Chapter 55

The Halls of the End - 99th Run

“A Dryad? Really?” Sara asked as she wrinkled her nose. “Saving the Kobolds, absolutely, but Dryad rituals?”

“The passive is really worth it, okay? It’ll get me out of trouble a few times,” I defended. She turned her nose up at me, and I chuckled. “What, jealous?”

“What you do on Earth doesn’t matter here, I suppose,” she said, though she didn’t look at me.

“I’m not sure I fully believe that, Sara.” I was about to say more when my stomach growled loudly.

She let out a chuckle. “Time to eat?” she asked excitedly, and clapped her hands together when I nodded.

We had a tradition where I would bring human meals for her to try. She could, of course, replicate anything she saw but without actually getting her hands on the real deal it always turned out bland and tasteless. I had tried some of her “cooking” and decided that we weren’t ever eating that again.

Sara left me as the furniture started to shift. I was pushed into a sitting position in a plush chair while a table rose out of the ground in front of me. A second chair appeared on the other side while I stood up. “Hold on, I want to get dressed up for this.”

“Didn’t I say you were fine already?” Sara asked, looking me up and down.

“Thanks, but I’m not going to have a date in my underwear.” I snorted, and smiled as I noticed her halo began to brighten.

“Well, if it’s for a date then I won't complain.” She turned away from me, but not before I saw a big smile light up her face. Her halo gave it away, anyway, but seeing her smile made me happy.

Snapping open my inventory, I pulled out a white long-sleeved shirt, black dress pants, and a black vest. Black socks of the unfortunately common variety and shoes filled out the ensemble. Simple, yet elegant. I began dressing quickly, but carefully. The clothes had already been ironed and cleaned for an opportunity to arise where I needed to look dashing and sophisticated, and this just so happened to be that moment.

Once I was dressed, I turned around and focused on Sara. To my surprise, she was wearing a black dress. It was a strapless V-neck with interlocked silver rings along her sides. Around her neck was a slim black choker with another silver ring, and the soulfire of her hair had changed so that it was worn up behind her head. She wrapped her lowest pair of wings around her waist to emulate a puffy skirt.

“I’ve never seen you in black before,” I noted as my eyes wandered. “It looks good on you.”

“I don’t like it,” she said quickly before her outfit changed from the top down. It remained the same style, but the black turned to white and the silver turned to gold. “White and gold is definitely the way to go. I should have known better than to try to emulate his style.”

“Who’s style?” I asked as I walked around the table and pulled her chair out for her.

For a moment she appeared ready to say something else, but shook her head and smiled instead. “No one worth mentioning. All that matters is you.” She took her seat and began to conjure golden silverware onto the table.

"You sure?"

"Positive. What's on the menu?"

“Okay, so, disclaimer, we are way too overdressed for this meal,” I said jovially as I flicked through my inventory.

“We were under dressed for the Kraken you prepared last time, it should all balance out.” Setting her elbow on the table, she lowered her head onto her hand and stared at me. “Though that wasn’t a date, was it?”

“No ma’am, that was just a couple of friends hanging out. This is comfort food that my dad used to make a lot back in the day, though with better ingredients that we never would have gotten if it weren’t for the system being around.”

“You have to make the best of things, right?” she asked gently.

“You gotta,” I agreed before pulling out two bowls. One I placed in front of her, and the other in front of myself. “Pulled pork made from Ragus Rex, the boar raid boss in Islamabad, eggs cooked over easy from the Decapitator Hen in the late-game Emu Dungeon in the heart of Australia, homemade barbecue sauce made by Coe-“

“Love that guy,” Sara interjected.

I chuckled, remembering how much she watched him before I arrived. “He is great, yeah. The peppers are from an early 90-con strain of the Carolina Reaper dungeon boss, which I always found funny that the system just left the name as it was. The rice, peas, and other tidbits were all supplied by the avatar of Amaethon after helping him out of a rough patch.”

Sara looked at the bowl skeptically. “This is what you want to bring for our last meal? It’s not as impressive as the Kraken, or the steak dropped by the Giganbull. Everything you brought from the Roc was good, too.”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” I said with a chuckle. “Look, it might not seem very impressive but it tastes good and it’s something that has a lot of sentimental value to me personally. I wanted to share it.”

I kept my eyes on the food as I felt Sara watching me, and I gave her what was hopefully not a strained smile. The craving for this dish had hit me hard in the past month or so. It was through sheer willpower alone that I hadn’t taken this out of my inventory already. The craving would hit me every few years, at least once a cycle. Even though it was centuries later, I was always taken back to the days before the system dropped.

My dad had been on a pulled pork binge for weeks, always grilling it himself and inviting me back home to help eat it all. There had always been an overabundance of rice at home due to mom’s shopping habits, which led to a lot of meals combining the two. One day, after he took some food in for the guys at work, he came back with an excited gleam in his eyes. That was the first time we threw eggs in, and I could never go back.

A sharp glow reclaimed me from my reverie and I looked up to see Sara’s halo glowing just as brightly as it did when she tried other new foods, her golden fork still in her mouth. My smile relaxed, and I pulled out a pitcher of fresh water from my inventory and set it on the table.

“Okay, I understand,” Sara said after she swallowed. “The barbecue sauce is a little on the rich side, but it all melds together really nicely.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Coe you said that next time I see him.”

We began eating happily, savoring every bite. While Sara didn’t need to eat, I knew it was a nice distraction for her. A life without good food was just bland, and she had admitted to me before that she never understood what the fuss was about. The run immediately after that was when I started the tradition of bringing her food I prepared myself to show her what she was missing.

“I didn’t recognize you at first, but your vacation was in the Caribbean?” Sara asked after an unnecessary drink of water. “I remember that Coe found you out there.”

I nodded and took a drink before answering. “He found me out there,” I confirmed. “By that time, international travel had opened up. I took my vacation exploring the Caribbean and, accidentally, became something of a legendary figure to the players there.”

“Accidentally?” Sara tilted her head and asked in a tone that made it clear she didn’t believe me.

Shrugging, I swallowed down another bite of pork. “Yes, accidentally. Save enough people and they talk.”

She nodded. “If I remember right, and I do, he came personally to ask you for help.”

I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms, thinking back to that time. “It was right before the Yellowstone Eruption scenario,” I said, looking up at the ceiling. “He had heard of some legendary swashbuckler from people migrating to the States, due to the islands sinking one by one, and was apparently convinced enough that he wanted to come and see the hype for himself.”

“You told him straight to his face that you were on vacation. Not knowing any better, I was really mad at your attitude. I kind of wanted him to pick a fight with you, if I’m honest.”

“I’d have refused,” I said immediately. “I can theorycraft about defeating Coe as much as I want, and trust me when I say I have, but I’m almost always a high damage build. People like me don’t just hit Coe Valen. It’s courting death. He’s the best tank in the world for a reason.”

“There are others who get close. Klaske, for example, made it to the end just like he did,” Sara offered with a wave of her fork.

“The Shieldmaiden class has nothing on Rubberbuilt. She kept up, sure, but he’s the best tank in the world for a reason.” I snorted. “Hell, you watched him first for a reason.”

“I can’t argue with that, I guess.” Sara reached out her hand to the middle of the table, and I met hers with my own. We continued eating that way until our bowls were empty. She pulled me in just as I started to lean back and stroked my cheek near my lips with her thumb. I watched as she licked her thumb clean of the barbecue sauce she wiped off of my face.

“Thanks, though in hindsight I think napkins were in order,” I said with a chuckle. This time I was able to lean back, putting a hand over my full stomach. It had been a damn fine meal.

“Things to remember for next time,” Sara said with a soft smile. “Though, I’d love to see more of you. Think you could head off to see Coe really early on and get my attention somehow?”

“I’ll just be some guy, you won’t want to watch that without your memory orb.” I chuckled as I shook my head. “We haven’t even made it out of Etson in our discussion, but you want me to head all the way from Florida to Kansas?”

“An angel can dream, can’t she?”

“Normally you’d have to be able to sleep in order to dream,” I teased.

“Rude.”

[[Notice]]

Wondrous Beginner’s Stat Kit has been created and added to your inventory.

I swiped away the notice and sighed. “All that’s left is the survival kit and your boon,” I said, trying to hide how tired I suddenly felt. It was only a matter of time now. “Don’t suppose I could entice you into conjuring up a bed for the two of us? I’ve got a stereo in my inventory loaded up with some sexy saxophone just in case.”

Sara looked playfully scandalized. “And give up the virtue of chastity? You, sir, have already been skirting the line too much as it is. I mean, at least marry me first.”

“Oh, so it’s not regular old chastity but stuffy old marital chastity?” I asked, amused. “I’ll be sure to bring you an appropriate ring next time I'm here. I’m assuming that you can be both the bride and the officiant as the highest being of the end?”

“Perhaps. Though I might need to work on some of your human notary classes and get myself a stamp just for the occasion.”

I watched as Sara smiled at me, and I felt my weariness fade away by her energizing presence. “I suppose we should get back to the plan.”

“If you suppose we should, then I suppose so,” she said as she put her other hand on the table. The dishes disappeared, leaving only the pitcher of water and two cups that she conjured there for us. I reached out and held both of her hands in mine, relishing the warmth.

“Are we going back on the worst case scenarios?” I asked, and continued when she nodded. “If I have to break up the Etson Faithful, then I’d say that’s pretty bad.”

“You mentioned before that you could never get them to work the way you needed them to, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. They do some good, but not with the far reaching consequences I achieved by helping Gabrielle and then leaving them to their own devices. When I try to do everything myself, they disband not too long after, but if I work from the shadows and get the priest ousted then the same thing happens because no one trusts the new leadership.”

“Why don’t you bring Gabrielle along to build rapport?” Sara asked.

“Like, take her on adventures and stuff?” I shook my head as I squeezed her hands. “She’s one of the best healers they’ve got. There’s no way they’re letting her go to a place as dangerous as the forest with some random guy. Especially not some random guy who breaks into meetings spouting nonsense about the future.”

“That just sounds like you need a middle ground, doesn’t it? Not go so far as to remove the head of the organization yourself, but still be out in the open enough that the people trust you and whoever allies themselves with you. Preferably Gabrielle.”

I looked down at our hands as I thought about it. That sounded a lot like pissing off Father Alexander and his inner circle enough that they’d want to do more than just exile me while maintaining a good enough rapport with the common folk that they wouldn’t just go along with his words. Arnold could probably be goaded into acting more bloodthirsty than most, but I felt like the situation would have to be in a very precarious place for the elements to line up properly.

“There’s a lot of circumstances that have to slide into place perfectly to meet the ideal middle ground, and I’m hesitant to try it on the last chance,” I admitted. “But I’m always down for a little theorycrafting. So let’s assume that things have gone so poorly that the whole shebang has gone tits up. If I somehow end up in a fight against Father Alexander and his cronies without the ire of the common folk raining down on me, I’m going to need a lot of help from Tommy.”