Today was a break day for Alexis and me, but we needed to meet up and sell our haul from last night. We were just too wiped after all that had happened to bother with trying to do anything else except eating and sleeping.

Speaking of which, I didn't even bother with a proper meal after the ice cream we had. I was just so focused on showering and sleeping that nothing else crossed my mind. I can still feel the phantom sensation of mud and grime sticking to places I didn't even know they could reach through clothes, ugh *shudder*.

When my personal hygiene had been taken care of and I once again felt like a human being I fell into my comfy bed and didn't even bother to pull the covers over me before succumbing to my heavy eyelids.

Now that I was rested, I could distinctly feel the absence of any food in my body which growled at me in what I assume to be anger or frustration. I didn't even know it could make sounds like that. Breakfast should help remedy that anyways, so I guess I'll just grab something on the way to meeting up with Alexis. There's no time to cook for myself, so I'll pick up a bagel or something to eat on the way.

The thought of getting food motivated me enough to hop out of bed and throw some casual clothes on before jogging down the main street into the center of the city. About 5 minutes in, I come across an interesting smelling stall.

There's an elderly woman in front of some waffle makers and some oil fryers, the smell wafting through is a strong sweetness from warm maple syrup and the doughy smell of freshly made waffles. Even more noticeable was the alluring scent of fried chicken mixed with various spices, with it coming fresh out of the fryer there was the popping and sizzling of hot oil coming from the breaded pieces of deliciousness.

The waffle maker was a bit odd shaped and looked to be more like a wide football, which made sense when I saw the greying vendor place chicken in the middle of the waffle and fold it up like a taco before putting a healthy dose of thick amber syrup. She had made chicken and waffle tacos perfect for eating on the go, and I had to concede to my growling stomach and buy three.

I figured I would fill my belly with two of them while saving the other for Alexis when I saw her. Not wanting the food to go to waste or get dropped, I stored all but one in my storage to maintain their heat and to prevent the waffle from getting soggy from all of the syrup.

After that was taken care of, I realized I was in a bit of a conundrum as it would be hard to walk and enjoy my food without taking forever to get to the fountain and meet with Alexis. It occurred to me a few seconds later that I was a summoner and had a summon I could ride to enjoy my food in peace while getting there quicker.

I really wanted to slam my head against a wall after realizing I could have been doing that the whole time instead of taking forever to walk places. I mean, I did it when going to monster biomes when hunting because some of them are quite a ways away, but it never really occurred to me to do it in this gigantic city.

Rather than continuing to kick myself for stupidity, I brought out Brutus's core and summoned him to be my ride. He was about at my height, so I had him lay down so I could hop on his back.

Hanging onto his spiked collar with one hand and eating my chicken and waffle taco with the other, we began my rather quick journey to the central plaza.

With Brutus cutting my travel time down significantly, I made it to the fountain before Alexis and began working on my second breakfast taco, which was practically the food of the gods. About halfway through my second taco, I saw a familiar figure come into view in casual clothes similar to mine.

Waving over to catch her attention, I have her come and sit beside me on the edge of the fountain and hand her the last remaining taco. Her eyebrows raised at being handed a food surprise, but she didn't comment aside from murmuring thanks and digging into the food.

Right now, I was wishing I had bought the entire available stock to store in my inventory, I guess I'll just have to do it when I see the stall open next. I finally understand how addicts feel, I was even discreetly eyeing the nearly finished taco in her hands, barely managing to restrain myself from taking it away.

As she enjoyed her breakfast in between small moans reveling in the syrupy goodness that is breakfast tacos, I was instead looking at her and thinking. The way she was acting confused me a bit, we seem to have gotten closer, but I'm still not sure how she feels about me.

Maybe she's just teasing me, or just being nice, I really don't want to screw up and make things weird between us. We've still only known each other for a few days, so this isn't that big a deal since it'll all be revealed in time, but I can't help but stress about it with my hormone-addled body screaming at me to ask her on a real date. I guess there's no reason not to, but I'll have to wait for the right moment since right now we have things to do.

We got quite the haul yesterday, the only downside is that the reduction in price is still in place, but at this point, they are worth about 60% of what they usually are, not to mention that I split profits with Alexis as well. I don't mind splitting the money with her too much, but it'll be nice when the prices go back to normal and we can make some serious money.

"Morning sleepyhead, are you ready to head over to the core exchange and summoner building to cash in our prizes?" (Thomas)

"Sure, let me just find a trashcan and we can head over" (Alexis)

....................

The core exchange was only moderately busy this morning, which meant we didn't have to wait in line for a station to open up. There was an empty one on the far wall to the left of the door, it didn't have others using the ones beside it, so it was perfect for us.

This was my first time splitting the profit with someone, so I was unsure how this would work. Figuring something was better than nothing, I suggested, "Why don't we put all of the cores we want to sell in this station and then we can either split the credits if there is a function like that, or I can send you the credits after we sell them all." (Thomas)

"Why not, let me start taking some cores out of my storage so we can get this over with quick." (Alexis)

We got to work pulling out the plethora of cores, most of which were different sizes and colors. By the end, we had made a veritable mountain, which was absorbed by the station as soon as we told it we were finished. The total came out to be an even 1,000 credits, but even better was the option to divide payment to multiple people. There were even different ratios for groups that handled salaries like that.

I didn't need to mess with all of that, so I set it to transfer the money equally between Alexis and I. With each of us earning a cool 500 credits form cores alone. This left my account to be at 14,200 credits, I was wealthy, but needed even more money in preparation for the coming auction that would be selling off a lot of the goods harvested during the monster break.

We did the same over at the summoner association, and of course, Max was our attendant for the transaction. He had a larger scowl than usual on his face so I didn't want to bother him with small talk. He rang us up quickly by efficiently browsing and scanning each body that we pulled out. By the end, he had managed to tally them all up then mark for the reduction in price due to excess monsters.

Both of us earned 828 credits, which would have been quite a bit more if it wasn't so close to the monster break. My account stacked up even more with 15,028 credits to my name, it's getting there, but it still isn't enough for me.

We still had a few especially valuable bodies to sell off, but we wouldn't do it at the association due to their low prices. The auction house would let us earn a lot more, and I suggested as much to Alexis.

She had no problem with it, so we went over the greek theatre styled building and met with an appraised who looked over the few rare tier 4 corpses that we had. The bodies were only the spriggan and juggernaut centipede, and despite the rough shape they were in from the battles to take them down, the valuable parts were still mostly intact.

I decided to keep the spriggan core in case I came across some summon that it would be useful for, it would be a boon for any plant-based monster since it would likely give the ability to control all plants to an extent.

We received two tickets to reclaim the money we earned when the bodies were sold off, and we went on our way to relax and enjoy walking around the city just enjoying being in each other's company.

The auction was two days away and then not only could we buy some potentially powerful or useful equipment, but we would get a big payout from our monster's being auctioned off. I still had some tickets for some monsters I had put to auction that would only now be sold off, I wouldn't mind the extra pocket change.

This was in the back of my head as I focused on Alexis as we just wandered around the streets and occasionally going into shops that looked interesting. I still didn't know what to make of her, but she seemed special to me, I hope the situation that I am unable to save her never occurs. That would probably destroy me for quite some time.

I guess my reaction to that little hypothetical situation is revealing just how strongly I feel about her even if I didn't want to admit it. Maybe it would be the knowledge that I failed her that would be the most devastating, I can't quite tell if her being gone or me being the cause of it would be the worst feeling.

Emotions are difficult and confusing, especially since my hormones are making me constantly be aware of her whenever she is around. One thing I can admit to though is that Alexis is definitely gorgeous with her bright red hair and icy blue eyes that contrast so well with each other.

I'm not too bad looking myself, but I hardly think I match up to her beauty. Luckily looks aren't everything in this world, being strong is even more important. I only felt the urge to be stronger deepen since I would try my hardest to never fail my hunting companion who had quickly wormed her way into being more than just that.

I would just enjoy this little break and leave all of those nearly crushing thoughts locked in the back of my head, no point in worrying about things that haven't happened yet. Summoning is an inherently dangerous profession, but I didn't get too worked up over my own safety. Alexis is capable of handling herself, so there's no real reason to worry about her either.