After I finished buying my new clothes, Horvath, Simona, and I continued to walk around the market area. I had actually just spent most of my money, so I was just browsing.
As we walked, we chatted about things, both in game and offline.
“So, how have you been? It’s been awhile since we last talked. I just hear about what you’ve been up to from Horvath.” Simona asked. It’s a bit late to mention this, but it really is a funny combination. Her appearance is that of a warrior, but her voice and way of talking could almost be described as “motherly”. The voice really doesn’t fit her looks.
As a side note, that motherly-ness has frustrated Horvath a few times. She sometimes gets into a caretaking mood, and ends up treating him more like a little brother than boyfriend. It’s especially funny since he’s actually the older of the two.
Anyway, I responded to her questions. “I’ve been fine. I never really realized how difficult it would be to move somewhere that I didn’t know anyone at all, though. I’m still at a point where the only people I know are my coworkers. I say hi to my neighbors if I see them, but that’s about all.”
Simona looked at me a moment. “Hmm, so no friends even, let alone girlfriends or anything, huh? That’s a shame. You should really work on that.”
“Which part, mom?”
“Both! You need friends, and I wanted you to introduce a girlfriend eventually. Well, I suppose…” She trailed off a bit before muttering to herself, “no, that’s not for me to say.”
“Hmm? Anyway, sorry to disappoint I guess. I should come back and visit eventually I suppose. That said, it’s a lot easier to just meet in the game and see each other here, isn’t it? Even my dad is somewhere in this world.”
“It’s not the same, though! While it’s the same people on the inside, I’m still Simona, talking to Lilith, while walking next to Horvath here. Not Ashley, talking to Nathan, while walking next to Joseph. It’s the same, but it’s not at the same time. Besides, I’m sure Sarah wants to see you, too.”
I thought a moment, then shrugged. “Na, she’s generally pretty happy to chat in games like this. I’m sure she’ll be excited to see you both tomorrow, too.”
“But it’s just not the same. Horvath, you tell him too!”
Horvath had up to now been trying to keep as quiet as a 7 foot tall living statue can, most likely in an effort to keep the lecture from turning on him. Now that he was being dragged into it, he sighed and tried to calm Simona down.
“I’m sure he’ll come back when he can. He’s probably busy with thing there, after all. And it’s not like he can make plans right this moment.”
“I suppose. But I still feel unsatisfied somehow.”
Horvath just smiled and set his large hand on her head and began to gently rub it back and forth. It’s a trick he found that seems to always calm her down, or at least distract her.
“Ooh, this feels different. You hands are a lot bigger here than usual. But they’re also hard.”
“Well, I am made of rock right now. It would be strange if my hands weren’t hard.”
As an unfortunate side effect of this technique, they tend to go off into their own little world for a while. I tactfully hung back a bit, giving those two some space. Things like this happen occasionally when we hang out, and I’ve gotten used to it.
While waiting for those two to remember that they’re in public, I began looking over the stalls for anything interesting. Not necessarily items, as I can’t afford them right now anyway, but ideas. I had been thinking that I sort of wanted to learn a new skill or two. Watching Aurora cook and listening to Simona talking about her tailoring skill made me recognize that the crafting system in this game is very robust. The problem was, there wasn’t really anything I wanted to make. As a mage, I have no use for weapons or armor, and potions are just overdone. If I’m going to spend time learning to make something, it needs to be something interesting, after all. Also, it would be best if it was something out party didn’t have already. So I should probably wait till Amber gets here to see what she’s doing, too.
It wasn’t really a question of whether she had a crafting job or not, just what that job was. She generally enjoys crafting skills, so she always makes something. It’s just a question of what. I could send her a message and ask, but there’s no rush.
As I was pondering, I saw that the twins had signed back in. I sent them a message and slowly guided them through the marketplace to where we were. It was quite difficult to give directions through the chaotic mess to where we were. Because everything was basically the same, the instructions became something like “Turn left at the tent selling jewelry, then go past the tent selling clothes. Next take a right at the third tent with weapons, and continue until you reach the tent selling armor…”
Anyway, eventually they managed to get to where we were.
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“Ah, Lilith got a new dress! It looks nice. The black was nice too, but red really suits you.”
“Thanks. I’ll be honest, I’m not actually good with fashion usually. Luckily Simona knew a tailor who was able to help. The game systems to keep your outfit matching help a lot too.”
“Yeah, coordinating an outfit can be difficult, after all. Especially if you aren’t used to it.” Celeste said proudly. “That said, I almost expected you to turn that system off. I feel like you’d want to try to do it yourself.”
“Na, I think having that automated is fine… Wait, you can turn it off?!?”
“You didn’t even look at the options? You can choose which piece to coordinate around, or disable the system completely if you wanted. I thought for sure you knew about it. Well, then again this is rather Lilith-like too, I guess.”
I can’t really argue with that. Still, for someone who has only known me a couple days to say that is sort of sad.
“Oh, you girls are back!” Simona jumped over and threw a hug around both their necks. Apparently She and Horvath had finally returned to reality and noticed the twins had joined us. Celeste smiled returned the hug, while Aurora just looked surprised and uncomfortable.
Horvath shook his head. “Simona, you might want to calm down a bit. Keep in mind they don’t know you well yet. At least one of them looks pretty uncomfortable…”
“Oh, right.” She let go of the twins. “Sorry, sorry. It’s habit. Anyway, good to see you all again.”
“You’re acting like they’ve been gone for days. From our perspective, it’s been maybe half a day, and from theirs, maybe be a couple hours.”
“Hmm, good point. This whole time difference thing is weird. I still can’t get used to logging out for lunch, and coming back a day later. It’s just strange.”
“Yeah, you get used to it after a while, but games with a time dilation are pretty strange the first time you deal with it.”
---
After that, we continued to browse through the market and look around. I also decided to ask Simona and Aurora more about the crafting system.
“So, is there any limitations in crafting, or is it mostly just what you can imagine?”
“Hmm, I’m not sure. I know you can’t make more advanced things until your rank is higher. But as far as I can tell if your skill is high enough, you can make basically anything you want.”
“Really…” That was exactly what I was hoping to hear.
“Oh no. You’re smirking. What are you planning this time?” Horvath said with a concerned expression.
“I don’t know yet. But just the idea of being able to make whatever I can imagine sounds amazing, doesn’t it?”
“No, not really. I’ve seen the things you can imagine. This sounds more terrifying than anything else.”
“Aw, it’ll be great I’m sure. I just don’t know what I want to make yet. What about you Aurora, anything you’ve encountered?”
“... At least for cooking, I’ve found I can’t properly use some ingredients, and can’t make more intricate meals yet. I’ll probably get better as the skill improves.”
“What do you mean using ingredients ‘properly’?”
“... When I tried to cook using some ingredients I use sometimes offline early on, I had a strange feeling that I couldn’t really use that yet, and the dish just didn’t taste right. Later after the skill went up some, I tried again and didn’t get that feeling. That time everything came out fine.”
“Yep, that’s how it is with sewing, too. I just feel like I can’t use a certain material, or won’t be able to make something yet when I think about it. Like I considered making a sweater before, but I just felt like I couldn’t. Of course, it’s a good thing I didn’t. Horvath’s a lot bigger than I expected, so it wouldn’t have fit. I’ll have to make it later once I have the skills.”
I couldn’t help but snicker slightly while looking at Horvath. Just imagining the giant stone statue of a man wearing a hand knitted sweater was rather humorous. He may not be looking forward to his sweater, but I will be.
“What are you laughing at. At least I’m not almost at the level of an exhibitionist like you.”
I shrugged. “This is nothing. You should have seen the outfits I didn't buy. And you should try it sometime. These dresses are actually pretty comfortable. It’s all light and breezy. I might need to invest in some offline.”
“No… Don’t do that. In fact, don’t even suggest it again. Picturing you in a dress may be one of the more disturbing mental images I’ve had in awhile.”
Celeste decided to add more fuel to the fire. “Hmm… I don’t think it’s a big deal, although I don’t actually like dresses myself.”
“No, it’s easier for you since you’ve never seen him in reality. It’s not a good picture at all.”
“What about a kilt? Those are intended for guys.”
“No, still disturbing. Maybe not quite as bad, but still disturbing. He really doesn’t have the figure to pull off a kilt properly.”
“Hmm, maybe so. I bet we could come up with a nice skirt combo for him.”
“Please don’t. Wait, why are we even discussing this?”
I help up a finger. “Well, it started with a discussion on crafting, then-”
“It wasn’t a real question!” Horvath yelled, getting exasperated.
Aurora leaned to Simona. “... Um, should we stop them?”
“Na, it’s fine. They do this type of thing all the time. It is funny to see Celeste is already getting in on it too, though.”
“... Not surprising, though. That’s how she is.”
I smiled at them. “This is nothing, just wait till Amber gets here too. She’s basically a second me sometimes.”
Horvath just shook his head. “The two of you together is never a good thing. I really do wonder why I put up with this.”
“Because for all your complaining, you really do enjoy it?”
Horvath just pretended he didn’t hear me. Probably because that’s exactly it. He may complain a lot, but deep down he’s having fun too. After all, if he didn’t there’s no way we would have stuck together so long. Instead, he tried to change the topic.
“Anyway, let’s keep going. I’m hoping to find a bit more ore today. I’m still a ways off from becoming an iron golem, but every bit helps. And after tomorrow we’ll probably be getting back to adventuring, so let’s try to finish up all our shopping today.”
With that, he started to head off, with the rest of us quickly following behind him.