No wonder the blonde college-aged waitress looked so familiar. It was Rose, the sole healer on my squad. 

I mustered as much of a smile as I could through my exhaustion. 

“Yeah, it’s me. And you’re Rose, right?”

Rose nodded. “Yep I’m Rose. I’ve been working here part time after class, although business isn’t great these days with the virus and all.” 

She looked around the shop, which was mostly empty except for a few tables. “I guess we can talk for a bit. How’s your day been so far?”

I groaned. “Awful… it’s tax season right now and you wouldn’t believe how much work I have. Can’t wait to get back home.” 

Rose chuckled. “Once you’re back we’ll see each other again, won’t we~?”

“True. And we can have a nice picnic in Jagged Dorsa…”

The bells at the front of the store jingled, as a new customer came in. Rose stood up and winked as she looked back at me. 

“I’ll see you later, take care~” 

“Bye.”

I took my time finishing my extra large beer and ramen. The cold beer complemented the spicy pork ramen really well, and gave me a nice buzz. Saying goodbye to Rose one more time as I left the restaurant, I began walking back towards my apartment. 

The streets were wet with rain, as a slight drizzle turned into a downpour. I didn’t bring my umbrella, so I put my jacket over my head and sprinted the way back home. I ran past the 7-Eleven convenience store I frequented, as a middle aged woman in a raincoat rode by on a bicycle. She had two bags of groceries dangling from the steering handle, which was getting wet in the rain. 

Water rushed down the streets and into the storm drains, creating a flooding sound as it increased and decreased in volume, fluctuating with the mood of the clouds above. There was just something about the weather that made me feel awfully sentimental today. 

Ah, maybe the beer was affecting me too. I didn’t feel so good, as my mind went to all sorts of bad memories I wanted to forget, from fragmented memories of walking at night with my ex-girlfriend to the night my parents passed away. 

My pace slowed to a brisk walk, as rain poured down my hair, completely soaking me from head to toe. You know, maybe what I needed to brighten up my life was a pet. A nice puppy or kitty, maybe even a little bunny or hamster to keep me company in my lonely apartment. 

I reached the lobby of my apartment slightly feverish. Swiping into the building, I hit the up button on the elevator and waited.

Ding.

Fourteenth floor button pressed, and the elevator doors closed. I closed my eyes and threw my head back, just waiting for my floor.

Ding.

I sluggishly got out of the elevator and walked to my apartment 2B. There were boxes on the floor in front of 1B. Seems like someone was moving in. 

The door to 1B opened, and a girl wearing casual clothes with her black hair tied in a bun walked out with a stick of strawberry pocky in her mouth. She turned to me in surprise, looking me up, down, and up again. Yeah, I really was soaked head to toe.

“Huh?” she exclaimed strangely.

I blinked, and looked at her again. She didn’t have makeup on, but I definitely felt like I’d seen her before. 

“Euphemia?”

Euphemia’s cheeks reddened as she bit down on the strawberry pocky in her mouth, and the end of the stick fell to the ground. 

She bent down and picked it up slowly, without letting go of her eye contact. 

“Why are you here?”

Was this just a fever dream? Meeting two Eclipse Online players in real life one after the other… what a strange turn of events. Actually maybe it wasn’t strange at all. I’m sure the Eclipse AI had access to capsule location information, which it used to localize players to a certain extent and match time zones. 

Euphemia continued to glare me down, expecting an answer.

I sighed. “What do you mean, why am I here? I live here.”

She looked at me suspiciously. “This is my apartment, 1B. Why are you standing here?”

“That’s my apartment.” I pointed towards my apartment, which was right next to hers. 

“Ehhhhhh? You’re my neighbor?”

I shrugged. “Apparently, yeah.”

Euphemia walked towards me and pulled on my sleeve. “Come. Take responsibility for what you did.”

With that cryptic invitation, she dragged me in front of her apartment and pointed at the stack of boxes. I ended up helping her move all the heavy boxes into her apartment and unpack. A giant stuffed bear sat in the corner of her room, which was otherwise decorated with flower paintings, a few books, and a fridge filled with cans of beer.

We finished unpacking the last box, and I stretched my arms out. It was some heavy duty lifting, but my mood felt a bit better after sweating. 

“Alright, I’m heading back.”

I walked to the doormat and started putting on my shoes. Surprisingly, Euphemia was right behind me, putting on her slippers as well. Maybe she wanted to go shopping? 

Shopping? In the pouring rain? In slippers? 

…

Maybe not.

I opened the door and walked out of her apartment, and Euphemia followed right behind me. 

I turned around. “What are you doing?”

“Just want to see what the room of a pervert molester looks like~”

This fucking green tea bitch. In case you were wondering, green tea bitch was a phrase popular on the internet a few years ago. It meant a girl who acted sweet on the outside, but was secretly a bitch. 

“Don’t recall inviting you to come over. Scram.”

Euphemia walked closer to me, until her chest was pressing into my torso. “Then I’ll tell all the neighbors what you did to me~ What will they think~”

“Ugh… this bitch.”

“Ha?”

She kneed me in the crotch through my pants, not quite hard enough to send me sprawling, but just enough for some pain to register. 

“Agh, what the hell was that for, Euphemia?”

She grabbed my hair and pulled me down to her height, which was a bit amusing because I was 190 cm and she was a measly 162 cm. 

“Don’t call me a bitch again. You got that?”

“Alright, ouch, let go, let go.”

Euphemia loosened her grip on my hair so I could unlock the door to my apartment.

Click.

I looked back, a vindictive smile on my face.

“Stupid bitch.”

I ran into my apartment and tried to close the door, but Euphemia managed to wedge herself right in the middle of the doorway. The door pressed into her chest as she struggled to get in.

“Call… me… that… again!” 

I didn’t want to actually hurt her, so I pulled the door back and let her in. Euphemia put her hands on her hips and puffed her cheeks. 

“Hmph!”

“Where’s your room? I want to see your room.”

What a bossy girl. But at least I felt a bit better with all these dumb antics going on. My mood earlier really wasn’t great. 

“It’s here.”

We walked into my room. Besides the VR capsule sitting on the side, my room was relatively bare. There was my desktop PC, my bookshelf with a half full bottle of American Honey whiskey I hadn’t touched in a year, and my college diploma on the wall. 

“Not bad for a pervert molester~”

“Satisfied? Now go, I gotta log onto Eclipse.”

Euphemia stuck her tongue out at me, then slid out of my room walking backwards in her slippers. 

“Don’t forget to close the door on your way out!” I shouted at her. 

…

Pa-chank.

...

Did I just hear her open the fridge? MY fridge? 

I dashed out of my room and ran for the kitchen, just to find a raccoon caught in the act. One of my red bean popsicles was in her hand, with a bite recently taken out of it. 

“Oops, heehee~”

“Get out!”

I shoved her out of my apartment once and for all and locked the door, struggling as she resisted while taking bites out of my red bean popsicle stick. I was saving that one for a rainy day. 

--------

After undressing and taking a quick shower, I stepped into the capsule in my room and logged on to Eclipse.

Donovan, Rose, Nora, Solar, and Books were already here. We were just waiting on Aeric and Felix for now. 

“The commander told us to spread out and scout for signs of dwarves in our squads today,” Donovan informed me.

Books continued the explanation. “You know, stuff like chopped trees, overturned rocks, foraged mushrooms, exposed tunnels.”

I nodded. We seared some buffalo meat to go with our otherwise bland breakfast of biscuits and wild vegetation, and waited for Felix and Aeric to log in. Felix logged in first, and Aeric shortly afterwards. We filled them in on the info, and then headed out. 

Our regiment camped at the base of one of the mountains. 

“Alright, let’s have a vote. Those in favor of traveling up the mountain, raise your right hand. Now those in favor of exploring the base of the mountain, raise your left hand.”

The vote ended two in favor of exploring the base of the mountain, and five in favor of climbing to a higher level. Nora didn’t vote, saying she didn’t care either way. 

Actually, I didn’t have much preference either, so I just picked going up the mountain since it would give us a more expansive view of the entire area. 

Making our way up the mountain, we searched for signs of dwarven life. Felix scouted ahead with his [Stealth] ability, while Aeric played point guard as we continued to search. Knowing that a shield knight had my back was rather reassuring. We posted Solar, our archer, in the tree tops so she could use her [Eagle Eye]. 

Several hours passed. We encountered a few other Fourth Regiment squads, but were unsuccessful in finding any clues until Solar called us over. 

“There’s some sort of shiny pool in that direction.” 

“Shiny pool? Could you be any more specific?” Nora asked, slightly annoyed. 

“Listen, I can’t tell what it is from this distance. All I can tell you is that there’s a pool of this shiny stuff on the ground.” 

Felix shrugged. “Hey, it’s a lead. Better than nothing.”

Our squad made our way through the shrubbery into a denser part of the forest, where we reached the spot that Solar was talking about. There was a light green puddle of some sort of substance on the ground. A possible sign of dwarf activity?

Felix walked up and looked at the puddle. He then kneeled down and sniffed it, before taking a finger and dabbing it into the puddle.

“It’s tree sap,” he said, rolling the viscous sap around with his thumb and index finger. “A hell of a lot of tree sap.”

As if on cue, the tree whose shade we were standing under began to move, and a face formed on the trunk. I equipped my iron armor and took out Love Whip, as a red name appeared above the tree’s head.

[Giant Treant]