10 Vol 1. pt. 10 Patch 3.0: To the City of Pirates! (2/2)

Fenrir lowers his tail and frowns. He really wants to eat as much as he can, but he doesn't want to become like a stumpy, chubby corgi. The rest of the meat gets tossed onto the pile of crab legs, and from there, it all gets shoveled down Bonekraka's throat.

The claw is emptied of all its meat after a few minutes of digging and pulling. Fenrir places the stone spearhead, still tied to a fragment of stick, inside of the claw alongside his trusty rock and the stems that Oleander dropped before fighting. ”It's a good temporary bag, don't you think? It'll be a pain to carry around, but we'll be able to carry more stuff now,” he explains, holding the claw in his arms.

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Bonekraka looks like he doesn't know whether to be impressed or not. Instead of worrying about that, he swallows down some more crab before heading over to the one that Fenrir killed. ”Help prepare this one.”

”Wait, your arm. It looked like it got hurt pretty bad during the fight. Is it alright? Sorry for not asking sooner.” Fenrir says.

Bonekraka looks down at his arm and goes, ”Ehh. Not hurt much now. Felt broke during fight, but now is better.”

”Good, that means we're not totally screwed without a healer. It was going to suck if you had to wait for somebody to heal it to be better. Hmm. I wonder if we get all of our health back from natural regeneration or not. What if there's a status effect that poisons us or something like that?” Fenrir asks, trying to get Saya's input, but she doesn't reply. That means it's something he's going to have to learn on his own.

While Fenrir and Bonekraka finish preparing the second crab, Oleander and Serra collect bundles of sticks, dried leaves, and some dead grass.

”I'm going to let you know right now that he's pretty dense. He can be a natural flirt sometimes, but unless you smack him in the face with your feelings, he's not going to understand them,” Oleander says to Serra whom freezes in place at his words.

”How – how can you tell? Am I… am I that obvious?” Serra asks, her voice quiet and cheeks red.

”Oh yeah, super obvious, plus I'm good at picking up on these things.”

”I've… only known him for a few hours. Is – do you think it's weird to like him already?”

”If there's one thing I've learned about people while playing games, it's that friendships and crushes can pop up super fast. One of our other friends met a girl and, in his words, fell in love with her within an hour of playing with her. They started dating the same day, met up offline after a few weeks, and got married a year later. That was a few years ago, and they're still together now. Too bad they never play games with us anymore,” Oleander pauses and smiles as he recalls fond memories. ”I remember I knew I'd be good friends with Ryouta—ah! Sorry, don't let him know I said his name. Uhh, anyways, I knew I'd be good friends with Fenny the moment we started talking. Sometimes you can just instantly click with somebody. I know a lot of people would be like, 'oh no that's not a real friendship or real love,' or something stupid like that, but they just don't understand how close you can really connect to people through games.”

Serra takes a deep breath and smiles. His words cause a wave of relief to wash over her. ”Thanks. I thought I was… being weird. Ah – umm, my voice. Is it… does it sound okay?” she asks.

”Sounds like a voice to me! Don't worry, your secret is safe with me, and it won't be so obvious if you talk more often. You'll get used to it no time. How does it feel?”

Serra looks surprised at first, but smiles from how he's handling it. ”Thank you, and it feels weird but… it's nice. I read about how a lot of people like – like me, are playing just to experience all of this.”

”That doesn't surprise me. People who are in wheelchairs can walk and people who live in the middle of a city can run through forests and explore, so yeah. Makes sense,” Oleander says, looking up at the sky. ”I've always wanted to see a sky that isn't full of smog. Whether it's something like your case or mine, we're all experiencing new things here.” He takes a huge, exaggerated breath. ”It's so nice to breath clean air! Anyways, you ready to head back?”

Serra nods her head, but when she remembers what Oleander just said about using talking more, she gives a proper answer. ”Let's go eat.”