She was in a pinch, was it because her status was way below the average?
No, she was actually above average since most civilians refused to level beyond level 1 as far as she had found out when walking the streets of the city.
Was it because she had a bad [Job]?
No, she had found that most people with levels above 2-3 had actually normal variants of jobs, so she was on the better side... Not that it mattered, as far as she could tell from her [Appraisal] results most had the same amount of status points.
So what was the point of the job rarity?
Probably something important that someone had forgotten while implementing this [System], not her problem.
Her problem was more serious, more important..."I don't know how to treat a Girlfriend." And that was a serious problem, since she had one now...Or could have one... She didn't actually ask Rossie what she wanted, did she?
"I only assume she wants...Uuuughh...." Elizabeth sighed while walking down the street, she had managed to get permission to leave the apartment and walk around to the park and back.
All under the promise she would call immediately the moment she felt sick, or if someone tried to hit on her, she understood the first, but the second...She never had someone try to do that to her, even though she was a looker.
So Rossie was probably worrying too much, no wait. If Rossie wanted to be called if someone tried to hit on her...Did that mean that she was Jealous?
If so, then she should want to be her Girlfriend...Right?
"But she still has that [Paramour] title...That really was for me then...." That was the biggest reason she was confident in that Rossie wanted to be her girlfriend.
Unlike previous brain-addled Elizabeth, she could tie the clues to her memories pointing to Rossie having a somewhat deep crush on her, so she shouldn't be against being her girlfriend.
But how does one go about that? She never had a girlfriend before (As stated) nor a boyfriend...Not that the boyfriend could give her experience about how to deal with a girlfriend...
That would give her experience about being pampered..."But then I could use that experience to pamper Rossise...Goddamnit [Papa]." She was half sure her father was the reason no one ever tried to be her boyfriend.
And while wondering about that something brought her out of her musings, it wasn't an epiphany with the correct answer, nor was a [Deus Ex Machina] moment where the answer was delivered on her lap.
No, instead...It was another blue screen.
| Hello World! |
| Heeeellloooooo~~~~~ This is your lovely and beautiful Goddess [Odyssey]! Are you having fun? Did you like what we did? I sure hope so! It was hard to parse everything right so it would show up well to everyone across multiple languages! We are working on fixing that by the way, the multiple languages thing... But this is not why we are addressing you all today! (And yes, this is a global message, you ain't that special to get an individual message...)
[Except you Eli-Eli, you are special (this part is only for your eyes ;3)]
And what am I your glorious and gorgeous goddess addressing you heathens about? Simple, after six months of the [World's System] implementation we noticed some...Things. Not all of you wanted to grab [Jobs], not all of you wanted to level beyond a certain point...And while most [Crafter]s embraced it, they don't really use all the points and they don't get the right [Skills] since the current version favors combat classers more. So yeah, [Update] welcome to patch 1.0: -All [Users] will be given the [Civilian] Job upon induction. -Civilian Job: Earns 3 status points per level, can't add them to [Wisdom],[Inteligence], or [Charisma]. -Jobs now only allow adding status points to what they affect. -The amount of status points earned depends on the rarity of the job. -Current Status points will be recalculated depending on your current job, naturally earned status points will remain, and you will get [One] [Status point reset ticket] in case you aren't happy with the new build you end up with after the recalculation of points. -[Civilian] can't have more than 10 status points in any status unless they are naturally earned points.
So yeah, get to it folks, you will wanna get rare jobs, and a quick peruse from my side shows that most of you will earn around 5-10 points by how it looks, the normal people at least. There are quite a few that will get at the very least 14 points and one little monster that will get 20.
[Not you Eli-Eli. Your 21 points will not be taken, if you end up with a rarer class that grants more than 21 you will get those, but you will never get less than 21.]
[Odyssey] out~ Look forward to further updates~~ |
And so pandemonium broke as most people stared at the invisible screens in front of themselves, she got a notification that her current job granted 12 points and she could add them to everything but [Constitution] and [Wisdom].
Then another one that said that her title as [Daughter of the gods] allowed her to add them wherever she wanted, so for her nothing really changed. Her status didn't move and so she was quite happy overall for not being affected.
Most of the civilians around her were the same, a few people complained here and there, but they were mostly workers that seemed to have added points to [Charisma], she knew that because a few actually had their skin stop looking healthy, same with their hair. So the stat really affected how one looked...
"YOU LIED TO ME! YOU SAID THAT YOU ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE THAT!" "I COULD SAY THE SAME BACK TO YOU!!!"
And a few discussions about looks started around in the park, mostly from people that while they didn't look quite ugly, they did look worse than before, that and the screams from one girl whose pants broke as she gained a few extra kilos.
Yikes, she would keep up to date with her exercises, charisma stat or not.
*ring, riiiing*
And while enjoying the chaos around her (It was quite fun to look) she heard her cellphone tone, wondering who wanted to call her while everyone was having a breakdown the call ID read [Rossie], right. She was the only one that had her number and would call her nowadays...Or ever.
"Eli-Eli are you okay?!? Did you lose status?!?" Was the first thing that came from her cellphone, the harried voice of Rossie.
She also heard the constant sound of wind hitting the mic of the phone, so the girl was probably running, where? Probably to here.
"Yes I'm okay, the status drop didn't hit me and I am okay. I was thinking of returning actually, since most of the people around here are getting rowdy." Elizabeth answered into the phone, she noticed how the howling wind had calmed down. So Rossie probably slowed down her running.
"Oh...Right, yeah...Okay...I will head out and buy some things we are missing, call me if you feel bad okay?" Said Rossie before killing the line.
She didn't even wait for her answer, was...Was she embarrassed? Or did she want to respect her boundaries?
Rossie had probably gotten scared at the idea of her status dropping, no wait, shouldn't Rossie's status drop too?
She had a common-class job, right? Or what rarity was her [Magical Girl] variant job?
Actually, how was the rarity decided on the jobs? Did it matter the amount of skills one earned before getting the job? The level one held? The difficulty?
If difficulty was the way to go, then both she and Rossie were at the top of hard-to-earn jobs since they got theirs by using both [Magic] without system assistance, and because they both could access the [Soulscape]. So they should be at the top.
No wait, did the [Soulscape] even affect their job? The original magical girls used it, and they both could use them, so was their variant of the [Magical Girl] job special?
She really needed to get into checking with the school, "Oh sorry there, didn't see you." Elizabeth said while apologizing to someone she ran into while walking back to their apartment.
"Oh it's okay, it was also my fault...." Said a male voice.
"HEY! Apologize properly when you run into someone!" Added a female voice, she seemed angry.
She didn't want to turn around to face them, she could recognize their voices, and the memories of stories her mother had told her before were tingling, she could feel it already.
"It's okay Rena, she didn't mean anything bad, she is probably worried about losing status points and levels after the update." The black-haired male said while smiling at her.
She knew he was smiling at her even though she hadn't turned to look back at him, how did she know? Their type always did that when speaking to a female.
"Sorry about that," But if she kept stalling this would devolve further, so she turned back and looked at both of them.
Akira was dressed in a school uniform, their school uniform, just like Rena. As if they were about to go to classes, this wasn't a thing, no one else around them dressed like that, no matter if they were students or not. She, for example, was dressed in a comfortable sweatpants and hoodie combo.
Her hair was tied into a ponytail and, a stark contrast with Rena who was dressed in a miniskirt and blazer from the school, as if she wanted to try to diminish the impact of Akira's shenanigans of wanting to dress up as if he was still attending classes...
"Hmm...I feel like we have met before, have we?" Akira said, "I'm Akira, a third-grade student at the [Mystic Powers Institute]." He what?
"Rena, same." The red-haired added, curt and to the point.
"I am Elizabeth Starbright, I also used to attend that school, but had an accident on the midterms and...Am not quite sure what my status is right now actually." She answered, had they forgotten her?
No wait, she gave him a trashing as [The Shadow Empress] but not as Elizabeth.
"Don't remember you," Rena said, yikes. The girl forgot someone she pointed her sword at?
Rude.
"We might have been in different classes, I just made it to third grade after my last power-up," Akira commented, his what?
Did...Did he call the midterms a power-up? "That arc sucked, we just went around killing trash mobs and stockpiling exp. Imagine my surprise when everything happened not in Avalon but in Camelot."
"It's okay Akira, from what they told us most of the fight occurred between the [Nine Stars] and a rogue [Villain] so we wouldn't had anything to do anyway," Rena said, who would thought, she was the voice of reason.
"I'm sure I could have helped..." Akira grumbled.
Nope, no no no no no, she didn't want to even begin to think how everything would have been so much worse, "At the very least we could have helped Elizabeth so she didn't get in such a bad accident...Missing half a year of classes... And now with the update she has lost some levels too..." Would you look at this, Akira was being...Nice?
She didn't lose any level tho.
"I guess...She doesn't look that strong, but any level she loses is more time she will need to train." Rena added her condolences too.
Who are they?
They can't be the same ones. Was she under a spell skill?
She took a deep breath and dived quickly into her [Soulscape] but didn't find any disturbances in the city, she however found...Something, a small tug within her [Soul]. As if something wanted to [Connect], following to the base she found it led to the [Building] that now housed Rossie's [Soulscape].
But the other way leads to the outside, "There must be something we can do, maybe if she joined our [Party] we could [Powerlevel] her?" Akira was speaking using some weird terms here and there.
"We tried that before with that girl from the [Inn] it doesn't work, maybe the [Skill] needs something else?" And Rena was trying to convince him from doing something else.
She ignored both of them and focused on the feeling, the [Tug] seemed to be in the direction of Rena, as if a [Connection] wanted to form between the two girls. She could [Feel] Rena's [Soul], a small ember that was about to burn out.
A fragmented, cracked log of wood that was burning under the rain, it was...[Pitiful] if that was her [Soul] it was even more damaged than what [Rossie] had on her [Soulscape].
What had happened to her?
While looking at her, she felt someone look at her and while following that sensation found Akira's eyes on her, "So what do you think?" He asked.
"Oh? Sorry, sometimes I get distracted with, probably some remnants from the whole fell in a coma for half a year thing." She answered, was it bad to use the coma as an excuse? Probably. But she didn't mind it, not at this point at least.
The [Soul] of Rena had another tether on it besides hers, another one that seemed to want to run away and ditch it but couldn't. Following it she found...The most hideous and slimy thing she ever perceived.
"I was thinking about inviting you into our [Party]...Or I guess you would understand it better if I said into our [Group], "Akira said while she followed the tether to its origin, "I could help you and get you a [Healer] Build so you would be safe from danger, and you could in turn [Heal] me after a fight." The tether pointed towards...Akira.
Surprise surprise.
She could feel the slimy tether want to latch into hers, but she instead retracted it behind Rena's [Soul], and that slimy tether seemed wary of going that way as if it didn't want Rena's [Soul] to latch into it. She could feel [Intent] from it.
"That is very nice of you, "She answered Akira while slowly reeling her [Tether] back into herself, "But I'm more of a [Mage] than [Healer], even if my [Magic] is on the short-range / mid-range area."
Rena's [Soul] seemed to give an impression of [Longing] as if she couldn't live as a [Human] without latching into someone, as if she could die without that. And Akira's Slimy tether wanted to ditch her, she wasn't sure how much of [Akira] was aware of that.
"I am always open to help you, just give me a call, and we can arrive to an understanding," Akira said while giving her a card, it read had his number, e-mail, and a website even.
"We always look out for our members," Rena said while bowing in her direction, she noticed the girl had a couple extra buttons of her blouse open, the top ones. So her breasts were exposed when she bowed.
"I will offer you anything you want if you join me," Akira said while eyeing her and then Rena.
She of course noticed how he had leered at Rena while she bowed, "I will take it into consideration when I find out my current status with the school." She answered and saw them walk away.
She...Remember how Rena was always stuck at Akira and how he seemed to get annoyed at this, but now? Now it was almost as if he was...Tired of the girl, she was dressing more...loosely.
Her skirt was as short as it could get, her blouse was tight, her blazer was buttoned just till her breasts as if to make them look bigger, and she was even wearing fishnet tights. How cliche can you get?
At the start she didn't give it any thought, but after that exchange?
Was...Was Akira controlling her? Was he using some kind of mental interference skill? That shouldn't be possible, not under the system her [Mother] managed.
Unless...Was this a side effect from Akira being a [Hero]?
Could...Could she do that? Had she done that to Rossie?
*blergh*
She ran as fast as her status allowed to a trash bin and emptied her breakfast on it, "No...I did not such thing." She said to herself while hitting speed dial on her phone, currently there was only one number on it, so it dialed it.
She didn't even need to wait for a single ring tone "Eli-Eli? Everything okay?" And the soothing voice of Rossie asked.
"Yes, just needed to hear your voice." She answered without thinking.
"Oh you, you will not get anything out of me with sweet talk," Rossie said on the phone, and immediately Elizabeth blushed at that.
Right, she just said what was on her head and that could be interpreted as her flirting, "N-No...I...I didn't...." And that in turn made her remember why had she called Rossie. "Rossie...am I making you like me?"
Silence.
Hideous, terrifying silence...
"Elizabeth Starbright, I will get mad at you if you ever imply that again." The voice of Rossie was neutral, but she could hear the undertone of anger in it.
"Sorry...It's just....I...I met Akira and Rena...." Elizabeth said while leaning against a wall and letting herself fall to the floor, she sat like that and continued saying, "...And my [Title] allowed me to see something on Rena..."
"You saw her [Soul] and how it reacts with Akira...And are you worried mine is like that?" Rossie said, she no longer sounded angry but...Sad? "It's okay Eli-Eli, you aren't doing anything of the sort...If anything you are helping me, even right now your [Soulscape] is nurturing mine back to health, using parts of the broken city to fix mine."
"So you knew?" Elizabeth asked, "About Rena's Soul?"
"Yes, [Odyssey] gave me some clues when I first met her. She ripped that [Thing] from my Soul on our first meeting you know...I was able to feel the influence of the thing. And so I recognized the signs on Rena...And while they aren't as pronounced they exist on Michael too. We three were affected." Rossie said on the other side, and afterward, the line went dead.
She frowned and looked at her phone, it still had charge, so why..." And while some were affected more than others," The voice of Rossie sounded at her right, the girl was right beside her, "Rena got hit the hardest, from how it looked it seems that her [Soul] got tangled with Akira's." Rossie said while sitting at her side and resting her head on Elizabeth's shoulder.
"So...What do I do?" Elizabeth asked while snuggling into Rossie.
"Whatever you want," Rossie answered instantly, "But whatever that is, you will need power. Akira is almost half his way to A Rank."
...." HE WHAT?!?" Elizabeth hadn't [Appraised] him, but...He wasn't that high the last time she saw him right?
He was what? Level 10?
"Yeah, and even after the update..." Rossie brought up her status and showed her how she hadn't lost a single level from it.
Her more detailed status wasn't still available, she got the feeling from the [Tether] connecting her to Rossie that if she wished for it, she could see it. But decided to not prod into it. "I didn't lose much, it seems I'm among those on the better side of the deal."
"So...get power, stay away from Akira's Slimy skill..."Elizabeth started counting her future plans, "And ask Rossie if she wants to be my girlfriend."
"And decide what you want to do about him, either ignoring him or confronting him...But you will need to take responsibility if you decide to go the second route." Rossie said while she was thinking about the last part of her plan, "While Rena's case is sad...She will not be able to survive without latching unto a [Hero], not after what Akira did."
Yeah, maybe she could ignore that pair?
Not like Rena was suffering and wanted release right? If anything the girl didn't even seem to catch on to the fact that Akira never once spoke in plural... Unlike her.
...So this is why [Mother] hated [Heroes] huh...
She was in a pinch, was it because her status was way below the average?
No, she was actually above average since most civilians refused to level beyond level 1 as far as she had found out when walking the streets of the city.
Was it because she had a bad [Job]?
No, she had found that most people with levels above 2-3 had actually normal variants of jobs, so she was on the better side... Not that it mattered, as far as she could tell from her [Appraisal] results most had the same amount of status points.
So what was the point of the job rarity?
Probably something important that someone had forgotten while implementing this [System], not her problem.
Her problem was more serious, more important..."I don't know how to treat a Girlfriend." And that was a serious problem, since she had one now...Or could have one... She didn't actually ask Rossie what she wanted, did she?
"I only assume she wants...Uuuughh...." Elizabeth sighed while walking down the street, she had managed to get permission to leave the apartment and walk around to the park and back.
All under the promise she would call immediately the moment she felt sick, or if someone tried to hit on her, she understood the first, but the second...She never had someone try to do that to her, even though she was a looker.
So Rossie was probably worrying too much, no wait. If Rossie wanted to be called if someone tried to hit on her...Did that mean that she was Jealous?
If so, then she should want to be her Girlfriend...Right?
"But she still has that [Paramour] title...That really was for me then...." That was the biggest reason she was confident in that Rossie wanted to be her girlfriend.
Unlike previous brain-addled Elizabeth, she could tie the clues to her memories pointing to Rossie having a somewhat deep crush on her, so she shouldn't be against being her girlfriend.
But how does one go about that? She never had a girlfriend before (As stated) nor a boyfriend...Not that the boyfriend could give her experience about how to deal with a girlfriend...
That would give her experience about being pampered..."But then I could use that experience to pamper Rossise...Goddamnit [Papa]." She was half sure her father was the reason no one ever tried to be her boyfriend.
And while wondering about that something brought her out of her musings, it wasn't an epiphany with the correct answer, nor was a [Deus Ex Machina] moment where the answer was delivered on her lap.
No, instead...It was another blue screen.
| Hello World! |
| Heeeellloooooo~~~~~ This is your lovely and beautiful Goddess [Odyssey]! Are you having fun? Did you like what we did? I sure hope so! It was hard to parse everything right so it would show up well to everyone across multiple languages! We are working on fixing that by the way, the multiple languages thing... But this is not why we are addressing you all today! (And yes, this is a global message, you ain't that special to get an individual message...)
[Except you Eli-Eli, you are special (this part is only for your eyes ;3)]
And what am I your glorious and gorgeous goddess addressing you heathens about? Simple, after six months of the [World's System] implementation we noticed some...Things. Not all of you wanted to grab [Jobs], not all of you wanted to level beyond a certain point...And while most [Crafter]s embraced it, they don't really use all the points and they don't get the right [Skills] since the current version favors combat classers more. So yeah, [Update] welcome to patch 1.0: -All [Users] will be given the [Civilian] Job upon induction. -Civilian Job: Earns 3 status points per level, can't add them to [Wisdom],[Inteligence], or [Charisma]. -Jobs now only allow adding status points to what they affect. -The amount of status points earned depends on the rarity of the job. -Current Status points will be recalculated depending on your current job, naturally earned status points will remain, and you will get [One] [Status point reset ticket] in case you aren't happy with the new build you end up with after the recalculation of points. -[Civilian] can't have more than 10 status points in any status unless they are naturally earned points.
So yeah, get to it folks, you will wanna get rare jobs, and a quick peruse from my side shows that most of you will earn around 5-10 points by how it looks, the normal people at least. There are quite a few that will get at the very least 14 points and one little monster that will get 20.
[Not you Eli-Eli. Your 21 points will not be taken, if you end up with a rarer class that grants more than 21 you will get those, but you will never get less than 21.]
[Odyssey] out~ Look forward to further updates~~ |
And so pandemonium broke as most people stared at the invisible screens in front of themselves, she got a notification that her current job granted 12 points and she could add them to everything but [Constitution] and [Wisdom].
Then another one that said that her title as [Daughter of the gods] allowed her to add them wherever she wanted, so for her nothing really changed. Her status didn't move and so she was quite happy overall for not being affected.
Most of the civilians around her were the same, a few people complained here and there, but they were mostly workers that seemed to have added points to [Charisma], she knew that because a few actually had their skin stop looking healthy, same with their hair. So the stat really affected how one looked...
"YOU LIED TO ME! YOU SAID THAT YOU ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE THAT!" "I COULD SAY THE SAME BACK TO YOU!!!"
And a few discussions about looks started around in the park, mostly from people that while they didn't look quite ugly, they did look worse than before, that and the screams from one girl whose pants broke as she gained a few extra kilos.
Yikes, she would keep up to date with her exercises, charisma stat or not.
*ring, riiiing*
And while enjoying the chaos around her (It was quite fun to look) she heard her cellphone tone, wondering who wanted to call her while everyone was having a breakdown the call ID read [Rossie], right. She was the only one that had her number and would call her nowadays...Or ever.
"Eli-Eli are you okay?!? Did you lose status?!?" Was the first thing that came from her cellphone, the harried voice of Rossie.
She also heard the constant sound of wind hitting the mic of the phone, so the girl was probably running, where? Probably to here.
"Yes I'm okay, the status drop didn't hit me and I am okay. I was thinking of returning actually, since most of the people around here are getting rowdy." Elizabeth answered into the phone, she noticed how the howling wind had calmed down. So Rossie probably slowed down her running.
"Oh...Right, yeah...Okay...I will head out and buy some things we are missing, call me if you feel bad okay?" Said Rossie before killing the line.
She didn't even wait for her answer, was...Was she embarrassed? Or did she want to respect her boundaries?
Rossie had probably gotten scared at the idea of her status dropping, no wait, shouldn't Rossie's status drop too?
She had a common-class job, right? Or what rarity was her [Magical Girl] variant job?
Actually, how was the rarity decided on the jobs? Did it matter the amount of skills one earned before getting the job? The level one held? The difficulty?
If difficulty was the way to go, then both she and Rossie were at the top of hard-to-earn jobs since they got theirs by using both [Magic] without system assistance, and because they both could access the [Soulscape]. So they should be at the top.
No wait, did the [Soulscape] even affect their job? The original magical girls used it, and they both could use them, so was their variant of the [Magical Girl] job special?
She really needed to get into checking with the school, "Oh sorry there, didn't see you." Elizabeth said while apologizing to someone she ran into while walking back to their apartment.
"Oh it's okay, it was also my fault...." Said a male voice.
"HEY! Apologize properly when you run into someone!" Added a female voice, she seemed angry.
She didn't want to turn around to face them, she could recognize their voices, and the memories of stories her mother had told her before were tingling, she could feel it already.
"It's okay Rena, she didn't mean anything bad, she is probably worried about losing status points and levels after the update." The black-haired male said while smiling at her.
She knew he was smiling at her even though she hadn't turned to look back at him, how did she know? Their type always did that when speaking to a female.
"Sorry about that," But if she kept stalling this would devolve further, so she turned back and looked at both of them.
Akira was dressed in a school uniform, their school uniform, just like Rena. As if they were about to go to classes, this wasn't a thing, no one else around them dressed like that, no matter if they were students or not. She, for example, was dressed in a comfortable sweatpants and hoodie combo.
Her hair was tied into a ponytail and, a stark contrast with Rena who was dressed in a miniskirt and blazer from the school, as if she wanted to try to diminish the impact of Akira's shenanigans of wanting to dress up as if he was still attending classes...
"Hmm...I feel like we have met before, have we?" Akira said, "I'm Akira, a third-grade student at the [Mystic Powers Institute]." He what?
"Rena, same." The red-haired added, curt and to the point.
"I am Elizabeth Starbright, I also used to attend that school, but had an accident on the midterms and...Am not quite sure what my status is right now actually." She answered, had they forgotten her?
No wait, she gave him a trashing as [The Shadow Empress] but not as Elizabeth.
"Don't remember you," Rena said, yikes. The girl forgot someone she pointed her sword at?
Rude.
"We might have been in different classes, I just made it to third grade after my last power-up," Akira commented, his what?
Did...Did he call the midterms a power-up? "That arc sucked, we just went around killing trash mobs and stockpiling exp. Imagine my surprise when everything happened not in Avalon but in Camelot."
"It's okay Akira, from what they told us most of the fight occurred between the [Nine Stars] and a rogue [Villain] so we wouldn't had anything to do anyway," Rena said, who would thought, she was the voice of reason.
"I'm sure I could have helped..." Akira grumbled.
Nope, no no no no no, she didn't want to even begin to think how everything would have been so much worse, "At the very least we could have helped Elizabeth so she didn't get in such a bad accident...Missing half a year of classes... And now with the update she has lost some levels too..." Would you look at this, Akira was being...Nice?
She didn't lose any level tho.
"I guess...She doesn't look that strong, but any level she loses is more time she will need to train." Rena added her condolences too.
Who are they?
They can't be the same ones. Was she under a spell skill?
She took a deep breath and dived quickly into her [Soulscape] but didn't find any disturbances in the city, she however found...Something, a small tug within her [Soul]. As if something wanted to [Connect], following to the base she found it led to the [Building] that now housed Rossie's [Soulscape].
But the other way leads to the outside, "There must be something we can do, maybe if she joined our [Party] we could [Powerlevel] her?" Akira was speaking using some weird terms here and there.
"We tried that before with that girl from the [Inn] it doesn't work, maybe the [Skill] needs something else?" And Rena was trying to convince him from doing something else.
She ignored both of them and focused on the feeling, the [Tug] seemed to be in the direction of Rena, as if a [Connection] wanted to form between the two girls. She could [Feel] Rena's [Soul], a small ember that was about to burn out.
A fragmented, cracked log of wood that was burning under the rain, it was...[Pitiful] if that was her [Soul] it was even more damaged than what [Rossie] had on her [Soulscape].
What had happened to her?
While looking at her, she felt someone look at her and while following that sensation found Akira's eyes on her, "So what do you think?" He asked.
"Oh? Sorry, sometimes I get distracted with, probably some remnants from the whole fell in a coma for half a year thing." She answered, was it bad to use the coma as an excuse? Probably. But she didn't mind it, not at this point at least.
The [Soul] of Rena had another tether on it besides hers, another one that seemed to want to run away and ditch it but couldn't. Following it she found...The most hideous and slimy thing she ever perceived.
"I was thinking about inviting you into our [Party]...Or I guess you would understand it better if I said into our [Group], "Akira said while she followed the tether to its origin, "I could help you and get you a [Healer] Build so you would be safe from danger, and you could in turn [Heal] me after a fight." The tether pointed towards...Akira.
Surprise surprise.
She could feel the slimy tether want to latch into hers, but she instead retracted it behind Rena's [Soul], and that slimy tether seemed wary of going that way as if it didn't want Rena's [Soul] to latch into it. She could feel [Intent] from it.
"That is very nice of you, "She answered Akira while slowly reeling her [Tether] back into herself, "But I'm more of a [Mage] than [Healer], even if my [Magic] is on the short-range / mid-range area."
Rena's [Soul] seemed to give an impression of [Longing] as if she couldn't live as a [Human] without latching into someone, as if she could die without that. And Akira's Slimy tether wanted to ditch her, she wasn't sure how much of [Akira] was aware of that.
"I am always open to help you, just give me a call, and we can arrive to an understanding," Akira said while giving her a card, it read had his number, e-mail, and a website even.
"We always look out for our members," Rena said while bowing in her direction, she noticed the girl had a couple extra buttons of her blouse open, the top ones. So her breasts were exposed when she bowed.
"I will offer you anything you want if you join me," Akira said while eyeing her and then Rena.
She of course noticed how he had leered at Rena while she bowed, "I will take it into consideration when I find out my current status with the school." She answered and saw them walk away.
She...Remember how Rena was always stuck at Akira and how he seemed to get annoyed at this, but now? Now it was almost as if he was...Tired of the girl, she was dressing more...loosely.
Her skirt was as short as it could get, her blouse was tight, her blazer was buttoned just till her breasts as if to make them look bigger, and she was even wearing fishnet tights. How cliche can you get?
At the start she didn't give it any thought, but after that exchange?
Was...Was Akira controlling her? Was he using some kind of mental interference skill? That shouldn't be possible, not under the system her [Mother] managed.
Unless...Was this a side effect from Akira being a [Hero]?
Could...Could she do that? Had she done that to Rossie?
*blergh*
She ran as fast as her status allowed to a trash bin and emptied her breakfast on it, "No...I did not such thing." She said to herself while hitting speed dial on her phone, currently there was only one number on it, so it dialed it.
She didn't even need to wait for a single ring tone "Eli-Eli? Everything okay?" And the soothing voice of Rossie asked.
"Yes, just needed to hear your voice." She answered without thinking.
"Oh you, you will not get anything out of me with sweet talk," Rossie said on the phone, and immediately Elizabeth blushed at that.
Right, she just said what was on her head and that could be interpreted as her flirting, "N-No...I...I didn't...." And that in turn made her remember why had she called Rossie. "Rossie...am I making you like me?"
Silence.
Hideous, terrifying silence...
"Elizabeth Starbright, I will get mad at you if you ever imply that again." The voice of Rossie was neutral, but she could hear the undertone of anger in it.
"Sorry...It's just....I...I met Akira and Rena...." Elizabeth said while leaning against a wall and letting herself fall to the floor, she sat like that and continued saying, "...And my [Title] allowed me to see something on Rena..."
"You saw her [Soul] and how it reacts with Akira...And are you worried mine is like that?" Rossie said, she no longer sounded angry but...Sad? "It's okay Eli-Eli, you aren't doing anything of the sort...If anything you are helping me, even right now your [Soulscape] is nurturing mine back to health, using parts of the broken city to fix mine."
"So you knew?" Elizabeth asked, "About Rena's Soul?"
"Yes, [Odyssey] gave me some clues when I first met her. She ripped that [Thing] from my Soul on our first meeting you know...I was able to feel the influence of the thing. And so I recognized the signs on Rena...And while they aren't as pronounced they exist on Michael too. We three were affected." Rossie said on the other side, and afterward, the line went dead.
She frowned and looked at her phone, it still had charge, so why..." And while some were affected more than others," The voice of Rossie sounded at her right, the girl was right beside her, "Rena got hit the hardest, from how it looked it seems that her [Soul] got tangled with Akira's." Rossie said while sitting at her side and resting her head on Elizabeth's shoulder.
"So...What do I do?" Elizabeth asked while snuggling into Rossie.
"Whatever you want," Rossie answered instantly, "But whatever that is, you will need power. Akira is almost half his way to A Rank."
...." HE WHAT?!?" Elizabeth hadn't [Appraised] him, but...He wasn't that high the last time she saw him right?
He was what? Level 10?
"Yeah, and even after the update..." Rossie brought up her status and showed her how she hadn't lost a single level from it.
Her more detailed status wasn't still available, she got the feeling from the [Tether] connecting her to Rossie that if she wished for it, she could see it. But decided to not prod into it. "I didn't lose much, it seems I'm among those on the better side of the deal."
"So...get power, stay away from Akira's Slimy skill..."Elizabeth started counting her future plans, "And ask Rossie if she wants to be my girlfriend."
"And decide what you want to do about him, either ignoring him or confronting him...But you will need to take responsibility if you decide to go the second route." Rossie said while she was thinking about the last part of her plan, "While Rena's case is sad...She will not be able to survive without latching unto a [Hero], not after what Akira did."
Yeah, maybe she could ignore that pair?
Not like Rena was suffering and wanted release right? If anything the girl didn't even seem to catch on to the fact that Akira never once spoke in plural... Unlike her.
...So this is why [Mother] hated [Heroes] huh...
