Dove POV

Together with Sylvie, we visited the shops one by one. First we visited the Equipment Shop. When the new menu popped up, I immediately noticed a new set of Weapons called the Oak series was introduced for all types of weapons. While still of common rarity, they were 500 Fitts each. Similarly, Armor paralleled the Weapons, the new set was called the Trainee’s set. It was similar to the Weapons in rarity and cost. I currently have 19,738 Fitts so I could probably afford to spend.

As I upgraded my equipment, Aldrich called out to me made me remember something that slipped out of my mind: He was Alcor’s Father.

“I heard about what you did to my son.” He said in a joking tone; however, I felt that the tone only meant to hide his true feelings.

Scrambling my thoughts together, it took a while before I could reply, “I apologize. I did it for ARF’s benefit. I don’t mind if you hate me.”

“I want to hate you. Even so, I promised Alcor not too, and I respect his desires.”

“Thank you.” I said with the most thankful voice I could muster.

“But let me warn you others may not be so kind. In the future, they may retaliate fire with fire.”

“I know. Even so, I have to do this. Even if the world comes to hate me, the best path I believe for me to get home is to make sure Hawk continues performing at his best.”

As we walked towards the Armor Shop, Sylvie said, “If I may be rude, but aren’t you and Hawk relying on each other too much?”

“We are. We have no choice. Hawk cares about me, no us, too much. The moment we met we both knew this would happen. Even if we didn’t make Party, we would just end up worrying about each other. Our fate was sealed upon our meeting.”

Sylvie replied, “You really know him really well.”

“Of course I do, I’ve known him for more than four years.”

It was around eleven when we arrived at the Accessory Shop. Kimberly greeted us with a smile as I browsed through the selection. Surprisingly, another female Elf aside from Sylvie appeared. Personally speaking, most of the Elves look similar to me, so I didn’t recognize any unique features between. Of course, Sylvie was exempt from this due to her royal bloodline.

One thing I did notice was that she was wearing human’s clothes instead of Elven ones. She noticed Sylvie and came running towards her.

“Princess Sylvie!” she exclaimed with a high-pitched excited voice.”

“Sally!” replied Sylvie as they embraced each other. “How are the Elves doing?”

“Most of us are settling or have already settled somewhere here in Reality. There are reports of attempted harassment from Players, but our Character privileges solve most of the problems. As for me, as you can see, I work here and take care of Kimberly’s children.” Replied Sally.

“That’s great! I’m assisting in ARF’s house. So I’m fine as well.”

As they chatted, I bought an Agility Bangle, an uncommon rarity item, for 5000 Fitts. According to its description, it allowed for better control of my arms. I had yet to test it out though.

I pretended to continue checking out the shop and talked to Kimberly to give Sylvie more time to speak with Sally. After fifteen minutes, they were done, so we went on to visit Liza.

“Alcor!?” I exclaimed in surprise as it was the first thing Sylvie and I saw after entering Liza’s Item Shop.

“Dove…” Alcor responded coldly. “Sorry, I must be on my way.” Alcor immediately left the Item Shop.

“Hi Dove!” greeted Liza as if nothing happened.

“Hi. You’re not going to ask anything?” I asked with a bothered tone.

“No. It’s none of my business. He only came here for condolences to Father.”

Unfortunately, there was nothing new in the Item Shop. Guess upgrades will have to wait until the next event or something.

We spent lunch with Liza. She had gotten a lot more cheerful compared to when Eric passed away. In fact, she seemed even brighter than before.

We chatted about various petty thing as we ate lunch together. Liza enjoyed Sylvie’s company as well and asked her various things.