Jake set back feeling exhausted. Fine dust rose up in a small cloud as he collapsed back into the remains of the elemental. Only then did he notice his health was the lowest it had ever been. Less than a quarter remained. His right fist was shattered. Dust was settling into the sweat coating his body making him feel gritty. It was not pleasant. As the adrenaline ran out his eyes narrowed in pain. His body hurt and ached all over. Mostly his right arm. Even if his actual fist wasn't shattered the shockwaves passing through felt like they broke apart all the bones in his arm.
Cass was jogging towards him. He rested as he watched her close in. She was sweating too by the time she got there. Even thru the pain, he could appreciate how the combination of her flushed expression and sweaty appearance seemed to make her glow. Her T shirt below the chest plate stuck to her stomach with sweat and he almost forgot about all the pain.
Instead of being excited she stopped in front of him and kicked some of the fine dust on him. "Idiot! I thought you were going to die!" She sounded seriously upset.
"Calm down it is just a game. I would just respawn back at the last login room." He had asked the tutorial robot about death. The scrap heap had informed him that death resulted in the player being teleported back to the last login room they use for a rather large fee. It did mention something about permadeath areas and avoiding them. But it sounded like they would be well marked out. Jake had no intention of going to one so despite everything there wasn't much risk. Other than being in debt for a while. The death penalty was one hundred thousand credits. Thinking about it, Jake decided maybe he had been a little reckless. That was a lot of credits.
"Don't tell me to calm down." She looked a lot like the Cassandra he had known before she started playing the game right then. Instead of making him mad he kinda liked it. The idea that he had gotten her so riled up made him feel a bit giddy.
"Oh no. It says I am bleeding out. No!" Cass's face twisted in sudden fear and worry as he made horribly distorted choking sounds. "Alas, cruel world! Before I die… A kiss. A sweet kiss to send me off!" Her worried expression became one of anger as he dramatically clutched his chest and fell back. A little cloud of fine dust billowed away from him.
"Ass hole." She snarled while glaring at him.
Jake got up and dusted himself off with a laugh. When he looked up her face was blank and unreadable. "If you wanted a kiss. You could just ask." Her tone was quiet.
Jake froze.
"You have to take off the mask though. I'm not kissing a metal mask." Jake's brain went white. He couldn't think of anything yet when hot air washed across his face he realized he'd retracted his mask. "Close your eyes. It's embarrassing you looking at me like that." She had taken a step forward. Jake again without thinking closed his eyes. His lips puckered slightly, his heart beat nervously.
Then he felt it. A hand full of fine dust hit his face and billowed away. "That is what you get. Jerk." Jake shook his head and reached up to brush the dust away before he realized he couldn't shrink his gauntlets down while one was damaged. Sputtering he complained enough that finally Cass took pity on him and helped clean his face of the dust.
"Next time don't be such a jerk when I am only worried about you." He was blinking rapidly before opening his eyes to make sure none of the dust got in. But she had done a good job. Just as he opened his eyes properly he found her face right next to his. Jake had never kissed a girl before, somehow he thought kisses would be wet sloppy messes. But instead, they were just soft and warm. Little more than a brushing of her lips against his.
All the blood rushed from his head and he felt light headed. Cass turned away seeming embarrassed and went straight for the small pile of dust that had been his last point of attack.
Shuffling through the pile of fine dust she pulled out several pieces of dark stone. It looked like black pumice pocked with yellowish brown crystals. Cass gathered them all up. There were nine fragments that oddly looked like pieces of a peeled orange. Cass even put them together leaving what looked like nine slices of peeled citrus making a mostly spherical shape.
Jake moved over and touched one with his left hand. A little box popped up in his HUD.
[Elemental Heart Fragment (Earth)]
"Huh. Does this mean it doesn't have a core?" Jake glanced around at the huge pile of fine dust slowly being blown away in the faint breeze.
"Maybe?" Cass said. She still hadn't looked at him directly, but her eyes darted to his still unmasked face occasionally. Her face was as flushed as his felt.
They shifted through the dust and found the Power Core. Jake was shocked. It was just C Rank. More shocking was when Cass held up a pulsing object of Blue Green color. It looked a lot like the mutagen they had gotten from other monsters. Only made out of the same putty-like clay as the earth elemental had been.
"Wierd. It had a core. Mutagen. And something else. But the strangest part was that was just a C rank boss?" Jake finally spoke up. His mask was once again closed, making his voice distorted.
"Not even a boss. Check your bestiary. That was a normal monster." Cass said.
Jake did just that and couldn't believe his eyes. The Earth Elemental wasn't a boss. Just a common monster.
Both looked around nervously. If that was just a normal monster… They didn't want to run into more of them. Or worse an actual boss.
Plus with his glove destroyed they had no choice but to head back to town. Together they turned back the way they had come. Both suddenly thought about the vehicles they had seen and wondered how long it would take to get one of their own.