"Rose, let's go, we have to get to a town if we wanna sleep… It's dangerous to stay out too long when it's so late…" Lily grabbed her sister's arm and tugged urgently.

"But… I'm so tired…" The other girl said with a yawn, "Come on, nothing out here is going to hurt us that much… we can take turns on shift."

There was a sigh as Lily shook her head in frustration, "I'm exhausted too, neither of us would be able to keep ourselves awake. We can't be very far at any rate…" The need for sleep was seeping through her voice as the pair's pace was significantly slower than it should have been. "I'm sorry I made us stay out so long…"

"It's alright… And you're right, we have to go," Rose agreed with a shrug.

On her back, Rose had a basic two-handed spear; it was made of a basic starting-level material and bought from an NPC shop in Horunka – the second village on the first floor – before departing for Tolbana. However, Lily had wanted to take their time and get the most out of training that they could during the trip before losing track of time. She wore light metal armour of a basic dark grey iron. On the other hand, Lily wore leather equipment, and equipped to her hip was a cutlass, obtained at the same shop as Rose's spear. She had no shield because she had adopted a rather unique playstyle before Kayaba's announcement which used thrown weapons as well as her primary weapon. She didn't only use them to start a fight, but rather to increase her damage output throughout. She wore a dark purple coat over her leather armour and a belt with several throwing picks.

The pair were very grateful that the roads were far safer than they had to be and it had been several minutes since they were confronted with any kind of challenge apart from keeping themselves on their feet as they pushed forward. Finally, from the top of a small hill, they could see the end of the forest and the short walk to Tolbana from where it let out, and the sisters both seemed to be hit by a small blast of energy as their pace turned to a brisk jog. The downhill slope helped them to move slightly more efficiently, but just as they were coming to the base, there was a growl from the woods and Lily pivoted on her foot, slowing her descent on the dirt path and kicking up dust around her. However, Rose turned her head, lost her footing, and tumbled forward as a wolf burst from the treeline and pinned her down. It had red eyes and black fur with white tendrils patterned onto its legs, curling up around the limbs. However, the most noticeable feature of it was that it was about the size of two people and its teeth were a terrifying white as they lunged forward and bit the girl that was pinned down. There was a scream and Lily froze for a split second in pure terror.

"Rose, no!" She cried out, instantly pulling her curved blade from her hip as her other hand slid to the opposite side of her body and she grabbed a pick from her belt. It shined in blue as it was thrown directly into the wolf's haunch, her cutlass flashing the same colour and sliced over the animal in the Slant sword skill. However, the wolf didn't seem to be affected as the girl began to hack at it with every move that she possibly could, but the health bar was only inching down by small fractions and from the corner of her eye, Lily could see her helpless sister's bar dipping… It began to flash in red as she screamed for help. It didn't help that the two of them were exhausted.

Suddenly, there was a shout from nearby and it struck a chord within the wolf, whose ears perked and its gaze turned. A boy with short white hair and what appeared to be a heavy set of iron armour was standing at the top of the hill. Lily had thought that the Howling skill was almost useless, but it had just saved both Rose's and her lives. There was a large square shield that came forward with a one-handed straight sword as the wolf turned its attention and pounced upward on the hill. The heavily armoured player pivoted slightly, guiding the canine with his shield past him before his blade flashed and slipped into the beast's abdomen. Lily was instantly on her sister, pulling out a potion and handing it over.

"Drink…" She ordered seriously as she kicked the ground beside her and launched toward the fight. A moment later, Rose had joined the two of them in the fight, thrusting her spear forward and redirecting the massive wolf before her whenever it changed targets. Within minutes, it made a shattering sound which echoed throughout the area, a message appearing in front of Lily, announcing her advancement of level. She closed it without a second thought and lunged at her sister, taking her into a rough embrace as she felt her throat constricting, tears prickling at her eyes.

"You and your balance… why can't you just stay on your feet?!" She cried out in a darkly humorous fear. Rose was shaking as she hugged her twin in response, yet she still smiled while a few tears rolled down her cheeks.

"You know that I wasn't the athletic one… It was a player error, I guess," She replied. There was an audible throat-clearing sound nearby as the armoured male slid his blade into its sheath on his back directly beneath his shield.

The girls separated and looked over at him, forgetting that he was there. Lily wiped at her eyes and gave a small laugh, "Oh, I'm so sorry… Pardon my rudeness… Uhm… Thank you so much… You just saved our lives," She sputtered in disbelief, trying to think of how exactly to thank their savior.

The man laughed; his voice was a little bit deeper than expected with a rather average stature, even beneath his large armour, and short, straight white hair that fell down just over a pair of brown-black eyes. He quirked an eyebrow as he crossed his arms, shaking his head, "It's alright… We're an endangered species… players, I mean. You two look beat… I'm Bara. Good to see I wasn't too late. I don't mean to be too crass here, but did that thing drop anything? It was a one-of-a-kind monster I just spent all day hunting down and the pelt is worth a lot of Col to the budding tailor or seamstress – as soon as the supporting skills start to become popular, I mean…"

"Oh, er… Yeah, he did, here," She said, materializing and tossing the pelt to him without a second thought. "That is awfully lucky… Were you on your way to Tolbana?"

"Yeah, I figure you two were too…"

"Mhm, we lost track of time," Lily said with a small blush, rubbing her neck as they all started back on their walk, the girls feeling far safer with a third companion. "Oh, geeze, sorry. I'm Lily and this is Ro-" She started before getting nudged roughly in the side, "Hana. We're sisters… So, you said you spent all day looking for that thing… How'd you know it was out here?"

Bara shrugged and bit the inside of his cheek, not sure if he should really say anything before finally replying, "I was in the beta test. Not to mention that the information brokers have already started to charge outrageously for stuff like that. I didn't want to give them the chance to profit on something before anybody had the money to actually afford it… At least they released that guide book… Er… Anyway, that's a unique style you're using… Not a lot of people thought of that – even through the month of beta testing – using a speed weapon in one hand and kind of working around the game to use thrown weapons at the same time. Hmph… Wish I would have thought of that – eh, too late, I grew attached to the tank build here anyway… So where did you guys come from?"

"Horunka," Lily replied with a small laugh, tossing a pick up and catching it again as it fell a few times.

"Wow… That's quite a trek for one day… Why didn't you guys take that one town at a time?"

"We found a direct path that kind of cut time down from Horunka to Tolbana… We had a good safety margin and we heard that a lot of people had already gone there… We spent the first couple of days getting ourselves righted… We just decided that we couldn't just waste away… anyway, we didn't want to be too far behind to be productive, so we've been pushing – er, I've been pushing us really hard… and that's why we nearly lost everything today…" She shared in slight embarrassment and regret. Rose hadn't said much since they started, apart from a thank you and a shared smile with Bara, but then Lily was always the outspoken of the two.

"Well, that's a respectable perspective… If you guys would like, we can split the price of two rooms at the inn I've been staying at – it's the least I can do for your help there. Maybe we could even party up… I hear that the clearing group found the field boss just yesterday, so they need all the blades they can muster. Bosses always have good drops and excellent experience, if you're interested." He shared as they entered the city.

Lily had to pause for a minute and get a handle on how quickly they had arrived – had they really been so occupied by conversation..? She scolded herself silently; she had to be more attentive – what if something even more dangerous had appeared? The girl shook her head and looked to Bara, "Er… Yeah, we'll think about it and let you know tomorrow. Thanks for telling us…" She said absently, her eyes cutting through the town slowly, "So, where's this inn you were talking about?"

"It's just ahead a little ways, let me send you partial payment for your room," He said, opening his menu as they walked and transferring the Col before pointing out the building. "Take the one next to mine and I'll come check on you guys around eleven tomorrow morning – let you get your sleep."

"Oh, alright… erm… thank you – see you tomorrow morning, then," Lily said with a nod before paying for her and Rose's room and going to the second floor behind Bara before taking the next room over. As the sisters lied down beside one another in the large bed at the center of the room, Rose turned over toward the girl beside her.

"Hey, Lily…" She called quietly from the opposite side of the bed.

"Hm?"

"About today… I'm sorry… I… I'll be more careful…" Lily looked at her sister, perplexed, before giving her a small smile and shaking her head.

"It's okay, Rose… You just need some rest – I shouldn't have pushed us so hard… I'll make sure not to keep us out so late next time. Lessons learned, right? Now you need some sleep, let's go to bed."

Lily called out her menu and set an alarm for herself before turning away from Rose and closing her eyes. Burned to the back of her eyelids was the image of Rose, pinned beneath that massive beast, screaming for aid from a weak girl, left helpless in fear and without the strength she needed. If not for Bara, they would both be dead… What would she have done? After about an hour of arguing with herself, Lily managed to fall asleep, mostly thanks in part to Rose's soft snoring, signaling the girl's slumber.