———Jeff———
“Huh. That’s surprising. Last I heard you two have beef or sothing.” I pointed out. Wouldn’t the conflict ss with their teamwork?
“What do you know?” The younger sister responded, looking rather moody. I wonder if their beef has already been patched up, or am I just simply going crazy?
“Let’s just go into the dungeon already.” Histon said, sounding tired already. “Or are we just gonna stay on the floor getting all cold air from outside?”
“Well I don’t have anything else to say. Let’s go quickly then.” I don’t really have anything to say to either of them, so let’s just go in and kick so ass already.
*Roar*
The giant wolf on the second floor… At this point, it’s just a chump that I can take on by myself.
*Grapple* *Pierce*
But these two seem to have it under control. The older brother takes away its attention and tries to hold it in place while his sister is the hard-hitter with that spear of hers.
*Dash* *Punch*
I guess I’ll clean up so of these mooks that’s gonna be a pain in the ass for them. If I’m not gonna steal their glory then I could’ve at least been the supportive one.
———Orrel———
“I’m surprised you relax here. Wouldn’t a more quiet place be more to your taste?” Kroin asked, probably almost saying sothing stereotypical, or cliche, as so may call it.
“Sa could be said about you.” I pointed out. As far as I know, he would be categorized under the sa umbrella as I do. Mostly quiet, loves to read, and ponder on perhaps a few too many things. Not the type to stay in a public place that doesn’t have a ‘silence is golden’ rule.
“I guess that’s fair.” He said before sitting down beside . “Besides, it’s not like this modest shop is a place of troublemakers anyhow.”
“Feels like I haven’t seen you in a while, despite being in the sa school and all.” I pointed out… Hmm… I think it’s possibly due to the larger space of the school’s premise that results in everyone not running into others often, especially with the teleporters. It stunted the growth of bonds outside of the classroom a bit, but considering the alternative of having to take quite a lot of ti traveling to specific facilities, it is a worthy trade-off.
“That sounds about right.” He replied. Of course, I’m pretty sure I have his contact sowhere on my phone, so I could have contacted him if I really did miss him, but I wasn’t really pressed. We have so similar interests, but that was about it. We’re just slightly above acquaintances. “...Say, have you been fighting much at all? I feel like everyone is starting to be more proactive with getting so action in. I find it a bit excessive.” He suddenly asked.
“If you an outside the curriculum, then I do believe that has been the case. As for my personal actions, I have been fighting, but it was usually in the presence of a companion.” I answered. I am improving myself everyday in that regard, but I doubt my approach is anywhere near as rigorous as others. “I guess you haven’t been practicing much, or at least not utilizing it much. After all, there aren't many use cases for it, and only one thing is quite novel and not morally questionable.”
“I haven’t even gotten the license for it.” He remarked. I doubt everyone has. Even now with the test being more lax, people still don’t want to waste their ti to get access to a job that could kill you.
As far as I am aware, there hasn’t been any death recorded in our local dungeon yet, but there were already headlines about that and moral concerns not long after it was opened up to the public again.
Objectively speaking, there are also other dangerous lines of work out there, usually with more than a few things that those employees don’t have control over. At least with a dungeon you can bail out pretty easily with no penalty as long as you know what you’re doing. From my point of view, it isn’t that big of a risk since there’s no need to worry about other people’s initiative. At least in theory…
“It’s not like we have a bunch of thugs roaming around sabotaging a dungeon run, but you do you.” Maybe that ca across a bit more condescending than I would’ve liked.
“Hm.” He doesn’t seem to be too interested in discussing this further, and he stares at my bottom half. “How does that work? I would imagine the structure and function would be rather mishmashed. Warm and cold-blooded, receptors, sweat glands… Not to ntion the balance.”
“It is hard to describe, but my lower body does not feel uncomfortable, at least.” I have been pondering on those details, but I don’t feel any extre unbalance in my daily life, so I push that inquiry to the side. If I am still functional, then it’s not sothing that needs my imdiate attention. My habits haven't changed much, and the legs are a bit bulky, but they’re not that disproportionate. “By the way, how was the school trip last week? We ran into trouble of our own, but I want to hear what your personal experience was like.”
He looked a bit troubled after he heard my inquiry. Was it really sothing that terrifying? Or perhaps boring and not worth retelling?
“I… don’t actually know the full scope of it. We have Rico with us, as the driver and the teacher. She got out and dealt with it all on her own. We simply sat inside the bus while she did her job.” He recounted. Rico… Soone like her being able to handle everything by herself is definitely not surprising. “I think she cast so sort of… darkness spell at one point? Sorry, but I was trying to ignore it the best I could. I don’t really want to think about bloodshed too much, let alone trying to witness it.”
“I see…” I think I know which one he was talking about. The giant sphere of darkness that so people at the border of Ohio and West Virginia can spot.
I’m still a bit surprised at how far they choose to go, but then again, not only do they have the ‘teleport to base’ option, but also there is a lot less traffic going on nowadays. People stay inside often and try to not veer out of their town, remote working, and so forth… Of course, there is also the ‘purge’ going about. A lot of people are losing their lives for one reason or another, not that it wasn’t a problem before the Eclipse arrived, but it does help with increasing that number.
“Speaking of that. I don’t believe there is even a smidge of details about your class’ trip.” He deflected the question back at . Is that how he’s doing it now?
“We simply didn’t run into those problems that plague the other classes. There’s nothing worth fussing over.” I said, just flat out lying with that second part. I don’t really like to state sothing false. I hold value in not poisoning the well of information. You might just want it to be a simple white lie, but even those can be twisted and cause unnecessary confusion. With this line it is possible to interpret as a ‘not really feeling it’ sentint than an outright claim, but that in itself is another layer of smokescreen. “Of course, you might find that hard to believe, but it is what it is.”
“A bit too cryptic to ignore, wouldn't you say?” He pointed out. I’m trying to not talk about it, since they all strongly advised us not to. I’m not going to go against soone with so much authority and information.
“Perhaps, but I am not the type to say or hold sothing so vague as gospel.” I said as a way to reflect.
My eyes then noticed sothing white outside, so stuck to the window of the convenience store. “Huh. It is snowing outside. How odd. It feels like a lifeti ago that this place got any snow.”
“...Indeed.” Kroin said, also surprised by the sudden appearance of it. I think in general, it feels like the place has gotten a bit colder, so perhaps the snow coming back is not out of the question. It is certainly a beautiful sight, even without much light to illuminate onto them.
———Kenni———
I reached my hand out and let a small carpet of snow ford on my hand.
*Flap*
My wings flapped unconsciously, shaking off the cold and preventing them from being weighed down further by it.
*Flick* *Flap*
I flicked the snow off my hand and cleared my wings one more ti before starting up my flight. It is nice weather and all, not too harsh, but it is distracting from what I was planning to do. Certainly a bit of a sha, but I doubt this is going to be the only day we will get snow moving forward. Perhaps we might see more exotic weather in the future, who can really be certain?
*Flap*
Regardless, it’s ti to get a move on. Ti waits for no one, as they said. So I do not have the ti to ponder on it and bask in its cruel frigid beauty.
———Lerim———
“Hm?” I unconsciously muttered as I noticed the white specks falling from the sky. It’s snowing? Of all the tis. I thought snow was nearly distinct at this point. Hopefully it doesn’t soak the bag of stuff that might or might not be resistant to water.
Ah crap. My hair might get ssed up by this, I should probably hurry up to the guild and sell all these loots. Get cash quickly and go back ho under a roof, and since it is cold, with the snow and all, I could afford to not waste electricity on the air conditioner.
———Wiina———
“It’s been so long.” Karra muttered as she looked outside the window.
“Indeed. It’s quite a surprise.” Mom said, probably feeling nostalgic just like we all do. “Hmm… Maybe I should prepare so hot chocolate for you two. How does that sound?”
“That’d be great, Mom.” I said, not seeing the reason to turn down a nice drink. She then nodded and went to the kitchen. Where is Dad right now anyway? Is he still holed up in his room?
“Wiina, do you know why it ca back? I know there was talk about the change in climate, but that was about it.” Karra asked, clearly curious as to why it is happening now after all the doom and gloom about the damage to the environnt, whether it’d be those on the ground or in the sky.
“Let’s just say the one with authority on our little planet here chooses to throw in a bonus.” That’s about the extent of my understanding. Soone threw out so sort of magic that helped repair many of the damages done by humans. Let’s just leave it at that. “...You know, I don’t think I have ever played with snow with another person… Outside of my parents. My hands were hurting more than a few tis trying to sculpt sothing for an audience that wasn’t there… I think it was over ten years ago at this point.”
Karra simply scratched her cheek, looking a bit awkward. Did I go too much into detail, or does she think I am insinuating that she should join on my lonely snow-playing ti? One that I haven’t engaged in for a long ti now.
“Ah. I wasn’t planning on making you do that. In the first place, it’s not like we’re pressed for ti to play. With the colder climate it’s not as if we are lacking in snow. If nothing else, we can just go to the north or south pole for plenty of snow.” I said, maybe getting a bit too wordy.
“I see. Well. I was never the biggest fan of snow.” She replied as she still stared out the window. “As a sight, a scene to marvel at, it’s fine. Snow itself feels kinda uncomfortable to . I don’t really know why. Either annoyingly cold or quickly make wet the mont the temperature goes up by one or two.”
“You got a similar tangent with sand as well?” I teasingly answered.
“Co on now.” She replied with a chuckle. “Still. I guess neither of us have super fond mories of it.”
“Certainly a weird thing to have in common.” I remarked. Obviously we have sothing more solid than that as far as commonality is concerned.
“Here we go.” Mom ca back into the living room with three hot chocolates on the table, all with tiny marshmallows in them.
“Thank you.” Karra walks over and takes one, sitting down on the sofa. “Now this warm comfy feeling is sothing more up my alley.”
“Yeah.” I replied simply. Just a nice, not volatile atmosphere under a roof. The snow outside can be a nice backdrop for us.
User Comments
0 comments from readers