“Uhh… mind explaining who you are and what you’re doing?” Q asked the purple-haired girl while she was being dragged forward. Brie had a blank look on her face as she was pulled along, unable to keep up with the current situation. The purple-haired girl took a quick look at Q as she continued to run forward. “My name is Kukis! That’s pronounced ‘coo-kiss’ mind you! As for what I’m doing, you can see for yourself.” She said, indicating the rampaging boar in front of them. “I tried to get a backstab on this boar while it was sleeping, but unfortunately it woke up and began to run.”
“Hold on, you tried to stab its ‘back’ by stabbing its ‘butt’?” Q questioned.
“Hey, I thought it would count! Also, can you run on your own now? My arms are getting kind of tired.” Kukis complained. Q nodded and began running by herself, and then snapped Brie out of her stupor. The three of them then continued to run towards the boar as it mowed down all things in its path. “Hey, let’s party up!” Kukis said as she sent a request to the two of them. Unfortunately Q and Brie were already in a party and the invitation failed, so Q sent an invitation over to Kukis instead.
“Accept invitation from Q…” Kukis muttered out loud, and then she suddenly realized something. “Hold on a second, you’re THAT Q!? The one who killed an enemy 15 levels above them?” She said with disbelief.
“Haha, yeah. It was a pretty tough fight...” Q laughed dryly, remembering the insane difficulty the game imposed on her in the tutorial.
“Um, you two… might we focus on the task at hand?” Brie promptly reminded them about the boar in front of them. The boar let out a powerful roar and continued to charge forward with no signs of stopping. “We have to get its attention somehow...” Q said, thinking of a way to attract the boar. “I know! Do you two have anything that I can throw?” She asked the other girls. Brie shook her head while Kukis wordlessly pulled out a small dagger.
“Don’t miss!” She said with a wink, handing Q the dagger.
Once she held the dagger, Q focused and aimed right at the boar’s behind. She held the blade in-between her thumb and index finger, and brought her arm behind her head. Taking careful aim, she threw the dagger with all her might! The dagger flew fast and true, quickly zipping forward and hitting the boar in a VERY sensitive spot!
*SQUEEEEEALL*
“Woah… didn’t actually expect to hit it dead on…” Q said as she watched the boar roll around in agony.
“HAHAHA! Nice shot Q! Did you hear that scream? I don’t think that boar can stand up for… OH SHIT!” Kukis suddenly screamed as the boar recovered and turned around to face the trio. It’s entire body seemed to become more intimidating as it got a cruel gleam in its eye, aimed its large tusks straight at the girls, and let out a loud squeal.
[Greater Tusk Boar] - Level 15
“Okay, new plan. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!” Kukis yelled, sprinting away as fast as she could. When she shouted out, the boar screamed at the same time, charging towards her. “Kukis! Watch out!” Q warned as she and Brie ran after them. As surprisingly fast Kukis was at running, she couldn’t outrun the now enraged boar, and the distance between the two quickly shortened.
“Kukis, lead it into a tree!” Q shouted. Kukis looked around and found a decent-sized tree ahead of her. She forced herself to speed up, and then managed to dive to the left just before she hit the tree. The boar wasn’t able to do that though as it charged head-on into the tree! Unbelievably though, the boar ran into the tree with such force that it actually uprooted it! Hitting the tree did stop its charge, but the three girls knew that if they were hit by that, they’d probably die in one hit.
“It’s our chance! Brie, let’s go!” Q said, drawing her worn knife and running at the now dazed boar. Brie quickly followed suit as the two began to stab and slash the boar. “[Spark]! [Magic Fist - Spark]!” Q called out on her spells while Brie was stabbing its hide. “This hide is really tough!” Brie exclaimed, having trouble finding a spot where she could pierce through its hide. Her sword was only able to pierce about half a centimeter and left only shallow wounds.
“Aim for its eyes or something!” Kukis said as she headed to the boar’s behind and pulled out the daggers stuck in it. Once Kukis pulled out the daggers, the boar recovered and began to flail about wildly, forcing the girls to back off. Between the three of them, they were only able to deal about a quarter of its health in damage.
The boar looked at them with hate in its eyes as its front hoof began to paw the ground. Letting out a snort, it looked at the three girls, as if deciding who to charge at next. Q noticed this and began waving her hands wildly. “Hey boar! Come catch me if you can!” She said, turning around and running away. The boar let out another scream as it began charging towards Q. As the two of them ran, the boar gradually picked up speed, gaining on Q. When she found a suitable tree, she quickly spun on the spot and stood still to meet the boar’s charge.
““Q!”” Brie and Kukis yelled, not knowing what she had planned. Q on the other hand, narrowed her eyes and focused, the world seemingly slowing down as she readied herself to receive the boar’s charge. The boar got closer and closer, and only when its tusks were just about to reach Q did she finally start to move.
Moving slightly towards the right, Q dived between the boar’s head and tusk, just barely getting out of the way in time. As she dived, she also slashed towards the boar’s eye, and though she didn’t see anything, Q felt some resistance in her dagger as she passed by successfully. A scream was heard as the boar collapsed under pain while running forward, and turning around Q saw the boar crash heavily into the tree, causing it to become stunned.
“What are you two waiting for? Wail on it!” Q yelled at the two girls who were currently watching with stupefied expressions. They quickly snapped out of it though as they began to attack the boar. Brie and Kukis were both attacking the head, while Q cast spark and slashed at the boar as much as she could. Eventually the boar’s health dropped down to one quarter and it struggled to get up. Kukis and Brie backed away from the boar, but Q quickly climbed up a nearby tree and jumped off, aiming her knife right at the boar’s back.
“Haaaah!” Letting out a war-cry, Q stabbed her knife into the boar’s back with all her strength, causing the boar to temporarily lose its balance and cry out in pain. Before Brie and Kukis could take advantage of that, the boar went absolutely berserk, leaving Q to hang onto its fur as tightly as she could. The boar bucked and ran into things in an attempt to throw Q off, but she managed to hold on.
The boar rampaged, breaking branches and stomping the ground, but it gradually tired out and collapsed to the ground exhausted. It was at this point that Q yanked out the dagger she stabbed into the boar and began to stab it repeatedly. In-between her hits she cast spark, and sometimes even scratched with her claws, and after a while Brie and Kukis joined in as well, stabbing and slicing, until eventually the boar died.
[Level Up!]
[Stats Gained]
[Skill Proficiency Gained]
[Spell Proficiency Gained]
[Items Received]
“Phew! That was pretty exhausting.” Q said as she slid off the boar’s body. She was approached by her two companions as they watched the boar’s body fade away in silence. For a while nobody spoke, until Kukis let out her voice.
“...ool.”
“What was that?” Q asked.
“SO COOL!” Kukis said with shining eyes. “Have you ridden a boar before? That was insane!”
“No,” Q shook her head, “I haven’t ridden a boar before, and I won’t ever do it again. That thing’s fur was stupidly rough. Ugh.” She shuddered remembering the feel of its hide. “Anyway, It seems I got some boar meat and some tusks. How about you Brie?”
“Ah, yes. I have also received boar meat, and also a hide.”
“Whaaat? All I got was its meat…” Kukis complained.
“Well… maybe if you contributed more you might have gotten something decent?” Q said, remembering that Kukis wasn’t able to hit the boar very often. “Hey, I found the boar.” Kukis complained, “That’s plenty of contribution you know?”
Q simply rolled her eyes as she looked towards the sky. “Uh-oh, it’s almost sunset. Come on Brie, we need to get these items back to the cook as soon as possible.”
“Right. Let us depart then.”
“What about me?” Kukis asked.
“I dunno.” Q said while shrugging her shoulders. “You’re free to join us if you want. Oh right.” Q suddenly remembered something and sent Kukis a friend request. Raising her eyebrow, Kukis accepted the request and faced Q with a questioning look.
“Hey, we killed a boar together. If that doesn’t make us friends, then what does?” Q said with a wide grin. Kukis responded with a grin of her own as she shook hands with Q. “Well then, I look forward to traveling with you! Also, what about you?” Kukis turned to look at Brie.
“Eh? Me?” Brie said with a surprised look.
“Yeah, aren’t we going to be friends as well?”
“Oh! Yes, of course!” Brie began to frantically make gestures and was able to send a request to Kukis. Seeing this, Q patted her back and said “Good job! That’s one step forward for the anti-social Brie!”
“Yes, it is… wait, what did you just call me!?”
“Hahaha!” Q ran away laughing while Brie chased her with a red face. In this fashion the three of them quickly made their way back to the town. On the way there they talked about whether or not Kukis knew about the Prim Roses, and it turned out that she had already joined them. She hadn’t encountered the two in the main area because she left to hunt for food for the same quest that Q and Brie got. As they approached the entrance to the Prim Roses hideout, Q suddenly asked a question.
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“Hey Kukis… can I call you Cookie?”
“...What?” Kukis looked at Q with a confused face.
“Cookie. You know, the snack.”
“I know the snack. What I mean is why would you want to call me Cookie?”
“Because of your name of course!” Q began to explain. “As I was reading it I thought it was kind of weird and started to pronounce it multiple ways. In the end, I got Cookie.”
“Hmm… now that you mention it…” Brie nodded her head, seeing Q’s point.
“Whoa wait, I told you my name is pronounced coo-kiss right?” Kukis began to protest.
“Yeah, but I want to call you Cookie.” Q insisted.
“Coo-kiss!”
“Coo-kie!”
Seeing Q’s determined, unwavering expression, Kukis let out a sigh of surrender. “*Sigh* Do whatever you want...” Seeing Kukis’ defeated aura, Brie decided to try and cheer her up her new friend. “Um… Worry not, Kukis! I will call you by your name.”
“Ahh, thank you Brie!” Kukis said as she hugged her. “You’re my true friend!”
“U-unhand me! You may not touch me so casually!” Brie shouted while blushing as she tried to slip out of her hug. Q laughed as she watched them for a while, then entered the hideout and headed to the cook to turn in her quest. “Oh, thank you for gathering the ingredients. I also see that you managed to hunt a boar! That’s quite impressive. Here, take these,” She said as she handed Q a bunch of items. “I’ll have you help me out in cooking the group meal in a few minutes.”
[Quest Complete!] - Gather Ingredients
Obtained Rewards:
[Cooking Profession]
[Basic Cooking Utensils]
[A warm hearty meal]
[New Profession] - Cooking
“Yay!” Q looked over her rewards as she switched her profession to a cook. While she did this, Brie and Kukis approached and turned in their quests as well. Once they all received their items, they gathered in the kitchen and began helping the other girls with cooking. Q and Kukis had cooked previously in real life, so they were able to make some decent meals. Brie on the other hand had no idea how to cook since all her meals were prepared for her, causing more than one accident involving small cuts and strange ingredients being mixed into the food.
After an hour the three had completed cooking and ate their meals in silent bliss. “Haa, one of the few joys of making a delicious meal: actually eating what you make.” Q said with a contented face. “Well, unless you’re working in a restaurant I guess.” She added.
“That’s true.” Kukis laughed. “So what are we going to do now? It’s almost night time and there isn’t much to do. I suppose we could go and hunt monsters outside, though they’ll be stronger than they are during daytime.”
“Hm? How do you know that?” Brie asked.
“Common sense in video games?”
Brie simply tilted her head with a puzzled look on her face, making it seem like a question mark was floating above her head. She began wondering how monsters get more powerful during night-time. “Shouldn’t monsters be sleeping at night?” She asked with an innocent face.
Q tried to explain the ‘common sense’ to Brie. “In video games with a day and night cycle, the enemies usually get stronger or change up during the night. For example, you could be fighting against a rabbit in the daytime, but at nighttime it could be a wolf. Oh yeah, just a heads up Cookie,” Q said. “Brie is a complete noob in games so we’ll probably have to end up explaining a lot of things to her as we go.”
“Really? Well that’s unexpected. I thought that people playing T.W.O would have at least some knowledge of video games… Anyway, enough about that. What I want to know is how in the world you took down an enemy 15 levels above you! Aren’t you curious as well Brie?”
“Well, it does sound like an impressive feat. But how did you know that Q defeated an enemy 15 levels above her?”
“Wait, you didn’t get the system message sent to all players that told you she beat it?”
“System message? Those things that go *ding* and open up a window? I found them annoying so I disabled them.”
Q and Kukis both let out a sigh thinking, She has a long way to go…
“Well anyway… you wanted to know how I beat an enemy 15 levels above me?” Q said, instantly receiving a nod from Brie and Kukis. “Okay then. How do I begin? Hmm… so I woke up inside a room…”
Q began to tell of her adventures in the tutorial, and the crazy things that happened. A sudden wolf 6 levels above her, getting a rusty knife to fight against piles of rocks, and then finally, the boss. Up until this point Brie and Kukis were listening silently to her story with jaws wide open, when all of a sudden Kukis blurted out, “Hold on. You were up against a level 20 boss, A BOSS, at level 5 with nothing other than a crappy knife and a single spell?”
“Yeah, pretty ridiculous right? The difficulty of my tutorial was stupid. When the boss gave me a hard stare near the end I seriously thought it might shoot lasers out of its eyes.”
Kukis rubbed her temple, trying to make sense of the situation. “Yeah that is pretty ridiculous for a first boss, though maybe they made you fight that because of how well you were doing.”
“What do you mean?” Q asked, not sure of what Kukis meant.
“Don’t you remember? In the tutorial room one of the messages said that the difficulty would increase or decrease depending on your performance. Because you stepped off the path to the ruins, the game probably sent the wolf after you as a sort of deterrent, but you were able to kill it. That’s probably when the game kicked into hard mode and sent those ruin guardians after you. Heck, I don’t even think you were supposed to win that boss battle.”
(A/N: And there you have it, the reason for the insane difficulty for the tutorial)
“Hmm… now that you mention it, I guess that’s true. But hey, I did win that battle, and now look at me!” Q stood up. “Level 10 with inflated stats that a level 18 character should have. Am I awesome or what?”
“You’re ridiculous. On all kinds of levels, you know that?” Kukis said while sighing.
“Why thank you.” Q said with a smile. Suddenly, she heard a sound and looked up to find a flashing window in front of her.
[Warning - You have been inside the game for 8 consecutive real-life hours. We recommend you take a 30 minute break before logging back in and continuing to play.
“Oh right, I forgot how long I was playing. I’ll be back in a few minutes... or maybe that’s hours in game time.” Q remembered that there was a time difference between the game and reality. A day in the game is only a third of that in real life, so despite Q playing for an entire ‘day’, only a few hours had passed in real life.
“Psh. Casual, not even willing to continue playing the game for one day straight.” Kukis looked at Q with false disdain.
“Hey, taking care of our bodies is important you know? Anyway, I’ll be back in a bit.” Q began reaching for the logout button.
“Wait!” Brie suddenly interrupted her. “You’re supposed to be my escort! Why are you leaving my side?”
“Haha, don’t worry. I’ll only be gone for a few hours at most. Besides, now you have Cookie to temporarily escort you in my place. She can teach you all about the intricacies of video games while I’m gone. Anyway, see you later!” Q pressed the logout button and disappeared in a flash of particles.
“She’s… gone…” Brie said with a dejected face.
Seeing Brie so depressed seemed to flip a switch in Kukis as she instantly hugged her while saying, “Aww, you’re so cute when you pout! Don’t be sad. You have me here to keep you company.”
“I- I told you that you cannot touch me so casually!”
While causing a commotion, the two girls sat and talked about video games while waiting for Q to return.
----------------------------------------
A/N: And here we are, once again. A new party member, and more shenanigans to be had. So I'm curious right now. What do you guys think of the way I portray my characters? Do you think that it's better if they're instantly revealed, backstory and all, and just have them interact with each other? Or do you prefer a slow reveal that builds up their character over time? Right now I'm going for the second approach.
As Q and her party meet other players and NPCs, they grow as people, and we also find out what makes up their characters and personalities. After all, isn't that how it works in online games? You talk with a complete stranger, but over time you learn about their quirks, their habits, what they like to do, etc. And then, if you stick with them long enough it's like you were best friends (well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but whatever).
Well, I plan on developing my characters this way, where they grow off of each other and create a large link of friendship. I'd like to hear what you guys have to say about this, so leave a message or a comment (or don't) and tell me your thoughts.
If I might add one last thing... there are too many girls in this story. Like... A LOT. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that I haven't really thought of any male characters so far. Oh well. In the upcoming battle between the houses you'll get to see some new people (hopefully).
Fun-fact: The first fortune cookie was made in America, but the fortune cookie is actually a Japanese tradition.
Edit: Helen's 'side-story' is now a fully fledged chapter of its own. What does that mean? Two things. One, that every so often we'll go and check on how Helen does in the story (seems to be a pattern of 5 chapters then a Helen PoV) and that the next chapter will be a Helen chapter. I'm basically upping her story's importance past a side-story, though you will get side stories in the future featuring other character's viewpoints on events in the story.