---------LEGEND---------
PLAYER/USERNAME
Grace/Lasair
Xia/Genevieve
-------------------------------

Lavyella was a Renaissance-style city reminiscent of the ancient cities of the Croatian coasts of Dalmatia, built on a river island and was served by two bridges that connected it on both banks of the river. The island itself was completely covered by the urbanization of the city which, following the logic of the game, had around a hundred homes despite being described as the main city in the area. Xia crossed the stone bridge and when she almost reached the gates of the Lavyella city wall the presence of a huge mass of players put the CPU of her old computer to the test, reducing her frame rate from an acceptable average of 90-100fps to a much more annoying 5-15fps.

For a moment Xia was tempted to abandon the entrance to Lavyella in favor of camping outside the city and trying to somehow get on with the game while avoiding that mass of players who – from what she could see – had settled along the entire main street of the city; Unfortunately for her the quests were the best way to level up, and all the quests she had available were located within the city. There was also the fact that her health bar was still stuck at 38% and she had to figure out how to get back to 100% as soon as possible.

“Okay, strength and courage,” Xia said to herself, taking a deep breath.

Going through all the people was literally hell for Xia: at some points she couldn't even see herself walking and when the computer managed to process all the data she found herself three or seven feet further than expected, Xia was surrounded by players who were selling, buying or offered themselves as adventuring companions to form a party or create guilds... why couldn't they stay OUTSIDE of Lavyella to carry out their business instead of killing the computers' CPU of those people like Xia, who could only afford a new model every ten years?

Xia was almost at the NPC with the golden exclamation mark above his head when a gold-skinned, blonde-haired Shinepeak elvreth appeared right in front of her field of view. From the frame that was in front of Xia it was clear that the player was walking with her head turned away from the direction of Xia's lagging step.

“Watch out!” Xia said, aware that by the time she noticed the impending impact, it had already happened.

“Sorry, sorry… I'm fine,” the elvreth replied, who in the next frame was half a step ahead and had pointed her eyes – one light blue and one green – towards Xia. Her lips and body moved jerkily to Xia's eyes, but at least the audio came in real time. "Everything OK? You seem a little stiff…"

Life is beautiful when you can afford the latest model of computer and technology for the full dive in an acceptable timing.

“I’m lagging,” Xia said wrinkling her physical nose, “outaded devices.”

“Oh, I see… and old model NexNet too, since your expression doesn’t change even if the tone of your voice does,” the elvreth observed. Xia lifted her eyes to the floating data above the elvreth’s head.

[Lasair]
[Level 1 – HP: 100%]

“Are you new? I started playing three days ago!” Lasair then added quickly, “I… I mean, I logged in and played for less than an hour…”

“Yeah,” Xia nodded, hearing Lasair speak normally and seeing her moving jerkily was unnerving. “Look, seeing everything like a compilation of slides is starting to give me a headache, and I still have to take the quest.”

“Oh! R-righ…” Lasair tucked a strand of golden hair behind her fluffy right ear, “since I have to go there too, is it o-okay if I lead the way? So you don’t bump into anyone anymore…”

It was stupid considering that Lasair didn’t know about Xia’s condition outside of the video game, but that offer to even help per walk in a straight line for about thirty-two feet had the same reaction on her that she would have felt on receiving a punch in the stomach; by the time Xia entered Legacy of the Ancestors she started to fell again… her, the whole, complete her, the one that was there before the tragic accident in which her aunt and her beloved cousin died and she came out of that alive but crippled. Now the truth had returned to her: Xia hadn’t started walking again, she was still the broken toy waiting for her outside that magical, colorful world once she turned off the NexNet and found herself back in her true body.

“Yes, I think it could be useful with this inhuman frame rate,” Xia said dryly, without any inflection in her tone and nodding slightly, she had already withdrawn into her protective cocoon without even realizing it.

And so the prodigal Lasair accompanied her in a slow procession to the main quest NPC.

-------------------------------
Mission (primary)

- DISORDERS IN NATURE

You have been informed that there is a bizarre concentration of monsters in an external area of Lavyella. The local guard has formally asked you to go and check the status of the situation and resolve it.

[Close][Show route]
-------------------------------

“Good, now I just have to get out of town,” Xia gave her a nod of thanks. Lasair had taken that quest too and so they could have done it together, but Xia wasn't going to ask, it would have been like acknowledging that she was no longer able to manage her life on her own like normal people do, like those who can still climb a ladder in less than a minute, or not wobble and fall to the ground if deprived of a crutch.

“Don't… don't you go a-accepting the side quests? There are two quests that teach you the basics of your weapon and... and how to use magic,” Lasair said, crossing her arms under her breasts, a gesture Xia watched carefully as she saw it as if it were four slides rather than a single, fluid movement.

Xia shook her head, “They're in town, maybe I'll come back when there are fewer users connected.”

“W-what about your HP?” Lasair asked hopefully for something.

Xia snorted, “well…” she turned her eyes and head away, “I don't know how to restore it. The LotA tutorial sucks.”

“I think it's done this way on purpose, this way it forces players to interact with other users,” Lasair murmured, “I can help you, with all three things! I know how to r-restore HPs, MPs and I've already done the quest that explains how to use magic, I left out combat since it only covers the basics to prepare players against easier monsters.”

Xia couldn't help but look at her skeptically, even knowing that her expression wouldn't be translated into virtual reality and hence not be seen from Lasair, "this seems like a deal too good to be true, what's the catch?"

Lasair looked at Xia as if she had slapped her in the face. “I-I don't want anything, but since you asked…” she pursed her lips, “ca-can we do 'Disorders in Nature' together? It-it seems like an adequate payment to me, I don't thi-thnk I can do it alone,” she said, forcing her lips into a smile.

A simple nod from Xia, “Deal.”

- - -

In the time it took them to leave the city, Lasair had instructed Xia on how to heal her health and how to use magic; the first was easy and she already had the resources to restore at least some of her health by using two [Small Mana Shards] at a consecrated altar to create a [Healing Crystal, Lesser] which restored her health to a safer 49%. For magic, however, things were different: first of all she had unlocked the first spell on the list, then she had to study the hand gestures necessary to be able to communicate to the system that she wanted to use it, finishing everything with a voice command; the problematic part of magic was that Xia had no direct choice in how to learn her list, simply every certain level reached a new spell would be unlocked in her list. The spells did not increase in power or duration by leveling up as a character but had their own EXP bars, they leveled up on their own by using them in combat or through the use of objects that immediately gave a certain amount of level EXP. That stuff was something that was given sparely for free, so to encourage microtransactions in exchange for faster growth.

"All clear?" Lasair asked, waking Xia from her mental summary of what she had learned.

Xia nodded, “yes,” she forced herself to talk more, “at least, I think I understood everything necessary to not die an unglorious death to a minor slima.”

“I'm glad,” Lasair smiled at her, the look on her face almost making it seem like she was helping herself rather than Xia. “As for combat, for now I will only teach you the correct position of the hands, legs and how to avoid blows,” Lasair lowered her head, apparently mortified, “in VRMMO-RPGs what matters are your real combat skills, and to develop at least the basics for a test fight you need at least a week of lessons. This is basic preparation for the quest, if you keep the monsters' aggro on you I will get rid of them."

“So that's why you wanted to have a partner for the quest? You needed a bait?” Xia asked with a hint of a smile, forgetting that her avatar can't change its expression.

Perhaps because Xia's device didn't translate facial expressions or perhaps because her tone wasn't clear enough, Lasair's reaction was to widen her eyes and stiffen her shoulders in horror. She raised her hands waving them at Xia, “n-no! I… I would never do something like that! I just wanted…” she bit her bottom lip, “it doesn't matter.”

Xia felt a pang in her stomach, Lasair seemed to her like a wet chick abandoned alone in the rain... it was almost stupid to think about it considering that she didn't even know what she really looked like - not even if she was really a girl - but Xia felt her as if both of them were kindred spirits, both toys that were broken prematurely by the twists of fate.

“Don't worry, I was only joking,” Xia sighed, she had to quickly change the subject, “so… do you know anything about hand-to-hand combat?”

Lasair nodded a few times, “I have some practice under my belt, in real life I mean.” The blonde elvreth Shinepeak smirked, "b-but many here have them, either because they are fencers, HEMA practitioners or kendoka, or because they come from other VRMMO-RPGs that have hand-to-hand combat mechanics."

“So I found a teacher who isn't an NPC and that I don't have to pay! Cool!" Xia declared, trying to exaggerate the enthusiasm in her voice, just to make her intentions clear and don’t risk hurting Lasair’s low self-esteem. “Shall we start with the basic lesson? So we can proceed with the quest and get some needed EXP.”

It was hard to tell since the technology wasn't yet that advanced to convey physical reactions like tears or blushing into the virtual world, but Xia could have sworn that the player was blushing in the real world, given the body language. "Yes, certainly! So, let's start first of all with the position of the legs and the way in which to hold your sword, we will do some practice on a simple strike aimed at men."

“…Men?” Xia raised an eyebrow. What kind of sport practiced Lasair in the real world??

“To the head, a blow to the center of the head.”