6 - Return to Town

Good thing coming back from an adventure sweaty, dirty, and with a bounce in her step wasn't something all that unusual, because otherwise Ari would've been highly suspicious.

Sure, the amused glances the townsfolk of Molehill sent her way meant she wasn't flying under the radar—Ari had a reputation for having something of a big mouth, and she'd talked the ear off plenty of the townspeople about her upcoming escapades as an adventurer—but they saw Ari's afterglow and took it at face value. They assumed she'd ventured out into the Forest of the Golden Lake and rolled around with a few monsters and came out a victor.

And she had. Just not in the way they expected, and with one monster in particular—her newest sand-haired, leopard-eared girlfriend. Okay … that was going too far; 'girlfriend' was definitely a title used with more discretion. But partners in crime? Party members.

Party members … with benefits. She snorted.

She'd had to leave Lori behind, unfortunately. For a couple of reasons, a big one being that Ari didn't have a change of clothes for her, but also, because Lori hadn't seemed interested in joining Ari back to town. Maybe as fitting for a monster—a monster girl, now, specifically, but still a monster—she'd wanted to get straight to hunting. Gaining experience in a more traditional sense than Ari's way.

She might have come into existence because of Ari, but her own class—[Deft-Footed Stalker], so similar to her previous monster title—functioned the way most of the world's did. Ari couldn't help but be a bit concerned over her safety, knowing Lori was out there prowling for other monsters to defeat, but Ari supposed there was no helping being worried. It'd be the same for having adventuring friends, too.

Ari's destination was the Guild, where she could clean up and rest. Molehill was—despite its ironic name—the largest adventuring town for half a day's travel in any direction. And not where she'd been born, or where she had family, so she had no house to be trekking back to, or home-made meals to indulge in after a hard day's work. Ma and Pa lived six hours away in the no-name village of Tark.

Her heart panged with brief homesickness—despite that she'd only been gone for a few days—but she pushed past it. She'd been looking forward to this chapter of her life for years, and it'd finally arrived. And not only arrived, but in such an amazing form.

Lurran, the short and cheerful halfling Guild receptionist, greeted her with a smile as Ari walked in. While Molehill might be the biggest adventuring town nearby, calling it 'big' would be dishonest. It wasn't quite to the point everyone knew each other's name—like Tark—but people who ran in the same circles did. Ari had only been in Molehill two days and she knew most of the Guild's regulars by their faces, though admittedly not their names, or in any depth—because, again, she'd only been here a few days.

"Looks like it went well," Lurran said brightly.

A grin had been plastered since she'd set foot into Molehill, and it only spread at Lurran's prompt. Sure, Ari might not have seen success in the traditional sense of an adventurer, but when it came to her class—and her first venture out into monster infested wilderness—things had definitely gone well.

Plus, she'd lost her virginity. That was reason for celebration by itself. The dating pool back in Tark had really not been conducive for an already-kinda-awkward girl who liked other girls. The afterglow she carried around, at the moment, had a few different layers to it.

"Better than well," Ari grinned. "It went amazing. It was so much fun."

Lurran laughed. "You adventurers are a different sort," she said with a shake of her head. "Fighting ten foot razor-teethed monsters? Fun?" She tutted, then shuffled out her notebook. "I'll get you signed in. I'm glad to see everything worked out."

Ari sobered the smallest amount. For all the lightheartedness adventurers and related staff treated the profession, adventuring was one of the most dangerous careers to be in. Ari could've never shown back up to the Guild, and nobody would've blinked. The Guild would've sent a party out looking for her, sure—hence Lurran 'signing her in', to keep track of who was coming and going—but rescue parties rarely found much. And when they did … well. When adventurers didn't come back, it was for a reason.

But still. She cheered up in short order. Such was the way of life she'd chosen, and hardly something she hadn't come to terms with.

"Find anything useful?" Lurran asked. She nodded at the necklace hanging around Ari's neck.

"Oh." She fiddled with the trinket, pressing a thumb into the tooth's sharp edge, but not hard enough to hurt. "Yeah. It's useful for my class." For obvious reasons, she couldn't go more in depth than that. Not without some seriously odd looks, and ten to twelve mortifying tangents.

Fortunately, being stingy with the details on one's equipment and class was completely normal, even for a low-level adventurer.

"That's good. An artifact on your first day out—sounds like things went well."

The stupid grin on Ari's face answered for her. Much better than 'well' … and not because of the item, but because of Lori. "Oh, you know. All in a day's work."

Lurran laughed. She finished writing Ari's name in the check-in notebook, so Ari waved her goodbye.

Get cleaned, some shopping, then Elise. Her best friend was sure to be interested in her escapades.

Though, how much should Ari tell her?