Chapter 42: Viva Utilities!
Oh, shit
He’s right
He whipped his head to the elf, flashing a bright professional smile. "Miss, can you lend me an essence core? Even your smallest one will suffice."
She blinked and gracefully sat down to his level (because he fell down due to the panda’s slap). With a wave of a hand...a small mountain of cores splayed out.
"I do not have awakened cores, but I do have toughened ones," she said, looking at the dozen or so spherical cores the size of a man’s thumb. "You can have these."
"T-This..."
"Waooo nice~" the Panda said, about to pounce at the cores. Finn’s eyes twitched and he caught him, placing him on his lap so he’d behave.
"Hey! Don’t be greedy. We’ll just take one."
"Do you talk with your pet often?" she asked, curious. Now that she wasn’t guarded against him, the aura around her had become dignified yet calm. Very beautiful.
"Hmn," he said. "Don’t listen to him. I’m only borrowing one."
At this, the elf looked a bit confused. "I do not hear anything."
Before Finn could explain, the Panda, now relaxing on his lap, spoke up. "At the Great Spirit’s current level, only the Innkeeper can understand me la. And the future staff members, too."
Finn blinked, looking at Pang. "Wow, everyone else is so lucky."
"..."
"How do you level up?"
"It’s based on accumulated Hearth Points spent, la."
"Oh, so I should work hard so everyone else can suffer with me."
"..."
The annoyed panda wiggled out of him and went to the cores."They’re all essence cores of toughened monsters, la! One should be able to power the Inn for a month!
"Too bad it’s a bit too high for you to absorb even in the off-chance that you do awaken, so might as well let the Inn eat it."
"What did it say?" the elf asked. She looked intrigued by Pang, and he wondered if there were pandas here or if animals just talked in general.
Little did he know that there were no such things as pandas here, nor were there talking animals. The elf was simply taking things as they were.
Anyway, Finn didn’t know this yet and just answered the question. "He says it’s too bad that it’s too high level so I can’t use most of them yet."
He hadn’t even finished his sentence yet when she handed him a small bag.
"What is this?" he asked, curiously looking inside and flinching when he saw it was filled with gold coins.
"T-This..." he paused. "...is gold?"
Was gold the only denomination in this place?
How much was this worth here, really?
"It is 100 gold."
He didn’t do anything to deserve this but, if the Lady was offering, how could he refuse?
"Will this be alright?"
"It’s not a big amount for what you have done for me."
"How much can this buy in a town?" he asked because she looked like someone well-off. Even her dress was highly-ranked. He wondered if she knew the value of what she was giving away (because he certainly did not).
She blinked. "A few...clothes, I suppose."
It had to be said: All three beings in the room were ignorant of the true value of gold in this plane.
"Miss, this isn’t everything you have, right?"
If anything, she helped him get rid of the monsters. She helped him, too.
She raised her hand to stop him from talking. "My name is Sylwen," she said. "Thank you for saving my life. And this is even less than what you deserve."
She wore a neutral expression on her face. If he was another person, he might have thought she didn’t care at all. Maybe they’d think she was annoyed or snobbish.
However, his industry and his experiences trained Finn’s EQ a lot and allowed him to see the subtlest signs.
He saw how her pretty leaf-shaped ear was a bit red, and how those ruby-like red eyes shifted just slightly as if staring at him, but was actually avoiding his sight.
She was embarrassed, too.
His lips twitched a bit, his own humiliation from being frozen and falling down from a tap fading a little.
It was true that if the other person was more embarrassed, then the situation would be less humiliating.
"If I had brought more money, I’d have given you some more."
"But what about you?"
"I left some for myself, do not mind."
He couldn’t help but feel bad. He only took a few leaves and put it in her wound. He really doubted she’d have died from it.
That said...he really needed the money, so he wouldn’t refuse her kindness. However, he wasn’t about to take it for granted.
"You’re really strong, I doubt you’d have died from those monsters," he said. He was sincere about this. It could’ve been troublesome but if his inn wasn’t there, she might’ve found another place to hide or have run away.
She shook her head. "My stamina and mana had been spent. I could only do a few more spells before I lose everything."
"Those monsters would’ve mobbed me in less than an hour, and even if I survived, I’d have lost a limb," she said, unconsciously touching the area where her wound had been.
She blinked. "To have healed so quickly...I can only assume you spent money on expensive health potions."
Finn felt a bit guilty but...he was the Innkeeper and the Inn was his, so, technically, it really was his resources used on her.
In retrospect, he had a glimpse of how big the wound was considering how much she bled.
He was curious about what had happened to her, but unfortunately they were not that close yet.
In the end, he just accepted the generosity, making a mental note of paying her back someday. Finn handed one of the cores to the Panda, who promptly ate it.
Crunch!
He was pretty sure that thing was solid, but that panda was biting it like a lollipop.
Before he could react, the lights turned on and the faucet—which had been turned—was flowing. He stood up and the panda rolled to who-knew-where. He was focused on looking at the faucets and the lights, and even the fire!
"Yes! Finally!" Viva Utilities!
With a large grin on his face, he turned back to look at Syl and Pang, only to see that the latter was now next to the rest of the cores...and was eating all of them.
"..."
Burp
[Active Mission "Gather 10 Essence Cores" completed!]
[Received +1000 Hearth Points]