As the members of the first group began to enter the room, Arthur greeted his friends as they started filling in the chairs nearby where he was sitting.
The briefing was rather short, with the most important news being that wave four would begin next week.
This was the wave that contained many influencers, such as streamers, along with a wide variety of journalists that would be writing about the game from now on, with the strict exception of a few popular sites that Arthur had purposefully excluded.
This would also be the week where Holly and Quinn would take their first steps into the virtual world. But it was also the scheduled day of the group's first raid on the necropolis.
The briefing ended with the usual top four, but the knight that Arthur was familiar with, SaintMRP, had found himself in fifth place.
Once the briefing ended, all the groups began shuffling out of the room, while Arthur and his friends began talking about their cleric quest.
"It feels like a waste having this soul take up a slot," Alvira said, "It feels incomplete without the blessing."
"On the topic of blessings, what gods did you guys have a high affinity for?" Mason asked, "My highest was Hephaestus."
"God of the forge, yeah that makes sense," Arthur said while thinking of the giant war hammer that Mason used as his weapon, "What about the rest of you?"
"Hades!" Both Alvira and Acai spoke at the same time, before turning to each other.
"I had thirty-four percent favourability, how about you?" Acai asked.
"Thirty-seven percent," Alvira replied with a smug grin.
"Well, I've also got thirty percent with Dionysus," Acai replied.
While those two continued their back and forth, Liam spoke up, "Ares, I had thirty-two percent with Ares."
"Fifty-six percent with Artemis," Rowan said, "And then twenty-two with Hermes."
"Woah," several members of the group said in surprise.
That one made sense to Arthur. Rowan was the one archer of the group, and a woman no less, it was understandable why her number was so high.
"Sixty-four with Artemis..." Maria muttered.
"What?" Both Arthur and Rowan retorted.
"Yeah, I don't know either. I don't even own a bow." Maria said with a sigh.
"Do you remember your second highest?" Arthur asked.
"It was thirty-something for Athena," Maria said.
"How odd..." Arthur muttered to himself.
"What about you?" Maria asked Arthur.
"That was a day ago, I can't quite remember." Arthur said, "My highest was Gaia though."
"Because of the plant thing?" Maria asked.
"Yeah, most likely because of the plant thing," Arthur nodded.
The group eventually split up, and Arthur made his way towards Donovan's car.
He checked for traps before entering the vehicle, and the two started driving home.
"Did anything interesting happen today?" Donovan asked after the usual polite greetings.
"I became a wizard and enrolled in a wizard academy," Arthur said.
"I thought you were already a ninja?" Donovan asked with a confused look on his face.
"Well, I could become a magical ninja," Arthur shrugged.
"A ninja that hides in the shadows, only to reveal himself immediately by throwing fireballs," Donovan teased, "Yeah, I see that working out pretty well."
Arthur shook his head before explaining how the magic system worked briefly, listing out the six elements that you could specialise in and what sorts of things they would allow you to do.
"Ah, so you'll pick the dark element to help you sneak around in the shadows," Donovan said.
"What about you? What would you pick if you were a wizard?" Arthur asked.
"Fire, it just has to be fire," Donovan said.
"The classic wizard," Arthur said.
"Of course, nothing says fantasy more than a bearded old man in a robe hurling a giant fireball at a dragon," Donovan said, "Although, lightning is pretty cool too. It's just too bad it's tied to air."
The car eventually pulled up next to Arthur's house, and he made his way inside after saying goodbye to Donovan.
He made his way upstairs and started his usual routine. He hopped on his computer eventually, but before he started playing games, he started the application process for partner status for his stream.
Two days of school flew by without much happening. Some people outside of Arthur's social circles had started talking to him, while Vasco was hovering around with an annoyed expression every time he saw Quinn walk by.
He didn't seem to appreciate the fact he was banned from the stream and seemed to be looking for an opportunity to express his displeasure directly at those who banned him. Unfortunately for Vasco, however, Arthur's group seemed to be the centre of attention, making it impossible for him to act without being seen.
On Wednesday, after arriving at school early in the morning and making his way to his locker, Arthur ran into his two friends, Holly and Quinn.
"Good morning," Arthur said moments before pulling a small box out of his schoolbag.
He quickly reached back into his bag to pull out the adhesive ribbon bow that had fallen off, and after sticking the ribbon back onto the box, he handed the box to Holly.
"Happy birthday," He said with a smile.
"Thank you," Holly said while receiving the gift.
Quinn immediately started looking over her shoulder as she started opening the box, and the first thing that came to her attention was a large gift voucher.
"See? I told you that you're hard to buy gifts for," Quinn remarked. It appeared that he was referring back to a conversation they had prior to Arthur arriving.
"Gift voucher?" Arthur asked while looking at Quinn.
"Gift voucher," Quinn repeated while nodding, he then looked back over to Holly who was now looking at what else was in the box, the rest of the gift that was hidden under the voucher.
Inside the box was a large pile of stickers of varying colours, styles, shapes and sizes.
"How many stickers did you get? Jeez." Quinn remarked while watching Holly, who wasn't even half way through the pile of stickers.
"There should be about five hundred I think," Arthur said while thinking, "There might be a couple of duplicates, but most of them should be unique."
Quinn coughed when he heard the number before shaking his head.
Holly seemed to be making a pile of her favourite stickers at the top of the pile, most of which just seemed to be the cute caricatures of the Egyptian gods that he bought the entire set of.
"I love them," Holly said while still flicking through the stickers, "But, I don't have enough space to put them on."
"You've sticker-bombed almost everything in your room already, so I guess save them for when you get a car?" Quinn suggested.
"Well, it turns out you're allowed to customise your capsule at the facility," Arthur said, "So feel free to sticker-bomb it on Saturday."
The mention of Saturday caused both of them to smile, it was clear to see that they were excited to finally play New Genesis.
The rest of the day flew by, as did the next Thursday, both days ending without anything out of the ordinary occurring. But on the following Friday, the last day of school for the week, something different happened.
"She actually took a day off from school... I can't even remember the last time she did that," Quinn said to Arthur, "And this time she isn't even sick."
The two closed their lockers and began walking to their first class.
"It just goes to show how important this is to her," Arthur said, "Although, I wonder which one she'd have picked if it was a choice between the museum's private opening day and her first day in New Genesis."
"Probably still the museum," Quinn answered immediately.
"Yeah, you're right. Stupid question." Arthur nodded his head.
The two checked their phones throughout the day, and their group chat had received several updates and even a few pictures, although none of the pictures were taken from inside the museum, likely due to their strict camera policy.
"Sounds like she's having fun," Arthur commented as the two were making their way to their last class for the day.
"We're stuck here doing math while she's enjoying her time in a museum," Quinn groaned before reading a new message, "Oh, and they're going to dinner after visiting the museum store."
"Well, you could have always tried to catch the interest of a princess too, I've invited you to enough events," Arthur said while poking fun at his obvious jealousy, "You always said no."
"Yeah, I wouldn't fit in with those fancy parties, and they sound extremely boring," Quinn muttered, "Also, isn't it always you who messaged the group chat saying that you'd rather be anywhere other than at those events?"
"It probably would have been more tolerable if I had a friend there to talk to." Arthur shrugged. "Who knows what could have happened."
The two entered the classroom for their final class.
