I woke up in-game; Ariana was still sound asleep. I suppose we could have used the game's sleeping log-out feature, which from the forums I knew a lot of hardcore users would take advantage of as a reminder they needed to eat and such, but having experienced this a couple times now I found it arguably less jarring than suddenly waking up in my room after spending several subjective hours in a fantasy world. But to each their own.

Upon pulling up the system menu, I found that it was just before six. I nudged Ariana, who stirred awake and then smiled when she registered my face.

“Hey you.” she said to me.

“Hey. Funny enough, it's time for a second wake-up.” I said with a grin of amusement.

“Hmm? Oh! That's right!” Ari exclaimed, pulling up another menu. “Lizzy and Heali are still logged in... Anhe and Maryn got off about ten minutes ago, it looks like.” she told me, and I nodded back.

“Let's send the other sleepers a message before we get off,” I said.

“Good idea.” she nodded. The two of us sent a string of wake-up messages to our two friends, and then with a mischievous smirk to one another we logged out into the real world to get ready for school.

About an hour and a half later I was on the bus, as usual. Ty gave me one of those funny looks as I sat down and then pulled out his phone. He pressed a few buttons and then held it out so I could see it. Lo and behold, it was a replay of the boss fight we'd been through.

“Damn, boy. You got lucky on that quest. No wonder nobody's finished it before; soon as the fight was over there were all these rage posts about how nobody ever had a summoner with a high enough level to finish the quest.” he said softly.

“R-really?” I wondered, finding that hard to believe. “I guess they found other places they liked better, also, once they leveled out of the area,” I then said.

“Yeah, that too.” he said, shutting the phone off and putting it away. “Man, Wild's got us looking for a new house like that too now. Something about not lettin' the girls have all the fun in this game.” he said with an amused shrug.

Ah-heh-heh-heh-heh...

“Y'all gonna tone it down a bit so the rest of us can catch up?” he asked me with the twitch of a smile on his face.

“Ehh... nah.” I returned. “Well, kind of, at least. I dunno.” I amended.

“Huh.” Ty remarked. The conversation lapsed amiably at that, and the rest of the bus-ride passed by in its usual silence.

It was followed by the usual routine of being flicked as I got off the bus, the same old parting quip about not whacking anyone without his help, and the now anticipated morning reunion at the lockers outside homeroom. Sure enough, Rachel was there before me this time, and I smiled as she looked back and waved. I opened my locker and began readying myself for the day.

“Kind of weird seeing you here,” she told me.

“Just a bit,” I agreed with a laugh.

“Ellie sent some super-annoyed texts about half an hour ago,” she then giggled.

“Heh, I can just imagine.” I grinned.

“It was pretty much 'you two brats! How dare you wake me up from my beauty sleep!' and so on,” Rachel continued, still laughing as we shut our lockers and went in for class. I laughed with her, shaking my head.

We sat down in our seats, and she turned back to me. A smile was on her face; the kind of smile that usually precedes the sort of conversation that I need to really pay attention to. I'm sure those of you who have had more experience with girls in general know what I'm talking about.

“So... Anhe.” she then said, setting her elbows down on the desk to rest her head in her hands. “Think she definitely figured it out?” she asked me. Didn't we talk about this last night?

“Probably,” I nodded back.

“I know we talked about it last night, just wanted to make sure you remembered.” Rachel remarked.

“Of course I remembered!” I protested softly.

“I guess that means there's someone else vying for your attention now...” she then sighed.

“Ehh?” I wondered blankly, and then shook my head.

“You don't think so?” Rachel gazed at me curiously.

“I mean, she seemed in to Lana, but I don't think that translates to me entirely.” I said.

“Hmm...?” she returned with a thoughtful tone. “I guess if it's like that, then I'm fine with it, more or less.”

“Ahh... I'm not sure how to respond to that,” I said with a bemused grin.

“It's fine,” she smiled back.

“It's not like I'm trying to get attention...” I softly murmured, and then she took one of my hands, giving it a gentle squeeze right as the bell rang. She turned to face forward, giving me another smile, and then classes began.

***

You know what's worse than not being great at mathematics and only just scraping by in the class so you don't ever have to take another mathematics class again? … being called up to the board to demonstrate how to solve a problem in the mathematics that you're just barely scraping by in for the reason of never taking another mathematics course ever again. Thus demonstrating the fact that you are indeed just barely scraping by in mathematics.

We had just gotten through our first two classes, which were getting interesting as the year went on, and I was preparing myself mentally to focus and listen to what our third-course teacher was going to talk about today (really!) when all of a sudden they called me up right off the bat to academically humiliate myself. Once that five minutes of terror or so was over I went back to my seat with a nod of approval from the teacher, and heaved a quiet sigh of relief as I sat down.

Fortunately, science did not repeat the incident, and I was allowed to sit at my spot in peace until lunch, when Rachel and I went to exchange our books at the locker and all but sprinted for the club room. We found Ellie and Andrea already there, and Mary came in just behind us, followed by Anhe.

“Oh, hi brats.” Ellie said with a smirk as we walked in. Rachel affected a grin, but I gave her a semi-dirty look.

“I wonder how much trouble we saved you from by sending those--” I started to say, and then realized that we hadn't actually confirmed if Anhe knew I was Lana.

“Hmm? What was that?” Ellie said to me, the smirk getting brighter. “Did you send me something? This morning, perhaps?” she continued, and Andrea sighed.

“It is okay.” Anhe suddenly said. We turned to her. She had a smile on her face, and she nodded to me before turning to Ellie. “You do not have to tease him so much. I understand who he is now; and I find it curious but somehow appropriate!” Anhe said, turning back to me again with a bright grin.

“Ahh--” I started, unable to think of a comment or reply.

“Wow.” Mary remarked as she enjoyed her turkey-veg sub.

“Hmm...?” Ellie gazed at Anhe with a look of surprise, and then turned back to me. “Right! Awkward revelation three out of the way! Ah wait, this'll be four, won't it? Then I can really let you two have it!” she said with a devilish smirk, and Rachel held up her hands defensively.

“N-now Ellie...!” Rachel began somewhat nervously.

“Don't blame us! And besides, I bet if you had gotten up first you would have sent us a bunch of messages about getting up and not being late for school instead!” I retorted at once, suddenly feeling bold about that assumption. Andrea snickered and Ellie affected a blank expression.

“They have you pretty much pegged there, Elisabeth.” the red-haired girl quipped to her best friend.

“Y-yeah... I've just never seen Sean actually fight back to something I said before,” Ellie said with a faint smile.

“Heh?” I returned bemusedly.

“Oh I wouldn't say that, Lana gives you grief all the time!” Andrea then replied.

“Hmm... that's true.” the other girl considered as she took a drink.

“So it's 'curious' and 'appropriate'?” Mary said as she turned to Anhe, who nodded back.

“Yes!” she agreed animatedly. “And... it is also... kind of... cute!” she said a little more hesitantly, affecting a smile again as she finished. “I wonder what sort of adventures we are going to get into down the road,” Anhe then wondered happily.

“Well, after this weekend, it'll be rough to get in for me. So try not to have too much fun until the holidays!” Ellie remarked.

“Don't bet on it,” I grinned back. “The Hallow's Eve event is already being promoted on the forums, and the first Grand Tournament is in mid-November.”

“Ugh! I so want to--oh wait, we already have plans for you on Halloween!” she then recalled, and I grimaced as all the girls except for Anhe let out a slightly evil chuckle.

“Hm? Hm?” the other girl wondered, looking around at us confusedly.

They then explained their dastardly plot to her, and when she had been filled in she delightedly exclaimed how fun it sounded and if she would be welcome to join in, which of course was agreed to at once, after which she looked at me with an amused grin and told me I'd better be prepared now that she was joining in on the fun -- to which the other girls all reacted with a very euphoric surprise while I sank into the couch resignedly.

Uuugghhhh...

“But anyway,” Ellie began after they had calmed down from that moment, “I'm gonna do some crafting with Andi tonight so feel free to run around without us.” she said, and Andrea nodded at the words.

“We've got a ton of resources that've been sitting in our inventories all this time,” she said with a semi-sheepish grin.

“Ah--oh! We need to turn our our pockets as well, then,” I remarked.

“True!” Rachel nodded.

“Should we go out and collect more?” Anhe asked.

“At least one of the upcoming guild competitions is going to be a PvP battle of some kind, so sure! Stockpile away!” Ellie told her.

“Hmm...” the younger girl then leaned back, a thoughtful look on her face as she continued with her lunch.

“You're just a resource collector in general, aren't you?” Rachel asked me. “Oh wait! Yes, you do have some crafting skills; it's just been so long since you've used them!” she smiled.

“That's true,” I nodded. “I mean, you, Andrea, and Ellie pretty much have us covered in terms of crafting anyway... hm, maybe I'll go for architect or builder in addition to fletching and poison-maker...” I pondered, taking a drink as I did.

“Let's both do that,” Mary then suggested.

“Hm?” I looked up at her curiously, as did Rachel.

“I haven't really selected a craft myself, honestly, I've just been a resource-hoarder.” she said with a shrug. “And that forum-post on the PvP competition mentioned something about the Wildlands to the north; from what I remember reading in my spare time, there's almost nothing there but resources and a couple of towns on the edges. It's a free-for-all build-all spot, so if we have two people who can work with making defensible forts, that'd be best.”

“Especially since we're a small guild anyway,” I nodded in understanding. “Fair enough!”

“I thought I heard something about the Jade Sea also being a PvP competition spot...” Anhe said to us.

“Oh! That's true.” Ellie nodded. “Someone should learn the shipwright craft, then.”

“Wouldn't that technically benefit from smithing experience?” I asked her.

“Hmm... you're not wrong, but it'd be better to have a dedicated one, since I've put a lot into weapon and armor crafting as opposed to just any old smithing job.” she said, and then caught a look at the time. “Ho-ly wow, lunch is almost over!”

“Heh? Ah!” I turned around to look also, surprised at how time had flown by us.

“Guess we'll talk more about all this later!” Mary smiled.

We finished up what remained of our lunches, and then headed out for afternoon classes. World Cultures went by in nearly a flash, and then Rachel and I were off to Theater. As we walked in, we saw a ballot box with voting cards piled next to it. I had no doubts as to what they were for, and as soon as we were all seated and orderly our teacher confirmed that doubtless assertion. There were three plays to cast a vote for: the one I was semi-dreading, one that was more comedy-oriented, and our final choice was a Robin Hood musical.

Well that came out of the blue, I thought to myself, trying to remember if that had been one of the options to begin with.

“Was that one of the ones we looked at?” Rachel whispered to me.

“I don't think so,” I whispered back in a puzzled tone.

“But that would be fun, too! Now I'm torn!” she returned with a faint smile. I smiled over at her, and then class began in earnest.

Our teacher decided to end class ten minutes early to give us all enough time to cast our ballots, and most of the students immediately headed down with their stuff to do so. Rachel and I waited until pretty much everyone except the teacher was gone before doing ours. We headed up to the table together, looking at the cards and exchanging looks with each other. I could see Miss Andrews grinning at us from her desk.

“Ehh...” I sighed with an uncertain tone.

“Yep, I really can't decide now...” Rachel remarked. “Bellina... or Maid Marion...”

Sherwood's Merry Men. This musical adaptation of that now-ubiquitous archer-outlaw and his gang had come out several years ago, and had been a hit in the musical world, from what I could remember. If even a semi shut-in gamer kid like me has heard of it... well anyway.

“I got to see this once when I was seven... I wanted to be Marion so badly!” Rachel said as she tapped the ballot.

“W-well, it's not like the Shakespeare adaptation is a sure win... and part of me is kinda wondering if she threw this in here at the last moment to see what would happen...” I said as we both looked over towards our theater teacher out of the corner of our eyes. If she heard what we had said she was pretending to not notice.

“She does have that mischievous sense sometimes,” Rachel said softly, a smile on her face.

“I'll follow your lead. Bellina and Theo, or Robin and Marion?” I asked her.

“When you put it like that, there's no contest.” she said confidently, marking her vote for the third option. I did likewise, and we headed on to our last class for the day. This one passed in the blink of an eye, and afterwards we made our way back to the club room for our afternoon meeting. After we had gotten or dropped things off at our lockers, of course.

“All right, let's get to some real world topics for a change!” Andrea said as she called us to order. “I think we definitely need to have at least a couple of workplace tours, two educational field trips, and one or two excursions. The latter should preferably be over our breaks, and they'd better be good for the sake of our founder!” she announced.

“Agreed.” Ellie said.

“I agree also.” Anhe nodded.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Same!” Rachel chimed in.

“That works,” I said, “But where should we go for any of them?”

“First we should work out when to go.” Andrea promptly replied. I blinked.

“That's fine and all but the two things kinda go hand-in-hand.” I then said with a faint grin.

“Hm?” she paused, considering this, and then nodded. “Fair point. So let's work out where we could go and then when.”

“One of our local broadcasting stations would be fun,” Ellie suggested.

“Agree!” Andrea said, writing it down.

“What about the newspaper place?” I wondered.

“Definite agree.” Andrea nodded, writing this down as well. “Oh! Radio or television, Ellie?”

“Hm? Oh! Ehh, I kind of hate to say it, but I pay more attention to television than radio... or sometimes podcasts, even...” she said.

“Hmm...? Oh, right, your uncle's a disc-jockey for ninety-five-seven,” our club president recalled. “But on the other hand that'd give us a good foothold for a learning trip!” she said, making a note on her pad.

“I guess.” Ellie said with a shrug, but she was smiling.

“Maybe one of the theme parks or even the Park would be a good place,” Mary then put forth.

“Accepted!” Andrea said a she jotted these down as well.

“Was there a game company around here somewhere? Or even some place that's working on one of the gaming systems? That might be fun to look through,” Rachel said, and I looked over at her with a little bit of surprise.

“For someone who never really played games until this year, you've gotten surprisingly in to them,” I said with a quiet awe.

“Maybe!” she said with a laugh.

“Noted for future reference!” Andrea then said. “I think there actually is a place like that in the industrial sector, isn't there?” she said to Mary, who was in the sort of position that lent itself to knowing these kinds of things.

“I think so?” the older replied, suddenly curious herself. “I'll ask mom or dad when I get home.”

“Okay!” Andrea nodded back. “All right; these are some good enough ideas for now regarding the first two things. Let's talk excursions!” she said with a smile.

“The Winter Resort!” Rachel and Ellie said at the same time.

“Up in Newville, huh?” Andrea grinned back, writing it down.

“Was that ever going to be a debate?” I smiled knowingly.

“Nope!” Rachel returned, patting me on the head.

“I would like it, too. I have never been!” Anhe said.

“No?” Andrea wondered, and then smiled. “You'll love it!” she said.

“I hope so!” the other girl smiled back.

“And -- summer. Where to?” Andrea asked us.

“Can there be any answer but a beach?” Ellie remarked.

“Sure there can! But it won't be the right one!” Mary quipped, and we all laughed. “I mean, of course I'm going to do something with my other friends this summer, too. We did promise each other that this year. But I want to do something equally memorable with you guys also!”

“Let's just hope we don't get Panarena withdrawal on either trip,” I said.

“Ah! He's right...” Ellie said bemusedly.

“We'll be having too much fun to think about it.” Andrea assured us right away. “So we want to go somewhere beachy...” she noted, idly writing it down.

“Hmm...” we all murmured together, unaware that we had done so.

“I wonder if we could go to an out-of-country beach resort...” I wondered audibly. Rachel looked over at me, her eyes suddenly brightening up.

“I like that idea!” she said at once.

“Heh? Huh? Ah! I said that out loud...”

“It's not... impossible... and depending on how you look at it, it could sort of count as an educational experience, too,” Andrea mused.

“Ahh... we can always go with an old standard, too!” I amended.

“No no, I like this idea!” our president said with a smile as she wrote it down.

“We'll all need to work on our IIDPs around graduation anyway, might as well get them done now.” Ellie reminded us. “I've had to do mine over the summer in preparation for job-hunting and getting a car, after all.”

“That's true.” I agreed.

IIDP: International Identification and Passport. These had largely replaced the older iterations of ID cards and passports. They also came with a driving certificate, if you had met the criteria to legally drive, that is. This, of course, could be added onto the IIDP later.

“I guess getting those could in some way count as a learning experience for us, too, at least in a preparatory sense...” I mused.

“True,” Rachel nodded.

“Good enough!” Andrea said, jotting down a few more notes and then setting the clipboard aside. “All right! Now let's get back to what we want to talk about.” she said with a grin.

“We need a shipwright and two builders. Ah, one, I mean. Mary already wants to be a builder-slash-architect.” Ellie noted.

“I mean, we can always hope that someone more interested in ships will join us down the road,” I pointed out.

“But let's not rule out being a six-person guild for a while, either,” Rachel said.

“Hmm...” I pondered, thinking about my skill levels. “I'm pretty satisfied with my current crafts, for all that I use them. I have a lot of points left over that I haven't spent, either. So I guess I could afford to go into another craft.”

“At most, people can go into three crafts, maybe four, but that makes for less useful crafting. You can't get to the higher tiers without focusing on one or two.” Ellie told us.

“Hence why your jewel-crafting got the short stick,” I noted.

“True.” the blonde girl replied with a grin. “Gathering skills can go all the way up to the top, but actually using the materials isn't so broad. And if you're really focused, you select a specific crafting discipline and only focus on it the whole way through.” she continued, giving me a knowing look. “Between Andi and me, we can keep you stocked with arrows and poisons enough. So you can reset your crafting points to take something else entirely--if you want to, that is.” she told me.

“Hmm... that costs two-hundred coins... which we can afford, of course...” I said as I mulled it over. “I'll probably go for the builder craft in general to start with, that way I can help with either building a fort or building a ship.”

“That's the spirit!” Ellie clapped.

“Hm, they do connect that way, don't they?” Mary noted as she thought it over as well. “Architect, Shipwright, and Furniture-maker all branch off from Builder; though the last one also branches off from Weaving and Smithing.”

“You really studied it, huh?” Rachel said to her in a surprised tone.

“Just a bit!” the older girl smiled back.

“In that case, I will take up some woodworking and smithing skills,” Anhe told us. “We will probably need those to work on a ship and a fortress as well.”

“Good idea, Anhe,” Andrea nodded.

“I guess that's pretty much settled, then,” I said with a yawn.

“Yep! We can figure out the finer details of both discussions down the road. For now... let's get some homework done.” our club president said, and we pulled out our books to do just that for the remainder of our time.

***

The afternoon and early evening passed as it always did when we got home -- minus homework, of course, because we all managed to finish our respective assignments before leaving school -- and after dinner had been eaten I went to get comfortable and settle in for another evening in Panarena. Upon logging in I found myself the only one of us logged in so far, and I brought up my crafting panel.

Crafter Skills:

Fletching Seven.

Poison-maker Six.

Gatherer Skills:

Mining Twenty.

Prospector Twenty.

Fishing Five.

Woodcutter Twenty-one.

Hunting Fourteen.

Skinning Ten.

On the bottom right of my panel was an option to reset the crafting skills. I grimaced in hesitation, but then reflected that the actual skill levels weren't that high to begin with. Lizzy was right. Smithing wasn't Fletching, per se, but you could at least make arrows with it as well. The latter was only for more better quality arrows, which didn't totally matter so long as your skills with the bow were good, and I had actually been relying on Lizzy's arrow-making for a while now...

I pressed the button. A confirmation dialogue opened up, and I confirmed that I wanted to reset my crafter skills. The two in question were reset to zero, and I heaved a sigh.

“Not like I was really doing anything with them,” I reminded myself, “And besides, Ari and Heali's Alchemy Skills are way better than just Poison-maker...”

At that moment, Anhe and Ariana logged in, and we exchanged greetings with each other. A few minutes later the rest of the gang came on, and when Heali and Lizzy had reaffirmed their desire to work on their crafting the rest of us decided to use the wayport to visit Cloverbell.

“Say hi to the hotspring for us!” our healer said as we headed out the door.

“You got it!” Ariana replied cheerily.

Upon our arrival at our first home, Maryn and Anhe took it in with wonder, wandering around and exploring the place with delight. We took a dip in the hotspring, of course, and then went inside to have some tea, where we talked about our plans for the rest of the night -- well, unless we were talking about the house.

“But this is really a nice place,” Maryn remarked as she sipped from her cup. “Not that the other one isn't, but here it's much more...”

“Homely.” Anhe said.

“Yes!” the older girl agreed.

“Isn't it?” Ariana beamed. “It's like a grandparent's house that you always want to go back to,” she said wistfully, looking out the southern window towards Aldholt City.

“Exactly!” Maryn nodded, leaning back in her chair to do the same. Anhe and I also turned to gaze at the scenery outside, a gentle quiet taking hold for several minutes.

“I wish it was real,” Ari whispered softly. I nodded in agreement.

“I wonder if it can be, someday,” I said quietly.

“Hmm,” Anhe sighed.

“I wouldn't mind if it was.” Maryn softly added. “Hmm, but anyway,” she continued in a louder voice, “What should we do? Now that we've paid our respects to Cloverbell and all.” she asked us with a smile.

“Hmm... I was gonna get Fyu so we could run around a bit and gather more materials and such... I'm quested out for a couple days.” I remarked with a wry grin.

“That sounds like a good plan!” Anhe nodded in agreement.

“It would be nice to just craft and stuff for the next couple of days, especially since I'll have a lot of things to do in real life this weekend.” Ari smiled.

“That's true,” I said.

“Works for me,” Maryn agreed. “We're gonna need a lot of resources for what we plan to do, though,” she added with a grin.

“Hmm... we'd need a Weaver-based crafter if we wanted to do the ship-building thing...” I noted.

“I can try to do that,” Anhe said. “Since two crafts are pretty much the limit, I will try to level up for Shipwright and Sail-maker,” she told us, looking at her crafting panel.

“I'll try and help a bit with Shipwright, but I'll also go into Builder to help Maryn.” I said, and then noticed that, even though I had reset the points, the skills themselves retained their values. “Hmm? That's good to know.” I remarked as I examined this. Ari looked over curiously, and then smiled.

“That makes it less of a pain if you want to switch back.” she nodded.

“So working with any craft levels up the skill, but points just make a specific craft better. Huh.” I remarked.

“You didn't know that?” Maryn asked me.

“I guess I didn't pay attention that much to it,” I shrugged. “Anyway, our gatherer skills are probably all over the top for this region. We should go to the Western Marshes or back to Xuanpu to get more resources.”

“Except Fishing.” Ari reminded me.

“Well we can worry about that--actually, you were working on Cooking, weren't you...” I suddenly recalled.

“True! But I was half-teasing. We can work on Fishing later.” she smiled back.

“So... shall we go back and get Fyu?” Anhe asked us.

“Let's go!” Maryn said as she finished her tea and set the cup down.

We finished our own cups of tea, and set all of the cups and the teapot in Cloverbell's sink for auto-wash (a handy feature of the virtual world) before heading back to our new estate to find Fyu. He was ready and eager to help us, and oddly gratified for our change of pace to crafting rather than adventuring. We set off for the Forest of Lost Dreams, and began our gathering run for the night.

By the end of our adventures that night, we had gathered quite a bit from just the Forest, to say nothing of the mining regions to the east, near the Marshes. On top of that, we had found two craft-dungeons, both of which had been bountiful -- and challenging. Anhe and Ariana managed to keep us afloat, but I had forgotten how ridiculous the final bosses in these dungeons could be. After the second one, however, we decided to stick with regular gathering.

I won't bore you with all the details. It is a fairly boring thing to do, after all. I will say that Anhe seemed more comfortable with all of us at this point, and even started teasing me a bit -- though not quite to the level that Lizzy would. By the time we returned to Queen's Haven, the waggon was nearly overloaded, and we were actually walking alongside it and Fyu to help with the weight-limit. We expressed our gratitude to the dog-beast both verbally and with treats, and then began transferring the resources to a repository in the estate itself.

“At this rate, we'll be booked through November working on our craft skills!” Ariana quipped as we carried a crate of ore between us.

“Right?” I laughed back. “And when we gather more over the weekend we'll definitely have a surplus...”

“Ugh! Don't think about it now!” she smirked at me. “But next time we should go back over the Marshes like we said we would a few days ago,” she then said.

“Definitely. There were a lot of good alchemical ingredients there.” I nodded back.

“True!”

“What in the world?” Lizzy's voice suddenly rang out, and our Nordian friend popped up out of a room, and she jogged past us to go and help with the unloading.

Once all of our cargo had been unloaded and sorted out, we took a rest in the dining room again, chatting idly and enjoying each other's company. Lizzy and Healina had leveled up their Crafter skills at least three levels each since we had left, and Lizzy herself was preparing to take an advancement quest in Smithing, which would allow her to get a few specialized sub-crafts in addition to her focus skills.

“I'll be able to work with adamantine and silver-steel, and that'll put me on the path to working with some rare ore in the Untold Deeps used at the pinnacle of weapon and armor making.” she told us as she took a large swig of ale. “And of course some of the sub-crafts I get will include being able to make the metal parts for ships and fortresses. Though I can do basic versions now, to be honest.”

“I think elements of Smithing are included in Shipwright, so I wouldn't worry too much about it,” I told her.

“True! But whatever benefits me benefits the guild.” she shrugged.

“True.” I agreed.

“So what are we gonna do about the Tournament?” she then asked.

“Where is the Tournament, by the way?” Maryn wondered.

“Hmm?” I turned to her. “It's for all the guilds on the Harmonia side, so I guess Harmonia City?” I replied pondering the question myself.

“At the Arena, I'm pretty sure.” Lizzy nodded.

“We'll get more specific information when the time comes,” I said.

“I want to focus more on the Hallow's Eve event anyway -- after our crafting rampage, that is!” Ariana remarked with a smile.

“Definitely!” I agreed.

“I think every major region will have at least one quest or quest chain for it, from what I read,” Anhe told us, her expression thoughtful as she tried to recall the details. “Hmm... but it would be best to do just one, maybe two!” she smiled.

“Agreed.” Heali nodded.

“We'll probably do the one here for sure, and then maybe the Aldholt's, just because.” I said, and the others nodded back.

“Although the Marshes of the Wyrd will probably have a neat one as well...!” Healina said with a faint grin.

“Hrrmm... true...” I replied as I thought about it again. “Online game events typically last for a week, so we'll have plenty of time.” I added.

“We'll definitely have to check things out!” Ariana nodded. “Oh! Heali,” she then said, turning to the Sea Elf, “I was gonna bring an overnight bag tomorrow in preparation for Saturday -- that's fine, right?”

“Of course!” our healer smiled back.

“Already that time, huh?” Lizzy remarked. “What about your mom?” she asked, and Ari's face melted into a frown.

“She's already packed. She'll be headed off to her new job by the end of next week.” she told us somberly. I put an arm around her after a moment, and she leaned onto my shoulder.

“Hmm. Sticking around to make sure you're settled and stuff, I guess.” Heali said.

“And to deal with the house.” my partner said with a soft shrug.

“I am glad you are not going away.” Anhe told her, and Ariana managed to smile again.

“Thanks, Anhe,” she replied gratefully.

“We're all glad,” Maryn added with her own smile, and the others nodded while I gave her a gentle squeeze. Ari's smile grew brighter, and she let out a soft giggle.

“I'm glad I met all of you!” she said, a faint tear making its way down her cheek.

“I'll hold to my being the lucky one until we're old and grey.” I replied with a grin.

“Same.” she returned, kissing my cheek. Maryn then raised her glass, and the rest of us raised our own drinking implements with her.

“To the Queens!” she said in toast.

“To the Queens!” we chorused after her, clinking our beverages together in a salute to our future together.

It's been a good school-year so far, I have to admit. And I honestly couldn't wait to see what was in store for us next.