Tsarra felt his warm embrace, the musky scent of fresh sweat mixed with cured leather. Moreover, she sensed his surprised lips pressing against hers. For that brief moment before they slowly parted, she realised it was everything she wanted and more, and a glacial clarity descended on her mind.
For Exill, he had similarly enjoyed the press of her soft body and the scent of lilac. When she pressed her soft lips against his, it had awakened a primal desire within him. It took immense self-control to let her go and he realised he saw her as something more than an apprentice, more than a friend really.
They stood apart, each refusing to take the first step that could irreconcilably destroy their suddenly fragile relationship.
“… I should go wash up” he said.
“I’ll heat up the water” she replied.
She put some water over the fire then returned to the treatment room downstairs, holding her hand over her fluttering heart. Feeling the familiar clay tokens to the play clattering in her pockets, she unexpectedly realised who she wanted to watch it with all along.
The days passed and neither of them made the first move while immersing themselves into their respective duties. The events of that day were all but forgotten as Exill gradually warmed up to her again, acting as if the kiss never happened.
Envy observed them from the shadows, her woman’s intuition telling her that something was amiss, but their interactions betrayed no strange agenda.
Exill had fallen into the routine of delving in the Labyrinth in the morning, followed by clinic duties, and ending with repeatedly copying extracts from ‘Herbalist Koncoctions’ to raise the level of [Scribe].
Soon, the evening of Iris’ party approached them.
At that very moment, Exill was upstairs, seated at the dining table. He looked up to see Tsarra leaning over his shoulder, checking what chapter he had been studying.
“Oh… I was trying to raise the proficiency of Scribe” Exill admitted. He massaged his fingers, tired from repeatedly writing out passages while hindered by the bulky Pugilist Gloves.
She didn’t question him further, knowing he had his reasons for everything. Instead, she smoothed her skirt down and reached over to pick up the basket of crackers and cheese.
“Is it time for you to leave already?” he looked out the window at the reddening skies. “Well, enjoy your night out with the girls and return by tomorrow morning.” He tried to keep a stern look on his face, but it broke out into a grin when he saw Envy accompany Tsarra down the stairs.
‘Now… how am I supposed to unlock Archivist?’ he mused.
Scribe had reached level 20 a mere hour ago, but it had only unlocked the Tier II jobs Teacher and Notary, both of which were now level 1. Given some parchment, he could write his own ‘Notarized Contracts’. Teacher, a job he hadn’t expected much from had an unexpected boon of a skill.
Job Teacher Level 1 Description Arcane - Tier II Active Skill [Share Exp] party members gain a share of the teacher’s experience (scales with level)
Job Notary Level 1 Description Arcane - Tier II Active Skill [Notarize] draft a contract that would bind willing parties to their word with the World Spirit as the intermediary.
Even a sliver of his x64 bonus EXP multiplier would outclass anything people had access to in this world, not to mention it would increase over time when he levelled up Teacher. It could massively benefit Envy and Tsarra’s advancement. The only downside was that it required them to party together, and sometimes… shared emotions could be messy.
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Trying to ignore the memory of his first kiss, Exill focused on the task at hand.
Unlocking [Archivist].
Bibliographies of renowned archivists mentioned in the library indicated they were prodigies of some kind, able to recall excerpts from a book they had read only once several years ago. He suspected it was related to an acquired skill, and he needed it to fully exploit the ‘Spirit Guide’ at the Library.
The ‘Spirit Guide’ was one of the Kingdom’s greatest assets, a large tome containing the sum of the Kingdom’s knowledge on job acquisition. Entry into the room housing the book was strictly controlled and required a reservation and background check weeks in advance. Access to the tome cost 1000 Denar’s a session and a person was only allowed to stay in the room for an hour. Note taking was also forbidden.
‘If Archivist is related to memory… maybe I am approaching this the wrong way, and need to recall information to unlock it.’
He spent the next hour writing down several chapters from ‘Herbalist Koncoctions’ from rote memory. It had been copied and read so many times that he could see the pages fly by with his eyes closed.
[Ping!]
A deep resonance filled his core and Exill hurriedly summoned his Card in excitement.
Job Archivist Level 1 Description Arcane - Tier II Active Skill [Archive] store information perfectly in your memory. 0/5 pages.
Exill eagerly assigned it as an active job and skim read the pages of ‘Herbalist Koncoctions’ while activating [Archive]. By the time he had archived five pages, Archivist had risen to level 2 and the upper limit had increased to ten pages. Closing his eyes, he could perfectly visualise the sheet he had just read, including the imperfections of the paper.
‘So I get five pages worth of memory for each level I increase!’
He wasn’t sure how many pages there were in the ‘Spirit Guide’, but it would be sensible to unlock at least a hundred pages of memory before attempting to access it. Exill spent the rest of the night training Archivist by lamplight until finally retiring to bed.
‘I wonder if the girls are enjoying themselves’ he thought while drifting off to sleep.
***
The ‘girls’ in question were having a heck of time.
At Tsarra’s urgings, Envy had mixed ‘Infused Blood Potion’ with Dwarven Spirit to craft a unique cocktail that complemented the bitter aftertaste of the potion.
It had completely destroyed her inhibitions.
The Vampire was currently trying on Iris’s clothes and providing them with a fashion show. The Guild clerk was mildly annoyed that some of the clothes she had dismissed long ago looked fabulous on the slim yet curvaceous figure of the alluring woman.
Tsarra was seated next to her at the table, enjoying the beef stir fry she had specially prepared while taking small sips from her cup. They talked mostly of work, the upcoming festival, and their favourite foods.
Iris completely spoiled the plot of ‘Lost Memories: the Squire and the Maiden’ to Tsarra’s dismay, proudly pointing to the romantic poster hung on the wall. This eventually devolved into a familiar monologue complaining about the men of Ark.
“Do you know the only… ‘shaft’ I have seen in the past year belongs to Exill?” she slurred incredulously.
“You’ve seen it? When?” Tsarra asked, suddenly invested in the conversation.
“Actually, no… forget what I said.” Iris covered her face, suddenly embarrassed by the unbidden memory. She waved her hands over the table as if to dismiss it.
“Are we talking about his ‘shaft’? I have felt it several times. There’s nothing special about it.”
The seated women looked up at the softly swaying Vampire with mouths agape as she took another sip of the blood cocktail. She held up her firestone embedded bracelet for Iris to examine, then spouted off some more words ripe for misinterpretation.
“See this? He proposed to me after smearing his seed all over my belongings.”
“No way!” they both exclaimed, it was simply too lewd to comprehend.
Iris covered her face in embarrassment and visualised the incident. ‘Could the rumours of the Witchdoctor and his lurid acts actually be understated?’ She wondered inwardly.
“I’m sorry… but I remember overhearing from Exill’s acquaintance that Vampire’s only feed on the blood of virgins. How does that work then?” Iris finally asked, remembering her encounter with Lady Anna at the Clinic.
“It’s true. He is a virgin. As far as I know, he hasn’t even kissed a woman.” Envy easily admitted.
Tsarra coughed mid sip, feeling the searing alcohol travel up her nostrils in blinding pain. Iris reached out to pat the back of Envy’s hand, a look of concern on her face.
“It would feel like such a curse to know your future was bound to something like that.” Her kind grey eyes were sincere.
Envy shrugged. She could always find someone else to feed on, as long as they were strong enough, but it would be difficult to do while bound as his slave. And it didn’t have to be a curse… she remembered her mother, who didn’t have to worry about such things while bonded to her devoted human father.
Envy lowered her glass, suddenly feeling sober.
‘I want to go home.’ She thought.