Ronny awoke the same way he always did and began his routine—the only change was a doubling of his bread intake. In his work clothes, he went to work.

Today, his goal was an ambitious 35 silver. It would be difficult to hit the mark, but it would be possible with ‘overtime’, which he was what he called anything past the onset of Devitalized.

He worked like a maniac, turning heads not just for his gritty, no-nonsense attitude, but also for his revamped look. Even though he was still below average, people simply had no choice but to respect him. Every day, he arrived before everyone else and left after them. During that time, he took no more breaks than what was necessary. To them, he was something of an underdog. A rapidly rising wood-ranked adventurer who improved as the direct result of his drive.

Ronny slaved away at the bricks for hours, and his “strength increased to level 9” around noon, a little after Overworked set in. The boost was nice, and he powered through the work with ease. By the time Devitalized came into play, he’d already earned 27 silver. He still had 8 more to go in the weakened state. It took him until the early evening, but at the end of the day, he persevered.

When he got back to the Inn, Alice called down from a few floors up. She’d spent the day cleaning the stairwell and it showed. Ronny thought that the Inn was starting to look good and was glad to be a part of the reason why. They spent the evening cleaning the first two residential floors, and just as they were finishing, Ronny got a message.

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“Deftness increased to 6.” Until then, all he’d gotten was strength. He couldn’t tell a difference but trusted that something had changed.

After a half-loaf dinner, they began to chat.

“So, I’m thinking we might actually start to attract new residents soon. After the war, that is.” Alice twirled her hair.

“The war… I keep forgetting that we only have a few weeks until it begins.” Ronny sipped from a glass of water. They'd been giving out free water at work, and he'd managed to convince the site administrator to sell him one of the kegs they were using for cheap.

“We’ll need to start thinking about how we’re going to barricade. The place is mostly made from stone, so it won’t burn, but we’re in trouble if Demons get in. Those things can fly, you know.”

“True. We should also look into getting some weapons, just in case.”

“That would be a good idea, but every blacksmith in the city working for the war effort. Even a shoddy little dagger will cost way more than it’s worth right now.”

“I’ll look into it either way. Maybe we can find some clubs, or something.”

“Go for it, I’ll look into getting some new furniture for the Inn. That way, we can improve our prospects as a business while getting obtaining materials to barricade the doors with.”

“Sounds good.” Ronny still didn’t know how Alice earned money but knew that she did—somehow.

After some more small talk, they called it a night.