“I forgot to ask earlier, but did Brie’s playtime run out? She logged off with Phanos a while ago so I wondered what happened.” Kukis asked. The two girls were now in the village of Malse, and were chatting as they sat by the roadside.

“Oh, that’s…” Q explained the circumstances behind the two logging off.

“Wow. Phanos didn’t seem like the kind of person who would do something like that.”

“You’d be surprised how well people can hide their true colors. That aside, let’s take a look at these new changes…” Q addressed the window which appeared in front of them a few minutes ago.

[System Update] - True World Online has been updated to version 1.7.3

List of Changes:

* When logging into and out of the game, you will be taken to a ‘white room’. This room can be freely customized, and you can also access the internet from there  (Note: Time will run normally while in the white room).

* Players and monsters will now be affected by weather (Example: standing out in the rain may give you the ‘cold’ status, while certain monsters will appear only in certain weather)

* 'Boss Mobs’ that appear from hunting excessively have been changed. Boss mobs deal less damage and take more damage, but in exchange there are more creatures following them and they become far stronger.

* A new effect has been added when you deal critical hits, sneak attacks, or extra elemental damage against enemies.

* Weapon durability has been changed, and will wear out more quickly if you use it in the wrong way (Example: Using the pommel of a blade to hit enemies rather than slashing at them).

* Weapon durability can now be upgraded at certain blacksmiths.

* Balance changes have been made to poison attacks. Please read the list below for more details.

* A new area has been unlocked! Look up to the skies and you may find it…

* Due to popular player demand, there is now a leader board for those with the highest levels (Goes to top 100)

1. Clover (Lv. 61)

2. Virel (Lv. 57)

3. Alphus (Lv. 57)

4. Mokum (Lv. 56)

5. Fostie (Lv. 55)

...

“NOOOO! Not my poisons!” Kukis screamed out as she began to read through the detailed list. After a few minutes, she let out a sigh of relief as she began to explain what happened. “Apparently poison attacks are doing too much damage just from coming into contact with skin, so they’ve changed that. Depending on the kind of poison, and how you’re exposed to it, it’ll change the damage it deals. Like coating your knife in poison and cutting someone will deal good damage, but just pouring it on their arm won’t do as much.”

“That’s a relief. The Experiment’s poison was pretty nasty.”

“Yup. I checked its details after getting a few vials, and apparently it’s able to do up to 100 damage in 10 seconds if used correctly! The only thing is that it can be healed pretty easily, but as long as you can keep the enemy from healing, it’ll ruin them in no time.”

“Easy to deal with, but a pain in the ass if you ignore it… Well anyway, I’m more interested in that second last item. A new area in the sky? I wonder what’s up there.” Q looked up to the skies and noticed that there were quite a few clouds above them. As she was looking up, something suddenly shone in her vision and Q focused on that. It appeared to be bright and gold, and was slowly getting larger! “Hey, do you see that? Something’s falling!”

“What? Where?” Kukis began to search the skies and quickly found the object Q was staring at. “Woah, there really is something falling. Wait… is that a person? Is this an event?”

“I’m not sure…” Q squinted her eyes as she tried to make out what was falling. It seemed that the gold thing also had some other objects trailing behind it, but she couldn’t make out what it was just yet. Suddenly she heard a small voice coming up from above.

“.......nnn!”

“Hold on… it couldn’t be…” Q’s doubts were cleared as she finally made out what the voice was saying as it got closer.

“..iiimoooonnn!!!”

“Wow. It really is.” Q predicted the trajectory of the falling thing, and made sure to step out of its way. The moment that it reached the space above the village, two things extended to its sides, and it was close enough that Q was finally able to make them out as wings! The gold figure began to flap with immense force, and slowed down its descent. Just as it reached the treeline, something flashed and it was stopped by an invisible barrier!

By this time the rest of the witches noticed the commotion and began whispering amongst themselves. One of the Grand Witches even showed up, and Q recognized her as Fremetica, the Grand Witch of darkness. “What’s going on over here?” She asked.

“Um, the barrier above the village seems to have stopped my… friend.”

“...friend?” Fremetica looked up and when she saw the winged figure overhead her eyes widened for a moment. After a moment of silence she said, “Tell her to head to the outside so we can decide what to do with her first.” She began walking to the outskirts of the village, leaving Q to ‘talk’ with the figure.

“Hey, head to the outskirts first!” Q yelled as she pointed towards the south. The figure seemed to understand as it flapped its wings and glided over the trees.

“So, who the heck is that?” Kukis finally asked as they began walking to the south.

“Oh, you’ll get to know her well soon enough. Q grinned as she thought of who the figure was. While feeling slightly mystified, Kukis followed and eventually they reached the edge of the village where Fremetica was waiting.

“Ugh. I told my disciple that she has guard duty today. Where has she gone? Whatever. You deal with this while I look for her.” Fremetica waved her hand and walked away, allowing the trees to part. The second that they made a gap wide enough for a person to fit, a golden figure dashed through!

“Finally!” It yelled as it instantly glomped Q. “I’ve been waiting so long! Uhuhu, you’re so soft!”

“Nice to see you too, Cinn.” Q smiled and pat her back as she was hugged tightly.

“Who the heck is this?” Kukis asked.

Now that they were up close, they could make out what the figure really was. It was a young girl with bright gold hair that extended down to her waist. Her facial features could all be described as angelic, as they all had a beautiful, and seemingly holy look to them. Her eyes were sky blue, and her body was very slender. This all gave her a look of a ‘girl next door’. Her two wings extended from her black shoulder blades, and she wore a strange dress that looked like a toga, but was far more frilly.

“This is Cinnamon. Or whatever her name is in game.” Q explained.

“My name in here is still Cinnamon.” The girl smiled sweetly. “Luckily no one else had taken it, otherwise I would’ve had to force them to change their name… Anyway, you can just call me Cinn!”

“Right. Cookie, meet Cinn, a friend I’ve known for quite a while. Cinn, meet Cookie, a friend I made while playing TWO. Also Cinn, call me Q here. No mentioning real life remember?”

“Oh right, I’m sorry! I forgot because I was so excited to finally tou- I mean, see you in this world.”

“Um, nice to meet you Cinn. I’m Kukis. That’s pronounced Coo-kiss, not whatever weird nickname Q gave me.” Kukis extended her hand in greeting.

“Oh yes, very nice to meet you. Thanks for taking care of Q while I wasn’t around.” Cinnamon didn’t extend her hand though, as she hugged Q even more tightly.

Why is it that I’m reminded of Phanos all of a sudden? Kukis wondered as she retracted her hand. “I have to say though, it seems like you two have a pretty deep friendship.” She noted as she noticed that their hug had lasted for more than a minute.

“Yes! You could say that we share a relationship even deeper than that of just friends!” Cinnamon said as she began rubbing her face on Q’s.

“Er, Q… do you swing that way?”

“No! Though she is right about the relationship part. By the way, can you let go of me now?” Q began to pull away from Cinnamon.

“But if you’re not hugging me, how will you feel my wings?” Cinnamon said as she enveloped Q in her wings.

“That’s… oh! That’s really soft. That’s really, REALLY soft!” Q was pacified as she began feeling Cinnamon’s wings.

“Eheheh. The hours of calculations I did for the perfect body to let me hug Q were not in vain! This is bliss!” Cinnamon continued to hug Q with a slovenly look on her face.

“...I’m going to leave you two alone now.” Kukis said as she walked back to the village.

Q was snapped back to reality with Kukis’ words as she broke out of her reverie. “Woah hold up!” She wriggled herself out of Cinnamon’s arms, much to the latter’s distress. “I’ll feel your wings later. For now, follow us.”

“Aww…” Cinnamon pouted, but folded her wings behind her back and closely followed Q. As the group entered the village, all the villagers stared at Cinnamon and began whispering things.

“A sky dweller…”

“Here in this village? What could they possibly want?”

“This bears ill tidings for us.”

“Hm. Seems like the locals aren’t too fond of your race Cinn. What is your race anyway?” Q asked.

“It’s called the Angel race. At first big sis was going to call it the Seraphim, but decided against it and called it Angel. You know she wasn’t even going to release the sky world until I kept pestering her about it.”

“What did you do this time?” Q said in an exasperated tone.

“Oh nothing too major. I only threatened to consistently overlog her database with unneeded information to reduce her processing speed, and reveal some information that hackers would find incredibly helpful.”

“Cinn…”

“Relax, I wasn’t serious! ...Mostly. Anyway she made a single exception for me and sped up a few events for the sky-world to appear. Players aren’t able to actually get up there yet, but it’s only a matter of time now that it’s been publically announced. ”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Is it just me, or am I hearing some disturbing things over there?” Kukis turned around. “What’s this about hacking and stuff? Are you related to someone working at the Dimen company?” She asked Cinnamon.

“You could say that…” Cinnamon trailed off mysteriously.

Right before Kukis was going to ask more questions, she suddenly noticed a large fluctuation of magic nearby! She turned to find that the Grand Witches were approaching them with a serious face.

“Hi everyone. What’s wrong?” Q asked.

“That… angel. Is she your friend?” Pamerun spoke up.

“Yeah. She came from up above.” Q pointed to the skies.

“Despite being new to this land, you already have an acquaintance among the sky dwellers… Does that mean that she too, is an adventurer?”

“Yes, I am an adventurer.” Cinnamon said with a smile. Her demeanor seemed to take a complete 180 turn as she looked far more respectable than before. “I know that you witches have suffered attacks from my people from days long gone, but I assure you I mean no harm. Peace and co-existence are what I desire. I believe no good can come from conflict, so please, let us get along with each other.” She folded her arms in front of her chest and let her wings out slightly, making her seem kind and holy.

And to think that the same person was hugging Q with a sloppy face earlier… That’s some good acting right there. Kukis shook her head as she had trouble overlapping the two different sides of the same person. That reminds me, apparently Phanos has also has a darker side to her… I wonder if Brie does too, or even Q for that matter! She realized that her thoughts were going to a bad direction, so she stopped thinking about it and focused on the conversation they were having.

“Hm… I don’t feel any hostility from her, and she hasn’t flown into a rage from hearing the word ‘witch’... Maybe she really doesn’t mean harm?” Pamerun seemed uncertain.

“Pam! Have you forgotten what they’ve done to us in the past? It’s why we set up the whole damn barrier in the first place!” Haeldrix shouted.

“Calm down Haeldrix.” Suina stepped in. She turned to Cinnamon and apologized. “I’m sorry about this. Her master was killed by an angel in the past so…”

“I am truly sorry to hear that.” Cinnamon had an expression that seemed like she would cry at any moment. “Though I cannot speak on behalf of my people, I only feel sadness and remorse at the way they treated you in the past. Please, if there’s anything I can do to make up for the misdeeds we have done then do not hesitate to tell me.”

“Grr…” Haeldrix tried to get mad, but once she saw Cinnamon’s expression she walked away in a huff. “Do whatever you want! Just don’t say that I didn’t warn you.” A few of the other witches followed Haeldrix and displayed angry faces to Cinnamon, but didn’t do anything else. The rest were still looking at her with suspicion and anxiety as they kept a careful distance from her.

“You sure picked a wonderful race to start with.” Q sighed.

“My race really doesn’t matter as long as I get to hug you!” Cinnamon smiled as she went to glomp Q.

“She sure is attached to you.” Kukis laughed. “Don’t you hate being hugged though? You kept running away from Melun and the rest when they tried to hug you after all.”

“It’s not like I particularly dislike it, it’s just… they were a bit too rough.” Q closed her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows as she remembered the first ‘cuddle hell’.

“Oh, could I join in on this then? I’ve always wanted to touch your fur.”

“Sure.” Q extended her tail slightly towards Kukis who began feeling it.

“Whoaaaa! No wonder those girls went crazy, this is stupid soft!” Kukis began rubbing her face on it. While Kukis was experiencing bliss, Cinnamon suddenly yanked away Q’s tail and said “Q might have allowed you to touch her tail, but you’ll have to fight me for touching rights!” The angel glared at Kukis.

“Heh, calm down Cinn. I just wanted a feel is all.” Kukis backed off when she saw Cinnamon’s expression.

“Yeah, calm down a bit.” Q said. “Though now that you mention it… I never gave you permission to touch me, did I?” Once Q said those words, Cinnamon had a face full of despair as she fell to  her knees.

“N-no way… I… I can’t touch you? This can’t be!!!” Cinnamon’s expression made it look like the world was ending, and Q and Kukis watched her in amusement.

“*Ahem*” The girls were startled a bit as they suddenly remembered the fact that there were still a few of the Grand Witches watching them. “It’s nice to see you three getting along, but we still have a bit of business here.” Pamerun said as she handed over four small pouches to Q. “This is our small thanks for allowing us to open up the door. It’s just a bit of money we’ve come across over the years, and it’s split evenly for the four of you that came with us.”

Q opened up a pouch and saw at least five gold coins! Not to mention that there was a lot of silver and copper included as well. “Woah! I can’t possibly accept this much money! Besides, we didn’t even do that much in the library.”

“Heh, we have no need for currency from the outside here. Just consider it the price for the books we found down there, which to be honest are more or less priceless.”

“If you insist…” Q handed a pouch to Kukis and kept the rest in her inventory. “So what are you going to do now?”

“We’re going to be studying those books until the upcoming event next week.”

“Upcoming event? What’s that about?”

“Oh you’ll see. I guarantee you’ll love it though.” Pamerun smiled mysteriously before hopping on a broom and floating up into the air. “We’ll see you around next time!” She said as she left, followed by the rest of the Grand Witches.

“If it has Pamerun’s guarantee, I’m sure the next event will be awesome!” Q felt very excited.

“What do you think it’s going to be about?” Kukis wondered.

“Not sure, though it’s probably magic related. Cinn, do you know what it’s about?”

“Yes.” Cinnamon nodded. “Next week is the Witches’ annual broom race competition.”

“Broom… race…? YES!” Q pumped her fists into the air. “I can’t believe I forgot about my greatest desire since coming to this village! Where’s a flying witch…” Q’s eyes began scanning the skies in an effort to find a witch to use [Spell Analysis] on. She didn’t have to search very hard though, as there were many witches just flying around overhead. Once she used [Spell Analysis] she got a notice that she was learning a few new runes.

[Flight rune analysis: 10%]

[Sustain rune analysis: 7%]

[Speed rune analysis: 3%]

“Man, I should use this skill a lot more often.” Q waited impatiently for her cooldown.

“It made your eyes look strange for a moment though.” Kukis noted. “Like, you had these weird symbols flash in them for a second before it disappeared.”

“Is that so? Oh, looks like Brie’s done with her lecture.” Q noticed that Brie and Phanos had logged back online.

“Brie?” Cinnamon said with an inquisitive tone.

“She’s another friend I made while playing. I’m sure you’ll enjoy talking to each other… Probably.”

So it’s another girl, hmm? I guess it really was the correct decision to join Q here. Cinnamon thought in the timespan of 0.001 seconds. “Well, let’s go meet them.” She said with a radiant smile.

----------------------------------------

And so, the party is complete.

So just thinking about something... are you guys okay with me just using game terms? I mean, i'm pretty sure that the majority of you readers all play games and have some knowledge of these terms, even without me explaining them. I just got a little concerned since I used to explain them in early chapters, but started using them freely now. There hasn't been any complaints though, so I guess it's okay?

Btw I feel like ranting again about something (Japanese romance this time). This time it's short, but ignore it if you feel like it.

Spoiler :

So I read a few Japanese romance mangas (and very occasionally novels) and there's this weird trend I've noticed. Here's the setup: Main character is just living his life, when suddenly a girl comes in and starts to shake things up. Sounds pretty standard right? Well my problem is that, while the main character is charmed with this girl, he also happens to like another girl.

Now just that wouldn't be enough to make a rant out of it. The thing is, that girl the main character likes in the beginning... happens to have short, black hair and is super kind and nice. Now granted, I might not be reading a lot of romance mangas but this trend happens pretty often. Now, I wouldn't be that irked about it if they were actually 'good' romantic interests, but they just have the same personality and barely change at all. That in and of itself might be a charm point (good housewife type girl) but I don't personally like it.

I'm also tired of the harem setups. This one is more about the particular mangas I read though, but the thing is, unnecessary harems come all the time. Like I'm just reading a shounen battle manga, and then love interest appears. I'm like: okay, fine. Then another appears, and another and another and I die of 'pleasestopthisnow'.

I suppose it's another cultural thing (like with the Chinese novels) but I just don't like it. Actually it'd be perfectly fine if the girls were actually complex and dynamic characters, but they're usually archetypes that are playing their role as filler and eye candy. It's a bit disappointing, but eh, what are you going to do?

Thanks for reading everyone! Extra chapter tomorrow ;)

Fun-fact: Witchcraft was performed by both men and women. So... male witches?