Chapter 14
Tyson
When we make it back to town, it’s still around midday, the sun greeting us just as we step through the town gates. The usual NPCs of Halia are already settled into their daily routine.
“Let’s get those damn seeds to Leon first. Maybe another quest will appear after that.” I turn to Rohan, and he nods.
Hopefully the next quest is more along the lines of helping us get the fuck out here.
Rohan follows closely behind me as we retrace our route to the garden where we found Leon the first time.
When we reach that side of the map, he’s there sitting underneath one of the bigger trees, his hood still covering most of his face.
“Hey there! How’d you boys fare?” he says, looking up as we approach him.
“We made it, that’s all that matters,” I say as Rohan hands him the seeds from his pouch.
“Nice! Just what I was looking for! You boys are good!” He gives us what I think is a grin. “Ah, I do have something else for you to do for me, though. So sorry to bother you.”
“What is it?” Rohan tilts his head, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. He’s probably hoping for the same thing I am. That this one will get us out or get us closer. Nothing makes sense as things are now. I can’t see how seeds are going to help us escape.
“Might be out of your level range, even yours,” he says, nodding towards me.
“Okay, that’s fine. What is it?” I ask him this time, squinting my eyes at him.
“I’m looking for a special soil to use as fertilizer, but it can only be found in the lavender fields.”
“That is a high-level map,” I say, “But we’ll figure it out. You can send the quest.” When I say this, Rohan snaps his head toward me again. He already looks irritated, and I can’t imagine what the problem will be this time. I’m dying to know.
“Great! I’ll send it right your way. You boys be careful out there!” Leon says before sitting back down underneath the tree. The quest shows up in our user interface, and we both accept it.
I can feel the annoyance rolling off of Rohan in waves as we walk back towards the town’s center.
“What is it now?” I sigh.
“I don’t know, this just seems fucking dumb and a waste of time!” he snaps.
“Well, what else do you propose we do?”
“How about trying to get the fuck out of here instead of helping some NPC with his gardening?!” Rohan shoots back.
“Rohan, it’s the only quest that’s come to us on its own.”
“Okay, so? That doesn’t mean it’s the right one to get us out,” he huffs, crossing his arms.
“Fine, let’s just complete this part and see where it goes. Clearly something is up with the game if it’s giving us quests we didn’t originally have before getting trapped in here.”
Rohan stands, staring at the ground for a little while before opening his mouth. “Yeah. I guess.” He mutters, and my brows shoot up. I was expecting a bit more resistance. Not that I’m complaining cause fuck, it’s tiring sometimes, but still…
“Cool. So, we should probably head to the grind map. We’re gonna need to level up a bit more before we head to the lavender fields.” I nod toward the direction we need to start heading in.
“Hm … Sounds good,” Rohan says, biting his lip.
What’s gotten into him?
The gravel crunches beneath our feet as we travel toward the map with the monsters for us to level on.
We’ve not gone too far from Halia because it’ll be getting dark soon, but there’s enough time to at least level once or twice.
Especially for me to level Rohan. I watch as he stops to pick up some loot from the grass off the side of the road.
He pockets what he’s found and joins me back on the path.
My head tilts when his eyes flicker to my mouth. “How do you even kiss with those things?” he asks, brushing past me as he continues down the path.
“What?” I say, following alongside him.
“The piercings,” Rohan mumbles, and I swear his ears turn red, but I could be tired as fuck. Or it could be the sun beating down on us right now.
I lean in closer to the side of his face, smirking when his breath skips. “I could show you.”
And god do I love doing this sometimes. You see, when he gets feisty over nothing, it kind of annoys me, but when he tells me off for purposely fucking with him, it’s kind of cute.
I’ll admit it.
“You’re so stupid,” Rohan mutters, pushing me away.
I pinch my brows. I wasn’t expecting that. He’s usually a lot more ‘shut the fuck up and get away from me before I kill you,’ but he was definitely a little pink just now. Maybe he’s thinking of me as Zero. I chuckle before following closely behind the rest of the way to the map.
I summon my blade as we approach and the monsters become alert to our presence. “I’ll level you first, and then we can tag team them after that,” I say, and he surprises me again when he just nods.
Rohan quick dashes to a safe distance from the monsters. I start taking out the tiger-like creatures one by one. They’re a little closer to my level but still below, so I try to take them slowly. As I kill a larger number of the pack, their little, or should I say big, friends start to notice me.
I’m piercing my sword into one tiger before two others appear to protect him. The second one pounces on me, and I roll away, but the third one lands its attack, and I lose a third of my HP.
Shit. I forgot how strong they were.
“Tyson! Are you okay!?” Rohan yells from across the map.
“Yeah, stay there!” I say, my back still facing him. If I take my eyes off these fuckers for even a second, I could be tonight’s dinner.
I kill the first one I was originally taking on before I turn to his other two friends.
They begin to circle me. My breath starts to shallow out.
I’m getting tired. I try to dash away when the second tiger jumps at me, slashing his huge paw across my chest. The attack lands, knocking the wind out of me.
My HP dips even more, dangerously low.
I suck in a deep breath, collecting myself before running at full speed and driving my blade into the tiger’s body. He dissolves into thin air, but I’ve left my back open, and his friend jumps, landing on top of me.
“Tyson!” Rohan shouts, panic coloring his voice. I can feel him dashing toward me and the monster. He makes it close enough to pierce his lance through its body, the tip turning light blue with electricity crackling around it. The tiger dissipates.
Rohan helps me up, and I stumble into his body a little. He tries to hold me steady as best he can, looking up at me; his face is pinched. If I was absolutely insane, I’d say little Chandra was worried about me.
He swallows, still eyeing me, his brows furrow before he suddenly closes the distance between us and presses his lips to mine.
Rohan Chandra is kissing me?
My entire body freezes, the beat of my heart stutters. The only thing I feel is the softness of his lips. I’ve felt them before when I had to perform CPR on him, but this…
This is different.
This might keep me up at night.
After I regain my senses, my lids lower and I move my lips against his. I begin to feel relaxed and light again. Green sparks encircle both of us as Rohan presses his torso into mine, grabbing onto the front of my black shirt.
And as soon as a moan escapes me. As soon as I open my mouth to slip my tongue in to taste him … to devour him whole…
He breaks away.
My brow lifts as I gaze down at him. His eyes are shifting a little. I hope he can’t tell how hungry and unsatisfied he’s left me.
“It’s… A healing move.” Rohan says, his face red as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.
Ah, I’m familiar with this move. It’s quite sweet; one player can give another some of their HP via kiss. Our new boss really fought for this one, and we figured he was probably super into the fan service-y shit.
Gotta remind myself to thank him later.
“You … saved me. So I … just wanted to help you.” He stumbles over his words, avoiding my gaze. He’s still so close I can feel his body trembling a little.
A smirk creeps slowly across my face. “Right.”
“If you wanted a kiss, you could’ve just said so, Rohan.”
“I don’t!” He snaps, and there it is.
“Oh really?” I say over his lips, his chest rising and falling rapidly against me.
“Yes, really!” Rohan bites back. “Let’s just finish the stupid map and go back. It’s getting dark out!” he says before dashing away, leaving me cold.