Finishing the set up with Victoria, we went to our guild’s designated waiting area, an open field dotted with flowers, near the waiting area of Grace’s guild. 

I’m still wondering where Elise went, though… I got some nice looking gear from Victoria. I kinda want to show it to Elise now, with how much better I look. Just waiting right now, though~! In our guild’s waiting place with Victoria who’s… helping Rebecca recover? It’s pretty much just Victoria hugging Rebecca, which is pretty nice of Victoria to do~!

Checking over my gear once more- the fancy cool stuff… the bow is simple, without decorations, but lightly pulling it, I can feel the power behind the string. Adding onto that, Victoria gave me some armor that’s easy to move around in- I asked a nearby guildmate, “Uh… Excuse me, but do you know where Elise is?”

“Oh, no problem! Elise should be coming soon, but right now she should be in that blue tent across the field~! Probably just talking to Lorraine about the logistics of the upcoming dungeon,” The guildmate explained with a smile, pointing out the blue tent decorated with colorful patterns.

“Thank you! Thank you~!” 

Bowing a few times, I waved goodbye to the helpful guildmate before leaving to get to the tent. Weaving through the field- a task easier than I thought, as the sun beating down onto the field has made most people seek shelter in the shade by the edges- I arrived in front of the tent, and not even out of breath!

Pushing the entrance flap out of the way and walking in, I asked, “Uh… is Elise here?”

“Yeah, I’m here~!” A resigned Elise called out, “Just give me a second and I’ll be out of this changing room~!”

-------

Waiting outside the tent- Why am I out here anyway? The temperature is blisteringly hot…- I watched as Elise wandered her way out of the tent wearing a new set of gear.

“You look amazing Elise~! What’s this gear?”

“This is my… try-hard gear I guess,” Elise answered, doing a small twirl, “Same rapier as before, but all the armor is different~!”

“Come on, let’s make our way to where the raid entrance will be, you can tell me about your gear on the way~!”

“Sure~” Elise agreed, grabbing onto my hand, “Let’s gooo~!”

Using her other hand to shade her eyes, Elise explained, “The three main pieces of armor I should tell you about are the boots, this robe, and the gloves~! So which do you want to know about first?”

“Uhhhh… hmm… uh… don’t put me on the spot, Elise!! But I guess the gloves… they look pretty fancy!”

“Hmm… so these are fingerless gloves, made of a monster fabric that I don’t remember,” Elise began, holding out her free hand to show me the glove, “Even though there are stats in this game when you make equipment, it can also help you in other aspects. These gloves, for example, give some protection to my hands, but also make my swordplay easier~!”

“Ohhh~! That’s fancy~ so does it make it so you can like… keep fighting for longer? Or execute more complicated attacks?”

Nodding while avoiding a more rowdy group of people, Elise explained, “I have something else for stamina, the gloves just help with attacks and defense. I’ve been able to do some ridiculous moves because of them!”

Watching Elise motion out some of her movements with an invisible rapier, I gotta say… damn this game is mesmerizing! I’ve seen Elise fence in real life… and I feel like her hands are just blurred! If her hands were any faster, I feel like I’d see afterimages!!

“So… we’ve been here in this waiting area for a while, when do you think we’ll get into the dungeon?”

“Probably right when we get to the entrance,” Elise confessed, pulling me along a little faster, “You see how everyone is getting up and stretching right now? That along with doing final weapon and armor checks, tells me that we probably missed an announcement…”

Watching the… overall bustling panic occurring around us, I have to say… we should probably hurry up! 

“Are we running again? I uh… don’t want to run again Elise! You run too fast!”

Giggling, Elise exclaimed, breaking into a light jog, “C’mon~ you’re also very fit~ you can keep up! Let’s blast~ I’ll tell you about the rest of my gear once we’re in the dungeon~!”

Following Elise, I must say… WHY IS SHE SO FAST!! In real life when we go on jogs I can keep up by exerting a bit more effort than her, but in the game, I can barely keep track of her blistering figure ahead... it's probably the boost the game gives her~ so not much I can do.

Arriving where the others were waiting while starved for air, I clung to Rebecca’s shoulder for support. 

“Hel… hello Rebecca… glad to see you’re recovered… Also, goddammit Elise... you run too fast…” I muttered while catching my breath, “and nice to see you, Lorraine… you’re looking much sprier now!”

Laughing while helping prop me up, Lorraine agreed, “I AM doing much better right now~! Nice to see you Little Lilith~! I see that you have also experienced the rite of passage of trying to keep up with Elise’s running, welcome to the club~!”

“Thank you, thank you! I’m honored to be part of this club,” I replied, struggling to keep a grin off my face, “So is the dungeon open right now?”

Moments before Lorraine could answer, an earthshaking rumbling came from the sheer cliff nearby. The rumbling was so loud the trees shook, scaring the birds into taking off, and all of us physically recoiled. 

“Damn, that’s a fancy entrance~! Haven’t seen one so fancy in a while,” Elise murmured in amazement, watching a large portion of the cliff wall sink into the ground as the rumbling subsided, “It even has those glowing Mana patterns running up the sides of the entrance… This might be a larger dungeon than we anticipated.”

“I’ll go help organize the entry into the dungeon along with how we’ll enter compared to the other guilds, so I’ll meet up with you all in a bit~!” Rebecca grinned, running off after patting each of us.

“I guess we should all attend to our duties~! Let’s meet up right before entering the dungeon shall we?” Lorraine asked with a gentle smile, before strolling off to attend to her responsibilities, calling out, “Elise, Lilith, you two just sit tight for a bit~! We’ll be back in a hot sec~!”

Twirling her staff, Victoria chuckled, “I gotta go, the boss said so~! See you two later~!”

Esiyx

Hai haiii
yea my health collapsed on me+being lazy bc winter break made this late
sorrryyy about that
on the other hand though, i'm getting better, so alls good~
i'll keep this shorttt~ so see you~
take care all you readers~ please drop a comment~ I love talking to you all~