“LIFE IS NOT ALL ABOUT RAINBOWS AND UNICORNS.”

***

She stirred on her bed wincing her eyes as rays of sunlight fell onto her face. However, she refuse to wake up from her dreamland.

“I must be dreaming.”

She muttered. She is thinking about having a crazy dreams of her getting transferred away from her home into another world together with a bunch of hyperactive strangers. She blinked a few times, trying to get her coordinate and darting her eyes around the room.

She cannot recognized her surroundings as it is too different from her peach coloured room. She stare into the blank wall and her hands frantically searching for her mobile phone. Suddenly, she touched something soft on her right.

“What is this squishy things in my palm?”

She is starting to wonder as she fondled and trying her best to figure out why her phone is getting softer and fluffier while she is still half-asleep. However, the soft sensation starting to move and jiggle which forced her to come back to reality as soon as possible.

“Mwoo~ What are you doing to Sora, Hii-chan?”

Nako wake up and rubbed her eyes as Hitomi let out a loud shriek as she discovered her hand is dipping inside Sora clear body. Yena and Yuri spring up from the bed due to the commotion early in the morning.

“Eh, why? What is going on?”

Yena asked lazily while Yuri just squinting her eyes while pouting , annoyed as her sleep is disturbed. Hitomi apologized for her loudness and explained to them. Yena and Yuri just stretching their body when a soft knock is heard from their door.

As Hitomi is the one standing inside the room, she quickly grabbed the doorknob and opened it just to find Mama Ann in front of their room.

“My, my, what a lively girls you are now. I can hear you from downstairs and decided to bring you your hot water and some towels. You must want to wash yourself, right?

Breakfast is ready downstairs. Your friends also just waking up. Come down when you are finish with your stuff. It is best to eat warm food, you know.”

Mama Ann let out her motherly smile and excused herself to attend other customers. Hitomi distributed those towels and they stare into each other awkwardly.

“What are you girls waiting for? Let’s just stripped out cloth and clean ourselves. I am famished!”

Nako exclaimed and started to remove her clothes without any second thought. Yuri and Yena stiffly watched Nako and eventually joined her. Hitomi bit her cheeks as she is too shy to get even in front of her same gender friends. However, she decided to push away those pettu feelings and starting to wash herself.

“Ugh, I do wish we have some shampoo. My bangs need to be shampooed twice to be this nice though.”

Yuri grunted as she is not satisfied washing her body with some water only. Yena just gawked at her and avert her eyes when Yuri noticed her action.

“I think they may sell it in the town. Maybe we can visit the general store of this village to see what kind of items they sell.”

Yena cleverly raise up a topic to brush off Yuri suspicious eyes on her. Luckily, Nako and Hitomi agreed with her.

Thank you for spending your time playing games and reading manga all this long, dear myself!

Yena thanked herself for her clever action to save her reputation in Yuri eyes. However, the younger opened up , trying to make them remember that they are not just a group of four people.

“We need to discuss about where to go with Eunbi and the others, right? I am sure they already have some plan for today.”

Yena nodded her head and Hitomi just shrugged. Nako is petting Sora while trying to communicate with it. However, her face reflected some worries which caught Hitomi attention.

“What’s wrong, Nako? Are you feeling sick?”

She asked out of concern. Nako directly her worried gaze and said, “I cannot hear Sora’s voice too well now. What is going on? We can communicate well yesterday.”

Hitomi fall into silence as she had no idea about what is happening. Suddenly, Yena interrupted their conversation.

“I think maybe you guys need to create a stronger bond, you know. To recognize each other and fighting side by side or something like that.”

Yena said while shrugging her shoulders. Nako looked at Sora, trying to find out a solution to make them grow closer with each other. She come up with an idea and proposed it towards everyone.

“Maybe if we keep fighting and levelling up, we can have a better understanding of our particular nature and thus creating an unbreakable bond!”

“Atta girl. You have high INT stats not for nothing.”

Yena patted Nako head and motioned them to go downstairs for their breakfast. As they stepped out from their room, they are greeted with intense bickering between Yujin and Chaewon while Wonyoung and Minjoo just leaving those two behind.

“I told you to wash properly! You reeked so much and it hurts my delicate nose!”

“Pshh! Who are crazy enough to wash themselves more than five minutes everyday? I am cleaned and smells like a flower! Your nose have some problem, being too small and all.”

“What? You smell like a rotten rodent mixed with Rafflesia! Come here, Ahn Yujin! Hey, Yuding! Listen to your senior!”

Chaewon hissed at Yujin as she cleverly slipped among Nako, Yena, Hitomi and Yuri.

“Having a rough morning, eh?”

Yena smiled at Chaewon who is pissed off with Yujin. Yena grabbed the redhead shoulders and trying to cool her off with some jokes. They are already at a big round table when the rest of their friends getting dragged by Chaeyeon down the stairs.

Their half-closed eyes and puffy faces do not give any hint whether they had cleaned their body or not. Seeing Chaeyeon being so energetic and squeaky clean making them reassured that the bunch of oldies is cleaner than Yujin.

“Morning, girls!”

Chaeyeon greeted them cheerfully and joined into the table. She cleverly positioned herself beside Eunbi but Sakura is quick to sit at the left side of Eunbi. Hyewon just seated beside Sakura as there is the only sot left for her.

“Here is your breakfast girls! Enjoy it, okay?”

Mama Ann brought out two pot of stew and some grilled meat. She also prepared 12 bowls of rice with a good serving which make the sleepyheads opened up their eyes, especially Hyewon, with the scrumptious smell of the food.

“Thanks for the foods!”

They said in unison before starting to digging in. A few whoa and exclaimed come from their table as they are fascinated by Mama Ann’s cooking. Later, another come towards their table with a jug of water and a dozen of cups.

“Hi girls! This come together with your breakfast! I am Anna, Mama Ann’s assistant during the day. Nice to meet all of you.”

She greeted those famished girls which is gobbling down foods at an amazing rate. Hyewon even asked for seconds while her other hand stuffing food into . Anna chuckled as she is watching those beautiful girl’s peculiar antics yet so attractive in her eyes.

After an hour of eating, they flashed dreamy face and thanked Mama Ann for an excellent feast. Anna received some tips from Eunbi for her extra work, walking back and forth bringing foods for them.

“Okay now. We already clean and take our breakfast. What do you girls want to do next?”

Eunbi casually asked them as they just slumping on their chair. Yena eagerly suggested to check out the general store to stock up their daily necessities and Yuri second her opinion. Sakura and Hyewon told them it is better to register first at their respective guild to get their ID and avoiding any misunderstanding like last night.

Hitomi and Nako just said they really want to sightseeing throughout the village and want to level up too. Chaewon said she do not care what they want to do and will just follow them as long as she want. Yujin seems disinterested with the idea of sightseeing but is willing to spend some times with her friends.

“Okay now. Let’s get our priority straight. We need to visit the adventurer guild, merchant guild, healer guild and tamer guild, right?”

Sakura opened up and gains attention from her fellow friends. However, Anna interrupt their serious discussion with a new fact that is oblivious to them.

“I am sorry for eavesdropping your conversation but this is just a small village and hence we just have an adventurer guild here.”

Sakura puffed her nose upon hearing Anna’s information.

“I can’t believe we even do not know what things is normal around here. Might use these 10 days to learn as much as we can, right?”

Hyewon sighed and rested her head onto the table. Wonyoung just silently observed her older friends discussing among themselves. Minjoo suddenly raised her hand and stand up from her seat which startled the others.

“I… I want to learn about this land and level up too. I don’t want to be a burden like yesterday for my lack of agility which slowing down our pace.”

Chaewon just smirked as she heard Minjoo talking while shivering. Eunbi sighed while ruffling her hair as she is dumbfounded because of Minjoo random thought of dragging the team.

“Minjoo, please don’t say that. Nobody is a deadweight in our team. We will learn and improve together, okay?”

Being a wonderful leader, Eunbi comforted low self-esteemed Minjoo who is degrading herself despite not doing anything wrong. Yujin stares in disbelief upon hearing Minjoo’s confession.

I never thought this girl have such low self confidence. Time to drill some lesson into her head.

Sakura making a mental note to support her teammate as much as she can. By doing so, Sakura is hoping to decrease Eunbi workloads and worriness.

“So, let’s move already. To the adventurer guild!”

Yuri motioned them to start moving and they get out from the inn together and set out to walk around Commencer.

***

“Here it is, the adventurer guild!”

Chaeyeon exclaimed as she double check the location with her map. Luckily, Sier provide them with ample knowledge of understanding language of Wizland and they also can translate and read without any problem.

The other girls felt nervous as they had been feed with scary stories regarding adventurer guild where seasoned but useless adventurer always trying to pick a fight with some greenhorns. Of course, the source of those stories coming from the gaming trio, Sakura,Yena and Hyewon.

Eunbi just rolled her eyes, trying her best to eliminate their ridiculous stories and brace herself to lead her friends entering the guild. Surprisingly, the guild is not as bad as they imagined as there’s no tobacco smell nor any rowdy adventurers inside. There’s just a small notice board and a pair of clerk at the counter, smiling as they greet them politely.

“Welcome to adventurer guild. I am Chloe and I will help you with any matter. What kind of things do you want to do today? Perhaps registering as a new adventurer?”

The lady caught Eunbi attention as she can easily erase any discomfort felt by Eunbi within seconds. She seems experienced handling a bunch of kids entering guild with eyes darting all over the place. Eunbi plastered a smile while nodding enthusiastically at Chloe.

“Yes, please. We faced some difficulties to enter this village as we possessed no ID. Ours are gone while we are travelling. Tons of things happen and we are just glad that we are still alive, though.”

Eunbi casually recite their fabricated story as per rehearsed by both Yena and Nako last night. The others trying their best to stifle their laugh from bursting out as they witnessing Eunbi superb acting telling those ridiculous story with her innocence face. However, Chloe looked at them pitifully and she just nodded her head, trying to expressing her empathy towards the kids.

“I am sorry to hear such arduous adventure you get. However, to issue you another new ID, you need to register here with a small amount of fees, is that acceptable?”

Chloe asked Eunbi and she just nodded her head. She was told the fee is 250 G for each person. Eunbi is consulting with Hyewon, of course telepathically, asking about the price. She thought is it worth 5 nights stay at the inn but Hyewon assure her that this cost will be worth their money. Trusting Hyewon’s words, Eunbi agree to pay the amount mentioned by Chloe.

“This ID will be your access card towards towns and cities. You will start from the bottom rank of F and will eventually ranked up if you managed to fulfill quest you take within the time limit with some decent manners. Gentle reminder from me, if you are conducting any misdeed, it will be recorded here and you will be expelled from the guild. We have our own ways to detect your activities. Now, will you be the only one registering?”

Eunbi shaking her head and gestured that all of them will be applying for a new ID. They were brought into a room with a crystal ball and been asked to place their hands on the ball individually.

Apparently, the ball will turned red if any of them committing any crime and will stay clear if they are innocent. They successfully getting inspected and get their own ID after just a few minutes. It seems that their service is really efficient even though there’s still lacking in other things such as hygiene.

“Wow! So just our name, occupation and level are displayed here, huh? Why Nako have bigger cards than the rest of us? No fair.”

Yujin is whimpering as she is dissatisfied with her card smaller than Nako. Chaeyeon just shaking her head and explaining patiently at the jealous puppy that Nako already have a contract with Sora and thus her card need to mention about her familiar too.

“If you want a bigger card like me, just find a familiar already.”

Nako rolled her eyes at the competitive Yujin which is eyeing her with jealousy.

“I will have a stronger familiar than you! Just you wait, little one!”

Yujin stick out her tongue as she hold Nako away by using her long arms from charging at her. Nako just grunted and kicked Yujin shin which made the taller younger girl groaned in pain.

“Now, now. It is too early to fight among each other! Yujin and Nako! You two need to reconcile or else you will not joining us for any quest today and onwards!”

Eunbi firmly scolded them as they made a scene and cause discomfort for people around them. Both of the girl reluctantly shaking hands for a few seconds