New friends

Stumbling into back into town, Clay found some food vendors disposing of leftovers from the day that hadn't sold and would go bad over night.

asking for some food Clay was given an end piece of bread that some richer customers had given back with some excuse or another. This piece of bread was not enough, its carbs only quelling the beast known as clays stomach slightly.

Repeating this process Clay got enough food to last him till morning.

Making his way back to the tree from which this mini adventure had started Clay climbed up and found a sturdy branch to sleep on.

—

Morning came and Clay found himself woken up by the sound of a squelching stomach. this is nothing new to Clay and without any hesitation, he climbed out of the tree and walked towards the market stalls to once again look for leftovers

Approaching a grill-embedded stand, with mushroom skewers that where adorned with salt and dripped with juice, a small haggard girl with Swiss cheese like rags ran into him then continued kept on running.

Clay followed them only with his eyes, until he recognized the book that the girl held to be his and then darted after them in panic.

Rushing through the busy outer ring streets of the city, Clay could feel the subtle increase of strength in his legs that came with his new stats.

This subtle change eventually helped Clay catch the small girl after she tripped through an alleyway she turned down.

Realizing she was caught, the small girl started to beg for mercy with tears streaming down her face.

"Please sir… *hic* I don't have any money. Just let me go *hic* please."

Seeing the girls pitiful expression clays soft heart was made guilty, and with such guilt Clay hesitated. This hesitation was all the girl need as she bolted once again, this time her ragged hood fell of as she bolted, revealing some unkempt Demi-human ears.

Clay not having the time to think took off again internally yelling at himself for falling for such a trick.

The chase was longer this time as if the previous one was a fake. Clay was at his stamina's end when the Demi-human girl dropped from exhaustion.

"Now *huff*, hand over, *huff* the book." Clay struggled to get out. The run across the city took them nearly twenty minutes, all with no stops and at full speed.

With no response from the girl, Clay approached her cautiously, only to discover that she had passed out. Carefully removing the book from her arms, Clay realized that he couldn't simply leave her there in such a state. Determined to help, he decided to bring her back to the tree with him, despite receiving perplexed looks from passersby along the way.

By the time Clay reached the tree he had figured out a few things about the girl.

Firstly the girl used to be a slave, Clay found this out based off the round scar around her neck. Another detail he had noticed was that the girl was a raccoon Demi-human, a sub breed generally enslaved for the soft tails they have unlike their more wild counterparts.

The girl also hadn't gone through the bestowment ritual which makes it hard to believe she could run so long of not passing out a the end.

Setting the girl down against the base of the tree she started to stir.

"Noooo" the girl subconsciously said in a half-asleep, and cute whinny voice as she felt the body warmth leave her stomach section.

Opening her eyes to see where the warmth went she was jolted awake by the sight of Clay.

"Wha, what are you doing!"

"What do you mean, what am I doing? You had passed out in the middle of nowhere."

"But I robbed you."

"Failed, to rob me."

"Well I wouldn't have if you didn't have a class"

"Well 'what if's' don't count."

"Fine! What do you want"

At this point Clay hadn't thought this through, and stopped to think for a moment.

"If you don't want anything, I have more people to rob" said the girl

With quick thinking Clay voiced the ideas hd had after seeing her skills.

"Hold. I will get you a bestowment ritual, But you have to work with me… like adventures do. Except you can't leave the party."

"And what string are attached? Rituals aren't cheap you know."

"No strings, just that you don't betray me"

"Fine" the raccoon girl said with slight unwillingness.

Clay put out his hand and the girl shook him on the deal. "Meet back here when the clock in the sky hits 1 day." Clay told the raccoon girl " Oh… and what's you name, I'm Clay" Clay asked embarrassingly after realizing he hadn't gotten her name yet.

"I'm Narin, looking forward to the bestowment ceremony" Narin replied with a haughty tone.

"Glad to be working with you Narin"

While Narin had just attempted to rob Clay, Clay new that this was an opportunity. Clay needed companions to go explore with, like the professionals. But he had no friends nor anyone he could trust, other then Tod of course.

So this was the perfect opportunity to gain a companion.

Walking up to the tree Clay put his hand in it and whispered, " hey Tod, can you do another bestowing ceremony" but to no avail.

Realizing that this path was cut off Clay remembered the tent full of weapons conveniently out in the field, and decided to just grab some to sell.

Spending the rest of his day walking back and forth, Clay had made 10 silvers which was 1000 coppers, and in the process figured out that some magic prevented him from taking more then one of each weapon.

The next day Clay gathers all the money together and found Nirin, waiting. Setting off together towards the church the clock read less then a day left.

[00:23:32:12]

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Hello everyone!

It's been almost a month sense starting this, and I feel like it's going strong!

The story was nominated for the editors choice list of today! (June 5th 2023)

We have gained 10 new collections sense last chapter the same power stone goals are up!

If we can hit 5 power stones I will get to a regular publishing schedule and 10 power stones I'll give a bonus chapter!