lol I just realised that I forgot to title the last chapter. Did it now though. :p

When she finally stopped laughing, I took her bag and put it in my inventory. As if realising something, she asked-

"How much can that inventory of yours store?"

"I'm not sure. Never tried to test its limits." Was the only answer I could think of.

She then asked me if I could bring the entire the inn with me. I immediately refused. I told her that only those things which registered as an item could be put in the inventory. She quickly asked back for her bag, and taking out the key started opening the lock. Then she had me put everything in the inn into my inventory till there wasn't a single item remaining. It was almost ghastly, the way the inn looked now. Shirley seemed satisfied and nodded her head, and we got out once again for her to put the locks back on. Right now in my inventory was her every kitchen utensil, cutlery, spices, any other food stuff, her clothes, daily items, her entire freaking bed, even her chairs and tables from the dining area, then all the lamps, quilts, paper and other things including the smallest of items. She had me put inside everything. I was starting to wonder who among us was the one leading the journey.

"Do you have anyone you want to say goodbye to?" I asked her once she was done setting up the locks.

She looked at me as if saying "are you stupid?". Then she said-

"Have you ever seen me get friendly with anyone here?"

"Well... in that case would it be better if we got out from the back?" I didn't bother answering her question as I understood it was rhetorical.

"The back? You mean there's a secret passage or something?" She asked, excited.

"Over the fence, I mean." I told her.

"You do know that the fence is 6 feet high right?"

"Haha. Come with me."

I just laughed at her weird expression and pulled her to the place when I usually made my exit from. I turned to face her after reaching the place. The fence was exactly my height but Shirley was about half a feet smaller. There was no way, especially for someone like her to climb the freaking thing.

She just stood there waiting for my next action. I got closer to her and swiped her off her feet in a single smooth motion. Then I tightened my grip around her and without giving her a moment to prepare, made the leap. Even when using the bare minimum of my strength, I was easily able to reach the other side. But what just happened was pretty unexpected.

"You didn't scream?" It was a question more directed towards the 'why' part.

"I have nothing to fear as long as I'm beside you. I already decided to give you my everything anyway."

I got a bit flustered, but then realised she was probably teasing me again. As revenge, I let her down all at once.

"Aaaa!" She finally screamed.

*thump* She fell right on her behind.

She got up while rubbing her butt and sent my way more than just a couple of glares.

"What was that for!?" She exclaimed.

I just gave her a meaningful smile and headed towards the forest.

(Revenge successful!)

I gave myself a mental thumbs up and saw in my minimap that she was starting to catch up.

.

.

.

.

We continued on for a while, but we were faced with another obstacle. Shirley was huffing really bad. Turns out she wasn't much suited for this adventure stuff. It was one of the things I had already predicted but this was too disappointing. Even if we were in the forest, we had only walked for about 10-15 minutes and already taking a break. This inadvertently made me cry out-

"How little SP do you have!?"

"huff.. only 120.. oh mighty... adventurer." She replied in a sarcastic tone.

But it was weird. I didn't expect an answer. Well yeah, I asked the question, but it wasn't actually a question. I mean, I didn't know NPCs even have SP. But that meant they should have an entire status.

"Wait. Do you have a level?"

"Of coarse I do! *huff* Who doesn't!? *huff*"

Well that was new, at least for me.

"What level are you?"

"............" She turned away her head at my question.

Well I could tell she was probably very low levelled since she had only 120 SP.

"..two." She finally said averting her gaze.

Well, I already guessed it. But this was also a good thing. If she had a level, all we needed to do was level her up. Then, I had another idea.

"Can we form a party?" I asked her.

"I don't mind." She replied.

I actually asked if it was possible to do but she probably took it as me asking for her consent. That was in itself, a good and a bad thing. Good because she didn't realise I didn't such an obvious thing(obvious to her). Bad because I really did not know such an obvious thing.

(How the hell do I form a party?)

"Well? What are you waiting for?" She was looking much better having recovered some of her strength.

Her question was another problem though.

(Trichia! Help!)

I called for Trichia in my mind hoping she could do something.

Just then, I heard a voice in my head. I say 'in my head' because Shirley did not have any visible reactions and I was most definitely able to hear it.

"Say 'Invite', then the person's name and then 'to party'. In your case, 'Invite Shirley to party'."

It was a 100% Trichia's voice!

(Thanks, my cute little sister!)

I shouted in my head and heard a giggle.

"Invite Shirley to party." I said at last, just as she was starting to give me her 'what's wrong?' look again.

Then she looked at something, probably a pop-up asking for confirmation. I heard her say "yes" and this time a pop-up appeared in front of me.

Shirley has accepted your party invite!

Current members in your party:

Rota(leader)

Shirley

"You can also change the percentage distribution of EXP sharing. Say 'Set Party Experience'"

I heard Trichia's voice again. What she told me was pretty incredible. A system like that had many advantages and I'm sure everyone in the game would have already found numerous ways to exploit it. I was going to do the same.

"Set party experience." I called out without a moment's hesitation.

Set the distribution of sharing of EXP:

Rota - 50 % +

Shirley - 50 % +

Equal distribution was good and all, but in a place where 100% was useless for me, 50% was even more useless. After I was done, it became something like this.

Set the distribution of sharing of EXP:

Rota - 0 % +

Shirley - 100 % +

Satisfied, I closed the window and looked towards Shirley. Realising I was done, she finally spoke.

"Should I prepare something to eat?"

The offer was tempting and all, but I had other plans.

"No, we're first going to power level you." I said with an evil grin.

"*gulp* .......Okay."

And so the hunt begins.

The squeazy levelling up system is what I came up with to counter the crazy death penalty. ;)