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[Flippity-Floosy]

Holy moly, how long has it been since I've been on here!?

Sorry I've been behind on most of my stories. Got a new position at my job, which demanded a lot more hours and work than I had initially anticipated. Back to back 12-hour-shifts are no bueno. Glad that I got another new position which is FAAAAR less time consuming than the last.

Definitely update some of my other stories, but I had a brain blast and decided to add another one to the list. Is it the best thing to tack on more stories when I have several unfinished ones? Probably not. Will I still do it? Absolutely!

Definitely a calmer-paced, slow burn story in mind. May or may not be NSFW, but for the most part, it is SFW. No more details! Here it is:

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Holy Shit…

The Ebony Dragon proved to be significantly harder to take down than he initially thought.

Especially since Viliana’s strongest spell, Heaven’s Flare, didn’t even knock it out of the sky like they had hoped.

When Viliana, the team’s mage and one of Ingil’s greatest magic casters of all time, easily capable of blasting through an entire army of undead vanguard soldiers with ease, began to look pale, Acchon knew they were in deep shit. Especially since it was a well known fact that a spell as powerful as Heaven’s Flare, which was easily one of the most powerful spells of all time and capable of taking out the mighty Shadow Arbiters in a single blow, came at the cost of using at least two-thirds of a mage’s mana pool.

Right now, Viliana was limited to using less powerful spells that would do nothing but irritate the dragon that was eyeing them down from above in the abyssal dungeon, its crimson red eyes glowing in the darkness of the massive dark cavern as it glared menacingly down at the group of adventurers. The mage was nothing more than a glass cannon without ammo against a warhammer that was ready to come down to smash it into pieces.

The dragon let out a guttural roar that reverberated against the stone walls of the cavern before dark energy began to gather in its mouth, coagulating into a ball of dark matter, a black hole pulsating with black electricity.

“It’s about to fire! Get down!”

It was Frederick who yelled it, but by the time he finished shouting his warning, the dragon was already firing, right at the helpless mage who could only look on at wide-eyed horror, still in shock that her strongest barely fazed the dragon.

Acchon’s legs moved quicker than his mind as he sprinted full on towards the fear-stricken light mage, still in the center of the platform, muttering under his breath a quick spell to allow him to bolt at three times his normal speed.

The blast was coming in fast, and it almost hadn’t been enough, but before their mage could be blown to bits, Acchon has managed tackle her out of the way, the seering energy blast missing him by a hair as they both went down and rolled down the stairs and onto the the main slab of the cavern.

A bit discombobulated from the tumble, he rolled off of Viliana and looked the mage down in immediate concern. “Are you alright?”

The light mage was a bit shaken, but after giving herself a quick shake of her head to get herself together, she was quick to answer. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She glanced up at the sky to see the dragon was now being distracted by a hail of golden arrows soaring up from below, hitting and exploding on its underbelly. She grimaced. “Wasn’t expecting something like that to still be standing.”

Acchon nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it really is as tough as they say. I don’t know if we’ll be able to pull this one off.”

Another voice, laced with both irritation and desperation, called out to them. “Hey! You two! If you’re done cuddling one another, we could use some help over here!”

Of course, that had been Rexerbus, the team werewolf archer and comedian, and the one currently trying to hold off the dragon alongside Frederick, the main melee fighter of the group who was running up the vertical walls and launching himself straight at the dragon to land a powerful punch capable of shattering diamond right at the dragon’s snout.

To Frederick’s credit, the dragon bellowed a roar of agony, his head turning with the punch that created a shockwave that rattled the interior of the dungeon. A testament to his strength to be able to make a dragon nearly the size of a castle actually react in obvious pain. It was now becoming rather apparent that it had a powerful magic resistance but was vulnerable to physical attacks.

Acchon huffed. Explained why Viliana’s attack seemed to do little to nothing but annoy it.

Reaching for his Elemental Halberd, honed from alchemy and imbued with magic, electrical energy sparkled with a light green glow. He looked to Viliana and simply said, “Buff me.”

Without hesitation, the mage held her hand out to him and an immediate surge of power flowed throughout his entire being, his body aglow with a red aura.

Halberd held at the ready, he crouched below leaping up into the air, jettisoning a good seventy feet off the ground with a blast of air as he closed the distance between him and the dragon in a near instant, swinging his halberd with all his might and cutting a swath of fire right into the dragon side, leaving behind a glowing tear through the dark scales before black blood began shot out like a geyser.

To a dragon so massive, it was just a big scrape. But it did succeed in damaging it, proving his observation of physical attacks to be correct.

He began to rapidly descend from his tremendous leap, somersaulting in the air before he landed on his feet like a cat. He briefly grinned at his small of victory before his smile fell away once he noticed that the cut on the dragon began to rapidly diminish, healing away seamlessly as though it was never there.

“Dammit…” He muttered to no one in particular. “Of course it would have a healing factor.” Because why the fuck wouldn’t it?

“If you think that’s bad,” said the team’s lancer, straight-man, and Goblin-Lord, Rolo, who came up from Acchon’s right. The dude had to have supernatural hearing, as far as Acchon knew.“It also is resistant to poison damage. I tried using Moluc’s Poison on it and it’s still at full power. Ain’t that a bitch?”

That is was indeed. “Which means only Blessed Weapons and things with Light Essence can permanently hurt it.” Acchon surmised grimly.

Viliana, a light mage, should’ve been the linchpin in this battle, but with the dragon’s absurdly high magic resistance, she was only good as support in this battle.

And the only person in their crew that could have been a match for the beast currently wasn’t even there.

“Shiiiiiiiit! Where the fuck’s Xanthe when you need her!?” cried out Rexerbus, who had echoed his thoughts aloud and had just managed to barely dodge the blast of the dragon’s breath in time from becoming a frozen statue.

Wait a minute. The dragon had ice breath too!? This was all kinds of unfair.

Frederick was going in for another punch, his fist channelling energy to boost his strength, only for the dragon to swirl around in the air and lash out with a devastating tail whip that sent his careening through the air like a comet, smashing against the cavern walls with a resounding thud, a pyroclastic amount of dust churning from the impact.

Acchon gritted his teeth at the sight of the group’s physically strongest warrior being ragdolled so easily.

Frederick remained stuck to the wall for all of two seconds before falling to the ground. He was about sixty feet from the ground when he was swept up from a flash of white motion, one that moved almost as fast lightning.

Speaking of lightning, that was exactly what suddenly shot out at the dragon, a bolt of pure white striking the dragon with a massive flash before the massive creature cried out, turning over and falling to the ground.

It all happened so fast that Acchon almost didn’t catch it.

As the dragon landed on the ground with a thunderous crash, a humanoid figure landed right in the center of the platform, holding Frederick in their arms.

Once the dust cleared away, a great sense of elation filled his heart at the sight of the strikingly tall, platinum armor-cladded woman holding standing amidst the wreckage. With long, golden-blonde hair flowing from the back of a white and intricately designed helm, a massive broadsword with a golden handle, and a shield with the emblem of the Sinolian Knights was the team’s strongest member and one of the most highly regarded paladins of the Order of Zihara.

The game changer, and the one and only Xanthe.

Despite the helm hiding all of her facial features, Acchon could hear the amusement in her voice when she said, “Geez, I’m late by only a few minutes and you guys are already on death’s door?” She placed Frederick on the ground, the warrior a few inches shorter her, “Seriously, what would you guys do without me?”

Acchon looked at her with a smirk. Confident as ever, wasn’t she? “What took you so long?” he asked gamely.

She shrugged and responded, the contralto of her voice risen to a teasing level as she responded. “Looks like you don't pay attention to my endeavors, hm? Had to finish up some business with a merchant for ten-thousand gold. You know how much they give when the monthly monsters come out.”

Then came the condescension, something she was known for among the group. “Of course, I thought you guys could hold out for at least a few minutes. But it looks like a simple dungeon crawler run can get the best of you guys.” She huffed at them. “And here I thought you guys might actually be alright on your own.”

“Talk later!” interjected Rexerbus, who was running from a spray of fire as the dragon swept its head across the ground, trying to torch the werewolf. “Hurry up and help us!” Despite firing a hail of arrows at the rising form of the dragon, there was no indication that the dragon even felt them as it looked back down at the group with a furious expression upon its reptilian face. “It’s about to get back up!”

In response, the paladin knight gave them a cocky hum as she reached behind her to pull out the sword from its scabbard. The sword, easily well over a hundred pounds and sharp enough to cleave through bedrock, gleamed in the shadows of the cavern with a holy essence, radiant in nature.

“Man, if this lizard is giving you trouble,” she said with a playful lilt of arrogance. “Then let me show you how its done.”

With that, she shot her sword into the air as it a vortex of wind and light began to encircle around her being, a blast of golden light erupting from underneath her before she leapt forward with a flashstep that cratered the ground, charging at the dragon with a magnificent power as she hopped thirty feet forward and swung the massive blade right through the front of the dragon’s chest and shoulder.

The dragon let out an anguished cry of agony as it lifted up, balancing on its hind legs. But the paladin was as fast as she was strong, bounding off the wall and slashing at its underbelly and thigh, sending the massive creature toppling to the ground once more.

Over and over again, Xanthe would cut across multiple parts of its enormous body, her sword cleaving through the monster like swiss cheese and leaving spurts of black blood shooting out from multiple lacerations. Despite the heavy armor she donned upon her, she moved with incredible speed and agility that belied its weight, moving the sword as if it weighed nothing as she cleaved through the dragon’s limbs and body with inhuman ease.

The rest of the adventurers watched from a distance in a mix between awe and shock as she continued to fight the dragon. A challenge that took a group effort was solely handled by a single one of its members.

Acchon’s reddish-brown eyes watched in astonishment as the paladin dodged a swipe of the dragon’s claw and lobbed off the offending limb with a single swipe of her sword.

She really was a cut above the rest of them. Truly someone who was selling herself short remaining with the lot of them. Even he had to acknowledge that.

The rockface of the abandoned dark chapel gave way under the dragon’s body as the mighty creature was reduced to a pitifully weak and oversized gecko, its left wing and one claw amputated from its body and dispersing in a ooze of darkness.

Xanthe, floating in the air above a spell circle that granted her temporary flight, decided to end the fight with a literal blaze of glory. She struck her sword into the air and watched it gather lightning akin to Thor’s Hammer.

With a shout, she made one last dash towards the monster and swung her sword with all her might, a massive gash of white bisecting the dragon from head to tail before the creature let out one last roar before disintegrating into particles of white light that evaporated in the air.

Xanthe, sheathing her sword and shield in mid-air, landed on her feet, triumphant.

There was a moment of silence for all of two seconds before a large, golden “VICTORY” symbol appeared in the mid-air above the platform.

Acchon let out a sigh of relief. One of the dungeon’s most dreaded bosses in all of Ingil finally taken down.

And the loot drop to boot that hovered above instantly adding the considerable amount of gold, gems, and potions made it all the more worth it.

“All right! Way to go, Xanthe!” praised Rexerbus, aka iGotSoftballz69, as he ran to Xanthe’s side. iGotSoftballz69, (or as the group greatly preferred, “Rexerbus”) as he went by his other handle name, taking the appearance of ,a childish looking boy with wolf-ears and tail, was smaller than most avatars, but he looked positively diminutive next to the female paladin, whose avatar stood at least six-foot-five, even succeeding Frederick’s notably tall height of six-foot-three.

As the other players made their way to meet with the female knight, Rolo, whose other online handle was far less vulgar and simple as ABCrusaDer11, let out a sigh of relief. There was quite a dissonance hearing such a calm, smooth voice coming from a rather grotesque looking being with a severe, fang-filled underbite. It was easy to forget he was the only one who didn’t bother with the voice modulator update that had been added to the game four months ago. “Seriously, we almost had a full on TPK before you showed up.”

Frederick, who looked a bit frazzled, crossed his arms and looked away. “Oh c’mon… I had it on the ropes.”

Rexerbus, turned to the heavily-bearded barbarian warrior, and sneered. “Yeah, for like a minute or two. If that.”

Frederick, or Megakilla237, turned to the wolf boy-werewolf archer and growled. “I didn’t see you faring any better.”

Rex, taking it in stride, simple put his hands on the back of his hands in casual dismissal of the man’s irritation. “S’not my fault. Dragon scales are hard as hell to pierce through. ‘Sides, most of my more powerful spells are all AoE attacks.”

“I think I was the most useless one here,” admitted the blue-haired white mage, Viliana, also known as Vivibibibi. Dressed in her light blue and white sorceress garb and the second female player of the group, she stood out quite a bit in comparison to her more battle-ready, mostly male group who wore armor and protection.

Demure and rather timid, it was hard to believe she, like Xanthe, were one of the best players of the game, with her in the top thousand.

“This is the first time Heaven’s Flare actually failed me,” Viliana told them, pulling up a holographic screen to display her stats and the amount of mana such a spell had consumed. Two-thirds had been generous; she barely had a fourth of her mana left. It’d take a full thirty minutes before it could climb all the way back to normal.

And despite all that power she had in spellcasting, she was the squishiest wizard of them all. Guess that’s what happens when you “minmax the battleaxe” as GWOMMO players would say.

Xanthe reached up and pulled the helm off her head, revealing her avatar’s face, a beautiful woman beyond compare with illustrious blue eyes and a surprisingly gentle face. She was smiling when she asked, “Didn’t you, of all people, Vi, know that dragon’s have some of the greatest magical resistances in the game?” The snarky tone was a bit out of left field. “Honestly, I thought you’d know better to cast Magic Drain flask when going against the Ebony.”

Despite the arrogance in her voice, all the other players knew not to take her condescending tone seriously. Xanthe was known to get really into roleplaying as the untouchable knight, and even her insults were clearly made in jest.

Well, all the other players except Frederick, who rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Seriously, can’t you just talk like a normal human being for like two seconds?” he groaned. It was hardly the first time he made it known that he found the haughty persona of the paladin insufferable.

One of Xanthe’s eyes twitched, the smile on her face vanishing in an instant.

The tension that filled the air only lasted a second or two before someone felt the need to break it.

“C’mon Fred, lighten’ up,” Acchon, aka Player09134453, said, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder as he put his halberd back in its sheath with the other. “She’s just RPing, dude. It’s not a big deal.”

“There’s a hell of a lot of roleplaying servers out there,” countered Frederick, as he glared at the paladin, who seemed to be returning it in full force. “This ain’t one of them. And besides, who the hell still roleplays nowadays? Especially a WC player? I-GUH-HUH!?”

Frederick was instantly cut off by the team’s resident werewolf jumping on his back and stretching his cheek, forcing it into a semi-glasgow smile.

“Oh, don’t get so worked up, Freddy!” teased the wolfboy, as he stayed latched onto the broad man’s back. “You got to smile more! It’s just a game! And besides,” Rexerbus turned towards the paladin, who was standing proud with an amused smile on her face. “Xanthe here is one of the best of the best. If she wants to roleplay, I say, let her roleplay!”

“Geh offa muh,” mumbled Fred as he shook the wolf off his back, forcing him to latch off. He turned to the wolfboy who backflipped and landed in a crouch before letting out a disgruntled sigh. “Honestly. I keep thinking you’re really a kid somedays, Evan.”

The barbarian turned to the group. “Well, I got work in the morning. Gonna hit the hay.”

Acchon raised his eyebrows. “So soon?” They had just beaten one of the most infamous dungeon crawler bosses in the whole game and he was about to head on out without any sort of fanfare.

Fred pulled up his own interface, displaying his formidable stats, class, and the logout screen, which he had already highlighted. “Gotta be there by five in the morn’ if I’m gonna get any shit done. They’ve been houndin’ my ass for being late yesterday.”

Ah. Acchon could imagine. Before he got laid off, all it took was two instances of lateness (due to traffic, mind you) for him to be on the list to be let go. Petty bastards.

“You still meeting up at Davey’s Joint on Saturday?” asked Rexerbus, who was giving him a cheeky grin.

Fred snorted. “I already said I was, didn’t I? Can’t guarantee I’ll be on time though.”

Acchon almost had forgotten all about the plan for the whole team to have another IRL meeting at Davey’s. He was sincerely glad that it was brought up. He thought he had put a reminder on it on his phone, but it had been a month ago since they made the plans to meet.

“You know I can’t go this time,” said Rolo with a shake of his head. “My job’s having a merger.”

“Oof,” Rexerbus winced in understanding. “No wonder you’ve been offline for two weeks.”

“Yeah, I’m shocked I even got off on time today. Those twelve-hour shifts are killer.” Rolo commented, “So I’ll probably be logging off too.”

Acchon gave them both a wave. “Alrighty then. Night Rol. Night Fred.”

The two returned the wave before their avatars lit up in an aura of neon blue before disappearing in a flash of particles, indicating that they had logged off for the night.

Then, Viliana stepped forward, pulling up her own personal screen.

“Well, I might as well go too. I got an exam first thing in the morning too,” Viliana sighed. “To be honest, I shouldn’t have been online but you know me.”

Sometimes it was easy to forget that “Viliana” was a grad student given how often most of the players would see her online, especially since she, like Xanthe and Fred, was a “ranking player,” an accomplishment that can only be reached if one played the game long enough to reach such high levels.

Rexerbus let out a small chuckle. “Studying hard, I bet?”

She returned the laugh, a bit more mellowed. “More like hardly studying. I should be online tomorrow though.”

With that she bid them a quick adieu before she too logged out.

That left only Rexerbus, Acchon and Xanthe.

Acchon couldn’t help but think that everyone leaving left a rather anticlimactic way to go about their huge victory.

“Man, everyone’s leaving so soon!” complained Rexerbus, shaking his head in feigned frustration. “Like, you’d think we’d be celebrating the fact that we beat a Level Eighty monster but it's like everyone’s hitting and quitting.”

“Why do you have to make everything so sexual?” groaned Acchon, “And it's not their fault that they, you know, have a life.”

The wolfboy turned towards him with a look. Ah, he guessed that was a bit of a hit below the belt. “You’re a fucking riot, you know that?”

Acchon couldn’t contain the smirk on his character’s face. Rexerbus had been a longtime friend of his, both online and then in real life after their first meet up four years ago. If he didn’t bust this man’s balls from time to time, who would?

But Rex, being the whimsical person that he was, simply continued on before looking at Xanthe, who had remained strangely quiet. “Hey Xan! Thinking you might want to actually join us this time around?”

The blonde mouth quirked in the smallest of smiles before she let out an uproarious bout of laughter. “And spend time with you hooligans? I think I can find more refined ways of wasting my time, thank you very much.”

Rex joined her in laughing, albeit a bit fake, before he went on, his face becoming more serious as he went on, tentatively. “Alright, alright… I gotcha,” then his smile dropped away as he gave her a more serious look. It looked rather uncharacteristic of his character’s build to look semi-stern. “But really, Xan. Drop the character for a bit and answer me seriously.” His head tilted in genuine confusion. “I promise we’re all a friendly bunch outside the game.”

Xanthe’s prideful arrogance, played up for fun, disappeared instantly to give way to an unreadable expression. Acchon didn’t need foresight to know that Xanthe didn’t really like talking about things outside the game. And pressing the issue time was beginning to wear on her.

“C’mon… live a little! I mean, I understand if you don’t want to, but I really think you should give it a shot,” Rexerbus said, trying to sound comforting, disregarding the tight frown on the paladin’s face. “Davey’s is super fun. They got an arcade there and bowling too.” His smile broadened, becoming more catlike as he inadvertently bared his canines. “The VR Lounge is also pretty damn cool.”

“Rex…” Acchon warned, but his comrade and friend shot him a dubious look. While Rex somehow was missing it, Acchon didn’t miss the way Xanthe began to look more and more uncomfortable, as though he was trying to proposition her. “Slow it down, Rex…”

“What?” he countered, slightly annoyed. “I’m not trying to pressure her or anything! I’m just wondering why she doesn’t want to meet up.”

Acchon shook his head disapprovingly. “Listen, some people just don’t feel like meeting IRL. It isn’t rocket science.” It felt silly that he had to literally spell it out for the archer. “They could be shy in real life, busy, or just don’t want to ruin the fun by meeting outside the game. Let it go.”

There was an uncomfortable pause in the still air, a droning sound echoing through the massive dungeon cavern, before Rex let out a long sigh.

“Right, right…yeah,” conceded the wolfboy as he turned back to the paladin. “Sorry. Wasn’t trying to put you on the spot. It’s just…”

There was a somber look in Rex’s lycanthropic eyes, slightly pensive as he said, “You’ve been on our team for two years and we know nothing about you, Xan. I mean, outside the game.” He walked a bit closer to the tall woman who towered over him. “Like, what you do for a living. How old you are. What your favorite food is… nothing. And, it’s not like we’re asking about where you live or anything, but you shut us down even if we ask your favorite color.”

Xanthe, who was normally imperious in appearance, looked slightly flustered as Rex concluded. “Whenever I log on, it's like you’re already there. You’re so chronically online, it’s hard to even imagine you outside of the game.”

Acchon scowled. It didn’t take an interpreter for him to tell that Rex was essentially trying to not-so-subtly suggest she’d “touch grass.”

But even he had to admit that it felt like Xanthe was on for an unhealthy amount of time, if the amount of her P2P items and the glimpses of her own interface screen usually reading her hours, with her shelling in twelve hours a day far more than the average player, were anything to go by.

With her ranking and the amount of P2P items in her inventory, it didn’t take a genius to know that she was either wealthy, had a lot of free time, or was obsessed with the game.

And with all the clues and evidence, it was leaning towards the third theory.

And while Rexerbus was known to be a bit intrusive and offensive sometimes in his words, he knew it was coming from a place of genuine concern, which Acchon and Rex both shared for the person behind the paladin.

The paladin that was now looking away from them in… was it… shame? Embarrassment?

Either way, Rex seemed to look guilty for putting her on the spot.

“Hey, nevermind.” Rex said, backing away from the blonde woman to give her space when he noticed just how much he had put her at unease. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I was just…”

Rex seemed to fumble over his words for a moment before deciding on what to say, looking Xanthe in her deep blue eyes.

“Listen, we’re planning to have an IRL at Davey’s at one on the corner of Bostov’s and Millers,” explained Rex, “All of us have met each other already, and we’d love to have you onboard. If you want, it can be my treat. I know Zaptrains aren’t really cheap, so if you need a ride, let me know.”

There was a not-so-brief silence between the three players, no one uttering a word, creating a stagnance filled with an uncomfortably tense silence.

Xanthe’s eyes didn’t either of her comrades’ when she finally answered, her expression uncharacteristically timid and rather contemplative.

“I’ll… think about it.”

It… didn’t sound convincing. At least to Acchon.

And if Rex’s expression was anything to go by, him either. But he didn’t say anything, instead, waving his hand to pull up his own interface.

“I’m gonna go get dinner. Haven’t eaten a damn thing all day,” Rex complained, scrolling down to the logout screen. But before he pressed the button, he gave the paladin a beseeching look. “Give it a chance… okay? I genuinely think you’d have a good time.”

And with that, he gave a farewell nod to both Acchon and Xanthe before his avatar too burst into blue particles.

Leaving just the Acchon, a simple mid-tier fighter, and the knight of the Order of Zihara.

The two stood there, two lone figures in the great expanse of the fallen Ebony Dragon’s dungeon. Acchon glanced at Xanthe, whose expression hadn’t changed with the leaving of the werewolf.

He frowned. What a way to celebrate defeating one of the most infamous S-ranked bosses in the game.

Still, seeing their once prideful tank still looking fairly uncomfortable put a pit in his stomach. He’d feel kind of like a jerk to logout without saying anything to her.

“Say, uh… Xanthe?” he said, getting the other player’s attention.

There was something incredibly off-putting seeing such a melancholic expression on someone who liked to roleplay as a proud fighter who could solo difficult bosses.

“I can understand not wanting to meet up outside of the game,” Acchon told her, walking towards her. “I definitely get a bit antsy whenever I meet a new person outside the game. And it's a bit of a scary thing, coming out of your comfort zone. But, I’ve met Fred, Rolo, Vi, and Rex outside the game. They’re actually all pretty cool people.” He smiled, watching her frown falter a bit. “Even Fred, despite how he acts, is actually pretty nice. He doesn’t mean any harm by the way, that’s just how he normally is.”

Xanthe eyes shifted back and forth, contemplative. It was like she was trying to figure out a way to respond, but she only let out a sigh. “It’s… not that.”

His eyes widened slightly. This was the first time he had a glimpse of the person behind the act.

But it looked like she had nothing more to say before she began walking towards the opening of the dungeon, where a white portal, one that appeared whenever they completed a dungeon crawler, awaited them.

Somewhere along the line, he felt like he fucked up somewhere.

To quickly salvage the situation, he called out to her when she was only a couple feet away from the portal. “See you tomorrow?”

It was phrased as a question rather than a declaration. One that made her pause in her walk.

There was a brief stint of silence before she responded, albeit her tone far from confident.

“...Yeah…” she answered, her voice just barely at the edge of his hearing. “See you tomorrow.”

And with that, she walked through the portal, and out of sight. On to play in a different location.

And now Acchon was the last Mohican of the group.

He let out a deep sigh and shook his head. There was nothing left for him to do now inside the dungeon, and he didn’t necessarily feel like continuing to play for the time being.

Well… maybe tomorrow they’d be able to celebrate their victory more properly. At least, he hoped so.

With a wave of his hand, he pulled up his own interface, and went to the login screen.

His finger hovered over the logout screen for a moment, before he took one glance where Xanthe had been, her sullen blue eyes and frown still fresh in his mind.

“...Yeah… See you tomorrow.”

He sincerely hoped he hadn’t scared her off.

And not just because she was their strongest player.

With that, he pressed the logout screen, and left the game.

[DocRick]

Nice read, just have no idea where it's going. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[randomguywhosthere]

Loving the set up so far! I've got a feeling I know what's going on... but I'm not spoiling it for those who wish to remain in suspense!
I really like the way that the game is set up as the story progresses. At the start, if not for the title of the story, it looks like a classic fantasy adventure where our party of heroes faces off against a dragon. Then, when the gaming lingo starts getting tossed around, we realize this is a video game, but the actions of the characters could easily be a metaphor for all the players sitting on their computers and playing the game. Then, the mystery starts to unwrap itself as the characters do more and more specific, non-game related actions and we realize this is some kind of VRMMO! Very excellent pacing throughout!

[DocRick]

Loving the set up so far! I've got a feeling I know what's going on... but I'm not spoiling it for those who wish to remain in suspense!
I really like the way that the game is set up as the story progresses. At the start, if not for the title of the story, it looks like a classic fantasy adventure where our party of heroes faces off against a dragon. Then, when the gaming lingo starts getting tossed around, we realize this is a video game, but the actions of the characters could easily be a metaphor for all the players sitting on their computers and playing the game. Then, the mystery starts to unwrap itself as the characters do more and more specific, non-game related actions and we realize this is some kind of VRMMO! Very excellent pacing throughout!

I'm thinking he is going to change this VR to reality with Xanthe, in a smaller state. Or maybe, still in VR, but she thinks it's real.

[Flippity-Floosy]

To randomguywhosthere and DocRick

Super and inexcusably belated but I love seeing that you both have theories on whats going to happen. I don't know if it's to disappoint or surprise either of you since the twist my wound up more mundane than you both probably are thinking, lol!