After Alice’s first challenging fight, Alice and Grimmy found a nearby tree they could sit under to rest for a bit.
“Grimmy, while I appreciate all the information and strategies you have given me so far, you must learn to communicate better, dude. I almost got killed back there.”
“Alice, sorry to disagree, but you were the one that irresponsibly attacked the Den Mother without getting all the information first. You cannot just attack your targets without thoroughly inspecting them, or in your case, without me thoroughly inspecting them. Had you let me finish my inspection of the enemies, I would have told you not to focus on the Den Mother, but on the other two wolves instead…”
Grimmy went on and on about all the things Alice should have done and could have done had she been more patient. Alice stopped listening a few seconds after Grimmy started lecturing her. She did understand what Grimmy meant. She has been treating this whole new life of hers a little too lightly when it came to danger and trying to survive.
Ever since she was teleported to Sfiraz, Alice had been wishing she were dreaming. “What better way to wake up than to hurt myself,” she thought. Until last night—for the first time since she got to Sfiraz, she had processed the fact that she was no longer on Earth, that Tim was no longer with her, and that this was a dangerous place.
Alice needed to begin taking this seriously if she wanted to survive. She had gotten lucky so far getting an ability like transfusion early on. That spell and the sickles were a deadly combination for what Tim would call early game, but she had finally encountered a monster that was not considered early game and her inexperience had almost gotten her killed. She needed to be better.
“WWTD,” thought Alice as a small smile creeped its way into Alice’s face.
“Why are you laughing, Alice!? Is this funny to you!? Are you even listening to me!? You need to be more careful! I told you; I am not a fighter familiar. I am a guide familiar. I cannot fight for you or with you,” said Grimmy as he realized that Alice had stopped listening to him a while ago.
“Sorry. You are right, Grimmy. I know. I’ll be more careful and will absolutely not attack until you give me the rundown of the situation first,” said Alice apologetically. “So, you are a guide familiar huh… what does that mean exactly?”
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“It means that if you are about to get killed, there is nothing I can do about it! So next time wait for my instructions before you walk into guaranteed death!”
“I already said I was sorry, Grimmy. You can drop it.”
“Fine, I will let it go. It is just that I was really scared, Alice. I thought I was going to lose you back then.”
“Aww, we have known each other for less than 24 hours and you already care for me this much? That is sweet, Grimmy.”
“No! That is not it. Imagine how furious Lord Death would be if I let you, the first mortal he has trusted and blessed with a boon in the last 5 millennia, die in the first 24 hours. He would not be happy, Alice,” said Grimmy with a face filled with pure terror at the thought of making Lord Death angry at him.
“Of course…” murmured Alice to herself, no longer holding any affection Grimmy had gained with his previous comments.
“Any way, I’m ready and fully rested, should we continue?” said Alice as she stood up.
They continued moving towards Ruby City, hunting and killing whatever they could find along the way that would be easy prey for Alice. They eventually found the rest of the wolves they were missing to finish their quest, cut off their tails just like they did the other wolves, and proceeded to make their way towards Ruby City.
Alice leveled up a few skills here and there but was not able to reach lvl 7 just yet. That would have to wait until after their visit to Ruby City.
Ruby City, like the name suggested, was made up of mostly metal and ruby red accents embedded in the metal. The gate was not wooden like Ambar City; it was a colossal metal double door gate with precious rubies adorning the outer edge of the doors. Inside the gates, you could find elegant metal buildings as tall as small skyscrapers back on Earth. You could tell Ruby City was a much wealthier city compared to Ambar City.
Alice might not be an expert of Sfiraz, but she knew two things. One—if the city had money, it had nice shopping malls as well, and most importantly, two—ruby red would go fabulous with her blood red satchel and red rat leather belt. It was time for some accessory shopping.
“Grimmy, how much money are we getting for these 10 wolf tails?” asked Alice, already thinking what kind of accessories she could buy.
“5 gold.”
“Just 5 gold! We got 154 gold coins from those flowers back in Ambar. What gives!? I thought you knew how to pick quests, Grimmy.”
“I did not pick the dire wolf quest for the gold, Alice. I picked it for the experience, which proved fruitful giving that you leveled up a whole level on your way here.”
“Ughhh, fine. I am still buying myself some accessories.”
“Fine, you could use a few additional stats anyway,” replied Grimmy, already regretting the fact that he had agreed to another shopping spree with Alice. The second one in less than 24 hours.
Their first stop was at the Adventurers' Guild where they completed their quest by giving the ten wolf tails to the front desk receptionist.
“Five gold pieces, here you go! Thank you very much for your hard work, and we hope to see you again,” said the human lady receptionist. She looked to be in her early twenties, and more importantly she seemed to have good fashion sense based on what she was wearing.
Seeing her outfit, Alice asked, “Excuse me, do you know of any good places to buy accessories around here?”
Grimmy sighed heavily.
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“77 flowers. I will give you 154 gold for them,” said Hanz eagerly.