19 | The Next Steps
The five soldiers in the rear gate are murmuring as Keen and Vi arrive. Seeing the duo, all of them salute.
"Oh, great heroes! Thank you for helping us deal with the Beast of the Lake," the one in the middle is shaking a bit.
The soldier on his right, who seems a lot less tense, smiles and gestures for them to pass. "We didn't immediately recognize you. Please forgive us."
Vi bows her head slightly and offers a smile as well. "It's okay. Please continue protecting Topsy Town from the monsters during the night."
"We will!" Four of them answer in a chorus.
"We'll be sure to take our training more seriously and become as strong as you!"
The soldier who is most composed, standing at the leftmost, congratulates them further for keeping up with their unbeaten commander. "We were told by our comrades that you even stood toe to toe with Commander Albert. It's a sad thing that we were not able to see him at his finest fighting. We always feel that he is somehow going easy on us during training."
"Don't worry. I'll ask him to train you more fiercely from now on," Keen teases while waving a hand.
◎◎◎
The sun is almost setting again as the duo reach old man Daryl's inn. Their arrival attracts the attention of everyone eating and having their drinks on the in-house restaurant, although no one dares to approach them.
"Those two are the same guys that were able to fight squarely with Commander Albert?" A man drinking beer on a large medieval-style mug whispers to his seatmate, who nods with a red face and sleepy eyes.
"Just the two of them? That's insane," another one whispers.
"I also heard it's just their first day here yesterday."
"They even made friends with the beautiful elf Elise and the paladin Sir Isidore. They were together in defeating the Beast of the Lake."
"Really?"
The round table twenty feet from the reception desk is empty.
Daryl takes out a platinum-colored key and hands it down to Keen. "Here's the best room for you. I've prepared it thoroughly to suit your preference."
"Thank you!" Vi smiles.
"Let's have your dinner delivered in our room. We've had our hands full for two straight days," Keen sighs while heading upstairs by himself.
Although old man Daryl wants to say something to the red-clad, he rather entertains Vi who has a more approachable vibe. He puts up the restaurant's menu before her with a wide smile. "Here, missy. Order as much as you want. You must be hungry from your adventures."
◎◎◎
Vi giggles softly as she finishes her orange juice. The restaurant's food all tasted good. "I'm so full."
Keen glances at her while standing beside the floor-to-ceiling window. He has put aside the white curtains earlier to immerse himself in the nighttime view from the best room in old man Daryl's inn. "That's good to hear."
She raises a brow. "You're not gonna eat?"
"I'm a vampire. Remember? I don't eat human food."
She instinctively covers her neck. "Not even an appetite for things you usually eat in the real world?"
He stays silent.
She realizes something instantly, making her jump on her feet. "Wait, how is it that I feel hungry and can clearly taste the food I eat?"
"You just realized?" He fires back with a sarcastic laugh.
"This is just a game, right?" she walks to him with arms crossed over her chest.
He sighs, deliberately avoiding her question. He already has his theories, but he is not a genius in following through his inquiries. Analyzing too much is not his forte, after all. It's the strong suit of someone close to him.
'Someone close to me?' Keen looks at the moon dominating the luminosity in the sky. A slightly painful sensation occurs in his head again.
Vi gasps loudly, catching his attention. "Why is there only one bed here?"
"Apparently, the best room in old man Daryl's place is specially suited for newlyweds," he removes the hood's embrace on his face.
She jumps back and takes out the poisonous dagger from her thigh holster. The bed indeed is king-sized and has pillows arranged in pairs. Two towels are even folded to look like swans kissing each other and forming a heart shape.
Two small tables reside in either side of the bed with one containing a dimly lit lamp. A black, circular sofa chair is located across the room with, again, a pair of pillows on it. On the other side of the large window where Keen stands is a brown reading chair.
The room's main light is a chandelier with many layers of candle-shaped lamps. Since electricity doesn't exist in Esprit as a household energy source, all lamps in the room are actual fire-using lamps that existed in the real world before the discovery of light bulbs and electricity distribution.
"Sleep on the floor, you…" she pouts her lips, but tries to avoid staring directly at his face again. Seeing what happened to Elise after she saw his face, Vi starts to wonder if Keen's vampire charisma is the reason she has been having weird thoughts about being bitten by him.
She is also always being captured by the sad, gentle and pale face he exposes very casually in her presence.
"I don't feel the need to sleep. Maybe I'll just watch you drool as you sleep." He laughs softly. Before she can even say anything else, he adds, "Damn this game for not having invented a camera yet."
Her face is red with embarrassment. "I don't drool while sleeping!"
"So you drool when you're awake?" he clasps his hands together in a single clap.
She threatens him with her dagger. "I'll kill you."
"You can't hit me properly if you're so sleepy," he points at her eyes that are obviously struggling to remain awake.
As if by the power of suggestion, her fatigue comes jumping into her consciousness and she drops the dagger on the floor. After a few steps of her feet dragging the body, she collapses on the bed and instantly falls asleep.
"Have a rest for now. We can't have our bodies overworked. That will be against our goal of collecting our memory fragments efficiently."
He makes it his own little secret about using his newly acquired skill
Keen then decides to look over his System Console.
[ Level: 49 ]
[ HP: 220 ]
[ MP: 120 ]
[ Memory: 497 ]
[ EXP: 285/1060 ]
[ Agility: 310 ]
[ Strength: 130 ]
[ Intelligence: 410 ]
[ Magic Affinity ]
[ Earth: 10 ]
[ Fire: 10 ]
[ Water: 10 ]
[ Wind: 10 ]
[ Necromancy: 10 ]
[ Charisma : 210 ]
[ Luck: 110 ]
[ Instinct: 370 ]
[ Defense: Physical = 10; Magic = 10 ]
After looking at the upgrades in his Stats, he navigates to the Skills Tab. His new skills include
'I wonder how I'll get skills in things such as crafting, cooking and other non-combat ones.'
He then proceeds to his Guild Tab and stares at it silently for a few seconds. Deciding to settle the matter for the next day after consulting the Guild Hall, Keen navigates to a tab he didn't notice being there before: Titles.
[ TITLES ]
[ The Defiant ]
[ Gentleman ]
[ Mentor ]
[ Beast Eater ]
"These are some weird titles," he muses, only understanding the 'Beast Eater' being due to consuming the Beast of the Lake.
However, he notices a drop-down menu on the lower right corner of each title, which reveals how he got them.
[The Defiant] is when he consumed Adjudicator Jun; [Gentleman] is when he saved Vi from the mob of Insane; [Mentor] is when he succeeded in his mission to help Vi level up to 10; and, as suspected, [Beast Eater] is when he consumed the Beast of the Lake.
He checks his Inventory next. The only new item he has are loots from the portal dungeon when he fought the minotaurs. As such, he got five sledgehammers, one Minotaur's axe, and twenty pieces of Minotaur meat.
"I wonder if these meat sell well in the market," he puts a thumb under his chin.
◎◎◎
In a fair distance away from a familiar cheerful inn with both locals and Transfers, Shina leans her back against a narra tree while petting a butterfly familiar. A few hours ago, she has witnessed the red-clad man defeat the commander of Topsy Town's Warforce. His abilities seem to grow exponentially with every battle he survives.
All this while, however, her heart is being held captive by the cold and commanding aura of the single person who shattered the pride of her guildmates. He also succeeded in bringing back a sensation she long thought was gone.
She moans after taking a deep breath. One of her hands slides down from the middle of her chest down to the place between her legs. "I want to share the bed with you soonest, my dear assassin mage."