I dreamed I leveled up. There wasn’t anything special about this dream. A red line of text informed me of the accomplishment.

Congratulations. You have reached level 2.

Unfortunately for me, another dream quickly took its place, erasing the first dream from my memory.I found myself chained to a wall and unable to move.A fiery redhead slowly made her way toward me, moving in slow motion like we were experiencing special effects in a movie.She looked straight into my eyes with dazzling blue eyes.I was mesmerized by those eyes.

The world stopped as she made physical contact. A hand brushing across my cheek was all it took. It felt as if only the two of us existed in the whole world. Her face was inches from mine. Suddenly our lips met and she kissed me. It was a soft kiss, but I felt its passion nevertheless. My heart was pounding in my chest as I longed to fold my arms around her and embrace the girl. Unfortunately, the shackles around my wrists did their job and prevented me from doing so.

The girl toyed with my soul as she granted me this gentle kiss and nothing more. Slowly she pulled away from me, but she held my gaze. Leaning over my shoulder so that her mouth was right next to my ear, the girl whispered, “You must save me.”

Then the dream was gone. It was replaced by a strange noise. The memory of my red-haired goddess evaporated as I was ripped from the dream.

I focused on the sound and realized it was the sound of snoring. It took me a moment to realize where I was, sleeping on the closet floor. A glance over at the bed reminded me of the previous day’s adventure. One of Kalliphae’s legs hung over the edge of the bed as she lay sprawled out, half covered by the blanket.

Not wanting to wake her, I tiptoed out to the living room. I scoured the kitchen for something to eat for breakfast, settling on Cocoa Puffs. I brought it to the living room and plopped down in front of the TV. I considered turning it on and watching some anime, but decided better of it as I didn’t want to wake Kalli up prematurely. I didn’t know what the summoning took out of her, but I wanted her to get enough sleep.

I didn’t have to wait long. I was just pouring my second bowl of cereal when she made her appearance. She emerged from the hall rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Kalli was still wearing the jersey. When she noticed my expression, she quickly looked down and let out a slight gasp. She then ran back into the bedroom and slammed the door. When she returned, she was once again wearing her wizard robes and hat. I chuckled and she gave me the stink eye, asking, “Is there a privy around here or do I have to go in a bush?”

I gaped at the girl, trying to figure out what she meant. When it dawned on me that she was asking about the toilet. I was half tempted to tell her to use a bush to see what she would do. Deciding that I didn’t want her to kill me, I got up and walked to the hall, pointing out the only closed door, “That is the bathroom over there. I believe that is what we call a privy.”

She looked suspiciously at the door and replied, “An indoor privy? How is it that a peasant’s hovel has an indoor privy?”

I balled my hands into fists as I told her, “You have a lot to learn about this world. I’d be more than happy to show you to a bush if that’s what you prefer?”

Kalli scoffed at me and marched into the restroom. I lingered for a moment to see if she needed further assistance. When I heard the sounds of tinkling I shrugged and headed back to my now soggy bowl of cereal. I was just finishing when she poked her head around the corner again, “Um. How do you make it go away?”

I blinked at her in confusion. Realizing what she meant, I explained, “Oh, you want to know how to flush the toilet. Just pull the handle and the toilet does the rest.”

“Handle?”, she asked in a quiet voice.

I could tell she was nervous about asking, so I got up to show her. She moved out of the way to make room for me. I noticed that she had closed to toilet lid so I reached down to open it. She slapped my hand away. I looked up at her. Kalliphae, her face bright red, scolded me, “A gentlemen must never…um…you don’t have to look at it do you?”

I frowned at her before realization dawned on me, “Oh, you went number two didn’t you?”

She blinked indignantly and informed me, “I can assure you that I have no clue what this number two is, but can we use get on with the business is showing me how to discharge this privy.”

I nodded silently and made a show of displaying the toilet handle before flushing it. She stared at the toilet in awe as the sounds of swirling water filled the air. I pointed out, “There's nothing to be ashamed of. It didn’t even stink.”

She laughed and explained, “Of course not. One of a pyromancer’s skills is the ability to get rid of any foul odors.”

Her jaw slammed shut as she realized what she had just told me. I was about to leave when she tugged the sleeve of my t-shirt and asked, “Would it damage the privy if I did it again?”

I gaped at her, “You have to go again already?”

Kalli scowled at me and explained, “No! I want to use that flush again with the lid open to see what happens.”

I looked down at the closed toilet and shrugged, “Sure. Go ahead. Do it as much as you like.”

As I left the restroom, I looked back at Kalli and wondered if I needed to explain how to use toilet paper to her. She didn’t seem uncomfortable, so I decided not to worry about it.

I returned to my breakfast and couldn’t help laughing as the sounds of the toilet flushing over and over came from the restroom. I had just flipped on the television and was channel surfing when she was finally satisfied and made her way to the living room. I asked her, “Would you like some cereal for breakfast? I can get you another burrito or hot pocket if you prefer that instead.”

Kalliphae sat next to me and looked at my bowl, “I will try this cereal. Is that milk in the jug? What manner of creature does it come from?”

“Cows”, I informed the girl, making her a bowl of Cocoa Puffs.

She sniffed the cereal. Holding a spoon up to her mouth and informing me, “We have those in our world too. Great source of milk.”

I nodded my agreement as she sampled a bite of the cereal. A smile spread across her fast and she said, “This is the same flavor from last night. There was chocolate in that ice cream sandwich.”

It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about. I nodded absentmindedly. She continued, “Is food like this available to everyone? Is there even better food that only the nobility get to eat?”

I shrugged, “I suppose so. I wouldn’t know though because I don’t get to eat it.”

She seemed a little sad, “I guess that makes sense. Now, tell me about this magic box that is offering us quests. Are you about to choose one?”

It took me a few seconds to figure out what she was talking about. The television was on in the background and I had stopped channel surfing on a channel that was airing the morning news. It had just finished with the weather report and was in the middle of a story about a local child that had recently gone missing.

Standing at the Westfield Mall, a reporter was interviewing a sheriff in front of a toy store, "So what you are saying is that this is the last place young Eddison was seen?"

The sheriff nodded, pointing inside the store, "Video surveillance shows the missing child last seen coming out of this story on the 7th of this month just over a week ago. His cell phone last pinged off of a tower in the area. We are combing the mall and the surrounding areas. So far he appears to have vanished without a trace."

The reporter turned to the camera, adding, "So far, it is unclear whether this is the case of a runaway or a kidnapping, but an amber alert has been issued. The kids family is offering a $25,000 reward for any information that leads to Eddisons safe recovery."

Kalliphae scooted closer to the television, listening raptly as the family of the child pleaded with the public to help find their son. I explained, “Those aren’t quests. That’s just the news. It comes on all the time to tell us what’s going on around the world.”

She turned her attention to once again gape at me, “This box gives news of the whole world? How long does it take to travel here?”

“It’s pretty much instantaneous”, I announced, causing Kalli to edge closer to the TV, practically hugging it as she tried to figure out how it worked.

Her suspicion returned and she asked me, “How do you have such a powerful device? Shouldn’t these be reserved for the upper class?”

I looked at the 13 inch TV and sighed, “I doubt anyone in upper-class society would own such a small one, but pretty much everyone has a TV. At least in the U.S.”

Kalli’s face went through a series of emotions as she pieced together what I had told her. She asked, “How many countries are there in this world?”

I shrugged while trying to remember what I learned in geography class, “I don’t know. There are hundreds of them. I think it’s somewhere around 200 countries. I’m pretty sure there are 7 major continents, though one of them isn’t populated.”

“Hundreds?”, she asked incredulously, “That’s so many more than where I come from. How do they keep from having wars?”

I shook my head, “They don’t. There's always a war going on somewhere it seems. We even had two world wars, though that happened a long time before I was born.”

Kalli frowned, “All 200 countries fought in a war at the same time? Wait that’s not important right now. We should do this quest.”

I looked at the screen where they were issuing an amber alert for the boy, his face plastered across the screen. I tried to reason with her again, “As I said before, we can’t do those quests. Those are for trained professionals only. I think the police should…”

She placed a finger to my lip, shushing me, “You said it yourself. I am level 7. That’s two levels higher than the strongest person on this planet. I would say that makes me the professional. Besides, that person in the magical box said that there was a $25,000 reward for completing the quest. If you get money then you can help your mom, right?”

Her deep blue eyes were boring holes in me as she pressed me to do the quest. This triggered a strong emotion in me out of nowhere that made me want to do anything she asked. I made my way back to the couch and sat down heavily, quietly conceding “Fine. We can go on the quest.”

So I ditched school. Before we left the house, I had to explain to Kalli that her attire wasn’t a good choice if we didn’t want to attract undue attention. She gave me the evil eye, “I don’t see what my uniform has to do with anything. Perhaps people will think I hail from a mage academy that they are not familiar with.”

I tried desperately to explain things to her again, “There are no mage academies in this world. At least not real ones. I hate to tell you this, but your outfit would look like a cheap knockoff even if we were trying to say you were cosplaying as a wizard from Hogwarts.”

“My master made this for me”, she started to complain, “I somehow doubt these fake academy costumes could repel Mythril and level 10 magic like mine can.”

I sighed, “Be that as it may, we don’t want to attract unnecessary attention. You will stand out dressed like that.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, “Well I refuse to wear your clothes again. That shirt of yours didn’t even block light let alone magic.”

I rubbed my chin in thought for a moment before saying, “Come with me, I have an idea.”

The idea was simple. We went into my mom’s room and rummaged through her drawers. As we were going through her pants drawer, Kalli asked me, “Do ladies in your world wear pants, or is it just peasants?”

It took me a moment to wrap my head around her comment as I asked, “Are you saying that a woman who is a commoner isn’t considered a lady?”

She flinched away at the tone of my voice, “I didn’t mean to offend. In my world, the term lady refers to women of a certain status. No disrespect was inferred.”

I gave her an inquisitive look, “Were you considered a lady in your world?”

She stammered indignantly, “Well I'm not a…not yet…but I will be a lady when my training is complete.”

It was at that moment that I realized that she wasn’t nobility sneering down at peasants. She saw the nobility as her way out, a salvation of sorts. My expression softened as I explained, “In this world, women of all social standing wear pants. Dresses and skirts can also be worn by everyone regardless of who you are.”

“Even men?”, she asked with a giggle.

I shrugged and laughed along with her, “Not traditionally, but men have been known to don a dress from time to time.”

I switched to another draw that I had no desire to even look at. I asked Kalliphae, “Do you need underwear or are you already wearing some?”

“Underwear?”, she asked, examining the content of the drawer, “Oh, undergarments. Yes, I am already wearing some.”

Her eyes settled on a bunch of bras resting in a pile in the drawer. She asked me, “Whatever does a person use these for?”

I gulped, not wanting to look at my mother’s bra. I suggested, “Um, those are used to hold your boobs up, or something like that.”

She held the bra to her chest over the robe and looked down at herself, asking me, “Whatever for?”

I shrugged, holding my hands up, “I honestly don’t know.”

In the end, Kalliphae chose an old blue dress that I hadn’t seen my mother wear in a very long time. It brought back happy memories of my childhood seeing someone wear it again. The dress was made of a very thin airy material that would only work in a warm environment. Kalli took my breath away at how beautiful she looked in the dress.

Kalliphae spun around in wonder as we walked down the street toward the bus stop. My block housed several apartment complexes that contained hundreds of apartments each. Single-family homes were sprinkled in between. She asked, “Are all buildings like this in your world? In my world, peasants usually live in straw huts and have livestock or farms.”

I waved my arms around indicating the apartments around me, “This is pretty much it. Other countries might still have huts, but this is what we have. There are farms and animals, but not around here.”

“What are these contraptions”, Kalli asked pointing at one of the cars parked on the side of the road.

I sighed. Was I going to have to explain everything in this world to the girl? I resigned myself to my fate and started, “That is a car. People drive them. Kind of like a wagon I guess.”

She turned to me, enchanting me with those eyes once again, “Where is the horse? Is it magic?”

I shook my head, “Nope. Like I said before, there is no magic in this world. At least, nobody knows how to use it like you do. It burns fuel to…well, I don’t actually know what it does, but it uses technology to make it go. Don’t worry though. You are about to get a demonstration.”

“What do you mean?”, she asked skeptically.

I grinned, “We are going to ride the bus.”