VRMMO: Am I The Strongest Yet?

"We don't know if they are alive or not in the first place."

"..."

"Dude? Are you really concerned about the parents of some creature that you saved just because it was friends with your little slime? Will you really just sit there when the whole town is about to be engulfed in a fucking war?!

The forces of the dark mage are here already!"

Alex was concerned about what was going on outside and wanted to go out there and prepare for the battle.

There were a lot of contribution points on the line right now so she had to do all she can to deal as much damage to the enemy so that the contribution points she earns are enough for a good reward.

More than the reward itself actually, she wanted to fight those creatures and try and defeat the dark mage even though she knew it was pretty much impossible already.

But with the right conditions and with the strong knights, mages, and the guard captain on their side, this was not going to be a big problem.

With enough things and with support from the players, this was a pretty doable quest in itself. That was the main reason instead of the fight, she had focused more on the failure conditions.

"..."

"At least say something, damn it!"

"Yes."

"Hun? What do you mean, yes?"

"Yes."

"Hun?"

She already informed the guard captain about all her strategies and wanted to go and help him with the executions of the plans. But, before she does that, she needed to take care of this greater problem before her.

"Damn you, Elio. You're ten times more sad about the death of its parents than the gecko itself!"

Logically, the parents of the gecko as well as all of its relatives that lived in the dungeon were dead now.

The dark mage had used them all to create the magic circle that was their top priority right now, and they were gone from this world.

The gecko was already registered as his tamed beast so there was no reason for him to mourn like this. The gecko wasn't alone. It had a friend named Az and the two of them as his family.

It was a creature of nature so it understood the inevitability of death already, and had accepted the fact that it might never be able to meet the people that it might have been with all its life.

It was more mature than this baby who mourned for the death of the gecko's parents, had made a small monolith in their memory even though he had never met them, and was giving them the prayers since the last THIRTY MINUTES!

Players had already gone ahead and were now fighting the first wave of the dark creatures, but here they were, at the graveyard on the outskirts of the town, mourning the death of creatures that they practically did not even have any connection with.

"Yes."

And even though she was shouting at him, he was just repeating the same word with his eyes closed, and his hands joined together.

"Haaa…"

This was just a game. And he was no caring, soft, altruistic person.

She still could not understand why he would do such drama for a small creature that barely even understood what he was doing right now… but he was genuinely sad. That much she knew. And she could not leave him alone in this condition even if she wanted to.

"I'm sorry, Miu."

"Miu?"

The gecko's voice sounded like the word 'Miu' so he had named the little gecko from its distinct voice.

The creature could tell what its human friend was doing because it was a show of kindness, so it at least understood his feelings and was happy.

But it still did not understand why this big human was so sad.

"Let's go."

He placed the shining blue flowers that resembled the normal Crystal Lizard's light before the monolith, and stood up along with Az.

"Muuuu?"

Az was confused since he did not wait till Miu was inside of it, but when Elio placed his hand before the small lizard and asked it to climb up, Alex's eyes widened with shock.

"Hey!"

She did not understand why he was doing it.

They had a battle to fight and he was going to get himself poisoned right before that? She found it completely absurd!

"Miu~!"

But this small invitation was something the gecko could never refuse, so it climbed his hand and though it was difficult, he endured the new flow of Mana and placed the creature on top of Az.

"They are my responsibility."

He looked at her with the light of Mana fluctuations present in his eyes– with a warm smile.

"I have to look after them, right?"

These small creatures were both unique and had their positives and negatives. But as their tamer and their friend, he had to look after them.

They did not have anyone else around them anymore. Alex was here, but she was also someone he had to look after, so she was his priority.

But these creatures who left their house to come with him… who were coming with him even though they were going to face the one who killed its parents, which was going to be dangerous, he could not neglect them anymore.

They were his friends. So, he had to take better care of them.

"You… dumb donkey."

All this drama was already pretty cringey to her… but there was nothing she could do about it.

He was a unique donkey so her lacking words weren't going to work on him anyway.

"Let's go kick some dark asses..."

"Yes~!"

"Twinkle."

"Yes~! Let's… wait. What did you just call me?"

He understood this was a game and what he was experiencing, what he was seeing, this whole world and these things were not real.

But logically, they were just as much real as the 'Real' world that they knew.

Just that it was different…

"Did you fkin call me by that disgusting name, AGAIN?!"

He understood why people called this game the 'second' world.

But, even after all these experiences, he still knew there was a lot more that he needed to see and learn, and experience.

"What do you mean? Did you think I just called you Twinkle? Do you want me to call you that~?"

"You…! You f-!"

She was pretty funny when she was angry at a small thing like this.

He found this little reaction pretty effective to get some rejuvenating breeze of fresh air.