“Always found these old handmade Tablets nicer than the mass-produced ones,” he remarked and continued on with the briefing as if nothing had happened. “So as I was saying, I don’t have much of a description of the beast beyond the fact it was humanoid, tall, and lanky. That really doesn’t say much. Could be an animal, a former human, a remnant of the war. However… There’s one thing the contract doesn’t tell you. How many beast-slayers have attempted it before.”

“How many?”

“You’ll be the seventh to try. You’ll also be the second Fog-breather to try.”

“Was the one before me…”

“Halxian? Oh no. Not for a lack of trying, but his father isn’t stupid enough to let him. The one that came before you did use the same breathing technique, though.”

She wasn’t sure how long it took, but when she stood from her seat at the end of the briefing, she couldn’t help but stretch again.

The barkeep only rolled his shoulders, querying, “You gonna head out now or in the morning? The sun’s getting pretty low.”

Now that the offer had been made, Zelsys suddenly became uncomfortably aware of how much filth she must’ve accumulated during the trek through the forest and the battle against the rot-beast.

“Sure, how much for a night’s stay?” she asked, assuming the price of a nice room would be higher than a day’s rent - six gelt, perhaps seven. “Preferably in a room with a bathtub.”

He chuckled, reassuring that, “All our rooms have their own bathrooms, I don’t run some roadside hostel. I have two free rooms, two beds each, eight gelt a night. Four gelt for you and your ah… Three friends.”

“Sounds good,” she agreed, retrieving her Tablet, opening Fog Storage, and retrieving a single silver gelt. She handed it over alongside three coppers, thinking who it would be easiest to sleep in the same room with. Sigmund, maybe? He seemed the most in control of his own urges, perhaps due to the deleterious effects Rubedo had on him.

“Poor guy’s entire body probably goes stiff before his dick can,” she inwardly chuckled to herself, filing that sentence away for later use. “Say, you don’t mind us splitting up by gender, do you?” she asked, driven by a mischievous spirit. She didn’t have any reasoning beyond wanting to see how things would play out, and whether anything would happen at all if she didn’t actively initiate.

The barkeep gave a nod and a smile, stowing the money into one of the many coin pouches that hanged on the underside of his apron. “I’ll give you your keys,” he responded, making his way towards the door and gesturing for her to follow.

The barkeep led her to a small alcove in the kitchen which held a small standing-height pedestal with a ledger and writing supplies, above which there was a rack of many keys with numbered tabs attached. He took two pairs of keys off the rack, two labeled with the number four, and two labeled with the number five.