Chapter 2 – Monsters and Showers, Oh My!

Kazama and the girl she was paired with in an adventuring party was rather silent unlike a little bit earlier. They had crossed into the “Un-safe Zone” of the game but so far nothing had tried to attack them. Clouds had come in and started to shower virtual raindrops on them, and there was a slight chill in the air that made the weather seem almost real. Even the architecture of the city was amazing and must have been set on 1800’s Europe. Kazama glanced slightly at Nabiki then thought to herself.

“This is too weird. She thinks I’m really a girl just like her, but in retrospect I’m a guy. Hell, it’s even weirder for me to understand and handle.”

Nabiki interrupted her thoughts by talking.

“So what do you think about the game so far?” She asked Kazama, slightly looking at her.

“Well, from what I can see so far, it’s quite beautiful in some aspects. But What I really want to see are the enemies in this game. I’m dying to use this special attack I was given.”

“Oh, you got a special attack already? What class are you? I’m an archer!”

“When I was given the choice of picking my starting class, I somehow unlocked the Hunter class.”

Nabiki looked at Kazama a bit jealously.

“Whoa! You got that class! Its super-duper rare! I wish I was a hunter, I heard its pretty badass.”

“Um…Nabkiki….” Kazama started, “How do you know so much stuff like this? Haven’t you only just joined the world like me?”

“To be exact, I joined the game a few hours before you. I know a lot about this because I helped design some of the levels and weapons!”

She fidgeted with her hands and brought out her player menu. She scrolled through it and equipped her archers bow. It appeared in her hand and she held it out to me.

“See this?” she continued as I took it, “I designed that bow. It’s a basic model and pretty crap on stats, but it can get molded into a better weapon later and even become a beast of a weapon!”

“Wow, so you designed a lot of things? Then you must know a lot about the level layouts on this world right?”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t know too much. I was a part of a very large design force and only had a little bit designed by me. But the good thing is that I do know too much for my own good.”

She smiled at Kazama. The two came to a dead stop in front of a giant iron wrought gate. The gate was opened a bit and it was obvious that players had been through this area before. Kazama looked at Nabiki for any guidance on this.

“This is the entrance to a graveyard. It’s a pretty good grinding spot for players. I was here a little bit before you arrived already added a level and made my bow slightly better.”

Kazama handed the mentioned bow back to Nabiki and then brought up her own player menu. She selected both of her dual blades as well as her katana. The katana materialized on her belt and the dual blades where attached to her belt behind her back. She stepped forward and Nabiki followed suit.

“Alright then, let’s go and get this on. The faster we level the better.”

“Yeah, once we do that we can tackle some of the quests!”

“Exactly,” Kazama smiled at her, “It will be better for us once we get this done.”

With that, they stepped into the graveyard. The weather seemed to get noticeably worse when they walked into the graveyard, and the chill in the air got worse. For a virtual game that could produce near real to life feelings, this had to be the best so far. The feeling in the weather got worse when a loud growl was heard.

“Gwaarr….”

Kazama looked nervously over at Nabiki.

“What’s that?”

Nabiki crouched down onto her knee and held her bow out in front of her, arrow at the ready.

“That,” She explained, “Is the sound of an enemy. Don’t worry, it’s not very strong. At least not these versions of it anyways.”

Kazama stepped forward a little more with her katana at the ready. For a second there was nothing but chilled silence, but then a sudden uproar with the approach of something fast was heard. Out of the shadows of the horizon appeared a dog like creature with its eyes ablaze and its teeth barred. An informative bar appeared over it as Kazama looked at it.

* Dread – Level 2 – 20 HP

Kazama panicked a little inside at the sight of a stronger foe. She glanced at her own HP bar noticed that she only had 15 HP at level 1, and the knowledge made her worry even more. As if sensing her panic, Nabiki spoke up.

“Don’t worry about it. It might look intimidating at first, but it’s actually pretty weak. Plus I have you covered just in case!”

Rather than say anything in response, Kazama prepared to fight the freakish looking dog. The Dread stopped for a moment to gather its thoughts on how to attack Kazama and then began to move again. Kazama stayed where she stood and held her ground as the thing got closer. Finally, the Dread picked up its pace and leaped at Kazama. Kazama wordlessly took a sidestep swinging her sword at the dog as it went by her. Her blade connected with it and the Dread howled in pain. She glanced at the Dreads HP and saw it drop down to half full.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“That’s good!” She thought to herself, “This things half down! All I need to do is get one more swing to put it down.”

Nabiki hollered in victory towards Kazama.

“Wahoo! You got it! Now just one more slice and it’s a goner!”

No sooner then said. The dog began to come at Kazama again. This time it didn’t recklessly charge at Kazama, but circled her and howled. In response to the Dread, a dozen or so other howls could be heard. Suddenly a pack of Dreads appeared, all leveled between 1 and 3. This time it was Nabiki who panicked.

“Shit! This never happened to me before! They usually come at pairs…..”

She let fire and arrow at one of the lower leveled ones, killing it instantly. It shattered in a burst of virtual pixels and dispersed from the world forever. Kazama was alerted that she had gained some experience from the downed beast. She shot a look at Nabiki and then turned back to the Dreads. One of the lower leveled ones rushed her and she promptly connected her blade and killed it. An annoying message popped up in front of her eyes just as some more Dreads began to move on her.

* Level up! You are now level 2.

As this message floated in front of her, one of the Dreads leapt at her and was able to badly scratch her chest. Her outfit matched where the dog attacked her and began to pool some blood. She began to feel not so hot and her HP bar grimly made that feeling worse. She was down halfway now, with a good ten Dreads beginning to come at her. She quickly swung her blade in the direction of the Dread that wounded her and killed it. Nabiki ran up to her and fired a few arrows as warning shots and forced the Dreads to retreat a few steps back.

“Hold on Kazama! I got you!”

Nabiki rushed to Kazama and popped a bottle in her mouth.

“Gwaah!” Complained Kazama at the intrusion of the bottle.

“Don’t worry, this here is a good old fashioned potion! Just the kind an adventuring person might need!

As she drank the liquid down, Kazama instantly felt better. Even her wounds were gone and her outfit was back in the same shape before she had gotten wounded. The blood stains were still present, but that didn’t matter at the moment. What was the problem was that since Nabiki decided to help Kazama out, the Dreads began to surround them and draw closer in. Nabiki closed her eyes and Kazama couldn’t move at the sight of the Dreads. Just as they had thought they were goners, a sudden bright light flashed and blinded the Dreads and Kazama. The Dreads fearfully darted away and the light began to slowly fade away. As the light faded away, both Kazama and Nabiki blacked out in the graveyard……

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Kazama slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She was a long ways away from the graveyard that she had just been in. She heard a low sound of breathing beside her and she looked in the direction. Kazama almost jumped at the sight of Nabiki laying in the bed next to her, sleeping peacefully. Kazama jumped at the sight and looked between her and Nabiki and saw they both were in their underwear.

“What happened between the time we blacked out and now,” She hurriedly thought to herself, “We didn’t do what I think we did…did we?!”

As she was going through a few too many lewd scenarios in her head, she then noticed a note of paper on the bedside. She jumped out of the bed and grabbed the paper and looked down at it closely. As she did this, Nabiki opened her eyes and looked up at Kazama.

“Uwah, where are…….” She started and then bolted upright as she noticed they both were down in their underwear. Blushing, she continued, “Where are we? I thought we were fighting and then suddenly…..”

Kazama reddened up in the face and then handed the not to her. Nabiki looked at the note and her face reddened up as well.

“Wait……this message is from a person waiting for us….And thy want us to shower….together. Because the hot water goes after one use?.....”

Kazama blushed as well and grabbed the paper back and looked at it more.

“It also says that we will receive the answers we are looking for after we cleanup..”

As she was saying this, Nabiki had begun to stand up and brought her player menu up. She clicked a button and suddenly she stood before Kazama naked. Kazama’s mouth was wide opened at the sight of something feminine…..something other than seeing herself. Nabiki blushed some more and asked quickly.

“What!? Is something wrong!?”

“N-n-nothing! Just nothing whatsoever! Let’s get into that shower then! Yep, here I go!”

Kazama raced over to the open door of the shower/bath room and quickly began to shower. Nabiki walked in and joined her, grabbing a soap and rubbing it over herself. She pointed at Nabiki as she did so.

“You might get cleaner if you take the rest of your clothes off…..”

Kazama looked down t herself, then back at Nabiki and reddened in the face even more. She fumbled for the players menu and hit the button to unequip her clothing.  She quickly grabbed a soap and copied what Nabiki did. Nabiki got a little closer to Kazama and raised her arms up to let the water wash down her chest and the rest of her body. Kazama couldn’t help herself as she stared at Nabiki’s body.

“Wow….she’s beautiful looking. I can’t believe I’m showering with a girl…….a real human girl, virtual or not! Now I can’t even tell her I’m a guy….If she found out she would kill me!”

Nabiki walked off and sat in the tub and visibly relaxed a bit in it. She stole a lot at Kazama and smiled.

“Aren’t you going to join me? The waters lovely!”

“S-s-sure!”

Kazama walked over and dipped into the warm waters with her. The water was even better feeling then she thought and soothed her aching body as she sat there. Nabiki looked over at Kazama and opened her mouth to ask a question.

“Say Kazama, I was wondering something about you…”

“Y-yeah?” Kazama muttered aloud with worry in her voice.

“Well, I saw how you fought with ease and thought of a great idea! With the combo of you and me, we should form a guild or something!”

Kazama sighed aloud at hearing this. She had thought the girl was going to ask something worse of her, or even accuse something. Kazama let herself relax a bit more

“Isn’t that for more than two players?”

“Well yeah, but we can still start it with just the two of us! Then as we begin to get better and recruit other members, we can make a name for ourselves!”

Kazama stood up and began to dry herself off. As she did, she looked over at Nabiki who was doing the same.

“Sure, I guess we could. It sounds like it would make things more fun in the game.”

“More then you know! You can battle other guilds, gain territory and even more! Or so I’ve heard at least…”

Nabiki blushed a slight bit and finally got her clothes back on. Kazama did the same and they exited the bathroom. They walked out of the room and were surprised at the sight they saw. They were on the second story floor of a giant looking cathedral, a sort of cathedral that would be found in ancient Europe. It seemed that the game really knew what it was basing its first world off of.

“Wow,” Nabiki gasped as she looked over the balcony wall.

“Yeah,” replied Kazama, who was also looking over the cathedral. “Just who was it that saved us?”

A voice behind them spoke up.

“I was the one who saved you two fine ladies.”

Both Kazama and Nabiki turned around and looked to see a young man in a priest outfit smiling at them. They both were speechless at the person. In response to them, he spoke again.

“We have much to go over….”

End Chapter 2