Chapter 5: So We’re Going to Dinner Then?
✧Vic✧
“UGH, why do we have to sit around and wait?” I groaned as I leaned my chair back onto its back legs.
Shun raised and eyebrow at me and pushed my foot that was keeping me up on the back legs of the chair down off the table. “You know better Vic.” He stated and then took sip of his tea.
I came back down on all fours with the chair and sighed. “I can’t believe they even have bubble tea here. The developers thought of everything for this game! It even tastes like the real thing.” I looked over at Jace as he happily sucked on his straw drinking his bubble tea that even in the real world refuse to try because of the so called bubbles in the bubble tea.
We were sitting at a café in central park of Skjlom. Whoever passes through this town normally ends up coming through Central Park since it has the bulletin boards and everything. There are side streets where you can avoid the large crowds to get from Main Street to Main Street. “Has Steve messaged you back yet?” I asked Jace now leaning on the table bored out of my mind. Before we came to the café and after getting Jace his staff we turned in our loot and then grabbed up a few more jobs and managed to get Jace up to level seven before coming back and sitting here at the café to wait.
“Let me check.” He said swiping his hand from left to right to open up his menu. As other players walked by they gave me weird looks. It was probably because I had two tails and I was still wearing beginners clothing. Whatever they can all just go get a lime and suck it. “Yep, he said he’s on north main. That was a few minuets ago.” Jace quickly typed in a message letting Steve know where we were and hit send.
It was nice that the messaging system here could match up with texting in the real world. I didn’t know it could do that till Jace said something about it.
“What time is it?” I asked being lazy since Jace already had his menu out.
“It’s 4pm.” He answered before closing his menu.
“What do you think, try to get both Jace and Steven up to level ten then we can call it for the night and meet up to get Chinese.” Shun offered leaning on the table still holding his cup of tea.
“Guys!!” A male voice shouted over the bustle of the crowd in Central Square.
As if on cue all three of us looked into the crowd to try and find the body that went with the loud voice.
I saw a hand waving over people walking past but I couldn’t see anything else. “Um…is that supposed to be Steven?” I asked a bit confused.
“Excuse me!” The boy’s voice said again then all of a sudden a blue blur jumped up and over the group of girls that were not moving. When the kid landed deep blue cat ears were the first things I noticed. I couldn’t get a good look at him before he quickly turned on his heels and saluted the group of girls. “Sorry ladies.” He apologized in a laughing matter skipping backwards a few steps before turning around and running up to us. “I found you!” The neko boy smiled wide leaning on the table that the three of us were sitting at.
Now that he was standing still I could finally get a good look at him. He had dark blue hair that was pretty much flat but flicked out a little at the ends and had a colic that was curved and stood up between his cat ears. The inside of the ears had a white line that went around the inside almost like it was a tattoo. He has a matching tail to his hair and ears.
He wore what I assumed to be a long sleeve button up black shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a white and blue t-shit over top of it with three horizontal stripes in the middle of the shirt and on the sleeves, Blue shorts with a wide white stripe on the outside of each leg and blue mid shin high boots with a thin white stripe that went down the outside and went into the white bottom part of the boots. His sword was connected to what looked like a thin rope that went under his long sleeve shirt and was on his left side.
“You made it Steven!!” Jace commented excited.
“Well my name is Tyson here. But ya’ll can call me Ty.” He smiled and his piercing purple eyes looked over at me. “Vic I’ve gotta tell you something.” Ty said then quickly looked at Shun. “Who are you? I don’t know if we’ve meet before.”
“Oooh you two have meet before. Who is the one person that you can think of that you thought that you would never see playing an MMO other then yourself.” I commented and quickly snatched Shun’s tea and took a drink of it.
Ty stood up straight and crossed his arms in front of him and stared and Shun for a few minuets and I don’t think that I saw him blink once. “You can’t be Hector can you?”
“Why is it so hard to believe that I play video games?” Shun blurted out.
“Sorry Hec I just didn’t know that you did. What how passionate you are with sports I didn’t even think that you would play games.” Ty laughed a light blush spread across his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his head.
“It’s Shun here Ty.” Hector sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Anyways what were going to say?”
“Oh right something really wired happened to me when I was about to come into the game.” Ty sat down in the empty chair so he could get a little closer to us. “Right as I was about to be sent into the game the two little fairies glitch on me and I fell through the sky and landed in the field.”
Shun and I looked at each other a bit wide eyed then we looked back at Ty. “Have you checked your status since you got here?” Shun questioned grabbing his cup and realizing that the rest of his tea was gone. I looked over at him and he glared at me and I just smiled sweetly at him.
“When I was replying to Jace I noticed that something was off but I haven’t really checked it why?” Ty blinked a bit confused.
“Just check your status.” I stated and Ty did what he was told and opened his menu.
“HOLY SHIIIIItaky mushrooms, when the hell did this happen?” Ty jumped so fast he ended up tipping back in his chair and he wasn’t able to catch himself in time and went crashing with his chair to the cobble stone ground. “…Ow…”
I tip myself down so I could be closer to him. “You okay?” I asked him.
“I’m okay, it just was a surprise.” He answered closing his menu quickly and then getting back up and standing the chair back onto its legs.
“Same thing happened to us.” Shun commented.
“Why am I the only one out of all of us that this didn’t happen to?” Jace asked he sounded like he wanted to cry.
“Maybe because you choose to not be your actual gender to play the game.” Ty snickered leaning on the table.
I stood up and swatted him upside the head. “Liz can play as whatever gender she wants to be in this.” I spoke up.
“I know, it’s just a theory is all.” Ty pouted and puffed out his cheeks, “Sorry I said anything.”
“I didn’t mean to be rude. But there is probably another reason why this happened.” I sighed.
“Ty we were going to get Jace up to level ten then we were going to hop off for the night and get Chinese. I was thinking you three could just come over to my apartment and eat.” Shun offered.
“I’m cool with that.” Ty nodded.
“What class did you pick Ty?” Shun asked as he pulled up his menu and invited Ty to the party.
“I chose the fighter class.” He answered as the message popped up in front of him and he clicked yes. “But yeah I don’t see why we can’t get Jace up to at least level 10 tonight.”
There was a small thud on the table and I looked over to Jace. His forehead was against the table.
“It’s okay Jace we’ll get ya up ta our level in no time!!” Ty laughed and slightly slapped Jace’s back.
“Okay.” He said with a weak voice.
“We ready to go then, since we’re all here?” I said standing up and stretching.
I looked over at Ty and I noticed I actually had to look down to look him in the face. He was shorter then I was and not by just a few inches. “Ty…how tall are you?” I asked out of curiosity.
“hua? Oh I’m 5’6, why?” He said as the looked up at me and his smile instantly fell.
“You’re the shortest in the group! Wow so this is what it’s like to be taller then someone.” Jace instantly perked up and slapped Ty on the back like he did to him earlier.
“Screw you Jace.” Ty hissed at Jace.
Shun and I chuckled and the four of us went over to the boards and picked out a few missions to do that would keep us in the fields, but we were going to out to the outer edges to the stronger monsters to be able to get more exp for Jace.
It was turning to dusk so some of the monsters that only come out at night were going to start appearing. “Jace did you have a chance to look at your cheat book before coming into the game?” I asked glancing back at him as we walked out of skjlom.
“It’s not a cheat book it’s a strategy guide thank you very much and to answer your question no. I felt bad for taking so long that it took so long to stop with my project that I just hoped right into the game…then I got caught up in customizing my character.” Jace answered and his shoulders slumped slightly.
“It’s not a problem Jace. Do you think you can bring it with you when we for to Hector’s tonight?” I asked trying to cheer him up.
“Um…sure…why though?” He blinked up at me and tipped his head to the left.
“I want to see a few things in there is all.” I answered simply and looked forward.
“Oh…okay, not a problem.” The angel responded after a moment.
We went over to the wooded area and hunted down Some Bandits and Skeleton hounds. When a group of goblins or giant ants would get in your way well…hey it was experience and that’s what we were mainly aiming for was to get experience for Jace. Of course us getting the experience as well wasn’t too bad either.
I want to say that we just spent easily two-three hours just grinding and completing the quests that we picked up. Even Jace being a Cleric got in the action for a few swings then I had to quickly grab him and pull him out of the way before he got hit. It was strange it seemed once the sun went down these monsters levels easily jumped five levels from what they were during the day.
“That’s the last one right?” Tyson asked slightly out of breath as he slid his sword back in its sheath.
“I think so.” I nodded a little out of breath as well as I set Jace back on the ground for the umtenth time tonight.
“Sorry about this Vic.” Jace looked down at the ground trying to hide his face in his bangs but I could still see his reddened face from embarrassment.
“It’s fine. You’re level doesn’t let you fly for long periods of time. It’ll get longer as you level up and you’ll have a shorter cool down time as well.” I smiled down at him.
He quickly shook his head. “But the fact that you had to save me, it’s pathetic on my part anyways.”
I placed my hands on my shoulders and got him to look up at me. “We’re in a party together why wouldn’t I save someone in my party?”
“Well… I guess it would come down to how much trouble the person is in.” Jace commented looking down at the ground.
“It doesn’t matter to me. Now relax and lets go turn in the bounties then get something to eat.” I stated and patted his shoulder with one hand before walking past him towards the glittering city of Skjlom.
Even with there being walls surrounding the city the lights were still bright and beautiful. They weren’t the average yellow color that you see on the streets back in the real world. They were a light blue in color so it gave the city a very soothing feel to it on the outside.
“Does this place seem more crowded or is it just me?” Shun questioned as we stood at the Eastern gate to Skjlom.
“Well if you think about it this game was released all over the world on the same day so it would make sense if the people on the other side of the world were up and playing the game already.” I answered walking in a head of my other three party members.
“Let’s go turn in those missions and get our rewards!” Ty exclaimed running up next to me like an excited kid. I could tell it was his first MMO, but it was okay. At least I was here to try to help them out with it.
That’s just what we did. We wandered around to the NPC’s and turned in the six missions that we picked up before we went to go and grind.
“Thank you ever so much.” The old lady NCP bowed to us.
“It was no trouble at all really. We don’t mind helping out.” Jace smiled sweetly as the old lady.
“You look weary dear I have something for you.” She turning and motioned for us to follow her into her shop.
We did as we were told and followed the old lady into the shop. It was a small potion shop but everything looked antique in the shop. The shelves were made from an old hard wood, the floors were stone, even the walls were wood. Whatever spaces that were free of space from the shelves and the contents on them there were pictures of landscapes.
“Ma’am you already gave us the rewards you don’t have to do anything else.” Jace smiled sweetly at the old lady was rummaging behind the counter for something.
“But you do not understand I believe I do. You were the only group all day to help a pour old women out.” She said standing up with a vial in her hands and taking the top off the vial.
“It was no trouble at all. Really miss you don’t need to do anymore.” Jace waved his hands in front of him. I stared that the old lady quietly…something doesn’t seem right with this women. ‘No NPC would do something like this. We’re just a group of kids and I’m sure that countless people have done this job…’
“Jace move!” I said but the old lady was quicker then I was and jumped over the counter and grabbed the back of Jace’s head and forced the liquid down his throat as he went tumbling to the ground.
I ripped the old lady off of Jace and threw her back into her counter. Jace was laying on the ground coughing and I lifted up his upper half to try and help. Shun and Ty instantly got in front of us and brought out their weapons.
“That’s low going for the weakest member in the party.” Shun spat that the old women.
“Please I was simply helping you out. I was wondering when I would meet up with the group that got the glitch. Who would have thought that it would have happened on the launch day of the game.” The old lady chuckled.
I could feel Jace’s body temperature heating up quickly in my arms. ‘What do I do? Do I strip him? But it’s Liz; if I do that she’ll kill me. I don’t know what to do? I need to cool him down before something bad happens.’ Jace’s body was going limp in my arms, but he wasn’t logging out. I held him up with my arms and I stood up and stepped over his wings being careful not to step on them as I got behind him and I grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head allowing it to rest on his wings as I help him.
“Wait, how do you know about the glitch?” Shun asked.
The old hag chuckled, “Well you’ll just have to figure that out in time now won’t you dears.” She waived and popped the cork on another bottle. “Ta for now dears.” She then threw the vial to the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
I rested Jace down on the floor once more but kept his head in my lap so it was up off the ground. Liz really put a lot of work into this character. In the dim light of the shop the sweat glistened off his muscles. He had abs but it wasn’t a chiseled six-pack that looked like a washboard. He had a four pack but they weren’t fully pronounced. He had a strong chest that slowly rose with every breath that he took. His breathing was calming down which was a plus.
Shun sheathed his dagger and quickly came over to us and checked his vitals. He sighed in relief. “His vitals are at a normal rate.”
“But why didn’t Liz log out? Shouldn’t have something like that logged her out?” Ty questioned putting his sword away and joining us on the floor.
“Not necessarily. It’s a long thing that I’ll have to try to explain.” I answered and I instinctively brushed some of his hair out of his soft face. Liz really did put an amazing amount of effort into making this character look beautiful to go along with the race that she chose. It’s amazing what you can do when you really focus on something.
His eyes started to open and he looked like he was in a daze as he looked around at all of us. “Welcome back.” I said leaning over Jace with a soft smile.
He jumped and before I could react and our heads collided from him pushing himself up off the floor. “Ow son of a…ugh…that hurt…” I clutched my forehead.
“Ow…Vic you have a hard head.” Jace groaned as I felt the weight of his head on my lap once more.
“Look who’s talking.” I answered quickly looking down at him.
“You alright Jace?” Ty asked.
“You had us worried.” Shun added.
“I’m fine guys really don’t worry about me.” I glared at Shun and Ty. “But, that was strange to say the least.”
“I think it’s time that we call it a night though.” Jace said not moving his head from my lap.
We all nodded in agreement to this statement. “Before you log out though make a copy of your stats and bring them to the apartment with you.” Shun added as he opened his profile and started copying his stats into a message. I get what he was doing he was going to email his stats to himself. “I’m going to log out and head down to Panda to get the food. Does Sweet and sour chicken and general tso’s chicken with fried rice sound good?”
“That’s fine with me.” Ty nodded as he was copying his stats.
“We’ll give you the money when we get there. Thank you Shun.” Jace said sitting up and I helped him get his shirt back on since I was the one who put it where it was difficult for him to reach
“Sounds good. I’ll see you three in a bit.” Shun smiled then logged out turning into little pixels.
“I’m going to get ready too. I’ll see you too in a few.” Ty said and logged out as well.
I opened my menu and copied down my stats into a message and hit send. Then I looked up at Jace to see him just staring at his stats and not moving. “Hey, you okay?” I asked him making him jump slightly.
He turned and laughed a little. “I’m fine Vic.” He quickly copied his stats before I could get a good look at them and sent them. “I’ll see you in a few.” He smiled and then logged out.
“I wonder what was wrong with him… I’ll ask Liz what’s up.” I muttered and logged out myself.
