Chapter 33：Plains Roller

Yuki logged in ten minutes to 8. She set up a small campfire and sat down, waiting for Chi to log in. Yuki had never had to wait like this before, it was kind of a refreshing feeling. She did not have to wait for long, though. Almost exactly on the dot, Chi logged in. "Ryu! You're so mean! You made me wait until 8!"

Chi blushed as she gazed at the handsome face that was so close to hers. But she quickly pushed the strange feeling welling up inside her aside as she excitedly said: "Oh yeah, guess what! I might have made my first true friend in real life!" Chi clapped her hands together as her ears twitched, and her fluffy tail wagged back and forth.

"Oh? Good for you." Yuki smiled, but by her tone of voice, it sounded more like, "Good for you, but I do not care..."

Chi pouted and said: "You're no fun. You have no idea how things are."

Yuki sighed and patted Chi's head: "It's not that. I know you trust me, but I do not want you to trust people in game so easily. I mean, what if I was like the guy from yesterday, but I was the kind of person who got you to trust me and lower your guard around me? I am not saying I am such a person, but you never know."

Yuki was only saying this for Chi's own good. If she trusted people in game too easily or even the real world with her trusting nature, she would be easily taken advantage of. "I understand that, and I wouldn't act like this with just anyone. I mean, even if I get this close to you..." Chi stepped right up to Yuki, stood on her tiptoes, and brought her lips a centimeter away from Yuki's as she continued: "Will you take advantage of me?"

Yuki felt awkward as she pushed Chi away gently. "Is that not embarrassing for you?"

Chi's whole face was bright red. She lowered her head to try to hide it, but it was already too late. Yuki let out a laugh. She not only found Chi's reaction cute but very funny. Chi's cheeks puffed out as she stomped her feet: "Stop laughing!"

"Haha! Sorry! It was just too cute. Anyway, let's get started on teaching you the basics of my martial arts. First, let me see how flexible you are so I can go from there." Yuki wanted to get right to work. There were many things she wanted to do today and so little time to do it. She watched as Chi did splits and brought her leg to her chest, allowing Yuki to see just how flexible she was. "Okay, so what you will need to work on is bringing your foot to the back of your head like so." Yuki explained and then demonstrated what she meant.

"I see… I never really worked on that before, but I should be able to…." Chi then watched as Yuki showed her how she did her punches. When Yuki said she was starting from the basics, she really meant it.

"We should stop here for now. You should practice this every day. Throw a hundred punches a day to start, and as you slowly begin to learn more things, you will be able to mix them up and get a feel and flow that suits you." Yuki scratched her chin as she continued: "At least that is how I started. Once you have control of your own body and movement, you will slowly form your own unique style."

"Then I will get up an extra hour earlier than normal. Thank you, Ryu." Chi knew this was going to be hard work, but she would not give up so easily. Since Ryu was taking the time to teach her his style of martial arts, she would make sure to learn it and not disappoint Ryu.

"You're welcome. We should probably head out. There is a road to our east that will lead to the closest village called Roland. We will kill all the monsters on the way and hopefully get you to level 2 and me to level 5." Yuki said as she put out the campfire. Before logging on, she had made sure to check up on the world map for Soul Fusion Online. She had found out that the place she was in was called the mortal realm and seemed to be just the main starting area of the game. What amazed her though, was that the said starting area was huge, and only one part of the world was visible on the map while the rest was hidden in a fog. The official site did not explain what lay beyond the fog, which left Yuki very curious. She planned to one day, when she was much stronger, to check out those foggy areas.

As the two made their way to the road, they came across a rock type monster called a Plains Roller. Its whole body was covered in grey rocky armor. "Ryu, watch out!"

Right as Chi yelled, the Plains Roller slammed into Yuki, sending her flying backwards. Luckily she held her sword out to block the attack, so she only lost 10 health. When she got back up on her feet, she only had a split second to react as the Plains Roller was about to slam into her gain. This time Yuki dodged to the side and slashed out and attacked only to have her sword bounce off the rocky surface of the Plains Roller. "Damn it!"

"Yah!" Chi ran up to it and hit it with her wooden sword. The result was just how anyone would imagine it. With her level 1 level, the wooden sword bounced back up, throwing Chi backwards right on her butt. Yuki almost laughed out loud, but when she saw the pitiful look on Chi's face, she swallowed it back.

But this did give Yuki enough time to observe the enemy. She noticed that when it stopped and turned, it unfurled and exposed its soft looking stomach. Yuki waited for the Plains Roller to charge at her, and like before, she dodged to the side, but this time, she followed after the Plains Roller, and right as it unfurled and turned around, she stabbed it over and over six times until it fell down dead. "These things have low Health, but their defenses are insane."

"Sorry Ryu, I was useless…" Chi really felt bad. She hit the Plains Roller with everything she had, only to end up falling flat on her butt.

"It's fine. Even my sword did not cut into it. It seems monsters in this game will not always be as easy to kill as devil rabbits. I have a feeling that as our level grows higher, the monsters will also take more skill to kill. If I did not spot the underbelly of the monster as it stopped to turn, we would still be fighting a hopeless battle." Yuki thought for a moment and looked at her skill window, which now had 4 AP waiting to be used. "I guess it would be best to invest in some healing for now..."

[Acquired: Minor Soul Healing]

[Heals 40 Health]

[Mana cost: 10]