Will and Alice were being led around town by Max. Kat had to go back to her duties as Chief. Filbert was diving into the books that he kept in his study, now that he had a new line of study to follow. First they went to buy simple things, rations, waterskins, soap, toiletries, camping gear. Next they went to the smith. After appraising Will’s sword, and deeming it in fit condition, they started to look for a weapon for Alice.

They had her try all sorts of different weapons, maces, spears, axes, bows, daggers, but in the end she chose a sword similar to Will’s. The sword was well made, especially for being from a village smith, but it didn’t do as much damage as his adventurer's short sword. When he offered to give his weapon to Alice in exchange for hers, she flatly refused him.

“It’s alright master, you need to be able to protect yourself if I’m busy with fighting others.”

He did hand over the rabbit horn that he had. He wanted a dagger made of it. The smith told him that if he paid the rush fee, then he could have it done by midday. Alice on the other hand, chose an off the rack skinning knife. Will paid the man and they all left.

Next they stopped at the tanners, they bought some leather armor that was similar to the one that Max and the rest of the village guard wore. Will was also able to trade in his rabbit skin for a slightly reduced price on the armor.

Max, upon seeing the size of Will’s coin purse, decided that their next shop should be clothes shopping. She picked out multiple outfits for Alice. She got a few days worth of casual, and travel clothing. She also found some simple dresses for Alice, and Max made Will wait off to the side as she got undergarments for Alice to try on in the dressing room.

While they did that, Will went to look for clothes for himself. While his clothes did have a self repair function, which according to the shop owner was a function of named clothes, he wanted to have some variety to his wardrobe. The shop owner did try to buy his clothes off of him, and even offered him a week's worth of normal clothes in exchange, but Will turned him down. From that, he did learn that a week was still seven days here, which was handy.

Will also got himself some new sets of underwear, as he only had the one, and was kind of feeling gross. He had been wearing them for the third day in a row. And while he had washed them in the river with the rest of his clothes, he didn’t have any soap. Promising himself a bath and an outfit change as soon as possible, he kept shopping.

Alice and Kat were still in the changing rooms in the back, trying things on, so Will decided to find something for the both of them as presents. Max was easy to find something for, the entire time that they had been shopping for clothes, there was a dress that max couldn’t take her eyes off of. It was probably one of the most expensive things in the shop at two large silver. From the math he had done while shopping, Will had figured out a rough equivalent between the coinage used in this world and US dollars.

A copper was worth about five dollars, and a large copper was about ten dollars. Then as the coin's metal changed it multiplied by ten. So a silver was fifty dollars and a large silver was a hundred dollars. There were also special coins called chips. There were half chips, and quarter chips, for smaller purchases, These were literally the other coins cut in half or quarters.

So the dress for Max being two large silver coins, made it worth about two hundred dollars. While Will had seen dresses on earth sell for much, much more, it was an expensive item for a little village like this. Will pulled it down from its spot and laid it in his growing purchase pile.

Next he looked for an item for Alice. Alice didn't really seem to care about clothing, seeing as she never needed them until today, so Will decided to get her something practical. It took a while but he finally found it, it was a red traveling cloak. The cloak was a beautiful shade of red that almost perfectly matched Alice’s eyes, and had a removable lining on the inside that was made with snow white fur. It was like it was made for her.

Will did confirm a few things with the shop owner first. Firstly, the fur lining was not horned rabbit’s fur, but fur from a goat-like monster that appeared near the neighboring city. Next, the outer cloak was treated with a special alchemical fluid that made it both waterproof and breathable. This also had a benefit of making it easier to clean. Will decided that it would be the perfect gift for Alice and even got a matching cloak for himself in all black.

As Will’s purchases were being wrapped up, Alice and Max came out of the dressing rooms. Max placed the ones that they had chosen on the counter, and Will paid for those as well. In all, Will had spent four gold coins, two large silver coins, and one silver, or about two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. Considering all that they got, he considered it to be a good price. Max confirmed this for him, saying that all that they had gotten would have easily cost ten gold in the city, more than double what they had just spent.

All their shopping done, they decided to go eat lunch at the inn. This is when Will discovered that a bundle of items counted as one object in his storage box, and a bundle of similar items, like the packages of clothing, could be stacked. Though Alice ended up holding most of the gear due to having more free space, and more mana. So with their shopping stored, they entered the inn.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

They did get a few odd looks as they came in. The inn had quite a few patrons, being time for lunch, and they all went quiet as Will’s group walked past. Will had been seen by a large number of people yesterday, going through town with Alice in her rabbit form. The rumors of that must have spread like wildfire through the village, he could only imagine the rumors that would spread now that he was with a Bloodkin that looked exactly like his monster.

At least the serving girl was professional as she took their orders. Though she did give Alice a strange look as Max ordered for her, as Alice didn’t know what any of the foods were. But with their orders taken, she left to the kitchen. Now that they had a free moment, Will placed the two packages that he hadn’t stored on the table, and slid one to each girl.

“I got something for each of you.” he said

Alice opened hers immediately, eyes filled with wonder at the cloak she had received.

“Thank you Master, I love it.” She gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before putting it away.

Will wondered how many human-like tendencies she had picked up. He also wondered if it was the mandrake that did it, or if it was their bond that affected her. Will wanted to ask Max her opinion, but saw that she still hadn’t opened her gift, and was just staring at it.

“What’s wrong?” He asked her.

She looked up from the package startled, like she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Why did you get me something?” She asked, seemingly genuinely confused, “I understand getting a gift for Alice, given your circumstances. But why get a gift for me? You barely know me.”

“Well, it’s part apology for this morning, and part thanks for showing us around town. Without your haggling, I would have had to spend quite a few more silver, both large and small. So think of it as a fee for your work.”

Max blushed once more at the mention of the morning’s events, but seemed to accept his explanation. She opened the package to reveal the dress.

“This is the dress I’ve been wanting!” She exclaimed, “I’ve been working double guard shifts for the past month to buy it, but I only had half of the amount saved up.”

“I saw you looking at it the whole time we were in there so I guessed you wanted it.”

“Thank you Will, If you were a woman, I’d give you a kiss too.”

They all shared a laugh over that. Then as if on que, their food arrived. They enjoyed their meal together and then left the inn. Max had to leave for her shift on guard duty, so Will and Alice went to pick up Will’s new knife.

As promised, the smith had it done by the time they got there. He presented the blade for Will to inspect. It was a beautiful piece of work, the entire blade was bone white, with a slightly curved single edge, a metal cross guard and pommel, and with a leather wrapped handle. Will was surprised with how light it felt even with the metal pieces added to it. Will thanked the smith, sheathed the blade, and attached it to his belt.

Their next stop was to see the Chief. Kat had asked them to stop by after they got their supplies. They entered the village hall to find Isabell sitting at her desk. She looked up as they came in, and a smile crossed her face once she saw them.

“Well, if it isn’t Will and Alice, hello. Oh and Alice, how much you’ve grown since I last saw you.”

“Ah,” Will let out a breath, “So Kat told you?”

“Yes, well apparently someone caused quite the scene this morning.”

Isabell’s smile grew more coy, and Will felt a blush creeping up his face. Alice on the other hand was just looking around without a care.

“It was very unexpected for everyone involved.”

“Not for me.” Alice chimed in, “I like giving Master his wake up kisses, he always does funny stuff when I do.”

“Is that so?” Isabell laughed, “Well I can say that you are very cute now, but my daughter will be sad that the “fluffy bunny” is gone. Though from what Kat said, you were leaving today anyways?”

Alice hid behind Will at the mention of Poppy, checking all over the room to make sure she wasn’t there. Will guessed that the excess petting had really done a number on her.

“Yes, we only have a couple more things to do, and then we’re heading to Bleakwind.”

“Well good luck you two, the chief should be waiting for you.”

Will thanked her and headed inside. They found Kat much like they had the day before, writing hunched over her desk. She was placing a bundle of paper inside of an envelope, and then she closed it with a wax seal.

“You two came at just the right time.” She said, “I just finished the letter to the adventurer’s guild. Now before I hand it over, I need to know how close you are to level three Will.”

“How do I find that out?” Will asked.

“Right, I should have expected that. Okay, any time you do things like kill a monster, or complete a dungeon, you gain what is called “Experience”. When you collect enough, you level up. You’ve been fighting with Alice, so it’s been split between you. What I need you to do is call up your experience bar, and give me the number it shows you.”

Will did as she said and a small bar appeared at the bottom of his vision, it was partway filled and had a number just like Kat said.

“It says that I have one thousand one hundred out of one thousand five hundred.”

Okay that’s not bad. Give me a moment.”

She had a sudden look of concentration on her face.

“Here you go.”

She handed the letter over to Will, and he took it.

[New Quest!

Quest: Delivery

Objective: A dungeon has appeared near the village of Merry Grove. Deliver a letter to the adventurer’s guild in Bleakwind so that they may send help.

Rewards: 400 XP

Would you like to accept this request?

Yes/No]

The sudden window startled Will, but he quickly selected “yes”.

“What was that?” he asked Kat.

“That is your first quest.” She said with a smile, “Benefit of being a chief, is that the system lets me issue quests for something like this. Hopefully it'll help you get some wind beneath your wings.”

“Thanks Kat, for everything.” He told her, then turned to his partner, “So Alice, ready to start our adventure?”

“Yes Master!”