"We're logging out, icewizard. How about you?" asked by Celestial summoner, username: blondefairy. He was also her friend in the real world, her real name Lucy Heartfilia.

"I'm gonna stay, need to farm levels since I won't be able to log in tomorrow because of exams." he answered.

"Hey, if you find something for a slayer, make sure to keep it for me!" Natsu, game username flamebreather, a Dragon Slayer, said. He didn't even wait for an answer before he logged out with his long time girlfriend, Lucy.

Gray shrugged and opened his map. The three of them had just cleared Oaktown wood's mid level dungeon. They struggled for a bit with the dungeon boss but managed to defeat it. They reached level 21 with the experience.

He wasn't satisfied though since there were already players that reached level 23 but he couldn't do anything about it since he had a real life to live. It was already quite a feat for them to be able to be on level 21 compared to those addict neets who spend their whole day gaming.

Gray clicked Hargeon forest on the map and used fairy wings to teleport him. When he arrived, there were quite a ton of players and some even invited him to join their team. He turned off invites as he travelled somewhere without any crowd.

He saw two paths ahead and he chose the right one. When he saw level 19 Bandits, he decided to turn around and leave since these mobs wouldn't really help him level up faster.

But before he could do so, he saw someone soloing them not too far from his spot. Now, it wasn't really surprising since even him could solo these things. What caught his attention was the player's fast speed without any waste movements. All her hits were critical and that meant she had been thinking before slaying the monsters. Critical hits were not always due to luck but more about the player's skill, attacks and eye for weakness.

Gray watched her for awhile. She was good with her fingers. He haven't paid attention before but now that he looked, she seemed to be an Elementalist thief.

His eyes narrowed when he noticed some familiar moves. This player was Raindrops. Damn, it was a good decision not to log out early or he wouldn't see her today!

Gray approached carefully and tried to invite her for a party but it looked like her invites were off. He tsked and tried to sent a whisper but it was blocked.

She would be hard to deal with. How could he convinced her to join him when he couldn't even talk to her privately? It seemed he needed to approach her in a different manner. If he tried to scout her right away, he might get blocked since it was obvious she didn't want to play with others.

He typed, "Can we make a party?" in public. Anyone could see it from 10 meter raduis so he was sure she had seen it since she was the only one around, but he got ignored.

"I have a golden thief boots in my inventory. i'll sell it half the auction price if you party with me,"

He had planned to give it to her older sister but now he had to change his plan. Hopefully, this player would be interested.

But she wasn't, damn it! Of course, she did solo the Orc King, she must've lots of jewels in her.

"Help me kill the Bandit boss, you'll have all the loots and half of the experience." Gray tried again. That was a very enticing offer and even Gray would take the chance to accept that if it was offered to him.

But the player wasn't reacting. She was too focused on killing the mobs around.

Gray clenched his jaw, getting annoyed. Some of the Bandits were now attacking him as well so he activated his Ice Blizzard. It has an AOE of 5 meter radius. Their health dropped steadily until they died. The skill took half of his mana so he doesn't use it often but he wanted the other player to see that he wouldn't drag her down when she party with him.

It proved to be worth it because she finally replied.

"Turn on your invites, I'll be the party leader."

Gray grinned as he accepted the party request. He looked at her username: bluelily, quite simple. Well he didn't have the right to judge when his username was icewizard.

"All the loots are mine, no stealing. And call me Lily."

He blinked when he heard her voice. She was a real girl after all.

"Of course. I'm Ice."

Gray discussed the plan to kill the Level 25 Bandit Boss. The thing about map bosses were their level doesn't define their difficulty to be killed, but the amount of health they have.

Lily would pull its aggro since she was fast while he would be the damage dealer. It was quite tricky since if his damage was larger than hers, the boss' aggro would turn to him. He had good defense but he was a magician after all, his built ain't suited for tanking.

"Are you sure you're available today? If you have something to do, I can add you as a friend and we can kill it the next day." Gray suggested, it was his way of getting her accept him as a friend.

"It's okay, I still have four hours left to play." Her voice was sweet and kind. He wondered why she didn't want to join any teams or guilds at all. She didn't sound unfriendly.

They proceeded to the Bandit Boss lair as they killed Bandit Leaders along the way. No words were spoken the whole time, focusing on killing the mobs around.

Gray used a scroll to hasten his mana recovery while using them as carefully as possible. By the time they get to the boss' lair, his mana was already full.

"I'll start now, Ice." she said as she took a leap and slashed on its face.

Gray smirked and activated his Ice Lances and shoot them towards the boss, careful not to override Lily's damage. In closer look, she was a better player than he thought. She was really fast and had good observation skill. She noticed the smallest details like the mob's expression when she slashed somewhere around its weakness. Because of that, killing it became easier.

There was also an instace where Gray exceeded his damage on the Boss and he thought it would attack him. But she was quick to deal a critical hit.

Their teamwork was great and farming was not only easier but faster. Since both of them were damage dealers it didn't take long for them to take down the boss.

"As promised, all the loots are yours."

She was quiet for a moment as she picked up the items. "Do you still have time?" she asked.

"I guess, I can still help you in killing it the second time." he answered.

"Help me then, but this time the loots will be yours."

Gray blinked. "It's fine, I mean that's our deal anyway, for you to help me. All I need is experience." and you, of course. He thought, also thinking he already succeeded getting her trust...for a bit. If they made each other as friends, it wouldn't be long until she agreed to join his team, hopefully.

"I see. But it's your help that I need now so it's just fair for you to have the next loots. If you don't want to, I'll just solo it."

Gray sighed, she was really hard to deal with. "Okay, fine." He heard her chuckled and the bit of frustration he felt, disappeared.

By the time they killed the Bandit Boss the second time, it was time for him to log out.

"Thanks for helping. I couldn't have defeated that mob in a short time without you." he said, trying to appeared really grateful. He didn't have to act anyway since he levelled up to 23 and got lots of items.

"Thank you for the invite, too." she replied.

"Can I add you as a friend, you know so we can contact each other if we ever need to kill a boss again."

She didn't respond for a whole minute. But Gray saw a friend request notification and he smirked when he saw her username.

"It was fun partying with you, Ice. Goodbye." she said and teleported.

Gray stared at the screen for a moment before he logged out. He smiled feeling proud of himself for being able to play with the elusive Raindrops.