Novels2Search
Walking Again
Chapter 16

Chapter 16

---------LEGEND---------

PLAYER/USERNAME

Amber/Davina

Grace/Lasair

Xia/Genevieve

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Loneliness and despair, lasting an eternity…

Xia didn't know how and why she had ended up in that lethal trap. She expected it from Davina but certainly the fact that Lasair supported Davina's initiative was a surprise to her. It was her desire not to be too rude to them and the fact that there was talk of money - ok, mostly because there was a chance for profit - that she could pocket that brought Xia to that point: Davina had bought a premium dress each that had a very oriental fantasy style, with an asymmetrical skirt which in front did not reach the knees and in the back it went down almost to the middle of the shin. The dress left Xia's skin exposed from the shoulders up to the middle of her forearm, where it was then covered by bracelets that also partially covered the backs of her hands, the neckline went down to just below the curves of her breasts and she had a bow around her neck whose ribbons dangled almost to the lumbar area of her back. To top it all off, a laurel wreath adorned her head.

Lasair and Davina were dressed similarly, but with different color themes: green prevailed on Xia, white on Lasair and blue on Davina.

Xia hoped that the pay for agreeing to become a magical girl for Davina's channel would have been worth it in the medium term if not in the short term. She really wanted the money to buy more modern systems.

And also because she liked money. That was an important detail, too.

“They look great on you, you're really beautiful!” Davina clapped her hands twice, holding the palms together the second time and resting them against one cheek, "now we're ready for our very first streaming!"

Lasair reacted as if she were blushing, "you're out of your mind, I... I didn't agree on wearing this!"

“If you don't spend you don't earn, my dear,” Davina replied, winking.

“And if you don't earn what you spent, you'll lose money,” Xia replied, shaking her head.

“This pessimism will get you nowhere!” Davina scolded her by waving her right index finger at Xia's nose and puffing out her cheeks.

“Um… can I change the terms of my agreement?” Lasair muttered softly.

If Xia could she would have shot her a murderous look, it was Lasair’s vote that brought them to this situation and now she was chickening out?? No no, everyone reaps what they sow, Lasair. “Too late for a second vote, don't you think about Davina? Who knows how much money she spent on these premium clothes,” Xia said, placing a hand on her chest, “poor girl, she will go hungry this month because of the sacrifice she has made for the future…” disapproving head shakes followed.

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"Hey! I'm not THAT poor!” Davina protested.

“B-b-but…” Lasair bowed her head and brought her index fingers together, “you… you're right, I c-can't let Davina's sacrifice be vain.”

“Why don't you listen to me? I said I'm not so poor that I can't make it to next month for some online shopping!” Davina insisted, but Xia silenced her with a quick hand wave.

Lasair forced Xia to agree to appear – okay, not her, her avatar – on one of the largest media platforms in the world wearing a dress whose neckline stopped only a short distance from her navel, so Xia was ok on paying that tribute for a bit of schadenfreude.

“Okay, let's d-do it!” Lasair declared with renewed determination. Who knows how long it would have lasted…

“Good, remember the parts: I,” Davina gestured to herself, “am the lively and courageous heroine, you,” she gestured to Lasair, “are the pure and innocent moral compass of the party, while you,” she gestured to Xia, “ you are the pragmatic and taciturn right-hand girl.”

Xia clicked her tongue, “so sooner or later I will abandon the party and decide to face the final bad guy alone only to be saved at the last second, realizing that only the power of friendship can allow us to win?”

Davina smiled at Xia, “I see you already got the part! Well, let's go on stage!”

Without further preambles, Davina called her fairy back. The small winged creature made of white light landed on her palm, then at the command to record a video it made a small tablet appear and took off following its owner's instructions to take a large angular view of all three. Lasair's determination ended about the time her eyes darted towards the fairy's tablet the first time, Davina beamed and waved a hand in a graceful pose and Xia stood stiff and still, fighting the urge to try to show less. skin of her virtual chest.

“Welcome to my very first stream of this channel! This is Davina, and I am your companion on this fantastic adventure who together with the sweet Lasair", she said pointing to the blonde elvreth with golden hair, who stood aside with her ears folded back, "and the cold Genevieve", she said pointing to Xia, “will take you into this dungeon full of pitfalls and dangers! Together, we are the Nova Scotia Angels!”

Xia didn't remember approving such a cringey name.

Before starting the streaming they had positioned themselves in front of the portal of a dungeon. The dungeons were instances separated from the world, like parallel realities in which a maximum of four players could enter for each instance; at their levels the instances that could be accessed were virtually infinite, with a limit so high that it would never have been reached if LotA had not grown in users by at least another fifty million, but as the level increased the number of instances decreased rapidly, this is because the dungeons gave higher than average chances of obtaining rare objects that those who played LotA for work could have then selled to those who had the money to afford to purchase those pieces of equipment. It was profitable for the LotA team to create as much pressure and competition among the freelancers as they could, and on the other side, having limited dungeons meant that the pricing for rare items were even higher.

In other words, gaining extremely good stuff without spending real money sucked, and the producers of the game and the playing resellers in it rejoiced.

“So hold on tight because this trio of girls is about to empty this dungeon of all riches!” Davina winked 'at the camera' and skipped a couple of times clapping her hands, "isn't that right, girls?"

Xia simply nodded, Lasair instead looked shyly towards the fairy armed with the tablet and began to fiddle nervously with a lock of hair, "I-I'll do my best to reach the end of the dungeon and help my friends."

Davina motioned to the fairy to follow them and together they approached the large portal which was very reminiscent of the one leading to LotA. The gate didn't allow you to see what was on the other side and was set in a mountain whose slope forced Xia to raise her head to be able to see the sky above them. Davina exchanged glances with her and Lasair, and Xia nodded and gestured vaguely to the door of the dungeon that towered above them while trying to keep giving her back to the recording fairy.

At a moment when the fairy didn't recorded her face, Davina looked for Xia's gaze and then moved her lips to mimic the word "relax", probably because she had noticed her body language. In response, Xia took a deep breath and closed her eyes as the gate opened; Davina, in the spirit of the intrepid character she was impersonating, went in first.