Chapter 10 - An Anticlimactic Reunion
Her vision, which had been awash in white, gradually regained its color. As the scenery unfolded, a lively soundscape filled the air. Blinking several times to adjust, Sora looked around the fountain plaza where she had logged out the previous night.
Yesterday, she had made a spectacle of herself in front of a large crowd, but today, few paid her any mind. Despite it being around seven in the morning in the real world, the plaza was already teeming with players. She was relieved to have avoided an awkward run-in with yesterday's audience.
After a good night’s sleep, Sora returned to the virtual world feeling refreshed and motivated. “Alright!” she whispered, steeling her resolve. First things first, she had to find Haru, from whom she had parted so abruptly out of embarrassment.
He had helped her so much, yet she had logged out on him without even getting his contact information. She had to find him again, apologize properly, and, if possible, ask him to be friends.
Though she had made a conscious choice, it seemed new players who picked Istia were truly rare. After yesterday, Sora was keenly aware that she, being unskilled in combat, needed allies to progress. Since she couldn’t reasonably hope for peers or successors to show up, the only person she could rely on was Haru.
She felt guilty for seeming so dependent, but beggars couldn't be choosers… and more importantly, adventuring with him had been fun. While she had caught a glimpse of his… eccentric side at the very end, she figured he had probably just gotten carried away by an uncontrollable burst of excitement.
“I wonder if I’ll see him again…”
Her biggest regret was her own foolishness last night, logging out in a fit of shame. In this game, you couldn't exchange messages unless you were registered as friends or belonged to the same clan or some other community line.
Therefore, for Sora to meet Haru again, she had to either swallow her pride and ask the players around her about his whereabouts, or trust in luck and hope for a second chance encounter.
In Istia, where new players were non-existent, they would have stood out, so the former option shouldn't be too difficult—the problem was Sora's shyness.
Realizing she was about to chicken out and choose the latter, Sora shook her head. No, no, she chided herself, giving a mental slap to her naturally timid heart.
“I’m the one who messed up, so I have to be the one to fix it!”
One moment she stood there with a pensive expression, the next her face would light up as she recalled last night’s adventure, only for her eyes to cloud with sadness at the memory of her failure, and finally, she would clench her fists to pump herself up.
As a bona fide beautiful girl of an avatar did all this, she drew warm, amused glances from the players around her, but the girl, now fired up with determination, was completely oblivious.
Naturally, some saw the girl who was clearly a newcomer and thought, “This is my chance,” preparing to approach her. But Sora, oblivious to such intentions, was about to call out to a kind-looking player passing by when—at that very moment.
“—That damn boar bastard! I’ll never forgive it!!!”
—Without warning, Haru’s enraged shout echoed through the fountain plaza, reaching everyone's ears as he respawned.
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That damn boar, are you kidding me, it just pops up out of nowhere with a stun and then a one-hit-kill charge, how am I supposed to deal with that, I’d just wiped out a whole herd and my battle high was completely gone, and it’s a triggered boss spawn, seriously, what’s the trigger, do I have to train all those idiots again, what are non-AGI builds supposed to do, there has to be another condition—“H-Haru-san…?”—or something right, yeah there has to be, maybe killing a certain number? But hunting them one by one is a pain in its own way, so maybe training them again is better, but how do I deal with that area-of-effect stun—
“Um, Haru-san!”
“Huh?”
A familiar, lovely voice pulled me out of my rage-fueled, high-speed thought process. Well, more than just familiar…
“Wait, uh… Sora?”
It was the one-night-only buddy with whom I had adventured yesterday and parted ways with on a rather intense note.
“Um, uh… g-good morning.”
“Oh, uh, morning…”
“…………”
“…………”
Uh, what do I do? I had hoped to see her again, but the final impression I left was so strong that I had no idea what kind of face to make. It was just… awkward.
For now, should I thank her for clinging to my arm for some reason? I’d probably get slapped.
She seemed to be in a similar boat. Maybe she was remembering the same thing I was, because her cheeks were faintly blushing, which only made me feel more uncomfortable.
……………………Hmm.
It’s not that I’m completely against this kind of sweet, romantic vibe, and I am, after all, a college student this spring, a youth still permitted the follies of adolescence.
Although her appearance was just an avatar… she had a great personality, a cute voice and mannerisms, and most importantly, despite being of the opposite sex, being with her was strangely relaxing and not tiring at all. It was an honor to be generating what could be mistaken for a rom-com atmosphere with a girl who had, for all intents and purposes, earned the title of a perfect beauty.
But, honestly, right now, I just wanted to enjoy the game called [Arcadia] to the fullest. And I knew from our adventure last night that she felt the same way.
Which meant that, for now, it was a definite no-thank-you to any rom-com antics. I knew that if I said this to the veteran players glaring at me for creating this vibe with Sora, I might be subjected to a merciless spawn-camping hell, but—no, thank you.
Okay. From this moment on, I will treat the girl before me as a “little sister.”
“—Alright.”
The moment I made that decision, I felt all sorts of troublesome things vanish from my mind. Sora is cute. But not in that way. She’s a fun, sister-like presence to play with. Final answer.
“Sora.”
“Y-Yes…”
“I forgot to ask yesterday, but I was wondering if you’d like to register as friends.”
I spoke, dissipating the previous atmosphere with a clean sweep that felt a little unnatural even to myself. Sora, likely bewildered by my sudden change in demeanor, blinked her large eyes. How cute.
“You… you mean, it’s okay?”
“It’s more than okay. Most guys would be overjoyed to become friends with a girl like you.”
“Huh…? …!?”
Ah, this isn’t good. Once I excluded her as a romantic interest, my choice of words became too casual. It was clearly different from the gentlemanly persona I had tried to maintain yesterday, and Sora seemed increasingly confused by my slightly flirtatious tone.
Course correction. Even as a little sister, not too close, a bit more on the gentlemanly side…
“I had a lot of fun yesterday, so I’d be happy if we could play together again.”
Keep the smile natural—behold, the natural, professional smile I’ve cultivated over three years of part-time jobs!!
“…………”
Sora seemed to be contemplating something. In the end, whether it was my part-timer-warrior smile that won her over or some other factor, I had no way of knowing, but—
“Y-Yes, I’d love to…!”
And so, the name of the girl, Sora, who bowed her head with a somewhat nervous expression, was etched into my previously empty friends list.
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Sora extended a welcome invitation, “Since we’re here, would you like to party up again today?” I accepted without a second thought and immediately sent her a party invite. After guiding her to an NPC shop to procure some equipment, we headed to the [Plains of the Horizon] together.
By the way, she purchased a [Ring of Novice], apparently to assist with casting magic, and a set of leather armor that wouldn’t impede her movements. I wish a certain barbarian who only bought weapons and was still running around in his starting visuals would learn a thing or two.
“So that’s how I was dealing with those boars.”
Now that I was back, I gave Sora a lecture on the idiot boars, the main enemy of this field. She nodded along before tilting her head.
“From what you’ve said, they don’t sound that strong…”
“Well, they are weak. Oh, wait, with your AGI, it might be tough if one charges you from close range.”
“Right, I’ll be careful with my spacing… Ah, that’s not what I meant. I was wondering how even you could get killed by them.”
Hmm? …Ah, I see.
“If you’re talking about me respawning just now, it wasn't them who did it.”
Well, I did get run over once after underestimating them the first time. But I have no intention of telling a young lady about such a foolish mistake.
“A different enemy…?”
“Not different, exactly. More like the big boss of these idiot… boars.”
Its enemy name was [Buried Great Boar], and it was a ridiculous beast that was buried in the ground despite being no less than five meters tall—the area boss that ruled over these Plains of the Horizon.
“To be specific, the earthquake it causes when it appears stunned me, and then it trampled me.”
“…Wow.”
Sora, whose only experience with death had been the relatively soft one of being headbutted by a fungus—albeit a creepy-looking one—seemed shocked by my tale of being literally “turned into mince-meat.” The girl’s cheeks twitched slightly.
I, for one, did not want to witness the shocking scene of a beautiful girl being flattened by a gigantic boar. I wanted to approach this with a solid chance of winning, but…
“My positioning was also terrible… I really don’t want to believe that popping out of the ground right under my nose is its default move.”
“Was there, um, any warning?”
“A warning, huh. I was messing around with a herd of about thirty of them right before, so it’s possible I missed a sign.”
“Thirty… Huh? What kind of situation was that?”
Don’t give me that look like, “You were doing something weird again.” It’s not like I actively try to do strange things.
“Anyway, this is your first time with the small-fry boars too, so let’s try hunting them one by one.”
“Ah, right!”
After hunting about ten of them, I had abandoned all pretense of caution and chosen to become the wind, but it’s possible that if I had continued more methodically, I might have noticed the flag.
Now that I’ve managed to meet up with Sora, I’ll just pretend my solo journey earlier never happened and switch to a more relaxed, enjoyable pace.
“Um… that said, I still don’t have any way to attack…”
Sora said, shrinking back as if just remembering.
“Did you log out right after we parted yesterday? I got a few skills, so you should check too, Sora.”
“Oh… now that you mention it, I forgot.”
It was true that I was the sole attacker, but without the girl’s healing support, I don’t know how many times I would have been reduced to a shower of death effects. It was hard to believe she wouldn’t be granted any skills for her clear contribution to the boss fight.
…Well, if it’s based on the player’s actions, she probably wouldn’t get an attack spell. But she might have gotten one by mistake. I believe the system is kind to beautiful girls—
“Um… 《Healer's Mindset》?”
Yep. Her path as a pure healer is now set in stone.
Reading out the name of a skill that was in no way related to attacking, Sora wore an indescribably sad expression. Knowing that she, despite her lack of aptitude, wanted to fight on the front lines herself, I quietly averted my eyes from the painful sight.