Chapter 83: Golden Bounty

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This morning in March, we had just reached the 56th Floor - it was a rather standard fight. Nothing noteworthy really happened, but I suppose that's a good thing right?

Regardless, the first thing I did when I arrived on the new Floor was the same as I did on any other Floor: I went straight to the new Inn and relocated my room... however these past couple floors I haven't had to send Lisbeth a message to let her know.

That's not because she finally got into a routine, but rather because she no longer lived under the same roof as me.

Lisbeth had finally decided to set up a permanent shop for her smithing, and she bought a rather accommodating building back on the 48th Floor in the town of Lindarth and she then converted it into three multiple utilities: the main shop floor where her stock is all displayed and was available for public purchase, the forge in the back where she crafts her equipment, and then her living quarters are on the second floor. An interesting thing she pointed out is that whilst she's not available to serve in the shop she could appoint an NPC named Hanna Heinemann who came with the purchase of the building to tend to the till and manage sales until Lisbeth returned just like the NPC stores on the earlier Floors did.

A few of us gathered for a housewarming ceremony at the time which was nice, and once everyone else had said farewell for the night she did invite me to join her, she wanted to repay my hospitality from when I offered her a bed in my inn room by returning the favour but with an entire dedicated bedroom for my self rather than the shared barracks I was able to offer her.

I still remember her smug smile as she told me:

Lisbeth: "Hey, if you ever want to sleep in a real home. You know where to find me!"

 You know where to find me!"

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. . . maybe some day I'll think about a more permanent house. But for now, it just makes sense to always reside on the newest Floor so I don't have to fuss about inter-floor teleportation every day... plus, wouldn't living in a large home for one person be lonely?

* * *

But speaking of being lonely- I suppose that now, without Lisbeth being a daily occurrence in my life, I find myself not really reaching out to the residents of this world as often as I had done previously.

I still kept in touch with people over messages (usually only if they reached out first though!)
But the only time I ever meet with another player now is either during Boss Fights or whenever Silica came to the higher Floors for a visit... 

After the incident with Titan's Hand last month I decided I wanted to stay a bit more involved with Silica's antics, and it allowed her a more permanent outlet to talk about the stuff that was taboo to talk about in Aincrad: the real life stuff that we had previously agreed she could talk to me about whenever she wanted or needed to. 

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