Chapter 10

Ever since the death of the guild "Children of the Night" I have made sure I stayed a solo player. If I got asked to join a guild I kindly declined. I still fought the boss fights but I also started a new job. Players that needed my help could hire me and I would help them with any task they needed. Most of the tasks were easy for me since I was at level 100 and they were asking me to do jobs that people with half of my levels could complete but I still did them anyway. It helped keep the loneliness at bay while also not putting people in danger. I enjoyed being needed. It kept me from going into a dark depression over the people I have lost. Right now I am walking around fields looking for something to hunt when I hear a scream.

The source of the scream was a pet. Yes I do mean a pet. There are players that are tamers, which means they have a pet. This one is a small blue dragon. It was screaming because a big ugly troll hit it. By the looks of it, its owner does not have a high enough level to kill it let alone it and its partner. I step in just in time to kill both trolls while saving the boy's life. Sadly I cannot say the same for the dragon. The hit it got earlier caused its already low health bar to go empty. All that is left of the dragon is a claw. The boy picks up the claw and starts to weep. Which is weird since he is easily two years older than me. When I could not take it anymore I cough loud enough for the boy to understand that I am still hear and I look at him as I say, "You do know that you can still save your pet." When I finish he has a look of hope on his face. I take that as my cue to continue, "The claw of your pet that you are holding is considered its heart and there is a place that tamers like yourself can take your pets heart after it dies and resurrect it but you only have three days to get there after the death of your pet." He looks at me with hope in his eyes as he says, "Really can you take me there please. I want her back she saved my life. I would have died because I was looking for another healing crystal when she went in the way of the troll's attack." I can see the guilt of it on his face so I can tell that it is important to him so I say, "Sure but let me warn you it is on the 47th floor." He noticed that it would be a hard journey for him with his level so I helped out by giving him my old armor, which boosted up his protection and I also invited him into a party with me.

We reached the hotel he was staying at so that he could get stuff for the trip. I stayed in the hallway giving him his privacy. When he was done he got out of the room and we headed for the door when a hand grabbed his arm. The owner of the arm is a girl around his age with long blond hair and blue eyes. She looks at him and says, "Come on Akio we all know that you are bluffing so come back to our party we need you." I can tell that is a lie the only reason that they keep him around is because of his looks not his monster taming skills but I don not have the courage to inform him that. He looks straight at her as he says, "Well I am sorry to tell you but I will be going on a quick three day journey to floor 47 do something important." She laughs when she hears the floor's number but she quits when she notices that he is serious and says, "But you don't have a high enough level to wander around up there." He smiles and says, "I know, that is why I joined her party. She has a high enough level to help me out." When he says her he points to me. Which means that I was the one that got the glare from her as she says, "She doesn't even look capable to kill a wild boar." That got me mad so as to prove my point I pull out my sword and attacked her with one hit. That one hit caused her to fly ten feet from where we are. I look at her with a scowl on my face as I say, "You better be lucky we are in a public area which means that my attacks will not hurt you but they will throw you a bit back and scare you." With that I sheath my sword and grab Akio by the arm and we leave.

We have already transported ourselves to level 47 and we are on our second day of traveling to the forest where the Everlasting Flower lives. Most of the way we have been silent when he finally breaks the silence by looking at me and saying, " Why did you come along with me and please be honest with me." I think for a bit and then I say, "Will you promise me that you will not laugh at me?" When he shakes his head slowly I continue with, "You remind me of my older brother." For a bit he was silent but then he chuckles and says, "I hope you do not have a crush on your brother." When he says that I was shocked that he would think that I would like a relative. Then when the shock resides I say, "Well I do not have a crush on him. I may be a bit jealous of him though." He looks at me weirdly and says, "What are you jealous about?" I take a deep breath and say, "I am jealous of him because even though he has the same tall and scrawny figure and yet when people see both of us they think that he is the one who protects me." He gives me a quizzical look as he says, "Why are you jealous about that?" I scowl and say, "It's a long story." He gave me a smile and says, "We also have a long journey so spill it."

I take a deep breath and start the long story off by saying, "Ever since I was little people thought that I was the one that needed to be protected because I was a girl. When I turned the age of six I thought that it was because I did not know how to defend myself so I persuaded my mom into letting me take sword lessons. Even after learning sword lessons they still did not treat me like my older brother even though I could be him in a sword fight when I was seven. I would have dropped sword fighting but I did not. I guess it was because ever since I held a sword for the first time I felt like I could do anything that I wanted even though I was a girl. That is why when I turned nine I started competing in competitions for sword fighting. I easily beat the all of the girls in Japan so the bumped me up to the guys section. At first they thought that I would not be able to win against a boy but then I shocked them when I fought the lowest ranking boy and I won without even breaking a sweat. It took awhile since there was a lot of boys that competed but I finally made it to the second place ranking with a record of having being undefeated in both the girls and boys section and my fight with the first place was finally happening. When I stood waiting for the first place holder and hearing people yelling at me that I should go back home that this was not something a girl should learn that I should instead learn how to take care of a house and my future husband but I could also hear people cheering for me. There were not a lot of them but they helped me from chickening out. That fight was not just for me but I was to prove that women are not as helpless as men think they are and that we are able to protect ourselves without their help. Then finally the boy that was in the slot I wanted came in finally. We both pulled out our swords and started fighting. The sword fight lasted for a long time and when time ran out of time the three judges were the ones who had to decide who won the match. Everyone knew I was going to win even the people who were telling me to go home knew I fought better than Riku which was the boy I fought. I guess I should have known that no matter how good I was they would chose the boy just because he was a boy and not because of his skill. When we heard that he won everyone started booing. Even Riku started booing. I just stood there and if anyone were looking at me they would see the steady stream off tears that ran down my face. To add on to that when I got home my mom sat me down and broke to me the news that she was not even my mom but instead my aunt and that my parents had died when I was a baby. I wanted to get away from all of my troubles and that is how I became addicted to online gaming because if I wanted to I could be anyone and no one would judge me by my gender but instead my skill on that game."

When I finished I waited for a response and when I did not get a response I looked over at him only to see that his face was red and that his fist were clinched. I was shocked by the display of anger and I was wondering what I said to make him angry when he says, "That is unfair you should have won that match instead they wanted to ruin a little girl's life by be biased by giving the match to Riku. At least I know why you are so good at this game." With that he smiles but I know that he is forcing it to make me feel better and it does make me feel better. Not because he smiled but because of instead of siding with the judges like any other boy I know would have done he sided with me. When I don't say anything he turns to me and says, "Not all guys are like that some like me do not judge the gender or the age but instead judges you by how you act and how you wield your sword in battle. Especially since that is what really matters since we are only half way through this game." He looks at me and notices that I have tears running down my face but we both know that they are not tears of sadness but instead tears of joy.