Author’s corner: GREETI… Wait… HELLO HELLO! A bit of intelligence gathering here!

ANYWAY, this chapter we have a quick round around the city, meeting some acquaintances as he prepare to leave the city. And we have the hook for the next arc here! And in a way I wasn’t exactly planning, but seemed to work out fairly well!

ALSO, depending on how is my mood tomorrow, I might update either Insania or Reinstall. And that’s if I don’t have too many classes, so let’s wait and see what happens.

Have a good read!

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I had some help from Sol to fix me up while I waited Wulf and Pea to resurrect. One of the disadvantages of the realistic mode was how vulnerable it made me, even after something like that explosion. Luckily, regeneration for bleeding, broken limbs and so on boosted up slowly over time after ten minutes without combat, starting vey slowly, like usual, but ending up with you completely healed after thirty minutes or so.

After all, having your legs broken after a fight and getting stranded within a forest without any means to run away isn’t fun, but if the regeneration was instantaneous, it wouldn’t have much difference, and believe me when I say that fifteen minutes with broken legs in the middle of a respawn point isn’t vey nice.

Anyway, I didn’t bother checking on Sol, since she was more than used to this, but Red probably had her life flashing on red, so I quickly helped her up and gave he a potion. She turned to me with confused eyes.

“How come you are still fine after that?” She said as she started to re-summon her pets, who like all pets that died, came back dizzily and with a part of their health missing. “And why didn’t they die too?” She said while looking at Aura and Lieutenant, who seemed mostly fine, compared to her.

I smiled a bit awkwardly and opened my skill list, choosing one in particular and showing it to her.

Skill: Shockwave resistance [lvl 3]

58%After receiving constant damage from shockwave effects like bombs, sonic bombs and so on, your body became used to diverting the shockwave from your vitals.

Reduce damage take from shockwaves by 13%Passive

She looked at the skill bleakly before looking back at me with a pair of dead eyes.

“I take you come here often, right?”

I simply smiled awkwardly. Me, Aura and Lieutenant all had this skill in the same level, proof that we do come here way too often for our own good. But HEY! It’ s free skills! I’m not complaining!

As I helped Red back up, I saw as two pillars of light flashed on the room, revealing a large barbarian and a draconic fairy. I turned towards the fairy, closing my face into a frown and stomping my way towards her. Seeing this, she immediately ran behind Wulf.

“Daddy! Booh is scary!” She said to him, hoping that he would protect her.

But Wulf simply stepped aside, taking the girl’s cover away and saying to her seriously.

“Sorry, dearie, but you deserve it this time.”

I nodded to my father, as I towered above the cowering fairy and pointing towards the remains of the bed, she slowly flew there and sat quietly in place while whimpering lowly. I took a deep breath before starting my scolding.

…

Ten minutes later, I took a relieved sigh and breathed deeply. Talking non-stop on an angry tone for ten minutes is a lot more tiring than I would expect. I turned to the little fairy, seeing as she nodded weakly. I nodded back to her and let her fly back to my father, knowing that it wasn’t the first, nor the last time, that I would end up scolding her.

When her mother liked to spoil her, and our father would always end up playing with her, I ended up with the role of the bad guy into our family, and end up being the one who usually had to put on the grave voice and scold her. Thus, my nickname for when I was in a scolding tone became ‘The general’.

By the way, I said Her mother and Our father because my father divorced and married again, so Lily is actually my half-sister. I live with him since it’s closer to the college, but from time to time I go see my mother on the other side of the city.

As I saw her going to Wulf, who awkwardly consoled her, I turned my gaze to the bed and frowned.

“So… What the hell are you guys doing?” I asked.

“I’m sorry master… I’m sorry master… I’m sorry master…”

“Scary… I’ll never prank you again… Like ever… For ever… Never again… The fear… I promise… Never… The nightmares…”

“Nyaaa-ny-nyaa nanyaa!”

For some reason, Crys had been in a kneeling pose while floating and kept murmuring the same thing over and over without any hind of light in her crystalline eyes; Sol was hugging her knees close to her body and shivering while muttering incomplete phrases; and Lieutenant looked at me with sparkly eyes full of respect and admiration.

I looked at them for a moment before sighing and kicking the bed, snapping them out of it, when they all shook their head and smiled awkwardly while scratching their heads.

“So, what happened?” I asked again and they all shook their heads as if saying that it wasn’t anything important. Sighing loudly I turned towards Wulf and Red, seeing as they had amused looks. “So, let’s go?”

“Sir, yes sir!” Red said mockingly while making a salute. I raised my hand to start my counter argument, but was stopped when a window popped in front of me.

Beneath your usual calm and easygoing personality, you hide a ferocious side, so ferocious and intimidating that even the most seasoned soldier would cower in fear and obey your orders wordlessly. For having revealed such side, you have earned the title:

The Hidden Commander

Since you have a title equipped, you will need to go to a cathedral to change your titleThe Hidden Commander: The more they know you, the more likely NPCs are likely to instinctively fear you while you talk with your angry tone.

Are you BLEEPING Kidding me?

…

We left the store after some time and I guided us towards another shop in the commercial sector. Walking through the streets, I saw as a small crowd formed in front of the store as usual, sighing loudly while advancing through the crowd, I guide our group towards the door, and entered it, revealing a large store front with ten attendants running from one side to the other, attending the clients.

Barely had I entered the store, the one attendant that was free came to me with a happy shout.

“It’s mister Gondorrer!” Shouted the undine as she ran towards me with shining eyes. “Did you bring it?” She asked while saying cheerfully. I sighed loudly and nodded, while taking a dagger from my inventory and passing it to her.

“Here you go…” I said, and barely managed to dodge her as she jumped at me cheerfully with her arms open. “Yeah… I’m glad you are happy. Now if you excuse-me….”

“Thank you very much! Sir Gondorrer! I will do whatever you want to repa…” I put my hand over her mouth to stop her from saying what came next.

I turned to the others with a weary look and saw as they looked at me curious. Heaving a long sigh, I said.

“Guys, this is Lily, an attendant here and my apprentice wannabe.” I said with a sigh.

“Eh, Lily?” My sister asked confused. “But I’m Lily!”

I sighed loudly and decided to leave that explanation to Wulf.

“Anyway, for some reason this girl selfishly decided that she would be my apprentice when it comes to crafting.” I said with a sigh while making sure that my hand covered her mouth. I learned firsthand that it’s a bit dangerous to let her talk freely. “Not that I have anything against selfishly deciding to become someone’s disciple, but she gets a bit annoying some times.” I turned to her and said. “Anyway, next class is when I come back from my trip. Now, is Argento here?”

Lily nodded cheerfully and pointed towards the door on the back, I briefly thanked her and briefly said my goodbyes while going to the office. My father and sister decided to take a look at the store, but Red came with me.

“Money bag! It’s good to see you!” The gnome said while jumping out from his expensive mahogany chair.

“Hey there, supplies!” I told him while unloading some crafts from my last venture on the table. “So, how’s business?” I asked the question with an obvious answer.

“Two adversaries crushed, and I’m planning on opening a branch on Ezoria or Sandroze.” He said while showing me some papers on the table.

“Sandroze is…?” I asked confused, and he looked shocked at me.

“It’s the farthest capital! It’s on a faraway desert, and is rich with mines, hard-bodied monste…” I stopped him while slamming my hand on the table, five silver coins shining brightly within my fingers.

“I want a map to that city.” I said with my eyes shining. The gnome stared at me and smiled widely.

“Sandroze it is, then!” He said while ripping one of the papers in half before turning towards Red, who watched everything in amusement. “Now, if I remember right, last time I saw it, you had a kitsune with you?”

“Yeah… This is a friend IRL. Red.” I turned to the elf, who waved slightly and said. “Red, this is the greediest, gold addicted money seeker gnome of Eldor. Argento.” I said with a smile.

“Hey! What are you talking about me!” Argent said angrily. “I’m not the greediest, gold addicted money seeker gnome of Eldor! I’m the greediest, gold addicted money seeker being of Insania!”

“As he said.” I said while looking back at her, seeing as she covered her face with her hands.

“He HAD to be a friend of yours, right?” She asked with a long sigh.

“Don’t forget that you are also my friend!” I said cheerfully, making her chuckle a bit before turning back to Argento. “The usual with these. I’ll get the money after I get back since I’m a bit in a hurry.” I told him, and he nodded.

“I’ll have the map ready by the time you come back.” He said with a nod as the silver coins disappeared in thin air. “As a bonus, I will see if I can get you a passage towards there.” He said with some thought. “And maybe even send someone with you…?” he nodded before turning to me. “I don’t know where you are going, but make sure to get some good profit for me!” He said with a scary smile while waving.

I nodded to him and left the store after making sure that Lily couldn’t talk too much and calling my father and sister to leave the store, assuring them that I could make whatever it was that caught their attention later.

Sighing loudly at the cheerful undine who waving goodbye at me from the storefront, gathering all the attention to me. I took some time to think if there was anything left that I had to do in the city before leaving.

Since nothing came to mind, I decided that it was time to think of something to take us to the village. If it were only me, Aura, Lieutenant and Crys, I could run there with Nature walking, since I managed to teach it to Aura, leaving only Crys and lieutenant to hang on one of us as we run.

But with my father, sister and friend here, I couldn’t. And it’s one thing to teach a skill to a pet, but to teach a skill that was so reluctantly passed on to me, to another person, even if they were close to me, felt a bit wrong.

Leaving that aside, I decided to take a look at the piece of paper that Goulder gave me, seeing that it worked as a map and an introduction letter, I thought that maybe we could rent some kind of ride to the village he indicated in here. And where’s the best place to start than the information booth?

I took us to the town entrance, where there was a small building outside of the city. Quickly entering the building, I saw Rusty, the clockwork writing in a few papers. He raised his head at the sound of our steps as we approached, and his pipes chimed briefly in surprise.

“Gon. Pleasure seeing. What brings you?” He asked in his usual weird speech.

“Hey Rusty! I need a bit of a help.” I said while taking the paper from my pocket and showing it to him. “Any idea if there is some kind of transport we can take to reach here?”

“Hmm… Just give. A moment.” He said quickly, while raising from his chair and walking towards a cabinet.

Once he opened it, revealing a few golden feathers just like the one I use to talk with the old man. He picked one of them and held close to his head for a moment. I turned to the others seeing them look at it in wonder and I briefly explained that these feathers kind of worked like our whispers.

After he was done, Rusty put the feather back on the cabinet and closed it before turning back to us and saying.

“I’ve talked. Harbor master. No ship going there. Next in two days.” He said with a sigh.

“Harbor master?” Red asked slightly confused.

“Probably the blimps, right?” I said while looking to some of the blimps docked on the upper part of the city through the buildings window. Now that I think about it, I’ve never really used one of them before, right? I’ll make sure to amend that later. For now, I have to find another way. “So, any other idea?” I asked the clockwork.

“Maybe. Rent a wagon. Have animals follow. Not cheap though.” He spoke with a hand in his chin.

“How much, any idea?” I asked him.

“Maybe… one gold. Whole group.” He said after a brief thought. “One or two days of travel”

“And how long would it take if we were to walk there?” I asked him.

“Three or four days. Maybe more.” He said.

Well, taking in consideration that three or four days for them, who would stop at night to sleep, we could go a couple of days without sleeping easily, so we could probably make it within two days.

I turned to the other to see what were their opinions. Red shrugged, as she didn’t have any class thanks to the large holiday this week. My father and sister, on the other hand, were another matter completely.

“We just started this session. I guess we could stretch a bit until we get there.” He said with a shrug.

“Then, we are walking, it seems.” I said with a shrug, and they all nodded. I quickly gave my thanks to the clockwork and left the building with Red and Wulf following me. Their respective pets (and troublemaker) following behind them.

Taking a last look at the map in my hand and making some quick calculations in my head, I turned to the others and said.

“Okay, since it should take us one or two days to get there, anything you need to do?”

“Hmm.. better to log out for now and prepare for a long time logged in.” My father said after a brief thought.

“Makes sense.” Red said with a nod. “I didn’t really plan to log in for too long, so I still haven’t eaten breakfast.” She said seriously.

Agreeing with them, we marked to all be back online within one or two hours and we all logged out.

…

A slight wave of dyziness as I went back to my usual body and I quickly stood up and went straight to the bathroom, itaking a long shower. After making sure that I within an acceptable tier of cleanliness, I left the bathroom, quickly shaved my one week old beard and left to the kitchen.

After a brief examination of my fridge, and noticing a severe lack of breakfast material, I closed it and put on some socially acceptable clothing that could pass as what a fairly normal person would wear, picked my cellphone, keys, wallet, plugged in my earphones and left my apartment.

Taking the elevator, I quickly reached the bottom floor, gave a quick greeting to the gatekeeper, and prepared myself.

“CYGNASDAMMIT! MY EYES! THEY BURN!” I complained between my teeth as I felt the evil rays of light burning through my iris and boiling the water within my eyes.

“Geez, you whiny. It’s nowhere that bright!”

“That’s because you don’t have to deal with it yourself.” I complained back, and heard an Humph coming back.

“So, where are we going?” She asked curious.

“A bakery. I have nothing at my house that could pass as a breakfast.”

“Want me to make a shopping list to you?” She said in a teasing tone.

“Actually, yeah. That would help.” I replied automatically as I crossed the streets. It seemed that she didn’t expect the answer, as she kept quiet.

After walking two blocks down from my house, I reached the place where I always buy bread. There’s also a market that’s even closer than that, but the bread isn’t as good as this one, so when I’m with enough patience I end up going for this one instead.

Once there, I quickly dodged some of the few customers that were still buying bread at this hour and reached the snack bar at the back of the bakery. Taking a seat on the counter, a waitress came to me and I quickly ordered one “Misto-quente”, basically, a sandwich with ham and cheese where you put a few minutes on the heat to melt the cheese. With that I also ordered a glass of coffee and milk.

I grimaced a bit after taking a sip of my drink, since it was far too hot for my tastes, and waited a bit as the waitress heated my sandwich. Meanwhile I took my cellphone to fiddle around with it, as I heard the nearby talks.

I could hear some adults speaking of how their children had gone quiet because of a new game, while others were speaking of the game itself with surprised voices. I smiled a bit as I saw that most of the usual sites I visited weren’t updating because the owners were playing Insania. It seems that the game was a bigger hit than what I expected.

As I fiddled around with my cell, I saw that I had an image on my Insania App, quickly opening it, I saw that the sender was none other than Han-chan.

[On our way there right now! Should arrive by Saturday 8 AM.]

I blinked a bit surprised by the message being in English instead of being translated to Portuguese.

“Since she went as far as to type it in English, I decided to leave it as is.”

“Oh… I see…”

“Don’t forget to check the attached photo!” She warned me, and I finally saw the faintly shining icon on the border of the message.

I tapped on it just in time as my misto-quente arrived, and immediately started eating it as the slow internet leisurely took its time to load the image. After foolishly burning my tongue on the ridiculously hot sandwich, I checked on the image, seeing it fully loaded.

Let’s just say that I became speechless. In the photo were both, Han-chan and Yuu. And for a brief moment I thought that it was an in-game photo, and only after a few seconds I noticed that it actually wasn’t, as both were wearing modern clothes and were in what looked like an airplane interior.

Han-chan was making a peace-sign at the camera while pulling Yuu closer to her so that she would fit into the image, while Yuu was copying her with a confused expression.

The two were literally identical to how they were in game. Minus the animal ears and tails, of course, but you could have guessed that, right?

The only real difference, was that Hanbei’s hair wasn’t a perfect silver color, and had a slight yellowish tint to it. But that aside, even the way she tied it was similar.

“It’s like there’s no difference from how they are in-game.” She said with a mischievous tone.

“At least I get to be shocked before meeting them… It would be embarrassing to react this way right when we met” I said with a wry smile, and I heard her giggling in response.

I not so quickly finished the sandwich and my glass coffee and milk before paying and making my way back to my apartment. Some quick greetings with the gatekeeper and I quickly found myself inside the elevator and then was inside my apartment. Taking out my outside clothes and putting on some more comfortable shorts, I jumped back to my bed and picked the D-lute.

But right as I was about to put it on, I stopped and picked my cellphone again.

“By the way, Cyg… When the hell did you get in there?” I asked as I saw her image in the screen sticking her tongue out at me.