Nikola looked tired but happy. I poured more syrup on my pancakes. She'd just returned to the inn an hour ago. She'd left the inn yesterday, right after I gave her the bracelet.
"Garth, we have to go shopping today. I need more long sleeve shirts." Nikola said. It was her way of being discreet. I suppose wearing long sleeves is better than nothing. It's probably impossible for her to use it more sporadically.
"Don't you already have enough shirts?" Garth asked.
"But I don't have enough long sleeve shirts." She whined. "I need long sleeve shirts."
"Oh, okay." It was easy for her to bend Garth to her will. Idiot, you can't go easy just because she whines.
"Nikola, did you do something to your hair?" Sterling asked.
"Why?" Nikola smiled, "Do you see something you like?"
"Yeah, I don't know. You look pretty."
"Hrrm." I cleared my throat.
"Ah, no. You look pretty too, Sherrie." He tried to quickly clear the air.
"It's fine," I said. "I'll explain to you what's going on later."
"What? What's going on? What do you mean?" His face was a big question mark.
"Hehehe." Nikola laughed. "Oh god, this is great. Hehehe." She laughed so much, the food went down the wrong pipe, and she started choking and coughing. "Waatar. Waatar." She said as she flailed her arms around. Just deserts, I thought. Finally, she coughed out a chunk of half-chewed pancake and started calming down.
Woodie helpfully rubbed her back and asked, "What's the matter with you today."
And Dixon said, "Yeah, chew properly, idiot."
"Ah, yeah." She groaned and settled down. I continued eating.
"Are you okay?" Sterling asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I got a little carried away." She said and put the chewed-up piece back in her mouth. After swallowing it properly this time, she looked at her three men, "Hey, wait," she realized something was off, "why aren't you guys… you know… feeling it." She was pointing her fingers at Garth, Dixon, and Woodie.
"Feeling what?" Garth asked.
"Yeah, what are you talking about," Dixon asked.
"Hmm." Woodie didn't know what she was talking about either.
I answered her question for them while shaking my head. "They won't feel it."
"Why not?" She turned her eyes to me.
"They're already fond of you. Charmed by you. Whatever you want to call it." I shrugged. "Being a little more charmed by you today, little less yesterday, little more tomorrow. It doesn't make a difference."
"Oh." She touched her forearm and felt the bracelet over her sleeve. "This thing's amazing." Magically charming without causing any hypnotic effects was indeed rare.
"What are you guys talking about?" Dixon was curious.
"Yeah, I don't understand it either, master," Garth said.
"Don't worry about it," I told him.
"Nikola?" There were question marks in Woodie's eyes.
"I'll tell you guys later," Nikola said.
"You're starting to sound like her," Dixon said. "The way you're ignoring us. I don't like it."
"Dixon." Woodie's tone was stern. "I'm sure Nikola will tell us when she feels it's right."
"Hm. Okay." Dixon went back to quietly eating his breakfast.
Woodie gave Nikola a gentle smile, and she said, "Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you later." She turned to me and asked, "I can tell them, right?"
"Yeah, they'll eventually find out anyway."
"Right, Garth, what happened with the ranking up? How did it go?" I never got a chance to ask him yesterday.
"Oh, here are your updated cards." He handed back my adventurer's card and my bank ID card. Sure enough, where it used to say F, now it said E. "And yours." He handed Nikola her card too.
"Cool." She pocketed it after taking a glimpse.
"And I put the money from the cores in your bank account, master."
"Good." He did as he was expected.
"Is there anything you need me to do today, master?"
"Actually, there is." I smiled, taking out a list from my pocket. "I'm glad you asked." I handed him the list. "I broke a few beakers, so you need to buy more. And I accidentally mixed… Actually, cross that off. I'll go get it myself."
"Which one?"
"That one." I took the list back, took out the pencil in my pocket, and crossed it out. Then I handed it back to him.
"What are we doing today, Nikola?" Woodie asked. "I was thinking we could go for a walk in the park."
"Ah, not today, boys. Sorry. I'm going solo today."
"Oh. Will you come back tonight?" He asked.
"Maybe." She said.
"Don't you need rest?" I pointed out. She was out all night yesterday, and now she wanted to play all day today too?
"Yeah, I'm tired." She said. "But I'll rest later."
I didn't know what to say. I just shook my head.
"Then I'll head out," Sterling said, finishing his breakfast.
"Oh, you're going to work?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"Alright, have a good day."
"Thanks." He leaned in, and we gave each other a goodbye kiss. And he was gone.
"Then do you want to hang out, Sherrie?" Woodie asked.
"You're going to hang out with her?" Nikola immediately questioned.
"Yeah, can't we?" He asked.
"Of course, you can. She's my sister, after all." A crooked smile formed on her face. The idea of cheating was very loose in this world. Of course, if people agree to be monogamous or to only see certain people and if that agreement was broken by someone, it would be cheating, all the same. But most people didn't form those kinds of agreements. Especially since women needed to sleep around to level up, most women would laugh at a man who'd try to restrict them and eventually dump him. Some women restricted men from sleeping around, especially if they had high experience points. But since most women don't want to be hypocrites, they looked the other way. So cheating, for the most part, was more nuanced in this world and not just about sex. Though the same can be said on Earth, the context and the meaning are significantly different.
"Actually, that'd be great. I do need someone to carry some stuff." I needed to buy a bunch of stuff, including the stuff I crossed out on the list.
***
"That's a lot of stuff you have there." Said the clerk in the alchemist shop.
"Yeah," I said. Behind me were Dixon and Woodie holding onto layers of ingredients. Their arms were filled, and only their eyes peeked out the top.
"What are you making?" The clerk asked as I put one product after another on the counter.
"Scrolls," I said. I wanted to equip everyone with magic scrolls. Especially the boys, it's best if they had some way of defending themselves.
"Oh. Ah." The clerk looked at the ingredients and couldn't figure out why I'd need some things. "How does… Well, it's none of my business. I shouldn't be peeking into our customers' lives." She said with a polite smile.
I shrugged and put more products on the counter. Most magicians probably bought store-made magic ink and only know about the most basic type of magic ink, unlike me, who's been level 100 with multiple characters. I know of multiple types of magic inks and their strong points. If I have to stay in the capital for an extra week, I might as well use that time to make scrolls. Having surpassed level 10, I can finally use a lot of the knowledge that's been lying dormant in my notes for the past 8 years.
"Thank you, have a nice day." The clerk said as we got out of the store.
"Are we done?" Woodie asked, carrying the heavy bags.
"No, I still need to buy brushes. I think I'm finally getting good enough to use [telekinesis] outside of dungeons. But I still need some practice. And how long do bakery goods… sweets last out of the oven? Bread lasts like a week, right?"
"What?" Dixon asked.
"Nevermind. I'll buy a preservation box." They had no idea what I was talking about. I was thinking about the next source of my experience points, well, not exactly next… A source of experience points. The fairy king can give me 2 000 000 experience points, but he isn't as easy as Thratt or Sterling.
It's not common enough knowledge, so Garth wouldn't know, but there are men like Egil that exist even now. Well, that's not really true since I don't know how many points Egil actually had either, and it's a guess that it was at least 500 million. But it is strange for a mortal to have that many experience points. Why am I wasting time thinking about it now? What does millenniums-old history matter to me?
"If we're going to buy more stuff, can we go back to the inn and put this stuff away? I don't think I can carry more." Woodie complained.
I thought about it for a second.
"Yeah, this stuff is heavy. My arms hurt." Dixon complained even more.
I finished thinking. "No." I shook my head. "It's a waste of time. I don't have a lot left to buy. I can carry it myself if you guys are going to be lame." I was annoyed. These moochers should get some exercise. "Just don't drop what you already have."
***
I made the doorbell ring as I stepped into the magic shop. The shop was just as big as it was in the game. A multitude of little shelves and aisles circling around to a set of stairs in the middle. Which spirals up through all the floors to the top of the tower.
I looked around for a customer service person and found one putting things up on the shelves.
"Hey," I said to him.
"Hey. Ah. Can I help you with something?" He put down what he was doing.
"I'd like some brushes and a preservation box," I said
"Preservation boxes are on the floor above." He said.
"Where are the brushes then."
"That's…" He started walking, and I followed him. And sure enough, we arrived at the aisle with brushes.
"Here."
"Thanks." I looked through the brushes and picked up one after another.
Dragging their feet, Woodie and Dixon caught up to me. They looked like soulless zombies. I shook my head and said, "You guys can wait at the front if walking is too much." I was kind of being sarcastic, but they agreed right away.
"Oh, okay," Woodie said and went back to the front of the store.
"Fucking…" I exhaled and returned to picking out some brushes. I got a lot of extra brushes, so I could test out my [telekinesis] without worry. I already have enough parchments back at the inn. I had Garth buy all of that.
When my hands got full, I found a shop basket and put them in there. With around 40 brushes in my basket, I went up the stairs to find the preservation box.
As I walked down the aisle, lo and behold, who did I see but Leesa M. Padovan. "Leesa!" I blurted out accidentally.
She turned to me with a question mark on her face, "Do we know each other?"
"Ah, well. Ah…" There are certain places in the game I always liked to go to to find good NPCs to team up with, and there are certain NPCs I always try to team up with. Leesa is one of those NPCs. "Ah, no. But…" I know trying to recruit her right now wouldn't work, but I tried it anyway. "I'm the leader of a new adventurer's group. I heard you got promoted to the 5th floor of the Anti-Magic tower." Though I hated playing as an anti-magic magician, it has its uses.
"No." She shook her head. "I think you mean the 4th floor."
"Ah, right." The 5th floor is still too early. "Right, my mistake." Thank god she's always getting promoted to something.
"You heard of me? You heard of my promotion?"
"Hmm. Yeah, I have a friend that works in the tower." I lied.
"Oh."
"And I was wondering… if… you'd like to join my adventurer's group. Before you answer!" I put up my hand. "We'll be going to dungeons that I think you'll be interested in. Maybe you won't believe me, but I know the locations of many undiscovered dungeons." Revealing such knowledge was the only chance I had of recruiting her right now.
"You have knowledge of undiscovered dungeons." She smiled wryly. "And where are these dungeons."
"I can tell you if you join my adventurer's group."
"And what's the name of your adventurer's group?"
"Ah… That… We haven't named it yet."
"You haven't named it yet…"
"Yeah…"
"How many people are in it?"
"One other. Two."
"Two."
"Yeah."
"Hahaha…" She burst out laughing. I scratched my neck like an idiot. "Okay. You're funny."
"You'll join."
"No. I have a job. I mean, I'm sorry. You're funny. I like funny people. Maybe we can-"
"Leesa! Did you find it?" Another woman showed up. It wasn't anyone I knew. "Who's this?" The woman asked.
"My new friend," Leesa said.
"Hello," I said to the new woman.
"Hey," she said once and ignored me since. "Are we not going to the lecture?"
"Yeah, yeah, we are. I found what I came for. Let's go." Leesa said. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"Sherrie!"
"Alright, Sherrie, I got to go. Maybe we'll run into each other again." Her friend was pulling her away.
"Yeah, don't forget me! I'll find you again! You'll want to join me next time! It's Sherrie! Don't forget it!" She was gone. Leesa was a beautiful woman of about 6 feet. She had naturally olive hair, the same as her eyes. She's always dressed in traditional witch clothes, but underneath, she had beautiful breasts and a sexy ass.
Seeing her reminded me of the myriad of issues I need to deal with before the war begins. Leveling up was just one part of it. Well, maybe the most important part… But that's not the point. I need to start recruiting people. I need to visit places like the magic academy, the knight academy, the secret monk mountains, etc., and recruit people. But before I can travel to those places, I need to find at least one more companion. I can't keep dragging Garth around everywhere. If he ends up leveling up, we'll be in trouble, but if I keep relying on him and he doesn't level up, then… We'll be screwed either way. So I need to find another companion.
I was still staring at the end of the aisle, where Leesa had turned and vanished. I sighed. Putting those troublesome thoughts away, I returned to my current challenge.
While browsing, I found another customer service person.
"Hey, can you show me where the preservation boxes are? I want one that looks good. The more impressive it looks, the better." I need to impress the fairy king, after all. Though those aren't the kind of things he cares about, I still wanted to give a good first impression.
"Preservation boxes. Preservation boxes. Preservation boxes. Oh, I know where they are." The customer service person smiled. "Follow me."
"Right." I followed him to the 3rd floor. He wasn't lying. He did know where they were. He took me to a section full of them. I picked out one that was worth one and half gold. It had a guarantee that the temperature and quality of the substance inside would remain the same for an entire year. The box also looked very neat. The box was a kind of glossy wood, and it had intricate golden patterns all over it. "Good, good," I said. "I'll take this."
***
I came out of the store and saw Dixon and Woodie sitting by the curb.
When they saw me, they stood up and asked. "Are we done?"
"It's almost lunch. Can we get something to eat?" Dixon asked.
"I'm feeling hungry too," Woodie said.
"Fine. We'll get something to eat." I said. They did help me out, after all. I should treat them a little bit.
That was all the shopping I needed to do anyway. I had more than enough to keep me busy till the auction. The rest; Garth can get for me.