As 7 A.M. came around Charles found himself sitting on a bench in front of the playpen’s training hall, and feeling like an idiot.
“I should have asked for her contact, or at least offered mine, now i just have to hope i see her.” Charles berated himself out loud.
“See who?” Jenna asked from behind, stifling a laugh. “Let me see you pad, ill add my contact, I forgot too, i was looking all over the lobby for you.”
“Ughhh. Thanks, I feel like a idiot for forgetting. At least you found me, are you ready for some practice?”
“Yeah, I already set us up with a room, lets head in.” she said, handing back the pad.
“So, sense you asked to spar, what type , what are the rules?” Charles asked.
“Light contact sparring, no skills, I wont fireball you, not that i could.”
“Got it, I don't have any skills either, so not an issue. I mostly use a saber, and lunging attacks, you?”
“I mainly hit things with my staff.” she gestured to a staff leaning against the wall as they entered the training room.
“All right, one sec.” Charles walked over to the wall and pulled a blunt practice blade off the wall.
“Ready when you are.” Jenna said, assuming a ready stance
“Ready.” Charles said, immediately having to duck a strike.
Jenna wasted no time, as soon as the match started she came out swinging, a flurry of staff swipes and blows, most of them missed, but the storm of attacks kept Charles moving and forestalled any attempt to strike back. That lasted for several long moments until Jenna over extended on a butt strike with her staff and Charles managed to doge behind her and lightly tap the back of her neck with his training sword.
Panting hard Jenna stopped and put a hand on her knee as she managed to wheeze out, “Your fast on your feet. I wasn't. Not even close. Phew.”
“You almost had me a few times, i only got you because you over extended, it was only a matter of time till you bodied me with some of those swings.” Charles responded, tossing Jenna a water bottle.
“You did tire out fast tho, why are you so aggressive, the rift monsters wont run away, you can take your time.”
Sitting down to take a drink she responded, “I normally go a bit slower, but stamina is an issue, here I was just feeling you out as a fighter, normally I wouldn't push that hard.”
“How do I measure up?” Charles asked before taking a swig of his water.
“On par with or better than me, beyond that not sure, I'm not some combat master, but I took Melee 101 and Magic 101 at school like all the other kids.” she said, standing.
“Ready?”
“Ready.” Charles responded, this time he was ready for her rushed assault.
This time He took a page from her book and bum rushed her from across the room, stabbing out in a hail of rapid fire blows, throwing in the occasional slash. Instead of trying to dodge Jenna made use of her longer and larger weapon to block, gripping her staff in a end grip like a great sword. After a few exchanges Charles made to back off and Jenna took her chance, making a wide sweeping blow she smacked him square on the shoulder.
“Yowch, Point for you.” Charles said, rubbing his shoulder.
“Sorry! I didn't mean to swing that hard, I just needed to be fast, your openings are small.”
“No worries, I tried setting a training aid to tier two the other day, it handed my ass to me way harder.”
“Take a breather and do some stretches?” Jenna asked.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Shure, we should have warmed up first, I was just too excited to have someone to practice with.” Charles said.
“Same here, thanks again for this, we could do this every 3 days if you like?” Jenna said, sitting on the floor and starting on her stretches.
“Im down.” Charles said, thinking for a bit, he asked, “if this goes well, we could even try a delve together.”
“Are you asking me to make a team with you?” Jenna said, raising an eyebrow. “Or is this more of a date?”
“Well, no. We would need to make sure we are a good fit together first, just a single delve. If that goes well I wouldn't be opposed to talking about the possibility of making a team. Not a date.” Charles said, trying and failing to hide the embarrassment.
“I already failed my first delve, and your pretty good in a fight, ill take you up on that delve offer.” Jenna said in a more serious tone. “I dont want you to carry me through the delve, if i cant pull my own weight then ill need to reconsider, but I am none’s burden.”
“If you smack the goblins as hard as you just hit me, that wont be an issue.” Charles said. “Besides maybe you will carry me.”
“Nope, lets spar again, i need to bonk you for that comment.” Jenna said, jumping to her feet.
Two days of mostly constant training and hanging out, and 2 forms filled out for Jenna to join Charles’ delve slot later, they entered the rift.
“Ready?” Jenna asked, as she stepped to the side of the entry to the first room.
“Ready.” Charles responded, taking quick strides inside.
Over the last two days they had planned out their delve, forming a strategy for clearing the rooms. It was not a complex plan, but it didn't need to be, basically boiling down to Charles enters first, circles around, then Jenna enters from behind and starts bashing.
Each room was cleared in good time with no accidents, leading them to the boss room. There Charles took the largest club and waited by the door inside the previous room, Jenna ran in, baited the Boss into following then ran back. As the boss entered the previous room hot on Jenna’s heels Charles swung down with the club like a great mallet. The resulting *CLANG* noise covered the sound of the boss hobgoblin’s spine folding like an accordion.
“That was too easy.” Jenna said, kicking the now very dead hobgoblin out of spite for her previous delve gone wrong.
“It was a tier 1 rift, its as close to an ‘Easy mode’ as the realm has.” Charles said, bending down to start stripping the armor off the hobgoblin.
“Think the tier two will be harder?” Jenna asked, “You know, aside from the blunt power increase of tier.”
“Yeah, it 100% will be, the tier 2 teams at that party the other night were talking about it, its a golem rift. They are small golems, only waist high and made of simple rocks, but bladed weapons won't work at all, so ill for sure need to buy a hammer.
“Lets check our reward, it could be good!” Jenna said, picking up a corner of the tarp and helping Charles drag the iron scrap to the exit.
“My last drop was awful, you do it.” Charles said.
Jenna looked at the reward distortion for a few moments before dispersing it and saying “Poke”.
From the distortion a small flood of mana stones poured.
“Lucky woman! That so many!” Charles shouted, even as he started picking them up with Jenna.
All told they got 97,just 3 off from the theoretical max of 100.
“Lets grab something nice for dinner tonight, we NEED to celebrate!” Jenna exclaimed.
“Oh like a date yeah?” Charles teased, “Now who is asking who?”
“For 97 mana stones, even split between us, I'm not asking you on a date, I'm telling you!” Jenna let out a celebratory “Whoop!”
The morning after their dinner date and subsequent hangover Jenna and Charles stumbled out of his dorm and to the playpen’s food court, nursing their heads they quietly ate their waffles and took cautious sips of orange juice.
“So… Last night,” Charles said.
“Shut it.” Jenn replied without looking up from her plate. “Check your pad.”
Doing so Charles pulled out his pad and squinted at it before turning the screen brightness all the way down. On the home screen there was a message, ‘Jenna Price has invited you to form a party. Accept? [Y] / [N].’
The message was time stamped for last night around the time they made it back to his dorm and passed out on the couch.
“Are you sur..”
“I'm sure.” Jenna interrupted.
Charles taped the confirmation button and got a ping from the official Path AI, they were now a team.
“So about last night,” Charles started again, “we didn't… ya know… did we? I can't remember much after the second bar.”
Jenna started laughing, then stopped to hold her head and grunt before she started softly giggling again. “You are an idiot, but no. Last night you were a perfect gentleman, you even stopped me from kissing you on the cheek stating ‘You are drunk, its not right’.” she mimicked his voice as best she could.
“Oh good….” Charles said, maintaining eye contact with his orange juice.
“That is the first time someone has ever said ‘Oh good’ because they didn't sleep with me.” Jenna snorted.
Lets head back to your room, its closer, and I need another nap.” Jenna said.
