18 First Ques (2/2)
Ignoring her husband and turning from the man toward Kalin, she her mood did a complete 180 as she asked in a cheerful voice, ”Is there anything we can do to help you?”
Ignoring the instance of violence, Kalin flashed his guild card and said, ”I'm from the guild. I'm here to fulfill your request.”
Hearing his words, the woman's face brightened, and the man's filled with skepticism, ”Hey missy, we asked for somebody that could do labor, you don't look like you can hold 5 kilos, let alone 25.”
”What are you talking about?!” his wife raised his voice, ”Even is she can't, how can you say that to such a cute child. She can do other things in the store.”
As the couple continued to argue, Kalin tilted his head and said, ”Is 25 really that big a deal?”
Pointing to a pile of medium-sized barrels, the man scoffed, ”If you can't pick up that much, you can't even lift an empty half-keg.”
Walking over to the pile area Kalin had a small frown on his face. The man just laughed and turned away. He was about to continue before he looked at his wife's face of shock. Following her eyes, he froze. What he saw was a small, cute girl lifting a full barrel of wine, measuring well over 100 kg. Dumbfounded, he just stood there with a dopey look on his face, frozen.
Turning to the man Kalin said, without a sign of strain in his voice, ”You're right, 25 is pretty heavy.”
Hearing that, the wife laughed heartily, and smacked her husband's back, ”You're right, she looks really strained lifting that 'empty' barrel.”
Having to eat his words, the man just stood dumbfounded as the wife started showing Kalin around the shop.
After giving him a tour, the woman, Mrs. Hart arrived in the 'break' area of the shop before saying, ”While it seems like you won't have any problems with heavy lifting, it's too much of a waste to let such a gem. For now, I'll have you work in the front of the store, as close to the window as possible.” After searching through a wardrobe of numerous identical clothes, she handed him a dress about the same size as him and said, ”Change into this and place your clothes in this bin. I'll be waiting at the counter.”
The outfit was a light blue dress with a short, puffy skirt that stopped above his knees. With a white apron, thigh-high socks, white headdress, simple black shoes, as well as a garter belt and white underwear. With the change from unisex clothing to female clothing, Kalin evolved from androgynous to full trap. His lavender hair contained a single braid and flowed past his shoulders. While he usually wrapped his tail around his waist, preventing it from getting in the way of fighting, the dress had a small, almost unnoticeable hole for those with tails. Not used to the stuffy feeling of heavy clothing, Kalin opted to stick his tail through the hole to increase ventilation. Once changed, Alene climbed his body and wrapped herself around his neck.
After he exited the room, Mrs. Hart gave a flirtatious whistle in a teasing manner. ”I was worried if you were alright. You took a long time to change.”
With an apologetic look on his face, Kalin meekly said, ”Sorry, I don't really wear much clothes like this, and I've never worn a garter belt.”
Dismissing the apology and smiling, ”Don't worry about it. It was worth the wait.” Mrs. Hart gave him a thumbs up. Her eyes drifted to his tail, ”I'm actually surprised. I thought you were an antelope beastman or something because of your horns. Even still, you're amazingly strong!”
Even as before awakening, succubi are generally stronger than their non-demon counterparts. Because demons had a natural affinity to mana that those of the races paled in comparison to, they had higher strength and lifespans. Though, this is just comparing peasants to other peasants. The strong and wealthy can increase their strength and longevity with monster cores.
These stones that form in monsters can also appear in powerful individuals of the races as well as demons. When an individual gets powerful enough, they form their own. Cores are functionally another heart, and those with one are nigh undying. While they can still be killed, they rarely die from natural causes. One of the reasons why the races are so fearful of demons, beside many of their tendencies to view them as food, or inferior, is their ability to 'transcend' the limits of their races and live for millennia. While a human, gnome or other member of the races must jump through many hoops, and absorb numerous cores to get to that stage, powerful demons can reach this point just by existing long enough, though there are exceptions.
These changes cause the being that transcended to be considered a separate race. Most of the time the changes are classified with names like high elf or high human, but one's skills can cause deviations in traditional evolution paths. According to myth, all the different races in the world stem from the same ancestor. Although that race is said to be extinct, some scholars theorize that the living race they are closest to is the echidna.
Under the instruction Mrs. Hart, Kalin started cleaning and stocking the store inventory. Both her and Mr. Hart were surprised with his work ethic. They couldn't even get their regular employees to work as hard as Kalin did. It brought smiles to the faces of everyone who visited the store to see such a small and cute 'girl' working so hard. Although Kalin had a serious and earnest expression on his face, nobody thought of him as cool. Just like when children try to act mature, causing them to look more adorable than reliable, Kalin also fit this category. The more serious he looked, the more adorable the surroundings thought he was.
As the day got later and later, the volume of customers and sales increased. Because people tend to be looser with their pocketbooks when they are happy, the Redd Hart did very well in the books. In fact, even though it was a weekday, this was their highest profit workday of the entire quarter! Seeing Kalin work so hard made it almost impossible for customers to be in a poor mood. His skills didn't hurt him either, as his voice and pheromones had a soothing effect on others.
After the end of the shift, Kalin was greeted by both the owners. To prove completion of the quest, Mr. Hart had to sign the back of Kalin's guild id. Once the quest is confirmed as completed by the guild, this marking will disappear from the plate.
Receiving his pay from Mr. Hart, Kalin was surprised to see twice as much money as the agreed upon 60 pints. As he was about to comment on the mistake, Mr. Hart interrupted the young succubus. ”No, you deserve it. I'm shocked but you did an incredible job out there. Thanks to your hard work, we earned quite a bit as well. If you're willing, I'll even hire you on the spot.”
Deciding to accept the man's goodwill, Kalin still refused his offer explaining, ”I can't. I need to become the best adventurer first!”
Though surprised, the couple didn't mock his dream. Mrs. Hart pinched Kalin's cheek and hugged him. ”You need to make sure you come back and visit. If you're ever bored, you can just drop by. I'll feed you some sweets!” Kalin found himself sinking into her monstrous breasts and soft belly which threatened to engulf his upper body.
As Kalin struggled free, Mr. Hart gave the words, ”Anytime you need a job, you can walk in and we'll hire you, even temporarily.” Afterward, he didn't wait for a response and just walked away.
Laughing, his wife just teased, ”He's just shy. He doesn't speak much, but he's a huge softy.”
After leaving the store, and returning to the guild, Kalin noticed that Pauline wasn't at any of the counters. Approaching a free counter, a young man helped him receive confirmation for the completed quest. After paying the 10% fee that adventurers have to pay on all jobs as a tax, he received his one QP causing him to become a level one Adventurer.
Excited, Kalin made his way back to the inn before finding it empty of his two companions. As it was still before dinnertime, Kalin decided to head out and explore the neighborhood.