Chapter 9

I flap to you

It’s strange. This morning the air was cold. It was cold when I left the bar to. So… why was it nice now.

It wasn’t hot or chilly. It was almost like I had a blanket of room temperature air around me.

With every jump I could feel wind resistance. It’s like I had my own atmosphere.

With a thought I could increase its density and expand it to some degree. It acted almost like a parachute. With it I could slow my landing and almost glide.

I came to a soft landing in front of Cindy’s smithy. Despite what one might think. It was less of a hut and more of a small business.

One look at the place told me I wasn’t ready. There was no way I could talk to her!

Not after all the flaps I sent her way. Just do it. She doesn’t know and as long as you don’t say anything stupid she never will.

I tried to push my anxiety into the hole but I was having trouble with it. Had my good mood waned already?

Even if I meditate there was no confidence to hold it in the hole. I knew I should of kept my mind off of Cindy.

Nothing I could do now. Maybe I can pretend to be Robert again. No, my social energy was way to low for that.

It’s been a long day. I really should of gone home and left this for tomorrow.

Then a nosey little thought crossed my mind. Mantis and the socialists. There’s to much going on right now. I don’t think It can wait.

The sooner I got it set up the better. I don’t know if I can keep going. At this rate I’ll fall apart. Alice isn’t here to hold me together. What happens if……

I felt a chill as a strange buzzing sounded in my ears. My heart started to speed up. Before I could freak out I shook my head bringing myself back to reality.

A giggle escaped my lips as I swayed my head around. I somehow managed to pull my hair causing pain to radiate on my scalp.

I took a long breath and smiled before making my way inside. There was a chiming of bells.

The weapons shop was covered wall to wall in weapons and armor. Some of them even glowed with enchantments.

The enchanted weapons had glowing markings on them. Actually they looked familiar. The markings that is. I think I saw some of them on the spells I’ve cast before.

Cindy was standing right behind the counter. She was a platinum blonde. Her hair was tied up in a neat ponytail.

Her eyes were a shiny silver. She wore a pair of dark blue overalls and a light gray long sleeve shirt.

Her body was slim and she was kind of short. At least I think she was short. Honestly I couldn’t tell.

Comparing her to myself I’d say she was almost five feet tall. Now that I think about it, that’s pretty short.

Oh wait, that’s right! She isn’t human, she’s a dwarf! A very skinny, very hairless dwarf. I always forget.

She might as well have been a short human. Was there a point to looking like that?

I suppose she was aesthetically pleasing. I remember when we summoned her. Everyone thought she was human.

Mao even got mad at me saying I wasted the little bit of money we had.

Turns out she’s actually rare, in the same way an abnormal mob is rare. She has the royal blood trait.

Man did we get lucky or what. I think that’s what made the raiders so powerful early on. Her crafting skills were great even at the start.

She had a special skill that boosted a random stat on the items she made. Most of the time it was just a plus one to defense or attack.

Sometimes you’d get more than just a plus one. One thing was for sure. The durability was always up by 20% on any item she crafted.

In the early days the guild made tons of money off her. Neutral players would bring materials and ask for her services.

Thanks to that she leveled up pretty quickly. Leveling slowed after a while, but she was basically a monster.

Nowadays her services were kind of expensive but totally worth it. Every item she crafted was beyond high quality.

Sure you might think what if the players kill her? That wasn’t possible. Not unless they had a quasi-guild attack my city.

That would throw the safe zone into a war zone. Only then could they actually target Cindy.

Of course nowadays safe zones didn’t exist. Quasi-guilds were guilds without a nation. They were basically just an excuse to create a giant party of players.

It wasn’t something done easily seeing as it cost a lot of coin to create one.

No one would do that. There goal was usually to secure the castle where the guild core was.

That way all our NPCs would become theirs. Some NPCs don’t actually convert over. There was a chance Cindy would just disappear upon guild core destruction.

There were many countries with these types of dwarves but to have hired her at the start was just insanely lucky.

Usually it’s a four-thousand in one chance. Not terrible odds but the amount of money you’d need is ridiculous.

The whole process is kind of like a gotcha game, or like shiny hunting in Pokémon. I always ended up spending way to much money on those.

Her eyes met with mine. A smile grew on her face brightening up the whole room. I can’t believe I flapped to her.

I feel so guilty now. What do I do! I should leave! I should leave and never ever show my face again.

I’ve never met face to face with one of my flap victims. What about all the screen shots!

I’m pretty sure having multiple pictures of someone without their permission is illegal. I’m not sure on that actually….

Still it’s creepy as hell right? How did I become the weirdo? She wasn’t real back then so it’s not really my fault but still…

My anxiety took advantage of my moment of weakness and made its way out of the hole.

It spilled out like vomit churning and fuming in my stomach like rotten warn milk.

I tried meditation again but my mind was all over the place. I resorted to the only thing that could help.

Reaching into my inventory I pulled out Snowball and held her close. I felt better immediately.

However one glance at Cindy made me feel uneasy. Where is my confidence! I was doing so well.

I was about to fly like a buffalo when she called my name. “Lady Aku. It’s good to see you. How are you doing? Please come in. Just what are you doing out so late? By yourself of all things.” I was already inside but whatever.

Ignoring the screams inside my head I pretended to open a door then walked through. I’m such a bad person! What the hell is wrong with me!

I buried my face behind snowballs head. If I don’t move she can’t see me right? No you idiot that’s only in that one movie!

Shit, shit! Play it cool don’t freak out. Say something. You’ve been quiet for to long. Just respond to what she said.

What did she say? Right, okay. “I’m doing fine. I can walk around by myself you know.” Good job me!

Why is Cindy treating me like that. I’m strong. It’s not like I needed a body guard or something. I beat up four terrorists all by myself. They couldn’t lay a hand on me.

“Weather you can or can’t walk on your own. You shouldn’t be out so late. Especially down hickory. Aren’t you scared of the dark road? Sometimes criminals like to hide in the shadows around here. I’ve already had to knock a few people around myself. You are the empress. You shouldn’t be putting yourself in danger period!” Was she trying to parent me too?

I didn’t need anymore people telling me what to do. Shadow was already enough. Speaking of Shadow. She would be here any second.

I felt so guilty I didn’t feel like fighting back. “Sorry, yes ma’am.” I felt worse now. I made this lady worry about me.

Wait a sec! “Did you say you already had to beat someone up! What happened!” Her scolding demeanor was gathered up and released into a sigh.

“Well… if you must know I had a few primordials come in and try to steal from me.” Her face showed a hint of worry.

I mirrored it feeling my own baggage weigh on me. Once she saw my face she switched back to her cheerful demeanor.

“It’s okay lady Aku. They weren’t a problem. I took care of it with no issues. No one got hurt. They even apologized.” That made me perk up.

Still…. Crime was now being implemented by players. Cindy is over powered, but not every NPC was like her.

Most were at level one. I need to hurry up and set up some law enforcement. Either that or hand out guns to every NPC.

That sounded like fun. It also wasn’t a bad idea. Last I checked headshots were still headshots.

I could just imagine some guy trying to steal candy from a baby only for the baby to pull out an Uzi and be all like “Not today bitch!” *blap blap*

“I’m happy to hear that.” I gave her my best smile. Cindy was elated. She just wanted me to be happy. I wasn’t but she didn’t have to know that.

“Well, since you are here. What did you need from me lady Aku?” She was very professional all of a sudden.

“I was hoping you could forge me a weapon.” I looked through my inventory to find the material.

“Oh, sure I can do that. What kind of weapon? Do you have an ingot for me? If not I can only provide you with bronze, iron, or steel.” She leaned over the counter to get a look at what materials I might have.

A moment later I pulled out the obsidian grate sword. Her body rocked back as I set the weapon down on the counter in front of her.

She let out a whistle. I watched her as she looked into the glossy glass like reflection.

She then proceeded to lean over and sniffed it, like a dog trying to figure out if it was food or not.

Was that apart of the appraisal? She then licked the sword. Wow, Wish I could get a screen shot of that.

As if just doing a fat line of coke, her eyes snapped to attention and she stood straight up.

Her black pupils became wobbly as they grew and shrunk constantly changing. She shuttered and quivered like she was going through a round of shock therapy.

Her face became a little red. She stopped herself. Her eyes shone with excitement as a puff of vapor exited her nostrils.

I was so terrified. Just what kind of Scooby-Doo crap was that! Was she some kind of sword weirdo! I held Snowball close and tried to relax.

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“This is a legendary weapon! Are you sure you want me to reforge it into something new? You’ll lose all the progress you’ve made on it.”

The question felt very robotic. It reminded me of one of those “are you sure boxes” you got before deleting old porn off your phone.

I could never hit yes. That’s why I have over eight-hundred-forty-seven gigabytes of porn, hidden on a secret cloud account my wife — nor anyone else — knows about.

It’s between me, my FBI agent, and god. In the event that I die my lawyer will release a virus that will eradicate all porn off the face of the internet.

Anyway, my sword has been with me for a while. Almost a year actually. I could of gotten something stronger but I just kept upgrading this one. I liked the way it looked.

I thought about it. My weapon had a lot put into it. If I reforge it I’d lose all the coin I’d spent on it. This weapon was my absolute favorite. I couldn’t imagine losing it.

I’d gotten the weapon from an event. The event was about a meteor coming to hit the world.

Spoilers it wasn’t a meteor. It was actually an ancient space God. That same god was also a world Boss.

My weapon was made of its blood. It’s blood was like lava but when it cools it turns into obsidian.

That’s basically what the blade was made from. By reforgeing it. I could get a new and much more useful weapon.

Considering I couldn’t even use it as it was. It seemed like a good deal. This way I wouldn’t actually be losing the sword.

It would still be the same weapon. The only difference being instead of it swinging me, I’d swing it.

“Yeah… yeah I’m sure. I’d like you to make me a short sword.” Cindy nodded.

“A short sword. Okay, what should I do with the spare material?”

Spare? “like extra?” She nodded.

It was a big sword. That meant I’d have more of the same material to work with. That gave me an idea. “How much more are we talking about?”

“Well… I can make a sword for your size using only about 5% of the material.”

I freaked out. “That’s insane! Okay. How about you make me a chest plate. The rest you can turn into more short swords. I want to use them for perfect infusions.”

I might actually be able to make a really good sword. A chest plate would be a good idea considering the armor made from blood obsidian has natural magic resistance, and if I was really lucky I might even get a strength boost. With Cindy it was even more likely.

“Very well lady Aku. I can do that. May I ask what type of fighting you’ll be doing? I may be able to infuse it to help with whatever you need.”

Oh, I know what she’s talking about. It’s the act of using monster parts for infusions, adding extra effects. Like attack speed boost or knockback.

A perfect infusion was when you fused two weapons that are the exact same. She was talking about mundane infusions.

“Uh, well…. I think you’d call it a spell blade. I want to use magic and sword fighting while avoiding attacks as much as possible.” That made sense right?

She just stared at me while smiling. I felt the need to elaborate. “I’m not very bulky so my speed is important. I’ll also be using martial arts as a backup method of fighting.”

Spell blade wasn’t an actual class but there were a few players that used magic along side the dualist class to get more elemental damage, while still being able to perform standard sword based abilities.

I need to become stronger. “I want to keep everyone safe so I need a proper weapon.” I felt the weight of the word on my shoulders and it made me want to crawl into a hole and hide away forever.

She giggled.

“Hey! That’s not funny I’m serious!” I stomped my foot in anger holding Snowball close to my chest.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s just, it sounds so silly coming from such a small girl.” Her laughter grew in volume.

It wasn’t that funny. Was no one ever gonna take me seriously. I’m trying to do important things here.

Well, whatever It’s not like I can change the way people see me by simply telling them.

The only way to do that Is to actually perform actions that show how mature I am.

I couldn’t come up with anything in this situation. Maybe I just didn’t care anymore. I was so tired.

Today was just so long. There’s enough content here for someone to write like…. I don’t know… eight or nine chapters.

I wanted to go to bed even though it was only seven. I’m actually kind of hungry. We ate at tavern but that was like four or five hours ago.

Now that I think about it. I’m pretty sure those thirty minutes are up. That meant Shadow was heading here. How do I deal with that? I kind of don’t care. I was to tired.

I still had things I needed to do today. There were players stealing. I knew this would happen.

I just didn’t think it’d be so soon. I do needed to go help rhyme. She still hadn’t answered back. I know she’s alive but still. Every second that passed made me worry.

I bet she was dealing with her own problems over there. What about the towns and villages where there’s no one to help.

The weight on my shoulders seemed to grow, and I felt like I would be crushed. It was a little hard to breathe.

Stop, I can’t get to everyone. They’ll just have to make due. Build the foundation. Then spread it out over the country and let it grow.

“Lady Aku? Are you alright?” Cindy tried to get my attention. It was only then did I realize I’d zoned out again. I need to do the other order.

“Sorry about that. I was thinking about the crime running through the city. Well… the country really. Having you make me new gear isn’t the only reason I came here.” I took on a more serious tone and Cindy seemed to follow along.

“Another order… very well. What do you need?” I thought about this back at the bar.

To start off I want to create branches of different types of fighters. Then I want to make mixed squads out of them.

I need… dualists, mages, rangers, healers, assassins and fighters. That’s six, however the dualist needed to be split into two groups.

Swordsmen and something with a heavier weapon. Like a mace, Warhammer, or great sword.

That way I can have both heavy hitters and nimble sword fighters. So… dualist would be split into warriors and berserkers.

That meant I needed seven different types of NPCs. I need at least twenty squads just to start out with. So that meant I needed a total of 140 NPC soldiers.

That’s twenty swords. Twenty grate swords. Forty sets of full armor. Including chainmail. Twenty bows.

A shit ton of arrows. Twenty pairs of gauntlets for the fighters. Twenty knifes. The rest will need to come from the church or a magic shop.

I relayed this to Cindy. She wrote it all down on paper. “Okay. That is doable. What should I make them out of?” Her eyes were on the paper she was writing on.

I thought about cheeping out and going with generic iron but that stuff wouldn’t hold up very long.

“Use tempered steel. Could you also add some enchantments. For the armor, I’d like them to have some healing properties. Also give them defense against magic. Auto repair and durability boost.” She nodded along writing it down.

“I’d also like the swords enchanted with cutting edge and add durability while your at it. Could you also give the bows reach and honing. If you can get piercing on them that would be grate.”

There were so many possible enchantments. The enchantments you could get on a weapon depended on it’s quality.

I might be able to get Piercing if we use iron silk for the string and some wood from a demon wood tree. This was all stuff I had access to.

“Very well, I need these materials and this much coin for the job.” A moment later I got a trade menu asking for the materials listed.

I scrolled through it and found I had way more than enough in the guild vault. I hit accept and watched the guild resources drain.

I did end up using my coin leaving me with just over ninety-five crystal. Next time I planned to use the guild coin.

I felt somewhat obligated to use my own coin since I hadn’t used the tax money like I should have.

“Alright, now then. I need you to create more of the same stuff I just asked you to make. I want the first round delivered to the old barracks.” The old barracks was created for the morale boost.

It also served as a training ground of sorts. You could use it for PVP without penalty.

Normally fighting out in the wild with other players meant you could die and lose your stuff, but the barracks provided a way for players to practice PVP without actually taking the other person’s stuff. I wonder how it worked in the new world.

“More of the same order? Are we going to war?” She looked worried.

I didn’t know what to say. Should I lie. I’m no politician. I honestly don’t know what to tell her.

If I said we might go to war would that cause a panic? No way. I’ve always hated it when politicians lied about things that were going on.

“We might go to war. Things are different now. Nothing is certain. What I can tell you is I need to make a protective force. You’ve seen other play—” Right there not players to them.

“Uh no. Primordials. You’ve seen primordials try to steal from you. Well, not everyone is equipped to stop them like you are, and the raiders while strong, aren’t enough to keep everyone safe. There just isn’t enough of us to go around.”

It hurt to say it but it was the truth. I didn’t want her to freak out so I added on to the madness.

“You should know your taxes are going into creating a police force, guards and a military force. This way everyone will be safe.” This wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to sound confident, but I came off as unsure. Like a shy kid.

I looked away unsure on how to inspire confidence. How do I do this? Can I actually pull it off.

I’ve never done anything remotely close to running a country. What if I get everyone killed.

I felt tears forming. I was so dam tired of crying. I just wanted someone to take this burden off of me. Like always.

Alice took care of everything. All I had to do was work. How do I do things while not fucking it all up.

I came back to the same question I heard so many times before. Why am I so useless?

“I see. Well, since it’s for the good of our nation I’d be happy to give you a discount. I’m sure the raiders will do a grate job of keeping us all safe.” I didn’t realize she was right next to me. When did she move around the counter?

Her hand reached over and patted me on the head. Her smile helped to clear my thoughts.

What was I thinking about again? Right… the country. Just one step at a time. You know, If I look at it as a whole…. My legs wobbled a bit as the feeling of fear took over my body.

Everything as a whole… I’ll fall apart…. But…. But if I work on one thing at a time… then I can start to build something real.

Who did this lady think she was to pat my head like that! She’s not even that much taller than me! Never mind, I don’t have the energy for this.

“Thank you for your support. The discount will be very useful. I can get you a tax cut seeing as your forging for the country.” It was the least I could do.

I can make it so she doesn’t have to pay any taxes on the items she makes for us.

“Thank you lady Aku. That’s very nice of you. I was sure you were going to draft me into your military force as a blacksmith.” I could have done that? That would have been a better idea, however….

I shook my head. “No, I won’t force anyone to leave there lives behind. It would be wrong of me. If I can’t inspire people to fight for their country then I don’t deserve to lead.” Maybe now she’ll see me like an adult.

Her smile grew ever wider. “I feel inspired already.” She didn’t mean that but I appreciated it.

Our little moment was interrupted when the front door opened. I turned to see who it was.

Surely enough I saw a familiar cat girl. She was huffing and puffing. Most likely due to the full sprint she did to get here that quickly.

How do I spin this so I don’t get in trouble. Pretending to be Aku doesn’t take up as much energy as my other personas.

It actually comes natural to me. “Shadow!” I ran over and hugged her.

She let out a surprised yelp. “whoa there! Is everything alright master?” Her hand rested on my back.

I shook my head then looked up at her. There were still tears in my eyes. They were from the responsibility that weighed on me. “no! I was attacked by socialists!” her eyes grew wide as her tail straightened.

“What, when!? Its only been forty minutes! Are you kidding me! That’s it! You are not allowed to leave the castle ever again!” Her arms wrapped around me. My energy levels depleted. All of a sudden I felt trapped.

I was trying to keep her from getting mad by making her worry but it seemed to backfire. “I’m fine now. I beat them up and I didn’t get a scratch on me.” So far I’ve survived two PVP fights and haven’t taken damage once. I’m like a regular Mary Sue!

I was on a roll. Though I really wanted to try out the phase thing from the hair clip. Then again that only had a 20% chance of activating so maybe I’ll hold off on it.

She pushed me away then checked me for any wounds. “Master! How do you explain this blood!” She pointed at 23’s blood that had splattered on my leg. Back when Boner went ape shit on him.

The thought made me giggle. “You should see the other guy. That’s not mine. That’s from the mall ninja guy. He’s really funny.”

I smiled up at her trying to smooth over the situation with a bit of charm. She didn’t hear a word I said.

“HE!? Did he touch you! Show me where.” She pulled Snowball out of my arms and held the toy out in front of me.

Was I supposed to point to where I got molested? Was that still a thing? Snowball didn’t exactly have my anatomy but she was close I guess.

I shook my head. “No! It wasn’t one of those kinds of attacks! They wanted to take me hostage so they could take over the country! There was no molestation of the sort! I’m still a virgin you crazy cat!” She looked unsure.

Did she think I was lying? I did hear once that there was a high percentage of rape victims that never spoke about it.

Her eyes showed pity. “It’s okay. You can tell me when your ready. Now then. What did they look like? I can switch to my hunter class.” Why wasn’t she listening?

She needs to understand. These were people that would be showing up at the castle tomorrow. I don’t need her going all John wick on them.

I started laughing. “hahaha! Why are you like this?” It was so funny I would of fallen over if it wasn’t for Shadow holding me.

“You two have such a lovely relationship. I’m a little jealous.” Cindy was watching us with amusement.

Shadow finally noticed the royal dwarf. “Oh sorry. Hello Cindy. It’s good to see you. I hope master wasn’t to much trouble. She can be a handful sometimes.” I really hate this crazy cat lady.

She’s acting like I was being baby sat by Cindy, who also happens to only be like a foot taller than me.

Shadow had flipped me around, but still held me close to her with her hands intertwined in front of my chest.

It’s not like I was gonna run away or something. It wouldn’t be to hard to slip out of this weird choke hold but after the day I had.

It was nice to let someone else lead. Snowball was under my left arm as usual.

“No, lady Aku is adorable. I don’t mind having her around.” Cindy had sparkles in her eyes.

I need to do something about my charm. It’s starting to get annoying. If I wear a trash bag like a dress could I make it go down instead of up.

Who am I kidding. There’s nothing Aku can wear without looking cute. Even a Hitler costume would look cute on her. Never mind, that might actually be cursed.

Moé Hitler.

Shadow and Cindy got to talking about what I’d asked her for. Slowly Shadow started to realize how much thought I’d put into the whole ordeal.

My head rested against Shadow’s arm. Eventually their conversation came to an end and it was time to leave. I was nodding off and Shadow was the only thing keeping me standing.

She pulled me along. There was still one more thing I needed. “Before I go can you sell me a short sword. Nothing fancy just something to practice with.” Shadow had almost dragged me out the door.

She came to a stop releasing a puff of air. Her tail seemed a bit agitated. She was ready to go.

Cindy nodded. “Sure thing lady Aku I have just the thing.” A moment later I got a trade offer.

It wasn’t a trade at all. The weapon was free. I didn’t even know she could do that.

“I can’t just take it.” I didn’t want to take something I didn’t pay for. Cindy worked hard to make these weapons. Even her iron swords were expensive.

She shook her head. “No don’t worry about it. It’s a standard short sword. Take it and keep everyone safe.”

I smiled at her before accepting the gift. “Thank you.” The weapon made It’s way into my inventory. We said our good byes and headed home.

Instead of holding Shadow’s hand she held my arm as if she was mad at me. I felt like I’d done something horrible to her.

The urge to cry came over me and tears began to form. Nothing ran down my cheeks but that didn’t change the fact I felt bad.

My ankles were kind of sore. It hurt a little to walk. It didn’t help that Shadow was moving kind of fast. Her speed made her seem even more angry.

I felt the need to try and confront her. In a semi-crying voice I said “Shadow could you slow down? My ankles hurt.” She turned her head to me coming to a stop.

“You did hurt yourself! Show me the wound!” She almost knocked me over as she crouched down and tried to find a cut on my tights.

I was relieved she wasn’t mad at me. “No, its not like that. I was trying to figure out how strong I was, so I started jumping really far and I over did it. It doesn’t hurt that much. It’s just my ankles. There a little sore is all.” She seemed to accept it. A moment later she stood up and lifted me in the air.

I didn’t want this. “What are you doing? I don’t want to be carried.” She held me in a princess carry. This is how Mantis was holding me. The memory made me feel gross.

She looked annoyed. “Stop whining. You can hardly keep up and its late so be good and just let me carry you.” She was so bossy and I was spent.

I hugged Snowball for comfort. Somehow it felt cold again. Was I going crazy? Maybe the temperature change was form my adrenaline going up and down.

I let out a sigh and just let it happen. I was pretty tired by this point and being off my feet was nice.

“Thanks Shadow.”