The next morning Pete took more than a little prompting to get out of the inn and to begin running. It turned out unlike Bethany he was not a morning person. However, seeing Bethany eager to get started and a lot of needling on her behalf got him out and ready to go. Bethany made a point of stopping by the guard as she left to make it clear Pete was with her and would need to get back inside with her.

Working out with Pete was a mixed bag for Bethany. On one hand it made her feel good as she was much better at the cardio than him. On the other he had much better upper arm strength and, when showing off his carving knife, it was clear he was much more dextrous too. However, Bethany currently had more energy and knew what she was doing. Towards the end she split off to practise her kata and suggested Pete find his own way to train. When she glanced over it was clear to her that he was feeling more tired and less motivated than her as his so-called solo training looked more like a nap than any actual work out.

The pair having finished for the morning they set about organising their day. They had planned to split any Credits they made between the two of them, even if working separately. More out of a demonstration of their commitment to working together than any practical sense. At that current point Bethany was only on 19 Credits to Pete's 34, this didn't exactly reflect well on Bethany as Pete still didn't know about the fact Bethany was already using them. First things first the pair got set up at a small market stall towards the centre of the city. This combined to whip out most of the pair's money. The plan here was noticeably similar to the Sponsored Trial Bethany had done on Lexicoth except this time Bethany was in the role of Stilwart.

The pair had rescued some wood from outside the city picked deadwood based off of Pete's expertise. Bethany then changed into one of her more outlandish outfits from Harri, it fit fine but clearly wasn't of this world and made her really stand out among their competition. Having set up the stall they put up a big sign saying they accepted any currency, pounds and shillings, system bronze and silver or, and this was advertised in large, they would accept a trade for so called Trial Credits which seemed to have no other value. Though they mainly attracted children they often would drag parents along. These people would inevitably look at the costs with disdain knowing they were unable to waste money on such a thing.

Then one of three things would happen. If they had Bronze or Silver, they seemed pretty 50:50 on if they spent it. After all it wasn't particularly integrated into the city's economy. Sometimes they would leave before Bethany got to them but if not. Bethany would slide up to the and explain the concept of Trial Credits. That they seemed to only appear on a status screen if you knew about them and they had found a way to trade them. At that point she would say a small white lie about them collecting them more out of curiosity than knowing what they did, which in a way was true. After all they didn't know how many they needed. Frequently the parent would check on their screen and seeing it was suddenly there would be fairly happy to give away 2 of these mystery things for a small wooden duck or similar distraction. This caused a small pop up in front of Bethany and the customer that when agreed to would automatically deposit the Credits to both Bethany and Pete.

This generally proved fairly effective for the two. Obviously, they had some customers happy to pay in English money or didn't want to engage in anything system but for many it seemed almost like a freebie. By the end of the day, the money was customers were drying up and despite Pete passing 50 Credits there was no sign they had achieved anything. None the less it had been a productive day and they didn't feel too dejected with the results. After all Credits were Credits. Less profitably though they hadn't made enough English money to reproduce their efforts and as such needed to find a new approach the next day.

The following morning the pair woke up ready to work but without ideas, after a quick workout they returned to the inn to brainstorm. Their main issue was they needed a way to maximise the number of Credits but couldn't exactly offer all that much. They could do manual labour but that would be a time sink for what they imagined would be minimal pay off. They needed a good scheme. Given they had no real ideas they decided to split up and re-connect that evening and see how they got on. Together they weren't getting anywhere.

Bethany found herself wandering around the city alone trying to come up with ideas. This was all a shot in the dark and if it didn't pay off soon, she would have to get back to finding money the old-fashioned way and accept she might have to wait years before she got her mother out. After spending most of the morning wandering fruitlessly, she eventually headed to a restaurant, electing to have lunch and then to keep trying. The place she wound up was packed and the waitstaff were clearly overworked. This gave Bethany an idea and hunting down a manager she offered to help out with the lunch rush in return for 10 Trial Credits. The man was clearly overworked and the idea of getting a new waitress for nothing seemed ideal, so he quickly accepted and threw an apron at Bethany, she quickly tied it on and her hair back and began taking orders and delivering food.

It took her a little while to get into the swing of it but between the limited menu and the chaos of a busy workspace Bethany didn't struggle to get to grips with it and was soon weaving her way around the restaurant like an expert. She only had around 2 hours of work until it was clear the crowds had died down and she felt comfortable re-approaching the manager. He gave her the nod and she checked her sheet to see if the Credits had been automatically transferred which they had. It also appeared that her arrangement with Pete hadn't dissolved as she only received 5 Credits. At least she assumed that was the reason the rest of the Credits hadn't appeared, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it if there was a different reason. The manager was clearly confused about the exchange but after Bethany repeated her white lie about it being a curiosity, she was collecting he took it at face value. In fact, it turned out he had been fairly successful in his Trials, and he offered her the same deal again for the next couple of days. It turned out his wife had similarly gathered Credits and was willing to exchange them, they had recently lost a staff member and hadn't gotten around to replacing her. Hence, being short staffed. The reputation and earthly profit were worth more to them than Credits.

Feeling bolstered by the experience and looking forward to replicating it over the next couple of days Bethany decided to go around other restaurants and inns offering her services for a similar trade. Obviously, she couldn't offer up her lunchtimes as they were already accounted for, but she had no qualms about missing breakfast and lunch for the scheme. In the end she found work for both that evening and the next two full days. That was 70 Credits in the bag which would have been enough to take her to over 100 Credits. This wouldn't be the case as she was sharing with Pete, but she assumed he would have had similar success with hawking his wares. Unfortunately, she would miss eating dinner together, but she was confident the would understand given the situation.

That evening after a tiring shift that ended up with soup somehow getting into her hair Bethany trudged her way back to the inn she was staying at. She was hoping for a quiet room to sit by the fire and catch up with Pete, however the environment she found was very different. For one it was fairly packed, full of people crowded around the stage on which Pete seemed to be stood, whistling. Bethany snuck in the back and was altogether confused by the scenario. It seemed e was reproducing well known songs and nursery rhymes with the occasional bird call thrown in and the crowd were eating it up. Bethany however was exhausted and couldn't care less about what was happening. She didn't even want to offer to help out for the chance to earn more Credits she just wanted to go to bed. Heading upstairs the sound was a little quieter but not enough for Bethany to easily get to sleep. However, she was determined to get to sleep and stuck her head under the pillow and a pile of clothes to try to muffle the noise. Even with that effort it took her almost a full hour to finally get to sleep, an hour occasionally pierced by cheers of delight from downstairs and her own less than savoury words about Pete and what she would do to him when the sun came up.