**

In the lush green field east of Prontera, Albert began walking towards the spot where a large cluster of low leveled monsters spawned. As he walked towards his destination through the thickly scattered coniferous trees, he saw another Novice adventurer just like him. But unlike Albert, this Novice adventurer is a female and currently, she seems to be running away from a slime monster. From a distance, Albert watched silently as the female adventurer wearing an Eggshell helmet ran around in circles in the attempt to avoid the attacks of the slime monster that's chasing her. Albert noticed that the adventurer seemed like she's struggling from his point of view. But since he didn't want to offend her with his assumptions, Albert decided to sit nearby and watched the adventurer from a distance just in case something were to happen. While he sat and watched, he couldn't help but yell out 'encouragements' towards the adventurer.

"Kill it! Stop running you can slay it!"

"WAAHHHHHHHH! My health is low!!" The female adventurer cried out as she continued to run around in circles.

"Then use a potion!"

While running the adventurer grabbed a red potion from her backpack and began drinking it.

"Okay, now fight!" Albert yelled at the female adventurer. But just as she finishes drinking the potion she runs toward a tree and collides against the trunk of the tree her entire body.

THUD

The force of her body slamming into the tree caused dozens of pine cones to drop on her and the sound of the impact echoed around the area. As the adventurer falls on the ground, the slime monster began attacking her.

"WAAHHH! Help me please!" The adventurer cried out as the slime monster began to attack her.

Albert stayed seated and continued to watch as the female adventurer as she got up and continued to run away from the slime. Minutes later, Albert began to feel something with his conscience. He suddenly felt like a douche for just letting whats happening in front of him go on. Albert stood up and casually walked up to the female adventurer. Then with his baseball bat, he swung at the slime and in an instant the slime turned into mush.

"W-wow! You're so strong! T-t-thank you for saving my life." The female adventurer was surprised and thanked Albert as she leaned forward to catch her breathe.

"Why didn't you just kill it?"

"My tree branch broke before I could defeat it."

"You could have just used your fist."

"I-I'm scared to touch it. It's so slimey . . ."

". . . . What kind of adventurer are you?" Albert let out a sigh and gave the female adventurer an irritated stare. The female adventurer stood up after she had finally recovered and introduced her self to her savior.

"M-my name is Lily. What's yours?"

"I'm Albert."

Lily scanned Albert from top to bottom and noticed that he is wearing some odd looking equipment. But never the less she was impressed by how he instantly defeated the slime monster. In her mind, sticking to someone like Albert might be very beneficial for her and finding a companion while going out on an adventures is pretty difficult because most adventurers would prefer to be with someone high leveled and very experienced. Also the fact that most adventurer would prefer accompanying someone who will make them wealthy. Luckily for Lily, Albert is the most experienced adventurer she'll ever meet. Even though he's currently just a Novice adventurer, Albert has had hundreds of hours of experience in 'Deaths of the Gods'. Though the game may not be real, the knowledge between the game and the world is very much similar.

After just briefly contemplating, Lily decided to make Albert her first companion and she'll do anything up her sleeves to charm Albert in forming a party with her. As for Albert, the only thing in his mind is about how many more hours will he need for him to level up to the proper level so that he could change into one of the six adventurer class. Both adventurers have different desires but their motives will soon be intertwined.

Lily stood up and began pouting her lips while she intensely stared at Albert's eyes. This scheme is something that she learned back where she came from. Back home, many of her older sisters had taught her that if she wanted something from a man, she had to use her womanly charms. But unfortunately for Lily, Albert is more interested in leveling up and nothing will get in the way when he's determined to do as he has planned. Lily continued to do her poses in attempt to captivate Albert while requesting him to form a party with her.

"Albert. Please party with me!"

Albert remained silent when Lily asked her to form a party with her. He didn't even notice her effort in trying to captivate him. But at the moment he still feels a little guilty for just watching her run around in circles. Albert's reluctant to help Lily because he has a strange feeling that he'll regret forming a party with her. So Albert decided to deny her subtly and gave her some items as a consolation gift for refusing to form a party with her.

"I think I would be better by my self. Here take these, you might need it."

When Lily received three cheese strings from his backpack, she was stunned that her ploy didn't work on Albert. Because back home that same ruse would usually succeed and whom ever she would use the same scheme on would grant her request. Lily decided to take it up a notch and began to weep. But before she could begin the water works, Albert began to walk away. Surprised at Albert's action Lily started to feel confused and a bit desperate so she decided followed after Albert and began begging him to form a party with her.

"Please party with me Albert! Please!"

Albert continued walking and began to slay any monsters in sight while ignoring Lily's begging.

"Please Albert! Party with me!"

Hours later Albert leveled up twice and Lily continued to follow him around while begging him to party with her. Seeing that he was never going to get rid of her, Albert decided to agree in forming a party with Lily.

A screen in front of Albert appeared.

[Lily request to invite you to Roots party]

Another screen appeared in front of him when he accepted the request and this time it showed Lily's health bar and her level along with his own. When Albert saw Lily's level he instantly felt annoyed.

"You're still level one?!"

"Ah he he. I just recently became an adventurer."

"How long did it take you to become a Novice adventurer?!"

"About a month."

Albert suddenly felt like he's having some sort of bad luck. But now that he's in party with her, he has two choices; leave and never come back or help Lily until she reaches the proper level to change into one of the six adventurer classes. Albert looked at Lily and was considering what to do to. Since he doesn't want to be a douche, he decided to help the clumsy girl.

"Okay. We're going to level together but you have to listen to me okay?"

Albert grabbed a branch that was laying on the ground and handed it to Lily. After receiving the branch, Lily nodded in agreement.

"Okay!"

"Do as I say and we won't have any problems!"

Albert began searching for more monsters while Lily walked besides him. As the two moved at a fairly slow pace, a slime monster spawned in their view and instantly Lily shrieked with fear then jumped behind Albert.

"What are you doing? Hit it!" Albert yelled at Lily in an annoyed tone.

"B-but it's so slimy!"

"If you don't face your fear, how are you ever going to be strong?!"

"But. . ."

"Why did you even become an adventurer anyways if you're only going to cower in fear at the sight of a monster? You know there are worst things out there. I'll just leave this party. I don't need anyone to hold me back."

"Wait! I'm sorry. Please don't leave me."

"Are you going to fight?"

Lily began to take short slow steps toward the slime. With the way that she was shaking, anyone could tell how frightful she is of the monster in front of her. But she knows that what Albert had told her is true. If she doesn't learn to face her fears, she'll never become strong and if she doesn't become strong she'll never fulfill the reason of why she became an adventurer. Lily forced herself to remember why she wanted to become an adventurer and that one reason alone gave her courage to slowly take the steps towards the slime monster in front of her. After taking another step, Lily stood within reach of the slime monster. She then raised the tree branch in her hands then took a deep breath.

"HYAHH!" Lily screamed out and swung the tree branch at the slime. She continued to swing at the slime monster until it she had defeated it.

Seeing that Lily had somehow overcome her fear of monsters, Albert continued to move along and forced her to attack every monster that they encountered. Hours had passed and the sun began to set from the horizon. Somehow they have both have finally reached the requirement level to change in to one of the six adventurer class at the end of the day

**

After a grueling day of intense leveling, Lily is exhausted. She was astounded at what she had achieved and she was more amazed that she has actually reached level ten with in the day. Lily continued to follow Albert who is obviously more tired than her due to his slouched posture as he slowly walked towards the eastern gate of Prontera. At the moment Lily is ecstatic due to her having accomplished something in a day which most would have done in two weeks. Now she can take the quest to become one of the six class of adventurers. Lily looked up and saw that Albert's head was turning to see if she was still following him. In that moment Lily realized that she had met someone who might be able to help her with why she became an adventurer. Lily knows that without Albert she wouldn't have been able to achieve anything at all.

Albert's entire body was cramping up due to all the physical activities that he was doing and the palm of his hands has some callous from swinging his baseball bat all day. After entering the eastern gate of Prontera, Albert decided to walk into the Inn.

"Lets take a rest. You did a good job Lily."

Albert sat down at a nearby table and handed Lily a pack of jerky.

"Thank you."

Lily looked over at Albert and began to devise a stratagem to make Albert her companion.

'This is my chance! His guards are down.' She thought to herself.

While Albert was sitting exhausted, A transparent rectangular screen popped up in front of him.

[Lily requests to be Friends]

Lily stared at Albert with her large round eyes. Albert just wanted to sit there in peace felt an ominous feeling coming from Lily's direction. He turned his head and saw Lily intensely staring at him.

"What?"

"Can we be friends?" Lily asks as he mouth began to form a pout as she looked at Albert with her large watery eyes.

*Sigh!*

Albert stared at the screen in front of him. Since he was tired and didn't care about it, he decided to press the accept button. When Albert accepted the friend request, a big smile appeared on Lily's face.

"Oh! Thank you! Albert! You're my very first friend!"

'Geez I wonder why.' Albert thought to himself.

Albert stood up and decided that it would be better to rent a room here in the Inn and rest for the night than to return back home. He doesn't think that he'll make it to his room if he walked all the way back to the basement. Then just when Albert was going to leave the clutches of Lily, she asked a question.

"Where are we going now?"

Albert began massaging the bridge of his nose as he continues to become more than just irritated towards Lily. He didn't want her to upset her because he's much to exhausted to deal with anything at the moment so he explained to her what he was about to do.

"Well I'm going to rent a room and rest now."

"Oh. . . Can I have a word with you?"

"Can it wait till tomorrow?"

"Okay. Let's meet here tomorrow and talk when you are fully rested."

Albert began walking towards the Inn keeper to rent a room. Just as he walked away from the table where Lily was sitting, Lily said something.

"Albert, Thank you for today."

**