A woman sat on a chair in a small, modern office room. She was wearing a black blazer, with a white, buttoned top underneath; black, dress pants, and black, brogues. A smart-casual outfit.

In front of her, sat a middle-aged man on an office chair, wearing formal attire. The man and woman were just about to finish talking across his desk.

The man was holding a small stack of papers—the woman's resume... and he was just about to finish skimming through it. The woman wants to be hired for work at the man’s communications company.

It was a job interview.

As he looked at the woman one last time, he gently laid her papers down on his desk.

"Why should we hire you?" He asked.

The woman expected this question. She cleared her throat, and without hesitation, she answered, and looked the interviewer straight in the eyes.

"I've always been sure that I want to build a career with the skills and expertise I've gained in my field of Business. Through the experience I've gained, I'm confident that I'll be able to pursue a long-term objective for this career," She said what she rehearsed for a long time without hesitation, with glinting eyes of determination.

The man looked at her, unfazed and apathetic.

"Alright..." the man said, as he pushed the stack of papers toward the woman on his desk. “We’ll call you when you get the job," he said.

The woman nodded "Thank you," She said as she took her resume on the office desk.

Later, she was with another interviewer in another company. "We'll call you," The woman she spoke to said, as she gestured with her hand.

Soon once again, she finished another job interview with another interviewer. "Sorry, but maybe you can try our sister branch," The interviewer said as he pointed outside his office window.

This went on for the woman for about two months.... searching throughout the whole city to land a stable career. Despite the countless rejections and absent phone calls, she kept persistent that there will be that one place that will finally accept her.

And eventually...

"I see... we'll call you. See you soon," The interviewer said.

"Okay, thank you." The woman said as she stood up, and arranged the small, stack of papers in her hand to put in her envelope.

As she left the office room, she saw a man waiting by the door as if waiting for the previous interviewee to leave the room... who else, but none other than her?

She saw the man enter the office doors.

As he went into the room with the slow, closing glass doors; she saw and overheard moments of their conversation.

"Excuse me sorry, I'm late!"

"Oh, it's fine! We were expecting you! Here’s the good news, you got the job!"

The interviewer and the man shook hands.

The woman overheard this as the glass doors slowly closed in on her. Without another word, she left.

With a look of displeasure, and her eyes, downcast, she walked sluggishly and empty-handed on the city's rough pavement on her way home.

At a distance, an envelope with a bunch of printed documentation of a jobless woman jutted out in the city's local recycling bin.

———————————

Arka slowly opened her red, and dried eyes. The cold weather's affecting that due to the humidity. She awoke with her arm up, her neck bent... all was just in an awkward position as her uncut and untrimmed, outrageously, long hair touched the floor. Some of it caught in her mouth.

A dream...? The first thought that came out of her. What was— she cut off her thoughts, still drowsy from waking up.

She couldn't remember it.

Her four-legged bed's a mess as its flat, bed sheet was all scrunched up, and three of her pillows are on top of her leg, under her forearm, and on the floor. Her curtains, half-open, shone a partial shaft of light through her dark room.

It looks like she tossed and turned last night.

She removed the strand of hair in her mouth, weakly expressing a look of annoyance about it. She did it with as little and as slow of a movement as possible to avoid ruining her lethargic moment of awakening— wetting her palate.

After moments fleeted by, she dragged her leg on the bed toward the floor to sit up.

After placing both of her feet on the floor, and sitting upright, she took a deep breath and exhaled, with half-closed eyes.

It was time to start her afternoon.

South of the Grand Kingdom of Fellmoria, was a Mountain Region. This region was almost barren of life—hardly of any foliage... hardly any fauna, except the topmost, part of the mountains—the crest.

The place was almost dry of resources and life.

This can be seen just from the sight of the region's increasing dead trees which begin to transition as a player arrives around the center part of the mountain while hiking up.

Arka's making her way up here after she accepted a gathering quest for materials and other supplies. Some of the materials she'll find can be used for upgrading her current equipment to improve her effectiveness in combat.

With the type of monsters she fought, she was able to picture a clear idea of what type of gear she wanted on her character.

For such a barren region, it was hardly believable for her that a gathering quest was even leading her up the mountain that was just... almost dead. Does it have to do with the lore present, in the world?

Even the soil Arka walks on was broken as she pursues hiking up with her darkened, steel sabatons. Some of her steps resonate with a crack within the soil, indicating the clay breaking underneath.

The wind blew through her helmet, making her eyes squint, within.

Suddenly, a window appeared to the right side of Arka's HUD.

It was a chat window with a message from Banelfsing.

The conversation started— "wanna hunt mobs today?" Banelfsing asked in the chat window.

Arka focused on her message box.

"nah, im doin a quest at the mountains atm." She replied back

"wat? You mean that mountain range south of the city? so there's a quest that leads you to there?"

"yeah, and im curious. i might be the first to go all the way here far from the main city. lol."

"cool. maybe just some More mobs lol. welp, take care duuuude." Banelfsing replied.

Arka replied with a small, text art making an "ok" sign. After that, she closed her window.

Messaging through chat messages requires just selecting your friend in the friend window at the system settings menu, and then selecting whisper. It requires no extensive effort whatsoever except through thoughts and brain activity.

It has been a while since Arka met Banelfsing. They usually just hunt field monsters, trade for Fels, and supplies, and occasionally, run the discovered dungeons with other players to hunt dungeon type monsters, and scavenge for loot or other 'treasures' to sell. Most of these dungeons, however, were too difficult to complete as they retreat before completing them, either through bad party composition, communication, or players just not knowing what to do in the team. Arka and Banelfsing just decided not to bother with the dungeons for now. What was important was improving their equipment with whatever they can scavenge, and come back to try test their metal against stronger foes at a later time.

Recently though, there are rumors of certain groups of players who group amongst themselves already conquered and stayed consistent clearing through some of the game's hardest dungeons. This was discouraging for Arka, for it would mean that these players collected dungeon armor pieces— Armor in the game that could boast additional properties and whatever modifiers that would improve a player’s survivability in battle.

But this is yet to be confirmed, for there weren't any witnesses who picked up or worn any of the sorts of equipment.

Most importantly, Arka and Banelfsing haven't died yet, for it will take a lot of effort to obtain their gear again, and the currency that they have collected.

I’m starting to think that this is a poorly designed game... Arka thought.

On the rocky surface that Arka was on, she eventually reached a cliff with a dead log on the mountain path, nearing the crest. She walked closer to the cliff, and looked over the edge, admiring the vista.

She saw the Grand City. Markedly, by a significant distance. But just enough to see its castle walls. It towered over the villages and farms it encompasses. She can still discern the windmills that turn on the farmlands. A sight, it was.

It's not every day she could see views such as this. Maybe if she started going out in the real world, she will be able to admire these kinds of places.

Beautiful. She thought.

But that's not possible... a thought like this immediately crossed the back of her mind. Real life wasn't as beautiful as what she was currently seeing.

Life wasn't fair. The world's economy was crashing, humanity can be cruel...

She remembered that real life was often disappointing.

It was a cliché, but it was true.

The clouds then that surround the mountain cliff she was on overlapped her view of the city, eventually losing sight of it. Arka took this as a cue to continue what she came for in the Mountain Region. She turned back to the road she was on and moved onward, making her way up the rough path.

As she neared the crest of the mountain, it slowly transitioned to having low-growing, alpine flowers, and grass that began to emerge in sparse amounts. Mountain rabbits, mountain goats, and different species of insects begin to neighbor the chilly, peaceful domain on a small scale.

Despite the present flora available, the barren soil was still pervasive in the general mountain path.

Arka traversed the area that was existent with bits of fauna. The smell of the foliage enters her nose.

It was there, when she stumbled upon a person, in a small area surrounded by low-growing plants.

It was a woman. She was on her knees, gathering herbs and flowers at the abundant location of flora she was on. She has long, straight, cocoa, hair past shoulder length, chainmail underneath a leather vest with only a single chainmail sleeve on her left arm; fingerless, leather gloves, leather tassets, chainmail leggings, and high, leather gaiters possessing multiple belts.

She has a wooden Recurve Bow over her back, a steel hatchet strapped straight, on one leg, and a leather, leg bag on the other.

As she turned and noticed Arka, it was revealed she has a light-brown complexion.

It wasn't long before Arka noticed they were staring at each other. She felt awkward.

She started to walk away—

"Oh." the woman uttered. "Are you here to gather stuff too?" The woman asked her, as Arka stopped in her tracks.

"Y..." She cleared her throat and swallowed. "Yeah,” she said. "Uhmm... I came here because of a quest to gather stuff... and the marker just led me this way... I mean, this mountain," Arka said, with a slight movement of her hand.

By 'marker', she meant the arrow that appeared above her HUD that pinpointed the location she meant to go to for her quest.

"Is that so..." After that, she turned her attention back to the herbs she was gathering. "Well then, feel free to join me here if you like... Not that, I feel lonesome or anything," she said.

"Okay. Uh, thank you..." Arka told her.

This woman was totally lonely.

As Arka approached the gathering spot, she looked up the woman's avatar to see her username. After focusing a little, her HUD revealed the name of this player, gathering herbs on the mountain's soil.

Mikrim— it spelled.