Chapter Twenty-Two

Tyler's speechless gaping made all of the frustrations around her skills, stats, and the troubles surrounding them almost worth it. Instead of the normal ogling, it was him being stunned.

"I'm ready for this lunch if you are." She told him.

The carriage ride was quick and efficient, and there was no disappointment about skipping the guild hall to go to The Up and Down. Whatever they had done to Tyler to encourage him to talk was enough of a warning that as interested as she might be, the guild was not for her.

"Lord Tyler, your friends are waiting." They were greeted.

The hostess's lack of clothing and skill-reinforced smile made Harmony grateful for her new dress. It was too similar to her work uniform, and who knows when she'd play a similar role greeting guests of the manor. It was nice to show off without being the one shown off.

She noticed Tyler's eyes slink downward to staring just below the hostess's waist as she led them to a private room on the first floor. Any tension from the possibility of going down into the dungeon club eased up. She didn't want to enter Old Bone's domain for a long time.

The door swung open. Rose, Maxell, and Len sat around enjoying goblets of wine and egg-sized bread rolls from a serving dish. Len had eight rolls spinning in the air with some wizardly skill.

"About damn time, if it isn't the little lord and his ser… necromancer" Maxwell's planned words changed at the sight of the pair.

"They're actually on time. We're the ones who got here early." Rose chided him. "Welcome to my sweet fifteen party. Time for me to leave this starter town behind!" she finished.

The pair took a seat with the rest of the soon-to-be-dissolved team.

Len guided his floating rolls back into the basket. "I'm so glad you made it back alive, Harmony. While our meetings may have been brief. You're surprisingly well educated, and I'd be happy if you'd visit me at student housing for your opinions in the future."

Harmony kept a straight face at the clearly practiced bit of wordplay. As insulting as being called surprisingly well-educated was, she could sense Len meant it as a compliment.

"Ha!" Max slammed his hand on the table and pointed at Rose. "You owe me five silver. Len invited a girl back to his place."

"But the party's being disbanded. The wagers time has passed."

"We're all here now. It counts." The knight insisted

"If I find the time. I'd be happy to go visit you." Harmony answered as Rose dug out coins.

"Here you go bleeding the party girl. You know she'll need every penny in the capitol." Tyler poked.

Max snorted in disbelief.

"Boys, I'm good for it. What I want to know is, where did you find a unique dress?"

Harmony could sense the question directed at her and Tyler. More importantly, unique was a keyword for items. It didn't make the object useful, safe, or valuable. Some of the cheapest items in Lord Tyler's collection were unique, kept simply because he found the trait fascinating.

"Unique?" Tyler murmured.

"Surely you inspected the item?"

Harmony's skill was [Analyze], but it fits in the same family as [Inspect] or [Identification]. She looked down and used her skill.

Unique dress

Black with luminous spots

Do you wish to name your creation? Yes/no

Why not? It reminded her of the night sky. She mentally hit yes and attempted to name it that.

Name: Night, accepted.

That was half the name she wanted. Not that it mattered.

"I made it accidentally." She admitted.

"That's an achievement." Len blurted out.

Rose tossed a roll at his head. "Damn. I was hoping you'd found some fabulous tailor. I'd offer to buy it off you if I thought it would fit."

Was her dress valuable? A collector like Tyler might buy it, but most things had to be useful to have real value, and this was a mistake created by a low leveled maid. She could live for a year on the skill stone from the dungeon, but selling that was like selling your harvest before you had set some aside to eat.

Without a movement skill, she'd fall behind and get left for dead again.

"If I make a clothing mistake in your size, I'll be sure to let you know."

"More than that. If you ever make it to the capitol, tell the guild you want to see Rose-three-five-two-seven, and they'll get us in touch. Lots of adventurers going by Rose in the guild."

"Digits from Rose, an invite from Len. One dive, and we've got a girl with a fan club. I'd offer to buy your work contract from the Little Lord if he'd accept it. If you do ever find yourself in need of a job. I'll always have space for you."

Tyler turned red.

Harmony didn't even try to hide the sour look on her face at the mention of her employment. Not that she'd be particularly employable if news of her secret princely pet got out.

Rose's loud groan interrupted the whole burgeoning conflict. "This is my farewell. No petty politics before we get so messed up that you two call each other poop heads while on the way to passing out."

A hostess slipped silently into the room. "Will the honored guests be ready to order soon?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Now, before you all order. Harmony here has unlocked her stats and hasn't revealed them to me. Whoever's guesses were furthest from the truth will pay for this meal. Keep that in mind when ordering." Tyler announced.

"Congratulations," Len said.

Max grinned. "I've got this. Order me the king's feast."

The frenzy of ordering began. Expensive alcohol. Imported cheeses. The maid sat silently while the rest of the team made their selections, even though she knew her meal would be covered too.

"You can take bites from all the orders. There'll be enough to feed the poor for a week once the leftovers are donated to the temples." Tyler assured her.

Orders done, the hostess left, mumbling to herself to keep everything straight.

"So how are we going to decide who loses the wager?" Rose asked.

A thick book out of Tyler's pocket space landed with a thud on the table. "I borrowed a copy of Bixley's Compendium of Stats from the manor library."

"That book is often wrong," Len said, frowning.

"It's trash." Rose agreed.

"But nothing is more comprehensive, and the man is obsessed with organizing stats into different areas. While not perfect as a reference, it should be good for helping us decide whose guesses are closest to Harmony's stats, at least by the book's poorly thought out categorization."

"Fine. I certainly don't want to be up all night debating instead of drinking." Max said

The rest of the table, while miffed, agreed. Harmony, who hadn't read that book yet, was more interested in it than the discussion. Carter's schema was considered trash as well, but she had found value in it.

"First, everyone's guesses. Len, if you would." Tyler intoned

The wizard produced a sheet and quill and began writing from memory.

"Harmony, your first stat?"

"Synergy."

The book cracked open, and the pages flipped until it reached the "S" section. Harmony spied a Ruin stat in small text before it turned to the proper place. Tyler ran his finger down a page "Swords, synesthesia, ah, synergy. Bixly lists it as ninety percent skills, ten percent mental. Closely related to empowerment, efficiency, combo, and collaboration. A tier four, but we all know Bixley over-values all the skill-affecting stats. Perfect for her, though, because she is a follower of Carter."

Harmony spied the page. A small blue dot sat next to the name. Others listed had varying colors. Red, green, purple. "What's with the color?" She asked.

"Green means someone knew someone who had that stat, rather than hunting down and recording every stat that appeared. Bixley took everything he thought might be a stat for someone and then wrote his book. Only after did he chase down and modify any of the information. His followers have added, updated, and notated chances ever since. This version is only five years old, so it should be one of the more up-to-date copies. What's next?"

"Connections."

Tyler traversed back toward the front of the book. "Connection! Oh, crafty are you?"

The word was there, but it was missing the "s" . How important that was, Harmony didn't know. The text, however, didn't match her understanding of her stat.

"Completely external. Closely related to binding, fortify, and crafting. Only tier one, but you can't win them all. It must have helped you make that dress.

"I guess, yeah." She had felt the influence of the stat in the creation process with the dress, even if she burnt out many of those old connections in the material. Harmony hadn't focused on making connections in the material, and the stat felt more inwardly or skill-focused. Her bond with Hyacinth felt improved, and even her new pet benefited. Boredom flicked back through that connection as her thoughts focused on the prince.

"The dress is amazing," Rose assured her, mistaking the look on the necromancer's face as one of disappointment.

"I'm not sure the definition fits my stat well."

"Trash." Max coughs into his fist.

"This is only for the purposes of the bet. Last stat?" Tyler asked.

"Chronostasis."

"Shouldn't be too far away then." He flipped back in the book. "Can you spell it for me?"

“C-H-R…”

"It's not in the book."

"Ha!" Len barked.

"Just like me, vastness isn't in it either." The knight added.

"Can you give a brief description of it?"

"It's like time feels like it is slowing down." Harmony wrestled with how much to tell them. "But only in certain situations."

"Oh, a perception-based stat, or maybe reaction." Len mused.

"Could be mental, like the ones that modify memory," Rose added.

"Time manipulation would be…." Before Tyler could finish his sentence, the private room's door burst open, and the staff carrying food trays marched in.

Harmony was grateful for the distraction from picking apart her new stats. It's not like she's had that much time to explore exactly how they modified her. Almost as bad as when some of the other maids decided her boobs had finally come in and spent a week talking about them to varying degrees.

Tray after tray of delicious food distracted everyone with their careful plating and delectable smells. Whole chickens covered in a sweet glaze. Slices of beef steaming next to bowls of hot gravy.

Rose nabbed a pile of pickled striped root vegetables. "Food!"

The soon-to-be dissolving team's exuberance helped encourage Harmony to snatch up tasty morsels that caught her eye. She'd planned on a measured approach but ended up with a plate of steaming potatoes, crispy meats, and steamed greens crisscrossed by two rivers of sauces, one cheesy and another sweet and sour.

"I'm going to miss this place when I transition to the capitol." Max groaned with pleasure between bites.

"You know they have better restaurants there." Rose admonished.

"Yeah, but they're ten times the price. Not everyone has the pocket space."

Bixley's book of stats got passed to Len, who flipped back and forth between pages taking notes as he ate.

The door opened once more, and a hostess made her way in, an enveloped letter in her hand. "A letter for the Rose." most of the table's eyes perked up and watched her delivery.

The ranger snatched it with a sigh and ripped it open while motioning the deliverer away. She read the letter.

"I was afraid of this."

"Oh, where did our fearless Rose go?" Max joked,

"I'd heard rumors of some kind of incident in the Temple district that they were trying to keep quiet about. We were recovering from our little dungeon escapade when someone stole Prince Adric's body. A necromancer or some kind of puppet class walked in, raised him up, and then took off with him following after. "

"I'm not sure why anyone would do that?" Len pondered.

Harmony knew that the answer was 'by accident.' She hoped to avoid this new problem until she returned to the manor.

"Holding the body for ransom is the theory. Legally it's a great idea to make a small pile of gold, but I assure you whoever did this will regret it." Rose said

Harmony picked up her water and started to drink it. If it hadn't been such a disaster, she'd combine [Cold Touch] and [Poise and Bearing] to feel nothing. She simply settled for the latter and let the skill give her an air of calmness.

"Thousands of idiots are born each day. You're bound to stumble across several while working." Len added.

"Well, this idiot is going to cost me my farewell party and leave me stuck in this backwater until this is resolved. I hope you enjoy the meal. I'll cover it, but I need to go." Rose grumbled as she stood up.

Harmony waited until Rose had left the room before looking at Tyler, "So, what's Rose's relationship to the prince?"

"She's some kind of cousin. Came in with Adric's entourage aiming to take advantage of Hazeldown's dungeon to level easier. Grandma made the introductions for the team. I'm not sure how close the two were, but they all knew the prince was dying when he got here. I'd imagine this will be reopening old wounds for her." The young lord pondered this before shrugging. "Can you pass me those crispy potatoes? "

The maid passed the potatoes. Looking down at her plate of food, she found it a lot less appealing now than when she first filled it.