20 Vol 1. pt. 20 Patch 4.0: Rocks are a Mans Best Friend (2/2)

”Don't tell me you didn't even know what it was,” the woman says.

”Give me a break. Like I said, I only just started playing, and before you decided to randomly shove your pole inside of me, she was literally a rock.”

”Don't make it sound so erotic! I didn't – I didn't shove my pole inside of you, I stabbed you with a spear! Which you broke!”

He can hear her gritting her teeth.

She continues, ”You expect me to believe that some new player not only took down a geared player on his own, but also found out how to awaken an artificial companion? Who the hell do you take me for?”

”I take you for the kind of girl who goes around randomly shoving poles into innocent guys,” he says. If this healing could get any more aggressive than it already is, he's sure it would. ”Hey, Saya,” he's thinking now, ”what does it mean to awaken an artificial companion?”

”I can't tell you anything other than that the overseer decided the requirements were met, and that Rock now has a custom AI based off of your memories and personality controlling it, Onii-chan,” Saya explains. The little information she does give him is less than he was hoping for, but it's enough.

”Thanks, Saya,” he thinks before switching back to talking. ”You said something about getting a second chance. What did you mean?” he asks his enemy-turned-healer.

”You really are new,” she says with a sigh. ”You might be able to get a tiny amount of your health back if you have a strong enough willpower to do something. Protecting somebody, running away, surviving – if you're determined enough, you get a second chance. It never makes a difference since you'll still only be a single attack away from getting incapacitated again. Your best option is to run away if your opponent is distracted. It's also believed there's some sort of time limit on how often it can happen, but nobody knows for sure,” she explains.

So basically, the game has a built-in mechanic to allow players to try and pull off epic final moments, but it's only ever used for running away. Fenrir can't even imagine being able to run away given how much pain he was still in after getting that second chance.

The aggressive flow of healing magic finally ends. Fenrir feels as great as he did when he first started playing! He looks down at the torn fabric where the spear came through, and surely enough, the wound is completely closed. All that is left is a scar.

As soon as Fenrir sits up, Rock jumps into his lap and excitedly wags her tail with enough force that her entire body is shaking with it! He lets each of his hands stroke along her body from her head to her rear. ”I'm going to need to give you a better name now, huh?” he asks, looking down at her with a wide smile.

The woman walks to the front of him. ”The hell are you crying for? You one of those masochists who set their pain to max or something?” she asks.

Fenrir brings one of his hands up to his face. Surely enough, when he wipes his eyes, there are tears. ”That's embarrassing. I'm just… really happy right now. Thank you for not killing us,” he says, looking up at her face with a genuine smile.

She looks away with red cheeks. ”You better be grateful,” she says, scratching the side of her face. ”By the way, you know which one of the bastards it is that you killed?”

”Yeah, Richard. Killed him twice. I think he was out of rebirth counters this last time since I heard him talking about how he was out, or something like that.”

She looks back down at him with a huge smile. ”Seriously? You reset Richard? If you're not fucking with me then I owe you a drink! That's the bastard who tricked me and reset me.”

”What happened?” Fenrir asks, petting Rock whom is also looking up at her and waiting to hear the story.

She looks pissed off just remembering it. ”They gave me permission to sleep and set a spawn in their village since I wouldn't be able to immerse for a few days, and when I finally came back, I respawned without anything on me! The bastards killed me while I was gone, took all of my clothes and weapons, and then locked me inside of the house! That asshole, Richard, is the one who told me that they would keep on killing me until I reset unless I let them farm rebirth counters off of me. Told me I'd have to enable traumatic content and everything so they could even farm me while I wasn't immersed,” she explains. Her smile is gone and replaced by rage. ”I refused to let them have their way with me, so they just killed me over and over again until I eventually reset. Really pissed me off.”

Yeah, Fenrir can't really judge her for jumping at the opportunity to kill him now. He would do the same if that ever happens to him. He's taken out revenge on people before for far less than what happened to her.

Looking over her, Fenrir realizes that her looks completely betray her personality. He was expecting some brutish orc-girl or something from how savage she was and from how angry she always sounds, but she instead looks like some sort of holy maiden! With bright blue eyes and beautiful, golden hair that hangs down past her waist, she looks like the kind of girl that should be riding a white steed and going around helping starving children and hunting demons. As far as armor goes, she's wearing a simple set of slim, iron armor that hugs her curves. Her greaves end halfway up her thighs, and there is the slightest amount of skin visible between where her greaves end and where her plate skirt begins.

Absolute territory is the best kind of territory.

Between her armor and now-broken spear, it looks like she bought the first set of gear that she could save up for so that she could come back over here to get revenge. The armor itself looks either poorly made or heavily used.

”Yeah, we stopped by there the other night. That asshole wanted to do to my one friend the same thing he wanted to do to you, I'm assuming, and was insulting my other friend. Killed him, ran away and killed myself before his friends could do it, and then just came back earlier today and killed him again,” Fenrir says, trying to take his mind and eyes off of her thighs.

Thighs are second only to sweaters.

”Hey, I think I just got an idea you'd like. I just wanted to steal their ship before, but if you help us, I think we might be able to take them all out. Interested?” he asks.

The woman crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow. ”If it's screwing those bastards over then I'll at least hear you out.”

Fenrir holds a hand out. ”Before I say anything else, I'm Fenrir. Do you have a name that I can call you?”

She looks down at his hand. He can see a bit of a blush returning to her cheeks. ”I'm Cassiel,” she says, giving his hand a quick shake before huffing and pulling it back.