Chapter Two

  With winter he end, it was time to the east parlor. The room's door opened with a creak. Too drafty to use during the winter months, the manor closed it, and Harmony was scheduled to help get it ready for use during the warmer seasons.

  A thick yer of dust covered the room, gsses sat half empty, and a chair rested overturhe parlor was for eaining. With a strike table, darts, a bar, and even a small reading nook crammed into the rge room, options are based o preferences and sometimes get ged out during the year. Jessica, the early shift maid assigo ing the past few days, was smoking at the bar.

  The acrid st of her spice stick burned Harmony's he smell was s that she quickly closed the door behind her so as not to allow it to draw unwatention.

  "Jessica, what are you doing?" The question held more than a hint of accusation since she clearly hadn't been ing, and the gold-pted dish used to collect ash and stubs looked filled to the brim.

  "Why should I spend days dusting and scrubbing when it'll take you half an hour to get it doer?"

  "Skills aren't fair, but we still have work, and that's how you improve." Harmony may have pns bigger than w at the manor, but she never shirked. Whearted, everyone had beeer than her, a young girl with a css most found distasteful and others called evil.

  Jessica's eyes turned angry. The half-smoked stierated into a floating sphere of light, sht Harmony was forced to look away. "I'm a level twenty-four sun priestess with my maid profession matg it. Every skill is maxed out and leveled off. Let's see how you feel once you reach that barrier and are uo go higher. Even being a cheat won't be satisfying."

  Harmony wondered if Bates knew Jessica was feeling this way. Jessica gave an excellent light show for parties, but they were all repceable, so the neancer spoke with a warning. "This is a good job."

  Jessica dimmed her dispy. "Don't worry. I repced and recharged all the glow stones in the room. Getting a dder and doing all that work yourself would have taken you hours. After all, we all have our limitations." With that, she hopped off the bar stool and walked out, leaving Harmony in the messy albeit well-lit room.

  Through her [Familiar Bond], she summoned Hyath, who stepped out from a shadow.

  "Gr'tschu" The Toad sneezed from the lingering smoke.

  "Once I disturb this pce, there's sure to be some tasty scale spiders ing out of the ers. Catch them for me."

  The shadow toad's ability to handle dangerous pests, primarily by eating them, and her small size had earned her the job of ing rafters and other small spaces early on in Harmony's employment at the manetting bit by a Scale spider once was bad enough.

  Harmony focused on her css and profession skills, sliding her pn into them and her soul where she envisiohem. There was more to skills than their level and base use. Willpower, creativity, practice, and synergy opened a world of options in her case. Sure, you could use [Fireball] the same way every time to toast dungeos or [Dust] to sweep up a tle pile while ing. Skills were tools and malleable o that.

  Dust is made up of more than just dirt and sand. It is dead pnt matter like ash, pollen, and flecks of wood as well as bits of dead cells, skin, and hair from animals, even the corpses of tiny is. [Dust] synergized with [Manipute Dead]. Harmony pulled those bits together, and the bination of material that prised dust detached from the room's surfaces until they swirled around her like she stood in the middle of a dust devil.

  Oisfied that she got all of it, she directed the dust into a sizable pile on the floor. With the st bit of her mana, she used [Manipute Dead] to fuse what she could together and stre until it was a rocky brick she could pick up and dispose of ter.

  Maybe Jessica would be less frustrated with her stalled adva if she had been more creative with her skill usage. Harmony dismissed that thought. It isn't like she wasn't pying around with options outside of being a maid, and who knows how she would feel in a simir position. Still, that bitter woman could learn a thing or two.

  She remembered Mike, head of The Dig Boys, taking down a fighter with two levels, a bigger body, and a longer reach than him. "Beier is more about knowing how to use what you have than simply having higher skills and stats." He'd expined. At the time, Harmony had more than a little crush on the young man esc her into her first dungeon dive, but now years ter, his words stuck with her more than what he looked like.

  Satisfied, she got the whole room. She plopped her butt down on the newly floor, exhausted at the effort it took to do it. Lag any mana skills, levels from unlog her stats, that exhaustion was the only sign of her guessing how muergy she'd used.

  Hyath hopped happily to her, two hand-sized spiders twitg in their dark maw as he slowly mashed them down.

  "Good job."

  The toad grumbled happily. Its eyes fshed purple briefly.

  The maid started to feel better. She could sehe stream of mana ing from her familiar. A boeam. More loyal panions. Ambrosia always liked to talk about her pets simirly, which was one reason why that spell scroll appealed to her.

  Recharged, Harmony got up with a long stretd got to work tidying up, like pulling the darts and knives out of the target wall, stag the striker balls in their cubby, and moving to the loose cups and books that had been abandoned in various locations.

  It hurt her soul a little to see one of the books vigorously dogeared to the point where some of the pages were folded in such a way as to mark up the text. Dead trees, she told herself as she used her skill to undo some of the damage. She had to give up after fixing a little bit of it. The more something rocessed, the less her skill worked on it, mana exhaustion might not have been as bad as when she dusted the whole room, but she knew she wouldn't be able to finish with the book. Moving to shelve the book, she gave a once-over of the titles and failed to see anything new.

  Thibodeux on Skills ur one. Harmony disagreed with his specutions and ideas oopic, but she found some inspiration when she borrowed the book once or twice. He theorized that their base activation form was the best way to use skills. The fireball, the sweep of dust, the gust of wind, and any other usage was a waste. One was better off making those skill casts as quid sed nature as possible. He'd made a game of showing off how many fireballs he could release quickly and secutively and challehe other o beat him. Much of the book was about how awesome and uable he was.

  Borrowing educational books was as good as she could do for schooling. Even if the job had paid well enough for tuition to the academies, which it didn't, the job didn't allow for the time. She hoped there would be a new rotation of reading material for the parlor's book nook this season. The house library was under iron trol, and alternative sources like this one or Lord Tyler seemed to be the maid's only opportunity. One more reason to keep with Tyler, despite his quirks. As he purchased books, even if they teo be old or unusual, she knew she could get her hands on them.

  Bates' voice projected into the room. "The dy awaits."

  Harmony nearly dropped the book in her hand. Even after all these years, she hadn't gotteo how he managed some household chores.

  "e, Hyath, it's time for arip."

  Together they went to the darkest shadows behind the bar. There her familiar pulled them through the shadow space. They emerged from the shadows cast by Lady Coodly's vanity.

  "Oh, Harmony, you surprised me. I'd been informed about your new way of traveling, but it's different seeing it."

  Harmony didn't fail to notice that a knife in the old dy's hand disappeared moments before speaking. Rumor was she had some kind of evolved rogue css.

  Stepping out of her dark arrival location, the maid curtsied.

  "My apologies. I approach however you feel fortable."

  With an offhand, Lady Coodly dismissed that. "Do tell me. What are the range aris on it?"

  Inquiring about someone's skill details was sidered almost as rude as asking them the color of their undergarments. Not that everyone didn't know the color of the maid's undergarments at the manor, but such is the trol over the employees.

  "Hyath has to take me. I have no trol. It has to be a pce they are familiar with. I've been uo gain unication with my familiar enough to ask questions."

  "It's okay. Not everyone is blessed with a familiar smart enough to speak."

  Hyath rolled out a low purring angry grumble.

  Harmoally shushed him with all the strength of their bond. He quieted, but she khat if the dy had a cat, the toad would try to eat it.

  "Let's get started. I'm supposed to meet with the garden club for tea, and I want to try something daring. I've got sketches of some of the fashions from the capital. With one of their princes passing here, there is liable to be a visit."

  The ess of using the young man's death as an excuse to earn social points bothered Harmony, mainly because it reminded her of her goals and why she o accelerate them.

  Knowing what the dy likes, Harmony grabbed the most ostentatious sketches. Perfect for distrag her mind by testing her skills. [Beauti] is an artist's skill and synergized well with [Style and Grace]. Looking at Lady Coodly's wrinkled fad gray and white hair, she khat those skills, even w bined, couldn't meet the standards she wanted, but she also had her css.

  The maid ran her hand across her employer's face, shaping and thiing the dead skin cells. It smoothed out the wrinkles and covered the age spots, tightened up any sagging as a ttice of strengthened dead cells held everything together, even sharpening the appearance of the woman's cheekboo make them wildly exaggerated. It wasn't perfect, as it was almost like a white, semi-transparent mask c her face. But that was only the first step.

  eling [Renew Spirit] into her wave those dead cells a more life-like appearahe Lady would feel more energized for a brief period of time from the magic as well. It was then that she got to work with makeup and brushes.

  Astel, the dy's handmaid, had more experience here, so Harmony was gd for the opportunity to increase her skill as she worked hard to add the right touches to match the sketch's makeup and maybe make it a little bolder.

  Hair, however, no one could match Harmony with that. It was dead ao modify, an odd synergy with her beauty skills. Taking her fingers, she rahrough the gray, slightly brittle hair. Close tact made it take less effort. She adjusted the shape, strength, and color through her fingers, turning it into a vibrant e. Going outside the standard redhead, brue, and bloypes had been a hing she'd achieved with her level up to ten.

  The involuntary oohing from her mistress brought a slight smile to the maid's fabsp;

  "I'd hate to steal my grandson's favorite maid away, but you work miracles. Astel has been with me forever. As they say, everything progresses. I foretell big things for you at the manor once we get your levels up."

  "Yes, my dy. I always try my best." Harmony answered as demurely as she could. Inwardly she cursed herself for showing off some. She still yler for a bit. Repg Astel wasn't her dream.

  "Astel, I'm ready to go to the party!"

  The other maid stepped into the room. She'd clearly been waiting, and from the gre she gave, Harmony knew Astel had been listening in.

  Rather than stand uhat scathing look, Harmony slipped out of the room with her familiar trailing. Out of sight, her chest rexed again. There had to be some skill usage in that look. The idea of her repg Astel was ridiculous. The older maid had to have evolved both her css and profession. Nothing about her screamed stu adva like Jessio, Astel seemed happy to work busily for the matriarbsp;

  The flict between doing her best and wanting not to stand out was one of the reasons Harmony never ged her straight bck hair or updated her looks. Being willing to do the worst jobs, like ing Tyler's room or w with Hyanth to take care of pest invasions, was buying her less goodwill with the other staff than she liked. Even in a city with a neantigeon, there was animosity towards those who held the css, and she'd finally reached a tolerable state by avoiding attention.

  Pulling herself bato work mode, It was time to lord Tyler's room and see if she could gain one more favor from the man.