Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! LONG TIME NO SEE!

ANYWAY, THE CHURCH OF CYGNAS HAS REACHED ONE THOUSAND FOLLOWERS! BOOH YEAH! And we are so close to the third place in the top weekly fictions! SO CLOSE! I mean, there was this one time that there were only six hundred views in difference or so! If I had managed to at least upload something in these last two day (T.T). STILL, all of you guys are awesome and I love all the lot of you for deciding to follow with this impulsive story of mine! THANK YOU!

COOKIES FOR EVERYONE!

ALSO, I somehow started scratching something really deep and serious in this chapter. That is so not me…

ALSO(2), you guys have my permission to ignore Incarnus whenever he posts his comments in the forum, so feel free to skip over it! xD

ALSO(3), NO, THAT VIDEO DOESN’T EXIST. It was for joke’s sake. You will understand.

ALSO(4), there is a really large chat ahead. Hope it won’t bother you guys… I kind of tried formatting it to be a bit better…

Have a good read!

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“So… You are saying, that you made a deal with the main A.I. of this game so that she would become your pet as soon as you got your first one, and now she is sharing the body with Aura until you get another one for her?”

Wow, good summary! It’s so convenient!

“Something like that.” Cygnas said cheerfully.

“Shishou… Is incredible.” Yuu said with wide eyes.

“And, how come you didn’t look this life-like in character creation as you do now?” Han-chan asked while tilting her head.

“Well, there are two main reasons really…” Cyg said while lifting one of her paws. “One is because it’s really fun to see the players thinking that I am some kind of simple program. The second is because if too many people notice me and engage into more complex conversations, my processing unity might have some problem keeping up all the conversations and managing the game at the same time.”

I see, I hadn’t thought about it that way, but it does make some sense. Keeping conversations like the ones we have probably consumes a lot more processing power than receiving simple commands, which she probably half-left for some automated system.

But if we stop to think about it, aren’t all these NPCS extremely costly for processing power? I mean, they do have perfectly normal conversations with the players and each other at the same time.

Although Yuu was still trying to understand what Cyg said, Hanbei had the same idea as I did, as she made the question. Cyg smiled a bit smugly at this.

“Well, to tell the truth, there are two main processing unities with approximately the same capacity. One is left exclusively for me, where I can process the data and keep up the world. This gives-me a huge processing power so I can keep the game running, processing bugs and everything else. The other is left exclusively for the NPCs, and since they aren’t supposed to be super-intelligent like super-computer, they can share the same unity.” She said all of that extremely proudly, before adding. “Also, each of the unities have enough power to hack into the pentagon three times over before they even notice what’s happening.”

Okay, I felt that I really didn’t need to hear that last part.

Although Yuu was a bit at loss at the first part, when it came to the final she opened her mouth in surprise.

“Isn’t that really incredible?” She asked surprised, and Cyg stuffed her chest out in pride.

“Then, why did you reveal yourself to Gon?” Hanbei asked finally.

Sensing that this was coming sooner or later, I was already preparing myself by opening a couple of windows and forcing some error windows to pop up. Cyg didn’t seem to notice, as she sat on her hind legs, stuffed her chest out while resting her front leg on her chest.

“LET THER…” Right as I waved the window-stick, she jumped away before turning back to me and smiling mischievously, before quickly going back to her previous pose so she could continue where she left off. “LET THERE B…”

BUT I’M NOT AS NAÏVE AS YOU THINK!

I quickly showed my other hand, where there was a window-ball ready. When Cyg’s eyes glazed over here, she visibly paled, and before she could even prepare herself to dodge, I landed the hit right in the middle of her furry forehead, making fall on her back.

“That, is a secret that I’m taking to the grave ok?” I turned to the girls while saying in a cold voice. The two of them nodded, but I could see that Yuu still had some curiosity in her eyes.

“O...kay” Hanbei said a bit scared before shaking her head. “Now, going back to the matter at hand. So, now that you are done with your crafting, do we go looking for a group to the dungeon or…”

“NO!” I stopped her, while crossing my arms. “I’ve been working for too long! I don’t want to do something serious!” I said with a pout, making the two blink surprised.

“Wait… And what about the quest?” She asked me surprised. I looked away.

“Don’t wanna!” I said in a poor mood. “I’ve been working too long, don’t want to do anything troublesome anytime soon. Besides, there is no time limit, so I want to rest. Working is tiring.”

The three girls looked a bit troubled at me.

“Is Shishou… Throwing a tantrum?” Yuu asked a bit confused, and Hanbei simply nodded.

After some more talk, the three finally managed to convince me to at least leave the house and look around for a group so we can set a time where we can meet and do the dungeon.

BUT LOOKING FOR A GROUP IS TOO TIRING!

So before we even left, I quickly opened a chat window, since I had a pretty much completed group.

[Me]: TANK/DPS LFG LVL 20 NEW DG.

[Phantons]: What? Weren’t you crafting ten minutes ago?

[Me]: new gear. Gotta test it.

[Cygnas]: It’s really sweet btw.

[Me]: How the hell did you get here?

[Cygnas]: Because I’m your pet?

[Me]: Makes sense.

[Phantons]: WHAT?

[Incarnus]: LOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Red Hurricane]: WHAT. THE. HELL.

[Me]: Eh… Details.

[Me]: So, I have a key, a quest and a dungeon to do. What you guys say?

[Phantons]: Where are you?

[Cygnas]: Eldor.

[Me]: Eldor

[Me]: HEY! STOP ANSWERING FOR ME!

[Cygnas]: ^^

[Incarnus]: I’m in Ezoria Argus.

[Incarnus]: How long would it take to get there?

[Cygnas]: For the first time, it takes 2 days to get here.

[Me]: First time?

[Cygnas]: You automatically attune yourself to a portal at every major city after you visit it. Then you can go to these portals to teleport to other capitals.

[Phantons]: How many people?

[Me]: Seven or so.

[Red Hurricane]: I count four people and three pets here, does this works?

[Incarnus]: Three pets?

[Red Hurricane]: I have two pets, and War has one.

[Cygnas]: There is still Lieutenant, so that’s four.

[Red Hurricane]: Lieutenant?

[Me]: My soldier cat. But I do have more people to add.

(Yuu has been added to the chat)

(Han-chan has been added to the chat)

[Yuu]: Shishou?

[Han-chan]: HELLO FRIENDS OF GON!

[Incarnus]: huzzat?

[Phantons]: Shishou? WTH?

[Me]: Long story. Girls, meet my friends and Incarnus. Guys, meet Yuu and Hanbei.

[Me]: There. Group done.

[Incarnus]: HEY! What’s with that AND?

(Incarnus has been kicked from the chat)

[Red Hurricane]: Lol!

[Me]: There, much better.

[Me]: So, DG in two days?

[Phantons]: I’ve just asked around. It seems that it would take me a week to get there.

[Han-chan]: Wow. That’s a long time.

[Yuu]: It is my pleasure to meet all the companions of Shishou. I would also like to express all of my gratitude for having taken care of Shishou for all this time.

[Red Hurricane]: I’m close to Eldor myself.

[Phantons]: What’s with that?

[Me]: They are Japanese. Excessive politeness.

[Me]: At least for Yuu.

[Yuu]: Am I being too polite, Shishou?

[Phantons]: O.o

[Han-chan]: LoL! Are all of you Brazilian?

[Phantons]: Yep.

[Phantons]: Anyway, I think that a week is too long.

[Me]: Yeah… I’ll look around.

[Me]: Any problem if I leave the girls here?

[Me]: I’ll probably add them to the guild anyway.

[Red Hurricane]: New victims?

[Yuu]: Victims?

[Han-chan]: Why do I feel goosebumps?

[Phantons]: Don’t mind them. It’s what they say whenever we bring someone to DGs with us.

[Me]: Pro tip: Never annoy the healer (Phantons). He’s the vengeful type.

[Cygnas]: I just saw an old video of yours on the net.

[Cygnas]: You guys are crazy.

[Phantons]: We’ll see the vengeful healer on the Dungeon.

[Me]: SEE! I TOLD YOU!

[Me]: Also, you’ve seen nothing.

[Han-chan]: Okay… Now I’m scared.

[Yuu]: What about Incarnus-san? Is he not coming back?

[Phantons]: Who?

[Me]: Who?

[Red Hurricane]: Who?

[Han-chan]: LOL!

Well, it seemed that it would still take some time before they could get here, and even if I didn’t feel like going to the dungeon right now, a week waiting for our healer, who is the only one who can keep up with us when we are together, simply wouldn’t do.

I sighed as I got up from my corner of the room and looked around. The girls were still looking at their chats windows and seemed to be enjoying their talks with the guys from the group. Meanwhile, I left the living room and went towards workshop to warn Melinda that we were leaving.

What? You thought we were talking about Cygnas right in front of her? Really?

After warning her, I had to tap the girls shoulders so they would notice that we were leaving the house. First and foremost, find Lieutenant since he was gone for some time and I probably could use his intelligence network to find someone to help us.

Actually, that might be exactly what we need. I do know a group that have the exact composition we need to take on the dungeon.

Sure, we might not have exactly have any deep relationship, but nothing a few negotiations wouldn’t work out. Heck, they might jump in precisely because it only because it is a brand new dungeon!

As soon as we left the house, I immediately checked the on map for Lieutenant, and after quickly pinpointing his place, we took the elevators towards the commercial sector.

As we advanced towards his position, I noticed that he was advancing toward the Silver Gauntlet at a fairly slow pace. Much slower than when he was simply roaming around earlier.

After some time, I noticed that his direction changed and he started coming to our direction as he probably noticed that I was going towards him.

When we found him, I understood the slow pace.

He was together with Elraira, Arcus, Lila and Whisi, letting El carry him while getting some petting in exchange.

He made a salute while still in her grasp as we got closer, which I quickly answered in kind.

“El, could you lend me Lieutenant for a moment? I have something I need to ask of him.” I told her. She made a slightly sad face, but let go of him. I quickly told him who to look for and he darted out towards a nearby alley.

“So… You got new companions too?” Arcus said while raising his eyebrows to the girls.

I smiled wryly and quickly introduced the girls to them.

“So, how are you doing?” I asked them afterwards.

“Great, thanks. Just got back from a hunt.” Arcus said with a shrug before turning to El and Yuu, who were staring at each other with some scary intensity. “But shouldn’t you stop them? It kind of feels that they are about to jump on each other’s throat.”

I looked at the duo for some time before. For some reason, as soon as they looked at each other they had started to stare and tighten their grips on their weapons. Thinking about it, both of them seem to practice some sort of martial arts and use magic as an improvement…

“You know… If I was a good friend and was in a more normal mood, I would probably do that.” I said while watching the two before looking at him, Han-chan and Lila, who were looking slightly worried at me for a moment. “But I’m far from a good friend and I really need to relieve some stress with some mindless violence, so...” I approached the two girls and pulled them closer. “So… Why don’t we go out there and have a friendly duel? I’m pretty sure both of you would really appreciate it.”

The two of them looked at me surprised for a moment before nodding.

I smiled widely as we guided them towards the main elevator. While we did that, Lila came to me and asked shyly.

“A-Are you sure of this?” She asked nervously. “D-Do they really need t-to fight?”

“Yuu kind of gets like that when she meets strong martial artists…” Hanbei answered for me with a wry smile. “She takes a really long time to calm down if she doesn’t fight…”

So, I’m not considered a strong martial artist? I feel kind of sad.

But then, I’m not exactly a martial artist…

Well, since I pretty much left the group finding for Lieutenant, I decided to take my time and watch this fight. We took the duo to a nearby entrance where we quickly opened some space for them.

Yuu quickly bowed in respect towards El, who soon copied her.

“My name is Tatenaka Yuki, I’m a level nineteen sorcerer.” Nineteen? Seems like she leveled in our little adventure too…

“Elraira. Level twenty, fire bringer.” El answered in kind before picking the large scythe and taking a stance with it.

Yuu also took a stance while immediately shaping a spear-head on the top of her staff, preparing herself for the fight.

“So… Who do you think will win?” Arcus said while he approached me. I simply shrugged.

“No idea. Both are insanely strong.” I answered with a shrug.

“Of course it will be Yuu-chan!” Hanbei said with a smirk, making Arcus raise his eyebrows in defiance.

“I… I think that Elraira will win…” Lila said shyly.

Cygnas, who had changed the fur back to blue, simply wagged her tail while pointing towards Yuu.

Just for the sake of doing it, I looked towards Whisi to see her opinion, but she was sitting on the ground while playing poker with Lieutenant whom I had no idea on when he had arrived. Seeing that the two were too engaged in their own rivalry, I decided to leave them aside and turn back to the two girls in front of me.

The two were still in their same position, as if waiting for the other to make a move first.

Noticing that this wasn't going anywhere, I suddenly shouted.

“GO!”

This seemed to spark the start of the exchange, as both suddenly charged forward with their weapons, Yuu doing a thrust with her spear which El dodged with a side step before swinging her scythe sideways.

Yuu jumped over the scythe and quickly extended her hand out while shooting a fireball towards El. Bad idea. The draconid quickly absorbed the fire into her scythe before swinging it, forming a huge fire circle.

Yuu backed away while forming two ice walls in front of her to stop the fire coming to her direction while forming an ice javelin on her other hand and quickly throwing it. El blocked it with the large blade of her scythe before throwing a fireball towards Yuu, followed by a descent slash with her Scythe to absorb the fireball.

The fight was impressive, to say the least, as both of them would attack and counter at a ridiculous speed. While El kept going with the same strategy, Yuu would sometimes change her melee combat for some ranged harassing when her mana was low, since keeping her weapon up was a bit expensive.

As time went on and the battle dragged, El slowly started to earn more ground as she cornered Yuu, until she finally landed the first clean hit of the duel.

Only for us to be surprised by Yuu’s image disappearing in thin air as a mirage.

“This duel… Is my loss…” Yuu said while suddenly appearing besides El.

El looked surprised for a moment before nodding and putting her scythe back into her back.

“It was a great fight.” She said while extending her hand towards Yuu, who shook it with a smile. “But it felt that you were… Holding back?”

Oi, she was still holding back? After the first ten seconds I did not have any idea of what was happening anymore!

“Forgive-me, bud I did not have a choice…” Yuu said apologetically while looking at the staff in her hands. “This staff is not a good melee weapon, thus it feels a bit unbalanced to me.”

“I see…” El answered with a nod. “Then I hope you can give me the honor of another duel when you earn a decent weapon.”

“It will be my pleasure.”

I sighed. So, she was doing all that while using an unbalanced weapon? Geez, I don’t think that even if I spent my whole life training I could get to a tenth of what she did there. The way the two of them were moving was simply out of this world.

But then, I guess that my playstyle doesn’t really fit into that kind of fighting…

Hmm… How should I say it… But they kind of feels like that their fighting involves a lot of stances and quick actions and reactions. My playstyle involves much more waiting and countering.

If I had to fit the others in this, Hanbei would be a hit-and-runner, charging in, landing a few attacks and then going back. Arcus would be an all out brawler who ignores the enemies attacks and simply comes attacking everything in sight.

Lila, I’m not sure since I hadn’t seen her fighting, but my guess would be something similar to Hanbei.

Now I’m kind of curious how I would fare against Yuu in a serious duel. Rather, let me leave that a bit more correct. I wonder how long I could last against her in a fight before she thoroughly humiliated me.

She is kind of like one of those guys in your group that simply does ten times the damage of other guys with the same specs and equipment as theirs, even when they already do the optimal damage of their class. Basically, a genius.

…

Maybe I should go and learn martial arts myself.

“So, what exactly did you ask Lieutenant to do?” Arcus asked, waking me from my own delusions.

“Oh, I asked for Lieutenant to look for some guys.” I told him. When he raised his eyebrows to me, I went on. “You see, I promised a guy to go into a sealed cave to pick up a really powerful crystal.”

“T-That… Sounds dangerous…” Lila said from my side. “D-Do you have any idea on the l-level of the area?”

“Around twenty or so. For a group of eight.”

I blinked surprised when I heard another sound of weapons clashing, and noticed that Yuu and El were going at it again. I smiled awkwardly, Yuu is more of a warmonger than I had expected.

“Hey? Isn’t that dangerous? You don’t look all that strong for that right now…” He said with clear worry in his voice that simply didn’t seem to fit him. “Do you want us to give you a hand?”

I almost accepted his offer excitedly, but at the last second I reconsidered.

Usually, if he were a player, I would have accepted immediately since there would not be much problem even if we fail. But, as like-like he might be, he IS an NPC, so, if he dies in the dungeon he would probably be dead for good in here, right?

“I’d… Rather not have you guys coming…” I told him with a slightly awkward smile which left him worried.

“Why? We ARE stronger than you right now, you know?” He said with a slight frown.

“I knooow… Buuut” I said while trying to find my words. “How do I say it… Even if it’s harder for me… It’s not exactly more dangerous… I’m not sure how to explain it…”

He and Lila looked at me confused for a moment, before Lila finally widened her eyes.

“Wait. Are you one of the Chosen?” She was so surprised that she even forgot to stutter!

But…

“I’mawhat?”

As confused as I was, it seemed that Arcus understood, because he looked shocked to Lila for a moment, then turning to me and widening his eyes.

“Now that I think about it… I did see you pull some things from thin air before…” He said with a shocked face.

“And… What exactly is a Chosen?” Hanbei asked, joining the talk.

“Chosen are the ones that have the blessing of the Goddes.” Arcus explained. “They can revive when they die and have some kind of power that allows them to store things in thin space. They only appeared a few days ago and simply started getting around.”

“Then… I guess I am a chosen…”

I AM THE CHOSEN ONE!

Damn… That does feel good!

For some reason, the two looked at me completely shocked, and I even heard the third fight that had started behind to stop for a moment.

“W-What? Is it bad?”

“No… It’s just that… I would never have guessed.” Arcus said in wonder. When me and Hanbei lifted our eyebrows, he went on. “You see, all I know and hear about the Chosen, is that they don’t really treat us as people. They kind of… treat us as machines, animals or something…” He tilted his head. “I’m not sure on how to explain it…”

I blinked confused for a moment. Well, I did kind of get really involved with the NPCs with all my crafting and everything else, so I did notice that they are more than a system. But most players would simply come, get their quests and dart off without even batting an eye to them, so it’s not like I don’t get where they are going.

Still, there was a really incredible joke here that I simply couldn’t lose.

I picked a small tree branch from nearby, receiving a couple of curious look from the others, before going back and waving the branch in front of Arcus.

“Arcus!” I said in a loud and cheerful voice, surprising him. “Catch!” And I threw the branch as far as I could.

To tell the truth, when he said that whole animal thing, I knew that this was a joke I had to do, since he was a wolf slash dog half-beastman, so I kind of did it for the lols.

But I must say that when he did dart off behind the branch excitedly and picked it up before it touched the ground did kind of get me out of guard.

I looked towards Lila and Hanbei, but they were looking at it as shocked as me. I could even see Whisi face-palming… Face-winging herself in shame while Lieutenant rolled on the floor laughing.

He brought back the branch and gave it back to me before finally snapping out of it.

“HEY! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?” He said angrily.

We all laughed at him at that moment, making him go red while angrily trying to hit me for doing that to him.

“Let me try…” Hanbei said while picking the branch from the ground. “ARCUS, CATCH!”

He immediately stopped chasing me to go after the branch, earning a few more laughs from us. This time he snapped out of it earlier and quickly snapped the branch in half before stomping his way towards us.

Even Lila was trying to hide her giggles this time.

While we were laughing and mocking him, the other two girls came back, their faces slightly sweaty from all the exercise. They were talking a bit as they pointed a few things or other about their fight. When they say that fighting deepens friendships, it seems to be true.

Baaw. I wanted this to happen with me and Hot-head! I need a rival!

Where is he by the way?

Oh well…

“So, how was your fight?” I asked when they got closer.

“Yuu’s arts are incredible. Her movements are incredibly smooth for a sorcerer. I could barely see when the attack was coming.” El said in her usual dead-pan face.

“Elraira-san is also incredibly strong. Her reflexes are even better than mine, and she is much better at magic than me.” Yuu said solemnly while looking at the staff. “If only I had a better weapon, maybe I could win one time.” She said with a sigh.

I stopped to think a bit while looking at them and said after some time.

“What about your completely conjured weapon? Don’t it have a better balance?”

“Yes. But it requires me to hold my staff, so I cannot use it alone. And against an opponent like Elraira-san, I will have a difficult time if I do not focus on a single weapon.”

Heeh… so if she could somehow cast her magic without the staff, she would get even stronger?

I must say that I find this amusing, but how the hell would she be able to cast magic without carrying around a staff? It’s like trying to slash without a sword in this game. She would need some kind of weapon that she doesn’t need to hold it in her hands.

Or maybe…

I’m so going to hate myself over this, but my curiosity has been piqued.

“Say… What about making a caster weapon, that doesn’t require you to hold it?” I asked feeling a bit mischievous.

I felt as everyone looked at me a bit surprised, but there had to be someone to break my fun.

“Why not simply make a spear that she can use as a casting medium, like my scythe?” Elraira asked.

I immediately became sullen at this. Yes, I did not think of that, and it’s a much better solution. HOWEVER…

“And where is the fun in that?” Arcus said as he put his hand on my shoulders.