A New Ally

       “Hello, welcome to the Sleeping Sheep. How many nights will you be staying?”

      We had walked along the streets of Ronoe and entered the first inn we found near the adventures guild. There were a few inns we passed on the way, but with their disheveled appearance and rough looking crowds, we decided to skip them, despite our exhaustion.

      “For now, just two,” I said to the receptionist. She looked around twelve, with bright brown eyes and hair tied back in a ponytail. She looked down at her desk and pulled out a key from under it. “That will be a hundred and fifty gold.”

      I reached into my inventory and grabbed the bag from Geovanni. I grabbed three coins with the number fifty on them and handed them to her.

      “Thank you, let me show you to your rooms.” She walked out from behind the desk and into the maze of hallways behind her, and up to the second floor. My mind was barely processing my surroundings. I was exhausted, running on fumes. The goblins took all my energy.

      We reached a room after what seemed like forever. The number four was nailed onto the door on a little brass plaque. What a lucky room (1).

      The receptionist handed me the key and turned to leave. “Thank you for staying with us. We hope you enjoy your stay.”

      I stumbled inside and laid on one of the beds. I never said how many beds we needed, yet the girl gave us two beds. Guess she was used to tired adventures like us. My mind felt woozy as I laid my face down against the pillow. It wasn't nearly as comfy as anything on earth, but it would suffice here.

      I heard the bed next to me creak as something heavy fell on it. Austin was probably already fast asleep, knowing him.

      “Ugg, we need to turn in the request,” Austin muttered from the other bed. I didn't want to think of anything other than sleep. We could always turn it in when we woke up. My consciousness slowly drifted away as my body told me to sleep.

      Hours later, I woke up. My whole body was screaming at me. Apparently, my stats didn't keep my body from getting sore. I stretched as much as I could and sat up on the bed. I gazed around our room, which was about what I expected, with a log cabin-like feel. It was pretty sparse on furniture, with only two beds and a wooden desk in the corner. A window was opposite the door, looking down on the busy street below.

      I stood up and went to the door. I needed to get out and stretch, otherwise, my body would just feel worse. The hallway was just like the rooms, with the same log cabin aesthetic. I went down the wooden stairs and into the lobby of the hotel.

      It was noisy as I walked out of the hallway of rooms. A restaurant was attached to the hotel, with several tables filled with people. The servers hustled about and I could see the chefs hurriedly cooking food in the kitchen.

      “Hey, can I get a table for one?” I asked the hostess.

      “Let's see…” She looked down at a map of the seating arrangement. “I can, but there is a chance that you may have to share the table. Is that ok?”

      Share the table? Maybe that's something that they did here.

      She led me through the maze of tables. I had to watch for flinging arms and hazards as I walked to a small table in the corner. Covered in shadow, it seemed like one of those tables you would see in a mafia movie.

      “We're serving beef soup and lamb chops. Which one do you want?” The hostess asked me while I sat down.

      “Uhh, I'll take the beef soup.” Beef still sounded good, even in soup form. I ate more beef than the average Japanese person, living in Kobe, but it was still somewhat expensive.

      “It’ll be right out. Any drink you want?”

      “I'll take water.”

      She walked off, leaving me by myself in the noisy room. Austin was still fast asleep when I left the room, but he would probably be down here soon. I leaned back in my chair and let my mind wander. My mind went back to the fight with the goblin king. I hadn't thought about it in the heat of battle, but the way he died was interesting. The lack of blood especially was weird.

      Speaking of the goblin king, I had leveled up when I’d defeated it. ‘Status’. Like normal, the screen popped up before my eyes.

Lv: 2

Class: God

Health: 1177/1177

Mana: 4200/4200

Strength:1420  Speed:1007  Stamina:952  Intelligence:1396   Magic:2069   Luck:100,690

Skills: Creation, Destruction, Appraisal, Inventory

      My stats had gone up, but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason on how much. My strength and intelligence both skyrocketed, while my magic and speed only increased slightly. My stamina didn't even go up by fifty, making it my worst stat.

      The weirdest one however was luck. It didn't go up at all, instead staying the exact same. Even my health and mana both increased. Was it because my luck was so high already? I would have to ask Austin if his status acted in a similar way. I wonder if my appraisal was better now that I leveled up. Maybe I could just see Austin’s stats with the skill. I haven't tried it on him yet, but maybe this was the time.

      I hadn't felt stronger or anything when I leveled up, so I was still unsure how the stats affected me. The only direct effect I had noticed so far was an increase in my stamina while in the goblin mine.

      “Hey, is it ok If I sit here?” I heard a sweet voice say across from me.

      I closed my status and looked up to see a girl standing in front of me. My eyes went straight to her bright red hair, going all the way down her back. She had a soft face, with wide brown eyes.

      “Is it not ok or…” She was looking at me, her voice was just as beautiful as she was. I snapped out of my daze.

      “Oh, there's no problem. None at all.” I managed to speak as she sat down across from me. I barely noticed the hostess taking her order. “So what's your name?”

      “I'm Evelyn Iluzja, from a village in Southern Palsu. What's yours?” she asked.

      “Kazuma Sato, from a place called Japan on Earth, the other world where the heroes are from. Your hair isn't like anything I've seen around here. Is hair like yours normal where you're from?” I couldn't look away from her. I'd never seen anyone like her; here or on earth. It was like I was living a dream.

      “Yeah. Most of my village has hair like mine. So you’re a summoned hero. I figured as much. No one dresses like that around here unless they are. We have no idea how to even create something like that,” she said, pointing toward my uniform.

      “Yeah, I feel like I should change out of it, but I haven't really had time yet.”

      “Don't do that! I think it looks good on you,” she said.

      “Thanks.” She complimented me! “So what do you do? I'm assuming you're an adventurer, or do you do something else?” I asked.

      “I'm an adventurer, and a B ranked fire wizard at that!” She looked proud of herself. Maybe being something like a fire wizard was rare. With her bright red hair though, it wasn't that much of a shock.

      “So how do people from this world get classes and skills?” Unless someone like Lilith came to everyone and spun that wheel of hers, they had no way that I knew of to get classes.

      “We’re born with them. Classes are normally passed down from your parents, but there are unusual cases like mine, where I got a class that neither of my parents had. So what rank are you? If you're not an adventurer, that's ok. I just know that most summoned heroes are.”

      “No. I'm in a party with my friend Austin, who was summoned with me. He’s A rank while I'm S rank.

      Evelyn opened her mouth wide in shock. “Did you say S rank? I didn't know there was even someone S ranked here in Ronoe! Why are you not at the capital? There are way better quests for you there than here in Ronoe. We get like two A-ranked quests a year here.”

      “To be honest, we haven't been on Enfar for that long. I’d personally love to go to the capital, but I have no idea how to get there, plus I sort of want to get out of Ronoe. I've seen some weird stuff here.” From Lilith to the receptionist at the guild hall, to the goblin king. This place seemed like it had something weird going on with it.

      “Dude, I think getting out of here sounds like a great idea. Probably the first one you’ve ever had.” Austin was walking towards the table. He yawned, then snatched the other available chair at the table. The hostess came behind him with a waiter carrying our food. “So where are we going?”

      “Evelyn, this is my partner I've been telling you about, Austin.” She grabbed his hand and shook it. “Evelyn was just shocked that there was someone with an S rank here in Ronoe and not in the capital.”

      “And you were saying that you would love to go to the capital, but you have no idea how to get there right?” Austin asked.

      “Yeah. You’re right.” I said.

      “You know, I was planning to head to the capital soon anyway, I could always join your party and we could go together. Going in a group is much safer after all.” Evelyn looked hopefully at both of us.

      Austin seemed to frown at her, but as quickly as it appeared, the frown was gone. Did I just imagine it? “Sure, that sounds like a great idea. You’re an adventurer right?”

      “Yeah, a B ranked fire mage.”

      “That works perfectly. We needed a ranged attacker for the party anyway. When are you ready to leave?”

      “I could leave tomorrow if I needed to. I don't have much keeping me here.”

      “Perfect. We'll leave tomorrow afternoon. That work with you Kazuma?” Austin asked.

      “Yeah, meet us at the west entrance to Ronoe?” I asked Evelyn. I stood up as I spoke. My body was still incredibly sore. I had come down here to stretch out and ended up getting distracted by food, then Evelyn. My body was going to hate me.

      “Sure that works for me.” Evelyn stood up and grabbed her bowl of beef soup. She turned towards the hotel hallway.

      “Hey, one more question.” Austin flagged down Evelyn as she was turning the corner. "What's the name of the capital?”

      “Wow, you two really haven't been here for long. It's called Calpa, the City of the Stone Wall.”

(1. In Japanese, there are two ways to say four, Yon and Shi. Shi also means death, causing the Japanese to view the number four as unlucky.)