The Transience of Her

Band of Guildmates

“Mom, dad, I'm home.”

Oh, dad's already home.

“How are you doing, sonny?”

“I'm fine.”

“The way you said that contradicts with the sadness you felt when she passed away, right?”

“I know. But I have to stay strong and move on.”

I don't want my parents to know that she has started life in another world.

They would not believe my story, for one.

Also, the sheer absurdness of it all makes it hard for me, the lone witness to this phenomenon, to explain to anyone other than myself... or even her.

“That's good. As long as you remember your dearly departed friend, she will never die. Oh, by the way. You plan to attend her burial?”

“Nope.”

“I respect your decision. You don't want your heart broken again by seeing her laid down six feet under, right?”

“Touche.”

“I'll handle the groceries. You can go to your room and rest.”

“Thanks.”

I head upstairs, towards my room.

I set aside my headphones and my music player, as the album has finished playing right by the time my feet touched the domains of home.

Let's see... it's not sundown yet. To be exact, it's still 4:55 pm.

I have 10 minutes of napping before I can dive straight into my homework and playtime.

Worrying about her isn't on tonight's agenda, by the way.

So after 10 minutes of dozing off, I dive straight into my homework.

And once I'm done with it...

“Soren! Dinner's ready!”

“I'm on it, mom!”

Perfect timing.

The minute hands of the clock keep progressing; and before I know it, our little family dinner's done.

We've had onion rings, Japanese-style homemade chicken nuggets, wonton soup, pork dumplings, Chinese-style fried rice, and coconut-almond gelato.

I'm also done with my homework, where I replaced bloated capacitors with new ones on a 10-year-old server motherboard that can match the performance of newer ones in games, which will be attractive for those who are looking for great price-to-performance deals on used PC parts.

All it takes to pass the evening time is to play Skypaths Online once more.

After I've met Lianna once more, I'm more than motivated to dive back into the MMORPG, because I believe that she has been reincarnated. I saw it with my own eyes, and the way she speaks is definitely her style.

Alright, what am I waiting for?

Link start!

Whoops, wrong game.

And now I'm back in Tulyasi once more.

There's no way I can know when she's online or where her exact location is; that kind of monitoring is best left to the GM and his team.

So I'll rely on Lady Luck alone to meet her once again.

The first place to check out is the plaza.

The plaza, as expected, is packed to the brim with players just waiting to chill out after rigorous dungeon sleuthing.

It can be hard to search for her in this jam-packed crowd, but trying to find her is miles better than just standing around and doing nothing.

And in the southeast area of the plaza's fountain, I spot her.

“Lianna! Thank goodness you're here!”

“I've been waiting for you too, Soren!”

“Too bad this game doesn't have a player search feature.”

“There is one. You can search for players and know their whereabouts when you are all in a guild.”

“Oh, a guild. I'm adamant on joining one.”

“Yeah, you prefer playing alone.”

“But not because I'm some antisocial jerk. I'm far from one, see?”

“Of course. You just want to avoid toxic players, even though the GM is strict on them.”

“I can never know when I run into one.”

“Yeah.”

“By the way, there's one question I've been meaning to ask, but forgot to bring that up when we last chatted back at the shack.”

“Fire away.”

“You fine with leaving your games, albums, and other possessions behind back at the place you once called home?”

“There's no turning back. My relatives vowed to keep my possessions safe until the time someone worthy gets to have their hands on them. I overheard them when they were checking the spot where I bit the dust.”

“Good to know.”

“Well, we have to get going.”

“Where?”

“Wherever I feel like it.”

“OK, I'll be your wingman.”

We walk away from the crowded plaza, to somewhere less crowded.

And after 15 minutes of endless walking (and for some reason, we don't feel tired), we stumble upon... the guild house.

Augh, why this out of all places?

Oh well. I can't say no to her.

Once we enter the guild house, groups of adventurers chatting and laughing greet us.

Hmm... those adventurers are mostly seasoned players, given that they are mostly on third-tier jobs.

They don't look all bad to me.

Guess that's plus points for me to join a guild. Even if they're a little.

Lianna then notices the huge information board on the guild house's lobby.

Without saying a word, she grabs my hand and takes me there.

“W-Whoa! What're you doing?!”

Seconds later, a huge poster on the board that she points at gives the answer.

“Maybe you can join my guild! It's fun!”

In this game, players who belong to guilds have not just their own names displayed, but also the guild name and the guild emblem.

When I first met Lianna, the name being displayed is “Linnia Beferia, The Sandwich Guild.” Obviously, the emblem is just a picture of a tasty sandwich.

I take a peek at the poster.

“Our guild, The Sandwich Guild, is looking for a competent and eligible recruit to our wonderful band of guildmates.

“Here are our requirements.

1. Be at level 50 and up, and in a third-tier job.

2. Be a person of good moral character (must have never been reported and found guilty of violations of in-game rules such as cheating, botting, flaming and/or griefing other players, etc.).

3. You must pass our rigorous screening tests that involve mastery of your skills in your chosen job.

“For details, please contact our guild master, Maricar van der Valde. She's available from 5-10 pm.”

My jaw drops at the requirements needed to join her guild.

“Man, this sounds like a recruitment ad for promising policemen or soldiers!”

“You're right. Our guild leader comes from a long line of servicemen.”

“Good thing the recruitment tests here don't involve stuff like going through obstacle courses, parachute jumps, or surviving in a jungle for a week. Those would be tough on me.”

I've just watched a documentary where recruits are trained to be the most elite of soldiers, by the way.

“Yeah, I remember that day in high school when you passed out during PE class...”

She saw me fainting under the hot sun while trying to complete a track and field relay race.

That was... rather humiliating of me.

“When you gained consciousness an hour later, Soren, you complained that the sun was too hot when the race took place.”

“Yeah! Blame it all on global warming!”

“Good thing that environmental problem doesn't exist here. Pretty good and stable weather all year round, yeah.”

At least she's enjoying the perks of being in another world.

“So, Soren. You up for it?”

OK, time to drop the facade of the lone wolf. I'll join your guild. Even though I might get a little inconvenienced and frustrated at times.

“Yeah!”

I give off a radiating smile, which reassures her.

“Great! Now follow me. Our guild is over there.”

I follow her footsteps towards a group of adventurers who are gender-balanced.

They all seem to be imposing adventurers, but once the guildmaster's mouth opens...

“Welcome back, Linnia! We've missed you so much!”

“I miss you all, too!”

As the two hug, I certainly know of one thing.

Her guildmates are, most likely, from other countries; and they have no idea that one of their guildmates is dead, more so even possessing her own avatar.

So as a gesture of respect, I choose not to spill the beans on her real status.

The guildmaster, Maricar van der Valde, notices the dashing guy beside her.

“And who is your companion, by the way?”

I take the initiative and answer.

“I'm Melchor Kam'arin, a level 67 Infernal Gunner. Pleased to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too. I guess I have to formally introduce myself. I'm Maricar van der Valde, a level 80 Arch Priestess and the guildmaster of The Sandwich Guild.”

The Arch Priestess is a third-tier job exclusive to female players, being given the highest of blessings from the benevolent gods of Eleftheria. She is capable of casting the most potent of healing magic, buffs, and offensive holy spells.

“Now, my trusted band of guildmates, can you also please introduce yourselves?”

Without any delays, the other guild members give their own salutations.

“Name's Leggy Redoux, a level 77 Shield Guardian. Hope you're as good as me.”

The Shield Guardian is the most defense-oriented third-tier job. They can equip a shield on each hand, and their defensive maneuvers protect more fragile adventurers by taking the bullet with their durable armor and more. They can also go on the offensive by using the shields as bashing and throwing weapons.

“Zoredd Legaspi, level 71 Dragon Warlock at your service!”

The male-exclusive Dragon Warlock combines typical warlock magic with the powers of the four elemental dragons that act as protectors of a faraway realm. He can wield two elements at the same time, even contradicting ones, and can even summon said dragons to decimate his foes.

“Aulina Freya Exeiji here. A respectable level 85 Ableblade, ready for any battle!”

The Ableblade is capable of wielding all kinds of bladed weapons with ease. One-handed swords, two-handed swords, katanas, axes, knives, bladed spears – all are equally deadly in the hands of one. Truly the best offense-oriented third-tier job out there.

“Giovanna Dewey, Psychic Synergist. My level is 69.”

The Psychic Synergist is the most unique out of all the available third-tier jobs in Skypaths Online. While they can cast typical first- and second-tier magic well, they also have an arsenal of unique spells that involve precognition, time manipulation, and delaying and canceling enemy attacks by manipulating the enemies' minds.

While I'm at it, I'll also explain the game's character naming system.

Players go by a given name, then surname, each with a maximum of 20 characters.

No numbers, symbols except for dashes, apostrophes, and spaces, or even emojis are allowed; in order to avoid absurd character names which will clash with the game's setting.

Two names in the given name are allowed, as long as there is a space between them. As for the surname, a maximum of three names are allowed, as long as one or two of them are prepositional names (such as in the case of “van der Valde”). These naming conventions allow for more variety while still retaining the original spirit of the setting.

The guildmaster then goes back to introducing her guild.

“As you may have read from the recruitment poster, we're one adventurer short. We just want our guild to be a small but tight-knit one; and we don't want too many cooks to spoil the broth, so to speak.”

“Miss Maricar, if I may, I want to get out of being a lone wolf and be a trusting companion to you all, just like me and Linnia.”

“Perfect. You've ticked one of the boxes of requirements. Now to scan you for any violations of this world's rules...”

She does a special scanning spell exclusive to guildmasters, which screens possible recruits for any infractions which can destroy the guild's reputation if the recruit in question is unchecked.

“Great. You have a clean record. That's another box ticked off. Now for the hardest box to tick.”

“Ah, the screening tests, right?”

“We won't reveal them to you unless we rank you a provisional guild member first. Here.”

With another wave of her hand, something happens.

My name display is now “Melchor Kam'arin, The Sandwich Guild [Provisional]”.

“Once you've passed our tests, you're worthy of joining our ranks as a full-fledged member. Understood?”

I nod.

“Great. Can we now start with the screening tests?”

I mean, right away?!

I nervously stare at Lianna, then at Maricar, then at the other guildmates, then back to Lianna.

Seconds of silence later...

“OK. Challenge accepted!”

Lianna is naturally ecstatic at my decision.

“Yes, you've finally said yes! Hope you can say the same thing when we get married!”

By the way, the marriage mechanic is planned in a future update, but it has been beset by delays.

I blush as I react...

“C-C'mon... this ain't the time and place for that...”

Maricar the guildmaster then interrupts.

“Alright then. Let's all head to our own guild HQ, on the outskirts of Tulyasi.”

With a high-level teleportation spell, she sends us all to what I hopefully call my home away from home.