Agatha The Legendary Guild Master

My mind was leaning from blaming Respon for this trap and finding an excuse for him, as this was made obviously by those girls in his harem, which was also related to him, so he wasn't totally innocent here.

I couldn't think clearly as there were other issues I needed to clarify, like how to find an exit from this problem, like what was the nature of my trick that I learned from my master. I looked towards Shin as I asked loudly:

"You know some info about the trick I learned from the master, also did that bitch Leli."

"Well, that's kind of complicated," Shin said.

"It's not that complicated, it's an honor," Mony rushed to say, attracting my attention to a point I didn't notice before. It wasn't only Shin who knew about my trick, it was also my team. I looked towards Mony as I asked:

"Can you explain what honor is?"

"It's the greatest dream for any player here to meet one of the old secluded masters. Those masters have already exceeded our level of comprehension, as they didn't need skills to do something, they use another way, the way that you just learned from your master," Mony explained enthusiastically while waving both hands like a little kid.

I looked towards Shin to find him evading my eyes, which was weird. Why was this cool swordsman trying to evade answering my question?

"It's not that simple, as those masters are like mobile treasures, anyone got related to them got himself a blessing and a curse at the same time," Goda said, then he looked at Shin as he explained, "Like Shin here, he got himself a rare opportunity to learn from an old secluded swordsman master, but he screwed up.

I heard the crown prince himself coveted this chance as he fought with Shin over it, and Shin lost. It's a great chance if it kept hidden for a while, but it's a curse if anyone discovers it."

I looked towards Shin to find his face was pale, as he ignored to tell me such an info before. It seemed that the struggle between him and Respon wasn't that simple after all.

"A secluded master, huh?" I said so to Shin who replied vaguely:

"It was a long time ago, I don't remember."

"You don't remember, cool," I then ignored him totally as he was obviously lying to me and directed my question to Goda as I asked:

"I understand there are many masters like mine in any game world, and so there are many players out there like me, right?"

"Indeed, and there are even those who met masters from outside the game and learned how to use these arts long before entering the game," Goda replied.

"Arts?" I asked.

"Yes, these tricks that you learned are known as the lost arts. You just learned two lost basic arts of the spear, so you can consider yourself just an apprentice and not a real disciple of that honorable master," Goda replied.

"Apprentice? Disciple? Is there rank too in this?" I asked with surprise.

"Indeed, the lowest rank is the apprentice rank, and after that is the outer disciple, then inner disciple, core disciple, and lastly the direct disciple of your master. Each rank requires you to learn a sufficient amount of hidden arts, then your master will set you a test goal to achieve.

After your success in this, you will be upgraded to a higher rank, where you will learn far stronger hidden arts than you already know," Goda explained, as I felt he knew a lot of data about these masters and their ways of teaching.

"Are you perhaps one of these disciples?" I asked.

"I wish I was, but these are common knowledge that everyone knows. These masters and their disciples are considered as local myths here, so it's normal for their basic info to be known to the common people like me.

In fact I didn't recognize the venerable master of yours, but Shin did, as he instructed us privately to leave you alone.

He then explained everything to us, and we knew that you got lucky, really lucky, but now after this sudden dispute with that Lelican group, I think it's a curse, a big curse," Goda replied.

Goda's words were somehow scary, as I didn't expect to have this precious opportunity and also a huge risk at the same time. I lamented Respon on his rash actions, if he didn't send this lunatic after me, then my second secret would stay safe and sound within my team.

This time I knew I had myself cornered, and when I ever been cornered I usually turned more ferocious, losing wasn't ever an option to me.

"So, this venerable master when he or she decides to upgrade someone, they give him a task? Like a goal or a mission or what?" I asked to confirm a guess of mine, which was confirmed by Goda' spontaneous answer:

"He or she will tell you to leave and never come back before doing something for him. This thing is the test every disciple must face one day. Don't push hard on yourself, you are still an apprentice, and apprentices never gained tests except after a long time."

Opposite to his expectations, I wasn't feeling worried or nervous or sad, instead I was really excited as that is exactly what happened to me, my master gave me a test to upgrade my rank within just one day.

The issue was about the nature of this test, as it was really a vague test, just I needed to do something great, but what was exactly that even meant?

I felt confused, so I glanced at Shin, he was probably the only one among them that could know the answer, but I was still mad at him, he shouldn't have hidden these info from me. a liar would always be a liar forever, that made me see him in another way.

I took a deep breath and decided to put this issue on hold as I thought about it later, as there were more important things we needed to figure out.

"Anyone have any good ideas about how to escape with our lives from this town?" I asked while looking around into their eyes.