Book One – Interlude – Part Two – Servi’s Nightly Stroll

Though it was late at night, the streets were pretty crowded, but it wasn't at such a level where Servi was forced to walk shoulder to shoulder. After leaving the Warden office, Servi asked a passing adventurer for the location of the sister building.

“Uhh, sister building? Sorry, I don’t kno– ah, you mean the cash building?” he asked.

“I’m not too sure. The guy at the check-in window said it was their sister building, but it’s a place where I can sell monster parts.”

“Yeah...that’s like, the official name, but everyone I know calls it the cash building. It’s just down that street right there,” Servi looked to where the man pointed and thanked him. Three minutes later, Servi was at the building in question.

How strange. This one is all stone, even the door. It’s like the complete opposite of the main office.

As Itarr said, there was nary a spot of wood to be found.

Hey, I have a question. You aren’t trying to draw attention to yourself, are you?

“No. Why?” Servi asked, puzzled by Itarr's words.

Do you think it would be a bit strange for you to drop a whole corpse out of thin air?

Sighing, Servi replied. “Yeah, it might be a bit weird. Can you cut the claws and fur off from inside the ring?”

…….

“Itarr?”

About fifteen seconds passed before Servi panicked, but the sound of Itarr’s voice echoing through her mind calmed her down.

Sorry about that. I have de-clawed and skinned the rats. I also carved out any piece of meat that looks to be cookable and stored it away as well. All that’s left are the bones. And for the roaches, I don’t know what to do. If you can find out when you go in, I can get them prepared for you.

“Thank you, Itarr. This is gonna be a major help.”

With that, Servi walked up the stone steps and entered the building. Contrary to her belief, the stone doors weren’t as heavy as they looked. Once inside, she scanned the room. It was an exact copy of the first floor of the Warden office but without the stairs. It was a one-floor building. There were the eight windows with the eight doors that Servi thought were unnecessary.

“I mean seriously, the room behind the windows is just that: a single room. Do they really need eight doors?!”

I do agree it’s kind of weird.

She picked the shortest line and waited. After a few minutes, she heard the receptionist call for her.

“Hello there, ma’am. Out late, aren’t we? What can I do for you?” she asked. The receptionist had a smartly look about her as well, as an air of refinement. Even her clothes looked intelligent.

“Uhh, yes, hello. I’d like to sell some rat claws and hides. And also, what part or parts of a roach do you buy?”

“Well, we offer 10 dupla for a full set of claws, that is sixteen claws. For the fur, it depends on the quality. For example, fur that has been burned would sell for less than one that only has a stab wound. For the roaches, we take their legs. The current going price for one leg is 5 dupla. Do you have any to sell?” she asked with a smile.

I shall get to removing their legs right away.

“Thank you. I have some right here." Servi reached into her pouch and took out sixteen claws. Then another sixteen talons. And then another. This repeated until 112 objects were on the table, which left almost no room for anything else.

The receptionist looked with wide eyes as she stared at this weird adventurer who kept monster parts in her pouch, then she looked at the claws and let out an unprofessional sigh. She was supposed to clock out in 5 minutes, but it looked like she might be here a while.

“Well, ma’am, this is quite a haul.”

“There are seven rats worth of claws there. That should be 112 if I did my math right. And here, I have seven furs as well.”

“Wha—” she tried to say something, but it was no use. Servi reached her hand to her back and took out the seven pelts that Itarr had so graciously prepared. Six were in pristine shape, except for the hole from the Shadow Shot used to kill them. There wasn’t even blood on them.

I forgot to say, I managed to absorb the blood from the fur.

“So yeah, how much can I get for all this?” Servi asked, unaware of the stares she was getting for holding up the line.

“Ma’am, it’s going to be a few minutes. I have to examine the claws and then pelts. Hey, can you two help me?” she said to two co-workers. They weren’t doing anything, so they nodded and came over to help.

About fifteen minutes later, Servi walked out of the building with a pouch of coins jingling in her hands. She looked to the left and right and decided to walk in the direction with the least amount of people.

70 dupla for the claws and 121 for the pelts for a total of 191. I guess that's not bad, but you didn’t sell the roach legs

“I agree,” she said as she absorbed the pouch. “It’s too bad that we only got 1 dupla for that one pelt. I sorta forgot I attacked it with 14 Shadow Shots. I’m surprised they even gave us 1 for it. Well, if I combined all the money we have, we have 650 dupla. I figured I could sell the legs later.”

It’s sad to say that I still don’t know if that is a lot or not.

“Same here. So I guess we ju—”

“You dirty little shit, get out of here and die somewhere else!”

An earsplitting yell later, Servi turned her head and ran towards the source of the noise. She ran down the street and took a left down a back alley before hopping over a sleeping dog. After taking a right, she found the source of the noise.

In a small patch of space in front of a medium-sized building, a young boy, probably around the age of 12, was lying on the ground and holding his head with both hands. A small line of blood leaked out, but his dirty hair absorbed it.

Upon further review, Servi noticed it was a Koena. A scale folk.  That's when she realized the red line descending down his black scaley body was not decoration.  It was blood.

Standing above him was an old woman with a wooden stick. Though it looked like red paint dripped from it, Servi knew it wasn’t.

Eyeing Servi, the old lady started barking out orders. “Finally! You! Take this garbage somewhere else,” The lady spat on the Koena before retreating inside the building.

Servi stared at the scaled boy on the ground before kneeling. He flinched and whimpered when Servi put a hand to his head. A moment later, the pain he felt was gone. Servi stepped back a few steps and allowed the boy the space to stand up.

“I’m not gonna hurt you.  Do you feel any pain? Does it hurt?” Servi said.

"No ma'am, it doesn't hurt..." he said, wary of this mysterious woman.

"I said I'm not going to hurt you. What you do now is up to you."

“Thank you, Miss! Thank you so much!” the boy smiled and turned on his scaled heels.  With surprising speed, he ran away into a dark alley, and Servi lost sight of him.

I guess good people still exist in this world. The boy thought.

Servi's show of kindness would be something that he would never forget. Though she didn’t know it, the boy had planned to kill himself by taking a sharp rock and stabbing his throat. That was how his sister died after being treated as nothing more than a sexual plaything by their former master. She couldn’t handle the humiliating anguish and killed herself. The Koena thought it was time to join his sister, but it was not his time to make that journey.

I assume the old lady is as good as dead?  Itarr asked.

“You’re damn right. If we’re lucky, we find something good inside this. If not, we’ll take everything. It’s no sweat off my back if this shitty woman dies,” with those harsh words, Servi walked over and entered the building.

“Perfect! Just perfect!” Servi said to herself. She had lucked out. She looked around and saw the old woman putting a sticker on clothes folded neatly on a nearby table. One, two, four, eight! Eight long lines of clothes, shoes, hats, and masks sat on eight long dressers! Not to mention that the dressers the clothes were on top of were all filled with goodies.

In other words, Servi could complete her goal of finding a disguise a hundred times over.

I assume we’re going to take all of this?

“You’re damn right," Servi spoke a bit too loudly.  The old woman turned around and walked over to Servi. Her face had no traces of pleasantness.

“Hey! Did you dispose of the trash?!”

“Why did you hit him?” Servi asked, ignoring her question.

“Because I can. That thing isn’t alive. It’s property. Property for me to do anything I want. So, did you dispose of it?”

“No. I didn’t,” Servi walked over to a dresser and touched a shirt. It was blue and made out of a soft material that was similar to cotton. “You know, this is pretty soft. I can tell a lot of work went into making this shirt. It’s cute as well.”

“And? What’s yer point, lady? Don’t tell me you ain’t one them trash lovers? Oh Gods above, you are, aren’t you? Then get out! Get out of my sto— Gah!” the woman felt a strange feeling in her stomach and looked down. The handle of a silver sword hugged her belly button. A quick gear in her mind told her that something wasn’t right.

“I guess I am a trash lover. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure to put you in the garbage as well,” Servi said, grinning as she pulled her sword back. Crimson flowed from the open wound, staining the pristine hardwood floors below. “Why am I even taking my time?”

Servi sighed and stored her sword. In the next moment, eight Shadow Shot arrows floated around her like hideous black specs of evil waiting to be unleashed. The old woman didn’t even manage to blink before Servi issued the mental command. One Shadow Shot pierced her head, obliterating it. Five went into her chest and stomach, leaving giant holes that oozed blood. White ribs and her spine could be seen through the openings. The last two went into her legs, cutting them off.

“Good riddance.”

I got to say, a maxed-out Shadow Shot is pretty destructive. Itarr commented.

The woman's remains slammed against the wall from the force and slid down slowly, like a piece of wet meat after being thrown at a surface.

Meat. Soul holders. That was all these people were. They weren't nothing more and nothing else.

A lone red soul slowed into Servi’s ring.

She wasn't blessed.

Servi didn’t respond. She thought a quick moment about absorbing the body. If she left it, there was the slightest chance of it being led back to Servi. “I hate having trash like you in my ring," she said with a sigh, "But I don't want to be caught."

I agree. We have the building to ourselves, so what’s next? Do you want to try on the clothes?

“I guess. I’m pretty sure that old bat was alone. There isn’t a second floor, and those Shadow Shots made too much noise. If anyone were around, they’d already shown themselves.”

Very well.

Servi took the time to absorb the corpse but didn’t bother with the bits of flesh because it was too much work. She then spent the time comparing different shirts and pants to find out her size. Once she did, she absorbed everything she could wear, including shirts, shorts, pants, skirts, dresses, underwear, shoes, socks, gloves, hats, and masks.

“Hey, just a quick question, but is there a way to organize stuff inside the ring? ”

I’m not quite sure I follow. Can you explain what you mean?

“I’m sure that in the future, there’ll be a literal ton of stuff stored inside the ring. I’m asking if there is a way to separate the things inside. Like, all of the clothes I’ve absorbed thus far are in my size, and I want to absorb everything else as well.”

Ah, I see what you mean. Yes, there is, but it’s not something you can do. If you tell me how you want it separated, I can do it for you.

“Thank you. Well, can you separate it into different categories such as corpses, weapons, armor, clothes, and potions? And for weapons, can you do subcategories like sword or bow? And for the clothes, can you have two main categories, clothes I can wear and clothes I can’t? Can you do the same for armor I can and can’t wear? Oh, if it isn’t too much trouble, can you add in different subcategories? If possible, I want the following: shirts, shorts, pants, skirts, dresses, underwear, shoes, socks, gloves, hats, and masks.”

………

“Uh, Itarr? I’m sorry if that was too much trouble. You don’t have to worry abo—”

It's done. I'm sorry it took me a while. As of right now, everything is sorted and organized according to what you wanted. I believe it’s possible to show this data. Everything is stored inside the ring on your ID, but I need to look more into it. Also, I can only make categories based on items that we have stored. Since I assume more than two types of weapons exist, I should have more subcategories, but I can’t. I have the same problem with this so-called 'jewelry.'

“Well, that’s way more than I thought possible. Thank you, Itarr,” Servi said as she absorbed the rest of the clothes, which promptly got absorbed into the category of ‘clothes I can’t wear.’

Are you going to look inside the dressers? Itarr asked. While Servi had absorbed enough clothes for a noble lady to wear for a year, that only included clothing on top of the furniture.  She still had the dressers themselves to look through.

“It seems kind of big, but can I just absorb the dresser itself?”

That you can, but I would imagine that it would take some time, probably around a minute or two for each. Once we get our Absorption skill upgraded, then something like this would take not even a fraction of a second.

“I see. I think we can spare the time," Servi replied.  She pulled a chair up to the first dresser and sat down.  Crossing her legs in the process, she grinned.

Her stroll was just beginning.