Boot Mountain, October 6 2012, 1.00 pm GMT+7
They all turned their heads in the direction Wing was pointing. A young woman with an all-purple appearance from her long hair to her clothes was sitting on a long sofa with a light green-skinned dragon that looked about Velocity's age. Both figures were wearing only citizen clothes, indicating that they were not Saviors. The woman looked like a human, but she had the butterfly-like wings on her back that characterized Tribe Fairy.
“Let's go!” called Wing. The four of them hurriedly walked over to the two figures.
“Excuse me!” said Rhinoceros. “Are you the one called Ametis?”
The woman named Ametis turned her head. “Oh, you're the one named Rhinoceros? The Savior who lobbied for the field study with Uncle Atroce?”
“Yes, that's right. These are my friends who will be participating.”
“Welcome!” greeted Ametis, she turned to the dragon beside her. “Well Rindo, time for Ametis to get to work.”
“What!” complained the dragon. “I'm lazy when it comes to accompanying father.”
“Hey, I don't think Uncle Pendo will come home if you don't pick him up!” said Ametis fiercely. Ametis turned back to the Saviors
“Ah, sorry. This is a dragonic acquaintance, called Rindo. After this, I will take you to Maester Atroce. Except for Rindo, we will go together by train to the city of Mjolnir.” Ametis walked ahead of them while pushing the light green dragon to walk first.
“Oh, so My Lady is coming too?” asked Rhinoceros curiously.
“I also have a job at Mjolnir later. If you want you can be my assistant,” replied Ametis with a wink.
“Really?” said Rhinoceros enthusiastically. “Then, I will accompany you personally—AUWWWW!!!”
Velocity had hit Rhinoceros' back with his Mace from behind. Even though he knew it wasn't his real voice, it still rang out to the surrounding creatures.
“Sorry, Rhinoceros is a pervert!” Velocity said to Ametis, ignoring the Rhinoceros in pain.
Ametis only laughed in response. They continued to follow Ametis and Rindo. The two Survivors were whispering so Velocity noticed them. Vestalia moved to Rhinoceros' shoulder and chatted with his two friends while whispering as well, which he didn't listen to because no one was whispering words to him. Rhinoceros was clearly annoyed with his action.
The group arrived in front of a room, but something was wrong. The door to the room was broken and appeared to have been forcefully broken down.
“Huh... what happened?” asked Velocity confused. The two Survivors did not seem surprised by the condition of the room's door.
Instead, the light green dragon laughed and ran into the room. “Hahaha, Uncle Atroce breaking the door by force again.”
“Again...” repeated Ametis. She looked back. “It's alright. You guys just go in.”
Velocity and his friends entered the room. The interior looked like a normal office with a set of desks and bookshelves on the left side of the room and several sofas and tables on the right side of the room that seemed to be used for receiving guests or conducting meetings. An adult bear figure with dark brown hair was standing in front of the desk on the left side of the room.
“Uncle Atroce!!!” called Ametis fiercely. “You broke into Uncle Pendo's room again?”
Velocity watched Atroce's figure. The bear's appearance was very revealing, wearing only a white vest that looked similar to the vest for his school uniform in the real world. The lower half of his body wore some sort of white training trousers for sports. He did not recognize the Class's uniform as such.
“That Pendud fell asleep again!” replied Atroce in an annoyed tone. “If I don't break it down, what will I do? I can't get the train ticket if he's asleep and locked the door to his room. Where are all his staff—”
“Wait a minute,” said Velocity, ignoring Ametis and Atroce's conversation about the names of the absent staff. “Uncle Pendo or Pendud means—”
He turned his head to the right and saw a dark green dragon asleep on the couch. Velocity face-palmed at the sight of his guardian.
“Does Pendragon often wake up at night?” chuckled Vestalia as she jumped onto Velocity's shoulder.
“Dad says he's undergoing special training, so he gets tired a lot.” said the light green dragon who approached Velocity.
“Training?” exclaimed Velocity and Vestalia simultaneously. They realized that the dragon was talking to them.
“Ah, I apologize for eavesdropping. I am the son of Pendragon. My name is Rindragon.” the dragon introduced himself. “Just call me Rindo.”
“Ah, greetings. My name is Velocity and this is Vestalia.” Velocity replied as he pointed to Vestalia over his shoulder, following Thoughts' choice. “So, what kind of training is your father doing?”
“He didn't tell me the details,” Rindo grumbled. “He just said the main course is to test the Mechanic Class.”
“I see,” commented Velocity folding his arms across his chest, no auto-dialogue options appearing on his screen for him to ask more questions.
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A voice came from behind. “You're Velocity, right? The blue or azure dragon savior under Pendragon?”
Velocity turned around, looking at Atroce who was speaking to him. Rhinoceros and Wing stood tall behind him. He previously saw his two friends talking to Atroce and Ametis.
“Yes...” Velocity replied. “You are Maester Atroce who represents Tribe Morphius, as well as the guardian of Rhinoceros?”
“Oh, I'm honored to be recognized that far,” confirmed Atroce as he shook Velocity's hand. “I will be your instructor today. Nice to meet you.”
From different sides, they said yes while Rhinoceros formally said, “Ready, Maester!!!”
Ametis spoke to Rindo again. “Well, Rindo take care of your father. It would be best if you could persuade him to come home so he can make up with your mother.”
“I'll try,” Rindo replied lazily. “At least, I can read Dad's books here while waiting for him to wake up.”
“Oh yeah, use Mobius to fix this door,” Ametis ordered. “Just read the tutorial and let the data download itself. While you wait, you can read a book or do whatever you like.”
Once again, Velocity was tempted to ask questions but there were no Thoughts to help him speak. He looked at his fellow Saviors and Wing shook his head at Velocity to signal that they couldn't dialog either.
“Alright, time to go!” said Atroce starting to lead the group. “We'll head downstairs to the station and catch the next scheduled train to the city of Mjolnir.”
They headed to the station and, strangely enough, the train to the city of Mjolnir was waiting for them. Atroce then told them the seat numbers for each Savior and Survivor.
“How did you choose the seats?” asked Velocity after choosing a dialog with Thoughts.
“The seat selection will appear if you check in to leave now. The system will refuse if the train is full,” replied Atroce lightly. “But since I hold all of your tickets, I get to choose the seats.”
“Hahaha, if only the real world could do that.” Wing whispered to his Savior friends.
They finally entered the train, with a different interior compared to the trains in the real world. This train model with separate booths called compartments must have been designed from overseas trains. Atroce guided them to their seats and compartments.
“Enjoy your journey. If you have a game app like Clash, the cards will be downloaded from Mobius and you can play.” Atroce said. “Ametis and I are in the next compartment if you have any questions.”
“Thank you, Maester Atroce!” exclaimed Rhinoceros. His demeanor seemed very respectful to his guardian. Once the four of them were left alone, they began to chat. Vestalia sat next to Velocity with her legs stretched out over her chair due to her small body, the two of them sitting across from each other.
“Well, I think it would be more useful to chat instead of playing a mini-game.” Velocity suggested. “You seem to be formal in front of your guardian, don't you?”
“Oh, he's great!” said Rhinoceros. “You guys haven't seen how he fights yet. It's cool to see him fight to protect me and my partner during the tutorial.”
“Speaking of which, I don't know what Class he is,” said Velocity.
They watched as the train started running. Somehow, they were able to do side activities like drinking juice by interacting with the food shelves with Mouse. A food shelf like this was definitely something he had never seen in the real world. Rhinoceros began to explain while taking a drink.
“His Class is Ashura. Rank S branch of Monk and Champion. When he fights, he takes off his vest and uses natural energy as his armor. He said that with the Iron Body, Stone Skin, or Steel Body skills, he uses different types of natural energy to release his fighting skills. His weapon also uses Mace like you, Velo.”
“Err... what if a woman fights?” asked Vestalia worriedly. Velocity guessed they must all be thinking the same thing now.
“I think the Ashura Class is only designed for male players.” Wing replied. “Some Classes in rank S are separated from gender because of the way they fight. There are special conditions, for example, Reyvateil is a Class for female singers and Synergist for male singers. That's what Guruda, my guardian, told me.”
“I haven't told you yet. When the Nightmare attacked Maester Atroce, the monster’s blow did not hit his body. There seems to be an invisible body layer protecting him from that body-mode Skills.” continued Rhinoceros.
“What are you thinking, Velo? Your expression is spacing out,” said Wing looking at Velocity.
“Uh... nothing serious really,” replied Velocity waving a hand. “I was just thinking about Pendragon. He said something about the Mechanic Class being for males.”
If Pendragon's fighting style was similar to Atroce's, he would be able to see his exposed body. He imagined that Pendragon might become a cyborg or a creature with an iron body like a robot because of the name of his Class. Unfortunately, he and Vestalia had never seen him fight.
“Do you know who that girl named Ametis is?” asked Vestalia. “I mean, what's her relationship with Atroce?”
“I just met her now. Maester Atroce once mentioned her name and said that she was his assistant. When I asked again, he gave me a fierce look and I couldn't ask with Thoughts anymore,” said Rhinoceros.
“I think we'll find the answer in every quest and field study in the game's storyline,” Wing said optimistically.
Velocity thought about Wing's last sentence. He had already been introduced to his son, Rindragon. Then from their interactions, Atroce and Ametis must be close friends with Pendragon.
There was silence between them. He realized that they had stopped chatting for quite some time. “So, are there any other topics we can discuss?”
“We haven't talked in a while, although we still send messages on WhatsApp,” Wing said, opening the topic. “I don't think it's a problem if we share our news in real life.”
Velocity heard that and his expression turned more serious than when he was thinking about Pendragon. “I should tell you that there are four of us now, not three. If you want to discuss our real world, I need to agree whether Vestalia has the right to know.”
“Is this the problem you said yesterday in the WhatsApp message, Velo?” asked Vestalia worriedly. “I don't mind leaving the compartment. It's not bad to take a look around the train.”
“No. It's not necessary,” replied Velocity. “I just feel it's our right to say or not say what happened to each of us to a new friend like you.”
“Then that's fine,” said Wing. “I might not be able to tell her everything that happened to me right away. However, I think she has a right to know and even though I only know her from conversations like this I believe that Vestalia is not a bad person who would make fun of me.”
“Me too,” interrupted Rhinoceros. “You've already proven that you are indeed Girl. Not G-I-R-L, which stands for Guy In Real Life. We can recognize the fake voice feature.”
“Err... is this answer serious?” asked Velocity, hearing Rhinoceros still trying to joke.
“Whatever. I'm just saying that I trust her,” said Rhinoceros.
“All right, Vestalia. I just hope you can digest the topic about our real world now.” said Velocity starting a new topic. “Wing, how's college going? You have to do your internship this year, right?”
“Yeah,” replied Wing. “I have to discuss that with my supervisor now. I have to take a role that can be done in a wheelchair.”
“Wheelchair?” repeated Vestalia. She could see Velocity and Rhinoceros' expressions that seemed to challenge her. They might be turned-off from friendly if Vestalia gave the wrong response.