10 Life but with a Digital Shop Function?

The morning started like usual. Which was disappointing, since I was hoping for a break.

Mornings usually begin with lessons. As I said, magic theory. Well, many things. Like elven, arithmetic (algebra in my case, since yours truly is just that good), and the occasional history lesson. The afternoons are reserved for magic. But I've been known to goof off and experiment on new sword-styles. Then night falls, and like your average 6-year-old, I sleep like a log.

The afternoon, however, was awkward. After the previous altercation (see earlier chapter), she refused to talk to me. Which was difficult, since we were supposed to be sparring partners. I took it easy since I didn't want to get on her bad side, but she was intent on killing me. To the point where she nearly impaled me on icicles. On multiple occasions within the span of that afternoon.

Garyn didn't like that. He separated us, rather forcefully, into separate corners of whatever rooms we were in. We ate our meals separately, which marked a first since we met each other.

And he cast us pretty weird looks. Which I probably should have paid more attention to, but I was hungry. I like eating a lot after exercise.

Anyways, my dreams were wild as ever.

Which leads us to the morning after that.

Which was the wildest 7:AM I've ever had the misfortune to deal with.

I realized that I forgot to fill you all in with a little bit of background context. As to my knowledge, we're somewhere pretty high up. I can tell since it gets foggy whenever it rains, and my nose bleeds sometimes when it gets cold. Plus, the thin air combined with the thick mana, the stars in the night sky…

It all adds a nice feel to the place.

You see, a 6-year old like me, who spent the first part of his life down in the human realm, probably had no business whatsoever up here. But as I repeatedly enforce: Man's gotta do what man gotta do.

But I digress.

I woke up. Everything felt sore, and my throat ran dry. I tried getting up but flopped to the ground. Which was unexpectedly hard.

I then realized two things. First of which, I was not in Garyn's house. I appeared to be in some sort of cave, dark, damp, and dirty as they come.

Second, my hands and legs were bound. Which was undone by a quick tug. Whoever wanted to tie me up probably didn't take me seriously.

"Let me go!" Kythaela yelled from behind me. "Hey! Anyone!"

Right. Of course, she has to come along with me. Just my luck-

"Yo!" I called out. "Where are you?"

"Yo! Where are you?" came the echo.

"Zophiel!" She yelled. "Was it you who did this?"

The 'was it you who did this?' part echoed across the room. I facepalmed, stifling a laugh.

"What-, me?" I laughed. "Why would I do that?"

"You have the neve-"

"Yeah, yeah, I love you too, just stop with the tsundere act, yeah?" I dusted myself off and propped myself up. The cold air wrapped around my exposed skin, as bat chirps and fluttering of feathers filled the air. "Pretty cozy environment we've found ourselves in, yeah?"

"What are you saying?" Came the reply.

"I'll leave first since I can go back home." I paused. "I'll be back with help. Stay put, 'kay?"

"Wait, why are you lea-"

"I'll come ba-… or not" I whispered so that she couldn't hear it the slightest. "But still keep in mind that I'm not in charge of you nor in the mood to play the hero."

I was in the middle of lacing up my boots (I don't know how or why I woke up in my armor. Don't ask.), preparing myself to activate Shadow Movement.

"Hey, are you going to leave me?" She sobbed. "Where are you going?"

"I'll be back with help, okay? I can't travel with two people, so I might take a while." I yelled. "Then let's go… Shadow Movement."

"How will you get back to me?" She cried out. "If you leave me, can you come back?"

Oops, didn't think of that. Don't want to put the cart before the horse.

"Change of plans!" I yelled. "Can you call out? I'll head to your voice!"

I felt my way through space, wandering, searching for where her voice rang loudest. I saw a vague light while heading towards her voice. Problem was, there was a fork in the road ahead of me. The road with light ahead of it felt warmer and curved upwards, probably towards the surface.

The other road leads down the opposite direction. Problem was, Kythaela's voice came from there.

Do I want to go up and get help?

"Zophiel…" She cried out, voice hoarse from screaming out. "My throat…"

She might be cold and violent towards me but there were times when she softened up. And maybe she's harsh, loud, and annoying, but endearing, in a weird sort of way kinda turns me off at some point.

"Just hang on a little longer!" I yelled, racing down the dark tunnel. "Hold on!"

I frantically ran toward the sound of her voice, scared to lose her. My legs felt overworked, my lungs felt like molten lead, and my head felt like a balloon filled with too much air.

Then, from the corner of my eye:

[Notice: Recommended action: Activate Shadow Movement.]

The only thing I could see. At all.

"Activate Shadow Movement."

[Attention: Shadow movement active. Your sense of sight is limited.]

My body cooled, and my breathing eased. Within seconds, I was moving faster than I was before.

Then the already steep floor went tilt. By tilt, I mean smooth floor. Scary angle.

And I sort of slid, sort of fell my way onwards.

And I landed against a wall. On my legs.

And something snapped.

You know, if there's something scarier than death, it is an ankle injury. Especially for athletes, or at least former athletes such as myself.

And whenever they go kaput, it's cry time. Nobody wants a prematurely ended career.

So much for waking up with armor.

[Warning: Your legs received substantial damage. Approximate time to heal… λε hours.]

[Notice: Recommended action: Buy Healing Potion {Small}. Costs ν points {Current: ϡν}]

[Notice: this costs ν points {Current: ϡν. Will you buy it? Y/N]

"Ayt, do you even have to ask?" I groaned.

[Notice: this costs ν points {Current: ϡν}. Will you buy it? Y/N]

"Yes, dammit!" I yelled through gritted teeth.

[Purchase Complete: Applying now.]

[Current points: ϡ]

The vial appeared in my hand. I drank it down, making sure that every drop went down my throat. The pain subsided, but not entirely. My ankle went from definitely broken to painful throbbing.

"Are you OK? I heard a loud sound, like someone falling." Her voice said. Close to me.

"What, are you worried?" I joked. "Sounds weird."

"If you have the strength to joke, then you should have the strength to find me." She said, voice almost depleted. "Come here, already!"

"Brat." I chuckled under my breath. "Give me a break, will you?"

I felt around the room, crawling, cutting my hand on a stalagmite. "Got a bandage on you?"

"Wait, are you ok?" Her voice was faint and hoarse, but she sounded worried. "Zophiel, what's going on?"

"Seriously, can you cut the tsundere?" I groped around with my free hand, using my handkerchief (as I said, I don't know how it got there) to bind my cut hand. "For real, where are you?"

Just as I said that my hand touched something warm for the first time in forever. It was soft, perky, round.

A familiar sensation.

She was curled up into a ball, shivering from the cold.

"Ughmnm." She tried shaking me off. I threw my hands up, just in case someone was watching. "Let.. go.."

"Your throat o.k. there?" I patted the ground, till I found her head. "Must have been rough."

I gave her a head pat. She tried biting me, and I rolled back.

"Yeesh, chill." I sighed. "What am I going to do with you?"

I untied her bonds, taking care not to stain anything with my hand. You know, I don't know what's more insulting: the fact that we got abducted, the fact that I had to look for her, or the fact that she was the one tied up tight.

"And you couldn't have frozen the ropes off?"

"..."

"What?"

"I can't cast when my hands are tied." Barely a whisper, her voice seemed fragile, almost at breaking point.

"Cold?" I asked, draping my hoodie on her shoulders.

I helped her up. She snapped her fingers, and a fireball the size of my head ignited.

"Careful not to use too much air." I cautioned. "Don't want to choke, now, do we?"

The fireball shrunk.

I looked at her. Her purple eyes, red from crying, stared back into mine. Her bedraggled appearance, combined with that look she cast…

It made me want to beat whoever did that to her into next week.

I pulled the hood strings down. "You probably don't want to cry in front of me, right?"

I grinned and took her hand.

"Aight, let's go. Any objections?"

She shook her head.

I tugged her, heading up.

But she stayed still and grabbed my hand. I winced, and sucked in air, through gritted teeth.

Is she too scared to move?

"I just cut that. Hey, hey, easy on the hand. Lay off, yeah?"

But she grabbed it even tighter. Behind the hoodie, she let out stifled sobs.

Even the village idiot could get a sense of just how scared she was.

Aight, what does my Eroge experience tell me to do in this situation?

"Kythaela." I pulled back the hoodie and looked her in the eye. She turned her head away from me. "Are you scared?"

She sniffled a bit and coughed.

"Then let's play a little game, yeah?" I smiled. She stopped crying and looked at me curiously.

"Just a simple game. No need to be scared of me. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3." I smiled.

"Interested?"

"Just trust in me." I tugged the hoodie over her eyes. "I have this stupid game I play with myself whenever I feel down."

"W-what?" She asked, with more strength in her voice.

"I speedrun whatever I'm doing whenever I need a little something to keep me going. Just for kicks, or to pass time or self-competition." I patted her head. "Want to see how fast I can get you out of here? I won't let go, don't worry."

She nodded.

"Then off we go."

And I led her up the tunnel.