Mature Content Warning: None really, except maybe a bit of foul language.

Author's Notes: This is the mid-point of chapter 9. This point features real world issues (No booing, as it has good stuff, I swear) I did not plan to update this at all today, but plans fell through. I'll have 9.3 up later as well, but I don't know if anything will be put out tomorrow as I will be working on Origin and Galataea.

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Chapter 9.2: Mahorela Abaivonin

--

The waking world was much the same that it had always been for Scott. He opened his eyes. He made a note of where he was. He saw a big floating crystal-lined screen of blue light.

“What’s this?” he asked. Why did he see this right after he awoke? It was not quite dawn, yet. He would have personally preferred to wait until he had sold his gear and explained things to Sonja, but his real world body was ready to awaken. He had no control over that, sadly.

Since he was awake, he figured that he might as well get on with his day. He read through the information then blinked.

<<< Message >>>

Welcome back to stately Blackthorne manor, Lord Blackthorne.

You will find that you now have new options for your home and domain. If you should acquire new lands in the future, they too will be granted upgraded options.

>>

He snorted then looked around at his room. He got out of bed, walked into the main area of his renovated warehouse, turned house, and looked around. “Stately Blackthorne manor, huh?”

Scott could not help but laugh at that tidbit of information. He checked his status then smiled. He had a new option available that was labeled, holdings. He clicked on the new option and a short information screen popped up to explain the listing and then a list of registered holdings was cited.

<<< Holdings >>>

Estates

1

Primary Residence: Blackthorne Manor

Transportation

0

Livestock

1

Livestock Holdings

--

Sonja

Valkyrie - Warrior

Level: 14

Trade Value:

Jerin: 37649

US Dollars: $2,674.53 (current variable exchange rate applied)

--

Wealth

Jerin: 3245

US Dollars: $415.67

Notable Equipment

2

Weapons

Death’s Steel Broadsword

Armor

None

Accessories

Crimson Heart of the Fallen Lord

>>

“Ha, that’s awesome!” Scott was excited about his new option as it cataloged his life nicely. One thing that was both disturbing and amusing was that Sonja was listed as livestock that he owned. That was a bit odd as far as he was concerned.

“I wonder if her value went up because of the equipment I gave her?” Did it make him a horrible person for noticing that she had a monetary value? He decided not to care about that, though it did make him concerned for the future. The listing implied that slavery might make a comeback in the modern world, and he was not a fan of that.

He checked the screens for further information instead of worrying about the plight of future generations. While he checked the screen he noticed something peculiar. He lifted his hand up then blinked. He had been half asleep before, but now that he was more coherent he readily noticed the new addition. His ring had crossed over to the real world!

Scott stared at the neat little evil accessory then grinned. “Life is certainly about to become interesting.”

He was done with being surprised by things like that. It was obvious that life in this world would change a lot in the near future.

After checking his holdings options, he started to click on the things that he owned. He discovered that his estate options were quite interesting. “How does this even work?”

The screen informed him that he could spend money to repair and upgrade his estate! Well, no kidding. He could do that already by hiring a crew to do the work, or by performing repairs on his own. No, this seemed more interesting altogether.

The only option that he had that was within his current budget was to update his primary residence as a sanctuary zone.

<<< Sanctuary Zone - Class I >>>

Area: Variable by unit lots (Region specific)

Cost: $100 per unit area

Effect: Prevents monsters from spawning inside the area, and disallows their entry. This field does not affect native species or alien species that are not randomly generated.

>>

“Random monsters....” Scott looked carefully at the screen then his eyes tightened. If people could not generate a field like this, random monsters would potentially pop up in their homes? That was horrible!

He quickly checked to see how much it would cost to add that upgrade to his home. “A little over two hundred dollars...”

Scott winced then spent that money. He would take no chances with that. What if a monster spawned in his house when he was asleep? The result was obvious.

“I hope other people can do this.” He did not know when monsters would start to spawn. He hoped that it would be a long time before that happened and many people, or local governments, could get these sorts of fields put up.

The screen before him changed and then the word Blackthorne manor was greyed out. Next to it there appeared a little digital clock that counted down. “So, four hours till the area is upgraded? It is automatic, then?”

He checked his wealth and noticed that he had less than two hundred dollars left. He might have jumped the gun a bit, but it seemed like a prudent expense. It also seemed that he could only make one upgrade at a time. That was fine since he was a poor little soon to be dragon.

Scott wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew that he would not be able to right now. He was well-rested and fully refreshed. “Guess I should check my status.”

<<< Status >>>

Updating.... Updating.... Updating....

>>

“Well, I can’t say that was unexpected.” He shook his head. Scott truly hoped that he had not made a mistake by changing his race. He checked his skills and they had the same information screen. It only informed him that it was updating. Given what he knew so far, it seemed that at least some of that change would carry over. He just wondered how much he would change in this world.

The soon-to-be dragon decided to check the Internet for a while. Maybe something new and exciting had been reported since he’d gone to sleep around half a day ago.

A few hours passed as he goofed around online. There was no sign of any information regarding sanctuary fields, monster reports in real life outside of the normal conspiracy stuff, or people acquiring other races. That was not to say that none of that had happened. There were simply no credible reports for any of those things.

He shut down his computer and started to make a little breakfast. While he got his bacon and eggs ready his phone started to ring. He turned toward the sound then stared at the phone in a belligerent manner. “I turned you off. I know I turned you off...”

Scott sighed loudly then walked over and picked it up. He looked at the caller ID then groaned loudly. “Dammit, you bastards...”

“Hello?” asked Scott in a tired voice.

“Hey! Scott... This is Ashton, you know from Archer’s?” spoke the upwardly inflected voice of his store team leader.

“Yes, I know of your works.” he replied sarcastically.

Ashton laughed politely then said, “I know it is your day off, and I hate to ask this... But we’ve had a call out.”

“Right...” he replied in a non-committal tone.

The STL made a cutesy noise then sweetly asked, “Do you think you could come in and take her shift? It’s only four hours...”

“Can I get Saturday off?” he asked. He knew damn well what her answer would be.

“Well, no... I don’t think so, but we could maybe let you go home early...” said the woman.

Scott frowned. He knew that meant that he would probably be asked to stay later just for asking. He hated that damned job. “Who called out?”

“Look, Scott... I know this is a problem... I’m sure you had plans, but I like... really need you.” she said in a cutesy and somewhat whiny tone.

He sighed. Honestly, he did not have much else to do today. Why did he not have other things to do, dammit? If only he was sleepy...

“Fine, but you owe me...” he said in a tone that made it clear that he was not kidding.

“Ha ha. Of course! I’ll hook you up.” she replied in a perky and upwardly inflected voice.

“What am I doing, anyway?” he asked.

“Oh, just helping with a store walk-through and um... Oh, yes, we hired a new guest services team member and you will have to train her.”

“Ah, no problem then.” If that was what his day would be, then he no longer felt annoyed by the situation. It would be like being paid to do nothing but sit at Astra-Dollar and eat overpriced snacks or chat and walk around. It was almost like he was real management for a day...

“Really?” she asked excitedly.

“Yeah, but I am not going to stay late.” he replied.

“No, no no! You won’t. Thank you for this.” said Ashton quickly.

“No problem, but I really do want to talk with you about getting off Saturday...” said Scott.

“Getting off...” she made a strange noise then cleared her throat. “Uh, we can discuss Saturday later if you like...”

Scott’s left eyebrow rose in a confused arch. “Sure, we’ll discuss Saturday later...”

“Right...” she said.

There was an odd and awkward pause for a moment then Scott asked, “So, what time should I come?”

Ashton coughed once more then said, “Uh, oh yes... You’ll be scheduled for noon to four.”

“Are you alright?” asked Scott. She was coughing a lot and had started to act a little odd, even for her.

“Oh yeah, I’m totally fine... Just a little dehydrated, need some water.” she said slowly.

“Right then... So I’ll be there at noon.” he said.

“Great, I’ll see you when you get in.” she said in a happy tone.

“Sure...” said Scott.

Another awkward pause ensued for a moment then Ashton said, “Bye...”

Scott’s face contorted a little then he said, “Bye.”

The call ended. Scott pulled the cell away from his ear and he stared at it for a moment. He tilted his head to the side then squinted one eye. “..The hell was with that conversation.”

He set his phone down then sighed. He might as well go ahead and get ready. He had to be at work in four hours.

Scott made his breakfast then prepared for work. By the time he was done, he had two hours left to kill, so he pulled out his conjuration book and started to read.

A few hours later he stood at the guest services desk at Archer’s. Bigness was on duty, but they had scheduled her team member to be off thirty minutes before the new girl was meant to come on duty. It was a typical, bullshit, scheduling oversight. So, he had been forced to endure the constant complaints of store guests.

Scott did not mind people with legitimate questions and realistic complaints. However, he had just been forced to deal with someone who demanded a refund for an item that had been purchased eight months prior. He had not been impressed with her excuse that it was a birthday present that had been purchased and held aside till it was time. How was that the store’s fault?

There was a forty-five day return policy with receipt. If you had no receipt you might still get money back if you had used a debit card that could be tracked in the system, and the item had not been completely removed from the shelves.

He had called Bigness over to deal with the woman, and she passed it up to the front end team leader. Either way, the end result was that after eight months the item was not even stocked in the store anymore.

Eventually, everything settled down and the new girl arrived. Scott blinked when she made her presence known. He had never seen a girl who looked that pretty before. He wouldn’t claim to have fallen in love at first sight or anything, but he would claim that he had actually had to fight down a blush when he saw her.

“Hello! My name is Shara.” The absurdly pretty red-haired girl stuck out her hand.

Scott fought down an urge to kiss her finger and swear fealty. It was a truly surreal moment. He did manage to get ahold of himself after a moment. He swallowed hard and then coughed once. “Yes... Nice to meet you, I’m Scott.”

She smiled and him then placed a finger up to her fashionable glasses and pressed them back slightly. “It is really nice to meet you.”

“Thanks...” he said softly. He blinked twice then shook his head. He had to stop staring, dammit. This was ridiculous.

Shara tilted her head to the side then slipped over and stood next to him. “So, what do we do now, Scott?”

Scott looked up and noticed that five male team members were peeking at them from around the one-spot aisle. The one-spot aisle was a section of the store where items were sold for one dollar each. It was an impulse buy section, but it constantly needed maintenance so there was usually at least one person assigned to straighten it every few hours.

“We need to learn you how to use a cash register.” he said.

She giggled gently then nodded. “Learn me then, Scott.”

Scott started to laugh at his own poor grammar then blinked. He glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eyes. Her giggle had a strangely familiar quality, but he was not certain why.

“Right...” he said.

After Bigness came back around to man the desk, he took Shara over to one of the back registers in order to train. The peeking team members rotated so that they could watch. They could hear them gossiping and making comments that were not entirely appropriate in the work place. Scott did not blame them, though. Shara was not exactly within the boundaries of the normal new team member.

“Alright... We have a training manual here.” he pulled the training manual for the cash register out then started to show her various things.

Roughly ten minutes later she had somehow mastered the basics of being a cashier. Scott nodded at her as her hands moved steadily through the process of scanning, bagging, and totaling items. It was easy work, but he usually had to repeat himself several times and let the new team member read the book for half an hour before they were comfortable. Shara was a first time, go.

“So, is this all I do?” she asked him gently.

“No, you have to learn the guest services desk specifically, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. We had a cashier call-out, so you’ll be over here ringing up guests for the rest of your shift.” said Scott.

She nodded lightly then smiled at him in a casual and friendly manner. Her smile was both pleasant and unnerving to Scott. It was overly familiar, like the sort of smile that only old friends would share. “OK, I can do that, Scott.”

He smiled at her tentatively then said, “You like to say my name, a lot.”

She smiled brightly at him then leaned forward a little. “Yes.”

He fought down a blush once more and cursed himself internally. He had not had reactions like that in longer than he could remember. What was with this girl? Scott forced himself to try to at least pretend to be professional. “Do you have any questions?”

She tilted her head to the side then narrowed her eyes. She gazed at him intensely for a moment then asked, “Does your family have a history of heart disease?”

He blinked at her then laughed a little. “Well, that was a bit random... No, not that I know of.”

Her smile brightened considerably and she pressed her glasses back once more. “That’s good to know.”

“Why would you even want to know that?” Scott asked her nervously. He hated what this weirdly beautiful girl was doing to him. Why did she act so familiar with him?

She giggled once more then shook her head. “It’s not that important.... Say, can I ask another question?”

“Is it about being a cashier?” he asked her.

Shara shook her head slowly. Her ponytail slipped from side to side.

“Uh... We should keep questions related to work stuff...” said Scott with great effort.

She pouted at him slightly. “I suppose...”

“Why do you want to ask me things like that?” He immediately felt like a jerk for making her seem sad. Once he realized that fact he wanted to slap himself and calm his hormones or whatever was making him act like a fourteen year old boy around this girl.

“An innocent mild-mannered shop keeper should get to know her co-workers.” replied Shara.

Scott laughed at her answer. “That’s good, I guess.”

Shara stepped closer to him and smiled sweetly. “Yes, good...”

“I... I’ve never heard someone refer to themselves as mild-mannered like that.” said Scott. He was reaching for any sort of avenue to get out of this situation without sounding like a jerk. The girl was far too familiar and intense with him. It was unnerving.

Shara laughed gently then casually said, “Proper early characterization of recurring characters is important for any good storyline, especially when they are meant to be the romantic lead.”

“Is it?” Scott laughed softly in response as well. He then took a fairly obvious and lengthy step back from the girl.

Shara pressed her glasses back once more then bit her lower lip. She acquired a sweet and slightly nervous expression. “Oh yes, Scott... I think so.”

His left eyelid began to twitch a little and he made a short yelping noise when she stepped closer and smiled at him. What was up with this girl? She was... He did not even know what to think of her. This was a situation outside of his life experience and it showed.

***