I was sitting in my new favorite cafe in my new clothes sipping a new cup of coffee on a new day.

Sterling sat at the table beside me and watched me drink my coffee. "Shouldn't you be adventuring? Aren't you an adventurer?"

"Maybe and yes. Does that answer your questions?" I put the coffee down and gave him a charming smile.

"No. Maybe? Why maybe? Don't you want to rank up? Shouldn't you earn money too?"

"Maybe I rather talk to you," I said slyly.

"You're flirting with me? I'm not... I think it's a waste of your..." He looked at me with a question mark on his face. 

I shrugged and took a sip of my coffee. "Think whatever you want."

"You did say... Maybe if you could..." He was mumbling.

"What are you mumbling about?" I asked.

"Nevermind, you should work. And I should work too." He got off the table. "I need to clean dishes." He smiled at me wryly.

"Alright, good luck."

"Whatever." He said and went to the kitchen.

It was going well. It's only been three days since I met him, but we are already friendly. It's only a matter of time now.

Garth showed up earlier than yesterday.

"Here's everything that was posted on the board today." He handed me the book. "I crossed out all the quests that were removed."

"Good job. Order whatever you want and enjoy." I opened the book.

"Is it okay to waste time like this? I know you have money, master, so you don't need to adventure to make money. But Shouldn't you at least go to the brothel and level up?"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I'll reach level 100 in 4 years." I'll at least need that much to beat the Demon Queen.

"4 years!?"

"Don't shout. Use your indoor voice." His reaction was expected. People usually take decades (a lifetime) to reach level 100, and that's the people who do reach it. Level 100 means you're one of the strongest in the world; few achieve it. Around level 50, the experience points needed to level-up skyrocket. Though at that point, new opportunities show up that weren't available before. If you know where to look for them.

"Are you serious, master?"

"Yes, now be quiet so I can read." He looked at me with googly eyes while I drank my coffee and looked over the jobs. Quite a few of them were crossed out, but almost twice as many jobs had been added as well. Most of the jobs that were crossed out were ones issued by women. The ones given by women, in general, tended to pay better. Though exp points weren't outlined as a reward, men knew some women (adventurers) would still sign up hoping for that extra reward. It's about being smart and choosing the right jobs. Men who'd put out and have high points wasn't something easy to predict. If you were trying to be smart, you could ask around and gather information about the man in question. Sometimes the info is readily available, sometimes it's not. Thanks to my [look-a-look], I'll at least know how many points they'll give with just a look. Now whether they'll put out or not... 

I was trying to find people I recognized from the game and found a few but not enough. In the game, the player started months before the war broke out. So the timing was off. And in the game, you didn't really die, and there was no penalty for game death. Death in the game simply reset you to a pre-saved checkpoint. So you could do a lot of dangerous things to level up quickly. You could take on horribly difficult quests (way above your level) and die a bunch of times and still clear it. It was like you were always playing on easy mode. It was an Ero-game first and foremost, after all.

Again I underlined the ones I thought were good.

Suddenly I felt the need to go to the bathroom. "I'm going to little ladies' room." I rose from my chair and ran to the bathroom.

***

Garth got up and went to the counter. There was no one at the counter, but he saw Sterling in the kitchen washing dishes.

"Hey," He said, "I want some tea and a carrot muffin, a croissant, and a slice of apple pie."

"Hungry, huh?" Sterling came out of the kitchen, dried his hands, and poured him a cup of tea.

"Yeah, I didn't have breakfast. Master sent me out to look at the jobs." Garth yawned.

"Your master..." Sterling dried a plate and got the delicacies Garth wanted. "Does she really know a lot about Alchemy?"

"Alchemy?" Garth rubbed his chin. "Yeah, she's pretty good. When she was 10, she made a cheap aphrodisiac from the materials in Juju forest."

Sterling frowned. "What about healing type magic or potions. Like cures?" He wasn't interested in aphrodisiacs.

"Cures?" Garth took another sip of the tea. "I think she does, though... She knows a lot about... She has books and books on this stuff, but- oh, I remember, I think when she was 11 - well I was 11 too - she made a cure for Purple Rash." It's just as it sounded; it was an ailment that caused purple rashes throughout the body and made the person want to scratch the areas more than usual. It wasn't a terribly debilitating ailment, though purple rashes on the face look ugly.

"She did!?" Purple Rash wasn't as big a deal as his mother's unknown disease, but it was still an amazing achievement for an 11-year-old.

"Yeah, it's a shame that now the family doesn't respect her because of her low level. I think they just had way too high of an expectation. It's not that unheard of to be a late bloomer when it comes to leveling." Garth sighed.

"What else does she make?" Sterling didn't care about that; he only cared about his mother.

"I don't know. Why are you asking me? Ask her yourself. She has a whole bunch of potions in her room. Her whole room smells like herbs. The innkeeper was complaining to me. I had to pay them an extra silver just to make them ignore it. Don't tell master that. If she found out I paid them more money, she'd be so pissed with me. But what was I to do? She'd turned her inn room into a lab! If I was the owner, I'd be pretty worried about the inn too. Going on into long hours in the night brewing whatever the hell she's brewing. Making all the other customers uncomfortable. I told her we needed to find an apartment, but she won't listen. 'Later, later, Garth, don't bother me. Maybe after we find a few teammates.'" He did a pretty good Sherrie impression. "We haven't even done one adventurer quest yet. How are we going to find teammates if we don't do quests? Huh?"

Sterling hasn't been listening to anything past: 'Ask her yourself.' "Yeah, I will ask her." He said.

"Okay." Garth stuffed his mouth full of a carrot muffin.

***

I came out of the bathroom and noticed Garth wasn't at our table but eating by the counter. And Sterling seemed to be watching him eat.

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked as I approached them.

"Nootung." Garth said with his mouth full.

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

"Oogu." He said, and all I could do was rub the bridge of my nose in frustration.

"I heard you made your bedroom into a lab," Sterling said.

And I smiled. "Well, I wouldn't really call it a lab. The lab I had back home was much better. But yeah, I make potions I think I'll need. Sometimes I just make potions I have the ingredients for, you know."

"Ah, what kind of potions?" His eyes were gleaming with hope. But it only lasted for a second; it quickly turned back to normal. Sterling had always kept his nose out for anyone that might be able to cure his mother. But after years of searching (and spending a lot of his hard-earned money), he'd become less optimistic.

"Would you like to see it? I can show it to you if you want." I said.

"Ah..." He was hesitant.

"When do you get off work? We can go together."

"Around 3." He said.

"Great!" I smiled charmingly.

"Okay."