Dragon X Waiting and Plans

“Good morning, uh... Iris.”

It took me a moment to adjust to using her ingame name – but she had requested we leave real life conversation off the table. She seemed to realize this, as a moment later she shook her head.

“Right,” She murmured. “I suppose I should also be calling you Hakuryuu now.”

“Don't bother,” I shrugged. “It's a bit of a mouthful, right? Just call me Kei.” Besides, I had put my familiar nickname into my username to begin with, so it wasn't like it would sound strange.

...Though it might feel strange to her, given that we weren't that close anymore.

“...Then, good morning, Kei.”

Apparently not. If anything, I was the one who got whiplash from hearing her say my name so suddenly... But in a good way. It helped ease my worries, at least, about how our conversation had ended last night.

Ducking my way out of the tent, I sat down once more on a fallen log near the remains of what had formerly been our campfire, and opened my menu. I'd gotten a response from Dairoku at some point last night, it seemed, but I couldn't read much more of it than “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!?” in all-caps before Iris also emerged, sitting across from me and producing something from her inventory.

...An apple?

She sliced it up evenly, then silently handed over half of it to me, before quietly munching on her own part. I looked at it, then looked back to her, and furrowed my brow.

“...What are you looking at?” She asked. “That's all you're getting, because this is all I have.”

“No, it's just... It was fruit last night, and this morning as well.” I didn't want to complain when she was going out of her way to feed me, but something about it seemed odd.

“[Cooking] and [Alchemy] are two branches of the same Skill tree. If I had learned to cook, it would have taken XP away from making potions.”

“...So you've just been foraging this entire time?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“More or less,” She said, nodding. “I had to gather materials for my potions anyway, so gathering fruit on the side wasn't difficult.”

“Don't you get tired of it, though?” I asked, munching on my own apple slice. It tasted good enough, but I couldn't imagine eating nothing but fruit, day in and day out. Not to mention, half an apple wasn't exactly doing much to sate my hunger, simulated though it might have been.

The scowl that crossed Iris' face was the only answer I needed. Well, I still had a couple Skill Slots I wasn't using, so... maybe picking up [Cooking] wouldn't be such a bad idea myself. I'd have to ask Dairoku and Gray next time I –

Oh, right. The message. I finished eating and opened it up, and began scrolling through it. Its contents were... about what you'd expect: a whole lot of lecturing from Dairoku, followed by a stubborn reassurance that he had a plan, and a mark on my minimap for where to meet up with him and Gray to discuss what had happened in detail. By the sound of things, their own expedition hadn't exactly gone well, either.

“Did your friends answer you?” Iris asked, ears perking up as she noticed what I was doing.

“Yeah, they did. It looks like they want us to meet up with them a little way to the north of here.” I left out the various expletives and confused lines of questioning – no doubt, Dairoku would repeat them anyway once we finally joined up face-to-face.

“'Us?'” Iris raised an eyebrow. I guess it was only natural she'd be suspicious. As an Exile herself, she could just as easily be targeted by my friends and their guild as she had been by the Silver Phantom Knights.

Well, they had requested to see her, but it wasn't like their reasons for doing so needed to be kept secret, so I figured I'd just give her the whole story. “Seeing how you came here from Velkha, they're curious about how you managed to cross over the border area alone. They're wondering if you can tell them any secret paths or give them any tips they could use to invade the Empire later, or something.”

“...I see.” She didn't seem suspicious of them anymore, which was good – but her frown didn't really go away either. As I thought, asking about Velkha any further was probably a bad idea...

“Well, that much aside,” I continued, quickly changing the subject. “I think they're also just eager to congratulate you on making fools out of the SPKs. Apparently, their guilds don't exactly get along.”

“It wasn't like I did it alone, though.” Iris folded her hands and sighed.

“Yeah, but I just went and got myself flagged for it like an idiot, so I doubt they'll be congratulating me.” I gave a wry chuckle. “But, I'm sure we'll figure something out, so don't worry too much about it.”

“How can I not?” She asked, turning her gaze sharply back to me. “You wasted the only supplies you had, and now you can't even go back into town to pick up quests, learn Skills, or restock for another two days.”

True, when she put it like that, it was going to make things difficult. I couldn't even fight mobs for very long without armor or healing items – sooner or later, I'd slip up and get myself killed ; and that wasn't even accounting for the need to keep myself hidden. But if I let myself die, then my stats would tank from the death penalty, and I'd be stuck in town doing nothing. Either way, it seemed like the only winning move was not to play.

“...We'll figure something out.” I honestly wasn't sure who I was trying to reassure more – Iris, or myself. At any rate, I'm sure Dairoku had one of his famous plans, even at a time like this. All there was to it was to meet up with them and talk things over with everyone.

...Though, as we packed up camp and prepared to head out, it almost looked like Iris had something else to say. She kept side-eyeing me suspiciously, then quickly averted her attention whenever she caught me looking back. But if there really was something on her mind, I suppose she didn't feel particularly inclined to share it. We quickly stowed the tent back into her inventory, and departed from our makeshift campsite in silence.

I had SiLVA send another message to Gray and Dairoku, letting them know we were coming. I could only hope that they'd be there when we arrived – and that they'd have some kind of solution to the situation in which I had found myself.

...But if they did have a workaround to the PK penalty, then wouldn't I lose my reason to party up with Iris? She had said she was going to help me out for so long as I couldn't return to my faction – but apart from staying at her camp, we hadn't even done anything together yet...

Thinking like that, the prospect of going back to normal seemed almost... disappointing. Was I really waiting for the penalty to end... or was I running out of time before it did?