Soul Art Online

- Veena -

She waited in the room as the door opened and Star entered followed by Grayfia who froze at the sight of her. She quickly went ahead and pulled the girl into a hug.

"Are you alright? "

"My Lady…" Grayfia was still in disbelief.

"Yes. It's me. You are fine right? They didn't do anything?…" She asked, leaving the words unsaid.

"I am fine. They didn't… want to harm the merchandise." She said with distaste, making her narrow her eyes.

"I am so sorry for dragging you into this game. If not for me then… "

"No no… you couldn't have known that this would happen. And Ojou-sama is also stuck inside with her peerage members. I am just disappointed that I couldn't help more and you had to save me…"

"Oh lay aside the apologies. Also, call me Veena and I will call you Bina. Sit here. Did you guys have anything to eat?" She asked her and the others behind.

"I…" Grayfia hesitated but then looked behind her, specifically at a girl behind her.

"Well then, come here and have something to eat first. I have to go and check up on Arthas to get our escape from here finalised. We can talk when we are on the ship." She took out several food items from her inventory and placed them on the table.

Now that Grayfia was safe, one of her biggest burdens was lightened.

She didn't know what she would have done if she had been sold off to someone else today… she would probably have felt guilty about it her entire life.

Now, all she could hope for was that Rias and her peerage members were safe wherever they were and that they could reunite soon. This incident had also increased her worries about her daughter's life.

Arthas and her team members had come out and helped her without holding back. It warmed her heart that they were willing to go so far for her even after only knowing her for such a short period of time. Arthas she could understand and even Shiroe to some extent. But even Star and the new members had all supported her unconditionally today.

She will have to do something for them. Especially Arthas… yes. She will definitely have to reward him well… and she knew just the way to do so too.

- Kuroka -

"Please… I am sorry. I will give you everything I have. Please just let me go…" The filth in front of her begged as he tried to crawl away from her.

"Oh… sure. Give me everything and I will consider letting you go." She replied coldly.

The man looked like he had just gotten his life back and soon unloaded most of his inventory in front of her.

Mostly potions and medicines. There was even poison, many different kinds of poisons in fact.

Apart from that was gold and equipment.

She stored everything in her inventory and then narrowed her eyes.

"Is this all you have?" She asked, her tone daring him to lie.

"Yes. Yes, this is everything I have." He quickly nodded, trying to convince her.

"Oh… but from what I know you had just swindled a kid a few days ago. The amount you got from him must be… five times this amount."

His eyes widened.

Yes.

This was the scum who had scammed Gasper, taking away all his months of earnings and then selling him overpriced health potions forcing him to keep feeding her potions while she was poisoned. That part which made her angrier was that among the potions that he had offered her… there were dozens of the antidotes she needed to remove that poison. This bastard had them all along and he still forced Gaspy to buy that crap, forcing her to bear the pain of poison for three whole days…

Gaspy had forced himself to face his worst fears for her and this…. filthy cretin…

There was a good chance that she could have died. That would have meant that Shirone would be stuck inside this game alone… Gaspy would be even worse. The boy had no one except her. She had brought him with her to this town and if she were to die… he would probably shut himself in or do something… even worse.

And for what… just a few coins…

She had obviously tracked him down in less than a day, getting drunk and spending the money he had swindled from Gaspy. Over the next two days, she investigated him, gathering everything she could about him. 

Gaspy was apparently not his first time swindling someone.

In fact, three people who had gone out hunting with him had not returned. Only he had returned with destroyed clothes, always claiming to have narrowly escaped death from some monsters.

After the third time, even other people were wary of him so he switched classes and became a Herbalist and started this business of swindling people.

Seducing him when he was drunk and bringing him outside the town's safe area was easy and even easier was to use paralysing poison on him and beat him up to the inch of his life. And that's how they were here. Even if he could use his inventory, he couldn't use any potions until his paralysis was over. She then cuffed him to a rock in the middle of the forest so that he couldn't run away if he got the chance.

"I see that you are lying to me. Suddenly I don't feel like letting you leave anymore." She narrowed her eyes again and lifted her knife.

"No No… I am not, I… I will give you everything. Here… here take everything. This is everything I have. I promise… really…" He quickly brought out the rest of the goods and handed it to her.

She checked and found that the money was actually more than he had taken from Gaspy. There was even equipment for other classes and items.

Taking one more look at him, she slashed down, taking a massive chunk of his health out.

"I think I just clarified to you that I don't like it when people lie to me." One more slash. "You are truly challenging my patience, something I don't have much of."

"I really… really don't have anything more."

She slashed down again but this time she didn't stop and kept slashing down.

When his health was in the red, he shouted again.

"Please… please wait… I… I won't lie again…" He dropped everything from his inventory, or at least she thought he did because this was almost double of what he had given her till now.

There was no way he was earning this all by himself…

With a wave of her hand she stored everything in her inventory and looked at him.

"I… I have really given you everything… now please… please let me go…" He begged. She brought out the poison from her inventory and dripped some on his wound. The guy's eyes widened as he realised what had just happened.

She then pulled out the bunch of health potions from her inventory and placed them in front of him.

"Really sorry about that. My hand slipped. Here, if you keep drinking this potion, you can keep healing and the status will disappear in three days. I know… after all, my kid brother had to feed me the same potions for three days."

His face morphed into that of horror as he realised who she was.

"By the way, I have heard that if you punch the cuffs a thousand times, with all your strength, the durability goes down by one percent. So all you need is a hundred thousand punches and it might actually break. Just be sure to keep your voice down. There can be wild animals around and it wouldn't be good if you get found out."

She then ignored him and left… but not before dropping a pouch of monster bait on the road.

Oh… she should have informed him that the cuffs she was talking about were of lower quality than these ones. The ones she used on him were reforged by Gaspy and could take a dozen times more beating.

- Rossweisse -

Just how did she get stuck in this place?

It was all the fault of that bitch Sangrdrifa.

Then again, she shouldn't have accepted their taunts and taken the bait.

A place where you can meet boys… even someone like you could find a boyfriend here… then again, that might be impossible for the eternal single valkyrie.

She really shouldn't have fallen for their provocations.

They were obviously just taunting her so that she would be busy in the game and do bad at her job but for once… just that once, she had fallen for it… and it had cost her everything… well almost…

Rossweisse was stunned on hearing that they were trapped inside the game but at first she thought it was some kind of prank. It wouldn't be the first she had faced.

Being the youngest of the group with a position as high as hers had earned her the ire of many of her coworkers… something she couldn't understand for the life of her.

Odin was an unrepentant leacher. The pay was bad. The work environment was bad. Even the coworkers were bad.

Why would someone envy her for such a life?

But logic was a rare commodity in Asgard where people preferred using their fists more instead, so she could understand their foolishness…

And yet, this time it was not one of their pranks. It was real. She had really been trapped inside this game and now had no way to go outside other than… possibly completing it.

When the realisation dawned on her, she got to work immediately.

Collecting information, planning a strategy and finally taking action.

Everything she had learned since childhood had helped her get ahead of any normal players in the game, reaching a T3 Class at a very quick pace.

She was lucky to encounter Bina in the town and form a team with her.

A Warrior and a Mage was a good combination and Bina was very good at what she did too.

Even the other team members she found here… were far better than her actual colleagues. If it wasn't a life or death situation, she might have genuinely enjoyed it.

Unfortunately it seemed that things never went too well for her.

It was all that damned World Quest.

She still had nightmares of that day when pirates had razed the town to the ground, killing, plundering and kidnapping people left and right.

Even her teammates had met the same fate with Bina as the only other survivor other than her.

And then she found that she was going to be sold… like trophies in the olden days…

She knew what vikings did with the women they captured… and that thought scared her. All her hopes were crushed when the bid on her name was finalised and she was sold off to some unknown person… but when all seemed hopeless… he came…

Blue hair, golden eyes, dressed in a golden armour like a warrior from the best among Asgard's warriors… although much more courteous than them. She held the handkerchief in her hand as she remembered his actions…

And then came the huge revelations.

He had come to free them. He was a friend… or at least knew Bina… or rather Grayfia Lucifuge.

Rossweisse obviously knew that name.

As a part of Odin's bodyguards, it was her duty to know the names of important people in all factions.

Grayfia Lucifuge was the queen of Lucifer, the Strongest Queen of the Underworld.

Was Bina that Grayfia?

She hadn't believed it at first but when they met another woman, and she heard bits of their conversation, the dots connected. She really was that Grayfia… and that woman… who exactly was she?

And who was the guy who saved them?

But this identity just raised as many questions as it answered.

What was the rest of the Supernatural World doing if even such a person was trapped inside for so long?

Now she was waiting for her explanation when they left this place.

But one thing was for sure… her life was not going to be the same after today…

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Beta Note: The advance chapters are in order of what is updated, a first Tier will not get 2 advanced chapters for every story, only the next two to be released.

Beta Reader: @LuluViBritania (FF.N, SB, WN and QQ)/-LuluViB|99th Britannian Emperor(Discord)

Author's Note:

I am back with another chapter of 'Soul Art Online'

So we got the maid… and a surprise bonus too.

Hope you guys liked the plan with Damon.

Also Kuroka is a protective and vengeful kitty.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.