His trip home was uneventful, and he cleaned up as soon as he walked in. The excitement of his upcoming date made the rest of the day crawl by. Shortly after lunchtime, he called Jean. They agreed to meet at a small pizza place close to his house. He considered offering to pick her up at her house, but thought she might find it a little too much for a first date. They didn’t know each other after all.
The tiny shop was well known for its hand tossed pizza. Everything was made from scratch and as authentic as it could get. He waited at one table in a pair of blue jeans and a button-up shirt. She walked through the door in a stunning little black dress. Her hair twisted upward and pinned into a bun. Atlas stood up and pulled her chair out for her before sliding it back in.
“Thanks for coming. You look fantastic.”
“You don’t look too bad yourself. It’s nice to see you when you don’t smell like two days’ worth of chemicals,” she said with a chuckle.
Atlas grimaced, “It’s not the best smell, I know. The first thing I do is race for the shower to rinse it off.”
The server approached, and they both ordered drinks and a pizza to split.
“So, tell me about yourself. How did you end up working at Gaia?”
“I went to school for neurological interfacing. When I completed my degree, I worked for a couple small companies in their virtual reality departments. That was during the early days of VR, back when everyone was just trying to develop a full interface. Needless to say, they all fell through. Eventually, Gaia hired me to work on their new prototype. Most of my initial days focused on testing their new system. When it entered the functional phases, they moved me to monitoring of the pods. Now I get to check on you guys and gals when you log out. How about you?”
“About the same. I went to school and became a nurse. Now I work at a clinic. I started off in a hospital but didn’t like how they managed the work load. The hectic schedules and understaffing annoyed me. I like the clinic more because it’s more of a steady work schedule and I have a little more freedom.”
Their evening continued with small talk and their food. Atlas discovered she had no siblings and her family lived far away. She was truly alone here and moved here just to work for Gaia. This left her pretty lonely since she didn’t have many local friends yet.
They rose from their chairs after Atlas paid for dinner and decided on a casual stroll. As they walked around the streets, Jean reached over and grabbed his hand. Atlas smiled at her and they continued their trek. When they finally came back around to her car, they stopped.
“Looks like I need to get going. I had a great time. Will I get to see you again?” she asked.
“Of course you will. I had a great time as well. We have to do this again sometime. It’s going to depend on our odd schedules though,” Atlas assured her.
She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek before sliding into her car.
“Take care, Atlas.”
The engine rumbled to life, and she drove away. This is one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time.
********
Work moved slowly until his phone rang. A glance at it showed Keenan calling. A quick swipe and he put it to his ear.
“What’s up, Keenan?”
“Nothin much. You stuck at work?”
“Yep. Kinda boring today. Not many patients.”
“You get back on your feet in game?”
“Oh yeah. Completely swung everything around in my favor. Got all my gear back and got to level 9. As soon as I log back in, I plan on hitting 10 and traveling to Ixala.”
“I just got to my third city when I last logged out. I’m almost to level 11. I’ve been able to make some decent money with my Alchemy so far. I entered The Wild Hunt, and we ended up killing six of the targets before we were beat to the last boss. Ended there with our winnings and went back to questing. An extra thirty silver wasn’t bad though. I also got a cool dagger from one of them.”
“Sweet. I was also in The Wild Hunt. It was crazy.”
“Oh, you recovered your gear and made enough money to enter the event? You must’ve been hustlin’ hard. How’d you fare?”
“We won,” Atlas blurted into the phone.
“Won? You’re group killed all eight first?”
“Sure did. Our final boss was a giant bear. It was so cool. I got an epic drop from him. I received an item that lets me transform into a dire bear. It’s hella cool.”
“For real? That sounds wild. You kept that item instead of selling it? It sounds like something that would fetch a fortune this early.”
“Yeah, I considered selling it, but in the end I’m glad I didn’t. My druid trainer said the form is exceptionally rare, and he only knows of two people who have it.”
“Damn, you could’ve scored a fortune. I saw on one forum earlier that someone sold an item that granted a special skill to warriors for over 500 gold. Your skill actually sounds rarer than that.”
Atlas leaned back in his chair and let out a heavy breath, “Yeah, it was a tough decision, but I wanted the spell more than the money. Honestly, I make enough money right now with my professions. Oh, I almost forgot, I mastered my first addition and gained another. It’s a three-hit attack. I’m slowly getting better with countering attacks and responding with chained combos.”
“I’ve got that down pretty good and do a lot of damage. My new dagger also helps bump my damage a lot. I also
