Chapter 146: About Those Two
———Kenni———
<12: 03 pm>
“...Dang it.” Another loss. For crying out loud can I even get one win here before we part ways?
“Another win for me, not for thee.” She said with a subtle smugness to it. For someone as edgy and serious as her, she sure knows how to be quippy. “So. Another round?”
“Sure. Why not? I ought to at least get one win one of these days.” I said, having the urge to grit my teeth as I said it. “...When did you even learn to be so good at chess?”
“Practice, of course.” She answered with something that is not satisfying in any way at all.
“Right…” She has never been that open about her reasons for being adept at certain skills, and that might even be intentional or even a case at all. When I say some vague stuff it sounds like I’m trolling, and I usually do, but with her, words that should be ironic are actually unironic. “Honestly, I’d imagine that you’d make a lot of people tear their hair out in frustration just from how those words are completely lacking in deception.”
“If they cannot comprehend something so simple, then I’m afraid their ability to comprehend anything above grade school level is automatically compromised.” Well ain’t that harsh. People nowadays don’t really feel satisfied by a simple answer, anything longer than a sentence won’t feel that compelling. “Sometimes the reason things are the way they are is simply because they exist. There isn’t a need for a compelling argument or history.”
“It does add a nice spice to life when things are complicated or have a greater meaning to it. No doubt that is why people try to find something compelling or complicated in every little thing.” Trying to say that things simply happened is so boring in so many ways, and things that are actually that simple are quite small. “There are things that you really shouldn’t accept as simple. Like a story that is only a few sentences long. No matter how interesting the premise is on paper, the outlandish details that you might imply, nor the ridiculous names you put inside, if it’s so straightforward and short, you are more or less letting everyone down, aren't you?”
“Some stories still retain their weight even when they are short, I wouldn’t call that a compelling argument by itself.” She calmly retorted. It’s not really a hill I’m willing to die on, so let’s bring something else up.
“Whatever you say. Really though, I’m more surprised that you even know how to play this well. I thought you barely had any hobbies.” In fact, I don’t even know what she does in her free time, especially before the Eclipse. In general a lot of details about her are completely blank. Like, where does she even live? I don’t even know that much. No one dared to ask her for a sleepover at her place. All we really know is that she was in an orphanage at one point, one that was demolished a decade back, and we only know that from an off-handed comment she made.
“I can pick up anything to do to waste time. I simply don’t do it with others often.” She barely interacted with anyone that wasn't in the same classroom, so that isn’t surprising at all.
“Your backstory is a massive blackhole, you know that?” I can’t help but to say that. She never bothered to clarify anything about it, keeping it a complete mystery.
“I believe those exact words were said many times before by many different people. Like always, I choose to ignore it.” She dully said, her expression remained rather stiff. Outside of a battle she never looks particularly emotive.
“I suppose a mysterious aura is hard to pass up. The fear of the unknown and the power of imagination filling in the place of the unknown. Nothing is more fun, more scary, and more interesting than something you can’t know.” There is a saying that the audience’s imagination is often way more impressive than whatever the author could write up.
That doesn’t really work in real life though. Too many factors will hinder your ability to remain completely mysterious and out of the field of view. Eventually enough breadcrumbs will lead those you try to close off from to whatever you are hiding.
…With Emmie, she has a lot going for her. Especially before the Eclipse, her presence is… lacking. She is non-descript to an average person. To us she is a lunatic fighting junkie who is roleplaying too hard and probably killed a man in the past, but to others her calm manner and the lack of social interaction makes her hard to approach and better off just ignoring.
Her current standing is obviously quite different, but her sheer strength alone is enough deterrent to stop people from looking into her business. She is never subtle with how strong she is. In the current state of the world she is obviously far from the strongest by a lot, but she is no small fish in a tiny pond.
…Ah crap. Not again.
“Checkmate already. It seems your skill is deteriorating." Yeah, thanks for the observation, I really needed that right now. Yep.
“Alright, another game.” I said to get right back to business. We don’t have anything better to do today anyway, so what’s the rush to do something else?
Okay, reset the board, let’s try again…
“...By the way, did you really have to go kill another giant monster? I think one is enough to send a message.” I asked, wondering what the reason for that was. I thought she was doing it to flex more than anything. If she wants to train and cultivate her strength, fighting more of weaker monsters would’ve been a better way.
“I was merely trying to see if I could kill it faster. With hindsight, in the first fight I was more cautious than I needed to be.” She explained. So it wasn’t actually meant to be a flex? I can never accurately read her, it seems.
“I see… It’s weird to hear that you were being cautious though. I thought the whole keeping it at a distance thing was just you toying with your food.” That’s the first thing that came to mind once I saw her moving around the place and letting it do nothing more than swiping at the landscape.
“It seemed that you have quite an unflattering impression of me, not that it wasn’t clear before.” Who ever said anything negative about her?
“Get your head out of the gutter. Is being called extremely confident such a bad look?” I said with a small smirk. “There’s no shame in admitting that you’re feeling cocky, you know?”
“And such an attitude is usually one that leads to disaster. Going against an unknown variable like that beast, I can’t afford to be so relaxed.” She replied. I don’t think the gap was so little that she needed to be that cautious, but you do you, I guess.
Unlike me who can fly around at relatively low cost of mana and therefore always have the sky to go to for refuge, her options are a bit less despite the higher firepower.
If I mess around and get badly hurt I can easily fly away, her escape options are a bit less… free. Of course I doubt that she would just keel over from being hit badly a few times. She is made of some tough stuff.
“I think you are free to relax and let your guard down once in a while. I mean, no one even knows where you live for crying out loud. You don’t need to worry about someone killing you in your sleep.” I said, with a corner of my mouth raised. I ain’t gonna do that, of course. I also don’t even think there’s anyone that actually has a big enough beef with her to really start doing something so drastic.
Okay. I think I am actually going to get… Crud. Did I make a wrong move?
“So close, yet so far.” She said before taking her turn and… Oh. That’s a checkmate. That’s her getting a checkmate on me because I made a really bad move. “So. I supposed we keep going? Or are we actually going to talk about our surroundings?”
“...You know what? That’s fair. It’s kinda weird we haven't discussed the stuff around us yet.” After all, a Fartarban Realm consisting of hills and valleys that are mostly rocks isn’t that interesting by itself, but these crystal trees definitely do, alongside a bunch of spiky rock formations sprouting out of the ground, some of which have crystals embedded in them. It’s like a sea of sea urchins made of stone.
Playing chess in such a weird and probably dangerous area is definitely not something most people would dare to do nor does it make that much sense since it’s not like we needed to come here to play chess of all things. Using all the weird rocks and crystals around here to play chess is pretty funny though. Let me take a picture real quick.
“We’ve already collected quite a bit of gems. I’m sure the people in that organization would love to buy it off us.” Emmie pointed out. Yeah. Just go to them at midnight and pawn them off.
Doesn’t look like anyone really cared to come in here, and there is a good reason for that.
“So what do we do about the worms?” It’s one of the few monster species that exist around here, and the most dangerous one. We haven’t really confronted them directly, just flying above and ignoring them since we want to sightsee and get a better look at the landscape first.
“Pluck out their teeth and sell it.” She said before jumping down back to the ground from the tall rock formation we cut down and made its top flat. “Keep the materials safe. I need to do my daily cardio.”
*Smash* *Rumble*
She swung her fist into the ground and caused it to shake.
Then as if they were weeds, multiple giant worms came out of the ground while Emmie nonchalantly dodge their attempts of ambushing her by emerging out from underneath her feet. They all look rather gross and are purplish in color much like the entire area in general. The crystal stuff are all rather pretty, but these worms specifically are all around rather disgusting. The other monsters are all rather sleek in looks and definitely give the area a more inviting look, some not looking that aggressive, these giant worms are definitely not in that camp.
Meanwhile I put all the materials we were playing around with in the bag and fly up high and observe the fight from afar.
These worms are long and bulky, only slightly less bulky than that giant lizard from yesterday, and probably a bit longer.
While they are weaker than that thing, these monsters made up for it in large numbers. While many might be tempted to go inside a valley of crystals and other minerals, the ferocity and speed of these monsters is simply not something most people could handle.
*Slash* *Chop* *Slice*
She simply swings her hands around like they are bladed weapons, cutting through the worms like they were paper mache.
*Crack* *Grab* *Throw* *Pierce*
She started grabbing the protruding spikes from the ground and threw them at the worms like a massive spear, piercing through them and ending their assault.
And in less than a minute all the worms that she caught the attention of are now all dead. All of them are torn to shreds while the majority of their bodies are probably still in the ground.
The only thing we really care about are their teeth though. Those fleshy insides can stay in the dirt.
“Should have me try it next time. Can’t have you steal all the experience points.” I said once I landed back down.
“If another opportunity arises, then you may.” She said before walking towards the pile of worm parts. “First, let’s collect some before we do anything else.”
“Roger.” I said before following her lead.