Chapter 7 - She'll Do Anything To Learn How To Shoot A Fireball!

Akira had shaken the wolves, and it wasn't long before she came upon a clearing with a small tent beside a rushing clear stream, where her nostrils tingled at a mouth-watering freshly cooked, salty aroma.

'Someone was cooking here recently…'

By the stream, she noticed some tiny fish were hung on a spit over a smoldering fire.

Akira's tail was...wagging in excitement!

'Ah, I'm starving!'

Tears of pure joy streamed down her face.

'Is anybody home, though?'

Peeking her head into the tent, she found it empty. So, after a quick glance around the area just to be sure it was clear, she did a little scurry-hop over to the dying campfire--inhaling its up-close scent deeply, exhaling with a satisfied grin, her mouth dripping warm juices.

'It isn't caviar, but I guess it can't be helped,' she mused. 'Until I get my bearings in this strange world, I'll have to eat what I can get.'

So albeit reluctantly, she lifted the spit and was about to bite the first fish off it, when suddenly, a ball of fire careened past--just narrowly missing the side of her face--landing in the stream with an upheaval of hissing steam and scattered, stray embers.

Akira froze, her mouth still ajar, as she shifted her eyes in the direction the fireball had flown from.

A young guy was standing there, his finger still pointed with smoke rising from the tip. His hair was brown and untidy, with bangs falling in spiky strands over his lively green eyes. He was wearing a ragged brown robe replete with holes and tears to impart it with a tattered, worn look that matched well with his similarly scuffed and bedraggled leather gloves and boots.

Upon his head was a wrinkled and crooked dark green hat, making his status as a Mage abundantly clear.

In Akira's eyes, however, he was a peasant.

And as such, Akira's natural instinct was to avoid him altogether, if not for the fact this particular peasant could shoot fireballs from his hands—a feat in which Akira had taken an immediate, keen interest. Because surely, such a powerful ability would be of great help to have at her disposal.

"Hands off my fish!" The Mage snapped, interrupting Akira's scheming. "Craft your own Survival Pit!"

Akira took a deep breath.

First things first, she needed to calm the peasant down before she had any chance at being taught how to shoot fireballs. But without any of her usual means available, Akira would instead have to improvise, using the tools that were available to her...

Thus, Akira pushed up her breasts.

Poised her hips, in a temptingly seductive way.

Widened her eyes and pouted her lips.

She tried everything she could think, to appear as seductive in her naivety as possible!

"Survival...Pit?" She inquired, in the most sickeningly soft voice she could muster, while fluttering her lashes like a schoolgirl and tilting her head quizzically: her bobbed, brown hair lightly brushing against her shoulder, as she gazed innocently at the Mage, with sparkling Anime-girl pupils. "Do you mean this silly widdle campfire?"

"Vash" wasn't so easily entranced, however:

"Yeah, that's right! A survival pit! Haven't you heard about [Life Skills]?"

Akira blinked innocently. "Uhh..."

"Besides, what kind of nerve do you have to call my campfire names, right after you were trying to steal from it!?" He gave an enraged growl, lifting both his arms as flames lit up inside both palms. "What...the heck is wrong with you, woman!?"

With the only ploy left in her playbook having been dashed, Akira sighed in defeat. 'I pulled out all the stops there, but it looks like I'm about to get my fur roasted.'

However just then, while she was silently pouting, Akira observed Vash's gaze drift upward to focus on something above her head, as his expression of fury abruptly faded, into one of mild surprise.

"Oh!" He exclaimed, the fires dissipating from his hands.

"I see now that you're only level 1."

He laughed, smiling sheepishly, as he rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, I get the picture now--you're a NOOB!"

Akira was confused again. "A noob?" It kind of sounded like boob, and not the good kind.

"A NOOB is a new player," Vash explained. "Since you're only level 1, it makes sense that you wouldn't know about Survival Pits..."

He cleared his throat as Akira groaned, sensing a lecture coming on:

"Survival Pits serve a variety of purposes. They're useful for cooking, enchantment burning, and empowering the fire magic of nearby players. However, perhaps their nost invaluable purpose is to ward off wild monsters from a player's camp for as long as they remain active."

"Ah, so you're basically saying it's not just a dumb campfire?" Akira said, glaring.

"Right! It's actually a vital technique for surviving in this world," Vash answered, giving a jovial laugh. Then, motioning to the campfire with his hand. "So anyway, it's cool if you wanna have a fish."

Akira gave an excited nod, panting with her tongue hanging out like a dog's.

Reduced to all fours, she made a frantic dash to the pit, where she eagerly plucked away one of the delicious-smelling, crispy fried fish; bringing it within a hair's width of her mouth, she paused to savor, and salivate, at the thought of what delectable wonders awaited.

Beneath the cutesy veneer, though, Akira Maximilian felt she had Vash all figured out.

'He's a total nerd!'

'Probably head over heels for me. Hehe.'

'One of those high intelligence, low charisma types who always work in IT.'

Doubtless, she would acquire the secret of the fireball in due time! Then, he would happily wash his hands of this ingrate, just as soon as he'd outstayed his usefulness.

'Although, perhaps,' she thought deviously, 'he could still serve as my target practice.'

It was this very thought that Akira was secretly amusing herself with, when out of nowhere Vash gasped and planted a hand on her shoulder, startling her into dropping the spit just as she was about to take her first bite out of the fish.

"I just realized!" He exclaimed, as she stared daggers at him.

"You're a noob, so you need better gear!"

Akira was granted no say in the matter, he immediately took her by the arm.

...

Vash dragged Akira to an area of the woods where the trees were more spread apart, beckoning for her to duck behind a bush with him as he pointed to something ahead.

"Wolves!" Akira exclaimed in a hushed breath.

They were prowling about on a ridge further along in the glade, each performing the same cycle of repetitive motions: pausing to hunker down, sniffing at the ground; making a dramatic gesture like they were howling, yet without producing a sound. 'Very strange,' Akira thought.

Vash nudged her in the side, whispering: "Not just wolves. Try squinting at 'em."

Shrugging, Akira did as she was told.

And like magic, a strong of floating text suddenly appeared above each wolf's head:

[Starving Wolf] [Level 2]

Along with a long, green bar beneath it.

"That's their name and level, as well as their HP gauge," Vash continued. "Every monster and player can be analyzed in this way." He snickered. "SexLover69."

Akira gasped. "You could read my name?!"

He gave a wry look. "Well, that is sort of the purpose of a display name."

"So...I'd be able to see yours too, then?"

Testing it, she squinted at the mage, as sure enough it revealed to her:

[Vash] [Level 10] 

"Now, I brought you here for a reason," he said. "Sometimes these wolves drop armor pieces."

Akkira looked to him in disbelief. "Armor? As in...clothes?" She scoffed. "Do you mean clothes similar to those ratty things you're wearing right now?"

Vash shrugged. "It isn't anything fancy, but it'll protect you better than what you've got now."

Akira rolled her eyes. 'Bizarre,' she thought.

"I don't suppose they'll drop anything from the latest Louis Vuitton catalog?"

Vash chuckled, with a quick "you're funny."

As he then, without warning, pushed her out into the glade, toppling her face-forward into the grass with her tail sticking up like a flag in the air.

"Bastard!" She hissed as she jumped up.

Her fist drawn, she reared toward Vash while he remained hiding in the bush.

"What the hell?! Are you trying kill me?!"

Behind her was a growl followed by a snarl, and teeth chomping in anticipation.

As warily, she turned to come face to face with one of the Starved Wolves, looking like it was about ready to pounce on him like the IRS onto a secret offshore banking account.

"W-w-what do I do!?" Akira stammered, half-turning to the unconcerned Vash-in-a-bush.

"Try to stay calm, for starters," he said.

"Seriously, a Mangy Wolf is one of the weakest mobs in the game, so quit being a big baby and just hit it a few times! I promise you'll be fine."

"I would if I had a weapon, you moron!" She snapped. "Or do you expect me to use my bare hands!?"

The wolf lunged with its fangs drawn and Akira narrowly avoided it, kicking up clumps of grass and soil as she nimbly rolled away by a sizable distance.

"Woah!" she exclaimed, adrenaline pumping. "When did I learn to move like that?"

"It'a because you're a Squell!" Vash yelled to her. "But not only are you quicker than the other races, you can also use your claws to attack!" Vash urged: "Squells have retractable claws!"

"My...claws?" Akira peered down at her hand, a set of claws jutted forth from her furry fingers.

The Starved Wolf wasn't about to wait for her to figure all this shit out, though, as it charged her again. This time, managing to clamp its jaws around her forearm then violently shake its head back and forth, as Akira—in a panic, remembering the fate of Squell Cattle #5 to the same move—frantically swiped its eye with her other clawed hand, prompting it let go with a pained howl.

Akira could see it was momentarily stunned, unable to put up a defense.

So, she went straight for the neck this time.

With a startled yelp the beast's whole body shuddered, just before it imploded into a cloud of binary and pixels.

Akira fell back as soon as the clash was over.

Panting, she inspected the lingering bite mark on her arm, oozing blood.

Vash was explaining, as he stepped out into the clearing: "Unlike a lot of MMORPGs, health doesn't regenerate automatically in this world."

Akira was confused as ever. "MMO--what?"

She cringed at the sting of her wound as Vash noticed, with a pitying frown.

"I'll get that all patched up for you, in a sec."

He proceeded to make a small gesture with his fingers in the air, prompting a translucent computer UI to appear in front of his face showing a scroll-through list of items with accompanying graphics.

"What's that?" Akira asked, in awe. "It looks like a fast food menu."

Vash chuckled, while he was continually swiping left and right with his hand to navigate the interface. "Pardon the messy state of my inventory," he said. "I haven't had time to reorganize."

"Inventory," Akira repeated aloud. 'So it's like an invisible backpack? Wow!'

She attempted to mimic the gesture she'd just seen Vash perform, to no avail, as meanwhile he had walked up behind her and started to apply a giant, white gauze bandage to the bite wound.

"A wound can only be healed using a Bandage like this," he said.

Once finished, he showed a small glass vial.

"Once a wound is healed, you can drink a potion to restore back your health."

Akira examined the red contents of the vial.

Then glanced at Vash, wary.

"How do I know you aren't trying to drug me right now?"

Vash gave an amused grin. "Because you're the SexLover here—not me," he said, shaking the bottle in his hand. "Come on and drink it already, killer."

Sufficiently amused by this unexpected, minute display of wit, Akira complied.

Right away, after gulping down all of the warm, sweet liquid that tasted something like children's cough syrup only with the punch of an energy drink, she felt good as new--the emptied vial disappearing in an effect similar to when the slain wolf had imploded.

"So, how was it, 69?" Vash asked, pumping his fist in the air excitedly. "Your first ever hunt!"

Akira licked her lips, catching some of the potion that was caught on it. Now was the time for her to pounce—now, or never--as she sighed, posting her hands on her hips and swiveling back and forth with a pouty frown.

She drew close to Vash, swaying back and forth with a sultry gaze.

"It's nice I have claws and all," she said, pausing to fake another sigh, "but I could probably kill a lot faster, if you taught me that fireball trick you used earlier..."

"Oh!" Vash said, lifting his hand to conjure a ball of fire in it. "You mean this, right?"

He turned to hurl it like a fire baseball, the two watching as it flew in an arc at high speed toward a distant Starving Wolf, exploding on impact—annihilating the wretched beast, before it could even see it coming, in a shower of sparks.

Akira's eyes were glistening with excitement.

"Yes, please! Teach me how, senpai!"

Vash lowered his head, letting the shadow of his hat fall over his face as he closed his eyes.

"Sorry, but I can't." He said flatly.

"I'm sorry, but..."

"Only us Mages learn to cast Fireball."

Akira felt deflated.

Really, she wanted to break down and cry.

However...this did make her curious of something.

'Well, if I'm not a Mage, then--'

What class was she?