Chapter 111 - 111

[Belle has signed a Guild Contract]

[Belle has joined Darklight Host]

"Welcome and congratulations. We'll be headed out early tomorrow to look for Ogres, if you want to call it a night. I heard from Char that you might be short on sleep. If not, feel free to head to the tavern for drinks and food, or back to Sunnybrook House if you want to play games. The little stairs at the end of the hall lead straight down to the kitchen and bypass the Tavern." Cain explains and Belle flops dramatically onto the bed.

"This is pretty comfortable, I might just stay here." Belle begins before Kone barges in.

"Congrats on joining! Want to join us for a sleepover? Me and Nemu and a bunch of girls from next door, plus almost all the girls from the Guild are there." Kone says excitedly.

"That sounds fun. I haven't been to a sleepover in forever, and it would be nice to get to know everyone." Belle nods, grabbing Char's hand.

"Good, we will grab everyone. Message Lickity and Misha too. The rest should be there already."

Kone has appropriated one of the unused main floor back rooms in the house just for this purpose. It's done up a lot like Cain's room, with pillows and cushions everywhere, but with light paint and gossamer curtains to give the room the feeling of a garden party and not the inner room of a house inside a mountain. More often than not she will end up sleeping there too, deciding the walk to her bedroom is too far.

Lickity is out with Cixelcid tonight, so she's out, and Misha opts out, saying she's tired and will catch up with everyone tomorrow. Nathaniel as the only other guy in the Guild might have felt left out, but Ghaz and Morgan came by and collected him earlier to go do something. Likely a double date with whoever Ghaz is seeing today.

Misha has decided this is her chance, all of the others are busy elsewhere, and the younger girls will never let the ever cuddly Nemu escape, so she's got Cain all to herself for the night.

Once everyone gets settled in, she gives a wink to an understanding Char, who distracts Nemu while Misha drags Cain away. "How about we share a hot tub again? It's been entirely too long with you away here in Graska." Misha smiles at him as they make their way upstairs.

"And aren't you getting larger and larger? I swear you weren't this big at level 10." She asks, rubbing against him as they open the bedroom door.

"Every time I change my stats my body adjusts. I'm not sure if it's part of the class system, or if it's like my skills and my body is waiting on me to level up enough to fill the conditions for a major change." He shrugs, unequipping all of his gear before stepping into the hot tub and holding out a hand to help Misha in behind him.

"Has anyone ever mentioned you're really bad at bedroom talk?" she giggles and Cain realizes he entirely missed the innuendo in her initial question.

"You've got a point no more talking." He laughs, pulling her down into the water for a kiss.

Misha wakes up the next morning with a happy glow, but still a little sore. She wasn't actually joking about Cain having gotten bigger as he leveled up. The bed seems extra warm, so she opens her eyes to find and remove the top layer of blankets, unwilling to get out of bed so early. Only to meet the intense green stare of a set of Felian eyes.

"No fair, you tricked me and got a head start." Nemu whispers from her spot on top of the blankets next to the sleeping couple, her face on Cain's chest, inches from Misha's own.

"You're a Summon, you're literally with him all the time. You had your chance you thieving Felian." Misha whispers back, sticking out her tongue and wrapping herself around Cain's sleeping form.

Some time later, Cain wakes up sweating. Misha is sleeping soundly on top of him, sprawled out like a human rug, and the Nemu girls have collaborated to find a comfortable spot against either side of him. It's soft, comfortable and smells pleasantly of shampoo and body lotion. If only it weren't so incredibly warm. It's like waking up in a sauna. Plus, when did Nemu join them in bed? Cain was certain she would be busy all night with the sleepover. At least she's not draped across his head today, this position is warm enough.

"Good morning ladies. As much as I hate to do this, it's time to get up for breakfast and decide who all is going along to look for the Ogres hiding spot." He says softly, and immediately begins to reconsider leaving the bed when Misha shifts on top of him. What's the big rush anyhow? Tanya knows to wake everyone up if there's an attack on Sunnybrook.

They don't get to sleep much longer though, as Vala comes in and flips the blanket, blowing colder air over them all and informs them that breakfast is ready whenever they've showered and gotten dressed. It's a good thing the tub uses water magic enchantments to be self cleaning, because no way are four of them fitting in the shower, and Misha just threw a bath bomb in the hot tub before directing Cain to carry her over.

Vala is doing her best not to laugh when they all come down freshly washed and pretending nothing strange happened this morning, but the rest don't seem to have noticed anything. A small mercy, given their love of banter.

"Now that we're all present and accounted for, what is the plan for finding the Ogres?" Lickity asks with a giggle, exchanging pokes to the side with Cixelcid.

"One big group for sure, if we do actually find them it would be a very bad thing to be separated. If they're inside a hidden dungeon, all we can really do is wait for them to start coming out. Going in would just place us in a separate instance. Our newly minted tracker Belle will lead the way, plus we've got a good idea which way the survivors of the last battle initially fled." Cain suggests.

"So if I can lead us to them in a dungeon we just stand there and wait?" Belle asks.

"Pretty much. If we get lucky, we can wipe out an entire army a handful at a time when they try to exit." Cain agrees.

"Me and Ragnar can see the Guild messages, so if you lot get in trouble, we will go to the Sunnybrook Hall and give them all the location information to send out an attack to rescue you. If there's enough Ogres we might even get a reward out of the rescue attempt instead of having to pay a quest fee." Gramps adds.

"That's not a bad plan. can you send Guild messages in wolf form, or are your senses just as good in human form?" Cain asks Belle.

"I can send messages in Wolf form no problem. You can't really understand me if I talk though, it's like arguing with a husky." Belle explains.

With those basics settled, and every member willing to go on the mission, they all dig into their meals, getting mentally prepared for the journey ahead.. The kitchen has their physical preparation done, food stores very well inside a transfers inventory and they've gone all out with the meals and snacks.