Book 3: Chapter 58: Patch 10.0: A Growing Crew

“Do you think Shogun could carry Rock back to The Shoebill?” Fenrir asks Rao.

Rao looks at Rock and Shogun. “Maybe. Yo, Shogun, you think you can carry your girl there?” Rao asks.

“Please don’t call Rock his girl,” Fenrir says.

“Listen, this ain’t easy on me either. My bro betrayed me and got a girl before me.”

While those two talk, Shogun lies down and lets Rock climb on top of him so that she can lie down on his back, her legs hanging off of his sides.

Shogun stands up and looks at Fenrir and Rao.

“Damn, he’s strong. Looks like he’s not even trying,” Fenrir says. “Guess it makes sense if he has to carry you around all the time when flying,” he tells Rao.

“Bro, did you just call me fat?” Rao asks.

“No, but look at yourself. You don’t exactly look light. You’re tall and built. There’s gonna be some weight on you.”

“Fair, bro. Fair.”

With a bit of a running start, Shogun takes off into the air with Rock aboard his back and flies over to The Shoebill.

Then he comes back over for Cassiel and Azalabulia, both of whom are extremely excited to get to ride on a flying fox.

Then there’s Oleander who basically can’t resist cuddling with Shogun’s fur while being taken over to The Shoebill on top of Shogun.

Finally, Shogun comes back for Fenrir and Rao.

“A flying fox is really convenient,” Fenrir says. “But, I’m just going to jump into the water and swim over. I want to clean off and get all of this stuff out of my hair before I get back on the ship. I doubt my girlfriends would want me dirtying the place up. Tabs would also kill me.”

“Fair enough, bro. I’ll see you over there then,” Rao says, walking up to Shogun.

Shogun turns his snout up at Rao, lifts off into the air, and returns to The Shoebill without him.

“Wai-wait. What? Bro? Bro! Come on!” Rao shouts.

Shogun looks back at him, doesn’t even consider taking his own master, and goes back to The Shoebill to spend some more time with Rock.

“Maybe he’s punishing you for not doing anything during the dungeon?” Fenrir suggests.

“It… wouldn’t be the first time he’s done something like that, but damn dude, like, it just feels cold to do me dirty like this,” Rao says.

“Guess you’ll have to swim. Hey, how’d you even find Shogun anyways?”

“Uhh, it was more like he found me.”

“Sounds like a story there.”

“It’s not really anything special. I mean like, I was just minding my own business screwing around by some mountains, and then I got attacked by these like fire-breathing wolf things, then Shogun came in and destroyed a couple of them which scared the rest off, and then he’s just kind of been staying around me ever since.”

“So, basically, Shogun saved you and then adopted you?”

Rao shrugs. “I guess it’s kind of like that, bro.”

“Well, can’t say that it’s not the same for me. Rock saved my life as well.”

“So, she just like, randomly came up to you and saved you?”

“Oh, no. Cass Cass ambushed me and stabbed me in the back, almost killed me, and then my favorite rock turned into Rock and tried defending me.”

Rao rubs the back of his head. “What do you mean your favorite rock?” he asks.

“When I first started playing, I had this rock which I kept on using for everything, and I got kind of attached to it, and then I guess my feelings helped turn it into an actual animal.”

“Wait, bro,” Rao says, his eyes lit up. “Doesn’t… doesn’t that mean it’s possible for me to like, find something I really like, get attached to it, and then hope it turns into a girl?”

“I – I mean… I guess it’s possible in this game. If a rock can turn into a dog then I don’t see why something couldn’t turn into a girl. Like, maybe Rod here could do that,” Fenrir says, looking down at Rod whom is tucked into his belt.

Rod pulses twice.

“Alright, maybe not Rod, but something else might be able to,” Fenrir says.

“I think I know what I need to do, bro,” Rao says.

“What would that be? Other than swim back to the boat?”

“Get myself a harem of things that have turned into girls.”

“If you can pull that off, then – well, I’m not sure if I’d respect that or be disappointed.”

“Why would you be disappointed anyways, bro?”

“Maybe you should start with learning how to talk to real girls first before you get a harem of artificially intelligent ones.”

“Nah bro, I’ve got this.”

“If you say so. Come on, let’s get back to The Shoebill already.”

With that, Fenrir takes the lead by running into the water and diving in as soon as it’s deep enough.

Then he remembers when Cassiel said about a chest potentially spawning underneath the boss monster’s corpse.

He swims over to where the monster’s corpse is lying and looks around. He doesn’t see anything around the corpse, but he hasn’t tried looking underneath it yet.

Fortunately, thanks to the explosive bolts and the serpent’s final attack basically destroying the monster’s chest, there’s some space underneath the boss to swim without being squeezed between his corpse and the sand.

That doesn’t make it any less gross, though.

Fenrir swims into the small gap between the monster’s body and the sand. Surely enough, as if the chest was hidden inside of the monster’s chest and has since fallen out, there is a large, golden chest sitting there.

Hopefully, it’s not a mimic like the last underwater chest he saw.

Fenrir swims back to Rao, whom has yet to get into the water, and reports on what he found.

“Think you could shrink it down?” Fenrir asks.

“Yeah, I can, but… swimming under a dead body sounds gross,” Rao says.

“It is. Come on.”

“B-but I just said it sounds gross. Dude, I don’t want to do that.”

“What if a girl wanted you to do it? What if a girl said that she’d marry you and do whatever you want if you’d do it?”

Rao jumps into the water.

The two swim over to where the chest was. Rao, as grossed out as he may be, for some reason has it in his head that he’s going to get a harem of beautiful women if he does this. That is the only reason why he is capable of diving underneath the monster, placing his hands to the chest, and shrinking it to tuck it away into one of his pockets before returning to the surface and swimming over to The Shoebill.

“I feel kind of bad for taking advantage of him like that, but he’s just too easy to manipulate,” Fenrir thinks.

“That’s not nice, onii-chan. By the way! You’ve got a pretty important text message from your landlord,” Saya says back to him.

“Great. Not looking forward to what that might be about. Also… how can you read my text messages?”

“Well, onii-chan! I’m part you, and I’m connected to the internet, and you agreed to syncing me with your email and phone and stuff back when you accepted the terms of service without really reading it, so that’s how! But, don’t worry, onii-chan. I know it might be creepy sounding that I have access to everything in your phone, all of your email and social media accounts, and even any appliances in your apartment connected to the internet, but that’s just so I can be helpful! Nothing is going out to anywhere shady. Promise!”

“You’re the shady one.”

“Hey! I’m not shady! I’m just your cute little kinda tsundere sister!”

“I just thought of a random question.”

“I know, onii-chan, and I’m already judging you for it. Like, really judging you for it.”

“…would it be possible for players to have sex with their virtual assistants?”

Saya lets out a long, loud groan. “Yes, onii-hentai.”

“Anyways, thanks for letting me know about the landlord. I should probably go check on – wait, can you tell me what the text is about?”

“Oh, umm, you’re basically just in trouble for causing a disturbance. Your neighbors are complaining about you, and your landlord wants to know why it seems like there are four new girls living in there when it’s only meant for one person, and you’re the only one on the lease.”

“Shit. That does sound pretty serious.”

“Which is why you should totally go deal with it as soon as possible.”

“But video games.”

Saya sighs again. “You better reply to your landlord before the end of the day. I’ll remind you before you wake.”

“Thanks, Saya. You’re the best little sister ever.”

“Ba-baka onii-chan.”

“Point proven.”

While Rao takes the chest back to The Shoebill where a rope hanging overboard helps him climb aboard, Fenrir takes his time in the water to make sure that he gets all of the blood, guts, and anything else gross out of his hair. He even spots the serpent swimming around in the distance as if looking for more rowboats to feast on.

No, she’s not looking for a rowboat.

She has something else that she’s hungry for.

Looking down at the reef that he was swimming around with Nell, that mimic from before is still down there waiting for more tasty snacks to bump into it.

The serpent pokes the chest with her tail, causing its mouth to open, and then eats it as soon as she confirms that it’s alive.

Serpent: one. Mimic: zero.