Cless woke up to something ruffling her hair. She opened up her eyes and saw the blurry image of a person sitting on a bed. After her brain booted up and the confusion vanished, she smiled back at Josefine.

"Hey, gorgeous, how are you doing?" Cless asked, still groggy.

Josefine snickered. "Gorgeous? Are you drunk, Cless?"

That was a good question, and the answer was 'no'. Cless was sober, not even hungover or tired due to her newly acquired Skill. Her muscles were sore from sleeping in a weird position, but she felt it would take just a stretch session to rectify that. But it begets another question. It was so out of character for her to call Josefine 'gorgeous'.

She recalled the events of last night and found another problem. She actively offered herself as part of a bargain. One that she had almost no hope of winning, actually. The dagger guy would probably defeat her, especially if he was the one with the agility Skill. She would expect someone with that Skill to dump everything in Agility. She offered to have sex with those mercenaries without batting an eyelid. Cless couldn't figure out whether she did it because she was sure to win or because she didn't mind being with these men.

Because she did mind. Yes, they were repulsive. She wavered for a moment but dismissed it. She did mind.

Why was she changing that much? She was becoming confident, snarky, defiant, bossy. Even lewd. Before her rite of passage, she wouldn't even look at the boys during classes but now they drew her eyes like magnets drew metal shavings.

"Cless!" Josefine shook her from her musings.

Cless sighed and smiled back. "Sorry for calling you that. But you are pretty, Josefine."

"Thank you, you have nothing to apologize for. You saved me, Cless!" Josefine patted her hair.

"Only after I caused that ruckus. What should I have done?"

Josefine shook her head and lifted Cless head by pulling her chin, "You did nothing wrong. You stood your ground and apparently won. What happened to these mercenaries?"

Cless looked away and a tear escaped her eye. "They died. I didn't kill them, they died on their own."

"Can't be helped then. Did they hurt you?"

Cless pointed at her flank, where a bloody gash on her uniform revealed her skin underneath, "As much as you. Just some stabs and bruises. Speaking of which, let me heal us one last time."

Cless used Mending and Detoxify on both and after interpreting no effect from the spells as a sign that there was nothing to heal, she stood up.

"I'm feeling great, just hungry and thirsty. What do you think about going downstairs to get something to eat?"

"We had no customers staying for the night so I locked the inn. Maybe we should get the day started. Can you stand up?"

"Yes. We should sew your uniform. Get changed into the spare uniform and I'll repair this one."

They went downstairs and ate breakfast before doing their usual routine cleaning up the inn. Cless was mopping the common room when someone angrily knocked on the door. She went to answer the door. An unknown man, well dressed in stylish traveling clothes, slightly overweight and with a well-trimmed beard was fuming on the other side.

"Welco — " He cut off and rushed past Cless inside the inn, bumping into the girl. "Can I help you, sir? We are currently closed."

The man spun on his heels and glared at Cless, "Closed? Where are my guards?"

"I'm sorry to inform, sir, but nobody stayed at the inn tonight." She had a hunch of what guards the man was talking about but she had zero will to cooperate.

"The Red Robins. Didn't you see them? They were supposed to sleep here! Not like there is another inn in this hell hole, to begin with!"

She fought to not snap back at him. Cless felt at odds with her old self. Why wasn't she being helpful? Because the mercenaries mishandled her and this man was being so rude he deserved no sympathy? Probably that. Well, maybe cooperating would make the man go away faster.

"I heard of no Red Robins, sir. If you mean the Crimson Ravens, I'm afraid they didn't spend the night here."

"Do you know where they are, girl?" The man finally took the time to look at her and gasped. "One God's mercy, you are hideous."

"I have no idea where they are now, sir. I will have to ask you to leave now. We are currently cleaning up."

The man looked around and his gaze settled on the tankards behind the counter. "Give me a mug of ale. I'm parched."

Cless lied to herself, telling that it was an exercise, training in patience. She kept her polite smile and pointed at the street outside. "I'm afraid we are closed, sir. You can come back after we open and we'll be glad to serve you. You have to leave now."

"I got coin, bar wench. I got more coin than you'll ever see in your entire life. So give me... no, sell me a drink. I want to..." He grabbed her arm and was pushing her in the direction of the counter as he spoke.

No. She didn't let him time to finish his line. Cless wouldn't allow this rude man to handle her like that.

"SILVERFANG!"

A howl and the sound of something running down the stairs drew their attention to the passage leading up. The big silver wolf appeared, growling and showing more teeth than any land creature had the right to. Cless looked at the man, at the wolf and thought why when it was five mercenaries she fought them on her own, and now an unarmed and extremely rude man she called the wolf.

Witnesses. There were no witnesses right now.

"What is a wild animal doing here?" The man asked, afraid of the wolf.

"That is not a wild animal, sir. That is my tame pet and protector. Now, could I ask you to kindly let go of my arm and go outside before the wolf gets here? Silverfang ate no breakfast yet, so you can figure out he is very hungry."

The man released Cless and backed off to the door. "I'm not done with you, lass. You'll be punished for this slight! Just wait until I find my guards!" After uttering these threats, he went away. Cless slammed the door.

"Asshole!" She healed her bruised arm and cursed with her back to the door.

Josefine came from the bathing room. "What happened?"

Cless was mad. She was so angry tears formed in the corner of her eyes.

"It seems the employer of these mercenaries came here to check on them. I've never met a man that rude."

Josefine hugged her and little by little Cless' anger vanished. "I washed your uniform. Did you finish the common room?"

Cless pointed at the floor where dirt in the shape of boot prints could be seen, "Except for the footprints that idiot left behind, yes. We can open up."

"I'll help you clean."

They finished the cleaning and opened the door and the windows. Sunlight filtered into the common room along with the image of Mr. Rudeness and some guards.

"Do you want me to deal with them, Cless?" Josefine asked, pointing out at the group coming down the street.

"No. The guy was thirsty, go to the counter. I got this."

She stood by the door on the porch and waited while the group closed the distance.

"That girl, guard! That girl tried to kill me with her savage wolf!" The man shouted, using a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off of his face.

"Hello, there, guardsmen." Cless nodded at the guards.

"Mornin', guild master." One of the guards replied. He turned to the man "Is that the girl that threatened you, sir?"

"Yes, that tavern wench! She made me run for my dear life when she threatened to feed me to her wolf."

Cless showed a sudden interest in her fingernails. The guard asked her, "Did you do that, guild master?"

Before she could answer, the man interjected, "Why are you calling her a guild master?"

That was her cue. "We haven't been introduced. I'm Cless, level 22 Cleric and Warmaster and guild master of the Blind Eye, a local guild." It caused the man's brain to halt and process the information. People usually don't introduce themselves by level and when they did it was an invitation for a spitting contest of who had the biggest levels. It was considered extremely rude to not answer with one's own information after being challenged like that. Cless knew her level was nothing to scoff at from the reaction of the guards. Opportunities to level up were rare and for a backwater town like this, the twenties were already a high enough level. Some elders like constable George should be around their forties but they were the de facto leaders. Cornelius was an old merchant and he had level thirty-seven. Cless was betting that he was a higher level than that man.

Trying to break his silence, Cless asked, "I didn't get your name and level, sir."

"You are a liar! There is no way — " She cut him off.

"Save your spit, sir. By the way, we are open now if you still want a pint of ale. But regarding your claims, they are all false. If you really want, we can ask these fine men to escort both of us to the barracks, although I'm afraid constable George won't be very happy to see us there. He is a busy man. But he is one person that can tell who is lying. There is also the choice of visiting the church and undergoing the rite of cleansing. I recommend this one over bothering the constable."

She winked at the guards and two of them she knew were closer to George chortled. She was betting that the poor constable was saying her name a lot.

"Bah! I see you are humping the whole guard and I'll have no justice in there. I'm off to find my guards and kiss goodbye to this backwater hovel."

"Stay right there!" Cless shouted with a commanding tone. She kept using a loud voice, making herself heard across the street. "You've gone too far to publicly offend me, sir. I demand reparation."

"You what now, girl?"

"I demand a duel of honor. You offended my honor when you insinuated I was having sex with the guards. While our garrison has fine men, I am in no such relationship." Cless popped her head inside, "Silverfang, my club."

"I'm going to beat you senseless, whore!" He threatened. Cless was not impressed.

"That makes two." She snapped back. "Guardsmen, I ask you to be my witnesses."

Silverfang came with an ironwood club. Cless picked it up and went after the man. He looked around and at the guards but none of them were willing to stand for him. He waved his hands and Cless stopped.

"Wait, wait! At least let me get a champion to fight for me!"

"If you use a champion, I'll have Silverfang fight in my stead."

"That is a deal. Let me find my bodyguards." He was turning around when one of the guards spoke.

"If you are looking for the five mercenaries that were stayin' at that inn, I'm afraid they are being buried as we speak. I wasn't in the night shift but I heard they fought guild master Cless there and lost."

The man, a level nineteen Merchant, gave up and offered Cless two crowns as reparations. She negotiated for three without using her Skill. She followed him to the merchant association and collected her coin.

As Cless returned to the inn, she pondered on what was going on. Why was she getting in these many conflicts? What changed? Were people meaner now that she had some status and power? Was it fate? She threw both possibilities away. The world was the same, the people were the same. What changed was how she dealt with the shit the world tossed her way. When the other Cless from before the rite of passage would just shrink and hide avoiding conflict, she stood tall even when most people would agree she should keep her head down.

Would she keep her head down anymore? No. She was going to make own path and leave her mark in the world. But now she had one urgent experiment to do. She called a kid and offered him four solidii if he ran to the north gate and called Arnold to meet heer at the Beaten Hare inn now.

She returned to the inn and gave Josefine a thumbs up before going up to her room.

Name: Cless (no surname)

Race: Human.

Level: 22 ( 247,998 / 253,000 Exp)

Class: Cleric 7 (+2) (22,574 / 28,000 Exp)

Profession: Warmaster 6 (19,202 / 21,000 Exp), Weaponmaster 6 (19,202 / 21,000 Exp)

Base Stats: Strength: 12 — Agility: 14 [18] — Health: 21 — Intellect: 22 — Magic: 33

Available Status Points: 0

Skills: [ Absolute Contract (S) ], [ Heavy Armor Adaptation (D) ], [ Giant's Stamina (E) ], [ Trick Shot (D) ], [ Dangersense ⦅C⦆ ], [ Nimble Step (D) ]

Proficiencies:

Appraisal — Status: 22

Crafting — Crude Weapons: 5

Magic, Cleric — Mending: 19 — Detoxify: 16 — Light: 2 — Turn Undead: 1 — Blessing: 5

General — Prayer: 10 — Scribe: 2 — Houseworking: 6 (+3) — Math: 2 — Reading: 6 — Forestry: 9 — Skinning: 7 — Herbalism: 3

Social, general — Negotiation: 12 — Persuasion: 1 — Bluff: 2

Social, martial — Leadership: 16 — Intimidation: 16 (+1) — Tactics: 12

Movement — Tumbling: 3

Weapon — Long Blades: 4 — Short Blades: 2 — Unarmed: 7 — Archery: 12 — Spears: 3 — Maces: 22 — Staves: 4 — Axes: 9