Chapter 19: ch19
'I Thought it was going to smoothly, now, it truly does appear, that's all of this did not come without a cost.' Everyone thought.
Taylor hasn't suffered any harm from anyone that was without question, neither the abyss mages nor Dvalin's crazed attacks had caused him any harm. So this injury must have originated internally.
Venti hung his head, he couldn't help, but feel a deep sense of guilt. As the Anemo Archon, he understood these self-inflicted wounds better than most, along with the side effects of using immense power. When Taylor mentioned that he was better suited as The owner of this mobile gaming cafe, it wasn't just out of casual politeness; there was a clear reason behind it.
Jean but also realised this, regardless of Taylor's true identity, all he wanted to do right now, was to be a ordinary businessman. Yet they had essentially forced Taylor to come into this vortex, causing him to use his formidable power and exacerbating his wounds. Jean felt she had been very selfish I made a silent vowel that, in the future, she would unconditionally accept any request from Taylor, in the name of the Lionfang knight.
"Taylor… for any future requests… as the anemo Archon… Barbatos… I will aid you in any request you ask of me!" Venti was really moved and but also felt guilty, well, thinking about how to repay Taylor. However, Dvalin's next words completely broke down his guard. "So you're gonna be this beck and call? You could've just said you wanted to be his faithful follower."
Venti, sighed inwardly, ' well his Gnosis had already been taken by Rosalyne, it was probably in the hands of the Cryo Archon now. Since he had chosen to live his life as a bard, he should give Dvalin his blessing of freedom.
Things were resolved satisfactorily, Dvalin carried everyone back to just outside the city. The storm has now subsided and the stormterror calamity had ended, but there were still many tasks ahead. Jean needed to organise the tasks and inform the citizens of mondstadt, while Venti planned to get some Apple cider to celebrate. He has been busy dealing with Dvalin's matters for a while now, and now he could finally relax.
Lisa helped Taylor tidy up his clothes gazing at him with her eyes, full of care. She then spoke, "In the future, you can come to me for anything, remember, it's absolutely "anything"." Lisa being Lisa, she embodied the perfect blend of maturity, charm, and seduction that only she could ever pull off.
Back in the gaming Café, Eula was sitting at the front desk. Excited to see Taylor return safely. " I heard from the Knights of Favonius so you went with acting grandmaster Jean to hunt down Dvalin." She continued, " I was really worried, but here you are Taylor, back safely!"
Taylor wrapped his arm around Eula's waist.
'Only One arm is needed to go all around." he thought, and the ample curves in her figure would surely overwhelm an ordinary man. He needed to be careful; indulging any further might lead to him losing control of his desires. Being in the lobby on the first floor in broad daylight was obviously not the right setting for such thoughts or actions.
" anyway, The matter with Dvalin has been successfully resolved. The Knights of Favonius Should release a public announcement in the next day or two." Taylor said.
Eula's Face turned slightly red as she went to pour a Cup of his favourite tea (or hot leaf juice) for him. " by the way, Taylor, the neighbouring store has already begun to renovations the Knights of Favonius have hired the best professionals they could find, it should be completed by the end of this month."
" Well that's good news it will save me a lot of time, effort, and money." Taylor replied
After giving some simple instructions for the renovations for Eula to pass on, Taylor headed upstairs to take a bath. He had a subtle smile on his face as he looked at his well proportioned and muscular body in the mirror. Thinking about today's "impromptu performance", he couldn't help but smile. The extent to which he had been moving his body, combined with the power of the Hourse rune, could not have possibly caused him to bleed. However, he didn't want Jean and the other to think that everything he did was effortless, although was as easy as breathing. If he didn't appear to show some cost for using his power, there might be trouble for him in the future. Plus, it helped explain his overwhelming strength in their minds, leaving the impression that although he was immensely powerful, he could not use this formidable power limitlessly. Made everything appear much more reasonable, sometimes the slightest change and approach could have a subtle, long, lasting effect, and could lead to unexpected results.
===
After dinnertime, Lisa arrived at the game café. She had heard that someone was catching up to her in terms of story progression, and her status is the number one player was about to be challenged. Lisa was not gonna sit still at that point.
The gaming area was already crowded at this time, and the seat she often occupied was currently taken by young woman in her early 20s, with two young men, all similar age, standing behind her watching attentively.
When the young lady saw Lisa she immediately stood up. "Miss Lisa, come sit here!"
" we learned how to play this game thanks to Miss Lisa's explanations."
" Miss Lisa, will you teach us how to clear Dvalin's domain?"
These young people were very enthusiastic, and Lisa was in a good mood today. She started explaining like a teacher. "First, the beginning, you can use Venti's charged attack because…"
All three of them listened attentively, with the young woman, even taking out a small notebook to jot down notes.
After covering the main points, one of the young men spoke up, " miss Lisa you can play on this phone. We want to see what happens after completing act 3."
"Huh? Are you not already starting to prepare for Dvalin's Domain?" Lisa asked
"No, The three of us are playing on a single account, and we've only just begun act 3… we heard that the battle against Dvalin Is very challenging, so we wanted to take this opportunity to ask you for some guidance."
"Yeah, we are really curious about what other quests there are after finishing the main storyline," the other young man chimed in.
" And we also want to see Miss Lisa's gameplay," the three young people All said, clearly treating Lisa as their teacher. Lisa didn't mind this feeling at all, and she was also curious. After ending the Stormterror calamity, and saving Mondstadt, would happen next?
Soon Lisa logged into account and there were two quests in her quest list: [Razor: Lupus Minor Chapter, act 1: The Meaning of Lupical] and [Xiangling: Trulla Chapter, act 1: Mondstadt Gastronomy Trip].
Regarding Razor, many players were actually quite familiar with him. He was considered the main DPS by many casual players and was hailed as the "DPS of the masses." Due to his weapon being a greatsword and his elemental skill's ability to quickly mine ore, he was also nicknamed the "first miner". However, this familiarity was only in terms of Razor's gameplay mechanics, as for his background and origin, players knew very little. Some speculated that Razor Was the Young man who roamed wolvendom. So no one has ever seen him in this new mission. It seems that Razor's identity would be revealed.
The three of them thought that Lisa would choose to complete this mission first, since there were rumours that Lisa is Razor's Master. As his master, Lisa should be concerned about her disciple's performance in his own storyline, right? However, Lisa did not choose to do this mission nor the second one involving Xiangling. Instead she opened up the all quest tab and selected the character, quest option, in the left hand column.
Upon entering, they saw that It's contained the character quest for [Diluc], [Jean], [Klee] and [Venti]. All three of them were stoned. They had not realised that this option could be opened, and they were even more surprised to find character specific quests here.
Seeing their expressions, Lisa found it a little strange. " You didn't know? After Completing eight daily commissions, you can receive a key, which can be used to unlock character quests in this tab"
The three of them looked at each other in astonishment.
They have never heard of this before, everyone was busy completing the main storyline, and the better players were researching character, data and abilities. Surprisingly, no one noticed this hidden… or rather it was always there, but many considered just a collective term for all of the quests. After move of the Wildridge, the three of them felt overjoyed. They only just begun learning from Lisa and through Lisa's actions. They had learned a small piece of knowledge about the game.
" Right now I have one key that can unlock one of these character quests." Lisa said. Jean, Diluc, Klee and Venti, Lisa's gaze passed over each of the 4 character quests, and ultimately she settled on Venti's. Compared to the others this bard was the least familiar to Lisa, But he was also the most well known person among all of Mondstadt's Citizens — Lord Barbatos, the Anemo Archon. Choosing to take on the identity of Venti the bard, would his character quest reveal some secrets about their Archon? Even the three young people felt extremely curious about it.
Unlocking the character quest, [Carmen Dei Chapter] the mission prompt directed them to go to a certain spot in the Anemo god statue Plaza.
" hey Traveler… look over there!" Paimon exclaimed excitedly as she pointed out ahead. "She's… all by herself, right? Because she's acting as if she's talking and laughing with somebody else… Uhhh! Paimon's creeped out…"
===
[I had an imaginary friend too, when I was a kid] the traveler explained in response to Paimon's astonishment,
"What? You mean you act like that too, Traveler?"
"Uh… so is this… an invisible friend, who hangs out with you sometimes? Or… do they just exist in your imagination?"
["imaginary" means " In your imagination"]
" Oh, you must mean "imagined friend," right? Why didn't you just say so!"
"So, this "imaginary friend" of yours… when does Paimon Get to meet them?"
[we, uh, don't hang out anymore.]
As they continued chatting about imaginary friends, Venti walked up to the two of them. " traveller! fancy meeting you here."
"Uh, Tone-Deaf Bard! What are you doing here?" Paimon greeted him unceremoniously.
Venti grinned, "Haha, here because Lisa has been making some exciting, new contraptions."
" why does the thought of leases contraptions make Paimon so nervous…" The three young players worked hard to suppress their laugh, this was probably a just directed at least by Mr. McCall in regards to Lisa's previous endeavours.
Lisa herself didn't pay too much attention to it. She deeds, always been enthusiastic about creating some "interesting" contraptions in the past. However, after discovering this game café, Liz focused most of her energy on playing games here. To Lisa, this game was currently the most interesting thing in her life.
"Come now, that's no way to speak about the elegant. Miss Lisa." Then Venti began to explain. " for this particular contraption, Lisa had to import some dangerous materials from Sumeru."
In front of the traveler and Paimon, A device resembling a monocle appeared.
"Anyway, It's all yours now, Traveler. a look see if you can see Nora's imaginary friend."
Upon hearing this, Paimon's Curiosity was hooked. So the three of them decided they would observe the imaginary friends of the people in the city together. This plot began with a touch of child innocence in this mundane setting.
To be honest, this style was somewhat different from what Lisa had originally envisioned. She thought that since it was a character request related to Lord Barbatos, the overall storyline might become serious and mystical, involving divine beings or demigods. Lisa had even prepared to record important information. However, the current situation had the Traveler, Paimon And Venti, together, holding the nirnama detector she had created, to observe the imaginary friends of the townsfolk. It was a bit of a mild letdown.
However, Lisa quickly suppressed this emotion. She knew that Taylor would not design a purely mundane character quest like this. According to convention there might be some hidden details that can be observed through this process.
First, they tried observing Nora in the plaza. Her imaginary friend was a girl of similar age and they were jumping up and down happily together. They then went to find Flora, The owner of the Mondstadt flower shop. Her imaginary friend was a Bloatty Floatty. In the game when interacting with this plant, it would release three balloons, and when they were all popped a chest would appear.
"So it seems that imaginary friends are not limited to just people." Lisa remarked. Next they went to the bridge outside the city. On the bridge was a young boy named Timmie, not far from where the pigeons respawned.
Currently they were in their resource gathering period, and the players had a great demand for healing food. Among them the sweet madame was deemed both of them most convenient and efficient choice, It was highly favoured by all players. Sweet Flowers were easy to find in the wild, but another Ingredients, poultry was somewhat scarce. One player who was passing along The bridge happened to discover that the pigeons in front of Timmie could be killed, And they respawned quickly, Yielding several pieces of poultry with each kill.
From that movement on it became unstoppable. Basically killing pigeons in front of Timmie have become a daily routine for every player. Timmie was also renowned as the "number one poultry supplier of Mondstadt". And now, under the observation of the nirnama detector, Timmie's imaginary friend turned out to be a Ruin Guard!
"Timmie's imaginary friend is a R—Ruin Guard!?" Said a very nervous Paimon
[I've heard of "guardian angels" but come on…]
"Paimon's freaking out right now… is short to attack us!"
"Haha… what say you, we postpone our conversation with Timmie for the time being?"
Then the Traveler said [Paimon It's time to say the line.]
"Huh? Paimon has a favourite line?"
[the one about exploring the area ahead of us later]
"Seriously? Oh, Alright then… how about we explore the area ahead of us later?"
Upon seeing this, The three young players burst into laughter, and even Lisa chuckled uncontrollably. It seems like an official inside joke.
After looking at the imaginary friends of a few children, Paimon Side at the rich imagination of the children.
Since that was the case, they decided they were going to the Tavern to see how the adults imagination was. Soon, they arrived at the "Angel's Share" tavern. Diluc, Kaeya and two other people were drinking at a table just outside the tavern. The traveler took this opportunity to observe from a distance. However, they didn't see anything.
" seems our suspicions were right… grown-ups don't appear to have imaginary friends." Paimon remarked.
"So people just stop dreaming when they grow up? Okay well Paimon for one never wants to grow up!" Paimon whined
"Hmm… this raises an interesting question: At what age exactly do peoples imaginary friends disappear?" He then continued, " Let's… go and check." Venti proposed.
Near the knights of Favonius there was a good choice. A girl named Ellin he often practised her swordsmanship at the training grounds.
===
"Ellin, come take a look! You're actually in this part of the storyline!" The female player standing behind Lisa called out.
It was all very common knowledge that many real people or things from real life Mondstadt would be re-created in the game. However, it seems the only vision holders or important characters have the opportunity to appear in the game. The three young players who were behind Lisa and studying with her, we're obviously quite familiar with Ellin. Upon seeing the same excitedly called Ellin over to take a look.
Before Ellin had been diligently, practising her swordsmanship in her efforts to become a true knight. However, after the mobile game became popular direct to city, she decided she would give it a try. Unexpectedly, she find out that she could play and control the character of Acting grandmaster Jean in the game. Ellin, who was already a diehard fan of Jean, even if she didn't do anything else, just seeing Jean in her party made her smile with joy.
So, in her spirit time from her sword practice, she often came to the mobile game café. She logged into her account, controlling Jean, who she admired greatly, and freely, explored the vast game version of Mondstadt. Just now, upon hearing her companions voices, Ellin was somewhat surprised. She put down her phone and walked over.
" what are you talking about? I'm just an ordinary person not even an official Knight. How could I possibly appear in the game?"
"Don't believe me? take a look!" Following her companions directions, Ellin saw herself on the phone screen. She felt her absolute sense of disbelief, and even a bit flattered. In the on screen, she was at the training grounds, practising her swordsmanship, just like she would in her daily life, but there was a shining figure of acting, grandmaster Jean in front of her.
( sorry this one came out so late I fell asleep last night before I could finish and upload so you might get two today or one today and one tomorrow.)
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