Discussions And Training

Mia’s phone vibrates at that moment, and she picks it up. “Skylar says she’ll be able to come over at about 3. She also says that she looks forward to meeting Ivy.” Mia reads out off her screen. “Who is Skylar?” Ivy asks. “She’s the other member of our guild. Hopefully you’ll like her. In the meantime, I’m going to make lunch for us.” Mia says, standing up and walking out of the room.

Ivy sits with Mia and I at the table as we eat. She doesn’t seem to mind the fact that she isn’t able to eat the same as we are, and instead, she asks us more questions. “What makes you happy?” Ivy asks, directing the question at Mia. Mia takes a moment to swallow the food currently in her mouth before answering. “Spending time with Gemma is always nice. Relaxing with her makes me feel comfortable.”

“Apart from that, watching tv and playing games makes me happy. Speaking of, Gemma! When are we going to play games together?” Mia asks me and I giggle. “When I’m sure that you won’t be upset after I kick your ass in anything we play.” I respond. “Oi!” Mia laughs, kicking me under the table and I laugh.

“Dickhead! Anyway, Ivy. Uhm…yeah, watching tv and playing games is fun. Getting stronger is fun too. Spending time with my family is nice sometimes. I don’t really know apart from that, most of my hobbies involve either relaxing or training.” Mia concludes. Ivy nods, processing her answer. “What about you Gemma?” She asks, turning to me. “I gotta say, pretty much the same answers as Mia. Spending time with her, and now you too, playing games, watching movies and tv shows. I don’t really have a family to spend time with. I did like archery at one point though.” I respond. “Why don’t you have a family to spend time with?” Ivy asks.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Mia shift in her seat and a grimace cross her face. I look down at the table. “My family kicked me out the day I turned 18 years old. My parents didn’t do a very good job raising me, and neglected me quite a bit. When they found out that I was transgender, that was the last straw for them. I was out on the street with everything I owned on the front lawn, the day of my 18th birthday.” I tell Ivy.

Ivy cocks her head slightly in confusion. “But why?” She asks, and I laugh at her confusion. “Some people don’t like transgender people. They don’t like that we exist, and have a variety of strange beliefs about us. We’re often mistreated by these people.” I explain. Ivy looks away for a few seconds, then looks back at me.

“I don’t understand.” She says. “You will eventually. I don’t want to go super into it now, because it’s a depressing topic and we’re trying to keep things light and happy. For now, I hope it’s enough to say that some people are just a bit mean, and my parents were like that.” I tell her. “I’m sorry Gemma.” Ivy apologises. I take her hand and look into her eyes. “Don’t be. I’m doing a lot better now than I was before, and there’s nothing wrong with asking questions.” I tell her. She smiles at me, and I smile back, marvelling at the beauty of Ivy’s violet eyes.

“So Ivy, what makes you happy? Have you thought about it a little more?” Mia asks, smiling at me sympathetically. She’s clearly trying to steer the topic away from my parents, and for that, I am grateful. “I have thought about it more. I like spending time with you both. You’re nice people and I feel like I’m meant to be around you. I feel an urge to take care of you. To protect you and make sure you’re happy. I’m still not really sure how to do that though.” Ivy admits.

“What about chores? Like cooking, cleaning, that kind of stuff?” Mia asks her. “I hadn’t thought about that. I guess I could try? How would I learn?” Ivy asks in response. Mia giggles heartily, a sound that is music to my ears. “I’ll teach you what I know, and then the rest, you’ll learn just like everybody else. Looking up tutorials on youtube and practicing.” Mia says cheerily. I swallow my last bite and look up at Mia and Ivy. “Want to go on one more dungeon run before Skylar gets here?” “Let’s do it!” Mia immediately responds. “Are you up for it Ivy?” I ask her. “Yes, I’m happy to accompany you.” Ivy says, after thinking for a moment.

We go through the Tier 5 version of the giant rats dungeon once again. The reasoning is simple and twofold: I want Ivy to gain some more experience with rats before having her fight other enemies, and I also want to use the battle axe that dropped a few days ago. After giving it a few test swings, I confirm that my strength is now high enough to be able to pick it up and swing it relatively easily. However, as I find out during the fight, just because I can pick up the axe and swing it, doesn’t mean that I’m particularly skilled with it.

I’m lucky that Ivy is in the party, ready to heal me or Mia if anything goes wrong. I feel like I can be a little more reckless, and put myself in melee situations more instead of relying solely on my magic and using a knife as a backup. Unfortunately for my health bar, melee combat is where the rats excel. It does mean that I at least get practice against melee focused enemies, but it’s still not great for me.

The rats are fast too. Not so fast that I can’t keep up, but still fast. Fast enough that raising my agility a little higher is definitely something I should look into soon. Strength and endurance are still the stats I want to focus on for now, but once I’ve gotten both of them to 25, I’ll be investing into agility.

Despite the difficulty of each fight, despite getting hit a lot more than I previously have and needing a lot more healing from Ivy, I find that I’m really having fun. The axe feels heavy but right in my hands. An object to channel my **** of will through. Every swing that connects, reverberating up my arms and slicing into the rats, feels satisfying in a way that’s really difficult to describe, and that I’ve never experienced before. Every miss that opens me up to a counterattack frustrates me and motivates me to try to do better. A battle mage style build is definitely the right choice for me.

Finally, I manage to kill a rat without using any of my magic and without any help from Ivy. A window pops up that I judge I have enough time to read before the next rat comes around.

Immediately, my movements feel more natural. Instead of the awkward feeling swings that I was practising and getting used to with the axe, my cuts are now much more fluid and smooth. The axe feels natural in my hands, and I’m much better able to moderate how much power I use in my swing. My footsteps feel natural too, I instinctively know where to place my feet in order to give myself the advantage in combat.

I grin happily and engage the next rat coming for me. I duck under its paw and swing upwards, striking the rat in its lower jaw. I wrench the axe free and dance backwards as it squeals in pain. A quick cut to the side of its neck, and it falls to the side, dissolving into dust. “I could get used to this!” I exclaim happily and Mia giggles.

25xp

The rest of the fight, I have a blast using my new axe mastery skill. I don’t know if I could defeat a proper weapons master in combat, but the skill is enough to let me take on the rats in a melee one on one, and come out on top with relative ease.

The boss is less of a challenge than ever, thanks to my new melee skill. I’m able to use my frost magic in tandem with Mia’s solid air attacks to slow it down, then get in close and hack away at the **** parts in the Queen’s head. It doesn’t take long to defeat the boss, and with minimal health loss on our side too.

1500xp

We gather up the loot and exit the dungeon. Checking through the loot, there is once again nothing interesting. Even the $15,000 that I’m getting with every boss fight is getting slightly uninteresting at this point. I give all the loot to Ivy and instruct her to eat it, to which she nods. “Gemma, can I spend some more time researching please? I want to understand more.” Ivy asks. “Of course Ivy, feel free to.” I say, smiling at her. “Thank you.” She smiles back brightly, before disappearing into the dining room.