A few more days passed and most of my time was spent learning to cook while hunting on the side. Though its not so important, I'll mention it anyway that my level rose by 1.

More importantly, due to going into the forest everyday, I had gotten pretty much used to it and everything had become much easier. Now whenever I required a certain kind of herb or needed to encounter a certain monster, I had a general idea of where to look for. This was even more helpful in my cooking course since I could easily obtain the desired ingredient without wasting too much time or effort.

Yeah. I was starting to think of this as a waste of effort. And by 'this', I mean hunting. Such low level foes died in a single hit of my sword. Once, I got pissed and punched a monster in the face and its whole body was blown to smithereens. This made me realise that even the single hit from my sword is too much of an overkill. I seriously needed to go out and fight stronger enemies. And for this, I had to somehow manage my food problem. And that brings us back to the main topic. Though I had learnt only some of the basics, I was confident that with enough trial and error, I could manage somehow on my own, and with time, it was only going to get easier.. Though, I won't deny the fact that most of that confidence is induced by my boredom of this place. Still, I was able to manage to get the cooking skill.

Cooking LVL 1

The food cooked by the user is more delicious.

It was a bit vague. Rest of the skills that were similar had a clear numerical value that defined the limits of the skill. So it was a bit hard to measure the effects of it. But either way, I was glad to obtain a new skill. Also, gaining this skill made me realise something. All active skills used mana and their effects were fixed while the passive ones were level depended and had to be grinded for better output. I confirmed this with Trichia and she told me another interesting thing to note. It went something like this-

"You can have an active fireball skill and a passive fire damage skill. The active skill will remain the same no matter how many times you use. On the other hand, the passive skill will rise, thus creating a synergic effect, increasing the damage of the active skill."

This had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that the passive skill not only affected fireball but also other skills of fire category. This also meant that the passive skill could be increased more easily due to a variety of active spells affecting it. In short, each spell you cast effected the entire system of spell(fire, water, etc). Now the disadvantage was that it was necessary to have the particular skills which compliment each other. The main problem for this was the unpredictability of conditions to obtain a skill. Because if you didn't know the conditions, you couldn't obtain the skill and if you couldn't obtain the skill.. well any further comment is useless then.

I don't know how many times I've drifted away from the main topic but not anymore(hopefully).

Yes, so I had finally decided to leave this place and wander around. In technical terms, I'll be going on an ADVENTURE!

Right now, I was heading back to the inn after hunting and thinking about how to tell this to Shirley. She was probably going to be dejected since her main source of income was saying goodbye to her face. While walking, I was preparing an entire script in my mind and playing out many different scenarios, just like I did when I entered the village. Somehow, I had the feeling that this was going to all go down in the gutter again, and so it did. Because what happened was obviously out of my expectations. I'm starting to think God loves playing with me, and considering the god is Trichia, I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track. So anyway, here is how it all went down-

"Welcome back! Got any new monsters today?" Shirley greeted me. This had become something of a routine now.

"Umm.. No, I didn't. Hey listen Shirley, I have something important to talk to you about?" I started with my opener to create the mood

"You're finally leaving?" She asked with a smile.

"Huh?"

Was I hearing right? Did she just sound happy?

I looked at her and she was smiling.

What?

Was I... actually a nuisance here?

Had I overstayed my welcome?

I felt like I was hit by a truck.

I didn't even think about doing all that wasted planning for her. My mind was suddenly filled with all the happy memories we shared. When she hugged me and cried her eyes out. The time when the dish made with the Puckleberry burst on my face and she laughed her ass off. And many more.

I saw her face... from when I first appeared, next to to her current one. The difference was heavenly! I... I... I was happy here. Somewhere in my chest, I felt a pinch.

(No this is for the best.)

I tried to convince myself. It was better to say goodbye while smiling. But that pinching feeling in my heart was a constant reminder.

I tried to smile but couldn't. I definitely wasn't going to cry here either. Somehow, I build up my resolve, my courage, my guts, my everything and said.

"Yes. I'm leaving." The tone that came out was a bit harsh but I couldn't help it.

"Good. Let's go."

She pulled out a sort of jute bag from under the counter and hung it on her back. With that she took my hand and pulled my out of the inn and starting locking up. While she was doing all this, was my mind was in a frenzy? No. In a trance? No. It was freaking blank!

She was closing up the main entrance and I was currently standing behind her. This was the situation when a bit of my senses returned.

"WHAT!?" I immediately shouted.

She got startled.

"What happened? Are we under attack?" She looked around cowering and then looked at me.

"No.. You? Me.. Wha..? Inn? Its.. I... Leave? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!???" Now my mind was in real frenzy!

"Hey hey. Calm down. I'm obviously coming with you."

"How? What? Why? When? Where? How? I don...." She placed a finger on my mouth to stop me from speaking and did a "shhhh...." With her mouth.

"Calm down. Its not too hard to understand, is it? I'm coming with you."

"Yef, buf why?" I spoke while her finger was still on my mouth

She put down her hand and started speaking.

"Do you think I want to stay in this hell hole for the rest of my life? Before you came, the only thoughts I had were of dying. I probably wouldn't have been able to live much longer had you not come when you did. What do you think I'm supposed to do after you're gone? Sit in a corner again, waiting to die from starvation or commit suicide altogether?"

"But its dangerous where I'm going..." I said.

"Anything!" She interrupted. "Anything would be better than this place. I don't care even if you use me as bait or as fodder for some monster. I don't care if you use me in any way you like. I'll satisfy your every want. I'll cook for you, wash your clothes, carry all your stuff. When you're tired, I'll feed you and wash your body. When you're sleeping, I'll stay up all night and guard you with my life. When its sunny, I'll take the high ground and keep you in shade. When its raining, I'll hold up the umbrella until my hands go numb. When you're hungry for sex, I'll let you use my body, in any way you desire. So please! Please take me with you."

She had said all that with great seriousness. I could tell that she had made up her mind long before and was resolute.

The earlier pinching in my heart was gone and it was replaced by a different kind of pinching.

I took her in a hug and whispered in her ear.

"I'll take you with me. But there's no need for you to do anything like that."

Her body trembled slightly in my embrace and I could tell she was weeping silently. I tightened the hug and rubbed her back.

I'll keep this to myself but the gap moe was kinda cute.

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.

.

.

.

We stood there like that for I don't know how long, before she whispered in my ears.

"How long are you going to press against my boobs?"

I immediately separated.

"No. That wasn't my intention, I swear!" I said trying to defend myself.

She just laughed at my reaction and I realised she was only teasing me.

"You..." I glared at her.

She kept laughing.

"Hahaha.... Oh my god.. My stomach... Hahaha.." Her stomach probably started hurting from laughing that hard. She was still laughing and almost fell on the ground.

I just ignored her and walked away.

"No.. Hahaha.. Wait for me, Rota.. Hahaha.. Wait." She tried walking while still clutching her stomach while laughing.

There's probably a looong journey ahead of us.

I'm not really good at writing emotional stuff. Did you like it? (Though in the end I couldn't resist adding some humor xD)