Chapter 26 “Little Red Riding Hood”

“This time it was simply unfair.”

Those were the last thoughts of Rin, before she fallen unconsciousness. Right now, what awaited her now was death. There was no escape as right before her there was ‘he’, ‘he’ who would never spare her life.

Today on the sixteen try at the Tomb of Edward Third the Great, Rin once again was defeated by the champion. The moment he pierce her with his sword was near, this time however Rin would not feel any pain from it. After all, she was no longer awake.

Still today’s defeat would not leave any sorrow in her. Today, she simply had no luck. Still, because today she had no luck, she also beat her previous record at ‘super skeletons’ slayed during one try. Rin would not consider this defeat as a failure as it was the first time that she reached zombie number twelve. It was only possible because ‘he’ was the last that she had to fight against.

The try number sixteen ended up as a failure but nevertheless it was still Rin’s best try and there was nothing to regret.

-chirp, chirp, chirp.

Rin woke up when first morning sun rays broke through the trees and fell upon her face. The sounds of birds were lingering in the air and the forest was waking up to welcome another day.

-what!?

Rin had absolutely no idea what was going on though. Last thing she remembered was the sound of broken glass made by her weapons as they hit upon scarlet knight armor. She lost consciousness by then and expected that in a minute or two, she will get the message [You are dead]. Rin did not know how much time has passed since then but she never got that message and now she was in the forest out of sudden.

“I wasn’t dreaming, was I?”

Rin opened the menu and checked the date. One day has passed since her sixteen try at the tomb. For a moment, she thought that it was a dream that she did yesterday’s try. From time to time, she had a nightmares were she fought against the crimson knight but it was definitely not a nightmare this time. She could easily tell that from her own condition. Rin would feel that bad only after using [third stage of unlimited blade]. She also got a lot of wounds that ached her even now and those wounds were in the same spots that she got in fight against Victoria in yesterday’s fight.

“Yes it was not a dream.”

Rin took out the healing potion and drank it. Her wounds started to heal. Still she would need a longer rest before she would feel any better. But her condition was the last thing that Rin was worrying about right now.

“What is happening? How did I end up here? I didn’t die as my level is still 130. Did I win?”

She checked the quest log and looked at her prequest but there was no change in it.

“As it would be that be true. Also even if I did won, I would wake up inside the tomb and not in the forest. Now where exactly am I?”

Rin looked around to confirm her position. It didn’t take her one second to recognize the area. She was few meters away from the cemetery where the tomb was.

“Well, I should go home. I have no head for this right now.”

She had no clue as to what happened and was not in condition to think about it. She uncover herself from the blanked and wanted to stand up but.

-cold!

And quickly hide back inside the blanked but then even that was somewhat strange..

“Wait, where did this come from?”

Another mystery appeared. There was unfamiliar gray blanked on her. On the other hand that would be the clue. Also there was only one person Rin could think of, whom would cover her in blanked like that.

-Mary!

She shouted but got no response.

“Not her?”

Rin once again looked around to see if her friend is really not around. But then suddenly something moved not that far from where she was.

-aaaaa!

Rin jumped back startled and shouted in high tone which could only be produced by a girl. She left the warm blanked behind.

“Calm down.”

Rin got ahold of herself and focused on what just moved. It was some black-white creature by the first look. It was laying on the ground few meters away from her. After examining it closely, it turned out it was human male.

“It really will be better if I just get away from here.”

Although she was interested in what happened and the person who was laying there probably knew the answer to that question, she would not involve herself with complete stranger.

“Still it’s somehow really cold today.”

Rin was used to waking up early. It was not uncommon for her to fight during a night. Still today it was strangely cold for her.

“Better if I hurry home and stay at bed today.”

It was the best course of action she could do. After using third stage of unlimited blade she would usually feel bad for few hours or sometimes even days. Normally she would use it only during tomb challenge in which she would die anyway and there were no ‘after effect’ she would feel but today, she somehow did not die and it got her. Still getting the after effect was still much better than dying.

Just as she was about to leave, she heard the noise coming out from the direction of the man. It looked like he was about to wake up. First he opened his eyes and then got to the siting position. While he was doing it, Rin quickly unsheathed one of her sword and ended up pointing it at the man’s throat.

-aaaaaaaa! …

The man yawned while starching his arms right before her sword.

-hmm?

After doing so it looked like he finally saw what was happening before him.

-don’t move if you want to live…

“No! Why did I say that!?”

Rin reacted to his actions without thinking. It was probably because her usual interaction with other people was like that. Although this time she really didn’t want to do that but her body moved on her own.

The man completely ignored her threat and started rubbing his eyes.

“Can’t be helped now.”

-I said don’t move!

After rubbing his eyes, the man had a surprise face as if he thought that rubbing his eyes will solve all of his problems.

“What should I do? Should I just kill him and be done with it.”?

Rin was in unusual situation. She was about to kill someone who couldn’t even defend himself. What more, it was an assault at someone who was just sleeping a second ago.

“Why did my body reacted like that?”

Although it was not convincing, given it was Rin, it was truth that she didn’t plan to do that. Still her body would attack anyone in range on its own. It was not that long since she was fighting nonstop for three hours straight. While fighting against the skeletons, she would sometime end up in state of half passing out, in those moment one could say that her body would move on its own.

The silence continued for about the minute.

“Guess I will knock him down and leave him alone. See Mary, I can be merciful if I want.”

Just as she was about to do that the man suddenly spoke.

-hi there, I am Arata.

Rin was taken aback by man’s carefree attitude.

“What is he thinking! Does he not realize the position he is in?”

And so, Rin repeated once again.

-I said don’t move if you don’t want to die.

Still even after repeating herself, man did not looked scared at all, instead he started talking some nonsense.

-I sure that you said that I shouldn’t move if I want to live. I guess I am not hearing properly right away after waking up. Anyway you said that I shouldn’t move, but speaking is not included, is it? …

Rin had no idea what was happening.

“What wrong with him? Is he telling me to kill him? Or is he just trying to irritate me?”

The man continued.

-now that I think about it speaking is also moving right? I mean look, my jaw is moving right now…

The man pointed at his jaw with a finger while saying that that.

-in that case go ahead and kill me, you said that you will if I move, didn’t you?

“I had enough.”

Rin wanted to spare him but if the man himself wanted to die, she had no problem in making his wish come true.

Rin’s sword went for man’s throat.

“That would be all.”

There was nothing that man could do, all Rin needed to do was to push her sword a little.

At least that was what she thought.

“What the?”

Although she did not know how, the man did not get pierced by the sword that was at his throat just a second ago. He bended his body to the right to avoid the strike. Rin’s sword went forward without any restraint and her sword went farther than she expected.

Rin felt as her hand was catch in a strong grip which made her lose her sword. Second later, she was flying in the air and ended up being thrown on the ground. Rin did not know how everything exactly happened but in the end, the man got at top of her and locked down her movements.

After realizing what happen Rin looked at the situation she was in.

“It’s not amateur lockdown.”

She could recognize that she was catch by someone who had some experience in material arts or wrestling at least as she could not see herself getting easily out of that. Although.

“Well, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about amateur catching me either.”

Rin didn’t even try to struggle as she knew that there is nothing she can do about her position. She looked at the face of the man and to her surprise she could recognized him.

“It’s that kidnapper.”

It was someone that she met about a week ago, still their meeting ended up in her killing him, even thought it was also a misunderstanding.

-now then, where should I start…

Man said while being at top of her.

“Guess he wants revenge, still even though I am like this, it’s not that I can’t do anything. I hope it won’t hurt that much but I have to use it.”

[Unlimited blade]

Rin started to summon red weapons around the man. It looked like he didn’t recognize the treat as he continued with talk.

-first of all, tell me your name.

He asked.

-… .

“As if.”

Rin did not give him the answer he was looking for and stayed quiet. The man continued.

-well unlike you I don’t plan on threatening you so I guess you can ignore me…

“You will kill me anyway so there is no reason to treat, is that what you want to say? Still we will see who will be dead in the end.”

Rin was ready to kill him any moment but waited as she maybe could find me out how she ended up waking up in the forest covered in blanked rather than being dead in the tomb. And in fact she got the answer soon enough.

-really, how did I end up in situation like this? Why is ’Little Red Riding Hood’ trying to kill the hunter that saved her from wolf’s belly?…

“Saved? Wait, he saved me from the tomb? Leaving question why he did that, to save me he would have to defeat ‘him’? Still, no matter how unthinkable it is, that would explain how I ended up in this forest. He probably didn’t do it alone though. There should be more of them nearby. If so I should get rid of him quickly before they arrive… wait did he just call me Little Red Riding Hood?”

Rin giggled at the thought but stopped doing so right away when she realized that she did.

-so ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ can you tell me what I did to you that you want to kill me for the second time? I mean I don’t even remember meeting you and I definitely didn’t do anything to you.

“I am really amused that he decided to call me that. It doesn’t feel that bad and it’s definitely better than what others tried to call me. If he did the same then I would have to kill him by rule. For making me laugh, I guess I won’t kill him, still how long does he plan to sit on me?”

Rin did not felt comfortable in her current position where she couldn’t move at all.

-you have five seconds to let go of me.

-as I said I don’t plan to do anything to you, still you realize in what situation you are now.

-it’s you who don’t realize it. Look around before saying another word.

The man looked around and second later jumped up to the sky. From Rin’s perspective it looked like he was flying as it was quite high jump.

He landed three meters away from her.

“Auch, everything hurts me.”

With some trouble, Rin managed to get back on her feet. Not only she was in bad condition before but also, man’s throw did to her more damage than she expected. Still, she would not afford to show weakness to person before her.

“Even though it looks like he also had some training, he did a grave mistake.”

-you should have attack me rather than backing off. In that lockdown I couldn’t move, you would be easily able to kill me if you tried or did you know that you would get killed as well and you didn’t do that?…

It was true that she would have no chances if the man decided to attack her from that position. It would be a double kill sure but still, it was a great achievement to kill Rin. That’s what Rin thought at least.

-Now your plan is probably to escape, if that so then go ahead, I don’t plan to stop you.

Rin was really in a good mood, she also wouldn’t feel any pleasure from simply sending her sword at her enemy which was the only way she could fight now.

“It would probably be fun to test the ability of his but sadly I am in no condition to truly enjoy the fight and I already decided to spare him, for now I will simply scare him away.”

-oh you finally start talking.

The man completely ignored what she said and stated the fact. He made a huge grin after saying that, which made his words even more irritating.

-you!

No matter in how good mood she was in, Rin was at her limits with man’s carefree attitude. There was absolutely no sign of fear within him.

“He thinks that he can win against me?”

Normally after demonstrating unlimited blade ability to others, most of the players either start to run or beg for their life. Or at least, the look in their eyes changes. Still the man did none of that and continued talking without care.

-anyway I finally realized why you tried to kill me. You thought that I wanted to take revenge on you or something because you already killed me once. But as I said I don’t plan to do anything to you, and if I wanted you to die I wouldn’t rescue you from that red knight, would I?

-…

“He really fought against ‘him’, and he is saying it like he did it alone.”

-anyway you said that you don’t want to kill me anymore so I fine with that. But I am waiting for a friend here so I don’t plan to move away from here either.

“Let me test him again.”

-you better start running now before I change my mind.

-eh, here we are again. Anyway say what you want but I don’t plan to. I know that you have some interesting skill but the girl who is barely standing on her feet isn’t really that threating.

“He saw through it.”

In that moment, Rin for a first moment though, that it might not be a best idea to fight against that man right now. Not because she didn’t want to or didn’t felt like that. If she were to fight against him right now she would be defeated.

“Impossible.”

Rin erased thoughts like that from mind and answered.

-hmm, you are lucky that I am not in the mood.

Even thought she would want to prove to herself otherwise, she already promised not to kill the man. Without saying anything else Rin turned in the direction of the road. She was about to start moving when man stopped her for the last time.

-right before you go I have an advise for you…

“What again?”

Although she was not really interested she looked back at the man in black coat and strange black-white hair.

-you should change those clothes of yours when you are treating someone…

“Clothes?”

Only after the man mentioned it, Rin looked at what she was wearing right now and finally found out why was it so cold today and it was not because of the weather. Right now, Rin was not wearing her usual clothing but a class item armor that she received one of her previous quests.

“Aaaaahh.”

Rin started to feel really strange at the moment she realized it. Her face became somewhat hot out of sudden and at the same time she felt really humiliated. It was because of how her class item looked like. In normal circumstances she would never wear clothes like that not in million years, still because she really wanted to use any means necessary to complete her prequest, she decided to wear those clothes this time and see if there is any significant change. There was a change and proof to that was that she managed to beat her record today even thought she had the worst combination possible.

But even wearing those clothes made her feel uncomfortable. In middle of combat she completely forgot about them and get used to them but now she once again realized what she is wearing. Still it was already too late as she was seen.

The man continued not knowing that his doom is near.

-also I think that even though in real it’s still summer, here it is going to be a winter soon. If you go around exposing everything, you will catch a cold in no time…

“Exposing!”

Rin lost the ability to think rationally.

-I don’t know if you knew but you can catch a cold in EOA and it’s not laughable matter. I understand that girls wants to look cute and all but you should consider what I said.

“Cute!”

-also, I think you would be cute enough without them.

“DIE!”

And so she reached her limits.

Rin send out the swords that she summoned earlier in man’s direction. Moment ago she didn’t want to do it, but now she somehow really wanted to kill him. Still there was another complicated feeling in her and as much as she wanted to kill him she even more didn’t want to stay here any second longer and stand before him in those clothes.

[Lighting speed activated]

Rin sprinted in to the woods to get away from the place as fast as possible without looking back.

After running for two minutes at full speed Rin looked back to see if nothing is following her.

“Uff.”

As expected there was nothing behind her. Although she didn’t need to run for two minutes as no one would be able to keep up with her anyway.

“First, I need to change those clothes.”

She located nearby bushes and entered them just to be sure. There shouldn’t be anyone venturing through those woods but at the same time there shouldn’t be anyone who would be able to survive meeting the knight alone and save her in the meantime.

“Still did he really won against ‘him’?”

After changing into her usual clothing Rin started to wonder. She didn’t know any other way of leaving the dungeon than defeating the boss to dispel the barrier.

“It’s not like it’s impossible.”

Rin herself could not think in terms ‘beating the champion is impossible’ as she wanted to defeat him. Still those thoughts often crossed her mind as of late. But even if she could not do it, it didn’t meant that it was impossible. Although, Rin never fought against anyone that was better than her, she did think that somewhere in this game, there should be few people who were better than her. Still she was at least sure that no one like that was in Karma.

“Anyway, I am going home. Even it would be a good idea to check the cemetery I am still going home.”

Rin had no desire to go back to that place and see the man that was there. She remembered that he mentioned that he is waiting for someone there. That’s why he would still be there if she went there.

Rin went in direction of Karma. Although after rushing in random direction without thinking, one would usually get lost, Rin knew this forest like back of her hand so getting lost in it was impossible for her.

-chirp, chirp, chirp.

The birds were singing and there was no wind. The sun got a little higher and it was much warmer now, although it was still early in the morning.

Rin enjoyed a familiar forest. Although she was not going by road she was perfectly going straight to the southern gate of Karma, at least until the edge of the forest.

“A.”

She stopped when she spotted two people walking on the road. She stopped because one of them was the one from whom she just ran away from. He alone would be enough for her not wanting to go out but there was also second person. Rin could recognize him as well. It was so self-called defender of justice whom she met not that long ago.

“Why are two people whom I killed going somewhere together?”

Naturally she would assume that they joined forces to hunt her down but if that were the truth, the man who called her ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ wouldn’t rescue her.

“I will have to prolong my staying in the forest.”

Rin would not dare to come out right now as between this forest and the city of Karma there was absolutely nothing to hide behind. Result definitely would be them spotting her and she wanted to avoid that fact.

“Now I can check the cemetery.”

Although she would prefer to go to the house, eat something and sleep for many hours, she had to change her direction.

“I probably won’t see anything there but whatever.”

It was not that far away although Rin didn’t expect to see anything unusual.

After reaching the cemetery she didn’t see anything unusual. Yes, nothing unusual. What was happening there could not be described by those simple words.

“Well, I will pretend I didn’t see it.”

Rin spin on her feet and left the place.

“Ah, I really need a rest, I am seeing hallucinations.”

The whole day was somehow unrealistic. First, someone saved her from the tomb? Well, she could somehow stomach that fact but ‘skeletons walking in a day with wheelbarrow and shoves’ was way beyond her understanding.

Reaching the Karma and her own house didn’t take her long. After seeing what she saw, Rin decided to skip the meal for now.

Rin walked up the stairs to the top floor and quickly located the bed. Surprisingly or rather not surprisingly, part of it was occupied by her friend Yume. It was not surprisingly because it was still early. As for her being in the house it was also not unusual. The bed was big enough for both of them or even few more people so it didn’t change Rin’s actions. She changed into sleeping clothes and went to sleep.

For a note, the bed itself took third of the room while the room took the whole floor. It was really big bed.

Rin did not sleep for that long, after all, she was already sleeping for a long time in the forest. After five hours of additional sleep, her fatigue was mostly gone and she woke up. First she rubbed her eyes to get rid of tears that as always were there, then she change back her clothing.

When Rin looked at the bed, she saw that Yume was still sleeping even thought so much time passed. The hour now was 13:24.

“Even if you partied the whole night there should be some limits.”

-earth to Mary, earth to Mary! You will get kidnapped if you don’t wake soon.

-kidnapped? But the next kidnapping is planned two weeks from now.

Yume answered half awake. It looked like she had a vision of the future.

-….

Rin decided to grab Yume’s eiderdown and pull it. Thanks to that in three minutes Yume were more or less awake.

-aaaaa, ohm, Amy, I didn’t expect to see you here.

-it’s my house remember.

-still weren’t you going to die yesterday?

-well… anyway you should first do something about you hair.

In the moment Yume’s usually beautiful curly blond hair didn’t look that great right now. They were going in every direction. Word symmetric would be an opposite meaning of what was happening on her head. Still that was also nothing compared to the state of her pajama and the way she was wearing it.

-right, given the chance I should cook something.

-I am looking forward to it but really first take care of yourself.

Rin left the room and decided to wait downstairs.

Twenty minutes later Yume also went down as well. She headed to the kitchen right away.

-so, Amy how did it end up that you are still alive? Didn’t you go for your suicidal mission yesterday? Or did you changed your mind and gave up on that?

Yume asked from the kitchen.

-no, I did go.

-then, did you perhaps win?

-I didn’t win but I beat my record 11 out of 12. Next time I will definitely win.

-still if you didn’t win, how is it that you are here today?

-well…

Rin felt that saying anymore would lead definitely to misunderstanding. Nevertheless she also knew that she would tell Yume about it eventually. And if she did that later, it would be even worse.

-I guess I was saved?

Second after hearing that, Yume was already in the salon.

-save? By who?! Knight?! Prince?!

-it wasn’t like that!

-ah, thought so, you would hide it if it was like that…

Rin knew that if he hid it, Yume would not let go that fast but if she said it like nothing, Yume would lost her interest immediately. Proof for that was that she went back to the kitchen.

-still how did it end up someone was saving you? It was some group of people that wanted to try the tomb challenge? I thought that no one does that anymore.

-no, it was a single person.

“A, my bad.”

Yume returned to the salon second after.

-it was the knight then!

-ah, you are only about that.

-then who? Who?

-if you stay here to long the food will get burned.

-fine but when I done you have to tell me everything. I will be back in ten minutes.

“Why do I have to tell you?”

Although she didn’t want to, Rin would not be able to avoid Yume’s questions after saying this much so she gave up from the start.

-so, so?…

Yume came with plates of the meal. Rin focused on eating it and didn’t say a word at first. Still it didn’t make Yume dropping the subject.

-so, so?

-even if you ask me, I don’t know what happened. All I can tell you, is that I feinted during the fight and instead of dying, woke up in the forest the next day.

-hmm, you are not hiding anything?

-as if I could hide anything from you.

-still, speaking of witch if someone managed to help you then that someone should be really strong right?

-I don’t how strong he was but I should at least say that he was not easily afraid.

-so you do know your rescuer!

It looked like Yume misunderstood something before, for Rin it would be better if it stayed that way but once again she made mistake by saying too much.

-did I say that I didn’t?

-no but you said that you just fainted and then woke up.

-after I woke up, I meet him. How else would I know that helped me?

-so, so?

Yume kept asking as if expecting some grand answer.

-what?

-I am waiting for your report.

-there is nothing to report.

“Really what is she expecting?”

-right it’s you who we are talking about after all, still did you thanked him at least?

-in a way, haha.

Rin made an awkward smile. Yes she did thank him. In reward she welcomed him after waking up and upon departing she even send to him twelve gifts.

-I shouldn’t even as should I?

-no you probably shouldn’t.

-thought so. Anyway, now answer the most important. Who was it? I didn’t hear about anyone who could be better than you being in Karma as of late but it’s not like I meet everyone in the city.

Yes not everyone, only roughly 95%.

-he wasn’t better than me!…

Rin answered loudly but at the end she added.

-probably.

-probably? For you to say probably is quite huge itself. Anyway, who was it?

There was no reason and also no way to hide anything from Yume so Rin always gave up on that from the start. Also there was really no reason to hide it.

“She probably doesn’t even remember him.”

-well, it was someone you meet already. Remember your last kidnaping. There was a kidnapper who turned out to not be a kidnapper.

-you mean Arata!?

“As always, she remembers everyone name after hearing it once. So his name was Arata. I think he introduced himself at some point but I didn’t remember it.”

-yes, that guy with strange black-white hair.

Yume’s eyes started to get bigger.

“I have bad feeling about it, wait don’t tell me.”

-you know I also meet him yesterday.

“Knew it, she already hunted him down and invited for friendly talk. As suspected of Mary, once she finds someone, she will never let go of that pray.”

-I don’t care about your idle talk with him.

-but you should care as…

Yume swiftly operated her menu and took out some papers.

-tadaa!

Rin focused on those papers and quickly recognized what it was. She said in amazement.

-the hellish puzzle has been solved!? Why didn’t you start from that!…

Rin tried to catch those papers right away and read the answer but Yume moved them away.

-Mary, there is no time for playing around right now!

-first you have to listen to something I want to tell you.

-I can listen all day after completing the quest. I am nearly able to complete it myself. With the help of the riddle, I will definitely be able to do it!

-what I want to say will be much more helpful to you than some words that don’t have any meaning behind them.

It looked like Yume though up some plan.

“She already read the riddle so maybe she has some good idea.”

-so what can be more helpful?

Yume didn’t answer Rin’s question directly but started telling what she wanted.

-there are two things I want to tell you. First one, yesterday I meet up with the Wizard who gave you your quest.

-you meet him!?

-yes. I spend in his laboratory quite some time, although later on he kicked me out from it.

-that sounds like him. Still how did you managed to meet him? I mean he doesn’t leave his hideout just to buy cookies in nearby shop.

“He doesn’t have to do that because he is teleporting them right on his plate.”

Wizard one shared with Rin his way to get cookies for free.

-it was me who visited him. Also, I didn’t go there alone. I meet someone who knew the Wizard and wanted to meet him.

-you meet someone who is his friend?

-I wouldn’t call their relation friendly…

“Thought so.”

-also that person didn’t have any invitation from the Wizard. I showed him the way you usually enter the hideout and he broke in.

-you mean he broke to the laboratory? What about the barrier?

-let’s no go into details for now, point is that he broke through and I used that opportunity and came in with him as well.

-I got it now, you found out something from the Wizard about my quest and this is the second thing you want to tell me it. You so dependable Mary!

“Still Wizard must have been in a good mood if he told her something. It was so hard to even get that riddle out from him.”

-you are wrong. The second thing I want to tell you is who was with me there. At the same time it was he who earlier solved the riddle.

“How would that be useful?”

-even if you tell me, unlike you I don’t know that many people.

-you know him as he was also the same person who rescued you today. The person, who solved the riddle, is acquainted with the Wizard and rescued you from death, is Arata.

“Why did he appear so often in things related to me? Anyway it doesn’t matter.”

Rin forcefully erased the image of a man that appeared in her head.

-still how does it help me in my quest? Mary, stop wasting time and give me solution to the riddle already.

-Amy, don’t you think it is strange?

-maybe, but please don’t say that word.

-it’s destiny!…

“She went ahead and said that.”

After Rin gave her displeased look Yume continued.

-no really, from what I heard from him and from you and from the Wizard, it must be that he is someone who will help you in your quest as if he was destined to.

-as if.

-of course it’s true. Also from what Wizard said when you finish this quest everything will change for better…

“As if some reward could grand my wish.”

Rin had one wish, one dream, but it could not be granted. No one could give her what she truly wanted. No one could help her fulfil that dream. People often say that when you work hard and don’t give up you can fulfil your dream, still it’s only applies to some type of dreams. Dreams like ‘I want to be an astronaut’ or ‘I want to be rich’ or ‘I want to have a happy life’ yes those dreams can be achieved by hard work. Still what Rin wanted and needed the most was not in that category. Nevertheless Rin did want to complete her quest, as it was something that was occupying her mind.

-Amy, you once said that if there were good players who could help you, you wouldn’t mind being in party with them.

-Mary, forget about it and give me the solution to the riddle!

Rin tried for a last time to change the subject but it was long too late for that.

-not until you say that you will invite Arata to the party for your quest.

-as if I could do that!

-oho…

Yume made an evil smirk, although that evil smirk on her face didn’t look any evil at all.

-strange, you didn’t say, ‘I don’t want to’ which I expected the most. The answer wasn’t “as if”, ‘stupid’ or ‘no way’ either. How should I take that Amy?

-whatever you thinking you got it wrong!

Rin tried to repair the situation but it was already too late.

-you said that you can’t ask him for help, as you would be embarrassed to do it.

-who would be embarrassed!

Getting overworked over it was not helping her either.

-oho…

Rin got even more frustrated.

-did something happened between you two?

-what were to happen!?

-you started to answer surprisingly loudly out of sudden.

-you just making things up!

-oho, I will leave it for now. But back to main subject if you can’t ask him yourself I will do it for you.

Yume had a mercy for her.

-could you stop that already?

-well then Amy do you know where Arata went after you left him?

“Ah, there is no stopping now.”

When Yume decided on something there was no stopping her. Also it was not that Rin hated the idea that much. No matter how she looked at it, if she had help of a good player her quest would progress much quicker. It was not the matter of the tomb alone. After that, there would be at least one more challenge when the true quest starts and spending another year on it didn’t look that appealing. Also there was the fact where Arata wasn’t that bad in Rin’s eyes. Sure his attitude was a little irritating but it was the first time that she talked normally with some other player in a while, except Yume that is.

“Wonder if he will call me Little Red Riding Hood again.”

-hihi.

Thinking back Rin really enjoyed being called that. Part of that was because in childhood, it was her favorite book and she would nag her parents every day to read it to her. But her giggling was spotted by someone who shouldn’t see it.

-oho.

-what!?

-nothing, nothing.

Somehow the way Yume answered didn’t signalize that she thought that.

-still will he really want to help me with quest?

Rin asked seriously to which Yume answered with.

-oho.

-could you please stop doing that?

-haha, no, I just surprise that you don’t fight against my idea. No matter what I say, there is no meaning to it if you don’t agree.

In short Rin got tricked.

-so?

-you ask will he agree? Well, probably.

-that’s not very convincing.

-from what I saw so far he will. He is a good boy even if he himself will not admit it. Hopefully he doesn’t have anything important planned right now but from what we talked about he don’t.

-so when will we ask him?

-oho.

-… .

“I really had enough of that today.”

-you really are surprising today Amy, I said that I will ask him myself but you want to come do it as well.

-it’s my quest after all isn’t it normal.

-it’s normal for anyone but you. Anyway first we need to find him, its better if we ask him sooner than later. Best will be if we get to it right away.

-well finding people is your specialty so I will leave it to you.

-eh, putting everything on me, well you wouldn’t be useful in the search anyway.

Yume get ready to leave.

-I will be back in max three hours, until then don’t go anywhere as finding you would be much more difficult than finding anyone else.

-take your time Mary, I am not going anywhere.

Yume left the house and only after finishing her tea Rin realized something.

“She didn’t give me the solution to the riddle.”

Rin wouldn’t go for the tomb today anyway but she could at least start coming up with new ideas if she had that extra piece of information.

“Now then.”

Rin headed to the kitchen. Not because she was hungry, she just ate after all. Also she had completely no abilities in cooking. Her destination was not the kitchen but the place that she could reach only from there.

At the end of the kitchen there were additional door that leaded underground to the basement. There, Rin stored additional items that she didn’t need. Even though player inventory was limitless, she didn’t like to hold too many things in there. There were many items here that Rin no longer used but somehow didn’t want to part with them. There were also items that Rin could not wear at the moment as her level was not as high as before. There were also items that were here just in case. If some of her equipment broke she could immediately replace them.

Rin went down the stairs and entered a small basement. There was not much inside, only one chest and one wardrobe. In wardrobe there were equipment items when in chest there was everything else. One may think that the chest would be enough because that chest worked on the same rule as player inventory it was limitless. Still the wardrobe had a special function where while searching through your items their look would be displayed. In normal cases if you wanted to see the item you would either need to equip it or took out from the inventory. Thanks to the wardrobe, she didn’t need to do it. Still the only reason Rin was using something like that was because it was a present from Yume. Still, putting it in the basement talked for itself as how much she used it.

Rin first walked to the chest.

“I don’t want to see it again.”

She put there her class armor item. Although it was a clothing, Rin didn’t want to see it ever again

“Now, all that’s left is wait for Mary.”

Rin stood up from the chest as she didn’t plan to take anything out of there. She was ready to leave but then she saw her reflection in the mirror that was hanging on the wall. A thought came to her mind.

“Maybe I should change those clothes already. I think they already served their purpose.”

Right now Rin was wearing, dark green, ugly mail-leather armor. It was a common made by one of the blacksmiths in the city. Rin was using it for about 4 months now. The reason she was doing it was the stupidest reason there was. Once Yume was nagging her about her look and that she should go to the hairdresser. There was no hairdresser in Karma so she would need to visit another town. Rin finally answered that she doesn’t care about her appearance anyway and that Yume should leave it alone. Yume made the argument that there was no girl in a world that wouldn’t care about her appearance and they start arguing. In the end to prove herself, Rin bought the most ugly set of armor and decided to wear it. Well there were few more uglier but they didn’t had enough stats and Rin would not compromise on that. Either way, her choice was enough to prove her word. Yume was sure that she will give up after few days but because of that Rin kept wearing them up until now.

“Yes let’s change it. No matter how I look at it, I shouldn’t be wearing mail armor on my class.”

Rin walked up to the wardrobe and started to browser through.

“I already know all patterns of skeletons so I should completely neglect my armor stat. The only one who I didn’t grasp is ‘he’ but it looks like no matter what I would wear I still will be oneshooted by ‘him’.”

After deciding what type of items she wanted finding them didn’t take her long. It were red shirt without slaves. Although she didn’t want to admit it, not having anything solving her arms, her attack speed increased as if she her stats increased by half. This shirt didn’t have any ruffles so it was okay with Rin. The stats of that shirt were also not a laughable matter as it was an epic drop from raid boss monster.

Second item was the leather maroon trousers. Here there were no compromises and they were long up to the feet. They were tight at the tights and wide at the bottom, just like Rin liked. Rin also had a pair of boots and gloves in a same color as it was three item set she also got from raid bosses. Rin spend a lot of time in EOA after all. Truth to be told she should long ago went to higher level but she decided to stick to questing in which she often lost her level so she never passed 200th level and right now was in low 100th.

With everything done Rin once again looked at the mirror.

“Much better.”

No matter how much she argued, what Yume said was true. It also didn’t apply only to girls but to everyone. Everyone wanted to look good after all. Right now Rin’s clothes looked nice but unlike her class armor they weren’t girly either.

Rin was about to leave the wardrobe when she spotted the next item on her list. It was a long red cloak with a red hood. Seeing it, brought a warm smile on her face.

“Been a while since I have used that.”

Not that long ago, before Rin got her prequest she used to wear this cloak. Compared to most of her items it was bought in a shop. Rin really liked the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” and when she saw this item once on a display she just had to buy it. It was the only item that she bought originally because of look but it turned out that it had quite good stats so there was no problem in using it at least at that time. While trying to complete her quest her level fell down drastically. To use the cloak she needed 128th level. Sure she could equip it now but her level usually jumped back to 117 so it was not worth to change the item which didn’t have stat difference compared to her brown one which was an epic drop. Also she had to keep up the story of vicious ghost. Since she started trying to complete the tomb challenge she didn’t wear this one even once. But now that it appeared before her eyes she decided to equip it.

“This feeling, like under a blanket.”

There was one characteristic that made this cloak better than the brown one. It had an effect which made it warm in touch.

Rin looked once again in a mirror and was really satisfied with an effect. She started to spin and watch as the red cloak started floating in the air alongside her hair.

-la, la, lalala, lalalala…

Rin left the basement while humming a song. It was a song that was once a main theme of little red riding hood TV show that she saw so many times. She was really in a good mood, she would even probably sing the song had it have any lyrics.

-lalala, lala…

She didn’t stop after leaving the basement. In the kitchen she continued to sing.

-lala, lal- … .

But she immediately stopped after entering the main hallway.

-oho.

-Mary, what are you doing here!?

Yume was already back in the house, although she said she will be back in three hours.

-I just come back to inform you that I localized Arata but Amy, what are you doing here?

-mhm.

Rin just answered with strange sound.

-oho… Well, it was about the time that you change those clothes of yours. Also I didn’t see that cloak in a while. Is that why you are singing song from that old program?

-is something wrong with that?

-no, I know how much you like it. Still, I have a question for you.

-can I not answer it?

-oho… I still didn’t ask the question.

-I can see from your face that it’s a question that doesn’t have right answer and no matter what I say I will regret it.

-of course there is a right answer. So, Amy, why is it that of all days you felt like changing your clothes today?

-there is no reason for that, I just felt like it!

-oho, ‘you just felt like it’, yes, I understand you completely.

-I think you don’t.

-of course I do. Today ‘you just felt like it’ because of what happen at the morning and because of what will happen now. Ah, the day has come that Amy has finally understood what is important in life.

-no, definitely no!

-you can’t deceive your nature.

-Mary, stop that and focus on issue on hand! You said you found him right?

-ah, you want to go to see him that badly that you can’t wait any longer?

-as if!

Rin grabbed a nearby pillow and throw it at Yume but Yume managed to catch it.

-bull’s eye?…

Another pillow went at her.

-I get it, I get it.

Yume walked up to Rin, in midway she dropped the pillows back to their places.

-what?…

Rin asked as she felt something was not right and moment later she was caught in a hug.

-Mary, what are you doing!

-ah, Amy you look so cute today that I couldn’t resist any longer.

-aaaa, you squeeze me too hard. Wait! … aaa, ahh.

It took four minutes before she let go of her.

-mhhhh. I finally got my daily dose of Amy.

It was not the first time she did something like that but as of late it didn’t happen that often.

-and here I thought I finally had a rest from that.

-hugging you in that armor was not the same so I stopped but now that you are back in this I couldn’t resist. The nights are not enough after all.

-hmm, there were hidden merits in wearing those items like that, maybe I should change back.

-no! It would be such a waste!

-in that case I expect that you stop teasing me.

-okay, okay. Anyway now that you changed, Arata will have no other choice but to help.

-I don’t see how me changing changes anything.

-Amy, know that all mans have one weakness.

-the thing between their legs?

-eh, it’s not something a girl like you such say. No the weakness I talking about is they are weak against requests of cute girls.

-is that so? Isn’t it only applies to some of them?

-no, it applies to all of them, don’t worry your effort will not be in vain.

-Mary, listen. First of all, I did change for myself. Also those clothes are more comfortable and easy to move in. Second of all, being cute has nothing to do with clothes.

-hahaha, you are the last person who I expect to hear that from. Still your opinion is fairly common I guess.

-can we stop talking about opinions and get going already, what if he disappear from the spot he is in?

-I don’t know where Arata is exactly at the moment. All I heard was that he is shopping in the east part of the town. Still, about that opinion of yours.

-what? You just said it’s common.

-it is common but at the same time it’s not.

-what does that mean?

-well it’s common around guys, girls don’t think like that. That’s why Rin. From who did you heard that?

-… .

Rin would definitely not answer to that question no matter the consequences.

-did you perhaps heard it from…-

-stop it!

-oho. Hmm, I wonder in which circumstances did he say that.

-no… no… no one said anything like that, and definitely not him! And definitely not about me!

-I see, I see.

-you got it all wrong!

-but I didn’t say anything yet.

-then stop making that face! Anyway, it was the west shopping district, right? If you are not going then I’m leaving you.

Rin could not take it anymore and decided to run away.

-wait, what do you plan to do without me anyway when you can’t talk normally with people?

-I can if I want.

-oho… well I looking forward to seeing it. Let’s go already.

In the end Yume was the first one to leave the house. Rin didn’t say anything else and just followed after her, although she felt really humiliated.

The so called ‘west shopping district’ was just a gathering of many shops in one place. Shops were owned not only by NPCs but also by wealthy players, although the shop keepers were usually NPCs. Although there was city center where players could buy stuff, as well as east shopping district located in dwarven district, west shopping district had the biggest verity of things.

-man in black, with white hair?

-with black-white hair.

-sorry I didn’t see him Yume. I just got here few minutes ago myself.

Upon arriving Yume asked first random person, or maybe not that random because she seemed to knew him, about the man they were looking for. The first person did no help much, but it was only a matter of time before they find the person they were looking for.

-hey Yume, I think I saw the one you are looking for!

Someone shouted to Yume from afar.

-Bran, is that you? It’s been so long.

-aye it’s been…

Rin could recognize dark haired dwarf as a member of Yume’s no existing guild. It was a strange description but in short it was a group of people that operated like a guild but never become one for whatever reason. Rin never pray too much into it. Still their achievement in raids around the Karma was often heard of, and they were quite famous here. One reason for that was because there were no long staying groups in Karma as everyone would move elsewhere. But this group was stayed here for a long time. For a note, Rin would call it Yume’s group but in truth Yume joined that them just recently so it wasn’t right to say so.

-so Yume, did a man you mentioned also had a white image of flaming sword at his back?

-yes he did. So you did see him.

-aye but in this case you looking in a wrong place. Sure, he was here but it was about three hours ago.

-three hours?

“Three hours?!”

-aye, as to where he is right now, I can’t tell but the last place he visited in this district was an alchemist shop. He was buying healing potions. I saw him there as I was doing the same and passed by him.

It looked like Yume’s information was not up to date, or rather not up to three hour.

“It’s definitely because Yume’s play took too much time.”

They could get an extra hour or even two counting the morning, if they started right away.

-thanks Bran, I will catch you later so you can tell me about your vacations.

-well, I wouldn’t call them vacations. Anyway, I see you are in hurry but Yume, did you already heard about the expedition? Also why weren’t you on yesterday meeting?

-em, something came up.

-eh even I managed to be on time you know. Most of us were, but here five people played truant and what is worse those five are the ones who didn’t take break.

-then everyone else was there?

-aye, they were.

-even Shin?

-even Shin, he some friend’s VRM. He is still not in his home. Anyway, because everyone from the break came back, we managed to set up a date for the expedition.

-ah finally!

-yes, finally.

-so when is it?

-on a third day of a next month but everyone should gather day before so we can discuss everything completely. Because some didn’t show up we still have some things left to decide and announce.

-I will be there don’t worry. Anyway I must go already or I will get yelled at. Bye Bran.

-see you.

Yume quickly went to Rin who since some time now was really irritated.

-you are done?

-relax we don’t need to hurry that much, it’s not like Arata will run away from us and it’s been so long since I talked with Bran.

-I get it but that’s why I hate going around the city with you, you always get stopped by other people.

-it’s natural to great your friends.

-yes, yes, anyway if we don’t catch up to him before he logs out or go somewhere where we can’t find him it’s your fault. Also you said you know where he is but how is it that it was three hours ago!?

-that is because it was information that I got from someone who was here four hours ago. Looks like Arata had a lot of things to buy.

-so what now?

-of course we are going to visit the alchemist to ask where he went.

And so they went to visit the alchemist. His shop was located three streets away from where they have been so it took just five minutes.

-welcome! Ah it’s you Yume.

Inside there was a man with a long dark beard. Of course Yume knew him well. Her contacts in Karma were not only limited to players. As for the shop there were a lot of flask with different colored liquid inside it but most of them were red and blue which were health and mana potions. They were not all the same though. The stronger the color is the better effect is given by a potion.

-hi!

-just don’t start it again!

Rin whispered to Yume’s ear before it the conversation went out of the control.

-fine, fine. Sorry but I don’t have the time today, I came here to ask about someone who was here three hours ago.

-no problem. Hmm, three hours ago? Could you be more specific?

-black long coat and strange hair, two swords at the side.

-ah him.

The alchemist somehow lost his good mood.

-you seen him?

-wish I did not. First, he came to my shop and wanted to examine every potion I had, then he said that he won’t buy anything as it’s too expensive and he won’t get cheated. He said it loudly so every costumer in a shop heard it at the time and the ruckus started.

“Well it is expensive here. The only thing I am buying here are special potions that can’t be bought anywhere else.”

-but it looks like that ruckus stopped and nothing bad happen.

-I sure I lost some customers because of that. Well, things has been going good lately so I won’t complain about that.

-happy to hear that but can you tell me if maybe you know where that person went after?

-oh, I know, but do you know what he had audacity to do? After the ruckus ended, which took around an hour he come back to the shop and asked if I won’t teach him alchemy. Did he thought perhaps that I forgotten what he did?

“Alchemy? It is one of trading skills I think but what are those good for?”

Rin never understood the aspect of trading skills. She thought of them as something one can waste their time on.

-alchemy? Interesting, so what did you answer him?

-what could I answer? No matter if he angered me or not I can’t just teach a random person my skills just to make myself more competition.

-I don’t think he would make an alchemist shop.

-you are probably right, anyway when I answered no, he asked where he can learn it so I send him to library just to get rid of him quickly. If you are looking for him, he probably went there but it was as you said three hours ago so don’t count on meeting him there.

-library, got it, thanks for a help.

They left the shop in hurry.

-Mary, why would anyone want to learn trade skills?

Rin asked as they walked.

-they are useful and when you level them up enough, you can easily earn a lot thanks to them. But learning them and leveling them up first is so expensive that if you had money to afford that, you would not need money in the first place.

-isn’t it 500 gold for one skill book?

-around it depends on the skill, but Amy it doesn’t look good.

-what do you mean?

-I mean, Arata spent few hours buying various things, doesn’t it means he plans to go somewhere?

-you mean to other city?

Rin asked worried.

-don’t be so dramatic. Remember, I talked with him yesterday and he said that he doesn’t have any plans so I wouldn’t expect that. Maybe he joined some group and is going with them for a dungeon or something like that.

-as long as he comes back later, we can always still ask him.

Rin’s response was quite normal but then.

-ah, Amy so cute.

-what do you mean? No wait, I don’t want to hear that and we lost enough time on your games already. Anyway, asking later is our last resort we should focus on finding him right now.

Reaching the library took them a little longer as it was not located in west shopping district but close to the center.

After entering the library Yume run up to the receptionist.

-grandpa, I have something to ask you?

-ah Yume, you came to borrow a book?

-not today, I am looking for a man in long black-white coat and with strange hair in the same color.

-ah yes there was someone like that two hours ago…

“Two hours, we are catching up.”

It was probably not because they were walking faster. Rin and Yume knew Karma better than anyone and compared to someone who just got here they could find their way through the streets much faster. Also someone who was new to Karma would probably get lost few times.

-he asked about books oriented in herbalism and alchemy but when he learn that skill books are not for renting and buying them costs 420 gold for herbalism and 550 gold for alchemy he said that he will come back some other time.

“Some other time, he probably abandoned the idea completely after hearing the prices.”

-did you know where he went?

-he was with a friend and they were talking something about gathering the ore. Still they didn’t look like miners to me.

-they wanted to craft something?

-no it was purely for gold. They had some job on it.

-job? I see. Well, thanks grandpa…

Yume and Rin left the library but their lead got lost.

-it looks like we have to start over from the scratch.

Yume commented.

-not exactly, he just mentioned ore gathering job, right? I think I know which one it was as I also do it regularly.

-but you aren’t a miner.

-I told you about it remember. There is a place where monsters drop it like any other items so you can gather it there.

-ah yes iron canyon. I went there once before but because those golems are so resilient to magic it was not a good place for me to do anything. Still, Amy you want to go look for Arata there?

-for now, asking around east gate sounds reasonable. If they were going for iron canyon then they would leave through there.

-oh, nice idea Amy.

And so they went to the west gate.

It turned out that Rin’s idea was good but.

-ah yes I did saw him. He was walking with some other guy as well. I didn’t recognize any of them though. They were here about thirty minutes ago. They left through this gate and went east-south.

The guard who was guarding the eastern entrance to the city answered.

-is that so, thank you very much.

-no problem, Yume.

Rin and Yume started to discuss their next actions.

-such a shame, right Amy? We were so close.

-… .

Rin did not said anything as she was clearly in bad mood.

-well it couldn’t be helped after all we tried our best.

-… .

-Amy?

-what couldn’t be helped! Who tried their best? Isn’t we late only because of your playing around?!

She finally answered but what she said were only complains. Still everything she said was the truth.

-it’s not like I could foresee that we would get late by thirty minutes. Anyway Rin, it’s not like its lost cause, we just have to get to iron canyon before him and you can meet him.

Yume answered.

-sure, I can catch up to him but what should I say then. Give up on your current objective and go help me with quest? How would that convince anyone?

-I don’t think that he is too focused on that objective after all he didn’t have it in plan yesterday. Also you remember the weakness I told you about, just go and ask him.

-no, and in the first place it was your idea from the start, I am not planning on inviting him anymore.

-it’s too late to go back now. You can’t just change your mind like that.

-and why is that? I can change my mind all I want.

-because, I won’t let you…

Yume’s argument was really unreasonable but at the same time it was something that Rin could not go against.

-anyway, if you don’t want to disrupt him, just be a good girl and wait patiently till he comes back. It shouldn’t take that long. When he comes back I will hear of it and bring him to you, even if I have to tie him up.

The scary thing was that when Yume said something like that she was no joking.

-I don’t think that will help in pursuing him.

-once again, Amy remember what I said this morning, as long as you ask him, he will agree because you are so cute, didn’t he said so himself.

-how do you know it!?

In this moment Rin made a great mistake.

-oho, you finally confirmed it.

-no, I mean… .

-I would ask about your reaction to that but given your experience, you probably went all red and ran away.

-em… .

-anyway he will definitely agree, especially after I add that you changed your clothes for him. Really there is no possibility that he will refuse.

-I didn’t do that for him, stop imaging things!

-oho.

-also stop with that face already.

Today Rin had really hard time dealing with Yume.

-ah, Amy so cute. Still don’t worry, there shouldn’t be any need for me to say anything, generally people would join you just because you have a quest. Everyone wants to complete quests, you don’t really need to do much convincing in a first place.

-yes, stick to this version.

-also Amy, you don’t have to worry about him agreeing at all, you know that people can’t say no to me when I really want something and I really want to have someone help you with your quest. And because Arata is the first person you accepted I will not give up till he agrees to help you. He is quite stubborn but I have my ways with people like that as well. I do get a lot of training on you after all. Now then we need to make some rules. First of all, until Arata’s comes back you can’t leave the city. If you go missing and he comes back at the time you won’t be here, it might create few problems so don’t even think about going to that crypt again only because you didn’t lost your level on last time yet. You hear me, Amy?

-okay.

-second rule, to ensure that you don’t go to that crypt like you promised, I won’t give you the solution to your riddle just yet.

-but it’s my riddle!

-giving it to you will only make you want to go there again faster so that is no.

-but what I am supposed to do if I can’t go out?

-oh, common you can survive few days without killing your monsters can’t you? Use this time to rest and have some fun Karma is a huge place…

“Guess I can read some book in the meantime.”

-now then, I think it’s a great idea to have some fun today, so let’s go dancing!

After hearing proposition like that, Rin did not waste any second and got away from Yume as far as possible.

Four following days, Rin spend mostly in her house with few exception of going to a shop or a restaurant. At first it didn’t seemed so bad to just wait and do nothing, she also had few unfinished books to read that she borrowed from the library but on the fifth day she ran out of then and also she had enough of sitting in her house.

“I can’t wait another day like this.”

Normally Rin was always busy leveling up to go for tomb challenge again. It was not in her nature to laze around either.

“Yume said I should wait here but I guess it won’t hurt to take a look.”

With those thoughts in mind Rin headed to the western gate of Karma.

Rin wanted to make sure of something. She already accepted her need of assistance in her quest, as she didn’t see herself winning against ‘him’ but she didn’t know if the person she is going to invite will be of any use. In past, Rin tried to complete the prequest with help of Yume but although Rin never said that, Yume was more of burden than a help to her. It was not because Yume was a bad player. After playing for so long she became quite skillful elementalist. With her group, she completed many hard raid dungeons. Still, that wouldn’t be of any use when surrounded by army of skeletons. They weren’t that easy to deal with. Only because Rin already killed thousands of them, she could now defeat them like level one boar. Remembering her first try, she was surrounded by thirty of them even before first ‘super skeleton’ came. After all the overall tier of that fight was on pair with raid dungeons and finding end boss who was as hard as ‘him’ would not be that easy. In the end, the try with Yume was a complete defeat at third super skeleton and since then, they didn’t try it again. That is why inviting someone for that challenge was not that easy. For starter all range fighters were out from the picture as they usually need someone who defends them. Rin is busy enough with keeping herself alive so she couldn’t do it. Someone who could be helpful during the fights must be able to survive on their own. That’s why she wanted to check on the person she wants to ask for help although, right now Rin was not really worrying about the fact of that person being too weak.

“It would be bad if he is better than me.”

Rin did not consider that she is strongest in this world after all. The possibility of meeting someone stronger than her was low but not no existing. That’s why she decided to go to the iron canyon to find out.

“I have three facts to go on to. First one. Our fight when I rescued Mary last time. Sure, I won that but it was really strange how the fight actually ended. Probably as Mary said, he was forcefully disconnected. Well, I shouldn’t even consider that but that is actually the only time I saw him fight. Others two facts are only what I heard. One, he managed to enter Wizard laboratory with use of force and lastly he rescued me from the tomb which could actually mean that he defeat ‘him’. But most of those are just guesses, there is too little information. I need to be sure before asking.”

She had her reasons but whatever they really were, in short, she wanted to spy on him.

Rin left through the west gate and headed for her destination.

“Still, I have only today. Mary won’t stop nagging if I gone for more than that. Also there is no guarantee that I will definitely find him, I might as well just bypass somewhere without noticing.”

There was a possibility of this but it was unlikely. When going for exping, you usually wouldn’t come back right away but stay there until you get a level or two. And getting one level would take at least three to four days for average player. In Rin case, it was one and a half a day average and if she push herself really hard she could get one in a day. She could be that fast not only because of her overall fighting ability but also because she knew the best routes to find as many monsters as possible.

“Even if I bypass him, I don’t have to worry either.”

Even if the man were to come back to the city, he would not go anywhere else right away. Also even if the man wanted to go somewhere right away, Yume would probably find him and wouldn’t let him do it.

“Maybe I should mention to her that I am leaving but I didn’t want to hear her comments about it. I don’t even know if she is playing around anymore. She wouldn’t really think that I could like someone that I don’t know, would she?

From the outside, acts of Yume would signalize otherwise but in truth her reaction was quite normal but it was not her who misunderstood but rather Rin. The fact, that Rin didn’t just kill someone and even wanted that someone in party was a huge thing. It happened for the first time that Rin accepted ‘someone’ since arriving in this world which was three years ago by this world time. Rin would not recognize it as something big but for Yume, who for those three years looked after her, it was really significant and it really made her happy. The time in which she had to look at Rin and the position she is in, was really painful for her so even a small change in Rin’s life would be a change for better. Even if her fate doomed her to live in this world, Yume believed that even here it was possible to attain happiness.

Arriving at iron canyon took her more than four hours of walk. She was slowly walking all the way there on her feet so it was no surprise.

“12:43 hmm. I should get back to Karma before 21:00 or Yume will find out that sneak out. That leaves me around four hours to look around. I should start heading back at 17:00. Well, in worst case scenario I can run some way but four hours is more than enough to simply look around.”

Rin created a time limit for herself so she won’t go wondering around for too long. Well, four hours would probably not be enough to explore fully the canyon even if she didn’t plan on fighting anything. Still if she could not find the man in four hours, she would probably not find him in five or six hours either.

At first Rin was not planning on fighting at all so she doesn’t waste any of her time but her decision to not fight was broken quite easily.

-Muro died, aaaaaaaaa!!

-don’t look back, run!

The group of two appeared at the entrance and was running outside. Four golems were charging behind them. They were going to get them soon. The first black golem that ran out had a stain of blood on his left hand.

“Pity.”

It was not unusual sight for Rin, yet every time she saw it happen, she could only think how weak other players were. Still, in a place in Iron Canyon, Rin was not playing the vicious ghost role. Well, she still didn’t talk to anyone but her killing rate here was much lower and also.

[Lighting speed activated]

Rin would rush forward to help those hopeless people even though she knew that they would die eventually and dying would be a good lesson for them.

Still four golems would be too hard for her alone to block. Well only two would fit in the opening with their huge bodies but Rin would not be able to gather enough agro from them in time. That’s why she decided to.

[Hurricane]

To kill them all, in one turn.

From a far it looked like red small typhoon appeared out of nowhere. Not only two red swords but also red cloak and finally ruby hair were spinning in an astonish speed. By combining two spells the damage was devastating. Rin started circling right before two first golems and stopped right after passing the last one. Golems bodies in that instant were devastated and all of them fallen to pieces. It was needless to say that they were all defeated.

“And here I wasn’t going to kill anything. Guess it can’t be helped. In the end, some of them will probably end up being pulled on me anyway and rather than running away, getting rid of them will be easier.”

-hey!

It looked like someone called her from behind but Rin would not look back, first it was the boy’s voice.

-for your help, I thank you very much!

And then it was voice of the girl. Still Rin would not look back. Those words did not mean anything to her, although it made her recall something that Yume said.

“

-…but did you thank him at least?

“

Seeing up close how someone is supposed to do it made Rin sure of something.

“I am definitely not thanking him!”

She simply could not picture herself in position of helpless player who had to thank their savior for saving their life. Just like for example the two that she just saved.

“I never asked him for help anyway. It was his decision.”

Rin thought that but she didn’t realize two things. First, a minute ago ‘the fleeing ones’ also didn’t ask for her help as they were busy running away from golems to even think about it. The second thing was that right now, she was going to ask the man to join up in party and complete quest together. What else was it than asking someone for help?

On the way before passing through slit she saw a dead body of someone. Though, that sight would bring only one emotion to her.

“Pity.”

Pity for people who died so easily. Sure she did not know the whole story but dying in this place where one came to level up was something that Rin could not understand.

“Now then which way to go.”

Rin entered the familiar canyon. It was her usual place for regaining her levels so she knew it like back of her hand. Normally she would take the route down without even thinking but this time she was not here for usual business.

“I probably won’t have a chance to check the other side so I need to choose right. Based on what I know, he came here only with that guy from silver hand so it should be party of two. Normally it would mean that they went upwards as group of two can’t simply take the route down.”

The biggest difference about route up and route down was number of golems in one pack. When going up, their number would not extend three, at the bottom however one could pull more than ten of them at the same time.

“Still, I shouldn’t consider that man normal. Normal people would not have a hair like that. Now that I think about it, his look alone can tell me a lot. As from what I heard from Mary, hair like that is only possible if one use color dyes, which are not that cheap or easy to get hands on. Especially the pattern in which your hair ends up being two colored, which is the case in him. That would mean he played for a long time and has a quite high level. But Mary said that he kept on saying that he just dinged level 100. I wonder if that’s true, on the other hand level has nothing to do with skills so there is no need to consider that. Hmm, what else can I tell from his look. He was quite sport and tall at that. His face was…”

Rin stopped for a moment as she recalled the man face.

-that has nothing to do with anything! Anyway his look doesn’t tell me anything after all!

She ended up speaking her thoughts out loudly for some reason. Then she started to erase any more thoughts about that man but while doing so she recalled something else, or rather someone else.

“They look quite similar, aren’t they? Subtracting the hair of course. .., Ah, who I am thinking about again. A) it’s impossible, B) their personality is completely different.”

There was no reason to start thinking about the past that is long gone and about people she will never meet again.

In the end Rin stopped thinking too deeply about her choice of route and simply headed down like usual.

Yes, she headed down as usual. That meant however, jumping down from edges to edges to get deeper and deeper as quickly as possible. Going down like this was something that only Rin would do. At least she never saw anyone else even trying that.

Going down like that was definitely much faster than circling around on wooden bridges. As those were no small jumps. From time to time she went like three meters down.

“Half way down, from here on, I should be more careful.”

Rin decided to start looking from this point. She skipped the first half because she knew that the man she was looking for already spent four days here. If he indeed went down he should get at least this far.

Rin closed her eyes and focused on the sounds. She decided that rather than just looking around on which she didn’t have enough time she should trust what she hear. The canyon would usually be calm and quiet, unless someone was fighting somewhere nearby. In that case there would a sound of battle. Golems while walking were enough to make a loud rumble.

“Still down, hmm? No, there is something on this level as well. But it is quite far.”

Even though it was far Rin had to check it. The rock on which she was right now could not be reached in normal way which meant there was no bridge that was connected to it.

“There.”

Rin located a cave that was three meters away from here and one meter down. Normally jumping that far would be impossible for anyone but Rin jumped nevertheless.

[Leap]

With use of skill it was possible. Rin’s Leap ability gave her additional jumping power, having it on level 5 she could now jump up to 4 meters.

“I don’t think it was really worth it.”

Still it was not like she had 100% of pulling it off, so if she missed and hit the wall for example, it would hurt badly. After that jump, Rin started to doubt that her goal is worth all the trouble of coming here, it was probably not, but once she decided on something, Rin would not give up. The biggest proof of that would be that she still tried to complete her quest even though it cost her so much and it was not only the time that she was losing each time she failed. Some may call it endurance but it was rather simple stubbornness.

Rin looked around and headed to the source of the sound. Although most of the golems on the way were already killed, which signaled that someone was indeed here, not that long ago, some of them managed to already respawn. There were three of them in Rin’s way.

The first one to arrive jumped up two meters and then tried to crush her with his body. That jump alone was something, given the huge heavy body of the golem. Still seeing it for a thousandth time, Rin would not be surprised by it. Rin moved to the left and iron golem just felt on the ground. The second golem that was on the right tried to catch her in his hands. Rin landed two hits at his torso and after that crouched down. The hands only catch the air. Rin went underneath the golem while striking on his legs. When she appeared behind the golem, the third golem was already there and threw a punch at her. Rin moved to the left and the strike didn’t hit her. When hand stopped Rin landed three hits on it. The second golem hit back with his right hand but blind attack like that had 0% of hitting. Rin passed easily next to that attack and was once again at front of the second golem. From there she attacked with both of her swords at the revealed joint that connected right hand and the torso. After that attack to the back it was in its most vulnerable state, which meant that after two hits from Rin’s swords his arm fell off. First golem managed to rise back at his feet attacked Rin from behind. Rin had him in a field of vision so it was not a surprise at all. She moved away from both first and second golem.

“There.”

Second later she rushed back and attacked in a spot that second had his hand. Rin pierced inside with her swords. Normal attacks against golem body were futile but while attacking the right spots the swords could easily move forward. After Rin pull her swords out, the second golem was defeated. The other golems attacked her with their fists but rather than hitting her they clashed with each other in a place she was a second ago. Rin went for the feet of the third golem she kept attacking until there was a crack. While being behind the third golem, he tried to kick her with his leg but blind attacks like that, really had 0% of chance at hitting her. Rather than hitting her, it was their way to death. Rin dodged to the left and went for the other leg. After making one spin midway she swung her swords at the leg which made golem lost his balance. When he tried to regain it by using the feet he used to kick, it got destroyed as it couldn’t stand additional weight. The golem started to go downward to the ground. He was not dead yet but if she stayed away from him he was completely harmless. The first and at the same time the last golem came at her. This time, Rin went for joints that connected leg to torso. She first dodged the try of golem to catch her. She moved to his right and started attacking at the spot. It took her eight hits but she finally managed to break through the armor and cut off the lag from golem’s body. Cutting it off meant that golem could no longer stand and fall to the ground.

Cutting legs off was the most effective way to kill golems Rin knew. After the first golem dropped dead, Rin went to finish off the second one. She could leave him alone but it would be a waste of precious experience.

It still took her five hits to kill him off completely. Iron golems were slow and could be easily thrown to the ground but at the same time they were strong and really durable. Rin once got carelessly caught in the golem hand and he crushed her bones like eggs, she managed to live that through as she immediately used ‘unlimited blade’ skill but the damage took was something that hunted her for a month after that. Healing completely would probably be faster if she just died and respawn ten days later but she did not do that. As for being durable, it didn’t had to be said, but killing one golem required one to him a lot until defeating him. There was no way to slay it in one hit like organic monsters at least in normal means.

In the first place, Rin’s attacks weren’t that strong to begin with, still it was still not bad. Rin heard that the real endurance golems show while defending against magic. Most of the spells simply bounding off and have absolutely no effect.

In the end killing one golem just took some time, but his value in exp was greater than other mobs so it was not changing the speed at which you level up.

Rin would probably be able to speed up her process of leveling if she used her skills more often. As long as it was not the third stage of unlimited blade, her abilities didn’t take that much mana or stamina. With use of first stage of unlimited blade Rin’s speed could be even doubled and she would not run out of mana as long as she kept number of swords she summons at the time under ten and ten flying swords would be really devastating. Same would go for her other skills. They could also give her a great boost. But, Rin would simply not use them if there was no need for them. She would reject them as they were not her true strength. If she relied on spells and abilities too much, she felt like she was betraying her style of fighting and betraying her master who thought her it. Simply said, she was proud of how she fought and using skills could only be permitted when necessary. It was not something one would do in a VRMMO game but this was a way that Rin chose.

As she went forward, the sound was getting louder and louder and finally she arrived at the spot from where it was coming from. Just as she suspected, those were sounds of someone fighting against golems. The only problem was that it was not one or two people but party of eight. They were fighting against group of five golems.

“Not here.”

Rin could not see the one she was looking for, so she had no interest in that group. Also she knew on one glance, who they were as she was familiar with people who are exping here often. Especially those who went downwards as this side was harder and compared to the way upward not many dared to go this way. Still, saying familiar was only to the point of them being here, it’s not like she ever exchanged with them more than few words.

“As I thought he must be at the bottom.”

Rin once again started go downward. She rather suspected it to turn out like that. Mostly because as far as she knew, no one sane would go all the way down, at least she rarely saw anyone there. Golems at the bottom usually were in groups of eight or ten. Also possibility of pulling additional group was quite high. There were also many golems patrolling the area. In comparison to all others golems, they had additional ability. Upon spotting the intruder they sounded the alarm which gathered nearby golems even if normally they were too far to be attack the player. Because normally there were no groups fighting there, all golems were ready to fight so if you get caught by alarm golem at least three groups would rush at you, which would mean fighting over twenty golems at the same time. That’s was one of three main reasons no one was exping there. Second one was, even thought it was a bottom, there was no additional benefit for fighting there. Fighting smaller groups a little higher was more effective and more safety. And lastly, even getting to the bottom was quite hard as one had to fight his way through there. Still, despite all those reasons someone was fighting there today as sound of golems running amok could be heard even from where Rin was right now.

“Only someone who never came here before and someone arrogant enough to think that he can win against me would go there.”

Rin jumping down form one rock to another was quickly getting lower and lower. It didn’t take her long to get nearly to the bottom, but she did not dear to jump down to the ground after seeing what was happening there.

It was for the first time that she saw such a sight. Golems, who normally just stayed on one spot and did nothing, were now running all around the place. Well at least, it looked like this as there were about two hundred of them, but in fact they were all running in one direction. That golem army was following one single black-white dot that was also moving at the head of them.

“It can’t be.”

[Leap]

[Leap]

She quickly jumped form one rock to another to get closer and just as she was afraid.

“What is he doing?”

As suspected, the single black-white dot was the man who she was looking for. It looked like he got himself into quite trouble or rather.

“He is already dead.”

Well, he was not already dead but Rin could see as he soon will be. Moment the golems catch him, he won’t stand a chance and they will catch him because the way he was going to right now was a dead end.

“Should I help him? No, it’s not even a situation in which I could do something to help.”

Even for Rin that army would be too much. While fighting against golems what she needed was space to maneuver, in situation where they can just simple completely surround her and crush her even if she used all her skills it would not be enough.

All Rin could do now was to watch. After all, she came here for that reason. Today she just wanted to see how the man whose name was Arata could fight.

She once again started to jump on rocks to get a better look.

“This way is bad.”

Rin could see that the way that man was running will result in certain death even faster than she thought. The way he was going would go narrower in a second and in two hundred meters from where he was it would be a dead end. Also there were absolutely nothing to jump onto, absolutely no way to get out from there. Still there was absolutely no panic or concern on man’s face. He even turned around and started run backward for a second when he was looking at the army that was following him.

“Will he finally start fighting?”

She thought for a moment but man did not even unsheathe his swords so far. He once again turned around and continued to run in same direction. Then he shouted loudly so even Rin could hear it from afar.

-Levi! Guests will be arriving shortly!

Well, she had no idea what it was about. She once again started jumping from rock to rock. When she got closer once again she spotted that at the dead end where the man was running to was someone else. The man with blond hair was holding shield in both of his hands.

“That guy from silver hand.”

Well, Rin expected to see this man here as well, still what he was doing, she could not tell. Him being there though, meant that just like the other one, he will die in a minute. Although, they didn’t have a look of someone who is going to die in a minute as their face did not show any concern.

“Don’t tell me they think they can win it.”

Even though it was two of them now, it still didn’t matter to that number and Rin was sure that golems will destroy them any minute but today she was going to see unexpected thing one after another.

The man called Arata was still running right into the same direction. At the end of that way was the other one. The air around the blond haired knight started to change and he got surrounded by yellow light as if someone used a healing spell on him. Then that light started to accumulate in few spots making numberous orb’s of light, they all started circling around him. It was like that for about the minute. In that time the one called Arata managed to close the distance and was going to get to him in a second, just like the army of golems that ran after him.

The orbs of light started to gather in one place and that was in front of other man shield. Man called Levi pushed the shield forward making the orb going in direction of other one called Arata. It started slowly but then it started to accelerate with great speed. Arata when he got near it, he jumped over it with somersault. After landing, he unsheathed one of his swords and swung it in the air horizontally. Although, Rin didn’t see anything, she could feel that this wasn’t normal swing. Two seconds later, the orb of light transformed into yellow line that was getting bigger and bigger. It was going way faster than previously. Soon enough, the scale that line was so big that it expanded to cover the whole area. Sure it was a narrowed space but it was still huge. Few seconds later it encountered the army of golems. One by one they perished upon contacting the yellow line, in blink of an eye from about three hundred golems only ten or so remained.

“It can’t be.”

Rin never saw anything on this scale in this game, she was astonished on how simply the two of them destroyed the army with single attack.

-wow, it worked better than I thought.

She could hear from the distance although she was still not over what just happened.

-don’t tell me you never tried it before?

-it’s my new skill after all. With this, I think we had enough share of golem, won’t you say Arata?

-I also had enough but look there is still some of them left.

-in that case let’s finish them first and after that we are getting out from here.

-I going to take the ones on the right, Levi.

-got it.

And so the two of them separated and started to kill off remaining golems. Although, Rin still not grasped what exactly happened as she knew that couldn’t be normal spell, she had to stop thinking about it for now as finally she will have the occasion to see what she came here for.

-this is… .

She was so surprised that she ended up speaking out loudly.

Rin was expecting a lot after seeing what just happen, like some other skills that would wipe out remaining golems in one blow. But for the whole duration of the fight, the man did not use any other skills and to continue based on pure swordsmanship. He was simply avoiding all of enemy’s attacks while attacking only at weak spots like joints or legs. But it was his fighting style that surprised her. After calming down Rin had a complete analyze.

“Master’s twin sword style transformed to be used in this world. In a sense, he fights just like me with minor difference on individual moves that comes from both our preferences and difference in builds. At first from what I saw on our first meeting, I thought that he somehow stolen one of master’s technique but seeing all this, he couldn’t grasp it all alone and it is not an imitation. But why would one of them start playing games all of sudden?”

Rin could easily grasp where that person learned how to fight. Unless he was touch directly by her teacher it would be impossible to arrive at to this point. Even if it was one of his students teaching him, it would still be impossible and there would be more differences in his fighting style. Still, that only gave her more questions than answers, as she could not grasp why someone who was training for Olympics suddenly started to play games. Especially someone of this level of skills. Having seen how the man deal with six golems in matter of few minutes she could easily see that he would at least score in ten best students of her teacher.

“Only one year have passed in that world, so it can’t be anyone new. He seemed like a different person but given his look, only one person comes to mind. It’s master’s grandson. Still even though everything would fit, could someone really change this much?”

Rin did not only recognize the fighting style but the person himself. Even before, she thought that they are somewhat similar and after seeing how he fights, she was half-sure of it. Half-sure because her memories did not exactly match everything. Although their look and fighting style was the same, this man and the one she once knew were completely different.

Rin once again looked below and saw how the two high-fived each other as they got together after finishing their last enemies. The man called Levi also killed 6 golems without use of skills which was also quite impressive but Rin didn’t saw how he fought as she got lost in thought. The two went in direction where way back up was and Rin lost sight of them..

“No matter how I think about it, it must be master’s grandson. But, Arthur was someone who wouldn’t do anything for fun. In school he would just stay in his bench all break and look outside the window. If someone asked him to play around together, he would coldly decline. He practically never did anything out of his own will or for himself. And most importantly, I never saw him smiling. Not even once.”

Rin stayed at that rock for some time and started to think about the world to which she could no longer go back. Still, that fact did not hunt her anymore as she was ‘used’ to it, already. She mostly tried to remember Arthur, her master’s grandson and how he always behaved. She was searching her memory for one moment in which he would be at least a little similar to the man whom she met here. But no matter which scene she recalled, which time she went back to, her question was not answered and that question was.

“Why does he have so much light into his eyes?