True to his guess, Aster didn''t get a wink of sleep. He simply closed his eyes, pretending to sleep, while letting the two girls snooze beside him.
During this, he learned three new things.
First, no matter how they were stuck close and tight together, thanks to his Carved Seal, they didn''t feel too hot or stuffy at all.
The second is that when sleeping, Kali would curl up and grab the closest thing to her, using it like a hug pillow. Of course, that "thing" ended up bing Aster, who was sleeping right beside her.
And third, Cassy was a restless sleeper. There were a lot of instances when her leg went over to Aster''s waist, stimting his little Johnny, giving him a time of pure agony, and presenting good training for his self-restraint.
This situationsted for the entire night until it was around 4 a.m. when Kali stirred and woke up. As her breathing changed, Aster pretended to be asleep, closing his eyes and emting slow, gentle breathing.
"Hmm..."
Kali didn''t do much after waking up, only silently going out of bed and heading for the bathroom to wash her face.
About half an hourter, noticing that she didn''t return, Aster started to move, pretending to wake up. Of course, Cassy was still fast asleep. She wasn''t one to wake up too early, after all, and would naturally wake up at about five to five-thirty.
"Hnnnngh!"
Aster stretched a little before adjusting his thing, fixing its position, and walking out of the bedroom. As soon as he got out, he found Kali using the few pieces of exercise equipment he had borrowed, particrly the dumbbells, and doing a few sets with sweat covering her body.
"Oh, good morning." Aster greeted lightly, keeping his voice not too loud.
"Morning, weakling." Kali greeted him back with a frown. "I''ll be ying loud music on my earbuds, so you can use the bathroom as you please. It''s a natural thing, so I understand it. I won''t say a thing."
"...?"
Aster was puzzled about the meaning of her words but then realized that, as a beastwoman, her senses were higher than those of a normal human like him. The same goes for her sense of smell.
Cold sweat covered his back before walking awkwardly back to the bedroom, picking a new set of clothes, and heading to the bathroom just as Kali offered. There, he finished his "job" first before taking a short shower and refreshed himself.
The morning started quite awkwardly for Aster.
---
May 11, 5:45 a.m. Sunny.
After the three finished their breakfast, they went straight to the Adventurer''s Guild.
Other than Aster feeling a little awkward, the two girls were the same as usual. It slightly irked him that they weren''t affected at all even after sleeping on the same bed with him, but he decided to let it go.
''It''s not like I wanted to sleep with them in that sense.'' He whined while walking.
"Ohh! It''s the first time I have seen you all arrive together." Zena, who was leaning on the counter as always,mented casually. "Could it be what I think it is~?" She asked, a glint of tease appearing in her eyes.
"Yes, we had a sleepover at Aster''s ce!" Cassy answered,pletely unaware of the hidden meaning behind Zena''s words.
"Ohh~!" She gasped exaggeratedly, turning to Aster with a grin. "So we have a yer over here? I knew it the first time I saw you, and I wasn''t wrong~!"
"No, I''m not a two-timing fucktard, alright?" Aster quipped immediately, defending his honor. "And you''ve been wrong about me since the start."
"Hmm? Then what about the cat missy over there?" Zena turned to Kali as if wanting to include her in the chaos.
"..."
Kali didn''t speak, only pulling out her phone and dialing a number. After a moment of silence, she started to speak to the person on the other end. "Hello? Is this the HR management of the Adventurer''s Guild? I just want to report...!"
"A-Ahh, wait! I was just kidding, just kidding~!"
Seeing how serious Kali was, Zena panicked as she jumped over the counter, snatching the phone from Kali and dropping the call. "Phew, alright, no jokes. I learned my lesson." She sighed.
"Good."
Aster saw how Kali handled her, gaining an advantage in just one move. Seeing that, he realized what the best method was to control the berserk snake receptionist now. "Kali, give me the HR''s numberter too. Or maybe the guild master''s, if you have it."
"Sure."
"Uuu... You guys take jokes too seriously."
Zena looked distraught before moving on to official business. Cassy was the one to speak of it, asking to borrow the Skill Tablet. Of course, it wasn''t for free, as you needed to pay a usage fee of 50 Tels for each person.
It wasn''t too expensive, but still quite a rtivelyrge number for simply using a tool once.
Anyway, Aster paid for it and checked the list of his skills. As she did, he was surprised to see a few that he was unfamiliar with.
[
* Battle Skills
Sword Skills: Vertical sh
Martial Arts: Straight Punch, Side Kick
Arcane Arts: Active Temperature Control
*Passive Skills
Mana Control (low), Mana Detection (low), Mana Regeneration (low), Temperature Standardizer (EX)
* Daily Life Skills
Cooking Skill: Lv 99
Breathing Control Skill: Lv 99
Alchemy Skill: Lv 51
Gathering Skill: Lv 3
Stealth Skill: Lv 1
]
"That''s... a lot."
"..."
The two, who were peeking over Aster''s shoulder and seeing the disyed values on the board, were shocked. But what shocked them more was the Cooking Skill and Breathing Control Skill reaching counter stop! They were both at the maximum, Level 99!
"No wonder your cooking tasted that good," Kali muttered after returning to her senses. "Your level is at the top already."
Just as Aster guessed, a correction out of mana was applied whenever one who had the Cooking Skillpleted a dish. This was the reason why his cooking suddenly got upgraded after he served them.
And with a Lv 99 correction, it was at the level where even burnt cooking would remain edible!
Aster, however, was curious about the Alchemy skill. He couldn''t recall any experience with the ancient method called Alchemy, after all. ''Wait, is it rted to me helping out at theb at times?''
But that was more chemistry than alchemy, which further confused him.
Anyway, Aster took a picture of his skills using his Holo Tablet and saved it to viewter. After that, they returned the Skill Tablet to Zena before heading out.
Of course, along the way, their topic didn''t move from Aster''s maxed-out cooking skill.