Chapter 6: Showing the Ropes

Kei and Liz walked through the forest on floor 40, until they found a cave. They entered and Liz stuck to Kei, who was fighting all of the mobs in the cave; eventually, they got to the back of the cave, and found a metal door. Before either of them could even touch the door, it opened as though it had a mind of its own, and they entered. The heavy, metal, door closed behind Liz as she and Kei as they walked through it. "Welcome to the crusade," Kei said, "The forge is down stairs. You can have your pick of metals, we have no shortage on items,"

"How?" Liz asked.

"Despite many thinking we're horrible people," replied Kei, "some consider us to be heroes, and are willing to sacrifice a fair amount of gold to our cause,"

"So… how did you make the guns?" Liz continued questioning.

"Technically," Kei answered, "you can make anything you want with the blacksmith skill. So we can make parts of the guns and then place them together, the bullets are easy enough to make, the real difficulty is the gunpowder. With the cooking skill, you can make real life substances out of in-game plants, most people use it to make sauces, but we're not most people," As the two entered the forge, Kei threw a book onto the table, "Here's your work space. There's the list of recipes you need to know. Let's move on with the tour,"

Kei lead her back upstairs, and pointed to a board of posters, "Over there is the job board, you don't have to take any because you have an actual job here, but it's still open," the Kei gestured to a door, similar to the one they entered in, "There's the armory, everything you make goes in there. If you need any weapons, just remember to trade out what you have for what you're taking," the tour continued as Kei answered any questions Liz had. He showed her the living quarters, common areas, and the multiple farms they had for everything from xp to the plants they used to make gunpowder.

Once the tour was over, Liz went to work, learning all the new recipes she would need. In all honesty, it was quite amazing that the White Crusade managed to make actual working guns out of a simple exploit in the game's mechanics, and there weren't just some simple flintlock pistols, these were actual, standard-issue, handguns you'd see police officers walking around with.

That night, Liz was still getting used to her new, surprisingly comfortable, bed, and couldn't sleep. So, she decided to take a walk around the base, to try and get a feel for the layout of her new home. As she was passing by the one of the many doors into the cave, she heard several clashes of steel followed by gunshots. Opening the door she found Kei fighting a number of monsters. She moved to go help him, but was stopped by a mysterious arm across her chest. She followed the white-clad arm up to a masked face, "Let him be," said the stranger.

Liz checked her clock and realized it was two in the morning, "Why is he up so late?" she asked.

"He doesn't get much sleep. Some nights he doesn't sleep at all," replied the man, "When he's awake he's either on a mission, furthering the cause of this crusade of his, or training,"

"Why are you out here?" Liz continued with her barrage of questions.

"Some of the higher-ups take shifts, making sure he doesn't get himself killed," said the man.

"Has he ever needed help?"

"No," there was a long pause, the only sound was Kei's sword, slashing through anything that came within range, "I haven't seen you before," the stranger broke the silence, "Are you new?"

"Yea," Liz said shyly, "I'm the new blacksmith,"

"A desk job, fun," joked the man, "I wish I could get one of those. What's your name?"

"Liz," she replied.

"Good to meet you Liz," the stranger said, with a new, cheery tone, "My name's Klein,"

The two sat, watching their boss kill everything in his path. As minutes turned into hours, Liz eventually went inside and fell asleep.

Liz woke up to Kei, sitting in a chair, at the foot of her bed, and was promptly slapped in the face. In all honesty, he could have dodged the blow, or even blocked it, but considering that he'd been watching the pink-haired girl sleep for the past half an hour, he deserved it.

"Good morning sunshine," he greeted her, rubbing the red handprint on his face,

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!?" Liz demanded.

"You're woke up late," Kei said, "It's ten in the morning,"

"WHEN THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO BE UP THEN!?"

"Three hours ago," replied Kei.

"YOU WANT ME TO GET UP AT 7AM!?" Liz continued to shout.

"First off," Kei started, now getting angry, "stop shouting at me. I am your boss, you will treat me with respect. Second, I expect everyone to be up at seven, some even get up earlier than that. Third, if you weren't out spying on me with Klein, maybe you would have gotten up sooner," This last sentence took Liz by surprise.

"You knew about that?" Liz said, embarrassed.

"Yes, I knew," replied Kei, "I'm the leader of a glorified assassin guild, it'd be crazy if my detection skill wasn't maxed out. That, and I know everything that goes on in my guild, even if others don't know about it. Anyways, you've got basic training today,"

"Why do I need basic training?" Asked Liz.

"Everyone's required to have it. You never know when you'll get picked to go on a boss raid," Kei explained.

"Wait," Lis interrupted, "I might have to go on a boss raid,"

"Yes," Kei said, "The Crusade is a major force when it comes to boss fights, and, as such, requires it members to level up at certain intervals. Since you have a job that isn't going out a brutally murdering people, I'm sure an exception or two can be made,"