VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 140: Touching Grass
"Wow... That is... Damn, I don’t think I can really call you Ray-gun after that. You’re more like the Rolling Ray-cannon now. The Ray-Artillery strike." Percy said with a laugh, clapping his hands slowly as he was overcome with awe.
His eyes were fixed on the small wisps of flames that still lingered on the metal surface, before they finally faded away like the rest.
He turned to Valerie and immediately his smile fell into shock as he rushed over to her. She was slumped in her chair, breathing heavily as her face had turned deathly pale, which looked even worse than it would have for a normal person considering her naturally pale complexion.
Her lips moved slightly, but her words were too weak to be audible as she stared blankly at the floor in front of her.
Percy lifted her head, making her look him in the eyes as he looked over her before letting out a sigh of relief. Exhaustion, plain and simple. Even if it was from something magical, this type of thing he had seen plenty in his life.
Too many players he knew had night long gaming sessions that bled into the next day and even part of the next night. Exhaustion, no matter the source, was always the same.
"Alrighty, lets get the Magnificent Ray to bed. It’s sleepy time for you." Percy said with a soft, doting voice as he spun her around and wheeled her out of the room. Valerie muttered softly about not being tired or not wanting to go to bed, sounding exactly like a child who wanted to stay up late to watch TV.
He laughed softly and, by the time they reached the bed, she was already asleep.
Percy scooped her from her chair, his hands moving slowly and with absolute delicacy, not just in how hard he held her as he treated her like she was made of glass, but also where he touched.
One arm under the knees and another behind the back, a typical princess carry. This was no excuse to get handsy, in fact the thought didn’t even cross his mind.
He placed her in the bed, taking care to lay her on her side, before tucking her in loosely and leaving after giving her a gentle pat on the head.
***
Valerie startled herself awake with a snore, her eyes snapped open only to immediately close half way again. Stifling a yawn, she pulled herself up until she was sitting on the bed properly.
She glanced around in utter confusion, wiping the sleep from her eyes as her arms were still heavy as if she had been through a strenuous work out.
’Where am I?... Oh right, the dungeon underneath Percy’s humble little shack. I remember now... We were messing around with magic and then I must have passed out.
How did I get into bed?’
Her head was still throbbing from the exertion of her mana lobe, so it took her a few extra seconds to come to the plainly obvious conclusion. But when she finally got there, her entire body froze and she let out a soft gasp of shock as her face slowly turned scarlet.
Clearing her throat, Valerie pulled herself from the bed with another yawn and retreated through the path that Percy had led her through. Out of the bunker, passed the pool and into the main bulk of the house.
The great thing about these rich people was they apparently saw stairs as beneath them, so they had an elevator that led to every single floor of the house. It was brilliant! Honestly, if only every place could be this accessible.
Seriously, even with all their progress in technology, the improvement in accessibility was pathetic at best. Perhaps especially because of their progress in technology. Conditions like hers were rare, and most paraplegics simply exchanged their defunct bio limbs for bionic ones.
However even if this house was wonderfully, although most likely accidentally, accessible. It did very poorly when it came to helping someone navigate. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
Valerie did her best to retrace her steps, or more accurately her wheel treads, but somehow she still ended up wandering out of the backdoor into a rather large garden that hosted a whole variety of fresh fruit, vegetables and glorious plants some of which she was almost sure was supposed to be extinct.
A smile danced across her lips as she took in the amazing beauty of it, a beauty like she had never seen before, not even in Dawd. It was as if every single leaf or stem of the plants had been perfectly engineered to compliment the overall aesthetic of the garden. A feat that was entirely possible.
The mixture of sweet and flowery scents tickled Valerie’s nose, so much so that she eagerly took in a deep breath to inhale as much of the scent as possible. Something that would have been a terrible decision in the city, unless you wanted to smell smoke, urine, booze and a host of other disgusting things that swam amongst the general pollution.
But there was none of that here, only fresh air and sweet flowers. It was relaxing and completely revitalising. In fact after that one breath, she actually started to feel a little more energised.
Actually... It was a lot more energised. Like way too energised for it to be a simple case of the placebo effect or being relaxed after smelling some nice flowers. Touching grass might have been a cure all back in the day, but surely it wasn’t this effective. Right?
There had to be something more.
Valerie narrowed her eyes, taking more long and steady breaths. Not taking the time to appreciate the scent anymore and instead focusing on the air itself. It still tickled her nose, but now with her focus she realised it wasn’t just the smell tickling at her.
Quickly, Valerie poured mana into her eyes, shifting her vision and was immediately met with exactly what she was hoping to see. A vibrant kaleidoscope of dazzling colours filling the air. Much, much more than anything she had seen since she had awakened.
