Setting it aside for now, he plugged in the game pad and adjusted a few settings on his computer so they were ready for play. Thankfully, his internet connection was fairly strong today, which considering temperamental internet, was a godsend for an online game. His mouse hovered over the ‘play’ button for only a second before he pressed down, decisively, and proceeded to put the HMD over his head. Thankfully, while the patching process was underway, the character creation segment was still active. So, with character already made, and pre-loaded onto The World, Noel commenced play as the Twin Blade, Maoh.
Mac Anu
Δ Server
Through the screen of the visor, Noel was able to see through the eyes of his own avatar and into the world that stretched before him. He patted himself down, checking through his inventory, current gear and his current skills before taking a look at the town proper. It was a waterfront town, or at least a town built around a big river running through. From the looks of things, it was the main hub of the game, or at least highly visited. It could’ve been for a few reasons, including but not limited to people meeting up with lower levelled friends, and tormenting newer players. He put his index finger across his chin as he pondered further, staring off into space and quite possibly getting in the way. Taking a few steps forward, he figured he’d better investigate the town at least a little bit, to understand what people were referring to. A group of his friends had only recently started new characters, so they were talking about Mac Anu at club the last time he was in attendance. He eventually made his way over to the bridge and decided to peer over the edge. The water was a nice blue, clean, and otherwise unpolluted. He half expected it to be considering the sheer amount of people traffic that the server was surely used to, but the water was appearing pure all the same. Leaving a hand on the railing, he looked around and spotted a group of players nearby, chatting and having fun.
Upon closer inspection, it looked as though they were berating a member of their group, but they seemed to be taking it in their stride. Noel moved on, heading back over to where he started to where a slowly rotating disk sat isolated from the stores in town. People seemed to be going up to it, doing something, and disappearing. He thought back to the manual he was reading on the train and made the connection: this must be the Chaos Gate. Basically, the Chaos Gate acted as, as its name suggested, a gateway to various parts of the game, be it other servers or the maps in which you encountered monsters or alike. The manual also included a few really basic ones to get players started, which is helpful, but they also strongly recommended mixing and matching as you pleased to make your experience truly unique. Considering it was a feature, it was probably something that should be tested, that way he would have something interesting to talk about with the rest of the group the next time he saw them. Noel flicked through the keywords that contributed to the parameters of the field he would visit. Not really knowing what each thing meant just yet, he picked ones that sounded interesting and went with that.
Raising his hand upwards like a few of the others around him, he stated firmly; “Δ: Discovered Eternal Hypha!” In a flash he was off. The loading screen seemed to be something similar to what a rainbow would throw up, and then accelerate at a blinding speed to wash out a good portion of its colour. After a couple of seconds looking at blinding colours, Noel appeared in the field he had chosen. Before him was a verdant grassland that looked like it had been surviving through the summer. Patches here and there were off colour, or browned due to the heat, and tree cover seemed scarce, but still existent. It was a pleasant afternoon, nearly on the brink of sunset, so the sky was a blanket of ambers to pinks and then indigo on the opposite horizon. The hilly landscape made it hard to see where anything was, so is first instinct was to get somewhere higher and survey the ley of the land. Off in the distance there was a stone structure, which he could only assume was his ultimate destination, at least for this field. Across the field there were swirling disks of gold energy, enemy portals, spaced by erratic amounts with a few between him and the dungeon entrance. With a deep breath, he jogged over to the first one, looking up at it. As he approached, it began to pulse.
Dropping his hands to his sides, he grabbed his weapons, gleaming blades of red and gold, and braced himself for impact. The first fight in his character’s life was going to set the mood for the rest of it. Not as dramatic as it was meant to be, but it was going to be the main learning session on how the game mechanics worked. The portal shrunk down and formed into a small, long-eared creature with skin of blue and holding a sword. Noel eased up a little, thinking to himself if this was all that was going to come forth. The creature before him let out a small cackle and charged, brandishing its sword wildly in the air. Startled, Noel dropped his weapon and was left with only the one, falling backwards as the Goblin swiped at him, narrowly missing. Noel struggled to remember what it was that he had seen in his skill list only minutes ago, not sure what was what. Choosing blindly and aiming, he let loose a spell. A vortex of green energy whirled and whorled forth from his hand, picking up leaves and debris from the ground and pelting the Goblin with it. Relatively unfazed, the Goblin lashed out and smacked Noel with his sword, taking off a portion of his total health, but reeling from the effects of the spell.
Using his chance, Noel scrambled over to his missing weapon, ducking down and picking it up. Now fully armed once more, Noel turned to the Goblin and readied himself. The Goblin, being only a meek level one monster, charged again, oblivious to its depleted reserved of energy. Noel decided to try something else, remembering a combat skill in his list as opposed to a spell. Digging his feet into the ground, he sped up, knocking the Goblin’s sword out of the way, swiping at the Goblin only to miss once, twice, but on the third strike it hit its mark and sent the poor thing tumbling backwards. Keeping the pressure on, Noel jumped and raised both weapons up, striking downwards into a kneeling position and plunging his weapons into the Goblin’s chest, leaving the thing bleeding and dead on the ground. Wiping his brow, Noel rose, looking around. It was eerily quiet, and half expected the exchange to wake something up. Finding nothing, he continued on to the next portal, waking it up in the same way he did the first.
This time, the portal pulsed and spat out a set of swords that hovered in the air a few feet off the ground, and another Goblin. Not exactly sure of how to deal with the phantom weapon, his attention was turned to the Goblin first as they both charged. Stepping off to the side caused the floating swords to knock into the Goblin, making it stumble forwards from the momentum; which was then knocked backwards by a well-placed cut vertically up its face, followed by a sidewards swipe which only grazed the flesh. The swords came in next, cutting downwards but finding nothing but blades barring their path, but broke through the guard and sent the Twin Blade reeling. Picking himself up he parried an oncoming attack and rolled away from another, kicking up with his feet to land upright on the recovery. Without thinking twice, he took the hit to his magic to cast another spell, letting the wind pick up organic waste from the ground and pelting the pair of monsters with it. Throwing one of his weapons at the Goblin to finish it off, Noel leapt out of the way, firing another spell to hit the Disco Knife, uncertain that he could take it in melee combat just yet. Standing in the wake of the fallen enemies, Noel decided that it was time for the dungeon; he had had enough practise for now, it was time to move on and experience more.
Running right past the other gate and not waiting for it to spawn monsters, Noel ran down into the dungeon and stopped just inside once he was certain that he was no longer being followed. It was a ruin of sorts, stone built into the dirt walls of whatever it was he was standing in. Being a level one dungeon, it shouldn’t be much different from the battles on the surface. Pressing on, the first room contained very little, the second, even less. Without a map to really go off, he cursed the fact he had neglected to look into getting any items to really help him through this. Moving forward, the next room contained a monster portal, which spat out another Goblin. The pacing in this game was slow, although for that he was thankful, all things considering. Dispatching that with a Saber Dance followed by kicking it into the nearest wall was sufficient to allow passage into the next room. The dungeon went on for a while, very little in the way of monsters and scenery that didn’t change all that much, either. Perhaps the combination of words wasn’t the best choice, but at least this route was fairly scenic. He was surely another level stronger by now. He’d killed what, a bunch of flying swords and a handful of goblins? Reaching the end of the dungeon yielded very little. There was a box sitting in front of a large ornate statue, which was supposedly his prize. The chest was also apparently loadbearing on the statue, for when it was opened, the statue fell over.
Making his way back to Mac Anu, Noel wondered what he should do next. All things considering, he should probably stock up on some items so that navigation and survivability were made easier. Other than that, he figured that a lot of the game would be grinding out levels in dungeons and hunting for more gear. The other parts of classic games he was used to, such as quests and alike seemed to elude his current position in the game, but perhaps it would come later. All the exploits his friends talked about seemed so interesting, but at the moment, he wasn’t sure what the hype was about. He decided to stock up on some basic items, listening to the NPCs for advice on what to take with him. It wasn’t long before he was all stocked up, and a lot more adequately prepared for what was to come next. He figured he could give the keyword game another go, or just pick something from the booklet, but he just wasn’t certain of what would come about whatever it was that he picked.
As he was making his way back over to the Chaos Gate, a group of players nearby were discussing something, talking in raised voices, possibly from all the excitement. There were a few frustrated faces in the small group, but it wasn’t caused out of sheer anger, merely disappointment. He’d seen this thing before, too; it was refreshing knowing that so many things he had seen in game were just like the outside world. It was almost a little disappointing knowing that at first glance, there wasn’t much to be gained from playing this game outside having fun and enjoying it as a game. That being said, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing to do just that; after all, it was a game. Upon listening in, the players were talking about a specific field that they had been told about on the BBS; the main gaming board similar to a forum in which players can talk to one another and discuss various parts of the game. Apparently, the field had some kind of challenge that was too hard to complete for low levelled characters, but he had noticed a distinct lack of anyone mentioning dying, so he was curious to see if it was just some tough monsters or something else. They didn’t mention the field specifically, so if he wanted to look further, he’d have to visit the BBS.
Taking a small break from the game, Noel logged out and got himself a snack. Coming back and settling down in his chair, he flicked through the posts, trying to find what could be so interesting for lower levelled players. There were the usual, expected posts of players ranting about certain monsters being way too strong, and certain classes being so much better than others; but a lot of these, in Noel’s opinion, were stemming from players who had little self-esteem or people who had egos the size of zeppelins. Soon enough, he stumbled across what was likely to be the cause of the commotion. A small post listed by the GMs running the game, possibly posing as a creature for the sake of an event. The gimmick was a game of tag supposedly, but only against a Goblin. He wondered what could possibly be so hard about it; he had killed those before. A part of him knew that there was going to be something different about this goblin, but he wouldn’t know what until actually heading into the map and assessing the situation for himself. He put the HMD back onto his head and logged back in, touching back down into Mac Anu, spinning quickly on his heel and facing the Chaos Gate. “Δ: Detestable Golden Sunny Demon!”
A familiar spray of coloured splashed across his display, loading in the area. This time, the field he was in was a little arid, and the soil seemed dry and coarse. The sun belt down on them, and the glare was almost distracting, as waves of heat pulsed down, distorting the landscape in the distance with a melting sway. Before him stood a Goblin, picking his teeth with his sword, noticing him after a few seconds and introducing himself. “Have you come to play, gob? I bet you can’t catch me, gob!” Before Noel could even utter a word, he sped off, leaving the poor Twin Blade behind in a small cloud of dust. Not sure of what to do, Noel decided to give chase, running after the goblin. There were times that he thought he was getting close, but right as he was about to make contact, Stehoney would just slip right out from underneath him, leaving him behind. So the gimmick of the level was clearly to chase down and defeat the goblin. However, the goblin moved much faster than what a character normally could, so there had to be some trick to it. “What’s wrong, gob? Tired already, gob? Ha!”
Stehoney ran off into the distance and out of sight, causing Noel to just sigh out of frustration. He returned to Mac Anu for now, to see if there was anything he had overlooked in the way of items. The first port of call was the ‘Magickery’, a store for all things magical. Hopefully something there would be of use, be it some kind of potion or scroll or some other third thing which he had yet to discover. The store had shelves upon shelves of magical supplies; tendrils of coloured smoke rose from the surface of viscous liquids and alike sitting in cauldrons about the place. He thought of incense, the heady aroma that saturated the senses, and clouded the mind of all that was reasonable. He was undecided; did he want to go the full assault road and melt him down before he ran away, or play this smart and pull out something sneaky? As he was puzzling the whole thing over, someone else entered the store, the bell at the door ringing to give that sense of realism. The NPC acting as the store owner came out from the back room and welcomed the new player. Noel watched him carefully, watching what he did in case he tipped anything off. As if knowing he was being watched, he turned to face Noel. “Is zere something vrong, comrade?”
Noel fumbled the potion he was holding, dropping it and then picking it back up to replace on the shelf. The player that spoke had a thick, gravelly accent, and imagined that he probably hailed from Russia. The surprising thing wasn’t that he was from Russia, or appeared to be; after all, he was Australian and it was common practise to play on the North American servers purely due to the population. What was surprising that he had confronted him so suddenly. Noel looked at the player, large axe on his back and instinctively double checked to see if he was armed. The other player laughed heartily as Noel’s fingertips brushed against his blades. Noel flinched, realising what he was doing and placed his hands elsewhere as the player came over, looking at what Noel was playing with. ”You must be new, zese items are…” He trailed off, rolling his eyes and rolling his wrist around as if to dismiss them casualy. ”Zey are no good. Is good for ze running but is no good for ze fighting.” He suddenly got really loud, roudy, as he went into a long speech about how important it was to fight life’s problems head on and be all… strong.
Noel took the opportunity to pay for a few things and leave the store before the Heavy Axe noticed he was gone. Thankfully, another player had entered and had acted as a distraction for him to slip away. He jogged to the Chaos Gate, flicking through his menu to find the field keywords to take him back to the goblin. Then the colours came back; oh how he was thankful that he didn’t have any form of epilepsy. Touching back down in the field alerted Stehoney to his presence. “You’re back, gob? Thought you’d give it another try?” The goblin was lounging on a rock on his side, peering down at the Twin Blade with sword in hand. Noel nodded, expression determined, and perhaps the faintest bit fierce. Stehoney jumped down, scratched the back of his head and stretched a little. Meanwhile, Noel had already pulled out something that he had purchased from the store; a handy little item that would increase his movement speed. If the Heavy Axe was true in that they were good for running away, then surely their application could be used to chase down someone getting away, too. He crushed the capsule in his hand as Stehoney made to get away, and dashed off after him, keeping pace. Surprised with how fast the Twin Blade was now moving, he figured that he had caught on. “Hey, gob! So you discovered Speed Charms, right? Too bad that’s not going to be enough, gob!”
Noel, a little confused about his statement considering so far, he had been gaining ground, soon came to realise what the goblin meant as Stehoney kicked up dust into his face to prevent him from seeing for a brief while. Noel came to a halt, unsure of what to do. There was clearly more to this than met the eye, and a simple trick like that wasn’t going to work. Stehoney was now a fair way away and had appeared to have stopped. Noel looked around to see what he could use to make this a little easier, but nothing seemed to stick out. Looking at what he had in his inventory, he had very little to work with too; with only one extra Speed Charm, and a few other odds and ends, he wasn’t faring too well. Stehoney at this point got bored and just decided to wander around, but kept watch on Noel just in case he tried anything. Giving up, Noel backed off to Mac Anu to figure out what he could do in the meantime. Maybe it was better to be resigned to grind up a few levels in dungeons first, learn some more skills, and then take on Stehoney again. After all, he had just started playing. Turning on his heel to face the Chaos Gate, thought back to the manual, thinking about what the booklet had said about starting areas, and which ones would be best for newer players. Deciding on another basic field until he got used to the combat controls, he stated his desired destination. “Δ: Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field!”
What Noel was treated to was a verdant field, sunshine pouring down and an array of trees and flowers scattered about the place to give an extra depth of colour. It screamed newbie friendly, and that made him a little happier, at least for the time being. Across the field, he could see the gold portals littered about, each one housing monsters for him to slay. Stepping forward, he approached the closest one, weapons drawn, bracing himself for what was to come. In the span of a few seconds, Goblins were upon him. Brandishing various kinds of rusty weaponry, they charged and made for the Twin Blade, outnumbering him. Noel was not deterred, digging his feet into the ground he pushed off, lunging forward and swiping across at the closest Goblin, and spinning on the balls of his feet to parry an oncoming attack. The goblin he had just struck had come back and countered, knocking the Twin Blade forward, causing him to stumble.
Noel spun around, blades gleaming as he delivered a series of six light hitting blows against the one who had just hit him in kind. Using the momentum of Tiger Claws, Noel rolled forward to dodge the remaining goblin, before lunging at it and knocking it out with a firm smack with the cross-guard of his weapon. A few new players ran past him and into the dungeon. Watching them go by, he gave the unconscious goblin a firm boot to the skull to silence it before moving on. They were going to beat him to the treasure at this rate, so he had a decision to make. Would he make it a race for the treasure, or back out and let them have it. The Speed Charm in his hand had apparently made the decision for him; he hadn’t even realised he had pulled it out. Competitive streak flaring to life, he crushed the capsule in his hand, wind kicking up underneath him to make the ends of his robe rear up and coil slightly like flaming tentacles. He pushed off, running towards the spot on the horizon where he could see the dungeon and the new players entering. Skidding to a halt just before the door, he looked back at the field, realising that he was giving up fighting monsters to level up to get some treasure from an area which probably yielded very little. Why that may have been the case, he still descended down into the dungeon regardless.
By the time he had entered the dungeon, the other party had moved on, leaving the room facing him empty. At the rate they were going, they could kill faster than he could alone, but considering that they had to keep stopping, he would undoubtedly catch up. Pressing on, he came upon another room, this one with nothing more than jars and a few crates. Untouched; they had not come this way. Leaving the room and continuing his search down the corridor, he checked the next room, finding more of the same. The next room was more enticing however. It was a large, cavernous room with recent signs of battle. He was catching up, but they were still ahead. On he went, finding that the next room held what he was looking for. The door to the room on the other side opened, letting them through, but closed soon behind. He groaned out of irritation, but approached it and looked around. A monster portal made itself known and swirled violently; spawning down a monster he hadn’t seen before. Before Noel now stood a monster of a feminine form, wielding a partisan and protected by magenta armour. Without so much as a word of warning, she turned and sped towards the Twin Blade, pole-arm held forward and ready to skewer the intended target.
Taking a cautious step back, Noel readied his blades. The soldier thrust forward and up, bringing the tip of her spear around behind her head for a follow up cut coming in diagonally. Crossing blades and holding them up resulted in a parry, but turned into a grapple for power. Noel was locked down, and the Cadet Valkyrie currently had the upper hand in the form of leverage. The Valkyrie withdrew from the strike and skewered Noel through, taking off a big chunk of his HP before wrenching the weapon out from the Twin Blade. Being a class meant to deal damage and not really for tanking the damage as much as other classes, the loss came at both a shock and was alarming to see his vitality take a plunge. Instinctively he touched the place where the spear had struck, checking for blood or some kind of hole. Being none, he got his head together and readied himself for another exchange. Another incoming attack from the left; parried. A solid swing from the right; parried. He wasn’t gaining any ground, and neither was the Valkyrie he was facing. Noel couldn’t afford another critical hit like that. Maybe it was just lucky shot, but he couldn’t take the risk lest it set him back.
“Repth!” In a bloom of light, Noel healed himself back up to full, and just before the Valkyrie swiped across his chest, grazing his avatar and taking off a small portion of HP. He was only missing a small portion now, which was much more preferable to being a fair chunk down. As the Valkyrie came around to attack again, Noel blocked the oncoming weapon with one blade, running up the length of the pole-arm with it and striking with the other. One firm smack and the Valkyrie tried to withdraw to bring the fighting distance in her favour; only to have Noel bring his weapon down on her weapon again to trap it in close distance. A second, third, and fourth were quickly delivered to finish off his Saber Dance, immediately using Tiger Claws to leave the Valkyrie a bloody mess on the floor. Its body faded away, leaving behind nothing but tendrils of data in its wake, allowing the door to open. He had lost time, the other party was bound to be ahead at this stage and he had ground he needed to cover.
He spun on his heel, keeping blades drawn and dashing through the door. He entered the next room. The room was empty, aside from a few pots. Stairs leading down were before him, and so he ran down those, leaving the pots behind. “Faster…” he thought to himself, a voice inside himself was driving him forward, urging him to go faster. He was only a newbie, so chances of actually pulling this off was slim to none, but it was if an instinct left dormant for the longest of times had come to the surface. The next room was recently cleared out; it appeared as though the party ahead of him was having some trouble, or at least running into some tougher monsters. The next room was bare, but he could see them entering the next room; he had caught up.
He stopped just before the door to the next room, staring ahead into the dark doorway leading into the next room. He had his weapons at the ready, what little gear he did have was ready, and as far as he could tell, optimal. He strode into the next room, expression blank, focused, looking around for who he was hunting. Inside the room, the party was fighting off Swordmanoids; from the looks of things, four had been spawned as it was one of the later parts of the dungeon. They were struggling, indicative that they were not very good at the game. He fixed his hood, making sure that it was up and covering some of his face from view. It would be less of a bother if his identity was obscured. The fact that his clothes were distinctive enough was another issue, and one he didn’t pay mind to, already caught up in the moment. One of them had their HP drop, causing some panic amongst the party, unsure of what to do. ”This’ll be a slaughter.” He pushed off, gripping the blade in his right hand and made a beeline for the Wavemaster in their group. For a moment, he thought the party believed he was another monster they hadn’t noticed before, but he didn’t get to continue that thought for much longer.
His blade gleamed with black energy, striking the Wavemaster where it hurt and silencing him cold. He was thankful that he had picked up the pair of Slayers in the store; the added Death effect seemed like it would come in handy, and it was already starting to pay off. The remaining Blademaster and Long Arm shouted in protest and worry as their source of healing had been cut off. They both charged, causing Noel to brace himself by taking a step back. Two against one wasn’t going to be a simple task, but at least it wasn’t three against one. The Blademaster leapt up, sword raised and came crashing down at the spot where Noel was only moments ago, a swift movement to the side causing his opponent’s aim to be off. The Long Arm didn’t seem to know what they were doing either, and was just randomly jabbing in the air, hoping to get a lucky shot in at the Twin Blade. Noel parried an oncoming thrust into the path of the Blademaster, catching him off guard and forcing him to back off lest he get hit by his teammate. He backed up a little more, giving himself more room to work with. The Blademaster hadn’t seemed to have healed back up after engaging the Swordmanoids, so he figured that it would be best to deal with him quicker so the odds were evened up. Blades lit up in a scarlet aura, churning, burning, and left ghostly apparitions in the form of red streaks in the air every time they moved. With a simple command, that energy manifested itself as a group of fiery orbs that honed in and struck down the Blademaster.
The Long Arm was bewildered that the party was being wiped, and it had only just sunk in that this wasn’t a monster they were fighting. The ghosts of his friends were cheering him on as pale, translucent ghosts that floated there, unable to act until revived. Noel’s weapon shone again, that black gleam wanting to find its target and strike them down much like it did with the Wavemaster. Alas, the strike was off its mark and the Long Arm dodged, the blade narrowly missing the targeted mid-section. The attack was pressed; swipe after swipe kept the Long Arm on the back foot, but each attack was either parried or dodged in some form, only serving to increase Noel’s frustration. Noel brought his weapon around again, striking three times and missing every shot, except for the last shot which was a well-placed uppercut, sending the Long Arm reeling. SP was effectively gone, what little reserves he had couldn’t be utilised for anything useful. He got greedy, swinging and chipping off the Long Arm’s HP while they were struggling on what to do to end the battle; but he forgot to account for the Long Arm having superior range.
A solid smack knocked Noel off the ground, and the follow-up drove him back down into it. His HP was a mess, but he got up and kept fighting. The Long Arm, finding renewed confidence started the assault, striking with a lot more fervor than before. Noel began to worry, he’d look foolish if he were to die right now, and he’d come so close to achieving the task he had set himself. The Long Arm swung their spear around in a slicing motion, before bringing it overhead to chop down. Noel stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding it but taking the chance to dash into close range where the spear was near useless. He got in two good hits before he was pushed away, more of his HP being lost to the spear. He reached for a Health Drink, knocking it back and replenishing his HP reserves, ducking out of the way to avoid another shot to the head. As the spear moved overhead, the Twin Blade reared his weapon back, gleaming with the same black as before and plunged his weapon into his opponent’s chest, bringing his other one straight up for a decisive uppercut.
He looked down at his defeated foe as his body faded away; the voices of his ghostly allies now silent. Noel was breathing heavily, blood rushing, and he felt alive. He put his weapons away, looking around. The air was still, calming, as if something had washed over the place in the absence of the other players. A part of him was conflicted due to the actions he had just taken. He had killed other players, so why was there a refreshing calm rather than a solemn sadness? He shook it off, the thrill was now over so he needed to continue on and get out of here lest they come back and exact revenge. The next room contained the Gott, a statue that acted as a marker for the end of the dungeon, and watched over the treasure that lay before him. Taking the contents for himself yielded more for a single player than what the other three would have had to share between them. Treasure obtained and the dungeon otherwise cleared, it was time to leave. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Sprite Ocarina before using it. The item allowed a quick exit from the dungeon and into the field and once there he returned to Mac Anu.
He decided to log off for now. It was now late afternoon, meaning that he had been playing for a few solid hours and was now behind on chores. Chores at this hour was more preparing a meal or just making sure the place was tidy but they were things that needed to be done regardless. Noel set down his gamepad and HMD pushing away from his desk on his swivel chair. The gave the HMD a quick look before spinning around, getting up, and making his way towards the kitchen. It was one of those nights he felt like being a cheapskate and grabbed a packet of instant noodles from the pantry. As they sat with hot water to rehydrate them, Noel began to reflect on the day. Being a public holiday, or at least a pseudo one, most things weren’t open unless they were things that were very, very popular. The store he worked at was only semi-popular with the people that lived in the area, so he was given the day off; the joys of management wanting to cut costs by understaffing the place. Tomorrow was Saturday, and the following day was naturally Sunday. Ahead of him were another couple of days where he could get stuck into the game and hopefully get some more experience under his belt.
His phone rang, bringing him back to reality. It was sitting on the counter and making the annoying, almost grinding sound that comes from it vibrating against the marble surface. He picked it up, looking at whom was calling before answering. He rested the phone against the side of his face, speaking calmly. “Hey, Jess. What’s up?” The person on the other end of the phone was a girl who he had come to know through her visits to the store. She worked in a café near the store where he worked, and was training to be a chocolatier. Being a fellow confectioner, it was normal for her to run past ideas or get him to taste test new creations just so she had a point of reference to bounce ideas past. He had done the same in the past, but while her store was a café where patrons came in and gave regular feedback, his storefront was half performance art and half catering for high end functions that needed candy. What that meant though was that most of his artistry was structured and done to a plan already, giving exactly what the customer has asked for, compared to surprising them with a few new things every visit.