"Haaah... Finally home." (Me)

I finally made it to my home. I was incredibly sleepy in class especially after a full stomach. It felt like a sleep fairy was singing me a lullaby, or if you prefer the manlier version, it felt like a devil was tugging at my consciousness.

(I'm so going to sleep for a while...)

"I'm home~" (Me)

I shouted as I rung the doorbell.

*kachak*

Mom opened the door and let me in.

"Welcome back." (Mom)

"I'm back." (Me)

I went inside and saw that sis wasn't here today either. Seems like she is working on some sort of a project and is mostly out these days.

"Hey mom, can you put my food part of the lunch in the fridge? I'm going to sleep for a while." (Me)

"Sure honey. But don't forget your studies alright?" (Mom)

"Yeah. Thanks mom" (Me)

I went upstairs to my room and flopped on the bed without even changing my clothes.

(Ahh.. I'll do it later.)

Then I lost myself in the fluffiness of the bed. No manlier version this time. Hmm.

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"*YAWN*.." (Me)

*rub* *rub*

"Uhh.." (Me)

I woke up, rubbed my eyes and looked towards the clock.

(I slept for 3 hours.)

"Hup." (Me)

I hopped of my bed and did some stretching.

*click* *cluck*

"Aaahhhhh.... " (me)

It felt good as I stretched and some of my bones made cracking sounds.

"Phew. Shall we get to studying then?... Or maybe not." (Me)

I remembered that I got to sleeping right away and still hadn't eaten or changed out of my uniform. First, I did the latter and then went down to the kitchen to heat up my food.

Finally having gotten something in my belly, I made my way to my room again, this time to study.

(I can play IO once I'm done.)

Pauli had decided to take a break but I was going to continue on. Obviously I wasn't going to spend too much time in the VR, but somehow, I feel like I just can't live without it. It had become a part of my life and thus a part of me. Apart from being a major stress relief, there was more in it for me. Namely, Trichia and Shirley. Trichia was practically family and Shirley was.... She was someone I'd come to like alot. It feels a little weird thinking like in RL but when I'm in there, in front of her, she feels more real than a real person here.

(Ah, distactions!)

I can think about that stuff later on! Right now I need to study!

I studied for about 3 hours before I had to take a break.

"ROTA! COME HAVE DINNER!' (Mom)

"COMING!" (Me)

(Phew, I guess that's it for today.)

I put back my books in place and headed down to eat.

Sis seems to have come back at some point.

"Oh, look who do we have here. Its Mona Lisa!" (Me)

"And what is that supposed to mean?" (Sis)

"...........I have no idea." (Me)

Okay, frankly I just wanted to say something witty.

"A..anyway, how is your project coming along?" (Me)

I said as I sat down across her. She had already started eating and I took a serving for myself.

"Since when are you so interested?" (Sis)

"Small talk?" (Me)

I've never mentioned anything about the relation between me and my sister so let me take this time to do so.

Our relationship is not at all complicated. Unlike most siblings, we don't fight, ever. We talk normally to each other, even though neither of us is too keen on sharing stuff with the other. Exactly the reason why I have no idea whether she has a boyfriend. But somehow she knows about Pauli, even though I never told her.

Even with the not so much sharing with each other, I guess its safe to say we love each other(sibling love, you perverts). For example, if I had to rely on my sister for something, I'd pretty much trust her and I myself would be ready to help her should she ever need it.

The only thing I find 'dissatisfactory' is that she knows too much. Like the thing with Pauli. Or that I saved her sister from delinquents. Or when I brought Trichia home for the first time, sis knew she was a robot. She's, in a way, scary but also reliable.

"Well, if you must know, its going great. We're actually on the last stage and only the final touches have to be made. After that is the report and then the seminar." (Sis)

"Hmm. Good, good." (Me)

"You're seriously happy? How did that happen?" (Sis)

"...I was talking about the food." (Me)

{Author ranting: Haha! BURN! XD}

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"Welcome back!" (Trichia)

I dived in IO after dinner and Trichia welcomed me back with a hug and a snuggle.

"I'm back!" (Me)

I returned the hug and the snuggle.

"Anything major happen while I was away?" (Me)

"Not anything in particular." (Trichia)

She took a cute pose as if thinking with her head tilted and her right index finger tapping her right cheek.

"The 3 adventurers you killed decided to not come back here. They are headed in a different direction." (Trichia)

"Hmm. That's a good thing I suppose." (Me)

That bit of information was relevent to me cuz if those guys were thinking of revenge... Well you know what I'm saying.

"I doubt anyone would want to return if you split their skulls open with your bare fists." (Trichia)

"Hmm. Good idea. I'll do the same next time someone pisses me off. Another thing Trichia." (Me)

"Yes?" (Trichia)

"Do you get EXP off of PK?" (Me)

{Author's note: Player Killing}

"Yes. In fact the EXP is more than what you obtain from hunting monsters of the same level." (Trichia)

"Really!?" (Me)

That was news to me.

"But then wouldn't people go around killing other people? Compunded with the fact that the one killed gets their level reduded, isn't this too cruel!?" (Me)

I can understand why PKing is so common in this world. You get stronger while your opponent gets weaker.

"There are penalties, obviously." (Trichia)

She replied to my query.

"For example, your name turns red and is forcefully displayed to other people along with your level. So everyone will know you're a murderer." (Trichia)

There is a setting in the game where you can choose to display your name and level above you just like that above a monster. I haven't met many people but none that I have kept it enabled. In fact, it is disabled by default. I doubt anyone would do it.

"If you've been marked as a murderer, others can hunt you down for even more EXP than you got with your murder. Further, they will not be inflicted with the murder penalty." (Trichia)

Ohh. This was a good system to discourage PKs as well encourage punishing any who crossed the line.

"Further, if you go too insane like mass murdering NPCs, I'll just ban you." (Trichia)

Well a fail safe like that is also important, I guess. I mean what if I was the one who went around PKing? I doubt any players was high levelled enough to take me down. And I'd just keep increasing in levels as I go though every single kill.

"Wait! I just killed 3 players. I'm under penaly too!?" (Me)

"No, you're not. You would have been if you had started the brawl but you didn't so it counts as self defense. And before you ask, no they are not under penalty either, since they actually didn't manage to kill you." (Trichia)

Hmm.

(Well this was a informative session.)

There were a lot of things that I learned and realised how orderly everything had been planned. There were merits and demerits in everything you did. Take the crazy death penalty, for example. Losing 10% of your level was a disaster for a high level player. To counter that was the party system. It was unique in the sense that the share of experience could be adjusted. Thus, power levelling a person was easy. Think about it with a hypothetical case of scenario: There is a party of 5. They battle a boss and one of them dies. Now when he comes back, they set the EXP to only go to that guy. So he would be getting 5X EXP, thus quickly bringing him back to his original level. This all in a sense, encourages the need to fight in a team.

Well the information session was fine and all, but lets continue on to the dungeon exploring.

I waste back to the first floor again so I was going to get another spike shield now.

(So annoying.)

I would have to fight all the way back again. I don't even remember how many times this makes it.

But now there were no diatractions. No one was going to come to the dungeon with the possibility to harass Shirley. Pauli wasn't going to dive in. And Shirley was going to stay at floor one, like before.

Phew, now I was alone and can go all out!

Btw, Shirley wasn't here right now. Maybe out to fight or hunt or gather supplies, I don't know. Even though I was going to respawn here, it wasn't like she'd keep waiting for me to do so.

(Lets move on then.)

I entered the boss room and that familiar ugly [Skeleton Warrior] appeared. I was tired of fighting this guy, so I just blasted him away with the [Massive Mace]. I got another [Spike Shield] and continued on.

The skeletons I faced on the second floor, I banged their heads with the new [Spike Shield] that I got.

This went on till I obtained a new skill after the 5th floor boss fight.

[Mace Mastery LVL 1

Blunt Damage +1%]

It was similar to my [Sword Mastery] skill that I had obtained much earlier.

[Sword Mastery LVL 9

Slash Damage +9%]

Delighted at gaining a new skill, I moved on and made it to the 13th floor's safe room before logging out.

"Haah. Rest for tomorrow." (Me)