Preparation, Part One
Later, Lianna asked:
"So... What do you think? Now that we've had some time to sit with it, I mean."
Enverna seemed to still be getting her thoughts in order. She brought her legs up on the couch and folded them sideways, beside her. It was an elegant pose that Lianna couldn't really imagine herself doing.
"To be honest, I do not understand the point of keeping us in separate courses if we're going to be allowed to go on the same missions. Still, I am glad that they might let us do that."
"Yeah, same..." Remembering what the Constellation had said, Lianna felt compelled to add, "we should try to be ready, though. I mean, even if it's just going to be a 'practice' mission, we're still going to be in danger, right?"
She was posing it as a question but, of course, Lianna knew it to be a certainty that, in the near future, she and Enverna would be going on some form of a mission that would then go terribly wrong.
Maybe this would be that mission. Lianna was going to make sure to treat it like it would be.
The crimson-haired woman picked up the bag filled with her clothes and said:
"I'm thinking I should go buy some stuff in town." She pulled out some black leggings and draped them over her left wrist. "Do you want anything?"
"I'm not familiar enough with the available options to know the answer to that," Enverna responded. "Give me a moment to get ready."
"Uhm..." Lianna stopped her, just before Enverna could go to the bedroom. "You should probably go train."
Enverna arched a brow.
"I could do so later. Surely, this trip won't last that long, right?"
"It could," Lianna responded. "There's a lot I want to check... Besides, the earlier you go to the gym, the smaller the amount of people there will be."
In truth, the main reason Lianna wanted to go alone was because of that limitation the Love Conqueror had placed upon Lianna. Because she couldn't mention or allude to the System information she'd been given, if Enverna saw her purchasing a million different things in preparation for this practice mission and asked why she was going that far in preparing, Lianna didn't have an answer to offer that didn't involve the quest.
All she'd do was make herself seem suspicious. Kind of like she was doing right now, but worse.
Plus, the more time Enverna spent getting her stats up, the lower the chances that anything happened to her.
"... I suppose you're right," Enverna finally responded. "I would like to get further acquainted with Telvan later, though."
"And we will," Lianna promised. "I'll take every opportunity that I can to show off my fiancee later."
"On second thought, I might just stay at home forever," Enverna responded but Lianna could see a smile trying to tug at the corners of her lips.
"Okay, BRB!"
Lianna declared before running into the bathroom with her clothes in hand to change, hearing Enverna mutter "what does 'BRB' mean?" behind her.
---
Given that Telvan was the sort of place that only buzzed more the later the day got, it stood to reason that at this time, 9:01 am, there weren't many people out in the wide, grey streets. Lianna appreciated that, as the lack of eyes on her allowed her to truly focus on considering what it was that she wanted out of this place she was heading to.
The building sat proudly in the distance, at the corner of an intersection. A sign read, "The Player's Library" in big, purple letters.
Here, experienced Players would sell off the low-level scrolls and spellbooks that they found out in the wild so that amateur Players like Lianna could buy them and get a taste of the different classes they could choose.
Lianna guessed her Instructor would cover this in her next course, unless they truly did have that little hope in the low-rank recruits, but she wanted to go ahead and grab a couple of abilities here and now.
Given what the System said would happen soon, Lianna already had a class in mind she was leaning toward.
The building's glass doors slid open and Lianna found that it looked a lot smaller from the inside. A few bookshelves stood in rows throughout the room, each one labeled "Warrior", "Sorcerer", "Healer", and so on, along with a set of stairs placed stealthily at the back leading elsewhere.
Lianna skipped over most of the shelves, arriving at the one she wanted.
The shelf that was labeled "Scout".
Naturally, the first thing Lianna checked was how much all of this stuff cost. Until she actually started taking real missions, she'd be using what she'd saved up from her time as a waitress to buy things, which wasn't much.
So, Lianna pulled out her phone and went to her bank's site, where she saw...
[Wait, WHAT!?]
Lianna's jaw crashed into the floor, staring at her screen in disbelief.
After Lianna had paid for her subscription plan to the Watchful's guild, the housing plan that would let her stay at the hall, she vividly recalled having just a little over 700 royals left in her account.
Now, she had 20000.
She immediately had her suspicions and, indeed, as she went to check where this money had come from she had her suspicions confirmed.
"Miss Taylor..." She murmured. "S-She sent me that much... Why!?"
There was no message attached to the transaction either.
Miss Cynthia Taylor, the Player that had found Lianna out in the wilderness and brought her back to Telvan, and had paid for her education, and had paid for her house, had just sent her 19300 royals without so much as a "here, you're welcome".
Lianna's mind was glitching out.
Holding that phone against her chest, she teared up.
[... I wish I could say "thanks", but I've never even been able to find a way to reach you,] she told Miss Taylor in her thoughts.
Wiping those tears away, Lianna tried to focus back on the matter at hand.
With that amount of money in her bank account now, she could probably buy the entire shelf. But, Miss Taylor probably wouldn't want her wasting everything in under a day like that, so while she gave herself some leeway she didn't have before, she still had it in her mind that she'd only buy the better items.
The first spellbook she found produced a System message when Lianna picked it up that read:
Reconnaissance - 25 MP
{Spell}
{Lesser}
{Class: Scout}
{Desc: Identify every Fiend and Human in a 10-meter radius}
{Note: This ability works through walls}
{Val: 50 Tokens}
Lianna squinted, looking at that last part.
[What the hell are "tokens"? That should say "royals".]
Although she still had no clue what that was about, Lianna still plucked the book from its shelf. Being able to identify enemies like that would likely have a great many different uses in the future.
Plus, spells and techniques evolved the more you used them, as Instructor Walker mentioned. That made Lianna wonder just how much she could increase the range of this ability.
[This could be pretty crazy, no?]
The next one read:
Ambush - Passive
{Technique}
{Lesser}
{Class: Scout}
{Desc: The first attack you or your allies attempt on an enemy that has not seen you specifically yet has a 25% higher chance of landing. This passive is maintained for every attack you or your allies attempt until the enemy sees you.}
{Note: Passive only activates when within 5 meters of an enemy}
{Val: 50 tokens}
Lianna had been extremely excited, up until she read that note.
[Ah, so I have to be, like, right next to the enemy for this to work. That makes this significantly less useful.]
Still, she pulled it out from the shelf.
[Okay... Let's see what else we get.]
---
{Enverna}
Back at the guild hall, Enverna stood before the doors of the facility's gym.
She felt no small amount of anxiety, but at the same time, she figured it would be good to try to get used to walking around Telvan on her own. Especially since, sure, she could just work out at the dorm, but using equipment actually gave you a small boost in attribute gains. For the sake of efficiency, Enverna felt she had to come here.
What she'd heard about this place made it seem like nothing but a drug-infested den of degeneracy, but if Lianna's surprising warmth and kindness were any indication, maybe her people were wrong in that assessment.
Enverna braced herself, though, and walked inside.
There weren't many people inside, which Enverna was thankful for. The few members of the guild who were there, however, instantly dragged their eyes over to her.
Even the ones in the middle of their workouts.
Enverna's own silver eyes fell over each of them, scanning the others one by one.
At that moment, she realized something. Sure, Lianna's clothing choices were still excessive, but her tendency for showing off her body was something pretty much everyone here shared.
The girls in particular left Enverna's face feeling hotter just looking at them. Their arms, their abs, and 90% of their legs were just carelessly exposed, out in the open. From where she stood, Enverna could see their sweat forming liquid trails sliding down to their wrists and their calves.
[... Shameless.]
Choosing to focus on herself, Enverna set all of that aside and instead went to check the machines to see which ones she'd be using.
[Such strange contraptions... The gyms in Garriden are mainly just collections of dumbbells and barbells. What are all these ropes for?]
With some small amount of curiosity, Enverna put her bag down and stood before one machine in particular.
Two ropes tied to a wire above her head waited, presumably, for Enverna to lower them. She grabbed them and pulled, trying to get a feel for how exactly she was supposed to use this thing.
A voice spoke up behind her.
"You're doing it wrong."
"W-What?" Enverna flinched.
Standing there was a tall lady, a bit taller than Lianna, with pale skin and black hair tied into a ponytail, dressed just as shamelessly as the other girls in the gym were. Judging by her differently colored eyes, one blue and one purple, Enverna understood that she had 2 Instincts. Likely a very strong Player.
With a polite smile, she said:
"Your form's off."
"O-Oh. Uhm, may I ask how exactly I am supposed to use this?"
"Pfft. Uh, yeah, you 'may'," she replied with a giggle. Enverna noticed then that a few other girls were watching them, as they too chuckled at that. "Here, grab onto the ropes." She did as she was instructed. "Now, pull them down like *this*," the girl said, tugging down on Enverna's arms. "This is meant to work out your triceps. Bend over a little."
Enverna's eyes widened.
"What?"
"Bend over," the girl reiterated, confused as to why Enverna was confused.
"..." Hesitantly, Enverna lowered her chest.
"More," the girl added. "Spread your legs slightly and stick your butt out a little."
"My...!?"
The look the other girl gave her, however, as though Enverna was the weird one, prompted Enverna to go:
[No, no... I'm just overthinking it. Just do as she says.]
So, as embarrassing as the pose was, she did as she was told.
"Okay, I'm gonna change the weight on these plates. Let me know when it gets difficult to pull the ropes."
"A-Alright..."
"Now."
Enverna pulled the ropes down easily.
"No."
"Okay, what about now?"
Again, the same result.
"No."
"Huh? Uhm... Now?"
Enverna pulled them down and, finally, she felt some resistance.
"It is harder now... Still slightly easy, however."
"Damn," the girl replied with a surprised, barked-out laugh. "You're really strong!" Looking down at the weights, Enverna saw that they were currently set to add up to 113kg. "Okay, what about now?"
"Yes," Enverna finally replied as the plates added up to 136kg. "It's difficult now."
"Good. Okay," she clapped her hands. "Pull the ropes down like I showed you, a little slowly, about 5 or 6 times. Then, you take a 30-second rest and do it again. You repeat that process 4 times and you're done with this machine."
[I understand...]
As she got started, Enverna closed her eyes. It was an awkward movement that she was being made to perform, but she tried as hard as she could.
She only got 3 reps in, though, before something happened that made her stop.
The girl grabbed her by her hips, pulling her back.
"W-WHAT!?"
"You keep getting out of your form," she stated. "You need to stay leaning over. Keep sticking your butt out a bit."
"..."
Fumes came out from Enverna's ears. Her face was painted red as she kept going.
"That's it..." The girl's hands went a little lower. "1 more time!"
[The way she's holding me... Is it not rather...?]
Then, with her hands still squeezing her hips, the girl said:
"Wow." She paused. "You have some nice curves."
Enverna let go of the ropes.
The plates slammed into each other. The girl backed off, shocked.
"O-On second thought," Enverna picked up her bag, "perhaps I should just work out in my room. Uhm... Thank you..."