I continued to follow the party of three Adventurers. After they gained permission to enter from the pair of guards entering the city, they went through the large gates. The first thing I noticed was the smell. Strangely enough, despite not having a nose, I could still smell the sewage covering the side of the road. They must not have a sewer. They continued walking for a good 30 minutes, occasionally stopping to give a coin to a beggar. Eventually they reached a building which I guess could only be the adventurer's guild. I followed them inside, where they walked up to the counter and seemed to be turning in a quest. Afterwards they went up to a large crystal sitting in the corner. Each of them placed their hand on it. I found this very interesting. I'd have to investigate this later.
After collecting the reward for the completed quest, they went to a billboard, and after looking through it for a bit, selected a new quest. I followed the mage and ranger as they went up a set of stairs, to discover that this place had a library. I guess that they were doing research for their next quest. It makes sense, given that the quest life could depend upon the research they do today.
I tried to read the various books that were open, but all of them were in strange symbols that I didn't understand. So now I have to learn to read in addition to learning the language. Neat. As I drifted around, I noticed the strange cleaning aura was still in effect. Things like dust, dirt, and stains slowly disappeared around me. I found it slightly annoying that all someone would have to do is look for the clean spots in order to find me.
After several more hours, the adventuring party left the guild. I ended up staying. After all, I did want to investigate that crystal in the corner later. The adventurer guild was packed with various adventurers, but as far as I could tell, the only race other than humans that was here were orcs. I wondered why elves weren't present. I spent several hours trying to listen to the various conversations, but other than the occasional thing I could sort of understand due to context clues, I couldn't really make heads or tails of anything.
Eventually, the place closed up for the night. I was invisible though, so I just stayed here. What are they going to do? I was kind of excited to finally see what that crystal did. I went up to it and just floated directly into the spot the adventures had touched. I felt like a small jolt of electricity shot through me. And then, to my surprise, a status menu appeared in front of me.
Species: Cleaning Spirit
Level: 1
Experience: 10/100
Skill points: 10
Skills: Cleaning Aura (Level 1)
Well... that explains a bit. I look around a bit and see another menu where I can obtain new skills. I pick up language learning proficiency (level 1) for 5 skill points as well as Air Purification Aura (Level 1) for another 5 skill points. Sure, there were other choices I could have made, like, analyze (Level 1) for 10 skill points, which is basically a staple cheat skill, but between not understanding anything and the smell, I thought my choices made perfect sense.
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Ahh.... I sighed in relief. The smell had gone down considerably. I found that by focusing, I could eliminate the smell entirely. While interacting with the crystal, I had also noticed that I had gained some experience points. The only things I'd done that I could have possibly gained experience points from was, cleaning? I had to test out my hypothesis. I spent the next few hours cleaning up all the hard to reach and other areas no one would notice in the guild. After all, I didn't want anyone suspect my presence. After cleaning up as much as I dared to, I checked the stone again.
Species: Cleaning Spirit
Level: 1
Experience: 40/100
Skill points: 0
Skills: Cleaning Aura (Level 2), Air Purification Aura (Level 1), Language Learning Proficiency (level 1)
Neat! All I had to do was clean and I gained experience. This would be easy. I also noticed that my cleaning aura had gotten to a higher level due to its frequent use in the last several hours. I quickly devised a plan.
The next day, adventurers came in like the previous day. Some went to the counter to turn in quests, others went to claim new quests, while others sat down at the various tables discussing various things. I was very interested in the latter group. Slowly cleaning the general area as the day went on, I listened to the various people, trying to learn the language. It went slightly better than yesterday. With me learning a few of the various words, but not overly so. The day continued on until the adventures all left for the day. I checked the stone one everyone was gone.
Species: Cleaning Spirit
Level: 1
Experience: 60/100
Skill points: 0
Skills: Cleaning Aura (Level 2), Air Purification Aura (Level 2), Language Learning Proficiency (level 1)
Neat. I was slowly getting up there. I was slightly disappointed that I hadn't leveled up yet, but the ability to purify the air around me was incredibly useful. Now I didn't have to focus as much on air purification to not have to smell anything unpleasant.
The next few days were fairly uneventful. I continued to clean up the various things for experience, as well as listen to the various adventurers as they went about their day. I could understand them slightly better each day. Because I was so focused on learning the language, my level for the learning proficiency went up 1 after a few days, so that helped out a bit. I also noticed that as the place became cleaner, the amount of experience went much lower. I guess that makes sense, as there was less too clean. A few days later and I finally reached level 2.
I checked the stone. To my disappointment, it appeared that I only obtained 5 skill points per a level up. Slightly disappointing, but overall, I'd just have to obtain level 3 to obtain the analyze ability. This could be done. I only had one tiny issue at this point. The Adventures guild was clean. Very clean. And people had noticed. Lucky for my, from what I could tell, the theories people had were that either the guild had hired a cleaning staff, or that a wizard had cast some sort of cleaning spell. Some people just didn't care and continued on like nothing really happened. That being said, I didn't want to draw to much undue attention to myself, and I wanted to continue to gain experience, so I resolved to move somewhere else. I wonder where I should go..