As Novis entered the game lobby he was bombarded with a 100 + friend request.
"What are all these?" he said.
Novis had only gone online once using the ID pendragon, it was hard for him to think of an explanation for this. After a while of thinking, one of Paul's lessons came to mind. He had heard of something like this before. Were lower-ranked players would try to add better players in hopes they could team up and help them win games.
It was a way for weak people to rank up higher on the game. Novis came to the conclusion that people must have seen Arthur get a gold rank on his first try, then tried to add him.
Novis wasn't interested in the online community of the game. He never watched any matches outside of his lessons either.
The only thing Novis was concerned about was getting strong at the game. He wanted to see how good he could get if he finally dedicated his mind to something like Lucas had. So Novis amazingly managed to avoid all news and talk of the ID pendragon at the time.
Since it had been a couple of months since Pendragon had played, many people forgot about it. The fanfare died down and the search for the pro-Pendragon with it. The friend request was from the time Novis had last played.
Novis found the notifications annoying and began to go through each of them one by one, declining them until he came across one he recognised.
"Hey, Arthur do you remember this guy Realhastam?"
"Ah yes, the powerful spear user, has he asked for another match?"
"I don't know, he's asked to be our friend."
Novis thought about it for a while, Arthur had said the man was strong and had even lost the game to him. It was impossible for this guy to be adding Arthur just for the sake of ranking up together. Novis accepted the invite in the hope that he could see another duel between the two. Before Novis didn't know much about fighting so he couldn't learn much. But now he had a basic understanding there was much he could learn from a fight between two strong opponents.
Hastam was currently relaxing on his bed reading a book. He had just finished a stream and was done playing VSW for the day. Suddenly, his phone chimed. As Hastam picked up his phone he was surprised at the message he had received.
"Hey Xin, do you remember that swordsmen you met a while back? He just accepted our friend request."
Xin Mao was an ancient spirit from china. One day Hastam went on a trip to China, he was visiting an ancient city that they had recently discovered underground. China had just opened it up for tourist to see and Hastam was one of Lucky first to win a trip to see it. Inside the temple lied an ancient red spear with a carving of a flame on the side. As Hastam got closer suddenly white mist started to surround him and when Hastam came too, he could see the spirit known as Xin Mao.
Xin Mao had no clue why he had been summoned when he met Hastam, many people before him had come and seen the spear but there was no reaction. Hastam was the only person able to see the flame carving on the spear. Allowing Xin Mao to be summoned and enter Hastam body.
Xin thought for a while about what to do with the unknown warrior. Even though he won the match last time he had lost the battle.
"Let's go online send him a party invite," Xin said.
Xin didn't want to fight Arthur just yet. He was hoping that by playing a few matches with him he would learn Arthur's sword skills and a way to beat him.
Novis then received the request for a party invite.
"What do you want to do?" Novis asked
"Let's do it."
They accepted the invite and the two of them entered a lobby together. Novis had now given control of his body to Arthur. But on the other side, Hastam was the one currently playing not Xin.
"Hey so why don't we play in a lane together lets both go bot," Hastam said.
The two of them didn't talk much, as they weren't really friends. They had only met twice and the last time they had fought each other. The two of them entered a game and went bottom together. Hastem picked the character, Xin Mao, while Arthur picked Dragonslayer.
Hastem would lead while Arthur acted as a supporting character, in between games they would switch roles. The two of them won all of their games and a couple of people began to recognise them.
"Hey isn't that the pro Hastam."
"Yeah, but who's he playing with, that guy is just as good."
As the two of them continued to play, Arthur began to notice something different about Hastem. His attack style and patterns were completely different from the last time they had fought. Hastam was still very skilful but the style felt different. Unknown to Arthur, the was because Hastam was the one currently playing and not Xin Mao.
Hastam himself was also a very skilful player. Hastam was already a pro player before even meeting Xin Mao. The two of them often switch places when fighting. This time Xin had asked Hastam to play this way Xin could observe Arthur.
Arthur learnt a lot while playing with Hastam, Different tactics of the game. The way opponents would usually act. It was a learning experience for Arthur. He even found out that there were healing supplies you could use at the base.
After five matches with each other Hastam eventually called it a day and went offline. Arthur and Novis too had called it a day and decided to go offline.
"So did you find out anything about him?" Hastam asked.
"No, the opponents were far too week, we need to wait for him to rank up before we try again."
Hastam smurf account and Arthur were currently ranked gold, this was a good rank for most of the population but nowhere near the levels of pro. Arthur would have to play several more matches before he would be able to face strong opponents.
As Novis was getting out of the capsule his bedroom door slammed open. It was Bill and he wouldn't stop fidgeting about.
"Hey, Novis! Have you seen they just announced a new warrior coming to VSW."
"Oh, that's good and all but did you really have the barge into my room like that."
"Sorry bro, it's just that the new character. He kind of looks like you."