Ascension: Online

The next morning, Hina-nee and I woke up early. I got myself ready for the day first, then went over to Furuwa's room to wake her up as well, while Hina-nee took a shower and whatnot.

I knocked on the door gently. "Hello? It's time to wake up."

"I'm up already," an annoyed female voice came back from the other side of the door. "Give me ten minutes. I'll be out soon."

I sighed and headed out of the inn first to get some fresh air while I waited for the two girls to finish getting ready.

"Hm? I can't see your stats today," a female voice suddenly called out from beside me. I turned to see a beautiful girl with long black hair and starry pink eyes leaning against the wall of the inn.

"It's you again… what do you want?"

"Hehe, I just wanted to let you know… I'll be saving you for the main tournament on Saturday. So you better not let me down, mkay~?"

"… What do you mean?"

"I mean, you get to live another two days, since I'm feeling nice today. Are you happy? Hehe, I accept your gratitude. I'll even let you kiss my hand."

"… No thanks."

"Hmph. How ungrateful," she pouted, folding her arms and looking away.

"Is that all you have to say?" I asked impatiently.

"Well, I would ask you about why I can't see your stats anymore using Inspect, but there's no way you'll tell me that, right~?" she shrugged nonchalantly.

"Must be a bug on the game's side," I replied stoically.

She suddenly pushed herself off the wall and closed in on me. I instinctively backed away a bit. As she stared into my eyes, face mere inches away from mine, her lips curved up into a smile.

"You're an interesting one, hehe~" she giggled. "After I kill you, make sure you respawn quickly, okay? So I can find you and kill you again!"

Rather than cower in fear like she probably expected me to, I suddenly leaned forward, shortening the distance between our faces to a mere few millimeters. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she was the one to take a step back this time.

"You say you'll kill me so easily, but…" I smirked. "… What makes you so confident you can?"

"Heheh… hahaha!" she laughed out loud, clutching her stomach. When she finally stopped her fit of laughter, she licked her lips and grabbed my chin with her fingers, staring deep into my eyes once more.

"I like you, Kaze. I look forward to our fight."

Unfazed, I stared straight back into her eyes. She was trying to find some sort of flaw, some sort of weakness in my bluff - but unfortunately for her, I wasn't bluffing. I really did have confidence I could beat her. That was the truth.

"… How long are you two going to stare into each other's eyes like lovers?" A seemingly irritated voice interrupted.

Nadeshiko glanced to her side at the intruder, then snickered and backed away.

"Well, it seems your girlfriend is jealous~" she giggled, turning around. "I'll see you in the main tournament, Kaze~ don't die before then, mkay?"

Without waiting to hear my response, she left, strolling away lightly as I watched her slowly disappearing figure among the crowd.

"… Who was that?" Furuwa asked, looking in the same direction.

"She's the girl I told you to watch out for - Nadeshiko Nakano," I replied calmly.

"… Good to know. What time is it?"

"Don't you have your own System?"

"Too lazy."

I sighed and pulled up mine. "Nearly 6 AM. We should get going. Where's Hina-nee?"

"Right here~" Hina-nee's familiar voice called out as she walked out of the inn. Her hair was still wet from her shower, spreading the sweet fragrance of shampoo all around us. She took longer than Furuwa, since she also had to help Aisa get ready, who was now holding her hand with an expression as blank as ever.

"What happened out here?" she asked curiously.

"Uh… not much. Let's go," I said, then walked on ahead. Furuwa glanced at me in confusion as to why I didn't just tell Hina-nee the truth, but followed me regardless.

*****

The morning's battles passed by without a hitch. Like Nadeshiko said, she didn't participate in this morning's series of battles, thus preventing the chance of me running into her as opponents. I didn't know what she went to do, but I didn't really care either. I also couldn't be certain why she was holding off on fighting me, but I had a good guess.

After all, despite not actually participating, Nadeshiko was still present and watching all the battles, especially my own. Chances were, she was gauging my abilities - evaluating whether or not she could beat me. Moreover, since she couldn't see my stats anymore, she was bound to be suspicious. I told her it was a bug, but only a fool would believe that lie.

If only the skill I received from the Vault of Deception allowed me to deceive anyone successfully… still, that would be kind of overpowered.

Luckily, this morning's fight was fairly easy. I only had to use the skills I've shown so far in the past. Nadeshiko essentially didn't learn anything new about me today. She still had no idea about the skills and items I obtained through the Vault I recently completed.

I had a feeling - my Claws of Deception would prove to be my ultimate trump card against her.

*****

During lunchtime, Hina-nee, Furuwa, Aisa, and I headed for a nearby restaurant to quickly eat. Furuwa said she wanted to continue gaining levels, so we all agreed to head for the Hunter's Guild in the afternoon.

I brought up the Vault of Deception, but neither Hina-nee nor Furuwa seemed too interested in doing it. The rewards were good, but in all honesty, they could buy armor with the same stats right here in the city. It's not like any of us were low on money, after all. I told them about the Claws too, but they didn't seem like they were too keen on using the weapon.

Well, to each their own, I suppose. Everyone had their own method of fighting, and if they didn't feel comfortable using certain weapon archetypes, that was perfectly fine.

While we were eating, I also claimed some rewards from the Quests tab of my system:

[Vault: The Vault of Deception - COMPLETE]

[Complete the Vault of Deception.]

[Rewards: 8,000 XP, 20,000 gold]

-

[Public Event: Zero Hour - COMPLETE]

[Quell the Phantom threat to Qilian City.]

[Rewards: 10,000 XP, 25,000 gold]

I blinked in surprise. 10,000 XP from Zero Hour? The last public event I did, Exterminating the Beasts, only gave me 1,000 XP if I recall correctly. Was it because this was an emergency, sudden event, with no warning beforehand? Most likely.

These two quests together brought me up by two whole levels.

[Level Up!]

[Lv. 30 -> 32.]

[You received 20 SP and 8 AP.]

I switched to my profile tab and saw that I was halfway to Level 33 - not bad, not bad at all. Hina-nee also leveled up to Level 31 - even though she didn't do the Vault of Deception, she could still claim the rewards for Zero Hour. I had to remind her, though.

After eating, the three of us headed for the Hunter's Guild. By abusin- I mean, showing the jade token the Guildmaster gave me, we were able to skip a lot of waiting time.

"Oh yeah, by the way," I said right before leaving after the receptionist approved our quests.

"Yes?" the receptionist asked, tilting her head.

"Where can we get a travel permit?"

She smiled. "There is a small building right across from here called Qilian Service. You can register for a travel permit there. A small fee is needed, though, so just be ready."

I nodded. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Hunter. Good luck out there."

With that, we left the Hunter's Guild, multiple quests in tow to save time. Furuwa seemed to be already familiar with the method - it seemed this was the trick to how she reached Level 30 while the others didn't. I had been hoping none of them found out about this, but Furuwa was smarter than the rest of them, clearly.

It didn't take long for us to find the building called Qilian Service. We walked inside - it was fairly full, but I once again merely took advantage of the Guildmaster's jade token. That thing was effective everywhere, it seems, since anyone who saw it immediately got out of the way and let me pass by.

"Welcome to Qilian Service," a receptionist said, smiling at me. "What can I do for you today?"

"We're here to obtain travel permits," I explained. "One for all four of us, please."

"Well, the little girl here doesn't need one," the receptionist replied. "How old is she?"

"Uh… 10," I said randomly.

"As expected. Children below the age of 12 do not need travel permits. As for the rest of you, please provide me with some sort of identification…"

"Would our Hunter's guild cards work?" Hina-nee asked from over my shoulder.

"That would be perfect," the receptionist answered without any hesitation.

After we handed her all of our guild cards, the process was finished in about five minutes.

"Here are your travel permits. They do not expire, but be careful - if you ever lose them, you need to get reissued one, and pay the fee again. Speaking of, I'll need 50 gold from each of you, so that's 150 in total."

150…? Geez, that's kind of expensive. Not to us though.

I already expected this beforehand thanks to the Hunter's Guild receptionist's friendly tip, so I just took out the already-prepared money from my pockets and handed it over.

"Thank you very much… and the transaction is complete. Please keep your travel permits safe," the receptionist said, handing us three tiny booklets of some sort marked with the title 'TRAVEL PERMIT'.

Soon after that, we left, and headed out the city to get some side quests done.