I had bumped into them soon enough at the same hotel that we said in before. I explained the situation as we walked to our room, but their reactions were less that satisfied.

"""What?!""" Jeehan, LOD, and Titanious exclaimed in sync in reply to my suggestion.

"Doki, are you mad!? We can't do a dungeon like this, we still have Tho's quest to do," Nio asked.

"Well we can, since this chaos about the war means that we can't really get her ID and she's too stubborn to go home and wait there, we don't really have anything to do, do we. And given that this 'war' ends badly, we'll be killed by demons anyway. So this is probably the best plan of action, or are you going to correct me?" the other three stumbled after I explained.

"... I can't argue with that. But that doesn't mean I can't argue at the risk!" Nio yelled back. It was loud enough to make multiple heads to turn in our direction.

Shrugging as I walked past them, I immediately started to test his argument with a series of questions, "Have we died before? If not, then what 'risk' are you talking about?"

He countered with another question, "Well. Do you know what dungeon we're doing, what level the mobs are and the classes, skills and abilities of the group we're joining?"

I bluntly answered as we reached our shared room, "no. But do you? Then there's a risk, yeah, but it's not like we didn't have one in our earlier dungeons. Unless you want to put the blame on Thorborg or something for this time being such a crucial exception."

-

The others froze, probably unable to trump my point without insulting Jeehan's sister, so I opened the door first. Our room was different to the one before. It was a different hotel for a start, with its own furniture set and, unfortunately, price...

A regal red carpet was laid on the floor, with four single beds which were tucked beside the left wall, a window on the far side letting in a refreshing breeze. Each had a set of mahogany drawers to the side, a lamp standing on each, with enough room inside to fit most apparel types besides armor. A shower and bath on suit gave the room an added bonus that our former one was lacking, which somewhat made up for the fact it cost ten times as much for one night as the other cost for a week.

"I call dibs on this one," LOD said, running over to the one closest to the window.

"Such a child..." Nio mumbled under his breath, though it was loud enough for everyone to hear regardless.

That sparked a debate between the two, whilst me and Jeehan just climbed in the beds closest to the door. Soon enough the bickering voices died as sleep washed over me.

-

Nudged for the nth time, I instinctively awoke to be almost deafened by nearby snoring. I looked over to the source, it was Nio or LOD... maybe both of them were snoring, I didn't look at the two for long enough to tell. Because, in addition to their sleeping bodies, I saw Jeehan's arm reaching over to me.

His head facing me, stopping when he realized I was awake he started to whisper to me, "D-doki? Sorry, b-but can we leave the room. I'd like to discuss this stuff about a raid over," his stuttering voice telling me the probable reason for him not speaking up beforehand.

Leaving the room, he followed and we reached the empty inn bar in silence. There, I waited for the question he was undoubtedly waiting to ask. It took him a while, and some shades of red in his face, to finally do so, "A-are you serious about doing a dungeon, a-at a time like this?"

"Yeah. I made it today, they said they'd go tomorrow but didn't have enough people to feel safe with going. I doubt the levels are going to be a problem since it's a 'raid' dungeon. Whatever that means..." I honestly replied.

Jeehan's eyes widened, his mouth agape until he exclaimed his hysterical questions, "Eh!? A r-raid dungeon!?"

The resulting shout hurt my ears due to its sheer volume, once I recovered I tried to understand his reason by asking him, "Yes, I think that's what they called it at least... Is there something wrong with that?"

"A-according to Alice, they're group tried one and died seven times... It seems to be an intense dungeon with... like a million mobs ganging up on the party constantly. The five of us wouldn't even get through the first group alone," he visibly shivered as he almost whispered his explanation.

"Yeah, but we're not alone. I think we have about thirty people coming with us, and we should be able to mooch kills off them to get leveled up quickly. Plus, there are two main reasons why Thorborg should agree to it if that's your problem."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

He inevitably asked 'what reasons' and after explaining them to Jeehan, he nodded in agreement. In the end, even though we tried, we couldn't sleep with the infernal snoring, so gave up and started talking about our respective worlds until sunrise.

-

Thorborg, who had her own room, came to ours in the morning and as we went for breakfast I stated my suggestion.

Her reaction was, surprisingly, negative. So the debate happened as she stated her doubts, "What!? You realize I'm a crafter, right? I can't fight..."

"And that's not why I'm inviting you. You..."

Before I could start my explanation, she rudely interrupted me with more confusion, "Eh!? If you're not asking me to fight, then what's the point in my presence?"

Annoyed, I replied bitterly, but it died down quickly into monotone as I explanation, "As I was about to say, there are two reasons I think you'd be interested in going. One, you get the dropped materials from the fighting for free. And from our previous experiences, there's a lot of them... And for the second, you get to see your brother at 'work'. Your family may be biased to the danger the of adventuring, so you can judge it for yourself first hand. You don't have to fight, and you will be protected by us, if not by the rest of the group."

"Hm... I see. Well, when is it?"

"Today, I expect to get a message soon with the meetup location and details," I answered her question as soon as she asked it.

As if on cue, a familiar ping came from the Samurai_Girls leader. I stopped the conversation to read their message. We were to meet at the south exit of town at noon. I also got information on the dungeon we were doing, it was called 'Ulgaf's Tower' and supposedly had level 30 - level 50 monsters. They weren't one hundred percent certain on this because they hadn't beaten it, but it didn't seem like their levels went too high.

I relayed this to the others, who loudly sighed with exhaustion. 'Were they really so confident that I'd lead us into a suicide mission?'

"Well, now that it's not certain that we'll die, let's have breakfast and go shopping for supplies. I could use a new sword, and Tho, do you have the stuff needed for crafting?" Jeehan was the first to comment, proving my doubts with his suggestion. Thorborg started to make seemingly random hand movements, probably interacting with her inventory.

"Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence," I remarked.

Soon after I did, Thorborg answered Jeehan, "Yeah, I don't have any equipment... I also don't have any money, so could someone help buy me stuff?"

"What 'Stuff'?" LOD asked.

"As a minimum, I'd need a pickaxe, a portable furnace, tongs, a hammer and possibly some strength potions... I know it sounds like a lot, but it shouldn't be more than two thousand gold. If someone can spot me, I can do repairs and such for free," Thorborg explained.

"So Jeehan, why haven't you offered to the same? You're a smith, aren't you?" LOD rebutted, giving Jeehan a dirty glare.

"I-I'm just not really good at it. I didn't really level it after getting sp exhausted whilst doing it as a youth... This is one reason I thought adventuring would be a good idea," he said in defense.

"And how comes you haven't been crafting stuff?" Nio, seeing this as a chance to annoy LOD, took it without any delay.

"I have, we just haven't needed what we've crafted so I sold it all. I'm almost max level with my sewing skill, hence my armor's durability is still perfect," LOD replied, a dumb grin appearing on his face as he spins to show off his apparently perfect armor. Somehow the leather armor glistened with his spin, the other's gasps and attention fueling his ego.

Interested in who was footing for Thorborg, I prompted them to say how much they had, "So how much do you guys have. I have about sixty-thousand. I've just bought nothing so far..."

I lied since I had over one-hundred-thousand, but I was surprised that I still had the most with my lie...

"About one-tenth of that. My armor and swords cost a ton if you didn't know, that's what sucks about being such a specialist class..." Jeehan claimed.

"I have about fifty-thousand, but I have enough stuff to sell that it's more like seventy thousand," LOD announced, seeming a bit sad that I had more.

"I have ten-thousand. So Doki pays," Nio replied.

Accepting it with a sigh, I looked at Thorborg, "Okay, so do you just want the two-thousand, or do you want something better?"

"The next tier of smithing gear costs... huh, I think it was ten-thousand but I'm currently at the third tier so forgot. Anyway, if that's fine with you, then I'll gladly repay that, once I get the money, and do repairs for free. I should be able to smelt most normal ore-types with that."

I gave her twelve thousand, giving her a small buffer with her guess, and we left for the shopping district.

-

On our way, two of their stomachs growled. Meekly, Jeehan suggested grabbing something to eat. Everyone agreed. By the time we left the cafe, it was about ten. We didn't know how long shopping would take, so split up for efficiency. I went with Thorborg and LOD to buy generic crafting stuff and , Jeehan and Nio went to the blacksmiths for possible upgrades. We met up at eleven, promptly heading to the south exit where we met a group with mostly familiar people.

There were about twenty people, all female and mainly Samurai but had the occasional Assassin and some other roles. As we came close to the group, most of them were staring intently at the group. But mostly me.

"Cutie, long time no see," one of the countless girls in armor similar to Jeehan's called out to us. Before I even tried place a name to her, she noticed Thorborg and continued, "So, is this little Missy the crafter you talked about"

"Yeah, we're on an escort mission, but the whole 'war' thing kind of blocked off the town hall. There are a couple reasons she's here, but she won't be fighting but offers to do free repairs on any armor or weapons if needed. She can keep ores that she mines in return, can't she?" I replied, talking for Thorborg for the sake of speed.

"Interesting. Yeah, that seems fair," the same girl mumbled, before reaching for Tho's hand to shake.

"So, who are these guys?" another girl asked, this one, based on her armor and weapons, wasn't a samurai and seemed like a pirate or something.

We spent some time introducing ourselves, getting introductions from those we didn't know, then headed off to the dungeon at twelve-fifteen.