WHY ARE THERE SO MANY WINDOWS?! (Also Loot)

He chose the right one, he needed a weapon for himself or for Aclysia. He wouldn’t need the money anyway if he remembered the first kill bonus correctly and the Experience just wasn’t that enticing on its own.

“…I get the feeling Gaia is mad at me.” John said as he closed the last window. “Why that?” Rave asked and pulled up her Pants “Well, she just gave me an achievement that sounded like an angry grandma whose calls I have been ignoring for a month.” He explained and adjusted his own jeans. “I think I will need to clean these before I give them back to Jimmie.” He lamented as he tapped the pine needles of his back. ‘I understand why Rave didn’t want to sex here now completely.’ He thought and looked over to Aclysia. Honestly, he kind of forget that she was there for a second.

“What was that?” Aclysia asked. “Ehm, sexual intercourse, commonly just shortened to sex.” John answered with slight awkwardness. He felt like somebody who had left the microphone of his Twitch-Stream unmuted while masturbating. “Why do you do that?” “Because it feels really good.” Rave chimed in. “What is feeling good?” Okay, this was (once again) going into way to philosophical directions for John not to feel awkward. He did have a high Wisdom Stat so he was able to answer.

“Well, we generally categorize things as good or bad, although that doesn’t always work, that goes for feeling to. For example: If you were to be abandoned by me and left stranded somewhere you wouldn’t feel happy about that, would you?” Aclysia blinked a few times then she said. “I had an unpleasant tug in my chest area while I was in your inventory. Is that what you are talking about?” She asked.

That was unexpected? “Maybe, can you elaborate what you mean?” “There is nothing there. Time doesn’t flow. I am only aware that I am in there whenever you pull something out. Once your hand vanishes I am all alone again. Whenever I see that you take something out of your inventory that is not me I feel that tug.” “That sounds like sadness.” John mumbled and looked to the ground. He had never thought about that but putting her in there was pretty much locking somebody in Stasis, before that was no problem but now that she showed the first signs of emotions it felt like a human rights violation. “How do you feel when I pull you out though?” He asked out of curiosity, “Hard to put into words. It feels like my purpose has been made clear. Like I am needed.” “Sounds like it makes you happy.” “Happy…” Aclysia repeated that word. “I will have to think about that.”

Well, that gave him some time to think about some stuff of his own. He should probably decide whether or not to increase Aclysia’s wisdom Stat further sooner than planned. Leaving her in this limbo between sentience and barely understand what emotions are would just be cruel.

First he had to level her up more though so that meant that he had to check THE LOOT! ‘Gnome, can you gather all the items that have a magical aura in this forest?’ ‘Yep, just a moment John!’ the cheery voice answered and ripples of earth started to go out from his position, returning with small to big items that slowly gathered in front of his feet.

From boring to exciting the drops were as follows:

5 Magical Saps

6 Treant Barks

30045$ in total

“By the way I levelled up to!” Rave exclaimed with a smile. “Yeah, but your Stats won’t update until tomorrow.” John teased, “That also means we now have the same level.” “Which is total bullshit, I can still whoop your ass!” “Probably. Give it a few more weeks though!” John countered and they shared a challenging glance that ended with Rave laughing and John smiling. “Yeah, yeah, we will see.” Rave waved the topic goodbye.

‘I hope I have enough room in my inventory.’ John though and opened his character window. He didn’t. As a matter of fact, he was loaded to almost complete capacity.

He wanted to check on his quest rewards anyway but what the fuck was with the size of that Dragonscale? He needed to either leave all the stuff the boss dropped (Safe for some of the smaller items) or take care of that Dragonscale somehow. Whatever his decision would be it was the smartest to look at the thing first.

He pushed his hands into his inventory and grabbed what he thought to be the Dragonscale, as that was how his inventory worked generally. His hands just found what he wanted. It would be no different in this case and John started pulling a giant red scale with dark blue swirly patterns on top of it out of his inventory. It had the shape of a tear drop and was around two metres long and one wide at the broadest part.

‘Huh, this is pretty liiiiiiiiiiiiight.’ He thought and was quickly proven wrong as the scale completely emerged from his inventory and suddenly crashed into the ground as his pocket dimension no longer supported the weight. He had to drop it. Dirt and forest debris scattered through the air while John used Observe.

“What is that?” Victoria reported that she was still there with that simple question. “A Dragonscale. Gaia just gave it to me as reward for a quest.” John answered as it was the most natural thing in the world. Victoria looked completely bamboozled. Rave leaned on his shoulder and pointed at the Slavic girl “That is how you reacted to EVERYTHING the first few days.” She giggled. “Are you saying that my powers are so weird even the Abyss is shocked?” “I am saying that and that your powers are bullshit.” She explained, Victoria nodded from the side-lines “Did you get something else?” “Yeah, actually, let’s see if it is any good.”

‘In the same way Excalibur was forged, huh? Well it is a European Longsword.’ He thought and analysed the thing in his hands further. He had to hold it in both hands because it was pretty heavy, for him at least, he guessed that it was meant to be used a Two-Hander. The long blade had the colour of fine silver and the guard was a simple but graciously curving bar of metal while the grip was wrapped with fine leather.

“Jane, wanna take a swing?” “Uh, can I?” Rave asked and took the thing of him. She took stance a few steps away from John and swung around wildly for a few moments before delivering a sideway strike at a nearby tree. The blade went halfway through the trunk before getting stuck. “Pretty nice thing, not the sharpest but it’s lighter than it looks.” Rave now held it in only one hand. “It’s one of the enchantments.” John commented. “Pre-Enchanted weaponry. Total bullshit. Well, I prefer fist fighting so I can’t use this. Did those Gloves that dropped have anything nice?” She asked as he handed the sword back to John, who then stored it in his inventory. “They make plants grow faster.” “Well, okay, can’t use that either so keep them.”

“Do you want something Victoria?” John asked the gunwoman. Without her bazooka fire they wouldn’t have been able to defeat the Boss. Sure, when they got to the last Phase the guy was pretty easy because his speed had sucked compared to Rave’s but the two of them would have had a hard time getting rid of those trees and in a fight of attrition they would have drowned in the endlessly spawning Treants. “I need to make my money back from the ammunition I used.” Victoria answered. “So, I would like to take that shield with me. Looks like it will be worth a bit.” John wasn’t exactly happy about letting the rare drop go but no one used shields here so it wasn’t a huge loss. “Okay, here, it rebuilds itself so you can probably sell it for more if you mention that.” “How do you know that?”

Oh Shit. “Ehm, I have a Skill called Observe that lets me see details about things I look at.” John tried to reveal only half of the truth “Only things or also people?” Victoria asked with a worried expression. “Also, people.” Rave answered for him. “Don’t worry I scold him when he does, it also doesn’t reveal that much.” “What did it tell you about me?” Victoria demanded to know.

John sighed, “That you are the Granddaughter of a family that fled the Soviet-Union and got into the Abyss because they needed money. Also, that you didn’t trust me at first.” “Hasn’t changed now that I know that.” Victoria turned, picked up her guitar case and stretched her hand to the sky. “I will see you tomorrow in the arcade.” She said in a tone of controlled anger. Then she left the Illusion Barrier.

“Why did you tell her?” John wanted to know, “This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen.” “Better it happens now then in a week or a month.” Rave tapped on his collarbone, “If she stays with Collide secrets like that are healthier addressed immediately. Ya know I dislike ya scanning my emotions and I won’t let you do the same to others.” John took a deep breath, “Yeah, yeah, you are right…” he admitted and looked to the ground in defeat. He still had some doubts about the timing but it was a pretty fucked-up thing to do in actuality. “Sorry.” Rave slung her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Don’t let it pull ya down. You have that skill so just be honest about it with people that are likely to be friends. Now let’s address the other issue.”

She let go off him and pointed at the Dragonscale. “I ain’t carrying that.” “Neither am I, my inventory space will be cramped with the other stuff already…” John thought hard about the issue before he saw the solution. ‘It’s not like I will be able to use it in the near future, I will not concentrate on levelling Craft after all, and transporting it will be impossible so the logical thing to do is….’

He raised his head from the scale and to a certain Guardian Spirit in a damaged 2B Cosplay.