"Clothes? Huh?" Hajime looked downward.
She screeched loudly, as she had when she first undressed, and scrambled over to her gear. Crouching near the ground, she hugged the pile of equipment close to her. As best she could she covered herself.
The warrior was facing away from her sitting on a small boulder, scratching the top of his head. Thus allowing Hajime as much privacy as the setting allowed to dress. Quickly, she put on the top undershirt of the gambeson and began to equip herself.
Man, I hope there's a feature to equip items quickly like in the old YGGDRASIL. This is kinda tedious. "So what do you think the devs had in mind for this event?"
"What?"
"Ya know, like I said earlier."
"These are men from the Slane Theocracy. Probably slavers, you're lucky I got here when I did."
"I could've taken them. It was only a trash mob."
"Tch! Yeah, they were about to fall over to your streaking."
Hajime rolled her eyes. "I wasn't planning on streaking. They just… caught me at a bad time."
"And what of the scream I heard from you? You have a funny definition of 'handling it'"
"[Fireball]"
A burst of fire hissed past the warrior's head and into the trees nearby, exploding into a large column of fire. The warrior fell backward and was gasping for air.
"That answer your question?"
The warrior turned and growled, "You have your own gear that can do that!"
All he saw was Hajime, clothed in the undershirt of the gambeson, waving at him with one hand. An innocent smile on her face. The warrior harrumphed and turned away from her. Hajime pulled up the pair of trousers and stared at the rest of her armor. I got it off, now how do I get it back on again?
She put her boots on her feet next and then the chain shirt after getting the rest of the gambeson on. Hajime picked up the sabatons and greaves. She took a moment to examine the straps located on the edge of the plates. Hajime fixed the leg armor to herself and worked at getting the breastplate on. Then finally, the gauntlets and bracers. With some fiddling, Hajime had all the armor back in place.
She went over to the bodies of the men the warrior had just killed. Seeing that she was suitably dressed, the warrior watched her.
"Why is a magic caster like you wielding a sword? Shouldn't you be using robes and staves?" the warrior asked, although rudely.
"Psh! Please. Don't group me with those glass cannons. I'm playing a magus."
The warrior eyed her quizzically.
"Who are you?" the warrior said.
"I'd like to think of myself as nobody of consequence. Who are you?"
Hajime was now more forcibly removing anything that she deemed valuable. The Slane Theocracy thugs' swords was a good start and she put them into her inventory. The dark portal to her inventory appeared whenever she wished to stash an item.
"That's dodging the question." the warrior said.
"And you're dodging mine," Hajime said playfully.
The warrior grunted, displeased. He crossed his arms. "My name is Huck. I'm a warrior from the Re-Estize Kingdom"
"Is that your real name or your character's name?" Hajime asked.
"My character?"
"Yeah, the one you're playing as right now in the game."
Baffled Huck said, "Will you stop talking like that! This isn't any game."
Hajime put a finger to her mouth, "Oh, so this is an RP server, I get it!"
"Just tell me your name."
I may as well go by this character's name while I'm in it. Fine, I am Elora now. Besides, Hajime is a man's name anyway it'd probably alienate Huck more than I've already done. Aww, sorry Sis!
Hajime gave a mischievous grin. "Fine, I'll play along, my name is Elora."
Huck folded his arms in annoyance as Elora finished looting the corpses. She piled the bodies in a heap near the pond and pointed a finger at them.
"[Spark]"
The bodies immolated as fire slowly grew. Smoke rose into the air and the stink of burning flesh stabbed Elora's nose.
"Eeah! Gross!" Elora plugged her nostrils.
"What are you doing!?" Huck said.
Elora defended, "What? It was a good idea!"
"You just revealed our location, that fire is going to alert every patrol in the area!"
"Huh? There are more of those?"
"After letting a few of their buddies go, yes."
Elora chided herself for not thinking about that sooner. Huck stood up and began to walk out of the clearing.
"Wait," Elora said.
"We don't have time to wait, let's go."
"I know, I do have something I need to get really quick."
Elora walked back in the direction of the guildhall. It took longer than it did the first time because Huck wasn't as adept at dodging the undergrowth as she. He spent most of his time grumbling through the branches. Yet, despite that, he tagged along. Whether it was out of a sense of chivalry or a way for him to not be alone, Elora couldn't tell. Still, she was somewhat grateful for the company. It made her feel less alone.
After reaching the guild's entrance, Elora motioned for Huck to wait.
"I'll be out in a few minutes, don't leave without me please, I've got some more questions."
"That depends on how generous I feel, I still haven't received a thank you for killing those thugs for you. You have a strange way of showing gratitude."
Elora put her hands on her hips, "I told you, a trash mob isn't going to kill me."
Huck leaned against a tree. "Damsels in distress aren't supposed to act like this," he muttered to himself.
Elora chuckled before using her guild ring to teleport inside the hall. She leaned against the stone entrance and gathered her thoughts.
I still don't know if this is a game or not. Huck seems to me to be a player that likes to RP. At least I'm hoping he's a player. NPC's who interact with you and hold perfect conversations would take an unbelievably sophisticated AI. Which I don't think exists yet.
Elora snapped her fingers. Duh, why didn't I try calling a GM in the first place? I feel so stupid for not trying that earlier.
She put a hand to her ear and focused inwardly to try and find the GM call function and soon was able to locate it. Reaching out as she had with other game features, she directed a message to the nearest GM.
No response.
Elora's face darkened. I guess I'm not in a game after all. One final test.
Elora started the logout function. She was met with the same success as the GM call. She slumped against the wall as her weight increased. Then slowly lowered herself to the floor. Elora hugged her knees.
Mom…
Dad…
Sis...
Home…
Doubts entered Elora's mind. Was she going to find a way home? Is it possible? A world of magic certainly has a way to do that, she meditated. She looked around at the guildhall, lost. She sniffed and laboriously put herself on her feet. With difficulty, placing one foot in front of the other, she walked inside the guildhall.
Each step became easier as she focused on an immediate goal. Elora walked through the hallways and entered the guild bank once again. Taking a moment to get her bearings, she remembered where they kept the consumibles. It was a small room lined with shelves with glass flasks of varying colors and degrees of decoration. Cabinets opposite the door had tomes and various scrolls inside them. A countertop was built as an island in the middle of the room.
Moving to the cabinets, Elora took out a large blue tome. After a moment of reading, she placed it on the countertop.
As I thought, it's difficult for me to read the scrolls contained in this Tome of Teleport. It seems that the stats from this character translated over to this world. Ugh, if that's the case then it can take us any number of places if I botch it. A whole ten levels will have to pass for me to cast [Teleport] on my own. Elora groaned. I wish that this class could cast [Gate] in later levels.
Taking the tome, Elora attached a clip to it and put it on her belt beside her hip. She walked out from the room and through the armory to the premium items' room. Before her, weapons and armor reserved high level characters who reached the endgame. Each radiated a palpable magic aura which Elora sensed keenly now. The craftsmanship and beauty of these items was unmistakable.
One in particular caught her eye. It was a hand-and-a-half sword which had a gap in the blade from the tip to the guard. The serrated edges of the blade was colored red which faded gradually to silver at the ends. A purple aura flickered like static throughout. Elora went to the display case holding the sword and opened it. The magic generated from the item met her like steam rushing from an open pot. She winced when it hit her. Holding out her hand she tried to grip the hilt of the sword.
A shock burned her senses as well as a tangible force rejected her hand. Elora recoiled from the burst.
As I thought, I'm too low leveled to wield it. It's going to take time to reach a point where I can go for it without worry. I may as well get equipped with the best gear I can at this level. Another thought hit her. CAN I level up in this world?
Figuring that was a test for another time, Elora went back into the main part of the bank. Finding the best items she could wield, she equipped herself. The effect was a garish combination of armor that didn't match. I am definitely not leaving like this.
A short time later, Elora teleported back to the entrance outside the guildhall. Huck was standing by a tree with his arms up leisurely behind his head with his eyes shut. Elora walked up to him.
"I'm ready to go now," she said.
"It took you long enough. Where did you go?"
"I grabbed a few things. It'll make travel a bit more convenient."
Huck stood up straight and stretched his arms. "If it makes up for lost time then I don't have a problem-" Huck cut himself off as he saw Elora.
She was wearing a combination of a wizard's robe and the medium armor she had before. The ornate robe was over the breastplate and chainmail beneath on the torso. It had a red-violet base color with pale blue accents. The robe flowed to knee length before revealing more armor on her legs. The tome of teleport was at attached at her hip. Elora's upper arms were exposed until her forearms became covered with bracers. Her right arm was gauntleted but her left was only covered with a light fingerless glove.
Elora motioned to her new outfit. "It's not much, but I figured I shouldn't take any chances."
"Are you from the Adventurer's Guild? What rank are you?" Huck asked, dumbfounded.
Adventurer's Guild? So they have that sort of thing here.
"I'm from Kaz Aida Firius. That's who I adventured with."
"It's not a group I know. What rank were you?"
Elora put a hand to her chin. "I'm not too sure, actually. We were just around for fun. No expectations to meet a rank or status."
Huck's eyes widened. "For fun?! You alone appear to be at least orichalcum ranked."
"Is that a bad thing?" Elora asked.
"You really don't have a clue? For adventurers there are copper, iron, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, orichalcum, and, finally, adamantite. I'd put you in at least orichalcum, that's what I'm at." Huck pointed at a small red-gold plate with cords attached that he wore around his neck.
Elora considered it for a moment. "This Adventurer's Guild, do you often find high quality loot?"
"It depends on the job. Now, let's get out of here before any more of the Slane Theocracy show up." Huck turned and was about to hurry off when Elora grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait," Elora said. Huck turned to see Elora holding the open tome and light shone around them.
"[Teleport!]" Elora said as they disappeared in a flash of light.