Tugging at the strange shirt he sighed. His armor was as filthy as it was ruined. Putting it on after bathing hadn’t been an option. Instead, they had provided him with an outfit of weird pre-system clothes. They called them jeans and a T-shirt. The jeans weren’t too bad. But the weird shirt was oddly tight compared to the tunics he was used to from his own world. At least the cloth was rather soft and breathable. Especially, since it clung to his body almost like a second skin. It did show the effect the system integration had on his body. Before it had been frail and stick thin. Even on the first day after the integration, his body had been healthier. But now it had fully filled out. Yet he wasn’t huge and hulking as he had seen some of the natives looking. It seemed his strength and agility staying nearly equal refined his body into lean highly defined muscles.

So having checked his own reflection while wearing the odd outfit. He had been happy with the changes and thought he looked rather impressive. Other than the fact his hair was growing out like a wild mess. Perhaps Ren could cut it once she fully recovered. While he had basically fully restored himself with just three hours of sleep. Ren’s pools were still filling. But she was healthy and that was all that mattered. Leaving her to rest he had the man that was there to guard him, or more likely to keep an eye on him, take him to where he could skin some monsters.

As he moved through the town, Dren found the attitudes of the natives ran a wide gambit. But mostly they came in two flavors now. Extremely helpful to almost aggravating degrees all the way to practically terrified. After several hours of work and he was easily able to skin a pile of hides from all three monster types. Storing them all in his pouch at once caused a whole new uproar. Apparently, a small mountain of hides just vanishing was noticeable. When he casually mentioned putting them in his storage space. A whole new uproar started. One he didn’t stick around to deal with. It wasn’t like he ran away from the sudden chaotic crowd wanting information on the skill or item that allowed him to do that. No, that wouldn’t do. He teleported away. A much easier solution.

With plenty of hides to start imbuing, he moved to check on Ren. Her health and stamina were full but her mana hadn’t filled. When he entered her room why that was became clear enough. She was sitting up in the bed, weaving more threads. “Shouldn’t you be resting?” His voice was stern as if to scold her, but his eyes held too much joy for her to take him seriously. She looked fine now. Her response to his harsh words was to raise up the length of silk thread making a happy sound somewhere between a purr and a chirping sound.

Rolling his eyes he looked at it and then grinned. “You hit level fifteen for making silk? Very nice.” He beamed and then spoke in a thoughtful tone. “I do need to make us more armor.” Looking down he wanted to tell her to rest up but the message hovering off to the side of his view told him he didn’t have time. A countdown had started for him needing to return to Maria. In truth, the evolution of his class left him wanting to grind out his enchanter to twenty five just to see if it too would evolve. But there were priorities. First, he needed to replace his armor and Ren needed something better than what she had been wearing. It would be a bit of a tight schedule to get all that done in time.

Glancing at Ren she was already back to spinning thread and he sighed. “Ok. But don’t overdo it.”

*****

“What is going on here?” Dren and Ren both looked up from what they were working on at the same time. The main healer had opened the door with the nurse that had been checking on them pointing in a very accusatory manner into the room. Ren’s bed had been pushed against the wall out of the way. While tools, hides, cloth, and threads littered the floor. There was even one of the compact portable forges set up in the room. With not only was the terrifying beast tamer cutting away at some leather. But her patient was pulling a glowing ingot out of the furnace.

Dren and Ren looked at each other then he spoke up as if it was obvious. “We are waiting on our mana to regenerate?”

There was a slight pause where the healer’s eyes went unfocused as if her mind couldn’t process what she was seeing and hearing. Then they sharpened on the young man looking at her. Even as his hands continued smoothly slicing into the leather. Her patient looked up at her as well even as she put the ingot back into the furnace, slowly rotating it. “Out.” Her voice was a soft whisper.

“What?” Dren asked confused.

“This is a place of rest and recovery. You can’t… you can’t just craft in here.” She really wasn’t sure how to deal with this madness.

“Don’t worry. We have our stealth active! Did you know advanced stealth four is enough to mute the sound of hammering metal?” Dren smiled up at her, though it was hidden by the mask he still wore even in his pre-system outfit.

“What… No…Out. This is a place of healing. If you want to craft. Go do it in the crafting halls!” Her voice was unstable as if something in her mind had broken. Alternating between exasperated and stern.

Dren’s eyes narrowed but then they relaxed as he sighed. This woman had taken good care of Ren. “Ok ok. Sorry. We just got carried away.” He stood up and with a wave of his hands started storing all their mess before moving towards the door. He barely stepped out when there was a loud hissing sound, as if someone had stepped on an alley cat’s tail. Turning around he saw the woman had stopped Ren who looked ready to take a bite out of her. Dren quickly motioned for her to stop. It was probably a good thing, as even with her House Aranea evolution. Ren could probably rip the woman limb from limb if she wanted to.

“Not you. You need to rest!” The woman turned to glare at Dren like he was the one throwing the fit. “You go. She needs to rest.”

“But Ren seems fine. Besides she doesn’t like just…” He started but was cut off.

“Our Lady is still struggling to cleanse the corruption from herself. That curse was something terrifying and I will not let my patient run off doing god knows what until I am sure she is truly recovered. Lily was very clear about how important it was to make sure she was taken care of.” She gave Dren an intense look. “You want us to make sure she is really cured, right?”

Dren nodded both vexed and happy with the woman. Moving over he knelt enough to be at eye level with Ren before telling her she needed to stay and rest like the healer said. Then gave his Aranea companion a hug while whispering in her ear that she could still do her weaving while she rested but not to let the healer see. Pulling away he gave her a wink and she winked four of her eyes back at him.

“Now out with you.” The healer shooed him away and he heard her muttering as she went in to move Ren’s bed back into place about madmen.

Driven out of Ren’s recovery room he was tempted to head to the crafter’s hall. But at the same time didn’t want people watching too closely while he worked. Especially not when he was doing his enchanting on the materials. So he headed towards his room only to stop when a loud whistle called his attention to one of the side streets. Dren let out a loud sigh and felt his eyebrow twitch slightly.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

*****

Kitty plopped down into the chair across the table from him. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she wore an intense scowl. Dren for his part just sat at the table looking at her as she sat, her head tilted upwards and her eyes closed in annoyance. When he didn’t say anything he saw her peek out at him and then close her eyes before letting out a loud. “Hmph.”

Sighing he spoke up. “What?” His voice was flat.

She opened her eyes to roll them at his response. “Uncle Mike won’t sell me anything worth drinking. He says I’m not over twenty one anymore.”

Dren just looked at her confused. “You aren’t?”

She glared at him. “Really? You haven’t checked?” Then her eyes lit up and her lips pursed into a small mischievous smile. “Too busy checking out my body to care about my level? Huh?”

Dren ignored her tease while hoping his mask hide his blush. Kitty had dragged him into Mike’s Bar on his way away from the infirmary. It was the place the boy had told him he could get a drink. The only place apparently.

He had decided to buy the archer a drink. Only as a sort of thanks for having his back during the fight and for no other reasons, definitely no other reasons. When she ambushed him she had managed to catch him off guard. Not so much by her actions as her outfit. She wore shorts made of the same materials as the jeans. Dren had never even heard of shorts that small! They only went down to the middle of her thighs leaving most of her legs exposed. That wasn’t even the worst part of it. She wore a top with thin straps leaving her shoulders exposed and so short even her midriff was bare.

It was an outfit unlike any he had seen in his entire life. It was practically indecent and the shameless archer didn’t even seem embarrassed at all by it. Despite wearing his mask he got the feeling she somehow knew he was flustered by her outfit.

“Why are you wearing that stupid mask still?” She was leaning on the table to stare him in the face. “I can’t see how much you are blushing. And your hair is too shaggy to see your ears.” She suddenly reached over and ran her hand up the side of his head to expose his ear. “Ha, it is red as can be! I knew it!”

Dren swatted her hand away and glared at her. Which only seemed to make her laugh harder. Annoyed he activated identify.

Human (N)

Class: Sentinel Bowmadien Level Two

Profession: Belly Dancer Level Twenty Two

“Yeah. I evolved my class.” She said smugly, able to tell he had used identify on her. Then her face took on an annoyed expression. “Now Uncle Mike is being a dick and won’t sell me any booze. Says I have to wait two more years to be “legal”.” She blew out an angry breath, blowing a bit of the wild hair on her forehead away. “Like any of that matters anymore. This is some weird magic apocalypse or whatever. Who cares about the laws anymore? Do you know how many of our people have been murdered? Everyone is just like, oh well nothing we can do.”

Dren just nodded dumbly. Not sure what all she was talking about. But did understand the bit about people being murdered. In the post-integration world, strength was a law unto itself. Unless you had someone stronger around to protect you or enforce rules, you were helpless. Levels just made too much of a difference.

Kitty just rolled her eyes at him. “Take that stupid mask off so I can read your expression better.” She crossed her arms over her chest again.

“Why should I?” Dren was annoyed at how she talked to him.

Rolling her eyes she suddenly grinned and leaned forward again. “What? All scarred and ugly under there or something? Or are you afraid I’ll kiss you and you won’t have the mask to save you from my cooties?” She snickered.

It was Dren’s turn to roll his eyes but after a moment of hesitation, he waved his hand over his face. Making his mask vanish into his pouch. “Ok, I’ll give you that was smooth.” She smirked and her eyes burned into his face making him oddly uncomfortable. “Not too bad I guess.” She quirked a smile at him as she leaned back. “Totally thought you had a hair lip or something though.”

Dren blinked a few times and then just started to speak when he was cut off by her leaning forward again in a sudden rush. “Ok. Time for that drink. Uncle won’t deny you for sure.” She grinned. “I want a bloody mary!” Dren gave her a confused look and she reached over to push on his shoulder, shoving him sideways out of the chair towards the bar. “Go on!”

Dren sighed, he really wished he was just off fighting monsters right about now. Then moved over to the man standing behind the counter. Out of reflex he identified the new person and was shocked to see they were a level twenty-eight defender and level twenty-four bartender. He hadn’t seen this man before and he was certain he would have noticed someone that high. Even post monster surge he hadn’t seen anyone else at that level, ignoring the archer.

“Why are you so high level?” Dren blurted out. “I didn’t see you defending either gate.”

Mike was wiping the counter with a rag, not even eyeing Dren as he grunted. “Was off running a dungeon. Mid Boss fight when the announcement came.” He looked up. “Wasn’t as quick and easy as fighting some trash mobs.” The man was glaring at him. No, glaring down at him as he was a huge hulking man. Dren was certain he was a high strength build. Probably low agility too as his own T-shirt was stretched to the limits with bulging muscles. Gray started peppering his coppery mustache while his head was bald. Stormy grey eyes just continued to glare at him while he wiped down the counter.

“Right.” Dren said not bothering to hide the frown on his face. What was this man’s problem? “Well, Uncle Mike…” He started.

“You don’t call me that.” He snapped, his hand stopping its insistent wiping for a moment before resuming. “Only my niece calls me that. You can call me Bartender Mike.”

From behind him he could hear the sound of choked laughter and felt his eye twitching. “Bartender Mike. I need a bloody Mary and uh something for me to drink.”

Without missing a beat the man turned around to grab two glasses and started pouring liquid. In short order, he placed two glasses down in front of Dren. “Two Shirley Temples. Or the closest I can make with what I have.”

Dren looked down at the odd drinks. “What is a Shirley Temple?”

“The strongest drink you are my niece are getting. I don’t care what level you are or how strong you are. I ain’t serving no minors booze. And you definitely don’t look twenty-one.” The man crossed his arms over his chest while looking down at him.

For a moment Dren wondered just how much experience a level twenty-eight defender was worth. But decided it wasn’t worth it. He had more important things to deal with. “How much?”

The man unfolded his arms and started wiping the counter again with a grunt. “On the house.” Dren shrugged and picked up the drinks but was stopped when the giant of a man spoke again. “You better not do anything ungentlemanly like with my niece.” He paused then added. “Behave.”

Dren rolled his eyes. “Tell her that.” He thought he saw the man’s lips twitch upward briefly, but just left back to the table.

“Here.” Dren said as he set the drink on the table. “Now we are even.”

Kitty picked up the drink and eyed it then turned towards the bar. “Really old man?”

“Katherine.” The man spoke in a tone Dren had heard his father use when speaking to his older brother more than one time. Of course, even his brother never acted like the archer girl.

Her face flushed almost as red as her hair and she sputtered. “I told you to never call me that!” She glanced at Dren as if to see if he had heard. The bartender just snorted and turned to do something behind him. Kitty or Katherine stuck out her tongue at his back before turning and sipping the drink.

Dren just took a sip of the odd drink himself when she spoke again. “So wanna make out?” Dren discovered that Shirley Temples burned when they came out your nose.