"Bwahahahahahahahahaha! So you whacked the leader of your fan club in the face with your new staff and he called you 'Mommy' mid-flight!? Please tell me you've recorded that."

After returning from the Ashen Desert, I reported to Diego about my mission well done and told him what had transpired back then. The result was him laughing like a maniac.

"Sorry. I didn't do that."

"Darn. I wished I could have seen the expression on that guy's face. I'm sure he was elated."

"Well... He kind of was actually."

"Yeah. That's what I thought. Anyways, thanks for dealing with them, Yoru. As promised, I'll give you a discount the next time you decide to purchase something from me. And while we're at it, want me to upgrade those equipment of yours now?"

"Nah. I'm good. I've got other things to do, so I'll ask for an upgrade some other time. Probably when I acquire some new equipment that are less scandalous than these."

"Hahaha! Got it. Well then, see you some other time, Yoru!"

"You too, Diego. See you!"

I parted ways with Diego after that and opened up my menu to the friend list. 

Now then, is Yura online?

He is.

Currently, our team for the Pinocchio raid consists of me, Sanae, Hikari, and Himeji. And in our raid team, we only want one full party in it to hog all of the loot for ourselves. So for our fifth member, I was thinking of inviting Yura to the team if he's available. However, I or anyone of us still have no idea who we should invite to be our sixth member.

Preferably, I would like a healer to be our sixth. If not, another tank like Himeji would be nice.

But for now, I'll focus on inviting Yura to the party as I sent him a message via friend chat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Friend Chat]

Yoru: Hey Yura! Are you free right now?

Yura: Sorry, Miss Yoru. I'm in the middle of a boss fight right now.

Yoru: Ok. Tell me once you're done. I want to talk with you about something.

Yura: K.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So Yura's busy right now.

What shall I do then?

"There you are! YORUUUU!!!"

"What?"

All of a sudden, I heard the loud voice of a seemingly crazy girl screaming my name and turned around to see a young rabid-looking high-elf girl glaring at me while panting heavily to catch her breath.

Who is she? She's not going to bite, is she?

And just as I was about to ask, a lizardman dressed in a dapper suit came running up to her.

"Sweetie! Don't go running off all of a sudden like that." Said the lizardman. "Just what exactly got you acting like th— Oh..." He then noticed me and seemed to realise something.

"Umm... May I help you?" I asked them. But the elf girl was still catching her breath, while the lizardman watched her in silence.

"Give her a second... or two." He said to me, as the both of us waited until the elf girl was done catching her breath.

"Produce Milk." I then used the skill quietly, spawning three jugs of milk in my inventory whereby I took out one for the elf girl to drink.

"Need some milk?" I asked, handing it to her.

She stared awkwardly at it, then at me. "Where did you even get the milk from?" She asked.

To which I simply replied with, "Me."

She takes the jug, looks at it hesitantly for a second, before chugging half of the contents down her throat.

"Gawhh! That was more refreshing and tasted better than I thought." She said and turned to her lizardman friend, holding the jug in his face. "Want some, Andre?"

"I'm good, sweetie. You can have Yoru's milk all for yourself."

"Mm... Alright then." The elf girl then drank the remaining amount of milk in the jug, before handing it back to me.

"Ahhh~ Thanks. That was delicious."

"Umm... You're welcome, I guess..." I took the empty jug from her hand and discarded it immediately since it was just a junk item now.

"So, what did you want from me again?" I then asked her.

"Ah! Right." She exclaimed, as if she had forgotten about that part and pointed her finger at me. "Yoru! I challenge you to a duel!" She loudly declared, garnering the attention of the other players around us.

"...Why?"

"It's for my revenge!" She replied loudly.

"Who are you in the first place?" I then asked her, as I do not remember ever pissing someone like her off.

That somehow pissed her off even more.

"How could you not know!? You killed me in the game's first event with bugs!!!" She yelled.

However, I was still confused. "Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?" I asked her, since I killed a lot of players on that day.

"Sindri! It's Sindri! Do you remember me now!?"

"Who?"

The elf girl named Sindri then toppled down in a state of shock. I looked at her companion whom she called Andre and asked, "Is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Don't worry about it."

"I see... By the way, Andre, was it? I would just like to say that you look dapper in that suit."

"Why thank you, Miss Yoru. I did my best to look good, in spite of my equipment's stats." Andre expressed his joy, straightening the collars of his suit with a proud look on his lizard face.

"So you're the type to prioritise appearance over stats, huh?"

"Indeed, I am. After all, a man's gotta look good if he's gonna enjoy playing a game." He stated, then gave a quick scan at my appearance to remark. "You, on the other hand... I see that you prioritise the opposite of me, huh?"

"Yeah, I did..." I admitted, feeling a bit of shame. "Honestly, I would like to quickly find some equipment that is not only better stats-wise, but also less skimpy than this one which I'm wearing right now."

"Hahaha! I see. Well good luck with that, Miss Yoru. Because I, unfortunately, am unable to help you with that."

"It's alright. I wasn't asking for any help to begin with, when I complimented you. But anyways..."I then changed the subject back to Andre's companion, Sindri, who was still in shock on the ground. "...Mind if I ask why your friend here wants to have a duel with me?"

"Oh, that's because you gave her a bit of a trauma when you killed her using that bug army back in the game's first event."

"O-Oh... I'm sorry." I was quite surprised to hear that, and apologised without thinking.

"It's alright. She got better really quick. But the fact that she lost to you without the two of you even meeting each other kind of set her off the edge, you see. Hence, the wish for a duel."

"Uh... huh. Is that so...?"

"Yes, that is so!" The elf girl, Sindri, out of her state of shock, shouted in response, and plopped right back up from the ground. "That is why for my revenge, I challenge you, Yoru! Now answer my request!" She said, sending me a PVP request which popped up in my face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Notice!]

Player Sindri has requested a PVP match with you. Do you wish to accept?

[ <YES> | <NO> ]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be honest, I really don't want to accept and I don't really have a reason to as well.

That being said, because of Sindri's loud voice, our conversation seemed to have gathered a crowd of players around us before I knew it.

"OMG. Sindri's challenging Yoru to a duel!"

"Quick! Someone tell me how to open the camera function. I want to record this!"

"Open your menu, you dummy."

"Ooooh shoot! I need to inform my friends about this right now."

"Yo, where is Zanny? This is prime content for his stream right here!"

"Get to the forums! We need to tell everyone about this!"

This has gotten out of hand. With so many players surrounding us and the fact that there will be more to come, I have a feeling that refusing this duel is not an option for me.

I shifted my sights to Andre after contemplating on what I should do, asking him for help through eye contact, hoping that he would convince his friend, Sindri, to back down or something. But unfortunately, Andre just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. Indicating that he can't do anything to aid me and instead, kind of begged me to just go along with Sindri's wishes just this once as I read his lips.

Having no other choice, I sighed. "Fine. I shall accept your challenge, Sindri." I said, putting a smile on her face.

"Alright! Then let's—"

"But!" I then interjected. "Before we begin, why don't we make a bet?" I proposed.

"Huh? Why?" Sindri asked, her smile turning back into a frown.

"Because otherwise, I will just reject your challenge." I answered her. "You may have a reason to fight me, but I don't. Therefore, I will need to have a reason for fighting you and this bet shall suffice."

Sindri thought about it for a while. And by a while, I mean one second.

"Okay. Fine. If you win this duel, Yoru, I will give you my gold!" She said.

But I refused. "Not enough." I said to her. "I have plenty of that to begin with, so that's not a good enough reason to accept."

"Grrrrr..." She groaned. "Then, I will give you one of the best equipment I have in my inventory. That should suffice, right?"

"Is it something that I can use though?" I asked her, seeing as how her class is likely to be an Archer while mine is Magician. I may not be able to use it even if she were to give it to me. And it may not even be something that I would use.

"Grrrrrrrrrr...." Sindri groaned even longer. "Then, what do you want?" She decided to just straight up ask me.

"Hmm..." I pondered for a moment.

What would be a good thing to wager on...?

Then, it hit me.

"Before I answer, mind if I ask what level you are now?" I questioned Sindri.

"I'm level 49. Why are you asking?" She answered, which brought a small smile to my face. "What's your level?" She then asked me.

"I'm 42. And as for my bet: How about if I win, you have to do what I say?"

"So like, the loser obeys the winner?"

"Yup. But it's only a one-time thing. Afterwards, you don't have to listen to me anymore. And of course, the bet applies to me as well. So if I lose, you can have me do anything you wish for me to do."

"Anything...?"

"Yup. Anything."

Sindri thought about it. This time, she took a while for real.

Loser does whatever the winner says. Such a classic bet to make in this type of challenge. But it was honestly all I could think to say without revealing my intentions of what I actually want to do with her.

And after some time of consideration, Sindri has decided.

"Alright. I accept that bet! The loser has to do whatever the winner demands and also give them their gold and one of their best equipment they have."

"Nah. The gold and the equipment isn't necessary. Just the demand will do."

"No! The gold and equipment stays. It's the bet that I suggested after all. Now accept the challenge, Yoru, so we can begin our duel!"

Sheesh... What a demanding girl.

I pressed the YES option on the window, as a field was then deployed, setting the arena for our duel and preventing any other players watching from interfering.

So this is how the PVP is done in this game.

[Announcement! The duel between Sindri and Yoru is about to begin. Both players, prepare yourselves!]

With that announcement visible to all players nearby being made, Sindri drew her bow from her back and readied an arrow on the bowstring, while I drew my staff, Assault Charges.

Sindri looked surprised upon seeing it. "Hold on. That's your weapon?"

"It is."

"It's a bat."

"It's a staff."

With that short exchange before the duel begins, a timer was then displayed, starting the countdown from [10].

[9]

[8]

[7]

[6]

[5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Match Start!]