Irwen literally pushed me from her throne room, before I could catch what was her arrangement with that thing. The prospect of a long trek forced me to heal my injured leg, but as I lifted my hand to create runes, I noticed it was shaking.
In fact, I was shaking a lot. Huh, my mind and body weren’t in a sync. Or rather, my body betrayed an emotion that was tugging on my mind the entire conversation with Irwen - a fear. Betrayal. Everything’s fine. I inhaled the stale air in the Dungeon and created a healing rune - this time it took me only three tries!
As I was taking a long way back through the hall, I could finally examine my new tiara. At any point in my past life, I was wearing whatever I could get my hands on and if it had better stats, I just put it on. During my service to the empire I met tens of princesses, or even an empress, but I had never seen something beautiful like this. Maybe that’s because it’s mine?
Irwen herself designed this for her servants, and she made the tiara of a glimmering intricate silver filigree, snaking all around. She fitted over twenty ends with a small, rosery stones cut to unify a regal look. Four navy-blue large stones complemented the key feature of the tiara - a four inches red ruby-like stone sitting in the middle.
“What…” I said out loud and stopped my walk. “No way!” Not only it was one of the best looking tiaras around, but the stats could outshine anything I could find on my own. Yes, even the legendary items.
[Princess Crown Tiara] Quality: 6-marvel DEF: 2 Durability: Infinite Effect: +10 INT, class-specific skill Restriction: Player Princess Princess Crown Tiara of the Elven kingdom. It gives the wearer inherent skill [Princess Grace] and a titular title “Princess”.
[Princess’ Grace]
Type: 6-marvel | Lv. Novice 1 | Mana: 30% INT
Effect: Target all allies you can see, add 20% of your INT to the highest target’s attribute, or 25% of your INT to heath; does not stack, only one applies
Duration: 30 minutes
Cooldown: 15 minuts
* as you increase the proficiency, the effect’s increased, cooldown decreased.
Obviously I knew about system in Elven kingdoms - Princess and Princesses weren’t the children of the King or Queen, well they could, but the King appointed up to five of each gender and I was one of them now! The only thing I needed to get the inherent princess bloodline was to be recognized by Irwen. But for that Empire would hate me. Nope, never.
While I was admiring my new marvel, I exited the dungeon, and wandered towards the beach, where I stumbled upon Briggit. “You have to be…” I cursed under my breath and kicked the poor barge, because I realized who will have to paddle. Stupid traitor, I smashed the barge again. Briggit wooden frame creaked under my abuse, but stupid Don tied it to a convenient rock, so it didn’t move. “Don’t look at me that way,” I said to her. “I know it’s not your fault Don deceived me.”
Briggit hadn’t answered and only rested on the yellow sand. “Let’s go then.” I moved to untie it, but that was a first hurdle I wasn’t prepared to tackle. The knot held firmly and even though I tried pulling with all my strength, it didn’t budge. I called my staff for a help, but what that could do? Smash it? Well, it did… nothing.
After a while it was apparent I couldn’t do anything about it and sat down on the beach. A mundane knot stopped a mighty exploiter; what a nonsense. I gazed at the defiant rope and tears threatened to gush out. For god’s sake, I’m not some crybaby! Things weren’t going my way, so what? Look at my new tiara! But Don… No!
While I was admiring all the gems, not crying for your info, nothing happened. Nothing at all. Almost as if the cruel world didn’t care I existed, or even noticed it. My existence was so insignificant, how could I even dream about changing anything? Even though that punk sent me back, what did I do? Nothing that really mattered. What to do when you doubt your own existence? Go to a bar. So, that was exactly I set to do and logged off.
As soon as I staggered out of the capsule, my body threw a wrench into my plans. Tiredness. Yeah, who could guess it will tire you after half a day fighting in a different world, right? Like a hungry tiger, I gobbled down an entire tube of nutri-pasta. Wait - like a hungry tigress. Will I ever get used to it?
It doesn’t matter, my beloved Charlie. Let’s sleep. I thought before crashing on my bed and despite I usually couldn’t fall asleep right away, tonight was an exception.
Somewhere in the Scorching Dungeon
Bright fires illuminated Natasha’s slim frame as she carefully navigated through another trapped area.
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“Rob, if you mess it up again, I swear…” Lisa followed her teammate with her eyes glued on the unreliable warrior, prepared to yell at him if—no, when—he messes up. The naturally formed hallway occasionally spitted flames at them from every direction, but they came prepared and avoided even that.
Natasha reached an end of the hallway, where it curved to the side, ending in a normally sized cave. Because she couldn’t detect any obvious traps, she collapsed down and said, “Guys, I’m beat. Let’s rest.” Rob ran inside and despite Natasha’s frown, sat just next to her, grinning. Lisa and Peter, with three more teammates keeping the rear, joined them.
Because they chatted merrily, they hadn’t noticed shadows reaching them from behind. Someone, or something, was lurking near the wall just out of their range, taking cover in shadows and blind spots cast by the bright flames.
Natasha lay down, admiring stalactites on the ceiling, and said, “We’ll finish today.” Rob copied her and lay beside her just as an enormous ball of fire swooshed through the air and splashed around them. The temperature increased to unbearable levels and because both of them unknowingly inhaled in the hot air, their screams sounded more like a wail.
[Teammate Rob has suffered 65 damage. Remaining HP: 22]
[Teammate Natasha has suffered 65 damage. Remaining HP: 0]
[Teammate Natasha died]
Three more infernos descended in a quick succession on Lisa’s group and before she could even react, everyone was dead, except for her. Unknown force knocked her out of her feet, and with a loud crushing sound, she ended up on the other way of the cave, smacked to a wall, slowly sliding down, stunned.
[You lost 30 HP.]
[You lost 5 HP.]
[You lost 15 HP.]
One shadow moved towards her, revealing a man in a long beige robe. His head was clear, only a few strands of hair proudly clung on his scalp, otherwise he was bald as one can get. He was examining Lisa on the ground with his blue eyes and strode with confident steps, while his smile was drawing wrinkles on his cheeks.
Lisa glared at him, but she couldn’t move her body; she lost too much hp, and some bizarre status prevented her from rising and whacking the smug out of his face. “Ah, Lisa, my dear adversary,” he said while squatting to her, and placed his hand on her cheek. The fires that claimed lives of her teammates still lingered around them, and they were twinkling in his eyes. “You should be more aware of your surroundings. It’s my duty to punish your incompetence.”
“Dmitry, I swear,” she said through her gritted teeth. “You’re dead. You hear me? I’ll kill you!”
Dmitry only let out a deep laugh and closed his eyes. “Oh, you sweet child. Why did you have to leave my team? I told you it was a mistake. I am a generous man, in case you want to reconsider your decision, you know where to contact me.” Slowly walking to the other end, he glanced back one more time and chuckled when he saw her suffering.
“I’ll feast upon your corpse!” Lisa spitted, but that line disgusted even herself, so that was the only thing she said before he left her. Alone.
“Eight hours of sleep, miss Charlie,” Tin-can suggested I should wake up. Although I wanted to scream at that stupid inanimate object, I decided on doing a better thing. On something that should be obvious - I hugged my comfy pillow and beamed, returning to a slumber with a smile.
“Nine hours and thirty minutes of sleep, miss Charlie.” He tried to wake me up every fifteen minutes. The problem was I could sleep despite his pestering - proven that one time in a hotel in Spain, I kept sleeping even after they began demolishing a building just next to us. Although, on a second thought - hadn’t I slept enough? I probed my head with a slight tug and thankfully there was no headache yet. That came only after the tenth, or so hour.
The transformation in my body forced me to change my morning routine. Before I became a girl, I couldn’t care less if I showered at all, but now my nose protested even after a few hours. How annoying. Thus, after a stupid shower, I stood in front of a mirror and observed my still unfamiliar face.
Thankfully, this Charlie was pretty. If she wasn’t, I would work harder at getting my body back. Yeah, it wasn’t fair to unfortunate not-pretty folks, but that was how my brain worked. Sorry, not sorry. Although, my nose was bigger that it should, right? That and my short legs; but they were only minor details.
My wardrobe was more annoying than that. Well, the lack of any clothes other than which Lucas gave me. On some deep instinct, I knew I shouldn’t wear it all the time, but what to do when shops are extinct for more than… Wait a second, they aren’t! Yet.
After a nutri-paste breakfast, I walked out in my trusty white high heels and a sleeveless dress. My only clothes. Not for long. The sun hung on a horizon, rising not that long ago. I grinned and walked on a pavement, observing the running people all around me. Everyone had their goal in mind and rushed there, be it a work, or school, or something else.
People. Not robots, but live, breathing people. I clenched my fists and promised to them I will save them all. Maybe. The feeling from yesterday's beach returned and hit me to my chest, roughly. My struggles might be cute to some, but what else could I do? I wasn’t like the folks who memorized stock markets for this reason. No, I was working and watching Katherine’s stream, nothing much else.
With that grim thoughts, I found my favorite flashy mall where we once tried to break in and kinda succeeded. Why? Because that drunken Italians didn’t believe we could and we had to show them that the regulars at Patrick’s aren’t dumb. Anyway, I checked my phone and thanks to my clever pathfinding I was exactly on time of opening - seven o’clock.
On the outside, the building looked like any other in the neighborhood. Perhaps some government regulation? But once I stepped inside, I found an enormous open space with a peaceful fountain in the middle and hundred of shops all around in four floors. Amazingly, they were still open!
“Will that be all?” a cashier asked a girl who just bought a salad with something fiery red, maybe tomatoes? The girl was funny, she was wearing sunglasses even inside, enveloped her face in a green scarf and she wore black sleeves shirt and jean shorts. God, she was pretty, as always.
“Yes, thank you,” she said and left the shop as fast as she could. Her voice was very familiar to me. She tried to hide it, but I would recognize her any time. Katherine. To be honest, this encounter wasn’t that random as it might seem. I knew she liked to go shopping here in the mornings, because she slipped one time on a stream and I met her a few times here.
Well, ‘met’ was a strong word, more like I observed her from a distance. A stalker? Maybe, but could you blame me? My body protested every time I tried to talk to her. That will change today. A middle-aged man packed her salad and handed her a shopping bag. Okay, here we go. I was leaning on a metallic pillar that supported higher floors and thought about how to ask her.
Yes, that was a good question - how do you befriend people? She smiled at the man and walked away, straight to me. With her every step, my heart beat faster and faster. Do I need to talk to her? There is always tomorrow. That was something I always thought and then she found a boyfriend and he was escorting her every morning and my chance slipped through my hands.
As she strode closer to me, my stomach protested and suggested that I empty nutri-paste on the floor. No. I shook my head and said, “Uhm, hello Katherine.”
She just walked past me, as if she didn’t hear me. Oh, that might be for the best. I sighed with a relief, but when I did that, she stopped and turned to me, her mouth open. “Excuse me? Did you say Katherine?”
Oh no. I shifted my head to a floor and fidgeted with my fingers. “Maybe? I’m sorry!” This was a stupid idea! John, you are a moron!
Katherine lowered her sunglasses and examined me with her stare. “Don’t be shy, girly. You my fan?”
“Yeah, I like… Your stream. I’m KatFan69,” I sighed and pretended to rummage through my pockets without a reason. Wait, my dress didn’t have any pockets! I panicked and clutched the poor fabric with a firm grip.
When I revealed my name, her eyes widened, and she jumped at me, hugging me tightly. “Thank ya!” she said with her face touching mine. She used to be shorter than me, but now it changed - she was taller. Wait, thank you? “KatFan, ya are my first genuine fan! I’m so happy to finally met ya!”
Her perfume invaded my nostrils, and I grinned happily. What it is with all that hugging lately? “I’m Charlie, Miss Katherine,” I revealed my name and accepted her hug. “I saw you, I need ask for help.”
Sadly, Katherine released me from our embrace and examined my face. “Charlie? Nice to meet ya, no need to be so shy, I won’t bite. Ya need my help?”
“Yes,” I said and gestured to my dress. “My only cloths. Will you help?” Despite her friendliness, my courage wasn't yet enough to look into her eyes, so I still was examining a half-broken floor next to her.
In a corner of my eyes, I saw Katherine to smirk and nod. “Yea! I’ve got time, let’s go!” She grabbed me by hand and pulled towards a thrift store, while she asked, “How did ya found my channel?”
“Truth? Streamers nearby. You pretty,” I said, and regretted it instantly. “I mean, great-”
Before I could finish my sentence, she laughed, “Ha! Charlie, that’s crazy! Yeah, I thought it was somethin’ like that. ‘member when we chatted on Halloween?”
How could I forget? That was one of the best days of my mundane life. “Yeah. Was fun,” I said with a silly grin. Nothing more? Why was I so bad at this? She was still dragging me, pushed the door to the shop, swinging it open, and it crashed to rubber stops. Hah, they probably knew her and installed them just because of this.
“Fun? Ha, ya saved me. My mates wanted to party, but they left ma. I almost cried when I turned on the stream, ya now,” she said, and she hardened her expression for the first time today. “Ma first and only follower spent a day with ma, y’know how good it felt?”
The shop was more like a warehouse. It had tens of shelves full of different clothes, from shirts to wedding dresses, no less. Katherine finally let go of my hand and started her search. “Same. Me sad too,” I said and wanted to slap myself. Rather than that, I focused on different jeans and pretended to know what I was doing.
“Yeah. Wanna try ‘tis?” she threw a dark black pleated skirt at me. Without waiting for my answer, she pulled out two blue sleeveless tops with white strips. Our shopping began in an earnest.