[center][h1]~In the Meanwhile~[/h1][/center]

At first, I did stay and watched as Totsurugi held their own against the knight. That sort of marked ground mechanic was a pretty common thing in DSO and other VRMMORPGs like it, but then again from what I understood Totsurugi herself wasn’t familiar with those other games either. Nonetheless, she seemed to be fairing reasonably well, and thus there was no need for me to keep watching like a vulture watching a dying animal. I headed a bit deeper into the woods out of sight, but still staying as sure as I could that I wasn’t in the trapped territory before I opened my menu, pressed that “Local Info” button and began scrolling through.

There were some news on the event today, with info on location sites, some major guilds taking part in it, even some early interviews and adds for a few contests with supposedly exotic prices. Honestly I would have dismissed as a bullcrap if it was in real life, but people were actually far more generous with actually giving those prizes in games. I heard somewhere it had to do with the “etherealness” of the things here, giving up ones and zeros is simply easier than giving up something real, or so they had mentioned. Who was it again? Zhacksneil? Corincorin? 

[color=#68BCDD]“There is it, local player info… And scan!”[/color] I hummed to myself as I waited for the system scanner to show nearby unhidden players. It didn’t tell me their locations, but it could tell how relatively populated the area was. Totsurugi probably wouldn’t reach level 40 in this area, but if there were few players around it was a good opportunity to show them my real avatar. Unfortunately, however… [color=#68BCDD]“Five, huh. That’s more [i]and[/i] less than I’m comfortable with. Just a few more and they might be here for the dungeon, a few less and the risk of being spotted would be less of a concern. Maybe they’ll go away soon…”[/color]

Of course, that still left the question of what to do in the meantime while I waited for that chance. Was there anything of quality to grind around this place? 

[color=#68BCDD]“Browser, window three, open. Display, show.”[/color] With that command, a loading browser window appeared in front of me. It floated just barely in my field of vision, with an adjustable opacity depending on my focus, and when I moved it moved with me. It was being projected directly into my perception, so I was the only one who could see it. Aside from being an extra paid feature, it was a pretty great feature. 

I reached out to it and manually typed in the area name and what I wanted to look for. It seemed [color=#23C126][Toy Parts][/color] were the most common farming material here, especially due to the rare and epic drops one occasionally found, it really sped up the [color=#23C126][clocksmith][/color]’s and [color=#2E7CEA][gearmage][/color]’s crafting, neither of which were classes we had. [color=#2E7CEA][Undecaying Organs][/color] were also here and [color=#2E7CEA][Necrowool][/color]. 

[color=#68BCDD]“I guess we could make a penny with those, but it would take too long. It ain’t worth it.”[/color] Come to think of it, I sure hoped those people I saw earlier didn’t think otherwise. I used the scan again. Dang, there was one more person now. The farming option was out of the picture too. Did I have time to go anywhere? Hmmm… probably not. In that case, there was one thing I for sure could do.

Axe resting on my shoulder, I headed off to the path of the second quest. Out the corner of my eye, I noticed Totsurugi was about halfway through that knight’s health. I gave her a thumbs up in silent encouragement, though she probably didn’t see given I was still behind the treeline and she was a tad busy at the moment, but you know, it’s the thought that counts, right?

…………………………………………

I reached the actual place after some walking around, and travelling through a few tunnels and through the ruins of a couple of houses. You could attempt to go above ground through the main street instead of taking these passages, but there were flying drones in a macabre  imitation of birds, mostly made from pieced together toy airplanes and other aerial-themed playthings with bugs and actual birds. Most of them weren’t anything dangerous and at worst the AI would make them come down and peck you, so even a low level character could easily deal with them. No the real issue were the broken fences always watched by the dragon imitations. If you tried going through that open path you’d be bombarded with a barrage of flames from up above. Even though it looked empty, attempting to get past the fences was a guaranteed death for anyone that wasn’t far overleveled for this zone. Even Beardo would have taken hefty damage.

Well, the main path still kept the creep factor at least. The least disturbing were giant hunchbacked skeletons with hair, thread (from brooms and the lik) or yarn from the heads of mops, all tangled and dangling like algae on someone who just rose from the sea (or a very dirty river). Their fingers were long lines of knives or sharpened sword replicas and the number of eyes they had was truly a roll of the dice. Their extremely thin, grey, shambling, creaking forms like ungreased gates of a cemetery were only made more haunting with the addition of the heavy fog that permeated the place, and if I had it turned on the lingering horror-esque ambient music. Fighting one was no pretty sight either, since they could shift their bodies to instantly face any direction and those malformed bodies gave them a skill which damaged any that came in contact with them, directly or through melee-ranged armor or weapons or even abilities.

It was a pretty well-crafted visual, showing how the staff that made this game really went all out sometimes. At the same time, however… It wasn’t really made for [i]my kind of situation[/i].

[color=#68BCDD]“Reflector Stance.”[/color] I swung my weapon in a vertical circle in front of me. A red aura glowed around me for a second, alongside a glint in my eyes of the same color.

[color=#68BCDD]“Deflector Shield.”[/color] I swung my axe in front of me, creating this deep blue glittering bent barrier in front of me, shaped almost like a visor that was taller than me and floated in the air. 

[color=#68BCDD]“Clear sight.”[/color] Sparks flew out from my eyes, and suddenly I was able to see far past the fog. I smirked, crouching down and aiming my axe towards the furthest of the abandletons.

[color=#68BCDD]“Ram charge!”[/color] I kicked the ground, lighting pushing me against my own barrier which rammed forward. Seemingly sensing my approach, the creatures turned around, only to themselves quickly pushed by my barrier as my charge would continue until I reached the location I was aiming for. Furthermore, my Reflector Stance and Deflector shield combined absorbed and forced back a portion of the damage from the creature’s damage on the shield, which given our relative levels was about 80%. As I reached the other end, that initial group of them was wiped out already, with exception of a couple of the later ones that weren’t hit for long enough to be destroyed by the reflected damage combined with the side damage from the ram. Naturally, I was counting on it. I raised my axe high above my head, as it sparked with lightning.

[color=#68BCDD]“Mountain Fall!”[/color] I dropped my weapon in front of me, causing the ground to shake and a wave of lightning-covered rubble to erupt in front of me, destroying part of the buildings ahead and creatures caught within the line of effect.

………………………………..

I waved, still partially covered in dust as I returned from my little detour. I was just in time to witness Totsurugi hop out of the enormous chess board. Given there was no angry message about dying because I wasn’t there, and the satisfied look on her face, I surmized my decision to trust her to pull it off on her own wasn’t wrong. I grinned.

[color=#68BCDD]“Hope I’m not late!”[/color] She told me that she did find it hard after all, but at the same she looked forward to more. I instinctively reached out for her head. [color=#68BCDD]“Ho, is that so? Maybe we can tackle the dungeon together once you’re a little above level hehehe.”[/color]

I just smiled in silence for a moment. I guess maybe it was a bit intense for a first-timer, but I was glad she was at least enjoying it. Hopefully it was a sustainable thing.

[color=#68BCDD]“So, need a rest, or would you like to move to the next one? I cleared the mobs on the way for quest 2, since you don’t really need to deal with them for the quest, you just need to get to the quest point. It’d just be a waste of time. Of course though, it’s also only a matter of time until everything respawns…”[/color]

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