Sorry not sister I meant cousin, I remember her name now Katie. But hey if you want to give me Kath I'll take her too. I swear if it was ever 50 and I was one away the completionist in me is gonna scream!!! Like I said before is there another way to earn money other than working for Chloe? I feel I didn't manage my time efficiently enough solely working for her to earn money like there could have been an alternative.
Also does leveling up the swordsmanship do extra damage? Sorry for the tons of questions just tried the game a few days ago for the first time and it really just got me. Plus good to hear that you already working on book 2.
Best way to make money is hitting Elsewhere; once you start mowing down poor innocent creatures of Elsewhere in industrial lots you level up (gaining stats) gain gems and cash quite easily.
I didn't want to force that, since some people really aren't into the poker game, but that's the easiest way to gain power without cheating. It's also the canon approach; MC levels up, and drags the rest of them along with him.
As an aside, even if you *don't* fight in Elsewhere, there's a ton of events you trigger at the rest stop, shrine and treasure. So it's still worth doing.
Swordsmanship is used for unlocking an event with Emily, and various characters (mostly X) will make comments about your progress throughout book 1. In Book 2, using the sword will become a combat thing, which charges in similar ways to the allies.