12 Buying a helmet for Hope

I didn't have to wait that long at all. I could hear someone approaching. It would seem that this one came by itself. This was good for me but I still wanted to finish the next fight quickly and come back to the village as soon as possible. I didn't want to risk anything.

I immediately stood up and looked around myself. I could see and hear that a little left of me another Rage Beast was steadily moving towards me. It pounced on to me as soon as it saw me. Even with the corpse of its comrade didn't gain any recognition from the newcomer. Well, that is good for me. I thought that seeing it dead it would be even madder than it already is.

Using Appraisal after the fourth time I found out that this one was actually slightly weaker than the previous Rage Beast. It was Level 7. Good, it will be easier with this one. With the experience from the one before and the fact that this one was a little slower, I needed only half an hour to finish it. With that, I was Level 6. Not bad for today.

Anyway, I should probably get going. I wouldn't like to fight more than one of them at the same time. And I have to bring them down the mountain. But that is a problem of its own. I forgot the rope. And there are two of them. Can I even move them by myself? One of them maybe lighter than the boar, but there are two of them here.

Maybe I can pull them back to the village by their tales. I tried but I wasn't strong enough. I can pull one of them but not the both. The only solution is to put some of my unused points into the strength. I put 10 points in strength and tried again. It worked, but I wasn't sure if I could pull them like that all the way down.

It was hard, very hard. Even fighting them was easier. I had to stop a few times and rest, or my hands would have fallen off my body. But right before the sunset I finally managed to enter the village. There two of the guards took the wolves from me and we hurried towards the chiefs house. Chief said that he didn't have a particular use for the wolves because their meat was not edible. He said that his father once tried it and said it was springy and not delicious even with the spices.

But he also said that this kind of a leather could be sold to the merchants. The one that is usually trading with this village will be here in two days and then I can sell the wolf skin to him. I could only agree. The wolves leather would be skinned by the village hunters and they will store them until the merchant arrives.

I also asked the chief about the rope and he said that I can find it if I go to Donar tomorrow. I thanked him and logged out of the game.

I slept for a few hours before I heard Hope knocking on my door.

, Get up brother, we need to go to the game shop to buy me a helmet, don't tell me you forgat."

, I am up, I am up, don't worry, let's have a breakfast first and then we can go."

It would seem that Hope couldn't wait anymore. How will she wait when she gets it I wonder. There are nine more days until her eighteen birthday, she will probably look into the helmet whenever she has free time.

After we had breakfast, we got ready and left the house. We were slowly walking to the metro station and talked about the game. Well, it was mostly I who talked while Hope listened. Trough the whole ride on the metro I continued my story and she listened with great attention. My story ended right when we exited the metro station in the city center.

, Wow big brother, I didn't know you were so good at the game. There are not many great numbers of players that managed to raise their level so quickly as you did."

, Ha ha ha, well even I didn't know that I would have such good luck. But grandpa did teach me all of the mythology so I just needed somewhere where I could use that knowledge. I can do that in the Age of Gods."

, I miss grandpa and grandma." said Hope with sadness. Our father's parents were living with us so both me and Hope were deeply tied to them. First, grandma died and not even a year later, grandpa followed her. Mom's parents are still alive but we don't see them that often because they live in a different city. But we still see them once or twice a year for a couple of weeks usually when it is school break or when it is some celebration day. They will come to us to celebrate Hopes birthday together.

, I miss them too" I said. Even though I spent most of my time with grandpa listening to his stories, I also missed my grandma a lot. Grandpa stories stayed with me, but I could never eat grandmas cookies and cakes again. Seeing that the mood was getting a little darker I returned to our previous conversation.

, So what do you think about the game so far. You must have heard a lot from your friends right? What are you going to do when you start playing? It is very hard in the beginning."

" Don't I have you brother, weren't you going to help me?" she said making a sad face.

, Haha, don't be like that" I knew she was only pretending, of course, I will help you but who knows where will you show up when you enter the game for the first time. We can be far away from each other, it may take a lot of time in the game, maybe days or even months until we can see each other."

, Well it will work out somehow" she said with a convinced smile like she already had a solution for everything.

Since it was weekend city was crowded a lot. People usually rested on the weekend, went shopping in the malls or watched movies. There were a lot of parents with little children going around and a lot of couples going from coffee shops and all kinds of stores with bags in their hands.

As we were walking through the streets I could see a game shop a little further away. Since games were very popular nowadays it wasn't a surprise to see many people in front or inside the shop. Every year there would be all kinds of different game competitions. They weren't regular as sports competitions, because it could happen that one game replaces the other, but games were always there.

There were a lot of people inside the shop but most of them were talking about the Age of Gods or were playing games on the game machines. Fighting games were popular even in our grandparents times, so there were a lot of people dueling each other. The ones who wanted to play the Age of Gods already bought helmets, so the only ones that would still buy them were kids like Hope who still had to turn eighteen.

At the counter game, shop employee saw us coming so he put a smile on his face and asked.

, Sir what can I help you with?"

, I want to buy a helmet for my little sister, she will turn eighteen soon and she wants to play Age of Gods."

, Certainly sir, right away. Do you perhaps want a special color?" The employee asked Hope.

, Red one" said Hope and rushed to the entrance of the game shop only telling me that she saw a friend from the track and field and that I take care of everything. I only could only awkwardly smile to the employee and tell him to proceed with the procedure.

Procedure for buying a gaming helmet was not that complicated. I just had to fill in some forms and they had to check some things and that's it. Binding the helmet to one person was also easy. When you put it on for the first time it will scan your eyes and that is it. Since it has all the details beforehand helmet also functions as a safety device, since there is nothing a person can do on the virtual net if there are restrictions of some kind. A good example of that is virtual gaming and restriction for those who are not yet of age according to law. So even if Hope has the helmet she can't play the Age of Gods until her birthday.

As I was finishing the procedure for buying a helmet I heard Hope behind me.

, Big brother look, this is Mia my friend from track and field. She also came to buy a helmet. Her birthday is in a couple of days, so she came with her sister to buy one now."

, Nice to meet you" I said as I offered my hand for I handshake, I am Novak."

, Nice to meet you too, I am Mia and this is my sister Maria."

I almost stretched out my hand again for another handshake, but who knew that I already knew the person before me. It was my secret crush, professor Maria. Since I turned around to Hope and Mia first I didn't pay attention to my other side. What a coincidence I thought.

, Professor Maria I didn't know you had a sister." Even if we talked during the breaks in school we rarely talked about our private lives, so I had no idea that she had a sister and that even she and Hope knew each other.

, I also didn't know that you had a sister, professor Novak." She said with an enchanting smile.

, You two know each other?" asked two girls in surprise at the same time.

, We work together" I nodded and smiled at Maria and she smiled back.

, Is that right?" Hope and Mia turned to each other and whispered something. I thought I saw then smiling cheekily at each other but I didn't pay much attention, my eyes were still glued to the beautiful woman in front of me.

Breaking my mind of thought Hope asked me:

, Brother can we go with Mia and her sister to eat and drink something, I would like one big hamburger and a pancake." Before saying, but you already ate, Mia also said:

, I am hungry too, Maria can we go?"

I looked at Maria and shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know what to say.

, Fine" said Maria, we can eat but not much, you know that they will wait for us for lunch."

, Brother?" asked me Hope with her eyes and Mia joined her. I looked at Maria again and said.

, Very well let us finish here and go to find some delicious food. It's my treat." I was the only man here, and I couldn't allow myself to let Maria pay. That would be the end of my self-respect.

, Yes" two girls celebrated in a great mood. It is just a meal and it's not like that they don't see each other that often, well teenage girls I could never understand them.

After Maria finished buying a helmet for Mia, we started walking to the nearest fast food restaurant. Fast food was somewhat a luxury these days. Ages ago it was a food for busy people, and it made people fat and sick. But since now a healthcare is very developed and people are not that busy with work, fast food shops, tracks, and carts became an allowed sin.

We sat and ordered food and drinks. Hope and Mia started talking about the game and Maria and I only stared at each other for a while. It was super awkward.