I was wondering about Starflake– its unknown yet explorable personal information. All I knew so far was that it could understand human language. That should be enough reason to converse with it. I hesitated to wake it up, but my curiosity was too much for me to hold sooooo… I poked it until it had woken up.

It did wake up, fluttering its cute eyes the same way as I remembered earlier. It didn't seem to be disturbed at all. Adding to my surprise is the part where the star creature seemed happy to see me, hopping onto my lap and smiling, glowing a bright shade of yellow.

I patted its head thinking of questions to ask that had been bothering me ever since I saw it. The first one being:

"Are you a boy or a girl??" I asked seriously, putting my face closer in anticipation.

Starflake didn't take a while to let off a tone of pink, replacing all the yellow it naturally had; it was the fluffiest shade of pink I've ever seen. I thought it was wonderful. But more importantly, it was safe to refer to ‘her’ instead of ‘it’.

"Wow, I'm really talking to a ‘living star’ and I'm still sane. I should keep going…" I half-jokingly thought to myself.

The second important question was:

"What's with your vomiting? Are you sick or something?"

She reverted her glow into her standard yellow, then made a familiar glow, same for her memory projection from before. I was patting her head, so I just assumed that all I needed to do was touch her before she could unlock these functions. Probably because of the staff's power or something…

I glowed, she glowed, memory projection stuff happens. There! I shouldn't make explanations too lengthy.

The room we were in faded into a colorless mist before reforming and projecting a memory scene. It was a scene emphasizing herself (Starflake) and that twisted Blood Moon Priestess. They seemed to be 'playing' together. It really did seem that way. The Priestess would then just stuff the chips (the very same ones as seen earlier) inside Starflake's mouth. Just the chips were ominous enough, but the way the Priestess just shoved them in started hinting what was to come. At the end of that, she tossed her up a few times.

To be expected, Starflake looked nauseous. The Priestess seemed to keep a straight face while she casually grabbed her. Don't get the wrong idea- she brought out the staff, placed it on the floor, and pointed Starflake's face at the thing, covering the whole staff in multicolored goop.

To her dismay, she received no obvious results. For what reason, one may ask? I wasn’t entirely sure. But given the context clues, maybe it was a poorly conceived attempt to unlock the staff's powers, from its obvious importance.

The manipulative Priestess tried to hold in all of her disappointment, "gently" threw Starflake to the ground, moved a finger to signal one of her monster guards to stuff Starflake back inside a cage saying,

"Well… I guess it was just my luck today. Indeed, that must be the sole reason… but no matter. I still have this… staff, and I have- erhh you…"

Looking at Starflake's uncomfortable face, she turned away shortly.

"Oh well… we'll just have to try this again tomorrow, Starflake. I hope you get reeeeeally comfortable there… we'll have so much 'fun' in the coming days!"

She made no concealments to her forced smile then immediately turned her back on Starflake. She then walked away and left Starflake all day without any further comfort or anything to eat.

Now I knew why she was so sick… she was eating so much of that stuff just to survive the chances of that same event happening again. Whenever she's given the opportunity, she might've stuffed in so much as to her limit, despite the manner and the method. Too much of the same thing is sickening and dangerous… I just came to realize it again after experiencing that for a whole month, but with bread. Just thinking of it… makes my tummy rumble uncomfortably.

The memory ended. Starflake dug herself closer to me. I could tell that she needed some comfort right now. I held her up across my chest like a stuffed toy, laying my back comfortably on the bed, and said:

"Now that you're with me, that Priestess won't be able to hurt you anymore. Don't worry. I can understand a bit of what you went through. You're not the one to talk about it, so I still am yet to know about the details. If you want me to be… we can be… f-friends." I softly said, while ending with a small smile.

She glowed a shade of light blue and cried while she was cutely smiling. I wasn't used to so much stuff in this world (practical stuff), but this is something I can easily get used to. Making friends… human or not. Still wasn't sure why or how, though.

"Rururu… ruu…" Starflake softly replied.

There's something about her language and tone that really captured my heart. Not just because it was incredibly cute… but it's her trying her very best.

"I'll just assume that as a yes then."

We just embraced our few moments of silence, but not until I asked this very dumb question:

"I'm kind of hungry. Do you want to eat-?"

With only a second given for me to react, she glowed a shade of pale green and already vomited mysteriously white goop all over my face and apparel… as my bad for being naturally insensitive. I instinctively dropped her on the bed, and she was still dribbling off. Thinking things couldn't get any more awkward, someone barged in and opened the door.

"Hey, you and Aria left me hangin'--"

"..."

" --yesterday…" Clyde dropped his question at what he just walked into.

Both of us resorted to blushing by impulse. I quickly replied to save ourselves from getting the wrong ideas. On either end…

"Stop s-staring…!" I barely replied, turning my face away in embarrassment.

"Don't worry… I'm j-just gon' pretend I saw nothin’…"

Clyde just slowly turned away and went out, whence he came from, after slowly closing the door.

I'm comfortable with her already, then this happens. There still are things that I still have to get used to after all… even this. I still got a lot to experience and change with myself. At least at that moment, I knew that I can't shake her, and mention stuff about food blatantly… on the plus side, I didn't smell like puke or processed chyme at all. I actually smelled like… marshmallows? If it wasn't gooey, I wouldn't complain that much (… what am I even saying?).

Not long after, Aria entered. Great timing for people randomly coming by my room. Her face immediately went for a deep blush. She covered her lips with both hands.

"My, my… I found you like that earlier… and here I am… finding you like that… again." She said as she let out a nervous giggle.

She also seemed to be uncomfortably huffing. She seemed like she was trying to calm herself down.

"Wait… what-- What did she get all nervous about!?"

"I might have to…" She softly directed something to me. "… bring you to that place I was talking about earlier, like… right now."

She seemed to have calmed herself down after a deep sigh, before turning to face Starflake.

"That also means you, Starflake."

The culprit of the mess just cheerfully made a cute noise in response to that.

...

After passing through a back door I never noticed before (thank goodness I didn't have to take the stairs and proudly show myself off), the three of us then went down a special staircase to the guild’s special bathhouse (so much special stuff), which was a building conveniently located right beside the guild house. It was connected by a smooth wooden door, with a carved marking on the upper middle. The carving looked like a symmetrical cross. This must be one of those places MMOs call a [Healing Spring].

Wow… I don't think I've ever seen this one before. I walked carefully, carrying Starflake, as I also mind her nauseous tendencies.

"This isn't normally used by Adventurers as this space is dedicated to the guild staff only," Aria said.

There goes why I didn't know about it.

"For today, while it's empty I think we'd have the opportunity to use it for ourselves~" She cheerfully added.

Oh well- after knowing that it's restricted access only, the offer didn't push me to decline. Even though that would mean I'd be bathing with Aria in there. But… I guess I've warmed up to her enough to let my guard down. I mean-- we're both girls. Why do I have to be so nervous about it…??

"Yep. Bathing with strangers. That's the norm in this fantasy world apparently…"

I just noticed that she stared at me only after regaining my awareness.

"We may need to step inside soon though. You're… making a mess by standing right there." She said while nervously chuckling.

I looked under where I stood and there laid a white goopy puddle already.

"Sorry sorry!!" I immediately replied and went ahead to close the door and strip off my soiled pajamas. Starflake floated over to the waters and went ahead.

Aria sighed and went to strip herself off too. When we were both ready, we walked over to take a dip in the pool in front of us. As soon as I dipped in the water, I already knew that we would be staying for quite a while. I didn't have much attention to react like how I would, being conscious of the presence of someone who has more than me. The waters were just too soothing for me to even think or talk.

------

Stains that rested on the water dispersed and disappeared almost instantly. Such convenience, with such simple yet powerful magic.

[After an hour of lounging in silence with Aria inside the hot spring]

------

Before I knew it I was back wearing my standard equipment and we were back in the guild house, at the exact, same table as yesterday. The only difference this time is that the guild house was dotted with a few fellow adventurers interacting with one another as I usually see them.

And of course, Starflake floating over my shoulder.

"Perfectly normal… yep… another perfectly average day-" I chanted in thought, humoring myself that what happened yesterday was just nothing.

"So are you feeling better now, Lily?" Aria asked.

"I still am surprised I didn't even know about those healing springs until now.", I replied with a nervous laugh. "But apart from that, I actually feel great now! Like I wasn't even hurt or tired at all!" I added, smiling at the thought.

We remained awkwardly silent for a few moments until an idea popped into my head. I was due for the idea actually. Now that I actually had friends to help me, surely they wouldn’t mind my suggestion.

"Wait! I just realized something. Are you busy today?" I asked, wondering about something.

"Not at all. My waitress duties are temporarily over. I'm finally free to do whatever I want for a few days." She replied with a small smile and an expectant gaze. "Why? Were you thinking of taking a...?"

After gathering enough strength and confidence, I stood up immediately. With both hands firmly pressing on the table, I added to what she was trying to imply,

"You just read my mind. Let's do a side quest together!"

Immediately after, Kitchen Knife-kun entered the matchmaking. That I mean: Clyde just showed up seemingly out of nowhere. Probably because he heard me. Either with me saying "sidequest" or just with me speaking in general.

"I'm glad to see that you're fine! Plus, ye’ actually managed to finish a ridiculously advanced quest, that ehrm- no one else knows about. I felt nothin’ but terrible guilt after I decided to leave ya' alone…" He says so while facing the floor.

He shook his head and decided to face me with a smile instead.

"But hey! I kept my end of the word, didn’t lift a single finger on it, and trusted ye’! Seein' that you cleared it yourself only meant that you really have grown stronger!"

He doesn't seem to know what exactly happened with my recent blunder of a decision but- I'm actually glad he didn't get to see me like that.

But wait… if he didn’t know, then how did Aria tell his detailed instruction from earlier..? This is confusing… but I should still be thankful for that run without any grave mishap!

Speaking of dying, I may have already had one too many near-death situations and I'm… still going back in-- Guess I really have been treating this more of a game than my new "real life" much more seriously than I thought. And when I mean "seriously", I'm more leaning towards the fact that all these gaming references I'm importing exist to humor me on a more spiritual level; to distract me with just… how much information was crammed into my head.

"Back to a more important note- we can finally do some quests together!", Clyde said, with a pumped-up expression.

"Woah- hold on. We're still just thinking about it for now. We haven't even decided on what we're supposed to pick yet.", Aria replied to calm him down.

"Then I guess we'd better pick some quests sooner before they magically start running out again.", I commented as a joke.

"Haha~ we're set on it then! Let's do it!" She replied brightly.

"Aye!" He cheered along right after.

So I, along with Starflake, made our way near the counter in the Guild Hall and checked the quest board. I hoped something would show up. Something a little bit easier for me this time.

Starflake and I went to the middle side. Clyde went to the left, while Aria went to the right.

"Oi!" Clyde called my attention. "Check this one out! It's pretty damn high on rewards!"

I immediately went to his position and looked to where he was darting his finger.

It was an advanced quest, which had inscriptions of:

"Giant golems are terrorizing an essential mining territory."

"Defeat all 5 Stone Golems."

But something, at the bottom of the paper, caught my attention. It was relatively small. If you're ignorant enough, you wouldn't even notice it was written there at all. I shook my head to gesture a no, pointing my finger at the warning without breaking my bland gaze off Clyde.

"WARNING: These golems appear to be resistant to varied types of magic, and only an exceptionally few sets of heavy weapons can deal damage and put them down."

Too class/weapon-specific… None of us would even budge at least one of the target monsters.

"Pick something we could ALL do. You do know me and Aria only use magic, right?" I said, tilting my head at him while awaiting his response.

"Uhh!- s-sorry bout’ that." He laughed nervously while scratching his head.

We both went back to our spots to continue searching.

After a few more minutes, Aria called my attention this time.

"I think I found something fairly easy, high on rewards, but umm…" She said, chuckling nervously at what she was pointing at.

I examined the sheet of paper. It said,

"A town nearby needs help with a livestock problem. The situation escalated in risks wherein people, children and farmers suddenly went missing. No reported survivors. The source of those problems might be a handful, even for Advanced classes."

"Defeat 10 Giant Toads"

"WARNING: They're also currently participating in a mating season as of this date, which will make them extra violent and extremely moist."

I shook my head abruptly with a proper face to gesture a hell no (or in this world "Nether no"). Mostly because of trauma, from things that will literally just exist to stain or cover me with the most random of substances. Partly because of some intuition that those kinds of missions never end… well. I'm already quivering in disgust just by remembering those moments.

Ughh… I mean, I already have Starflake for that…

Why did I just hint at the feeling that that was a good thing…?

We then went back to my spot to start examining more of the quests given.

"Isn't there something here that's doable…?", I started to lose hope with the given quests, most of which were advanced, not noob-friendly, or just utterly couldn't pay out as much as its required effort.

But just as I started to think about giving up, Starflake noticed a paper, hidden beneath the countless others. She called my attention by letting out a brighter shade of yellow. We both knew this was the one, for it said,

"Potential passageway and opportunity for trading, in need of exploration and clearing of hostiles."

"Find and explore this location, while marking the important parts of your findings."

"There's bound to be precious ancient artifacts and relics scattered around the underground ruins, which we will happily accept in exchange for a hefty sum of Gil per successful retrieval of said items."

My eyes shone in delight as I read it out. It didn't even indicate a warning so it probably must be the safest of all of them. (But to be fair, it did say it was unexplored…) I did not hesitate in grabbing that piece of paper and then called their attention.

"An exploring quest? Huh-" Clyde said after reading the paper.

"I haven't heard of those quests like… ever!", Aria followed after Clyde passed the paper onto her.

"Who says we can't be the first to do these?" I replied cheerfully swaying myself from side to side in glee.

"Let's get down to business ‘en! I've been dormant for ages. I'll just pack some of my things for the road." He replied while laughing.

"I'll be in charge of some other supplies then." She said while moving to a spot behind the counter.

Then Clyde went upstairs, while Aria went back to the counter. I just went back to my room to retrieve my knapsack. I just noticed it was recently cleaned. I checked my inventory inside the bag. I found a stash of clean clothes; more casual wear for me to use while I'm lounging in my room.

But before I forget to mention, the reason I wanted to do a side quest… was to raise money to pay for my rent.

What? Rent, you ask? I've been renting the room I stayed in ever since my mysterious savior placed me here.

I then remembered one time during my very early days of becoming an adventurer, like a month's interval of doing nothing but preparing myself for the adventurer way, all while inquiring about this world I got put into. Little by little, so that I don’t make my head explode.

---

I was woken up by a series of knocks on my door. After tending to it, a bearded old man approached me and came into my room. He was visibly even shorter than me, and I'm THAT short! It startled me the first time.

"Hey there, missy! I was just passing by to remind you of your rent." The old man said with a stern look on his face.

"E-excuse me?" I asked with genuine confusion, rubbing my eyes.

"Rent? I was supposed to pay rent??"

The first thing I woke up to on that day… rent. I genuinely looked at him with puzzled expressions. That made things awkward for both of us.

"He must be the landlord." I thought to myself in brief realization.

He ended up simplifying what he said.

"If you don't pay me, you won't be having another night of sleep here ever again! Do you get it now? Tch! Young adventurers these days…" He emphasized while carefully stroking his beard.

I was surprised by this unhelpful realization, and so I just answered with the first things in mind.

"I'm sorry but I don't really have any money at the moment…" I replied honestly.

"Then that concludes my business with you here. Get out of my establishment!!" He impatiently interrupted, almost shouting at me.

Then another realization hit me too. If I didn't get this old man out of my case, I'd end up homeless… and that's an even worse situation if I didn't act on this quickly enough. I may know a bit of thing outside the comfort of my room, but even more beyond that, the adult stuff… it’s a scary world out there.

Just as the thought went by my head, I thought of something to pass it off as a really good excuse for him to calm down.

"You didn't let me finish…" I replied with a seemingly witty comeback. "I said that I don't have the money at the moment, I'll have it paid on deadline. Give me some slack too, I have no other place to stay, you know?" I cutely grumbled while pouting to the side and crossed my arms.

I really hoped that was enough to stay on his good side, for me to extend my deadline… on the rent, I literally had no idea of having.

"Oh. My apologies then. Teehee~ I was just here to remind you after all. I'll leave you alone for that matter. Just make sure you pay on the time I expect it. Rest assured I’d keep a particular eye on you." He said, chuckling proudly.

Okay, I got to stay, but of course, I needed to know about what exactly I was in for.

"Umm… can you remind me of how much it is, if I may ask?" I asked nervously.

He reached into his pocket and reached out a piece of paper to me. My eyes widened and I let out a weak gasp at what I witnessed.

"15, 784 G. was already a near month's worth?!" I panicked in thought.

"Erhhh… I'll be paying this… o-on time then." I nervously replied before my panicking would’ve surfaced from there.

"Good luck! Work hard!" He replied and laughed obnoxiously while walking away. "You're gonna need it!~"

First, I was transported to some unknown world, got myself desecrated by basic enemies, then I had to pay rent I never knew I had to some old man?! The rent that I was caught in was too much for me. It really was hard for me in that situation... but not impossible. Be that as it may, it is fortunate for me that I wasn't the kind of person who would just give up, especially since I already had a place to stay. Ultimately, I just stuck with that.

The process wasn't anything out of the ordinary though. With my basic knowledge of RPGs (again, as I'm treating all this as a game), I picked up quickly on the ‘quests system’. I was able to do missions because apparently I was already registered as a legitimate adventurer. A Light Mage.

Why a Light Mage?- you may ask… let's just say I may or may not have taken too much interest with a certain female game character that manifests light as magic and has a very optimistic outlook on everything, despite having a pretty sad, secretive path in regards to her powers, as magic was once a concept that was despised from where she lived.

That useless data aside, after knowing that the staff I picked up by chance can only take low-level magic spells, with mainly light magic and the fact that my only strengths were more on non-physical attributes, it made my choice all the more convenient.

The missions that I was able to take and finish, at first, were weak on rewards. There’s the fact in RPG games that picking a mage as a starting class never was a good idea but… me being alone in all of it was the even harder part. One instance of that would be the "Item gathering" missions. Of course, there were still missions where it required an encounter of certain supposedly low-level monsters… but as soon as the difficulty ramped up, I’d almost always end up getting beaten up by those said basic tier level enemies. Mostly from my lack of stamina and physique… but also because I was all alone.

I was only grateful that monsters from these quests always somehow didn't kill me immediately, as even they can tell I don't strike to them as a threat, so if all else failed, I would simply make a run for it. Every time I failed, I'd always just come back really dirty, really beaten-up, and sore. I would even add scabs, cuts, and scrapes to the list, but my Healing spell can take care of that. Other times when my spells get the beat of my mana, I do have to drag myself with only one functioning arm; sometimes even both, but rest assured it was nothing worse than that. At least… I just cried myself to sleep whenever I had to flee and accept the facts telling me that I failed. (And even if I did clear things and quests just fine, I’d still cry of simple happiness)

Realizing there was no one to help and no one whom I could rely on but myself over everything…

"No parents to fill in for my needs. No actual friends to cheer me on."

… I then realized the amount of their actual worth, and I just knew what I missed just after it’s all gone. The first part of the adventure in these kinds of games is always hard… Now that it was literal, it was even harder on me. It was hard with “experience points” being the literal “experience”. That said, there’s a LOT that I learned in just months.

I learned how armor, and cloth-wear actually worked and were not just designed to look the way it looks, solely. Turns out, magic-inducing jewels and enchantments turn equipment into mediums and/or conduits of magic as well. More on the “giving” side; for instance, wearing certain pairs of eyeglasses increase Intelligence, while it also hinders Accuracy especially since most of the lenses are most likely incompatible with the wearer’s eyes, or wearing certain garbs increases Magical Resistances and Magical Damage Output, while hindering the wearer’s Agility because a garb’s weight and cloth material aren't really designed for numerous agile movements. In regards to obtaining them and repairing them, Armorers are the go-to people to trust, just as long as they obtain the required monster materials and monetary fees.

The amount of times I have to gather Slimes by hand… is just beyond me. (And I’m still not used to it)

When it came to terms with magic, I could only cast certain spells a certain number of times before I ended up feeling either light-headed or physiologically fatigued. Spells didn’t have any cooldown nor restriction for overlapping on each other (casting spells immediately on top of another, which can be of the same type) but casting time and magical affinity is where all the focus of spellcasting would lie heavily on. Casting time would be how fast magic and mana respond to incantations or chants. Magical affinity would be how easy and effective a certain element or type of magic a caster would do if they did.

Getting back a bit to the topic of magical armor and clothes, mine offered only little physical defense and a questionable boost in magical damage resistance. On the plus side, I felt agile and also could cast my spells as soon as I chant the words needed to call my spells out. As proof of that, I experimented by casting my spells, with armor, and then also without them. There was a significant difference.

It isn’t necessarily going to be a positive-negative on every single item, spell, or concept in this world… Most of them follow this pattern. This world’s logic is but a fraction of a stereotypical fantasy setting I guess. But even so, there's much to learn of this world (looking past the part that it is suffering)!

Based on this information, what I see myself at present time is the fruit of all of that. And now that I know how to survive each day (ultimately each month), I started to remember less and less of my desperation over them. Even though it was really really hard, all I've ever done was bare with everything and kept on moving forward. Beats the end of just giving up, right? I know I shouldn’t… I still have to survive the journey of living my life until I can meet my mysterious savior.

That all went on until I barely… miraculously… scraped up the money to pay that whole rent thing. The old man came up to me with an annoyingly bright face, obviously looking at the money. I remembered the old man saying,

"Splendid! Pleasure doing business with you!" He barked happily, while greedily snatching the money bag that was in my hand.

I didn't care if he was innately rude or pushy, though it reminded me faintly of something. All I cared about was the part that I could actually rest after a whole 2-week mission spree of basic, lower-level hell.

---

Back to the present, that nosy landlord hadn't come back to remind me for like a month and a couple of weeks already. I consider that as a problem, and if I get caught off guard, he might kick me out for good. So I had to do paying quests this time… and fast!

I held on to those thoughts as I left my room with my staff in hand. Fully prepared, I finally went down.

Aria and Clyde, both fully dressed for the adventure, were waiting for me at the exit. Not much has changed from what Clyde wore, but Aria on the other hand was a full-on makeover, with a witch's outfit dyed in so much red. Though it's a popular opinion to dress according to your type of element, I thought it wasn't unsettling to see her clad in red despite knowing her affinity for the ice element. I shook my head and didn't dwell on that for long and rushed towards where they were.

Clyde paid a close eye to my staff, leaning himself closer to me. I leaned backward in response

"It's actually more beautiful in person and looks more powerful too. Not that I’d know where it came from!"

Saying that last part out loud only means the opposite. But something tells me that I'd get my answer even if I don't ask. I don't even know what it is that makes it a big deal... but I already know it is a big deal. I'm already expecting that (somehow, someday…) something will just appear to explain all about it.

"I didn't get to use it, so I'm just itching to try it out for real this time!" I replied, smiling at the thought. "And also, I just can't wait to see how you guys fight!"

Then both of them awkwardly spouted "Me too!" at the same time.

"I'm pretty sure he'll end up dragging us all down- I mean you've already seen my magic. What can he do? Ah, that's right, be incapable of finishing his beer!" Aria added with unexpected hostility.

I stayed silent and kept watching. (•,,.,,,•D)

"Well to be fair, ya' both haven't seen me at my best yet. But don’t get all too superior with me! For all we know, ye're still just a wee clumsy waitress!" Clyde replied and laughed cockily.

I looked at them, sensing the atmosphere was becoming a little bit tense. Was it from their bickering? Or maybe… competition? I don't want to begin thinking about what went wrong in there, or why it even led to that. That wasn't what I meant by asking to "see them fight" at all… but I guess it still was kind of my fault.

I tried to avert my mind from that while their heads clashed against each other. All I've sat with myself for that day was the side quest we were taking, and we should just hurry up and get out there already.

Needless to say though, despite knowing so little of them, I think I'd be blunt to assume that these two… like each other to some degree.

Starflake wasn't minding the commotion. I decided to follow what she's doing and focused more on what to expect on this journey we're about to take.

… the first quest that isn't me being alone.