Shou and Kazumi eventually made it to Nightmare Plains. A Skeletal Maniac approached the two. Kazumi hid behind Shou's shoulders, "Shou! Do something!"
Shou sighed, "You don't have to hide behind me all the time, you know?"
"Yes I do!" Kazumi protests while raising her fist. "All I can do is heal!"
"You can still fight with your fists," Shou mumbled.
"Just shut up and do something!"
Shou grinned before slamming his sword down on the Skeletal Warrior. The Skeleton then swung its bony sword at Shou, fairly decreasing his health.
Shou's HP: 35/50
DEF +2
"Alright, take this!" Shou smirked before using his skill. "Surging Wave!" He twisted his wrist and a white wave blast emitted from the blade, stunning the monster.
Sword Skill LV. 2!
Then suddenly another Skeletal Warrior came from the sides and attacked Kazumi. Her HP fell down significantly.
Kazumi's HP: 20/50
"Ah!" The young girl let out a yelp of pain. When she got a good look at the Skeletal Maniac she let out another high pitched scream.
"Kazumi!" Shou quickly tuned his head around and noticed what was taking place behind him. He scanned her character info in the party menu. "Her stats are too low."
Before Shou could go rush over to help Kazumi, his own opponent now free from its stun slashed his shoulder with its sword. Blood erupted from the wound. Shou winced while holding his shoulder, "Damn it."
Shou's HP: 25/50
"Heal!" Kazumi used her healing skill and her health increased slightly.
Kazumi's HP: 30/50
She attempted using it again but resulted in failure. "What?! Why can't I use my skill anymore?!"
"It's going through cool down." Shou told her fending off the Skeletal Maniac while still trying to keep an eye on her. "You'll have to wait twenty-five seconds before you can use it again."
"Twenty five seconds?!" Kazumi slammed her fist into the ground before rolling away from her enemy to evade its attack. "That's too dang long!"
Suddenly an arrow shot into the Skelton's skull. Critical Hit! popped up and the Skeleton fell right on top of Kazumi's lap causing the girl to scream and nearly faint.
A couple of feet behind Kazumi stood a white haired girl with crimson red eyes. She held her arrow steady and shot the other Skeleton down. Critical Hit! Popped up again.
Shou growled before hastily turning around to bark at the girl who took his win from his, "Darn it Sequilia! Why are you here?!"
The little girl named Sequilia, pulled her eyelid back and stuck out her tongue at Shou, "Because I can be."
"Not on my watch you can't."
Kazumi looked back and forth between them, "Wait, you two know each other?"
"Yeah, we were in the same Guild back in Golden Fleece. And let me tell you, she is annoying as hell."
"Only children make such condescending insults." The white haired girl said with a mocking tone.
"You are a child!" Shou argued with an unnecessarily loud yell. "Your frickin' five years younger than me!"
"Biologically maybe. But mentally and emotionally I am clearly the adult here."
"Says the girl who was just sticking her tongue out at me!"
Kazumi walked in between the two bickerers. "Shou, be quiet for once in your life. I mean honestly, arguing with me is one thing. But now you're doing it with a little kid."
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
"While I appreciate the help, I am not a little kid. I am an adult." Sequilia says crossing her arms and nodding her head proudly.
Kazumi chuckled at the girl's behavior before taking note of a flaming dog running in circles behind her, "Sequilia, right? Is that your dog?"
Sequilia nodded as she kneeled down to pet the animal, "Yeah, he's my Pet. His name is Flames."
"Yeah that's a real creative name." Shou muttered under his breath.
Flames then bolted straight towards Shou knocking the Warrior over. The dog crunched its teeth down on Shou's hand causing it to become bright red. He waved it furiously back and forth in a desperate attempt to get the dog off of him.
Shou placed his hand over Flames' head and violently pushed him away. He rubbed over his now bruised hand before getting up, "Okay Kazumi, let's go."
"But what about her?" Kazumi said looking back at Sequilia.
"What about her?" Shou said with disdain in his voice.
Don't we need an Archer for our quest?"
"We can find plenty of other Archers easily."
"If we could, we would've done it by now!"
"Fine. But I'm not gonna like it." Shou started walking ahead with Kazumi.
"Just like you." Sequilia said as she walked in between Shou and Kazumi. "You can't even pretend to be an adult for a minute."
"No because only babies like you play pretend."
"Are you calling me a baby?!" The little Archer shouted while extending her arms back.
"Obviously. Only babies care about the Luck Stat!"
"The Luck Stat is amazing! Jerk!"
"Luck Stat?" Kazumi butted in. "What's that?"
"You don't know? Sequilia asked slightly surprised. "Okay then allow the adult to explain it to you. The Luck Stat are like all the others in Oflilia's Game only it has an impact on everything you do. Plus by raising it higher and higher, you learn skills quicker."
"Oh. So how do you raise it?" Kazumi said pretty interested in the subject.
"There are some accessories which automatically raise it for you. Or you can do it by playing minigames!"
Shou moaned as soon as Sequilia said this, "Oh boy, not this again."
"Mini games are so awesome and really fun to play! Plus there are so many of them, and it's so much more fun than fighting monsters all day long. I really really really really really really love them all! And your luck skill keeps going up and up and up and up and up and up…" Sequilia went through her entire ramble about minigames without ever stopping to take a single breath. By the time she was finished it the sun was starting to rise in the distance.
Shou and Kazumi both had bags under their eyes and stopped listening to Sequilia ages ago. Shou yawned as he rubbed his eyes, "Look, we're almost at the dock."
"Ooh, but before we go can we play a minigame real quick?" Sequilia asked with her hands folded. "Please?"
"No." Shou said almost immediately.
"Hmph." Sequilia turned to Kazumi to ask her the same question, "Can we play a minigame real quick. Please?"
"Sure." Kazumi smiled at the child.
"Yay!" Sequilia jumped up and down before clicking the play minigame button on the menu.
----------------------------------------
The three were transported to the middle of desert. Tumbleweed rolled across the barren area of sand. Shou planted his face in his hand, "Why do I have to be here?"
"Because I needed two more players for this one. Now I can finally play it!" Sequilia shouted with joy.
"I hate this."
"Okay, now all we have to do is get this iron ball over into that hole on the other side of the desert."
"Sounds easy enough to me." Shou rolled up his sleeves and picked up the iron ball, "Whoa! It's heavy. But still not a problem for me." He ran straightaway for the hole. "Let's get this nightmare over with!"
Kazumi blinked, "Is that really it?"
"Well, that and watch out for monsters and booby traps."
A Sand Bear struck Shou down. The iron ball fell on top of him, nearly crushing the teen. "Darn it Sequilia! You did that on purpose, didn't you?!" Quicksand then started to pull Shou into its depths.
"Maybe." Sequilia giggled as she passed Shou and shot an arrow towards the Sand Bear. Critical Hit! popped up and the monster disappeared.
Kazumi picked up the iron ball and chuckled, "Come on Shou. Pick up your pace."
Sequilia shot another arrow at a Sand Bear. Critical Hit! popped up again. The monster then fell to the floor before vanishing.
Sequilia and Kazumi made it over to the hole. Kazumi dropped the iron ball down into the hole. As a result everyone's Luck Stat was raised.
Shou: LCK +5
Kazumi: LCK +3
Sequilia: LCK +7
"Yay! I love minigames!" Sequilia cheered before everyone was transported back to the dock."
----------------------------------------
"I don't." Shou stated as he walked over to the boat that was awaiting them in the sparkling clear water.
"Oh yeah." Kazumi said as if she was remembering something. "Shouldn't we officially add Sequilia to our party?"
"Do we have to?" Shou groaned obnoxiously loudly.
"Shou."
The black haired boy sighed, "Fine." Shou went through the party menu and begrudgingly sent Sequilia a request. "Did you get it?"
Sequilia nodded, "Yep."
Sequilia has joined your party!
Shou was about to close out the menu but then he saw something that confused him to great extremes, "Guys look at this." Shou pointed to the list of offline players. "The Game Master's not online."
"But I thought everyone was trapped here?" Kazumi said puzzled while staring at that one name who wasn't online. "Even him."
Shou nodded, "Yeah so did I." Then the GM's status changed to online.
All of a sudden a familiar voice was heard throughout all of Oflilia, Attention players, I am now aware of your current situation. And I assure you, the rest of my team and I are working as hard as we can to fix this dilemma. Please try and remain calm as this is turning out to be quiet a difficult task. But I assure you we will have this fixed eventually. Until th-"
The GM's voice was cut off. Shou just stared at the list of offline players once again there was only one person offline. It was the Game Master. Shou just kept staring at it, "What the hell is going on…?"