女神归来的夏天

Chapter 78: The journey to Zenith city XVI

Snow Princess isn\'t what I\'d thought she\'d be, in all honesty I didn\'t think she had such a big personality. With a reputation such as hers I\'d expect a cunning fighter, not a chipmunk sized woman. "You know Snow Princess, you\'ll get crows feet by making faces like that." She looks at me in surprise, it shouldn\'t come as a surprise that I figured out who you are. Its easy to put together when you have all the pieces, this also means she might know my real name. I doubt mom or dad would call me by my gamer tag, so that means she knows a little bit about me than I do about her. At least in terms of real world identities, the inn and drunks are starting to get rowdy now that the day shifts are getting off.

I notice some familiar faces making some particularly nasty scowls in my and Snow Princesses direction. I guess the player who went on the wild goose chase ended up losing some levels and want some pay back, they aren\'t stupid enough to do anything in city walls. They will try to do something to get revenge though, and I can see some glances coming my way as well. I\'m way to high a level to be hurt by these clowns, but I\'m always ready to deal with annoying players and their bad attitudes. "You seem to have some fans Ms. Princess. I wonder what your going to do to make them leave you alone, they look ready to bring you back to level 0." She looks to the group of players I\'m pointing at and flinches. One even makes a slit throat gesture in her direction, I wouldn\'t be so obvious when taking revenge.

In the end it really wont matter, you\'ll get your levels back and forget about her. In my opinion you could spend time getting better instead of wasting your time griefing. Time is levels in this world, and levels determine where you stand on the food chain. All players are at the bottom right now, and that includes me. "They don\'t look like they are going to let it go. Do you think you can help me deal with them?" She isn\'t asking me that, she is asking the rest of my family. Well played Snow Princess, going over my head and playing on my mom and dads gratitude. My mom looks over at my dad and they have a mental conversation, I don\'t know how they can communicate without talking.

They have had that strange ability since I can remember, and I haven\'t met anyone else that can do it. "I don\'t know if we are strong enough to help you. They have better gear and are higher leveled than us." My dad voices his opinion first, but I know what\'s coming. Mom and dad always repay a debt, its ingrained in their souls at this point. "Although, we owe you very much for helping us and even paying for our gear." Now that surprises me, she used her own hard earned money to help strangers. Now I feel like I must help, I\'ve never had someone do that for my family.

I look over to Snow Princess and I can see she is embarrassed now that a secret has been revealed. "I\'ll help you take care of them, but it\'ll be wise to find a solution that doesn\'t involve everyone killing each other. I have to leave for Zenith tomorrow morning and I wont be staying for this to blow up, so we handle it now or not at all." I guarantee my help, but only if she takes care of it now. She looks at me like I grew an extra arm or something, I\'m tempted to retract my offer after such a stare. She gets the meaning behind my gaze and gets up and walks over to the players that are staring her down. I keep a close eye just incase things go bad, after awhile I see them relax a little.

Some even scratch the back of their heads, she is more of a manipulator than I gave her credit for. She must have either offered gold or items, players of Ancients World don\'t let go for any less. She walks back to us and the players no longer stare at us, she sits back down in her seat and sighs. "So what do you have to give for them to leave you alone? There is no way they are letting you off free for your actions." They are my actions to, but I was just someone that got sucked into her plan. Even though its a horrible excuse its true.

She lays her head on the table in a depressed manner and just stays silent for a few seconds. "I promised each of them 1 gold coin for doing that to them, now I need to come up with 7 gold." problems of the poor are not a concern to people who are rich, but when you come from poverty like I do I cant help myself. I go into my inventory and take out 7 gold pieces and put them in front of her. She looks at me like some sort of idiot, I clench my fist in attempt to suppress my rage.

I look at her and the gold, she isn\'t taking it and doesn\'t look like she will. "Just take it you idiot, I said I\'d help you and I am. Now I can leave knowing I repaid you for taking care of my family." She looks at the gold for a long time and finally takes it. She goes right over to the players she killed and repays them, they all wear smiles as of nothing happened at all. That\'s a quality of the poor, if you give them money they usually forget about any wrong you\'ve done them. As I watch them have a conversation, my mom wraps me in a tight hug.

I look at her in confusion, she would have done the same thing in my shoes, she is the one I get this from. "Thank you for helping her Cera. She really helped us and I felt bad that I couldn\'t do anything to repay her. You are the best son in the whole world!" She squeezes me even tighter, its funny because my muscles and skin barely move. I\'m to high a level to squeeze to death. I look back over at Snow Princess and she is actually sitting down and talking to them, seems I don\'t have to worry about her anymore.

My sister throws one of her cards at me to get my attention, she could\'ve just said something. "So from what I hear your heading out tomorrow. If you don\'t mind I\'d like you to teach me some of the things Snow Princess cant. Even if that means now." She is sounding like a true gamer now, she has a thirst to improve and get stronger. I see no reason not to, this could be the only time I see her in Ancients World in a very long time. I stand up and start heading for the door.

I notice she isn\'t following yet so I turn around and look back at her. "You coming or not, we don\'t have all night you know." She shoots out of her seat and catches up. I proceed to teach her everything I know about the duelist class, and she catches on fast. I even spar with her and use The Witness, I keep it in its sheath so none of its skills activate. After seeing her in action I know she will be one of the best players, she has a talent for the duelist class. She heads back before I do, I take a walk around Nelmorp unwinding. Soon night comes and now would be a good time to get off, I\'m really hungry after all.

I make my way back to Giovani\'s pub and head up to my room, I can see my family still playing The Shattering. I should get a starter deck myself before long, I know where I can get some really good cards. I open the door to my room and notice that its nicely decorated, even the bed is a regular queen. Giovani sure does know how to treat customers, I lay in the bed and log off. My gaming pod opens and I\'m met by a dark room. I\'m immediately hit by hunger, now its time to have some food.

I make my way downstairs and enter the kitchen, I\'m not in the mood to cook an entire meal so I\'ll just make a bowl of cereal. I make a nice big bowl and enter the living room, I place the bowl on the coffee table and turn the T.V. on with the remote. I switch it to my favorite news channel and its on a commercial break, I just pick up my bowl and start eating. A minute or so passes and the news comes on with a breaking news segment, what I hear is another piece to the puzzle of what\'s happening at J&X.