Chapter 18: Immediate Effects

***Steve P.O.V.

"Just yesterday" I took a sip of warm coffee from my cup before sighing with satisfaction.

" My god. So you now have a contracted beast, just like that? " Ethan leaned forward while raising his hands.

" Come down, pls. You are embarrassing yourself." I rolled my eyes before looking to the left where little Miss was playing with girls.

" Do you even realize how lucky you are? You don't find beasts that could be tamed while strolling in the streets. They are rare even in pocket dimensions. " He started to lecture me before pointing at little miss, " And look, you even found one that looks pleasing to the eye, that's even tougher. Only a few in a thousand are pleasing to the eye. You found a needle in a box of dried glass. "

" I guess I had to thank the magnet for it. " I finished my coffee before putting the cup on the table.

" So, have you thought of any name for her?" Cora walked up to us before leaning against the wall.

" Not really, why don't you recommend one." I shook my head before shrugging.

" Since she is black, how about Cynthia? Derived from an ancient mythology goddess of the moon. " Ethan suggested the name to which Cora nodded.

" Better than nothing I guess. " I agreed since I hate giving names because I'm not good at it.

We talked about a few more things before I left the room to change into the mascot costume.

***

I kinda lost my job after Cynthia started visiting the restaurant with me because she quickly became not only a kid's favorite but even adults started to re-visit the restaurant because of her.

From that day, my job was restricted to only outside because she liked to stay inside.

Miss Sophia was quick to notice the increase in sales and she suggested that I should bring Cynthia with me every day until the academy opened the new semester.

Today was the 8th of January and I received a message from the academy that the opening ceremony was on 10th Jan and I should be prepared for it.

" So you will be moving out tomorrow?" Miss Agatha smiled gracefully as she served me some tea.

" Thank you, Ma'am." I blew it a little before taking a sip. ," Yes, ma'am. Dorms will be given a day before the opening ceremony so I will be moving out tomorrow. Just wanted to thank you for letting me stay here, it was very kind of you. "

" Oh, dear, " She waved her while laughing a little, " Have you packed your stuff?"

" There was not much to be packed, Ma'am. Everything fitted inside a tourist bag. Just some clothes and books. " I nodded as I drank the tea.

" What about your job? " She smiled before inquiring.

" Already talked with the owner and my co-worker. It was a helpful experience working at that place, again thank you for giving me that pamphlet. " I checked the mission and quest section of my system as I chatted with her.

**missions:

1) praise the great system{ could be repeated indefinable times }

reward: a little temporary favorability of the system towards you.

2) practice the art of sword until your sword mastery reaches rank C again.

note: because the body still remembered the art subconsciously, the sword mastery would be upgraded 2 times faster than normal until you reached rank C. the bonus is only available until 30 days from now on. ( 8 days remaining)

rewards: having the ability to try to defend yourself if someone tried to kill you.

3) make your magic sensitivity stop fluctuating

description: because your soul was transmigrated dimensions, it is highly sensitive to dimensional energies and magic energy is created due to friction between aligned worlds which makes you exceptionally magic sensitive towards it but you had never learned to sense magic which is why your rank is constantly fluctuating. learn to sense magic from a skilled individual and then improve your sensitivity by practicing until fluctuation of rank stops.

Rewards: The ability to further progress in strength as magic sensitivity is a core ability of every skilled advanced ability user, without it, you will be bound by your mortal restraints.

Status: Completed.

Quests

Title: Mascot mayhem! customer complaints?

Description: you are looking for a job and the only job available in such a fine restaurant is of a mascot, accept the job and wear the costume that kids love so much until you get invited for the opening ceremony.

Condition: Do your job as a mascot and satisfy the manager and owner of this restaurant with your hard work.

Reward: the chance to earn the goodwill of the owner of the restaurant who treats her people very well and helps them when needed.

Reward 2: the professional weapon maintaining course video for the host. ( condition to obtain the reward is to obtain more than 85% satisfaction from the manager and earn enough trust from your co-workers that they become inclined to trust you if some situation arrives during work.)

Status: Complete, Satisfaction level 89%.

2)Quest name: this Christmas, Santa comes!!!

Description: Ruby is kind and pure enough to be on Santa's list and you already know what would be the most appropriate gift for her this Christmas. Empower the spirit of Christmas by curing ruby's disease completely and prove that miracles do happen sometimes to her family.

Objective: Cure ruby's disease

Reward: receive the family heirloom of ruby's family as their gratitude towards you, receive a sword art learning scroll that is best for you from the system.

Status: Completed.**

I had already completed all the relevant missions and quests except one up till now.

'I should delete the completed ones from the logs now' I thought as I finished my tea and shook my head as miss Agatha tried to serve me another cup.

I chatted with her for a few more minutes before I excused myself.

***

I returned to my room to find Cynthia rolling on the bed. I left her in the room since it felt weird carrying her every place where I was going.

Thankfully because of her size, I didn't need to fear her making a mess out of the room since she couldn't climb too high places where I put breakable things.

I tried to pick her up but she ran away as I climbed on the bed and heaved a sigh.

So much happened since I came to this world, made new friends, learned new ways to cook, experienced what it feels to wield a sword, and so on.

'Honestly, It doesn't feel so bad to start from a new beginning away from problems like pandemics and depression but for how long?' I thought as I closed my eyes, ' This is a world inside a game and a game needs to have challenges so that players don't lose their interest in the game. Sadly, I will be entering the dark from now on. I am neither the only reader nor the writer the wrote the story so I couldn't make use of the prior knowledge of the plot to stir up the plot according to my standards.'

' It could be very possible that I ended up becoming a helping force to the villain as soon as I enter the Academy since I don't know any of the main characters ' I smiled sadly as I scratched my head.

***†****†*****†*****†******†******†***

Author's note: I know that I took 5 days or more in uploading this chapter but sadly I couldn't make my mind until now.

I wrote 3 drafts for this chapter and deleted them before I wrote this. This is a very important chapter to me as it ends the introduction Arc.

We have all three major characters established now: MC, His system, and his cheat pet that likes to play innocent and from the next chapter, we will be entering the academy.

For you, that means new quests, plots, and stuff, and for me, it means searching for more names for the new characters which I find hard af.

If you read the whole author note then, first of all, thanks. It means a lot to me and can please tell how you felt about the introduction arc, like any constructive criticism would be very much appreciated.