Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Stuck in a Rut

Tess opened the door to the private room that had been her usual meetup with Alice and Eyfura, already reaching for her bag to take out her gi.

“Ah, there you are.” Alice said, standing up from her chair. “Don’t bother with the armor, we’re not training today.”

Tess tilted her head, withdrawing her hand. “Why not?”

Alice frowned, shaking her head. “Eyfura needed some more time to think things through. She let me know she and Ilmir wouldn’t be coming today, so I figured I could…well, show you around a bit. I mean, you’re an Appointed now, so that means you’ve got to know a bit more about the world outside of this city and Mael, right?”

“Yeah, that makes sense, I think. Where are we going?”

Alice blushed a little, looking away. “Well, I figured we could…I dunno, go to the plane I grew up on? To my parent’s place, to be exact. They’ve been nagging me to visit them for a while and I thought it might be good for you to meet them, you know?”

Tess blinked, surprised. “I mean, sure, I guess. Do I need to like…dress fancy or anything? They were like…big CEOs, right?”

Alice shook her head vigorously. “No, they’d rather you didn- I mean, it’s just a social visit. You’re coming as my pupil, so there’s really no need for that.”

Tess raised an eyebrow. “They’d rather I didn’t?”

Alice sighed, once again looking away. “They might have also been nagging me to let them meet you.”

“You told them about me?”

“Not everything!” Alice said quickly. “Not that you’re an Appointed or you got those Skills or anything. I mean, I can’t tell them that stuff, but I wouldn’t!”

 “No, not that, I was just surprised that you thought this was something worth telling your parents about, apparently to the point where they keep asking to meet me.”

This time, Alice raised her eyebrow. “You’re joking, right? This past like…month and a half has been the craziest of my life. It’s not every day you start tutoring the grandchildren of the world’s most influential man and start working with your childhood hero. I mean, I’ve gotten at least two messages directly from the gods, and I watched you become an Appointed.”

She paused, giving Tess a look. “Well, I guess you get messages directly from the gods enough that two doesn’t seem significant, but it is. Most people don’t even get one in their entire life. So, yeah, I’ve talked to my parents about things. I’ve gotta tell someone about it.”

“Oh.” Tess replied. “I, um, didn’t think about that, I guess? Everything’s all new enough to me that I don’t know what’s ‘normal’ so…guess, yeah, I just didn’t consciously think it would be anything out of the ordinary for someone strong and politically important like you.”

“I dunno about that whole politically important bit, but this is definitely unusual for strong people. No one I know has had a similar experience.”

Tess frowned. “Come to think of it, why are you tutoring me? Gramps and Eyfura were implying that you’re pretty close to rank ten, so surely you all could be working on that, right?”

Alice gave another sigh. “I’ll tell you while we’re traveling. Uh, not necessarily to my parents’, if you don’t want to go, but we’d at least go somewhere so…”

“Yeah, I’m fine meeting your parents. How are we getting there?”

“There’s a sort of portal nexus that connects the planes. We’ll hop through one of the portals there and then we’ll take the hoverer to my parents’ estate.”

“Sounds good. Should we get going, then?”

Alice nodded and Tess stepped back so she could follow her out of the room. Alice began to lead her out of the guild and through the city, hesitantly beginning to talk as she did. The sentences were slow and deliberate, and she often paused for long periods of time, apparently thinking through her next words carefully.

“So, we’re…not exactly in a good place right now.” She began. “Like, we just hit this sort of wall, you know? We’re able to pretty easily raid dungeons around our level, but it feels like the moment we try anything harder we just…crumble. And, you know, the answer could be just ‘more grinding’, but that doesn’t seem…right.

“It’s not party composition either, we think. I mean, the Titans only have four people, and most rank ten parties don’t have more than six, some even just have one or two. And, as it stands, we’re pretty balanced and all our needs are met, so we think adding another person this late into it will just complicate things, and even if we did want to add someone there aren’t exactly a lot of rank nine people in need of a party.”

They reached a large plaza of sorts, filled with archways that had shimmering glows about them. People were walking into them and vanishing, and others were walking out from thin air, so Tess assumed these must be the portals Alice had been talking about.

Alice steered her through one somewhat absentmindedly. The sensation was not unlike that of going through one of Gramps’s portals, and after a moment Tess found herself on the other side of a similar arch. They were in a courtyard of sorts, high walls surrounding them and giving the whole area a sort of cramped feel despite it being open to the sky. That walls were something of an afterthought, though. The whole area was dominated by a large, ostentatious building in front of them, from which people streamed in and out.

“Sorry, hold on a second, I have to get you through customs and stuff.” Alice said. “Don’t worry, once they read your status band and see who you are, they’ll let you through in a heartbeat. Guild registrations generally act as passports anyway, and they’re certainly not going to stop the Guildmaster’s granddaughter if she wants to go through.”

“That…seems pretty lax.” Tess said. “On Mael they’re a lot stricter about this kind of stuff.”

Alice shrugged. “It’s not like there’s a way to put up a nation-sized teleport blocker, and it would hurt the economy and people’s quality of life if they did, so customs are more of a formality than anything. It’s more there so people don’t smuggle in stuff that can’t be teleported. Well, at least don’t smuggle it in easily.”

Alice walked confidently into the building, and Tess followed. The entry hall was huge, with smooth marble floors and decorated many imposing statues. Alice didn’t pay it much mind, leading Tess through the huge area to a series of checkpoints, each consisting of a booth and a bar, much like a toll gate. From there, she found an empty one, and then ushered Tess through the area a line would be.

Behind it was a bored-looking human woman who glanced up briefly before returning her attention to her computer. “Can I see your ID?” She asked.

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Alice reached into her bag and retrieved a card of some sort, which she passed to the woman. The woman took the card, quickly swiping it across a small card reader she had, then handed it back. “I need the kid’s ID too, miss…” The woman froze in mid-sentence, looking intently at the computer screen.

There was silence for a long moment before the woman gulped and began to speak again. “Sorry for the rudeness, Lady Reshi. Um…I…still need her ID, though.” She said, motioning to Tess.

Alice smirked. “Don’t worry about it, it’s a draining job. This is Tess, she’s got guild ID.”

The woman nodded, reaching down and pulling out a rectangular machine with a large hole in it, much like an electronic pencil sharpener, but larger. “If you would just put your band in here, miss…” She trailed off, looking at Tess expectantly.

“Los.” Tess replied, before looking to Alice. “Um, how do I take it off again?”

“Don’t need to.” Alice said. “You’ve got one of the new bands, so you can just stick your arm in there and it’ll scan. If you want to, though, just think about it, the band will come out from your arm.”

“Oh, I see.” She turned back to the woman, who was looking at Tess noticeably more cautiously. Ignoring her, Tess stuck her hand into the slot. There was a brief whirring, and then the woman spoke again.

“You can take your hand out, um…Lady Los.” Tess did, and the woman continued. “Everything checks out. Um, we still have to do a search, though, sorry. It’s just protocol, I can’t change it.”

Alice nodded, grabbing her bag and putting it on the counter. “Just put your bag on the counter, Tess. She’ll scan it from there.”

Tess unhooked her bag from her pants, placing it next to Alice’s. The woman took out something that looked remarkably similar to a barcode scanner, moved it up and down over the bags, and then over Alice and Tess.

She breathed a sigh of relief, putting the scanner back. “You’re clear. Enjoy your stay in Loma!” The bar lifted, and Alice and Tess were soon through and into the other side of the room. Alice wasted no time in walking over to one of the many arches on the far end, explaining to her that it was the portal that would take them to the city closest to Alice’s parents’ estate. After going through the portal, they found themselves in a much smaller building, which they left. Once outside, Alice set up the hoverer and ushered Tess inside, taking a moment to input some directions before coming back to sit next to Tess. “So, where was I…right, party members.

“So, we don’t think it’s the number of people or our party makeup. We’re sure we’re just missing…something, but we don’t know what. So, we’ve been metaphorically bashing our heads against this metaphorical wall, and we were in the city when the Guildmaster approached us. He said that, perhaps, what we needed was a change of pace.

“He proposed we teach you and Ellie, that maybe revisiting the basics would help illuminate what was keeping us from progressing. If we were still having trouble after that, he even offered to give us some coaching himself. And, of course, he would pay our living costs during the time we were teaching you, since we’re not exactly earning as much as we otherwise would. And we figured he probably knew what he was talking about, and that it couldn’t hurt to take a few months off and sort of refresh ourselves.”

Alice scratched the back of her neck. “And that’s pretty much it, to be honest. Hope that doesn’t disillusion you about us or anything.”

Tess shook her head. “No, I get it. Uh…how’s this been working out for you?”

“Honestly? There are a couple of things about the way we fight that we think we might be able to change and start progressing again. The mock battles against the Titans helped a ton in pointing out the weaknesses in our formations.” She stared off into the distance, a slight smile on her face. “They really are the real deal. You hear all these stories about them, and they all seem too crazy to be true, but now that I’ve actually seen them in action I believe those stories a whole lot more. It’s nice to know that the people you’d always looked up to live up to the hype, you know?”

Tess shrugged. “I think I know the feeling, but I can’t help but feel a little strange about that. I mean…he’s my grandpa. It’s weird to learn that he’s some sort of crazy-powerful hero and that a lot of people really look up to him for it.”

Alice raised an eyebrow. “You don’t?”

“Of course I do, just…not for that reason. All that power stuff aside, he’s one of the best people I know, and I want to be like that.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” Alice admitted. “But, you know, you’re going to have to deal with being looked up to yourself someday. It’s something that tends to come with hitting rank ten, and there’s no way you and Ellie aren’t going to end up there relatively fast. You two just have too much explosive growth to not hit rank ten.”

Tess blushed. “That’s a long time from now, though. Levels are slowing down, so it’s going to take us a long time to get on that level.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Please. The only thing you really care about with regards to level is gear, and, according to Ker and Jin, Ellie’s already ready to take on things way above her level. It’s going to come sooner than you think.”

They kept up the conversation for a few minutes before the hoverer slowed to a stop. Alice stood up, opened the door, hopped out, and held it open like she was some sort of chauffer, even going so far as to give a little bow. “Please, after you.” She said, smirking slightly.

 Tess hopped out of the hoverer, and Alice began to put it away while Tess stared at the buildings in front of her.

It was a large gated compound, set on the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. There were all sorts of things inside, from a greenhouse to a large pool to what looked to be a stable, but what drew the eye the most was the enormous mansion these were all gathered around.

Alice finished putting away the hoverer and placed a hand on Tess’s shoulder. “It’s excessive, I know. But, in my parents’ defense, they’re doing their best to give back to the community. We, uh, just have more money than we can really spend on any of that. It sorta happens when your company gets as big as ours does.”

“How…much did this cost?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. Dad grew up around here, so he wanted to use local workers for everything. There were some troubles in getting everything this nice because of it, but it made dad happy and the payment was going mostly to people he grew up with, so mom didn’t really mind. Um, all that being said, no idea what the finally tally ended up being, but probably a few million gold? No idea what that translates to in Mael’s currency, but it was certainly pricy even for us.”

Alice walked up to the gate, placing a hand on it. After a moment the gate swung open, granting entry. “Alright, let’s do this.” Alice said, tensing slightly and turning back to Tess. “Ready?”

Tess nodded, and the two set off down the long path to the house, ready to face whatever was lying in wait for them there.