Everyone cheered after hearing that Luna gifted Ki a class.  A chatter echoed through the crowd.  Nymphs talked amongst themselves, excited about the possibility of following in Ki’s footsteps.  Considering that she was one of the first generation of nymph’s Sakura transformed, she filled the role of big sister to many of the younger ones.

 

“How is your new class?  Is there anything interesting you can share?” Alex asked.

 

Ki’s gaze unfocused, like she was staring off into space. “Hmm, it looks like I have a skill called overview.  Let me try it out and see what it does.”  The nymph remained quiet for a minute with a focused look on her face.  She blinked and looked around.  “It looks like an overview showing a map of the forest.  There is also a, hmm what is the word.  Like that thing you were using on your phone to keep track of stuff?”

 

“A spreadsheet?” Alex guessed.

 

“Yeah, it is called cuteness points.  Apparently having cute buildings generates cuteness points.  For example, Sakura’s grove generates two cuteness points per week and Luna’s grotto generates one cuteness point per week.” Ki explained.

 

“Is that good?  What are they used for?”  Alex wondered aloud.

 

“I’m not sure.  Maybe I have to level up more to use them?” Ki ran a hand through her green hair.

 

“Do you have to defeat monsters to level up too?” Alex guessed.

 

Ki shook her head. “No, to level up Baroness of Beauty I have to increase cuteness point generation.”

 

Alex understood.  Her class was like a city sim game or maybe a civilization game at a higher level. “What does the map say about the ruin? Er… I guess it’s a new town now?”

 

Ki unfocused for a moment. “The overview map just says unnamed town.  It generates zero cuteness.”

 

“Sounds like it is a really hard class to level.” Alex contemplated.

 

“Yes, that is the thing about novel classes.  They are weak alone.  Leadership classes are the same but not as extreme.  A general is better with an army but not worthless.  They need followers to work. Anyway, the point is, it is harder than a warrior class who just needs to win battles.  But we are not alone. My fellow nymphs are here.  And hopefully the new stone ax immigrants will help.  If we can make more cute places then I’m sure to level up and we can find out what a Baroness of Beauty can do.” Ki sounded confident, like a leader.

 

“Well, it sounds like we can do it if we work together.  Let's go let you mingle, everyone wants to congratulate you. I also want to change out of this outfit. Dressing up like this is embarrassing.” Alex smiled awkwardly.

 

Excusing himself, Alex went back to the carriage, pulled the drapes and used it as a changing room to put on the skirt, corset and blouse.  The lack of pants was unfortunate.  There were lots of times Alex could have sewn some pants but it always kept getting pushed down the priority list.  The pink fleece pants wouldn’t work.  That outfit looked more like something to wear to bed or a bath.  So the crafting outfit with the pleated skirt was the only option.  Having only three outfits was not enough.  Alex got excited about the idea of having a wardrobe full of all different kinds of things to wear.  Everyone can dream, right? 

 

After getting changed, Alex joined the reception.  The carriage was parked right outside the grotto and with some flipping of levers and spinning of gears it was configured to cooking mode.

Everyone milled about at the reception.  There were all kinds of nymphs.  One nymph even had some impressive hair that looked like purple wisteria blossoms trailing down her back. Another nymph had thorny vine hair.  Most of them had shades of green.  Ki for example had hair so fine that it looked like normal human hair only green unless one took a close look.

 

Alex, Kaide and Martha took turns grilling veggies for the crowd.  With all nymphs being vegetarian it might have come across as being offensive serving meat dishes.

 

It didn’t take long for Ki to have almost every nymph in the room talking about ways to make things cuter.  Everyone seemed to have their own idea.  Some of them were a bit outlandish.  One nymph with water lilies for hair had the bright idea to flood the entire town and grow giant water lilies for people to live on.  Ki explained that while a floating hamlet would be cute, the stone ax humans were not exactly good with swimming or boating. Another idea that a rose-haired nymph had was to recreate the city walls with thorny rose bushes. Ki liked this idea and gave it her approval.  Roses were cute and a thorn wall would be a good addition to the city.  The wisteria-haired nymph said that streets could be domed in wisteria blossoms so that the humans could walk from place to place and admire the flowers. Yet another nymph added that having all the humans wear flowers could increase the cuteness too.  The women had entered into the mode where they could talk about everything and nothing for hours.

 

Alex inwardly cringed about the idea of hair flowers being mandatory.  If that was going to be the official dress policy they might as well name the hamlet san francisco.

 

Putting some asparagus on a plate Alex complained, “I really don’t want to go back. Staying here in the woods with the nymphs and friends is a nice break.  I guess we have to though.  Also, taking the carriage through the woods is slow.  I hate how I’m slower than everyone else.”

 

Ki could treestride and Fufi could fly.  Merumeru could… well… he wasn’t sure but she had a way to get around fast, somehow.

 

“I guess maybe I could sew a balloon for the carriage. Though that is only a first step.  A balloon alone would only go up and then anywhere the wind decided to blow.” Alex said to the grill.

 

Fufi fluttered her wings from her perch on top of the carriage. “I believe in you Alex.  I believe your balloon will be the cutest one on top of any carriage.”

“Yeah, my sewing skills are great, though making a balloon that big is not something I’ve ever tackled before.  I’m sure I don’t have enough fabric.  I think the second problem is just as big.  How do I make it so that it can fly?  None of the books from the dungeon had any examples of propeller design.” Alex sounded hopeless.

 

“You should just follow Ki’s example.  Ask for help.” Fufi simply said.

 

“But who? The nymphs besides Ki don’t have classes.  They make their clothing by growing it with natural magic.  I’m not sure that it is something they could help with.  Martha can sew but she also has a farm to take care of.” Alex said.

 

“That is not everyone is it?” Fufi deadpanned.

 

“You mean the Stone Ax? I’m not sure they would help me.” Alex said, his voice unconfident. 

 

“Well have you tried?  They seemed quite willing to listen to your instructions in building things for the past couple of weeks.” Fufi tried to get Alex to see he was being stubborn.

 

“No, I haven’t.  But it is different.  The reason I told them what to do is because they couldn’t have built their own houses without direction.  I was really only helping them help themselves.” Alex argued but it was obvious that Fufi was right.  There likely were some tribes people who had sewing, spinning, and weaving skills.  There were some simple tools in the wagons that the stone ax tribe was trying to escape with after all.

 

“Okay okay, I give in.  I’ll ask but it’ll be a side project at best.  It is not something we can complete in a day.  The carriage if it is fully loaded weighs a whole lot.  If we want to sew a balloon to lift it then it’ll have to be huge.  We should start out small and work towards that.” Alex caved in.

 

It was late into the night before the class party was completed and everyone headed off to bed.  Alex awoke to Ki knocking on the carriage door.

 

“Alex, are you up?  It is important.” Ki called to him.

 

Alex threw on his pink robe and motioned for her to come in.  “Come in, it is still a bit cold this early in the morning.”

 

Ki stepped in and took a seat on the bench across from Alex.  She raised an eyebrow at his bed hair but spoke anyway. “Well, a little bird told me some news from town.”

 

Alex yawned. “What happened?”

“Some of the warriors that fled to the wastes have returned.” Ki said seriously.

 

“Oh no, did they try to attack?” Alex asked.

 

Ki shook her head. “No, apparently they were the ones attacked in the wastes.”

 

“Haw, serves them right, those jerks.” Alex chuckled.

 

“This is serious Alex.  They were attacked by harpies.  The whole group were tired from the forced march and the entire group was scattered.  Some of them decided they’d rather give up on their chief and try to seek mercy from the forest spirits.” Ki intoned, using her serious voice.

 

“I guess that is fine.  What are you worried about?” Alex said groggily.

 

“Bird flu.  We don’t have the birds that attacked them so there might be an outbreak by the time we go back.” Ki said.

 

“Normally priests who have the healing or purity domain can cure them.  Sometimes high leveled shamans can cure it but we don’t have any of those either.  The spell is on the same level as doing a class ceremony so chief stone ax took those ones with him.  All the people that came back are scouts or warriors.” Ki hoped that this was enough to get Alex to understand.

 

“So, we just have to let the virus spread?  How can we stop it? How do we tell if the harpies were the infected kind?” Alex wondered aloud.

 

“We don’t have a lot of good options.  If the people who came back from the wastes start getting sick and then change it will be really obvious.” Ki said.

 

“Can nymphs get infected with it?” Alex asked.

 

Ki shook her head. “No, nymphs are spirits and on top of that they are as much plant as person so they can’t get bird flu.”

 

“I guess we’ll have to make a quarantine area and try to limit the spread.” Alex said, thinking of how a plague would be dealt with back in his world.

 

Ki nods.  

 

“Anyway, I need to shower and get ready.  Can I meet you back in town in two days time?” Alex asked.

“Yes, I can treestride back today.  Hopefully there won’t be any humans growing feathers.” Ki got up and excused herself.