Ero Skill Tree

Chapter 14 - Fourteen: An Unexpected Sight

It wasn't a long walk back to the guild house. I stepped inside and was hit by a wave of sounds and smells of the place. It was once again busy, nothing like it had been the day before. I made my way through the tables in the eating area looked for a place to sit alone. It wasn't until I was halfway through when I noticed the woman waving at me from the front desk. It was Jules. I decided it would be rude of me not to go say hello and find out what it was she wanted.

I made my way through the crowd and eventually made it to the desk where Jules was waiting.

"I was wondering if you were going to return here." She told me as I approached.

"I wasn't planning on disappearing!" I just decided to do a little sightseeing and I popped into Liz's potion shop as well. Has Lillia asked you to keep an eye on me too?"

"Well she did mention she was out of town for a few days, so I was a little worried. I wasn't keeping tabs on you or anything!"

"Sorry I didn't mean to sound like I was thought I was under surveillance or something. Well, I'm alright as you can see. I just wanted to find something to eat."

"I'm about to get off shift in a minute, if you'd like some company?"

"Sure, It'd be nice to not sit alone." I could hardly say no.

"Great. Just wait there a minute while I get my things and then we can go."

Jules headed into the back room for a moment before returning with her bag and a light jacket.

"All set." She said as returned. "Do you mind if we head somewhere else? I'm kind of sick of this place after being here all day."

"Yeah, I don't mind, but you'll have to pick the place. I don't have the faintest idea of anywhere that would be good to eat."

"Of course, leave it to me."

She lifted the counter hatch up and stepped out into the guild hall.

"Come on." She called to me while heading to the exit.

I followed her out through the guild hall and back into the street where I had come from only minutes before. Jules led the way to a small looking pub not five minutes' walk away from the adventurer's guild. It was a lot quieter and less crowded in here. Jules made a beeline to the nearest free table and sat down.

"Few, that's better." She sighed. "It really does a number on my back standing at the front desk all day."

"I bet."

"Anyway, how are you finding things here? Feeling a little settled in now?"

"I'm not really sure how to answer that. There's such a lot to take in and I don't really know what to make of any of this yet."

"I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise. It's not terrible here though is it?"

"Terrible… No, at least not here, but this whole situation. I can't say that I'm happy about it. Finding out that I was murdered then brought here and I'm expected to risk my life or whatever it is called now to fight the demon lord. I can't say that I'm crazy about it!"

"Lillia decided to fill you in on everything then?

"No. I only found out by talking to Liz from the potion shop."

"I see… I suppose she did tell you that Lillia had no choice, none of us do?"

"She said there was something that forced her to do it, but I suppose everyone has some sort of choice. Like the last hero, I know he died, but he did choose not to fight the demon lord."

"I suppose that's true, but the only person that can defeat the demon lord is a summoned hero."

"Yeah Liz said that too, something about an ancient prophecy."

"It's more than that. All the greatest warriors from our world have tried and failed to defeat them. Entire armies have been laid to waste. No one would put you through this if there was any other way." She sighed. "I know all of this must seem pretty selfish from your perspective."

"It does, but I can't say that the rulers of the world where I come from wouldn't do everything they could to try and save themselves, regardless of the moral implications. Not that it makes me feel any better."

"It probably doesn't mean much, but I am genuinely sorry that you've been brought here and dragged into our problems like this."

"Well, you're the first person that's said anything like that to me since I came to this world."

Jules smiled at my reply, she had a pretty smile. I had noticed before, but when she was working on the front desk of the Guild you could tell it was all a forced act, but now it felt real. I enjoyed talking with Jules over dinner, out of all the people that I had met so far, she seemed the most normal. We talked for hours after we had finished eating. Our conversation flowed easily, and I really felt that we were starting to get on well, but eventually it was time for the pub to close and we had to leave.

"Would you like me to walk you home?" I offered as we left.

"Well, I was hoping that you would seeing as we are both going to the same place!"

"You live in the adventurers' guild?"

"Yes… The pay isn't the best and staff get a discount on the accommodation, so it just makes the most sense to me."

The night air was cool as we headed back to the guild house. We said our goodnights downstairs in the guild hall, I needed to make a quick stop before I went to my room, so we went our separate ways there.

After my quick toilet break, I headed upstairs to my own room. I kicked off my boots, took off my armour, then threw myself onto my bed, laid back and started to mull over everything that I had learnt today. There was no way for me to go back to my own world and even if I ran away from the fight, I wouldn't have long to live before they destroyed my relic. I didn't like it. The thought that my existence could be ended at any moment, that it was in the hands of the guild masters, was an uncomfortable one. All that was clear, was that for now, I would have to do as they wished.

With all these thoughts running through my head, I decided to pull up the skills tree. I was going to have to put some serious thought into how I spent my points if I wanted to even try and make my way through this. I hadn't spent a single point on the basic skills that my class came with, although they had all increased a little as I went up a level. I didn't even have a clue who this demon lord was or what their skills were, let alone what I could do to myself to make myself anyway effective against them. Everything now seemed that much more serious, now that I had found out what my situation here was really like.

I wandered on to my custom character skill tree. I still hadn't had chance to check out the "disarm" skill, it sounded useful enough, but what were the chances that it actually would be. I knew very well what "special heal" and "appraisal" did. They did have their uses and at least "special heal" actually healed, but I had to wonder how useful using that would be in actual fight situation. As I thought about this I activated "appraisal" not thinking much of it, just that it had been upgraded the previous day. I looked at the wall to my left and to my surprise I could see into the room next to me. That wasn't the only surprise.

In the room next to me there was a woman seemingly getting ready for bed and it wasn't just any woman it was Jules, the woman from the guild that I had been speaking to only a few minutes ago. I was hit by a little pang of guilt at my abuse of the power, but I didn't turn it off as she slowly started to remove her clothes. I was glad that the guild house was sturdily built, the noise didn't travel through one room into the next, so hopefully she hadn't heard everything that had gone on the other night. She was exactly the kind of girl I would have gone for back in my own world. Beautiful, yes, but also slightly geeky and seemingly had a good head on her shoulders.

I knew I should stop, but I just couldn't take my eyes off her as she undressed. She had unbuttoned her blouse and was now sliding off her pencil skirt. She really was beautiful.