One Year
Waking up to the tender feeling of warmth on top of his chest, right where his heart was located at, Tongqiu had the wonderful opportunity to look at the scenery consisting of an all smiley Natalia looking at his face with deep affection and utter infatuation. With Diana nowhere to be found, though.
"Hehehe~."
Cupping her 'free' right cheek, he realized her eyes took a dilated change with a blackness as pure as an abyss; instead of her complete starry light blue universe-like unique eyes from always.
Tongqiu opened up his mouth to speak in a low, magnetic voice while looking at her unusually dilated, black eyes: "Well, someone is really happy, so happy that merely looking at me makes them really hungry, eh?"
As he was speaking, he cunningly used his free left hand which was under her body, to slowly form different shapes with her perky, plump cheeks. Turned on by his mere touch alone, Natalia gave a couple of breathy kittenish gasps and moaning: "Mnnghaah~~ mnnkya-eEEH! Mnngh..."
In return, she naughtily wriggled her hips in every possible angle, not allowing him to have fun as easily as he thought he could.
Slap!
Then, she abruptly stopped at the sudden, crispy noise followed right after by a dense, burning feeling at her right cheek which made her go instantly jelly.
With they stopped their little fooling around time as Natalia heavily dropped her head on his chest, heart area again. With her eyes narrowed and still in that dilated black change, she spoke towards Tongqiu: "About before, the, um, story. There's this one last thing to say."
"Hmph~, stop worrying, you silly. Tell me." Involuntarily snorting, Tongqiu soothed the nervous Natalia which, seemed to work as her body became wholly relaxed.
"Mn, then, as long as Tongqiu manages to wait for... less than a year! Then Tongqiu will be able to reunite with her but..." Up to this part, Tongqiu's pupils constricted as his heart dangerously slowed down, Natalia then continued after a slight pause: "but Tongqiu needs to rise before that! Very, very much!"
"Grow? You mean, in in power? Ah? In Rising Essence, or..." Natalia gently placed her hand on his mouth as she then added: "Both!"
Sigh...
Feeling a headache forming at his poor, little head; Tongqiu merely closed his eyes with the intention of resting, Natalia followed suit as both of them remained in bed for a couple hours by accidentally sleeping again.
***
Rising Essence, Southern Forest of Azure Dragon Sub-Division, close to the Cave for Murder private dungeon.
At this point, Tongqiu no longer had the care for looking into what those retards from before where on about as a day has already gone by. But even if there was still some kind of conflict or agreement being made, he'd still just ignore it, not out of kindness but out of how bothersome it'd be to waste time there.
And so, Tongqiu rapidly used a scroll to teleport back to Azure Dragon City. After all, Irllytia was the most important matter at his head.
. . .
Once he went inside the Inn, he saw Illytia's old man taking care of business. When he saw Tongqiu, he casually pointed at the general direction of his room before proceeding to 'warmly' ignore him.
Taking the hint, Tongqiu went towards his room and right as he opened the door, he saw a dummy Irllytia sleeping totally naked under the blankets. Upon hearing the door's opening, her body flinched. Not in a bad, scared way since she knew only one person would enter Tongqiu's room since even her family was unwilling!
"T-Tntn-Toncuuu!?!"
'Ah, she's so cute.' Not bearing it any longer, he dashed towards the bed as Irllytia's eyes were beyond sleepiness, incapable of even opening them to half-opened! Tongqiu embraced her in a tight grip as he whispered her: "Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm dummmb! I should've known that going to the deep, deep forest was probably not going to be a normal and boring adventure, mwah mwah mwah."
"Woh! Gee-hehehe~, ghehehe. Oh, Tongqiu, at least you're here, with me. Tehe~ com hugh mwe, Istll wnna shleep." With that, she heavily fell on the bed with her freckled body at full display. Not wanting to be impolite, Tongqiu went naked and went under the sheets which he then used to wholly cover her body as he began rubbing her little, extremely slim tummy.
"Mn, Tongqiu, baby... that feels nice, mwah, thank you." Receiving his caresses right now seemed to be such a luxury to her. Even with 'Queen' Natalia's constant visits and girlfriend hang outs, she still miserably missed this irresponsible mister of hers!
Not seeing Tonkia also became a huge depressive feeling, without her, would she still find Tongqiu and be with him? She was growing so bored that her old man became more proactive to take her turn in taking care of the Inn and allowed her to take more time resting, so as to not allow her to become workaholic or something.
In any case, they slept embraced together for 3 hours before the lazy Irllytia finally opened her beautiful black eyes and saw the real, authentic Tongqiu not disappear from her vision as she came back from her perfect dreams of his return.
"Mnnn... To~~ngqiu!! MWAH!"
With Irllytia's big, sharp and ruthless attack, how could he not wake up? He was merely dozing off in slothfulness as he became too absorbed in the feeling and fell asleep a few dozen minutes after Irllytia, yet her surprise attack made him wake up in utter alertness, satisfying the naughty Irllytia from her successful doings!
"Ah you, full of mischief as darkness clouds over your heart! I'll take the role of the heavens to teach you, little demon, a lesson!" A righteous and just voice came out from his own mouth! Even he himself could not believe it, let alone Irllytia, her face was of complete admiration and worship in seeing her man be so good at acting! So cool!
Anyway, what followed right after was true, slow and lasting love-making for an hour or so; before he took her out to buy her a ton of dresses, a couple hundreds of flowers, toys like teddy bears, mirrors, food, hair ornaments, beauty accessories... he even properly spent 1,150 gold to hire a black mage into creating a show of dragons from different sources beautifully dance and fight each other in a showy, flashy manner before exploding into beyond amazing fireworks.
He also took this entire day to explain to her or rather, recount to her, his happenings and misgivings inside that no longer existent Mysterious Hidden Grounds, like a little girl or a little puppy, she behaved extremely adorable when being told his story or petted at through his narrating.
By the time it ended, it was quite the night time already and as such, they went back to the inn and also why not- to do some more lovemaking though a bit more rough, letting her have a better yet rest and grant her a good dreamy sleep, this time no longer about him returning to her but rather, about him bringing her with him in his future adventures...
Tongqiu wanted her to go into his White Space and have a chat with Tonkia and so on, but she insisted that since she was still helping in her family's inn business, she'd not go into it until she has finally fully pledged herself to him.
Understanding her meaning of, 'once I'm yours, I'll always be with you'; he would obviously not push her or try to convince her, he may not understand a family, sigh, but he would very much respect the familiar love of his women, for as ridiculous as it sounds. Obviously, for her to enter into his White Space, it would mean that she'd then be completely his in the sense that she'd want for nothing else but to be at his side at all times, even if his body was not inside this world.
The next day.
There were barely more than ten days until the first update of the game came to be. Tongqiu had not really a care for the ongoing things around the players, but even then, he still wanted to take a trip to this new area. As such, after giving Irllytia some 'good mornings' here and there, he departed for the City's teleporter. Why? Because the only way to access it was by accepting a certain quest, then to pay the needed amount of gold.
If one died there, they'd just appear in the nearest City, just like one would in any other case unless revived. But once they died inside here, they wouldn't be able to be revived by other players unless a special item was used.
'Ah, shit, almost forgot.' He stopped in his tracks as he was a few meters before the NPC quest giver as he then turned towards the Marketing Area in Azure Dragon City.
. . .
When Tongqiu finished his brutal, exhausting dueling with Rosey, he almost exhausted all of his potions. If he were to have used the Self-Harming Dagger constantly, he'd surely have it at 'Fix Needed' for sure. He also had now the Great Petal Armor Set equipped, looking extremely great!
The design on the entire armor set was that of a blackberry colored material -probably that of which Rosey herself was using-; it had vine, creeper-like designs/engravings on it which were all connected, making it so that if one didn't equipped the whole set, they'd look as if a huge chunk of their skin was ripped off with only bones being seen.
At the back of the armor set, there were small thorn-like frozen teardrops which were pointing slightly upwards, making it look exceedingly attractive. If one where to use their mouth -say, by beasts- to eat him up, it would result in heavy bleeding, there was no need for the system to detail in that, let alone being attacked at by body-to-body contact.
The only downside though, was that since Formidable(Silver) grade was not yet implemented, though possible to equip- he couldn't enjoy its gratefulness in any way possible.
In any case, the remains of his previously thought to be rich resources were like this:
x12 [Kindness Low-Potion]: Type: Potion, Grade: Powerful, Effect: Instantly restores 15% HP and regenerates 150 HP every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. Cooldown: 20 seconds.
x3 [Benevolent Low-Potion]: Type: Potion, Grade: Powerful, Effect: Instantly restores 35% MP and Stamina, restores 200 Stamina and MP per second for 20 seconds. Cooldown: 25 seconds.
[Self-Harming Dagger]: Type: Special, Grade: Valuable(Light Blue), Effect: Stab both your hands deeply with it, and get a +15% Hit Rate and +5% Attack Power. Very used.
x186 [Basic Antidote]: Type: Potion, Grade: Valuable, Effect: Consuming this potion cleanses the user of typical and common venom/poison and light ailments, like a small wound having been infected or even necrosis if taking a few tens of seconds after it has been discovered as a limit.
He had to sell some of his Basic Antidotes to smoothly repair his Self-Harming Dagger and Sunfacing Brilliant Gladiuses.
He also wanted to dismantle his items, but taking into consideration that he is supposed to be able to do that with his sub-class Blacksmith, he opted to wait until he had the capability of dismantling them himself. After all, even if he were to have little to no space in his inventory, he still had the White Space in case of need.
Once he entered the Marketing Area, he instantly put 150 Basic Antidotes for sell at 15 gold.
Thirty minutes later, a nice notification appeared before him.
*PING*... your x150 [Basic Antidote] has been sold, please attend to any nearby Marketing Area to collect your gold.
One minute later, Tongqiu went towards a random blacksmith's workshop before coming out 5 minutes later. Since he needed to repair a couple of Magical grade items, he had to wait a little more for the blacksmith's ability wasn't that great, merely above average. Which costed him 150 gold each.
Now with 8,950 gold in his hands, he could only worry about not deciding what to it instead of when to eat... so as to say.
Thinking back to Natalia's words, he suddenly felt an intense need for having his own power adhered to his words. For that, he'll need a lot of things going on in real life, complicated, too annoying. But inside Rising Essence, it was just as bad alright, but he could at least have somewhere to start at without needing to do formal, whimsical stuff related to 'professionalism'.
'Ugh, in any way... there's no pain in trying, and besides, it's for her- no, our future. So, only a coward would not even think of trying it... yes, yes... for them, for them... heh~.' With another one of his involuntary snorts along with a small grin, Tongqiu decided to keep his gold in his pockets, for an unknown future.
***
"Oh, brave warrior-" A talking NPC was suddenly cut off by a player, yet the NPC was still all smiles, though his eye was spasming a little as the player spoke: "Please, save me the babbling, I'm here to arrive to, eh... that place, here's your 50 gold, come on."
What else could the NPC do? This heavily Famed 'Journeyer' in front of him was but too important for their Sub-Division, if he could do all sorts of good merits, wouldn't they be praised to no ends?!
As such, the NPC talked once again: "Of course, young 'Journeyer'. About the payment, forget it! After all, such a meritorious brave warrior like you shouldn't be dragged down to normal customs! Please, step onto the middle of the platform and do not move. Don't worry about any sudden attacks, I built this teleporter myself; if I can't guarantee the protection of those using it, then I wouldn't be an incredible-"
"It's alright grandpa, I believe you, I believe you." Once again cut off by the 'Journeyer', the NPC merely smiled in embarrassment before nodding and allowing him to pass.
'Sigh...' Tongqiu was about to step on the teleporter as he suddenly stopped in his tracks, before going back towards the NPC, which elicited an annoyed crowd into a commotion.
"HEEEY, JUST MOVE THE FUCK AWAY IF YOU'RE NOT GONNA USE IT~!"
"The hell is he doing?!"
"Bah, just look at his outfit. So edgy and eye-catching! It's obviously and attention seeker whore!"
To which Tongqiu shamelessly ignored, as he once again spoke to the NPC: "Um, senior... ehem, I'm feeling that you may have something else to say, why not permit it to hear you out?"
*PING*... Fame points and Charm stat have influenced your form of speech with this NPC.
*PING*...your strength has been recognized at Azure Dragon City for a long time, and has caught the eye of many true experts withing the City. As a result, you're more likely to receive special quests.
"Of course, young 'Journeyer'. First, allow me to introduce myself; I'm called Fiornyo! I'm a mere mortal with no capable talent nor promising genius, making it hard to even get a name for myself, heheh! I can only use my humble knowledge to keep on par with the greatest mages of Main Kingdom's history, and even then, I'm second to only my student! Hehehe-khe, ehem, heh. Recently, I've been feeling rather tired and have been waiting for a reason to take a rest, but the old fogey from this City is just way too much insistent, sigh. I must keep my student away from the clutches of this undesirable animal! As such, I can only build this little teleporter here and hope for the 'Journeyers' to completely clean off that disgusting place. However, they're way too slow and I can only ask you to, eh... speed up the process of it, what say you?" 'Fiornyo' spoke with obvious hidden meanings behind his words, yet with a clear and genuine truth to all and each of his words.
Fiornyo was a short, standing straight up old man whose age was not merely 'above 90's' or so. Had a big crooked nose pointing downwards with wrinkles all over his face. He wore a strong purple colored robe that also covered the top of his head while his black eyes were clear and full of knowledge. The way he saw Tongqiu was like seeing a good kid from another neighborhood which he would've liked to teach as a fatherly figure but couldn't.
In short, not only was because of his Fame and Charm, the oldie truly seemed to see something special in Tongqiu.
"Alright grandpa, I accept." Towards Tongqiu's unhesitating good natured answer, Fiornyo spoke out in gratitude: "Good, good! Once that old fogey sees that there is no longer a need for me to remain in this pigsty of a shit place, my dear student would no longer have to come looking for me in here, hmph hmph!"
'Right...' Obviously, with such a clear-cut hints from this old NPC, Tongqiu could deduce that his student is not only better at him when it comes to what he's already a master at, but also has what he does not, talent and genius. Anyway, it didn't matter to him, as long as he got what he came here for, it'll be fine.
*PING*... you've accepted the quest, [Desire of Rest], Quest Type: Special Quest, Quest Time Limit: 12 days, Quest Requirements: Destroy the Somber Tree, Quest Rewards: +SPx2 of actual SP, random Formidable(Silver) materials for creating weapons, x1 Guided Ascension Scroll and ??? item.
'Hmm, thanks to my Mental Power I can see the next few grades on the list but, what type of item is that ???. What is a Guided Ascension Scroll? Hm, this oldie is quite the character. Thank you Naty, for engraving me all up in ideas full of acts of solidarity! Oh, the time limit is also one day before the first update, craft old man, eh?' Feeling both: glad and played with, Tongqiu's mood became better as he finished having lewd and scornful thoughts at the same time, cough.
"Alright, mister Fiornyo, thank you for your trust." With that, not giving the oldie another chance at speaking, Tongqiu moved towards the middle of the teleporter.
Fiornyo himself merely shook his head, thinking to himself: 'What a powerful spirit, yet such a strong negative past... it even seems to be the fuel of his current progress, not bad, a true talent!'
...
V1: #2 6/10
