"This is so..." Lili chewed on the bad word she wanted to say. This was the fifth emerald she messed up.
"Calm down. The last sequence is always right, left, left, left, up, down, right, down." Dylan was sitting in a chair beside her, looking at her screen.
He was a superb collector. He knew where the things she wanted were and was quick. But she was too nervous about forging. Her fingers slipped a lot and even when she had hit right in mind, somehow, she hit up.
"You want to do it instead of me?" He raised his hands in a defensive gesture.
"Nah. I already did my work." Dylan said and raised up his hands. They were shaking badly, and Lili noticed that sometimes he rubbed them, wincing. He was probably in pain.
"Go in my backpack. I have painkillers there. Take one." He stopped rubbing his hands. And went up.
"Should I ask why you have them?" He was squinting his eyes, thinking.
"I'm a girl," Lili said and focused more on the emeralds. If she gets one more dialog of having a crack in it, she will rage out.
"Oh, always prepared for everything, huh? Girls are epic." She didn't even look at him. Guys are so clueless.
"Monthly visits…" she uttered. Dylan looked at her, horrified.
"How can you talk about it so casually?" he asked, his eyes wide open. Lili snored.
"You wouldn't be here without it." She shrugged and laughed.
"You are so vulgar." Judging by his tone, he was shocked.
"Nah. Just honest and you are rigid." Tsk. She had to be in pain every month, bleeding, and they were afraid to even talk about it. Up, down, right, down?
"Yes!" She jumped out of the chair. This was one last ingredient to prepare. She searched for it in her notepad to be sure of the recipe again. Ugh. Why did they have to do it so hard? She listed the god-level staff she had had before.
"Fuck, we forgot one last thing." Dylan was swallowing the pill when he looked shocked at the countdown.
"We have a half-hour. Please let it be something easy to find." Sad, she looked at him.
"Tears of Phoenix…" Dylan's mouth hung open.
"Why do you fucking need the tears of Phoenix?" he exclaimed, and Lili looked at her recipe.
"For cooling down forged staff before aging all the gemstones. It's said that's why it's so powerful. Because it was blessed by gods, by sending you their messenger." Dylan was speechless. Lili cursed. Yeah, if she found out who thought this up, she would strangle him.
"Do you have any idea where to find it? Because I have no clue." Dylan finally woke up. Lili looked into her notes.
"Hard to find."
"What?" He turned to her.
"That's the note I have here. That it's hard to find." Dylan had nothing to say anymore. He just looked at her with so much dubiety.
"What…? I used to be a lone wolf. I never wanted to join a guild or a team. I wasn't selling my goods. So, why to have detailed descriptions of something you already own?" Dylan just shook his head and said nothing. Lili went into the world chat.
[World]Blacklily: Does anyone know where to get Tears of Phoenix?
[World]lolalilo: For what do you need them?
[World]Blacklily: For private consumption…
[World]Jack*a*s*s: I have some, but they won't be cheap…
[World]lolalilo: I have some 2
[World]Blacklily: How much?
[World]Jack*a*s*s: 2 4 3BG
[World]lolalilo: 3 4 4BG
Lili looked at her account. That fucking hacker sold everything for like 1 gold or the least price that was allowed. So, she had only around 10B gold.
[World]Blacklily: I need more. I will buy yours and give 1M for telling me where to find them.
[World]lolalilo: deal
[World] Jack*a*s*s: gocha
They jumped to private messages. They sent her a business request, and she paid for 5 tears. She needed 8 of them. And nobody else wanted to sell them or no one else had them.
[Private]lolalilo: You have to go to the Black forest. Find an old guy and answer his questions. He will then tell you the quest for tears.
Lili remembered she did something like that. So, she paid what she promised and told Dylan to run around the Black Forest and find an old man.
"We have to do it three times. You get only one for each quest." Dylan nodded.
"You do it once and then start combining. I will do it twice. And send it your way," he said. Shortly after, they found him. And Dylan was pissed.
"This game is impossible. Turn on the other PC and I will cheat." She ran to the location he shared with her and clicked through the dialog.
"I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?" She looked at Dylan, who was in rage finding the answer.
"Wait. You have a different riddle?" They looked at each other's screens.
"What disappears as soon as you say its name?" Ooh.
"I know your answer. It's silence. But what the heck is mine?" Lili was unable to come up with her own answer, but she knew Dylan's. They had to find her answer on the internet. It was an echo. Such a stupid answer.
They had to defeat some monster, and they got tears as an award for helping the guy. Who was the gods' messenger... so complicated.
Lili teleported back to her smithy and started combining things. She glanced at the laptop screen. Still, ten minutes to broadcast. She had five minutes.
"Another one. It says: 'Which word in the dictionary is always spelled incorrectly?' Who the hell thought this game up?" Dylan whined when he got the last riddle. She looked at him and laughed.
"This one is easy. I take back my admiration for you." Dylan killed her with his gaze and soon as she laughed at him.
"Tell it quickly when you are so smart," he growled. Oh, he was pissed. She insulted his brain. Lili laughed more.
"It's incorrectly."
"Yup, the word is incorrectly. So, what's the answer?" Dylan looked at her, confused, thinking about whether she was okay in her head. Lol. If she could take her hands off the keyboard, she would facepalm herself.
"The answer is 'incorrectly'." He stared at her. Then he started to speak Cantonese. Cursing the developer. Lili understood because swear words were the first thing she got to learn from the team.
Dylan finished the quest. Send the material her way and she finally could proceed with everything she had to do.
"One minute." She was nowhere near done. Her hands were flying over the keyboard, and Lili never knew she could be that quick. She hit the finish button, didn't even look at what she forged, and hit send. Then she chose YiZhe and clicked ok.
"Done," she said and released a heavily relieved breath.
"Ten seconds left. Now let's hope he will get used to the staff in the remaining three minutes. Otherwise, the strategy we made is useless." Dylan breathed out heavily with her and noted something Lili had o take into account but forgot about it. Lili took the laptop and connected it to the big TV.
"We will see in a minute," she answered and hoped that the staff she made was good. Then stopped and looked at Dylan with her eyes widened in fear.
"Did you notice what I sent?" she asked, and Dylan shook his head.
"Me either. Nice..." she sighed and ran to the computer to look up her log.