For those of you who asked for it, here's a picture close to what his shield looks like:

We hit 100 favorites guys! Yahoo into pool of icookies for everyone!

On a side note, I fixed chapter 24 to what it should have been. Sorry if it confused people with the first draft.

Now continue~

-----------------------------

Steel arrived at the Adventurer's Guild still slightly smoldering. Not wanting to spread his smoke smell inside, He took a seat outside the guild and waited for Hunie.

'It's only been a short while since I last saw her.' He thought wearily, "So it will be a while till she finishes up her business." He sighed, but forced himself to settle into a waiting position.

He made a mental list of things he had to do before the expedition:

1. Get survival supplies, restock potions

2. Repair his equipment, his armor was burned and his shield was close to useless

3. Try to make amends to Mary, optional goal

4. Seek out Captain Harkin to learn his role in the expedition.

1 and 2 would be hard now since Hunie took all his money, that was why he was forced to wait for here here instead of finishing his errands right now. 3 was impossible until time had passed, and would likely take at least a week to finish after the expedition. 4 he could do now, but he had a feeling the captain was too busy to help him at the moment.

His thoughts were interrupted by a beeping sound, alerting him to his real life message system. Shrugging, he opened the menu and hit the log off button. With a flash, Steel was gone from Everlife.

Plat's surroundings came back into focus as he stepped out of the access point to Everlife from his virtual room. He hadn't been back in a while, except for those awful learning sessions each night, he shuddered, and the entire place was covered in dust. Well, not really, but that is what he felt like thinking.

He had taken some time to order some virtual furniture, which included a desk, chair, and old fashioned laptop to check messages. He could easily have read them messages in game of course, but where was the novelty in that?

'Besides," He thought, "I can't stay in Everlife all year, with the time difference I would be in there for 4 years, Plenty of time for my sense of reality to warp."

When VR had first come out, automated time limits had been in place because of the brains tendency to adapt to new situations, resulting in some people "going native". The A.I.'s found it troublesome as well, be cause the "native" humans could never wrap their heads around the idea of electronics, often demonstrating violent reactions.

Thankfully, the problem was pretty much fixed, except for long term immersion like what he was in.

Plat's message box was blinking when he pulled it up. He clicked it, and read it out loud to himself.

"Dear Plat, hope your doing well. This is coming from your old friend Dia, er, hope we are friends still anyway. It's been 2 days since you entered Everlife, and things have really changed out here. Not bad, but interesting. People are starting to group in in race and group factions, uh, yeah and stuff. I'm not good at this mushy stuff, but I kinda miss eating like we used to, ya know? The Soul guys have been great, I even got a cool metal tongue! Well, I still can't talk right, and tasting is impossible still, but at least it's progress. Er, I know we can't meet in the game yet, but I was hoping we could grab a virtual meal maybe? Er, yeah, well, hope to see you soon, Dia"

Plat chuckled. Dia had obviously used the voice recorder for his message, taking advantage of his virtual body like Plat did. "He's still as awkward as ever with his words." he said warmly.

Plat checked his watch, then felt like an idiot because he didn't have a watch. He pulled up the floating time and considered it. The game still ran at 4x normal speed RL, but 2x speed CL, so He could afford time later. He had three days till the expedition, he could afford to use one of the days as time meeting Dia, as long as he could find a way to keep Hunie out of trouble.

He sent a return message to Dia, telling him he would be glad to meet him in a day at the cybercity fountain. Smiling, he returned to the tele-pad, and fell back into Everlife.

-------------------------

Steel logged back in where had been sitting, though he feel onto the ground because the chair that he had been using was gone. Muttering to himself angrily, he got up and brushed himself off. A quick glance at the sun told him that a good amount of time had passes, most likely an hour he would guess.

Noise from inside the guild got his attention. It sounded like a real riot inside. Curious, he walked up and poked his head in. His jaw dropped.

Inside, two girls were putting on a show, or rather that was the illusion. Hunie and Mema gracefully moved through a crowd of hungry patrons, delivering food and booze like angels from heaven. Steel rubbed his eyes, unbelieving. Hunie gave off the aura of a real maid, from the legendary maid cafes of ages past, as she flowed past proclamations of love and casually cracked groping hands. Mema looked as she did the first time he had seen her, and he really couldn't see any indication of her...experience. They were the divines of the floor, with worshipers at every table.

Hunie looked over and brightened up even more, if possible.

"Master!" She finished her delivery and jumped into him, "I'm happy to see you!" She backed up and bowed to him, "You maid greets her Master."

"Hunie, what happened to you?" Steel asked shocked, "Did you hurt your head somewhere?"

Hunie cocked her head and him, covered her smile, and giggled, "Oh Master, you are so silly, your maid has already been like this."

Mema strolled up while Steel struggled to grasp the situation, "Hey Steel, I see you've met my newest helper." She squeezed Hunie affectionately, "She's been a great help, and has really helped to drum up business."

Steel took a breath, and put his hands on Hunie's shoulder, "Hunie, please tell me you haven't been brainwashed by anyone in the short time we've been separated. Master would be sad."

"Nope, no brainwashing on me Master, I'm just doing my duty as a maid, and maids make everyone happy." The far away look in her eye did not help Steel's mood. He grabbed Mema and whispered to her,

"Please tell me whatever she has is temporary."

Mema smiled mischievously at him, "Don't worry Steel, it's just for a little while longer, than she is back to your cute little maid." She chuckled at him, patting her back.

"Okay great, now tell me what you did to her." Steel whispered angrily, his fear finally calming down.

"Well, the poor dear had quite an adventure after she left you, but I'll let her tell you later. Suffice to say, she came in here broke and hungry and begged me for some food. I told her I'd feed her if she ate the new meals I came up with, and well, this happened, not that I mind." She pointed at Hunie, who was delivering more food to tables.

"What did she eat?" He asked, a little curiosity mixed in with his anger.

"Well, remember that fruit you brought in? I cooked it into a sauce and served it with a carrot based dish. Needless to say, it kind of acted like a catnip plant to cats."

Steel blinked, "Are you telling me she's drunk?"

"Aye, that would be the best way to describe her right now."

Steel watched Hunie move, "But she's so graceful and caring, not at all like the powerhouse she is."

Mema snorted, "Don't let her current appearance fool you. A while ago, some idiot traveler tried to feel up her butt. She beat him so hard his body was dead long before it landed outside the door. She smiled the whole time and said that if he did it again she would make him regret being able to return to life."

Hearing about the ass about tipped Steel's fury, but hearing how she handled it replaced it with relief and fear. "On that note, why isn't she beating up those lecherous hands. For that matter, why don't you?"

Mema smiled at him and patted his back, "There aren't that many eligible young women in Rostwood, most are hard working men who put their lives on the line everyday to make this frontier town successful. We girls here let them have their drunken fun, but we also let them know when its too much."

As if the punctuate her words, one of the men was thrown onto the floor and wrestled by a girl much smaller than him into a arm breaking pose. The men around them hooted and laughed at the groaning man.

"Ha ha ha, Aye told ya to lay off de drink Barny!"

"Give it to him Stella, show him what's what!"

"Don't break anything Stella, leave that to his wife when he gets home."

Everyone roared at that one, most likely because the man's wife appeared and dragged his sorry ass out the door by his ear, the man protesting the whole way.

"It also doubles as free entertainment." Mema chuckled, watching the girl Stella raising her fist in a victory pose. She turned to Steel, "On a side note Steel, how about you let Hunie work for me when she's able? I'll pay well, and the guys will tip her generously. She's one of the best staff I've had in a while, and Stella will be leaving soon for the capital to start her own place." She pleaded with him.

Steel didn't really want to let Hunie go, but working here meant a safe place for her to be, and she wouldn't borrow any of her hard earned silver. "Okay, but don't feed her anymore of that dish." Mema nodded, and before she walked away Steel stopped her.

"And please give me some of that dish."

-----------------------

After a while, Hunie came back to her senses and fled to the room in embarrassment. She refused to open the door for anyone, even Steel couldn't get in.

She said through the door, "The shame of being a maid for everyone, please Master, give this one some time to reflect on her actions." Steel had left it at that, seeing as he had already been an insensitive ass that day. Hunie was experiencing all these new things for the first time, and being drunk and acting off was something she was going to have to learn to live with. Mema promised him she would watch her and talk to her women and women when she calmed down.

Thanking her, Steel headed out to Bob's armory, hopeful that the big guy would be able to help him out with his equipment.

Upon his arrival, Bob promptly knocked Steel into the wall for messing his armor up so soon. Steel had to listen to an hour long lecture on proper armor upkeep to placate the big guy. On a bright note, a system notification let him know he had the ability to quick fix armor in the field.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Armor RepairDF0%You have the basic knowledge on how to repair armor and equipment. With the proper materials, you can quick fix things temporarily, or fix then properly if in a workshop with the proper tools. This is skill allows you the ability to work on basic armor and clothing.

While not what he was going for, Steel didn't complain about the outcome. Bob agreed to repair his armor, but shook his head at Steel's shield.

"Sorry Steel, Bob doesn't have the proper material to repair that shield." Bob sad sadly, "Bob's advice is to store that shield until you find good metal to fix it with."

Steel was depressed upon hearing the news. He really liked using the shield, and it's abilities had helped him out a lot in past fights. "Are you sure there's nothing you can do Bob?" He asked, "This is my only weapon, and I'll suffer during the expedition if I can't use it."

Bob scratched his chin, "Bob can fix it up, but it'll suffer durability as a result. Then Bob won't be able to return it to it's old form, even with good metal."

Steel leaped at the offer. The shield was the best weapon right now he could get his hands on, so even if it suffered, it would still be better than anything the guard would give to him. He'd grown attached to fighting with a shield, so losing it would have really hurt his chances at a high contribution rank.

He agreed, and Bob informed him the cost would be taken from Steel's loot after the expedition.

Thanking Bob, Steel left the armory in high spirits, and whistled his way into the street, the sun coming down for the night.

----------------------

Hohoho, how many of you are interested in Hunie's day now? It sure was a dosey, and taking forever to write :(

Meh, hope you enjoyed that chapter!