[center][h1]~Friends Sometimes...~[/h1][/center]

[color=#68BCDD]“Actually, I’ll waiting out here. There’s something I wanna quickly check on my menu. Is that ok?”[/color]

Testurugi left to get the quest without me, and as soon as she was out of sight, I opened the menu again, and scrolled through that friends list until I found the name I was looking for, (name). Wood armor seemed perfectly fitting for her class, so I figured a woodworker might just have the right tips.

[quote=Kidodoru]Huh? What do you mean a new player? And you haven’t come introduce them yet?! I’m disappointed :P [/quote]

[quote=Beardo]Come on, I just didn’t want to get so much attention on her. Someone would tattle tale, plus you know annoying it can be.[/quote]

[quote=Kidodoru]True, but I still wanna! Why do you have to be so stingy even when you’re asking for a favor?[/quote]

[quote=Beardo]Is it really so difficult to just make some low-level wood armor? All  I’m asking for.[/quote]

[quote=Kidodoru]But I can’t give her new clothes without measurements, you know?[/quote]

[quote=Beardo]It’s a game, of course you can![/quote]

[quote=Kidodoru]Oh no! bzzzzt It seems we are getting intet-killjoy-fierence. I might bzzzt cut bzzzt off any moment.[/quote]

I looked at that [i]written[/i] message for a few moments, before sighing when I began to hear footsteps.

[quote=Beardo]Fine. I’ll take her to meet you later. Gotta go now, it seems she’s coming now.[/quote]

[quote=Kidodoru]I’ll anxiously await! ;) [/quote]

Totsurugi returned with a grin, having just gotten the new quest. She commented about this new spell, seemingly referring to the one from the quest. I didn’t even need to think about it before I shook my head. Sometimes it was easy to forget, but Totsurugi wasn’t used to these kinds of games yet, it was her first time in one.

[color=#68BCDD]“The spell? No way, no way. It’s just one of those spells the NPCs get for the plot, you know? It’s not like you’re gonna learn the Frost King’s [Eternal Blizzard] or [Wave of Undeath] that Kul-Kadam… ah crap, almost spoiled it. Well, the point is that it’s really not a thing for players, just for story. Even if it was for players, the odds that it would be fit for your class would be low at best, you know? Since these are quests everyone can do. You can still get equipment, gold and experience at least though. All of those things help you get stronger, not just the equipment. You were right when you said equipment improves your stats, but experience points help you level up! You can get new abilities and skills from leveling up. Even entirely new classes or races if you’re at the right levels for it and you’ve managed to unlock them. Even gold can be useful, as you could spend it getting better equipment or improving the one you already have, or you could spend it getting important items like potions or spell scrolls, or you could even use it for more.... ‘strategic’ purposes. Oh, and there are some guards that are actually programmed to take bribes if they are large enough. I even heard that the top guild even used that system to disable a lot of the guards, lowering the city’s defenses and allowing them to infiltrate the city despite being hostiles. It’s really an impressive thing, taking over an entire city like that! Did you know that- Ah, we’re here!”[/color]

It seemed we had arrived at what appeared to be a sewer hole cover with an NPC standing next to it. He was a crooked and very thin man, really skin and bones, but seemed to be practically wearing this puppet stage like a vest, with the red curtains covering his chest. Several different kinds of puppets hung from him, attached by strings to his eyebrows, nose, fingers and arms. The man’s boots were elongated and wooden, and ended in a pair of wheels each. He waved slightly at us when he saw us, barely lifting his arm and showing a mostly-toothed smile, before bending down and picking up the lid of the sewer entrance.

“Go inside, we took the liberty of painting some signs you can follow. It may be something of a risk, but I’m a foot in the coffin anyway, am I right? Then again if live’s a stage, then I suppose I might live for a long time! Hahahaha!” the man laughed rather laudly, all the while holding the sewer hole cover. “Well, enough wasting time. Go on, hurry! We can only last so long with the bishop lady occupied at the Tea Party District. We should have come up with a better chain of command...”

Following these words, the man regained his composure, and gestured more towards the sewer hole. Totsurugi leaned a bit over it, and quickly pulled back from the stench with a hand pressing on her nose.

[color=45bd2a]“Uh… Beardo, do we really have to go in there? Do you not know a way around it perhaps? I’m fine with going the long way around when the quick path is...this.”[/color]

I shook my head in response.

[color=#68BCDD]“Unfortunately, there is no path other than this one. You follow the path in the sewers, and that leads to the ritual room for the memory spell. The room inside the sewers, and there are only a few entrances to the sewers, to my knowledge this is the closest one to the room though, since it’s the one you’re supposed to use for the quest.”[/color]

Totsu looked back into the sewer hole.

[color=45bd2a]“If I really have no choice, I guess I have to do it. That’s how my life usually goes…”[/color]

I raised an eyebrow at the comment, but seeing her hesitating, putting a feet forward and immediately pulling it back again, I realized she needed a little push. Literally. With a grin, I advanced and gave her a strong pat on the back, causing her to nearly loose her balance, and to leap into the sewer by instinct.

[color=45bd2a]“Hey!”[/color] She protested among my chuckles.

[color=#68BCDD]“Watch out now!”[/color] I leapt into the sewers behind her, some dirty water splashing around me as I landed. Fortunately at least there were no mobs right at the entrance of the sewer like in some poorly designed areas. Still, a few of them were already visible. I squinted my eyes, counting them by hand in the poor lighting.

[color=#68BCDD]“One, two, three, four...five. Sorry Totsu, those are too many to let you do it.”[/color] With a swift motion of my axe, I called out the skill’s name to send a wave of force from my axe towards those toy slimes (now made enormous [about child sized] and with various other kinds of toys “floating” inside them). They promptly burst open and dissolved on the ground. It was a little gross, but there was a worse part. [color=#68BCDD]“There’s a bug, you see, with these slimes. Sometimes if you kill them at melee range they’ll stick in your armor and weapon. I’m not talking about a little stain either, I mean the entirely slime will just become stuck frozen in you or your equipment. It doesn’t happen that often, but it’s a pretty big deal when it does. We’ll have to stick to ranged attacks as much as we can.”[/color]


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