Chapter 22

In front of me, my opponent vanished into blue motes of light after I stabbed him in the head four times as quickly as I possibly could with my current skills. Begrudgingly, I must admit that he does have some skills. His sheathed blade strike was very quick and precise. Any normal player would have not a shred of hope dodging his first deadly attack. Too bad that the matchup was overwhelmingly skewed against him for it to even be considered anything but unfair. Although I don't regret humbling him, not even a bit considering his earlier attitude.

Now that my concentration in the duel diminished and my agitation was doused after killing my opponent, my focus returned to the present. I slowly glanced at the entire hall to survey it carefully without letting anyone know my gentle probing.

Complete silence.

If I drop a pin here I'm pretty sure everyone in the huge hall can hear it making a sound. Worse yet, all eyes are on me as if I'm some kind of rare specimen from a zoo. I'm a human you know! Don't treat me like some kind of unidentified species from a different planet.

This is bad! I might have overdone it juuuust a little bit. Though too late for regrets now. Besides I've accomplished what I set out to do in the first place. I silenced anyone having any doubts about me being an officer and disproved rumors about Liz's nepotistic nature. Now I just have to walk normally like nothing worthwhile happened, so that I can downplay whatever I did.

I walked out slowly towards the exit of the hall like any normal person you can see walking in a park. Hopefully, this act can give a better first impression of myself than what happened in the duel, especially since I've just joined Liz's guild. I hope that they would think of me as a calm, approachable, and mature guildmate. Not a bloodthirsty gremlin ready to PK anyone who even dares to look her in the eye.

The silence grew even louder as I exited the duel area and to my relief, I finally got out of that stifling atmosphere.

I sighed.

Before I could even begin to appreciate my much-needed privacy from prying eyes, a familiar voice threw that notion out of the window.

"Kat!" Liz's voice caught me off guard.

She rushed toward me with a tackle. Though I can easily avoid it, I don't want her to stumble and fall if I get out of the way of her dive. So I made peace and accepted my fate.

*thump

"Humph," I made an unladylike sound just as she knocked the air out of my lungs with her forceful tackle which sends me down butt first.

I don't prioritize strength and my armor is too light to be of help, what did she expect to happen!? Of course I won't be able to support her weight!

For her part, she did have the sensibility to look abashed by her actions.

"S-sorry". She apologized and after a moment of silence, she continued.

"And also, thanks!" She said with a bright smile, brighter than the sun itself, her eyes gleaming with earnest appreciation.

She might have read my true intention in setting up that duel and is very grateful to me for defending her reputation as this guild's leader, though it still made me quite embarrassed to be on the receiving end of her earnest gaze. So I did the best thing an awkward person like me can do in this situation.

"I-it's not like I did it for you or anything! That guy just got on my nerves so I beat him up." I made another excuse while averting my gaze from her gleaming eyes.

Wait, what am I doing!? I'm becoming one of those tsundere types!

"Heehhh, what do we have here" came a familiar teasing voice.

I glanced at the source and saw the mature beauty I often see in Liz's streams, FairyDust. Following her was Renz who looked quite abashed and Raynolds who was grinning from ear to ear.

Before I could say anything, FairyDust continued with her mature but teasing voice, a contrast I found rather endearing.

"I didn't expect you to be this bold Liz. Doing it out in the open? My, my, how has my cousin grown this fast without me even knowing it." she said with a playful smile.

My confusion from her words turned into comprehension as I finally realized what she meant. Due to Liz's earlier tackle, she is now positioned on top of me in a very suggestive way while my butt is the only thing standing in my way of being completely sprawled into the ground.

"T-that is not what happened and you know it!"

Liz immediately shuffled to stand up while denying the allegations. I, in turn, was completely at a loss for words. Good thing this is only a VR avatar or my face would be beet red by now with how embarrassed I am.

"Hehe, sorry sorry, can't pass up the chance to tease my favorite cousin and her cute girlfriend."

"Rana!" Liz made an embarrassed shrill cry.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll stop, sheesh. You don't have to be so loud."

I, in turn, triggered my survival instincts by staying completely still, not even moving a single inch while my brain almost short-circuited. I mean, we're both girls! What are you even implying?!

After a short while of berating her cousin, Liz helped me up by lending a hand.

"Sorry, she's always like that just don't mind her."

"It's fine." I leveled my voice into a calm one, careful of letting any of my emotions show through.

"Tsk! I was hoping for more of a reaction, you're no fun. I'm FairyDust by the way, former guild leader of this guild. Nice to meet ya!"

"A pleasure" I responded amicably and shifted to polite mode.

"Liz told me a lot about you, she always brags about this amazing prodigy she found to join her team."

"Thanks, although I believe she might be over-embellishing my skills."

"I thought so too at first, but after seeing that fight, she might be even downplaying." she eyed me probingly. As if she was laying all my secrets to bear.

It momentarily gave me the chills, like a rabbit caught in a snake's deadly gaze. Thankfully Raynolds cannot hold his enthusiasm and begins to blabber out his amazement.

"Miss Katherine, that fight was impressive! I was right the first time I saw you! You're extremely talented! The way you dodged that slash was impeccable! The timing was perfect! And don't even get me started on the counterattack, it was so fast that I barely saw it coming! You're so good that you could even go pro with your skills and that kind of talent!" Raynolds showered me with praise in quick succession that I didn't have time to respond to.

"That should be expected of a member of our team Paradigm," Renz stated approvingly. "Not bad at all...for a newbie that is."

You could have just excluded the last part! Honestly, this guy is just so prideful. However, it works in my favor since the last thing I want is for them to be overly enthusiastic in digging up my past.

As I was thinking up insults to hurl at this stubborn pervert, the background murmurs of the outside hall increased, it took me a bit to realize that we were slowly garnering attention from other guild members who witnessed the match. Chatters of guild members can be heard but none closely approached us. However judging from their growing interests and discussions, it's only a matter of time before they do.

"Let's go, Kat, we still haven't given you the set we promised."

Liz thankfully noticed my apprehension and suggested a way out, which I'm very grateful for.

"Sure, lead the way" I accepted her offer.

-------------------------

We are back in the guild workshop. The room is filled with racks of armor, each one made of the finest materials. Helmets, gloves, boots, breastplates, bracers, shields, and more all fill this room in a chaotic yet organized way. It's purely for aesthetics design since nobody can actually wear those but it does help with the setting for a better crafting environment for the craftsmen working at our guild. The only people here are me, Liz, and Raynolds. Renz told us he had plans to watch a movie with his sister and logged off early while FairyDust said that she had something important to do.

As Raynolds traded me the set, I immediately complained at the waste of materials for something I would replace eventually.

"Wait, isn't this a bit overkill? I would be changing it eventually when I get enough levels" I protested.

"It's fine Miss Katyusha, it is only customary to sponsor a guildmate using the guild funds especially if even qualifying for the main tournament gives our guild a huge increase in prestige. Also, you've proven your skills earlier in your fight against Jarde so I don't think anyone will criticize us for burrowing a bit from the guild funds," Raynolds gave me a conspiring wink.

…I see, so that's how it is.

They really went out of their way to find a gear at my level. They even handcrafted me a purple earring accessory, which is rare for lower levels to have. Only a maximum of three accessories can be equipped at a time so this will occupy one slot until I find a stronger one, though I doubt that would happen anytime soon.

The design is also better than I anticipated. To be fair, what I expected were cute frills and other designs befitting a magical girl judging from what Liz said a while ago when contemplating the design. While I might not be entirely against those kinds of designs, it would be extremely embarrassing if I were the one wearing them. Raynolds probably held her off from going too overboard. I'll be sure to thank him for that later.

However, I do have one major problem with this design.

I opened the character page menu to see how the outfit looks on me.

"Ray, isn't this set a little bit too revealing?"

"O-of course not miss!" he stuttered. "This is a perfectly normal design for female mages of your body type! It highlights your perfectly shaped figure and also makes you look more mature in the eyes of people!" he rebuked.

I sighed.

Hmm, I guess if it does make me look more mature and stylish then I don't really mind. Better than wearing magical girl's clothes for kids. And who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? They worked hard for this set and allotted a lot of resources too, the least I can do is be grateful for their actions.

"By the way, does this mean you want to transition into a DPS? With your new staff and all." Liz addressed the elephant in the room.

Ray became silent, likely dying to know my answer to the question that had been bugging him but too afraid to ask.

I pondered for a bit before replying, "No, it's too risky for team fights to use my unique weapon since all it takes is a stray projectile to kill me if I rely on it too much. It does increase our options since I can now cast haste on you or hold my own 1 on 1 if needed."

Team fights are often so chaotic that I cannot be sure to dodge everything that comes my way. Not with my current skills at least.

"I see that makes sense, but aren't you spreading your stats and skill points too far with that kind of build?"

She has a point. I didn't even get some of the survivability passive skills that healers tend to have in favor of putting it to chronomancy just to cast haste buffs.

"Yeah, kind of. I am grossly neglecting my survivability in exchange for healing, support buffs, and a little bit of damage. That is why I'm counting on you to protect me, my faithful knight." I teased.

"I promise none shall harm thee till my last dying breath, Milady!" She teased back.

We both giggled at our banter and in the corner of my eye, I saw Raynolds grinning at us from ear to ear.