The rest of the evening was quiet as Lin busied herself with cleaning the stag hares and cooking them. Each time I offered to help I was shot down because she said I needed to rest, but I had a suspicion it was because she might have skills for cutting up the hares. She handled the knife well and skinned them far better than my minions did.

“You're pretty good at that, where did you learn it?” I asked.

“The road.” Lin’s curt reply stung deeply, cutting off further conversation.

I bit my tongue before I pushed the issue, something was nagging at her and I had enough life experience with women to know better. Instead I opted to silently slip away and refill her drink, or to make sure I passed her the needed tools.

“You’re the first person I’ve travelled with in a while that wasn’t a total scumbag.” Lin said. Her blunt tone shattered the quiet night. “It even smells like you know what a bath and soap are unlike the rest of your kind.”

I tapped my fingers on the arm of the chair wondering how to follow this up, she had offered an opening. As my fingers touched the rough untreated wood it ended up giving me a splinter and I winced. When I plucked it from my hand the scent of blood caused Lin to spin around with a concerned face.

“Well you are the first person I met here that treated me like a regular guy. You helped me out more than most people, so for that you have my thanks.” I said and knelt down beside her. “So before you get all worried about me, remember my constitution score, I’m tougher than I look.”

Lin’s tension melted and she punched me on the shoulder, shoving me over. “You have twelve dumbass, not twenty. You might be tougher than your average mage but you don’t have the fighting talents like I do to back it up.”

“What talents?” I asked, with my curiosity peaked I poked at her side. “Come on, show me.”

Lin started to laugh only to turn and nearly wretch. “Ugh, I think some of that poison mist got in your clothes.”

Lin took out from her jacket a white bar of soap and shoved it into me. She then out of seemingly thin air produced a towel and threw it onto me too. Digging myself out I looked at the items now in my hand and at her.

“I don’t care how cold it is, go take a bath in the stream and scrub your clothes.” Lin said. Her voice was muddled as she held a hand over her mouth and nose. “Or you can sleep on the floor.”

“You can tell me about that talent after then.” I said, rising to my feet. I shook the towel in confusion as I went to the door. “Also where you managed to store this.”

I shivered from the chill air setting in but one whiff of myself nearly knocked me out. The stream wasn’t too deep near the shore and I wasn’t worried about being swept away, but I was fearful of getting exposure. Looking at how the stream was first funnelled into small pools and then piped into the town an idea clicked into my head.

After stripping and lowering myself in the freezing water I cupped my hand, holding my palm up. It took several tries but I managed to say the words clearly through my chattering teeth and the little orb of fire sprang into existence. I lowered the flame just above the surface of the water and immediately relaxed as the temperature rose to a comfortable level. The expenditure of a mana point was well worth it, and I was happy my gamble played out.

Letting go of the fire I was pleased when it stayed in place and I set to work cleaning myself up. The soap was hard and filled with little bits of scrubbing material that hurt my skin. A faint scent was infused into the soap and it did wonders to improve my smell. After I finished cleaning myself I set to work cleaning each piece of clothing with the soap until everything smelled normal again.

The best way I could have described the poison smell was halfway between a rotten egg and the high school locker room. It was unpleasant to be sure but not like the one time my friends and I had gotten sprayed by a skunk at summer camp. If I ever added a spell like that to my list it was not going to be used when I was in my dungeon.

As the minutes ticked by the temperature rose higher and I soon felt like I was enjoying an outdoor hot tub. It was almost a good thing I hadn’t gotten the arcane trick spell to clean up everything. As I leaned back and looked up I was completely stunned.

I had been in the countryside before, seeing the stars you could never see in the city. I had seen the full moon on a clear day and had sat under it for hours just enjoying the view.

Nothing in my life compared to the stars above me, there were more tiny twinkling dots than I could ever hope to count in my life and taking up the horizon was not one, but three moons in different stages of waning or waxing. The moons were different sizes and each painted the world below in different hues of silver or blue.

My mouth moved and yet not a single sound came out of it. After the initial shock of the stunning vista passed I managed to utter a single word. “Cool.”

Sometimes my poetic mind floored even me. I sat in the makeshift hot tub for several more minutes until a popup from Drone 1 appeared shaking me from my trance. Knowing I had to find a way to get Lin off to sleep and sneak down to the dungeon meant time was a luxury.

I dried off with the towel quickly and carried my stuff over my shoulder. The immediate warmth I had vanished and only the trailing fire orb beat back the cold saving me from hypothermia.

Returning to the house I saw the fire was going well and Lin had placed the chairs near the fire for me to dry my clothes. Setting them onto the back of the chair I looked around for the cat girl. The door opened and Lin had a nervous look on her. I was worried at first she might have found the entrance to the dungeon. Those fears left me as she first smelled the air then eased up, coming into the main room with me.

She took a seat at the table and opened her jacket. The leather coat had a small shimmering effect around a pocket as she reached into it and pulled out a roll of paper that should have been far too large to be inside it.

Knowledge : Arcane failure!

“Those gnomes must have passed through town and we never knew it.” Lin said. “Nasty things, they are probably responsible for destroying this place.”

“Is that where all the treasure came from?” I asked.

“No way, I found a rolled up map in their things and they marked an abandoned mage tower about a day from here. If you are feeling brave still we could swing by.” She said, She tossed the map onto the table to show me. “Even being around me while I disable the traps should net you enough experience to finish your level up.”

I nodded and inspected the map with her. The map was crude, a charcoal drawing on the back of a page with faded ink. It did have a fairly good depiction of the stream and marked the tower, the town and a few other points of interest marked with an x.

As I scoured over the map Lin set a plate of hot food in front of me, made of fresh rabbit, leftover fish and a few mushrooms. We were both ravenous and ate in silence enjoying each other's presence side by side.

“Right, what was that talent you mentioned?” I asked Lin.

“Here let me show you.” Lin said, waving her hand. “You have enough constitution that when you level up next you can grab it.”

Martial Talent

Toughness II

This talent grants a minor damage reduction from physical attacks and improves stun resistance.

“The bandages.” I said as the gears in my head started to turn. “So you had been into a couple of fights but the attacks were reduced to a mild inconvenience instead of an injury.”

“Exactly, now I’m not invincible but that orb you took into the ribs would have only knocked the wind out of me and bruised me, crack a rib at the most.” Lin said, slapping my wet back and sending me onto the ground. “Something like that would only lightly sting and I would be able to stand on my feet.”

I groaned on the ground and felt my back. Where her palm had struck I felt a hot mark in the shape of her hand. I pushed myself back up and saw Lin make her way towards the stove for a bit of leftover berries. Coiling the towel into my hand I delivered a swift attack into her rump.

The snap of the towel was drowned out by Lin’s shrill cry as her feet left the ground. She turned and snarled at me, coming at me with her fists at the ready. Another quick towel attack halted her advance and I chased her around the room with the towel.

“Does your talent stop this?” I asked, trying to get her in the butt again.

“Stop it!” Lin said, hiding behind the table. “You're making my ass wet!”

Water dripped from the towel still and as Lin checked herself by the fire I could see wet stains on her pants. I howled with laughter and the cat girl gave me a threatening glance.

“If you didn’t have bruised ribs I would tackle you right now.” Lin said with a grin. “If you want help deciding what to take when you level up I would suggest taking toughness, I am going to go so hard on you as soon as you recover.”

I wrapped the towel back around me and checked on my drying clothes. Lin was in her more usual feisty mood instead of the cold wall which meant I had broken her out of the funk. She did present a good point, when I did level up I would have to choose carefully and it would be fantastic if I had a hand.

“I’ll take you up on that offer. I could use a guide on how to spend my skill points. I’m not sure what's a good investment or not.” I said.

Lin leaned back against the table and crossed her arms while inspecting me. “Listen I might not be the sharpest chip off the old block but I do have some experience. If you are looking to be a full time mage or adventurer, then you better ask someone else. If you want a good blend of fighting and life skills, I can help.”

I nodded and considered my options. I could go hard on being a mage early, and then transition into a warrior or vice versa. However that could leave me open to lacking in other areas I wasn’t even sure about yet. Not to mention the real possibility of death, that attack had cemented that I was like everyone else in this world. Each level was a careful balance act to survive until the next.

“I guess just give me a run down of what's a good plan and what's a bad one to start.” I said leaning back into a chair. “My clothes need a bit to dry anyways.”

“Firstly, don’t ever cheat and put points into ranking up skills. Save that for when they are really high. Just learning what to do and practising will get you most of the way of what you will ever need. Really it’s getting talents to kick start you in some areas or to give you an edge. Like your magic talent.” Lin explained.

“So like the toughness trait… could I get it naturally?” I asked her.

Lin broke out into a toothy grin. “Do you want me to tie you to that chair and beat you senseless? I’m sure after a day or two we could get you the trait.”

Her tail was frayed and water slowly dripped down her legs. As the water dropped to the floor her eye twitched. I didn’t need any skill checks to know she was still irked about me getting water on her so I tried to move the subject along.

“Any others I should keep an eye out for?” I asked. My hand drifted down to my bag and another chocolate bar rose from the bag. “Maybe kitty wants a treat for her help?”

As I shook the small chocolate I watched Lin’s eyes track its movement. She was wound up like a spring ready to release its pent up energy. Her tongue licked at her lips and she leered back at me.

“Maybe kitty is going to punch you and take the treat herself.” Lin said, lunging towards me.

Before I could toss the bar away to distract her she grappled me. She moved around me like water and before I could react she was behind me holding me in a headlock. She pried the bar from my fingers and pecked me on the cheek.

“I will accept this as a tribute, a thank you to big sister Lin teaching you all about adventuring.” Lin said. She giggled as I tried to break out of the hold but eventually let me go.

“Will you answer the question now?” I asked.

“For you, maybe a magic crafting talent. Enchanting gear is a lot of work and hard to get into, but if you turn into a mage that can toss spells and improve gear?” Lin spread her hands and showed me her best wow expression.

“I take it I wouldn’t have to worry about employment anymore.” I said.

“Right on, you would have the guilds in every city lined up. Could live a comfortable life for even just being able to upgrade weapons one or two tiers.” Lin said.

I nodded to show I was understanding. It did beg the question if my spells were divided into tiers were weapons as well? Was it a manner of slapping magic onto a sword to make it glow or burst into flames? I had to push such thoughts aside because such power felt like it was beyond my reach at the moment.

Lin hopped onto the table and bit into the bar. “You know, I think I’m starting to like you.”

I found myself smiling despite the rough treatment. She reminded me a lot about some of my best friends from university with all the roughhousing. I leaned back and cracked my knuckles.

“I think I like you too, too bad I’m going to have to get stronger to defeat you.” I said.

Lin’s grin only grew. “Well I’d like to see you try. I rather enjoy having a mage to tease. Come on, let's sleep, you need the rest.”

“Yes, nurse Lin.” I said with a mock salute.

Lin cheerfully dragged me into the bedroom and stripped nude. I tried my best to not be distracted but it was difficult when she kept swaying her rump at me. Lin pulled me into the bed and we both froze as we heard a small crack.

Lin turned to me in concern. “Was that you-”

“The bed.” I said to reassure her. Then quickly ran my fingers over my torso. “Ribs still all in one piece, I should replace this frame.”

“Good,” Lin said, laying back down beside me. She tapped me on the nose to get my attention. “Now sleep, I’ll need you to have all your little wizard powers ready for tomorrow's adventure.”

“Good night Lin.” I yawned.

Lin was already fast asleep. Her light snores and purrs captivated my attention, I couldn’t help myself as I brushed away some loose hairs. Her smiling calm face filled my view and was the last thing I saw before sleep claimed me too.