Searching For A Loophole

It’s September 5th 2023, a week since we met Lena and Emma, and we still haven’t gotten any closer to figuring out how exactly we’re going to introduce Emma to the abyss. In our defence, it’s not something that seems to have been done much before, if at all. If a way exists, it’s not anywhere attainable for the average person. I might have abilities a little more powerful than average, but I can’t work miracles whenever I feel like it.

In the meantime, Olivia has had us back on our regularly scheduled training routine after letting us have a break in celebration of our victories against the human trafficking gangs. Our training routine now includs sparring with one another as well as dungeons. Levelling progress has slowed signicantly for Ivy and I since reaching level 100.

It’s nice to find out that level 100 isn’t our stopping point, but it’s also getting more and more annoying to level up. Experience requirements are going up by 1000 every level, and since level 50, there hasn’t been any changes to how much XP a dungeon gives out, meaning that every level requires a progressively higher number of dungeons to advance.

Of course, the fact that I’m even capable of steady and fairly consistent growth in this fashion is an amazing thing, as Olivia keeps reminding me. That unfortunately doesn’t make it any less annoying. I get the feeling that I’m not supposed to be using these kinds of dungeons for much longer anyway.

That’s another reason to keep going with the Gamer class, to see if there’s another way to level up, maybe another type of dungeon I can unlock that gives more XP or something. If any path lays towards that, it’s the Gamer class. Ivy and I have only managed to gain 3 more levels in a week of training and it’s only going to get slower from here.

We’ve still kept in contact with Lena and Emma, slowly building our budding friendship with the two women. Lena and Mia talk often, as do Emma and Paige. Skylar isn’t as comfortable with the outspoken nature of the two of them, so she doesn’t talk to them as much as the rest of us do.

We hold off on introducing Olivia to Emma, as explaining exactly who Olivia is to us would be a bit awkward without including the abyssal parts. What are we supposed to say? That she’s our teacher? A friend who sometimes hangs out with us that we want to introduce just because? We aren’t sure, and Olivia is content with not meeting them, so we don’t worry about that for now.

We also have a group chat that we send memes to, although Mia and Lena noticably more so than the others. Those two get along like a house on fire, so it’s not surprising to me when they arrange a date between themselves. It makes me really happy to see Mia so lit up and energetic like she is around Lena.

Of course, Lena has also come up with puns for Paige and Skylar’s names too. She didn’t say Paige’s when they first met because she was more concerned with introducing us all to Emma, but the moment we made the group chat, she made her puns known.

First, she sent the group chat a picture of a book she was reading. She followed it up with the message, ‘This book is a real Paige Turner’. Mia cackled immediately upon reading it, absolutely loving the fact that Lena came up with a pun of our girlfriend’s full name. My reaction was to groan, Paige got flustered and Skylar just shook her head. Of course, Skylar wasn’t left out either.

Lena sent a picture of the sky, then followed it up with the words, ‘Wait but I think I just heard the sky sing…’ I was sure that that was the leadup to some kind of pun, and Mia responded for us all. ‘Really?’ She asks. Lena’s followup came immediately. ‘Yes. I heard it say Skylala lalaaa.’ She says. Even I can’t help but giggle at that one, unable to stop myself from singing it in my head in the tune of a meme song from years ago.

Skylar simply responded with ellipses, making Lena cackle even harder. ‘Look! My brilliance is so overwhelming that it leaves people speechless!’ She responded, and that made Skylar smile in amusement when she read it. “She’s insufferable.” She had said, a hint of affection in her voice. And so that was our week.

We also invited Elsa over again to hang out and play some games for a bit. She expresses interest in coming over one day to paint the landscape around our barrier, as well as the castle. I tell her that we’d love to have her here for that and she seemed excited by the prospect.

It’s been a really nice week, talking to our friends and training. The lack of any real progress on potentially introducing Emma to the abyss does kinda suck, but even though we have somewhat of a routine in our life, fighting in the dungeons is never boring. “Watch it Paige!” I shout, noticing the cue for the level 110 Cyberdemon’s annoying stone tunnel attack.

She catches it a fraction of a second too late and gets caught in the tunnel, needing to avoid the waves of fire. A few seconds later, she emerges, looking mostly unharmed. “Skylar, Olivia, now!” I call, surging forward in a preplanned attack with the two of them. We hit the boss with all our firepower as it recovers from using it’s attack. Olivia lands the final blow in her Tetramand form, ripping off one of it’s horns and shoving it through the monster’s eye.

Screaming, it disappears into dust, leaving Ivy and I with a small amount more XP, and the loot off in the side barrier from the third perk of the Gamer class. “Good job y’all.” I say, having picked up the phrase from Lena’s vocabulary. In my defence, it rolls off the tongue after a while. “You okay Paige?” I ask her. She turns to me red faced and nods. “Yeah, I’m sorry.” She says.

I pat her on the head reassuringly. “It’s okay. We all make mistakes sometimes. That’s why we train.” I tell her, and she smiles at me, wrapping her arms tightly around me and hugging me. We exit to the loot barrier, collecting what we want and discarding most of it onto the abyss auction. There really isn’t a lot of interesting loot to be had from these dungeons these days. Another downside of having to run through the same dungeons again and again.

The window makes me stop in my tracks for a full thirty seconds as I read it, and reread it, almost unsure if I'm actually seeing what I think I'm seeing. "What's wrong babe?" Ivy asks as she notices me staring into the air. My mouth falls open slightly as I fully grasp how ridiculous this is.

My guild turns to me, wondering what's going out. I read out what's written on the window. By the end of it, even Olivia's eyes are wide in shock. "You are ludicrous." She finally says. "Why is Gaia helping you like this?" I shake my head. "I have no idea. But it's exactly what we wanted. A way to introduce Emma to the abyss." I say.

"We should text Lena!" Paige exclaims. I pull my phone out of my inventory and start typing a message to Lena without another word. 'We found it. I have a way to potentially introduce Emma to the abyss. Gaia gave me a quest that said if I complete her “challenge”, she'll get mana of her own' I type out.

She starts to respond almost immediately. 'That's amazing news!! Thank you so much!! What's the challenge?' She asks. I look back to the window, my eyes focusing on the underlined words ‘Gaia's challenge’. I click that part of the window, and the initial quest window vanishes, another taking it's place. "Gaia's Challenge." I read aloud.

As I finish reading, I look up at my guild. Mia is the first one to react. "No fair! You get to do a Legend Of Zelda themed dungeon and I can't come??" She whines and I giggle at her reaction. I survey the faces of my guild, and the general reaction seems to be pleasantly surprised. There's a way to give Emma mana.

Not just that, but it also says she won't have a natural affinity to any particular ability. This doesn't seem like much but could be huge. It means she's free to pursue whichever path of magic or power she wants to, assuming she does. That freedom is powerful. I'm guessing she won't be very powerful as a tradeoff, but there are definite benefits to this.

“Are you all okay with me attempting this today?” I ask them. “Yeah babe, go for it!” Mia exclaims. Paige nods, smiling and slightly red faced, knowing that if I succeed, she’ll get to see more of Emma. “Stay safe my love.” Ivy says, giving her blessing. “Yes. Good luck Gem.” Skylar replies. “It would be prudent to attempt this today. The sooner it is done, the sooner we can get stronger as a guild.” Olivia gives her thoughts. I nod. “I’ll take some time to prepare, and set out in about half an hour.” I resolve.