15 - Buffet

We arrived back to the shop completely drained, and opted to go straight to bed. Kana was desperate to know what had happened to us and why we came back in such a state, but she would have to wait until the morning for the full story.

Maja and I ascended the stairs at the back of the shop, but before she could retire to her room I had to make a request.

"I don't think we should tell Kana about the Moroza girl."

Maja paused for a long moment and looked at me with a sad smile.

"I agree."

I don't know if she knew about Kana's past or not, but she at least knew enough to understand where I was coming from. 

Every time the Moroza were brought up Kana would act distant, like she was thinking about something we could never connect with her about. She'd never told us anything directly, but it was clear she had some strong and negative feelings about the Moroza that impacted her on a level where our bright and cheery friend became someone tortured right in front of us.

I battled with feelings of guilt before passing out, despite Toast's chainsaw snoring.

~~~~~~~~~

The next morning Kana was on our case. She eagerly awaited all the details of the adventure she'd missed out on. We filled her in on everything except what we'd agreed to leave out.

Her eyes lit up hearing about the large monster we'd run into, and she expressed her envy about having been at the market instead of the shop at the right time. She had been pressing me lately to come along on a hunting quest, and this clearly just added fuel to her fire. I wasn't entirely sure where this new aspiration was coming from but I was happy to think Kana wanted to spend time with me.

"Can we please go hunting today? I bet I could find some great ingredients for dinner!"

Toast was still in a drowsy fugue state, and I watched him walk into the table leg and bark at it angrily.

"Just go back to sleep buddy, it's okay!"

I hoisted him up onto the bed, and he flopped over and fell asleep the second his head touched the blankets. I turned to Kana and gestured at Toast who was clearly out of commission.

"I don't think it's going to be today."

She stepped over to the bed and sat next to Toast and began stroking his back. She smiled sweetly at him.

"That's okay, I can wait."

I was eager to get back out there too. We were only a few skill points away from being able to get Telepathy, and I had been thinking last night that maybe I could ask Toast directly about the Moroza and the giant ear black wolf-thing.

It was supposed to be Maja's turn to go out and work, but we agreed to take it easy and just hang around the shop and rest.

~~~~~~~~~~~

After two days Toast was back to his normal self and raring to go play.

Kana was also fired up so I gave my okay and we headed out to tackle some quests. Maja said she felt like she needed another day to recover, but I got the feeling she was hiding something.

Our trio arrived to the western gate of Great City Linna, and continued into the wooded area where Toast and I usually went to hunt 'goblins'. I was stupendously bored of doing the same quest over and over, but today was about grinding, and appeasing Kana.

We ran into a pig on two legs almost immediately, and I felt my annoyance at the naming conventions of this world return. Toast knew pig = meat, and tackled it. It turned to pixels and Toast took the meat out of his inventory before it could even vanish fully. He opened his mouth wide but before he could chomp down I had to be the spoil sport.

"NO. Noooo. No! Don't be fat. Fat boy."

I rushed over and grabbed the meat, and scolded Toast for trying to eat when he'd just had breakfast. Kana tried to defend him.

"Don't be so mean! He earns his own meat!"

"Kana, he'll just barf it up if he eats too much."

"Oh... Ew... Well, you don't have to call him fat at least!"

I put the meat in the satchel Kana had made for me recently, and lifted Toast with his belly pointed in her direction. I slapped his tum lightly a few times.

"Look at this! Look at this man!"

We laughed, and I wondered if this is what it was like to be a couple.

Our quest continued on, and Toast was taking out 'goblins' left and right, each time attempting to eat the meat they dropped. Sometimes he would growl or bark after they vanished, and I assumed it was because they dropped items other than meat. Poor guy can't catch a break.

By the early afternoon we had long since finished the requirement for the hunting quest, but decided to stay and have lunch, and check on Toast's status. We sat under a large tree where the sun was breaking through to the ground, and I opened his screen.

>Skill Points: 52

I didn't feel ready for it, but Kana and I looked at each other and nodded. It was time to unlock Telepathy.

I clicked on it and.... Nothing happened. His SP didn't decrease, the text didn't change to solid white to indicate it had been purchased, and I didn't understand. Toast had found a butterfly and was joyfully leaping around chasing it.

We fiddled around in the screen for a few minutes trying to work out why the skill couldn't be unlocked, until my brilliant angel voiced her idea.

"Maybe Toast has to choose it?"

"Huh?"

"Well... They're his skill points. His skills. I don't really get why you can see his status screen in the first place, since they're meant to be private to the person unless you're showing someone... but maybe he has to pick it himself?"

"How on Earth are we gonna get him to do that?"

"Earth?"

Now is not the time to get into worldbuilding! I want to know what this planet is called if it's not Earth but I will come back to that later!

"Never mind. Let's... try and get him to pick it I guess?"

We spent the next hour feeling like fools. We tried talking to Toast, explaining how to select things in his screen, chased him down when he got confused or bored of us and ran off, begging, pleading, all in a fruitless effort.

All in all it's been a fun afternoon with the girl of my dreams and my lovely dog, but PLEASE GODDESS JUST TELL ME HOW TO GET THAT SKILL.

Then right on cue;

>*boop*
- A

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!

I put my hands to my head and fell to my knees, laughing like a mad man. Kana held Toast and gave him a kiss on the nose, and it hit me.

"Toast has to choose it. You were right."

"I was? Well that's good!"

I collected myself and outstretched my arms, gesturing for her to give me the dog.

I held him with his body faced outward like before when I slapped his belly, and pulled up his status screen. I navigated to the skill tree and highlighted Telepathy, and...

I booped his nose on the screen.

>Telepathy
> Use SP?
>Yes/No

I booped him again.

>Yes

The window closed, and Toast flashed a blue colour. I flipped him around and stared into his eye.

"Toast? Can you speak?"

Kana and I leaned in with baited breath, and waited for a reply. Then, a faint ringing sound started in our minds. We started grinning with glee and leaned in closer, ready for him to speak to us, and we heard...

~bark! bark bark!~

Are you kidding me?!