Once Maisen and I stepped out of the compound, my new bodyguard turned to face me. "I need you to release your party with Kalistra and then party with me," she requested quietly.

"Do I have to party with you?" I asked.

The warrior's eyes looked deep into mine. "Milord, in order for me to serve properly as your bodyguard, it is essential that I party with you," she replied. "Look, I understand that you may feel embarrassed about revealing your current level, but there are a number of benefits in being partied with me. First, I will be able to see your pop-ups, including any damage you take and any bad condition or status effect that you receive. Second, if we become separated somehow I would be able to sense your location and find you more quickly. Thus, it is important that we join in a party so that I could do my job to ensure that you stay alive," she explained. “Otherwise, there is no point in wasting your gold to hire me.”

"Fine," I shrugged. When the pop-up request screen appeared, I hit, "Yes." I took the opportunity to learn more about my bodyguard. The middle column of her player screen read: "Name: Maisen, Race: Human, Alignment: Neutral, Profession: Swordswoman (Journeyman), Level: 15, Experience: 116,547/120,000, Reputation: 14,389, Relationship Status: Bodyguard, Attack: 206, Damage: 30-35 (unarmed), Critical Attack: 18%, Critical Damage: 300%, Immunity to Electricity: 50%." The right column read: "Health: 245, Stamina: 225, Strength: 30, Intelligence: 20, Wisdom: 15, Dexterity: 25, Constitution: 30, Charisma: 14."

Even though my bodyguard was five levels lower than Kalistra, somehow Maisen managed to have higher health and stamina than the cat girl. The likely culprit for such difference was probably due to Maisen’s higher attributes in Strength and Constitution. But then again, Kalistra had a much greater Dexterity score, and that probably translated into the ungodly 25% chance to incur a critical damage for greater damage than Maisen. If we were to compare the two fighters, Maisen was more suited as a tank while Kalistra was a more efficient damage dealer.

Fighting prowess aside, I was really surprised to see Maisen's immunity to electricity. I wasn't sure if "immunity" meant damage reduction or the chance to ignore this type of damage entirely as those were two very different things. But either way, it was a very impressive innate ability that my bodyguard possessed and I couldn't help but wonder how she wound up receiving it. Was she born with it or acquired it somehow via training? I would have to ask her about it later.

I looked at Sister Maisen and saw that she was also busy studying my stats. I had to admit that she was far more powerful than I expected. I noted that she was at the rank of Journeyman at level fifteen while Kalistra was Master-ranked at level twenty. I guessed level twenty was the cutoff to reach the rank of Master and therefore, my bodyguard still had a long way to go.

I also took this opportunity to clear out my very last pop-up messages. The next one read as follows: “Maisen’s status CHANGED to bodyguard. +250XP.” I was thoroughly enjoying how rapidly my experience points were accumulating. It was much easier than I expected. The final message read, "-8 Health." This must have occurred when I went splat face first on the ground while carrying Gendun on my back. Speaking of Gendun, was he injured when I fell on the ground? “Um, since you were nearby when I fell while carrying Gendun on my back . . . is the boy okay?” I asked with concern.

Maise gave me a reassuring smile. "Gendun is fine. He had his breath knocked out of him when you collapsed on the ground so suddenly. But your body cushioned his fall and he was not injured. May I ask you a personal question?" she asked.

"Sure," I nodded.

"Why did you elect to train in swordsmanship? With your high intelligence and your innate magic detection ability, you are very well suited to become a mage instead," she observed.

"True, I suspect that I would make an excellent mage. However, I don't have many friends in this town and I figured that being a warrior would help me stay alive. I do plan to switch professions eventually," I admitted.

"My younger brother, Maisel, is a mage. Whenever you decide to leave the path of swordsmanship and become a mage instead, I could ask him to consider taking you as his pupil," she offered. “If he can’t teach you himself, Maisel could help you find another suitable teacher as well.”

"Yes, I would appreciate that," I replied. Suddenly, I thought of an important issue related to professions. "Is there any sort of penalty for switching professions?" I asked.

"Yes and no," Maisen said. She took a deep breath and started her lecture. "Some non-human races, like the animal people, are limited to one single profession in their lifetime. Since elves are extremely talented as a people, they can have three. The other races are allowed two. Non-humans cannot switch professions. They have to multi-class instead from the very beginning. Humans, on the other hand, are unlimited in the number of professions we can switch to. But we're inherently limited by our shorter natural lifespan compared to most non-human races. The second issue is the cost involved. When we change profession, we cannot use the skills of the old profession until we have accumulated more experience in the new profession than the old one. At that point, we become dual-classed and have access to the skills of the old profession.”

My bodyguard paused to ensure that I was following her.

I nodded for her to continue.

“And as I mentioned before, non-humans have to choose at the outset to become multi-class. The experience required to advance to the next level is doubled for two classes and tripled for three classes. Thus, it becomes much, much harder to multi-class than to dual-class. After a human becomes a dual-class, the experience gain is split among the two classes. And in the rare instance where a human switches to a third class, he would have the same restriction on the use of the previous professions until he gained enough experience in the newest profession. Once that occurs, the experience is split evenly among all the existing classes. While humans do have the advantage in changing professions, we don't live long enough to fully use these additional skills compared to the other races," she lectured.

I nodded in understanding and turned my thoughts back to Amelica. It must have taken her a long time to regain access to her Songstress skills.

"So where are we going?" my bodyguard asked. "Remember, we must return within the hour," she reminded me.

"I would like to go back to The Noble Lady. Gendun's mother must be very worried about her son. I want to assure her that her son is doing fine at the dojo. Also, I am renting a room there so my lunch is included," I noted.

"Okay, let's go!" she said. Maisen allowed me to take the lead and hovered silently behind me as we walked northward.

When we arrived at The Noble Lady, I was disappointed by the lack of a pop-up. I guessed that I wasn't going to receive any more experience for the trip between the dojo and the tavern. I entered the tavern and quickly took a seat at the back. As I walked across the common room, I noticed that the patrons immediately lowered their voices and started making furtive glances at me while whispering amongst themselves. When I looked back at the common folk, none of them dared to meet my eyes. Nor was anyone inclined to talk to me either. Honestly, I had no clue what happened. I was basically ignored yesterday; today, I seemed to be the subject of the conversation among the patrons.

Maisen sat across the table from me. She had already scanned the room for possible threats to me, but none stood out. She was very appreciative of the fact that I sat on the side of the bench facing the back wall because this allowed Maisen to keep her eyes on the patrons sitting near me. In other words, she had my back.

After we were seated, Amelica appeared at our table. "May I speak to you privately, milord?" the maid asked politely while eyeing my new companion.

"I'll be right back," I told Maisen and followed the worried mother into the kitchen. When she turned around, I said immediately, "Your son is doing fine."

Amelica exhaled a deep breath. "Gendun was very upset this morning," she said quietly. Her face was full of worry.

I put my hands on her shoulders. "I think Gendun was afraid that Vern was abandoning him. It was a misunderstanding that Kalistra helped clear up by suggesting that the tavern keeper wanted Gendun to learn some fighting skills before taking over the tavern when Vern retires," I explained.

The mother nodded. "I will make sure that will happen," she said cryptically.

I was taken aback. What kind of influence did Amelica have over Vern to make this kind of statement? However, I saw that Vern was standing nearby and watching us; Vern certainly overheard our conversation regarding the future management of the tavern but chose not to deny Amelica’s declaration. I decided to ask her about this another time. "I would like to order today's special for myself and my bodyguard," I said, "and as for drinks something without alcohol is fine."

The maid's eyes widened in surprise; why would I need the services of a bodyguard? She will ask about this arrangement tonight. "Okay, two specials coming up!" she confirmed my order and waltzed toward the chef to pass along my order.

I nodded to Vern and left the kitchen.

"Is everything okay?" Maisen asked when I returned to my seat.

"Couldn't be better," I grinned. "Amelica was worried about her child."

"Her child . . . you mean Gendun?" the warrior asked after a momentary pause.

"Yes," I nodded.

Maisen stared at me for a moment; her facial expression was guarded again. "And you're staying here?" she asked quietly.

"Yup," I confirmed.

"Under the same roof as that fair lady," Maisen grinned as her eyes lit up in mischief. "Milord and Amelica sitting under a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," she teased.

"Hey!" I protested. "Let's not go there!"

"Ah, but you ARE interested in her," my tormentor continued.

"We slept together last night," Amelica interrupted nonchalantly as she served our orders. Yes, she was making a VERY deceptive comment but Amelica did NOT want a romantic rival for the nobleman’s affections!

The maid was able to return with Lawrence’s meal so quickly for a reason. The chef had premade a huge batch of the daily special and kept the food warm during the lunch hours. Thus, patrons will receive their lunch quickly and then clear out the table for the next group of patrons. It took a while for Amelica to persuade the chef to serve the daily special in this manner but the faster service meant more revenue for the tavern. Today's special was honey glazed spare ribs with corn and cauliflower.

Amelica also gave each of us a large mug of honey mead to wash down our meals.

As I groaned aloud at Amelica's deceptive comment, the mischievous maid winked at me and slowly sauntered back to the kitchen. With growing dread, I lifted my eyes to Maisen, who still had a big grin on her face. Sighing aloud, I lowered my head and focused on the delicious looking meal before me. Ignoring my bodyguard, I started devouring my lunch.