𝗔𝗿𝗼𝗻
𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘦. 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸.
I swiped my finger from right to left in order to close the menu on my interface upon finishing my conversation with Tristan. It made me feel extremely guilty to turn him off, but I also made plans with Therese and Laurance today, and I don't want to jeopardize my chance to get new friends. I'll make it up to him tomorrow instead.
"Yo, you okay there, Aron? Your face scrunched up like you ate something sour!" A voice called out to me. It was Laurance who encircled his arm around my neck and pulled me close to his chest like what normal buddies do. I smiled to conceal the look of contrition from my face so that they won't worry about me too.
"Yes of course I'm good. Just a little dilemma there." I responded to brush off his question with a light hearted answer. "Oh, aren't we supposed to go out and grind some more?"
Therese tilted her head to her side as she puts a finger on her chin as if she was in deep thought. "Yes. There is an area around here that we haven't seen yet, but I don't think our equipment will be enough to get us through the monsters around that place."
Laurance approached her position, half carrying, half dragging me in the process. "Then why don't we grind some materials to forge new weapons? Especially you Aron, though you might wanna let me or Therese make it for you instead. You might break your materials again!"
The three of us laughed at the memory of my failure to make my own equipment yesterday. It was indeed a very comical situation that I took no offense from constantly bringing it up and poking fun of it. Maybe blacksmithing isn't really something for me.
"Me and a hammer makes for a recipe of pure disaster." I expressed in between my own laughter, prolonging the comedy for a few more moments. "... but I guess we should try to make new equipment. I'm growing tired of this level 3 spear too."
Therese clapped her hands together in joy. "Great! Let's go!"
The three of us set out to the west gate out of the Starting City because it was closer to where we were supposed to collect the things we require to make our own new set of equipment. Truth be told, I must be the one truly thrilled about this activity, especially since I'm excited about trying out new weapon types for a Lancer like me.
"Oh by the way" I spoke out as we were making our way through the long run across the spawn area in the plaza located in the center of the city which the Tower of Steel overlooks from the north. A set of small fountains were found situated on both sides of the brick floor, and patches of green makes up the boundaries outside the walkway which makes for an overall beautiful scenery. "I got a friend at school who actually helped me get through this game and he wants to meet us tomorrow. When are you two going to be free so I can mail him the details?"
Laurance makes a childishly surprised facial expression, his mouth forming the smallest 'O' that I ever saw, as he lifted and furrowed his eyebrows though not in anger nor was it in frustration. He seemed genuinely surprised. "Another friend eh? Count me in! I'm sure Therese will join us, right?"
Therese nodded her head courtly to respond to the conversation as she tilts her head sideward and puts her hand up in a thinking motion. "It's weekend tomorrow, so I'll be free from afternoon to evening. Med-school needs a lot of practical exams and reviewing afterall"
Talking to Therese and Laurance through RINE since yesterday led me to the discovery that they were students from another university just across town. Therese is studying medicine to follow her older sister's footsteps, while Laurance is doing Architecture instead. Furthermore, I learned that Laurance is nearing his graduation, and is actually two years older than me and Therese, something we used to poke fun of him and call him an old man.
"That's perfectly understandable. I do have work tomorrow, but I think I can get here around 7 o'clock." I mentioned without hesitation afterwards. I've always been mindful of my schedules and has always left an open window for me to do something during weekends even after my shifts at work, but I usually don't get many things to do at home, so it becomes a game of whether I should continue tinkering away with Dad's strange machine, or to play some of the retro games I've only been able to buy because of my salary.
"Oh? You work part-time as well, Aron? My time is usually split between taking care of Jake, that's an adorable puppy I took from the shelter last month, and my studies, so I don't get much time to take a part-time job even if I wanted to." Therese was quick to expand on the conversation, sharing something I would otherwise not know from being acquainted to someone in the span of two days.
Laurance shakes his head sidewards as he faced us and begins to walk backwards, his eyes on me and Therese. A smile puts itself to his face when he begins to speak too. "Ha! I work part-time too! I'm one of the many student waiters for a fast-food chain a few blocks away from our school. My brothers are all very young to handle working so I do it for them as their big bro. Looks like we get a lot of things in common eh, Aron?"
I nodded, chuckling to myself in the process.
My team and I made for the forest stretching beyond the vastness of the savannah just outside the city. From there we traversed the thick forest over by the west gate, slowly vanishing into the greens and bushes that surrounded us with no motion of escape. We weren't bothered by it in any way however, as we were all in good levels to handle the kind of monsters that may pop into this place anyway.
"So, what's our objective again, Therese?" Laurance asked without changing his carefree mood, my attention attuned to our conversations that even though my eyes were trained towards the road ahead, my ears were sharply listening and anticipating Therese' answer.
Therese swiped away her arm to brush off the overhanging tree branch to her left as she skipped over a fallen log. Then, she carefully speaks in her usual gentle tone of voice. "Let's see... there is a cave nearby called the Taunborough Cavern, and as far as I know it's a good place to obtain a level 10 crystal that makes for a good bladed weapon. As for my bow, I need some branches off of the Elm Tree that grows to the north of the Starting City."
"Great!" Laurance exclaimed in what looked like pure excitement. He puts his arm around my neck once more as he speaks out his opinion about the matter. "Let's go find those crystals first, then let's get you your branches, Therese."
The travel time we spent on approaching the target area as marked on Therese' minimap data was no less than thirty minutes tops, but it was well worth it because it allowed me more time to chat with my new friends and get to know them.
As we learned from earlier, Therese is a huge fan of pets. She loves visiting a shelter near her apartment complex each time she gets the chance to play with the rescued puppies there. Recently, she becomes involved in the release of a German Shepherd which was left behind by its previous owner after they moved out a month ago. She brings the dog to the shelter, but immediately falls in love with the poor puppy so she requested to bring it home with her instead. She named the dog Jake.
Unlike her, Laurance is afraid of pets, cats to be exact, because he's afraid they'd scratch him all over. Other than that, he has about four other younger siblings whom he has to take care by himself because his father is working out of the country to provide for their family, whilst his mother is no longer around. As such, he has to stand up on his own two feet as their mother and father at the same time, much like my situation with my sister Ashley.
"Oh, we're here!"
A statement from Therese that seized my perception and imprisoned my thoughts at the back of my mind once more. When I raised my head from the ground, I saw that the three of us stands before a cavern overrun by tall grasses in all directions. The mouth leading to the chasm is opened widely, inviting players to come over and discover what is beneath the surface.
"Oh, so this is the Taunborough Cavern, huh?" I vocalized to break the sudden second of silence between our group as we drink in our environment upon its discovery. I began to make my way towards the entrance, carefully stepping across the tall bushes that surrounded it like trap. "Let's go, those crystals won't harvest themselves."
Just like that, the three of us ventured deep into the dungeon ahead.
The place was obviously dingy and rough, the floor has been made up of a combination of mud, stones, and moss as if we had just stepped into a swamp. It dirtied our boots, but we have no time to complain about it now.
Laurance is leading our group deep into the area, and as such, is the one to carry our torch which helped illuminate our environment, since none of us can perform illusions to light up the surroundings using magic. Laurance is a Dvergr, and is thus leaning heavily towards physical combat, while Therese is a Rhothar, so she mostly has balanced capabilities to perform magic and use her strengths for melee combat. I am a Spriggan, but I haven't unlocked any ability from my sphere that is deeply magic oriented. Besides, our people are mostly useful for enchanting our gear, not performing magic as expected.
"I bet your dog likes to play in the mud so you don't mind getting it on your shoes, eh Therese?" Laurance will suddenly ask, a knowing smile on his face. The latter will nod her head innocently in response to this.
"Jake likes to visit his friends from the shelter, and every once in a while, they play in the mud and I help the caretakers there in cleaning up after them." She said, raising her opened palm which is her usual gesture whenever she has something she wants to explain.
Laurance then shifts his attention to me, his head looking over his shoulder to motion for me to talk. "Oh, must be nice. We should visit that shelter sometimes, don't you think so Aron?"
I smiled back at him.
"Sure. My sister once had a dog we named Astrophel because we both love stars and astronomy, but she passed away when I was only 15." I said, smiling bitterly at the memory of our beloved companion. Astrophel was a gift from our father, and for them to pass away was a big thing for the two of us because she was a living memory of our parents.
"Aww man, I've always wanted a pet too, JUST NO CATS." Laurance proudly yelled as our group walked further and further into the cavern with no known direction of travel. It seemed like a huge hallway with no end right now.
"Wait, where are we going? I haven't seen any crystals around here yet." I mentioned, looking over to Therese as I searched her face for answers.
"I heard it's located deeper into the caves. We should be able to see another passageway leading a level down, that should bring us closer to where the crystals are." She responds swiftly as she looked around her too. "Look! It's over there."
Therese points her finger to the direction in front of us where we found a branching pathways leading to different parts of the cave it seems. One is going downwards, and the other is leading to a left turn, but what we learned from Therese was enough for us to understand that we must approach to the pathway to our right instead.
"Let's go then!" Laurance exclaimed once again, running haphazardly towards our chosen path as if the threat of monsters nearby do not faze him. Therese and I worriedly followed suit, but we tried to keep our guard up in spite of the fact that there were no monsters around the area just yet. It was an odd level design for a dungeon like this.
The hallway down this path was almost the same as before, only that the walls now begin to glisten with life. The stone appears to be more cyan in color, and a haze the hues of turquoise seems to permeate the environment as if it was a magical volcano crater.
Looks like we really picked the right path.
We took a turn to the left where the hallway ended in a circular hall with its ceiling full of glowing blobs which I can't tell whether they were gigantic magic jewels or eggs. Below the glowing blobs acting like light bulbs was an exit leading to another corridor, but upon crossing it, we've found another hall similar to the one we've seen before.
"What is this place?" Laurance asked while we were crossing the corridor that went after the second room we stumbled upon earlier. By the end of said pathway is a direct right turn that further confused our group.
We stepped forth and continued to follow the road laid in front of us, but what we see next catches us off guard. The hallway ends with a gigantic room with a higher ceiling than what we once knew. It was full of the same turquoise aura that makes the place glow brilliantly, but not enough to blind the three of us.
Looking out to the center of the room, we've found the same arrangement of glowing blobs, but they weren't hanging from the ceiling this time. They were on the floor, tossed inside a bundle of giant leaves that make up what seems to be a nest. Upon closer look, we've found something that lays down on said arrangement of leaves, and the sight sent chills down my spine.
"A dragon!" I exclaimed.
We are in a dragon's nest!