Sucked into a Fantasy Game

The sun shined its bright light through the windows.

Kiyomi opened her eyes and sat up in bed. When she looked over to Sako’s bed, she saw Luna snuggling up to Sako. Sako had allowed Luna to stay the night since she felt bad for leaving her hanging yesterday.

They were still asleep. Typical.

She had predicted this. Same shit, different day. Oh well. After standing up and doing a long stretch, she got ready and headed out.

~~~

First thing to do: sell all the cores and drops she had gotten from those 50 000 monsters the other day.

Once she teleported back to Luthyia, she went in through the doors of the Adventurers’ Guild and headed up the middle path to the counter. 

No one was behind the counter.

She tapped the service bell.

DINGGGGG…

After a long, quiet while, Elora appeared in a blue flame. “Hi… Welcome to…” She let out a long yawn. “What do you want.” This time, she was in pajamas, holding a pillow under one arm with a sleep mask pulled up to rest on her forehead. Her eyes were half-closed as if she was about to pass out and fall over. Her hair was unkempt.

I have cores. Can you buy them from me?”

She nodded slowly.

“How many?”

“Roughly 50K.”

“’K. Hand them over… and I’ll…” She closed her eyes, lowered her head, and leaned forward, nodding off. She jolted upright, eyes open and caught herself from falling.

The cores had automatically gone to Kiyomi’s inventory with each kill. She opened her inventory on her holoscreen, pressed a picture of a box, and it appeared on the counter between them. It was roughly the size of her fist.

When Elora took it up, a portal opened next to her and she tossed it in without looking, and then it closed.

“Don’t you count those?” Kiyomi asked, not out of concern but curiosity.

“The box has 50 604 cores.”

She was impressed, especially because Elora was practically half-asleep. This bartender-lady was better at her job than that scoundrel of a Guildmaster. “Sounds right.”

“The Guild hereby issues an award of 5 100 802 gold as the final amount for this transaction.”

Ping.

She checked her inventory. Her coin stack went up from 10 million to 15.1 million.

“Thanks. See you later.”

“Yeah.”

~~~

Second thing to do: check her level and carefully allocate her skill points.

Sako would sell her drops, do her skill points later, and sort her inventory all on her own time. Kiyomi figured that anyway.

20 minutes later outside the Guild

Ping. 

With a waving motion, Kiyomi pulled up her screen. The message icon in the corner glowed. She tapped to open it.

Sako: HEEEEEEELP! LUNA WON’T STOP CLINGING TO MEEEEEEEE!

Kiyomi: sry not my prob gl tho

Sako: I hate you.

Kiyomi: ik

Maybe it’s a bad idea to leave those two alone. I did tell myself that I’d watch them… Sako was an airhead, which was bad… She looked up at the clear, blue sky, deep in thought…

But the problem was, if she watched them constantly, she wouldn’t get anything done. She had places to explore and grinding to do.

She rechecked her stats to make sure she had done all of them correctly:

Kiyomi Ayano	Level 221	Info 🛈
Strength	1 222	Affects physical power; attack damage, lifting ability against Weight, and Carry Weight.
Vitality	1 266	Affects HP and Defense.
Intellect	301 260	Affects damage of magic attacks, MP capacity, and MP regen. rate. Also affects overall wisdom.
Agility	1 267	Affects physical speed, and perceptive speed.
Dexterity	1 267	Affects deftness in minor tasks and movements, including stealth and especially with the hands. Also affects accuracy of projectiles.
Endurance	1 265	Affects stamina and stamina regen.
Resistance	1 226	Affects resistance to status ailments and elemental damage.
Charisma	1 225	Affects charm, leadership, and persuasive skills.
Luck	1 223	Affects drop rate by a small amount and crit chance.
Class: Dark Wizard

 

Third thing to do: check the rest of her drops in her inventory and see if she could find anything useful to sell or wear…

~~~

Luna wouldn’t let go of Sako’s waist.

“Luna, please—”

“We’re alone! ALONE! Do you know what that means?!” Luna’s eyes were wide open, and her grin was the biggest Sako had ever seen from her. She could hardly contain her excitement. “How about I get some honey tea from the innkeeper downstairs? Then we can have a niiiice talk about lots of stuff! Okay?”

“Yes, yes, whatever you want, just let go, please.”

Luna let go and went to the door with a spring in her step. She opened it and went down the stairs.

This girl must be crazy, Sako thought. But honey tea sounded wonderful. 

10 minutes later

Luna came back and set the tray down on a small table, which she had requested from the innkeeper at some point, before going back to the door to shut it. She turned the lock. Click.

“Why did you lock it?” Sako took her seat at the table.

“Because I don’t want anyone hearing our private conversation!” Luna sat opposite of her.

Sako chuckled. “It must be pretty intimate then.”

“Of course it is.” Luna looked down at the table shyly. “It’s… not like I want the whole world knowing what I want to do to you.”

“Oh?” What does that mean exactly?

She looked back at her and nodded then poured some tea into a teacup and handed it to Sako. Then she poured herself a cup.

Sako took it and set it down, staring at it. It was pretty and golden like honey. But…

“Hm? Aren’t you going to drink any?”

“It’s just that…”

Luna sighed. “It’s just that you don’t trust me. I know, I know.”

Sako eyed her, surprised that she was able to figure it out. And she was calm, like she had expected this.

She reached over and took Sako’s teacup before taking a sip. “It’s hot, so I can’t gulp it all down right away, but I’ll finish it.”

“No, you don’t have to—”

“It’s fine.” Her tone was heavy with sadness.

Sako watched her. 

Luna sipped again and again, watching Sako. When she put it down, about a third was gone from the cup. “So, what’s your favorite color?”

“Yellow.”

“Really? Why?”

“It’s bright and lively like the sun. It reminds me of myself, how I like to be: cheery and friendly.”

“I bet you like sunflowers too.”

“I do. I used to pick them whenever I could and put them in a jar with water at home. And then Mom would get a little mad because I had too many in my room. At least 30.”

Luna laughed and drank from Sako’s cup again. “30?!”

Sako nodded, smiling. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Red! It’s wild and aggressive.”

Like your personality.

“Like my personality,” Luna joked, smiling.

What’s embarrassing about this conversation that she doesn’t want other people to know about? Is she stalling for something? “Luna?”

“Yes?” Luna had halved the cup by now.

“What’s embarrassing about this topic?”

“Oh nothing. I just haven’t brought up the real juicy stuff yet! Why? Do you want me to bring it up now?” Luna smirked. 

“What? No! That’s not—”

“Wow, I didn’t know you were that type of girl, Sako. I thought you were innocent, but it seems you have some experience. That will be… helpful.”

“I didn’t say I had any experience,” she pouted.

“Do you want some experience?”

“No thanks.”

“Okay.” She shrugged.