What do you mean, I can't become stronger? [An Isekai]

nope

Frown might have been too strong a word to describe the expression on the cloaked figure's face. They merely observed the party without any visible emotion gracing their facial features. But what was going on inside their head was  an overwhelming amount of feelings. The strongest one being an ache of loneliness, wishing they were strong enough to -

"What are you doing?" Carmilla fell off her branch, landing at the feet of Irene. She winced at the pain as she stood back up and brushed herself off, holding back tears. "Nothing, I'm just testing out this cloak."

"Ah! For Mack, right?" Irene clapped. "Yes, you should go deliver her order once you're done."

Carmilla hesitated, looking over in the groups direction and then back at Irene who was patiently and warmly smiling at her in a knowing way that would've irritated Carmilla if Irene had been a player and not an NPC. Still, Carmilla had trouble bringing up her trepidations, so she crossed her arms and looked away as she spoke. "I'm... I'm not sure that I'd be welcome over there. It looks like they're having fun. And just because we made up yesterday, it's not like we're friends... She didn't ask for my contact information or anything..." Carmilla's face started to turn pink and she was starting up at the sky trying to fight back tears.

Irene wrapped her arms around Carmilla and rested her head on top of hers. Again, Carmilla thought if this had been another player showing her pity then she would've been pissed off, but it was okay because Irene was an NPC so she could trust her care was genuine, it was programmed, it didn't have any underlying hidden agenda or complex feelings she had to figure out. And if she wanted to end the relationship at any point she could just stop playing, so she was in control.

"I think," Irene said softly, disrupting the tangent thoughts of Carmilla. "That you're both young girls far from home and that you got along great with each other. And if that's not enough to go on, it is your job to deliver her purchase." Irene pushed her in the direction of the group, removing the cloak off Carmilla and deftly wrapping it it up with the rest of the parcel for delivery with a wink. "Besides, you didn't ask for her contact information either. Go make some friends."

Irene walked away after passing the parcel over to her. Carmilla's booklet glowed with a quest update. "Fuck." Carmilla swore to herself reading.

Make Friends
Collect 0/5 friend contacts

"Yeah, nope. I'm not doing that one." Carmilla muttered to herself as she walked over to the group. As she got within their range of sight, and caught eyes with one of them she didn't know, she waved the parcel not so much in greeting, but rather like a flag of surrender.

The person directed the others attention to her and the whole group turned to look. When Mack turned to look though Carmilla turned pink again and her pace slowed. She lowered her eyes and couldn't bear to look up, she staring at her feet as they continued to walk up to them. Once she saw the others feet in her field of vision, she held up the package in front of her like a shield. "For Mack." She managed to get the words out. A pair of soft warm hands covered hers, and helped lower the parcel but it wasn't Mack. The older girl smiled at her. "Hi, I'm Vivian. Did you want to join us?"

Carmilla stared frozen at her for a while, her hands still in Vivian while the tall beefy guy of their group grabbed the parcel out of their clasp. "Ohhhhhh Mack, what'd you get?"

"Pep don't just grab things that aren't yours!" The slender shortest member of their group smacked and disabled the one named Pep, so he was now just a warped ball of limbs on the ground with blades of varies sizes pinning him there. Mack was opening the parcel now as the last member of their group was trying to unknot Pep, though it seemed more out of curiosity of solving a puzzle than actually out of a desire to help him.

"Wow, these are great!" Mack said, wrapping the cloak around her shoulders and checking out the other garments. "I'll have to go try these on immediately. Is there someplace nearby I can change?" She looked around, and the short slender member pointed at a public building nearby. "We'll be right back! Stay here everyone!"

They left together and Carmilla felt a bit awkward waiting around, and tried to remove her hands from Vivian's clasp. "Umm.. I think I'll go now."

"Nonsense. You heard her, everyone." Vivian gave Carmilla's hand a squeeze, which she wasn't sure was supposed to be reassuring or a threat. "Okay." She replied. Carmilla was so nervous around the other player characters but she tried to strick up conversation. "So are you all friends irl?"

"Oh no." Vivian pointed at the one trying to solve the Pep rubix cube. "I only know Jax. That's my boyfriend. The one whose an absolute mess next to him is Pep, we met only recently. I think Pep and Silas, that's the one who went off with Mack, know each other irl though. We all just recently formed a party, were you interested in joining?"

"What? Isn't there like a max size for a party?" Carmilla was so confused and uncomfortable. "I thought it was five?"

"Nope!" Vivian answered cheerfully. "They recommend five for a full party for adventuring, and they enforce it a bit with their stories of adventuring parties having five members, but you can have as many or little as you want. Though I think if you keep a certain number for period of time they may encourage it to change to a guild. I've been trying to figure it out actually, there are some guys who tried just making the biggest party possible as a joke but they gained too many members too quickly and the AI essentially registered it as a mob."

"What, they became a mob?" Carmilla asked, caught up now in Vivian's excitement. "Yes! But they didn't have a designated leader or goal, there was some infighting so they all kinda split off to do their own things. Some ended up becoming a group of bandits. Some started a small city and it's become the first player created city. That kinda thing, so they're no longer a mob I believe but it caused quite a whirlwind on the chat boards."

"Ah, I don't really keep up with that." Carmilla answered. "But I have been keeping up with what everyone's saying about skill growth and the competitions. I'm running in the flying competition at the end of the month."

At that point, Mack came back with Silas looking amazing in their new outfit. The colors greatly complemented their skin tones. "These clothes are so cool! Thanks Carmilla."

Carmilla blushed, finally managing to get her hand out of Vivian's grasp. "Irene did most of the work. I just delivered it."

"Well thanks for delivering it anyway." Mack smiled and the others walked over, Jax having Pep untangled and free. "What's this then?" Pep asked, "did we gain a new party member?"

Before Carmilla could reply, Vivian confirmed it. "Yep! Let's all exchange information with her then."

"You can't just add extra members without asking the others." Silas berated Vivian.

"We should exchange contacts anyway." Mack said, "I completely forgot about it last time." Carmilla's head perked up and she nodded, holding out her booklet with the others. Very quickly she found her quest for making friends was complete.