Chapter 10

This was my first interaction with a different safe zone rather than the Town of Beginnings, walking to a place in Honruka Village as it looked rather comforting. Walking in it was the Town's Inn, seeing an NPC at the front desk.

"Hello, may I get a room for this person?"

"Sure, it'll be 120 col."

"Oh uh, let's see here..."

I opened my menu and looked at my currency, only having about 240 col. I sighed in relief as I closed my menu, tapping on the blue circle and opening a room for this person. Walking away from the front desk I walked up a flight of stairs and opened the first door to the left.

Creeak

I opened the door and walked in, setting the man into the bed as he rested on top of it. After a while I got a good look at this person, seeing their face and themselves physically for the first time. I stared at his hair, a familiar view of where his bangs had reminded me of the guy I saw during my walk to school and back.

However, I shook my head and brushed it off, looking at his equipment and overall outfit. He wore a white jacket with black lines on it, his chest piece was underneath his coat as I shifted him onto his side to see a bright black star symbol on the back of the coat.

I shifted the man to lay himself on his back as I saw his username Kirin, it was a rather unique username as I thought of the Kirin from that one anime. I brushed it off as a nicknaming scheme, heading out of the room and closing the door behind me.

Now that I knew this Kirin person had a name, I decided to wait for a while, walking out of the Inn to scavenge around the village. It flourished with a couple of players but mostly NPCs, seeing a person wearing a red cloak and hood, looking through a pile of apples, oranges, grapes, etc.

I didn't think much of it as she looked in my direction and I looked at hers, both of us making eye contact as I got to see the person under the red hood. It was a girl, blonde hair with a breastplate strap on one side with bright brown eyes. For a split second we stared at each other and for another second, we broke that eye contact, moving on with whatever we were doing.

What I had in mind was getting something like what that Kirin guy had, a nice-looking coat to keep me warm from the cold. I walked around the Town as I never got to see that girl again after that one sighting. After an hour of searching, I had nothing to go on, leaving the village and eventually running into Tolbana, the real second baston of the first floor.

I walked around Tolbana, seeing that it was significantly better than Honruka Village, having more places to go to and a teleportation crystal. I touched it as it opened and chimed, a textbox appearing in-front of me.

You have unlocked <<Teleportation Crystal: Tolbana>>

The textbox disappeared after pressing the red button, looking around there were more players here than there were at the village. I began walking around as I spotted the middle of Tolbana, a large fountain where a bunch of players were hanging around for downtime.

But I needed to level up and fast, looking around the players around me were already geared up with probably better gear that what I was sporting on. I began searching for parties as I walked around Tolbana to do so.

After about half an hour I walked to a group who was looking for a fourth party member. This group consisted with a tall man with black hair slicked back and blue eyes, a girl with brown hair and a mace, a male player with white hair swaying towards their right with blue eyes and a timid shy girl with blue eyes and brown hair.

"Are you three looking for a fourth party member?"

"Yeah, it's so we can clear a dungeon easier."

"A dungeon huh? Count me in."

"Sure thing, once you're with us we'll get going immediately."

I was then sent a party invitation by the player, his name was Rivol. A text message appeared in-front of me, asking, "Rivol has invited you to their party". Naturally I accepted as four other health bars and names appeared underneath mine, smaller than mine although.

"Alright, I'll lead the way"

Rivol cheerfully said, the other two nodded as I obliged, following behind them. Walking away from Tolbana, I stayed at the far back to defend our rear. I looked at their names from my HUD, displaying the rest of them as Rei and Sampsen. The group was rather quiet, the entire group was just banded for a simple dungeon clear.

"So, how was your guy's first few days?" Sampsen broke the silence, I looked at him as Rei stayed silent, Rivol did the same for a little bit.

"It's been tough, I managed to make it through the wolves though."

"The wolves are tough; just wish they weren't as fast as they are."

"Agreed. What about you Toru?"

"Huh? Me?"

"Yeah, how were your few days so far?"

"Uh..."I didn't think telling them the truth of getting ambushed and eventually falling off a cliff was the best way to make positivity within the established party. Instead, I made up a lie to them, I thought it was the safest way to establish some kind of small talk.

"Oh y'know, getting past wolves and continuing to work through the hardship...right...?" I was slightly nervous.

"That's one way to put it."

"Yeah, that's sure a way to keep the positivity running."

The boys replied as the timid girl just looked at me for a little bit, her eyes seemed to see right through my lie as she kept it to herself, turning around and facing forward. After rustling through bushes and trees, we eventually made it to a singular dungeon, we wasted no time to enter and begin descending through the dungeon.