The undead mushroom boss swung its mace at me in a whistling arc. With the inevitability of a wrecking ball, it flew in towards me, a massive chunk of rusted bronze that no mortal could stop. It was going to hit me, there was nothing I could do about it. Behind me, I heard Paisley cry out in warning, even as the rest of Silver Ridge picked themselves up off the ground, ready to get on with their boss run. This would be my last run of the day.
With a burst of mental speed, I spun into a twirl of ribbons and imbued my blade with my carefully honed Imbue Parry skill. I came out of the maneuver in miniature, but I stood tall in the air, my magical wings straining.
The ring of steel on bronze rang out through the ruined city, bringing everything to a silent halt. I’d blocked the boss’s strike, stopping it cold on my tiny blade. Not stopping to bask in the moment, I twirled backwards and poured magic into my sword, then ripped it through the air. The singing blade of energy flickered out and struck the mushroom’s face directly, causing critical damage and throwing the boss into the halfway transition phase.
I still hadn’t passed the wipe mechanic that triggered when the mushroom babies died, but blocking that strike had given me an idea. A crazy, ridiculous, over the top idea that might just work.
I cut down the first smaller mushroom with a fluttering rush of wings and blade, then the second went down to my ranged slash as it came off cooldown. The third dropped from a dash attack that cleaved it in two and carried me close to the fourth one. Cutting it down, I whipped my sword through the air again and dropped number five with another ranged burst of energy.
The mushroom roared, rage over its minions’ death clouding its tiny, beady eyes. Flipping its mace around so the head was pointed to the ground, it raised it up in supplication to the sky. Then, with another screech of anger, it rammed it down towards the ground.
It should have unleashed a wave of deadly spiritual energy. It should have killed me. It should have, but it didn’t, because I stood beneath it, one foot tall and defiant. My blade purred with the power of the Ascendant Fae, taking much of the weight of the attack, while my buffed strength held the rest of it, barely.
A collective gasp went out from the watching players, and through gritted teeth, I grinned. Level ten, bitches.
I flipped out from under the mace, just barely avoiding getting crushed as my strength failed. My blade reached out as I passed its ankle to streak blue blood through the air. Needed to keep my buffs stacked, after all.
The mushroom went into a frenzy of rage, swiping at the air with its weapon, but I ducked and dove through the air, laughing and twirling ribbons behind me. Flying felt so good, incredible even. I was so happy I’d chosen the wings.
My katana sang as it took larger and larger chunks out of the boss’s health, and all the while my mark ability sapped its speed. Mind Flutter made the task of dodging its blows even easier, half the strikes from the boss weren’t even in my direction anymore.
I was conservative with my blocks, because despite my apparent ability to take the full weight of that mace, it all hinged on me not fucking up. Well, that and getting a Mind Flutter off to redirect the follow up swing from its fist.
Spinning backwards as it reached one quarter health, I swapped back to my normal size and flicked through a sudden notification that had taken over my vision. Fucking game, my settings were supposed to keep this from happening!
My breath caught when I saw the message. My sword had reached rank two?
Learning from your play style, the Tobubana Katana has changed to compliment it. Your Imbue Strike ability will now apply to every attack with this weapon. Additionally, the stats of this weapon have increased, and you have gained one trait point to spend within the weapon. Choose wisely, as you cannot undo this decision.
I quickly swiped the notification out of my vision and fluttered backwards, just barely avoiding the heavy blow that would have surely ended me. The air shuddered with its passing, and taking a deep breath, I threw myself back into my tiny form and leapt to engage my foe.
The next mark was on its left shoulder, so I flicked my off hand through the series of gestures to activate Mind Flutter, then initiated a Deception Strike. An afterimage of me lunged for its eyes, blade extended, while in reality, I was spinning sideways, blade biting deep into the leathery skin of the monster. The massive boss actually staggered from the blow, and blue blood dripped from the wound.
It swung wildly with its wrecking ball of a mace, and this time, I wasn’t fast enough. One of the flanges on the weapon caught my leg, breaking it and throwing me to the ground. My fairy form dissolved, leaving me at normal size as the massive beast bore down on me.
Glancing at my stacked buffs, I saw that I had almost a thousand percent damage bonus, and the boss had just over fifteen percent health. It was now or never. Pushing myself up onto my good leg, I gripped my sword with both hands and sighted the next mark. By a stroke of absolute, pure, unadulterated luck that had me questioning everything, I saw that the mark was right on the mushroom’s face. The crit spot.
The mace gored the air as it came in, and using my wings to hold me up, I pivoted on my good leg and barely dodged it. With a cry of pure rage, I struck, my katana passing under the mace. The weapons were like two supersonic railgun shells passing in the dark. Time slowed, the wind stopped… and my blade ignited.
Sound shattered the peace of the moment, the sawtoothed growl of my sword as it became solid black and pink energy, a moment before it struck the marked critical spot. The mushroom’s fist hit me a second later, and I was thrown backwards into the air. Healing energy washed through me in the space between impact and death. I was alive, and the boss…?
Almost ten meters away now, I watched the hideous creature collapse to the ground, dead.
My breathing came in ragged gasps, my sword hanging limp at my side, held in one hand. I turned back towards the Silver Ridge folks to see Ethan standing just inside the arena, staff raised, the power of his healing spell still blazing in the crystal at its top.
“Couldn’t heal you until it died,” he called, smiling. “Didn’t want to steal any of your hard earned experience!”
“Thanks dude!” I broke out into a giggle, then a laugh, and dropped to my knees on the ground. “I fucking did it!”
Paisley rushed out onto the field with a wild, awe-filled expression, then stopped between me and the boss, while the others followed at a more sedate pace. “That was… incredible!”
“Sorry,” I said, unable to do so without a massive grin. “Y’all came out here for nothing today. You can have all the drops except the Spirit Heart, though. That’s what I came here for.”
“You’d do that?” she asked, surprised. “Why?”
“Cos mister boss man looks grumpy,” I said, nodding in Marlon’s direction, knowing full well that he could hear me.
“Why would I be grumpy?” he asked, frowning in annoyance.
Dude, are you for real? “Dunno, but I’m going to go and grab my heart.”
Shakily, I pushed myself to my feet, noting that my katana was back to its normal self. I wonder what that had been? An explanation was probably sitting somewhere in the sea of notifications waiting for me in my peripheral vision.
Above the dead boss, a little scroll floated, and I grabbed it with the hand that wasn’t holding my sword. There was a lot of crap that dropped from this boss, but most of it was crafting materials I had no use for. The leather from it would apparently make very good rogue armour, and considering that Marlon’s side boy was one, I guessed that was why they were here. I pulled all the loot out, then walked back over to the asshole and threw him a trade invitation, all while smiling amicably.
“There you go,” I said cheerily as I completed the trade. “I’ll see you all later.”
I began to walk for the edge of the arena, but running steps from behind pulled me up short. It was Paisley. “Can I send you a friend request?” she asked in a rush. “You seem super cool, so… you know how this game is. It’s huge and really hard to keep track of people.”
Considering the request for a moment, I wondered what might come of it. I’d have to tell her who I was eventually, but… maybe this could also be a path to getting my best friend back?
“Okay, sure,” I said, suddenly feeling a little shy. Her new look was… a lot to deal with, and combined with all the attention she’d been giving me over this boss grind… well, I was only human. Human, and at least in the game, a lesbian. The way her makeup made her eyes look all big and lovely and expressive… oh god. No, don't fall for it. She still screwed you over, Keiko.
Except... maybe this was an opportunity to figure out what happened after I left. I could befriend her and get some information, maybe some closure. Yeah, that would work.
Accepting the request she sent, I threw her a wave and a parting smile, then skipped off back in the direction of the city. I fucking did it. I soloed that asshole boss, got my drop, and now I was going to make some boss-ass weapons! This new character was great!
Happy New Year. Thanks for the chapter!
I'm really looking forward to see how MC relation with her old party develops from now on, both Paisley and Ethan seem like good people. Hope she can properly apologize for whatever it is that she did, if she did, and I hope both Paisley and Ethan can accept MC for who she is now.
She was angry at a gay guy and slipped up by accidentally making it seem like she hates gay people
@Flyingsc0rpion yeah my understanding is she found out gay guild leader was cheating on his boyfriend, got extremely pissed off, used a homophobic slur in the coming argument/confrontation, then got kicked out. What I’m not sure about is if everyone in the guild actually agreed to kick her, or if the guild leader lied about that and just kicked her himself to cover his cheating ass.
@HeretoRead The truly aggravating thing was they all KNEW for a fact she wasn't homophobic so they should have been wondering what the hell that little outburst was about but nobody, not even Paisley bothered to ask her for any kind of explanation or let her speak a single word in her defense before giving her the boot. On top of that they totally doxed her over this so she became a hated pariah throughout the game. That's just not how anyone would react if they ever really thought of her as a friend. Sure she messed up with that slip of the tongue but it was her guild that were being the real assholes here so if Paisley really was close to her then this was an absurdly cruel betrayal on her part. bit*h needs to back off because she doesn't deserve a second chance.
@AnimeFreak1982 Eh, it could have been that the leader kicked her, lied about what her old friends said, and she cleaned her friends list out before they even got the chance to contact her, making any attempts at communication fail and giving the guild leader free reign on how to handle the situation. Tho yes, there is also the possibility that her old "friends" really weren't all that friendly, but considering she's prolly gonna end up with paisley, I'm gonna guess it's probably more of a misunderstanding and lack of communication that it is actual malice. Never know tho!
@AnimeFreak1982 That why I don't want the MC to end with Paisley, the only fact she let MC rep do down to this point without even saying anything is too much. If she had said something, talk about her saying the MC was not homophobic and maybe her saying it because she loved him would be out too.
@HeretoRead Even if that a misunderstanding, that doesn't change the fact Paisley should have others way than the game world to contact her boyfriend, like, through MC mother for exemple who, with what was show of her, would never let the girl alone after knowing she go out with her son and MC would talk with her mother on the fact he have a girlfriend so the Mom should know he had one.
What if Marlon actually tried to approach the MC, and then the anger of him cheating on Ethan —plus dysphoria kicking in— let to the MC's outburst (maybe using some slurs).
Marlon probably framed the MC as homophobic; if the out burst was public, the guild hate may be to much for the MC so she deleted everyone from her friends list.
BTW, having friends with no with mi way of contacting you outside of the internet is no imposible (I'm speaking from experience ).
@CookieRobert Oh I'm sure the cheater did or said something to turn everyone against her but the fact remains that they unanimously voted to expel her after hearing only one side of the story. Paisley didn't have to vote one way or another, she could have abstained so even if she had the excuse of not being able to contact MC because of deleted friends list Paisley voting to expel is still a betrayal. That explanation doesn't make any sense anyway though because the MC can't be mad at her guild for not hearing her out if she herself made it so they can't hear her out. The order of events had to have happened like this: Incident happens, cheater frames MC, MC tries to tell her side of the story but everyone including traitorous bit*h doesn't let her, she gets expelled and THEN she breaks contact with them.
@Stonelight paisley wasn't dating rosco they were just friends
@AnimeFreak1982 if it were me I'd wait until my character reaches a sufishent level and then assassinate the lot of them one by one
Merry Christmas all
@BlackWolf Now you say it and I look again, that true x)
But I stay put on the fact MC should not end with her anyway, they can be friend again because all seem to be a misunderstanding, but that all, the 'friends' of the MC all voted for her being kicked out ever way.
And as @AnimeFreak1982 said all of them voted and MC deleted them yeah, but MC deleted them only AFTER being kicking out (I think?), if so, paisley and co could have talked with the MC the moment the guild master came ask for them to aprove all the thing before to accept.
@Stonelight Depending on the mechanics, Matlon as Guild Leader probably managed to kick Keiko and just claimed it was an unanimous vote. He probably knew her well enough to predict that this would provoke her into ggosting everyone else so the situation doesn't get solved.
@Echimera That can't be the case because she made it clear that they didn't even let her utter so much as an apology before shutting her out and voting to expel her, which means she tried to explain herself but they all, even Paisley weren't interested in hearing anything she had to say. She didn't ghost anyone, THEY ghosted HER.
@AnimeFreak1982 I imagine Keiko just ran off after 'the incident' to cool off and before she was ready to properly explain her side Marlon had already kicked her, framing it as a vote within the guild.
Keiko was the one who cleared her friend list, which I meant with ghosting everyone in this case.
@Echimera @AnimeFreak1982 @Stonelight
I'm going to break my normal no spoiler in comments and tell you all what's happening so you keep reading Q.Q.
Keiko never had any contact with her friends between the incident and now. Everything she knows about what happened and what her friends did is based on what Marlon told her. Before the friends could talk to her and ask for her side of the story, she had cut contact with them.
@QuietValerie I'm not trying to imply anything is wrong but I've noticed a lot of trans characters jump to conclusions. I know it's partially due to some being eggs and are unaware of what they want but I think your stories handle this and a lot of other things really well. hope you continue doing great.
@Flyingsc0rpion Thanks! We have a lot of readers jumping to conclusions too haha. Chapter 23 is the chapter where everything is revealed, btw everyone. I've tried to make the reasons behind everything to be both forgivable in Paisley's case but also believable and sort of funny. I hope it changes people's minds.
Oh God, what did I do? ( ._.)
Im looking forward for knowing how this story will eventually turn out. I want to believe in Paisley.
@QuietValerie Alright I'm interested in seeing how all the pieces of this puzzle come together cause the way Keiko describes what happened paints a completely different picture. Is she just bad with words or is she meant to be an unreliable narrator?
@SkyeKurisu Paisley is very loving and caring, but she's also extremely anxious and scared of everything. She has a huge heart and is the type of person to shut down entirely when it's being pulled in multiple directions. Basically if there's drama, she's a deer in the headlights of a truck.
@AnimeFreak1982 She is absolutely an unreliable narrator :D
@QuietValerie Whelp, that explains the discrepancy I guess. Everything is speculation and bad intel when you're getting your story from the unreliable narrator. Guess I'll just sit back and wait for the truth bombs to start raining down.
@QuietValerie
I was pretty sure Paisley did nothing wrong with how you show her to us and the guy who healed MC to the end of fight with the mush too seem be a good guy. Neither of them seem be the kind to just kick the MC out without asking any question. I just liked all the discussion and opinion of each in the com x).
But well, That doesn't change the fact I would prefer the MC to go out with someone who is not in her previous guild, just to not have a cliche development
@QuietValerie
That's about what I thought, thanks for confirming.
No idea if I got Marlon's side right or if he just lucked out with Keiko's reaction, looking forward to learning more as the story progresses.
@AnimeFreak1982 i have a feeling that mister bossman sent a faked pic of guild chat with everyone voting to kick mc, kicked mc without the others consent, and before the others could actualy reach out mc blocked all of the guild (you know someone living compleatly inside vr could react to a faked pic before someone that has to log in and out even could get to the know. So without mc beeing available to talk everything went with mister bossman's story. (The "it's hard to keep track of people" might alude to her having tried to find mc but with mister bossman keeping them busy with raid runs and mc trying to dodge everyone of their old guild, she couldn't.)