Genevieve is alive, if you can call the tremendous suffering she's going through living. After surviving my brutal and poisonous assault, her HP creeps along one point at a time. I stuff her inside a bedroll and tie her up, her head poking out so she can breathe and I drip the Mandrake Poison in her mouth to keep her asleep. I keep my disguise, grab the Chimera loot bag, and join Dominic in checking out our notifications in the quiet of the dim light.

[War Party Leader bonus: 250XP +30%

[325XP/2

[You received 163XP!]

[Boss Slayer: As the last to attack the boss when it died you receive a bonus!]

[250XP, 1*Eldritch Soldier's Tunic]

[Quest Complete! 1 Quest option complete

[You received: 150XP, 25*Gold, 1*Armlet of Sculpting Steel, 1*Knight Chest]

I start stripping my armor and cloth tunic and Dominic recoils in disgust, "Hey man, what the hell are you doing?"

"I have new armor I want to put on," I say, trying to find the front of the black, hooded tunic with ancient runes stitched in silver along the bottom. I inspect the stats as the Goblin complains about me not waiting until I was alone to start getting naked.

[Eldritch Soldier's Tunic. Advanced Expert. BodyUnder. 1/3

[+2Arcane, +3Willpower, +2Armor. ???]

"Sweet. Oh, I have two more notifications," I wonder how I could have missed them, but then I notice the symbol is different from the typical quest one I always see. "I was right!"

"About what?" Dominic asks, but waves me off as I dance in place. I can see him check on Genevieve in the corner of my eye, but I'm more concerned on the shivers running up and down my spine due to the "+" symbol I'm about to mentally click on.

"I'm a Blue Mage and I just learned a couple new monster Abilities…"

[Adaptiblitiy Activated! You learned the Feat: Trident Caster!]

[Adaptibility Activated! You learned the Spell: Trinity Stream!]

[+Trident Caster: You may use both hands and your mouth as focal points for casting Spells. You may cast the same or different Spells simultaneously.]

[+Trinity Stream (65MP) 15ft/ Casts three 15ft/3second streams of fire, lightning, and water from your hands and mouth. Each stream deals Arcane_Total damage per target per second. Requirement: Trinity Caster Feat.]

Normally, a single stream Spell would cost around 25MP, so casting three at once gets me a sort of discount of 10MP. I store the Armlet after seeing the words "shield" and "sword" in the description thinking the accessory won't mesh well with my unarmed Abilities. Maybe Victoria or Dawn can find a use for it.

"Ready to go, man? There's nothing else here. We just gotta go back to where the portal was and it'll reappear." The tiny Goblin has the still unconscious Genevieve draped over his shoulder. I nod, even though I really want to check out the Chimera loot. As we make our way back I ask him if he wants to split contents of the loot bag. "Nah, man. I grabbed Aristeo's gear. You can keep whatever the fucked up lion dropped. I can't craft anyway."

"Sounds good. Hey, did your Quest change in the beginning of the fight, too?" He shakes his head. "It's weird," I point a thumb to the girl, "She gave me a quest to trap me here, probably thinking I would come by myself. If it wasn't for you, I would've been alone."

"Damn. So you're saying we can't even trust the Quests the NPCs give us?" She starts slipping and he has to readjust her.

"Well, it's the first time I've heard of them doing something like that, but the system had a way of explaining it. Even when the name changed, both names related in some strange way."

"Speaking of strange, I never bothered to ask, but what's your name, man? All I see are a bunch of question marks."

"Ardacen Winters. Level fifteen. You?"

"Dominic Turner. Call me Dom. Level fifteen as of just now."

I smirk to myself when his sentence ends and he doesn't ask the tiresome question. I start to worry about the young girl and slow down to catch a look at her face, but Dom tells me she'll be out for a while. When I ask what he plans on doing with her, he produces a Wanted poster and a screen pops up in front of it. Her picture, name, and details of past crimes are listed and when he asks if I want to split the bounty, I turn him down like he did for me.

"You're the ninja bounty hunter, you can turn her in. Hey, you part of a group? My friends and I are--"

"No thanks, man, I play solo. Someone already got the first milestone prize and I gotta hurry up to the next one."

I smile and nod, not having the heart to tell him the truth, "Is that why you're doing bounty Quests?"

"Yeah, but they're paying out less and less. I think I gotta move on to the next city, but I'm not sure if it'll work out. If it don't, then it'd be a waste of time and I'll never catch up."

Our walk out seems to take longer than the walk in and I almost forget that we're supposed to be on a clandestine mission. I also have a brief moment of clarity when I realize that I split XP with Richter. That means we're technically still close enough that the party didn't disband and that he's still alive, so that's good news. I whisper him, letting him know I'll be in the library shortly. The words come out and I glance at Dom who seems to ignore the height jab.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"You don't know how to fight, do you?" He asks, looking up at me over the body of Genevieve. I scrunch my eyebrows together and squint my eyes, scrutinizing him. "Sure, you've got good instincts, but you telegraph your moves and you rely on the sharpness of your claws to do the job for you."

"I know a bit. Nothing formal," I say, staring at my extracted claws. "Still, I could tell you know more than a little something."

"Arnis and Kajukenbo, mostly. I think you'd like them. Very versatile and aggressive just like you seem to be."

"Thanks. I'm willing to learn if you're willing to teach?" I retract my claws as we approach the portal. I extend a hand to his empty shoulder side and we shake.

Dom and I exchange Friend Requests and head our seperate ways from within the library. He jumps out of the window like an Olympic diver and I slink out into a hallway like a jungle cat. After meeting with Richter, we decide to make for the Grey Rooster to debrief each other over a pint, still buzzing on our missions and not yet ready to settle down.

"So, the snake's waving him around like a freakin chew toy," our constant laughter cuts me off and I can't finish my sentence. Richter has his head in his arm on the table, laughing hysterically and banging his fist. I'm rubbing my cheeks from how sore they feel. "Anyway, it all ended very smoothly thanks to Dom. So, what about you?"

"Well," he pulls a drink from his mug and sets it down, "The Quest changed while I was searching, but I still managed to find some pretty incriminating stuff." He glances around from our table in the corner, backs toward the walls, "Apparently, the two of them were involved in something called 'The Rose of Three Thorns.' Looks like some kind of three headed monster worshipping cult."

"Makes a kind of sense with the Chimera they had," I say while nodding and fiddling with the new Armlet on my wrist.

"Anyway, I took all kinds of documents and a list with names. Dude, they're not very good at being secretive, almost like they're not a secret at all." He takes another drink, holding it up and putting on his thinking face.

"Well, shit, what are we gonna do with the info? Did you get a new Quest?" I ask but he shakes his head and I finish reading the description of the Armlet. I hold it up and say, "Shield."

The sound of rushing water covers the ambient noise of the bar as the silver Armlet becomes a liquid metal, spreading out and filling in an invisible template. In the same time it takes to sneeze, the Armlet transforms into a kite shield attached to my left arm, knocking over a nearby chair. The other patrons don't even look up from their own conversations. I use the command word "Arm" to reset it and pick up the chair.

"Dude, you get the coolest stuff," Richter says, staring at the shiny, silver band before it disappears into storage. My eyes shoot open when I remember something and I toss him the Knight Chesst. "What's this for?" he asks.

"I know you got the XP, but did you get anything else?" He shakes his head, "Then that's your cut. Thanks for coming with me. We'll report to Dawn and she can tell us what to do with the info." He cracks open the chest and we both check out his prize.

[Fantastic! You received Ghostfire Bowstring!]

[Ghostfire Bowstring. Advanced Journeyman Material

[When strung to a bow, this item allows the wielder to turn the arrows fired from the bow into bolts of grey, Arcane energy. Damage reduced by Willpower instead of Armor. Each bolt costs 7MP, ignores half of the target's Willpower Defense, and has a 20% chance to cause Mana Burn, reducing target's MP by damage dealt.]

We're about to take out Richter's Spectral Nomad Recurve Bow, when we halt our actions and look over at the bar. We almost forgot Seriel's main rule, "No weapons out in the open," we both say dejectedly. He stows it for later and my shoulders sag. Guess I'll have to wait.

After explaining the situation to Dawn and Victoria and giving them the bundle of papers, we are pretty much free to finish crafting. Before we leave, however, Dawn asks to speak to me for a minute. Richter pats my shoulder and walks off to the Craft Corner.

Dawn folds her arms across her chest, shoulders up and tense. She doesn't look at me directly when she asks, "Are you okay with this arrangement? I mean, I don't mind doing it, but…" she hesitates to continue, but Victoria puts a hand on her shoulder and smiles warmly. "I don't want this to be weird for you."

"Come on, Dawn," her eyes slowly come to meet mine, "We all know who the best choice for this position is. I did it because… well… because I thought it'd be fun and maybe I would be good at it."

I shrug, hands up in defeat, "You don't know until you try, right? Besides, I know nothing about city development and half of this gig is going to be that when we get to our destination."

She takes a moment to ponder my words. She gives me a shrewd look, eyes squinting as they give me a once over, "You're not just shirking all the responsibility over to me, are you?"

I sigh deeply, "It might seem like it at first, but remember that delegation is important. I'm the kind of person who would rather shoulder all the labor and that kind of decision making isn't good for a group."

I rub the back of my neck, "I wouldn't mind if you threw me into the fire, but asking someone to do it for me isn't something I can do." She nods, contemplating my point of view.

Victoria places her free hand on my shoulder, connecting the three of us in a loose triangle, "If Dawn is the captain and I'm first mate, then you're going to be--"

"The naughty cabin boy?" I ask, and Dawn palms her face.

"I was going to say, the ship. We'll steer and you'll get us to where we want to go." She emphasizes her point with a pat on the shoulder and a smile. She kisses me on the lips, but her grin unsettles me, "Now, craft as long as you like, but we're getting you up early tomorrow morning."

Richter is drawing the new string of his bow. It didn't create a new type of weapon, but instead added the prefix, "Haunted," so his weapon's new title is Haunted Spectral Nomad Recurve Bow.

"Bro, this is awesome. When I draw the bow, I can almost feel the desire for mana coming from it. Like it's thirsty for Mana or something." He stows the bow and glances over my work. The Young Chimera loot bag didn't contain a lot of each item, but each item is extremely high quality.

[5*Chimera Hide, 5*Chimera Pelt, 12*Chimera Scales, 4*Chimera Fang, 2*Chimera Bone, 1*Chimera Horn]

The bones are rare to drop without a certain Feat, so getting any at all is fortunate for us. I worked the Hides into usable Leather and drew up plans for some clothes. Inspired by my new tunic, I envision living up to my Blue Mage Class using the turquoise dye, though I wish it was a darker kind of blue.

"Tomorrow, if our fearless leaders don't kill me, I'll see if I can enlist the help of the tailors to craft clothes for everyone." I look upon all of my blueprints with sense of pride.

"Dude, I hope they can get it all done before the break," he says, holding up the design for the pants. "Are these supposed to be cargo pants?"

I explain to him what happened with the Roycroft Frame, and how it gave me an inventory interface. After years of wearing black cargo pants behind the bar and finding them indespensible, I did feel strange walking around without them and now I have an excuse to slap some back on. I also show him the Eldritch Soldier Tunic and he understood right away that we've been missing out on a source of Armor and potential stats this whole time. Of course the armor we have been making is incredible, but the simple clothing we've been using underneath is garbage in comparison.

"I think," I start, pulling up more blank blueprint screens, "If we can just design a whole bunch of stuff, hopefully, the citizens can manage the rest."