Chapter 6- Spirit in the Blue Dress

Chapter 6- Spirit in the Blue Dress

I'm nervous, my heart seems to be beating faster every second. I need to calm down, I can't afford to make a fool of myself. I always get like this around pretty ladies.

It'd be worse in real life, I'd get shy and unable to approach her. Here in the game I have more confidence. Perhaps that's because I'm not wearing my real face.

As I approach the beautiful blonde haired player the guild receptionist finishes registering her with the guild. She looks back at Wanda to listen as I check her stats.

She's level 25 and wearing the "Dress of the Spirits" outfit that was given to ultimate edition players. Since her character type is a Spirit it means she also pre-ordered the game. In that case we share something in common.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you."

Those were the first words out of my mouth. I couldn't think of anything better to say. I know it's a proper greeting, but I'm kicking myself over it. I should've said something more impressionable.

"It's nice to meet you as well."

Done with her business with Wanda she turns to face me again. Her smile nearly took my breath away.

"Are you new here?"

Of course she's new, she just registered. Why did I say that? Stupid.

"Yeah, aren't we all?"

Today is the game's launch day. Of course everyone is new to the Guild. Damn it, I should just shut up and walk away before I embarrass myself more.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Hey, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Elsa. What's yours?"

I can't bring myself to turn away after getting this far, instead I hold my hand out and she shakes it. Wow, her skin is so smooth.

"My name is Julie."

"What do you plan to do now, Julie? I mean there's so much to do, are you planning to start with a quest?"

She nodded. "I was planning on taking on a dungeon."

Yes, I wanna go as well. You never know what treasure you'll find in a dungeon and they're perfect for level grinding. That's not all though, any excuse to stay with her a little longer will do. I'm not saying I've fallen for her at first sight.

Her beauty is absolutely stunning. I'm not the kind of person to go and start flirting with someone so I'm actually not sure what to do next here. I just have this feeling we'd get along. Combined with her beauty she appears to be around my age and as soon as I saw her in that particular blue dress and with those transparent symmetrically designed butterfly wings I knew she was top quality premium player. These factors all together made her irresistible. If she wanted to go to the dungeon I'd follow.

"I was thinking about taking on a dungeon as well. Do you want to form a party with me?"

I'm so bold! Truthfully even though I wanted to ask I didn't think I was going to be able to. I thought I'd back down, but my mouth moved on its own.

"Do you mind stepping aside so we can talk about this?"

We are blocking access to the Guild receptionist, and other adventurers formed a line. They didn't seem to be in much rush, an occasional "Hurry up" or "Move aside already" but no one was forceful. I think that might have something to do with freezing that one man's hand.

"Yeah, no problem."

I stepped toward a wall, Julie followed me. I don't think it's a good thing she didn't flat out deny or accept my offer. This feels more like she's trying to figure out a way to let me down easy.

"You might be able to tell, but I'm a premium player… the thing is I don't know if you'll be able to keep up with me."

"I'm actually one myself, a premium player I mean."

I'm not sure yet if she's trying to find a way out of forming a party with me or was genuinely trying to make sure I was worth partying with.

"If you simply don't want to form a party with me let me know now."

I nearly choked on those words. It felt like I was asking to be rejected before even asking her out. Not that I had plans to ask her out! At least… not yet.

Julie looked around at the other adventurers before fixing her gaze on me again.

"It doesn't appear like anyone else here is at a high level. If you'd go with me would you be willing to tackle an Intermediate Dungeon? I don't have anything against forming a party with you, truthfully when I first saw you… no nevermind."

I nod my head, unable to hold back my smile.

"Yes, I'll go with you!"

I blurted it out without much thought. I sounded too eager, damn it. I'm just happy to know it wasn't anything personal. In fact my mind is spinning with possibilities on what she thought when she first saw me. I shouldn't get ahead of myself, it's probably just an assumption she had that I was a high level player. Given my outfit it's the natural assumption to make, not being able to see my level must've thrown her off.

"Thank you. I didn't want to take on a dungeon alone and I didn't want to go to a Beginner Dungeon."

She probably wants better loot. Dungeons are split in three categories, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. The difficult difference between their ranks is like comparing an ant to a mountain. Beginner Dungeons were designed for level 5-200 players. Intermediate Dungeons were designed for level 25-400 and Advanced Dungeons were designed with level 100-600 players in mind.

Each rank of dungeon is bigger and more complex than the one before. As it stands now Julie could do some level grinding at the entrance of an Intermediate Dungeon while I'd have to go a bit in to see results. These Dungeons have first time rewards. Treasure doesn't respawn in them unless a player drops a piece of equipment. Boss monsters would respawn, but the rewards for beating them wouldn't be the same as the first time. I can see why Julie would want a partner, it's best to have someone watch your back in there and with less people there's less sharing of any treasure.

"Do you want to go right now?"

She nodded. "The sooner the better. I want to go before anyone else explores the dungeon."

"Let's go then."

I say this and we head out of the Guild Hall. Julie pulls out her map, checking which way to go. I let her lead the wall through town.

"Is there any equipment you want to buy before we go?"

I shake my head.

"None. I'm set. What about you?"

"Same."

She appears to be without a weapon. I don't know if she'll pull one out of her inventory when we arrive or if she's planning to use skills instead.

Walking behind her like this is nice. I just can't stop staring. I want to run my fingers through her hair, feel the back of her neck, and… No! I shake the thoughts away, I need to focus. I can't let myself get distracted.

Our walk is all too quick. I wish it would have lasted longer. Now we stand outside the city at the entrance of a Dungeon, it looks like a cave mouth. There are three Dungeons located outside the capital city of Dethal. One is for each rank. The Dungeons aren't located next to each other and are evenly spaced out.

Although anyone can stumble in this dungeon unless your level is at least 25 you won't make it that far. There's no need for security as Dungeons are extremely dangerous places where going in is suicidal at best. The Guild nor the Nation profit off Dungeons in this game, they're that dangerous and unreliable.

Dungeons are self contained, the monsters that spawn in them never leave. To players they're a free for all treasure hunt and level grind, but to the game's lore they're a nuisance death trap. It kinda makes me excited, I'm curious about the kind of primal carnage within a dungeon.

"Hey, I just want to make sure you're still up for this."

Julie's words pull me back to the moment. I was too focused on what a dungeon was, I should be more focused on staying alive inside one.

"Of course. I'm more than ready."

"Okay, let's go in."

With those words Julie walks into the dungeon and I follow.

Author's Note

I'm back from my health related hiatus. Yay me for recovering. I plan to get 1-2 chapters out a day from now on unless another health related hiatus takes place.

During my downtime I thought up the plot for the first Arc. It's not a true road map, just a few key points I want to happen.

Our MC, Elsa appears to be a bit perverted in this chapter. Just a tad, not sure yet if I'm going to expand on that or not. I had to include some yuri elements after tagging the series with 'yuri'.