Yuna listened to Ran's whining until he finally said thank you. "You are welcome." Yuna replied to him finally thanking her. "Anyways, now we go to Akihabara." Ran and Yuna went to Akihabara using whatever mode of transportation they had. By the time they reached Akihabara, the sun was setting, making the sky a beautiful red-orange.
"We are finally here." Yuna said as they reached the gates of Akihabara. "Alright first we sell, then we eat, finally we find an inn so we can rest up." Yuna started walking to the market that resided in Akihabara that contains merchants that sell various things. Yuna went up to a male merchant, who was an adventurer, and gave him a hug. "Haven't seen you in a long time, Neil." Yuna said "Here to sell again?" The adventurer with the red hair and fair skin asked. "You got it." Yuna was a long time customer of Neil's back when this was a game. She would always sell to his shop, maybe even by potions if she needed it.
Yuna opened the shop menu so she can sell the useless rifle she got earlier. "And sold!" Yuna said. "You can go ahead, and sell here Ran. He has pretty good deals."
"Oh it's fine, I think I'm gonna hold onto the dagger I got." Ran meekly said. He was going to keep the dagger as a memento of defeating their first real monster. There was no way he could say that and get away with it unscathed. "Who knows, maybe I'll gain a dagger proficiency in exchange for a skill when I level up thanks to my racial ability." He wasn't sure if that was possible, but if it could explain his reasoning for not wanting to part with it, than it was enough of an excuse.
"Come on, let's go eat! Anywhere is fine besides that one tavern, I'll even pay!" Ran said while pulling on her arm. He wasn't enthusiastic to eat some tasteless food again, but if he could get their minds onto something different, he would.
"Who knows, maybe I'll gain a dagger proficiency in exchange for a skill when I level up thanks to my racial ability." Ran spoke. "Suit yourself, but don't complain to me when you are out of money." Yuna replied. Ran was pulling on her arm motioning to go somewhere else. "Sure. I think I know of one." Yuna said. "Bye, Neil. Thanks for the money." Yuna walked away from the shop while waving goodbye behind her.
After a while of walking, they arrived at a tavern called 'Food Fantasy'. It's a weird name for a tavern, but it's their thing. "Okay, little one, no drinking." Yuna mocked before walking in. Once they walked in they got a table near the east wall. they were greeted by a human waitress that was a People of the Land. She handed them menus despite knowing that the food isn't working properly. There were dinner specials, drinks, and desserts. All of them looked so good, but Yuna knew that it was a lie.
The waitress came back around. "What would you guys like?" She asked. "I'll take the salmon with the brussel sprouts along with a glass of water." Yuna ordered. She didn't like the food she named so at least she wouldn't expect anything good out of it. After taking Ran's order, the waitress left. "After here is the inn. Do you know of any good ones, Ran?" Yuna asked.
Ran thanked the shopkeeper as well for his time as they made their way to a new tavern. Always with the jokes, Yuna once again poked at his current state. "Hey, you don't tell me what to do! I'm gonna order what I want and when I want!" He childishly replied. As they entered, Ran did his best to hide himself from as many patrons as possible. Seeing the menu, Ran's heart broke a little. So much good looking food, and every single one of them having no taste whatsoever. This was the equivalent of taking a child to a toy store and not buying them anything.
"What would you guys like?" The waitress asked. After Yuna spoke, Ran ordered. "I'll take the Octopus tentacles. I'll also have a glass of water on the side." He's always wanted to try them at least once, and why not during the time all the food tastes the same? "After here is the inn. Do you know of any good ones, Ran?" Yuna asked. Ran thought it over for a moment, most of the times he would just log out in the middle of town. "One sec, lemme ask a friend." He brought a hand to his ear as he began to to talk to his friend. He spoke softly, but Yuna could still hear what Ran was saying a least.
"Hello. Hey! Me and a friend need a good inn to stay at for the night. No! Not like that! Yah, think of a family inn. You sure? Okay, See you later!"
As he put his hand down, the food arrived. "Here's all you ordered!" The waitress said as she put the dishes on the table. After taking his first bite of the food, Ran began to speak again. "My friend said the Goldshire inn is a good place, they seem to have a good record."
The food dishes were placed on the table after Ran was done talking to his friend. She looked at the Brussels sprouts and salmon with an evil eye as she picked her fork up from the table. She slowly stabbed one of the Brussels sprouts, and put them into her mouth. Even when they are tasteless, they taste absolutely horrible. Yuna tried to hide her disgust. She put her fork down because she now gave up eating, and started drinking her water.
"My friend said the Goldshire inn is a good place, they seem to have a good record." Ran said. Yuna have passed by the Goldshire Inn, but she never really went into there. She never really went into inns in Akihabara. "Sounds good. Once we finish up here, we will pay, and go." Yuna said while placing her now empty glass down, and picking up Ran's glass of water to start drinking.
"Time to try some octopus!" Ran said as he cut a piece of it off. Taking a bite, he tried to figure out the taste. It tasted just like chicken, to be more precise, like any chicken or other food made in this game. Inside however, he rather happy at Yuna's disgust for her food. After all she's done to him, it's the least that could happen to her.
"Ahh, not again!" Ran cried out. He was actually too small to reach over the table to take it from her hand. He was going to have to learn to drink his water first from now on. Ran only managed to finish half of his food. This was probably due to the fact that his little body didn't need to eat as much as he used to, but that's something he would never admit. "Alright, I'm done here, let's go." The waitress came with a check, the octopus was rather pricey but besides that it was completely manageable. Taking a small jump off his seat, he grabbed Yuna's arm. "To Goldshire we go!"
"Ahh, not again!" Ran cried while Yuna continued to drink his water. She smacked the glass back onto the tap, and relaxed. "Better water than last time." Yuna commented. To be honest, Yuna just thinks water tastes better when it's taken from someone to push their buttons. Once Ran was 'finished' with his food, the waitress came by. She paid for her half of the price before getting out the chair. Ran grabbed Yuna's arm again. '24? Still don't believe it.' Yuna thought while Ran was still grabbing Yuna's arm. "To Goldshire we go!"
Yuna and Ran left the tavern, and made their way to Goldshire. They both walked through the double doors of the inn. Yuna went up to the counter so she could order a room. "I'll take one room for one night," Yuna asked. "Okay. That'll be 200 gold." The worker replied as the menu popped up confirming her order. She pressed the okay button, and a key popped into her inventory. "You are room 16, upstairs" The worker said as Yuna started making her way towards the stairs.
Once Yuna found the door, she opened the door with the key she received. The room contained one bed, a desk, a couch, and had an on-suite bathroom. Yuna walked over the bed, and laid herself down. "I'll take the bed tonight. You can have the couch. You can also take a shower first too." Yuna told Ran while grabbing the pillow to bring it to her head.
"I'll take the bed tonight. You can have the couch. You can also take a shower first too." Ran agreed to her proposal. He was still a man after all, and wasn't going to let a woman not sleep on the bed. Besides, there was something he wanted to try that would work great on the couch. "Alright then, I'm off to shower!" He enthusiastically said. He had gotten quite dirty from all the landings he had done today.
He still hadn't covered his fox features again yet, but that was because they would stay dirty if he concealed them during the shower. Entering the bathroom, he saw there was room for him to take a bath if he wanted to. It had been a long time since he could comfortably sit in the bathtub, so why take one of the few advantages that being small gave him? He turned on the water and allowed it to warm as he begun to undress. The tails didn't feel like they were there at all, but maybe that was better than trying to figure out how they even phased through the clothes to begin with.
Sitting in the tub, he began to vigorously scrub his eight tails. "Gotta make them nice and clean for the plan~" He sung. Ran would have loved these tails as a child, this would have let him play with effectively ten whole bath toys at once! While cleaning a tail, he used other tails to wash and shampoo himself. He splashed around for fun for about ten more minutes before deciding he should leave. Jumping out of the bath, he began the long process of drying himself and eight tails.
"Clean and fluffy, clean and fluffy~" He began to sing as he dried and brushed his tails. Fluffy tails were a must for the plan to work.
"Clean and fluffy, clean and fluffy~" Yuna heard Ran sing from the bathroom. Yuna wanted to go in a ruin his party, but she was too tired and too afraid of seeing something she couldn't unsee. Instead, she used the last of her strenght to slice one of the legs of the couch so it was slanted, and go back to sit on the bed.
"I'll take a shower in the morning" she told herself aa she placed her weapons onto the side of the bed. She laid down and placed her head on the pillow delicatley. Not caring for a pillow today, she fell asleep.
Finally finished with the long process of drying all of his tails, he let out a small sigh. "Alright, now we're ready for sleep!" Ran cycled through his inventory and equipped a onesie pajama. It was just a set of cosmetic clothing, it didn't provide any stats. Much like when he took off his clothes. he didn't really feel the pajama conflict with his tails as he put it on. He put his usual armor back in his inventory as he left the bathroom.
Making his way to the couch, he took a seat. Immediately he could feel its unstable-ness. Well, that's not going to be comfortable. Why is it like this? He inspected the trouble leg. "This looks like an unnatural cut, I bet she did it to torment me for some reason. Still, my plan needs a nice flat space." He mumbled to himself. Ran looked around the room, there wasn't any more places he could go that was soft. Except the bed. There was also no longer any places that were also flat and clean. Except the bed. Left with no other options, he approached the bed with the sleeping Yuna.
"Hmm... she is going to get mad no matter what if I sleep on here. Still, I might as well try to lessen the anger as much as I can, even if she was probably the cause of this." Ran slowly went onto the bed. He squeezed in by Yuna's legs, not wanting Yuna's first sight to be him. Using his tails, Ran created both a makeshift pillow, and a cat bed to sleep on. "Ahh... this is bliss." He softly said as he drifted into sleep.
Yuna woke up when in was morning. She sat up, and stretched. After stretching, she regained her senses. 'Oh yeah. I'm in a game and I slept in my gear,' Yuna thought. Her immediate thought was to go to the shower to wash off. To do so she tried getting out of bed by moving her legs to the side. While doing so, she hit something. That something was fluffy, but not soft or squishy.
Yuna looked over her legs to see what was blocking them. It was a boy using his tails as a pillow, also known as Ran. She groaned at the sight of Ran, as she moved her legs over him. She kept quiet trying not to wake Ran up.
Yuna walked over to the bathrooom, and opened the door, only to discover that there was no shower. She just took a bath instead. While taking a bath, she started to feel rejuvenated, and her mind thought up of something.
Yuna left the bathroom with brown shorts, and a green shirt along with some combat boots. It's a starter outfit she bought when she didn't feel like being in her gear. She picked up one of her swords near the bed before standing at thw side of the bed. There she unsheathed her sword and sliced the leg of the bed like she did last time."Wakey! Wakey!" she yelled "Isn't it a fabulous morning!?"
Ran was having a nostalgic dream. It was the argument he had with his dad before he decided to move out. It had been so long ago for him that he forgot what they were even fighting about at first. At this point it was just insults after insults being thrown at each other by both of them. He found himself going through the exact motions he once did. Like watching a memory from a third person point of view, all he could do was watch and wait for it to stop. Thankfully this dream came to an abrupt end as the bed shifted enough to wake him.
"Wakey! Wakey!" she yelled "Isn't it a fabulous morning!?"
He found the upper half of his body hanging off from the bed. His pillow tail felt wet as his face was covered in dry tears. In front of him he could see a pair of upside down legs. Wait, maybe he was the one upside down. Tracing the figure up, he saw Yuna towering over him in a new set of clothes. "Ah, good morning." Sure she woke him up, but he wanted nothing to do with that dream anymore. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind. "Wait! So it was you who cut the sofa legs! Why on earth did you do that?"
Ran woke up at Yuna's stunt. That was Yuna's goal since she didn't really enjoy the clean and fluffy fox that climbed into her bed last night. After wishing Yuna a good morning, something clicked in Ran's head. "Wait! So it was you who cut the sofa legs! Why on earth did you do that?" He said.
Yuna didn't know what to answer. There were many reasons. The clean and fluffy singing in the bathroom, the fact that he is Ran, or because his existence just possessed her to do so last night. She decided to use the first option so she could use the other two excuses for something else. "Hmmm... Maybe it was that clean and fluffy singing that got into my head last night?" Yuna said turning the tables on Ran.
Yuna sat herself onto the now crooked bed causing it to become even more uneven. She didn't do it on purpose. She just needed to sit down, but that was the side effect of it. Yuna crossed her legs, and placed her hand on her chin as if she was thinking. "So Ran, where do you feel like going today?" She questioned.
"Hmmm... Maybe it was that clean and fluffy singing that got into my head last night?"
Ran's face turned red as his tails wrapped around his face to not be seen. "Y-you heard that?" He didn't think he was singing that loudly, but maybe this is another change he has to get used to. In-game she would have probably been close enough to here him from close range chat, that's probably the same here as well. "Sorry, I'll try to be quieter next time."
Yuna asked him where he wanted to go. "Where I want to go?" He repeated. To be honest, the only thing Ran really wanted to do was leave the game. After the end of yesterday, he figured that maybe something was actually going wrong, or at the very least wasn't a dream. So I really AM stuck in this game then. If he was going to be stuck in Elder Tale, he might as well explore the world. "I guess... I feel like leveling up? I plan to explore the world if we really are stuck here, but I'm going to want more levels if that is the case."
I guess... I feel like leveling up? I plan to explore the world if we really are stuck here, but I'm going to want more levels if that is the case." Ran replied. Leveling up would be a good idea since neither of them have reached level 90 yet. Considering the fact that there was a new game pack released for Elder Tales before everybody got sucked in, they barley have any idea what type of monsters there are out there.
Yuna opened up her menu to see how much more experience points she needed until she leveled up. It was about 4,000 points. If she were to join a large-scale raid, or go through a large dungeon she would reach level 89 in no time. The problem is that they don't have enough people to do either, and she wouldn't want to join with a raid right now. They would have to level up the old fashion way, while you are traveling.
"Since you say that, we can go to Shibuya, and level up on the way there. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of NPC villages so we don't have to worry about places to live. We will leave after preparing in Akihabara, but first give me five more minutes." Yuna said while climbing back into the crooked bed. She settled herself down, and went back to sleep. This was of her habits she always had. Back in the real world, her alarm will go off, and then she would dismiss it before waking up five minutes later. After exactly five minutes, she woke up again. She hopped out of the bed reenergized. "To Akihabara, well to the shops!" Yuna yelled probably disturbing the rooms next to her.
When Yuna went back to sleep, Ran figured it would be a good time to get changed into his regular clothes. He took a quick walk to the bathroom and equipped his usual set of clothes. While he was at it, he once again concealed his tails and ears. Now they will always be clean when I go to sleep. When he returned he noticed that she actually went back to sleep. She probably wasn't a morning person. Not really wanting to be next to her any longer, he went and took a seat on the lopsided couch.
Since he had time while Yuna still slept, Ran decided to look over his skills list and pondered how he could incorporate the abilities from other classes he had received because of his racial trait. He lost a lot of summons over his leveling career, but he did end up with many abilities from all the different classes as a result. He usually looked over them thinking they would be useless, but with a serious look over, some are better than he thought. Especially with Yuna helping him out.
"To Akihabara, well to the shops!" Her sudden yell startled him a bit. I guess she REALLY wants to go to the shops. Actually, there's something I should go check too. Ran picked himself and dusted his shorts. "To the shops then." He repeated. They made their way to the shops and found themselves at the center of the marketplace. "You know, there's actually a few places I want to go as well, do you want to meet up again after some time at that bench area over there?" He pointed over to a once bustling food court-like eating area. With yesterday's events however, it is one of many moping areas that people hang around at as the still try to piece together what is happening.
After arriving at the marketplace, Ran suggested that they spilt up and meet later. "Okay!" Yuna replied "I'm gonna go now" Yuna left the scene, and walked down one of the many roads that made up the market place. She stopped in front of a random store where she saw a nice long sword on display. It was a level 87, which had higher attack power than her lower level sword. Yuna stared at the sword in amazement. It was one of the swords she needed.
Yuna strolled through the door with the bell ringing signaling that there is a customer here. A human girl with brown hair looked up from the sword she was cleaning to look at the customer that just came through the door. "Welcome to Swords and Shine. How may I help you?" The woman said without a hint of life in those words. Yuna walked up to the counter, and pointed at the sword. "I was wondering about how well the sword was made." Yuna explained. "Well, I didn't make it. Someone sold it to me after they did a raid. I'm imagining it's good quality since it's default price 900,000 gold." Yuna eyes grew when 900,000 was mentioned. She didn't have the kind of money, well on her right now. She only had 500,000 on her. She spent the other money gambling to have fun like a fool.
"Can I get a discount?" Yuna asked in the sweetest voice she could muster. "No. Now shop, or get lost." The lady said causing Yuna to walk out the door she came in disappointed. She was looking forward to replace the sword she got in her first raid. It was a low level, and she needed something stronger to help her fight to Shibuya. After letting out a deep sigh, Yuna left the outside of the shop to pick up some potions, smoke bombs, and other necessities before heading to the designated spot. Ran wasn't at the spot so Yuna just sat on the bench looking at the clouds that were once pixels.
