John opted to not face what happened in the night by pretending to be asleep the next morning. His great idea was grabbing her and falling on the bed. He convinced himself that 1 great idea was his limit for this situation and that this was the best solution. Had he been awake for her exit he was sure he would need another and he was fresh out.

She was not quite as she quickly put on her armour and left through the door, nearly taking it out as she did. After John could finally breath. She probably remembered some of it, as he didn't get slapped, but didn't know how much or particularly what.

He got up, left the room and knocked on the door Niera-Leafy was in to which he got a panicked reply he was sure was from Leafy.

"John! John! Quickly get in here, something is wrong with Niera, her mental state is a mess."

John came in a hurry, finding Leafy-Niera squeezing the skytiger as if she was grounding herself in a hurricane. The skytiger was not amused but was completely helpless under ever increasing iron-like grip.

He grabbed her at which she went limp like and then red like a tomato.

John got the skytiger free to which it then ran behind him in fear of another cuddle session.

Looking at them, they were completely out of sync. It was so bad that leafy could not move any part of the body anywhere at all and Niera was clearly not even trying.

John could only say one thing. "Leafy, you are banned from drinking" for which she vigorously nodded her head. That nodding was clearly an action wholeheartedly coming from Niera in force.

"I was fine! What's wrong with a few drinks? If this is Niera hungover it is totally not my fault. She should have a better tolerance."

"It's not up for debate. No more drinking. I'll even leverage the world seed over you if I have too."

Leafy's eyes went wide. "Hmph! Fine! I don't know why you would go that far but it doesn't look like I have a choice. Ah! She calmed down, though, not much.

Well in any case could you put her to sleep. I can't get on with the day like this."

"Yes, I think that's best for now too. You two can't be running around like this. Hell, I don't think you physically could."

"Knock her out please, I want to stand up. This position is actually not comfortable."

When she was grabbed, her position had her fall back over bent knees, legs spread wide with her arms over her head to stretch her torso.

For a moment, John hesitated seeing the similarities between the elf in the moonlight overlapping with the elf stretched out in front of him. The thought was very stimulating but he suppressed it and put Niera to sleep.

"Finally!"

Leafy bounced up to her feet.

"It's good to be able to move again but... Oww! Hangover..."

Served her right...

"Can you fly?" Was John's only question, having zero sympathy for her right now.

"Yes, I can fly. Just let me stay by the railing when we get on Icarus!"

"If you puke on Icarus, even by chance, I'm taking your seed and launching it at the nearest star at maximum velocity so you can play fetch."

Leafy's face paled after hearing such words as she believed he could with how he attacked the dark treant.

"No need for that. No need for that. I'll use a bucket, I'll use a bucket."

John wanted to bang his head into a door repeatedly but settled for getting the day over with. 'Just don't get drunk in the first place!' Was what he wanted to say but that wouldn't get through her thick head or change anything.

The day began.

It was a quick meal to start, something new he could of appreciated on another day that wasn't so chaotic. Then he fired his firework-like magic and called icarus down, green-white-white-white.

It amazed everyone, especially children who had not seen anything like her before.

Sondra came out, personally seeing them off and that everything was aboard. Seeing the ship, not even the craftiest gypsy dared to try something now, not that they would have reason to with the bountiful trades they made.

John and his companions would be welcome there any time even though it was unlikely that he would be out in this place again. It was just that remote.

John waved and decided to give the kids one last thing to remember him by as he went to icarus' acceleration crystal.

Powering the crystal himself he gave Icarus one command, full speed, and told Leafy to handle the skytiger and hang on tight.

Icarus glowed white and then took off like a bat out of hell, easily doing at least 500 km/h shortly after accelerating. They were way out of sight shortly after and Icarus was told to slow down before she reached full speed.

It took quite a bit out of John to pull that off but the effect, was totally worth it.

Soon after, John logged out to get some actually breakfast as William.

***

William had to sigh, that was too much stimulation for one night.

On one hand he could do what he wanted with her then throw her off the side of the ship so she hit the ground with a splat, never to be heard from again. Hell, he could do allot worse. On the other he could do what he thought was right.

This was the issue of having an alter ego. Some people got carried away 'being' someone else in the world of First. They put so much effort forward to do it but as any veteran of First would say, it doesn't work like that. The choices you make in life are built upon your experiences and lessons you've excepted into your heart or mind. Does anything really change when you force another factor on it, when there are already thousands there to begin with? Sure it might swerve you off your current path but over time it returns to it, moving faster as u think less.

Could you do something bad in first? Sure! Would you regret it? Yes because it not a part of you and as you naturally corrected yourself it would hurt. It might not be obvious but it would be there, dragging your heart through the mud.

In First or reality, you are you and you are what you make yourself to be from the moment of birth, to the day you die. Every choice will change you but as it comes from you is it a part of who you were meant to be? No one can answer that for you, that's just another choice to make.

William had no regrets with how he handled Niera as John. Not that he could stop thinking about it, that gorgeous elven figure enveloped by the moonlight...

But yah, moving on...

William ran math calculations in his head until he was sufficiently distracted to do something productive. Something like getting his breakfast!

Getting up, he made his way to the shared kitchen on the First floor.

Flashing his card inside, he unlocked a pan and spatula then punched in a few icons on the screen. Out rolled a freshly cloned egg, some folded bacon on small rectangular plate, that was almost too small for it, and an eggplant.

Pulling out a knife and plate he poured out some oil and thinned it out over the plate. The counter already built for cutting was used to slice the eggplant to which it was then dipped on the plate. When the eggplant was ready, everything was thrown onto the large pan and pushed to their own little areas to cook.

It was this he ate, simple but tasty and best of all, there was no effort on his part to clean. He simply put them back where he got them and they would be cleaned in storage, ready soon after for the next person to use it.

In the process of cooking, John checked the news headlines.

Avalon remains on the move!

Advent appears over Trent, speculations are endless!

New guild Paroxysm is on the rise, hear Amy Kite, also known as Mirajia Redknight, talk about her guild!

Human-Elf cold war heats up! Is war imminent?

Nexcom takes ownership of the oil company xyz!

The Nexcom world summit convenes next week. What are the issues?

50 year old swimmer wins his 6th Olympic gold metal in a row. Drug allegations are proven false by Nexcom scientists.

Com 9 is out, check out what you need to know about your phone's new features.

Pictures are out and we have a name for the ring's new ship, it's huge!

Rumours of a town birthing legendary beginners!

William opened the headline of the article that seemed most troubling. Advent appears over Trent.

It didn't say much, just that the sitings were genuine having been confirmed by a large number of witnesses.

Advent was the ship name and guild name of the, arguably, strongest guild in first. Most of the players with that guild could compete for strongest in something.

So why was a guild like that in Trent? There should be nothing there... It was very suspicious. The Advent ship never left the frontier, it had no reason to as it was huge, maintaining itself and any facilities that might be required. It was a tenth the size of the Avalon which had built it. No ship was ever made bigger.

He had a feeling they were looking for something big, something that should be out in the frontier, not in a tiny country.

The whole country of Trent was likely in trouble from them being there and what they were trying to do. He just had that feeling.

William finished his breakfast and put everything away then flicked off the news.

For the rest of he attended his few mathematics classes and finished his homework before getting back to first.