34 34***Reasons Why

Nylon

First Stage Unlocked!

THE MOSSY CAVES

'Made it!!!!' I shouted out in my mind as Angus tumbled through the entrance to the first stage of the dungeon! I took a serious gamble on this! If Angus was even a bit too slow in her execution, we would have been buried right along side Dorgon! Or worst, became bug food!

Still though, I didn't expect her to drag me along with her! I almost thought we we're going to die for a second!!!

"*cough* *cough*How am I...?!" Angus said behind me as she rolled unto her arms and braced herself up.

"Ah, thank goodness!!! I thought you were gonna d... um, Angus? What are you doing?!" I said to a rather pissed looking Angus who was struggling to get up, killing intent radiating out of her!

"Why you little..... S********************!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed as she took a step forward!

"Wait Angus! You're still...."

"Ach!!" Angus screamed as she fell in a heap!

"Paralyzed..." I saw when she entered that move, and I knew that she'd be under heavy paralysis. Perhaps even more so, since what ever she did had a recoil effect. I myself went under heavy paralysis when I did Shield Thrust in my condition. Now my body's hating me for it.

For now, all we could do was sit - well, lie.... stay crumpled up? - on the ground as we let our avatars naturally regenerate. I couldn't log out, so that means we aren't in a safe area, yet there are no mobs of any kind in sight! Just a ton of bioluminescent moss covering each available surface in view, bathing us in blue-green hues of light! The stirred up dust from the cave in gave the room an eerie feel that really drove home the fact that we are in a fantasy game!

"... How did you do it?" Angus asked after some time. By this time, I had enough strength to move into a sitting position. I was still paralyzed slightly, but Angus was still in the worst of it.

"Hm? Do what?" I asked, surprised at her sudden question.

"Save my life, how did you do it?" She asked again, her voice staying surprisingly steady.

"Hm? Ah, that." I started, shuffling over a bit to see he staring intently at me! I had to stop myself before I laughed at the sight! "*Pfft* I used a health jelly." Sorry, its just that, seeing her butt pointing up in the air like that while she looked at me with that serious expression, was too much of a gap to not laugh at!

"A health jelly? Were did you even get that?" She asked me in bewilderment.

Allow me to explain. A health jelly is a rare monster that only has a 0.01% chance of spawning up with mobs. That means, out of every 10,000 mobs, one of them will have a health jelly on them. They are precious commodities that are essential for emergencies when fighting as they can restore up to 50 hp. if you pop them on someone! They're best suited for solo players that take on dungeons on there own, so usually, parties buy a lot of them before going into raids. They sell for cheap and they work fast, so they're popular, but low leveled area villages like Hobside don't have them.

"I picked it up from when you were killing mobs in the Outskirts." I replied. It didn't show up in my inventory because I had it running around in my armor so that I didn't use it by accident. Funny thing about them is, they burst easily against skin, but on anything else, they're near indestructible.

"... Why?" She asked under her breath in return after some time.

"Sorry?" I asked her back as I barely heard her.

"WHY???!!!!!!!" She snapped at me, "Why are you jumping into every fight like some freaking death s***?! Why are you so gung ho on whether or not I curse?! Why do you have to be so damn annoying?! Why did it hurt so f***** much when you ignored me yet still treated me like always when I snapped at you?! Why are you so goddamned f******* OP?! Why are you still here?! Why is it that every time you die, it's always to protect ME?!!!!!!!!" She screamed out that last part, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

She asked a bunch of questions, but based on her tone, I could tell which one she really wanted answered.

"Why do you want to be alive?" I asked her back.

"W-what?" She asked, baffled at my question.

"When I first saw you, the first thing I thought was 'she has purple hair!'" I started, lying down to get comfortable. "I don't know if you know this, but all avatars in this game are made based on a subconscious copy of how we want to visualize ourselves in the game. Everything, from our body size to how deep the color of our eyes are, are determined from that subconscious image we want of ourselves.

"While 'most everything else we have is due to subjective needs and wants, like 'I want to be buff' or 'I look slim and busty', or even things like 'I am really fat' or 'I have squirrel-like teeth' would come up in our subconscious, and thus, the game finds out how we really want to look. That's why even though there's an option to change how we look, players rarely change how they look and if they do, then not by much.

"One thing that isn't determined by subjective desires though, is the hair. Or rather, the hair color." I stop for a bit to let that sink in for a bit before I continued.

"The color of our hair is determined by one thing and one thing only though, emotions. I know this because they did a few tests on people who showed all spectrums of colour. What they found out was just mind blowing!

"They found that each colour specified a different emotion that is directly linked to the reason why you play the game, and also that the depth of the colour tells how intense that emotion is! So if you wanted to have a little fun, your colour, green in this case, would be light green. But if you where hell bent on having as much fun as humanly possible, it would reach almost black!" I stopped to see if she was still listening, and she was still staring intensely. The paralysis probably wore off already, and I told as much before continuing while she straightened up fast, blushing profusely!

"Mixes of the colours are so common, its rare to find straight coloured heads in this game, and as for the colours, green - as you'd know - is for having fun, red would be because of competitiveness, blue for looking cool, orange for adventure, and purple.... " I paused to look at her head of hair before continuing,

"... is for escape." I said, then I crawled up to her and sat facing her. "Whatever it is your running from, you want to escape it badly. And judging from the depth of the colour, I'd say that reality isn't the were your problem begins and ends."

"W-w-what would you know, huh?! what If I told you that I'm just running from reality, huh?" She replied, flustered!

"True, if I were to base that theory off of just your hair colour, I'd be short sighted at best." I agreed. "But I'm pretty sure its not that simple."

"Oh? And what makes you so sure?" She rebutted.

"Because you're not just playing to run away from reality, you're trying to actually escape your current situation." I challenged her. Anything I say after this, is my own speculation, so if I'm wrong, she might never open back up to me! I'll just have to push forward!

"You're trying to get the achievement Forever Alive aren't you?" I asked. Forever Alive is an achievement that you get when you go 30 levels without dying even once! As a perk, you get one out of 5 available buffs that differ depending on your Masteries. She's using the Multi Wield Mastery, and she doesn't want to die, which means she's trying to get it at level 30, which means...

"You want the extra life perk for the upcoming Battle Mini don't you." I asked in finality, staring down on her, daring her to say I'm wrong. The Battle Mini is a mini tournament for any players level 30 and under to enter. Usually, the prizes are pretty sub par, but since it's the anniversary, rumors have been floating around that a rare item is the top prize for the tournament. An item that is probably so rare, people would pay money for it. A LOT of money....

"I don't no why you'd need money, nor am I going to ask." I said in conclusion as I got up and brushed of my behind, "But just know that I've got you're back." I finished, feeling really cool as I walked of without a second glace back at her!

"W-well then what about your hair!" She shot back at me. Wait... my hair....

"What does white mean then?" She shot at me again. My hair was white?! Why didn't I realize this before?! Actually, thinking about it now, I don't know how I look do I?

*grawr!!!* *spit* I was shaken out of my musing when a lvl8 flying... - thing? Not really sure? - spat at us! And just like that, we started are first dungeon delve!