“Lilly, come on, get up!” Amy urged her new companion.

She groaned and rolled over, pulling the blanket over more of her body. A splash of magical water later, Lilly was wide awake and chasing Amy around the room. It wasn’t long before the sorceress found her head being ground by the rogue’s knuckles, laughing mirthfully.

Lilly sighed tiredly, then retrieved a towel to drive herself off and quickly got herself dressed in dry clothing. Meanwhile, Amy was a barely contained bottle of anticipation beside her. Exasperated, Lilly looked up at her partner.

“What’s up, Amy? Why do you look like you’re in desperate need of a piss?”

“We should go shopping! A bonding experience,” Amy said.

“Oh yeah, I’m down. Let’s eat some breakfast first, yeah?”

Amy affirmed and led the way downstairs where they ate a meal of egg with questionable bacon and a hearty slice of bread. Afterward, they wandered the paved streets and marveled at the sights of the border city. The city was a melting pot of adventurers and well off civilians, all going about their various businesses. Soon after, Amy and Lilly reached the shopping district for civilians, featuring various cookeries, clothing shops, and magical and plain appliances. The stores had all kinds of products, from stoves to lighters, to weapons and armor. She found board games, cakes, and even a shoe-shining business, which she found extremely out of place among all the modern wares.

Surprisingly, Lilly felt an immense sense of nostalgia when wandering the district. This feeling of browsing wares, looking through outfits and appliances, trying out random snacks from stalls laid about, and window shopping reminded her a lot of her time in New York City. The appliances were not that different, the sense of style was more sensible and formal, but no less contemporary. It was almost as if she had never left Earth if it weren’t for the various demi-humans walking around, or the mana bar that was perpetually in the corner of her vision.

“Lilly?” Amy was looking at her concerned. She had been walking around dazed, lost in her own mind space.

“Ah, yeah, sorry. Feeling a little out of it,” she apologized.

“Do you need to sit down? We can go grab a bite of food.” Amy touched a hand to her shoulder.

Lilly smiled weakly. “Yeah, let’s go find a place to grab lunch. My treat!”

Amy grinned at that and led her down the street.

“Do you even know where you’re going?”

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“Nah, we’ll find something eventually.”

True to her word, they found a small diner that sat at the end of the shopping district within a few minutes. They sat at one of the corner tables and the waitress took their orders, leaving them to their own devices. 

They fiddled with their thumbs, waiting for the food. In an attempt to break the awkward silence, Lilly decided to ask Amy a few questions.

“So, Amy, what made you decide to become an adventurer?”

“Ah, well, it’s a long story, you sure you wanna hear it now?”

“Yeah. I’ve been meaning to learn more about you all.”

“Alright then. Well, the thing is, I’m actually from a noble family, but I have so many siblings that I have no real claim to the inheritance, so I decided to venture out and make a name for myself.”

Damn, I wonder if I should be calling her Mistress, she thought jokingly.

Turns out, Amy was 7th-in-line of succession in her family, making the chances of her becoming the heir of the House, and her inheritance, next to nil. Her family had had intentions of arranging for a political marriage to strengthen the House’s influence, but that didn’t sit well with her, so she left home to become a mage.

“I didn’t exactly leave them on good terms, so I’m pretty much on my own out here.”

Lilly watched her silently for a few moments, then leaned over the table to grasp Amy’s hands in her own. Making eye contact, she tried to speak reassuringly. “Well, with me, John, and Eli, I’m sure you’ll be able to build your own House. Just you wait!”

Amy smiled gently. “Thanks, Lilly.”

At that moment, the waitress returned with their lunch and that was the end of the conversation. Quietly eating their meals, they made some small talk from here to there, but nothing of importance was said. When they were done, Lilly left the money on the table, and they headed back to the inn.

While they were strolling back, they ran into John and Eli walking in their direction for another side street. Waving them over, they regrouped and started to walk back to the inn together.

“So what did you guys do today?”

“We went ahead and grabbed the IDs and dungeon permit. Here’s yours.” John pulled out Amy’s and Lilly’s IDs and handed them over, then flashed them the permit. “We can even enter the dungeon today if we want to.”

“Let’s head back to the inn and figure out a game plan,” Lilly said.

***

Once they were back in Lilly and Amy’s room, everyone sat down on the beds and considered their next steps.

“Alright, we need to talk about our gear, our party formation, and our goals for this dungeon. Are we doing this for loot, experience, levels, team synergy, etc?” John stated.

After some discussion, they decided that Eli would take lead to scout and disarm traps, John would take the position of the bruiser, Amy would be in the center behind John as the primary damage dealer, and Lilly would take the rear. When Lilly explained to them that she had a storage skill to help with carrying all the gear, they tensed up.

“Like, a skill to hold items in a pocket dimension?” Amy asked.

“Umm, yeah something like that.”

“Isn’t that, a bloodline skill? You know, the kind that is kept guarded by high noble families and royalty?” John asked. Three pairs of eyes turned their attention to Lilly.

Oh.