Yes

Some jostling noises follow, then footsteps and a split second later, an impact and a man groaning. “Cunt!” A voice I recognise as Wade’s shouts. Rushing air all around; the noises of the fight going on just a couple metres away make me anxious in a way I’ve never really felt before.

I can’t see what’s going on, all I can hear are various impacts, grunts and groans of pain, heavy footsteps and the sounds of different kinds of magic being thrown around. Just as suddenly as the interruption happened, dead silence falls over the barrier.

Quick footsteps coming towards me, while I still lie on the ground, unsure of what to do in this situation. I feel somebody kneel down by my side, lift my head up and gently remove the sack. My eyes take a second to adjust the light and I stare back at the hooded figure.

The figure pulls back the hood to reveal the beautiful, worry stricken face of Mia.

She cradles my head in her hands. “Oh my god, are you alright?” She asks, her voice cracking slightly. Despite myself, I can’t help but smile at her. “I’m alright, thanks to you.” I say. She smiles back at me, her blue eyes sparkling with a mixture of relief and worry. “Can you stand?” She asks.

“If you can untie me, sure.” I respond. She works at the knots quickly, and soon, I’m free from the ropes. Mia helps me to my feet. She puts an arm around me to help me walk. “How'd you get your voice to sound like that by the way?” I ask Mia, turning to her.

“I vibrated the air to distort the sound. Dude, I don’t know how you’re so calm about this. You almost DIED. I can see it on the party menu.” I wipe my eyes again and check my character sheet. “6HP, fuck me that was close. Thank you Mia.” “Don’t do that again. I like having you around.” She says. “Yes ma’am.” I say jokingly. She shakes her head. “You’re a dork.”

Mia brings me back inside her family barrier. “I’m not letting you go home like this. You’re staying the night.” She says. I nod. I’m not really in a position to argue, and why would I want to in the first place? “Thank you.” I say again. “You’re welcome.” “Why did you come anyway? Won’t you get in trouble with your family?”

“Well…I wore a hood the whole time, so I’m hoping none of the gang members recognised me. I came because I care about you. Stop asking questions!” She says. I look at her and she’s looking away. In the low light, I can see her red cheeks. I decide not to push it further.

We get inside and she helps me to the couch. “I’m feeling better now.” I tell her. “Great, now sit down so I can mother you.” Mia orders. I snort at that and she chuckles softly, despite herself. “Okay fine, 'mother'. Have it your way.” I reply and sit on the comfortable couch. “Don’t you 'mother' me!” She scolds in faux annoyance, waggling her index finger at me. I laugh and she turns away to the kitchen.

A few minutes later, she returns with some fruit and snacks. “I know we just ate dinner but you said you need food to heal properly, so eat these.” She says. I smile at her in return. “Thank you.” I say, taking the food she offers me and starting to eat. She sits down next to me, cuddling up to me.

She turns on the tv and puts on a random movie. I’m barely even paying attention to it. I’m more focused on the gorgeous woman beside me, pressing her body against mine. We’ve cuddled before but not like this. This feels more intimate somehow.

Food eaten

HP regen buff: HP regen increased to 1HP per minute for 60 minutes

That’s the popup I was hoping to see. I’ll have to eat a little more than this to fully restore my HP, but it’s a lot better than my base regen. I really have to figure out a better way to heal myself. This buff is only going to help me for so long. The more HP I get, the less useful that buff will be.

“Are you alright?” I hear Mia ask, after half an hour of cuddling and watching the movie. I turn to her, to find her looking up at me, her brilliant blue eyes staring into mine. “Yeah I’m fine.” I reassure her. “Are you sure?” She asks. “Yes, I’m sure. The pain is gone, my HP is going back up and I’m alright. I promise.” She nods.

“Okay good. It’s just strange. I’ve seen people close to **** before and it’s usually different.” She says, and I chuckle softly. “I’m just weird apparently.” I reply. She giggles. “Yeah you are.” I look into her eyes, as she looks back into mine. I’m absolutely lost in them. They’re mesmerisingly beautiful.

I don’t notice what’s happening until it’s already too late.

Mia’s lips are pressed gently onto mine. My eyes close and I give myself to the moment, kissing her back with all the emotion I feel for her. What that is right now, I’m not sure. Our kiss isn’t lustful. It’s not **** for intimacy either. It’s one born out of mutual care and affection.

We separate after a few seconds, and Mia looks at me, smiling happily. Then her face contorts and she freezes up, as she seemingly realises what just happened. She blinks rapidly and stands up, her face reddening. “I have to go to bed now, goodnight! The guest bedroom is just down the hall, sleep well!” She says.

Mia bounds up the stairs and vanishes to the second floor. I hear a door close a few seconds later. I’m left sitting there shocked, wondering what just happened. Dully, I register the windows opening.

Quest completed!

First kiss

Reward: 500xp

Optional: 500xp

LEVEL UP!

New Quest!

Get a girlfriend

Goals:

• Get a woman to be your girlfriend. In a romantic sense. Simple right?

Optional:

• Go get her tiger! Get Mia to be your girlfriend

Reward:

• The relationship window

Optional:

• 500xp

Accept?

Yes/No

I sit there for a moment, trying to process what just happened, accepting the quest without a second thought. That kiss was really nice, but Mia’s immediate reaction seemed to be panic. I feel like going and talking to her would be the wrong move. It seems like she needs time to sort out her feelings. I try to shrug it off, but it keeps bothering me.

I’m not really interested in staying up to watch the rest of the movie without Mia, so I decide to head to bed. I get up and walk down the hallway to find the guest bedroom that she mentioned. I find it easily, and inside is a clean room with a queen sized bed, neatly made with white sheets. I close the door, strip off my clothes and lay down in the bed. I take out my phone and idly browse memes for a few minutes before remembering that I levelled up.

I set my phone aside and open my character sheet, trying to think about where to spend my points. My first instinct is to put all of my points into Endurance, but I hold off for a moment, putting my emotions aside and contemplating it more. More HP really wouldn’t have helped me much in the situation I was just in.

More points between me and **** is always good, and I survived as long as I did because of what I currently have, but if I want to win fights like that in future instead of just lasting long enough for somebody to help me, I need to get better at combat. I don’t want to be a damsel in distress all the time. Endurance alone won’t help that.

I need better magic, better combat skills and more Strength, Agility, Intellect and Wisdom, as well as Endurance. Mia’s right in that I’m not a melee fighter yet, although I’d like to be. I need to focus on finding more powerful magic to use. That’s what I’m best at right now, and getting even better at it would let me start to beat enemies without needing to become a human punching bag.

To use more powerful magic more often, I need more Intellect and Wisdom. I’m finding that Wisdom is more of a bottleneck at the moment than Intellect, so I decide to make my stat goal to get Wisdom to 50, to see if there’s another scaling bonus like there was at 25.

With the points allocated, getting my base Wisdom to 30 and my effective Wisdom to 32, my mana regen is now looking slightly better at 3.7 per minute. Not amazing yet, but it’s still looking quite a bit better than before.

With my stats done, I try to get some sleep. I’m happy with my power progression so far, but as I go to sleep, I can’t help but worry that things are somehow irreversibly messed up between Mia and I.