Chapter 5: 5: In the Inn

I hated that I was being such a stereotype, but as everyone had collected their share of the loot, I had made my way back to the inn, and found a quiet table in the corner. The truth was that I was a little nervous to interact with other players as my new self.

Instead, I busied myself with my experience gained during the battle. As a little noob friendly event, it had dropped a modest amount of experience on me. Combined with the kills I'd taken part in, the total had jumped me to level three. Each level gave me two stat points to allocate, and after a little careful deliberation, I chose to buff my Athleticism and Stamina. Two points in each would build on my speed advantage and shore up my sustain respectively.

Performing the Graceful Spin a few times had bumped it up to the first rank, giving me a three percent damage bonus. Meanwhile, I was surprised to see that none of the kata I had spent years of my life memorising had caused any new abilities to pop up. Usually if you displayed some level of competency in a skill, the game would reward you.

This led me to believe that the Fae Wanderer used a style I was either not familiar with, or one that had been created specifically for the class. I was leaning towards the latter, considering that with my height as it was, my reach was laughable. No way I was going to be able to pull off crazy instant draw-and-cut stuff.

The biggest clue, however, was my race itself. From what I knew, fae could become powerful enough to manifest wings. So like, in the future, my swordplay might be mixed with like, dogfighting stuff or something? It was exciting to think about.

Of course, that excitement fizzled out when I got a notification on twitter. That fucking site should have died so long ago, but no, it was still going.

The tweet was from my old guild's main account, and it showed everyone from Silver Ridge smiling and posing for a picture. A picture in front of the dead boss of the newest raid. They'd come in third in the world's first race this time, but they still seemed happy.

Happy without me. Just goes to show how toxic I really was, I guess. Even Paisley was grinning. God, I was such a fuckup. Such an absolute colossal idiot. A moron. It'd only been rare pet, for fuck's sake. Yes, it had meant to go to me, but had it been worth throwing my whole ingame life down the drain? No. No, and I was a fucking stupid selfish cunt for thinking so.

Not that it was anything new. My parents had always pointed out when I was being selfish and rude. I'd just never been able to figure out how to stop.

Then, of course, the bomb had caused everything to go to shit. Church nutjobs had blown up the mall I was shopping in, leaving me missing several important chunks of my body. The SAI had stepped in, feeling responsible for it, since it was them the church was at war with. They'd helped all the survivors get long term medical help and body storage, with the promise of new artificial bodies once they were ready for broader use. That was where I had stayed since. The virtual world had seemed so much better, back then. Not anymore, though. Now it was just hollow.

The table jostled, and I looked up to see the knife girl sitting down to my right. She smiled, watching me with a knowing expression. "I can't give you therapy, but I can help dull the pain with a little fun, if you want?"

"What kind of fun?" I asked, my soft voice sounding foreign to my ears.

"Depends what you're into," she grinned, producing a drink from her inventory. She slid it across the table to me, then sat back in her chair. "Thanks for helping me, back in the battle. This close quarters fighting business is new to me. Not to you, though, with your little samurai sword."

Focusing on the drink, I brought up the tooltip. It was whisky, and strong too. Probably locally made.

Plucking the little clay tumbler off the table, I eyed it for a moment, then drank. It burned on the way down, the alcohol searing my throat. It wasn't the most amazing whisky, but anything to dull the pain in my heart was welcome.

To the girl, I said, "Thanks, and also you're welcome. You held your ground out there, which was honestly impressive for a new player."

Her pretty cheekbones got themselves all dusted with pink from my compliment, and she took a moment to sip from her own drink. "Ah, yeah. New to this game anyway. It was a new experience, that's for sure."

"New experiences are good," I said slowly, watching the ice melt in my whisky. Then, randomly, I looked up at her and blurted, "Did you know that ice actually does make many alcohols taste better? The melting ice separates a lot of the molecules in the whisky, causing the better tasting ones to ride to the surface. That's what hits your tongue first when you take a sip."

She'd opened her mouth to speak, but my little factoid had interrupted her and she was clearly still recovering from the conversational whiplash.

"Sorry," I mumbled, dropping my gaze back to the clay tumbler. "My brain loves to regurgitate random shit like that sometimes."

"Gorgeous and dorky," she said, giving me a slow smirk. "Can I ask your name?"

I gaped at her, finally realising that she was flirting with me. Oh shit. Okay. "U-uh, Keiko."

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"Keeeko," she murmured, stretching and rolling my name around on her tongue. "I like it."

"It's uh, Japanese," I told her. My brain was spinning and confused now. I had no idea how to deal with this. Help?

She made a sound of understanding, trailing her eyes down my outfit. "Right, of course. Mine is Elena."

"Umm," I stalled, taking another sip from my whisky. "Nice to meet you."

“And my name is Manorexic!” My hand went to my sword, and it was halfway out of its sheath before I realised that it was just the crafted sword dude who had deposited himself in the chair on the other side of me.

He glanced down at my sword, then back up at me. “That sword is on a hair trigger, huh?”

“You were loud,” I said, by way of explanation.

For a microsecond, his face wore a frown, but it was quickly replaced by a smile. “I’m sorry if I scared you. I just wanted to meet the cute samurai girl. You were actually pretty good in the battle. Did you practice with the katana before you made your character?”

On my other side, Elena was silent, but I could tell she was uncomfortable with him. I’d always sort of understood girls, unlike every other guy I had spoken to. I could read her now, and something was twigging her sense of caution.

I just shrugged, not really feeling the need to explain my skills. Elena, on the other hand, leaned forward. “Okay, but I have a more pressing issue. What kind of tag is Manorexic. That’s so strange.”

“It’s what I’ve always used,” he replied defensively. “It’s just a gamertag.”

“It sounds kinda like it’s making fun of an eating disorder,” Elena pressed, and while I agreed with her, I really wasn’t in the mood for a dumb confrontation. I just felt tired, melancholy, and depressed. I think I needed to lay down.

Without a word, I stood up and made my way towards the bar. The old guy behind it looked up as I approached, and his eyebrows rose when I slapped down a silver coin. “How many bottles of that whisky will this get me?”

“Two of the cheap stuff, but I have a few better bottles out the back,” he said gruffly, eyeing my coin greedily.

“Cheap is fine,” I said. I wasn’t normally the type to drink it, but Elena had given me a thirst. “I’m not looking to savour it.”

“Uh,” he murmured, clearly not expecting my reply. “Two bottles might be a bit much for someone of your stature,” he said, glancing pointedly at my short body.

“Just give me the bottles, dude,” I sighed, and then placed twenty coppers down on the bar too. “And is this enough for a room?”

“Uh, yes,” he said, being polite now.

He gave me the two bottles and a room key, and off I went up the stairs. I was already incredibly  done with people. Why did I have so much trouble making friends as an adult? Other people seemed to make friends so easily, but then I was like, fucking shit at it.

I laid my nice bedroll down, took my clothes off, and snuggled myself into it. At least when I was all depressed like this, I didn’t feel weird about my body. Now to get drunk and forget all my problems until tomorrow.

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