I awoke before Belle the next day, the faint glow of dawn spilling across the tavern room. Her soft breathing was steady beside me, peaceful, almost musical. Remembering what had happened the night before brought a faint smile to my lips.
Knowing I had an early morning ahead, she had left the tavern in the care of one of her part-time barmaids and joined me upstairs to "help me relax."
That relaxation had included a long, gentle massage that melted the tension from my back, shoulders, and lower half. I must've fallen asleep immediately after succumbing to her gentle handjob, my head resting comfortably on her lap, her hand stroking my hair.
When I woke, I felt completely refreshed, my body light, my mind clear. I quietly dressed, careful not to wake her, and slipped out of the tavern, into the cool morning air.
The streets were still quiet at this hour, the sky streaked with shades of lavender and gold. I waited outside the tavern for about ten minutes, enjoying the chill breeze that carried the scent of dew and earth. Soon enough, three familiar figures appeared from the direction of the main road.
I waved as they approached. "Morning, everyone! How's the team feeling today?"
"Good, thanks!" Josey called back, giving me a grin.
"Ready for the day," said Ria, twirling her staff lazily.
"Unghhhhh…" Daisy groaned from behind her cloak. I took it that the assassin wasn't a morning person.
Compared to yesterday, the three of them looked like they were ready for battle.
Josey wore fitted leather armor reinforced with metal plates over vital areas, with a long, weathered coat draped over her shoulders. Her blue hair was tied up in a practical ponytail, and a sword hung at her hip.
Daisy looked almost like a ninja from back on Earth: dressed head to toe in black, her twin daggers strapped to her belt. A dark cloak hung from her shoulders, the hood casting her expression in shadow. The morning chill didn't seem to bother her much, though the sleepy glare she gave me might have.
Then there was Ria. Her outfit was… something else. She wore a bright red ensemble: a cross between a mage's robe and a party dress. The fabric shimmered faintly with enchantments, and the deep neckline and high slit on her thigh left very little to the imagination. She carried a wooden staff tipped with a glowing gem that pulsed faintly in rhythm with her mana.
"All right," Josey said, after taking a moment to compose herself. "Let's get going."
We left through the same gate I had entered the village through when I first arrived, the guards giving friendly nods as we passed. The road soon gave way to a dirt path winding into the forest.
As we walked, the conversation flowed easily.
"That furniture you sold us was great quality," Josey said with a smile. "Sturdy, smooth finish; it'll last us years."
"Glad to hear it," I replied. "It's all crafted through my skill, so it shouldn't have any defects."
Ria's ears perked up immediately. "Your crafting skill really intrigues me. Will we get to see you use it today?"
"Maybe the storage part," I said. "I don't plan on crafting anything in the field."
"Oh, storage skills aren't that rare among producers," she mused. "But most of them are tiny, less than a cubic meter. Even a basic magic bag holds more than that."
I grinned. "Mine's far bigger than that. I've already got plenty stored, and I'm planning to fill it even more today; iron, sand, stone, maybe a few herbs if we find any."
Ria blinked, then laughed softly. "That's… pretty absurd—"
She didn't get to finish.
A high-pitched screech tore through the morning air.
"Reeeeeeeeee!"
The stench hit me next, a foul mix of decay and piss. From the treeline, four short, green-skinned humanoids burst forth, brandishing crude clubs and shrieking in their guttural tongue.
"Goblins," Josey muttered, drawing her sword in a smooth motion.
The one in front pointed its filthy stick toward Ria. "Gobbo want woman! Red woman belong to Gobbo!"
"Disgusting!" Ria growled.
Before the creature could take another step, she raised her staff. A flash of light burst from the gem, and a sharp, fist-sized stone shot forth at blinding speed, punching through the goblin's skull. It dropped instantly.
The remaining three didn't even make it halfway. Daisy vanished into a blur of motion, twin daggers flashing, while Josey parried one's desperate swing and cleaved it cleanly in two. The last one barely had time to scream before Daisy's boot slammed into its face, silencing it permanently.
I had drawn my short sword in reflex, but it was clear I wasn't needed.
"There's no need to draw that," Ria said with a teasing smile, lowering her staff. "Four goblins are nothing for us. Though we'll need to report this group, a party that size means trouble."
"Trouble?" I asked, sheathing my weapon.
Josey nodded. "Groups of three to five are scouting parties. They search for weak targets and report back to their nest. Which means there's likely a den somewhere nearby, maybe even by the lake we're heading to."
"That's bad," Daisy muttered, crouching beside one of the corpses. With practiced precision, she sliced off the goblin's right ear and dug briefly into its chest cavity. "Got the proof of kill. No magic stones, though."
"Shame," Ria said. "At least they'll fetch a bounty."
"What do you normally do with the bodies?" I asked.
"Nothing," Josey replied simply. "They're worthless. Meat's poisonous, hides are no better than ordinary leather, and they smell worse dead than alive."
I crouched beside one. "Mind if I take them? My crafting system might be able to do something with them."
The three women exchanged looks, then shrugged. "Go ahead," Josey said.
I opened my inventory and absorbed the corpses. As I inspected them, a new option appeared in my interface: [Dress Corpse] — 3 minutes.
I activated the process, and we continued walking. Before long, I heard the familiar ding of a completed task. Curious, I checked the results:
Goblin Meat Chunk (Poisoned) × 12
Hide × 1
Magic Stone (XXS) × 1
Animal fat x 1
Offal × 1
Small Bones × 25
"Huh. Interesting," I muttered. "One of them did have a magic stone."
Ria turned, eyes wide. "Wait, how do you know that?"
I grinned, pulling the small gem from my inventory. "Looks like my system can process corpses. It dropped a few materials, including this."
I handed it to her. The stone was marble-sized, faintly glowing with green light.
"Wow, thanks! This one's only worth about ten copper, but it's amazing you can do that," she said, turning it over in her fingers. "What else did you get?"
I showed them the other results, unceremoniously dumping the offal on the ground. "These parts don't have recipes associated with them. Probably trash."
"That's still super useful," Ria said, genuinely impressed. "You could make a fortune just by processing monsters for parts!"
I chuckled. "Maybe so. Here , I'll do the same for the rest of them. You can have any stones that drop."
Ria cheered, looping her arm around mine with surprising enthusiasm. "Yay! I like this partnership already!"
Her warmth pressed against my side, and I felt my face heat slightly. Josey just smirked, shaking her head. Daisy muttered something about "shameless mages" under her breath.