How do you feel about me?

By the time the party arrived at the outer perimeter of the Airport, the dawn of a new day had already broken the sky. They had survived the night despite the dreadful encounters. The party unanimously exchanged sighs of relief as they embraced the high walls built around the airport.

Their perception of human survival had greatly been shaken the night before, and there was some small amount of fear within their hearts about the condition of the airport to which they would return to. Luckily the werewolf had not set its sights on the human settlement.

After entering C-Gate, they gave the pelts to the merchant who had posted the mission; in return. As promised, the merchant decided to craft a set of shadow-hide armor for one of the party members. Due to the enhancements in agility, and sneak the party naturally agreed for Cassie to have the set of armor. However, she would have to wait sometime before the merchant could get around to crafting it.

Meanwhile, Alex had worries about the state of his current equipment. After the fight with the gargoyle, it had largely been rendered unusable. Thus he elected to visit Emily and have her repair it to the best of her abilities. Sooner or later, he would need to upgrade his equipment, though the problems related to that were simply the lack of higher-level materials and skilled craftsmen to create them.

Apparently, the latter of his concerns was partially solved. While Alex and his party were gone, Emily had broken through to level ten, though curiously, she could not select a class due to the non-combative nature.

Instead, she was granted the option of choosing a profession. She had elected to choose the basic class of smith, which was nonspecialized. She could make low-level weapons and armor for classed individuals who used such equipment.

However, she needed many things to accomplish this, raw materials, a smelter, a forge, among many other things, which of course, she lacked all of. Thus, she sent out mission requests for the materials needed to construct a forge and a smelter and the raw materials to produce the new equipment.

Apparently, by becoming a smith, she was instantly granted the recipes for basic level 10 equipment and recipes for the tooling to produce such equipment. Though Alex could not confirm it, he suspected it was the equivalent of a Class having a boost to their skills' base power after advancing.

From his surmise, Professions were gifted with an initial set of recipes to help them along their journey, though how they progressed beyond the initial stage was more than he could comprehend.

When Alex took out his iron silk vest and displayed its condition to Emily, the girl pouted at him before scolding him.

"You did something dangerous again, didn't you?"

Alex scratched his head and looked away from her gaze as he tried to act innocently.

"Nothing too dangerous; we just encountered a gargoyle on our way back from a mission."

Emily felt the urge to slap Alex upside the head for his reckless actions. Every slayer worth their salt knew not to stay out after dark. The survival rate drastically fell during the twilight hours. Hell, she was even aware of Alex's previous encounter with a gargoyle and how he barely managed to survive.

Instead, she just sighed and gave up; this fool would continue to put himself in danger while chasing glory.

"At least you made it back in one piece..."

She grabbed the torn vest and pulled out a spool of iron silk thread, and began patching up the vest. It did not take the girl long to repair the equipment; afterward, she handed it to Alex with a bashful smile on her face.

Alex raised his brow before accepting it

"How much do I owe you?"

Emily shook her head and pushed the vest into his hands

"No charge. It was a gift; I'd feel bad if I charged you to repair it."

Alex accepted the vest without hesitation and put it on. However, he couldn't help but tease the poor girl.

"I wonder how you stay afloat when you don't even charge your customers."

Emily's face instantly became red as she shook her fists

"You ass! I don't do this for everyone!"

Alex couldn't help but chuckle at her words, he was well aware that she treated him special, but he just loved to see her adorable reactions. He patted her on the head and thanked her for her hard work.

"So when are you getting off? I could use a drink and somebody to talk to."

Emily's fury dissipated instantly and was replaced with a warm smile

"I can close up early today, give me a few minutes, and we can head out together."

Alex nodded and grinned as he watched her close up. As she said, it only took her a few minutes; afterward, the two departed for the Swan Song Tavern, where they could relax for a while.

After arriving at the Swan Song Tavern, the duo noticed their friends sitting at a table, drinking and enjoying a hearty meal. Alex shamelessly walked up to the table and sat down next to them without even inquiring about it. He had been in a party with those other fools for so long it was natural for them to save him a sport.

Emily sat down next to him, and the two quickly ordered some food and drinks. Cassie's face was flushed, she had undoubtedly hit the bottle hard already, and she gazed at the two newcomers with a wicked grin.

In her intoxicated state, she decided to pop the question that everyone had been wondering to themselves for some time now.

"So what's the deal with you two anyway?"

Emily tried to cover her embarrassment, and Alex tried to act ignorant

"What do you mean?"

Cassie pointed her finger at Alex's chest and poked him as she teased the young man.

"Don't play dumb with me; you two clearly like each other, so why don't you admit it already. After all, I bet you're tired of fighting for a sleeping space every night. Especially when there's a pretty girl who has her own private residence who's interested in you."

Cassie put Alex in an awkward situation, it was true he had some degree of feelings for Emily, but deep down, he was afraid of getting intimate with anyone. After all, in this fractured world, only the strong survived. He would be highly likely to lose whoever he got close to, and he did not know if he could handle that.

However, Emily stared into Alex's eyes with a gaze of fiery determination. She had been playing games with Alex for so long, waiting for him to make the first move, but he never did. Now that the question had been broached, she would not shy away from the answer.

"How do you feel about me?