, which must’ve cost him the team leader position."

"...Yeah."

Machary heard them talk and just felt embarrassed because he wasn’t anything like the person they thought of him as.

’Kind? I made that shit up.’

He thought with a sigh.

In that moment, the common room’s doors opened, and from there, Fang Raon stepped through the open doors.

"Team leader."

Everyone greeted him.

Mood was slightly awkward as the majority of them preferred Machary to be team leader.

"Hello, everyone. As you all know, I’ve been appointed as the new team leader of the Fourth Line, and there are some ground rules that I would like to discuss with all of you."

Fang Raon said with a serious tone.

Everyone nodded and was curious about what "ground rules" he could be talking about.

"In the upcoming weeks, we will be starting to do some raids, and I want to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding expectations and behavior during these missions.

"For the treasure, we will roll dice to decide the picking order. However. If one of you doesn’t perform well in the raid, you will not receive a share of the treasure."

Fang Raon said.

"Ah?"

It surprised the Fourth-Liners, and they weren’t really sure what to feel about it.

"If you perform well, or do exceptionally well, I can also request a promotion for one of you to become a member of the Third Line.

"In return, there will also be a Fifth Line soon, as there will be a new recruit batch coming soon, so if one of you is performing sub-par, you can also be demoted.

"Is that understood?"

Fang Raon asked.

"...Yes, team leader!"