Chapter 9

Last time

Me and my group mentally agree and I give the man an answer. "Yes. We could use a shield bearer. Plus, you're pretty skilled yourself."

He gives me a big smile, "Really!? Thank you!" he laughs and we all chuckle at his enthusiasm.

This time

It's been a couple months since the boss fight of floor 2 and the welcoming of our new member, Zankani. In the passing months, 10 floors have been cleared, so now everyone resides on floor 13. After only a couple days of Zankani joining, we gave him the honorary guild cloak. Apart from that, and I am pretty sure you know by now what I am going to say, we have leveled up a whole a bunch and shared our ExP farming secret with Zankani.

"Attack it while I have it distracted guys!" Zankani yells at us to rush forward and we do so, using all our sword skills and quickly taking out the mini boss's health that we were fighting. It drops a rare shield called Reaper's shield. It has insanely high defense stats and has the colors of our guild, which is red and black.

I smirk and give the shield to Zankani, "Here, you go. Just like we promised. A rare shield, just for you."

He chuckles and equips it, "Thanks, all of you. I'll be sure to use it well."

We all smile warmly. "No problem, cutie." Fiena says and laughs, because that's her way of making fun of him. We all silently chuckle as Zankani's face goes red.

"As much as I would love to stay in this canyon, guys, I think we should get back to town and rest up for the day. Today was really exhausting and action filled." Erin says with a yawn.

"Yeah. Okay." I smile and kiss her head then start leading us all back to the town, occasionally running into some monsters but, we practically kill them in one swing since we are so badass.

An hour later

We walk into town chuckling a little from a joke I said ten minutes before. We hear some whispers about us as we pass through the town

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention, in the months that have passed, we have made quite a name for ourselves and helped a lot of people and saved lots of lives. In return, we got love back from the people and generous offers and donations, which of course we accepted because we aren't idiots that turn down money and free blacksmith tasks. A lot of people have also asked to join, but I have had to deny all of them because they were sadly just not skilled enough.

"So, guys. What should we do for dinner?" I say as I walk backwards just so I can look at them. I also forgot to mention that I am still wearing that mask, which, if you were wondering, looks like the smiley anime hei mask.

"Pasta!" Zankani shouts out with a chuckle. He was obsessed with pasta.

"Sure. I'll pay for it." I smile and they each give me thanks.

I walk into the tavern in the town and order us a table. The man, which is not an NPC and in fact another player, nods and smiles and leads us to a table and we sit down.

"So, what do you guys want to talk about?" Erin asks, pulling her hood off.

"Well…" Izalea says. "I have a couple questions I've been wanting to ask but never bothered to because I thought you people wouldn't want to talk to me anymore if I did."

"What? No way. You're a part of this guild and you're our friend. Why would we ever do such a horrible thing?" I say quickly and reassure her that we would never leave her.

"Well… okay." She takes a deep breath. "What are you all like in the real world?"

It suddenly goes quiet. No one had really brought up that topic in a long time. I took a gulp and decided to answer first, for both me and Erin because we lived the same life in a sense.

"Me and Erin are high school graduates. Actually, when we started this game it was only one month after our graduation." I chuckle sadly, but keep smiling. "Erin worked at a coffee shop and was a reporter. I worked in graphic design. Sadly I don't get payed much so I had to save up a lot for the gear for this game."

"Oh… I'm sorry you two…" Izalea says with deep apology.

"I'll go next I suppose." Zanakini speaks up. "In the real world I'm only in the tenth grade. I kinda skipped school to play this game. And, this is probably the only time I am gonna say this, I think I would've preferred to go to school that day. Then, I wouldn't be trapped in this game in fear of dying every day. That's why I chose to have a shield, you know. Because it makes me feel a lot safer." He says with a frown, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Fiena gives him a half hug. The waiter comes over and gives us all our pasta and we start eating, not having to pay anything.

"I guess it's our turn," Fiena says and looks down really embarrassed. "In the real world, I am thirteen and Izalea is sixteen. Before this game, we kinda separated ourselves from each other. We were your stereotypical siblings; never liked each other's presence and never really wanted to be near each other." She chuckles a little. "But, ever since we started this game, we've gotten closer, literally. We finally realized that we are in this together and that we need to stick together if we wanna live…" she says the last part then gives her big sister a hug.

I smile from the heartwarming story. Can't you see how amazing this is? HAH! Just kidding. This game is awful.

"Don't worry, you guys. We will get out of this game and we will go back to our normal lives. I promise. We will beat this game together." We all smile and nod.

Zankani puts his hand in the middle of the table, "On 3!" we are confused for half a second but quickly catch on and we all put our hands in the middle.

"ONE! TWO! THREE!" we throw our hands in the air, "THE AINCRAD SAVIORS!" we all yell at once and then start laughing, the mood quickly changing back to happy.

We then finish up our food a couple hours later and we go to bed.

A/N: Hey, guys. sorry this one was so short. you can just think of this as a filler episode to give a brief description of our heroes' backgrounds. the reason i had to make this one short is because I have surgery in the morning and I don't really have a lot of time to type because I gotta sleep early so I can get to the appointment. Anyways, wish me luck guys! I might not be able to post tomorrow but I promise the next one will be better. :D