Eliona's War 1: Hesitant Healer

Chapter 25

Severance blinked, noticing for the first time that his strange friend looked a bit different. He'd gotten a new outfit since he'd seen him last. It was a dark gray in color, and close-fitting, with black leather gauntlets and greaves. The gray and black look, with sturdy cloth and leather pieces, actually suited Awesome Dude well. The player now looked like a proper rogue (if one ignored the gold tooth, that is.)

Severance wasn't jealous at all. He folded his arms.

"Hey! Nice pants!" The rogue pointed, as if there were any doubt what he was referring to. "Did you get those as a quest reward?"

Severance suddenly felt a little better. He straightened, and brushed off said pants to get rid of any dirt that they might have picked up. "No, they came from a dungeon."

"Uh huh," Awesome Dude nodded. He bounced lightly on his heels. His dark leather boots made no sound, like they had some kind of muffling effect. "That's cool. Hey, wait a sec. A dungeon? You were in a dungeon? When? How?!"

"Yesterday?" The volume of the rogue's voice had escalated so quickly that Severance winced. There was no need to shout about it, was there?

"No way! You're level 10 already?!"

"No."

Awesome Dude tilted his head like a curious puppy. "Huh? Then how did you get into the dungeon? You can't go in it until you're level 10."

That was news to Severance. He shrugged. Figures the crazy men in black wouldn't be bothered by such a little detail. They were probably level 100 with how strong they were.

"I didn't know that. I didn't exactly plan on going there, either."

"Ah!" The rogue gasped. "Then—then it's true! You really did get kidnapped yesterday! Dude, that must have been some wild quest!"

Wild was one way to put it. Severance just winced. "How did you hear about that?"

"Hehe. It was all over the world chat. They said a player got carried off by a weird NPC, and when I asked who it was, they gave your description. There's not a lot of healers with purple eyes, you know."

"Great." Now Severance had his worst fears confirmed. The entire world had witnessed his moment of shame. Good thing he hadn't lingered in town after logging in. Who knew how many people would be whispering and staring at him?

"How'd you trigger that quest anyway? It sounds awesome!"

Severance disagreed. It was the farthest thing from awesome. In fact, he couldn't be sure that the men in black weren't still stalking him from the shadows, so he didn't dare tell Awesome Dude anything. People who would kill to keep their secrets weren't people he wanted to anger.

"I don't know," he lied, feeling somewhat guilty about it. "They just showed up and dragged me into a dungeon."

"Really?" Awesome Dude eagerly pressed. "What was it like? I wanna try out the dungeon after I do the clan quest. You should do it with me! "

"Uh..." Severance hesitated, but he didn't have a chance to answer as Awesome Dude kept on talking.

"Oh yeah, what clan are you going to join? There's tons of them in town right now. Have you talked to any of them yet? Wait, did you talk to Maknite yet? You have to do that first."

Severance could feel a headache coming on. He massaged his temples, feeling like a tired old man. "Yeah, I talked to Maknite. But-"

"Great, then let's go!" Awesome Dude grinned and turned, like he was about to go back to town.