Too lazy to write a full disclaimer. All OCs belong to me. everything else belongs to Idea Factory and Compile Heart.

Str1k3N01r here. my new works are meant to be the novelized version of my friends' fanmade comics about what the goddesses do in their daily lives after they take down Arfoire. While I apologize that they won't be selling their books overseas, at least you can read it for free. if you have a very good imagination, that's even better.

This chapter will focus on Vert, since there are not much works focusing on her in yet.

Goddesses' Lament

[Leanbox – Basilicom]

I stretched as I finished the last of the paperwork that was due by the end of this week. In fact, this is the first time I am pumped up to actually clear my work ahead of time, so nobody will have any reason to interrupt me. Well, Leanne and Chika didn't know that a new MMO is being released this weekend and I can't wait to enjoy it without anyone to take off my headset in the middle of gaming. They won't have any reason to do that if most of my work is done.

I had pre-ordered the game when it was announced back quite a while ago and it would be one of the new VR MMO that makes you think you are the in game character instead of you playing the game in front of your computer from third person. Due to it being a new technology from Planeptune, the game was still in its testing stages. The level cap had been decreased from the normal one hundred to just sixty. Still, a Virtual Reality MMO would allow the player to play as if they are their online character. That should at least attract a wider group of people.

Weekend arrived and Leanne brought the parcel into my room before bidding me to enjoy the game and leaving my room. Unlike the other goddesses, who have biological sisters, Leanne is my adopted sister. She was found abandoned outside the basilicom not so long after I took over Leanbox. I took the baby in because I felt pity towards her and I named her Leanne, after the first four letters of my nation, Leanbox. Looking back, I am glad that the weak and fearful little girl from back then grew to become a very accomplished top idol. Lastation had been sending requests for her to perform a concert there.

I opened the parcel before installing the game and setting up the helmet that will aid in transmitting the player's brainwaves so that they can control their in-game avatar like the way they control their own body. I wonder how they are going to show the in game menu if we're controlling our characters using our brainwaves. I'm sure the book would say something about it.

I found the beginner's guide and read on the section of in game menu. Apparently, opening the menu requires one to put one's right index finger and thumb together, then pulling downwards. If done correctly, a ringing sound would be heard and a shining purple rectangle appears with the menu options. As I read through the basic instruction, the game installation continued until it is completely updated and the theme song plays.

Immediately, I equipped the helmet and closed my eyes before starting the game. I found myself in a white void with the normal login menu. After I inserted my ID and password using the on-screen keyboard, I was taken to the character creation screen and was asked if I wanted to start over or import my avatar from the other game. After all, they were made by the same company. Still, where's the fun in importing when what you wanted to enjoy so much was to start from the beginning and meet your fellow beginners.

The game immediately assigned me to a default avatar, which they made to be similar to myself in terms of measurements and height. I know people don't know me much compared to my appearance as Green Heart, still, I decided to change the numbers around a little and use a different hairstyle. I have always wondered how it feels to have a petite, modest body like Blanc, so I took the liberty of designing my online avatar to look like her, except that I kept my blonde hair, although I changed my eye colour to green. The last step would be to enter my character name. What can I use this time? Maybe… yes. I'll use the little pet name that Chika and I used to call Leanne when she was young, Himeko. The system accepts the name and with that, the character creation process was over. It was time to start the game proper.

[Sanctuary – City of Departure]

It seems that before choosing one of the four celestials to obtain special abilities from, the players of Four Celestials Online VR started in this neutral area called 'The Sanctuary'. I was wondering why the celestial selection wasn't there in the menu, but it turns out that they are only explored in a quest line. Before players leave the Sanctuary, they will be given the option of which of the four celestials they want to receive blessings from.

After accepting a quest from the NPC, I start walking around to ensure that my mind will get used to control this new 'body' and I open the menu to equip the pike and shield that was delivered to my in game mailbox because I'm a returning player. Granted, it isn't exactly a very good piece of equipment, but for a level one character, it is much better than anything that I have in my equipment slot right now. With that done, I went to the nearby practise dummies to get used to the controls of the MMO.

The game has two different kinds of spear weapons, so I opt for a pike instead of a lance. Using a pike allows me to equip a shield in my off hand slot, allowing me to block opponent's attacks. However, there is a disadvantage of spear based weapon. Due to the fact that they were not build for parrying, their durability drops rather fast if used to do so, so I would have to depend on my own reflexes for dodging and blocking. While training on the practise dummy, I check the in game help to find out that physical skills are executed by just getting into the stance alone. However, spear type weapons have little to no slashing attacks, while focusing more on thrusting and piercing.

My character class is a 'Spellblade', which allows me to use heavy equipment and deal magic attacks at the same time. Contrary to warriors and mages, however, I don't have access to their higher end, powerful abilities. Well, I suppose I can take up the cooking secondary skill and alchemy profession to make some potions and food to ensure that I will not get killed by monsters. Food created by cooking skill can give the players some buffs, contrary to food that is purchased from NPCs.

A flash of light from behind me indicates that someone just logged on. I turn around and see a pale skinned girl with maroon eyes and purple hair, which is held in a single ponytail. She seemed excited as she looked around the area, saying that this game exceeded her expectations. It always make me smile to see that a fellow gamer is enjoying the experience, but it isn't long before she starts becoming very afraid for some reason and started to tap things in the air. I am killing monsters nearby to fulfil my quest requirements, so when I see her getting nervous and panicky, I hurry and use some special attacks to kill the last monster quickly before I walk up to her.

"Is there something wrong?" I greet her, causing her to go 'Eeep!' and turns around to face me.

"N-no… there is nothing wrong… much. I'm just having difficulty trying to open the menu," she replies. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do to make it appear. This is a lot different that console RPGs."

A complete beginner huh? I guess I can lend her a hand. Everyone has to start from somewhere. Even I was once a beginner myself. Her appearance reminds me of one of the characters from the game that I play at Blanc's place. I instruct her on how to open her in game menu by guiding her right hand. After that, I explain to her what the menus are for.

"Going from top to bottom, the topmost one handles all of your items, from equipment to consumables," I explained while still guiding her hand to press the menus in order to make the sub-menus appear. "Your equipments, healing items and food will be stored under this category."

"Second from the top is the Friends option. You can use this to check where the characters registered as your friends are if they're online and use the button here to ask them to party up even if you're far away," I continued. "Third is the Guild option. There are not many guilds now so it is of limited use. Still, this tab will allow you to see which guilds are recruiting members to tackle end game contents. If you are in a guild, you can see your guild members' activities from the same tab."

The girl nods for each explanation I made. I continue to explain through the remaining four menus, 'Messaging', 'Area Map', 'Quest Log' and 'Options'. When I opened the Options menu, she seems relieved when she sees the logout button. I guessed that she was panicking because she doesn't know how to log out from the game, given that you cannot remove the helmet unless someone else does it for you.

"Noted, thanks for the head's up!" she smiles. It always feels good to bring a smile to new players such as her. "See you! Thanks again!"

There she goes. I'm sure she can handle it on her own from here. Although, I can't help but to feel a bit worried of what that might happen. Still… something tells me that I'll be seeing her again soon enough. After all, players will stay in this town until level five. Six if a player does not avoid any of the unnecessary mobs by sneaking past them. I've lost some time that I can otherwise use for levelling, but at the very least I made a friend. Oh right… I forgot to add her to my friend list.

Levelling takes quite some time even under the quest system. I suppose that is a good point of this game though. It will be pointless to reach level sixty too fast and end up bored because this game doesn't have much end game content yet as of now. After all, it was still in its testing stages.

[Sanctuary – Road to Alicanyte City]

A few hours passed, and soon enough I am level six, high enough to leave the City of Departure and head to the next town. The City's mayor gave me a quest to head over to the next town and report to the marshal there. It is while travelling towards the second town that I encountered a familiar face. It was her, the player that was very nervous just now. It seems that she is getting used to her controls, but not so much. She's engaging the quest target in the fields, but she is not using any of her skill points to launch special attacks. After she kills the target and sits down to eat, I approach and sit next to her.

"I'm running out of food and healing items… spending money on them will prevent me from saving up enough money for other, more important stuff like better armour and weapons. What to do, what to do?" she says before she sighs.

"We meet again," I greet, causing her to be startled a little and looked at me before she calms down.

"Oh, it's just you," she smiles brightly.

"I see that you're not using any of your special attacks," I continue. "Why?"

"Special attacks?"

Oh dear. It seems that my assumption is correct. I think she never read the in game help page at all. She must have rushed to play this game if she didn't read the instruction manual provided in the box and the in game help on the basics. I explain her about it by pulling and attacking another monster nearby, after which I show her just what kind of special attacks or any other actions that cost skill points to utilize.

"So, the program helps with the execution of the ability, but we have to start it by going into the correct stance and thinking about it first?" she asks after I land the killing blow on the monster.

"Indeed. By the way, what character class are you?" I ask back.

"Well… I'm a warrior type," she replies. "Chanting out my spells is just not my style."

"I see," I remark. "By the way, the program doesn't help you with your defence. That is up to your reactions and your skill with your shield."

"Oh," she realizes that and smiles sheepishly. "I thought…"

"It's okay. People have to start from somewhere," I reply. "Everyone makes mistakes, you know. This is a virtual reality game, so you have to really rely on your own reflexes to survive."

She stands there, thinking for a moment before she asks if we can spar. Agreeing, I issued an in-game challenge to her for a duel, in which the first to inflict a blow on the other party is the winner. It's just a hit, so my newly acquired healing spell will suffice to mend the wounds. We fight on the road instead of the open fields because we might accidentally enter a monster's aggro range if we're in the fields. The monsters are programmed to stay as far away from the roads as possible, though. The duel ends in one minute, after I land on her side, so I cast a healing spell on her to undo the damage I just did to her.

"Not bad, not many people lasted more than just thirty seconds," I remark. "I was going all out too, you know."

"Wait… you were going all out?" she asks.

"Yes. It would be rude to not go all out under any condition," I smile. "What's your name?"

"My name? It's N-no! Tsubaki!"

"Notsubaki?"

"Tsubaki."

"Nice to meet you, Tsubaki," I bow. "I'm Himeko."

I add her to the list of friends as she does the same. That way, she can just send me a private message whenever she needs my help on something. She shyly asks for a party invitation so that we can clear the quest along the road to the next town faster. For a beginner, she learns very quickly after she listens to an explanation. With the quests done faster than I had expected, we quickly returned to the road and follow it to the next town. There are other fellow adventurers along the way that are either doing quests, mingling or simply just relaxing. No one is in a hurry to clear the game, I suppose.

[Sanctuary – Alicanyte City]

The sun is setting as Tsubaki and I reach Alicanyte City. Tsubaki left the party to do her own exploration so I also decide to explore the city on my own. I wish I can call this a major city, but it isn't exactly very big. The sanctuary has no capital city to speak of, although this city is already large because of how it is located right in the middle of the island. While within the city, a player's ability to initiate duels is disabled and everyone is expected to not go violent on each other.

Maybe I should log off now. It's approaching dinner time and it is Leanne's turn to cook after all. Hmm… I wonder if Tsubaki will do fine without my help. I can't help but worry because she doesn't seem to have a lot of experience playing MMOs like this. I suppose I can find an inn to log off so that when I resume later, I'll gain some experience boost even for a short while. After I found the inn, the innkeeper gave me a runestone that will help me cast a spell to return to the inn in a flash.

First things first, though. I'll have to find the NPC that can teach me alchemy and cooking. Thankfully the interface shows what time it is in Leanbox, which allows me to know that I need to hurry. After a fruitless search on my own, I decided to ask the guards if they can give me directions to the trainers. They didn't give me exact direction per se, but the very least, they marked the trainer's location on my map. Looks like the creators of this game didn't want it to be too easy.

After spending ten minutes, I finally located the Alchemy trainer on the other side of the city. After I paid the trainer for the skill, I decide to use the runestone to return to the inn because I think Leanne will have dinner ready for now and no doubt she has been calling out to me. I pressed the logout option and exit the game before I take off my helmet and head towards the dining room. I return to the game after I finish eating and resume my search for the cooking trainer in one of the buildings.

Having learned the two skills, I set out to find the marshal to report and accept the continuation of the storyline quests. With the quests accepted, I return to the inn and use the nearby stove to cook food. My skill level is rather low, so making food like sandwiches, cookies and sliced fruits will have to do. At least, it will give me some food to survive while questing in the fields. After that, I brew some basic health and sp potions for in combat emergencies. With all preparations done, I set out to Alicanyte Fields, the area that surrounds the city, to hunt.

[Sanctuary – Eastern Alicanyte Fields]

The second area isn't as easy as the first due to the fact that aggressive monsters roam among the non-aggressive ones. Some of the mobs are even linked with each other, which means pulling one might net you one or two other mobs that happen to be nearby. I have to be careful and use my skill to pull the mobs from maximum range, allowing me to safely pull the targets without worrying too much if I will pull extras. Some players have started questing in groups of five to ensure that none of them dies and get slapped by the durability penalty.

Dying in game is alright, but weapons and equipment are rather expensive when it comes to repair bills. I would rather avoid dying too if it is possible, but Tsubaki is currently offline and I don't know her email either. It's okay, though. My online game character is always a tanking type. I will not die so easily to these kinds of mob attacks, especially when this game utilizes your own instincts and reactions. Not to mention, I have experience when it comes to adventures like this, given that I fight monsters on a regular basis outside of games.

I continued grinding until midnight before I logged off. Leanne should be here soon and the last thing she needs is to see her elder sister up all night playing games and making her worry. I logged off and minutes later Leanne dropped in to say goodnight before she left. Well, if she wants me to sleep early, I'll just have to… wait a minute. I forgot that this is a VR MMO. While I'm playing the game, my body sleeps. Why didn't I think of that? All I need to do now is to ensure that I log off and wake up at the right time so that Chika and Leanne won't suspect that I'm continuously gaming! I quickly put my helmet on again and after getting in a nice position on the bed, I log in to the game and to continue grinding and questing.

(four levels later)

I manage to avoid getting caught by Leanne and Chika and am now level 10. A week has passed and I rarely see Tsubaki logging in. Sometimes she appears rather often, but sometimes she just doesn't even log in. Well, I guess I can't expect everyone to be devoting a lot of time to a game like I do. What does surprise me is the fact that she's rapidly catching up to me even though I've been playing for the whole week. I guess the rest bonus from logging off in an inn is quite significant when a few days have passed.

[Sanctuary – Alicanyte City]

I finally encounter Tsubaki again in the inn. When I see her, I am seriously shocked at her condition. Her sword and shield is badly damaged and her armour is almost beyond repair. What could have done this to her? I suppose I'm still her friend, I'll go over and ask. She's crying quietly, so I rent a room in the inn before taking her towards the private room. The moment the door is closed, no sound is going to escape the room unless the windows are opened widely.

"Now, can you tell me what happened, Tsubaki?" I ask Tsubaki, who is still sobbing while sitting on the bed.

To make the long story short, Tsubaki tells me about what had happened. She was out hunting a while back and there are a few players who were kiting a powerful monster and whittling down its hit points down as they lead it back to town. Tsubaki happened to be there killing monsters to clear quests but since she is directly in the monster's path, its attack killed her in one hit, reducing her overall equipment durability by ten percent.

A few days after that, she received a quest to kill an elite monster, but so far not only has it been eluding Tsubaki, the two times she met it, she had a difficult fight. She almost won the monster, but during the first time, it scored a lucky critical hit when Tsubaki's guard was down, causing her to die and respawn in the city once again. During the second time, Tsubaki's shield broke during the most critical moment and she once again killed.

With her armour broken and her money spent on food and healing items, she is unable to continue enjoying her game. It's no wonder she's frustrated and sad. I pat her back for a while and accidentally slip into my 'elder sister' mode, causing her to realize that I'm not just any small kid playing an online game. Tsubaki smiles a little and thanks me for being a good friend. She is about to go out and continue questing with her remaining equipments at less than 25 percent durability, but I stop her and tell her to follow me.

"Where are we going, Himeko?" she asks as she follows me through town slowly.

"Right… I almost forgot about it," I reply. "What professions are you taking? Actually, did you even take any profession?"

"Profession?" she asks again.

"You don't know? You can learn one profession and one secondary skill," I explain. Sometimes I wonder just how she managed to survive thus far without knowing much. "Since you're a warrior class, I will suggest picking up blacksmithing and first aid."

Tsubaki opens the menu and begin inspecting the items in her inventory to sell to a nearby merchant NPC so that she has enough money to pick up the profession and the secondary skill. I advised her to sell the grey named items she has acquired by killing monsters up till this point. That allows her to recover her losses, the very least. Her equipment is still badly damaged and the male players are staring at her. It's only natural that she feels uncomfortable. Afterwards, I help her to locate the blacksmith and the first aid trainer.

After learning her blacksmithing skill, I instruct Tsubaki how to open her professions tab under the main menu. The tab is added between the 'Items' and 'Friends' option when a profession is learned. From this new blacksmithing window, Tsubaki will be able to perform field repairs on equipment. It will not be as effective as an NPC smith's ability for now, but it will have to do, given that Tsubaki has no money, but enough materials to perform a field repair on all of her equipments.

Our next stop is the first aid trainer. Contrary to most other online games I've played so far, this game's first aid isn't an active skill per se. Instead, it turns some cloth into proper bandages which can be used to heal rapidly as long as you're not hit by anyone while you're healing. Tsubaki quickly converted the cloth that she possessed in her inventory into bandages. Now that the two of us are prepared for the undertaking, we leave town to find the boss that has been giving her problems. After all, it is my target too. Teaming up is going to allow us to take it down safer than trying to go solo.

[Sanctuary – Western Alicanyte Fields]

As we head to the western part of the fields surrounding the city, Tsubaki opens her map to show me the coordinates of where she finds the monster. After two hours of camping at the two spots of where it spawns, we finally locate where it is. Before we engage it in battle, I give some of the food and potions I made earlier on to Tsubaki. After that is done, we charge at the monster. Since Tsubaki cannot cast spells, she will engage the monster first. I will keep Tsubaki's health up as she attacks the elite on her own.

By the time our SP is low, we whittled the elite down to its final stretch of HP. I am unable to heal Tsubaki as often so we switch roles for a bit while Tsubaki tries to bandage herself back to full. The two of us are, after all, using shields. Unlike most others who require a full party to take this elite monster down, all we need is to plan our moves and our role switches properly in order to ensure that the monster didn't do anything besides damaging our equipments. After Tsubaki finished bandaging her wounds, she rushes back into the fray.

The monster is finally down and we received bonus experience, gold and items for taking it down in a group of two. Tsubaki quickly wears her new black cape, a rare item that drops off the monster. I already have a short cape equipped, so it is no problem for me. She seems very happy and seeing her happy makes me happy too.

Applause alerts us that we're not the only few in the area. Apparently other players have gathered around us while we're fighting the elite monster without actually kiting it back to town to be killed by the guards and they're clapping. No one else has successfully done what we just did, and we even attract the attention of the game masters as well. Both of us receive a mail from them, congratulating us for using clever tactics as opposed to the kiting that other players did thus far.

[Sanctuary – Alicanyte City]

We use our runestone to return to the inn and then we walk upstairs to our shared room. After resting for a while, Tsubaki leaves the inn to head towards the blacksmith shop saying that she wants to create some equipment for herself. Since I have nothing better to do and I'm still a few hours away from having to log off and assure the two that I'm not gaming full time, I accompany her there instead.

There are other blacksmiths besides Tsubaki there, levelling their skill in their craft. Fortunately for Tsubaki, since she rarely sells items that are of common rarity and above, she is able to disassemble equipments that she will not wear in order to gain more materials. When making uncommon rarity armour and weapons, there is a low chance that smiths will make a piece of equipment that is rare. Since rare equipments are obviously better than uncommon equipments, Tsubaki can sell them for a high price or disassemble them once again to gain more powerful materials.

After using up all the materials available for the current level, Tsubaki disassembles her damaged equipments after she wears the new ones she crafted. If she isn't missing her helmet and shoulder armour, I bet Tsubaki will look like a knight. In order to thank me for my kindness, she creates a new weapon for me. It's a good early game weapon that can last until the early twenties, so I thank her for her efforts. Not to mention, it looks much better than the current weapon that I have. Tsubaki also offers to repair my equipment, since her skill level is now high enough to do a better repair job. I decide to hand the materials myself, since I'm not a blacksmith, and she restores the durability of my items by half of their total durability values.

"Hey, Himeko?" Tsubaki asks. "Is it possible that we stick together as a party until we get through the beginner area?"

"I don't see any reason not to," I reply. "After all, two is better than one."

Tsubaki smiles widely as we return back to the inn to log off, saying that she'll be back after dinner. Since we're working together now, it won't be a good idea to grind levels too fast or she'll be left behind.

[Leanbox – Basilicom]

I return back to my office to resume my work, surprising Chika and Leanne who are discussing about something. I am all smiles as I continue going through the pile that is supposed to be finished by next week, but I don't care about deadlines anymore. The game has given me so much fun and in order to enjoy it fully, I will have to make sure that the pair don't have any reason to disturb me. Normally I will be playing alone while levelling up and then join or form a guild. This time is the only time that I'm teaming up with someone during my levelling days, which is a new experience altogether.

"Onee-sama, you seem to be in a very good mood. Did something happen?" Chika asks.

"Yeah, Vert nee-chan. I've never seen you so motivated before," Leanne says.

"I made a good friend during my levelling days," I explain. "She's a complete beginner that jumps straight into the game without reading on the instructions, so she asks if she can tag along with me."

"How does it feel to guide a complete beginner?" Leanne asks.

"She learns fast, so I feel happy for her," I smile at the thought. "Other than the fact that she isn't used to Virtual Reality games, she's a very fast learner and a skilled player."

I tell them what has happened. Leanne, who is quite a gamer herself, laughed when I arrive at the part where Tsubaki doesn't know how to log out. She cringes when I tell them what happens to Tsubaki while she is solo-questing.

"What kind of bad luck is that?" she asks.

"She just happens to be in the way," I sigh a little.

"And then when it is her turn to face the monster, it gets a lucky critical hit on her or her shield breaks," Chika start to think on it. "She didn't repair her equipment?"

"She spends her money on potions and food, but that isn't enough," I explain. "I advised her to take blacksmithing so that she can perform some field repairs to cut costs. Since she's a warrior type that has no way of casting healing spells, I told her to take up first aid as well."

After clearing more work, I look at the calendar to realize that the International Goddess meeting at Saturn's place is due in a month's time. A month… if we can somehow utilize the rest bonus to the fullest, we can get to level 20 by the week after next.

Dinner approaches and it is Chika's turn to cook this time. As the three of us eat dinner, the two asks me about the upcoming meeting and ask if there is anything they can do to help with the preparation. That's right. I forgot to explain to them what the 'meeting' actually is. The first two days is spent in a relatively normal meeting, but the remaining five is spent relaxing and casually chatting, as if we are not goddesses responsible for our nation. After dinner, I head back to my room and resume gaming.

[Sanctuary – Alicanyte City]

I open my eyes in the rented room before I look at the lower bunk. It seems that Tsubaki isn't back yet, so I take the liberty of reading up on what we're supposed to do next. Tsubaki logs in minutes later, sighing.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Nothing… just… real life problems eating away at me," Tsubaki just lies down on the bed, wearing nothing but her in game sleepwear. Oh right, I'm only wearing my in game sleepwear too. "I was so close too."

"So close? To what?" I ask again.

"It's nothing," Tsubaki remarks. "Where are we going today?"

"The quests we took yesterday will lead us to the next destination," I reply. "Let's just head there first and worry about everything else later."

"Got it."

We set off as soon as we're ready to tackle the next content of the starting area.

[Sanctuary – Path to Greenstone Village]

We head to Greenstone Village, clearing quests along the way and getting acquainted with the mischievous water celestial. It seems that it's lonely because its mortal friend has passed away, so we played on its geysers a little to keep her company. After spending some time, it decides to accompany us to Greenstone Village. At the same time, it grants us access to her water powers. Tsubaki gains the ability to perform a water elemental physical attack, while I gain the ability to place a water barrier which absorbs damage and heals the one protected by the barrier.

She then guides us to a nearby cave, which is where the fire celestial is hiding. After dodging the series of fire traps that the celestial set to keep intruders away (the water celestial remains outside the cave), we finally reach it and it agrees to come with us as well. Once again, we learn a new ability, a fire elemental physical attack for Tsubaki and a homing fireball for me.

[Sanctuary – Greenstone Village]

We finally reach Greenstone Village and encountered the earth celestial… sleeping near the village's bell tower. Our job is to wake the celestial up so Tsubaki suggests ringing the bell as hard as we can. We climbed up to ring the bell hard, but nothing changes and the celestial still sleeps. Tsubaki even attempted to hit the sleeping celestial herself, but nothing works since friendly NPC's can't be hit by player attacks.

All the while, the water celestial seems to be trying to tell us something, so we let her do the honours of waking the earth celestial up by spraying water on its face, which works. While the earth celestial was a little peeved at the rude awakening it gets, the fire and water celestial is giving it glares which says that it has wasted their time, so it keeps quiet and accompanies us to find the last celestial.

The wind celestial is nowhere to be found at the cave the others lead us to. We head back outside to find it shivering among the bushes. It flees to the back of the cave after blowing us backwards and continuously attempts to blow us out of the cave. After the five of us manage to get inside without being blown back out, the three other celestial comfort the fourth one before we hear a loud roar outside and the wind celestial starts to shiver again.

It seems that a serpentine dragon is lurking around and it causes the celestial to hide in fear. Tsubaki and I walk outside and confronted the dragon. It lands to engage us in battle, but the fight is more towards awareness than blocking because it is casting spells that turns an area into lightning vortexes and does a number of random breath attacks. Since magical attacks are not mitigated by armour, we will have to actively avoid its attacks. Thankfully, the other celestials also lend their help in attacking the very creature that is terrifying their brethren.

The dragon is finally taken down and the four celestials cheered around us. The story on this beginner's area is finally coming to an end. We return back to the city using our talismans to report.

[Sanctuary – Alicanyte City]

With our duties at retrieving the celestials completed, we return back to the centre of the city and meet up with them again. Tsubaki and I are level twelve now and we're ready to leave this beginner area into the actual game. The two of us selects the water celestial as our guardian, which lets us learn more advanced water element attacks. The other celestials then let us keep the basic skills that they give us.

[World – Water Celestial Territory]

Accepting the new quest causes the two of us to be teleported into the mainland by the four. Since we chose to side with the water celestial, we are taken to the village of water, our new base of operations. With our runestone set to this new village, we set out to meet the village head and talk to her. Clearing the quest that takes us here opens up another bunch of quests. After accepting everything that we can find, we return to the inn to rent a room once again.

It appears that we're not mistaken in choosing to side with the water celestial. Since the village is built in the middle of the lake, most of the quests we pick up occur right beneath the town. Tsubaki is initially afraid to go underwater, but after realizing that the water celestial's blessing allowed us to breathe underwater, she starts moving about confidently.

We cleared quest around the area at a rapid pace and slowly we move out of the village and into the outer areas of the water territory. Because we work in the team, we catch up with a lot of players that have gone ahead of us while I'm teaching Tsubaki to get used to her in game controls. Normally, tanks like us have the lowest amount of damage compared to classes like healer and damage. Since this is a VR game, it allows us to actually out-damage others depending on our equipment.

One day, not so long after we reach level eighteen, Tsubaki seems slightly depressed. She isn't focusing throughout the fight and takes some damage here and there. She has a distracted look in her eyes and is not putting much focus into the game. I can't help but to worry a little on what that has happened, so I ask her if she's alright.

"Nothing's wrong, Himeko. It's just… I know this game is fun and all, but in reality, I'm just running away from my problems," Tsubaki said.

"What kind of problems? Maybe I can help."

Tsubaki looks unsure if she wants to continue. She takes a deep breath and sighs before she turns to face me, who am seated on the other side of the campfire I set up to cook some food.

"Well… I like someone," Tsubaki begins. "I've known her for quite some time now… I'm not going to say her name because I'm afraid I might get her into trouble. I love her with all my heart, but… I just can't admit to her that I do love her."

"Why don't you guide her slowly?" I ask. "Like… send her the right signals, give her hints that you really do want your relationship with her to go beyond friendship. Be brave a little."

"That's where the problems come in. I… sometimes I just think that I'm not worthy of that person," Tsubaki sighed. "She's… well… perfect. In more ways than one. I don't deserve her… at all."

"The fact that you love her shows that you deserve her, even if it is just a little," I smile before I walk over to hug her. "There there. Just calm down and stay positive. I'm sure you can do it. Go tell her before someone else take her away from you."

"Thanks, Himeko," Tsubaki smiled widely before she stands up and stretches her limbs. After remaining for a while longer, we continue our trek to the border town.

Ever since that day, however, Tsubaki starts logging in less and less. She even tells me to go ahead on my own. I had refused to leave her behind and insisted that I wait for her. After the two of us hits level twenty, however… she logs in for the last time, tells me that she's glad and thankful to have met me and to have played this game together with me. After the tearful farewell, Tsubaki gives me her money and hopes that I will put it into a good use.

[Neutral Zone – Saturn's Retreat]

My depression at losing the only online friend I had is quite apparent up to the point that Leanne and Chika got worried. The pair has tried everything they can think of to cheer me up, but their efforts are hardly working. I tried to forget about it and continue playing or working, but sometimes my own train of thoughts lead me back to the days where we party up to tackle obstacles and breeze through them.

Eventually the time for the quarterly Goddess meeting arrives and I find myself sitting in the living room without playing any games whatsoever despite this being the third day of our little excursion to Saturn's home. During the previous two days, the other three asked me if there was anything wrong during break time. I wasn't behaving normally nor was I teasing the others, so I guess, they are bound to notice that.

Saturn is off babysitting Blanc's younger sisters. Uni and Nepgear are swimming outside because it is extremely hot this summer. Neptune is napping in her room. Blanc is off reading in Saturn's study, while Noire is busy trying to prepare the ingredients for dinner. Neptune insisted that she wanted some spaghetti, and after some pestering, Noire finally relents and agrees.

Noire is deciding based on the ingredients that she can find in Saturn's kitchen. She eventually settles on Aglio e Olio, since Saturn happens to have the sausages that she needs for the recipe. After all, the dish is quite simple, only requiring garlic, chilli flakes and parsley, served with one to two pieces of sausage. After getting the ingredients noted, Noire joins me in the living room. Curiosity got the better of her and she asks me if she can tell me what is wrong.

"Vert, are you alright? You don't seem to look too well," she asks.

"It's nothing much, really," I smile back. "Just that… you know… I advised a close friend of mine on how to get someone to fall in love with her. After she took my advice, I started seeing her less and less… and then one day, we just stop seeing each other."

"I know how you feel, Vert," Noire says as a nostalgic smile forms on her face. "I missed a friend too. She passed away a long time ago. I wish she's still alive right now. I wonder what she would say about the progress that I made on Lastation."

"I'm sure she'd be very impressed and surprised."

"That is the reason why you should not be depressed like this, Vert."

"Eh?"

"I'm sure your friend is glad that you've given her advice on love related problem," Noire smiles. "Not everyone has the privilege of being advised by a goddess on that matter, you know."

"True. I guess I should be glad for her instead."

I can feel my smile returning and the weight in my heart being lifted when I hear what Noire has to say. Yeah. Wherever Tsubaki is, I'm sure she should be very happy right now. I guess I can stop playing this MMO for a while and wait until Tsubaki returns before we can resume our quest, if she's ever coming back. I know she makes no promises if she's ever returning to the game, but it's not wrong to hope, right? Instead of being depressed, I should have stayed positive and continue playing while waiting for her to come back. If she's successful in winning this girl's heart, I'm sure she'll be back to pass me a wedding invitation.

And that... brings us to the end of this story. Don't forget that Tsubaki is NOT and OC, but someone else's character name in an online game. Just like how Vert introduces herself as Himeko. It shouldn't be too difficult to uncover who she really is. Unless you're really dense.

This is Str1k3N01r signing off