Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 027 - Part 2

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To Dance

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TheirWorld

Guin blanked as the boy walked over to her and offered her his hand. “Haa?”

”You said that you would do anything,* Qii told her, a rare grin playing about his lips. “Now, Dance.”

“Dance,” she repeated. “I can’t dance.”

“For shame,” he said. “It’s a good time to learn then. Simple follow the steps that will appear before you after you take Conner’s hand, and he will help with the rest. One cannot teach grace, however, so I hope you are better with your feet than your manner.”

Twitching, she nodded. The boy Conner gave her a knowing smile as she walked over to him. Jerks.

“Hey,” she said when she was closer. “So I just told your boss I can’t dance and he didn’t seem to care, so… sorry in advance.”

Conner laughed and told her, “Don’t worry - just follow the steps! Here!” He poked her in the head and a screen popped up:

> <<[Dance]>> > > > > > > >

“Eh?” she went, eyes going wide and then narrowing as she read to tooltip. Honestly, she had taken the whole thing as a joke, but this ability may actually be worth something, depending on how she used it. “How does this even work?”

“I’ll teach you!” he said, holding his hand out. “First, take my hand. I will teach you some basics.” She reached out and took his hand. “Look down. You’ll see some footprints on the ground. The brightest are the ones you need to execute first, while the dimmest are the ones you need to be at last. Line your feet up with first ones.” Indeed, there were a set of bright yellow footprints which she slid her feet over to. “You can look at them for now, but over time, you won’t need them anymore. Each dance you learn will have these guides. You can turn them off in the skill menu once you learn the dances well,” he said as he started to lead her around. When they had finished the dance, he left her go and backed away. “Now, why don’t you try on your own, as if I were an opponent. I won’t more - first, target me, and activate the skill. When you do, steps will appear to guide you through the ritual. The goal now is to be continuously casting it in a loop,” he told her, then laughed at the look on her face. “Don’t worry - the base dance is very simple.”

Though she was skeptical, she did as she was told. Activating the skill via the shortcut menu, the glowing steps appeared, flashing in the ritual’s specific order that went around his body. It was a very different pattern than the one she had practiced with him, and she wondered if the game calculated the dance to fit the situation.

Scrunching her nose, she began. After about ten tries, and running into him more than once, Conner seemed satisfied and applauded her. “Very good!” he said. “Next, we will dance together again, but this time, we will just dance around one another.”

Another ten tries later, she succeeded in not running into him through the dance. “What’s next?” she asked, hoping that there wasn’t anything else.

“Next, watch me!” he told her, and began his dance. Guin was impressed how into it he seemed. His eyes were sharp, and his movement graceful. As he grew closer to her, she felt increasingly uncomfortable. His eyes met hers as he began to spin around, and then, at the last step, she was suddenly on the ground with him laughing over her. He had tripped her.

Rubbing her butt, she cursed under her breath, but he actually kept dancing.

“Don’t glare,” he chuckled. “Come at me! Dance!”

Is this for real? Guin glared at him, but she had to admit, it looked kind of fun. Pulling herself up, she watched him for a bit, then began her own dance. After completing the steps of the ritual the first series of time, she began to mix in some combat abilities against him, which prompted him to do the same. In this way, they ended up sparring with one another quite a bit.

Conner backed off as her skill leveled to 2 and gave her a smile. Qii walked over and nodded to her.

“The [Dance] ability is a ritual,” Qii began explaining. “Rituals are different than regular abilities in that they do not have ranks. Instead, you can sacrifice a Base Ritual’s leven to learn or create a new Ritual Ability. In this case, you can sacrifice one level of [Dance] to learn a new Dance abilit from me. I can teach you the Blade Dance, or you can choose to save your levels for another time. There are many kinds of dances out there - and there are even dances that link together to form a greater dance combination. Keep in mind that the more powerful the ritual, the higher the level cost to acquire it will be.”

“Thank you, Master Qii!” Guin bowed. The shirtless man looked unimpressed and walked away. Having no expectations of the man, Guin simply shrugged and thanked Connor as well.

“Come back and practice anytime!” the boy told her. “Master Qii is really a lot nicer than he lets off, you know!”

Guin snorted and laughed and waved him goodbye. While she was bubbling with curiosity about Qii and the connection to the [Dance] ability, she had no confidence in dealing with his personality and gave up the thought. Instead, she headed back into the school house, where Grimhai was surely waiting for the results of her quest to learn her combat abilities.