Chapter 10: HQ

Looting took a lot longer than expected, who’d have thought that manually going through each and every single goblin would take this long.

Having looted all the goblins, the people from the guild invited us to go get a drink at their headquarters, being all pretty thirsty and tired, it was an offer we couldn't refuse

“So, a lunar mage huh? You don’t see those a lot.” Crystal says while leading us to their HQ.

“Yeah… Hilda told me they were pretty rare.”

“Yep, indeed. I tried playing it before the first reset but I got bored out too fast. No offense of course. But I can see you are enjoying it a lot.” 

“Definitely!” I smile.

“That’s the most important thing, as long as you are having fun, don’t let anyone tell you to do live life differently.”  

“Thanks for the advice!” I say, my eyes wandering back over to Crystals body. I wonder how her skin feels like. 

“Something wrong?” Crystal caught my gaze.

“Oh...no... it’s nothing…” I blush and quickly turn my head.

“Really now? You weren’t just asking yourself how my skins feels, were you?”

My eyes go wide in shock and I stare at Hilda “There’s two of you!?”

Hilda immediately bursts out in laughter.

“Haha, no, I’m not as intuitive like Hilda.” She grins “I just have the ability to do some surface mind reading, that’s all.” saying that she sticks out her arm. “Here, if you still want to touch it, that is.”

I slowly stick out my hand and feel her skin. It feels incredibly smooth but cold to the touch, like marble. Although it appears she can make it flex pretty easily. “Wow, so smooth!” But even though her skin feels cold I can sense a lot of energy running through her arm. “I think I can feel the power inside of you Crystal…”

“That’s possible. Unlike humanoid creatures, my race has pure energy running through instead of blood. Sure has its advantages like not having to wash the blood of clothes for example, but if I were to die in combat you better not be standing next to me.”

“How so?” I tilt my head a bit.

“The core that powers her race basically goes nuclear when the body is dying. Sending shrapnel everywhere... “ Hilda ads. 

“Yep. Pretty dangerous for allies but you can bring down foes with you as well.” Crystal suddenly runs a few meters ahead of us before stopping at a huge building with big oak double doors. “And here is our cozy home.” 

“Woah, this is definitely an upgrade from the last location.” Élise and Nikki say in unison.

“I know right!” Crystal cheers happily and swings open the doors. “Welcome friends!”

As she opens the door we are greeted to a big open bar. Style wise it reminds me of those old jazz bars you find here and there, with lots of cozy sitting corners and a podium for a band to play. 

“We also have game rooms at the back, you can pool, play darts, watch a movie…”

“You can see movies? What’s the point of playing a game then?” Ember asks.

“Good question! We made it for people who want to meet up in game because they aren’t able to in real life, people in long distance relationships, or who don’t get accepted by their parents.”

Ouch, that stings. 

“Oh, I see! So they can enjoy and go on dates here that would be hard to in real life.”

“Exactly.” Crystal clears her throat and continues on. “If you aren’t into games or things like that you can also go up a level, we have an almost full fledged wellness centre so you can just relax, and also a lot of cozy bedrooms.”

My mouth drops. “Wow, how did you all pay for this.”

Hilda pats me on my shoulder. “Crafting.”

Crystal nods in agreement. “Crafting.” as they both start laughing. 

After finishing the tour and grabbing lunch, Crystal invites us to stay here for the night, and since we are all pretty tired and this is the most fancy place I’ve been in, like ever, we all decide to do so. As it’s not yet time for bed, we all decide to spend some more time relaxing in the HQ. Nikki and Élise decide to go to the wellness centre while the rest of us decide to play some games together. After me and Crystal getting our arses handed to us multiple times by Ember and Hilda it’s pretty much time for bed.

“Darn, those two are way too competitive.” Crystal says, wiping the non-existing sweat from her forehead.

“I think it runs in the family,” I snicker.

“Hey, I heard that!” Ember and Hilda catch up, both still boasting to each other about their finest gaming moments. 

“Anyway, it’s pretty much time for all of us to log off, I’ll show you to your rooms.” Crystal replies.

“I guess…” Suddenly it dawns on me that I won’t be waking up in the gaming world tomorrow.

Hilda grabs me in for a hug. “It’ll be fine, okay?”

“What’s wrong?” Crystal asks.

“Can I tell her?” Hilda whispers.

I nod.

“Well, this little sweet potato found out she’s trans.”

Crystal’s face immediately goes soft with sympathy. “Oh I see. I should’ve guessed.” Crystal approaches and kneels down in front of me. “Hey kiddo, everything will be fine, okay? I went through this all as well, and I turned out somewhat fine.” She smiles.

“A-are you also transgender?”

“Yes, indeed!”

“I-is it hard?”

Crystal sighs but keeps smiling. “I’m not going to lie to you, Amicia, it can be pretty tough at times, especially at the start... But, you’ve got a great sister, Nikki, and Hilda to count on. On top of that I can see you are a tough little cookie, so you will be more than okay!” She ruffles my hair.

“Thanks Crystal.” I hug her, which she clearly wasn’t expecting. 

“No problem.” She cautiously hugs me back.

I release my hug, glad I met another person just like me.

Afterwards we go to the third floor where Crystal shows us our rooms. Élise decided to room with me again, just so I can go to sleep with her comforting me. Leaving Hilda in the clutches of Nikki yet again. I could swear I heard Hilda’s mind yell “Nooooooooooooo!” but that might have been my imagination. We all say goodnight to each other and enter our rooms. Élise immediately rushes over to me and grabs me into a big embrace after she closed the door. 

“My little sister...promise to call me after uni, okay? We will try to figure something out as soon as possible.”

Tears start welling up “I will… c-can we stay like this a bit longer?” I look her into the eyes.

“Of course.” She grabs me even closer as I immediately start crying.

A few minutes go by with me just crying on my sister’s shoulder while she soothingly rubs my back in the embrace. 

“I love you so much sis.” I sniff.

“I love you too, Amicia.” She takes out a handkerchief from her pocket. “Here, blow your nose with this.”

“I was planning on just wiping it on your shoulder…”

“Ew ew ew, please don’t do that.”

“J-just kidding.” I get out of my sister’s embrace and wipe my nose.”I should probably try to sleep now, or the headset will kick me out by itself…”

“That might be best… Want me to sleep next to you?” 

I nod “I’d like that…”

We both undress and get in bed, my sister snuggles closely up to me.

“Good night Amicia.”

“G-good night Lise…” my body starts shivering, like it knows what’s going to happen. Only for it to stop once Élise grabs hold of me and pulls me even closer. Her warmth makes me want to curl up...and just...sleep...