Chapter 157: Morning Mediation

By the time the first orange rays of the morning sun peeked through the window and illuminate the wooden floorboard, the room's current occupant was already up and sitting in the middle of the room in a lotus position. 

As the ray of light slowly crept closer and gave light to the half-naked upper torso, the small glistening drops of sweat that covered his body 

The small, glistening drops of sweat that covered his entire bare chest reflected the singular ray of light. He had his eyes closed and had a calm, serene expression over his face. If someone uninitiated could have look at him, he or she could mistakenly think that he is a weirdo that slept that way, and he would be gravely mistaken.

The boy was in a deep state of his meditation that he kept up for several hours now. He woke before the sun and was meditating ever since. Feeling the warmth of the illumination that the morning sun basked himself in, his closed eyelids slowly pulled apart, revealing the golden irises and milky sclera.

His normally calm expression was disfigured by the small cheeky curve at the edges of his lips. He was rather satisfied by the results of his short meditation. He glanced at the Character Screen of his System's interface once again, as the small curve turned into a wider, satisfied smile.

[Mediation ended. Effective time spent: 02 hours 25 minutes 53 seconds. Experience gained: 8753 XP]

He was creeping closer and closer to the next threshold for leveling up his [Soul Power]. Currently, it was looking as follows:

[Soul Power: 1100 (Level 2 - 9503 / 10000 XP)]

Although the level up would not necessarily increase the pool itself, instead, if it was like before, it would provide a qualitative jump. He would be able to utilize it better, using less for maintaining his costlier abilities, while also providing a significant increase in power for his [Mystic Martial Arts] as that directly utilized it. He could make his kicks and punches faster while also carrying even more strength.

His only slight problem was the fact that by Meditating he could not gain points for his generic pool. Apart from increasing the level of his skills, he also wanted to find out what would it mean if he would increase his own levels. So far, every level gave him a small increase in his attributes and Soul Power. However, he had no idea what would happen if he would happen to reach that maximum hundred. What could happen? Back in the Pocket World, he asked Enya multiple times, but she never answered, nor did he could directly query the system for anything related to that. It was a complete mystery. He only had a vague feeling that reaching it would be important for him.

Standing up, Aiden's first destination wasn't to leave the room and go downstairs for some breakfast, but to head to the side door that would lead to a smaller, cleaning room. Although one could also call it and actually use it as a closet, as the only two 'furniture' in it was a moderate-sized wooden tub that was filled with water every-day by the staff and could be used to soak in it, and a small also wooden toilet that looked similar to a large bucket with some additional planks placed at the top of it creating a crude seating. The bottom part of it was enchanted and would transport all the 'input' to somewhere else that did not need any sort of investigation.

The bathtub also had a small wooden handle attached to the right side that held soap in it. Walking over Aiden who already ditched his undergarment slowly stepped into the bathtub and let himself submerge in the still warm water. Thanks to some easy enchantments, the tub could keep the temperature for a full day, hence the reason for the daily refills.

After about half an hour, the side door opened again, and a clean and refreshed Aiden walked out. He already had his regular simple and cheap-looking linen cloth attire on him. He left his long ebony hair drop freely from his shoulders, that looked even shinier than usual after the morning bath. 

As he stepped towards the main door of his room, his thoughts came back to yesterday's events, and he couldn't help but smile and shake his head.

'I still have a lot to learn…' he mumbled to himself as pictures of yesterday resurfaced in his mind.

---

***Back in the Guild's Hall, the previous night***

After noticing that one spot on the map he was given was circled with different ink, he thought nothing of it and wanted to ask for the reason. His first thought was that it was probably another potential tavern that maybe the management missed or something among these lines. 

However, the girl, Mary, had a very strange reaction to his question. She began to fidget, blood seemed to color her cheeks and she just couldn't phrase a single sentence correctly. Her flustered state was a complete mystery to him. 

It didn't help at all to solve the mystery behind her actions when Cole revealed that the building was her own home and not a tavern. Why would he mark that? Did she have a vacant bed that she wanted to offer to him in case none of the taverns and inns would be suitable?

Aiden looked at Cole with a questioning stare before turning his head and looking at Mary whose face was so red, and from the looks of it, she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"Is that your house, Mary?" Aiden asked with the same questioning look as he pointed at the blueish circle on the map. The building was only a few blocks away from the guild's building, making it the second-closest location to spend the night.

"Y-y-yes." A meek, barely audible whisper was pressured out from Mary's closed mouth after a bit of struggle. She averted her gaze, she couldn't even look at Aiden's general direction. Even the floor seemed slightly scary at this point. Right now, she was so ashamed of her own actions that if she could find a spot she would gladly bury herself and hide. 

Why did she do something like this? She never behaved this way. 

"I-i-i… w-w-wanted t-to... " she stuttered in the same meek voice. She stopped, and took a few breaths, and slowly exhaled before continuing with a bit more willpower, but still rather weak compared to her previous cheerful attitude. 

"In case… you would like to… I have a free room… You could… ehrm… use… waaaah!" She couldn't continue and began to shake. With shaky legs, she took a step back behind the counter and fell on her bum in the next moment. She hid her face in her palms, not daring to look up at the boy's handsome face..

Seeing her actions and strange behavior, Aiden didn't know what to do or say. Was he rude at some point? Should he have done something? Was she under some spell or effect? He couldn't understand why she was behaving this way at all.

He scratched the back of his head as he looked at the smirking boy next to him with a helpless expression. 

"Did I do something?" He could only ask the boy, as he couldn't find any answer himself.

Cole shook his head, but the smirk didn't leave his face.

"No Aiden, you didn't. If you didn't understand her intentions, then there is no point in explaining. This is a question that you yourself have to find the answer to."

Freeing the map from Aiden's grip, Cole spread it out and glanced at it. Checking the few closest marked buildings, his eyes finally landed on one that he knew.

"Here, this one. The Salty Pig. They are cheap, have pretty good meals, and the service itself is better than most! Coincidentally it's the same one where I am at."

Hearing his words, Aiden checked the marked building that Cole was pointing at. It wasn't the closest, but also not too far away, slightly closer to the marketplace than the Guild's Hall but that was still manageable. 

Since he had no information about any of these establishments, and he had no reason to not to trust his words, Aiden quickly agreed. 

Before they would have left, however, he looked at the still sobbing girl sitting on the floor behind the counter. She kept mumbling something that Aiden couldn't make out, even as he tried to focus. Most of what she muttered was unintelligent garbles. The only phrase he could make out, and only because it was repeated over and over again was "...Stupid, stupid Mary, what are you doing, he probably thinks you are a creep now!"

Not sure what to do or say, Aiden sighed, and tried to think back on his interactions with Lily when she was upset or sad.

In the end, he only helplessly smiled and spoke with the same care and warmth in his voice when tried to console his sister.

"Don't be sad, Mary, you did nothing wrong. I will go for now, but I hope I can see you some more tomorrow, I really enjoyed talking to you!"

With that said, he turned around and walked towards the exit with the still smirking Cole following quickly behind. 

As he left, Mary sobbing eventually stopped, and behind the sniffing, a childish giggle could be heard. Mostly to herself, she mumbled with a wide smile on her still rosy face.

"Ehehe, he said he enjoyed talking with me!"