I came to my shift at Broken Mug when the inn was already full of people and noise. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Byron ran between the bar and the kitchen while the waitress served the tables.

I stood at the bar and waited for the innkeeper to return from the kitchen.

"Hi, Mr. Byron, am I late?" I asked him before he started tapping another beer.

"Korra. You're just on time. It looks like a busy night tonight," he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

I nodded. "So should I start now or...?"

"Definitely now. Go to the kitchen. I'll be with you in a moment," the innkeeper said.

I didn't want to keep him from working even more, so I walked around the bar and entered the kitchen through the flying door. I have already seen a few restaurant kitchens. After all, I earned extra money in restaurants as a waitress during my studies. This kitchen could not be compared to modern ones. It was old, but it looked homely, and like everything else in the inn, it was tidy. Apart from the dirty dishes in the tub on the ground, there was nothing to show poor hygiene.

Prepared food smelled in the kitchen as a pot of soup was cooked on a magic tool that looked like a hotplate, and meat was baked in something like a large oven. The scent in the room was mouth-watering, stimulating my stomach, which rumbled. That reminded me it had been quite a few hours since I had lunch. After all, it was already evening. Dinner time was approaching.

The kitchen door opened, and the innkeeper entered in a hurry. He quickly stirred and checked the soup and basted the meat in the oven.

"Okay, I should have shown you what to do and how this afternoon when we had more time, but there's nothing we can do now," Mr. Byron said, then pointed at the wooden tub. "There's a tub for dirty dishes. We don't wash it here, but outside. Take the tub and follow me."

If it were on Earth, I would definitely protest. The wooden tub itself was heavy, not to mention full of dishes. But I was in Eleaden now, and during my time here, I grew stronger. The innkeeper, whom I would have once considered loutish and rude, knew very well that carrying something like that would not be a problem for me, even though I was a woman.

From the kitchen, we walked down the hallway through the back door to the backyard. Besides the outhouses, as in the Broken Heart's backyard, was a well of drinking water. Drinkable, according to Byron, I had to trust him in that. However, at least at first glance, the water was clear. My only concern was the three outhouses near it.

The innkeeper did not explain much more to me. I got a rag from him, which they used here instead of a sponge, and a bottle of potion, which they added to the water instead of detergent. That was all. 

In Broken Heart, I forgot to verify Alyson's class, and now I almost forgot to check Byron too.

[Innkeeper: lvl 67]

I couldn't judge how good innkeeper Byron was because I didn't see many people's levels and classes. I had no one to compare him to. My level was high, but my skills were useless or after the exchange at a low level.

Instead of speculating on the innkeeper's capability and his inn's quality, I started washing dishes.

I soon found out how uncomfortable the work was as crouching by the tub and washing dishes in cold water with bare hands was very uncomfortable. I immediately missed my dishwasher, where I just put the dishes away until it was full. Yeah, you don't realize how much you get used to these things until you lose them.

I had to figure out myself that I needed another basket for clean dishes and a dry cloth to wipe it dry. Mr. Byron somehow forgot to tell me about that. When I returned to the kitchen with washed dishes, another pile of dirty dishes was waiting for me on the kitchen counter.

"Nice," the waitress rejoiced when she entered the kitchen and saw the washed dishes. She immediately threw herself at the basket. "Clean cutlery was running out."

After she found it in the basket, she ran out of the kitchen as fast as lightning. I didn't have time to say anything to her, not that I knew what to say. Instead of mumbling, I placed the clean dishes on the kitchen counter and the dirty ones in the tub.

It was not a pleasant evening for me, which the guests of the inn enjoyed. Unlike me, they had money. They had good jobs, and me? I did not. But I knew this wasn't the job I wanted to do. Just as I didn't want to do the laundry at a brothel, but I needed to start somewhere, I needed money.

Washing dishes was a monotonous job that did not require much effort or thought. I could imagine how invaluable someone with cleansing skill could be, but that was not my case. My good mood, which I had in the morning, had long since vanished, so I was glad when the innkeeper interrupted my work.

"That would be enough for today, Korra," said the innkeeper as I brought the last batch of clean dishes.

Finally, I rejoiced. "Have all the guests left yet?"

Byron laughed. "Not by far, but everyone who wanted dinner got it. Tess and I can do it ourselves, now."

"Okay, well," I hesitated. I had no idea how to ask Byron about the money without sounding like I only cared about my paycheck. Which was true.

Byron smiled. "I have a suggestion for you. Tonight's dinner is for sixteen coppers. You worked here for two-and-a-half hours. I'll give you dinner and nine coppers. What do you say?"

What could I say about that? It was a woefully small amount, but the innkeeper did not try to deceive me. I knew he was selling today's dinner at that price. I washed the dishes for two-and-a-half hours, even though it felt like ten. Nine coppers for two-and-a-half hours of work was not much. At least I had dinner.

But from the bright side, I was not hungry, and dinner was delicious.

With my stomach full, I took refuge in my room. It was amazing how satisfying it could be to take off shoes, but when a person is denied something for a long time, even little things like this were satisfying. I spread out on the bed and stretched, wanting nothing more than closing my eyes and falling asleep, jet I still needed to fix my General Skills.

General skills:

Eleaden Standard Language: lvl 9

Flight: lvl 1

Nerve Poison: lvl 6

Night Vision: lvl 18

Good Hearing: lvl 23

Unnatural Regeneration: lvl 36

Lioness Strength: lvl 4

Poison Resistance: lvl 3

Except for [Eleaden Standard Language], I wanted to get rid of everything. This skill was necessary for me. Otherwise, I wouldn't understand others. It was the only good thing that came out of the slave collar. The slave needed to understand the master's commands, so the system forced this skill on me. But there were definitely better ways. For example, learning to speak with Standard language.

It was on my to-do list. I wanted to learn to speak the local language on my own and without the help of a skill. Why? First, I had no idea when I would get into a situation where this skill would not work. Second, it took up a valuable place among General Skills. In time, I definitely wanted to replace it with something much more useful. 

But not now.

[Flight] What to say about an ability I couldn't use? It wasn't an ability that would magically allow me to fly, but it improved my physical flight. However, with the wings placed above my ass, it was impossible with such a small wingspan. Dungreen wanted me to have this ability, making me often practice flying. I just fluttered my wings for hours, but I never really soared into the air. So I didn't get a single level. On the other hand, I learned to control my wings well.

I don't know what kind of animal owned a tail as I had, but I gained the [Nerve Poison] skill after my tail grew. This skill allowed me to release a cloud of nerve poison from my tail. It was a very dangerous poison, which fortunately was not lethal at such a low skill level. That's what I found out when the bastard let me use the poison on the other slaves. I cried, begging him not to have to, but with a collar around my neck, I couldn't disobey his orders. Fortunately, no one died, not because of me. Still, the others suffered even more than they had to, thanks to me.