“I have never t anyone higher than S before. And to think that it’s such a cute girl,” Nadia said as we walked toward the dismantling area.
“I just got promoted.”
“I know. The guildmaster inford us about a new SSS promotion. He also said that you didn’t want to stand out, so we should treat you like normal.”
Is that his way of trying to accommodate ? Maybe he rembers his younger days.
“Oh? How nice of him.”
“I usually work at the B counter, so I’ve been hoping to et you.”
“I… See?”
Suddenly, Nadia's professional deanor changed. “How old are you? What do you specialize in? Do you have a party? What’s the strongest monster you have defeated?”
“Calm down. I can’t answer a hundred questions at once.”
“I’m sorry. Strong adventurers really excite . I started working here just so I could et them.”
So, Nadia's true personality is a fangirl for strong adventurers. I could probably get this one in bed without even trying… I could? Don’t I an I can? How did my thoughts imdiately go to that? I guess I have Liz… Right? It’s not like we have talked about it. For all I know, she will stay in Baruda after we get back. I did ask, but she didn’t really give an answer. Co on, confident thoughts! I’m not a timid introvert anymore… This is just all so new.
I wonder what Liz would think if she knew what went on inside my head? It would shatter the image of that perfect being she talked about, for sure. No one is perfect.
As I vaguely answered so questions for the squealing fangirl, I noticed the long line of people at the dismantling counters. Going to the B queue was the right choice. We went inside and picked up my materials.
Nadia picked up a clipboard and changed back into her work personality. “About the money for the materials of the behemoth and the other monsters, we would prefer to pay out a maximum of 20% of it and put the rest on your card if that’s okay?”
Does she have a switch to flip or sothing? It’s almost like encountering a different person. Nonetheless, compared to Saria, who occasionally treats her boss as an intern, and Hanna, who, well, is Hanna, I find Nadia to be the most normal of the bunch I have interacted with so far. It’s good that she is in charge of the B counter.
“Why is that?”
“The amount is too large. We need to sell so of the materials first.”
“Alright, that’s fine with .”
I don’t really care much for the credit card system since I have my [Inventory]. But if I insisted on getting a full cash payout, they probably wouldn’t have a copper left to pay any of the other adventurers.
I got a bulging bag of coins and tossed it into [Inventory]. “I would also like to have a frost wyrm, two yetis, and two wendigos dismantled. Would that be possible? I will be keeping all the materials from these, though.”
“Most certainly, you can put them in the cold storage,” She said and pointed toward the door where I had put the previous batch of monsters.
After finishing my business and escaping Nadia’s ongoing questions, I left the adventurers guild, walked into my favorite alley, and returned to the inn. When I ca back, I asked them to send up breakfast for two of whatever they recomnded and went back to our room.
“Good morning again,” I said as I sat down next to Liz, who was still sleeping. “I ordered breakfast, so how about you get up and eat with ?”
“Mhmn”
“Isn’t it ti you woke up now?” I asked and poked her cheeks.
“I’m… Awake…” She said and dozed back off.
There was a knock on the door, and I opened it to find a man pushing a trolley positively heaving with different kinds of food. It seed when I said breakfast for two, they must have thought I ant two horses. The man put everything on a table and took his leave.
I went back into the bedroom and started poking Liz’s cheeks again. “The food is here.”
Liz didn’t say anything and just pulled the cover over her head.
“I didn’t want to do this, but you leave no choice,” I said and slid my hand under the cover and pinched her nipple.
“AUW!” Liz yelled and jolted up, now wide awake.
“Good morning sleepyhead. Breakfast is served,” I said with a smile.
“What did you do that for?” Liz squinted at while covering her chest.
“It was either that or dump ice on you.”
“But it’s your fault I’m so tired!” Liz protested.
“Rember at the guild when I said you were going to get punished?” I asked with a smirk.
“If that's your idea of punishnt, then I might have to misbehave more often,” Liz said with a small grin.
“Next ti the punishnt is withholding it,” I said, caressing her cheek. “Now get up. The food is already on the table.”
Liz reluctantly got up and dressed before taking a seat at the table. However, she perked up a bit after seeing the plethora of food.
“So, how are you feeling?”
“Sore. My back is killing ,” Liz murmured in response.
“I guess I did go overboard a little. I sotis forget that you are new at this,” I said while pouring so kind of fruit juice into two glasses.
"Don’t forget that I’m also human," Liz said, rubbing her lower back. "Do you think I can get points at the guild for surviving a whole night with a rciless dragon?"
“I won’t do it again since you seem to be against the idea,” I said with a pout.
“I never said that. I just didn’t expect to be this sore afterward.”
I held out my hand over the table and used [Greater Heal]. “Better?”
Liz rubbed her lower back. “Yes, thank you. But I do get worried about the fact that you had to use healing magic on .”
“Noted,” I grinned. “So what do you want to do today?”
“I want to start training. I haven't done anything for several days now,” She said and picked up a sandwich. “If you keep spoiling like this, I will beco useless.”
“Okay, I have a quest to take care of in the anti so that works out.”
“What kind of quest?”
“Taking care of two fire wyrms so distance away. Apparently, they pushed out the other monsters from their territories, and it’s making a ss.”
“Where is it?”
“Uhm, sowhere east,” I said and pondered. “Two or so hours in dragon form. I should be done by the ti you finish getting accustod to your increased stats.”
“Speaking of stats. There is sothing that I don’t understand.”
“Okay? What is it?”
“Why didn’t I get sick from all the stats when you used buffs on ?”
“Would you believe if I said I didn’t know?”
Liz faked a gasp. “Sothing involving magic that the dragon queen doesn’t know?”
"Well, in short, it’s because I only buffed your stamina and intellect. Since they aren’t considered offensive stats, your body doesn't need to get used to them in the sa way."
“So I can’t handle casting spells if you buff my mind stat?”
"It depends on the amount of stats you receive. With the 5% buff from ? Honestly, I wouldn’t want to try. You would probably be lucky if passing out was all that happened. But that is part of the thing I don't fully understand. Stat increases from gear and status effects are easier to use without drawbacks."
“What do you an?”
"For example, if a fighter class with 500 strength gained 300 strength from advancing to another class, he would need ti to adjust. But if he got 300 strength from gear or buffs, he would be okay. My best guess is that it has sothing to do with the magic imbued in the gear and buffs that help compensate. I don’t know the exact logic behind it."
“I guess it makes sense that you would have to ask a dragon about sothing outlandish as increasing your stats too fast,” Liz said with a smirk.
“But as I said, I’m not really sure. People don’t go around talking about their stats so getting reliable information is hard.”
It’s not like I could experint on people in good conscience. I almost decided to try it on so bandits in the past, but I chose not to. Can’t rember why. Maybe I should do that the next ti I’m in that situation? Death by lightning or death by buff is the sa in the end. And it would satisfy my curiosity.
“Was it the sa in the past? That people didn’t talk about their stats and skills?”
“It was worse. They even held their class a secret.”
“Why? Wouldn’t it be easy to figure out?”
“Not really. There are lots of different mage classes for example. And they kept it a secret for their safety.”
“For their safety?”
“To hide their weaknesses. There used to be a lot of fighting between adventurers if they t in dungeons. People they disliked or just wanted to steal from were pri targets. It wasn’t easy to prove a cri had been committed without witnesses either.”
“That sounds horrible.”
“Is it better now?”
“I would say so.”
I looked at Liz and raised an eyebrow. “Even considering you were stabbed and left for dead last week?”
“That was an exception.”
“And Mira got kidnapped.”
“That was…” Liz paused. “Maybe it’s not as safe as I thought…”
“Might just be an exception,” I said, trying to change the subject. “Shall we get going? It’s ti to train.”
“Well, it’s too late to say no now.”
We finished eating and got ready to leave.
“What should we do about the room?” I asked.
“We are staying in the capital for a few more days, right? Should we stay here?”
“We can if you want. I feel a bit bad about getting it for free, though. We could do with a room half the size, and it would still be too much.”
“Maybe we could ask for a smaller room?”
“They might complain about the noise then,” I said and grinned at Liz.
“I wasn’t that loud!” Liz protested.
I stifled a laugh. “Right, let’s just see how it feels when we get back.”
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