Page 29 of Our Final Game

“Let’s get those damn seeds to Leon first. Maybe another quest will appear after that.” I turn to Rohan, and he nods.

Hopefully the next quest is more along the lines of helping us get the fuck out here. Rohan follows closely behind me as we retrace our route to the garden where we found Leon the first time. When we reach that side of the map, he’s there sitting underneath one of the bigger trees, his hood still covering most of his face.

“Hey there! How’d you boys fare?” he says, looking up as we approach him.

“We made it, that’s all that matters,” I say as Rohan hands him the seeds from his pouch.

“Nice! Just what I was looking for! You boys are good!” He gives us what I think is a grin. “Ah, I do have something else for you to do for me, though. So sorry to bother you.”

“What is it?” Rohan tilts his head, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. He’s probably hoping for the same thing I am. That this one will get us out or get us closer. Nothing makes sense as things are now. I can’t see how seeds are going to help us escape.

“Might be out of your level range, even yours,” he says, nodding towards me.

“Okay, that’s fine. What is it?” I ask him this time, squinting my eyes at him.

“I’m looking for a special soil to use as fertilizer, but it can only be found in the lavender fields.”

“That is a high-level map,” I say, “But we’ll figure it out. You can send the quest.” When I say this, Rohan snaps his head toward me again. He already looks irritated, and I can’t imagine what the problem will be this time. I’m dying to know.

“Great! I’ll send it right your way. You boys be careful out there!” Leon says before sitting back down underneath the tree. The quest shows up in our user interface, and we both accept it.

I can feel the annoyance rolling off of Rohan in waves as we walk back towards the town’s center.

“What is it now?” I sigh.

“I don’t know, this just seems fucking dumb and a waste of time!” he snaps.

“Well, what else do you propose we do?”

“How about trying to get the fuck out of here instead of helping some NPC with his gardening?!” Rohan shoots back.

“Rohan, it’s the only quest that’s come to us on its own.”

“Okay, so? That doesn’t mean it’s the right one to get us out,” he huffs, crossing his arms.

“Fine, let’s just complete this part and see where it goes. Clearly something is up with the game if it’s giving us quests we didn’t originally have before getting trapped in here.”

Rohan stands, staring at the ground for a little while before opening his mouth. “Yeah. I guess.” He mutters, and my brows shoot up. I was expecting a bit more resistance. Not that I’m complaining cause fuck, it’s tiring sometimes, but still…

“Cool. So, we should probably head to the grind map. We’re gonna need to level up a bit more before we head to the lavender fields.” I nod toward the direction we need to start heading in.

“Hm … Sounds good,” Rohan says, biting his lip.

What’s gotten into him?

The gravel crunches beneath our feet as we travel toward the map with the monsters for us to level on. We’ve not gone too far from Halia because it’ll be getting dark soon, but there’s enough time to at least level once or twice. Especially for me to level Rohan. I watch as he stops to pick up some loot from the grass off the side of the road. He pockets what he’s found and joins me back on the path.

My head tilts when his eyes flicker to my mouth. “How do you even kiss with those things?” he asks, brushing past me as he continues down the path.

“What?” I say, following alongside him.

“The piercings,” Rohan mumbles, and I swear his ears turn red, but I could be tired as fuck. Or it could be the sun beating down on us right now.

I lean in closer to the side of his face, smirking when his breath skips. “I could show you.”

And god do I love doing this sometimes. You see, when he gets feisty over nothing, it kind of annoys me, but when he tells me off for purposely fucking with him, it’s kind of cute.

I’ll admit it.