After having her calming walk around the park, Maria returned home just as the sky had turned a deep orange and it was almost evening. Only her servants were there to greet her as Gerald was still in the game while Mikael and her father were still at work. She didn’t find it lonely at all since she was already used to it. It was a privilege to live such a luxurious life and although she lost her mother early on, her brothers and father had raised her to be a strong woman just like her mom. It was only when she turned 12 that her father and brother began letting the reins go and leaving her to her own devices.
She used to love going to their family library and reading books there in silence but after playing Unitale, just reading books had become a bit too bland for her. Maria was seriously suffering from boredom because of the 24-hour penalty so she decided to study for a bit until it was dinner time before going straight to sleep.
When she woke up the next day, Maria was a little bit dismayed that she still had to wait a few more hours before she could log back into the game again. She ate breakfast and had an hour-long break before going to the family’s gym to train her body again. This time around, Maria didn’t stop at just her daily routine. She asked David to prepare 2 wooden training swords for her and once she got them, she started practicing the sword forms Odin had taught her inside of the game.
Maria was restless from not being able to play for a whole 24-hours so moving her body helped her relieve that restlessness. She continued to practice the sword forms and gradually began getting used to them in real life. She routinely practiced inside of the game but it was different in real life. However, once she got the hang of it and her motions became more fluid and precise, Maria gradually lost track of time and it wasn’t until Gerald interrupted her training.
“Mary, I don’t know if this is a good time or not but you really should eat!”
“Eh?
Maria snapped out of her trance and stopped wielding her training swords. She turned to look at her brother who smiled at her and passed a towel over.
“Sheesh, I didn’t think you’d take your in-game techniques and bring it out to real life! Those sword moves made you look like a real pro, Mary!” Gerald complemented with a grin.
“A-Ahahaha, thanks, big brother.”
“Anyway, you should go eat now. It’s been 2 hours past lunchtime!”
“Huh? T-Two hours?”
Maria looked at the clock and noticed that she had spent nearly 6 hours just training herself. Once this realization kicked in, Maria plopped onto the ground as she felt her body give way to her exhaustion.
“W-Woah, there! Are you okay?”
Maria was panting pretty hard as her face flushed red, “I-I’m fine. It’s just that the exhaustion has finally kicked in now. I was in some kind of trance earlier and I didn’t even feel my body getting tired at all…until now at least.”
“Jeez, that’s so like you! You get way too serious and focused when you do something that you lose track of time and forget about taking care of your body! Exercise is good and all, but you shouldn’t do it excessively!”
“I’ll…I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I’ll go tell the maids to help you wash up and bring your food to your room. You should rest a bit before logging back in, okay?”
“Yeah, I will. Thanks, big bro~”
After taking a bath and eating her lunch, Maria didn’t immediately step into the game and followed Gerald’s advice by taking a nap. Her body was extremely exhausted from the strenuous workout so she slept for a good few hours. Normal people wouldn’t even be able to keep going like that for 6-hours straight but Maria had gotten used to training for such a long time since her body inside of the game had practically limitless stamina when that was all that she was doing.
She made a mental note to herself to differentiate between the real world and the virtual world next time so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. She didn’t want her family to worry about her after all. Once she finished napping, Maria logged back into the game and noticed that she had respawned in a dark place that was quite familiar to her as a system notification popped up in front of her.
*DING*
*DING*
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Maria gawked at the abundant rewards but another system notification appeared in front of her before she could even check her rewarded items.
*DING*
*DING*
Once again, Maria’s jaw dropped at all of the lucrative rewards she received. She quickly opened up her inventory and began to read through all of the rewards’ descriptions to get an understanding of what they were. The two types of Calamity Upgrade Stones spoke for themselves as they were the items needed to continue evolving Calamity. As for the equipment, they were geared towards the mage or priestess side of her class so this was good in a way.
The item’s description was accurate as Maria was bewitched by the beauty of the accessory for a moment before she quickly snapped out of it and equipped it on herself. The choker adjusted itself and fit comfortably around her neck and she smiled happily after seeing how good it looked on her in her [Status] window.
She continued to look through her rewards and pulled up the window for the Necronomicon and the Sekhem Scepter. Both of them were weapons that complimented each other and had to be dual-wielded to bring out their maximum effects since they were set items.
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