“I can see you…” the Arachna whispered in singsong manner.
Winter was hiding behind a natural stone pillar that jutted out from the ground. He knew that stalactite and stalagmite that joined eventually become one of such pillars. But if he was asked which one was the top or bottom of the two scientific word, he would not remember.
The first act of defiance Winter did was to throw <
“Fool! Don’t you have better magic? She is highly resistant to spells!”
Winter’s stomach plummeted when he heard Randall’s shout. He had managed to clip her a couple times with combination of feints and timing yet the damage was too minor.
“How What about physical damage!” Winter shouted before jumping behind one pillar that bore the brunt of shadowy knives.
“She is weak against it! But we have no warrior here!” came the reply.
Nodding, Winter raised a couple more coffins to fill up the gaps in the defensive work. He was also trying to fudge his location. She was still hanging upside down despite being hit by his spells.
Unequipping his staff then equipping his sword, Winter moved a few steps away from his position. It was lucky that he did, as a broad shadowy spearhead went through the wall he had just stepped away from. A section of his wall crumbled instantly.
’Holy crap!’
Winter dove backward to the empty space, predicting that the walls were not safe anymore. Successive spears pierced the stone coffins with the save visible result. This was the first time that the stone barrier had failed him! He had no real defense to mount now and thus was left with offense.
“RRrRRRAAAA!!!” With a shout, Winter somehow managed to correct his posture and dodged another flying spear to close the open gap. Chuckling, the monster reeled in her body up, making herself inaccessible to Winter, who was running to her position. Smirking, Winter triggered a brain pattern that said ‘Rise up, Stone Coffin’ and leaped at the same time the spell propelled him into the air.
Winter had no idea how tall the ceiling of the caverns’ were, he doubted he could clear it even with the aid of his ‘cannonball’ spell. It would be mighty embarrassing if he smacked his head on the rock after executing a perfect leap.
He felt gratified that the Arachna appear to be shocked even though she was an NPC. Spinning his body to add momentum to his slash, Winter parted the web she was hanging from. Unfortunately, he pushed too hard and did not managed to deliver anything else beside the one slash that dropped her down. It was his goal, but he wanted to know how much he could damage her.
Winter, who was used to this boosting method landed in a roll, eventually taking a knee to face the spider. He was not sure how much fall damage was inflicted on her or even if mob monsters receive any fall damage. There was no frame of reference for that occasion yet for him to compare it with.
He flicked his eyes to the bar above the monster’s head. It did decrease by about 15% or so. As for himself, since he had executed a proper landing, he lost about 5% worth of health. He had good reason to suspect that he had a lot less health than the Arachna however.
Using her hands and appendages, the half spider rolled back on her stomach and stood up, hissing at him.
“A swordmage reborn! I thought I killed the last of you! Now you have to die!”
With that statement, her hands waved in a pattern. Black shadow coalesced around her, completely enveloping her whole body like liquid. Then the liquid lightened in shade and disappeared. The spider was gone! No, wait. He could see the outline of the spider, if barely due to his magesight that remained active the whole time. There was a hair raising moment where the outline made a throwing motion at Winter. Not questioning his instinct, he dove aside. He was a moment too slow as one of the spectral dagger clipped his hip.
You are injured! Scratch damage!
HP -148
Winter winced internally. He could not imagine how much damage he would had received if it hit him dead on. He really needed a gear upgrade soon!
But before that….
“Ho…. you are quite good, mage.”
Winter’s eyes tracked the spider’s outline. It had moved away from the last spot she was standing. The voice echoed around, but he stuck to looking at the moving outline without giving away he could see her. There was no telling what she could do aside from cloaking herself in darkness if he gave away the game too soon. Staring around as if listening to the source of the voice, Winter raised a stone coffin the moment the Arachna was about to cast another spell, evident from the way she was about to flung her hand. His spell accuracy was decreased without a staff equipped, but it did not matter as it made her stumble and the miscast blew the darkness away. Judging from how big the explosion was, she had been preparing a pretty nasty spell.
Not wasting the good opportunity, Winter ran forward and tried to decapitate the monster. He doubted he could do it at one go, but stranger things had been known to happen in Royal Road. As expected, he did not manage to lop off the head. The Arachna bunched her spider appendages forward to block his sword. What it managed to do was sever one of the legs while injuring whichever ones that it came in contact with his sword. The shrill cry when he had managed to hack through was a good indication that it was a good move.
The pushback was no joke though. Winter flew through the air for what he thought seconds before he managed to reorient himself to land on his feet. Even then the force of the push was enough to further make moderately deep furrows on the ground before stopping completely.
“You will pay for that!” The Arachna yelled shrilly.
Winter thought that was a typical bad guy line and ignored it. He had a good tactic going on now. His plan utilised the monster’s strong spellcasting to his benefit. He aimed to create blowback reaction from the miscast, interrupting the spell while its cadence was incomplete. The one time he had managed it so far reduced the health by 10% while his attack with his sword, despite managing to sever a limb only resulted in 1000 damage, which was less than 5%. That spoke plenty about how weak the monster’s physical defense in proportion to his strength as a magic user, again, typical. But the quantity of its health was a real problem, and he still was not sure he could last long enough to finish the job. No other way but to go forth.
This time however, Winter did not choose to raise the coffin to stumble the monster. He needed an alternative, else she would keep watching for that. So, this time he raised it right in front of the monster’s line of sight. It effectively masked Winter’s movement. It was also unexpected this time and allowed him to flank her. Smartening up, the Arachna skittered away much quicker than Winter expected.
No way I can catch her this way!’
His running speed would not catch up to her anytime soon. He could of course catch up using <
Royal Road had great realism. A good portion of the NPC had quite advanced AI to the point it was close to sentience. Randall was among one of the myriads of them. He thought about his line and inheritance, how it would be lost forever once he was gone. With the loss of his son, who was the only inheritor, it was almost a surefire. Yet suddenly, a stranger that could combine swordplay with magic came from literally nowhere. No. Eliad, who was his best friend now turned Gatekeeper for Arcanum Magic Academy had sent this adventurer to his way. He knew that Randall’s soon was dead. He wanted to yell some advices but held his tongue. They were in mortal combat now. Any distraction could spell doom on either side. And he was not sure he could tell which way the scale would swing. It would be different if he had a sword in hand. No. Nothing could be done until his hip was fixed. Being old was a curse on its own. Thus, Randall fervently prayed to Freya for Winter’s victory.
Winter’s vision was tunneling. He saw nothing else but his opponent. When a human was focused enough in their task, they were oblivious to everything else around them. It brought their utmost ability to the task at hand. Winter’s immersion in the battle brought forth such phenomenon. In the zone, he could guess with great accuracy where his enemy would be attacking from the smallest gesture. He made occasional mistakes due to inexperience a few times. But he left enough room for correction. Several close shaves from the mistakes had reduced his health to less than half but he did not pay any attention to anything else. Only the enemy mattered.
The exchange was exhilarating for Winter. The parry, dodge counter hit and deflection felt like music to him. The spell blasts that he avoided at close range was the high note while the shriek of pain whenever he managed to inflict damage to the monster the chorus.
His health was holding steady at 23% after trial and error. The spider still has more health than him at approximately 46% but he was learning. Now only his stamina was of concern. Mages have naturally low stamina. He has used up more than half of it. This was the longest one on one fight he has ever gone through up to date and it showed no conclusion anytime soon.
As if the thought itself brought forth the chance, Winter misjudged a block for parry. He was not badly injured by the tiny bit of mistake, but had been launched away over ten meters. Flurry of shadow knives were flying at him, forcing him to create more distance and hiding behind a stone pillar. If Winter was her and managed to create a good distance between him and his enemy, he would begin the preparation to unleash his best move. The spider obviously thought the same.
Not hiding her intent, she intoned in rasping clear voice some sort of spell. Whatever it was, it was definitely deadly considering from the magesight the quantity of mana gathered around her was so dense that she glowed like a Christmas tree. Upon realising this, Winter’s eye widened. Not wasting even a single millisecond, he leaped out and began sprinting toward the spider. A clear film like bubble was erected in front of her. Winter had encountered that spell before. It was one of her more annoying skill, a reflective piece of magic. Whatever spell he lobed at her would bounce back if it hits the glass like surface. The only solution winter came up with was to wait for the spell to finish. He had a suspicion that higher grade magic could pierce it, but had no such spell in his repertoire to test it with. Luckily it only had 10 seconds duration. That ten second of invulnerability from any of his magical attack was no doubt enough to finish up. The distance was great enough for the spider to appear smug at her advantage. Winter could swear although the mouth was busy chanting a long <
That would not do for Winter. “Reflex!” he shouted. The world slowed down exponentially. The air felt like it was encased in liquid. His passing caused ripples of air to be pushed away visibly. The dusts that were swept off indicated his quick passage.
Randall who saw that from outside of the accelerated world was left open mouthed. He recognised the spell, a lost part of his heritage, something he never thought he would ever see again. One moment Winter was running forward as fast as he could, the next moment he appeared in front of the spider that looked startled at his presence.
With half a second left, Winter did not waste anytime. Uttering quick prayer to whatever god in Royal Road, he stabbed the clay sword that had lost considerable durability. He prayed that the feedback from the spell was damaging enough because his stamina would not last for another minute.
The stab was angled from low to high, piercing the Arachna’s heart. Any disturbance was enough in truth. Winter could have hit the spider on her mouth. Sliced her head a little or even kicked her off. Anything to cause an interruption. He thought it was somewhat poetic to aim for the heart. As expected from anything that got stabbed in the heart, it shrieked in pain, breaking the spell.
There was a single moment of clear silence where everything stopped. His hit was a critical, taking off 15% HP but not fatal. The pear like black eyes stared at Winter in astonishment. A bloodthirsty smile was the last impression the spider woman gave him before a deafening explosion rocked the cavern.
xXx
Winter had virtual cold sweats when he recalled how close he was to failing the quest. He did not have any time to summon more than one coffin to hide under. The said temporary barrier was disintegrated to nothing. Winter who was huddled underneath the slab survived with less than 100 health point left. He felt the pressure blast flattening him to the ground while the system message flickered at the same rate his health point was decreasing. This was Winter’s first encounter with large scale malfunctioning spell and it would be one of his favorite offensive tactic in the future against casters.
“Uggh.. I swear.. that was a bad idea!” he grumbled while getting off the perfectly scoured ground. He was unsure why he survived when the rocks and stone pillars were completely disintegrated in what appeared to be a perfect sphere from the center of the explosion. He never figured out that having high magic defense was very useful until much later against wild spells.
xXx
Reki was slightly annoyed. To anyone looking at her, she would look all calm and collected. But if anyone looked closely at how fast and furiously she was shooting, to the point of missing two out of a hundred target by the time she was done, they would had known something was not right. Reki never missed. Not true. She missed if the target moved or if it was too far. But an immobile target at 100m range? She could do shaft shots as many times as she wished.
Shaft shot is where an archer shoots a bullseye and shoots the arrow on the bullseye, splitting it dead center. It was amongst the most difficult archery feat. Reki’s personal best was twenty two continuous (shaft) shot that so far remained unbroken despite numerous other archers challenging the feat. It was such a far cry from previous score of six in a row.
There were no reward from the achievement except for prestige. At least that was what general players thought. Reki did obtain a few benefits. One, A title of Sharpshooter that improved her damage, penetration and accuracy considerably. Two, probably a unique skill called Pinpoint Precision. It was a buff type ability, passive in nature that further improved damage inflicted from her archery skill by fixed 10%.
She had asked him to look her up if anything interesting happened. Then the man himself disappeared to a dungeon somewhere without telling her. She reined her temper in as it was not his fault. She was absent for the past couple of days due to her work. She was suddenly called in to solve a theorem that would be used to improve a matrix interface program. Finding the solution had not been difficult. It was the traveling back and forth that sucked, making most of the two days of her time unable to log in. The solution could only be inputted in a specific place and it was not close by where she lived. There was also no cell reception nor anything to connect to internet as a security precaution.
It was a hassle that she has to go there whenever they ran into a snag. But for the benefit she received, she was willing to bear with it. In her capacity as a consultant for the programming department, she was privy to a few secrets of Royal Road. A few of those secrets, she designed herself to boot.
What she knew was not enough to win the emperor prize. She also had signed an agreement stating she was ineligible for the prize itself. Ellie was fine with it since she has no need for that much money. At thirteen she was wealthy from money she obtained from stock exchange.
She wondered if her father would ever figure it out. Uncle Daniel probably suspected. She did not mod her appearance too much after all. Only a few cosmetic changes on her hair color, length and iris color. Her original appearance was of very slender and petite girl. She was also a brunette. Her only vanity was increasing her height as she was remarkably short for her age. She was barely 130cm in height and if she was right, she would barely hit 145 when she stopped growing. It was a depressing thought.
Writing a message to her sister asking where she was at the moment, Ellie did not expect quick reply as Celine was rather busy nowadays. Sighing, Reki checked for her father’s username in her friend list. He was online and nowhere near her place. She wondered how he fared there. Samuel and Rinne was around, but she was not in the mood to be talking to anyone else but Winter. She was tempted to turn off her secret ‘privacy’ button that allowed her to appear offline to anyone in her friend list but decided she better log out for real to clean up her place. The hallway was getting a little too crowded with stacks of paper.
Stolen story; please report.
xXx
TRRRRIINNGG!!
Help Randall completed!
You leveled up!
Winter patted himself to dislodge dirts that still clung to him. He grabbed the loot that the Arachna dropped.
Black Widow’s Heart
An intact heart of an Arachna. Despite its condition, it is still beating! Handle with care!
Further identification needed.
“Identify.”
Identification failed!
“Huh. Identify.”
It failed again. Winter tried three more times before giving up, leaving the blackened, grotesque heart in his inventory. He picked up the 300G dropped too and one very unusual sword.
Bonesteel Sword
Despite its name, it is not made from bone nor steel, but a very rare wood that grew in the most hostile territory known in Versailles. The area is now no more, the name only memory and the location long forgotten. Yet the unique tree that give birth to this weapon lived on from one hand to another as the sword is passed from one successor to another.
A standard sword for Battlemage profession
Attack : 80 - 100
MAttack: 80 - 100
All stat +15
Restriction: Battlemage only
Never heard of Battlemage before.
Before Winter managed to ponder on the profession further, a yell and snap of a stick brought him back to his new predicament. Randall was displeased with him.
“You idiot! Are you trying to kill both of us?” *whack*
“Ouch! What are you doing, you crazy old man! I was saving your ass and killing the monster! Is this how you repay me? A stick to the head?”
Winter was hopping away, avoiding hits from Randall’s cane. He was shuffling forward to lay more blows to his head.
“I can find ten ways to kill her without needing to blow up the cavern, fool! Now stay there and take your hit like a man!”
Winter dodged a lot of the blows. Those he could not dodge, he blocked with his hands. He needed another new sword as his Clay Sword was blown to smithereens. He hoped it would not become a habit, him destroying his weapons. The curses got longer and more elaborate with every dodge Winter managed. The hits he took did zero damage, but somehow it was just as painful as being hit with real stick. Eventually Randall stopped, wheezing after Winter chose to be smart and erected stone coffins to wall himself off.
“Are you done yet?” Winter shouted from behind the earthwork.
“Yes, I am done! Now get your butt out here and help me get home! I have a burial to arrange!”
The burial was a somber event, attended by only Randall. Winter was expecting to accompany Randall all the way to wherever he came from. But the burial process without body was simple. He asked Winter to dig a deep hole (which was quite troublesome since he has no shovel) then bury the sword inside.
“I *wheeze* would prefer to fight *wheeze* the spider again.” Winter stated when he was done with the task. Randall gave him an evil glare, but Winter did not care. His stamina was completely depleted.
“Thank you for your help, adventurer. Winter’s isn’t it?” Randall asked when Winter finished digging the hole and took a break. He would have given a lot to have a shovel right then. Alas, the job was done. Two hours of digging without a break.
“Your welcome. Yes. My name is Winter.” Winter was idly thinking that his task was done but somehow he was not transported back yet.
“Am I correct to say that you are proficient in way of the sword despite being a Magician by profession?” Randall may had phrased it like a question, but it sounded like a statement. Winter wondered if he should say Yes or No. He was not sure what was considered proficient in swordsmanship.
“What do you consider ‘proficient’, Randall?”
“About Intermediate level in Sword Mastery.”
Winter had reached over 5% Intermediate level 1. His attack damage and attack speed had massive improvement of 100% now with 30% in attack speed. He might not be able to match real swordsman in bodily footworks constantly, but he could at least defend himself well when it was called for.
“I guess I am proficient enough then.” Answered Winter. Randall nodded upon hearing Winter’s reply.
“And you somehow learned <
Digesting the words, Winter wondered if the skill was that rare. It was once he thought about it. He never really asked around, but nobody else, mages or warrior he met so far possessed it. In truth, the skill was not as rare as Winter thought, but it was a difficult to obtain piece of magic and thus not very many mages possessed it. Those that combined it with weapon mastery of any kind numbered less than 50 so far. Among those number, less than 10 used swords that warriors favor.
Winter was curious too about how Minalan got hold of the skill book. So he told Randall about Minalan and his daughter, Adria in Cosare.
“Minalan did you say!” Randall exclaimed when he first heard the name. When Winter asked what was wrong, Randall replied with nothing and told Winter to continue with his story. So Winter told him that the father and daughter owned a magic shop and received artifacts regularly.
Winter did not think too much of it when Randall asked for a description of Minalan and Adria in specific. He was stroking his gray beard when Winter was done.
“A magic artifact trader eh. Can’t say I heard of him before. Cosare did you say? I think i will visit him one day.”
“Whatever.” Winter brushed away dirts from his pants. He then jumped down the hole he dug, gesturing for Randall to throw the sword to him. Laying it down carefully, Winter climbed up and reversed the digging process. It did not take him as long as the digging but it was equally messy.
Resting up under a large tree outside of the dungeon, Winter observed Randall standing still in silent prayer in front of the loosely packed dirt. He thought he saw a nimbus of light emanating from his body, but it happened so fast that he was not sure.
“Once more thank you for your help. I believe it is fate that both of us to meet though that meddling Gatekeeper helped it along.” Randall paused for a couple seconds before continuing. “I believe you notice that I asked for a non-iron sword, yes?” A few seconds ticked before Winter got it.
“You are a mage too?” He exclaimed in surprise. Randall grinned broadly. The thick beard parted but barely showed his mouth.
“I am. And I am not.”
“What do you mean you are not. Either you are, or you are not.”
“How about you? Are you a mage?” Randall countered.
“I am. You saw me casting spells right?” Then it hit Winter that Randall cast no spell at all despite claiming to be a mage too. As if seeing the gears whirring in Winter’s head, Randall nodded.
“Yes. I did not cast any spell. At least not the way you know it. My spells were limited to my usage of the sword as you saw.”
“Those were spells? I thought they were some sort of warrior skills!” Winter thought back on those ridiculous damage and range of slashes that blew away the ants. Those were magic? From a mage?
“I am a Battlemage. The last of my kind, probably.”
“A what? Battlemage?”
“It is not a very well known profession because it is a dying profession. My son was supposed to be continuing the tradition…” Sighing, Randall tried to get control of his emotion. His fists tightened on the head of his walking stick for a couple seconds before he managed it.
“There is also the lack of candidate. The way of Battlemage is harsh and unforgiving. You live and die between moments.” The word ‘moments’ struck Winter as quite befitting if he added to the fact that <
“Only those that knew suffering and understand defeat could shoulder the power and weakness of this profession. You that I can see that you have had gone through enough on both count, is fit to be the successor. If only you can fix your rude attitude!” Randall had to ruin the gleaming speech with the last part. Winter could not help but retort back.
“Hey! I saved your old bones! Lay off the bad comments at last.”
“Humph. That is that, this is this.” Winter could not decide whether to be amazed or annoyed at how stubborn the old man was. He could not really hate him as they were rather alike in temperament. He was on the milder side of things though. At least he tried to convince himself that he was. If Samuel had stood there, he might beg to differ.
“Never mind. So, I can become this ‘Battlemage’ thing?”
“Are you even listening, I said you are to be my successor! What part of that you do not understand!” The walking stick went up but Winter already stepped away before it was halfway up. Reluctantly Randall dropped it back to lean on it.
“Humph. You are at least good at dodging and anticipating attacks. So, are you interested?”
TTRRRING!!”
Secret class accessible!
Do you wish to change class to Battlemage? YES/NO
This could be the chance Winter was looking for. Originally he wanted to be a warrior. His choice of becoming a mage was forced onto him. His swordsmanship was learned as a fallback when he got cursed. Now that he was offered a class that could utilise both side of profession, was there any reason to refuse? Without any hesitation, Winter answered: “I am.”
xXx
Ezza was a decently sized town located at the edge of western continent and central continent. This place was in a very literal sense, the middle of nowhere. It was however well populated with players that wished to cross to either zone. A rest stop so to speak. The place had nothing much to it except abundance of supplies for traveling. The market square was sparsely filled. There was not even a training hall there as the place was not the designated spot for beginners. After all, the surrounding monsters were level 130 in average before getting easier when you moved to either part of the continent.
It was on that quiet day players that were resting in one of the numerous taverns in Ezza spotted an unusual sight. Her clothing was unusual. She looked even more unusual. The gender was clearly female from the skirt and two ponytails that stuck out slightly above her head. The purple and white clothes had strong resemblance to a maid uniform especially with the headband that was rather distinctive with its frills. Her stature was so short, even shorter than the dwarves that were said to be the shortest of all playable races, standing at 150cm tallest. She was barely 120cm in height but well proportioned like a human child even if the impression she gave out was not of one.
Nobody quite remembered when she entered. But everyone remembered when she struggled to get to the stool. Some offered to help, but they could not understand her at all.
“Hey, is this some sort of quest or something?” Asked one of the players that tried to help the cute and short creature up the bar stool that was as tall as her.
“I don’t know. But I sure want to find out!” the player’s friend replied.
Celine was frustrated at the treatments she received. It reminded her once more of her time as a teenagers. She was shorter than most of her friends to the point of sticking out and being mistaken a lot as underage even when she had reached the legal age. Entering a bar required her to produce her identity card. The same with romance themed movie for sixteen and above. It was better now since she learned how to dress up properly and wear a good layer of make ups to highlight her adult parts. Polished ways to exude charms was something that she learned in the acting school and put to good use a lot of times.
It annoyed her to no end that her movies were so popular though. She was 24 for god’s sake! She should not even be playing teenage romance movie anymore! She debuted as a teenage character too and gained popularity and following from there. But now she wanted more than anything to graduate from that role and yet was still stuck with it. Her manager told her to be patient. She was working on it. That was a year ago and she was still working on it.
Sighing after putting down her glass with both hands that was too small to hold the large mug singlehandedly, Celine was startled by the call from the other side of the bar.
“Oh? The drink isn’t pleasing to your palate, Miss?”
The bald bartender was an immaculate looking man with a generous moustache and no beard. His arms were bulging with muscles barely contained by the rolled up sleeves of his white shirt. The black apron he wore emphasized his large pectoral muscles more than conceal it. He was bending over a little to put less height between both of them.
“Chiimu. Chimu.”
“I see. It is good eh. Glad you likes it, Miss.”
Players were minding their own business but discreetly taking sneak peeks at the strange creature was agape. Their ears perked up when they heard the reply that sounded nothing like a language.
“Chimumumu, chimmimin Chiii mumun!”
“In a hurry. Got it. I will get your supplies, Miss.”
The bartender burst into a quick action. The regular players that hunted around the area were even more surprised as the bartender was known to be a rude bastard. The only salvation the place had were the good food and drink at reasonable price. The rude comments were taken as part of the cost of eating good food. Not so palatable spice but endurable.
“Here we go, Miss. 20 gold should do it.”
“Chimu?”
“Yes. I am sure. It is a fair deal. After all I don’t get to see a Chim everyday.”
From the oversized lapels that hid the hands of the creature that was guaranteed to be tiny, a small pouch flashed out. She needed to stand up to hand over the pouch.
“Thank you, Miss. Nice to do business with you.”
At this point all the players, male or female wanted to shout to the world ‘so cuteee!!!’. But they were not done yet receiving (enjoying) the visual entertainment.
The package that was ordered by the Chim (a few recognised it as a race unique in West part of the continent, Arland Kingdom to be specific) was almost as large as her body. They were ready to offer their help to carry it and journey to wherever the Chim wished to go. The female players were extremely motivated! Celine did not notice them at all. She was busy leveraging the package after lifting it up.
‘What the!!!’ was the silent exclamation everyone thought in their mind. The bartender was not paying attention. Busying himself with a few drinks that was sloshed on the tabletop from what they just witnessed. The package looked like it was sucked into the body of the Chim.
Everyone’s thought immediately flashed to a certain blue cat with a dimensional pocket, which was not too far from the truth of what the Chim just did but slightly different. It was no pocket. She devoured it.
“Chimu!!” The chim raised her right hand and jiggled it a little like it was waving goodbye. The broad lapel that still refused to show her hand waved a few times like a flag.
“Safe trip to you miss!” The bartender replied in slightly raised voice that carried to the entrance. Celine walked out of the bar without looking back.
“Oi! Did you see that! What was that?!” A heavily armored female player with a wicked scar across her face shouted to her friend.
“I don’t know! But I am going to follow her!”
She did not wait but jumped out of her seat to trail Celine.
“No fair! I am going too! Wait!” The slower armored player was exiting the bar too but at slower rate than her less armored friend. The two were not the only ones. All females suddenly emptied from the tavern, leaving the male crowd still deciding on what they were seeing as… strange or amazing. Some of the males followed out too.
This happened quite a lot to Celine, which was why she hated when she has to resupply in town. But she was out of supplies and it was faster to buy them than to gather them from the wild.
“Chimmuuu!!!” (I hate this part!!!!)
Celine was running a lot faster than the fastest players that were chasing her for questions, interest or just curiosity. She had foreseen the problem after she was caught once and forced to endure hours of hugging and picture taking and a lot of proposals and offers when they discovered she was a player.
It was easier nowadays for her to just talk with NPCs than players. They seem to understand what she was and acted normal enough if generous. ‘At least that beast of a woman was not around this time.’ thought Celine. She would be disappointed to find out that the said woman was not far behind her and they would encounter each other again in the future.