After the crowd cleared and Elizabeth was left alone with the stranger, the stranger gave her a cursory look and smiled. With the rise of the corners of her lips, the atmosphere seemed to change and become less tense. Elizabeth found a sense of security being next to this foreign woman, yet the reason for her quick acceptance was not just because of her timely rescue.The woman said "You and I should talk now." She pointed at a coffee shop not 20 meters away from where they were standing and waited for Elizabeth"s response.
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but considering the fact that this stranger had helped her out of a rut and that sense of security still loomed over her, she decided to nod her head and follow through with becoming acquaintances.
The two of the made their way over to the coffee shop, with Elizabeth still carrying a couple bags filled with the clothes and accessories she had previously purchased. The duo entered a Stellarbucks and after waiting in line, the foreign woman ordered a "coffee."
Her order, as absurd as it was to Elizabeth, read as "Yeah can I get uh… Venti Salted Caramel Frappuccino, no cla.s.sic or base sweetener, soy to the second line, one scoop vanilla bean, one pump skinny mocha, 1 scoop of ice, regular and chocolate sprinkles, blended on speed level 3, three times, please?"
Astonishingly, the Stellarbucks barista didn"t even bat an eye as she wrote down the instructions as if it were a normal matter. The barista said "Name?" and Elizabeth at last knew of her benefactor"s name, "Jane."
Next it was Elizabeth"s turn to order, but she had never been a fan of coffee. She said "Iced Green Tea… Small… Split the order, I pay for mine..." The barista worked with robotic levels of performance, and quickly reworked the order to have Elizabeth pay her side without destroying the "list" required for Jane"s coffee; the action caused Jane to look depressed as her good intentions were rejected.
Elizabeth paid for her tea and received a receipt stating that she ordered a "Tall" Green Iced Tea. She almost rushed back to ask why, but Jane explained it to her while they were waiting for their orders to be made. She said "Sophie, the sizes of the cups here at Stellarbucks are a bit odd compared most other establishments. I know you just arrived from London, but don"t they have Stellarbucks over there as well?"
Again with this Sophie? Elizabeth became sluggish at the realization that her benefactor had helped her by mistake, and awkwardly conveyed that she had gotten her mixed up with someone else. "Um… My name is not Sophie..."
Jane"s face froze as she looked at Elizabeth. She seemed to be deep in her thoughts for some reason, but before she could respond, both their orders were ready for the taking. Elizabeth took her Iced Green Tea before waiting for Jane to respond. In earnest, she wanted to give a word of thanks, but that crippling social state of hers would not allow it.
"Mhmm..." Jane took her coffee and decided to continue interacting with Elizabeth. She gestured towards one of the booths within the coffee shop and after the two girls sat down, they began talking.
"Hahaha… I"m sorry to have confused you with someone else. It"s just, I know someone who"s remarkably similar to you that was going to come here from overseas. I"ve never met her before, but you two have very similar descriptions. Only now that I"m taking a closer look do I realize you really aren"t her."
"Sorry..."
"You don"t need to apologize..." she paused for a second, as if to make a hard decision, then continued saying "You know… there was actually a reason I unquestionably thought you were my friend from overseas. Even if we aren"t friends now..." As she started this sentence, Jane raised her left hand to be eye level and a cold mist enveloped it. "It never hurts to make friends in the Martial Society."
The moment Elizabeth looked at the mysteriously icy hand Jane manifested, a prompt from her status functions roared in her mind.
[Alert! Qi Detected!
Updating Status…
Status
Name: Jane
Level: ~14/15
Rank: Martial Soldier]
At first Elizabeth was surprised, but considering that Jane helped her because she looked similar to someone she knew, and both Jane and that other girl were part of a Martial Society, it made sense to be mislead as not everyone had Inner Strength — given that Elizabeth was severely outranked and also didn"t possess any camouflaging techniques, it wasn"t hard for Jane to know that she had cultivated Inner Strength.
She wasn"t at all fazed by knowing that other regular humans could be pract.i.tioners, because in the same light that Jane detected her, Elizabeth could detected faint, almost flickering-weak, lights of Inner Strength in some common folk after she entered the mall.
Elizabeth knew she would have to train physically anyways, and there just so happened to be a person she knew who was also a pract.i.tioner of Inner Strength. Furthermore, it would probably be better to learn from others before delving into the Shadow Realm and getting destroyed by reality.
Seeing this opportunity present itself so timely made even the unwilling Elizabeth give up her taciturn patterns of speech; she still hesitated though. She said "You… What faction are you from?"
Jane"s eyes squinted from the question, but she responded regardless of the fact "Atid"s Dojo."
"Can I go there… practice?"
Jane looked surprised for a second, not at all expecting Elizabeth to ask if she could visit the Dojo for training. She guessed that Elizabeth was already part of a faction because of the quant.i.ty of Inner Strenght she possessed, but now that was being called into question. Her previously tight face loosened into a nice smile as she said "Sure." Thereafter Jane gave Elizabeth a business card and left as she had finished drinking that abomination she called "coffee."
Elizabeth now left alone in the Stellarbucks booth also finished her beverage before leaving. She somehow managed to journey out of the shopping mall with no more unwanted attention being thrown her way, and after an arduous fifty minutes of walking, she finally made it back to her home.
Elizabeth stored most of her recently purchased apparel away, only leaving one set of clothes out to change into, lest she stain her beginner armor set. She stored her weapons away in her purse along with her acupuncture kit and changed all the cards within her old wallet into the new one before tossing that as well into her purse.
For now, there were no more distractions needing to be taken care of, so she returned to meditation to build up more Inner Strength. Now that she knew of a place with other pract.i.tioners, she could forgo the thought of training alone and learn from experts. But before that, her training would not last long without a healthy reserve of Inner Strength to support the parts of her body she would be developing.
Elizabeth changed the sheets of her untidy bed and entered meditation once again after adjusting her mental state accordingly. Interestingly enough, she managed to enter the Pseudo-Selfless State a bit faster this time around as her mind more easily gave way to a relaxed state upon leaving the stressful state of a social climate.
This time, the meditation lasted far longer than the one prior as no distractions piled on Elizabeth"s body for over half a day. Still, the feeling of coming out of meditation was unpleasant as it signified that she had needs that needed being taken care of. And upon leaving meditation for the second time, Elizabeth needed sleep.
Meditation could replace sleep entirely if one cultivated enough Inner Strength, but for the current Elizabeth, that was an impossibility. At most she could stay at her peak state of functioning for a while longer than a regular person, but with her meager amount of Inner Strength, that would barely give her a couple more hours.
Alas, she was still not through with expelling the impurities and foul air contained at the core of her body; not even close. Thus, upon awakening from this meditation session, she had to take another shower as the rotten smell of impurities would lead her to dying of exhaustion before sleep would initiate over the putrid smell.
There went one of the sets of clothes she had just bought, but the exhaustion weighing over her mind as well as the fact that she had technically endless amounts of money, allowed her to not feel saddened by the loss. Elizabeth took another arduous shower, before crawling over to the sofa in the living room and falling dead asleep the moment she rested her body in a comfortable position.