Chapter 76 - 76

Cain and Char, the only two who even somewhat behaved themselves last night are the first ones up, but the Tengu twins, who are not fans of parties, have made pancakes. Tanya is still asleep after enjoying as she called it 'a beer soaked slobber knocker', or in Cain's parlance, a bar fight over the virtues of willowy Elven women versus stout Dwarven women between the ladies of the entertainment district and the ladies of the smithy district.

Now the Dwarves might not have won the argument, but they did win the fight.

The damage had shut the party down somewhat early, at about three in the morning, but the consensus was that it would be spoken of for many months to come. The assembled adventurers had happily paid for the damages afterwards, though they themselves had little to do with the fight. A very drunken server from a nearby tavern had suggested the Dwarves not bother dressing up for the men when Elves were around and things just went downhill from there.

Misha comes down before the first round of pancakes are cold, and the rest trickle in slowly afterwards, Kone casting a heal on Tanya and Dimnys as they enter, removing any remaining scratches and bruises from their faces.

"The Druid version of healing also cures hangovers if anyone else needs it." Kone laughs, but everyone else smiles and waves off her assistance.

"We're good, we learned our lesson last time. Stay somewhere near your limits when drinking at a leveling party." Cain explains.

"If everyone wants to spend the day crafting, I can head out tonight and vendor everything that's no good, or not useful to us. I'll take a trip to Karmazin City too, spread out the sales so it doesn't cause problems here in Sunnybrook." Cain says.

The pieces have levels, not as a requirement, but to indicate how much of a hidden Stat bonus they give, along with the listed buffs. Selling these level 65 items from the Naga Raid in the mostly level 45 to 55 Karmazin City should bring them a pretty good price, given how much harder they are to come by there.

"I've got three times as much as yesterday's drops already finished." Misha says and Dimnys nods in agreement.

"So you're saying you will transfer them over and I can leave now, then deal with the rest tomorrow?" They both nod absently, looking over the items in their inventory for modification.

"Excellent. I'll be off then." Cain stands, having finished his breakfast, and the Vala twins join him.

"Take me with you too. I've never been to whatchamacallit city." Kone says around bites of pancake.

"How long will it take?" She asks, her plate now clean, but her face covered in pancake bits and syrup she's trying to wipe away.

"Through the Demon Dungeon, we will be there by lunch, it's only a couple hours. If we went on foot down the road, it would be three to five days, depending on the weather and monster attacks."

"That's a much better way to get around. Let's do it that way for sure." Kone agrees, but Cain can see she's at least a bit excited to try out her new [Nature's Allies] skill. Cain is too, it will be interesting to see if her passive that gives healing when damaged will apply to the Bears or if it only affects herself.

The two crafters pass over their items to be traded, filling Cain's inventory, while Kone runs downstairs to a spare room to collect the alchemy project she's been working on. Her skill just recently got high enough to make greater mana potions, and she can't wait to see if they sell for decent money. In fact, just going to the Karmazin market is exciting for her, having never been to an open air market, or Karmazin for that matter.

"Alright, we're off. Are we bringing a pocket pixie, or are you staying here to relax?" Cain asks Elmira.

"I'm making Pixie honey today, so Tanya can see how it tastes in honey cake."

"A noble pursuit for certain." Char laughs from the kitchen where she's returning her breakfast dishes.

Cain and his little company head out for the dungeon, stopping a few times to say hello to local merchants and patrons of the Inn.

"I'm just noticing, this guild is really, really popular isn't it?" Kone whispers to him.

"Because of the city defense actions mostly. Keeping the Ogres out of the city is priority one, and the summons do a really good job of it. When we all get close to level 100 and start thinking of leaving town I'll be sure to find some lower level Guild members to take over the house and keep up our reputation and City defense efforts. It would be a shame to just abandon our Guild House when we level up like so many have before us."

"You've got a point. We could even recruit from lower level areas and drag them through the raid like you did for me and Dimnys, get them up to acceptable and then let them take over when we move on. But isn't level 100 a long time to stay in one city?" Kone asks.

"Well, there's a secret to the Demon Dungeon, it's all one big Dungeon, not multiple small ones at every city. So we can enter from Sunnybrook and find every level of demons from 30 to 100. It might make for long trips, getting to the ones we actually want, but we can easily return home in a few hours when we're done."

This new bit of information keeps Kone's mind occupied until they reach the entrance. "Where else can it go?" She finally asks.

"Karmazin, Peaceful River and Graska for sure, plus there's rumors of a level 100 town that can be accessed too. There should also be at least one or two more exits in the far north and south of the transfer valley, but maybe not. At least, I don't know where they are, and the maps I've seen don't have those areas filled in."

"It's like the Demon world is a scaled down overlay of the outside world. Maybe it was meant to be a travel solution before being corrupted? From what I've heard from you guys and the other transfers a lot of dungeons hold corrupted versions of the outside species."

Now that's food for thought. Cain never thought of it that way, but she's right. Some species are naturally aggressive or hold grudges against the transfers species, but inside the dungeons something is different about them.. Even the surprisingly cuddly Lamia Scourge Casters and the Vala twins, who currently look deep in thought, silently taking in the conversation, are friendly and intelligent, much different in personality than the demons in the dungeon.