The two lay exhausted in each other's embrace on the sweaty bed covers. The floor was a mess, and Alex imagined the people under him complaining about something dripping from the ceiling. His thoughts caused him to chuckle, making the young woman turn to him.
"What's so funny?" She asked curiously.
She had slight bags under her eyes from working out for so long with hardly any rest. She held a cup of water to her abdomen and looked towards Alex. He smiled and looked into her eyes.
They gazed at each other before he looked back at the ceiling.
"I just found it a bit funny that a few hours ago you were trying to be angry with me, yet now you are here under the covers with a stranger who turned you into a woman." He grinned, which earned him a pinch under his arm.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop it Alicia!" Alex pleaded as he tried to hold her hand still and not pull to make it worse.
She smiled at his pain and stopped.
"Don't be rude. Most of my coworkers don't like you since it means more work for us and less revenue for the Inn. You also left a bad impression on everyone who saw you enter a few days ago. Many thought you were some young master who messed with the wrong people and would only bring ruin to our cozy Inn."
She raised her eyebrow and glared at the man in question who just squirmed around uncomfortably. It really seemed like the previous him was an asshole or something.
"I'm sorry for that. Although I don't know why I acted that way, I know I caused you all a lot of trouble. In fact, Alan is making me work already and tomorrow, actually I guess it's today, I might be hunting in Ether forest for food."
He chuckled to himself but Alicia shot up out of bed with a pale face.
"Shit! I forgot about finishing my rounds yesterday I'm so dead!" Alicia panicked as she threw the covers off her and stumbled to the floor.
It was hard for her to stand after the number Alex did to her. Although she enjoyed it very much, she regretted not planning this better. She wobbled over to her clothes that were thrown early on in their lovemaking and began getting dressed.
Alex forgot about that as well so he stood up and helped her get her things. She smiled at what he was doing. From her female coworkers, a lot of times it seemed like men would just hit and run so she never expected him to be so kind.
'I guess they just got the wrong guys.' She thought, feeling lucky to have taken a bite out of him first. If the other girls found out about how good he was in bed, they would surely throw themselves at him.
There were several of those sexy, almost hooker, type girls that worked here. Everyone had to make a living somehow, and oftentimes, selling your body was the easiest way to make big money for women. It was just the facts of this world.
She never did it of course, but she had often seen girls return with a myriad of emotions after a night out. Some happy, some indifferent, some angry, and some beat up with a busted lip or a black eye, and a few never came back. Consensual sex could quickly turn into r*pe if they weren't careful.
This was especially true when a normal girl got involved with an adventurer. Most regular citizens will never go through an evolution, maybe one if they are a laborer of sorts. Other than that, it is only adventurers or members of distinguished families that have evolved at least once.
Their superior stats made it easy for them to overpower others.
Glancing at Alex, Alicia thought that he might be an evolver. He had the muscle structure for it and seemed to have an almost endless amount of stamina even though he was the one moving most of the night.
She really got lucky with him and couldn't help but blush. Although she didn't think she was in love, she already considered him a close friend. After getting all her stuff together and quickly patting down her hair to try and make it presentable, she looked at the naked hunk in front of her looking worried.
Alex felt horrible for forgetting this and he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if she lost her job.
Alicia broke him out of his thoughts when she brought her hand up to his face. She gave him a sweet and gentle kiss that lasted for a few seconds. When she broke it off, Alex had a curious look on his face so she giggled.
"Don't worry about me, I've been a practically perfect employee since getting here so I don't think I will get more than a small scolding for disappearing if I give a good enough excuse. I'm more worried about you going to the Ether forest, I think you said."
Her gaze turned serious, "That place is very dangerous even for seasoned adventurers so you need to be very careful. I don't know why Mr. Setter is making you go there, but he must believe that you can at least get away safely if you run into trouble. Either way, I don't want the next time we meet to be at your funeral so you have to promise to come back."
Her brow knitted cutely and Alex couldn't help smiling at her. It only seemed to make her angrier, thinking he wasn't caring, but after his explanation, she blushed while pounding his chest. Alex had definitely developed a soft spot for this young woman although they had only met the night before.
"Don't worry, I don't plan on dying anytime soon. Otherwise, Alan will probably sell off my organs to pay off my debt."
They both laughed and Alex opened the door for her. She was holding her basket of now cold wet towels wearing her wrinkled dress and slightly disheveled hair. She turned to him with a slight blush before giving him one last kiss on the lips.
"It was nice meeting you Mr. Freeloader~" She said with a smirk before taking off down the hall. She used the adrenaline from moving around so quickly to stumble down the stairs to go to where she needed to.
Alex couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"That girl is something." He noticed that after their night of passion, she had easily become more open. She no longer cared about being exposed to him and quickly cuddled up to him. They even spent a bit more time getting to know each other more personally.
He learned that she had quite a large family, 2 parents, and 6 siblings. Having lived in the countryside most of her life, it was common practice to have many children to have them help in the fields or daily chores before getting older to either take over the farm area they might own or to make it big elsewhere and help their family later on.
As a middle child, she was free to do whatever with her life and was also the "favorite daughter" of the family so she got to leave home when she wanted to.
He also learned about evolution from her! He asked it on a whim but she was actually very interested in the topic. She told him a story about a man in her hometown who went through an evolution and even went on to become a soldier in the army.
As for evolution itself, Alicia said that it was a natural process that came after some sort of "inspiration." She was vague with it since she didn't know about it personally, but it seemed like it might be one of those, instinctual, life or death situations. In her story, the man that evolved was actually saving his son from being stomped on by a distressed horse.
The man had stood between his son and the horse and used his entire being to push back against the horse's hooves. He broke his arms in the process, but he was able to find hidden strength in himself to push the horse over and away from his kid.
According to him, it was like a spark followed by a sudden rush of strength. It was hard to know if what he said was true, or if it was something else, but it was a place to start. Alex wanted to evolve soon not only to absorb the rest of Aria's energy but to make sure he survived his hunting trip.
He had at least one person to come home to now.
Although he didn't think they were more than friends, only time could tell whether he and Alicia would develop feelings for each other. He honestly hoped not. Not because she was bad in any way, the opposite, in fact, it was just that he planned to leave this city as soon as he could.
He wanted to travel and learn about this world, gain the strength to defend himself, and figure out why he can't use magic. It really sucked since it seemed so useful in this fantasy world.
He closed the door and began trying to clean up. He took one look at the carpet below him and immediately scowled. Crusted fluids were now woven into it and some of it even looked torn up. He was unsure how that happened but he did not want to look at it any longer, so he rolled it up, and laid it against the corner of the back wall farthest from his bed.
He then grabbed his clothes and put them back on before folding up his sweaty bed sheets. Next, he went to find a bathroom or wash house or something. He felt gross and wanted to get the smell of sex and sweat off him.
Going down stairs about 30 minutes after Alicia left, he got directions from another worker after she scowled at him. Apparently his appearance as the "Freeloader" had really spread around well. Even some of the patrons staying at the inn recognized him. It was almost as if someone purposefully told everyone what he looked like.
He could only sigh and carry on. Even if Alan or Emma said something, they weren't in the wrong. He made his way out back to an outhouse where there were a couple of sets of showers and toilets. It seemed this world had basic plumbing but unfortunately they were all powered by Essence Crystals, also known as E-stones. And since he was probably the only person on the planet Nova that didn't have essence in him, he was the only one who couldn't use the showers, or the toilets, or anything else related to E-stones.
With a heavy sigh, he looked around to see if he could find someone to help him. Looking around, he saw what looked like another customer. He was butt naked, as was everyone who would come into the shower room, but since this was a communal shower, nobody could hide from each other.
"Excuse me." Alex called out but the guy didn't turn around. He repeated himself a bit louder this time and got the man to glance over his shoulder before he turned back to his shower. Alex thought he was quite rude but could understand since nobody would want to strike up a conversation with a stranger while naked early in the morning.
However, he pressed on.
"I'm sorry to bother you but I can't turn the shower on. If you could help that would be greatly appreciated." Alex tried to be as polite as possible but it seemed the man was unaffected.
He did get the man's attention again, however, it wasn't the good kind. The man scowled at him and said,
"Fuck off! I'm not gay!"
With that, he turned and left the shower room with a towel around his waist. He didn't turn the water off, so Alex quickly moved while trying to figure out why he said that to him.
'Oh, I guess I did word that weirdly.'
2 grown men. Together naked in a shower room. And he just asked the other party to help him 'turn on' the shower and 'help' him. He could see the little indications but it felt a bit farfetched so maybe the guy was grumpy in the mornings.
Alex got a solid 2 minutes to wash himself before the water turned off. It seemed it was on a timer for at least 5 minutes, maybe 10 since grumpy Gus had gotten here before him.
With another heavy sigh, he dried himself off again before getting his clothes and leaving. After getting dressed, he headed to the dining area where he could already hear people talking and the occasional laughter.