Ari definitely wasn’t giving the full details to her escapades yesterday. Elise didn’t know the total insanity of her class, and even if she did, it wasn’t like Ari would go into the … sticky specifics … of what she and Lori had done.

Oh no. A blush crept onto her cheeks at remembering the event. The multiple events. The multiple twitching, spasming, pulsing, shaking, clenching—

Stop. What’s wrong with you? She purged the memories with extreme prejudice. “The details,” Ari said. “Uh, what, um, about them, specifically?”

Elise narrowed her eyes. Ari’s response was, even to someone not insightful, and not her best friend, revealing. Ari’d never been a good liar, or even good at hiding things. “You weren’t hurt, were you?”

Ari guessed that was the only reasonable explanation for trying to hide something. Because ‘I had a lovely cavort with a leopard-girl that ended in a multiple mind-shattering orgasms’ was obviously not in the realm of ‘reasonable encounters for an adventurer’s first expedition’.

“Not hurt,” Ari said, shaking her head, and scrambling to compose herself. She’d had plenty of time for this talk, and had known it would be on the docket. So get it together. “It was just—fun. Exciting. More than I thought it would be.”

Elise studied her, then, despite obviously not accepting the explanation in actuality, conceded. “I see. I’m glad.” She leveled a look at her. “But I said details. The Forest of the Golden Lake, right? That’s where you went?”

“Yeah.” One of a few obvious choices—a place even a solo adventurer wouldn’t end up seriously hurt, unless extraordinarily unprepared. An ever-present threat, of course, in Ari’s line of work (or should-have-been line of work), but some zones were worse than others. The Forest of the Golden Lake was safe as far as adventuring zones went. A ‘noobie zone’.

“And …?” Elise prompted. She was frowning, probably because Ari should’ve been bursting at the seams to tell Elise about her first-ever ‘real’ adventure. Keeping things to herself wasn’t in Ari’s nature, and Elise knew it.

“It was … fun, like I said.”

“And what monsters did you find? How many? What were the fights like? How close were they?”

Ari didn’t like lying, especially not to her best friend. Hopefully, all it would take was some clever twisting of words. “Deft-Foot Fire Leopard. Level one. Same encounter several times, actually. Not much variety, but still exciting. It was—it was—” Heart pounding, sweaty, sticky, her legs were still wobbly, and when could she see Lori next, anyway? Go for another several rounds? “It was fun.” Her face was definitely heating up. Stop. Control yourself. “The fights weren’t close,” she said, answering the question directly. “I got a bit caught up in things, but even then, level ones aren’t supposed to be something that a single misstep means you’re done for.”

“Caught up in things?”

“Just … you know? It’s different expecting one thing, then facing reality.” Wow, maybe Ari was good at spinning words around.

“Huh,” Elise said. She rummaged out another sweet, biting into it while scrutinizing Ari. A bit of sugar stuck to her lip, which Ari tried not to let her eyes linger on. “I’ll strangle you if I have to say it one more time, Ari. The specifics. You’re dancing around it. The fight—what was it like?”

Shoot. She was definitely digging for information into Ari’s class. She’d known something was up the moment Ari hadn’t shared it with her. While keeping one’s class private wasn’t strange, Ari in specific keeping it private, to Elise, definitely was. Elise had deduced something was up right away. She just wasn’t pushy, so she hadn’t dug too hard.

Until now, Ari guessed. Not that she was even being especially pushy. Just prying a bit more than Ari would expect from her.

Ari shifted on the bed. She was struck by the sudden urge to come clean … but how could she? 

Would Elise even believe her? There were strange classes, and then there were … farcical. Imaginary. Classes so absurd even a person’s best friend wouldn’t believe them. And [Monster Layer] fell into the second camp. For heaven’s sake, the class name was a pun. 

So. Creative explanations. Not lies, but which skirted from the truth. Maybe eventually she’d tell Elise—and what a conversation that would be—but right now, she’d continue to keep her class private. However much she could tell Elise was the smallest bit offended by Ari doing so.

“Up close and personal,” Ari said. “My class is a lot more intimate than I expected.”

“A brawler?”

She shrugged. “Kind of?” For a hilarious interpretation of the word.

Elise quirked an eyebrow.

“I’m sorry, Lee,” Ari said. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

The way Elise deflated panged her heart, and doubled the urge for Ari to just come clean, even if she sounded crazy. But Ari would want some proof to bring along, at least. Maybe Lori could accompany her for the reveal? There were a lot of sapient races, but none with leopard ears and a cat tail, not to Ari’s knowledge.

Which was crazy to think about. Lori was a unique existence, wasn’t she? Something never seen before? Though, maybe Ari’s class wasn’t totally unique. Once in history, surely, there must have been another [Monster Layer]?

Who was she kidding?

Ari collapsed back onto Elise’s bed. “Let’s talk about something else.”

Elise crumpled up the top of the paper bag and pushed it aside. “Sure. What?”

“When I can drag you out, for one. You lock yourself up way too much. And there’s so much to do here. We’re due for a friend date, don’t you think?”

Ari, staring up at the ceiling, didn’t see the way Elise flushed at the phrasing—at the word ‘date’.

“I suppose we are,” Elise said, her voice perfectly composed.