“I logged in to find a full group . . .” Belladonna began hesitantly, a story forcing itself out. “None of us knew each other, since the whole random start point thing. We sort of said ‘hi’, you know. VR isn’t like a computer or console game. You can’t really just pretend you don’t notice someone here. They are right there, staring you in the face, right? We didn’t really talk. There was a path that led to a rest stop, like an inn. I’m not sure what the others did, but I thought if I could get to the starting town that maybe I’d find Daphne.”

Belladonna turned to Daphne with a serious face. “It was my idea to spend the extra money we earned to buy into this game. Most of the bad ideas are mine.” She paused to watch Daphne’s response to this ‘almost an apology, but not quite.’

“It’s not like I didn’t want to play Beth-err, sorry, I keep doing that, I mean Belladonna. It’s just that the courses I’m taking at the university are already so expensive. Now I won’t have any money for other things.”

“Oh, what course are you taking?” asked Sakura, seemingly unsurprised.

“I want to be a music teacher,” said Daphne. “I give private lessons to high school students and some younger kids too. But I don’t have any real credentials, not ones that’ll let me teach at a school, anyway.”

“That’s really great! and you’re such a good singer,” admonished Sakura. “You are so talented, I’m just finishing my second year in business, and it's all math.” She sounded rather disgusted with the prospect of math.

“School’s for losers anyway, right Edge?” offered Bell.

“Uh, yeah,” he said.

“A real talker you found here, Daphne.”

“Shh, he’s strong and silent. Don’t change him.”

The ladies giggled at his expense. All of these cute girls were old enough to go to college, and he was still a lowly high school student. They were planning their futures, while he was barely managing to survive his bullies. How could he have believed that Daphne was a middle schooler? He felt like such an idiot. The girls chatted away, while he sat there, wondering if he’d ever mentioned his age to anyone, deathly afraid that if they knew he was a just a high school kid, then . . . Would they reject him, like everyone else in his former life?

“So Edge, what about you? What do you do in the real world?” prodded Sakura.

There was no way he was going to tell them, but he didn’t want to lie either. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I bet he’s a NEET,” laughed Belladonna, who knew him for less than an hour, but wasn’t that far from the truth.

“No, he’s not!” retorted Daphne. “He’s a game otaku, with a messy bedroom, who only eats cup ramen, and who needs a wife to take care of him,” said Daphne with some resolution.

“I think he’s a salaryman. One who works hard everyday in an office filled with people who dress exactly the same, and who secretly plays online games every chance he can get.”

Somehow all of the girls’ weird ideas were still better than the truth.

“Tell us Edge. Don’t be so cold,” prodded Belladonna.

“. . . not telling.”

“See. He’s mysterious too,” Daphne added to the list of her hero’s qualities.

Edge had just about enough of the catching-up. “We should find another inn, someplace less crowded . . .” He wondered what he should call the people outside, who were waiting for a miracle that might never come? “. . . with less players,” he finished.

“There aren’t many places you can stay for free. The guards won’t let you sleep in the streets. They escort you outside the gates, if they catch you, and unless you have emeralds, they won’t let you back in. There’s a camp of Gambits outside the North Gate that recruit players that way.” Belladonna said the last as if there were no worse fate.

Funny, Edge hadn’t seen a camp of players outside either gate. But how much of that might rely upon his observation skill. He really needed to find a better way to raise it higher. “It doesn’t have to be free, we have crystals,” he explained.

They each completed the gate guard’s quest simply by chatting with the owner of the Watering Hole, Lady Mondae, and agreeing to return to the guards with a package labelled [Free Lunch]. The trip was much quicker with Belladonna as guide. She seemed to know the city well enough, although Edge and Sakura were often struggling to keep up with the pair of fast moving Kiten.

“Okay boss, where to next?” asked Belladonna.

“I think there’s something important we need to do before we go any farther,” said Edge. “I know this might be a little sudden, but you’re Daphne’s . . . friend.” Or girlfriend, or whatever. How was he supposed to know about their relationship status? “And that makes you one of us. A member of our group, I mean. That is, if you want to join?”

The black jungle panther actually looked contemplative. “Of course I do. Where Daphne goes, I go,” she replied resolutely, accompanying the declaration with a threatening glare.

Edge sent Belladonna a friend request, followed by the rest. “Welcome to the group,” he said, offering his hand out for a shake.

Daphne hugged him instead. “In this group, we don’t shake hands. We give hugs!”

Without warning he had three college girls wrapping their arms around him, a soft female fragrance choking his mental capacity. He’d never been so nervous in all his life.

Belladonna laughed out loud. “Daphne, he isn’t only a neet gaming otaku salaryman. He’s a virgin, too,” she teased. As the hug broke up, Belladonna gave him a peck on the lips. “I’ve just stolen his first kiss.” She put her fists on her hips and barked, “Muhaha!”

“No, that’s mine!” Daphne kissed Belladonna on the lips. “I got it, I got it.”

“I don’t think it works like a game of ‘got your nose,’ Daphne,” said Sakura. “And that’s not his first kiss. I stole it, that first night at Baldor’s Loft, while he was sleeping.”

“What!? Ch-Ch-Cheating! That’s not fair!” Daphne exclaimed. “Is that true Edge?”

How would he know? He was asleep.

“You big cheater,” Daphne pouted, supplying him with a double punch to the ribs. “Pervert,” she added, out of habit, but with a sad look.

...

Cobbletown Market was a large circular space with a fountain in its center, surrounded by tall buildings covered in stained glass mosaics of fruits and vegetables, swords and shields, needles and threads, and a host of other mercantile portrayals. Unlike many games, where vendors stand around outside, next to unchanging cart graphics, Cobbletown Market was a strip mall wrapping around a central courtyard. More than a dozen shops made up the bottom floors of the buildings, all of which had enormously large clear glass panes. The girls traipsed the perimeter, window shopping with sparkles in their eyes.

‘A steel shield,’ Edge spotted, beside an assortment of armours.

Daphne eyeballed a series of cute outfits through another shop’s window.

“I come here sometimes to look at all the nice gear,” laughed Belladonna. “But it’s sort of a tease, a fantasy that won’t come true. I know how stupid that sounds, considering where we are.”

“This goes without saying,” started Edge, “but we need to be very careful with how we spend our crystals. It may not seem like it, but every single one we’ve earned could help save our lives, if we spend them right.”

“Everything here is so expensive. How many crystals do you have anyway?” asked Bell.

Everyone turned their attention to Sakura, who’d become their banker.

“Enough,” she said, vaguely, as a pair of spectacles appeared on her face.

Where do they come from!?

“So, as a ranger, what sort of weapons can you use? and what kind of abilities do you have? We are going to need to plan a new strategy,” Edge stated, rubbing his chin.

“I specialized in archery, and it gave me an [Arrow Stun] ability, but I can’t use any other weapons now, because I specialized.”

“So far, every advantage in Levia comes attached to an equally brutal disadvantage,” Sakura noted. “I only have one spell.”

“That just means being in a well composed group is really important,” Edge said. He didn’t know what they were complaining about, at least they had an ability. He was the one who should be complaining here.

“Are we a good team, then?” Daphne asked.

“I’m not sure,” answered Edge, honestly. “We don’t really have a full healer, or a full tank, but we do have a lot of dps, and our mobility is getting better.”

“We should find a tank to be our last party member,” said Belladonna.

It was hard to argue with that logic, but as a group of three level two’s and a level one, did they really even know their own abilities well enough to start recruiting?

“We need a bow, and probably a large number of arrows,” announced Sakura. “But I think we should find a shop that sells trade tools first. And Edge, you should really start thinking about the type of weapon you want to use. I’m not sure throwing rocks is to our tactical advantage.”

“I don’t suppose they sell bigger rocks?” he half joked. It was a serious problem, though. The weapon he chose could end up being of vital importance to the party, and choosing the wrong one could hurt the group immensely.

“He throws rocks?” Belladonna whispered to Daphne.

“It’s cute,” replied Daphne.

Edge’s eyebrow twitched before he sneezed. He really needed to pick a weapon.