What followed next was could only be described as pure chaos.

“ARTHUR THE ELF HAS AGREED!” The Lord of Lavias shouted out. Arthur nearly jumped out of his skin; even after two hundred years of servitude his lord’s behavior was unpredictable and spontaneous as ever.

“You know what must be done?” The Lord asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes, my Lord. Consider the matter closed. You will have your tea party of flustered nobles today itself.” Arthur replied while bowing.

“Today, eh?” The Lord commented as he got up from his chair and headed out the parlour room. “Then today it is…I will be taking my beauty sleep before the event. Arthur as you already know, I hate being disturbed when I am sleeping.”

“Understood, my lord. Would you prefer the usuals?” Arthur asked while bowing slightly.

“Nothing for now.” The Lord replied as he walked away briskly. “And let no one know of Axillaris’ presence!” He shouted from the hallways.

“Axillaris?” Weed asked whether that was his new code name.

“Axillaris…is a type of a stubborn weed…” Arthur explained as he sighed watching his Lord leave for his resting quarters.

“So now what? Where do you want me to stay?” Weed asked with glee and excitement.

Arthur finally sat down in the chair and let out a sigh. “Please give me a moment to gather my thoughts…”

“…” Weed looked at Arthur pitfully. ‘Must have worn him out being by the Lord’s side for all these years…I can sympathize with him…that Lord is annoying as hell…’

Arthur began muttering curses to himself. “…this is just to much work for one man…”

Weed instantly recognized this line as one of the many used by NPC’s when they are hinting that there is a quest at hand.

“Is there any way that I can help?” Weed asked.

“Yes! There is indeed!” Arthur replied as he bounced off the chair excitedly.

TRRRING!!

Quest: Attend the Tea Party! [Part 2] - Assist with the preparations for the Tea Party!

You have been requested by Arthur Ireka to assist with the preparations of the tea party being hosted by the Lord of Lavias in honor of the arrival of the high elf and celebration of the new years!

Rank: F

Reward: In addition to the previously promised rewards, you will now gain additional 30 Public Service points, 50 Fame Points, and Title: Close Associate of Arthur Ireka.

Quest limit: None.

Quest Requirement: None.

Weed promptly accepted the quest request to assist in the tea party preparations. ‘A serial mini quest?’

“Here take these…” Arthur said as he handed Weed some paper and ink. “And begin noting down…We need to think of a time slot…when should we invite them?”

“Its already past noon…” Weed commented as he sat ready to jot down the notes.

“Yes…can’t hold a noon tea party post noon…” Arthur agreed while lost in his own thoughts.

“How about at 5?” Weed suggested.

“No…still too early, there is too much to be done…” Arthur replied. “I guess it must be a dinner and a ball…it would be most fitting for the stage and event.”

“8?” Weed asked.

“Yes 8.” Arthur agreed. “Next…we need a guest list…”

“Shouldn’t we think about how many we plan to invite first?” Weed interrupted.

“We always invite the 8 Great families of Lavias, the 16 Aristocrats of the West, the Head Chief of the Army and his subordinates and their families, Lord Vulcan and his family, Lord Stratos and his family.” Arthur coolly replied as if he were prepared with the answer.

“That’s great…” Weed commented (while wondering who was Vulcan and Stratos such that they were named out separately). “But you forget, there have been new migrants here with the growing city… There are the 18 families for Far North & East, Lords of Small Estates, Influential business families…as well as the Viscount & the guild masters?”

Arthur frowned, Weed knew much more than him about his own city. “You know this land and people well even though you have been away?” he asked.

“Only because I love it so much.” Weed replied. Lee Jun had been following all news related to Lavias religiously for the last 8 moths, it only made sense he would know which were the major noble families in the city.

“Would you like to plan the event?” Arthur asked. His voice reflected that he wasn’t angry or upset with Weed but rather impressed.

“I could not imagine pulling off the entire event on my own. Only if you lend me a hand, would it be possible.” Weed replied.

Quest: Attend the Tea Party! [Part 3] – Manage the preparations for the Tea Party!

You have been requested by Arthur Ireka to take in charge all preperations for the tea party being hosted by the Lord of Lavias in honor of the arrival of the high elf and celebration of the new years!

Rank: F

Reward: In addition to all previously stated rewards, you will now gain: 15 Public Service points, 25 Fame Points, 100 Silver Coins.

Quest limit: In addition to all previously stated quest limits, you are now also subjected to: Amount of Public service points and fame vary with level of completion of quest. Failure to carry out the quest results in -100 Public Service Points, -200 Fame Points, Relationship with Arthur Ireka will turn sour (lose all points), and you will lose 90% of Relationship points with the Lord of Lavias. May also lead to withdrawal of any previous quest requested by Arthur and Lord of Lavias.

Quest Requirement: Impress Arthur while assisting him [fulfilled].

Weed smiled as he accepted the next mini quest. The benefits were small and the penalties were ridiculous.

“Then lets begin…” Weed whispered to himself. “We will need to invite at least 100 nobles and aristocrats, we are talking of at least 500 individuals. Another 300 for the army and staff. The two families you mentioned… Vulcan and Stratos? Only 20 invites for the guild masters and lastly there are 10 invites that I need to invite people I know.”

“I am not sure if you should invite people you know.” Arthur replied.

“They will be fine. They can serve as the Lord’s sword in tough times.” Weed answered Arthur’s doubtful expression.

“I understand but isn’t that too few invites?” Arthur asked. “The number of guilds and parties alone in Lavias are over 500….”

“No. We only want the most influential and powerful. The Lord needs powerful allies. Does he not?” Weed replied. Weed had another reason, he didn’t want anyone to recognize him. He also wanted to keep the affair completely private and closed to the outside world of players; essentially giving him more of an edge over the other players.

“That makes it 932 invites..” Arthur added up the numbers.

“Too little.” Weed commented, “break the invites for families and individuals. There should be…2538 invites that would need to be sent.” Weed double checked his calculations, he just summed each and every individual of each household from the rough pieces of information he had gathered from the VR net (equivalent to internet).

“…” Arthur stayed silent, he was astounded and clearly impressed with the elf.

“Will we be able to get these many ready on time?” Weed asked, wondering if a printing press existed in this world.

“It should not be a problem.” Arthur assured Weed. Arthur raised his arm and raised to ink feather pens with his wind element. “See?”

Weed nodded, he got the gist of what Arthur was suggesting. Arthur could pick up a 1000 pens with his powers and write 1000 invites in one go.

“Then I leave the invites to you.” Weed said as he moved on to the next invite. “We need to deliver these…”

“We can send them flying…” Arthur showed as he packed a sample invite into and envelope using nothing but air element.

Weed was impressed. He knew that players at lower levels would never be capable of this level of control and subtle hint of power. Arthur was clearly a high level NPC. Weed knew he wanted Arthur to be on his side or at least not get on Arthur’s wrong side.

“Let us not do it like that.” Weed said. “It might get intersected. It would be better to hand deliver.”

Arthur frowned but agreed to what Weed said.

“Should I call for the head butlers?” Arthur asked.

“Yes…but what about my identity? My hair and ears are a bit too revealing? Do you have a cloak or something that I can wear?” Weed asked.

“Yes.” Arthur left the room with that and quickly returned with a silver coloured cloak.

TRRRINGGG!!!

You received an unexpected gift! One of the many benefits of working with nobles!

Weed quickly accepted the cloak and put it on.

“Identify” Weed said as he put on the cloak.

TTRRRINGGG!!!

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Identify Skill leveled up!

Identify Skill is now level Beginner level 2!

Silver Silk Cloak

Silver Silk comes from silk worms which excrete silver! The thread of these rare worms is considered a prized items among tailors and other related professions. This cloak has it’s weight in gold! (Selling price in Lavias: 65 Gold!)

Silver Silk Cloak never goes bad! Never rusts! And is softer than normal silk! Whats more its tough material will protect you from small damages! (+5DEF). Whats more this cloak is abnormally light! Making it suitable even for elven wear!

Though silver silk is best worn indoors or at night. The material heats up quiet quickly in the sun! Many have sun burned themselves not heeding to this warning.

“…Thank you…please call for the errand boys” Weed stuttered as he buttoned the cloak’s viel to hide his face. With his smile covered Weed began calculating the benefits, ‘65 Gold…+5 Def….Not too bad…’

In a jiffy twenty men walked to the front of the parlor.

“Gentlemen, this is Axillaris! He is a professional event planner hired by our lord to plan and execute today’s main event the tea party…” Arthur explained to them.

Some of the errand boys groaned. Weed was surprised by their reaction; he did not expected them to be so vocal in their displeasure to serve their lord even if he was a handful.

“Ahem…” Weed interrupted their groaning. “We have work to do. Arthur will provide you some letters please deliver them in hand to the addressee. Am I clear?”

Weed didn’t get a reply but he could see the men’s piercing glances at him; as if they were questioning his authority.

“Off you go, come back in an hour.” Arthur told them. “And pass word about the tea party to the others.”

“Are all of them like this?” Weed asked.

“Our lord…” Arthur began explaining.

“No need, I understand.” Weed interrupted. Invites were soon dispatched to all quarters of the city and Weed turned his attention to the cleaning. The Lord’s mansion had not hosted any event in two years and hence the cleaning was kept to a bare minimum. With the mansion sprawling over 5 acres and over hundreds of rooms: cleaning became a huge task! Weed had the dusty curtains changed and decked up everything from gardens with statues of the Lord to the dining hall with portraits of the Lord. Most of these items were stored in the Mansion ware-room.

There were butlers and maids, scurrying all over the mansion to get it ready in time. The tea party was definitely beginning to appear more like a a dinner ball. The mansion was in an uproar with Weed shouting commands from every room as he walked through. While on the surface it appeared that Weed was helping around with the event he was memorizing each room and mapping the mansion in his mind. Even the littlest of details could be useful.

With the cleaning and decorations on going, Weed began focusing on the dinner and meals. He requested chefs from each noble household and assembled an army of chefs. The event was going to be the grandest ever in Lavias’ history. With the access of Lavias Lord’s authority, Weed pulled all the strings he could. He ordered the chefs to prepare over 20 types of a cuisines and arranged for high level and extravagant food materials.

With so much bustling, hustling and shopping coming from the Lord’s mansion, whispers and rumors made their way slowly to the common NPC’s and stories of the upcoming lavish ball spread. Many players were desperate to become part of the action but Weed had placed strict orders that other than those invited or hired no one was allowed.

Players of all levels agonized as they queued up outside the lord’s castle hoping to be hired as help in the ball being hosted. Weed hired only a handful of players when he realized the growing need for manpower required to fulfill the task. He only had to pay them a paltry sum of 1 gold for their day long services. However, for a beginner even 1 gold is a huge some of money and Lavias is a beginner city. As the crowd of players gathering outside of the Lord’s mansion grew bigger, the news spread like fire that the mysterious lord had decided to throw a ball at this time. The reasons for the ball were largely unknown and the only odd detail about the entire arrangement was that the Lord had hired a cloak ridden event planner to arrange the event. A lot of players suspected this was a quest of some sort. They wondered who was this lucky to be hired by the mysterious and public shy lord of Lavias to do a quest!

The VR communities and forums were being bombarded with questions about the balls. Many players asked which guilds had been invited and if there was provision for taking a guest along with them. Some players were desperate enough to even offer real money to get a guess pass to the invite. With the reasons for the ball so hushed and everything being prepared with complete discretion and covertly, players were dying of curiosity to know what was happening.

Weed had just fire in the gossip channels amongst the maids of Lavias. His tall and lean frame, silver eyes and mysterious air about him made him an instant heart throb of maids. Rumors of him being a man so beautiful that he must hide his face spread throughout the mansion.

That wasn’t the only fire Weed managed to spread; by inviting only 20 guilds, there was chaos within guild themselves. In fact alliances were only the verge of collapses with all guild masters demanding to be given a pass each. However guild’s were given only 20 passes and one accompanying guest pass. This meant only 40 players other than Weed would be allowed to attend this event. Weed also didn’t request for the top guilds but distributed the invites across levels. This act was unprecedented and smaller guilds either found themselves in a position of great power or being coerced to give up their invite and passes.

Weed began to worry about the security of the event with the crowd size growing and growing and showing now signs of stopping. The gates of the mansion had to be closed since the plaza outside was bursting with players.

“Arthur, I need to look into the security details.” Weed said.

“Why?” Arthur asked as he accidentally dropped a fork he was polishing. “Why do you ask for those, if I may ask?”

“Isn’t that part of event management?” Weed asked, “I can foresee a lot of people sent by his Grace trying to gate crash this event. We would need to make arrangement’s for that?”

“..Ohh….Do not worry about that. That is something I will take care off.” Arthur replied with some relief in his voice. “I always take care of the lord’s security.”

“ok…” Weed replied slightly uncertain how to react with Arthur’s weird behavior.

“Could I get the security brief’s so that I am well versed with them?” Weed asked, he was happy that he didn’t have to prepare for the security cover as the job was clearly getting tiresome.

“…ummm yes, I will arrange for it as soon as possible.” Arthur replied.

With each passing task being completed, Weed fulfilled his quest bit by bit. He could see himself getting closer and closer to the quest rewards. Weed could almost taste success.

There were Chinese floating lamps dangling in the air, appearing to float in mid air in the darkness as night descended. Arthur had even arranged for a troupe of circus. Weed had never seen a circus before in RREV and was particularly impressed with the high level acrobatic moves displayed by the troupe for their audition.

“So what do you think of them?” Arthur asked.

“Amazing!” Weed remarked. “Especially those two, Sparrow and Humming Bird! I have never seen anyone jump that high even with wind element. It was nearly thirty feet in the air! And to somersault while descending! That’s so cool! Where did you find them?”

Arthur just gave a cold smile. “They find you when you need them.”

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Authors Note:

1. Happy Reading!

2. Wow so I managed to squeeze in some time and put up a chapter. I will try taking some more out and getting PR's started for VOl 6 to Vol 9 once I am done with Vol 9.

3. Some formatting issues been taken care off!

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