Note: After reading a bunch of other stories and novels, I've come to the conclusion that I need to strike a sweet point between progression and detail, so I'll be speeding up progression a bit, and not dwelling extensively over every little event.

Also unfortunately, I'll be quitting extensive proofreading of every chapter, which lengthens release times. It'd be nice if I had a beta reader who didn't just grammar check, but also considered progression and tone, among a host of other things. Going through every word and phrase and sentence with a fine-toothed comb is just about driving me insane. Another reason why my writing is getting slower is because I've been spending a LOT of time drawing in Photoshop. I've only finished one image, thouogh it's not very great, you can find it at UzumakiToshi at DA if you want. Not to mention I'm taking school seriously and am actually learning computer animation now.

Two things of note this chapter: I have been trying to cut down on excessive use of adverbs (Words that end with -ly), as well as explicit use of inner thoughts in italics outside of direct conversation with Kyuubi. In exchange, I've been trying to be a bit more descriptive with emotions and accompanying actions. I'd like some feedback on how it comes off with these changes.

Chapter 12: Decisions, Decisions

xxxx

The party marched through the thinning foliage, heading to the next point of interest. They traveled to the inhospitable north on the basis that satisfying a B-rank quest had to be difficult. Kirhi had chosen a rather distant destination out of the many possible choices, but he could at least give decision-making capabilities to the two he was dragging along.

"It's been pretty bare, hasn't it?"

Veritas ignored the rhetorical question, the answer – yes – being obvious to anyone with a pair of working eyes. Gunter, on the other hand, jumped at the opportunity to deliver a verbal riposte.

"Like your breasts, right?" he asked with a laugh, elbowing her playfully.

His light laughter became hacking coughs within a half second, as Kirhi dropped him to the floor with a crushing, magical blow to the solar plexus. Veritas had seen this before; the Arcane Hammer spell was an offshoot of the more common Arcane Arrow (This a stronger version of the novice Magic Missile spell), purposed towards a last-ditch close-quarters attack. From what he knew, Arcane Hammer was the magical equivalent of his Mighty Blow. The spellcaster's INT stat acted as STR at a 1:1 ratio, meaning the spell could be very deadly if someone not at full HP got hit by it.

Its inherent weakness lay in the fact that just about every spellcaster, to the man and woman, pumped points into Intelligence or Wisdom, leaving their Agility stat in a state of inadequacy. One could be wielding the mightiest weapon in existence, but it'd be meaningless if the wielder couldn't land a single hit. How did Kirhi get her hands on a spell used to exclusivity by the Battlemage class? Quite simple, really... The game awarded her the combat skill for her repeated and oft-excessive physical abuse of her partner.

"There are things one shouldn't say in a given situation, and things one should never utter so long as they draw breath, Daesung." Kirhi loomed over his fallen figure, her expression akin to an avenging angel of death. Not that Veritas knew what an angel would look like at all, but that was his impression of her dreadful visage.

"Fo-Forgive me, Eunhi," Gunter said, his voice a croak. Archers were the most lightly armored out of all the direct combat classes, so the damage he took from the surprise strike left him near-death.

"Gunter's idiocy aside, what I meant was that even though we're near the edge of the snow elves' territory, there are hardly any monsters this far from the village." She studied the map they'd copied from the one in Nyxia's residence, pointing out their current relative location about fifteen miles north of the village. It wouldn't take much longer to reach the absolute boundary of elven land and enter the much-whispered wilderness.

"Is Veritas-nim still hung up about that stat reduction?" asked Gunter, before downing a precious potion.

Instant potions, due to their convenience in their lightweight and ease and speed of consumption, were costly alternatives to healing spells, food effects, and passive HP regeneration. Still, in a pinch they were much better at restoring HP, so every combat class carried some potions on their person at all times.

"Well, I can't say I don't understand how big a loss it is."

"Yeah, for someone who emphasizes direct confrontations, that kind of near-permanent debuff must be shocking." Gunter looked back at the trailing Veritas.

"Well, this is getting annoying," said Kirhi, huffing out of impatience. "What do we do?"

"I think we should wait for him to calm down."

Kirhi's response to that was a harsh laugh. "Please, Gunter, your introverted meekness has no place here. This is why your classmates think you don't care about them and you have no friends."

"... You might want to work on your people skills."

"If I were the type to shy away from offending people, I probably wouldn't be your friend."

"... Yeah..."

Kirhi slowed, with Gunter following her lead. As Veritas drew even, she said, loudly, "Veritas-nim, we need to talk."

This grabbed Veritas' attention, at which point Kirhi motioned to Gunter, who, broadening his shoulders, barred the way from the front. "This. is. an intervention!" said Gunter, following up with a forward kick that drew a pitying look from his friend. "What, that movie's a classic. Don't judge me!" He began to redden and drew back, arms crossed.

Veritas turned to them with thousand-yard stare. "... Talk about what?"

"You're being an eyesore." Kirhi dropped all pretenses, slamming his spirit with her amazing bluntness. "You're dragging your feet, slowing us down, not paying attention, holding us up, and I'm sick and tired of you being a downer and bringing down the entire party with your bad mood. Shape up, or get out until you're better."

Veritas shook his head, as if trying to clear it. "... Right... You're right." He looked to the corner at the real-time clock, which read 11:43. "Since it's starting to get late, I'll log off for tonight and think my situation through overnight."

"We'll be waiting seven, no, eight real-world hours from now," Gunter said, his complexion bearing a faint sheen of sweat as he looked between Veritas and Kirhi. This was an offer meant to establish a clear meeting time and to cut off any scathing words Kirhi might want to speak aloud.

Her expression was like that of acid; If her gaze were tangible, it'd bore a hole straight through him. It was something he hadn't seen since the days of his youth, filled with the blind ostracism of others. "If you show us up, then we'll just leave without you, Veritas. I'm grateful for all you've done, but if that's all it takes to break this party up, then that's just how it'll have to be."

"... Got it."

As his view darkened, Naruto ruminated on the inherent unfairness of life. Why? Why him? Why did he have to suffer the way he was? Not only was he thrown into another world, but this pattern was one that dominated his life, the pattern of having something forced onto , it was Kurama, and now, this.

Whoa! What's this about me?

No offense, but I got stuck with you. I never had a choice.

Pft, neither did I, bub. Welcome to the club.

He exited the pod and stepped out of the apartment to escape his ill-ventilated apartment's stuffy air. Eight hours.

Naruto, what's up? I can tell you're feeling agitated, and I don't know why, so it's really annoying.

Hey, Kurama.

Yeah?

What do you even do while I'm in the pod?

Oh, you know... I think about why I have to put up with your abuse, what you're up to, why you're such an asshole for leaving me here doing nothing for pretty much forever. Stuff like that. Sometimes, I really want to tear your puny flesh body to shreds, you know that?

I hear that at least once a week.

Yeah well, whatever you're feeling... deal with it, punk. Now I'm in a bad mood. I don't want to hear about it anymore.

You're quite the bundle of joy, aren't you?

Shut up and go to bed, you insensitive bastard. I hope you get cardiac arrest in your sleep.

Naruto took a deep breath, savoring the evening air's refreshing chill in his lungs and on his skin. The usual conversation with Kyuubi restored some normalcy to his bothered mind. He'd never say it in person, but he felt thankful that his tenant always spoke to him with such rude familiarity. The respect he and his party exchanged each other was starting to grate on him. He did respect them for their magnanimity, but to show such continuous deference was discomfiting given his upbringing and origins.

Once in the real world again, he remembered this wasn't the first time he'd been set by an unwanted guest. At first, Kurama had been so unhelpful that he almost flunked becoming a ninja, but later grew to be one of his greatest boons.

If he thought about it like that, the spirit might not be so bad after all.

…

Still, that stat reduction was a steep price to pay. Almost too steep. Or maybe it wasn't just almost, given the amount of time needed as an investment for it to pay out.

SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE! Kurama shouted, fed up with the barrage of inner thoughts late at night.

"What, you mean you don't get enough of it while I'm in Royal Road? I should start calling you a lazy-ass fox instead."

You never were much of a joker. Good at pranks, but not much at anything else, I'm afraid.

"You too, buddy. You too."

xxxx

Upon logging back in, Veritas found himself flanked by Gunter and Kirhi.

"So, I hope you've cooled down some," Kirhi said, crossing her arms. The expression on her face said she wouldn't take no for an answer.

She's quite the firebrand... Reminds me of a certain someone from back home. Images of his pink-haired teammate flooded his thoughts for some moments. He shut his eyes, distancing himself from his emotional memories to concentrate on the present. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm good to go now. Thanks."

"Then let's get a move on, this quest won't finish by itself."

"Even though you were the one who least wanted to take it," Gunter said under his breath, just loud enough for him to hear. As soon as the words left his mouth, he glanced sidelong at his friend to see if she'd heard him. Bearing no reaction, Gunter looked to him, and they shared mischievous grins.

I wonder if Weed-nim is partying up like this. I guess depending on the party, it can be either more or less efficient than going solo.

He bore idle thoughts as they trekked across the frozen wasteland. True to its word, the world of Royal Road was every bit as expansive as a real world.

And just as tedious to travel, especially at a normal human's pace. I just can't get used to this... I can't run as I please outside or inside the game.

"So, what's the big deal about elementals?" Veritas asked Gunter, the party's unofficial encyclopedia.

"Well, the priestess pretty much said almost all of it. Stat reductions aside, higher level elementals are potent fighting forces. It'd be like having another party member. For a 10% stat reduction, I'd say that's a fair price to pay. Although..."

"Give it to me straight, for my sake."

"It wouldn't be strange for the stat reduction to increase as the elemental gains strength. Granted, I doubt that the relationship is linear, since that wouldn't create any incentive to use an elemental companion. So, in the long run, it should cancel out the reductions and then some by nature of its fighting strength."

"If it's any good in combat, yeah."

How dare you! I'll have you know that I am quite competent!

They must have seen his expression sour, because they adopted pitying smiles.

"By the way, Veritas-nim," Gunter took time to plan his next words, "does the elemental have a gender?"

"Huh, I don't know."

"What?" Kirhi's exclamation had both their heads turning. "You do know that proper NPC interaction is key to success, right? How do you interact with an NPC if you don't even properly find out which gender it is?"

"I wouldn't mind if it left..."

Rude as always, aren't we? To answer that question, spirits below maxima-class are genderless. Major spirits like myself can choose to take physical form, but the gender of that form depends on its master.

"Genderless, huh. Then, I'd rather not see a dick flopping around."

"Y-! What kind of words do you think you're saying around a maiden!" Kirhi demanded, blushing a furious crimson.

"Maiden, huh..."

"W-What's with that reaction, Dae-ho!?"

"Eun-hi..."

"Well, that's payback for when you said my name, so we're even now."

Were Sasuke and I always like this? Now that I'm on the outside facing in, it really does feel kind of annoying to deal with. Man, Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan sure had their hands full.

"And you! What's with that face of yours giving off that 'how annoying' look!"

Veritas turned away, unwilling to look at her steadfast glare. "I have no idea what you're talking about. What look?"

xxxx

Two days of constant traveling and bickering later, they were here at last. Finally.

As if reading his mind, a moan of pain drifted from the rear. Though Royal Road's game systems reduced the sensation of pain felt by players, the game designers chose not to eliminate it altogether. Punishment had to follow mistakes. As an aside, tanks did not possess many skills to reduce this pain, despite their role as a damage sponge. From behind, Veritas could see Gunter shambling and trying to keep up, a result of the countless strikes he'd suffered from Kirhi through their arguing. Even the use of potions to restore his hit points couldn't dampen the psychological wear and tear he suffered from the constant sensation of dull pain.

On the other hand, he had issues of his own; a certain spirit came to mind. He was thankful the elemental hadn't been butting into their conversations as of late, but wished it would stop reading his thoughts. He seemed to need to prove himself as a worthy master to the elemental before it gave him its full loyalty and obedience, which was honestly a pain because he didn't know which criteria to fulfill. This was on his to-do list for the near future.

As it should be.

You really need to stop reading my thoughts.

Only when you prove yourself. This is the natural order of things.

Ugh!

"The clearing should be just up ahead," said Kirhi, giving him a reason to ignore the chatterbox of an elemental. She lead the way, towards the seeming end of the tranquil and untouched forest they'd entered yesterday.

Unlike the forests around Helmstad, the trees here were evergreens, their intense greenness a welcome contrast to the muted whites and greys of the wastelands. Gunter and Kirhi had made passing remarks about a holiday named Christmas, to which he just mumbled anything to make it sound like he knew what they were talking about.

"Let's be careful," Gunter said, the muscles in his face tensing despite his calm voice. "Even though we're outside snow elf territory, we still haven't encountered many monsters. There has to be a reason why."

"Maybe the land's just too inhospitable?" Veritas offered.

The archer shook his head. "In real life, sure, but there always has to be a consideration for balance in a game. Even in a game as realistic as Royal Road."

"I'll go scout the area out then. I'm the stealthiest of the group, and also the fastest, if things get troublesome." He wasn't too proficient in the art of stealth, but even the worst Genin was leagues better than a regular civilian. Though, Veritas admitted, he had done a lot of skulking about ever since coming to this world, out of necessity. Definitely not at Kakashi-level, but improved enough that he'd probably surprise the others if they saw him now.

Veritas inched himself forward until his sightline just cleared the ridge, revealing as little of himself as possible. What lay below were hulking, white-furred monsters. They walked on two legs and stood at least two or three times the height of a person, with muscular arms as wide as a man.

He recognized them at first glance. Yetis, they were dangerous monsters with a median level of 340! Bipedal, semi-intelligent, and possessing unexpected dexterity, they were agile, powerful, and deadly. A yeti had the ability to chill whatever it touched, magnifying the already omnipresent danger of freezing in the frozen north.

He crept away at a snail's pace, afraid to make any sound that might catch their attention. The level difference was so severe that even one might be able to wipe their party out, and death meant being locked out, which was unacceptable. He needed to become stronger, faster, for his investment to pay out! The money he sunk into the pod was irrecoverable, and while his Korean was coming along step by step, he was still at least a year away from mastering the language, even with shadow clones; He could only make so many in an area before raising suspicions, and with no visa, he couldn't check books out of the library. He could steal them outright, but he was loath to stoop so low. So, Veritas played it safe and took a whole twenty minutes to crawl out of earshot before running off to inform his party.

Gunter gave an exaggerated sigh, running a hand through his hair. "Yetis? Really, Kirhi? Really?"

"And how is that my fault? Idiot."

"Yeah, yeah..."

"Right, so," Veritas whipped out the map from his pack, "let's cut our losses and choose another point. But man... why are such strong monsters here?"

"Well, I heard on the forums that the further north you go, uniformity in spawning patterns falls off to almost nothing, so one location might spawn level 100s while the place right next to it might spawn level 300s. That's why this area is considered one of the more dangerous areas, along with the chilling cold. Right now it's fine since we stop to make fires to heat up and we got some warm equipment before we left the village, but where undead start appearing, I heard that it's really easy to get stuck with cold debuffs all the time."

"Leave it to Gunter to act like an encyclopedia."

"Isn't it a good thing I actually look things up, unlike this blockhead here, Veritas-nim?"

"Hah? This blockhead here got top scores in class, unlike you."

"Don't bring that up... I was up too late playing video games and I forgot to study..."

"... I'm guessing that this level discrepancy and harsh weather is the reason why the north isn't player-mapped?"

"Uh, right, that's right." Gunter brought his hand up to his scrunched forehead. "A blank map doesn't even have so much as topography on it, so the hardest part of mapping is beginning to do it."

Veritas patted the map in his hands. "Then...?"

"Well, the game lore goes back thousands of years, so it's not unthinkable for the snow elves to have mapped this area out during that time," said Kirhi. "Royal Road only came out a year ago, so I doubt any other players managed to get their hands on a map like this. Not yet, anyways."

"By 'not yet', what she means is that right now, players are focusing on exploring the world as quickly as possible to gain any advantage they can," said Gunter, piping in. "It's not really efficient to take precious time to befriend a hostile race."

"They'd get around to it, eventually. For newer players like us, searching between the cracks for sweet treasure will be the most beneficial. Though, dangerous quests like this should be something we avoid, not run headlong into." She frowned, turning to Veritas so that he could see her displeasure. "We got lucky with the dungeon find."

"… Sorry," Veritas mumbled, abashed. He smiled inwardly, their conversation reminding him of how he and Konohamaru would plot for hours to depose the Sandaime and become Hokage themselves. He missed those innocent days, where he didn't have to worry about rent or income or ninja world wars. Now he knew why people reminisced on their halcyon days often once they got older.

"Right, so getting back on track, this POI is out of the question. I guess it's my turn to choose now, since Veritas-nim and Kirhi chose last." Gunter paused and looked at Kirhi, before turning back all smiles. "Right, mm... let's head back south where it's a bit warmer, so... here!" He jabbed the bottom portion of the parchment at random.

"... Really?" said Kirhi, "you picked that spot?"

"Blame the finger, not the pointer."

"That's kind of proverb doesn't exist."

The spot Gunter chose lay south-southeast from their current position, close to the influence of Helmstad and at the edge of snow elven territory. The only longer route south was the Confederacy's borders from which they'd come.

"Well, nothing we can do, can we? We each got our picks, and now Gunter gets his. It's only fair."

"That goes without saying," she said in agreement, though that didn't stop her from being displeased.

It wasn't like he didn't understand; the route was roundabout to a fault and almost seemed like a waste of time. But, fair's fair after all, even if he wasn't looking forward to traveling that kind of distance after just arriving. Physical fatigue, linked to the Stamina stat and slowed by Endurance, never usually became a problem during normal play unless you pushed yourself to your limit in carry weight or constant combat. No, he wasn't worried about that, he worried that boredom would grate away at him from retracing a path they'd already traveled.

"Should we go now, or rest first?" Veritas asked.

"Hm, it took us two in-game days from the village to get here. That's 6 hours. It'll take a bit longer than three days to get to this POI. I think this is a fine time to log out and start again tomorrow after getting some sleep." Gunter brought up his interface with a flick of his hand. "9:46. That's a bit early to sleep though."

"Just to tell you, I wouldn't fancy logging out partway to our destination, since the previous area doesn't have much forest. I think we should set up camp here, while we have access to tall trees. I'd be at ease if I weren't surrounded by monsters when I log back in."

"Sounds good."

"I assume I have no say in this males-only strategy meeting...?"

"I-It's not like we were trying to exclude you or anything... right, Veritas-nim?"

"Hm... Before we log out, I do have a question, Gunter. It's about that spirit again..."

"Completely sidestepped… What do you want to know?"

"What are the different elements for spirits?"

"Ah right, that. There are seven total spirit elements that make up the core of magic in Royal Road. At least, that's what their website says, who knows what else could be hidden in the game?"

"Spirit element..." In my world, there were five elements...

"The spiritual elements are divided between four major and three minor types. Salamander of fire, Undine of water, Sylph of wind, and Gnome of earth, make up the major. Ferros of metal, Lignus of wood, and Nihil of aether, which is also commonly referred to as void, are the minor types."

"So this spirit is a Lignus type?"

"Could be Gnome too. Earth is as much a part of a forest as a tree is."

Gunter raised his eyebrows, nodding. "True, Kirhi's suggestion might be right as well. Well, it'd be better if you asked the elemental yourself."

"Right, I'll do that. Eventually..."

It didn't take long for him to set up in a sturdy tree; every time, he became faster and more practiced. Sometimes, he wondered what he'd do without the cumulative survival knowledge of a shinobi drilled into him. Gunter and Kirhi logged off not long after, so he sat alone on the planks of their makeshift camp. Veritas examined the rare piece of equipment he'd looted from the Spider Queen. It really did seem like it'd be worth a pretty penny, and though he was pretty close to level 100, his thoughts kept coming back to Kurama's constant nagging. He also needed to consider that the item descriptor's revealing nature, which specifically mentioned "Wood Elves of Ahrah."

He didn't want to be selfish, after the lengths he went to for the elves, but he had his own welfare to consider. If he were lucky, people might just consider it an ancient relic, right? Right? "Damn. Can't even convince myself. Sorry Velyn," exasperated, he began to speak to himself aloud. It might turn out to be okay, even, since now that Ahrah's inhabitants didn't need to send out constant subjugation forces, they could pay more attention to staying hidden. Right? Right…?

He mournfully announced "Log out," to which his vision became a shift of colors as the pod began to shut down transmissions, which intercepted and overrode his brain's signals to the rest of his body, using them to power his motions in-game. In moments, he was in the real world again. Without waiting, he got out and turned on the computer.

A quick google search (Amazingly, Google continued to remain the dominant search engine provider) for an online auction house. More popular sites would get higher page views, a greater chance of someone seeing his sale.

He didn't know how comparative items were priced, since it all varied depending on the utility, effectiveness, rarity, strength, and other factors of the item. So, Naruto decided to leave the starting bid at its default of 10 won, but raised the auction duration to a week. The longest option clocked in at two weeks, but longer auctions required the seller to pay larger posting fees based based on the item's level. Much of the auction site's profits were generated by the page's ad revenue and the accumulated posting fees of millions of players.

"And," click, "sell."

He waited with baited breath for a few minutes, even knowing that nothing would happen yet in such a short time frame. Not one of his strong suits, waiting, this he knew. If only waiting were as productive as diligence, he reasoned he could wait forever.

Speaking of waiting, I wonder how long that Hyuuga chick is willing to wait.

"Uh..." In an instant, Naruto was left at a loss for words.

Completely skipped your mind, huh.

"W-Well, it's out of my hands. You said it yourself Kurama, this world is so devoid of chakra that it could take years to set aside enough to form a portal home."

I did indeed, but that doesn't really excuse forgetting, does it?

"… No."

Do you even like the girl?

"Well, I don't dislike her. She's really pretty, kind, and determined. I think I was kind of warming up to her after finally putting Sakura-chan's rejection behind me, but then this happened."

Hm.

"Hm."

Well, she did wait almost three years for you, what's another three years for an unrequited love?

"When you put it that way, it's like I'm a terrible person."

Naruto threw himself down onto his futon, using his clasped hands to rest his head. A low gurgle filled the quiet of the threadbare apartment. Were there any leftovers?

The last time you checked the fridge was two days ago, when you ate the last of it. Forget an all-ramen diet, you're not even eating half the time. I know that humans can go several weeks without food, but this is just unhealthy.

"… You're right. I feel like shit right now… On the bright side, if this item sells well we can rest easy for a little."

Whatever. Learn to cook while you're at it. Getting take-out all the time can't be good for you with all the oil and salt they put in it.

"Ehh... but I always ate ramen you know, I don't know how to cook. Like, at all. Even on our training trip, ero-sennin was the one that did the cooking."

Excuses, excuses.

"I know, so stop heckling me! I'll just go to sleep, and find something to eat tomorrow."

Don't blame me if you dream food dreams and make a drooling mess out of yourself.

He injected his chakra into the air and had it flip the light switch.

"Needing to use my own sucks..."

Can't help it with the lack of chakra in the atmosphere... Well, look on the bright side. I'm immortal, so a few insignificant human years passes by in a flash!

Naruto sighed as his stomach let out another cry for help. Tonight would be a long night…

xxxx