014

--TheirWorld--

Through a haze of tears, Guin looked at the ceiling. Where should she go from here? What should she do? What’s the big deal, Guin? She scoffed. It’s not like you killed anyone — and in this game, killing people is actually a thing!

But eating their livers wasn’t.

Doing it against her own will was worse.

What the hell is wrong with this game…

An incoming call from Ibraxis came up to the side of her screen, but she looked at his avatar image dully. How should she explain this development? How could she?

The more she stared at his picture, the more ironic she felt it was.

“Well, Guin, there you have it,” she chuckled. “Karma served up on a delightfully morose dish.”

She had always feared the garuli because of their claws and violent natures — yet there she was, covered in the blood of a woman whose liver was now in her belly. If her avatar had a belly, she supposed.

The image disappeared as the call hung up.

But he called again.

Nibbling at her fingers, she looked at the all portraits of the group on the side. In theory, she shouldn’t have been far from them now. But like this, should she return to the group? Surely they wouldn’t miss the fact she had grown ears.

Would I want to eat them too? she wondered, shivering.

Her character screen reminded her that she had turned level ten, as she decided to take a peek at it, but what really got her attention was her avatar.

“What the hell!” she shouted, her hand flying up to her shoulder. Her headgear slot was empty. Guin pulled up the notification bar and went through a flurry of emotions that almost made her forget her trauma.

Her cloak — the cloak made of the fur of her dear friend Tik-Tak and his mother was gone.

The item that she had lost when she leveled was her cloak, the [Guise of the Untailed]. The ability that she had lost was [True Form], an ability attached to the cloak that she had never figured out how to use. The thing that had been all that was left to remind of her friendship with the little fox Tik-Tak was gone.

More upset than she had even been before, she began looking through the other notifications. Trait upgrades? She opened her trait window.

————--

[Awakened: Child of the Gumiho]

< Magic Resistance +2% — Spirit - Fox factions +500 — [Charismatic - Seduction], Intermediate — Gain Ability: [Fox Form] — +10% Life-steal on all hits, magical or physical.>

—————

————--

[Gumiho]

————--

Guin blinked, trying to make sense of all the positive and negative aspects of the new [Gumiho] trait. She wasn’t sure if she should laugh or cry. What she did know, was that she was effectively no longer human in the game, and that had some serious consequences.

Shaking her head, she looked through her quest journal and found the new quest:

———————-

[A Quest has been Activated: Untailed]

<< You have gain much power since the last you met the fox spirit who gave you this quest, and now you have the option to continue your journey.

Do you wish to summon ?

(Difficulty: C)>>

———————-

Summon Amikavi, is it…

Guin took another glance at the portraits on the side of her screen. Aside from the fact that she had been waiting to take the quest offered by the [Guise of the Untailed] that she assumed activated this quest, Amikavi might be able to tell her more about what the Gumiho trait meant. In order to have time time to do that though, she would have to leave the group.

Rummaging through her bag, she found a cloak she had looted off the player’s corpse and wrapped it around her head to hide her ears. While she wasn’t sure if her face had changed at all, she felt the ears made things even more obvious.

Three screens popped up with the faces of Tea, Ath, and Ibraxis, respectively.

“Guin! Where are you? Are you okay?” Tea was the first to speak, waving his arms wildly in the air as if he were trying to grab the holoscreen. “Congrats on hitting level 10! Now you can get a class!”

She smiled. Of the group, Tea was probably her favorite, claws and teeth aside; even though Ath was the leader, she wanted to apologize to him directly. “I’m fine,” she said. “Thank you!”

Ibraxis, apparently having escaped the zombies but predictably not yet with the rest of the group, had his mouth set in a deep frown as he glowered at her. “I have attempted to call you twice,” he informed her. “Why did you not answer?”

Guin looked away. “Sorry,” she said, looking down and shuffling her feet. For some reason, the white garule made her feel a bit like a child. Even though she wasn’t sure what to think of him, she felt that didn’t want to disappoint him. “Things happened…”

“What ‘things’?” he inquired with a flat tone, but Ath shook her head.

“Doesn’t matter, does it?” She said, her voice taut. “You should both be on your way now. Let’s meet up at the mouth of the golden hall so we can find Tea’s quest location.”

“A-About that…,” Guin started, looking over at Tea. She hated to disappoint him, too. “I’m going to have to drop out of the group…”

Tea’s eyes widened. “B-But why? Did I do something wrong? I didn’t know about the zombies, I swear!”

“No, no,” Guin shook her head. “There is just... something came up that I have to deal with I don’t know how long it will take, or what it even involves, and I don’t want to hold you guys up.”

Ibraxis cocked his head. “I should be headed towards your location now,” he said. “I could give you a quick hand...”

Guin shook her head quickly. “N-No, i-it’s okay,” she ducked her head. “If it were something else it would be fine but… It’s a bit… personal…”

“What the hell does that mean?” Ath asked, then waved her hand. “Ah, whatever. It’s not my problem. You are free to leave as you wish. I can’t say much, as we probably don’t have time to work on your quests at this point, anyway.”

“B-But…” Tea went, his face downcast.

“You can add me as a friend, Tea,” Guin told him warmly. His head shot up with wide, happy eyes. “Look me up a little later and I’ll help you with any quest you want!”

“Yeah!” Tea exclaimed, waving his tail high in the air.

Still looking unhappy, Ibraxis just sighed through his nose as Ath gave a side glance to the blue garule.

“Thanks, you guys,” Guin bowed.

“Take care,” Ath said, waving halfheartedly and closing out her chat.

“See you, Guin!” Tea finished, and signed off, too.

Ibraxis just continued to stare at her.

“What,” she pouted.

“That thing on your head looks stupid,” he said, his brow twitching. “What happened to your fur? That cloth can’t be better than the leather.”

Guin put her hands on her head and felt her face flush. “G-Goodbye!” she shouted and closed out the window. With a click, she was gone from the group. It had been a fun little gang while it lasted. And maybe garuli aren’t so bad...

But she had other things to worry about. Taking a deep breath, she stared at the quest description in her journal screen. The button glimmered with a dim, whitish aura.

Time for some answers…

She reaching out. It clicked with a dull pang, and a flash of pink enveloped her.