The Lady's Boutique Part 1

As Sina guides me to the inn, I take the time to address my experience gains and distribute my stats.

*Congratulations! You have slain: Huey, Human Unclassed L.V 4*

*Congratulations! You have slain: Dewey, Human Unclassed L.V 4*

*Congratulations! You have slain: Louie, Human Unclassed L.V 4*

*Total XP gained: 300*

*Congratulations! Your are now level six.

You have 5 stat points to allocate.*

Seeing their names, I can't help but snicker a little. Ah, Disney jokes.

Anyways, with another five points I need to decide where I want to improve. Of course I start things off with a point in Int, can't disregard my need for mana. Especially with what I want to try later...

Since I'll probably be interacting with Sina for awhile, I decide to drop two points in CHA. Two points left. After a moment of deliberation, I can't think of a reason to put them into STR over any other stat. Afterall, I enhance all of my attacks with my magic anyways.

While I could toss one or both into CON, I haven't been hit yet. I know that's a dangerous mindset to have, but it's hard to be concerned about it since I haven't actually gotten hurt yet.

Well, by anyone else I mean. Confirming my decision, I toss a point each into AGI and DEX. I want to do my best to keep those the same for as long as I can, it satisfies my OCD tendencies.

'Huh, since I have a new body, a new brain, do I still have OCD? Or is it caused by experiences and not some kind of brain thingy? Eh, whatever.' I push the random thought out of my mind and pull up my ka.

Status:

Name: Seka

Race: Cat Beastkin

Class: Unavailable

L.V: 6

X.P: 0/600

Health: 150/150

Mana: 440/440

Stats:

Strength: 11

Constitution: 15

Dexterity: 14

Agility: 14

Charisma: 23

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 11?

Skills:

Identify: 1

Claws: 1

Sneak Attack: 1

Examine: 1

Acting: 1

Abilities:

Adorable

Magic Instinct

Claws

'Cool, I got acting in my skill list.' I probably got it from my performance with the guards. Or it might have been when I was messing with the guildmaster. It took a lot of effort to keep straight face during our conversation. I give WIS a dirty look.

'Stupid stat. Making it sound like it can't decide if I'm smart or not.' I have the urge to stick my tongue out at it, but I refrain. I'd rather not have people giving me weird looks for making faces at my ka.

While I'm busy with all this, I don't realize how far we've walked. Before I know it we stop. I look up in surprise.

In front of us is a three story, wooden building. And it's painted a bright, eye catching pink. Above the door is a swinging sign with a picture of a lady holding a bouquet of flowers. There are windows spaced out on the walls, but I can see that they don't have glass in the frames. I wonder if it's like a specialty item or something? Or maybe the innkeeper decided that they didn't want to keep replacing them when they break.

Either way, if those wooden shutters don't seal the room well, it's going to be a cold night.

Not that I'm thinking of sleep once we walk in, thanks to to strong scent of cooking food filling the dining room. My stomach lets out a cute little growl, and Sina chuckles as we take seats at a table just next to the entrance.

"Hungry?" She asks as she waves down a server making rounds around the room. Thankfully it's not that busy at the moment.

"You have no idea," I answer back with a pout. "I haven't eaten all day! Maybe I'll try drinking? After the day I've had, I think I deserve it."

A truck fell on me, I nearly got speared into a frozen treat by a freakin BUNNICORN. Oh, and I had to deal with a greedy lady at the guid. And to top it off, I got jumped by a group of random thugs!

Sina doesn't say anything, just giving a small smile at the cuteness of my pout.

Soon enough the waitress approaches our table. She's slim, and her chest is kind of small, but she's still pretty. Obviously she's taller than me, since basically every adult I've seen is. At least she's only taller by about an inch.

"What can I get the two of you?"

"I'll take the special." Responds Sina.

"Same." Why didn't she give us a menu or something? As she walks away I look around.

Tables are scattered around the first floor, with booths set into the corners of the building. There's no bar in the back, but that's to be expected from an inn aimed towards women, I suppose. A set of stairs in the back leads to the next floor. Next to the stairs are a set of doors leading to what I think are the kitchens, and there I finally see the menu. Apparently our meal is twenty copper.

Including the one who took our orders, there's only two waitresses walking about. Though since there aren't many people, I guess that makes sense.

Sina and I sit in silence while we wait for our orders. I want to say something, but it seems like the npc energy I had in my past life carried over to this one. Plus, I'm not really sure what we would talk about.

"So," Sina starts, drawing my attention back to her, "you told the captain a good story, but what really happened?"

I do my best to give her a confused look. "What do you mean? Nothing I told him was untrue."

She gives me a flat stare and snorts. "We both know that's bullshit. You put on a good performance, enough of one that the captain overlooked the discrepancies, but you can't fool a fellow woman that easily. An E-Rank adventurer breaking down over killing her attackers?" She snorts again.

"Maybe if you were some fishy from the guild, I could believe you." Seeing my confusion at the term, she clarifies. "Fishy, F-Rank. They go fishing for a job until they find one good enough that they can feed themselves with. Then they don't come back." She chuckles. What most of them don't realize is that the guild takes a part of their earnings each day. You know, for introducing them to the job? So they actually earn less than if they found the job themselves."

I nod. "Makes sense, they're technically paying for the ease and convenience of finding the job. What about for those E-Rank and higher?"

"Nah, for those taking combat or escort type quests, the guild gets their money from the requesters. They pay a fee for posting their quest, plus the pay for the adventurer. And adventurers who turn in monster parts generally get less than they would if they went to individual merchants themselves, but get the convenience of not having to find and negotiate prices themselves."

"That's fair. Wow, the food here really smells great! If the rooms match the smell, Im looking forward to my stay."

"Yeah, they're pretty,- wait a minute." Her eyes narrow at me while my own shift to the side. "You can't distract me that easily. So what was the deal with the thugs? Off the record. I won't be telling the captain what you tell me. I'm glad the streets are a little cleaner. I'm not as 'by-the-book' as the captain is."

I hesitate, but decide to be honest. "Well, I wasn't lying. Everything happened as I said it did." She frowns, but I continue before she can say anything. "But I may have... exaggerated and underplayed certain parts. Oh, and I wasn't really broken up about killing them." I shrug. "They attacked me without provocation, so they should have been prepared for the consequences."

She nods slowly. "So what parts did you change?" Her voice is curious.

"Well I tore out the boss' throat in one quick movement, which caused half the thugs to run off. The two groups that ran had someone with *Identify* in their group, so seeing what I could do when a lower level than them probably scared them. The rest thought that numbers would secure their win. They circled around me, so I launched a wave of fire behind me and caught three of them in it. Everything else is as I said."

"Huh." She gets a thoughtful look on her face. "But what about the walls? Do you really expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with those? It takes a good deal of mana to get walls like those up, and anyone with that much mana has better things to do than wander the back alleys of Somewhere."

I smirk. "Actually, mana wise, they were pretty cheap. The trick is to put barely any effort into building them. Had any of the thugs so much as touched one, it would have fallen apart. the only thing they had was height."

At this moment, the waitress brings out our food and drink. Looks like a steak with a side of vegetables. Not sure what the drink is, but it's clear. We don't talk anymore as we dig in to our food.

I'm not much of a connoisseur when it comes to food, but this is pretty good. The meat is tender and easy to chew, the vegetables have a nice crunch, but not like they're raw. And the taste of both is pretty good. A quick drink reveals that it's just plain water.

Soon enough we finish our food and the waitress comes to take our plates and collect our money. As I reach for my money, Sina holds out a hand and pulls out a half-copper. "Meal's on me, as thanks for the story."

I nod at her in thanks, then address the waitress. "How much for a room for the night?"