Chapter Ten - Walk About Town
157.
Cricket couldn't help but stare at her new best pal from the corner of her eye as they navigated into Alpta. Rosario was walking with a straight back and proper, lady-like posture, though her attention was obviously wandering around and taking in the city.
157. That was a respectable total level. She, herself, was at 72. Less than half. But Cricket was relatively young, even if she had worked hard for several years to gain some levels. And the further one went into a new Job, the slower the levels came, so... naturally, one would expect someone to slow down with age and expertise.
It was the total level that someone might expect from a very new, genius Titled. Or more likely, someone who had jumped Jobs a few times and raised a few of them to second or third tier.
For an elf, it might not even be that impressive. Someone could make it to 157 in fifty years of slow but steady work.
657.
Cricket had seen that number, and a big part of her wanted to laugh it off the way Rosario had and call it a mistake with the level-reader. 657 was... two and a half maxed jobs worth of levels.
The Royal Guard of Aerie wasn't that strong. Some of the world's most powerful people were those who had been Titled for a few decades. The Devouring Saintess, Sky Captain Broccoli, The Severed Sword of Guichong, the Albrecht, the Silent Archmagus... they were legends. Strong. But did they have 657 levels?
The number was absurd.
Cricket put on a smile as they stopped by a nice inn just a few blocks within the city walls. She followed Rosario in, then stood back as the maid asked the proprietor if they'd be willing to exchange [Scullery Maid] or [Seamstress] work for a night in and a meal.
That turned out not to work, so they kept going, moving deeper into Alpta, into Merchant's Town where there were several inns to check out. Cricket was mostly happy that they were getting closer to the centre of the city, where the Adventurer's Guild was located.
She didn't have too much coin on her, but that was fine, the Guild had free beds for active members.
The second inn proved no better than the first, so they moved on to a third, where Rosario's polite demeanor started to show its first few cracks.
Then they crossed a bank, and the elven woman stopped. It was closed, of course, being quite late in the evening but she still stared at it. "Do banks use a sophisticated method to look at a person's identity?" she asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. They have enchanted items that match your name and job levels to those on account. And the [Clerks] there tend to be quite good at their work. Are you thinking something silly?"
"Silly? Hardly."
"Hmm... so you're not going to rob the bank, right?"
"Of course not."
"Okie-dokie!"
They tried a fourth inn. But the time they found it, however, it was well past dinner time, and they were both getting rather hungry. That's about when they walked past another place that had Rosario coming to a slow stop.
It was an alleyway, deep within the Crowns, a section of the city more or less in the centre, not too far from the large park next to the castle. The alley ran out towards the west docks, into one of the oldest parts of the city.
It was deeply unremarkable, but for some reason, Rosario had stopped to stare.
"Everything okay?" Cricket asked.
Usually, she enjoyed wandering around the city. She could do a flip here and a cartwheel there, and get some brats to laugh. She'd even juggled on a street corner or two for a few bits between jobs. She'd always avoided wandering around this late at night, however. Alpta was... never the safest of cities.
"That leads to the Black Docks, doesn't it?" Rosario asked.
"Hu? I suppose it does. Did thou ever wander about Alpta?"
"A long time ago," Rosario confirmed.
"Hm? How long ago?" Cricket wondered.
Rosario hesitated, then shrugged. "The land was under different rulership at the time."
Cricket's brows rose. That would be the era of the Demon Lord. That was... nearly a hundred years ago? Well, at least she now had a clue about her companion's age. More or less. Anyone with a particularly high Constitution might age more gracefully. And how many levels in Constitution did 657 give? She decided not to think about it. It could be nothing.
"Yup, that's the direction to the Black Docks. Kind of a seedy corner, though." And on the far end of the city from Merchant's Town and the more posh neighbourhoods.
"Huh... I wonder... well, it's an idea," Rosario muttered. She straightened, pressing down the front of her apron. "I... don't know if I'm going to be finding an inn that I can work at to pay for my night. Not on such short notice."
Cricket paused, then sighed. She reached into her inventory and pulled out a small baggie. "Here," she said as she fished out two coins and passed them to Rosario. They shone prettily atop her open palm. Two silver crows.
"Cricket... isn't that a lot? Wait, isn't that more than what your bail cost?"
"It was the principle of the thing!" she said. "And... take it, before I change my mind? It's enough for an evening at one of the cheaper inns, and a meal. I'm going to go stay at the Adventure's Guild. Maybe look around for a quest in the morning, or a party in need of a bit of comedic relief."
Rosario stared at the coins for a long time before gently taking them. "Thank you," she said. "I'll repay you, with interest. Maid's promise."
Cricket tilted her head. "Is that a thing?"
"It ought to be," she replied. "I... have an idea of how to find work, so I'll be fine. I just need a bit of time to get my feet under me. I appreciate this. Truly."
"Uh-huh! Well then, since I'm not a callous clown, I insist that we meet up again tomorrow. Maybe for dinner? There's a small cafeteria in the Adventuring Guild, as long as you pretend to be a prospective client, no one will question it if you come in to grab a bite."
Rosario laughed. "Thank you, Cricket. Really."
Cricket grinned back. That was a good portion of her entire wealth gone there, but... well, she hoped to see Rosario do well. Even looking past the maid's suspiciousness, she wasn't a bad person, probably. She laughed at Cricket's jokes and had nice legs, which put her firmly in Cricket's good books.
"So... tomorrow, right? It's a date!"
***
Rosario had a bit of a plan.
It was, admittedly, not a particularly good plan, but it was audacious.
They had walked around a good portion of Alpta, and she couldn't help but be hit by a weird sense of nostalgia the entire time. This was a city she'd spent at least a hundred or two hours in, but it was also entirely different in some ways. New roads here and there, new sights, definitely new smells.
Strangely, the lack of theme music also made it feel weird.
In any case, one of the differences from the game was... well, she needed a place to live and food to eat. She could probably hold out for a few days. Her stats felt like they were at the point where she could put a monk to shame for how ascetic she could be. But she didn't want to starve either.
So, work. Preferably, maid-ly work.
She had two goals at the moment:
1 - Increase her [Scullery Maid] Job level. That was more of a personal thing, but she genuinely loved the maid aesthetic and style, and it was a nice personal goal to aim for.
2 - Find her 'Master.' The constant reminder every day was almost like a quest reminder, and she couldn't help but feel like it had something to do with why she was here.
She had a good idea of where that second one was, but she needed more time in Alpta to figure that out.
Time here meant a job--lowercase J--and a temporary home.
Every inn they had visited and where she had asked for work had refused her. She hadn't expected that. Strangely, one of the things that always came up was whether she was part of any guilds.
The Seamstress guild in particular, though there was also, apparently, a Housekeeper's guild.
That went on her short-list of places to visit. Being an accredited maid sounded neat.
But first, resources.
And she had a solution for that.
While she and Cricket had been walking through one of the less well-illuminated parts of the city, she had noticed an alley. It was different, more worn out, but also in one of the older parts of the city
She recognized it.
Just a few days ago she had been there. The Job she had been slowly grinding up was [Rogue] the second tier job after [Thief]. It was a nice, practical kind of Job with lots of utility, good Dex growth, and a few stealth skills and meta abilities that had great PvP potential. The third tier [Assassin] Job was her next goal, and she was only twenty-four levels away from it. Two, maybe three weeks of twelve-hour days and she'd be grabbing that third tier Job!
Then the fourth tier stuff, but that was way further off.
In any case... to get the [Thief] Job, a player had to steal a little. There was a whole stealth and theft mechanic in the game that was rather complex. If one wanted to fence stolen goods, then their best bet was one of the 'official' fence NPCs... members of the Thieves' Guild.
The very same guild whose base in Alpta was down that alley.
She left Cricket, agreeing only slightly reluctantly to dinner the next evening.
For tonight, a cheap room in a cheap inn, with a cheap meal. All she really wanted was some privacy... and maybe to borrow a needle and some spare thread.
If she was going to sneak into the Thieves' Guild, then she'd dress the part.
***