“Are you really going to eat all of that?” I asked her with a mix of awe and even a little bit of fear at the sheer quantity of food Bobbie had set out before herself.

She had about half a dozen different ice cream desserts arrayed on the table in front of her. There was, of course, the mocha nut sundae she had been yearning for before she even sat down. In addition, there was also a classic banana split, and also a triple chocolate sundae she decided to get after asking what Gunderson had gotten. Finally, she decided to get both a cherry and a strawberry sundae with different sauces on each as well as an assortment of toppings.

Just the sight of it was overwhelming for me to look at, and I wasn’t the one who had to eat all of it.

“What? Of course I am. I thought we went over this already.” Bobbie said in between spoonfuls of dessert. She scooped up a large helping out of her cherry sundae that was overflowing with toppings and caramel sauce and stuck the whole thing in her mouth without any real effort, despite the sheer quantity of food laden on the spoon.

This is something she’s done before, clearly. Quite a few times, if I were forced to make a guess on it.

“I know. It's just hearing it, and then seeing it are two different things.” I said before taking a sip of my water, and then resting my chin on hand as I sat there watching this petite girl put away all this fatty and sugary food.

“What, you don’t believe little ole’ me?” She said with a playful smirk on her face. “I swear to you, that I can eat as much ice cream or whatever else I like, and still be perfectly healthy for it. She scooped another heaping pile of chocolate ice cream into her mouth and said, “Promise.”

“Fine. It’s not really like I don’t believe you or anything it’s just seeing you put all this food away, and treat it like it’s no big thing is hard to accept mentally and emotionally.” I admitted, not all because I was a little jealous of how little she seemed to care about watching what she ate.

I guess I should care a little less about it myself, now that I have the body of a supernatural. Even if I was still pretty close to a normal human physically, given that I was very low level still, my body should also soon be able to ignore the downsides of eating too much unhealthy food.

“Don’t worry, the results will speak for themselves.” She said with a wink.

What did that mean?

“What do you…” I tried to say before she cut me off.

“So, how’d you like my motorcycle. She's pretty sweet right?” Bobbie quickly interjected.

“Uh yeah. She is.” I replied cautiously. So, Bobbie referred to her bike as a she. This fact, plus her bringing up the topic just now further reinforced the idea that she really, really cared about her motorcycle. “It looks pretty sweet. I’ve never seen a design quite like it. I’m guessing it’s custom-made or something?”

“Your guess would be correct.” She said with a smile and a flourish of her messy spoon in my direction. The result was some type of sauce or melted ice cream drops being flung at me. “Oops, sorry.”

Looking down at my now marred top, I couldn’t help but frown at the small spray of droplets that were now coating it.

“It’s fine.” I lied, reaching over to grab some napkins to blot up the stain.

“So yeah, you’re right. It is custom made, dwarven made in fact.” She smirked cockily at the remark, clearly assuming I had any clue about what that might mean for her bike.

“Uh, cool?” I said hesitantly.

“You’re damn right it’s cool. The dwarves make the best shit, if you can convince them to sell it to you anyways. Or, in my case, trade it for it for a favor.” She told me happily. “I’ve been going to these guys for whatever custom-made stuff I need ever since.”

“A favor? It must have been a pretty big favor if they gave you a whole custom motorcycle for it.” I reasoned.

“Mmm, for them sure, but for supernaturals like us, not really.” She replied casually while continuing to devour a decent chunk of the shop's supply ice cream that had been brought out for her consumption.

“What do you mean?” I asked, curious about what her answer would be.

“Well, they had a problem with a monster. Nothing all that unusual for a magical, but it was also a monster strong enough that they couldn’t really face it themselves. Me on the other hand, I’m killing monsters like this all day long, every day.” She said with a wicked smile. “That monster was a decent challenge, if I remember right, but I’ve faced worse before, and much, much worse since.”

“Huh.” I replied intelligently, taking in what she had just said. “So did they just ask you out of convenience, or what would they have done if you refused?”

“Hmm, well. I kinda had a good connection with them already, but assuming I didn’t have that and I did refuse, they’d probably just ask the IDPA for help. If that also didn’t work out, they’d probably organize a posse among the other dwarves, and tackle the monster together as a big group. They’d probably be able to take it down with enough concentrated firepower, but they’d be risking their own necks in that case.” She said with a shrug.

“Easier to just rely on a specialist than, one who is used to risking their own neck.” I extrapolated a bit.

“Basically.” She said, while finishing off her banana split with another mouthful. “Paranaturals are used to trading favors with us supernaturals for stuff like this. It’s been going on for thousands of years, probably longer.”

“So, those are the kind of deals I should be expecting when people ask me for things then?” I asked, thinking back to the favor I traded with Gribkik.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Yep. Well, maybe more when you’re a bit stronger. You’re still pretty low level right? You don’t need to be specific.” She said, quickly adding the last detail before I could respond. It seems like Agent Knowles's lessons on secrecy haven’t been lost on Bobbie in spite of her otherwise brash personality.

“Uh, yeah. Still pretty low level.” I answered a bit sheepishly, not really knowing if I should actually be embarrassed about my progress or not.

“Makes sense. You’ve only had your power for what, a few weeks now right?”

“Yeah, roughly a few weeks sounds right.” I admitted.

“Must be quite the transition. I know it was for me.” She said, this time her voice was a bit softer and sounded slightly more serious somehow.

“It was…it still is, really.” I confessed, my head tilting downward a bit.

“Hmm, your first fight must have been a rough one. How many did you lose.” She asked in a quiet but still audible voice.

“W-what?” I replied, caught slightly unaware by the phrasing of her question.

“How many people died in your first fight?” She asked a bit strongly this time.

“How did you…” I started before being interrupted.

“It’s almost always like that to some extent. Supernaturals aren’t picked when everything is going just peachy and nothing is wrong. No, we are only called up and given powers when things have already gone to shit, and gone to shit means people are usually dead or just about to be.” Her words were filled with bitterness and the ghosts from her past experiences were almost tangible with her in that moment.

“I…” It was hard to start, even harder to admit really. “Two.”

“That’s a good number. A low number.” She told me with a small smile. “You must have done a pretty good job after all then.”

That was news to me. How could she say that though, only two deaths was a good amount? Compared to what?

“How can you say that?” I said almost in a whisper. “Two people are dead, because I wasn’t good enough.”

“Maybe you weren't good enough back then. Have you been slacking off and not doing any training or studying since.” She asked in a relatively loud voice for the quiet restaurant we were in.

“N-no, I’ve been studying and practicing at least every night, sometimes more.” I replied defensively.

“See, so if you had to face the same situation today, right now. Would you be ready?” She asked me seriously.

“Y-yes, of course. I’m going to let something like that happen again. If nothing else, that much is true.” I said with conviction.

She just smiled at me and went back to eating her ice cream.

After a few more spoonfuls and a long pause of silence, one which she eventually broke.

“My number was much higher, and before you ask, no I don’t want to talk about it.”

Another even longer period of silence began then, this time Bobbie didn’t show any signs of wanting to be the one to end it.

That left me sitting there, a bit awkwardly, as I watched her continue to finish off her feast of sweet dishes, one by one.

Finally, unable to take the silence and messy spectacle any longer, I asked her, “So, you got any tips for fighting monsters?”

Bobbie seemed to almost choke with laughter at the question, before clearing her throat and smiling at my concerned reaction.

“That is a complicated topic, but it mostly depends on classes and skills you have.” She explained. “Now, I do have to admit I know a little bit about what you’re working with from Knowles, but we don’t have to go into detail about it if you’re uncomfortable disclosing any of it to me.”

“No, it’s… well let’s just start with whatever it is you already know then. Do you have any advice for me based on that?” I asked her sincerely.

“Hmm, sure. But to make sure I got things right in my head, you’re a variant mage with shadow essence right?” She asked.

“Um…” If I admitted those things were true, wouldn’t that be breaking the guidelines on secrecy if she was uncertain about the actual information?

Probably not, all she’d need to do was check with Knowles who for sure remembered all these details. “Yeah, you’ve got the basics right.”

“Cool, well why don’t you tell me about any monsters you’ve faced and we can go over what you did right and what you did wrong.” She replied eagerly.

“Uh, I’ve only ever faced the one monster.” I admitted. “Unless you count a paranatural drug dealer with tons of really sharp needle-like teeth as a monster.”

She probably wouldn’t.

“Wow, you’ve only fought one monster so far. I mean, I know you’re new and everything, but you should be out there getting you’re hands dirty already.” She said in genuine surprise.

“I’ve been helping Gunderson with his investigation. It’s just that this investigation doesn’t really seem directly connected with fighting monsters. At least so far.” I replied a bit defensively.

“I mean that’s all well and good new girl, but get that experience and grind those levels. And by experience, I mean more than just bumping up those numbers on your blue screen.” She told me sternly.

“N-no one has asked me to. I thought I’d get like a quest or a like a phone call at least.” I said even more defensively this time.

“Tssk, damnit Herbert. I should take you out to whatever nearby dungeon we can find, and then just clear it ourselves right now.” She said with an annoyed tone of voice.

“W-what? Right now?!” I said, feeling slightly panicky.

“Sure, why not. All I have to do is call into the office and ask for a list of nearby current dungeons and then we both hop on my bike and jet over there.” She said in a way too casual manner for what she was suggesting.

“But, I haven’t prepared at all for something like that.” I replied with obvious fear in my voice.

“Exactly. It’ll be good practice.” She said with a confident smile.

“Good practice?! I could die!” I very nearly yelled.

In response, Bobbie just rolled her eyes.

“I’ll be with you the whole entire time new girl. You have as much chance of dying with me around as I do of winning the lottery… without cheating.” She answered, teasing my curiosity without that cryptic note at the end.

“Still, I’d rather be more prepared for something big like that. At least not until I’ve had a chance to talk with Gunderson about it.” I said, offering a compromise that I hoped she would take.

“Fiiine…” She answered a bit petulantly. “We won’t go dungeon delving.”

“Phew, alright then. I’m glad that we could…” I started to say before she cut me off again.

“We’ll go on a monster hunt!” She said with a voice of genuine excitement.

New Quest!

Side Quest: Monster Hunt!

Bobbie Cowell, an experienced veteran in these matters, has offered you the opportunity to go on a monster hunt together. Confront this dangerous and elusive beast and end its deadly threat once and for all.

Success: 500 Exp.