Once the group returned to the town they went over to an old man to turn in their quest. “Oh really?” The old man lifted himself out of his chair as he heard about what was inside the cave. “To think that the cave would hold such secrets… Many thanks for investigating it for me. I’ll gather up some townsfolk with guards to go into the caves and start mining some gemstones.”
If you were going to send in townsfolk anyway, why not just hire the guards instead of us adventurers? Q temporarily questioned the old man’s logic in her mind, but then realized that would destroy the sense of adventure. The old man continued speaking. “Now, it wouldn’t be right if I left you all empty handed for such hard work now would it? Here, take these as a reward, you all deserve it.”
[Quest Complete!] - Explore the Forest Cave
[Reward]: 1 Gold
“...That’s it? 1 Gold?” Kukis stared at the gold coin in her hand.
“That’s a lot of money you know?” Verne said as he accepted the coin. “Getting 1 gold this early in the game is incredible. Not to mention it’s probably worth a lot to the locals as well so receiving 1 gold is a very generous reward.”
“Hahaha! That’s no problem at all young man.” The old man let out a hearty laugh. “After all, with the discovery of the gemstones in that cave I’m going to be making a lot of profit! Hahaha!”
“...” Verne temporarily thought of rescinding his previous words but decided to let it go instead. “Well,” He let out a sigh, “I guess this is where we split ways then huh?”
“Yeah. It was nice partying with you guys.” Q shook hands with Verne. “Oh, and I completely forgot about this since we were all in a party but… friend requests for everyone!” Q said as she sent a friend request to all the Crios Blades. Everyone else also followed suit, and they began to say their goodbyes. A tearful farewell ensued (mostly just Melun trying to make a last ditch effort to hug Q again) and then they parted ways.
Shortly after the Crios Blades left, Brie also announced that she had to leave. “Terribly sorry, but I am being called by my parents. They say that I have been inside the game for too long.”
“Stuff happens when you play videogames.” Kukis shrugged. “Make sure you’re back in time for the event though! That’s in 3 in-game days, or 1 day in real life.”
“Thank you Kukis, I remember your lessons on the difference between the time of the game and real life. I hope to see you two soon.” Brie smiled as she logged out of the game.
“What are you going to do now Q?” Kukis asked.
“Well, I need to head over to the blacksmith to get my equipment repaired and get a sword in working condition. Not to mention I have SO MANY things to sell.” Q looked over her items and began making plans to use them. “What are you going to do in the meantime Cookie?”
“I'm thinking of heading back to the Prim Roses to see if I can learn anymore skills. After all, it'd be a waste not to gather skills because of my racial passive.”
“Right. We'll meet up back here in the square when Brie comes back then?”
“Yup. See you in a bit!” Kukis cheerfully walked away.
As Kukis left, Q also made her way over to the blacksmith. After a bit of conversation, Q was able to sell a few materials to him, and also got her rusted sword and equipment fixed up. In the end she spent 5 silver repairing the sword, and 3 silver repairing her equipment, but thanks to her selling materials she still got a surplus of 2 silver. After waiting for half an hour, the blacksmith came back and gave her the sword.
“Sorry girlie, but the sword was too broken to return to its previous state. I shaved off most of the rust instead and spiffed it up, so it's pretty thin but you could probably still use it.”
[Guardian’s Rapier (Weapon, Rare)] Durability (20/20) - A sword painstakingly repaired by a blacksmith. Slightly fragile, but still contains a bit of Magic from its original form. Strength +3, Agility +3, Dexterity +3, 5% chance to deal magic damage to target on hit.
Seems like this would be suitable for Brie… Q thanked the blacksmith for repairing her equipment and fixing the sword, then left to find an appraiser. With a few directions from strangely helpful players, Q found the appraisal shop. She was slightly concerned about the lingering gazes on her, and looked around to find multiple players staring at her. Are they planning on robbing me or something? Q wondered, but in the end they didn't do anything so Q simply shrugged and entered the shop.
Inside she found an old woman with a crystal ball in front of her. For a second Q thought she might have gotten the wrong shop when the woman looked at her and asked, “Are you looking to appraise your items?” Q nodded and showed her black ring that she obtained from Wolfy back in the tutorial.
[Black Wolf’s Spirit (Ring, Magic)] Durability (40/40) - A wolf's spirit is held within this ring, waiting to be unleashed upon its enemies. Strength +7, Agility +10, 10% Increase to attacks dealt by claws.
WOLFYYYY!!! You weren't such a bad guy after all! ...I still don't like your fur though. The ring she obtained from Wolfy was far more amazing than she thought it would be, and she thanked Wolfy in her mind, while praying for his safety in animal heaven.
Q thanked the appraiser and headed out to a general store to both buy some supplies and sell the rest of her items. In the end she was able to get 23 silver and 6 copper for the rest of her items, then she went ahead and bought some cloth for practice for her Tailoring profession.
T.W.O’s crafting system let players create things if they had the ‘recipe’ for it. This was only implemented for professions at beginner level though, as players were required to obtain more experience before moving onto more complicated items. Of course, players could attempt to create a complicated item straight away, but chances are that they would fail and lose the materials instead. Anything that the players would make on their own would be saved to their personal ‘recipes’, and they could create the item with far more ease the next time they attempted it. Additionally, if a player had previous knowledge or experience in creating certain items, the game would provide extra boosts to their crafted item, and allowed the player to level their profession more quickly.
Once Q had finished dealing with her items, she returned to the Prim Roses hideout in search of Sharon Velorie. After going through the dungeon and watching Aeryn cast spells of almost every element, Q realized that she also wanted more spells and decided to get the help of a professional mage.
While she wandered through the hideout in search of Sharon, Q found Kukis mixing together random items they obtained from the cave. Kukis seemed to be incredibly concentrated so Q decided to leave her alone and continued to look for Sharon. After asking a few of the girls whether they saw her, she was eventually directed towards a room filled with books. Inside Sharon was reading a book about magic to a group of young girls who were sitting on the ground.
Not wanting to interrupt the Sharon, Q activated [Stealth] and sat down near the back of the group and listened to Sharon’s lecture.
“... and so, can anyone tell me the 6 elements of magic?”
“Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! I know!” A particularly excited girl raised her hand up and waved it around wildly. Sharon chuckled at this and said, “Alright Victoria, go ahead.”
“Yay! The six elements of magic are fire, water, earth, wind, dark, and light.”
“Very good Victoria. Now… can anyone tell me the 7th element of magic?”
““““Huh?”””” All the girls were considerably confused. “Mrs. Velorie, aren’t there only 6 elements of magic?” The girl named Victoria asked.
“Technically speaking yes. These six elements are the ones that mages use and call upon whenever they use magic, but the seventh element is one that isn’t particularly acknowledged to be an element per se. This seventh element, is called the ‘void’ element and it doesn’t share any properties of any of the 6 previous elements.”
“Do you mean it doesn’t have an attribute?” Q spoke up, and all the girls attention was focused on her. A few of the girls even jumped away in fright, and Q could only let out an apologetic laugh.
“Oh my, if it isn’t Q! I’m glad you’re here to join us. Well, to answer your question, yes. The void element doesn’t have an attribute. As you may all know, each element affects one another. If we were talking in terms of advantages, it would be that fire beats water, water beats earth, earth beats wind, and wind beats fire. Light and dark counter each other. The void element doesn’t hold any advantages against any of the other types, but in exchange it isn’t at a disadvantage against them either. Actually, there is research going on in the capital that suggests metal weapons without any elemental attribute have the void element within them.”
Okay… so it’s basically a neutral damage kind of thing. Q thought in her mind. Suddenly, another question popped up in her head as she asked, “Sharon…” As soon as Sharon heard her name she gave Q a stern look. “er... Mrs. Velorie, (Sharon’s stern look disappeared) what about lightning? Which element is it categorized as?” Q had been wondering what kind of damage her spell had been dealing the entire time. The most logical reasoning would be fire, but it could also be a wind element which confused her.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“An excellent question. Some elements are combination of two elements or more. For example, the lightning element you just asked about is a combination of fire and wind. Another element like ice for example, would be a combination of water and wind.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks for the tip. I was wondering what element my spell was.” Q began muttering to herself as she thought about the way elements worked in the game. “That brings up another question as to which part will deal more damage… Would it be mainly fire damage being dealt? Or maybe it’s an even mix. But that makes me wonder if a creature weak against fire and strong against wind would take normal damage...” While Q was lost in thought, Sharon’s ears instantly perked up once she heard that Q had a lightning spell.
“You actually have a lightning spell? Would you mind demonstrating it for the class?” Sharon said with excitement.
“Uhh, sure. Though wouldn’t you have a few lightning spells of your own?”
“Unfortunately no. We do happen to have a few spellbooks on those types but I haven’t learned them yet. I have my hands full trying to master 3 elements, not to mention that it would take a long amount of time studying the book to figure out how to use the spell properly.”
“Oh…” I guess that’s the difference between players and NPCs… though it would probably be super boring to actually learn a spell the ‘proper’ way. Q realized as she asked the girls to stand back from her. “Well then, I’ll give a demonstration of my spell.” Q aimed at the spot in front of her as she invoked her spell. “[Tri-Spark]!”
Three bright lines of light shot straight out of her hand, flying forward for at least a meter before hitting the wall and making a loud *zap* sound. All the girls stared wide-eyed at the magic in front of them (though a few were rubbing their eyes because of the bright light it emitted). Because no one said anything, and Sharon was staring at Q in shock, Q decided to shoot it out again. Everyone was just staring at Q though, so not knowing what to do she decided to bow and take a seat. As soon as she sat down, the surroundings broke out in applause as the girls cheered.
“That was amazing!”
“How did you do that without using the chant?”
“Let me call you older-sister! No wait, big-sis!”
“Can you teach us how to do that?”
Q just smiled and answered the girls questions as best she could and politely refused being called big-sis. Being an older brother myself, I feel like I’d lose something if I was called big-sis. Though these girls kind of remind me of Helen when she was younger… Q reminisced about the past until Sharon finally regained her senses. “That… that was an unknown lightning spell! Where did you learn to use such a thing?”
“Uhh, I learned it from a book? Although this is the evolved version, the normal one just shot out a single spark.”
“An evolved spell… you adventurers truly are amazing.”
“Yeah… ahahah. So are you going to continue with the lesson or…”
“Ah, of course. Calm down now everyone. Yes yes, it was very impressive. Victoria, stop pulling Q’s tail.” Sharon was able to eventually calm down the group and continued with her lesson. There wasn’t anything of particular interest to Q (as she had already guessed these things a long time ago), but she still listened to the very end.
[Stats Gained!]
Oh, that increased my intelligence and wisdom. Maybe I should listen to Sharon’s lectures more often. When the lecture ended, Q went up to Sharon and asked her about the various spellbooks they had. “Spellbooks? What kind are you looking for?”
“Just the basic elements. Particularly fire or wind seeing as I’m sort of acquainted with those two elements already.”
“Well, I don’t mind as long as you do a favor for me first.”
Quest time? Q thought. “What kind of favor?”
“Could you take care of these girls for me? I have an important meeting to attend and these girls don’t have anywhere else to go. If you could watch them for an hour or so that would help me quite a bit.”
“Sure, no problem.” Q immediately accepted. How hard can looking after children be?
(A/N: Flag activated)
“Thank you, Q. I’ll be back in an hour alright? Be good girls.” Sharon waved at the young girls.
“Yes Mrs. Velorie.” The girls gave a bow in return as Sharon left the area.
[New Quest!] - Babysitting
[Objective] - Watch over the children for an hour.
[Failure Condition] - Leaving the girls by themselves at any point in time.
[Rewards] - Basic Fire & Wind Spellbooks
Now that Q was left alone with the girls, she faced them all and asked, “What do you all do for fun?”
“Well… we usually spend time embroidering or telling stories.” A girl with pigtails said.
“Sometimes Mrs. Velorie teaches us about magic theory.” A girl wearing glasses mentioned.
“I like Mrs. Breckden’s stories about being a warrior though.” A girl with a ponytail added.
“Um… Miss Q?” Q recognized this girl as Victoria. “You’re an adventurer right? Do you have any stories?”
“Stories huh? Hmm… let me think…” Q’s mind wandered as she tried thinking of a story to talk about. “Oh, I have one. This is a tale about…”
Q began to re-iterate different stories from real life. She started off with the strange story of Alice in Wonderland, then moved onto the magical story of Cinderella. While the girls laughed at Alice’s adventures in the wondrous land, every single one of the girls were completely enraptured when Q began talking about the handsome prince and his wedding with Cinderella. Once she finished that story, the girls all began to talk among themselves.
“Do you think that we’ll find a prince in our lives too?”
“Maybe. Don’t we have to look super pretty?”
“No, we just need fairies.”
“Haha.” Q simply laughed while listening to the girls go on with their wild fantasies. While she watched over the girls, Victoria approached Q and asked a question.
“Um… Miss Q, do you mind if I…” Victoria trailed off.
“If you…?”
“If I… touched your tail?”
For a moment Q was silent, but then she nodded. If someone else can learn the joys of softness, then it’s all good with me. Once Q gave her consent, Victoria moved behind Q and slowly began to feel her tail. This… kind of tickles. Q squirmed a little under her touch. The last time when she was subjected to cuddle hell by the Crios Blades they were quite rough so she didn’t enjoy it at all, but Victoria was incredibly gentle which gave a completely different feeling. Suddenly, the rest of the girls all noticed Victoria stroking Q’s tail, and they all joined in without her consent. “W- wait! Hold on that’s-!” And yet again Q was subjected to cuddle hell…
Meanwhile Kukis had finished obtaining the Alchemy profession and was currently wandering around the hideout looking for Q. She had heard from one of the girls that Q was looking over some children right now, and she decided to go there to check it out. Once she reached the room Q was in she looked inside and bore witness to the second ‘cuddle hell’.
“Ah, Cookie! Help me out!”
Kukis stared at the sight for a good minute, nodded, and slowly closed the door. She could faintly hear Q’s protests, but chose to ignore them as she went off in search for more skills to obtain.
----------------------------------------
A/N: That's right Cookie, don't get involved.
So how are you all doing? Good? Great. Spectacular! Not much is going on in this chapter, but as you can tell by the chapter title the war is going to start soon (still don't know whether to call it a conflict or a war). I'm excited. Also this chapter was a little boring, but at least you get the scene of little girls petting a little girl. *Nose slowly begins to bleed*
Oh, one thing I absolutely HAVE to address right now. You guys are always calling Helen "lil sis" or "little sister"... and I find that absolutely amazing. Keep doing it. I love it. Seriously. Look at how many periods there were in the past few sentences. That means I'm happy (no it doesn't I have no idea what I'm talking about right now).
Anyway, thanks for reading! Hopefully the upcoming battle will be epic enough for you guys.
Fun-fact: The Mariana Trench (not the band) is the deepest known part of the ocean.
Edit: Title changed from The Calm Before the Storm to The Cuddle Before the Storm (Thanks to KK2 for this idea!)