Having leveled as much as she could with the hog quest, Ilaria followed Amy to the Clothing Shop; they needed to replace her 'armor' set. Level 7 clothes were cheap, though. Most casual players used them as regular clothes, only changing into higher level ones for combat.
“I guess I should take off the costume,” said Ilaria, accepting the action prompt. The Magical Girl outfit dematerialized in a flash of light, revealing the clothes–or the lack of them–within.
“Geez, you have such a nice skin,” said Amy, laughing.
Ilaria looked at herself at a mirror and felt herself blush. Her robes had been ripped when she was forcefully disconnected. Of course, they were hidden by the Magical Girl costume; that is, until she had taken it off. Now her bra and panties were showing in its full glory. At least underwear was indestructible.
“I swear. Whoever developed this game must be a pervert.”
It took around an hour, but they could finally settle on two clothing combinations. The first one was black skinny jeans, a sleeveless white top and a cherry-toned leather jacket. It went with a pair of black low boots.
And the one she had on. A short aquamarine one-piece, with flat white shoes and leggings. Ilaria had been reluctant to buy it, but she had to admit it looked gorgeous on her.
Having finished shopping, the girls walked towards the Dating Center. Ilaria shared what she knew about the lowest level Dungeon Date, getting advise from Amy.
“I should change into the other clothes,” said Ilaria. “Those have better defense after all.”
“Nooo. These are your battle clothes!” exclaimed Amy. “Don't worry; armor won't degrade in a date.”
“But, I thought the other ones were…”
Ilaria decided to shut up and concede to Amy. The later had much more experience than her, both game-wise and at being a girl. They were already at the Dating Center anyway.
When a player first arrived at the center, they needed to fill a questionnaire of likes and preferences. It was for the matchmaking system to calculate your compatibility with potential date partners. Later, as a registered user, whenever you wanted to date someone, you needed to toggle the 'looking for a date' slider in your profile. Then, you could try contacting anyone on the 'available' list, ordered by level and compatibility; or press the ‘Instant blind date' button, which would connect you with the best match among people of the opposite sex who had done the same.
And about that, Ilaria had researched same sex dating options. It was true you could opt in for it while in character creation. But, if you did, you could only date available people of your same sex who had also opted in, which was like nobody. In short, it was a scam; and only people who knew each other in real life ever used it.
After Amy helped her fill the questionnaire with what she thought would be compatible to Johnny–they had planned it in advance–Ilaria didn't have any more excuses for stalling.
“You just need to click on the ‘Instant blind date' button and the system will match you,” said Amy.
Well, here goes nothing…
Ilaria accepted the prompt, intending to wait for VC to match her. Contrary to her expectations, she was matched instantly.
The red button had started to pulse, but now it was heart-shaped.
Ilaria stared at it.
Closing her eyes, she extended her arm and pressed it.
Ilaria didn't actually have much dating experience in real life. And to do a blind date as a female was totally out of her comfort zone.
“Hello,” said a male voice in her ear.
“Eeeh, hello.”
Since it was a Private Call, Amy couldn't listen to their conversation. Even so, she gave Ilaria some space, respectfully turning around.
“My name is Natsu,” said the boy. “I am currently level 7 and I just finished my basic training.”
The voice wavered a bit.
“I am Ilaria, currently at level 9,” said Ilaria, growing more confident. “Are you ready or do you need some time?”
After the first contact, a pink button with ‘go to date dungeon' would appear. When both pressed it, they would be transported to the date instance.
“I'm ready.”
----------------------------------------
“Hello again,” said Ilaria, trying to hold an uncomfortable smile. She was in danger of breaking into laughter.
Ilaria and Natsu had appeared at the center of what looked like the ruin of a former ornate ballroom. It was only illuminated by the cold, diffuse light that came from the windows. Several closed doors circled the room, probably from which the enemies would emerge. A toned-down string ensemble could be heard in the background.
The pink button now read ‘start'.
“You are really cute!” exclaimed Natsu, openly staring at Ilaria.
Natsu was a short boy with brown eyes. The rest, you couldn't know. He appeared to have long, spiky, blond hair; and his chest was uncovered. It was unnaturally ripped.
Qi Warrior.
“So you got a costume?” asked Ilaria, to break the silence.
“Cool, isn't it?” said Natsu, proudly. “It has good stats too.”
“It must,” said Ilaria, laughing a little bit.
“When I saw it at the store, I thought I must have it,” said Natsu, happily. “Getting these muscles for real would be impossible.”
No kidding.
“Wanna touch them?” asked Natsu, pointing to his chest.
“I think I'll pass,” said Ilaria. “By the way, what weapon do you use?”
Natsu extended his hands…
“KAMEHAMEHAAAA!”
What came out of Natsu's hands was a small white sphere.
In other words, a Force bolt.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
“You are a mage?” asked Ilaria, hiding her disappointment. A party of two mages wasn't ideal.
“The costume overrides the staff visuals,” said Natsu, beaming.
I guess I need to use it after all; we need all the help we can get.
Actually, it would be really dumb having a cash shop costume and not using it. Ilaria still didn't want to introduce herself like that; now she reluctantly changed into a Magical Girl.
“Wow! You look like the real thing!” said Natsu, excitedly.
“Since we are both mages, we should attack non-stop since the beginning,” interrupted Ilaria, repeating Amy's advice. “If we are stingy with the mana, we risk getting overwhelmed. A close-quarters fight is game over for us.”
“Don't worry. I'll protect you with my life!” exclaimed Natsu.
“Protect yourself. If you die, I'll probably be dead soon afterwards”
She had gone through several scenarios with Amy. In all of them, one death meant certain failure. Well, it wasn't like they would be penalized for not completing the dungeon. At this point in the game, a DD was just bonus extra experience.
And finally, the Dungeon Date started.
----------------------------------------
First wave: Ten rabid rabbits.
After the announcement, the doors opened, letting inside the ten ugliest rabbits Ilaria had ever seen. They were black, scraggy and with deep red eyes that appeared to be bursting from their sockets. All in all, without the ears you would be inclined to think they were tailless rats more than rabbits.
“Force bolt should be enough for this round,” said Ilaria, who assumed Natsu, with his costume, should have stats roughly similar to her.
“Okay,” said Natsu, shooting a rabbit as he was told.
They were bigger and more aggressive than wild rabbits, but they died in one-hit all the same. It didn't take too long to dispatch them.
“Yeah, we did it!” exclaimed Natsu, after clearing the first wave.
There were 30 seconds between waves, their quickness buying them a little respite.
Maybe their last one.
Second wave: Nine frenzied hogs.
The hogs, Ilaria's old nemesis, hit the room running. Darker and dirtier than their 'wild' variety, they fell short of being as repulsive as the rabbits; but you wouldn't ever think about eating meat from them. That being said, wild hogs were originally big, mean and with tusk-plunging tendencies; the date dungeon ones were still true to that.
“Time to use Mana bolt,” said Ilaria, before double-shooting and killing a hog.
“Yes ma'am,” said Natsu, trying to keep up.
He did try, but her date was just too slow at aiming. After the first hog he downed, his progress was null. He had already wasted a couple shots for being startled by a hog's thrust.
Ilaria, moving only when she really needed to, kept culling the hog's numbers as Natsu ran around drawing aggro.
By this point, she had already mapped in her mind the positions of the doors. In theory, if she could just rotate in the center of the room by a fixed angle, she could possibly kill several of them without leaving her position. It was a little late for this date though, since they had been forced to withdraw towards the east wall in the kerfuffle.
Third wave: Eight crimson bears.
Ilaria killed the last hog as the bears started to appear.
Having being forced out of the center of the room, Ilaria didn't even have the luxury to check on the bears; there would be one materializing outside the door directly on their back.
“Let's shoot them together!” yelled Ilaria, making Natsu turn around and pointing to the bear in front of them.
“Mana bolt!” Both of them yelled, shooting two white spheres.
The crimson bear, a big grizzly with red undertones in their blood-matted fur, roared menacingly. Ilaria didn't care to listen to it, calling another double-shot.
The bear received them and died.
After confirming that four shots would be enough, Ilaria quickly decided on the next target.
“2 o'clock!” yelled Ilaria, shifting to the next bear. Natsu wavered for a second before aiming as Ilaria.
Ilaria's directions achieved the culling of half of the bears before they even got in range for a counterattack. Although, having their remaining foes at close-quarters was really bad for the couple of fragile mages; they were being forced to run around and that made it really hard to aim.
They were already way out of their depth level-wise, having survived so far only because of the costumes. With the clearing of more rounds an impossibility, the play was to earn experience by killing as many monsters as they could before dying in a blaze of glory.
Fourth wave: Seven twilight bats.
With still a couple of bears remaining, the bat wave appeared; Ilaria no longer caring enough to figure what made them special over their regular, main game counterparts. For all that it mattered, they were more difficult to aim at, but they died with only two Mana bolts.
Trouble was, they didn't have too many of them left.
Ilaria aimed and killed three bats, just as they emerged from their doors, before running out of mana.
Natsu got one on his own before depleting his own mana too.
Fifth wave: Six cursed lizardmen.
The lizardmen, the first humanoid monsters Ilaria had seen inside VC, didn't wait for them to finish the bats. They had dark green lizard skin and held crude bone daggers.
“Let's change to hit-and-run,” said Ilaria. “Focus on evading.”
“Got it.”
Both of them only had Force Bolt now. Which was fine, since it was the one attack they could do chantless.
They started to shoot together the monster which was the closest, to immediately run away. It wasn't a perfect plan–they still got damaged quite a bit–but at least they could grind a little more experience out of the dungeon.
Like that they killed one lizardman and two of the remaining bats, before the next wave appeared.
Sixth wave: Five blood-eyed lizardmen.
The new enemies were lizardmen with slings, which spelled doom. Ilaria and Natsu had to run non-stop to evade the melee lizardmen, so they didn't have the luxury to focus on the ranged attackers.
Another of the persecuting lizardmen finally died before the new foes could get an attack going, but it would be the last one. Stones started raining on them, reducing their health quickly. Lizardmen didn't care if they hit their own kin.
And then Ilaria was hit on the side and fell. She saw the lizardman as he was swinging his dagger, and she closed her eyes.
I wonder if it hurts.
“Argh,” said Natsu, falling over Ilaria's legs. He had received the hit and instantly died.
Fool.
Ilaria barely had time for one thought before the lizardman finished her too.
Both of them reappeared one after the other in the now empty ballroom.
“So you died too,” said Natsu. “Sorry.”
“Don't be,” said Ilaria, smiling. “It was obvious that at our level we would be killed at some point.”
“You were awesome!” exclaimed Natsu. “Do you date a lot?”
“I mean Dungeon Date,” said Natsu, blushing.
“That was my first date. Well, Dungeon Date,” said Ilaria, laughing.
“Wow!” exclaimed Natsu. “You must be a genius!”
“Not really,” said Ilaria. “My friend told me about it; she has been playing for a long time.”
“Still, you are awesome.”
He added Ilaria as a friend, which she accepted without much thinking. Natsu was very far from her ideal date partner, but she didn't regret having DD'd him. After spending the most part of her playing time with Diana and Amy, already experienced players, a part of her relished at being the most knowledgeable person in the room for a change.
----------------------------------------
Back in Torinelo City, Amy was seated on a bench, waiting.
“It must have been a good date, to take this much time,” said Amy, laughing.
“We lasted until the lizardmen,” said Ilaria. “But we ran out of mana, and the ranged ones were just too much.”
“Wow, you are really good at this!” exclaimed Amy.
“In my first date we died with the bats.”
“It was all thanks to your advice, and this costume,” said Ilaria. “My partner also had one.”
“I see. Still, the lizardmen are level 11, and the ranged ones level 12,” said Amy. “It was worth a lot of experience, for sure.”
“Yeah, I got to level 10, halfway to leveling again,” said Ilaria, smiling.
She checked her friend list one last time, still no Diana.
“I guess I am calling it a day. I don't want to miss dinner, since mom must be angry about lunch,” said Ilaria.
“Sorry about that,” said Amy, smiling like an angel.