A Full month had passed since Toru had seen me.. And she had grown more and more faint with our meeting ups as she had stayed with Sato more and more. I figured that Sato was a solution that would keep her safe, But all it did was build up something I regretted giving him…I regret giving Toru… We arrived at Floor 8 as we were on a new thematic floor. There were more forests than fields this time, somewhat the opposite of floor 3. At the middle was a giant tree, shooting up near the top of the tree.

I waited nearby for the rest of our team to arrive, Sato and Toru arrived together as Toru and I made Eye contact as we both broke eye contact after a second. Sato walked over and said “Is everything alright Kirin?” as I looked and shook my head saying “Everything’s fine” with a small smile before walking off before Toru could walk over. Sato looked at me walking away worried. Sato then said “I hope Kirin is alright.. He’s getting more and more distant..” as Toru turned her attention to him, also worried.

After I made a turn around a building I stopped and leaned against the wall, sliding down and sighing heavily. “Why should I be jealous…” I thought to myself and rubbed my eyes a bit before thinking more “Just focus on yourself Kirin…Just focus on yourself…” before getting up and walking to explore.

I walked around to look at the new spawn point, a small town that feels more medieval like the second town of the second floor. “Man it really gives me those vibes…” I thought to myself as people walked out of my way, hearing the other players gossiping as I became quite known for killing PKers. I sighed as my icon above me was green and I walked over to a Blacksmith shop. I walked in as I heard a little bell ring, I looked up to see the bell before hearing a voice saying “Hello there!!”.

I looked over there to see a female blacksmith with brown hair, brown eyes and red clothes with a couple of white lines. “Is this a player shop?” I thought as I waved saying “Hey..” a bit concerned if she’ll freak out. I walked over to the lady as she then asked me “Do you have anything that you need me to smithen?” As her voice was a bit on the medium tone but enough to hear clearly, I replied “Yeah, can you upgrade my sword, It's clearly better than my old one but I don’t have anything to smithen it”.

I pulled out my sword from my back as it wasn’t my Stonegail Sword (+3) as it was a new weapon called Violent Crescent, a weapon drop from the previous floor boss. “Hmm…” She took some thought as she tapped the item and saw the name and stats.

Name: Violent Crescent

ATK: 41

DUR: 20

AGI: 15

WGT: 25

“Woah this thing is stacked!!”

She shouted amazed at its base stats, I was confused as I said “Can you make it better?”. She looked at me and nodded saying “of course! It’s not all the time that I get to whack into a weapon of this caliber!” as she began digging behind her desk for some suitable ingots.

I stood there confused as I remembered something and asked “Sorry about this but what’s your name? It was kind of rude of me to not ask..” as she bumped her head trying to get up. “Ow! It’s Lisbeth…Owww…” she said as she held her head, I leaned over a bit saying “Lisbeth? That’s a nice name” as she stood up in a jiffy. I got scared for a second taking a step back from my lean and she sets down a couple of different ingots on the table, along with materials.

“What’s all this for..?”

I asked confusedly as she replied “These are ingots and materials I can use to forge your weapon into a stronger one, but My smithing is still at level 10, so You’ll have a decent weapon in the end”. I didn’t understand a single thing she said but I nodded anyway saying, “Alright…I’ll take… These two” as I picked up a silver ingot and a material item called Draconian Tybur, a metal-like material.

“Alright! That’ll be 400 Col!”

She said with a confident face, I looked into my inventory and pulled out 400 COL and placed two packed bags onto the table. Her eyes sparkled as she said “Alright!!” As she seemed excited about something, I asked her “Is something like this important to you?” as she nodded. “This is the first time I’ve been successfully able to smith someone else's weapon” as she put the other things away for the silver ingot and the material.

“One strong item coming up!!”

She said with a bit of a shout as she hammered in the Silver ingot into the sword, the sword turned red for a second before the red faded and a textbox showed up showing it’s new stats. “And now for the final touch!” she said as she put the Draconian Tybur onto the sword and hammered it in, The sword began to glow as it turned red and it’s shape began to change significantly.

When the red light faded away the sword looked significantly different than it did before, The sword now had a new hilt, along with a blade design and a new handle. I tapped the sword to check its stats.

Name: Crescent Evergarden (+1)

ATK: 52

DUR: 37

AGI: 22

WGT: 55 (-1)

I was amazed, saying “You created a whole new weapon!” as she was also amazed at her work. I picked it up as it was way heavier than it weighed before, Noticing it and sighing. “Thank you for your service!” Lisbeth said with a happy tone and I smiled and waved goodbye, walking out of her shop holding the sword. After walking out, I leaned the sword against the wall exhausted from carrying it.

“Why is this sword heavy as hell!!”

I thought as I picked up the sword again and tried to sheath it, missing it as my sheath had also changed in size. After missing multiple times, I gave up on trying to sheathe the sword and carried it towards Ridicule Forest. “God why does this sword have to be so heavy…” I thought to myself as I was barely able to keep the tip up from the ground and walk almost at a snail's pace. I kept moving forward as I sighed and looked at my sword, “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea..” I thought as I was fatigued from carrying the sword around.

I dropped the sword and sat down for a bit, catching my breath and looking up at the treelines. “Man…It’s been a whole month now… I completely forgot about the outside world…I wonder how their situation is working out..” I thought as I heard more footsteps. I turned around and stood up quickly as the footsteps got closer and closer. Out of the corner came Sato and Toru, I sighed in relief as I sat back down and leaned myself against a tree.

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Toru looked over as Sato saw her attention and looked over to see Kirin as well. They walked over as Sato said “Is everything alri- Oh damn that's a nice sword Kirin!” as he was amazed at the design of the sword. “What happened Kirin-kun?” Toru said as her accent was much clearer than a month ago. “The sword is kinda heavy, I’m just taking a break” I told them as Sato nodded and looked at both Kirin and Toru.

“I’ll be right back, I need to finish this quest real quick”

Sato said as Toru replied “Hey! We were supposed to finish together!” as I kept my words to myself hearing that. “Don’t worry Toru, I’ll be back!” Sato said, blazing off as Toru was now left with Kirin. Toru sat down beside me as I looked away and towards my feet a bit, Toru and I were silent as it was Awkward between the both of us now.

We both heard the wind gust by as I broke the silence saying “So…Toru…” as she quickly turned her attention to me. I took a deep breath in and out saying “How's Sato…?” as she stared at me for a bit before looking up at the treelines, “he’s a great guy, Not too shy, not too confident, almost like you Kirin-kun” she replied as I dug my fingers into the dirt slightly.

“Oh is that so..?”

I said to Toru as she nodded saying with some confidence “Yeah, I think I could be with him even when we’re out of this game, He’s reliable most of the time”, I stayed silent as I dug my fingers into the dirt more as it was more noticeable. Toru looked and saw my fingers as she looked at me, a bit more concerned now as she said to me “Are…Are you Jealous..?” as I stayed silent.

I hesitated to speak back as I took a little more time to think than all the other times, I then replied saying “I’m…I’m not…” stuttering a bit. Toru was even more concerned as I tried my best to keep myself in check, She then leaned onto my shoulder as she laid her friend onto my shoulder.

I looked over as she then said “You don’t need to lie..” as she took my hand out of the dirt and placed her fingers in between mine. She then told me “I don’t see Sato like that, I was just scared about what you did to that player in floor 2, I just…Never saw that side.. It was the first time I saw you do that…”, I looked at my other hand as I tried to find comfort in her words, I then stuttered to her “Do…Do…” as I couldn’t find the words to say it to her. She looked at me and smiled, scooting closer and laying more onto my shoulder.

“Take your time Kirin..”

She said comfortably as I looked at her and saw her smile again, I then mustered up the courage to ask her “Do…Do you love me…” as she became flustered, My face was slightly red as well blushing as I held her hand. Toru didn’t bother about the question as she answered with confidence “Yes…I do love you Kirin-kun..”, my heart raced as I heard her say those words and relaxed hearing her answer. I laid my head on her head as I felt relaxed, relieved and felt like a burden was taken off my shoulders.

Sato was hiding behind a tree as he was flipping a COL coin and smiled, muttering “Called it..” underneath his breath before getting back on the pathway. About an hour had passed as Sato came back with Two separate quests finished, “I’m back-” Sato said as he shut his mouth almost immediately, seeing that Toru and I were asleep, sitting and our heads on each other.

“Isn’t that cute..”

Sato thought as he pulled out a Picture Crystal, snapping a photo of both of them before leaving them there quietly. Toru woke up after a while as she was drooling a bit from her sleep, sitting up and rubbing her eyes with the back of my hand. She looked at our hands intertwined as she smiled, slowly letting go of his hand and trying to wake me up.

“Kirin wake up, It’s noon.”

Toru said as she shook my shoulder, trying to get me to wake up from my slumber. I moved a bit before stretching, yawning and saying “wha…huh…”. I looked around a bit before I looked at Toru and semi-consciously said “Ohayo…” to her before rubbing my eyes. Toru's eyes lit up a bit as she held both my hands saying “You know some more Japanese?!” as she was excited before I said “What…?” as I was still somewhat sleepy.

Toru then pouted at me a bit angrily as she said again “Do you know more Japanese!!”, I responded “Not too much..” Toru then let my hands go and stood up. I rubbed my eyes a bit more before getting up and picking up my sword rather swiftly. “I thought you said it was heavy Kirin-kun” Toru said as I nodded saying “it is-” as I looked at my hand holding the sword rather seamlessly, I was genuinely confused and shocked that I was able to hold up the sword.

I swung the sword swiftly as I was confused and thought to myself “Was my fatigueness over the limit?” I brushed it off as I sheath my sword and said to Toru “Let’s get going then” as I grabbed Toru’s hand and began to walk down the pathway. Toru’s face flustered up again, but not as much from before as they walked at a good pace down the dirt pathway.

I walked holding her hand as she followed behind me, looking down a bit and staring at my cloak, Toru then asked me “What cloak is this one Kirin-kun?” as I replied almost instantly “It’s called Arkin Cloak of Vitality, it’s a cloak dropped from a dungeon in floor 6.”. She was surprised as she smiled saying “That’s good that you’re at least keeping up with all of us on the frontlines” as I nodded. We walked out of the Ridicule Forest as we walked back to the small town-like safezone called Frieven.

As we walked into the town, people stared at us a bit weirdly as we heard gossip spreading around other players, I looked at Toru and said to her “Ignore them, I get this all the time” as we walked off to a fountain that was nearby.

We sat at the fountain as I sighed and smiled a bit, Looking at the sky as Toru looked at me. She then opened her menu and pulled out something from her inventory, I looked over as she said “you want some food?” as it was a sandwich. My eyes sparkled as she handed one to me, I quickly said to her “Oh my god I love you!” as she looked at me and said “What was that?”.

I waved my hands saying “nevermind what I said” as I took the sandwich and started eating. She looked at me and hit my head as I held my head a bit, “Ow Ow Ow… what was that for?” I said as she replied “Don’t you have manners?!?” as she sets her food on the top of the basket and puts her hands together and closes her eyes.

“Thank you for the meal!”

Toru said in fluent Japanese as She picked it up and started to eat, I stared at her awed and amazed at what she did. She looked over and pointed at my food saying “eat before it drops” as I snapped out of it and looked, seeing that it slipped out of my hand. “OH CRAP!” I shouted as I caught it with my other hand and sighed in relief. I sat up and began to eat, I chuckled and was filled with delight as I said “This cooking is amazing!!!”.

Toru looked away a little flustered saying “Aww, don’t say that” as she liked getting compliments, I finished my sandwich as Toru ate hers and put the basket away. “Thanks for the food Toru!” I said as I held her hands, she nodded, stuttering “n-n-n-n-no problem!”. She felt a little dizzy as my face was up close to hers, she jumped back and began ranting saying “I-I have something to do! Yeah! I have a quest to finish! I just remembered! HAHA! I’LL BE GOING NOW!! BYE!” as she quickly ran back into Ridicule Forest.

I looked at that entire rant in confusion saying “What did I do wrong?” as I stood up and walked back over towards Ridicule Forest, looking for Toru.

“Toru! Torrruu!!”

I shouted in the forest as I was following the dirt path, confused at where she went. “Where did she go?” I thought as I walked and heard a fluttering sound, I stopped and turned to see that it was a Killer Hornet. I felt shivers go down my entire body as I dodged a sting attack and hid behind a tree “NO ONE TOLD ME THERE WERE HORNETS!!” I shouted as I began to hyperventilate too hard, having a warning box show up on my hud showing my heartrate reaching higher and higher as I was terrified of Hornets.

“I don’t wanna fight this thing!!”

I thought as I made a run for it, running through the forest and bumped into Toru who was walking back. “Kirin-kun?” Toru said confusedly as I flipped onto my back and felt a pain in my chest. She realized something was off and got up to my aid, “Kirin! Calm down! Hey!!” she shouted as she smacked my cheek a bit trying to make sure I was still conscious, she then heard fluttering and saw that the Killer Hornet had reached over to them. “Oh not you bastards!” she shouted as she made sure that I was going to be fine.

Toru got up and Ran over to the Hornet as it threw a thrust and missed its stinger, Toru began rapidly punching the Hornet as it flew up a bit, Toru stepped back as the Hornet slammed its stinger down and got stuck in the dirt. Toru then activated a Martial Arts skill Stardust Ryusei Ken, landing powerful barrages at high speeds and blazing through its health, shattering it as it was still stuck in the dirt. “Kirin-kun!” she just remembered as she ran over and checked for a pulse, I was unconscious from a panic attack.

She sighed and picked me up, noticing that I was heavier than I looked, carrying me all the way back towards Frieven.