Chapter 35 - Yohan & Rumi

"Y-Yohan… D-do we really need to do this…?! I-I'm scared…"

"Nah, It won't hurt anyway. Come on, just don't close your eyes, got it?"

"Won't… our revivals be wasted on this?"

"Depends… if you can conjure wind magic to slow us down, then yeah, we'll survive."

Yohan talked to the distressed Rumi as they stepped closer towards the edge of a cliff.

"Hey! I'm scared of heights, please…" Rumi began sobbing.

"Oh come on, I thought you wanna get stronger? Even in Eternal World, a mage who only knows how to use a single element… is pretty weak, not to mention that it's not really that versatile, and that's what we need, a versatile skill set since we're not a large party, we need to have the ability to adapt to any situation." He continued as he dragged Rumi from her both hands towards the edge.

"H-how about Alchimie? Isn't he a mage who can only use Earth Magic?! But he's a top player!" Rumi rebutted.

"Ugh fuck… First of all, Alchimie is not a full-fledged mage, it's just a byproduct of him being a golem creator. Second, here I am, one of the best players in the world, wanting to mentor you, and you don't want me to teach you? Come on, this is the way I learned Wind Magic in the previous game, anyway."

"Just because you're able to, doesn't mean that it will be effective for me!" She struggled, but the difference in Strength stat—add that she currently have 0 in Strength—means that she can't do anything nor brute force out of Yohan's grip, not only that, as he is restraining her hands, she can't cast any skills since the hands are mostly the only way to cast skills by forming mana into tangible forms and effects either through the hand itself or through objects held.

"Please… I'm really scared of heights… I can't even look down there! Please!" She began tearing up when they finally arrived by the edge of the extremely tall cliff, probably, if not the tallest in Floor 1.

"Conquer your fears." Yohan smiled, and finally tossed her into the air. Who then promptly jumped after her.

"YOU LUNATIC!!!" Rumi screamed at the top of her lungs while she descend at an accelerating rate. Her panic are at an all time high as whenever she tried opening her eyes, her fears are forcing them shut.

There's still probably a full 50 seconds left before they hit the ground, so she slowly relaxed herself and tried thinking.

"There's no way this guy will waste a revival here… He'll probably save the two of us if I can't cast Wind Magic... Dammit! dammit! dammit! Why is my mana control so bad!" When she finally relaxed, she grabbed her staff from her Inventory and began pointing it downwards.

"Please, please, please! Work!!!" She tried and tried, yet only Water are coming out, drenching the two of them mid-air.

"What's this? You trying to drown us before we hit the ground?" Yohan teased as he enjoyed the free fall. He smiled and laughed with Rumi looked at him angrily.

"You jerk…" She muttered as she continued doing her best, yet everytime, she tries it, only water comes out.

"Come on! Yuuki left you in my care, don't disappoint my best friend! I'm sure you can do this. Just relax and focus, if you don't want us to waste a revival here.

"You bastard, I'm sure you'll just save the two of us If I can't make it anyway!"

"Nah, I ain't a pussy. Our characters' brains will splat if you can't make it! Hahahaha!"

"Tsk! I never knew you're this crazy…"

"'Kay, how about this? If you make it, I'll kiss you."

Rumi's face turned bright red as she answered, "You bastard! I'm not like that! I don't want your kiss! Stop talking to me, I can't focus because of you!"

"Why not? I'm handsome anyway, I'm popular with girls too… heh… You tsundere…"

Rumi never mind this guy and simply focused all her attention in front of her. Even though her fear of heights are acting up with her shaking out of nervousness, she tried controlling it and is doing pretty well. "I can… do this…"

With only more likely twenty second before impact, she amped her mana output, "I'll brute force this!"

Yohan who's watching her is left amused. "Wow, she's doing pretty well. I didn't expect this…"

"You're really struggling, huh?! You're brute forcing your Wind Magic, you can't summon the gentle winds if you do that…" He moved beside her and placed his left hand in front of her staff. "Match the movements of my mana. Nice and slow..." He finally turned serious and stopped teasing her, instead working hard with her.

He began forming a sphere of wind in front of her and finally, her mana resonated with his. The sphere grew larger and larger due to Rumi's rather huge mana reserves due to having acquired such good items this early in the metagame.

"Okay, good, maintain it…" Yohan finally removed his hand from the sphere that's now grew more than five meters in diameter. "Spread it out to slow our fall."

"Y-yes!" She began manipulating the large sphere of wind, which while really hard considering her mana control, she managed to do so, albeit by doing it slowly.

"Okay, keep it up!" As the sphere of wind was turned into a thick, static platform, their descent's significantly decelerated. She stepped onto this platform and Yohan followed after her. "Good job," Yohan complimented her and raised his palm, which she immediately understood what he wanted to do. They high-fived each other with a smiled when Rumi shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Whoooooaaaaaa! I did It!!!!!!!!!! I'm so fucking coooooollll!!!!!!!"

Yohan laughed besides her when he saw this type of reaction from her, placing his hand on his belly, laughing and enjoying the scene wholeheartedly while they slowly descend.

"What now? Your fear's gone?" He asked because Rumi had no problem looking around now.

"No, it's still there, but I'm a little fine. After all, this scenery is so cool and pretty… I don't really have the luxury and money to travel around in the real world, hell, visiting the other allied planets will most likely just be a lifelong dream. But this much is enough to me, for now… It's just like the real world anyway. It's enough for me." She spoke with such melancholy.

"Why? Which allied planet do you even want to visit?"

"The Mechanicus…? Maybe the other primitive planets? I don't know, our world's so advanced that sceneries like this are very rare nowadays."

"Yeah, right." With the remaining few seconds, they just looked at the scenery in complete silence, awestruck by the beauty that such a place in a Full-Dive VR game possesses.

Moments later, they finally landed, and the wind platform finally started dissipating.

"Well… congratulations on unlocking Wind Magic." Yohan said.

"Thanks—" as she answered, a window suddenly popped up.

[Congratulations! A Skill Had Upgraded!]

[Crude Mana Control] –> [Poor Mana Control]

[Nature Transformation Learned: Wind! You can now form skills imbued with Wind Element.]

"Oh… That's cool," Yohan exclaimed.

"Wow… My mana control's never gotten good at all since the last game… Thanks, Yohan!" Rumi smiled genuinely at him as she turned around, which shocked Yohan,

"Wait… She's actually… quite pretty…"

He then spoke once again with a teasing smile. "Anyway, do you still want my kiss as a reward?"

Suddenly, Yohan's face distorted and his entire body almost got folded as he came crashing towards the nearby rocks. Because instead of an answer, Rumi simply blasted him away with wind.