The world disappeared for a moment before Kira appeared inside a very cluttered office. She stared around the room, her mouth falling open. The only furniture was a bookshelf and a desk with an old desktop computer on it. The carpet was a light blue, while the walls themselves were painted off-white.

However, there were papers, books, charts, computer parts and all manner of different pieces of junk littered across the floor. She stared at them, before glancing over to the leviathan sitting at the desk. “Wow. Um. You know you can just set it to auto-sort all this, right?”

“I know. I just like a bit of clutter. Reminds me of work,” Orion said.

“Really. I didn’t know you could design an office like this. We’re still in LRVR, aren’t we?” Kira asked before glancing back and ensuring she still had her tail. “Isn’t this a bit too modern for a fantasy game?”

Orion nodded. “Sorta. I just ported my default work office here. It’s useful for when I have to do work stuff while in the game.”

“This is your work office?” Kira asked, before glancing over at all the trash. “You saved this?” Just looking at the clutter made her want to start gathering it all up. On the up side, if he could import his VR room directly into the game the guild hall design tools were probably pretty good.

“It helps me think. Surrounding myself with ideas, so to speak,” Orion said before shaking his head. “I hope you didn’t just come here to make fun of my décor.”

“Actually I kind of did,” Kira said sheepishly.

That made him pause and stare at her. “Wait, what?”

“I wanna talk to you about the guild hall. Would you be interested in letting me take a crack at sprucing it up a bit? Now, I know you don’t know me too well, but I have a few ideas I’d like to run by you, I--” Kira was cut off when a message appeared in front of her. She read it before turning back to him. “You’re just going to give me editing rights?”

“Sure, why not? You said before you do this stuff for a living, you’d know way better than I would. Just don’t go overboard,” Orion said before glancing back at his desk.

“Aren’t you worried I’ll wreck everything?” Kira asked.

“Not really. Worse comes to worse, I can just reset it,” Orion said. “But, frankly? I figure you’d know about this stuff a lot better than I would. I was actually thinking about asking you about it, anyway, since you have a lot more experience with it than I do. I just didn’t want to, you know…” He seemed to be struggling to find the words, glancing up from his desk and eyeing the remains of an old, gutted computer.

“What?” Kira asked, feeling a small pit of anxiety in her stomach. She wondered if she’d done something wrong. Had he been considering getting rid of her?

“I didn’t want you to feel obligated or like the game was a chore. You’re fun to play with, so I didn’t want to make you like the game less. Last thing I want to do is make you leave the guild because you’re feeling pressured to do work,” Orion said.

Kira stared at him for a few moments, the anxiety melting away. “Ohhhhhh. I see how it is. Okay then. How about this? I’ll design it and you can pay me.”

“Okay, how much would you charge?” Orion said, not skipping a beat.

Kira almost choked, before lifting a hand to cover her mouth and stifle her full laughter. “Oh my gosh, I was joking!”

Orion glanced up at her again. “I wasn’t. You’d be doing us a favor, so--”

“Nope. I’m doing it for free. Besides, I do this work because I enjoy it. I LIKE creating things like this. I love it, even. The only reason I charge is because I have to. As much as I love making these kinds of things, I can’t really live off good feelings alone,” Kira said with a shake of her head. That and she wanted to do something quick and easy for the guild. It he was paying her for it, she’d feel as if she forced the money out of him. “In fact, a lot of my pre-fabs were that way. Just things I made on my own when I was bored. They don’t sell the best, but they were fun to make, so I don’t usually mind them. Something like this? Is easy enough. It’s also something I’ll have use for, so don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure? I could pay you. It’d be a lot of work if I tried to make something fancy myself,” Orion said.

“No,” Kira said firmly, the knot of guilt tightening in her stomach. She wished she hadn’t even made that joke now. “Trust me. If you pay me, I’ll only feel guilty. And you don’t want to make me feel guilty for doing this for you, do you?”

Orion sighed and shook his head. “No.”

“Good. Now then, let’s see what we have here.” Kira tapped on the menu a few times, bringing up the tools she had to work with. To her delight, the selection was pretty nice and she could import quite a few of her own tools. “It’ll probably take a few days, but I’ll look over everything tonight. See what it needs, all of that. Okay? I promised Ervent I’d drag her off on a dungeon. You should come with us too,” she said before walking over behind him to glance over his shoulder at the computer screen. “Do you work from home often?”

“Sometimes,” Orion said with a shrug. “There’s been some issues with one of the applications. It works sometimes when gathering information, but there’s been issues with it triggering some other parts of the code and running additional processes. It’s nothing system breaking, but it has been causing a lot of extra downtime for our clients. I had some free time yesterday at work, so I opened it up and took a look. Found a few issues, but nothing that could be causing this. Why are you looking at me like that?”

Kira just stared at him with a look of mild annoyance. “So it’s not anything you were told to do, just something you do in your free time?” she asked, she was beginning to understand what Blueberry meant by ‘overworked’ himself. No wonder he was so busy all the time if he made work for himself like that.

“Well, it’s nothing major. I’m allowed to do any projects I want, so long as I can show my work. My boss is pretty good about that. This is something affecting our clients, even if it’s not breaking anything, so I figured I might as well take a look at it,” Orion said, his eyes quickly looking away from her.

“On your day off?” Kira asked.

“It was just a few minutes,” Orion said, a little red filling his cheeks.

“How long have you been working on it?” Kira asked and judging by the look on his face a moment later, her suspicions were quickly confirmed. He’d likely been at it for ages.

“Uhhhh...” Orion said noncommittally.

“At least a little bit after I got on. Hey. Have you been falling back and doing work while we’re fighting together?” Kira asked.

“Huh?” Orion asked.

“Blueberry said you do that a lot. That you’ll be gaming with them, then just fall back to take care of work. Do you do that a lot with me?” Kira asked, giving the most wicked smile she could manage.

Orion cheeks turned even redder. “Not a lot.”

Kira shook her head, though she couldn’t keep a smile off her face. He was a terrible liar. “Wow. I can’t believe I didn’t notice. How long have you been doing that for?”

“I don’t know. A while?” Orion said. “I do a lot of that kind of stuff. Sometimes work comes up. Someone will call about an emergency or something and I have to walk them through it quickly. Or I’ll need to respond to an email from my boss. Things like that. It doesn’t happen too much, I just have to. It’s hard to explain.”

“You like to do a good job and the feeling of knowing you did a good job?” Kira asked, smiling down at him.

“Yeah. That. I’ll try not to do it when I’m playing with you from now on,” Orion said.

“No! I didn’t mean it like that,” Kira said quickly, stepping in a little closer and cringing when she stepped on a piece of paper, making it crinkle underfoot. How could someone make a room like this? “I was just curious since I never really noticed. I guess I just get distracted too easy when I’m playing, I never really noticed you falling behind,” she said with a light chuckle. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. I think it’s cute. You always get so excited whenever there’s a new enemy to fight or something we haven’t faced before,” Orion said dismissively.

Kira couldn’t hold back another soft laugh, her mind going back to some of the strange things they’d fought. Oh, the poor, poor lizardmen. “Yeah or there’s something shiny. I’m just not the most patient person I guess.”

“I don’t mind. I’m the same way a lot of times. I get distracted all the time, though it’s usually more out-of-game things.” Orion tapped on the air a few times. “For example, I currently have three things running in the background. Including my music.”

Kira stared at him, her eyes going wide at that information. She didn’t understand how he could get any work done like that. “You’re listening to music right now?”

“Yes,” Orion said.

“How? I mean, how can you focus on that? If I had music, I’d get distracted by it every time a good song came on,” Kira said,

Orion shrugged. “It helps me focus, I guess. If I don’t have enough things going, I get bored and can’t focus on any of them. I do a lot better when I have things I can work on while others load.”

“Weird. Right! Speaking of distractions! We’re going to do a dungeon! And you, guild master, are coming with us,” Kira said firmly.

“I’d love to, but I really should--” Orion yelped when she grabbed his hand and gave him a tug. “Hey! You know you can’t drag me there, right?”

“I know I can’t force you to come with us,” Kira said firmly, glaring up at him. “But I CAN guilt trip the heck out of you. Now. Stop doing your work and come with us. Or you’ll make Ervent sad.”

Orion gave her a flat, unamused look. “Ervent.”

“Yes. I told her you were coming,” Kira said.

“Really?” Orion asked.

“No. But come on. Pleeeeeeease? Consider it payment for helping you make the guild hall,” Kira said, tugging on his hand again.

Orion sighed and finally relented. “Fine, fine. I guess a small break won’t hurt me.”

“Yeah, taking a break on your day off. Scandalous,” Kira said before rolling her eyes. She started to let his hand go, but was surprised when he grabbed it back.

“Wait. I actually have something for you,” Orion said.

“Huh?” Kira asked. He tapped on the air a few times and then held out his hand.

A fangtian ji appeared in his hands. Kira stared at it in awe. The blade itself was black and glimmery, like obsidian. The spear tip seemed to almost glow with a red light, as if there was lava flowing from the tip, while the crescent blades on either side almost seemed to have a shimmering, black light emanating from them. The grip was made of a dark red metal, with veins of bright red flowing across it. She slowly took it, staring at it with awe. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered. However, when she tried to equip it she got a warning saying she couldn’t. “I can’t use it. My polearm skills are too low. How did you even find something like this? I didn’t think the game even HAD these kind of weapons.”

“I figured as much. But I saw it the other day and I thought you could use it, you mentioned you used one a lot in that other game, right?” Orion asked. “Once you cap out your polearm skill, you’ll be able to use it. You seem to really love this style of weapon, so it’d be great to be able to go straight into it when you finally capped out your skill.”

“Wait, how expensive was this? Just how good is this thing? I haven’t seen any weapon like this in the game,” Kira asked, quickly looking over its stats. They were astronomically higher than her current polearm. Then again, if it was an end game item, she wasn’t surprised. She couldn’t wait to use it, either. She hadn’t told any of the others, but her halberd was a bit under her level, now, as she hadn’t been able to FIND a decent one of her current level.

“Don’t worry about that, I got a good deal. It was just a special event item that was a reskin of the higher level weapons,” Orion said.

“Fine, at least let me pay you back,” Kira said.

“No,” Orion said.

“Come on, I’m good for it,” Kira said, though she honestly doubted she was.

“If you pay me back, I’ll feel bad. You wouldn’t want to make me feel bad for doing this for you, would you?” Orion asked, throwing her own words back at her.

Kira paused and slowly her eyes narrowed on him. “That’s different. This cost you money, that is just a bit of time. This probably cost you a lot of money.”

“Time is money. Besides, it only cost me in-game money,” Orion said before standing and walking towards the door. “Come on, you wanted to do a dungeon, right? How close are you to capping your polearm skill?”

“Almost there. It’s only got a few more of those bars to go. At least skill levels go up faster than race levels,” Kira said before she moved to follow after him, stepping through the door of the room. Options appeared in front of her, to choose her location, and she quickly tapped on the main entrance.

A moment later she was there. A message popped up, telling her the ji, known as ‘Demonblade of Bu’ had been added to her inventory. She couldn’t help but feel a small warmth inside. She couldn’t believe he’d gotten her something so nice. Even better, he’d made sure to get her to the kind of weapon she liked. She’d never even seen a ji in the game. It had to be modeled after Lu Bu’s weapon, especially with a name like that.

Within moments the group was on their way, this time to a demon temple. One of the higher level areas it seemed. A small message popped up. She tapped on it and smiled when she realized Ervent was connecting a private call. She accepted with a light chuckle.

“So, what’d he say?” Ervent asked.

“He said it’s fine. You could have asked in the group, though. No need to talk to me privately,” Kira said. She wondered if Blueberry and Orion could tell they were chatting.

“I know. I just wanted to make sure. Are you sure you’re not mad?” Ervent asked.

“Why would I be mad?” Kira asked.

“I mean, you were fighting in leather armor and everything. I kind of copied you. I didn’t ask first,” Ervent said.

“Oh, that? Nah. Honestly? Imitation is the best form of flattery. I mean, I already KNEW I kicked butt. But it’s still nice to know someone else noticed,” Kira said with a laugh. “Careful, though. You’ll make my ego too big. Besides, you fight with a sword and shield. That’s an entirely different style. If anything, you’re taking Orion’s build.”

She heard a light gasp from Ervent. “I am? You don’t think he’s mad, do you? He wears the heavy armor, so I thought it was different.”

“Calm down,” Kira said quickly, mentally telling herself she’d need to be careful about what she said to the angel. She wondered what kind of life the girl lived if she was always this jumpy. “I was joking. Listen, it’s just a game, okay? Relax. If you like fighting like that? Then fight like that. This armor is great. It’s light and easy to move in. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you trying something you enjoy. Even if someone else did it first. I’m hardly the first to fight like that and if it made you have more fun, I’m happy. So long as you are enjoying it. Don’t just use it because you saw me using it.”

“I’m not,” Ervent said before giving a gentle sigh. “I just don’t want you feeling like I’m stepping on your toes.”

Kira gave a light snort. “I’d have to be pretty insecure to get upset that you fight like me. Have you met someone who got that upset over you using the same stuff as them?”

“A few,” Ervent said, her voice bordering on depressed.

Kira paused, almost tripping. Fortunately Blueberry and Orion were ahead of them, talking to each other, though her private call had them muted. “Wait, really? Who?” she asked.

“Friend in the game I was playing before. He got really, really pissed when I tried playing this dragon rider class he liked. I mean, I just thought it looked cool. But he thought I was trying to copy him and I really made him angry. He said I was showing him up,” Ervent said softly.

“Well, your friend sounds like an ass. Don’t worry, I’m flattered. I’ll give you some tips later, if you like. Though, I use a completely different style of weapon than you do. If you want to learn how to use a polearm I wouldn’t mind teaching you,” Kira said. “Though, I’m not sure I’m the best. I mostly just play a polearm fighter in games.”

“Wait, really? You would?” Ervent asked, the glee flowing through her voice making Kira struggle to suppress her laughter.

“Sure, it’d be fun. Tell you what. Once I cap my skill in them? I can even give you the one I’m using now,” Kira said, relieved that the girl had relaxed. “It’s pretty good. Orion got me a new one for when I cap out, so I won’t need it anymore.”

“He did? You too?” Ervent asked.

“Me too? Did he get you one?” Kira asked.

“Well, not me. But he got Blueberry a new axe once he hit the cap. He’s gotten me a few pieces of equipment too. But because I switched armor and weapon types, my skills in them are still too low. But I know he’s done it for a few other members of the guild. Getting max level gear can be expensive the first time, I hear. So he likes to give the newer players help when he can.”

Kira nodded, glancing back towards Orion, a small smile on her lips. She felt the guilt evaporate, knowing she wasn’t the only one he’d done it for. If he was doing it for everyone in the guild, then it must not be too bad for him. That or he spent a lot of money on his guild mates.

She made a mental note to ask him about it later.

------

Kira leaped back and to the right, bringing the chopping blade of her halberd down on the head of the giant crocodile zombie. Supposedly there was more to it than just being a ‘zombie’, but as far as she could tell, despite the red gems and lines across its body, it was not alive. Some kind of reanimated husk of an old leviathan. To her? That meant zombie.

It snapped at her two more times, the first missing but the second grazing her arm. “Shit!” Kira said. Ice formed on the outside of her arm for a moment, before expanding across her entire body. While, technically she was supposed to say ‘hit’ when that happened, sometimes she just said it a little wrong.

“I’ve got it!” Orion yelled from across the room. Rather than trying to finish her off while she was slowed, instead the great alligator turned and started to lumber off towards the leviathan.

“Restoration,” Ervent cast, holding a hand out to her. The ice across her body chipped and broke away, freeing her to move again.

“I hate this thing,” Kira said before she ran back at it.

“Get to the gem stones!” Blueberry yelled.

“Right, on it!” Kira yelled back before running back at the alligator and leaping up into the air, landing on its back. She REALLY wished they had an archer in their group for this fight, it would make it so much easier. That or if she had wings. Heck, even having the ability to teleport short distances from the fae would be useful here. She stabbed her halberd into one of the gemstones on the creature’s back, shattering the gem and lodging the head of the weapon into the creature. She then held on.

Just as it had in all the prior shatters, it began to thrash about, struggling to throw her off, while she held on and tried to remain lodged. This time she managed to hold on, though she fell to her knees. Once it stopped shaking she once more yanked her halberd free and stabbed it down into another crystal. Only two more. All of the ones on the legs, face and sides were broken. The shaking was even stronger this time, but she held on, throwing herself flat on her stomach. She was almost there.

“Kira, careful!” Orion yelled.

“I’m as careful as I can be!” Kira yelled back. She didn’t know what he expected from her. Riding an alligator the size of a boat wasn’t exactly something she had trained for, game or not. Still, they were almost there. She just had to shatter the last two. She pulled her halberd free once more and ran down its back, bringing the blade down against the one near the base of the tail.

Rather than shaking, though, the alligator went entirely still. She tried to go over what they said about that before the fight. Normally it shook, but if it went still then--

A moment later the world was flipping over and she lost her grip on her weapon, falling off the rolling alligator. She didn’t get long to consider it before the alligator was now over her and crashed its tail down on her. Pain shot through her body and she saw her HP bar plummet. Worse, her whole body felt numb. Likely another delightful status effect.

The alligator did a little spin and she saw Orion get sent flying back. Unfortunately, when it finished, it was now facing her. Kira took a slow, deep breath and tried to move her hands, but they barely twitched. “Come on.”

“Kira, move!” Blueberry yelled.

“Gee, why didn’t I think of that? I can’t!” Kira yelled, glancing at the icon over her name. It was flashing, at least. It would be off in a moment. Now it just remained to be seen if she would live that long. “Come on, body. Wear off. Ervent, ERVENT! Can you--”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the alligator lunge. She couldn’t believe it. Dying was one thing. But she wasn’t even going to get the chance to try and avoid it. She was helpless.

Kira saw a flash of white and suddenly Ervent was standing between her and the alligator, shield raised. It crashed into the girl, forcing her to skid back a few feet, but was finally stopped in place. “Kira, are you okay?” Ervent asked.

“Yeah. Uhhh, good job. Was gonna ask for a restoration, but that works,” Kira said. The symbol disappeared and she felt the numbness go with it. She rolled to her feet and ran. “I’m clear, you can go!”

“Oh thank god,” Ervent said back before she tried to pull away from the snapping alligator. Kira couldn’t help but smile when she realized the other girl had tossed away her sword and was holding the shield in both hands. Seemed she still didn’t like being charged by the monsters. Then again, she’d just saved her life, so who was she to complain? Orion brought his mace down on the alligator’s head, drawing its attention once more. The angel spread her wings and took back to the sky, before holding her hand out. “Restoration!” she cast.

The unpleasant bruises across Kira’s body faded and she let out a sigh of relief. Her HP was going up as well. She ran back at the monster and leaped up, once more landing on its back. Her halberd was still embedded near the base of the tail. “Just hold it for a second, okay?” Kira yelled.

“Working on it!” Orion yelled.

Kira’s hands wrapped around the polearm and she yanked it free, before glancing back. Only one more gem to go. She looked around for a few moments before, finally, her eyes fell onto it. Right near the neck, half-hidden by the scales. “Just a few more seconds!” she yelled before running down the back.

She was halfway there when she felt the creature go entirely still. Oh no. Not again. Please not again. She could feel the alligator start to roll to the right and braced herself to get rolled over again. Suddenly ice erupted on either side of the alligator, locking it in place.

“Go go go!” Orion yelled.

Kira didn’t even answer, instead running at the last gem. She just had to shatter this last one and they’d win. The ice began to shake and crumble from the twisting alligator, but she tried to ignore it, focusing only on the gem.

The ground began to shift under her and she leaped, taking to the air and raising the halberd high overhead. She could see the alligator starting to move. She held her breath, her heart pounding. So close. She was so close. It was pulling away. NOW!

With the sound of shattering glass Kira brought the halberd down on the gem, breaking it to pieces. The alligator stopped moving entirely, the red lines across its body fading before it began to fade into a flurry of red sparks. “We did it!” Kira yelled. She then realized that the alligator she had leaped over was disappearing and she was flying straight at her ally. “OH SHIT! Orion catch me!”

“Huh?” the leviathan asked, looking up in time to see her fall. To her displeasure, his instincts kicked in and he did catch her.

With his shield right in her stomach.

Kira bounced off it and crashed to the ground, rolling a few feet before coming to a stop. She whimpered and wrapped her arms around her stomach, before giving another light moan. “Was that on purpose?” Kira asked after a few moments, trying to suppress the urge to kill him.

“I’m so sorry!” Orion yelled before he ran to her side, kneeling down besides her. “I swear that was on accident. Are you okay? I’m so sorry. Does it hurt?”

“Honestly, not too badly,” Kira said with a light chuckle. “Feels like the air got knocked out of me, but the pain burst didn’t last long. Just really shocking. What part of ‘catch me’ didn’t you understand?”

“To be fair, I did catch you. You just never told me what to catch you with,” Orion said with a sheepish smile.

“You know what? Fair. That one’s on me. Just remember that next time you ask me to kick you,” Kira said before slowly sitting up.

“I’ve never asked you to kick me. Why would I ask you to kick me? That sounds like a really bad idea,” Orion said, looking confused.

“It sounded better in my head, okay?” Kira said with a shake of her head, trying to clear it after that last hit. “So, loot. What’d we get?”

“Restoration,” Ervent cast, causing white light to wash over Kira.

The demon blinked a few times before giving a light chuckle. “Little late on that one, Ervent. But good enough. Oh, by the way. I didn’t get a chance to say it then, but that was a really nice save. I didn’t think you had it in you, but you really came through for me today.”

The angel’s eyes went wide and she stared at her, her hands tightening into small fists in front of her. “Really? I did?”

“You saved my life. I don’t think I can give a much better show of praise than that. Wait, actually…” Kira got to her feet and walked to the other girl, before lightly reaching out to pat her on the head. “Indeed. I do, hereby, praise you as the angel who saved my life when I get rolled over by a giant alligator of death. May you go forward and bare this title with honor, dignity and more grace than I would,” she said in the most regal voice she could muster considering parts of her still ached.

Ervent, however, was staring up at her as if she had just told her the secret to everlasting life was eating two chocolate cakes a day. “I know you’re just messing with me, but I’ll take it,” she said with the biggest grin on her face.

“I mean, I am half telling the truth with it. You took that thing head on, didn’t flinch. I couldn’t have done better myself. I mean, partially because I don’t have a shield. But even then, something that big comes running at you, it’s not easy to stare it down. I’m proud of you, honest.” Kira glanced back to Orion. “So, drops?”

“Ehhhh. Nothing good. Just some heavy armor. Sorry guys,” Orion said before shaking his head. “Still, everyone have fun?”

“Yeah. But I’ve actually got to go,” Blueberry said, his hands tapping on the air. “Family is calling me. We’ve got a whole thing with my cousin. I’ll see you guys later, okay? Orion, try not to work yourself too hard. Kira, you too. I’ll send you some things later.” With those words the dragon disappeared.

Ervent tapped on the air a few times as well before sighing. “I’d love to stick around, but I have some things I have to work on too. Work stuff. I’m sorry. It was a lot of fun, I can’t wait to see you again though! Thanks, Kira. I really missed you. Bye!” she said before she, too, disappeared.

Kira stared at where the two had been before shaking her head. “And then it was just us. Let me guess, you’ve got to go too?”

“Just back to my office. You can join me if you want,” Orion said before tapping on the air a few times.

“Sure, why not?” Kira said.

Orion froze for a moment, before glancing over to her. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah. I can get started on the guild hall. It’ll make it a lot easier if I can just talk with you while I work,” Kira said, opening her own menu as well.

“Oh, right. Well, okay then,” Orion said.

MelodyAvant

Please rate and review if you can to help the story get more attention. Also I'd love it if you left a comment with your thoughts on the chapter as it really helps me to identify what my readers enjoy reading.

If you'd like to help support me and my writing, please take a look at my Patreon which offers early access chapters as well as monthly voting to determine which of the series will be written next. Alternatively, full copies of my books can be purchased through amazon on my author page.

Finally, if you would like to talk more about the series or talk to me directly, please feel free to join my discord server.