"So, you really lost all of your skills? That sucks. Do you have a way to get them back?" Lucas asked. Owen shrugged. "I could probably slowly grind out trying to get them and eventually might, but I think I am going to need to go about it a different way, for right now at least I'm not sure if I am going to be fighting again anytime soon." Lucas sighed, "Well so much for learning all of those skills from you, now I'm stuck needing to grind it out like everyone else would."
"Oh come off it," Myra interrupted from off to the side. "You already don't need to really grind it out, especially ever since you started joining us when we clear dungeons." Lucas gave a sheepish grin and raised his hands in defense. "Fine fine, is it that wrong to want for an easy ride to the top?" He left the room smiling and Owen gave Myra a look. She nodded and closed the door after him leaving just the two of them in the room.
"So, I got tired out far too early to get any answers yesterday, but what have I missed so far?" Owen asked, shifting into a more comfortable position. "Well, we have access to more guild resources now, after earning coins from the gate it unlocked a shop feature. So we can buy things now." Myra started but Owen interrupted. "Can we buy information?" She gave him a quizzical look, before realization dawned on her face.
"Once we're done I will go buy as many information packets as we can afford." Myra said and Owen nodded. "Is there any way I can give you my credits?" She shook her head, "Not that I've been able to figure out so far, though if I'm being honest I haven't really checked." Owen nodded again. "Was there anything else?" She seemed to think about it for a couple moments, several times looking as if there was something she wanted to say, but she stopped herself. "When you have a chance, you should come check the guild store yourself. I'm not going to have the best idea of what you'll need to get back up to fighting power."
"You really weren't out of it for very long so there wasn't a lot you missed. I'm more worried about how you're doing and how you feel about what happened." Owen was almost surprised to see the worry in Myra's face, but he thought back to the time she had hugged him when they had thought he had been terribly injured or dead. She had also been at least somewhat open with him. He gave her a smile, before speaking.
"I'm fine, the bosses attack messed up my meridians and I needed to patch them, but there is still a minor leak. But don't you worry, I am stronger than I look, my core isn't mana starved anymore and there is barely any chaos corruption." He said, even though he hadn't been able to tell where it was supposed to be to begin with. The only indication he had was his status page saying it, but he had yet to actually find any.
She gave a worried glance at him then glanced at the door, before she seemed to come to a decision. "Be honest with me, please. I feel like you haven't reacted to any of what happened. You almost died, we though we lost you. Only to find out that while you were alive, you had a damaged core and that you had damaged pathways. Are you sure you're okay?" Myra asked. She kept her tone neutral for the most part, but it wavered slightly when she had mentioned them thinking he had died.
He gave her a long and hard look for a while, but decided to just speak and let his words ramble, she wanted him to be open, he would try. He gestured for her to sit next to him while he spoke as he didn't want to see the facial reactions to any of what he planned on saying. "You know when I had dinner with your family, that was one of the most surreal experiences I had had in a long time. All I could think about was how my family hadn't ever really had the opportunity to sit down and see how everyone else was doing."
"When my died was killed," Owen stumbled in his words for the first time speaking wanted to say when he had died, but he knew it wasn't so simple. The sins had wanted the inheritance he took and they killed his dad to get to it. He had remembered feeling almost frustrated when he found out that Peggy and Myra's family were perfectly fine, their side of the city having been the least wrecked during the gate breaks. It wasn't that he had wanted their parents to die, but he was envious that they had made it through, but his dad couldn't.
he said all this to Myra as well as he began retelling the experience of his dad dying and feeling jealous that theirs were alive. "It just made me so angry, I had wanted to make the change with my dad to be more like a family, after going to meet your parents, but it felt like almost as soon as I had decided it he was taken from me." Myra reached a hand over and began rubbing his back as he spoke, he enjoy the companionship it brought, but it didn't heal the hurt as he thought about his dad.
"Then before I had even got a chance to think about the fact that my dad had died, we had moved on to start trying to stop the tier 2 gate breaks and after that establishing ourselves in the city, before rushing into thing after thing. It got easier to ignore the fact that everything from the old world for me had changed. I feel mostly better about it now too, but I guess the reason I haven't really reacted to anything is because I fell like if I take it too slow, I'll get stuck in my head and be forgotten by the wayside." He had a pained expression on his face as he spoke. It was hard to describe his feelings.
It wasn't that he was feeling so sad and pitiful, he already felt like he had moved past that par of his life, but after losing his dad and the system arriving giving him a chance to live a life that wasn't a 9-5 desk job. It felt like there wasn't anything better to do than put his everything into the new system, consequences be damned. He would do his best to become the strongest just because he could and if he died along the way, at least he now had something he had put his all into. He knew his thought process was selfish, since it didn't make room for anyone else's feelings that he was close with, but that was mostly limited to Myra and Peggy now.
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He did his best to describe it all in words and Myra, while some tears had formed in her eyes, she sat quietly and listened through him trying to put his thoughts together in a way that would make sense. He wasn't sure how long it had gone, but Myra sat and listened to it all, not interrupting, just listening to him talk. He had to admit that it felt good, it was like a weight was being lifted from his chest. He had wanted to get revenge for his dad immediately after his murder, but since then the feeling had began to wane as Owen began to focus on other things. It had made him feel guilty for not making it a priority, but he realized it was still something he was going to do, but he just needed the time to gather strength as there was nothing he could do now.
After he had said everything he could think to say, the room fell into a comfortable silence. Owen kept staring at the same place on the wall and Myra seemed to stare at it as well. "I'm don't like connecting to people if I can help it. I have always enjoyed my time alone and I think that will always be the case. I have had a tendency to try and push people away and over time most of the friends I had had became friends that were also Peggy's, until eventually it was just me, Peggy, and my parents." Myra said breaking the silence.
"I don't like getting emotional or even showing it if I don't have to, but you're the first friend I have had in a long time that isn't just here cause they are friends with Peggy, but you're also friends with me. Even if that isn't a big change to how it was, it still makes you an important person to me, so you can't blame me if I get worried when you almost die." Owen smiled as she said the last part and pulled her into a side hug. "Watch out for yourself even a bit more, just for me?" Myra said as she leaned her head on his shoulder
Owen felt a flush reach his cheeks and the tips of his ears burned. "Uhh yeah, I'll try to be more careful." As soon as he answered she stretched her arms and stood up, "Well, alright, now that you've promised not to be a dunce in the future, I am going to go buy all of the information I can afford from the guild shop." Owen felt himself deflate a little, but the slight tinge of pink on Myra's cheeks made him smile. "Cool, tomorrow I think I'll be able to move around and do whatever, just so long as I don't need to fight anyone. I'll have to meet you there then so I can buy whatever else you might need." She nodded and gave a small wave as she left the room, leaving Owen by himself again.
The next day Owen did genuinely feel better, it had felt like ever since the conversation the day before a weight had been lifted from his chest and everything seemed a bit brighter. He had already resolved to get revenge for his dad, but he needed to gain real strength first and the climb to the top was long and arduous, so he was starting to feel more comfortable taking his time. He moved out into the main room of the guild's clinic building to see a strange looking black orb no larger than a soft ball hovering between Peggy's hands. She seemed to be deep in thought as she maneuvered the orb and Owen stared for a while confused as to what he was seeing.
A flick to the back of his head got his attention as he turned around to see a grinning Myra holding a similar orb. "So apparently you hadn't needed to wait to go through the shop. One of the first information packets we bought let us know if we would be able to buy these orbs that let you access the shop and some other menus whenever you're in what it calls guild territory." Myra said proudly. Owen grinned back and began reaching for the orb to buy his own, but she held up a hand. "I want you to try something for me," She said and and her eyes seemed to go out of focus for a moment, before a window popped in front of Owen.
*Would you like to join unnamed guild? Y/N?*
He raised an eyebrow in surprise, but selected yes anyways. A new screen popped up in his system menu and after quickly pulling it up, he saw the option to select the orb as an item for joining the guild. "It says I can just have the orb?" Owen asked as he selected the orb and one identical to the one Myra was holding appeared in his hand. "Yeah, we bought the option for new people joining to be able to get one right off the bat. The only thing we are missing now is giving out 3 quests and building defenses around the guilds location, they we are able to access the real store. Right now we can only buy small things, but the information packet says we will be able to buy anything from gear to weapons and even food and water stuff after fully unlocking the system store."
Owen nodded, "If I remember right, we need to give out a couple quests where the reward is money right? Did you find out if credits work?" Myra grinned. "They do indeed, we currently have all of the quests we need going, but we do need defenses and those are going to cost a lot of credits." Owen switched over the the sections holding items to help support the guilds defensive power. Walls to barricades and even things that looked a lot like traps were listed. Each one costing well over 1000 credits on there own, in order to buy one of everything offered, Owen would need to spend every single credit he had earned and more.
"Did you guys already put together a plan for what defenses would be required to complete the last requirement for unlocking the system store?" Owen asked already ready to lose all of his money this time around. "Yeah, we would need a minimum of 25,000 credits to upgrade the base sufficiently." Myra said looking troubled. "Which means we will need to clear at least two more gates." Owen sighed and began to stretch. "Then I have to go see what I'm capable of doing right now, I only have 5500 credits at the moment." He was surprised when it looked like Myra's eyes were bugging out, but she got over it quickly.
"5500 is a good start, I think as a group we have 10,000 remaining then, so maybe we can get away with only doing one more." Myra said warily, almost to make sure Owen was planning on helping with the credits. Thankfully, she seemed to understand his nod in return and a visible wave of relief washed through her. "I am going to go spar lightly with Lucas for now, see how far away I am from fighting shape."
He felt surprisingly okay after his core had mostly healed. He ended up buying a couple information packets anyways, bringing him down to just over 3000 credits, but he knew they would be worth it in the long term. Each purchase seemed to burn information into his head and by the time Lucas had arrived he felt like his head was going to split.
What he he had learned was important though, he had bought information about tempers, body and soul mana infusions, skills and and the last packet was focused on classes. The tempers were what he needed the least of information about, but he had originally thought that you could only infuse the body with mana, only to find out that the packet was only sold as a set, listing soul infusions as well. They both required having knowledge on tempers, so he was excited to delve into the information he had bought about it, but he had come out to spar so he would look into it more later.
He stood in a defensive stance a couple meters away from Lucas, before charging forward ready to clash.