“Took you a bit longer than usual Madilyn, oh, a new entrant in the village... Please wait for interrogation.” A tall man in his mid-thirties in blue and white, light leather armor, and a single-speared helmet called out towards Madilyn’s wagon. Madilyn had traveled back from her farm, north towards windrow.
“I vouch for him, he was kidnapped from tantrax and will be working for me,” replied Madilyn. “Young man, the territorial guard of the dravos welcomes you to windrow. Your name and place of stay in windrow please... also I would like you to inform the station about your kidnapping.” the guard informed.
“Right, Steve Grant... umm where am I living?” Steve asked with a lost expression on his face. “He will be living in the restaurant itself, you can note down ‘food stop’ as his place of residence,” Madilyn reassured. “Ok Mr. Steve Grant, have a happy stay in the largest building in windrow, I am peter by the way.” the guard said smiling with his right hand stretched out. Steve responded with a weak handshake and a polite nod, before continuing with Madilyn to her restaurant.
Steve had low expectations from the village in terms of infrastructure. He was right, the village was just the main road splitting into two. The two roads ran parallel for a solid 10 minutes or so on the wagon, with houses and some shops on both sides.
On the silent journey from the southern gate to food stop, Steve observed medieval architecture along the road. Mud walls, some stone bricked ones, a few painted in white and blue.
‘Soooo, white and blue seem to be the colors of the government it seems. Also, these people shake hands, interesting... Hey, note that down Steve.’ Steve’s train of thought was interrupted by the wagon stopping.
“Here we are, the food stop!!” Madilyn exclaimed. What Steve saw behind the seemingly unnecessarily excited young woman was an old, dusty, nearly abandoned, one-story building. “Did I mention, I moved here yesterday and I will be starting from the remains my grandfather left me. He was sick for a year before he left us, so the place looks kinda old. But you have a multi-purpose laborer class or something with your plumber class, right?? right?? Oh, I should have probably asked you your classes and level before hiring you.”
‘Think Steve, you can get fired for the truth. A plumber in tantrax must have the plumber class, that's common sense. But, is it true? Time for that hail mary.’ Steve snapped out of his mental monologue to reply, “I have the plumber class, but I have no idea about the multi-purpose laborer class, are you going to make me work to fix all of this”. His fingertip made a rough circle in the air pointing towards the building.
“Yes, of course. One Silver a day is a lot you know”. Madilyn said as she unloaded the five stacks of the drug plant from the wagon. ‘I basically got transported from a job in service to a job in service. Better just embrace it I guess.’ Steve hopped down the wagon and was quickly handed a bucket and mop to start the job. “I’ll get into the kitchen and start working on the recipes. You start by cleaning every surface of this building, the place opens tomorrow.” An ecstatic Madilyn said with a smile on her face.
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The sun was yet to rise, birds chirping on a nearby tree. Steve took a long breath and borrowed a bit of her energy to start his work. Oh, and it was work, all surfaces his boss had mentioned. He was new here but he would cross-check the value of one silver later when he could. When he entered the main hall of the food stop, he felt kind of betrayed. Every surface was dusty, from the windows and fire lamps to tabletops, dust everywhere. ‘Always start from the top, tables, and floor in the end’ thinking of his grand strategy for building repair he started with removing webs on the ceiling.
‘Tetrahedral food grain but they still have spiders, damn’ Steve continued with rolling up the curtains after removing all the spider webs. The curtains were planned to stay outside until Steve was ready to wash them. From lampstands to the surprise garden watering can, nothing absolutely nothing was going to be dirty when Steve would be done with it. Time passed quickly and Madilyn made soup for lunch.
“I see you have made significant progress,” Madilyn said with two large bowls of soup on her way to a table. Steve was quick to clean the table surface and two chairs. Once they were seated, Madilyn started “I hope the place can start tomorrow, we should also plan for some food deliveries.” As she finished her sentence, she noticed Steve’s bowl was already empty, with a baby smile on Steve’s face as if asking her for more. Madilyn was back in the kitchen for his seconds. Steve was hungry enough to not question the ingredients, the taste was good though. The restaurant would do just fine if soups like the one he just had were made here regularly.
“Here” Madilyn was back in the main hall in a jiffy. "Once you are done here, you can start with the three rooms on the first floor". Steve just nodded while gulping down his second bowl of heaven. “Thank you for the food, the soup is a hit,” said steve gratefully as he started with the other tabletops. Not long from then, the main room was clean enough for business and he continued to the first floor. The first room on the first floor seemed like a VIP room with seats around one big table. The second room was already clean and it seemed to Steve like it was the boss lady’s room. Quietly closing the door to the room, Steve entered the last and smallest room in the building. It had a medium-sized bed, a closet, and a side table. Steve clearly got it how this would be his room if he was staying here. After the first floor, he removed the flakes off of walls and plastered them with a clay solution provided by Madilyn. Then, he was sent to the thatched roof to wipe bird poo off.
‘Totally routine, I have been given a job and I have been fed, no worries in the world, alone in nature, no pressure, kind of ideal to be honest.’ It was while being on this roof, mundanely wiping the wooden surfaces, that Steve experienced his first supernatural encounter on this world.
[ Entry into classing system accepted ]
[ Requirements met for class: General Handyman ]
[ General Handyman level 1 ]
[ Class feature obtained: basic effortless cleaning ]
[ Basic effortless cleaning: get a basic level of cleanliness for much less effort.]
[ Do you accept? ]
“Yes?” A startled Steve looked towards the sky after listening to an emotionally dry female voice narrating information in his head.
[ Class accepted ]
The next wipe on the floor tile by Steve took much less of an effort and Steve knew for a fact that this class thing worked. “Handyman is good, being useful is good,” he said deep in thought.