As Kibo wandered through the streets he came across a medium size stone building. On the wooden sign hanging above the door, it said ‘Misty’s Inn’.
‘This must be the one,’ he took a step inside and noticed the completely wooden interior, ‘I’m starting to see a pattern here now.’ he thought. He entered a small room with a reception desk. To his right, there was a doorway leading to a room full of tables and benches. To his left, there was a staircase that probably led to the guest rooms.
As Kibo walked up closer to the desk, he noticed a little girl on her knees counting to what seemed like money, she stacked them into small piles behind the desk. Trying to gain her attention, Kibo tapped on the desk with his fingers.
This led to her becoming panicked as she pushed the stack of coins under the desk. She dusted off her skirt to make herself more presentable.
She let out slightly nervous laughter and said, “Welcome to Misty’s Inn! Would you like a room or maybe a late evening meal?”
“I would like one of the best rooms you have available.” he requested while trying to act cool by resting his elbow on the edge of the desk and looking to the side.
Just before she could open her mouth in enjoyment, she looked towards Kibo and scanned him up and down.
“Eh”, ‘someone like him wants one of the best rooms? I have never seen this style of cloak before, maybe he came from outside the capital?, I’m not sure if it looks expensive or cheap, but it looks like he came out of the gutter with all that dirt covering it. And someone like him wants the best room? “Ha”, he can’t even afford it. He probably noticed a beautiful helpless girl here and thought he could take advantage of me! I will show him who’s boss!’
She darted around the desk and grabbed Kibo’s arm and she started to drag him towards the door.
Kibo was filled with surprise at the little girl's reaction which led to him taking a couple of steps forward as she tried to pull him towards the door, however, he quickly stopped and pulled his arm back to his side, which led to the girl falling back on to him.
Her big green eyes looked directly up to him in shock. Her heart had started to beat faster as her expression hardened.
‘What the hell is wrong with this girl? Is this how they treat their customers? Where’s her mother?’ He started to look around until he heard an ear-piercing scream.
“Get away from me you pervert!”
She quickly pushed herself off Kibo and backed away as she stumbled onto the ground while holding onto her green hat.
‘You gotta be kidding me, even little girls can’t go a minute before they go dragging my name through the mud.’
Kibo shook his head and sighed. He took a few steps towards her and leaned in to help her get back up.
“Hey, it’s alright little girl, I don’t want to hurt you, I just need a place to sleep tonight.”
She quickly scurried back with each step Kibo took, she was baffled by what he had just said. Her face became mixed with different emotions. Not only is she upset and angry that somebody called her a little girl, but a tall, strange man in a mysterious cloak is getting even closer to her.
‘My mother is out of town, if she was here she would have protected me.’
She closed her eyes and Kibo noticed small tears starting to roll down her cheeks.
“Please, don’t hurt me.” the little girl pleaded.
Sigh.
‘This girl is not going to believe me, It’s already getting late and I need to find a place to sleep.’
“I thought Ayane said this was a good place to sleep but this girl is making it hard for me and I don’t see any other adults down here.”
The girl’s ears perked up as she heard the word Ayane come out of the strange man’s mouth.
“D...do you know Ayane?” she quietly said. She wiped her tears away with her fingers.
“Yes, I have joined her team.”
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A large smile quickly took over her face but she quickly became suspicious and asked, “What’s her sister called then?”
“Ayano.”
She bounced back onto her feet and rushed towards Kibo.
She gleefully mentioned, “You really do know her!”
She repeatedly punched Kibo’s arm and body with her small fists as they slowly lost their strength.
“Why didn’t you tell me before you meanie.”
‘What the hell is wrong with her? One minute she is crying, and the next she is happily attacking me.’
She walked back behind the desk and mentioned, “Our best room is one gold piece a night. Normally it would be two but you get a special discount thanks to Ayane.”
Kibo dropped his pouch onto the desk as the coins rattled. The girl's ears perked up by the sound of coins rattling and licked her lips. It wouldn’t even be far fetched to say her pupils took on the form of a gold coin.
Kibo unravelled the string on the pouch filled with gold coins, the girl started drooling at the sight she was seeing.
He took out 3 gold coins for a total of three nights and placed it towards her and tied the pouch back up, placing it back into his bag.
She became sad at the sight of so many gold coins disappearing and wiped her drool away. She then proceeded to quickly grab the three gold coins. She clutched them close to her chest similar to how you would protect a baby cub.
Kibo sighed and thought to himself, ‘This little girl sure loves her money, but I’m slowly starting to pick up on two distinct points in her hat, always perking up and returning to normal.’
“Hey, can you remove your hat please?”
The girl who suddenly snapped back to reality after daydreaming of raining gold coins quickly became reluctant, and her cheeks turned red as she looked towards the ground. After a few moments of inner thoughts passed by in her mind, she decided to lower her hat.
‘Wow, she has cat ears, it’s brown on the outside and white on the inside! With a pointy top, and the ear is completely covered with fur as to be expected, but it’s still weird to see it on a human body. It blends in well with her hair which is of the same brown colour.’ Kibo looked back towards her face and noticed her cheeks became redder as she gazed side to side towards the ground.
“Don’t worry you look cute, can you tell me where my room is?”
All of a sudden she stood up straight as she tilted her head to the side, and with a bright smile said, “Thank you, your room is up the stairs and towards the end of the corridor, it’s the last room on the right.”
‘Wow! She looks so cute!’
“Ahem, thank you, I will be going to my room then.”
Kibo started heading up the staircase which creaked with each step he took. The wood looked shiny and he didn't notice a single speck of dust as he walked down the corridor. As Kibo arrived at the end of the corridor he unlocked the door and entered.
Kibo was expecting a five-star room, however, he was disappointed. ‘I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up, I guess this is considered good for an Inn in this world.’
It was a small room but good enough for a single person to live in. In the back right corner was his single bed with a wooden frame. At the end of the bed laid an empty open chest with the key still in its lock. ‘I guess this is where you store your clothes and valuables.’
In the left corner was a wooden desk with a piece of paper and some ink. The corner of the desk was decorated with a flower pot. The chair which was tucked into the desk was also wooden. It had small pads which were probably made up of fur or feathers to make sitting more comfortable. The rest of the room was empty if you ignore the red decorative mat on the floor and the window on the back wall which could be covered with a curtain.
Kibo sat down and started to think about his future.
‘I have my first dungeon tomorrow and we are fighting goblins. For a dungeon that is the weakest monster available to fight, and most beginners head there to train. Even though I have Zana and three gold-ranked adventurers I might still be in danger especially if I want to go into stronger dungeons in the future.’
‘I have nothing to make myself strong. The mage’s transformation spell doesn’t work on me at all. I don’t know why! Summoning is a speciality of a Mage, so a Mage’s transformation chant should work but it doesn’t. I’m still a weak human who can die from one stab wound in a vital spot or a bullet wound’.
Kibo remembered at once and quickly opened his bag to take out a skill book he was holding on to for emergencies.
Skill: Leap (Lvl 1)
Skill Grade: E
Mana Consumption: 50 (* 2) per leap
Description: Allows the user to leap any distance between 10ft and 100ft. If the skill is not activated within 10 minutes since the last leap, the mana consumption will reset.
Kibo turned his gaze towards the front of the book, he saw words which were suspended in the air.
‘I was given this skill book because it was trash; it's rated Grade E because of the staggering amount of mana it consumes the more you leap.’
‘Most people learn it because the first three leaps are cheap and beneficial in situations where you have to move out of a dangerous area quickly. It’s most popular amongst Rangers who rely on agility.’
‘The issue is on the 4th leap it takes 400 mana then the 5th it takes up 800 which is a ridiculous amount. The average person only have around 1000 - 10,000 mana and there are more important skills and spells to activate than wasting it all on leaping around.’
Kibo removed his hand from the book and the words which were suspended in the air had disappeared and he continued to think.
‘The reason why I want to learn it is because, whenever I summon and maintain Zana, I see no reductions to my mana. It feels like I can keep her out forever. Other people see a mana gauge in their view and when they use a skill or spell they can notice their mana has been reduced but I don’t at all I don't even have this mana gauge which people see in their vision. So if I really do have large amounts of mana, I can do quite a few more leaps and it will be a faster way to test out how much mana I truly have instead of keeping Zana out forever.’
‘On my 10th leap, it will be taking 25,600 mana that’s not adding up all the mana it consumed prior to that. On the 12th leap, it takes 102,400 mana. If I can leap in that many consecutive tries it would be safe to say that my mana could be extremely high, a lot higher than anyone that has ever lived, it won’t be far fetched to say It could be endless...’
Chills crawled up Kibo’s spine as he came to this monstrous realisation. His heart started to beat faster as he clenched his fist. ‘My mind can’t even begin to comprehend if that actually ends up being the case. However even in the guild, I couldn't pour out any mana into the mana detection block, maybe I can't learn skills either?’
Kibo placed his right hand on the front of the skill book and closed his eyes. Within the silence, he heard his loud heart trying to beat faster. He focused his mind and said,
"Learn Leap."
╔═══════ ≪ °❈° ≫ ═══════╗
Skill Leap Successfully Learned
╚═══════ ≪ °❈° ≫ ═══════╝
Kibo let out a large sigh of relief as he fell back onto the bed only to be greeted by a slightly soft mattress. As he aimlessly stared into the ceiling, he thought about his future until he slowly fell asleep.