Chapter 11: Chapter Eleven – Achievements

“Ou!!”

“I see it! Snipe!”

Thwip!

I want to complain, I really do.

But I can’t.

Because Melody has been pulling her weight right from the beginning. Somehow or another her and Sandy are operating on the same wavelength and they have been able to precisely bring down every Drop Rope even remotely close to our party.

Compared to the day before last, the number of drop ropes we’ve encountered is triple, and that’s just so far.

While Sandy and Melody have their teamwork going on, I was able to see what the teamwork of the two brothers were actually like when it came to working with Teresa.

Duster must have had some kind of upgrade on his day off, because he was an absolute demon now. Any Darkwolf that dared to choose him as an opponent met one of two fates; either they died immediately from a swift rapier strike to their neck, or a hammer swipe that smashed them into the direction of Gonzo who ruined the pelt a bit with a stab or a slash that was every bit as fatal as the skeleton’s.

Teresa would help out by casting her curses or Darkfire to keep the packs we came across from flanking us, and Melody was able to follow the practiced lead of Duster and pinpoint her sniping to a vital spot.

As for what Sandy did when we approached her fellow Darkwolves?

Nothing.

Only when it came to Darkwolves did she not outright attack. She did, however, defend. She had no mercy at that time. Every time she encountered a pack, she gave off a peculiar howl. Either one or two wolves fled or they all stayed to fight. For the ones that fought, if they got close to Melody, Teresa, or Myself, she showed off a new skill she had obtained. It was a brutal slash of her claw and it had an almost one hundred percent kill rate.

Every time she had to put one of her own down, she put her front paws on the body and howled loudly. I didn’t understand the reason for doing it, but I knew it wasn’t any kind of prayer or for a sympathetic reason.

Rather, it was like she was asserting her dominance. The howl having an effect like her shouting to the whole third floor “I am the queen! Do you dare court death you damn pups?”

Yeah, I’d make sure she ate her fill tonight.

As for myself, I was a walking backpack and battery. Everything that died went into my Divine Treasury, and Duster was constantly being buffed with Grace of the Whirlwind so that he could be the avatar of slaughter, the Grim Overbone.

The moneymaker.

We had no problem hunting and after about four hours of it, I had leveled up along with Sandy. Teresa and Gonzo were close to their thirteenth level, and Melody made no mention of her current progress.

【Name: Sandy Heart】

【Age: 3】【Sex: Female】

【Randell’s Companion】

【Race: Darkwolf Matriarch】

【Level: 04】

【To Next Level: 266 EXP】

【Unique Skill: Pack Leader】

【Chosen Skills: (3) 0 Points Unspent】

【Dominating Howl Lv.2】

【Merciless Claw Lv.2】

【Fealty Lv.1】

【Heart of the Tempest Lv.1】

【Status: (20) 0 Points Unspent】

【Power: 7+9】

【Dexterity: 7+10】

【Vitality: 5+3】

【Mentality: 5+3】

【Faith: 1】

I decided to splurge a little and upgraded Vitamancy to the next level. I also picked up a skill I had deliberated on since as a support I wasn’t doing much in terms of actually attacking anything. I also added a few points from my reserve into some stats.

If being on the third floor was going to be the new norm, I needed to make some adjustments for safety’s sake.

【Name: Randell Heart】

【Age: 19】【Sex: Male】

【Class: Chosen of Alurian】

【Visible Class: Acolyte】

【Level: 06】

【To Next Level: 1048 EXP】

【Unique Skill: Wife’s Dowry <Linked>】

【Skill Endowment: Treasure Sense】

【Chosen Skills: (4) 2 Points Unspent】

【Alurian’s Divine Treasury】

【Alurian’s Heal Lv.1】

【Weaponsoul of the Devout Lv.1】

【Divine Weaponry Lv.1】

【Grace of the Whirlwind Lv.1】

【Vitamancy Lv.2】

【Status: (25) 5 Points Unspent】

【Power: 5+2】

【Dexterity: 5+7】

【Vitality: 6+7】

【Mentality: 5+4】

【Faith: 20+5】

There was a reason for me to add points to Faith and it directly tied into my new skill.

【Weaponsoul of the Devout】

『Faith is a powerful weapon. This skill allows the faith of the skill holder to be imbued into a weapon and awaken its sentience. As the faith of the skill holder and the levels of the skill increase, the potency of the weapon awakens further.』

I tried it just for kicks with Relenna’s Regret, and I could feel the iron spear come alive as soon as I channeled the skill into it. I let go of the spear and it began floating around me.

Everyone wondered what the hell I was doing, and I couldn’t really answer them at first. Duster curiously went to reach for it and was immediately rejected by the spear.

He clacked.

“Yeah, I have no idea why, buddy…”

Clack.

“Maybe because it’s a weapon that uses faith?”

Clack!!

“It’s a holy weapon?” Teresa asked.

“I have no idea. It’s supposed to be sentient, using my Faith as it’s source of power or intellect or whatever.”

There was no issue with Gonzo, Teresa, Melody, Myself, or even Sandy holding it. But Duster was not allowed to for some reason.

“Don’t worry Duster, if it comes down to it I’ll end the skill if you need to use it.”

Clack.

Relenna’s Regret wasn’t the only weapon I had, after all. I also possessed Jung’s daggers, and the Iron Sword and Shield that belonged to Kyros. I was hesitant to use it with Marta’s Tourmaline Staff since it was fragile, and I didn’t want to take away the rapier or hammer from our party’s true damage dealer.

We ended up finding a nice grove free of monsters and settled down for a quick lunch since we’d been at it for hours. I provided the food which was about two large coppers worth from the stall Marta introduced me to.

I was a regular there.

We all enjoyed the skewers I had packed away since they retained their heat even hours later thanks to whatever magic was in the Divine Treasury. Relenna’s Regret was still under the Weaponsoul skill and so while Duster couldn’t touch it, it didn’t attack him or mark him as an enemy.

But it did react when a lone Darkwolf showed itself, or rather, announced itself first with a light howl. It stepped forward and lowered its head to Sandy.

Sandy got up and approached it on her own, leaving half of an uneaten skewer. I imagine whatever it was, she felt it was urgent to deal with.

Sandy turned back after whatever communication they engaged in and gave me a look and a short howl herself.

“Do you need to go do something?”

“OU!”

“Do you want me to come with?”

She shook her head and snorted.

“Will you be able to find your way back to me when you’re done?”

“Ouu!”

I patted her head and her flank.

“Then go do what you need to, but be careful, okay? Other parties won’t know that you’re my companion.”

“HOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!”

All of us were dazed by her howl, surely it was her saying “I can take care of myself just fine, thank you very much!”

You know, if it wasn’t so outlandish a thought, I’d think she was tsundere. Regardless, Sandy left with the Darkwolf who approached and I put the rest of her skewer back into my item box. I did so only because I didn’t trust that Melody wouldn’t have eaten it even though Sandy’s wolf-drool was all over it already.

Shortly after that we continued on, minus one Darkwolf Matriarch companion. It wasn’t too much of a big deal. Melody was still able to spot most of the Drop Ropes, even the ones uninterested in us. Duster had no problems dealing with all the male horny rabbits with his hammer, while Teresa would Curse the female rabbits, which increased the chance of Melody’s snipe skill not missing their mark when they tried to escape.

This trip through the third floor was already lucrative, and even my treasure sense coupled with Melody’s Maze Runner unique skill helped us find a few chests the further into the forest we dove.

“What’s this?”

Melody, who opened the chest, reached in and pulled out something familiar to me. It was another Orb of Condensed Essence. I asked if she would hand it over so I could use my Divine Treasury to identify it.

“Hmm… Essence of Lagomorph Keras.”

I have no idea what Keras means, but I know for sure Lagomorph has to do with the rabbit species… one of them, anyway.

“Essence? So it’s useless.” Melody seemed uninterested once I said what it was. Well, unless you have a skill like Vitamancy, it pretty much is.

But having a Horny Rabbit as a pet isn’t all that appealing to me.

There was another item in the chest, and it was a golden horn. It looked like a male Horny Rabbit’s horn, but instead of being pink, white, or brown as they have been so far, this one looked almost solid gold.

“Score!” Melody said and held it aloft. “I bet this will sell for a ton! We should auction it!”

It wasn’t a bad idea. Teresa and Gonzo also seemed amicable to that decision as well. We can use the guild as a middleman so it’ll be fine to auction it that way and divvy up the money fair and square. If the golden horn had a special purpose, I was still too green to know what it was. Better for it to be that way, though.

The bigger issue was having two essence orbs, Goblinkind and Lagomorph that I wasn’t yet sure what to do with…

We continued onward, finding that we must have entered a conflict zone. There was a ton of howling going on up ahead, and so Duster and Melody did the forward scouting real quick to see what was going on.

“Pus ’n blood! It’s bad!”

Melody came back waving her arms and shouting.

“What’s going on?”

“Randy.”

“Please don’t call me that. Randell or Dell if you have to.”

“Huh? No. Randy. The floor’s named Horny Rabbit you dolt!”

Oh. I uh… didn’t know the name of it.

“Is it a big deal?”

Gonzo walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

“We’re poxed if we fight it. Forget surviving a second wipe.”

“Is he that strong?”

“Pox no! He’s insanely weak.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“He’s the harem king. That bastard riles up all the females and they go Bat-batshit. It’s a nightmare. Just imagine a bunch of crazy female horny rabbits going nuts trying to impress him by slaughtering everything!”

Is… is this a joke?

“So, the problem is what exactly though? Can’t someone cast a spell and take it out?”

Everyone but me chuckled nervously.

“Those females will either intercept the spells cast at him or they flat out knock Randy out of the way before one can hit him. Sacrifice or not, they do it so that even one of them can have a chance to mate with him.”

This lucky son-of-a-bitch!

“Then what’s all the growling about?”

“There are a ton of Darkwolves fighting against them currently. And the Darkwolves are heavily outnumbered.”

I had thought the horny rabbit females were weak. Turns out they get stronger… much stronger in heat. The dungeon is a scary fucking place.

“Are there any other parties around?” I asked.

“None that I could see, why?”

“Let’s steal the kill!” I said optimistically.

“Are you crazy?”

“Yes, and I have a good idea how to do it. Maybe. I need to scope out the battlefield first though.”

Melody had me approach a certain spot carefully where the foliage allowed me to remain concealed but allowed me to see what was going on.

The forested area was some kind of hellscape.

“There’s not even a Drop Rope anywhere around. They like easy prey and know this is a lose-lose situation if they even tried.”

I nodded.

There was one wolf that was howling, and that one just so happened to be the same darkwolf I have been growing accustomed to hearing over the last day.

“Sandy’s out there!” I was about to stick my head up over the brush to get a better look, but I was yanked down by our party’s archer.

“Stupid, don’t move! Do you want to die?”

I shook my head.

“You saw it. What’s your plan?”

“This guy.”

I pointed to my spear, Relenna’s Regret.

“Your spear?”

Then I pointed up.

“Huh?”

“I’m going to send the spear up and let it dive bomb Randy. One shot one kill.”

“And what happens if it misses?”

“We run.”

Melody was just shaking her head at me, forcing me to explain my reasoning.

“If the named is killed, the females will scatter since there’s no reason to stay and guard him anymore, right?”

Melody shrugged.

“Is there a certain reason why the Darkwolves are fighting the Horny Rabbits anyway?”

“You don’t know much about the third floor, do you?”

“Aside from the general four monster types, no, not really.”

She sighed and her shoulders drooped.

“The Darkwolves have divided up the forest into quadrants of which each clan claim as their territory. We entered from the south, went east and then north. We’re currently in the northeast.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

I didn’t see where she was going with this.

“We were south a little while ago, right?”

“Yes.”

“And Sandy was taken north by that other wolf, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did you think about why?”

I shook my head.

“The wolves of the northeast have already either given up or were slaughtered. These are the wolves from the south trying to keep the Northeast from turning into a Horny Rabbit territory!”

“That’s a bad thing?”

“Yeah, it’s a bad thing! Look, the skeleton is good at taking them down, I get that, but that thing isn’t normal. A normal party encountering more than one male Horny Rabbit at once is a big deal. At our levels with our grades of equipment… we’re just not strong enough to go up against two or even three at once. That guy will mate with every single female you see out there, and it’ll become chaos!”

“Then all the more reason to take it out now while the Darkwolves are engaging with them.”

“Then you have a better plan than a risk-it-all on an attack that might not land?”

I nodded. Something did come to mind.

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I just need to confirm something first.”

I went back to where Teresa and Gonzo were along with Duster.

“Teresa, I have a question for you… When you summon Duster he digs up from below, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Can he dig down and through the ground by any chance?”

Duster stepped forward before she could answer and clacked.

I began to laugh.

“Duster, want to make another gold coin?”

Duster looked at Teresa, who only crossed her arms. Then he looked back at me and clacked again, indicating he did.

“There’s a named Horny Rabbit probably worth a lot out there. You can sense where living things are relative to you, right?”

Clack.

“Can you sense my spear?”

Clack.

“Then we’re going to set up an awesome attack. Maybe…”

I consulted Teresa about something, if it was even possible to use her skill in such a way.

“Maybe? I’d have to use my blood as a catalyst, but I should be able to do it…”

I grinned.

“Okay, here’s what we do…”

After explaining my plan, there was one last thing to do. I went back to the cover of the foliage and put the intent of calling Sandy to me in the form of a howl.

“AWOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!”

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There were a series of howls from that direction and then a few moments later my wolf companion appeared by my side.

“Sandy. We want to help.”

“Ou?”

“We need a distraction. Can you tell the rest of your Darkwolf friends to attack when I give my howl?”

“Ou! Ouuu?”

“I’m going to use my spear to try and kill it from above. If that doesn’t work, Melody here is going to try sniping it with her bow. In case that doesn’t work, Duster there is going to dig under the ground and try and get under the male rabbit and kill it somehow. Everything will go dark right around then, so if you have the ability to sniff them out, they might be vulnerable to a sneak attack. Do you think that would be okay?”

“OUUUU!”

“Alright. Go back, and let them know to attack when you hear my howl, okay?”

“Ou!”

Sandy dashed away and returned to the group of Darkwolves currently fighting the good fight. A little bit later there was some strange howling. I trusted that it was Sandy communicating my plan.

Hopefully she understood my words…

I’m still a bit sketchy about that.

I channeled Grace of the Whirlwind into Melody, Duster and Relenna’s Regret which I hoped would work, and miraculously did.

Then Teresa told us to step back and she began channeling her spell on to Duster and then a different spell onto Relenna’s Regret.

“Done?” I asked.

“Done.” She replied.

“Then, shall we get the party started? If it goes to shit, run south.”

We all nodded at that backup plan and I began the operation. I focused my will onto the spear of what I wanted it to do. It levitated up higher and used the branches of the trees to conceal itself. Duster had begun digging at a supernatural speed and was making his way to the field a short distance away. Melody notched an arrow and remained hidden behind the foliage cover but was prepared to shoot at a moment’s notice.

“3… 2… 1… AAAAWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOooooooo!”

There was a chain reaction of howls in reply and all of the Darkwolves began charging forward, aiming for the male.

This spurred the females to dash out to intercept them, at which point I willed my spear to dive bomb the one bunny with a horn that I could see.

Even though it shot down with a blinding speed, there was a female who hop-kicked Randy out of the way and was run through by the spear in his place. That failure was Melody’s cue to try and snipe it.

She fired three arrows, but like some messed up heroic scene from a movie, a single female horny rabbit jumped in front of Randy in a wide arc and took all three arrows to the chest and stomach. She was dead before she hit the ground.

“Now, Teresa!”

The field where the two hordes of denizens which lived on the third floor was slowly becoming engulfed in darkness. Sandy let out a howl and we could no longer see anything on the battlefield.

Angry growls and whines of pain came from everywhere within, and Teresa was sweating from holding the spell over such a wide area for so long.

“He got it!” She suddenly said, and the darkness just as quickly began to lift from the field. When all parties involved were able to see, the female rabbits looked crazily for the object of their desire only to not see him anywhere.

Their reason for fighting was now compromised and some were taking flight already while others remained stubborn.

The Darkwolves while injured didn’t seem to lose too many of their kin on that last attack.

From just before and underneath where Teresa stood, Duster had begun to dig upwards. When he appeared in full, there was a certain named troublemaker passed out in his rib cage.

Duster’s entire chest area was cursed by Teresa before the operation began. As soon as the battlefield got dark, he had dug upwards near to the target without being seen but being able to locate him properly due to not needing the same sight as the living and grabbed the prize. Then he swiftly retreated back down into the hole he had dug and returned to us the same way. With the chest of duster being cursed, the already pathetically weak Randy was rendered entirely inert.

“Is he alive?” I asked.

Teresa nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Do you think it would be safe to retreat with him alive back to the entrance?” I asked.

While I was considering the option of bringing a live named horny rabbit known for having horns with a certain aphrodisiac effect back to the guild… Sandy showed up again, and began howling at me.

“Ouuu!”

She was up on her hind legs and nearly scraping at Duster’s chest.

“What’s up?”

“Ouuu! Ou Ou!!!”

“Do you want the rabbit for something?”

“Ouuuuuuuu!!!!”

“Do… you need the horn?”

She growled at me and began pawing at duster’s ribs again desperate for what was inside.

“Guys… can you um… let her have it?”

We were certain the horn of this guy was worth a fortune. I wasn’t sure if they’d go along with it.

“Duster?”

Duster reached up under his ribs and pulled it out carefully. Sandy held it in her mouth and dashed off.

A few minutes later there was a grand howling.

All of the wolves were prostrating themselves with their heads down and paws out while their butts were in the air.

Sandy was standing in the center with Randy in her mouth, then a loud crack was heard and all the wolves then stood up and howled in unison again.

Sandy held the rabbit down by the horn and every wolf took a small bit of it’s pelt until it was completely bones. The wolves then each picked up a corpse or two from all the dead female horny rabbits and gathered up, heading south.

Only Sandy remained behind.

The field was littered with bodies for me to loot.

Or not.

There was no problem with me collecting the rabbits, but when I went near one of the fallen wolves, Sandy growled at me.

“Can I not take them?”

She shook her head and snorted.

“Alright. I’ll respect your wishes.”

“OUUU!”

Sandy then wagged her tail and after I retrieved my spear, we all looked at each other.

“Let’s call it here.”

So we did.

Sandy, however, had something in her mouth.

It was the horn.

She deposited it at the feet of Duster who leaned over to pick it up.

He had the horn of what was probably the most virile entity in the entire dungeon. Of course he was going to mount it proudly on his body where it belonged with a proud clack.

Teresa only rubbed her head as if she had a headache.

Gonzo and Melody began to laugh.

I hid my own laughter by kneeling down and channeling Alurian’s Heal on to my worn out companion.

After that we left the floor and went to the guild to see Myria, then to the warehouse out back where the dismantlers and Myria who had brought along another receptionist awaited the next round of suffering caused by the troubling size of my Divine Treasury.

Darkwolves, Drop Ropes, and a ton of Horny Rabbits fell out onto the empty space reserved for today’s haul.

There were no Kicksies.

I have no idea what Melody did, but there wasn’t even a single Kicksie anywhere to be found on our trip there. Come to think of it, we didn’t even encounter a single one… what did she do for that to have happened?

It was a question for later.

There was no bizarre activity from Sandy even with all of the new Darkwolf corpses deposited, so after having our count tallied, we found ourselves a little richer, just from subjugations alone.

I would soon have enough silver in total for another two hours after the four way split, but I’d be left with about one silver and a handful of copper afterwards. I’d be getting around a gold coin tomorrow so it was a worth risk.

A live specimen of Randy, the named Horny Rabbit, might have been worth a great deal alive, considering the difficulty of catching such a troubling monster, but it was my fault that we couldn’t see that ending. Because I was sympathetic to Sandy. I made it a point of apologizing, but it was unnecessary according to Melody at least.

“Yeah but Sandy did return with the horn, and your treasure sense got us this other one as well, so it more than evened out.”

She was referring to the solid gold Horny Rabbit Horn she found in the treasure chest thanks to the Treasure Sense skill that I’m able to use thanks to the shared unique skills we awakened upon being soulbonded to each other.

We brought the matter of the two horns we didn’t leave with the dismantlers to Myria’s attention and we asked about getting them Auctioned privately. There is a guild appraiser who certifies certain drops for the authenticity claimed and we had to wait a while for him to become available.

When he arrived at the private party room we waited in, he was wearing long robes and was dressed ornately. He even had a monocle along with some foppish kind of teal beret. It’s what I’d imagine one of the Medici family looked like back in the renaissance.

“Rather than auctioning this one, I know a certain person who would pay significantly more than what you might fetch at the auction for this particular horn.”

He was holding up the golden horn.

“How much is significantly more than the auction house?” Melody was inclined to ask.

He held up one finger.

“A whole large silver?” I stated.

His mouth opened enough to let a condescending chuckle escape from his lips.

“No, dear boy. A whole large gold.”

All of us were floored.

“Pox me in the bleedin’ arse tonight!” Teresa’s expressive vocabulary echoed all of our thoughts. Gonzo hopefully didn’t take that too literally.

“I would have to contact him to be sure, but I can almost certainly guarantee that price.”

“Randell, you aren’t going to need to use that for anything, are you?”

“I had some plans for it, yes.”

“Bloody–“

“I’m going to spend the proceeds from it on a cute woman who’d make me feel as appreciated as Randy.”

“…” Teresa was shaking.

Duster, who hadn’t yet been unsummoned, clacked at my jest.

“Pardon me, but so my fellow party member here doesn’t curse me so that I can’t enjoy the cute woman I have plans for, how soon can we expect that sale to happen?”

“Two days at the longest.” The appraiser answered.

“Does that work for everyone?” I asked my new party members.

With the approval from the other three listed on the guild cards as being official members of the 「Red Hawks」 we agreed unanimously to the deal. All of us were also fine with Myria being designated as the one to receive and distribute the payment to us so we didn’t have to bother the guild’s appraiser to receive the funds directly from him.

“Very good. As for the horn of the named monster, Randy… Auctioning it should net you about one to three gold coins in and of itself. Most likely it would be bought by someone in the nobility. As it doesn’t decrease in potency, one horn lasts for a while, and most nobles have access to the elixir created from the powder ground from the horn… Usually about once a month it comes on the market, so it should fetch a fair price.”

Great news just kept coming!

With our business finished early for the day, we decided to part company with each other here and reconvene tomorrow. But not before hearing a bit of bad news from our receptionist.

“The other person your party needed… I’m sorry but I was unable to get them interested. They were taken up by another party. I’ll keep my eyes open for anyone that fits the criteria, but unfortunately there’s nothing else I can do…”

“It’s fine Myria. We have Melody for now. I’ll trust that if someone is meant to join our party, then they won’t be exactly having an easy time with their current one. The 「Red Hawks」 is just that kind of party now, I think.”

“Ah… if you say so. But it’s kind of the same if you think about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Those four were every bit the band of misfits before you joined. I think it was you who gave them all a proper role to play and turned them into a real party.”

“Me? I didn’t know my ass from a hole in the ground. What makes you think I contributed anything other than an item box?”

“Call it a receptionist’s intuition? And you contributed far more than you think. Then and now.”

I wasn’t sure if I was worthy of that judgment, but I let it be and exited the Dungeoneer’s Guild with my party.

“I don’t know what all of you have planned, but I’m diving tomorrow. I might try my hand at the second floor with Sandy.”

“You’re going solo?”

“I’m just after some easy experience. Also, if I bring back any more Bat-bats or anything from the third floor the chief dismantler might just dismantle me instead.”

That joke didn’t get the laughter I was hoping for.

“Ah, well… Thanks for looking after me today. Come on Sandy, let’s go get your new bowls.”

“Ou.”

Sandy and I walked off towards old man Fegi’s workshop. Though I half expected it, Melody did not follow me there. Arriving a bit earlier than he said to, he still had everything prepared for me to purchase.

“Are these the kind of thing you wanted?”

Two sets of deep bowls which were carved and hollowed out nicely adorned the countertop. There was a certain shine to them as well on the inside.

"Were these coated or glazed in something?"

"Auch. You have a good eye! Aye, you said the lassie there was going to be eating out of it. Don’t want her getting a splinter in her tongue, yeah?”

I certainly didn’t.

I took the remaining half-eaten skewer out of my inventory and slid the meat into the bowl, then I put it down on the ground. As if instinctual, Sandy knew exactly what to do with it.

The old man looked over the counter and witnessed it.

“You might be onto something with this…”

“Doesn’t this world have food bowls for pets?”

“Look, for a single pet, there’s not much of a need for it. If you’re talking about many of them, then there are short troughs, usually for dogs.”

I nodded.

“Well, these are ideal for what I need for my companion here. So these two sets and some plates and utensils and mugs, what am I looking at for everything?”

“One silver and three copper.”

Considering this is handcrafted I expected to be fleeced a bit more. But he put good care into the design, and as far as my sense of money is in this world, it’s a good deal.

I handed over the amount he asked.

“Makes me wonder if I’m being swindled now.”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t even haggle over the price.”

I laughed.

“I think they are worth every copper. I wonder though, do you think you could make me something very customized and specific?”

“I’m listening.”

I explained to him the concept of a thermos canteen with a mug that can be screwed on and off to keep the contents inside from leaking out.

“That… might take me a bit longer than a day.”

“That’s fine, I’m not in a large rush. I’d like about three or four of them made if it’s not impeding your other work.”

“Why so many?”

“I’d like to take not only water, but maybe some fruit juice or ale into the dungeon with me for when I take breaks and eat with my party.”

“Why not just take a waterskin?”

“Sometimes you just like drinking from a mug. Don’t you like looking at the color of an ale or a juice you like?”

He nodded.

“Sensible enough. Sounds like something the nobility would prefer though."

"Well, if you manage to make them, I don’t mind if you use my idea to profit for yourself.”

“Auch. Give me at least two days. I’ll see what I can come up with.”

“Can you do the same to the inside as you did to the bowls, so the contents aren’t affected by the wood and they’re easier to clean?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. Anything else you need done to it?”

“That should do it.”

With a handshake afterwards and storing all of my tablewares into the Divine Treasury, Sandy and I left the shop and made a detour to yet another place I would have business with tomorrow.

Featherly’s Grimoires.

Upon entering, the female clerk who had helped me before was there, reading something and puffing casually on her long pipe.

“Uh, hello.”

“Back again?”

“Yes. Um… I just wanted to say thanks. The book was exactly what I needed.”

“Of course it was.”

“…right. Anyway, the first time I came here, you had a different book in mind for me, didn’t you?”

She lowered her book and stared at me.

“Unusual.”

“Huh? Me?”

“The Matriarch. She’s bound, yet not.”

“Oh, you mean Sandy.”

“Ou!”

“Ouuu Ou Oooooouuuu!”

“Is that so? That’s quite an achievement.”

“Ou.”

Sandy began to nuzzle her head against my legs as she circled me.

“Seems you both had an exciting day. I do remember the book, however you have another purpose for your coin today, do you not?”

Was she reading my mind just now?

“Yeah… I just wanted to say I’d be back tomorrow to purchase it, if you haven’t sold it yet.”

She took a long puff and exhaled a steady stream at my face which parted moments before it would have come in contact with me.

“Do you expect fate to look favorably on you over another when it presentes an opportunity to you and is casually ignored?”

“Are you saying that Grimoire is gone?”

“What I’m saying is, if you wish to make sure you are the possessor of something that is of great importance to your future, it would behoove you not to wait too long to obtain it before it slips out of your grasp forever.”

What she said felt a bit more ominous than it simply being a book that could help me better select and understand some skill I might need in the future.

Another almost offensive puff later, she told me to return tomorrow and if I was meant to have it, the grimoire would be waiting for me.

With nothing left to do and not too many coppers left to spend without tapping into my commuting to see the wifey fund, I returned to the Blue Robin Inn, where I settled into my room for a little while since it was still too early to visit the brothel.

Sandy had joined me on the bed and was curled up in a circle next to me. I pet her fur and gave her some soft scratches.

“Ou.”

“Sandy… I’ll be visiting my mate for a couple of hours tonight. Would you like me to see if Melody or Rennifel would let you stay with them, or would you like to just sleep on the bed here? Either way I’ll make sure you have a lot to eat.”

“Ou ou ouu!”

“Was that Rennifel you wanted to stay with?”

“Ou!”

“Okay, I’ll ask her then.”

I curled up with my companion and it proved to be the worst thing I could have done. When I woke up, the sun was already down, and I had no idea what time it was.

“Fuck!”

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