“I think that the treasure quest was pretty crazy.” he smiled softly. “But I’m glad, she won’t worry so much- or well as much anymore.” he hummed as they walked along. They crossed now to the other side of the town, passing the Bartender and entering the last bit of the town. Some of the shops already looked like they were beginning to prepare for closing at sundown. A bakery, a herb shop, and a clothing shop. Though there was a building that was.. More off to the edge of town. It simply said ‘Spice’ and Heart felt that it wasn’t just another herb shop. Though Ash was more peering into the bakery. He felt that ‘Spice’ would open when sundown came.

“Uh.. Ash?” Heart waved his hand a little, eyes narrowed a bit as the other popped up by his side. “Is.. Is that what I think it is?” Surely not. Surely a tiny little town like this wouldn’t have something like that. Blood was one thing, but that - surely not..

Ash blinked. “It’s a pleasure place, isn’t it?” he asked now, though he didn’t seem bothered. “..Pets work there usually.” he explained.

Heart snapped his head to look at him sharply. “What? Why would pets work in a place like that?!” He asked, sounding hella surprised.

“Well.. it’s only the human ones.” he hummed softly. “And pets can be humans and non humans too.” he explained.

“You raise a pet up just to turn it into a whore..” Heart muttered as he looked back at the building, watching the lights starting to come on now. “I don’t know.. If they’re happy does it matter?” He shook his head a bit, but they didn’t have this back in New York. Hookers never wanted to be hookers after all.. “Come on, we should hurry to the forest now to get the wood.”

“I don’t know.” Ash hummed softly. “I don’t think it’s right either.. But I mean, it’s up to their owners so.” he hummed softly as he pulled out his staff now and nodded. Walking with him to return to the forest. “..You wouldn’t do that to a pet, right?” he asked softly.

Heart shook his head a little. “People.. Who do that job, rarely do it because they want too.” He said softly. “In my dream and in this one, I think it is the same. But you can’t fix everything I guess..” Though if he thought that he could he would have wanted to try. “We’ll raise our first pet upright and not make them do that.”

Ash perked up now happily and nodded. “Yeah, we’re gonna be good owners.” he smiled softly. Traveling through the edges of the forest, and a lit inside it, it was a bit strange. Considering there was no monster around. Not even spawning as fairly often as they were used to. “Do you think it has something to do with night?” he asked now worriedly as Heart didn’t seem to know what to make of this either. Continuing forward though, all they could find a few stragglers of Lullabuds. Even when they entered a depth of where Howlers would normally be in. “...This is weird Heart, we should go home.” he said now in a whisper, as if something would jump out at them any moment.

Heart looked around slowly. What monster was afraid of night? He closed his eyes and listened closely to the sounds of the forest. Something wasn’t right, something was out of place.. The snapping of a twig made him swung around and meet the smaller blade having been inches from sinking into his shoulder. “Show yourself!” He said loudly. “No monster attacks another monster.. And no monster fears another.”

“Heart?” Ash whispered, not thinking that calling for whatever the monsters were scared of was a good idea. Though in the next moment, the bushes rustled, a figure appearing from nothing as Ash hiccuped. “Invisibility spell..” he squeaked, though what Heart saw was her level- Sixteen. They would be obliterated if they entered battle with such a huge level gap. “Let’s go home- she’s a pet..” he whispered, but Heart could tell she was a human, despite her level.

Heart started at the spot but didn’t move right away. But Ash was worried and they didn’t stand a chance right now, he couldn’t tell if there were others either. “Keep your back to me and move slowly Ash..” He told him, keeping his weapon out. “We’re leaving - we don’t want to mess with you. Yeah?” He said as they edged down the path. “When we hit the fork again we run Ash..” Heart muttered under his breath.

Ash was trembling a little as he pressed against his back, he could feel the male building a spell just in case, as they moved along. Not letting the spell go unless he needed to.. But with Heart, he found the female just staring at the pair boredly.. Maybe faintly curious? He couldn’t tell, but her beauty was almost inhuman. The skin tight outfit, bathed in various shades of red, only fit her shapely body like a glove. The large metal collar around her neck was enough of an indication that her service was not so willing. They reached the fork in the road soon enough though, and Ash had dragged him into his running- though Heart knew that he would be faster running and carrying them both.

Heart ran closely behind Ash, one hand on his back and by the time they reached the village Ash had gained a level in speed. He looked behind them but saw nothing that told him they had been followed. “That was bad..” He said softly with a frown. What had she been doing out there? If there were no monsters around had she been leveling up and collecting the stuff for her master? “What kind of pet was she? Nothing like we have around here comes even close to her looks..” Human or not, shouldn’t she have some tell as to what monster she had been?

Ash looked like he really was about to have a heart attack, his stamina having gone up. Though he was shaking even more from all the running and fear. “I.. I don’t know.” his voice shook a little. “Maybe.. Maybe.. One of the books in the library could help..” though Heart could tell he was either close to crying or having a heart attack- looking over him, he could see why. ‘Fear’ status ailment was flashing over his health bar. Ash didn’t even know what he was more scared about, the woman, or the fact that they could have been ambushed or something.

Heart rubbed his back softly. “Hey, it’s okay Ash. We’ll check it out tomorrow so how about we go home and you can read your new books? I’ll make dinner.” He lead him away from the forest now, keeping an arm around him to help comfort him. He hadn’t been able to see anything but her level however, so he wasn’t sure what to make of what they had just seen. But he knew he had seen some kind of chain around her neck. Maybe he’d ask the blackshop keep about it tomorrow when he picked up the daggers, Ash didn’t seem able to answer anything right now. They didn’t bother running home that evening and having found no Woodlings they couldn’t unlock the potion shop that night, thankfully the little fairy lamp took away Ash’s fear status the moment they walked through the door. “Let’s have some roast meat tonight. Something to really fill our stomachs.” He said, still having that meat from the howlers he had killed.

Ash bit his lip, though Heart could tell he wasn’t very happy at the moment. Neither of them were really. “Okay.. “ he said softly. Holding the hem of his shirt a little as he said “...Can I sleep with you tonight?”

Heart looked back at him after he had pulled the meat from his inventory, noting that even though he was cured of ‘fear’ he still looked uneased. “Yeah. How about we move the fairy lamp into the bedroom tonight as well? He can hand beside the bed..”

Ash smiled faintly and nodded a little. He could feel his mood perking up a little at the thought. “Sorry.. I froze so much..” he muttered softly. Realizing he had let fear hit him, but a person couldn’t remove their own status ailment without an item. Or rather, he still hadn’t learned a status ailment removal spell.

“Hey,” Heart moved over to sit beside him. “You can’t help that man. We haven’t even broken double numbers in our level. To see someone as strong as that? It wasn’t like the Howlers, not in the least. But someday we’re going to break level 16 and then some greenhorn punks will fear us.”

Ash couldn’t help but snort a little at the thought. He was sure that Heart would like running around to make new bloods piss themselves thought. “..God, you’re terrible.” he smiled softly. “..Yeah, Yeah you’re right.” he relaxed a little now. Still uneasy, but no longer high strung. “We just have to be careful.. No more deep forest at night. At least, not for a while.” he grinned.

“Yeah.. We’ll wake up early and go look for the Woodlings.” He told him softly as he got up again, taking the meat off the bone now. “Let’s see that cookbook. We’ll make something out of it using Howler meat and what we got. Might as well get into the habit of eating wild, right? Ah, but tomorrow I’ll make you something special. Something from my dream.” His eyes twinkled a little.

“That would be nice.” he smiled softly. “It would be cool to have something from your dreams. Just don’t poison me.” he teased now playfully.

Heart:

Level 7: 10 atk, 8 def, Physical spd: 5 and health: 125

Sword bonus:+3atk and 2 def.

Inventory: Sword, Ash’s homemade stew (one serving), Two red health potions (Can be bought for 5 silver, sold for two sliver). Health potion can regenerate (20-30 points of health instantly). Coin: 50 gold, 5 Silver. Witch’s glow.

Level 7: 10 atk, 5 def, Casting spd 8, MP 7, health 100.

Staff bonus:Half casting time for spells, +10 health.

Inventory: 1 stew, 1 homemade stew. Coin: 5 silver and 5 cooper. Seeds: 6 big seeds, 3 small seeds, 4 flat seeds. Staff. 6 Clothing items (shirts, pants, etc) 2 Damaged clothing items.

Spells: Low Healing. (15-25 Possible points per heal) Basic attack, and basic fire both deal 9 attack.

Relationships> Friendship: +2/ 100.

Relationships> Romance: +1/100.