Dai woke up with a snap. She sat up and rubbed her forehead. She felt like she was dreaming, but she couldn't remember anything from the dream. She rubbed her eyes and then looked around. She was in bed, but not on her own.
The room was smaller than hers, but similarly furnished. And there were more things in here. She saw cabinets that she didn't have, full of knickknacks. When she saw a shelf on the wall full of beautiful perfume bottles on display, she knew where it was. This is Leonid's room. She stood up and went to take a closer look. The perfumes had labels with the year of manufacture and some kind of number. What the numbers meant, guess only Leonid knew.
Dai heard quiet snoring and looked over at the sofa where Leonid was stretched out and sleeping. How long had she been asleep? Leonid hadn't slept that much after getting his cultivation. He was usually up for two or three days before he needed to sleep.
Dai was worried that she had missed the time she was supposed to leave. She quietly left the room, but when she saw Filn still sleeping outside on the grass...., Leonid probably didn't bother to move him to a more comfortable spot. Dai's mouth twitched in amusement, only she had that privilege?
Dai went to her room to wash up first before going to the store. She didn't have much SC left after yesterday's shopping, but she had enough to make some supplies. She opened her inventory and then bought a few Pure White Cloud Lasagna, Little Luck Lollipop, Midnight Spider Cracker, took two Thousand-year Sunny Compote, and unwillingly took two Pain Lord Suffering Balm, one pack of Blizzard, Caramelized Celery Sprouts and Faster Time Pillow. She crammed everything into her inventory, and even though she only had twenty spots available, she was happy to see that if it was the same item, it still only took up one spot, and only a number next to the item revealed the quantity. Other places were taken up by weapons, some spare clothes, a few herbs she had managed to salvage from her ruined home, and a small pile of crystals. She needed to spend in town to buy things for her camping. She had nothing. Her meager equipment was destroyed.
During that time, she had used her Appraisal ability to see all the new things, somewhat hoping that her ability could already advance, but she still didn't feel any change. Still question marks. Why is this ability so hard to raise?
Finally, she left a message for the guys on the counter. Should she say goodbye? She didn't really want to. These things were awkward and embarrassing. And she'd be back to check on them soon anyway, so why any goodbyes?
Dai came out and went to look at the Training Ring. There was still a price to be set. She wasn't going to leave the Training Ring unused. Though she knew that Leonid would enjoy using it quite often.
After researching for a while, she found something called 'Admin Settings'. When she opened it, she was relieved. She was already worried that she would have to leave the Training Ring free! As if she would allow something like that!
The setup was not difficult to understand. There were a few options. So she set that for each hour you needed to pay per person 1. 2 grade Crystal. And she also stipulated that one person could use the Training Ring for a maximum of three hours per day.
Another set the maximum number of people using it simultaneously to five at a time.
She kept it free for employees, of course. Leonid would scold her if she made him pay. She had to let him keep his employee benefits.
She went to get Stigma ready, intending to leave today. She felt that with the limited time she had, she couldn't prepare more. Well, she probably should have cultivated a bit more, but she was quite afraid of the pillow and felt that learning to fight properly was more important.
She opened the Status window to see if there were any changes.
Name: Keeper4
Alias: Dai
Profession: Shop Owner
Cultivation: Low Realm
Life Providence: None
Power: 10/
Vitality: 10/
Intelligence: 12/
Speed: 14/
Endurance: 10/
Luck: 3/
Injuries: None
Techniques: Hidden Weapons Technique
Abilities:
Appraisal: E->E+
System Management: A+
Camouflage: (E)
Dai smiled when she saw that. Finally, her injuries were gone!
And it seems she had also mastered the fighting technique with her last combat. That was what she hoped for, that was why she kept changing one weapon after another. The absolute dumbest weapon was the Chakram. She almost cut her fingers off with it several times.
Dai thought some more about making sure she hadn't forgotten anything before she grabbed Stigma's bridle and led her to the door.
She looked back, feeling a little guilty for just walking away, but she didn't hesitate. She had already made up her mind.
She stopped in front of the door and looked at it. Then she looked at Stigma before looking at the door again.... well... how was she going to get Stigma through?
System: "Don't worry, boss. In the sake of accommodating customers of every size, the door is adaptable in size." System explained to her.
Dai nodded and so she proceeded to open the door and walk through. As Stigma approached the door's height rose and widened so the animal had no problems.
"Ah, shit...." Dai muttered as she found herself facing the same problem again. The door of the old perfume shop.
*****
Soon a strange sight appeared to people walking down the street.
They stopped and all stared at a strange beast like a horse with a large horn, stuck in the doorway of a shop, and a woman bounced around, hurling one curse after another as she pulled the beast's bridle and tried to get it out the door. Eventually, the woman gave up and ran off somewhere in the back. Then she was scared through the store window as she leaned on the horse's butt and tried to push. The beast made a disgruntled sound.
Soon the laughter of several people began to float down the street.
The sound of laughter attracted Hermes, who came to see what was going on. When he saw Dai's distress, he suppressed his own amusement and went to help her.
Dai was red in the face and grateful to Hermes, who used his woodworking ability to free Stigma.
Muttering a thank you, she shoved a few crystals into his hand before quickly mounting Stigma and preferring to disappear of witnesses to her embarrassment.
That she was attracting attention was certain. Stigma was a beast of a kind no one had ever seen in Shelter 22. Plus, she just looked more noble and impressive than Dark Blue Horse. The Blue Horse dragon was more like a muscle. Whereas Stigma was more graceful and elegant.
Dai had only stopped twice on her way out of Shelter to buy things for travel, she needed equipment for the night and some medicines. Of course, she had Pain Lord Suffering Balm, but if she could, she'd rather not use it. And it won't stop the bleeding either.
Getting through the gate to the outer circle wasn't a problem. While Dai herself didn't look like much, the beast she was riding gave her a certain prestige. The guards whispered amongst themselves as they watched her ride by.
"What kind of beast is that?"
"I don't know. I've never seen one. Do you think it's one of the clan?"
"I'm sure. No ordinary person has a chance to get a unique domesticated beast."
"Can you imagine being able to ride such a beast?"
Dai didn't hear the conversation any further, but it still tickled her ego a little. She straightened up more and felt more confident.
The streets in the outer circle were looser, so she could speed up a bit and get to the gate that would release her into the wilderness. Her momentarily gained confidence dropped again. The nervousness returned.
She never left Shelter for long. And never too far. Now she was about to go who knows where.... but she knew she needed to. She couldn't stay hidden all the time. She needs to expand her horizons!
As soon as they noticed her departure at the gate, they opened the gate for her, and Dai and Stigma rode out. The gate slammed shut behind her again, making Dai flinch in alarm. She felt as if the sound had ended a phase of her life. It was so... definitive.
Dai took a breath and looked in front of her. In front of her was a wall of green. A wild, vibrant forest is full of life and danger. She stroked the Stigma before opening the interface of her system window and switching to the Connections section.
She didn't hesitate any more and paid the connection for Shelter 1 right away.
System: "Purchased connection to Shelter 1. Calculating route... Route calculated. Uploading map to Shop Owner interface."
A holographic map unfolded before Dai. She looked at it and realized that the golden point on the map was her location. There was Shelter 22, and then a red dashed line leading from it, indicating the direction.
System: 'Destination determined. Travel time 4 days and 3 hours."
Dai turned the Stigma in the direction they were to go and looked at the route. The holographic map showed that only a small portion of her journey would be through the forest, the rest was more plains and smaller hills. However, there was one mountain in her way that she would have to go around which was inconvenient since Shelter 1 was just beyond the mountain.
Dai kicked Stigma gently with her heels and they surged forward.
"And here I go... and here I go.... all clueless but determined...." Dai hummed softly to chase away her worries.
*****
Leonid woke up to find Dai gone. He yawned and stretched for a long time before going to find Dai. Normally he would have taken her to her bedroom before, but for some reason, he couldn't get through the door. So he just took her to his place. Now he didn't have to worry about stiff and strained muscles if he slept badly, so he didn't have a problem with that.
He searched for a while, but couldn't find Dai. Finally, he found a note on the counter.
"I'm off. I'll be in touch." He stared at the ridiculously short explanation.
"What the hell!?" He raged.
He crushed the paper, perhaps hoping a little that he was crushing her throat in his hand instead of the paper.
In the end, he just sighed in resignation. What was he going to do with her?
Best to do his job and wait for her to come back.
He went out to kick Filn, who was still snoring loudly on the lawn.
"Get up. We have to open the shop." He said while poking him hard with the tip of his boot.
They couldn't let Dai down.
*****
Dai has been driving for a few hours. She was trying to get through the wooded section as quickly as possible because she thought it was the most dangerous part of the journey.
At one point they had a little trouble with a pack of Thorny Wolves. These are mutated wolves that are once as big as regular wolves, but they had sharp thorns growing out of their backs that they could shoot. They chased after Stigma, but luckily she wasn't a real scared Gazelle, she slammed her fiery tail at them several times and the Thorny Wolves gave up the chase.
Dai was relieved when she looked back and saw that they had stopped and were just staring after them. She loved her wild Stigma even more.
They slowly made their way to the middle of the forest, they had to slow down a bit as the forest was thicker here, and going too fast would be too risky.
However, Dai soon discovered the real reason why the Thorny Wolves had stopped chasing them. They had entered the territory of something stronger. Her enhanced senses suddenly sharpened and she felt a tingling sensation on her skin. Stigma pricked her ears uneasily and tilted her head a little, a sharp horn pointing forward.
"Okay, let's not get into that, girl," Dai said loudly to Stigma before forcing her to turn in another direction and they blasted away quickly.
They trotted away, even driving off the marked course, just to avoid that thing. But an hour passed and Dai could still feel the tickling on her skin. Had the thing started following them?
Dai gritted her teeth. That was her luck! The first day and they must have run into some insanely strong beast!
She was getting pretty scared, so she slowed down and jumped off the Stigma, intending to send it on its way while she went back to the Shop for a while.
She opened the interface window and pressed the icon to return to the shop.... nothing happened. She pressed it again. And again. A cold sweat poured down her face.
System: "Boss, you are outside the teleportation area. This function cannot be used at this time."
Dai remained standing with a blank expression on her face.
"You bastard, you did that on purpose..." she accused it. Her whole plan had gone to hell!