Chapter One hundred – Retail Ther-hop-py

Pandy’s stats were essentially unchanged, so she ignored them, instead focusing on the words that almost seemed like an afterthought, even though she knew they were anything but. She was tucked into the small gap between a fish-monger’s stall, and one belonging to a lady who sold massive, dramatic hats. The hats and the fish apparently weren’t speaking to each other, which left a little space for Pandy to squeeze into, which she had done, promptly dismissing both her freshly updated outfit and her human shape.

Name: Pandy

Race: Rabbit? (Deceased)

Age: 24

LF: 2/2

Mana: 827/852

Stats▾

• Strength: 23

• Intelligence: 27

• Agility: 29

• Pain Tolerance: 1

• Fire Affinity: 1

Skills▾

• Hop: Lv. 20 (100/190)

• Bite: Lv. 24 (213/550)

• Scratch: Lv. 11 (6/28)

• Minor Heal: Lv. 22 (234/370)

• Wings of Glory: Lv. 1 (1/2)

• Verdant Surge: Lv. 1 (1/2)

• Vita Herbalis: Lv. 1

• Spark: Lv. 14 (5/55)

• Shifting Faces: Lv. 3 (3/4)     00:47:23

• Radiant Presence: Lv. 2 (1/3)

• Innate Magic: Lv. 23

• Dance: Lv. 10 (4/19)

• Dual Wielding: Lv. 1

• Shield of Darkness: Lv. 1

• Air of Superiority: Lv. 1

Boons▴

Corruption Points: 49

CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the Emberwrought Labyrinth! Claim your reward now?

<Yes,> Pandy thought.

You have acquired 1000 Gold

Your §ɬɎmίna has refilled

You may increase the level of one skill or stat by +1

You may either:

• Acquire one weapon of type ƨŴƗƒøɰɒȽȽ

• Use a Gacha Spin for a chance at a Special Prize!

A pouch landed in front of her, and Pandy immediately laid a paw on it and added it to her inventory, without even bothering to check the contents. She really should have done this earlier, and then she would have been able to pay Mr. Shaw without all of that awkward business. On the other hand, if she’d had this, and known she had this, she wouldn’t have been so embarrassed, and he might not have offered her the shoes at all. It was all right, though, because she would absolutely make it up to him.

A glance at her stats told her her Mana had refilled, which made her sigh softly in defeat. She really had hoped that Stamina would translate to something else, or at least that she would be able to save this moment until she actually needed to top up her Mana, but it just wasn’t to be. Her quick scan of the market and the interaction with the cobbler told her she had vastly underestimated how expensive everything would be. In the game, there were a number of useful items early-on that cost less than a gold, so she’d mistakenly believed this would be the same. Real life had proven her undoing once again.

She also wasn’t ready to increase anything at the moment, since the best time to do that was when a high-level skill had just reached level nineteen, or a stat was sitting at a threshold. While Agility was one short of thirty, she had a few ways of increasing that stat, and it would really be a waste to push it over using a dungeon reward.

<Can I wait to choose the stat or skill?> she asked, not expecting an answer. The System Keros had set up seemed even less intelligent than he was – she felt a bit bad even thinking that – and it didn’t seem to have any kind of help function. She was utterly shocked then, when she actually got a response.

Dungeon rewards must be used within forty-eight hours of completing the Dungeon.

Her eyes widened. Did that mean that if she hadn’t accepted it by dinner tomorrow, it just would have gone away? Much of her frustration with Keros had been defused when she’d seen him chained to that rock, but now she felt it begin to smolder again. Why had he given her such a terrible System? It wasn’t precisely worse than no System at all, but it needed a lot of work.

She drew in a calming breath, then forgot to release it as she read the hovering words again. The next time she saw that annoying, self-centered, muscle-maniac god again, she would…would… She huffed out the breath. She would ask him nicely if he would fix it. Again. Because like it or not, Keros and his magic were the only things keeping her and Thaniel alive. But in three and a half years, Keros was definitely getting an earful. She might even stomp on his foot, and by then, she should be able to stomp really, really hard.

All right. Forty-eight hours was still tomorrow, and, honestly, she already knew what she was going to do, even though it wasn’t the most efficient use of the reward. In the morning, Shifting Faces would reach level four, and she would immediately use this reward to bump it to level five. Yes, that would only save her five days, but that was days, while almost all of her other skills could be used – and potentially leveled up – multiple times each day, if she could only find the right time and place to do a little grinding.

That decided, she turned her attention to the glitched item offer. Normally, Clara would receive a weapon that played to her strengths. If she read Barton’s Handbook for Clumsy Warriors; Weapons, Woes, and Wonderfully Bad Decisions and chose a weapon skill, that would push her in one direction, while if she hadn’t, the game would give her something based on her level, stats, and what weapons she’d used in the earlier part of the game. A mage-Clara would get a staff, while a warrior-Clara who was trying to woo Dorian might get a sword or knife. And, if the player didn’t like that option, they could always try for a gacha.

An interesting thing about this particular gacha was that it didn’t always give you a weapon. There were a few quest items, some armor, several cosmetic items, favored gifts, and, of course, a whole lot of junk. Using your free-every-four-hours gacha included the junk, while paying for a gacha excluded it. Of course, a pay-to-win player could just keep spinning until they got what they wanted, but Pandy got the best item every time.

But did she dare to try it? There was no smoking gacha button this time, and what she could get should be limited by the list of items available in the original game. That should prevent it from…what had Keros said? ‘Every time you use this, it provides you with an option that absolutely never should have been possible.’ But all of these options were possible, including the one Pandy wanted. Of course, that option might also make her blow up, so even if she got it, she would have to wait until she got back to Thaniel before she tried it. But she still really, really wanted it.

<Sorry, Keros,> Pandy muttered, before thinking, <Use gacha.>

The large hat protruding from the stall on her left merged with a particularly large and glassy-eyed fish to her right, and for a moment something that looked a bit like a mermaid with the head and wings of a taxidermy pheasant spun in place before her eyes. It wasn’t the gacha animation from the game, but it wasn’t not the animation, either, and Pandy felt her stomach churn. She hoped Keros wasn’t shriveling into the ninety-seven pound weakling again, but even more, she hoped for-

A small brown bag struck the ground in front of her, snapping Pandy out of the daze the spinning world had plunged her into. It was incredibly simple – just a couple of pieces of cotton cloth, sewn together, with a rough cord tying it closed. She knew that if she opened it, it would be empty, and if she put something into it, it might kill her, so she touched it with a paw, placing it into the last slot in her inventory.

And that was it. Reward complete. Pandy felt a kind of terrified excitement as she realized that she now had forty-seven minutes to see how much she could buy, and if she could have it sent to the school. She would just have to make sure she didn’t get too close to Mr. Shaw’s stall, because that would definitely be embarrassing.

<Cast Shifting Faces, use remaining time,> Pandy thought, quickly switching back into her clothes, including her incredibly comfortable new boots. Stepping out from between the stalls, she ignored the startled look cast by the fishmonger, and the rather scandalized glare of the hat-lady and made her way toward a booth where a woman sat, a pincushion attached to a bracelet on her wrist, thimbles on her fingers, and a needle darting in and out of cloth. There were two or three vendors selling just cloth, and one selling second-hand clothes, but this was the only one that promised to make clothes to order.

When Pandy stepped up to her, the woman gave her a nod, and called out through a mouthful of pins. Pandy couldn’t understand what she said, but a boy who was probably a bit older than Lian emerged from the shadowy depths of the stall, giving Pandy a practiced smile.

“Yes, ma’am? How may I help you?” he asked, but he was already inspecting her dress in a very nonjudgemental way. She had a feeling he could tell how long her inseam was – if that was a thing used for dresses – and she had to fight the urge to cross her arms over her chest in order to protect whatever remained of her modesty. There was nothing suggestive in his look, though. That gaze said she could have been an eighty-year-old grandmother or a piglet for all he cared, so long as she paid him.

“I need several dresses,” Pandy said, then drew in a breath and added, “and three pairs of pants.”

The sewing-woman’s needle paused for the briefest of moments, and she looked up, a flicker of interest in her gaze. Then a head tilt communicated something to the boy, and without missing a beat, he said, “We can do that, ma’am, no problem. What kind of dresses? What colors? Do you have a particular style you like?”

He eyed her again. “We can make more like what you have on, with different fabrics, and just enough variation that no one will comment on it.” He traced a hand just above her sleeve, pausing at the wrist. “Different buttons, different lace, raise or lower the neckline slightly, give a bit more or less fullness in the skirt, all from a single pattern and toile, which reduces the price and shortens the time required to make them significantly.”

“Oh,” said Pandy faintly. She hadn’t been prepared for this. In Gacha Love, outfits were complete items, and the player could see each one on Clara before deciding what they liked. Early game dresses were simple and inexpensive, and then became more expensive and elaborate as the game went on. Clara’s dresses were never covered in as many ribbons and fripperies as those of the other ladies, but they were beautifully designed and drawn, allowing the player to give their Clara a unique look.

Of course, some late-game outfits gave bonuses to stats and skills, so they were very popular, but also very expensive. For the most part, what Clara wore was purely cosmetic, affecting nothing, though each love interest did have a favorite color, and you could get a small boost to their Affection by wearing their preference.

In real life, Pandy shopped at thrift stores, and got free items by attending ribbon cuttings and conventions. She had shirts advertising everything from doggy daycares to high-end hotels, and the rest of her clothes were far from fashion-forward. She’d certainly never had anything tailored to her, much less made to her specifications. Fortunately, the boy had made the decision easy.

“Then, um, make more like this,” she said, nodding, then hesitated. “But maybe…not quite so tight, um, here?” She waved to her middle, where her lack of a corset was making Ms. Wellington’s figure a bit less of an hourglass than usual.

The boy glanced at the woman, who eyed Pandy’s waist, then smiled through her pins. The boy nodded. “We can do that. Would you like the pants the same? A bit, ah, looser? We can put buttons in so you can adjust them, if you need to.”

Pandy had accidentally bought a pair of men’s shorts that had something like that, and it actually allowed her to tighten them enough so they didn’t fall off. She nodded enthusiastically. “And some shirts to go with the pants? Something that’s also,” she waved her hands again, “not too tight.”

The woman was practically grinning through her pins by now, and as the boy brought Pandy deeper into the stall to show her fabric swatches, she caught glimpses of the lady neatly placing her pins into the pincushion attached to her wrist. Pandy had wondered why she was even wearing it, since she seemed to prefer risking internal perforation via a sudden sharp intake of breath, but soon she placed the pins and her work down on the stool and followed Pandy and the boy into the shadows.

“You want to look like boy?” she asked, a thick accent sharpening her consonants. She didn’t sound like Isidor or Abbington, and Pandy was once again reminded that this world was much larger than the one Clara occupied in Gacha Love.

Pandy shook her head. “No, I just don’t like-” she whacked at her skirts, which were heavy, and forced her to walk slowly so she didn’t get caught on everything she passed. “I have to wear dresses for work, but I want to be able to move sometimes, too.” And the way Thaniel and now Eleanor kept getting into trouble, she needed to have something she could wear without worrying about people seeing her bloomers.

The woman nodded, dark eyes thoughtful. “Underclothes too? You need?” She made some rather unmistakable motions around her own chest and hips before raising her brows at Pandy.

Pandy flushed. “I…could use some. Especially for the pants and shirts. Nothing I have will work with them.” Something which she’d only realized when the woman asked. Ms. Wellington had several corsets, all of which were difficult to put on, though Pandy was fairly certain she wasn’t doing it right anyway. But none of the long underwear would fit beneath pants without looking bulky and odd.

“I make,” the woman said briskly, then spun her finger. “You turn. I look.”

Pandy obeyed. “You don’t need to…measure or something?”

The boy had been standing to the side, looking more than a little surprised at the woman’s intrusion, but now he shook his head. “Don’t you worry, ma’am. If Saskia makes them, they’ll fit perfectly. Better than anything you’ve ever worn before, I guarantee it.”

His face nearly glowed with pride, and Pandy wanted to pat him on the head and tell him what a good boy he was. She wasn’t sure if that was because he reminded her of an eager golden retriever puppy, or if it meant she’d been spending too much time around six-year-olds, but either way, she tucked her hands behind her and resisted the urge.

As Pandy came around again, she stuck out her hand to the woman. “You’re Saskia? My name’s,” she barely managed to swallow her actual name, and said, “Alexandra Wellington. I work at Falconet. Could you have the clothes sent there when they’re done?”

Saskia looked at Pandy’s hand, then at the boy, who said, “She doesn’t touch people. Doesn’t usually talk to people, either. She must-” A look stopped whatever he was going to say, and instead he cleared his throat. “We can deliver ‘em to the school. How many dresses, then, and when do you need them?” He’d relaxed a good bit after Saskia joined them, and wasn’t being nearly so careful with his diction and choice of words. It reminded her of Thaniel, and the way he spoke when he was comfortable. 

“Five…no, six dresses?” Pandy asked. “One that’s dressy, like for a party, and one that’s just a little nicer than the rest, for dinner. The other four should just be normal, like this, but-” Again, she made the expanding motion around her waistline, and Saskia almost laughed.

Leaning in, the woman said, “People here, they suck themselves in,” she demonstrated, pulling her already-thin waist in until her ribs showed even through her dress, “Make small. Better to be happy with who you are. Comfortable, yes? Like you!”

Pandy looked down at Ms. Wellington’s figure, which was indeed quite comfortable, and couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, like me,” she agreed. “Can you send them as they’re ready, or do I have to wait until everything is done?”

“It’ll cost more to deliver them one at a time,” the boy said promptly, “but if that’s not a problem for you, then it’s not a problem for us. Do you want the dresses or pants first?”

Saskia nodded, and Pandy sighed. “The dresses, I suppose. I don’t think I can wear pants at work. I mean, Sir Harriett does, but she also wears armor, so I don’t think it’s the same thing. All of the other women wear skirts.” She thought of the girl in the brown hat who had ridden on the carriage that morning. “Well, except maybe some of the stablehands and, um, footmen? Footwomen?”

A laugh like a warm blanket fresh from the dryer surrounded Pandy as Saskia said, “Ya, footwomen. I like. You want those pants?” She leaned down and indicated a spot just below Pandy’s knee. “Short? Or long?”

Pandy brightened. She loved shorts, but short pants would be better than nothing. Then her shoulders slumped again. All the females she’d seen wearing those short pants were young. Teenagers, at most, and they wore thick stockings as well. “Long, I think,” she said reluctantly.

Saskia nodded. “I have first dress in three days.” She held up three fingers – the pinky finger, ring finger, and middle finger, and Pandy realized she was missing the first digit of her pinky on the right hand. Saskia noticed her noticing, and her eyes grew flinty, challenging Pandy to comment on it.

Pandy, for her part, wondered if Minor Heal would grow back the digit, since it was mostly definitely less than fifteen percent of Saskia’s body mass, but she didn’t dare ask, so instead she smiled and said, “That sounds good.” She plucked at her skirt. “I only have one other dress left, and I keep tearing them.”

When the other woman realized that Pandy wasn’t going to say anything, she first looked puzzled, then seemed to relax. “You are mage, yes? Work at school, so for sure yes. You have elemental?”

Pandy froze. She really should have at least one elemental, shouldn’t she? Theoretically, she was a teacher at a school for nobles and mages, so she should have magic. But every elemental she’d met was already bonded to other people, even if she’d been interested in catching one, which she really wasn’t. It had seemed only natural in Gacha Love, but now that she was here, and had met several elementals, each with their own personalities, it just wasn’t something she wanted to do, even knowing that third-tier and above elementals had to enter a contract willingly.

“I- Ye- No,” her tongue stumbled over the lie, and she mumbled the truth, like it was something shameful. “Just…innate magic, I suppose.”

Saskia nodded, as if she’d suspected as much, and Pandy wondered what had given her away. Did she have ‘Not Really a Mage’ branded across her forehead? Reaching up, she rubbed the skin there as the other woman spoke again. “Thread and fiber, twist and bind. Leave no rip or hole behind,” she said, and a snag in the lace at Pandy’s wrist repaired itself, weaving flawlessly back together.

Pandy stared at the spot. She hadn’t even noticed the dangling thread until it pulled back together, but she had no doubt that in a few more wearings, she would have been carrying half her sleeve around in a bag. “Thank you,” she said.

“You do,” Saskia insisted, pointing to another thread dangling from Pandy’s other wrist.

“Oh, I…” How did she explain that she only used magic through the System, and it wouldn’t work for her? Though she did have Innate Magic, and perhaps this was what it was for?

<Use Innate Magic,> Pandy thought, then, even as the System printed the confirmation across her vision, she said, “Thread and fiber, twist and bind. Leave no rip or hole behind.” And, just as Isidor had told Thaniel to do, she pictured the end result, the string pulling back into the rest of the lace, restoring it to its former crisp perfection.

Insufficient Mana. Using LF.

Pandy’s knees nearly gave out as pain stabbed deep into her belly, making her sway. The lace shriveled, turning gray and fragile, before crumbling to dust. Saskia drew back with a hiss. Then, swift as a snake, her hand darted out and grabbed Pandy’s arm, turning it in, tucking it against her aching stomach where no one could see what had happened.