A calm breeze blew past the trio as they stopped before the glowing stone markers. Gently the wooden bridge fragments swayed atop the quiet waves of the newly formed lake. An eery yet strangely calming hum echoed through the air, a second later the portal whirled open and Zaunder’s Counters came to screeching halt in the exact spot it had been in just a few hours earlier.
“Hey, didn’t expect you back so soon. Anyways, welcome to Zaunder’s Counters! We’ve got a county’s bounty to sell!” Felicia waved at them with a cheerful smile from behind her counter as the side of the wagon popped open.
The cat girl still looked a bit frazzled going by her chaotic hair but otherwise seemed to be in a much better mental state than before. And somehow she had brushed up the counter because it now looked much more smooth and polished in contrast to the more rustic, splintery charm of before.
“Yeh, we skipped a bit ahead.” Mako bopped her head with a smug, little grin. Arms under her voluptuous breasts. She puffed out her chest and tried to make sure her new tiara got caught in the midday sun’s shine.
“You didn’t just wait the whole time we were away, right…?” Threy sweatdropped after greeting Felicia, ignoring Mako’s antics.
“…” Going by the innkeepers nervous sweating, he had hit the nail on the head.
“Why would you do that…?!” He stressed his words with disbelief, gawking at her wide eyed. Sure, he wasn’t the most sociable person himself, but just idling around for hours on end was too much even for him!
“…t-there isn’t much for me to do besides sitting behind the counter and its not all that different from my usual work.” Felicia mumbled in her defence, pouting lightly as she looked away, unwilling to meet his gaze.
“That girl needs to go out more...” Key muttered from her little hideaway.
“Oh! And someone actually came by the inn earlier! W-well, I didn’t really see them but they left a letter behind.” The cat girl quickly changed the topic. She already had enough arguments with her sister about how she lived her life! And it wasn’t like there wasn’t enough interesting stuff to occupy her mind with. The tomes on old magic and runic artefacts had been surprisingly fun to read so far. Though why she had found them in the freezer of all places was still a complete mystery to her.
“Wait, really?” Mako blinked startled from her yet unchanged pose.
Felicia quickly handed the envelope to the trio and slipped back into her role as this place’s merchant, ignoring the question.
“But enough of that. How can I help you?” She turned to them with a friendly smile. “I don’t have anything new to sell but if you need to restock I’ve got more than enough at hand.”
Actually, she was pretty sure her stock was only limited by Mako and Threy’s gold funds.
“…right.” Threy looked at her dubious, making it clear that this wasn’t the end just yet, and pocket the letter for now. And in the same motion brought out the sapphire again.
“Hey!”
And also snatched the tiara from Mako’s head, making her squawk. Both gem and tiara were laid out on the counter before Felicia. Now, would she be able to do anything with this?
“Hmm, I’m sorry. Crafting isn’t part of my expertise. I just sell.” Felicia apologised sheepishly.
“Then, can Daniel use the kitchen…?” Tania’s eyes lit up, not at all disappointed as the tiara was already back on her head again. They hadn’t even noticed her move.
“Uhm, sure...?” The cat girl blinked startled at her intensity.
“Cake~!” Key cheered excitedly.
———
Cake was life! Cake was love! Cake was the truth of all reality!
“At least Key will be too distracted to notice if we sequence break even more…?” Daniel offered with a sweatdrop as Key appeared to have ascended to a higher plane of consciousness after devouring three entire slices of delicious chocolate cake.
Baking within Felicia’s kitchen had felt like magic with how easy everything just worked. And he was pretty sure it had been magic, otherwise the cake definitely wouldn’t have been done in just ten minutes max.
“…all is cake…” Key drooled in bliss, sprawled out atop the table insensate.
“Maybe keep some in reserve for the future, then.” Tania grinned, happily digging into her own second slice.
“Yeah, probably a good idea.” Daniel chuckled.
At some point or another his coat had turned into a white baker’s apron cloak with fitting chef hat perked atop his head in place of the pointy witch hat. Neither Tania, Felicia or even Key had any idea when he had managed to change his outfit. And Daniel was more than happy to keep it a mystery.
“Okay! New rule, bake me a cake and you get 10% off on your next purchase!” Felicia declared, the eldritch calculations of merchant kind assuring her that she had just offered a total steal in her favour. This was worth at least 40%! Not that she was going to say as much.
“Haha, sure thing, Lisa!” Daniel laughed as the cat girl blissfuly popped in another fork of delicious cake, ears perked up and tail flicking happily behind her.
And so their short break at Zaunder’s Counters came to an end. With their previously purchased items still untouched, they decided to save their current discount for later and wished Felicia goodbye.
“And don’t just wait…! Do something! Touch grass, anything besides just sitting idly around!” Daniel called out exasperate.
“Just do something productive. He’ll never shut up otherwise.” Tania stage whispered to Felicia, remembering all the times whenever she had been bored with nothing to do between her streaming schedules. Daniel had nothing against just relaxing but just doing nothing out of boredom was abhorrent to him.
“Ahaha, I’ll do my best…” The cat girl replied with a nervous chuckle, sweating under Daniel’s hardening stare.
“…may we return to cake…” Key drooled with shining eyes, sounding strangely wise while still completely out of it.
Daniel was actually starting to wonder if - just maybe - chocolate or something else he used during baking had hallucinogenic effects on dragon beans. And he couldn’t help but feel like they had also forgotten about something. But it was probably not that important. He shrugged.
Mako narrowed her eyes lightly at Threy. When did he changed back into his normal outfit?
———
The second half of the ravine. A twisted maze of elevation, ledges, rising platforms and stone pillars that continuously shifted under the influenced of the ocean currents below. Stone statues of a eastern dragon wrapped around a sphere could be found standing in various locations, most likely possessing a similar function to the Ocean Flow statues before.
It was an open sandbox to parcour through without being limited to a single, correct path. Skeleton Archers stood scattered in various positions and alongside other mobs obstructed the way forward. Grey blue stone golems overgrown with vines and ivy wandered aimlessly about, visually reminiscent of the stone giant now trapped under newly born lake. And annoyingly enough, the Coral Spitters had returned alongside with the now stone armoured Water Wisps.
All of it trivialised thanks to Threy and Mako being able to just jump their way up to the high ground. They had tried to get a peek over the the ravine but the nesting Cliff Mantas made it impossible to get a wall jump up there without being immediately thrown back down.
Still, the duo wasn’t about to just skip out on fighting a few new enemies! There was no way they would be able to just dodge every coming conflict, especially since they definitely would have to take on the Skeleton Pirate King at one point. Threy refused to call him Pickles.
“Damn, those golems are much hardier than the skeletons…” Mako noted as her strikes barely chipped away at its stone body, quickly dodging backwards from its powerful smashing strike. It was slow but dangerous and caused a damaging shockwave to erupt when it struck the ground.
Threy didn’t have much more success either, his bullets rebounding at odd angles while doing little damage.
There had to be a weakness but Key was currently snoozing deeply after her cake induced high, leaving them with the need to find out by themselves. Not too much of a challenge as the duo soon noticed the blue glowing cracks hidden beneath the greenery overgrowing the golem. They flared up with each direct hit and finally caused the golem to crumble as they burst, leaving behind a single blue gem.
“Shiny~” Mako grinned.
“Wonder if we’ll find a blacksmith or crafter or similar down the line…” Threy mused as they moved on.
Beyond just being a maze of a parcour course, the second half the ravine was also much longer and snaked its way in and out of the main land in a chaotic, zigzagging pattern. Skeleton Camps stood scattered within their path as well as nestled behind tunnels branching off to the side. Some were dead ends with just the Skeleton Camps while others had further tunnels lead them back to the ravine at different points.
With ever more practiced skill, Mako deflected an arrow with her tail as she pierced through the Skeleton before her. The Archer losing his head a moment later to Threy’s well aimed shot, his other revolver shattering another’s skull. Another successful clear! And yet…
“We still haven’t found a single Skeleton Cage! What gives…?!” Mako exclaimed aggravated after the most recent camp rewarded them with the same two chests as all before them. Two more Rastal Pieces. The wonder of these rewards had long since dispersed and so the magical pyramids joined the rest of them in the ever growing pile that had gathered within Threy’s Realm of Darkness.
The cost of future upgrades had to be staggering if they were being showered in Rastal Pieces already.
“Muh, I just want to get this over with.” Mako pouted annoyed and kicked a nearby skeleton head to the side. Why some stayed behind while others dispersed was still something she didn’t get.
“Yeah, this is really starting to get tedious. Maybe we should just rush to the end and hope we can go back to collect the rest later… if we ever have to.” Threy agreed with her, grimacing lightly.
“But what if we miss something good…?” Mako whined, making him groan in mental agony.
Sure, sequence break the world to hell and back and potentially skip key items… but don’t you dare miss out on the optional content! Why did Mako have to have the toned down counterpart to Key’s neurosis?!
———
In the end they had decided to ignore the branching paths in favour of just speedrunning through the rest of the ravine. A decision that came to screeching halt as soon as they reached its last segment.
Once again a wall reached up from the ground to mark the end of the ravine’s second half. This time there was no difficulty to climb it, even if they had used only singular double jumps without the exploit. And the third segment laid out before them, about as long as the first part but much more straightforward.
A sandy slope lead down from the wall to a lake of ocean water, massive lily pads swimming atop as platforms that just so didn’t reach the crescent shaped shore on the other side. And above the shore the exit leading towards the harbour was visible. Dark clouds could be seen in the distance, a stark contrast to the warm sunshine illuminating this honestly cozy looking spot.
But even with how peaceful this third part of the Ravine looked, there was a unanimous understanding of what it true purpose was. This was, without a doubt, a Boss Arena.
This revelation went immediately ignored in favour of the opening within the ravine’s inland wall just sightly too high and to the side for either Mako or Threy to reach… without using their double jump exploit, that was. The opening was nestled within the shadow of a ledge near the end of the ravine’s second half and was rather easy to overlook.
As far as either of them could see, there was no way to reach it without abusing the double jump exploit. An early onset of exploiter brain rot because they had completely forgotten about all the statues they had been ignoring since the beginning.
“We’re taking a look there~!” Mako cheerfully decided, leaving no room for discussion as she hopped to the wall and into the opening.
“Fine by me.” Threy shrugged amused, keeping right behind her.
A long tunnel stretched out beyond it, weaving its way through the porous stone, curving oceanward and finally opened up to a small lagoon nestled within the cliff. A sandy beach dotted with lush green grass and vibrant flowers bordered the crystal clear water and was framed by jutting, claw-like stone formations. The water was shallow and banks of sand peeked out in various spots.
Threy’s at bounced, startling him, and a second later Key popped out. Wide eyed she stood atop his head, witch hat on her back.
“This…! I can feel a Skeleton Cage!” She gasped now fully awake, rapidly turning this way and that to look around, trying to get a better feel.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Wait, you can feel Skeleton Cages?!” Mako cried out in disbelief. Angrily her tail lashed through the air. “Why didn’t you freaking tell us??? We could’ve saved up on so much disappointment!”
A rumble shook the lagoon and Threy twirled his revolvers at the ready.
“Save the talking. I think we’ve got something big incoming…!” He called out just before the sand began to bulge as something rapidly dug through it, rushing towards them.
In a shower of sand, mud and water the ground burst open and with a chattering roar landed the massive, spiral shelled hermit crab Cancargot before them. Claws snapped through the air as eyes gleamed an evil crimson. And grinning impishly at them from the opened shell tip poked out another dragon bean, fully crimson with coal black horns and jagged, strangely rocket reminiscent side pattern. Her eyes glowed with the same evil as the Cancargot.
Mako gasped as she immediately recognised them. Eyes narrowed, she didn’t waste any time to ready herself, leaving her displeasure aside in favour of what was really important. To beat this Elite Enemy and rescue the heart-warming cosplayer family!
The familiar feeling of being watched tingled at Threy out of nowhere.
“Ah, you came. Thank you. I will help out as best as I can but don’t expect much.”
A monotone and exhausted voice echoed from behind them, soft steps wandering over the sand. Dressed in a black suit that may have looked professional if not for its dishevelled and loose state arrived Raymond, Special Agent from the manga-anime series Tae to Tae. Twirling a lollipop through his fingers, he popped one into his mouth.
“Haa, this Paper Case is such a pain…” He grimaced, rubbing his neck.
Threy and Mako blinked awkwardly, thrown for a loop by the sudden addition of another newcomer, but were quick to return their attention to the actual enemy before them. They could ask this Raymond what his deal was after they were done with this!
Not that the Cancargot would’ve given them the freedom to talk anyways as ihert barrelled towards them. He wasn’t fast by any means but he certainly wasn’t slow either. Powerful claws snapped after Threy, cutting through empty air as he was quick to dodge backwards. A testing shot rebound from his shell similar to the golems’ stone bodies previously.
“Maybe the eyes or the claws first… or maybe its only vulnerable after certain actions or phases…” Threy mumbled to himself. “Hey, Key! Any info on this one?!”
But they had their trust guide back from her snooze!
“R-right! Cancargot and Crimson Lily! They are dangerous duo together. The shell’s practically invulnerable and don’t try to go for Lily. Uhm, just got for the obvious weak spots? Oh, and look out for his spinning attack!” Key scrambled to analyse, holding onto Threy’s head for dear life as she hadn’t managed to wiggle back into the safety of his hat yet.
“Just like his battles in Flame Tales!” Mako called out as. “Or, similar at least…!”
The original games he had appeared in were old 3D platforming classics and so there was some overlap between this version and the game origin. But this one definitely wouldn’t be as limited and Crimson Lily was a new addition that was also unique. No such character had existed within the games. Never mind any dragon beans at all.
“Great! I never played those…!” Threy exclaimed in light panic, hurrying to get away from a barrage of bubbles spewing forth.
“Just keep moving and aim for the eyes!” Mako clarified, puffing her cheek in a pout at his continued ignorance of one of the greatest classics ever.
“That I can do!” Threy shot her a thumbs up and with a smirk whirled around, locking on.
Annoyed at his inability to hit either of them, Cancargot turtled up. Claws and eyes vanished within it and the spiral shell made a quick whirl left before exploding into rapid motion, bouncing onto the tip as it rushed across the beach like a spinning top.
“Woah…!” Threy gasped, barely able to leap out of the way of its spin. The sharp winds around it still cutting into him, however. “And ow!”
He didn’t even try to shoot it like that, not needing to be warned that it would just get reflected.
But Mako didn’t have to worry about that, the small shark girl speeding across the beach to strike the spinning tip with her trident. A bright flash erupted and the shell was sent whirling through the air. With a hard crash, a dazed and dizzy Cancargot impacted the sand. Slimy tongue and eyes wobbling outside, vulnerable and open to attack.
Threy was at his back and rushed forwards, with a double jump he hopped over the shell and unleashed a double shot against his eyes.
Mako moved for her own strike but the tip popped open and with an angry cry a swarm of mini-rockets were unleashed by Crimson Lily. With fire and smoke erupting from their boosters, at least twenty mini-rockets soared through the air before zooming towards Threy and Mako.
“That also part of the games?!” Threy called out, hopping and running and dodging the rockets more or less. Fiery explosions erupted whenever they hit and shooting them out of the air just meant any other nearby got obscured within the flames and smoke. His coat had certainly started to smoulder already.
“Nope! Nope! Definitely not…!” Mako scrambled wide eyed to stay as scorch-free as possible. Her prior experience with fiery death had been more than enough!
Luckily there didn’t come another swarm right after but Cancargot had managed to recover by now, having taken only a few meagre hits.
The massive crab shook himself and glared at the duo, letting out a roar.
“So, no warning about that, Key?” Threy mumbled to their guide and his hat wiggled lightly.
“S-sorry, I didn’t get a good look at her…” Key apologised sheepishly, voice muffled with how far into the Realm of Darkness she had drawn herself.
“Huh, okay…” Threy blinked, he hadn’t realised she actually needed to build up her analysis. “Anything new, now?”
“Just that you really have to look out for her rockets and guns!” Key warned.
“Guns, too?!” Threy exclaimed before needing to dodge again.
Bubbles spewed forth from Cancargot’s mouth as he spun quickly in place, adding even more to the ones before. Dodging out of another spinning top attack would be much harder now…! Threy blinked as an idea hit him.
“Using my Special now!” He called out in warning, darkness bubbling within him, and making sure to have as many bubbles in his range as possible he struck with his pulse of writhing shadows.
Cancargot let out a startled roar as he was struck by the fraying end of the wave, reflexively moving to strike at his attacker. A mistake as all the bubbles within his path and his surroundings were now roiling with darkness, corrupted to Threy’s use, and dealt massive damage.
The hermit crab roared again and readied for another spinning top. Only this time the dull spikes along its side swung open, turning into canon openings!
Ah, so that’s what Key had warned about. Threy nodded solemnly in understanding. And then dodging the spinning top became much more dangerous as a hail of bullets was added every few seconds to the cutting winds.
The shell cut through the remaining bubbles, both shadowed and not, with Mako not getting the right timing for another strike to the tip.
Cuts and bullets had struck both Threy and Mako hard during this phase. Until now neither had ever gotten hurt enough during battles to really get a feeling for how much health they actually had and even now it didn’t really have a number. But they certainly knew they were getting into the red.
“Good thing we bought more than enough stuff to top us up.” Threy grinned as he and Mako popped a Life Heart each. The stylised hearts burst into a beautiful, soft red glow that settled over their bodies, healing their damage in moments.
Cancargot’s spin began to slow down and finally came to a halt. With a roar, he leapt upwards and spun around land back on his scurrying legs. But instead of going back to the previous pattern of claw strikes and bubbles, he started to spin rapidly and dug into the sand. Burrowing away from the beach, he rushed into the lagoon where popped out at the very centre of the shallow waters, surrounded by a circle of sandbanks.
“Looks like we’re going into Phase 2 already…” Threy muttered as they were forced to follow.
With a soft splash, Raymond landed besides them on their run into the lagoon’s water.
“Hey! Didn’t you say you were going to help out?!” Mako narrowed her eyes at him annoyed.
“I also said, don’t expect too much.” Raymond muttered unbothered. “Could’ve done something about those rockets… or the canon rain the second time around but it never got to that.”
“Ah…” Mako blinked and an embarrassed blush dusted her cheeks. “R-right, reactive instead of proactive…”
“That’s the motto, yep.” Raymond nodded with a suffering sigh.
“Can’t believe you completely forget about that~” Daniel couldn’t help but tease her with a wide grin, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
“O-oh, shut up…!” Tania’s cheeks burned even brighter. So what if she had binge-watched Tae to Tae over a dozen times? That didn’t mean she wasn’t allowed to be oblivious about obvious cues in stress situations!
Awkwardly Raymond tried to ignore their exchange as he did his best to keep up. This really wasn’t his type of deal, he sighed.
———
The trio finally reached the sandbank ring less than a minute later, Raymond keeping slightly to the back as they got ready for the second phase.
Burrowing his body partially into the centre of the lagoon, Cancargot’s shell once again unveiled the hidden weaponry that had been installed within it. Canons and rocket silos were ready to unleash their arsenal. His body trembled and made the whole lagoon rumble ominously. The results didn’t wait long to reveal themselves and the shallow waters surrounding the sandbank began fizz, glowing bubbles rising upwards and exploded unpredictably all around.
“The bubbles are normal, the weaponry not…” Mako answered Threy’s curious glance with light exasperation and then smirked. “And I think now it’s time for my Special~”
Crimson Lily popped out of the tip and grinned evilly, revealing a large red button that she didn’t waste any time to press. All the weaponry increased in size and grew more menacing in appearance. Steel plates folded out of the shell to transform Cancargot from a hermit crab into a hermit fortress crab.
And destruction and explosions rained down on the centre of the lagoon.
“…or maybe not~!” Mako’s smirk turned into an overly cheerful and exaggerated grin and turned towards Threy and Raymond.
“So, any idea how to deal with that…?” She sheepishly asked, rubbing neck.
“Nope.” Threy was prompt to answer.
“Ask the other guy…!” Key called out from within the safety of Threy’s hat.
Thoughtfully, Raymond stroked his chin as he looked at the hail of explosions. Lazily the stick of his lollipop flicked back and forth as he rolled it around with his tongue.
“… Yeah, I think I can give you an opening.” He finally nodded, grimacing lightly at the fizzing water all around. “Just need you to clear out a path through all these bubbles.”
And immediately Mako’s smirk was back.
“Now, that’s the easy part.” She cackled gleefully and the sphere of abyssal water rising above her palm cast her face in an eery glow.
Raymond blanched and leant inconspicuously to Threy.
“The missy’s kinda scary…” He noted awkwardly.
“She’s just having fun.” Threy chuckled in reply, giving him an amused grin to which Raymond could only sweatdrop.
Great, even more weirdos he has to deal with even outside his normal job. Why didn’t he quit? Ah, right. Because quitting that one time had just made things so so so much worse. He shuddered at the memory.
“All done~!” Mako startled him out of his thoughts and he blinked at the gloomy, moonlit lake that had taken over the lagoon. The angry fizzing had vanished and instead a tranquil calm had fallen over the surface, the bubbles now floating peacefully like beautiful moons or stars above the moonlit lake.
The serenity of the scene brutally ripped apart by the still continuing rain of explosions at its very centre.
“Well, that does make things a lot easier…” He mused and didn’t waste any more time.
For all that Raymond was depicted as your average, normal guy having to deal with the utter insanity of his series, he was far from normal in his physical abilities. Mostly running and jumping because you learnt that getting out of the way of stuff was much more effective than just tanking it. Well, besides notable exceptions that didn’t matter at the moment.
And mentally… you kinda had to change and adapt to the insanity at some point.
All of it leading to Raymond weaving his way through the rain of explosions and dodging bullets to quickly climb his way up the shell where Crimson Lily was gleefully delighting in the destruction all around.
“Sorry, little girl. But you earned yourself a timeout.” He muttered, snatched her by the scruff her neck and then hauled his ass out of there as fast as possible.
“All yours…!” He hurriedly called out with wide eyes as he rushed past Threy and Mako, tightly holding onto the crimson dragon bean as her eyes spun dizzy from his rapid flight, before that massive hermit crab could strike at him.
The duo nodded back, grins tugging at their lips as they readied their weapons.
A few more explosions rained down around Cancargot before coming to an end, leaving him finally vulnerable again.
Dumbfounded, the hermit crab blinked at them. The lagoon still cast in the last few seconds of the Abyss Lock’s moonlit lake. And then Threy and Mako were upon him.
“Canon Shock!”
“Spiral Strike!”
Both Weapon Skills struck true and in a brilliant explosion their battle against Cancargot came to an end. Two, beautiful stars of blue shone bright as his body dissolved into light but instead of immediately darting back into the sky, they flitted over to a startled Raymond still holding onto Crimson Lily.
The evil glow within her eyes had disappeared alongside Cancargot’s body and after shaking off her dizziness, she gaze awed at the two stars as they danced around her. A lightly giggled escaped her as they nudged into her and she lovingly nuzzled back against them. And only then shot the stars back into the sky.
“…w-well, that was certainly an experience.” Raymond awkwardly coughed and looked down at Lily. “So, uhm, I hope you feel better little dragon missy? No more desire for evil explosions?”
Cutely the crimson dragon bean tilted her head this way and that as if she was trying to make doubly sure finally she bopped her head cheerfully in agreement.
“Yep~! All gone! Just want cool explosions now!” She grinned widely.
“From a safe distance and supervised by professionals, I hope.” Raymond muttered under his breath and Lily snickered.
The Special Agent was extremely grateful when Threy and Mako jogged back to their side a short moment later, rescuing him from any further, awkward conversations with this young lady.
A soft smile came to Tania’s lips as she stood at eye level with the new dragon bean.
“Hey, I’m Tania and the guy in dark there’s Daniel.” She poked her thumb over at Daniel who gave a small wave and smile. Nervously she chewed on her lower lip as she didn’t if she should ask. “How do you feel? Do you remember what happened?”
But any worries Tania may have had about Lily’s feelings and fears turned out to be completely unfounded.
“I feel great! And yeah, there was all this darkness stuff and then me, mommy and daddy were that super duper strong boss! You were awesome! Muh, I just wish I could actually play, too…” She pouted at the unfairness of it all.
“Well, we’re definitely going to beat this game! No question about that~” Tania grinned back in promise.
“Yeah!” Lily cheered.
Having watched from the side for long enough, Daniel turned towards Raymond with a curious look.
“So, what were you doing here anyways? And why did you watch us the whole time without actually coming down to meet us?” He asked, looking a bit annoyed.
Confused, Raymond blinked back.
“Uh, did I forget to write that in the letter…?” He awkwardly replied, rubbing his neck.
Now it was Daniel who had to blink. And then started to sweat as he remember what exactly they had forgotten about earlier.
“R-right, the letter…” He chuckled nervously, mirroring Raymond with his neck rub.
Tania and Lily glanced at each amused and a grin tugged at their lips before both started snickering at the two guys’ awkwardness. But luckily it didn’t last too long as Tania and Daniel sheepishly apologised about their mistake. Raymond just gave them deadpan look before accepting their apology with a heavy, resigned sigh. It was really starting to feel like home now.
He gave them a quick rundown on what he was doing, seeing as they hadn’t read the letter already and he was here to just say it.
“Basically I’m dealing with all the Skeleton Cages around the Lands so you can focus on your part in this Paper Case. Have been bring all the little ones over to that inn place… I don’t think the lady there knows about that yet, though.” He awkwardly chuckled and gave a nervous swallow.
“You better tell her!” Lily narrowed her eyes up at him.
“Aye aye, little lady.” Raymond gave a brisk salute, making her grin. Yeah, he was definitely going into debt. Even if Felicia would probably wave the cost for Lily and the others.
Raymond turned towards Tania and Daniel again.
“Anyways, I better get going now. Probably will see each other again when you come around the inn again… or more likely because of another Elite Enemy. Such a pain… Good luck.” He waved lazily as he got going, Lily at his side.
“Bye~! Come and visit soon… wherever that inn is!” Lily brightly waved from atop Raymond’s head, the natural habitat of dragon beans apparently.
And then Mako and Threy were on their own again.
“Are they gone…?” Key nervously poked her head out of Threy’s hat. “Phew, gone! If I had come out while that Raymond guy was still there he would have treated me like a little kid!”
“Are you?” Mako asked with a teasing grin on her lips, she had been wondering why Key hadn’t come out after Cancargot had been dealt with
“NO! Just because I’m cute and cuddly doesn’t mean I’m a kid! Even if all other dragon beans are kids. I’m fully mature and the oldest of them all!” Key smugly puffed her chest out as she climbed onto Threy’s shoulder.
Her eyes narrowed as Mako and Threy glanced amused at each other.
“HEY! Don’t just assume things! And I’m still your awesome guide, don’t you forget it!” Key declared, huffing with a blustering pout as the duo just laughed.
“We won’t, promise.” Threy grinned and Mako bopped her head cheerfully in agreement as they made their way back to the beach. Key still narrowed her eyes suspiciously but drudgingly accepted.
There was still another boss awaiting them at the end of the ravine. And more importantly and immediately…
“Let’s see what this awesome chest has to offer us~!” Mako chirped with greedy glowing eyes at the massive, blue and turquoise wooden chest that had risen from the sand. Threy was starting to wonder at what point Gao Mako had been given the ability to teleport. Otherwise he had no idea how to explain her instant movement. Actually, he could swear she had been in two spots simultaneously for a moment there.
“Wait up…! Don’t just open it without me!” He jogged after her.