Dwargon

[Apollymi]

Soon enough the guards stood down, but this had nothing to do with the pair approaching, and instead had everything to do with the order given from the Dwarf King. This man seemed to have a presence that was even more massive than that of the Fairy Queen. Even with just a single word, he'd put forth an air of dominating power. Miki had a strange reaction to this, it was mentioned by her before that she wanted to help, but after coming in contact with the commanding voice of this king, it felt like it was now her solemn desire. 'Nani?' the girl thought as she moved forward without a second though, stopping near the steps and giving a gentle curtsy which she stayed in until she was acknowledged properly. 'I don't know why I feel this way, is it magic?' she wondered, but still she had every intention of upholding her current titles and doing everything she could to prevent war between the Dwarves and Fairies.

[Bloodedge]

'The fuck is this? Does this guy have Reiatsu Crush or something?' Kou wondered as he struggled to even make the slightest audible noise. The king witnessed the struggle within these pair, but seemed completely unfazed. Indeed, this was something the king of Dwarves experienced on a daily basis. He spoke once more while viewing these Adventurers, boasting the same glint in his eye that others before him had when viewing the two. "Is this the most you Adventurers can manage? You've freed Dakini, but you can't even speak to me. Pitiful," he said, garnering a glance upward from Kou. Looking directly at the king, Kou attempted to observe his stats. He saw no numbers at all, witnessing instead a slew of question marks and horned skull icons that were glowing red. Being the occasionally testosterone-fueled player he was, he understood exactly what this meant. 'Shit! It's not like the Fairy Queen; he's registered as an enemy.'

Fully disappointed in the Adventurers, the king escaped his throne and began descending the stairs. With every step he made, his very aura forced a pressure upon Kou and Miki, leaving at least the former gasping for breath. "You're the ones from the gate earlier today. If the two of you are Dakini's ambassadors, you must also be the reason she managed to escape. Pity. Perhaps then, I should settle for both of you... though I find it difficult to even think of relying on someone who can't stand my presence."

[Apollymi]

While they were in the presence of the Dwarf King, Miki too was having a set of realizations. 'What? He's ridiculous... there is no way!' she thought quickly. Her mind soon moved to evasive maneuvers and her desire to have nothing to do with this man's crushing aura. She saw his stats as angry little questions marks and skull icons. 'I don't even know how to imagine such a person...' she thought to herself. She'd had the potential worry that running around in an open world game like set up could be hazardous. She'd had this thought when she was level one and going to complete the warthog killing quest. 'No waves, no level capped areas, enemies way out of our league. That's all the confirmation I need to know this world is too real to be a game,' she concluded. This was it, a simple fight or flight reaction, where her heart desired flight more than anything else. In this line of thinking her mind seemed to switch and as the man before her finished his rather shaming sentence she looked up to find his stats had changed. No longer did he have skull icons in her vision. But instead he had simple white numbers and question marks. The surprise on her face was palpable as she jumped back in sheer confusion apparently no longer affected by this man's intense aura. "I'm confused... too confused," she said aloud her face becoming terse as she settled into trying to reason through something she simply didn't understand. 'Was it my fault I thought of him as an enemy?' Her mind wandered as she looked to Kou, he'd never properly registered to her as a enemy though she'd been a bit apprehensive of him at their first meeting. When she was thinking about it, she hadn't seen a single set of enemy stats since that moment in the prior day... perhaps there was something more at play here than she'd figured out.

[Bloodedge]

The Dwarf King was soon standing before the youngsters while his aura crashed down upon them. His expression was stern, but he stopped moving after reaching them. It was by this time that one of the Adventurers - Miki in particular - became capable of speech. "So, one of you can manage," he commented whilst viewing Miki again, that gleam returning to his eye. "I've never heard of you. I would expect more from... you." With his final word, his attention was returned to Kou, who still struggled under the pressure of the king's might. He couldn't fathom why this was happening, but there had to be some secret to Miki becoming unfazed by this aura. 'How'd that happen? She's talking just fine now, and she can move. He's not attacking her though, and he could have killed us both five times over by now. Is it...' Kou's mind raced against a clock he didn't realize existed, shuffling through mechanics of the Age of Eternity game until he reached a conclusion he was mostly certain would benefit him. This came from the king's last words involving his expectations of Kou, which the lad figured could only mean one thing, given the short amount of time he'd spent in this world. "Sou ka," Kou spoke at last. With that, he rose to his feet and turned to face the Dwarf King, narrowing his gaze as he did so. "You've been here a long time to have that many levels and be a king, huh? I bet we look like scrubs... accidentally leaving PVP mode on."

[Apollymi]

Miki looked at the King now, not perturbed by his energy and with his chart still in front of her eyes. She had no idea what he meant by he'd never heard of her. "Me? Why would anyone have heard of me?" she made this an honest question, she didn't immediately grasp the hidden meaning behind his words, but she did, know she'd been in this world less than a single day, and as such the only people she'd had any sort of contact with, were Kou, the Merchant, and the Blacksmith, and the latter two of those lists she'd only really met in passing. She didn't have a name for herself, and wasn't apart of any guild. None of this made any sense, until of course, Kou seemed to gather himself enough to speak and when he did everything became rather clear. "Oh, he's a player too! That's... really freaky. I guess I should have heeded that warning a bit more..." the girl said thinking back to her own adventure which had allowed her to play this game as a human and how she'd been warned of potentially disappearing because of it. Still it was strange that this King could simply recognize them for what they were, in looking at his stats besides his ridiculous level she didn't notice anything strange about him. She also looked to Kou with the same terse look on her face she always had while thinking, trying to find some obvious tell of information she obviously didn't see before. "Wait, how'd he know that?" she said of their obviously senior player acquaintance in this world. Obviously it'd been her intent to figure out how this world worked completely, if only to avail some of her own fears. She'd entered into her bond with Kou to help with that, but realized that maybe this lad had some extra information he'd be willing to give them in exchange for the services they'd likely end up rendering regardless.

[Bloodedge]

"Hmph," the king uttered with the slightest upturn of his lips. Kou seemed to have figured out a matter of importance, and Miki was on-board as well. The latter had an additional concern though, giving the king more information as to how little they knew about this world. That simply wouldn't do. The task he had for them was one which required them to have knowledge, and even knowledge of the PVP-like system in this world was not enough. "You'll do well to keep in mind how the world works. As long as the Power of Waking lies dormant within you, you will not be under threat of death by others like us. If you activate it, though... well, I'm sure you understand. Furthermore, you should both become better-acquainted with the Nexus. It's not so simple here as the press of a key or button, but in the upper-left corner of a stat sheet, there is more detailed information on people like us. Those who belong to this world don't have that readout," the king explained. Kou quickly glanced at the guards and noticed this minor difference in symbols, then returned his gaze to the king and gained a glint in his eye while inspecting this second page of text. "Sou ka. Armando_69... Avatar name Gowther, or... King Gowther now, I guess? There's that Special Class, too. Alter Ego..."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that with this moment of power flexing over, and the lesson learned about the dangers of approaching other players in this world, this Dwarf King was considerate enough to provide some further information to the pair of rather 'young' adventurers. In fact he clarified how he was able to access such information about them, and in doing so Miki immediately put this to the test. She looked at the King and took in his name, and user name about the same time that Kou was stating them aloud, before she returned her attention to the guards inside this place who didn't have any such tagging and as such were obviously just a normal part of this world. "Sou ka, alright. Level up, then flex on everyone, got it." Miki said in a manner most sarcastic, though it wasn't really intentional, it was simply her tone which implied this, regardless of the fact that she'd never actually do anything of the sort. Moving right along, she directed her gaze to Kou and listed off his information as well. "Geno Killer, Avatar Name Kou... Special Class: Alter Ego..." she said calmly having not thought about something glaringly important to the situation. "Alright, Alter Ego is just part of being from the other world, that's cool I guess. Knowing what we're looking for would make it easy to find or avoid, other players.... especially if they don't know that already," she mumbled obvious that her own sneaky style of play was coming back to the forefront of her mind, her voice going softer as something hit her mind like a ton of bricks. "GENO KILLER!? You're that guy?!" there was much surprise in Miki in this moment because the name Geno Killer appeared in every arcade all over Shibuya, the young man the handle was attached to was practically an urban legend.

[Bloodedge]

Kou thoroughly inspected this second menu, also taking the time to consider King Gowther's mention of the Nexus. 'Hmm. How important is the Nexus that he would mention it like that? In the game, it was just the name for the loading lobby and character creation and modification screen. Could the Nexus be like some inner world space for us here?' he wondered. He had a full mental tirade while inspecting Gowther's stats, and in the meantime, Miki was observing his. Kou's train of thought was broken only by the name he often used being spoken so loudly in a moment of realization. "Eh?" he uttered immediately as he snapped back to reality. He was quite apprehensive about his username being out in the open like it was now, as he'd put a very large amount of effort into separating himself from it as if it were some sort of secret identity. However, his face wasn't known in this world, and there were no signs of the players' real names anywhere on these readouts. With that in mind, he was virtually in the clear still. "Uh... yeah," he said with an averted gaze. "I play a lot of games."

In the midst of this exchange, Gowther shared a few words with his guards just out of earshot. He returned his attention to the Adventurers and cleared his throat, quick to address his most concerning issue. "So, it's time for your next quest. Dakini was in our possession because we needed to provide for the Dwarven military force. In the low-lying areas around Dwargon, there are Lizardmen trying to invade us. They are spread out enough that even I cannot go fend them off without leaving the rest of Dwargon to fall, and I can no longer supply the men with greater weapons to win their battles. You two will take care of that problem for me."

[Apollymi]

The matters about the actual Nexus and the other thoughts which were inside of Miki's mind were temporarily put on hold as Kou admitted to being the person she thought he was. He even went about sheepishly addressing it by stating simply that he played a lot of games. "Understatement of the century," Miki mentioned in that same sarcastic way. Still she seemed to let this go pretty quickly, after all, it didn't really matter since they were stuck in another world and all. She was though quite surprised that a lad like 'Geno Killer' bothered wanting to party up with anyone else. Whatever the case, she was content to continue her own thoughts, but it seemed she wouldn't get a chance to immediately. They were soon confronted by the request of King Gowther, who was apparently under quite a bit of strain and in a bit of a pickle.

The knowledge that apparently the Lizardmen were too spread out for the King Gowther to deal with was a bit startling, but about the sort of thing that Miki had been thinking when she'd gently hinted to the Fairy Queen that she wouldn't want to start a war with the Dwarves over her capture. 'Really? You turned the Fairy Queen into a Magisteel farm, instead of just asking her for help? That made sense to you...' Miki thought with the same kind of extreme look on her face. But she also knew that the first thought she had was a bit rough around the edges considering she didn't just want to fight the Dwarf King. "So, as a Fairy Ambassador, I'm going to say you probably could have just asked her to help you out... instead of kidnapping and turning her into a farm. But assuming Kou agrees, I don't actual have any problem helping out with the Lizardmen..." Miki said, having come to this conclusion based on the initial reaction of the Fairy Queen to being freed. She understood the man's decision from a chess players point of view, if he was surrounded he couldn't leave as he was obviously the only thing keeping the enemy out of the city. Even so, he probably could have done a bit of a better job in communicating his needs, especially considering how much knowledge he had of the world's inner workings.

[Bloodedge]

"Eto..." was all Kou could say when Miki offered her retort. After gaining the reputation he had in their original world for solving puzzles, he'd always hoped to avoid the same end result when playing video games. Perhaps though, since they were now physically in this world with no foreseeable method of returning, things could be avoided naturally... bar the apparent expectations of ones such as Gowther. As for Gowther himself, the Dwarf's logic received a bit of questioning from the female Adventurer. He didn't particularly mind this, though he disagreed nonetheless. "The Fairies are not so simple, nor approachable. Do not concern yourself with this; move on and take the quest, if you're capable," he replied. Given Miki's assertion that she was willing if he was, Kou took a step forward and sighed. "Sure, why not? The goal was to go to the Lizardmen anyway. This is starting to work out like an actual quest-line." Without further hesitation, Kou held his left hand against the sheath of his sword and carried with him the Magic Crystals necessary for his weapon creation. Before he managed to leave though, he stopped and addressed the king once more. "Oh... we picked up more Magic Crystal than we needed, so you should make sure your blacksmith holds to his end of the bargain. If he doesn't need to supply your army anymore, he can just give us the weapons we need to fight now, and whatever spare Magisteel he has from these crystals."

[Apollymi]

The words of the Dwarf King Gowther hit Miki's ear strangely. Though he'd mentioned that fairies were not so easily spoken to, nor so easily convinced to take a side, in speaking with the lass they'd freed from the prison it was very obvious to Miki at least, that the Fairy Queen was quite agreeable. She probably would have agreed to be used as a farming source in exchange for booze, even if she wasn't willing to offer outright help. 'Uh-huh, he sounds like a guy with a crush who doesn't know how to talk to the girl in question...' Miki thought of this situation, which was quite strange considering the massive presence of the Dwarf King. Whatever the case, they now had a straight-forward mission to complete, and this was much better for Miki overall. At the same time, Kou mentioned that since the blacksmith they'd been seeking the help of no longer needed to make weapons for an entire army, he'd settle for a weapon upgrade for himself and Miki instead and the left over steel for them. Miki agreed with his sentiment and offered only a nod as she began to move towards Kou as well. She then waited for any response to come from the King then would follow Kou off to whatever thing he thought it most pertinent to do first.

[Bloodedge]

The fresh idea provided by Kou was met by a nod from the king of Dwarves. He could easily see to it that the blacksmith would be ready to provide for the pair by the time they returned, and all he needed to do was glance at one of his guards to have the message sent. Kou continued moving after taking note of this, making his way directly to the smith's shop. Several minutes later, he would emerge from said shop with a new jian in his possession. This one possessed an elaborate hilt and guard featuring a gem socket, and a long, purple tassel roughly two-thirds the size of the blade. It was also, of course, made with a Magisteel blade. This would finally allow the lad the ability to utilize his combination of Class and Type. He inspected his own stat sheet when leaving the smith, finding that he had been boosted to Level 8 after completing the Fairy Queen's quest. It certainly wouldn't be long before all things became even easier for him. "Alright! This sword feels great! I don't know how I feel about leaving the Magisteel here for pickup later, but I really don't wanna add anymore weight to myself right now. Which way do you wanna head first?"

[Apollymi]

Upon leaving the Dwarf King, and with word sent ahead, a few moments after their arrival to the shop, Miki also left with a new weapon in hand. For herself a long broad spear with two large joints underneath the head of it and an open circle. It was more ornate than her previous weapon and featured a large straight blade at the tip as she preferred. "Ano, it looks a bit like a boar spear, though I probably should have expected that... whatever, at least I can poke and dash now~" she said having a good feel for the weapon after just a few moments. She was also aware of her level jump which was up to 8 now that they'd completed the Fairy Queen's quest. With this in mind, when asked where they should go, she thought about the map she'd seen. "Um... east, it has the least defenses thus probably has the least strong enemies trying to push their way through it..." the girl concluded, knowing that all ranged weapons were aligned at the front of the city and the east depended solely on its natural defenses.

[Bloodedge]

With his sword out of the new sheath he possessed, Kou decided to perform a few tricks involving numerous spins, twirls, and flips of the weapon before it slid back into its home. During these maneuvers, Miki offered her suggestion for the first region they would work to defend. Kou's eyes locked onto the eastern horizon, and his body followed suit. "Good plan. Adding to that, I say we flank the attackers. Lizardmen are tricky, and I don't think even this new speed will be enough to meet them head-on wave after wave," he commented while on the move. He still had the worry of actual strength presented by these Lizardmen, bu there was no turning away from the challenge in Kou's mind. "Our synergy is bad for real cooperative combat, so I think we should consider a way around that. With both of us being Knight Classes, together we'll be at a huge disadvantage against large numbers with any sort of variety. I think one of us should be an advance guard, and the other should pick up the slack."

[Apollymi]

Her idea of taking the eastern front was accepted rather easily, and with it, Kou began to move towards that place. Miki also took up pace striding rather easily along aside as they discussed a proper strategy for confronting their current task. His idea to flank the Lizardmen was agreeable, in the first place it would be good to catch them by surprise if it could happen that way. And secondly if they flanked them then they could cut off most exits and keep them contained to a smaller area. "Hai, I agree with that... I don't really have the desire to face anything head on while being low level anyways..." she said with a genuine bit of surety. Cautious was in general her play style of choice, so the idea of not taking on wave after wave of enemies was one she could get behind. Soon enough the lad moved on to their current lack of synergy, and how they could overcome it. She could only partly agree with the idea that they couldn't properly cooperatively do battle, but her idea about it, mostly had to do with her own knowledge of what her style would be like as she advanced in level.

"Yeah, running two Knight-classes would be a bit difficult. I don't think cooperative combat will be harder a bit later, though. For now, if we need an advance guard I'd have to volunteer you," she said calmly. Even so, she felt the need to further justify this so as not to sound like she was putting off the major part of the work on him, nor... did she want him to feel like she would be taking advantage of the situation in this way. "Not to throw you under the bus or anything. I just have a much better range of movement and advanced weapon range without needing extra skills. I'll be able to move a bit freer around the battle field and slip in and out to do major damage and pick up anything you leave behind. I could also pop up for a bit of assistance if you needed it directly, since I won't tire out very easily." Miki finished her statement on the lighter side of things. She didn't intend to abandon him to any part of this, but their earlier interaction had let her know, that she would be of better use in combat dealing killing blows and sneaking up on enemies rather than trying to approach and fight them directly even though she felt comfortable enough with her weapon to use it directly.