"What?" Aya asks, disbelieving of the question. Her eyes fall on the sleek sliver headset now restiween Mars' fingers after she had taken it out of its protective case.
"Would you like to try it out?" Mars says agaiing the question.
"Uh..." Aya stammers.
Mars sighs notig the girl's obvious hesitation. Moving over te device Aya hadn't noticed wheepped into the room, Mars pats a closet sized meical device.
The thing unravels in a set of ks and whirls, ing apart to reveal its velvet insides.
Aya realizes she looking at a gaming pod fit for one person. The girl discreetly pinches herself, making sure she wasn't dreaming.
Gaming pods were notoriously expensive, only the extremely wealthy could afford such teology yet here one was, right before her eyes.
Just who was Mars?
"This is my gaming pod, ever since I got it, I rarely ever use my Zephyr, so I'm going to let you test it out. To show you the differeween a puter and absolute immersion." Mars says approag Aya.
"Wow." Aya gasps. Mars smirks, watg the girl uo form a sentence as she refuses the kind offer.
"You won't break it because you'll be lying down and I'm only letting you test it out not lending it to you." Mars says flig the girl's nose.
"Ow!" Aya says holding her nose. She nods.
"Let me get my puter!" Aya says running out the living room door.
"You have five minutes!" Mars calls as she leaves. The irl shakes her head, bang the headset on her waist as she listens to the sound of Aya's footsteps.
----------
"Okay, so I just ect this." Aya murmurs, plugging in the headset to her PacBook under Mars' supervision.
The irl helps her put on the headset a fortable on the floor using one of the cushions from the bedroom.
"It's going to feel weird at first but you'll get the hang of it." Mars says. Aya nods, toug the rge start button to the side and waiting for the game to begin.
----------
Aya finds herself floating in a dark space, she closes her eyes in fear, feeling herself fall through the void.
She screams, w where she was falling through when all of a sudden it stops.
The menu s song catches her attention. Deg to take a peek she finds the Moon Valley menu s staring at her.
It had all its usual options and Aya uses her fio select start aer the game.
A force thrusts her forward and she's once again screaming into the void.
"Yvlena what's the matter?" A kind voice asks, Aya forces herself to open her agairice stands before her. The NPC's stares in over Aya or rather Yvlena.
The girl jumps, all around her are sounds, birds chirping, water flowing, and of course the sounds of the background NPCs going about their business.
A gentle breeze blows, ruffling Yvlena's hair it's as though she's been transported into another world all by the headset.
"I'm in the game." She says making a move to turn around, the fabric of her tunic follows and even the weight of her sword presses against her leg.
Underh, her starter boots cck against the cobblestoreets of the Floral District.
"This feels so real." Yvlena says, lifting her hands to look at them.
Long slender elven fingers meet her eyes, she reaches for her ears, feeling the pointy tips with the pads of her fingers.
"Amazing." She whispers.
Beatrice pces a hand on Yvlena's shoulder and the girl is suddenly aware of the weight upon her frame.
She hugs Beatrice suddenly, pressing her cheek against the older woman's face. The solid form of the embrace is as real as ever.
Yvlena smell the herb stained arms that arouhe gentle heartbeat of the older woman resounds in her ears.
Beatrice ughs, patting Yvlena's head gently as one would do for a well loved grandchild.
[Affinity with Beatricreased+3]
The system says h above Yvlena's sight.
'Yes, I'm Yvlena now.' The girl thinks.
"Sorry about that Beatrice, I just needed a hug." She expins. The woman waves it off.
"Don't worry my dear, I haven't had a hug like that since my dear Twy."
Yvlena nods in uanding, never having a hug since her dear grandmother.
"I know what it's like to lose someooo." Yvlena says, resting a f hand orice's shoulder. The two exge smiles.
[Affinity with Beatricreased +2]
[Beatrice siders you an acquaintance]
Yvlena nods, happy to see that. Soon the woman has to leave again and Yvlena is left to iigate the Rose manor.
The weight of the golden key rest in her palm after fishing it out of her pocket.
She is the key into the lock, opening the gates.
[itle: Owner of Rose Manor]
Yvlena walks through the mess of a manor, taking a moment to observe the surrounding area.
The long grass and sy damp floors slow her down before she even reach the statues of Vaelindor and Selendriel.
[Quest
Rose Manor
***
Rose Manor is in utter decay. Ohe gem of the Bloom Haven Floral District, it has long since fallen into disrepair due to .
As Harvest Guardian, it is your duty to restore it to its inal glory
Do you accept?]
[Yes/No]
Yvlena notices, there is no reward listed, she shrugs hitting the yes button without hesitation.
'Must be a special type of quest.' she thinks.
If this was the outside of the Manor, the inside would be just as bad if not worse.
"I have my work cut out for me." Yvlena says brimming with excitement.
"How do I even begin ing this mess?" Yvlena says taking another cursory look at the area. "For one, I o clear the nd."
Looking around she could already tell her tasks would involve chopping down trees and clearing the weeds and ss.
She would eveo till the nd so it would be fit for new pnts.
"I need an axe, a scythe, and a hoe." She says. Gng around, she spots a decrepit woodeo the far right of the manor pound.
Dashing towards it as fast as she , she opens it only to be surprised by a horned rabbit.
Yvlena quickly dispatches it but finds she ot gain EXP.
[EXP gain locked until Level up]
[Level up locked until css sele]
The system tells her. Yvlena face palms, realizing she still hadn't chosen a css yet.
"I pletely fot about that, I'm level five now." She says.
"Menu." Yvlena yells, and instantly the s pops up allowio click the css sele s.
After scrolling through the csses avaible she finds her choice, summoner.
[Css ge initiated]
[Choose Summoner as Main Css?]
[Yes/No]
(ot be undone)
Yvlena hits the yes button.
[Css firmation: Summoner]
[Yvlena is now level 6]
[New skills unlocked]
[New ges to stats]
The girl is bombarded by messages from the system and after reading them all, decides to i her ats.
[NAME: YVLENA
RACE: ELF
HP: 300
MP: 250
CLASS: Summoner
CLASS SKILLS: [Summon LV. 1]
SUBCLASS: Herbalist (Harvest Guardian) 1/10
SKILLS: [Herblore LV. 1]
[Alchemy LV. 1]
[Cooking LV.1]
Base Stats
[STR]:20
[DEF]:15
[DEX]:22
[AGI]:20
[INT]:16
[WIS]:16
[CHA]:10
[LUK]:10]
After cheg the rest of her stats Yvlena nods in satisfa.
"These are pretty good but how do I level up my skills and css though?" She asks. Putting it aside she faces the wooden shed.
A plume of dust rises from the old building making Yvlena cough, the dust was so bad it made her eyes water.
'I think they made this a bit too realistic.' she says stepping away from the shed to let it air out.
ing back, she finds a set of tools waiting for her.
[Yvlena Acquired
***
Rusty Axe x1
Rusty Scythe x1
Rusty Hoe x1]
Retrieving the scythe she begins clearing out the weeds and grass from the front gate, swiping and swiping at the weeds until she gets a notification.
[Yvlena Acquired Fibre x5]
"A em?" She asks, surmising it must be used for crafting, she carries on.
After what feels like an hour, Yvlena wipes the sweat from her forehead.
There was still so much to do but the Rusty Scythe took five hits before it cleared even the most basic bush.
"Maybe there's a store I get better tools." Yvlena says, easily unequipping the scythe.
Looking over the manor, she notices she hasn't made a dent in the dense bushes surrounding the front yard.
"I may have to tihis ter."
All of a sudden Aya finds herself ba the real world with Mars' face above hers.
"So how was it?" The girl asks. Aya sits up speechless, she stares at her hand. Regur human palms face her, then she looks back at Mars, dazed.
"It all felt so real." Aya says quietly. "How long was I in there?"
"Just under an hour." Mars replies.
"I see." Aya says, staring at nothing in particur.
"You're freaki with the way you're staring into space." Mars ughs. "Let's get you some water."
Mars helps Aya to her feet one hand at a time, pulling the girl up from the cushions with practiced ease.
She leads Aya to a cute circur, wooden table as Aya take a seat at the chair.
"Sit while I get the water." Mars says walking over to the fridge.
"Mars I was in the game! Like i." Aya says, "I could touch the NPCs, it was amazing."
"The Zephyr gear is currently one of the best headsets in the world." Mars says filling a gss of water from the pitcher in her fridge.
"I recall you told me your headset was broken what model do you have."
"The Icarus gear, it'll cost a lot to fix." Aya says resting her head oable i, pletely disheartened.
"How much?"
"500 Lue."
"Doable." Mars says with a shrug.
"What do you mean doable? If I had 500 Lue lying about, I wouldn't be living in this dump." Aya grumbles.
"Well, you know how to make money from the game. How much did the fire stone sell for?"
"20 Gold."
Mars nods.
"Now all you gotta do is grind." She says. Aya whines.
"I'll even make you a wager." Mars says.
"I'm listening." Aya says lifting her head from the table.
"Beat me in a PvP matd I'll sell you the Zephyr with a dist."
"How much of a dist are we talking?"
"I'll sell it to you for 2000 Lue." Mars says. Aya sits up suddenly, almost falling out of her seat.
"That's more than 50% off!"
Mars nods again.
"But if you don't win, I'll give it to you for double that."
Aya does some math and figures out it would be about 4000 Lue still 1000 Lue off the inal price for something that was in near perfect dition.
"That's still better than I'd get at most sed hand stores." Aya says. She faces the girl with a serious expression.
"Why are you doing this for me?" She asks.
Mars pces the gss oable, right in front of her, Aya accepts the water, downing the whole gss in a matter of seds.
"Silly girl, I told you I like you."
