During breakfast, I thought about my day and what I wanted to get done. I needed to kill a kobold for my daily bread, then sneak a peek at a level eight, and finally meet Claire at noon.
I also wanted to walk the barrier next to Claire’s area. Maybe I’d see who lived there — and hopefully they’d be better than the asshole next to Sofia.
New York was… empty… as always.
I started walking and kept my eyes open for a level eight kobold. I had no desire to fight one yet, but I needed to Identify it so I could deal with it later and live to talk about it.
A level eight popped up on my Mini Map, but it was in the complete opposite direction from where I was headed, so I ignored it. Another one would appear before long.
The Mini Map was full of kobolds from level one through level seven. There were a lot of the lower levels, and fewer as the numbers went up.
Interesting.
Eventually, I spotted a lone level seven with only lower-level kobolds in its general vicinity.
The perfect target.
It went down quickly, and I looted it in under half an hour. The element of surprise did wonders for how much actual fighting was needed.
The rest of the walk was uneventful. I did see another level eight, but again it was in the wrong direction.
When I reached the barrier, I updated my map. I already knew our areas were divided into hexagons and roughly how big each one was, but I wanted to keep things accurate.
Just in case.
I moved along the barrier but the only movement I saw was Kobolds. I lingered in some areas hoping the person would appear, but nothing.
I did notice a Level 8 nearby, so I decided to take a look, but I needed to be careful so that it did not see me.
I made sure to came up behind it and used Identify.
The weapon I briefly saw before was a Halbert, apparently. I had never before heard about it but it looked frightening.
The other problem was that that weapon gave it a lot or reach. It did not need to be close to me to cut me to pieces with that blade.
Yeah, I would need to figure out how to kill this thing without dying myself.
I moved back to the barrier and still saw nobody. I reached the end of the mystery persons area and waited a bit longer there, but he or she did not make an appearance.
It was late morning, so I slowly made my way to the area I usually meet Claire. I walked slowly, so that I would not be too early, but I was early in any case.
I sat down and waited.
My Comm Crystal buzzed, and Claire looked more relaxed than she had sounded the night before.
“Hey Claire.”
She grinned widely, “Danny… It is so good to see you, and now we can talk about the Monsters from the Quest. Some of them were really difficult to kill.”
Her face became a bit pensive, “ I did not choose the night Monsters. I wanted to but to be honest, I decided against it.”
“That is okay. Jason also fought some of them, so we do have a better idea of them. Also, I don’t think they follow the same rules as the day Monsters… I have no proof, just a feeling.”
“That is a Goblin, Spell eater and a Terrosk. That last one was very hard to kill. It used some sort of earth Mana.”
We talked about the Monsters we faced and speculated about them. How to fight them and what type of attacks they would have. Not much information was given to us but we did receive some hints.
It would be helpful in the future.
“Claire, I have two more Rare Knowledge Shards, but I don’t know who next to ask about. I want to ass about everyone.”
Claire nodded, “I have a confession to make. I do have some shards, but I decided to first collects all the ones I need before asking about my loved ones. I… do not have it in me to choose which one to ask about first.”
It did sound like a good idea, but it was not something I would be able to do. The shards would burn a hole in my inventory, and with each positive message, I felt better.
“That is fine. I wouldn’t be able to do that, but you must do what is best for you.”
She sighed. “Thank you. Do you want to talk about who you are thinking about asking about.”
“Yeah, my grandparents but I would also like to know about Eli. He is my best friend but how to choose between them?”
Claire nodded in understanding. “You are not choosing one before the other, and choosing your best friend first or visa versa, does not mean the others means any less to you.”
She considered for a bit, “I have an idea. Let’s make it random. She took a little notebook from a bag, a bag I did not even notice, and wrote on each page. She folded them and wrote something on them.
“Four pieces of paper. One to four. Three for your grandparents and one for your best friend. Choose one.”
“Four.”
She opened the paper and said, “Eli…” showing his name to me, written in beautiful but neat handwriting.
I took out the Shard, not knowing how to feel. I wanted to find out about Eli but also wanted to know about my Grandparents.
“I wish to enquire the status of Eli Jacobs.”
I sighed in relief. My friend was still alive, but I had a very bad feeling that one of my Grandparents were dead. Up until then I did not even think about this too ‘loudly’. It was a thought I did not want or needed.
“Are you okay, Danny?”
“I am fine, just… I don’t want to lose somebody I love, but the possibility is big that…”
Claire looked sad and I did not want to bring the mood down. We had enough to deal with.
“I am sorry Claire; I did not want to make you sad.”
“You are not. I have been thinking about this as well…. A lot.”
We spoke a little bit longer, and it was mostly both of us trying to make the other feel better.
On my way home, I pondered my life. In a very short time, Claire became a very important part of my life. I would not call it romantic, but I did have feelings for her.
The problem I had with that was the circumstances. We were in a very stressful situation and we only had each other. Sure, Jason and Malik were also there but… Are we only holding on to the only person we knew or could it become more.
The best thing I thought to do was just wait. With time we could, maybe and if Claire even wanted to, examine our feeling further and maybe act on it.
I arrived home and went to bed with a lot on my mind.
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