Jyn dropped by an inn and bought a bottle of some pretty strong alcohol and made the sad Kalender hold it as a prop to make it look like he’d just had one too many drinks. Though the chances weren’t high, prospective thugs liked to shake down mages who’d run out of MP. Especially the novices, they were practically defenseless.
The type of depression that 0 MP brought was quite outward, akin to a drunk’s ramblings. Any thug that lived in a place with an Adventurers Guild knew what it looked like, and could tell it apart from an actual drunk.
Jyn sighed. It was lunch time and she was hungry. The closest eatery was just one shady alley away.
She’d already felt the eyes on her and Kalender. There were two and a lookout, still blended in among the crowd. They’d been following them since the inn.
They were already in the alley, though. The bottle of alcohol was only good for one thing, now.
“Leave all your cash here, girl.”
A buff lady with a club stopped them from the front, while a petite one with a knife blocked off their rear.
As far as thugs went, these two should be between Level 7 and 10. Only an intermediate Alley Ambush skill could put someone who was right behind, suddenly to their front. To have such high levels for doing nothing but thuggery, they must have invested in Appraise to pick out their targets.
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They must have been pretty good in a fight to be confident in taking on a sober Level 11, especially since the Level 1 mage beside her was being a liability to her now.
“Kalender, be a dear and pass me that Angel’s Fire.”
He sniffled. “Okay.”
Once she held the bottle, she let loose.
“{You are drunk}.”
She chanted the shits-and-giggles spell that she had Kalender make during the time they made camp between Fort Stave and Clarinets. It was her first time using it. She had more mana than she knew to use, so might as well. She was confident in her overwhelming sword skill to solve her issues if the spell failed, anyway.
She willed entire points of MP into it, seemingly to no effect. She changed tact to rapidly dumping MP into it, hoping something would happen.
27 MP later, the buff thug took a diagonal step towards Jyn.
“W-wha—” The thug couldn’t even compose her thoughts.
“Sis!” the petite shouted. She knew how her sis looked drunk, and this was it.
Huh. It worked. The bottle was lighter in her hand, too. She pointed at the drunk, making sure not to infringe on Kalender’s finger guns. “{Shoot an air bullet}.”
The gentle nudge felled the giant.
“Sis!—” “{Shoot an air bullet}.”
The petite got punted back, but she didn’t fall over. As soon as she was stable, she readied her knife—but her eyes widened as Jyn lowered her palm. They were both mages all along!
“Good form. It’s not too late for an Occupation change.”
With her parting words, Jyn turned around and led Kalender along, stepping over the sleeping drunk.
… She just wanted to say those words at least once in her life.