Chapter 13
A/N: For all readers who think this will go a harem route, I assure you it's not like that. That is all, we now return to our regularly scheduled fanfic.
It's only an hour before noon at the moment. Since mine and Blanc's lunch nothing has happened. And before you ask, I just walked her home and that was it. Yet, something ominous was felt during that time.
Islam is looking like a good option at this point. The amount of weird moments this week have exceeded my bounds. I'm not going to lie, these past few days have been more eventful than the past years. Whether that's sad or not is a mystery.
Sunday is more relaxing than it usually is for some reason. I think I just need a break from them for a few hours. With all this chaos, I can't tell if things are good or bad in my life right now. Thinking back to yesterday's events I'm pretty lucky actually.
I have eight great friends who somehow transformed me. As well as a chance to start again with this whole social ideal. Enough of this weird thinking, it's time to kick back and relax for the day.
Standing up from the living room couch proves harder than expected. Having a peaceful state mind is tiring I guess. Being the last day in the weekend means I only have so long before I have to return to school. This time it'll be a full school week. I'm not sure if I can handle that much.
In my room now, it's as good of a time as any to play Four Goddesses Online. The usual routine of my computer booting up takes its effect. Now I have the game downloaded so I don't have to go to the main site. 'Logged on.'
My avatar appears in front of the cave I entered with Uni, Nepgear, and Vert last time. That was a conflicted night, both sides of mine want to forget it happened and still retain the memory. It's complicated really, I'll try to keep these thoughts at a minimum.
'No time for that' I thought. I think today I'll just focus on leveling my character up to keep up with everyone else. I haven't seen some of their characters though, which puts me at a disadvantage. Also, it might impress a few of them if they don't have to defend me so much.
Today I'll train in a yellow area, for the challenge that is. If I go directly into a red area there's a good chance I'll get creamed. So the better choice is a little danger with decent leveling.
I almost forgot, from my previous quests I've got quite a bit of money. I wonder if I can get any good items in the nearest town. Opening the map I study it intensely. The closest town from looking at my map is… Lowee? So far I know a person from Planeptune, Lastation, and Leanbox. If any of them side with Lowee I don't know it yet. Better get walking, it's still kind of far away.
Ten minutes of walking later I'm only halfway there. Then I suddenly get a thoughtflare, I have teleportation items on me. Among the gear I received from Vert there was also teleport scrolls to all the major cities. Damn I'm slow at times.
Scrolling through my inventory, I find a Lowee teleport scroll. The animations in this game are pretty sweet. My avatar actually takes the scroll out of his pouch, studies it for a moment before bursting into flames. The avatar then appears in the center of the city.
It's… breathtaking to say the least. When the description said it was something fantasy I thought they were kidding. Some of the buildings are mushrooms. Like the Telvanni in Morrowind. This is just like my childhood imaginations, except real this time.
Looking around, I take notice of stalls set up all over the area. I forgot Lowee is mainly a non-combat character land. Hits all the ingredient stalls. Hardly any weapon stands are present. I'll have to visit Lastation later to get gun upgrades. Leanbox to get a better sword.
"Come people don't be shy. Best potions in all the land." A man with a well maintained stall calls to everyone in the area. I do need to gets some healing potions. It also couldn't hurt to grab an agility one as well. Hell there isn't a potion I don't need. Damn you sales person guy.
Walking up to the stand, he has many bottles on display. One of these bottles is apparently valuable enough for him to look at me when I pick it up for examination. "You have a keen eye. That right there is the elixir of immortality. One sip and you'll be lifted out of death's hands." I like the sound of that.
"Whoa…" The price on it is what I expected. Almost all my money will go into one potion if I buy this. The ability is good, and you get five sips before it's all used up. He must've worked hard to make something this rare. I'll buy it, it'll prove most useful for what I'm about to do.
My avatar hands him a huge sack of gold, and in exchange, he hands me the elixir. 'Sigh' I can't believe I just bought this. No trade backs on player made items though, game policy. "Thank you shopkeeper."
"Ah hell, just call me William, everyone else does." I'm not sure who "Everyone else" is but I'll take his word for it. Now that I think about it, he gave me a really good price on my item. He might be as crazy as I thought he was. "Ok, if I have any other alchemical needs I'll come to you."
Waving his hand at me, I take my leave. Still not knowing where any good dungeons or anything else in this game is, time for some questing. Like most towns would have, this one has a building for all of that. It's called a guild, the Lowee guild to be exact.
Perhaps there are some good quests to help me. The inside is comforting, simple yet gets your attention. There are hologram screens all over the place displaying information I can barely follow. Only one place where I can actually get answers to my question, the front desk of course.
"Hello, I'd like to get a moderately difficult quest for my level."
"Hello sir, it appears that there is one of that nature. The task is to kill a monster, more specifically an ancient dragon." Great, another one of those dragons. I was barely able to defeat the last one I faced, so I might be a little hesitant to accept.
Also, that's in my level range. Last I checked it was in the black for me. Then again I have gone up some odd levels since last time. Not forgetting my new revolver. Alright, what have I really got to lose here? "It also appears that those two girls are doing the same quest."
Turning around I'm met with two very young, well avatar young looking girls. Both have the same one piece white swimsuit with lines of pink on it as well as grey areas. Another article they share is matching style boots. Their hair and eyes differ from each other. One's is light blue with pink eyes. The other's light pink with blue eyes. At a distance they appear same in hair length, upon closer inspection, the pink haired girls is slightly, and I mean slightly longer.
"Hey, if it's alright with you I'd like to accompany the both of you. Leveling purposes only."
"Sure! The more the merrier!" The pink haired girl says unnaturally loud.
"Sure… you can come…" Her light blue counter part is the polar opposite, being very shy. This reminds me of someone, I just can't remember who at the moment. I shouldn't be thinking anyway, I'm playing to relax after all.
"Great, I'll sign you three up as a party." That's both good and bad at the same time. It means we all get the same amount of experience from battle. The bad part though is whoever is deemed V.I.P. gets the most items from the quest.
Ah going on a quest, I feel like I'm in lord of the rings now. Damn that's a good trilogy, the books were pretty good as well. Walking away from Lowee doesn't take to much out of me, the twin players I'm with are having a harder time with it though. It's not like they were actually born and raised here.
Surprisingly, the path to the dungeon is monster free today. It's sad really, I was hoping for some good combat to level. The possibility is that they made this path monster free to lead you into thinking the dungeon was easy.
"I'm… scared." The blue haired girl speaks finally.
"Don't be silly, it's just another dusty old dungeon." Her pink haired counterpart offers some comforting words. This seems to work as the blue haired girl perks up slightly and begins walking forward again.
The gate to the dungeon looks like you would expect it, rusted in some parts, and overall old. My avatar kicks down this metal gate. If I had this kind of strength in real life I'd be invincible. Alas this world is only virtual, I couldn't get that strong in real life. Don't have either the genetics or the patience for it.
The interior of this place isn't that off from what I pictured it being. Stone walls with overgrowth coming out of them. Torches still lit even though it's impossible to be lit that long. And coffins, it's always coffins in these places. I never understood why all dungeons have to have then, they're unnecessary.
Skeletons burst from the coffins at the end of the hall. These enemies have a green cursor on them, shouldn't be too much of an issue then. I pull out my revolver and ready my blade. Just because they're weak doesn't mean they don't have a few surprises up their sleeves.
Six skeletons are standing before me. Two swords are swung down at my avatar. Side stepping the first blade, the second one is parried by my sword. The skeleton with his sword away from his body is met with an upward slash. The next one is shot by my revolver.
Two of them down is a good start, but not good enough. My twin party members take a formation for a double spell. I should've guessed they were mages from the way their staves look. "Ice Coffin!" Both yell.
Ice forms at the end of both of their staves then shoots out a star made of ice. This is a wide area spell which hits all of the skeletons enough to leave all their health in the red. Now is the time to strike, I'm not sure if NPC's can heal or not but let's not take any chances.
My sword goes through the ribcage of one skeleton. To get him off my revolver goes to his skull and I fire. The bones become lifeless as they're sent flying back. The bullet also penetrated both layers of the bone and hit another skeleton. Even though they're just bone and magic, they're tough to kill.
The shot boneman is staggering; my sword goes to my side as I run up to it. Drawing back my arm to gain force for the strike is important. I want to make sure this thing dies for good this time around. The blade touches the bottom of the pelvis and slices up. Cleaved straight in half. Looking over my shoulder, the twin players are finishing off the remaining enemies.
The pink haired one has smashed the animated bones into the ground. Blue haired just poked her staff through the chest of her enemy. With the battle done, the end screen pops up. Enough experience to get to level 18 now. As well as a few ingredients I may be able to sell to William later.
The ground starts to rumble. With it the bones of the twice dead skeletons move to a point. "Oh you've got to be kidding me!?" I yell out as the bones begin to form an even larger enemy.
It's about twice my size made of bones of course. The weapon it wields is a huge hammer that takes both of its hands to carry. Not only are bones its structural support, they're also what makes up its armor. I notice this since it has an unusually large collar guard.
"Your souls will be mine puny mortals!" That doesn't spell cliché at all now does it.
We don't have a choice, we have to fight. My sword arm rises up and now the blade is pointing to the ground. The revolver arm simply extends out and the barrel faces it. The twins get into a symmetrical stance. Holding their staves in the right on ones case, and left on the others. Their feet also cross with each others to complete this stance.
"I'll bathe in your blood!" Yet another cliché this game has offered so far.
Skeleton King runs at us readying his hammer for a strike. Knowing full and well what's going to happen I brace.
Nothing happens though, my health hasn't changed and I'm still in the same spot I was in before. Opening my eyes I realize that I have an ice shield in front of me. Looking back, the twins have magic coming out of their staves from powering the shield.
Once the shield drops fire my revolver at dandy dick over here. His health bar slightly decreases, but not by much. His hammer slams down right next to me shattering the earth it hit. Part of my life goes down from the shock of the impact.
His shoulder is facing right towards me, his hammer must be really heavy. Swinging my sword, he lets out a cry. "Ah! You'll pay for that!" Does he really have to yell everything? Much like my first ancient dragon, his defense sucks but he hits harder than hell.
This time he gets up rather quickly and prepares another attack. This time at the twins I'm with however. Swinging the huge maul down upon them, both stare at it like deer in headlights.
"*Clang!* My sword meets the maul before it reaches them. The ground bellow me is caving in from how much for there is here. My avatar is losing health rapidly from being pushed into a pancake. The twins cast what I can assume is icy wind to blow him off of me.
"Thanks…" If they hadn't pulled that I'd be dead right about now. I'm not sure we can take him though. My health has been restored with a potion now, but he's crazy strong. I can't give up, I'm not going to let a party member die on me. I need to stop watching Sword Art Online.
My revolver fires again at our enemy. This time a hand comes up to block them. Since he needs two hands to hold that maul of his, now's the optimal time to strike. The twin sorceresses cast the same spell as earlier. What was it again?
"…"
"Ice Coffin!" Now I remember the name of it. Good lord I have bad memory today.
The star of ice is sent flying towards the skeleton king. I add to the speed because I hit it when it flew past me. One of his eyes starts to glow again before being pinned against a wall by ice.
Now it's his health bar that's rapidly dropping by the second. If I didn't these two here to help me then I would've been done for. I'm kind of lucky now that I think about it. Maybe one day these two can do a quest with the other friends I have.
He lets out a groan, before his body crumbles into dust. Bone meal is the correct term but who gives a shit as to what you call it. Now that that's out of the way, time to check the exp screen.
"Sweet! I leveled up!" The pink haired girls says enthusiastically.
"Me… too." Blue haired one still shy from all of this.
I'm no different, I'm level 20 now, one of the great milestones of leveling. I must have a million years to go before I'm caught up with Vert though. I'm happy with my level, and the perk upgrade I picked. It's called lightning shot, a move that I can use once every two minutes that deals massive damage to the target.
"Ok, there's only one room left. The boss room, the reason why we're here."
Both girls nod and heal up. Walking just a little distance, a door appears leading to the final room. If this ancient dragon is anything like the last one, I might not be up to the challenge.
No backing out now, I have to face the horrors in the boss room if I'm to improve. Onward to victory!