Friends

[Calling… calling…] Could be read on the screen, until a sound came from it. "Ding!" A profile with the name 'King Kris' appeared in the call, right above Asbjørn's own profile called 'Shapeless AN.'

"Yo dude, what's up? You're rarely the one to start a call here." Curiosity could be heard from the young male voice.

"Nothing much, I just wanted to say my exams ended yesterday."

"You really mean that?" Kris almost screamed at Asbjørn in excitement.

"Of course I mean it, Kris; why would I joke about finishing that cramming hell?" He responded, missing the point of what Kris said.

"Dude, it's not that I didn't believe you, I just nee-" As he was replying, another profile appeared in the call, this time the name was 'Queen Slayer Abby'. "-ded. Oh hey Abby."

"Hey guys," An energetic female voice replied.

"Great news Abby, we can finally all adventure together." Kris said full of excitement.

"Oh! Gimme a sec, we gotta get everyone on right now." Abby replied with vigor, and shortly thereafter everyone on the server got a ping.

[Queen Slayer Abby 13:26: @everyone join the call rn, we have some GREAT news to share!!!]

Shortly thereafter multiple profiles appeared along with three dings, in order, they are 'Unit,' 'Soothing Melody,' and 'Legendary Archer Dude.'

"So, what're these great news? Me and Oli were watching some anime, and you pinged us in the middle of the big battle." A soft and polite female voice asked while a ring around 'Soothing Melody' lit up.

"Hehehe. Nothing much O, just that we can finally assemble the full group." Abby responded with a giggle.

"Fucking finally! I was getting tired of those same monsters, they're so easy to just pick off from a distance." It came in an almost annoyed and a tiny bit snobbish tone of voice, from 'Legendary Archer Dude.'

"Very funny Eli, that's just because me and Abby are out there holding them back, otherwise you'd have been run over so many times by now." Kris sarcastically said.

"Come on guys, it's not as if A had a say in this matter, and O, it doesn't really matter with that anime, we can just rewind it." 'Unit' said as he butted into the conversation.

"On another note, A, do you know where in the party you want to be? It'd be great to have you join the CQC and remove some of the pressure from me and Kris." Abby said, attempting to bring the conversation away from the chaos it was devolving into.

(A/N: CQC: Close Quarters Combat)

The others expressed their agreement to this statement, as their current party balanced was a bit skewed to the backline.

"My dad actually asked me about what weapon I wanted, and I said sword, so it's great that there's a spot open." Asbjørn responded.

"Wait, I just thought of something weird." Abby interrupted. "How come we never talked about this before?"

"Great question Abby, it really is weird now that I think about it." Oli said with some consideration.

"No it's not Oliver, we obviously never bothered because A wouldn't be joining for a while anyway." Eli responded with the same tone as when he joined.

"Calm down guys, I don't mind that you never talked it over with me, we can just do it soon. No harm, no foul." Asbjørn said, just trying to calm the situation.

"Great idea, when can we meet up and discuss party strategy? I've got no plans for this weekend." Kris quickly said, before the banter from before started up again.

"Me and O have a birthday to attend in a few hours, otherwise our weekend is open as well." Oliver responded, and Oli confirmed it.

"Unless we also go hunting that day, I'll only have a few hours outside training." Eli answered.

"And I'm free as always." Abby said with an audible smile. "So that just leaves any day besides today."

"If we want to go into the dungeon right after the talk, then it'll have to be in a few days, as my dad is currently making a sword for me, otherwise any day is fine." Asbjørn quickly added.

"Hmm, considering that we normally keep Friday to Sunday free, I say that we meet up on Monday at 10:00, then A will also have some time to try his sword out at home." Kris said after a bit of consideration. "And might I add that it's so fucking unfair that you have a dad to handmake you a sword, mine cost like 500 kr., and that was for a pretty decent common sword.

(A/N: 1 $ = 6.11 kr. and 1 € = 7.44 kr. as of the 5th of June)

"Hehe…" Asbjørn said a bit embarrassed. "But that time works fine for me."

The others agreed, and Eli was satisfied that they'd also head into the dungeon, though he forgot that they'd have to do something about Asbjørn's level.

They talked about a few other unimportant things for some time, and the others slowly left the call one by one, until it was just Asbjørn and Kris left.

"If that's everything, then I think I'll go now as well, as my dad has lent me a very basic sword I can use for practice until he's made my actual sword."

"God I wish I had a dad like yours, not that mine's bad, but he's definitely not spoiling me in the same way." It came with an inaudible sigh from Kris. "Anyway, before you leave, do you want me to come over today or tomorrow for some training?"

"Sure thing, just come over today when you want." Asbjørn responded in a slightly happy tone.

"Then I'll come over in around an hour, so see ya 'til then A." Kris said and left the call, after Asbjørn had said goodbye as well.

Asbjørn got up from his bed and stretched for a couple seconds and a thought struck him.

'Huh, seems like I don't even consider talk about dungeons weird, that's weird but not unwelcome, and this world does sound a lot more interesting than it used to anyway, so I'll just embrace it.'

With a smile on his lips and a sword in hand, he went to the garden to practice while waiting for Kris.

.

..

…

On his way to the garden, Asbjørn had discovered a dummy and a note from his dad.

|I knew this day would come at some point, so I had prepared a dummy some time in advance, it can take quite the beating, so don't worry about breaking it for now.|

He had of course tried to check the dummy's status, which worked.

[[Item name: Training Dummy

Rank: Uncommon

Description: A training dummy well suited for those in the first three ranks, though those approaching rank 4 might be able to break it. It's been enhanced with magic engineering.

Effect: The toughness of the dummy can be changed between five stages. When attacks below a certain strength damages the dummy, it will quickly fix the broken parts, granted that all parts are close by.]]

A little over half an hour had passed since he found it, and Asbjørn had started to become a little annoyed, at not being granted the satisfaction of watching something be destroyed.

"It's a beautiful day outside.

Birds are singing, flowers are blooming.

On days like these, dummies like you.

SHOULD BE DYING UNDER MY BLADE!"

This resulted in him quoting a video game character he liked, though he changed it a little. The full-powered strike he delivered was enough to actually dent the material of the dummy quite a bit, but as the sword was quite dull, it was impossible for someone in his situation to actually cut the dummy. Though it had fixed itself just a few seconds later.

Shortly after the shout, the garden's gate could be heard open up, and a familiar voice called out.

"Wow dude, it's been a while since I heard you shout like that; something happened before I arrived?"

Asbjørn turned around to see a young man and his best pal.

"Don't worry Kris, I just got a little mad at this dummy that doesn't want to die."

Kris stood at a good 210 cm tall, putting him 15 cm above Asbjørn's own 195 cm, his muscles where also quite toned. He had light brown hair and was wearing a regular pants and a crimson T-shirt, both of which he had somehow gotten in baggy versions, despite his size.

Kris looked over at the dummy and chuckled.

"That really doesn't look too strong." He approached it to take a better look. "Wow, I can't see any damage on it, did you really hit it for some time?"

"Yeah, but it kept regenerating every time I damaged it in any way, so it just built up my frustration for a while, resulting in the outburst you overheard just before."

Asbjørn replied with a sigh, as he simply didn't want to think about it right now.

"Wait, you really mean that it kept regenerating? You normally only find that stuff at larger guilds, and they guzzle mana too quickly for too low of an effect for most people to even use them. Mind if I give it a few hits?" Kris said in both awe and surprise, as he walked around the dummy, inspecting it.

"Sure, I don't mind." Asbjørn replied a little lazily with a 'go ahead' wave of one hand. He also took a look at his mana in response to what Kris told him about similar dummies.

[[MP: 150/150]]

Kris was about to strike the dummy when Asbjørn interrupted him.

"You said they guzzle mana, right? My MP is full."

Just as the words left his mouth, Kris's sword cleaved the dummy in half diagonally before he turned his back to it to face Asbjørn. With an embarrassed smile and laugh, Kris said.

"Sorry about that mate, I thought it was tougher than that. You mentioned something about MP, mine is also fu-" A surprised expression appeared on Kris' face. "Wait, my MP's dropping rapidly."

At first Asbjørn just tried to hide his shocked and almost terrified expression, as Kris' slash was way stronger than he ever believed possible. But he could only hold it for a short time, as he soon saw something even more unbelievable.

"D-d-dude, look behind you."

He stammered as he pointed with a shaking hand to the dummy, his face slowly morphed into an incredulous expression. Confused, Kris turned around to find the top half of the dummy levitating towards the bottom half, like two magnets slowly being attracted. After the two halves connected, a click sounded out and a mechanical voice could be heard.

"Switching to level 2."

"Whoops." It came from the surprised Kris.

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Please tell me your thoughts on the chapter, I appreciate all comments that give constructive criticism (positive feedback is also appreciated), but if there's something that you don't like, please explain exactly what it is, and (hopefully) give some idea on how it can be improved.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.