Chapter 3: The Busiest First Day Ever!

The sun was flaring off to the west when we returned to the southern district. Going on a different street towards the east, Rosalia leads me to the inn she’s residing at. At least with the wood, it’s a perfectly normal lodging place in terms of looks.

A young lady is shouting out to potential customers as we arrive. Each time she moves, however, her well developed bosoms underneath her blouse bounces with her sweat. What can I say? I think I like it here already.

She happen to glance at my direction, I smile. One look, and I see the reflection of money, my image as big as a cow to milk in her eyes. How terrible. And here I was beginning to like you too.

This energetic girl, upon seeing the innocent look in my eyes, hurriedly approaches me and traps my arm between her mounds. Damn. D-cups perhaps? It’s futile to resist!

“Come, come, dear customer. You need a place to stay for the night, do you? Do you?”

The moment she murmurs those words in my ear, it’s over. Ms. Energetic drags me inside the inn, all bubbly and smiling as if she just acquired a new prey. I hear Rosalia sigh behind me, but she doesn’t say a word.

“Dad, I brought a new customer!” As we enter the inn through its wooden door, I hear the sound of bells chiming, causing the man working behind the counter, across the room, to pay attention to us. This inn seems like it doubles up as a bar. On the left wing of the interior are tables full of men ogling a waitress’ behind while the others are simply drinking or eating in silence.

“This is it, Dood. I guess I’ll see you… whenever?”

“Yeah, thanks for all your help, Rosalia.”

“Anytime.” Rosalia strides upstairs with a nod. I want to ask her for some type of farewell kiss, but I know it’s a waste of breath. Yet unwillingly, I consider the possibility but it’s futile after all.

“You’ve come to the right place, Mister!” The man behind the counter says, pulling me out of my melancholy. “We charge ten copper coins a night. Fifteen if you want to include a single meal and a bath.”

“I see, that seems like a good price… and it comes with a bath too.”

“Right? Right? What did I tell you?” Ms. Energetic taps my shoulder. You didn't tell me anything! But this is a good time for me to know how things work around here. Let’s experiment a little.

“Alright, I’ll take the deal that comes with a meal and bath for the next fourteen days. How much would that be?”

Uncle counts in his head for a moment. “That’s worth four silver and ten copper coins, Mister.”

So one silver equates to fifty copper, eh? It doesn’t seem like he miscalculated, and I don’t really see him as a person to lie — not if they want their guests to return. I hand him five silver coins from my inventory and he gives me my change of forty copper coins. But now I can understand Rosalia when she described that pastry shop as expensive. I’m just that damn rich, am I?

“Here’s the key to your room.” Uncle hands me a copper key then points upstairs. “Your room’s on the second floor, seventh door to the left.”

“Alright, easy enough. What about the bath?”

Ms. Energetic taps my shoulder again. “Sorry, the bath’s close at this time of the day.”

I’m starting to like this familiarity she’s showing. Maybe we can develop this to a close quarter relationship?

“Do come ask us back tomorrow morning though,” she continues. “And before we forget, just write your name and age here.” Ms. Energetic points me to some sort of log, and I quirk an eyebrow as a response.

“My name and age?”

“Yes, the city requires us to keep a record of our guest for security purposes, you see. If it’s not too much trouble, can you just do it, please? Please?”

How can I reject that face?

“Gladly.” I grab the feather pen from its ink holder. “Dude Webber, twenty-three years of age… and done.”

She looks at the log and for some reason, stifles a laugh. “Can I just see your identification card?”

Out of goodwill and her big breast, I do what she says without asking any other questions. She rewrites what I’ve written and asks for my age. That alone is enough for me to say that they don't speak English here. How is this even possible? Is it some sort of skill? I have this urge to play with my status screen all of a sudden.

“You’re good to go, Dood! Thanks for choosing us~” Beaming, she hands me my card back. Why do I have this feeling that, like Rosalia, she just mispronounced my name? Nobody ever gets it right. “Mom can prepare your meal right now if you wish to eat.”

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Sliding the card back in my pocket, I reply, “Good timing. I’m actually feeling hungry at the moment.”

While those cakes were good, they’re not enough to sate my hunger.

“Perfect! I’ll come get you in your room when it’s ready.”

That sounds highly desirable, please do.

* * *

I collapse on the bed as soon as I close the door behind me. Turning around to face the ceiling, I open my status screen then click on the [skill] tab I ignored beforehand.

“I see… Language comprehension. That makes sense.”

There’s three stars underneath the skill’s name, and in this case, all of them are highlighted, indicating my mastery of the skill. I have [900] remaining skill points but nowhere to spend them at all. How do I even learn skills?

Since I see no visible answers, I open a different tab on the list of menus. I click the [options] tab this time. Just like in the multiplayer games I’ve played back in high school, there’s a huge list of privacy settings, asking me what and what not to show. This explains what happened when I registered my card this morning. It’s quite reassuring to know I can keep this cheat to myself.

After closing the other windows I popped up, I stare at my stats.

Dude Webber

Tittle: Labyrinth Conqueror, Otherworlder

Level: 150

Hp: 4500/4500

Mp: 4500/4500

Sp: 4450/4500

Hmm, I don’t remember them being this high at least. Even all of my attributes like [Strength], [Intelligence], [Vitality], [Dexterity] and etc. skyrocketed to [300] respectively. Just how strong have I become with this?

I bounce myself back up and pull a random giant sword in my inventory. From knives to spears, to crossbows to axes — there's all sorts of useful equipment. But [Dragon Killer], as it’s named, is a massive oversize cleaver sword with a length of at least three meters. I doubt I can carry this thing using my normal strength but the me right now can flail it around as if I’m carrying a stick. Just to avoid destroying this fragile looking room, I decide to put the sword back in the inventory. I merely hit the [unequip] button and the weapon returns on its own. Fantastic.

But as I was getting ready to take a nap, I hear a loud sudden disturbance — all kinds of frantic shouting — from the people outside.

“Huh?” Multiple times, the clanking of church bells rings for the whole city to hear. I glance at the direction of the noise — towards the obelisk. Door slamming booms all over the inn so, out of curiosity, I jump out of my room as well.

“Out of the way!” screams a frantic man rushing down the hallway. He shoves me aside and scrambles away without even considering to offer me an apology. I ignore his rude behavior. There’s clearly something important going on that I need to investigate.

Several more men running from the opposite direction head downstairs. A familiar figure sprints past me, but I grab her arm in the nick of time. “Rosalia? What is this commotion about?”

“It’s a call sign, Dood,” Rosalia answers, her viridian eyes looking straight at me. “All registered explorers are to head to the labyrinth entrance immediately. There’s a high probability that a high level monster got to the upper floors, or worse, to the entrance.”

I have no business to get involved — she can do whatever she wants — but if I let her go now, it would bother my conscience immensely. I have to stop her somehow.

“So, you’re a support class, aren’t you? And you don’t even have a group. Just leave this to the more experienced explorers, I’m sure they can handle it. It’s not like this is the first time this happened, right?”

“Even so…” Come now, don’t look at me with that kind of dejected face. It’s the truth and you should accept it.

“I know you have your reasons, and it’s none of my business. But in times like this, you don’t think about the loot. You think about your safety instead.” I can’t take any chances, even if I have to drill these words in her head.

“You said it, it’s none of your business.” She glares at me, and at that instant, I feel defeated. With that, Rosalia shoves my hand off and runs towards the night.

I stand there, my heart pounding with growing anxiety. “Damn, there’s gotta be something I can do, right?”