[center][h1]The Grand Introduction Plan![/h1][/center] As if by miracle, she picked up on my cues and followed suit with her improv. Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't clutch my axe's handle a little tighter when she started calling the people around her names and acting all haughty, who knew how petty these people might be, it was an [i]online[/i] game after all. That sigh of relief was hard to hold in as the quartet ultimately opted for leaving, while complaining and muttering amongst themselves. Nonetheless, I insisted in leading Totsrugi a little further away from there, at least far enough that we had cover from the buildings, in case that guild did something crazy like, you know, turning around for a second. [color=#68BCDD]"Ah, c'mon, this is just a throwaway alt you know! Not gonna spend hours trying to come up with a nice shiny name for him! Plus...you know... I thought it'd be funny."[/color] I rubbed the back of my head while my gaze inevitably shifted away from hers. Soon as I regained my composure, I turned back to her, straightened my back, and "coughed" into my hand. [color=#68BCDD]"W-well, anyway, it's true that you did mention that about you not playing this kind of game before. Sorry, I just kind of thought you'd be able to find your way to the Cathedral because of those."[/color] I pointed upwards to the Cathedral's towers, rising well above the top line of the houses in midtown. Only the occasion player flying on the back of a dragon, giant bird, giant flying fish or magical flying carpet cast a shadow upon those imposing holy columns. We could have taken a tour of the cathedral, but with the chance those guys would come back, it was better left for another time. I scratched my chin a little, ruffling my beard until my eyes widened. [color=#68BCDD]"Aha! I know a good place, alright Totsu come with me!"[/color] I swung my arm in a gesture for him to follow along and started heading through the streets again. It wasn't long until the glances of people who witnessed the earlier confrontation with the guild began giving way to a fresh new old side of midtown, and the busy flow of its streets. I offered a hand to Totsurugi before we "dived in". [color=#68BCDD]"Grab my hand. It may be a little embarassing, but since you don't know your way around yet, its best we don't get separated."[/color] We turned left and then right, crossing the crowd and joining a different one in the next street over. The more we moved forward in that one, the more a certain mixture of flowery scents intensified, while our feet seemed to tread upon an increasingly granular path which replaced the previous smooth and almost polished rock. Nothing we wore or stepped on would make the ground any dirtier, of course, but the city’s design had those kinds of soft gradual transitions. There were still rather wealthy-looking decorations on the upper part of the houses and shops around us, now with a more twirling and wavery gold or silver design, and the occasional symbol of a tree or leaf. At the borders of the shops there were sticks or flowers or other herbs in these things attached to the walls that seemed like bandaged quivers. We turned right again in a particularly wide alley and around a smaller building. It was mostly cubical though the upper third had more round edges, almost like a crude dome, from which several sticks with a flower or two stuck out, all around a single cylindrical chimney pouring out colored smoke. It shifted from purple to yellow to blue to green, sometimes a combination of two or three colors in spotted patterns. Most of the shop had these large shop windows, from which one could see the yellow stone adorned with all manner of monster taxidermy mounts, and two shelf’s worth of catalogues with a potion printed in the front. At the back was a wooden counter with an old man with puffy white facial hair, like discolored patches of grass had just up and decided his face was a nice place to grow on. Behind that man, in turn, were shelves with various vials with liquids of also varying colors: Potions. We stopped right as the rightmost shop window ended and the blank wall began. I felt the wall a bit, until one of my fingers sunk a bit into the wall, and I nodded while grinning to myself. I looked over to my shoulder to Totsumi. [color=#68BCDD]“This isn’t our destination yet, but it’s important you know about these things. You know what makes this game so unique? Well, of course there’s the obvious things, like the whole fully immersive VR and the scale and freedom… but there’s one thing us players know that the public doesn’t, one of the biggest things behind this game: the glitches. We compete using those too. There’s all manner of glitches to find, and the developers are so lazy at fixing them or so focused on bringing new content instead that we just up and rolled with it. For instance, the potions in this shop are for beginners, but they are super expensive so that you can only take a couple at a time when you’re just starting out. The counter is also protected against magic, so there’s no way to “steal the potion”. Well, not unless you know about this.”[/color] With another grin, I stepped inside the shop, rather literally going through the wall as if it was air. You needed the right angle and placement to do that, but once you knew the trick it was indeed simple. The NPC didn’t even react, and simply continued staring at the entrance as if no one was there or had just invaded his store, or his personal space. Humming happily, I began taking potions off the shelves, which replaced themselves after a few seconds. [color=#68BCDD]“You can get a lot of potions like this, hehe.”[/color] I told my elf friend after leaving the store, smirking and shaking a potion in my hand. [color=#68BCDD]“You can also sell these back to him when you don’t need them anymore. I wouldn’t recommend trying to make money that way though, they only sell back for a few copper despite how expensive they are to begin with, and you can’t trade them with other players either. Now, onto our actual destination then!”[/color] It wasn’t long before we arrived at our actual destination, after passing a bit further ahead from the shop, where the path returned to being the old well-maintained rock road. The left side of the sign had a winged cat chasing after a winged dog, while the right side was the reverse. The letters in “Corrida Bakery & Cafe”’s name seemed to have tiny strawberries sprouting from them as well, giving a cutesy look to the name that matched the decorations, vines sprouting strawberries. In the inside there were no chairs, only pouffes of various mild colors, accompanying short round wooden tables with a plastic-looking menu on top of a silver triangle plate. I couldn’t help myself from sniffing the air and nodding as the warm and drool-inducing scent of the fresh bread filled my nostrils. [color=#68BCDD]“Let’s go seat over there!”[/color] I pointed towards a table by a window on the left, with a large light blue pouffe and a green one on the smaller side. My body practically sank into that large comfy sack, especially with all the armor I had on me. I conjured up my menu with a thought (not the cafe kind, the game one) and placed my weapon in the inventory. [color=#68BCDD]“Now, THIS is the good stuff! You should put away your weapon too. It’s this place’s policy. Other than that…”[/color] I grabbed the menu (the cafe’s this time) and offered it to Totsurugi with a huge grin. [color=#68BCDD]“Pick whatever you like! The food here is great, I assure you!”[/color] Hopefully she was in the mood for desserts or pastries, or better yet, bread. Delicious bread. I shook my head. At least until the waitress arrived, I’d better get to the point. I waited a little for Totsurugi to have time to look over the menu, then began: [color=#68BCDD]“So, Totsurugi… since this is your first here, I’m sure you know there’s a ton to learn about the game. Of course, you don’t have to learn about everything at once, but don’t you think it’d be nice to go at it in a bit of a more uh… organized way? You know, like, a plan or a schedule or something. Some preparation at least. W-with that in mind, I have a few options for you.”[/color] I pulled a briefcase out of my inventory, and placed it on the table, revealing a stack of papers inside as I opened it. Then, I cleared my throat. [color=#68BCDD]“Uh-Hm… So, I have a few options for you. For starters, I could take you to some good places to practice and level, learn the ins and outs of your abilities and such, maybe teach you a few things! For instance, do you know about [color=#23C126][Essence Remodelling Fruits][/color]? They are super important, especially later on. You can do the quest to get one at any time after you level 5, but the higher level you are, the harder the quest gets. So it’s a good idea to start stacking some early on. It’s another item the devs don’t let players trade among themselves, not even among their own alts!”[/color] I shrugged and shook my head. I raised two fingers. [color=#68BCDD]“Second, you kinda came during a special time. Not only is there an event going on, The Master of the Banquet, but a certain bad guild was defeated recently, and the merchants they were blocking have a ton of stuff to sell that’s out of season now, so a huge bargain is coming. It’s going to be held near the event’s location too! We could go to either the event or the bargain, or we could try going to both, though with the lines there’ll probably be... We really wouldn’t be left with much time for either that way.”[/color] A third finger was raised. I sighed. [color=#68BCDD]“Third uhm… I don’t if I shou- “[/color] I shook my head. [color=#68BCDD]“No, I’m going to. If you really, REALLY want it, I could uhm… help you p-power level.”[/color] Just saying it, I ended up reflexively looking away to the ground. But I wanted to offer her that choice either way.