“... it feels strange walking back like this.” Lua said. “Kind of reminds me of coming home from a quest.”
“It is strange. I’ve only really gotten into the town in a carriage or through the air.” Alice agreed.
“We did walk in a few times.” I reminded her. “But I suppose those were us just practicing on the fields, so maybe they don’t count.”
“Yeah, they don’t count.” Alice said. “What about you Brian? Remind you of anything?”
“I guess it reminds me of the first time I got into town.” I thought back on the first time I walked into this town. This town that really turned me into the person I am now. I can just imagine what might have happened if I didn’t have such a warm welcome. Would I be some sort of a villain? Maybe I would have become the next demon lord, using a Chaos God Dungeon to make my monsters into real people?
“Didn’t think this would remind you of that. You are more … daring now.” Lua commented.
“And you aren’t as closed off as you were back then. I mean you don’t even wear a hooded cloak anymore.” I told Lua. “Still a shame you hide your wings. I wish you kept them out.”
“... They just … get too much attention. And of course I’d be more outgoing after my curse was cured.” Lua said. “But let’s be honest here, between the two of us, you are the one that changed more. You were so meek and apologetic back then. You even apologized for killing the horned bison we were looking for.”
“Oh yeah. With Frenzied Panda and Spear Cretin. Good times.” I thought back on the first C-rank monster I took down.
Spoiler“It is strange to think that Brian could ever have been like that.” Alice said.
“Well, back then I was like LV.5. I only had 20 or so monsters I could summon, and they were all still single use. And the strongest monsters I could use were Boar Soldier and Flash Assailant, both of whom have negative effects that make them weaker. And I didn’t even know how powerful the locals are.”
Spoiler“I mean, it took two of my monsters, one of them having 1200 attack, to take down a C-rank monster. And I just happened to run into a party of adventurers that were hunting down that monster. I didn’t know how strong Prime Rib was. Maybe they could take on even something like Flash Assailant and if I made them mad, I could have died then and there.”
“We wouldn’t do that.” Lua said.
“I know, but I didn’t know that back then. I was just trying to be careful. I didn’t know your fame and let’s be honest, there was some slight hostility from both sides, not just me.”
“... Should I apologize on Zay’s behalf?” Lua wondered.
“Nah. I understand where he was coming from. Just like myself, he was trying to keep himself and his party safe.” I answered. “I could have just as easily been the bad guy that sicks my panda onto you.”
“... could we not talk about this.” Alice requested. “It makes me feel uneasy, thinking about the what ifs.”
“Yeah. I agreed.”
“... well now I feel like the Goddess is messing with us.” I commented as I saw who was guarding the gate to Alewatch.
“It does seem so. And he always used to be at the south gate, so why is he at the north one?” Lua wondered.
“We can ask.” Alice said.
As we approached the guard, he also noticed us.
“Lady Alice, Brian, Lua. Welcome back.” Mario called out.
“Hey Mario. How have you been?” I asked.
“... busy with work. Because of that dungeon, a lot of people have been coming into the town. I do hope you can stay at Lady Alice’s house, as I don’t think there are any free rooms in the inns. Even a lot of us that have empty space in our houses are renting out to the hopefuls.” Mario said.
“Wow. It’s that bad?”
“You should see Zay. He complains about the amount of work on a daily basis. He even got Lex out of retirement to help him.”
“... god. Maybe I should complain to Wendy? I wonder if she will send someone here to help.”
“Wendy? I don’t think I know her.”
“And you are better not knowing.” Lua said. “Just extra stress.”
“... alright. I won’t.” Mario agreed. “I know it is a formality, but I do need to see your cards. And you aren’t bringing in anything dangerous, right?”
“Just the entire US nuclear arsenal, but other than that, no.” I joked, but let’s be honest here, with all of my cards, I probably could do that kind of devastation. Maybe.
“Can you ever be serious?” Lua asked.
“What even is ‘US nuclear arsenal’?” Alice added.
“I’ll tell you some other time.”
After showing our cards, we got some congratulations on getting to A-rank from Mario. I will fully admit that I was a little worried about him, because … you know, the entire Rico dying part, but he did seem relatively fine. But that might just be him losing himself in his work.
“... excuse us.” Lua said as she opened the door to a butcher store. Alice and I followed her inside.
“Ah? Lua? You are back? When did you arrive in town?” Mrs. Moon asked.
“Just a bit ago. We came to see you first.” Lua answered. “... but really. I don’t think I’ve seen your store this low on meat … ever.”
“Yes. It does all get sold in town. But you knew that already, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did hear about it.”
“But with the high ranking adventurers coming to town, there is also a lot of money available. So maybe you happen to have something interesting you would let go? If even half of what I’ve heard is true, you must have something.” Mrs. Moon asked and I was half expecting her to rub her hands together.
Lua quickly turned to me and asked. “Can I sell some to her?”
“Sure. Dragon meat, the SS-ranks, whatever you prefer.”
“Don’t go that far, hero. I don’t have the cash for those kinds of things.”
“... I can let some dragon meat go for cheap … ish. It isn’t from true dragons anyway, so it isn’t that crazy. Tastes really good though.”
Truth be told, I have a few dragons worth of raw dragon meat in Storage. It originates from Tyrant Dragons that Lua and Ria drain for blood. I just use that chance to take the meat as ‘raw roasts’. It falls somewhere in the category of absolute bullshit my cards can do, but it isn’t my fault that Mystik Wok is overpowered when it comes to food production.
Spoiler“... Well, since you are offering, maybe I can afford ten kilos of it? I think I can get that sold.”
“Sure. That’ll be ten gold coins.” I agreed.
“... are you kidding me?” Mrs. Moon asked.
“... No? I think that is a reasonable price for dragon meat. I mean, the only place I’ve seen that sells dragon meat is the Hero’s country, and there it originates from a dungeon. And it sells for about three or four gold per kilo. I’m just giving you a good discount.”
“... that is only for the cheapest crap you can buy. Those imitation dragons shouldn’t even be called dragons. They aren’t even dragons. Just wyverns with extra limbs.”
“... remind me not to compare the two in front of Agunan.” I muttered to myself. “But do you want some or not?”
“Of course I’ll take it.” Mrs. Moon said. “Just don’t come crying to me when you find out how much I sold it for.”
“... I just offered behemoth steaks for my guests at a party, you don’t need to talk to me about money.” I told her. “... speaking of, I might have a few leftovers. Would you like one? Free of charge, because you were Lua’s teacher.”
“Does it come with some stories? Those are what I really want.” Mrs. Moon requested.
I looked at the girls, well mainly Alice. I know Lua wants to spend more time with her old teacher. But since Alice nodded, might as well go along with this.
After our not so brief stop, which turned into a full lunch, at Mrs. Moon’s, we headed for the next place. It was a decently sized townhouse, with an alright yard. It was actually a house I’ve never visited, but Alice wanted to come, and we just agreed.
“Trystan? Are you home?” Alice called out as she knocked on the front door.
Trystan? … He was …
(Alice’s magic instructor. You really should remember him.) Laura reminded me.
“... He must not be home.” Lua said after we waited a bit.
“... I guess so. Hope he is alright.” Alice said.
“And here I thought you didn’t like him.” Lua said.
“... It’s complicated.”
“Let’s just head to the guild for now. I think we technically need to report that we are in town, being A-rank and all.” I reminded the two, though we would visit the guild anyway. I mean, a lot of our friends could be there.
As we approached the guild, we began hearing some sounds that sounded like someone was using magic on the guilds training grounds. Did Zay add magic practice to the lessons the guild is offering? I don’t recall giving him a single Spellcaster type monster though. He does have Dancing Fairy and Wingweaver, but that should be it for the magical side. The others are all swordsmen or other close range fighters.
But once we got there, a magic lesson was certainly going on and instructed by the man we were just looking for at his house.
“... should we go talk to him now?” I asked.
“Let’s not. He is in charge of multiple people that seem like they don't really know what they are doing.” Alice said. “And I can thank him for his help later.
“Inside we go then. Want to bet can we meet Zay? He might be too busy for a meeting.”
“He might, but he will make time for us and curse himself later.” Lua said.
“I bet one kiss that we can meet him.” Alice offered.
“I’ll take you up on that.” I agreed with her.
“Hey! No fair. Brian. With me as well.” Lua demanded.
“Of course.”
As predicted by Lua, we were quickly taken to the guild master’s office when we appeared inside the guild. Though I feel like it might have partially been because we were getting too much attention at the guild. I mean, the three of us are kind of celebrities in this town, saving the town a few times and all that.
As we got to the room, Zay looked up from a pile of papers he was sorting through with a squad of Dancing Fairies … they aren’t really helping him, but I think they are trying to help. So yeah, helping him, but likely just being in the way.
“Hey Zay.” Lua was the first to speak. “I see that you are doing well.”
“... haah. I think you and I have a different definition of well.” Zay answered. “I haven’t had a day that has lasted under 14 hours in three weeks. At least Lex takes over one day of the week so I can have a day off. I’d probably quit if he didn’t.”
“... Should I say I’m sorry?” I asked.
“For what? This isn’t exactly on you. The dungeon is nothing but good, we just …”
“Growing pains?”
“I wouldn’t word it like that, but yes. Getting used to everything. You really should have been here a few weeks ago.”
“The food crisis?”
“You know about … of course you would. Lady Watchman visited your home, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, she did. I wanted to invite you, but I know you would have felt awkward among all the nobles. And besides, can’t pull both of you from the town.”
“... Understandable, and I do appreciate it. Lady Christina is one thing, but other nobles I’m not so sure about.” Zay said. “So, did you need something?”
“Nah. Just came to say hi and inform the guild that we’ll be hanging around the town for some time.” I told him.
“Alright. Thanks. I should get back to my work, unless you want to help.”
“I can get you some coffee or energy drinks. Want to try them?”
“Don’t really know what they are, but if you think they’ll help, sure.”
“They should make you feel more awake. I’ll have some brought to you tomorrow. The one that will deliver it will likely be a cat-folk teenager, either Einar or Eline. I’ll make some extra so that the receptionists can also have some.” I told him. “Also, I heard a bit from Christina, but you still have some of the cards I gave you. The ones you gift new Card Summoners in return for them reporting that they got the skill.”
“Plenty. But I do know at least one that is disappointed with his card. Saying that he would have preferred a dragon.”
“Well, he can buy one off of me. I do have some not so strong dragons as well. You can tell him I’m in town and have someone set up a meeting.”
“... Can’t you do that?”
“I guess I could, but I don’t know who the adventurer is.”
“Goes by the name Tye. A B-ranker. He is in a party with Alex, so maybe try finding him.”
“Tye? He got Card Summoner?”
“... you know him?”
“He almost killed me, so yes.”
“... do I want to know?”
“Just a summoner fight that kind of got out of hand. I was kind of in the firing line of an attack from his spirit tiger.”
“... please don’t make that the guilds problem.”
“It is no longer a problem. That happened a while ago. Did I really never tell you?”
“I don’t recall you doing so, but then again, with how busy I am, I don’t have time to recall things. Now get out of here so I can get back to work, unless you actually have something important.”
“Nah, I think we are done for today. Thanks for your time, Zay.”
With that, we left the GM’s office. Once we were back down stairs, we were once again surrounded by some of the adventurers, a lot of them asking for stories of our battles. I didn’t really want to bother too much, but at the same time, I should entertain them a bit. And I do have the perfect way of doing so, so I opened up Dungeon Founder and used the System screen to display the fight between Alice and the Ursa Major. God I love my makeshift movie screen. It is way too convenient.
We, well mainly Alice, had a short talk with Trystan. Alice made sure to thank him for being her instructor and for making her the mage she is today. She even showed Trystan her papers that titled her a great witch.
Trystan was very proud of her old student, and more than a few of the adventurers were asking if Alice would ever try to become a sage. She just responded ‘maybe’ and left it at that.
After a bit more time spent at the guild, we left so we could head towards Alice’s home.
“... it feels strange walking back like this.” Lua said. “Kind of reminds me of coming home from a quest.”
“It is strange. I’ve only really gotten into the town in a carriage or through the air.” Alice agreed.
“We did walk in a few times.” I reminded her. “But I suppose those were us just practicing on the fields, so maybe they don’t count.”
“Yeah, they don’t count.” Alice said. “What about you Brian? Remind you of anything?”
“I guess it reminds me of the first time I got into town.” I thought back on the first time I walked into this town. This town that really turned me into the person I am now. I can just imagine what might have happened if I didn’t have such a warm welcome. Would I be some sort of a villain? Maybe I would have become the next demon lord, using a Chaos God Dungeon to make my monsters into real people?
“Didn’t think this would remind you of that. You are more … daring now.” Lua commented.
“And you aren’t as closed off as you were back then. I mean you don’t even wear a hooded cloak anymore.” I told Lua. “Still a shame you hide your wings. I wish you kept them out.”
“... They just … get too much attention. And of course I’d be more outgoing after my curse was cured.” Lua said. “But let’s be honest here, between the two of us, you are the one that changed more. You were so meek and apologetic back then. You even apologized for killing the horned bison we were looking for.”
“Oh yeah. With Frenzied Panda and Spear Cretin. Good times.” I thought back on the first C-rank monster I took down.
Spoiler“It is strange to think that Brian could ever have been like that.” Alice said.
“Well, back then I was like LV.5. I only had 20 or so monsters I could summon, and they were all still single use. And the strongest monsters I could use were Boar Soldier and Flash Assailant, both of whom have negative effects that make them weaker. And I didn’t even know how powerful the locals are.”
Spoiler“I mean, it took two of my monsters, one of them having 1200 attack, to take down a C-rank monster. And I just happened to run into a party of adventurers that were hunting down that monster. I didn’t know how strong Prime Rib was. Maybe they could take on even something like Flash Assailant and if I made them mad, I could have died then and there.”
“We wouldn’t do that.” Lua said.
“I know, but I didn’t know that back then. I was just trying to be careful. I didn’t know your fame and let’s be honest, there was some slight hostility from both sides, not just me.”
“... Should I apologize on Zay’s behalf?” Lua wondered.
“Nah. I understand where he was coming from. Just like myself, he was trying to keep himself and his party safe.” I answered. “I could have just as easily been the bad guy that sicks my panda onto you.”
“... could we not talk about this.” Alice requested. “It makes me feel uneasy, thinking about the what ifs.”
“Yeah. I agreed.”
“... well now I feel like the Goddess is messing with us.” I commented as I saw who was guarding the gate to Alewatch.
“It does seem so. And he always used to be at the south gate, so why is he at the north one?” Lua wondered.
“We can ask.” Alice said.
As we approached the guard, he also noticed us.
“Lady Alice, Brian, Lua. Welcome back.” Mario called out.
“Hey Mario. How have you been?” I asked.
“... busy with work. Because of that dungeon, a lot of people have been coming into the town. I do hope you can stay at Lady Alice’s house, as I don’t think there are any free rooms in the inns. Even a lot of us that have empty space in our houses are renting out to the hopefuls.” Mario said.
“Wow. It’s that bad?”
“You should see Zay. He complains about the amount of work on a daily basis. He even got Lex out of retirement to help him.”
“... god. Maybe I should complain to Wendy? I wonder if she will send someone here to help.”
“Wendy? I don’t think I know her.”
“And you are better not knowing.” Lua said. “Just extra stress.”
“... alright. I won’t.” Mario agreed. “I know it is a formality, but I do need to see your cards. And you aren’t bringing in anything dangerous, right?”
“Just the entire US nuclear arsenal, but other than that, no.” I joked, but let’s be honest here, with all of my cards, I probably could do that kind of devastation. Maybe.
“Can you ever be serious?” Lua asked.
“What even is ‘US nuclear arsenal’?” Alice added.
“I’ll tell you some other time.”
After showing our cards, we got some congratulations on getting to A-rank from Mario. I will fully admit that I was a little worried about him, because … you know, the entire Rico dying part, but he did seem relatively fine. But that might just be him losing himself in his work.
“... excuse us.” Lua said as she opened the door to a butcher store. Alice and I followed her inside.
“Ah? Lua? You are back? When did you arrive in town?” Mrs. Moon asked.
“Just a bit ago. We came to see you first.” Lua answered. “... but really. I don’t think I’ve seen your store this low on meat … ever.”
“Yes. It does all get sold in town. But you knew that already, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did hear about it.”
“But with the high ranking adventurers coming to town, there is also a lot of money available. So maybe you happen to have something interesting you would let go? If even half of what I’ve heard is true, you must have something.” Mrs. Moon asked and I was half expecting her to rub her hands together.
Lua quickly turned to me and asked. “Can I sell some to her?”
“Sure. Dragon meat, the SS-ranks, whatever you prefer.”
“Don’t go that far, hero. I don’t have the cash for those kinds of things.”
“... I can let some dragon meat go for cheap … ish. It isn’t from true dragons anyway, so it isn’t that crazy. Tastes really good though.”
Truth be told, I have a few dragons worth of raw dragon meat in Storage. It originates from Tyrant Dragons that Lua and Ria drain for blood. I just use that chance to take the meat as ‘raw roasts’. It falls somewhere in the category of absolute bullshit my cards can do, but it isn’t my fault that Mystik Wok is overpowered when it comes to food production.
Spoiler“... Well, since you are offering, maybe I can afford ten kilos of it? I think I can get that sold.”
“Sure. That’ll be ten gold coins.” I agreed.
“... are you kidding me?” Mrs. Moon asked.
“... No? I think that is a reasonable price for dragon meat. I mean, the only place I’ve seen that sells dragon meat is the Hero’s country, and there it originates from a dungeon. And it sells for about three or four gold per kilo. I’m just giving you a good discount.”
“... that is only for the cheapest crap you can buy. Those imitation dragons shouldn’t even be called dragons. They aren’t even dragons. Just wyverns with extra limbs.”
“... remind me not to compare the two in front of Agunan.” I muttered to myself. “But do you want some or not?”
“Of course I’ll take it.” Mrs. Moon said. “Just don’t come crying to me when you find out how much I sold it for.”
“... I just offered behemoth steaks for my guests at a party, you don’t need to talk to me about money.” I told her. “... speaking of, I might have a few leftovers. Would you like one? Free of charge, because you were Lua’s teacher.”
“Does it come with some stories? Those are what I really want.” Mrs. Moon requested.
I looked at the girls, well mainly Alice. I know Lua wants to spend more time with her old teacher. But since Alice nodded, might as well go along with this.
After our not so brief stop, which turned into a full lunch, at Mrs. Moon’s, we headed for the next place. It was a decently sized townhouse, with an alright yard. It was actually a house I’ve never visited, but Alice wanted to come, and we just agreed.
“Trystan? Are you home?” Alice called out as she knocked on the front door.
Trystan? … He was …
(Alice’s magic instructor. You really should remember him.) Laura reminded me.
“... He must not be home.” Lua said after we waited a bit.
“... I guess so. Hope he is alright.” Alice said.
“And here I thought you didn’t like him.” Lua said.
“... It’s complicated.”
“Let’s just head to the guild for now. I think we technically need to report that we are in town, being A-rank and all.” I reminded the two, though we would visit the guild anyway. I mean, a lot of our friends could be there.
As we approached the guild, we began hearing some sounds that sounded like someone was using magic on the guilds training grounds. Did Zay add magic practice to the lessons the guild is offering? I don’t recall giving him a single Spellcaster type monster though. He does have Dancing Fairy and Wingweaver, but that should be it for the magical side. The others are all swordsmen or other close range fighters.
But once we got there, a magic lesson was certainly going on and instructed by the man we were just looking for at his house.
“... should we go talk to him now?” I asked.
“Let’s not. He is in charge of multiple people that seem like they don't really know what they are doing.” Alice said. “And I can thank him for his help later.
“Inside we go then. Want to bet can we meet Zay? He might be too busy for a meeting.”
“He might, but he will make time for us and curse himself later.” Lua said.
“I bet one kiss that we can meet him.” Alice offered.
“I’ll take you up on that.” I agreed with her.
“Hey! No fair. Brian. With me as well.” Lua demanded.
“Of course.”
As predicted by Lua, we were quickly taken to the guild master’s office when we appeared inside the guild. Though I feel like it might have partially been because we were getting too much attention at the guild. I mean, the three of us are kind of celebrities in this town, saving the town a few times and all that.
As we got to the room, Zay looked up from a pile of papers he was sorting through with a squad of Dancing Fairies … they aren’t really helping him, but I think they are trying to help. So yeah, helping him, but likely just being in the way.
“Hey Zay.” Lua was the first to speak. “I see that you are doing well.”
“... haah. I think you and I have a different definition of well.” Zay answered. “I haven’t had a day that has lasted under 14 hours in three weeks. At least Lex takes over one day of the week so I can have a day off. I’d probably quit if he didn’t.”
“... Should I say I’m sorry?” I asked.
“For what? This isn’t exactly on you. The dungeon is nothing but good, we just …”
“Growing pains?”
“I wouldn’t word it like that, but yes. Getting used to everything. You really should have been here a few weeks ago.”
“The food crisis?”
“You know about … of course you would. Lady Watchman visited your home, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, she did. I wanted to invite you, but I know you would have felt awkward among all the nobles. And besides, can’t pull both of you from the town.”
“... Understandable, and I do appreciate it. Lady Christina is one thing, but other nobles I’m not so sure about.” Zay said. “So, did you need something?”
“Nah. Just came to say hi and inform the guild that we’ll be hanging around the town for some time.” I told him.
“Alright. Thanks. I should get back to my work, unless you want to help.”
“I can get you some coffee or energy drinks. Want to try them?”
“Don’t really know what they are, but if you think they’ll help, sure.”
“They should make you feel more awake. I’ll have some brought to you tomorrow. The one that will deliver it will likely be a cat-folk teenager, either Einar or Eline. I’ll make some extra so that the receptionists can also have some.” I told him. “Also, I heard a bit from Christina, but you still have some of the cards I gave you. The ones you gift new Card Summoners in return for them reporting that they got the skill.”
“Plenty. But I do know at least one that is disappointed with his card. Saying that he would have preferred a dragon.”
“Well, he can buy one off of me. I do have some not so strong dragons as well. You can tell him I’m in town and have someone set up a meeting.”
“... Can’t you do that?”
“I guess I could, but I don’t know who the adventurer is.”
“Goes by the name Tye. A B-ranker. He is in a party with Alex, so maybe try finding him.”
“Tye? He got Card Summoner?”
“... you know him?”
“He almost killed me, so yes.”
“... do I want to know?”
“Just a summoner fight that kind of got out of hand. I was kind of in the firing line of an attack from his spirit tiger.”
“... please don’t make that the guilds problem.”
“It is no longer a problem. That happened a while ago. Did I really never tell you?”
“I don’t recall you doing so, but then again, with how busy I am, I don’t have time to recall things. Now get out of here so I can get back to work, unless you actually have something important.”
“Nah, I think we are done for today. Thanks for your time, Zay.”
With that, we left the GM’s office. Once we were back down stairs, we were once again surrounded by some of the adventurers, a lot of them asking for stories of our battles. I didn’t really want to bother too much, but at the same time, I should entertain them a bit. And I do have the perfect way of doing so, so I opened up Dungeon Founder and used the System screen to display the fight between Alice and the Ursa Major. God I love my makeshift movie screen. It is way too convenient.
We, well mainly Alice, had a short talk with Trystan. Alice made sure to thank him for being her instructor and for making her the mage she is today. She even showed Trystan her papers that titled her a great witch.
Trystan was very proud of her old student, and more than a few of the adventurers were asking if Alice would ever try to become a sage. She just responded ‘maybe’ and left it at that.
After a bit more time spent at the guild, we left so we could head towards Alice’s home.
