The Flying Emporium

With everyone gone, Severin was finally ready to get the sleep he so needed and longed for after working throughout the whole night.

If only it wasn’t for his newest employee.

“You said you just ‘suspected’ that I could change my clothes like this. How come you didn’t know for sure?”

‘What a persistent little brat!’ Severin felt exasperated. ‘And what’s with her priorities?’

“Ha.Ha. Why don’t you take a look and explore the System screens first? And then I still have to assign you your job and show you the ropes and all that. You should get familiar with our products as well! The next couple of days should be quiet. More than enough time to ask your questions then!”

“But if we got so much time anyway, then there’s no need to hurry with the other stuff either!”

“…”

As Em looked at him with ever-growing eyes, Severin’s own expression became more gloomy in equal measure.

‘What little monster did I…’

“You’re aware of the terms you agreed to, no?”

The girl could barely hide her smile as she quickly nodded in understanding. “Soulerasure.”

The nonchalance of her answer stunned Severin for a moment. While he didn’t take any pleasure in reminding the little girl of her fate if she wasn’t able to keep certain things to herself, he still felt it was needed. Yet this was not the reaction he had expected. Even without exactly knowing what Soulerasure entailed, it surely wasn’t anything to be taken this lightly.

“Shouldn’t you be more worried about this? More serious?”

“There is no way I would ever reveal anything! I’m way too grateful for that, you know. No more hunger! That alone is more than enough reason for me to never leave this place! And I’ll even get paid! So you see, I have nothing to fear!”

Sigh

‘Still a child after all.’

“Fine.

Well, the thing is, I’m still relatively new to this myself. I’m pretty sure I don’t even have all the features unlocked yet. The map thingy for example is something I just very recently got access to. My main class is only level two either, so…” An expression of understanding appeared on Em’s face. Everyone knew what levels were, and how you needed them to unlock more and stronger abilities that were dependent on one's class; Even classless people knew. But…

“What is a ‘main class’? I know what an advanced class is, or a specialization. But I never heard this expression before! I never heard the term ‘System’ either…”

“Well, it’s…opposed to a subclass...a secondary class so to speak. In my case, I’m also a level twelve [Alchemist]. Which is also what you will…” Severin was set on ignoring the other unspoken question for now, but as it turned out, the girl interrupted Severin in his explanation before he could even reach that point anyway.

“What? You have two classes? That shouldn’t be possible! Everyone knows that you can only absorb one class orb!”

“How do you think we are going to craft all the available items without an appropriate class? Xander is probably right in that no random person should hope to be able to imitate our items without a very specific skill set.”

“I…We? What do you mean ‘we’?” Seemingly not realizing that she didn’t absorb any class orb herself, while still having obtained a class, realize she didn’t have to absorb

“Well, what do you think your job is going to be?”

“Eeeh?”

“Didn’t you say you read the terms before accepting them? Didn’t it say that I can assign you to various jobs and workstations? So, what kind of job did you think I’d assign you?”

“I…I thought…maybe cleaning or…filling shelves or…greeting customers or…”

“Greeting customers!” Severin couldn’t help himself from patting the confused-looking girl’s head, not quite able to completely suppress a slightly patronizing look on his face. “[Employee] might not be the most prestigious class, but you surely won’t just clean and... Well, it’s filling shelves, alright. That’s the kind of stuff I wanted to talk with you about in the first place.”

Even looking away from Severin and onto the floor wasn’t enough to hide the deep red color on her face.

“I mean a [Maid]…”

‘[Maid]? That’s a thing? No way! Someone must’ve wanted to fool her. Right? Either way, it’s no wonder then. Of course, she wouldn’t like discussing how to clean.’

“Again, this is a first for me as well, but if I’m not mistaken it should work like this. Open staff management…here, you see? There it is. Assign task or workstation. Before, it was still greyed out, which means that option wasn’t available at the time. That applies to all kinds of menus, okay? Anyway, now I can just…this...and there…and…”

[Employee Emily has been assigned to process alchemical resources.]

[Employee Emily has been granted access to the [Alchemist] class.]

[Adjusting Employee Emily’s [Alchemist] level to match that of the host.]

[Warning: Hosts’ input to set Employee Emily’s daily target quota is required.]

[Hint: The Host might want to consider purchasing an additional alchemy station.]

Severin was pleasantly surprised that apparently Em would be able to assist with crafting all of the available products, and wouldn’t have to start at level one with only access to the most basic potions.

He wasn’t sure if the girl didn’t move because she was frozen in shock, or because of the System’s process of transferring all the necessary knowledge right into her brain. Either way, Severin was using that short moment to set Em’s daily quota to ‘At own discretion. At least for now.

Right then, the girl’s delayed reaction startled Severin, as she let out a sudden scream.

“Aaaah! I’m an [Alchemist]! A real class! I, too, can craft potions now! And…weapon oils...and flasks?! Let me try! Please!”

“Hahaha! That’s more like it. Did you really think I just hired you to clean? And you still swore your loyalty, just like that?”

“Of course I did!”

“Let’s just hope you don’t regret having a real class once those adventurers are back and demand twice the amount of items this shop can hold.”

“Never! I’ll always be grateful and hardworking! I swear!”

“Don’t be silly now! I appreciate the sentiment, but didn’t hire you just so you can overwork yourself.”

“Don’t make fun of me. I’ll show you. And I haven’t even tried crafting yet, so how could I overwork myself!” She pouted.

Sigh

“Fine, you know what? Why don’t you head over into your room and use the alchemy kit and materials out of the shop’s inventory while I’ll catch up on sleep? In peace.”

“What do you mean…my…room?”

“Again…didn’t it say you have to understand all the terms before you could accept them? Clearly specified your own room and bed and stuff…”

“Aaah! You mean the whole thing over there?” She pointed in the direction of the building. “Isn’t that…what about you?”

While he couldn’t get angry at Em for something like this, Severin was still getting impatient and annoyed at this point. Maybe it was just his fatigue, but right now he just wanted to get rid of her.

“Don’t worry about that!”

As if being able to read Severin’s mood, or maybe just impatient herself, the girl quickly stepped forwards and gave the man a hug and then, without saying another word, quickly rushed out of the door.

Sigh

[Restricted Employee Emily’s daily crafting quota to a maximum of one hundred units.]

The blue dot moving on the map abruptly halted for a moment, and only after it had finally made its way to the middle of the room next door, did Severin stop paying attention to it.

‘Let’s hope this whole thing wasn’t a big mistake. And it seems like I can forget about the bed as well.’

Severin opened the store and, with a hint of self-pity, bought a familiar-looking flokati rug.