Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. I only took jobs that I could perform solo, and even then, only jobs for rather unintelligent creatures. The advantage came from the relatively low chance that they would be cunning enough to gang up on or outmaneuver me, but the disadvantage was that such creatures do not carry anything of value, such as money. I had every service that I could imagine deducted from my monthly earnings before the final payout of my contracts, all of which played into a wonderful loophole in my Blessing. However, while I can certainly maintain my equipment and person that way, upgrades were both out of the question and sorely needed.

To remedy my shortage of funds, I took on additional work for straightforward payment. My contracts were to kill monsters, and generally, there was no requirement to harvest anything of value from their bodies other than trophies for proof of task fulfillment, but through more books, asking around, and my huge surge in Skill growth, I learned what additional parts I could harvest from my kills or from flora along the way. Most of this hinged upon my newly acquired pocket dimension Skill for storage and transport. I could only hold about a square twice my height, but it astronomically improved my carrying capacity as well as my means to ensure goods did not spoil. Technically, it is a “non-dimensional space”, which is totally different from an “extra-dimensional space”. At the time I did not know the difference, so I just accepted it for what it was and made a note to look into the nuance of it later.

I was finding that this was still not enough, but it certainly helped. Soon, I would need to take jobs on the upper end of Silver rating, ones for creatures like goblins and highwaymen. Yes, even sentient and “civilized” races could end up as valid targets for jobs if they caused enough trouble, and these creatures tended to have pockets and pouches, within which one may find all manner of shinies. I crafted for myself better quality clothes, ones with light magical enchantments to keep me temperature controlled, clean, dry, and generally free of noise and rattling. I upgraded to a better quality shield, a broadsword, and a spear as my primary weapon by virtue of its extra reach. My physical strength had improved, only marginally by my body growing stronger, but mostly by my Skills passively enhancing me with magical supplements to it, all of which was required to wield this heavier burden. I found my new equipment to be acceptable, if not ideal, for my new targets.

I also gained a few Skills that granted useful magical Abilities by this time. Nothing flashy, but enough to get by. I am a sucker for passive effects that are always on and cost no mana or other energy to maintain, but sometimes, one needs something with a little bit of punch to it. People can learn spells and Abilities outside of what a Blessing offers through Skills, but it is usually somewhat challenging and they sometimes require incantations (yuck). I had opportunities to learn from others, or at least observe, and from that, I selected Skills I felt I could utilize. Simple spells involving elemental magic, barriers, bursts of speed, ones to appraise the Skills of others, smokescreens, and so forth. I experimented with crude versions of technology from my memories to see how I could improve or adapt these spells to other means. The technology of this world, at least what I had seen by this point, was somewhere between medieval and pre-industrial depending on where one went, and so most people tended to be unimaginative in terms of using their gifts. I had limited success, for while I knew the end results or some base mechanics in how technology works, the finer principals escaped my grasp. Regardless, I did manage to discover a few tricks to stash up my sleeves, metaphorically speaking.

I’d like to say that I made friends, but that may be an overstep outside of Chooka and Serideth. I considered most people as friendly acquaintances, people that teach me things or trade with me, but not ones that invite me along for an ale after the workday comes to an end. I did at least confirm that I am not just weird, but that I am supernaturally unsettling as part of my Blessing. Well, I am either unsettling or alluring with little middle ground, the former of which is generally the rule. Perhaps this phenomenon explains why Chooka took a liking to me so quickly. Then again, it could just be that she is rather easy, as she has many lovers, of which I appear to be the current favorite. Most races cannot breed with one another, so dalliances of this nature are more of the rule than the exception, as I had come to find out.

From her point of view, it was all just a fling, but on a greater scale. Humans would be lucky to live a century barring magical rejuvenation services or aggressively advancing one’s Blessing, but her kind, remnimi, could live anywhere from four to six centuries, depending on how healthy of a lifestyle they live. She was around 80 years old, and Serideth was over 110, but little did they know that I would outlive them both, in a manner of speaking. Chooka told me that her Blessing was [Courtesan], and she certainly seems to be living up to it, and with enthusiasm, as far as I have experienced.

She taught me many things about life in the city and she made introductions for me. I suppose she found all of it to be absolutely adorable, and she would go to great lengths to make a joke like the one with the frog legs. She was truly a fun and free-spirited woman, and I do miss those innocent days spent with her, as I do of my other friends and lovers. She took me to meet her people who lived high up in the mountains, and she even wore some semblance of clothing that almost flirted with the edge of modesty. I was dressed warmly, for not even my lightly magically enhanced clothes could deal with the cold of the upper mountains.

Her people practice animal husbandry on creatures similar to alpacas, but with cuteness and fluffiness turned up to eleven. Similar to the “sheep” mismatch of expectations, the word for them is still “alpaca”, but they slightly defied the qualities my memories mandated to be typical of their kind. I purchased some clothes made from their wool, and honestly, few things in this world are as soft or comforting. Sadly, even thin cloth from it is far too warm for most people to wear outside of cold weather due to some sort of inherent magical property, so I had to stow it away when our journey to the mountains ended.

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Chooka does not return home to her kinfolk often. Her father killed her mother when Chooka was an adolescent. It was not his fault as he was under the influence of some mind-control technique from a powerful monster that was rare and unexpected in the region. No one blamed him except himself, and the guilt and his newfound heavy drinking caused him to push everyone away, including his only child. Such circumstances are what led to her finding employment in the city, so I guess I would never have met her without such a dark past.

She was not thrilled about the onset of summer. She already had issues of overheating, and the summers here are warm indeed. She saved up money every year to afford cooling services so that she would not pass out from heat exhaustion. To be fair, her place of employment provided that during her shift and at her room in the dorms, but outside of that, she was to fend for herself. More permanent artifacts existed with enchantments to handle such things, but the price remained outside of her reach. She was too generous with sharing with friends and lovers to save up for it, and so I vowed to myself I would get it for her if it was the last thing I did.

Summer brought with it an all-important cheese festival. Apparently, this city was a big hub for cheese production and the associated snobs that go with it. As summer drew near, more rat-like and mouse-like humanoids started to pour into the city. Apparently, they love cheese, and who would have guessed such a revelation? Yes, I know actual mice don’t prefer cheese over other foods, but culture so swayed by misinformation says they do. The festival attracted tourists, and tourists attracted increased activity from thieves and highwaymen. Fortuitous, then, that the timing of my need for worthy prey matched up with availability.

I had one more noteworthy ace up my sleeve to help me fight such intelligent creatures, with goblins and highwaymen being the jobs of choice I would take. I had taken a gambit as far back in life as I can remember concerning my Skills associated with [Age]. I only invested into three Skills: one which reduced the interval between Experience Point updates, called [Fast Growth], one that increased the Experience Points awarded each update, called [Ageless Wisdom], and one that awarded flat bonuses to said Experience Points from reaching milestones in my [Deeds], even retroactively, called [Innocence Lost]. Thus, by this point, I had just made it over the hump of what ranks in those exponentially more expensive Skills that I could reasonably acquire, and so I could now start investing in Skills that were actually useful. By my estimates, I would break even by age 25, and from there on, I would be better off than if I had never taken them. Considering I have not died by this point, I believed my risk to be worth the effort.

And so, I could now turn into a dragon once a day for about half an hour, one that has a body about the size of a horse and can breathe fire. Well, I can breathe four elements: fire, acid, lightning, or ice. I specifically decided not to take an elemental affinity. The upside is versatility, the downside is a lack of raw power. From my point of view, when all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail, and I did not want to fall into that trap, hence the more versatile approach. While powerful, I would not use this form freely, and certainly not in a way that leaves witnesses or obvious signs of my presence. I feared that such an overt display would find me on the wrong end of a torch and pitchfork mob, as people fear that which they do not understand.

My hoard had grown considerably, which in turn empowers my [Hoard] Skills. My room had coins stacked on every surface, but sadly, no gold coin was to be had. And so, when I found a Silver job that awarded a single gold coin, I took the bait. I had previously negotiated with the Guild for how my wages would be garnished, such that jobs would never be knocked down in denomination, and that instead other jobs would take the hit. This job was for none other than cheese-stealing goblins. I had come to find that there was almost always a job for just that task. The little buggers breed like rabbits, steal anything that is not nailed down and half the things that are, and apparently, cheese is their favorite food, at least as far as the evidence provided by contracts to kill them would suggest. With the festival drawing near, cheese-thievery was rampant, and such demand for protection and justice exceeded the normal supply of Adventurers willing or able to complete them, and as such, this opportune windfall was but temporal in nature.

There is one guy at the Guild who only takes jobs for goblins. He tends to be a loner like me, but he was willing to tell me everything he knew about goblins. I almost regretted the lesson, as he talked with such passion for hours on end about all the ins and outs related to goblin slaying, but the knowledge he provided would certainly save my life, as my understanding of goblins was based on falsehoods. I found out that goblins typically live in caves or other hidey-holes out in the wilderness, which was precisely the last place I wanted to fight. Being out in the open was actually my preferred arena, even at risk of being surrounded. If I could just get them all in one such place, I could exterminate them all quickly as a flying, fire-breathing dragon.

I had only had my dragon form for two weeks, but I had used it every day at least to practice movement and flying. I had not used it in actual combat, but I felt comfortable that I had gained adequate proficiency in handling it. My breath was not powerful enough to hover and blast everything beneath me into oblivion. I would need to make strafing runs with my breath, but the goblins would surely scatter, which created a problem of containment that I would need to figure out. Additionally, flying in such a straight line left me wide open against archers, of which goblins certainly had plenty. Lastly, the little bastards were notorious for traps, and while I could lure the bulk of them into the field, I would have to go into their hives and exterminate the rest. It only takes one goblin to finish off a fool caught in a trap, so the risk was beyond marginal.

I bought a huge wheel of the stinkiest cheese I could find, which was central to my fairly simple plan. I would find a ravine to drop the cheese in as bait, one that would funnel the goblins in a line. I would wait in ambush, and when the time was right, turn into a dragon. With a mixed breath of Fire and Ice elements, I would lay down a thick cover of fog. I would not be able to see the goblins, but they would not be able to see me either, and with nowhere for them to go but up or down the ravine, a single strafing run of a more destructive breath attack would finish them off quickly. The plan was brilliant, but the only downside to it was that it did not work in the slightest.