"Willow..., were you the one who distracted the rats?"
Willow answered Love and related her own side of the story starting from how she arrived at the part of the forest Love was and ending at the moment where she handed Love a meal, while Love told Willow her name and how she got into the world.
Willow had a quizzical expression on her face showing that she didn't believe Love story but she didn't say anything.
At the mean time, Love and Willow provided for each other whatever they desired and whatever was available, Love tried asking about the origins of Willow but Willow mostly put her off, telling her that there was no reason for her to know and that remembering some incidents of her past made her sad.
Willow educated Love on some basic things in the world Love found herself and some life hacks and after sometime Willow and Love became good friends.
***
Meanwhile, Frank was beaming with joy because he finally got out of the library when he saw Maru waiting for him with a smile on his face and slightly droopy eyes giving the impression that he wanted to sleep or just woke up.
When Maru approached Frank he said;
"When you saw me for the first time you asked... an interesting question"
"What kind of job would I be doing for you"
"Since you came to New Darkovia it seems I am the only one doing jobs for you"
"But to be honest I didn't expect a non-soul being like you to last this long"
"I don't know whether you have a strong mental state or are just used to being cursed but I'm not one to complain"
"The time for you to prove your worth has come but as a compensation for obeying my orders I have prepared a delicious delicacy just for you"
"Come with me..."
With that Maru sped up to a large mansion while Frank was preoccupied with his own thoughts, he was wondering how it was possible for him to live, talk, understand and act like everything was normal in a world where everything was anything but normal and realized that the reason he could do so had to be his passive skills.
In most games he played, passive skills were there but he never saw their usefulness the only one's he truly appreciated were skills that reduced damage.
Frank finally shook off his thoughts and saw a futuristic looking castle with a few small roofs in moulds to form pillars joined together at the top to make a crown, walls which were made with materials Frank couldn't comprehend and the most awesome part was that the castle was hovering on the floor without any thrusters to allow the castle of such a huge size stay above land.
He saw Maru talking to an especially bony skeleton that was armed with metal plates to cover most part of its body to greatly spell out "high defense".
The skeleton was wearing a copper helmet, silver shoulder blades, leather body armor made from a very good material, leather greaves made of the same material as the body armor, silver knee caps and nothing was worn on the leg, the leg was just plain bones.
Frank had a confused expression for a moment but didn't say anything because the castle was opened and there was nothing there apart from darkness and in a few dimmly-lit rooms a pair of expensive books scattered around the place.
Frank followed Maru and the skeleton for a while until he approached the throne room and his face gave a shocked expression again not because of the pair of skeletons soldiers with good armors and no shoes but because of the throne which was supposed to have a golden chair was adorned with an unkempt bed with rusted hinges and a pair of torn pillows.
Frank looked away from the horrible sight that adorned a beautiful castle and beautiful throne to find chests of different sizes with huge locks on them and Maru approaching an especially small one that looked like death and dark as night to procure the gift he promised Frank.
Frank had a pained expression on his face and half hoping his escape skill would activate right around now. He shouted status but the system didn't give him any advise, he only saw his stats, skills, attributes and occupation.
Taking a step back to run away Frank glanced at the back of the throne room calculating his odds for escaping and saw a pair of skeletons with gloomy eyes staring back at him.
While he was busy being frightened by the sight, Maru approached him and handed him a skull saying;
"This is my gift to you"
"Absorb it or like you humans like to say eat it"
"It will be of great help to you in the long run"
Frank wanted to hurriedly drop the skull and run away but when looked at Maru and the skeletons around he could only say:
"Thank you, I'll eat it in my spare time."
Maru looked at Frank while smiling and said;
"Keep it from the other slaves, they must not know about this or they will only make your life miserable and may rebel against me their lord."
He glanced at Frank one last time and said:
"Sebastian will take you to your room in the servants quarters."
"Stay in your room and don't come out until tomorrow."
"You will receive your first task or should I say 'job' then".
Frank followed Sebastian while thinking of ways he could dispose of the skull.
A few frail looking skeletons were looking at him but Frank didn't pay any heed to them.
Frank approached his room and proceeded to dispose the skull outside the window but there were a few skeletons patrolling the area, finally giving up, Frank decided to drop the skeleton in a basin that looked like a trash can.
He then proceeded to sleep but sleep did not come, after thinking for a while without nothing to do Frank decided to test out his meditation skill.
He tried meditating a few times but couldn't enter the meditative state, finally, while thinking about his home and some of his friends on earth he heard the following notifications.
[Status
Meditation(F) has been activated.
You have entered the "meditative state".
*You have leveled up!*]
Frank had a confused expression on his face and almost shouted:
"What?!"
Meanwhile, the skull in the trash can glowed for a while and finally disintegrated...