Chapter 124

Chapter 124: Don’t stay home, please! part

“You got me good, since when did you become so strong?”

Luke massaged his jaw after drinking the healing potion Ryu gave him.

“Ever since I turned off some of my passive skills”

“Why would you do that? OH! so that’s why you got so much energy, I see”

“Yes, I think I had too many passives active and they constantly consumed my energy”

The two were still chatting, even after the girls regained their consciousness.

“So, where are we going tonight? you can’t stay here moping all day after a break up, you need to get back to dating as soon as possible or you’ll become rusty”

.....

“I don’t know, I’m not in the mood really”

“You beat the crap out of me, you owe me this much”

“Fine, I’ll go”

“Mister Ryu!”

Sera yelled as if her life depended on it.

“What got into you?”

“I would like to go out with you”

Sera said in a straightforward manner.

“It’s not possible, tonight it will be a boys night. Let’s go pick Bob up”

Luke proclaimed, nodding with his eyes closed.

Luke and Ryu headed downstreet, where Bob was living with Veronika. Despite knowing the location, Ryu had never been inside. That wasn’t because Bob didn’t want to invite him, but Ryu was always busy and the chances of meeting were few.

The house was big and fancy, it was also well maintained. Except for cooking whenever Bob came, Veronika didn’t do any chores in the house. When they first arrived they were considered somewhat wealthy, but doing high rank quests and obtaining rare materials they became rich for this town’s standards.

“Hey Luke, why are you still living with us? You rent a place like this, just like Bob”

“Rent? he bought the house”

“What!?”

“You really don’t know the first thing. Remember the red cobra I killed the other day?”

Ryu nodded in reply.

“How much high quality leather do you think they made with it? think of it’s size! and that wasn’t all, it had poison glands and huge fangs, they were all considered high ranking materials”

“I guess that makes sense, but I heard houses in here are pretty expensive”

“They are, of course, but everyone wants us to stay in this city, so they gave Bob a loan. He also got a discount because just by moving in, the price of the neighborhood rose up to the skies. Anyway, let’s go inside”

“You’re not going to knock?”

“Why should we? does he ever knock when he comes to the shop?”

“Uh, that’s right”

Without much trouble, Luke dodged Ryu’s question. The reason he still doesn’t move out of the shop is because he wants to stay close to Sera and Mia, but he couldn’t say something like that to Ryu.

“Excuse me, Bob are you there?”

“Upstairs!”

A shout was heard from the staircase, where they found a shirtless Bob polishing his armor.

“Wow, that looks neat!”

“Really? I would prefer a robe”

Bob sighed.

“You’re still trying to become a mage uh”

Ryu chuckled, but when Bob saw him he immediately dropped what he was doing.

“Ryu, you look like crap! did you find out the rumors Lorenzo had been spreading?”

“What? no, I couldn’t care less about that. Rina broke up with me”

“Oh man! that’s terrible! I’m so sorry”

He went in for a hug and Ryu let him, but it wasn’t over. Bob lifted him up and shook him a little.

“I’m really sorry to hear that, it must have hurt. Here, sit down, you can tell me everything about it”

Bob was never that talkative, but seeing his friend like that, the least he could offer was to hear him out. There wasn’t much to say about it, it was a short letter after all, but it improved Ryu’s mood.

“You’re really good at comforting people Bob, if you were at the shop he wouldn’t have lashed out and it would have spared me a lot of pain”

“Did Ryu hit you?”

Luke nodded.

“And, did it hurt?”

“It hurt like hell”

“You’re not making this up?”

Luke shook his head in response.

“This is great news! it means we can all go hunt together now!”

“Really? really!? I’m telling you he almost killed me with a punch to the face and that’s what you say? Why do I even want enemies!”

“Ryu, can I ask you to hit me too? not on the face of course, just my hand. Here, punch me with all you got”

Ryu did as Bob asked. The punch was fast, a clapping sound followed by a stream of air that rattled the stuff lying around in the room was evidence of that, but Bob remained unfazed.

“Seems you got stronger than Luke”

“I’m only a thief after all, what did you expect? If I used any skills I could have beaten him up in a second”

“And Ryu doesn’t even have a class... judging by strength alone, he’s stronger than you, but you’re probably right. Skills make a huge difference. Anyways, why did you come here? you could have called me”

“Hehe, I was expecting Ryu to lash out at you too”

Luke chuckled evilly.

“If he hit you, then you probably deserved it”

“I’m sorry ok, I didn’t mean it”

Veronika walked in and interrupted their chatting.

“Mister Ryu, I’m pleased to have you around here. Will you be staying for dinner?”

“Hi Veronika! I’m right here too!”

“I know, I noticed. So, mister Ryu?”

“I don’t think so, Luke invited me to a boys night out so...”

Ryu was feeling a bit awkward, he thought maybe Veronika wouldn’t allow Bob to go out since he always declined going for drinks after questing saying Veronika expected him early. But what happened was something entirely different.

“Goodness! that’s great! Please take him and don’t let him come back until he’s passed out drunk. I’ve been nagging him everyday to go out and have his share of fun, but he always says he prefers staying at home with me”

Bob had a guilty expression on his face as his companions glared at him. After a short while they went out for drinks to a local tavern far away from the adventurer’s guild. none of them wanted to meet people they knew, not because they were up for something nasty, but because they were tired os seeing the same faces all the time.

As usual, Luke was the most outgoing in the group and quickly drew the attention of the people towards him. The waitress tried to flirt with Bob, but he simply shrank on his seat and kept drinking, that was one of the reasons he didn’t like going out. Both heroes emanated a strong energy, reason why even people who never seen them before knew they were strong.

Ryu’s case was different, possessing so many passive skills and a curse both draining his energy, it was difficult for him to stand out. It didn’t mean he was any less handsome than his friends, but in this world people focused not only in appearance and wealth, power was the most important factor. This was for many reasons, but the main reason was that newborns had a chance of inheriting their parent’s stats.

The son of a strong adventurer may be as strong as said adventurer, having a strong son could mean a bright future for the entire family. Women didn’t even care if the adventurer just wanted a one night stand, as long as they had even a slight chance of bearing their child they were happy.

In the end, most women around threw themselves at the couple of heroes and they encountered all sorts of situations, but Ryu didn’t mind being left out. He had fun joking around with his friends and was happy to be comforted by them.

When Ryu opened his eyes and noticed he was back home it was already late in the morning. He didn’t even remember how did he got back to the shop, let alone what happened with his friends. He tried to get up, but something heavy was preventing him to move. Thinking it was the amarok, who always tried to disobediently sleep on top of the bed, he simply lifted the bed sheets over it, making Sera and Mia roll down the bed and fall.

“Ow! it hurts!”

Mia rubbed her sore naked butt.

“Good morning mister Ryu”

.....

Sera climbed back to the bed and tried to kiss Ryu, but he quickly withdrew.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“Don’t you remember? you asked us to sleep with you last night”

Mia explained innocently.

“Oh, I see, so nothing happened”

Ryu sighed in relief.

“Actually...”

Sera grinned mischievously.