The girl that suddenly appeared acted like nothing was wrong. Seth on the other hand felt rather awkward. A girl he did not remember the name of, from a one-night-stand he was paid for, suddenly appeared when he was eating in a fancy restaurant and talked to him. It was an understatement to say, that he did not know how to react.
"It must be fate!" she said and joined them at his table as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Are you here to celebrate, too? Where´s your party?" she asked stuffing herself with Seth´s food.
"Ah, yes. Celebrating, but I have no party."
Her question had broken his stupor, though his answer was still delayed. He thought of Fin and felt a light pain in his heart. The Ivicer this and jumped in to distract him.
Kyyuu!
~I am here! Don´t forget the mighty me! Stop this insolent female from eating my food! ~
"Oh my gosh! Is this your pet? It´s so cute!" she called out. She had not noticed Puff before, but now her eyes fell on a new target.
With a jump, she was already beside Puff and hugged him like a plushy. Tightly. Her arms squishing the Ivicer like a vise.
Kyu kyurgh!
~Nooo! Get this female off of me! I´m suffocating!~
"Errm, could you please let go of him? Puff does not like being hugged by strangers."
She looked up with a greatly disappointed expression but did not let go. It was then, that finally one of her party stepped in. It was the handsome beastman with long hair.
"Mina! Stop bothering people!"
~Help... ~
He gave Seth an apologetic smile. "I´m really sorry for my sister´s behavior. She normally isn´t like this. Mina! Let go of the caterpillar already. Its face is already turning blue."
Mina finally noticed that her tough love was hurting the object of her affection and let the poor Puffles go. Quickly it scuttled away and hid from her behind Seth´s chair making her look even sadder. But she didn´t go back to her party and sat down at his table instead.
~She´s evil and strong. We have to be careful!"
"I´m Mike. Again, I´m really sorry to disturb you. We came here after finally finishing a long quest, but for some reason, our table was double booked. We were talking to the receptionist when she suddenly ran off."
He shot a scolding look at Mina that made her shrink away. "Come on Mina. Stop bothering strangers and -"
"B-But I know him!" she suddenly broke out. She wouldn't just bother any stranger! Just the special ones. She looked at Seth with big round eyes hoping he would throw her a lifeline.
Seth was at a loss. Were they more than strangers? They had sex, sure, but he didn´t even remember her name. Seth was still pondering when the conversation took its turn to the worse.
"And how do you-"
"Don´t tell me he is one of your affairs, AGAIN!?" it was a cold that suddenly cut in. The girl with pointy ears finally decided to speak. Both, Seth and Mina blushed.
Mike could help but facepalm; seeing their reaction.
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"Not again..."
His sister had a voracious appetite when it came to men. Because of her increased stats and stamina as a beastman, there were few guys who survived their time with her unscathed.
"Wha-I-I made sure to leave money for treatment this time! He can´t be holding a grudge. Right? You are not holding a grudge against me, right?" her eyes begged him to say something.
"You'd did what...?" this time his was her brother and the girl screaming in sync.
Her teammate's reaction made her realize, that leaving money for treatment after having sex, might not be the right move if you accidentally broke someone's hip or worse. It could even offend people, to be treated like a prostitute!
She had not paid him for the sex, but to get medical treatment? He had tried to follow their bickering up to this point. Now, he couldn´t help but laugh. These people were worried that he held a grudge for having sex with a cute beastgirl. Mina, who had acted so carefree before, was now close to tears as her big brother scolded her.
It was a great time for a little prank. He stood up and, bedding his chin on her head, he embraced her from behind. Similar to how she had greeted him. And he played at the few words he still remembered from that morning.
"hmm, you know? Fate made us meet again. And I´m still not satisfied." he hugged her tightly against his chest. He could see her ear perk up in surprise. Her brother's jaw fell wide open, the girl was stumped and even the big guy's eyes bulged in surprise.
"Hah! You met an even bigger pervert than yourself this time!" the cold girl suddenly broke out into laughter.
Her brother was still petrified from seeing someone acting like this to his cute innocent sister. He knew what she was up to, but she would always be his cute innocent little sister!
Mina´s fluffy cat ears lay low and when Seth looked down, he saw her face becoming red as a tomato.
"Wha-Wha-What are you doing!" she shrieked and got out of his embrace. He smiled mischievously. But his smile soon vanished.
This would be a great title to have as a human ancestor living as a tribe somewhere in the plains! It was a shame Seth did not have the habit to travel with a group of naked people.
Seeing his sister act all embarrassed calmed down Mike's mind a lot. At least she had the basic decency not to act naughty in public, or at least not in front of him. Though their first meeting was awkward, Seth´s joke lightened the mood.
Against Puff´s protests, he invited them to sit down at his table. However, Puffles the Mighty was immediately appeased, when the adventurers ordered even more food and shared it with him.
Mike had finally time to properly introduce his party. They were a C-Rank party called "Yule cats Fur" and they had just returned from a quest that had taken almost a week. The two cat tribe siblings were Mike and Mina. The big guy who resembled an ogre was called Bulko and actually had ¼ giant blood. And as Seth had already guessed, Lixiss, the girl with the pointy ears and short dark hair, was a half-elf.
While even the solemn Bulko talked one or two words, Mina had become really shy and would avoid his eyes every time he looked at her.
As they were all C-Rank adventurers their talk inevitably came to the exam that would be held in a week. They had originally not planned to take part in the next exam, but their last quest was quite successful. The reputation had grown and they leveled up, so they decided to take part, too.
"You are a C-Ranked solo-adventurer as a blacksmith ?" Mike had a surprised look. Normally crafting classes lacked the offensive skills to get far as an adventurer.
"You have to be strong then! Maybe you could join us for the exam? We could use another frontline attacker." Mike offered with a smile. Mike himself was a swordsman and played the part of a damage dealer. Mina was an assassin and Lixiss was a sorceress. The surprising one was Bulko, with his giant build and muscular arms he was a....priest. A pure priest for heals and buffs.
Bulko had a whole origin story of his own. One where he started off as a very violent youth. He used to always use force to get what he wants. This was until he almost killed a priest that tried to stop him. He was no murderer, but in his rage had had almost become one. Instead of handing him over to the guards, the priest taught him his ways and Bulko changed his class, swearing to never use violence again.
Of course, none of them knew how deep the silent giant really was. He never bothered telling anyone.
Seth easily agreed. He didn´t mind finding new friends and it definitely would not hurt to know some of the people beforehand. The exam was a joint quest after all.
Another bonus was, that they could use the following week to train in the dungeon together. With an actual party, Seth and Puffles would be able to visit hunting ground with higher levels safely.
As a proper C-Rank party the members of "Yulecats Fur" had an average level of 40. This meant Seth could safely enter lv.40 hunting grounds. With his level being 20, he would still get more experience like this, even with the experienced being shared among more members.