Unfortunately for Bethany coming to terms with herself and the personality shift she had very slowly gone through wouldn’t actually hep her here and now. She was still in debt with a broken leg on a foreign planet with no real idea where to start searching for Pete. Fortunately that self realisation had allowed for time to pass and just when she was considering just leaving and that she wasn’t suppose to be sticking around the barmaid, Mary Sutterfield, reappeared.

“Oh good you are still here, sorry about the wait. The shift ended up dragging out a little.”

Beth just nodded, she didn’t exactly know what was expected of her in this situation.

“I know that was a lot of attention, especially for somebody so young, but people under level 15 are extremely rarely seen, well at all really. All our young are raised on the neighbouring planet.”

“You guys live across two planets?” Beth asked more than a little surprised.

“Oh no not two planets.” Mary said laughing slightly. Beth let out a polite laugh of her own.

“No there are six as far as I’m aware. But this is one of the quieter ones. The land of adventure.” She thrust her fist up at that and looked at Beth expectantly. Bethany raised her own fist and half heartedly repeated the declaration. Unsure if it was the correct response. The barmaid didn’t react either way.

Beth didn’t see any reason not to be completely up front with Mary, after all it wouldn’t do any harm.. She nodded understandingly but wasn’t as hard on the doctor as Bethany was feeling.

“Yeah that’s Jonathan all right. Don’t think too harshly of him. He once put in a lot of work for the child of a couple of very high level individuals. They then skipped town without paying putting him in considerable debt of his own as he was very out of pocket. Since then he’s been very rigorous with his contracts. His rates are good though. Plus his work is top notch.”

At that she lightly knocked on the cast twice making it ring out a little. Beth was shocked to see it provided her no real pain. Mary left once more but offered for Beth to spend the night in the back cupboard where she had been hiding out. The manager apparently never headed back there and Mary would easily be able to smuggle her food. It was far from a long term solution but Bethany was tired and knowing she had a warm place to sleep was more than enough for her.

It wasn’t even particularly late but Beth didn’t have much else she could do. She attempted to practise with her Half-staff but that was more than a slight waste of time, she just couldn’t do the required steps with the cast on. A cast that she was convinced wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Instead all she could do was focus on her mana. Her core was feeling full once more from the contract she’d signed. That had given her some ideas though clearly her mana could work on something more than just her high level skills. She was reminded how it had contributed to her mental defence even though it wasn’t at level 5 yet.

Before she felt comfortable experimenting with it took much though she wanted to be able to activate it consistently. To get familiar with the feeling of mana flooding to her foot so she could do it without when travelling or if the situation occurred in danger. That wasn’t all she could work on though. She also could focus her willpower, flexing it like a muscle and working on changing the rate of it’s pulsing.

Feeling satisfied but exhausted having worked both her mana and her willpower to their limits and generally avoiding thinking about how she was going to face her debt she allowed herself to drift off to sleep, using a bag of produce as a pillow.

The next morning Bethany woke up immediately aware of her foot. It was tingling in the morning. She wiggled her toes experimentally feeling the sensation. She then very carefully massaged her leg just above the start of the cast. Feeling returned to it slowly after some massaging it did return. Bethany went on to do her usual stretches. Although they were adjusted to account for her new limitations.

She wasn’t quite sure how long she would need to wait for Mary’s return but she figured she’d use the time to work out what her next steps were. She had limited advantages in this place but she wasn’t left completely without them. For one one had ten fingers. Obviously the infrastructure of the area was made to account for the limited dexterity of those with only three larger fingers however that didn’t discount the advantages having the full set of ten.

They also had one less finger joint than Bethany, as though their hand was made up entirely of thumbs. Again another advantage she had. Otherwise she was fairly low on advantages, the only other thing remaining was slight figure compared to the 8 foot beings who resided in this town.

There was one other thing she had going for her. Something she had deeply missed for all she’d repressed that side of her. For her that was her butter churning. She opening up the mortgaged skills tab and only slightly baulking at the cost restored the skill to it’s former glory. It felt right to have it back. Not that she could do anything with it yet. She’d need to buy a new churner, or worst case possibly even how to build one herself. Something that sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.

There was apparently a second inn elsewhere in the town and there had been shops that Beth had seen wandering round. If she played her cards right she could be the source for numerous places. That was relying on the fact her skill level was up to the standards of the locals. She figured it should be, especially if improved slightly. After all it wasn’t like it would be the most common choice and to get as high as these guys had done she imagined they focused on their best skill and didn’t waste time on niche skills like butter churning. The only question was, would it be better than general skills that are similar. Beth certainly hoped so.

First things first, she would need to be able to afford a churn. She looked at her entire monetary value 3 silver 4 bronze. She grimaced slightly, it seemed very unlikely that would be enough. It was unfortunate she couldn’t work at the Inn but there was no way they would accept her. After all their patrons couldn’t chat properly while she was there, a real issue that would only drive customers away.

What she needed was a job that required her specific skills and to get that she needed to see what the town had available. But she wasn’t willing to do that until she’d gotten the low down from Mary, which once again required waiting. But Bethany wasn’t content to wait quietly, that hadn’t changed with the breaking of her leg. So once again she meditated and concentrate on her mental defences and feeling her mana. There was no real change with either but the novelty was still far from wearing off so Bethany wasn’t too worried.

It was after lunch when Mary had finally arrived. Clearly the breakfast and lunch rush taking up the majority of their time. Unsurprisingly Beth couldn’t just live in the cupboard for the next 6 months. Mary reckoned could swing it for another night but then Bethany would need to find her own accommodation. It didn’t help that Beth let out a physical wince at the price of a room. She couldn’t stay for even a single night at the moment.

Mary reported she would be able to sneak Stew out quite reliably though, after all it was hard to see the exact portions of it and Beth ate less than the average person here. Considerably less in fact, most people had two bowls as a minimum, even despite the fact the bowls were closer to vats than bowls. Beth thanked Mary for all her ongoing help after all she owed Beth nothing. Beth needed to get out and stretch her legs though. Having established when Mary ended up shift Beth promised to return around then. Fortunately Mary was one again on the close otherwise Beth would have had to remain in the cupboard a prisoner in all but name for the remainder of the day. Getting out Beth was slightly dazzled by the sunlight. The cupboard had had no windows limiting Beth’s exposure. It was a cooler planet than Hepterel which Beth was glad of. Not quite cold enough to be cause for concern but still noticeably cooler. Beth had left her bag behind and carried only her purse and half-staff turned walking stick.

The paths were dangerous to Beth, the size and high level of the locals combined with Beth’s injury meant she was confident if any of them happened to bump into her they would bowl her over easily and she would be sent sprawling. As such she kept to the edges of the buildings travelling slowly and generally pretending to not notice the stares she was getting from almost everybody.

There was a real range of shops scattered around many of which were familiar to Beth, butchers, carpenters, blacksmith. The likes of which she had seen time and time again. There were other more niche shops though which is where Beth imagined she’d have the most luck. After all if she was here for months she could improve in whatever she picked with a not insignificant pace. But only if she was likely to get a job out of it. Otherwise she’d rather focus on her pre-existing skills or at least skills she knew she could take advantage of, after this all ended. One shop did grab her attention though, well less the shop more the advert in the window. They were hiring communicators, something Beth actually had the ability to do, at least to a low level. Once more getting all her weight behind her actions she heaved the door open and stepped inside.