Book 8: Chapter 1:

What was once nothing more than a stretch of coastline in front of the mountains quickly developed into something greater. First, there was The Shoebill and a couple of small structures that provided Fenrir and his group with somewhere to sleep other than in the hammocks of their boat, even if most of them still opted for the comfort of said hammocks in the end. Then, once they learned of the incoming attack from the serpent, they worked together with the other nearby villages to prepare defenses for the focused attack. This led to the construction of the keep, barracks for players from the other villages to sleep in, and some houses for NPCs that moved into the area who began converting some of the space into farmland.

Once the battle against the serpent was over, Fenrir expected that most people would want to return to their villages. The players who came to help were sent by the other village’s leaders to help with construction and preparing defenses, not to settle the area. But, as it turned out, many of them liked the idea of building a new town from the ground up.

After all, that was part of what led them to this coast anyways. Everybody who chose to live in any of the villages along this coast were generally of the same mindset. They wanted to get away from the rest of the game’s playerbase to live nice, simple lives where they could basically start from nothing. The idea of moving somewhere that still needed building up was far more appealing to them than something like moving into a prebuilt town or city that was already running smoothly without them. They didn’t want to immediately be tossed into the system of grinding, earning money, and defending against other players.

Having to defend against the serpent aside, Fenrir’s idea of building a new city offered these players exactly what they were looking for. Not all of these players arrived to the area before the other villages were already mostly finished, so many of them never got the opportunity to be the settlers that they wanted to be. Now, with Fenrir, they had the inspiration to try it out. Very few of these players wanted to just go out and build a house on their own without any help away from everybody else. But, under Fenrir, these players found one another and a leader who intended to do exactly what they dreamed of.

The hard work of these players unified under a common goal was all that it took to turn the area into a proper town.

It helped that they were in a game. The game might not have made it easier for them to construct buildings, but the fact that it was inside of a game was all that mattered to them.

Construction work in real life? Most of these players would never even think about that. Nobody wanted to work outside in hot weather over long shifts listening to orders being shouted at them as they performed hard, manual labor.

Construction work in-game? There was nothing wrong with staying indoors in real life so that they could… work outside in hot weather, in a virtual world, over long shifts that would be in violation of labor laws in real life, while listening to orders being shouted at them as they performed hard, manual labor.

No matter what year it might have been, gamers always remained the same. Tedious tasks that would never be voluntarily done in real life were considered fun as long as they were inside of a game. Just like how somebody might not have any problem, and might even find it relaxing, mining rocks for over eighty hours total in a single week. Would they ever do that in real life? Absolutely not. Yet, some people lived for that sort of masochistic work in virtual worlds. Even in FTO, where things were more or less just as realistic as they were in reality, people gladly performed the equivalent of slave labor taken to the extreme.

The only people in-game who didn’t want to kill their bodies over such laborious work were the NPCs. They actually had common sense, or at least acted like they did, and worked normal hours. Well, normal hours as far as a fantasy world went. They still woke up early in the morning, spent most of the day tending to their fields, and then went to sleep to repeat it all over again. Even so, they at least took breaks, spent time with their families, and had to sleep unlike the players who considered sleep to be for the weak.

If these gamers were able to put all of their extreme efforts into the real world instead of the virtual one, then society might advance at a rate never before seen at any point in human history!

But, alas, video games were more important than the advancement of society and humanity.

Now, in the center of a miniature colosseum built near the center of the town, some players and NPCs gathered around to watch the fight.

That little fighting tournament that they had before proved to be something that everybody was interested in seeing more of. Whether they were random battles or proper tournaments, people just really loved to watch others beat the crap out of each other. It wasn’t only for scheduled fights, either. The colosseum became the site for all combat training and sparring.

Quite a few players chose to just lounge around in the colosseum’s stands whenever they didn’t have anything else to do or when taking a break. There was always a good chance that they’d get to watch a fight if they did, and now that was proven true once again.

There was only one other player that Fenrir knew of who he could really benefit from sparring against to develop his style. Cassiel and Azalabulia made good sparring partners, but he wanted to fight against somebody who fought just like he did.

And that somebody was none other than the brawling, extremely muscular, ever-smiling Mister Smiles.

Sparring together practically became a daily thing for them after he returned from his vacation with everybody in real life. A bit of real-life studying was even thrown into the mix. He really wanted to take his fighting to the next level due to the increasing pressure he felt to be more responsible, so he began watching videos online of varying martial arts styles. Boxing, kickboxing, karate, muay thai, jiujitsu – he basically watched how to perform techniques from every single martial arts style that there was. It probably would have been more effective to focus on a single one, but he ended up taking little elements from all of them to implement in his in-game brawling style.

Well, perhaps it couldn’t even be considered brawling anymore. Brawling implied a rougher and noisier sort of fighting. The one thing that the research helped with was refining his style into something more efficient and smoother. Quieter, too, as he practiced proper breathing techniques and stopped making so much noise while fighting.

It seemed like he wasn’t the only one improving, either. Fenrir had no idea whether Mister Smiles was doing research on his own or learning from fighting against him, but he could see—and feel—the improved style and power of Mister Smiles.

Unfortunately for Fenrir, he lacked the advantage of having extremely durable “armor” that easily absorbed practically all physical damage.

But that was alright. These sparring sessions were less about defeating the other and more about fighting for the sake of improvement. If they beat the other person to the point where they could no longer stand up, that meant less fighting and less fighting meant less improvement.

As for those watching in the audience, Fenrir’s girlfriends often came to watch the show as well. Nell in particular made sure to never miss one of their sparring sessions.

“Ah, to watch two men so violently brutalize one another. Is it not such a wonderful, primal sight?” Nell asked as Fenrir and Mister Smiles landed heavy punches directly in the center of each other’s face.

“That one,” Eva said, pausing to take another bite out of her loaded potato, “looked like it hurt.”

It was only the two of them for this sparring session. The rest of the girls were off busy with other tasks. Other tasks meaning bedroom tasks led by Serra.

Back to those fighting, while defeating the other person might not have been a goal for either of them, there was clearly one party who looked ready to drop at any moment and one party who looked the same as when they started. Of course, given that Mister Smiles had his head covered by a giant, smiling mask, it was impossible to know how he really felt. Just as it was impossible to know that he was actually a she.

Fenrir, on the other hand, couldn’t hide his exhaustion. The blood and bruises might have tried to hide his exhaustion, but they weren’t able to do it on their own.

Another exchange of vicious blows left Fenrir stumbling backwards, hardly able to remain standing. Even so, he didn’t want to stop. Why would he when he was having so much fun?

Some players might not have minded performing hard, physical labor in-game when they never would have wanted to do it in real life.

Other players, like Fenrir, didn’t mind experiencing severe pain and full-body soreness from fighting in-game despite never wanting to feel it in real life.

“I must admit,” Nell said, “I am not quite sure why he so adamantly refuses to use his ability during these bouts.”

“You mean the one that makes him fluffier?” Eva asked. There was also the fact that it made him significantly stronger, but his girlfriends had more fun referring to it as the ability that made him fluffier.

“Right, that one!”

“Well, look at it this way. The stronger he becomes without it, the stronger he’ll be when he actually uses it. Plus he can’t use it all the time.”

“Ah, I see. That makes sense. Also, have you seen Saya around today?”

Fenrir and Mister Smiles’ fists met one another head on with enough force that it created a small shockwave that blew through the hair of everybody watching.

“Nope,” Eva answered. “I guess she’s training again.”

Nell sighed. “Goodness, that girl. Always off training on her own instead of allowing us to accompany her.”

“Maybe she’s self-conscious. She’ll have to train a ton if she wants to catch up to us considering that she’s basically a brand-new character compared to us.”

“But what if she gets hurt?! Or what if she finds herself pinned down by some brutal, ravenous monster five times her size?! To be alone in the forest, training so desperately to look good in the eyes of those she cares about, only to be pinned down by a feral beast and—”

“I’m starting to think this is turning into one of your fantasies instead of being genuine concern for her.”

Nell cleared her throat. “My point is that she should at least allow us to accompany her in the event of something going right – wrong, I mean. Yes, wrong.”

“You’re horrible sometimes, you know?”

“Unfortunately, I cannot deny that.”

“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t even if you could.”

Nell smiled and leaned her head against Eva’s shoulder. “You know me so well.”

“I do wonder how she’s even training. She never has a weapon or anything with her. Maybe she’s hiding it so we don’t find out what route she chose?”

“Perhaps. Or maybe she is following the path of my hero and practicing with her fists?”

“I doubt it. She doesn’t really seem like the brawler type. My bet’s on magic.”

“I could picture that! Though, I suppose that when I think of her choosing a role, I imagine her dressed as a nun and performing healing magic for everybody. And when I think of a nun… I think of being alone and surrounded by demons who want nothing more than to—”

“It’s time to stop,” Saya said, now sitting right behind the other two. She made sure to sit closer to Eva than Nell given how Nell always wanted to be clingier than she was prepared for. “And there’s no way that I’m ever dressing up like a nun.”

Nell originally planned on greeting Saya after jumping from hearing her voice behind them, but that last thing she said gave her another idea. “Not even if my hero asks you to?”

A hint of red colored Saya’s cheeks. “Not – not even if he asks.”

“But you already wear that sweater for him, do you not?”

“That’s different!”

“Ah… if only he were not so obsessed with sweaters. There are so many outfits he could request.”

“It’s not like I’d wear anything that he requests just because he’s the one who’s asks!”

Eva poked Nell’s shoulder to get her attention. “Wouldn’t you just get him to ask her to wear what you want to wear?”

Nell put on the most innocent expression that she possibly could. “Of course not! I would never take advantage of my hero by using him to dress Saya up in costumes that would look absolutely adorable on her!”

“That doesn’t sound convincing at all!” Saya shouted.

Eva shrugged. “I thought she sounded pretty convincing.”

“Don’t play along with her!”

“My dear Saya, you seem to be mistaken about something. Eva and I are naught but the two most honest individuals that you could ever meet! We would certainly never play along with one another to support a clear lie,” Nell said while putting no effort into actually sounding convincing.

As for Eva, she simply nodded along with everything that Nell said. “Yeah. What she said.”

“You – ugh. I thought that onii—I mean… I – I thought that Fenrir’s teasing was the worst of the worst,” Saya said, trying not to blush too hard after almost calling him onii-wan in front of them.

That was when another voice spoke up, this time coming from in front of where Eva and Nell sat and sounding much deeper in tone. “I see that you’re comfortable enough around them now to move into your tsun phase,” Fenrir said.

And now it was impossible for Saya to not turn red as she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. “It’s not like I’m doing it on purpose or anything!”

“Ah… my hero, I believe I understand now why you love your ‘tsundere fanservice’ from Cassiel so much,” Nell said and nodded a couple of times. “I have been converted. I will join you in your righteous cause of wanting such fanservice!”

“It is pretty cute,” Eva agreed.

The attack from all three of them was too much for Saya to handle. That meant it was time to try and change subjects. “O-Fenrir!”

Little did Saya realize that she just gave them even more to tease her about.

With a smirk, Fenrir repeated what she it sounded like she said. “‘Oh Fenrir?’”

“What a dramatic way of calling out to you!” Nell joined in. “I have ‘my hero,’ and now she has ‘oh Fenrir!’”

“That – I – I wasn’t trying to do something like that!” Saya protested. “And this isn’t even one of those tsundere moments where I did something and then pretend I didn’t mean it! I seriously didn’t mean it!”

“It’s okay,” Eva said. “I believe you.”

“Thank you!”

“That’s the kind of thing you’d say in the bedroom instead of as a greeting, right?”

“I – you – I – tha-that’s not—” Saya grabbed her twintails and used them to cover up her face. “Being the worst must be contagious and he’s infected all of you! You’re all the worst!”

“My hero… I understand so much of what you enjoy now,” Nell said. “The tsundere fanservice, teasing her – if this is what you got to enjoy the entire time she was your virtual assistant, I must say you have excellent taste!”

Fenrir looked awfully proud of himself as he nodded his head. “I know.”

“Also, I must say, you look horrible. Are you in need of a healer?”

“That – that’s what I was going to ask,” Saya said under her breath, just barely loud enough for Fenrir to hear her. She technically already knew the answer to that seeing as how she was still a virtual assistant inside of his head, but she wanted to ask regardless.

Naturally, Fenrir reached over the others to pet her head between those canid ears of hers. As tsundere and pouty as she might have been, none of that could possibly stop her from pressing her head up against his petting hand as she looked away. “I’m fine,” he answered. “Aside from the fact that I can barely see and am in tons of pain, so I guess I’m almost dead.”

Saya’s eyes that previously looked anywhere but at Fenrir now focused on him hard enough to stare a hole straight through him. “You need to be more careful!”

“Wouldn’t the tsundere thing be wishing that I was dead instead of only almost dead?”

And now those eyes of hers narrowed at him. “I don’t like seeing you all beat up like this.”

While Fenrir might have been used to the dere moments of her tsundere personality, Nell was not. Sure, Fenrir appreciated that Saya was concerned for him and felt bad about making her worry, but Nell had to try her absolute best to not interrupt the moment by wrapping her arms around Saya and forcing her into a cuddling session. Instead of doing that, Nell sat there clenching her fists and squirming in her seat. She knew that if she practically tackled and pampered the life out of Saya right then and there that it would ruin the precious moment she was watching between them.

Truly a difficult position to be in for her.

“I’ll be more careful next time,” Fenrir said before finally taking his hand away from Saya’s head. Now, he placed his hands on top of Nell’s and Eva’s heads to pet them. “How’d your training go?”

“It… it went fine,” Saya answered. “I think… I need you to come with me next time.”

“I finally get to see what you’ve decided for yourself?”

“O-only because I need your help.”

“Sure. Will everybody else get to see after?”

Saya looked away again and nodded.

“Oh, can Rock and Shogun come? They’ve been pretty lazy lately. I think we need to get them going out on walks more often.”

“They’re always welcome to do what they want,” Saya answered as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. After all, they were canines. Why wouldn’t they be allowed to do anything? “But you need healed first!”

“I know.” Fenrir turned his attention to Eva and Nell. “Got any idea where Cass Cass is?”

“At Serra’s mercy, surely,” Nell answered.

“I guess she was in the mood for the biggest of us,” Eva said with a shrug.

“How come you two didn’t join her? I figure that would’ve been more fun than sitting around here,” Fenrir said.

“Well,” Nell was the first to answer, “I suppose that neither of us were in the mood for that. Besides, it is not often the two of us get to spend time together without everybody else around us. We could not simply leave you without any cheerleaders, either!”

“I didn’t hear any cheering.”

“We cheered on the inside,” Eva explained.

“Makes sense.” Fenrir looked at Saya again. “If you’re up for it, want me to help you with whatever it is after I go get healed? There are still a few hours left before we have to get ready and go to the meeting.” Nell stiffened up a bit when she heard mention of the meeting. It was obvious to all of them and they all understood why. Fenrir figured that was probably part of why she wasn’t in the mood to have fun in the bedroom. And if Nell wasn’t in the mood, Eva probably chose to keep her company instead of leaving her alone. “Don’t forget, Nell,” Fenrir took his hand off of her head to instead rest it on her shoulder, “you don’t have to do this.”

Nell shook her head and placed her hand on top of his. “Worry not, my hero. While I may be nervous, you are the one who said I would be perfect for this. Not only that, but I must admit I am excited myself. It is… simply not something that I have any experience with. Regardless, I shall try my best and am eager to hear what the others think!”

“Well, as long as it’s still something you want.”

“I promise, my hero, it is.”

“Good. Then, Saya?”

“O-oh. Yeah. We can go after you’re healed. I can get Rock and Shogun and wait for you with my stuff by the forest road,” Saya answered. They even had roads leading to various nearby areas now. The forest road was the one that led from the town’s center west toward the forest, naturally.

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll go ahead and get healed now… assuming that I don’t collapse on the way over.”

“Worry not, my hero,” Nell spoke up. “The two of us shall accompany you there! Ah, wait. What of your opponent?” She looked around behind him for any sign of Mister Smiles only not to see anybody there.

“He started panicking and left while waving at me. I guess he must have had something important in real life to do. Maybe had food delivered.”

“So,” Eva said, “you’re telling us that you’re in this shape and the battle wasn’t even over yet?”

“Right,” Fenrir answered with a nod.

“How much longer were you planning on fighting for?”

“I guess we were both really in the mood, so probably until one of us died.”

“You know that damages your progress, right?”

“Technically, but it’s not like it could erase the experience we gained from fighting. Even if there’s some hidden skill boosting my melee damage that loses progress when I die, the actual experience from training stays us, and that’s what’s important.”

“Fair enough. That’s a good point.”

“So, ready to be my crouches?”

“Your… crouches? Are you sure that the fight didn’t deal some brain damage to you?”

“What? My crouches. What else would I say?”

Saya placed her face against her palm and said, “Onii-wan, it’s—" She immediately stopped when she realized her mistake.

Once more, Nell found herself struggling to restrain herself from pouncing Saya. Then there was Fenrir with that smug look of satisfaction on his face from her calling him onii-wan in front of the others. Eva didn’t feel strongly about the matter either way, but she did find it a bit amusing since she knew just how hard Saya tried not to say it around them from previous mistakes.

“Crutches, Fenrir!” Saya shouted. “They’re crutches! Not crouches!”

“Isn’t a crutch a couch?” Fenrir asked.

“Wha—how?! How do you even ask something like that? A couch is a couch! You just said them as two totally different things!”

“Right, crouches.”

Eva stood up and looked into Fenrir’s eyes. “You’re not having a stroke, are you? Did you seriously suffer brain damage or something?”

“He’s fine,” Saya answered seeing as how she had access to all of his latest health. Still being his virtual assistant had its perks. “He’s just stupid.”

“Oh. Makes sense.” Eva gave Fenrir a friendly poke on the forehead before pulling one of his arms around her shoulder. Given the height difference between them, though, she wasn’t that effective as a couch, crouch, nor as a crutch. “Come on, big guy. Let’s get you to Cass. She’ll make you feel all better.”

“Can she make him smarter, too?” Saya asked.

“Unfortunately, I think that’s impossible even with the latest of modern science.”

“Wait,” Fenrir said. “Did I just have some sort of massive stupid moment?”

“If only you knew, my hero,” Nell said.

“I was saying crutches, right?”

“There, there. It will be okay. Allow us to help you to the healing bosom of Cassiel.”

“I don’t think her healing magic comes from her chest.”

Nell shushed him. “Your mind is clearly overworked as is.”

“You guys are making me feel seriously stupid.”

“Have you tried not being stupid then?” Saya asked with a smirk.

Fenrir pouted and stuck his tongue out at her. “The next time any of you make a mistake when talking, I’m not letting you on it.”

“Not… on it?” Eva asked. “Do you mean you’re not letting us off?”

“I give up. I’m turning into a mute. I’m only communicating with sign language from now on.”

“My hero, your sign language has even more mistakes than your spoken language according to Serra,” Nell said.

Between Mister Smiles and now this, there was just no winning.