He had me exit through the other side of the inn, which led me to the second floor of a bathhouse. Although they were connected, it was a separate business. I half expected something shady, but instead found a little old lady with cat ears like Amaya in a well lit establishment. “Two copper for the public bath,” she said without looking up from a book that looked like every other book in this world.
For a small town, it was very busy; adventurers, I guessed. It was too steamy to see clearly over the railing behind her where the public bath took up the entire floor below. A sign indicated that the bath was on the first floor, but I would have called it a basement. Are there men and women bathing together? “I guess adventures don’t need modesty,” I commented without thinking.
That made her look up and then over her shoulder to the baths below. She shrugged, “Back in my day, there were no men or women in dungeons; just adventurers. There are private baths upstairs. Six copper if you can maintain the enchantment on your own.”
“And if I can’t?”
“It’s another copper if you need me to come charge it up with mana, but it wouldn’t be very private then, would it?”
She has a point. She didn’t look formidable enough to have been a sword and board adventurer, but I could see her as a mage. And just like that I was back in front of my black orb, watching new cracks. The new pillar read [Shaman]. Shoot! That was definitely on Amaya’s No list.
[You have learned Scry!]
[Level up!]
[You have achieved Shaman Level 1!]
[You have achieved Mortal Level 3!]
Amaya said [Shaman] was the class that specialized in animal husbandry, I think. It must also include people too? Maybe all intelligent creatures? I memorized my stats as best I could, then closed the window, promising myself to get a notebook or something for next time.
When I came back to reality, I saw the stats floating in front of … Yuna.
[Name]: Yuna
[Level]: 67
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
[Age]: 122
[Sex]: Female
[Race]: Kitsune
[Class]: Naturalist
Kitsune? Like the magic foxes? I guess they’re not cat ears after all. But aren't kitsune supposed to have tails? Like, lots of tails?
I couldn’t see all of her stats, yet. I bet [Scry] would improve later, or maybe I’d need that ability Amaya talked about. I did see she was a [Naturalist]. That isn’t one of the ten classes listed, so this must be one of these synergy classes. If I had to guess, a combination of [Druid] and [Shaman].
“Ah… are you alright young man?” she said, waving a hand in front of my face.
Whoops! Time didn’t stop for her stats menu. Well... what the heck; when in Roam. I handed her two of my dwindling copper coins, and she gave me a towel and a pair of wooden sandals. It was strangely comforting to have footwear for the first time since arriving, even if they were just rope and wood.
She led me down the stairs since it was my first time, and handed me a wooden cage. “Place your clothes and gear in here,” she said, waiting patiently as I hesitated. I think my whole body blushed, but I did as she asked. Yup, that’s a full-body blush.
“What are you doing?!”
Oh… my… god, I just flashed a little old lady! How did I misunderstand so completely!?
“You’re going to ruin my towel! That’s for drying off at the end! Once you’re clean!”
I had started to wrap myself in the towel to hide my shame, but carefully folded it back up when she admonished me; a mistake I could live with. She slid my cage into a wall slot, and yanked a chain. The whole apparatus shifted clockwise, and I watched my cage disappear into a basin of water separate from the community pool. Slots with identical cages on the other side of the carousel moved up, and out of the water, as she did.
“Wait, wait, wait…,” I blurted out, afraid I was about to lose the few supplies I had in this world.
“This is how your clothes and gear get clean. No one wants to sit in the same water as their dirty gear. Take your bath, and let the water of purification do its work. Your gear will be just fine,” she reassured me.
She then motioned to a smaller tub, like a small hot tub, to rinse the worst of my grime off. I used one of the bowls laid out to splash water on myself until she nodded. After five minutes of relaxing in the pool with the others I had completely forgotten what I had been so worked up about. The water was more than just relaxing, it was… glorious.
Something about the purification magic, I guess. It doesn’t just feel good, it smells good, like menthol or something. I can see the faintly glowing sigils on the floor of the pool she mentioned. As I watched, the glow noticeably intensified. Looking up, Yuna’s head was bowed as if in prayer, and semi transparent fox tails were now spread out behind her; five of them. They were big, fluffy, and faintly glowing in a way that didn’t illuminate anything else around them.
Does that mean Amaya has tails? There’s no way that old lady was hiding all that under her dress, even if they are mostly fluff. They must be magic ethereal tails, or something. I wonder what they do.
A half hour later I left clean and up one pair of sandals. They weren’t exactly something I would want in a dungeon, but my feet still thanked me. And no, I wasn't stealing them. My new [Barter] skill suggested the pair was only worth one copper. Yuna wanted two.
When I got back to the inn, Gorg was handing me my coin back. “The little Pioneer took yer bag. Said you’ll be staying in the Guild’s room with her,” he told me with a wink.
“It’s not like that,” I began, but his sly smile just broadened, and then he was off helping the next customer.
It’s not, right? Well, staying in the same room with her had prompted me to clean up, after all. When I got to the second floor I realized I didn’t know which room was hers. Fortunately for me it was open. Amaya was sitting at the head of one of the beds engrossed in a book.
I’m totally overthinking things. Be cool! “You do a lot of reading,” I said to announce my presence from the doorway.
“It’s an [Arcana] thing,” she said, pointedly adjusting her glasses. “If you read everyday for three days you get a debuff to visual perception more than ten feet out, but a buff to your Intelligence stat.” She finally looked up from her book, “You have another level.”
“Yeah,” I said sheepishly. Which reminded me, turnabout is fair play. I studied her for once, activating [Scry].
[Name]: Amaya
[Level]: 34
[Age]: 20
[Sex]: Female
[Race]: Kitsune
[Class]: Elemental Mage
“Are you [Scrying] me?”
She knows! Wait, she’s constantly [Scrying] me. “Yes. Is Elemental Mage a synergy class?” I was right about her race, but I thought that might be rude to ask about that.
“No. It’s just a branch of the [Arcana] class. All classes offer a specialization at level 15. With [Arcana], you gain a spell school at level 5, and another at level 10. Then at 15, you need to choose which one to focus on.”
“What are the other options? For when I choose, I mean.”
“We can go over that tomorrow. I’m just reading before bed. Oh, you’ve never read a book before. You’ll love it.” She handed me a book out of her bag: Class Structure in the Rohan Empire.
The title looked unappealing to say the least. I gave an embarrassed laugh realizing that she thought I had been illiterate until today. “I read a bit. Mostly… fiction,” catching myself before saying science fiction. How much should I be telling her about the other world?
“You were able to read without the Literacy skill?” she asked, pulling out her notebook again.
“Yes… Looks like learning comes in spurts here. Back home knowledge is more of a gradual process. I started learning to read at like six or seven, and it took me ten years to be able to read a book like this.”
“That sounds like a tedious process. You read English and Latin, right?” she clarified.
“English, yes. Latin I just chose this morning after leveling up in [Arcana].”
She had me write something in her book in English, then the same thing in Latin. English was no problem, but I wasn’t able to write anything in Latin, and told her so. I guess I broke the System.
“You don’t know one of your own languages? This could be some new knowledge,” she said making more notes.
As she wrote, I inspected my new bed, and was glad to see it was worlds nicer than the hay one. I turned to thank and found her holding a hanger with her intricately patterned suit between us, straightening it. Did she just undress in front of me?! In front of the open door to the rest of the inn?!