Scottie and Prezzo came in late. They explained that they followed the floats about halfway through the town with Ghast until they split ways. They got their drinks from the bartender at the front of the tavern before sitting down with the rest of the group.

“Cheers!”

Six cups made a clanging noise as they clashed together in the middle of the table. A waitress came by and filled Fuyumi’s cup with ale. As they finished drinking, they slammed their mugs on the tavern table.

“Come on Fuyumi! Not gonna drink?!”

Geoff gestured toward his cup as he tilted his head to look at her. She narrowed her eyes, staring daggers back at him before taking a sip out of her drink.

The rest of the party members raised their eyebrows in confusion at their interaction. They didn’t think too much of it since Fuyumi wasn’t much for conversation in the first place.

“You’re not gonna celebrate and thank Shin for his heroic moment in Urumel?!” Scottie’s voice called out to her from across the table.

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that…”

She stared down at her reflection in the drink.

“Cheers.”

Fuyumi sighed and then chugged her drink and mimicked her party mates, slamming the mug on the table.

“Phew…”

She wiped away a streak of white foam from her lips with her arm as her face turned red. The group’s furrowed brows collectively turned to smiles as the atmosphere lightened up.

“Let’s move on, shall we? Nightingale, you had something you wanted to share right?” Geoff got everyone’s attention by clapping twice.

“Right, so… Let’s talk about party size scaling.”

Nightingale stood up and leaned in toward the center of the table, signaling for the group to get closer to him. He whispered quietly after making sure no one was eavesdropping.

“So, when I did some digging in the game’s files, I found that Urumel grows in strength the more people you have in your party. At certain breakpoints of four, eight, twelve, sixteen, and twenty players, the bosses at each checkpoint floor gain bonus attributes.” Nightingale gazed over at Geoff’s group.

As he turned his attention to them, they looked at each other.

He gave them time to say anything, but they silently nodded for him to continue.

“Exactly, so Geoff and his group noticed the minotaur had bonus arms. We were fairly lucky that we were only in the lower brackets of party members. It’s hard to imagine what would happen to the boss if we had 8 or 12 people.”

“Wait… wh-what does that mean for all the other parties we saw in the lobby? Most of them had twenty people?” Malady interjected.

“Well, in those circumstances, they have more people to deal with the insane strength of the boss. Although, I would imagine that people might just get killed in one hit.”

Malady’s widened as she retracted backward cowering at the thought while everyone else was mostly unfazed.

“About that ‘insane strength,’ I actually looked into it. He gets two bodyguard gargoyles at eight people. At twelve people, the minotaur gains several new magic-based attacks. On top of that, it gets a third pair of arms sprouting from its pelvis at sixteen. At twenty people, all of boss’ attacks inflict burns and its size is doubled.”

As Nightingale listed off the bonus attributes that the boss gained, Malady sank further down into her seat. Seeing this, Prezzo pushed her back up to join them again.

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“That means… If Ghast decided to join us then we probably would have been screwed.” Shin added, scratching his chin.

“Yeah, more likely than not. Unless Ghast has something up his sleeves.

Nightingale lowered his head in thought before springing back up.

“Oh, and I also took a look at the next few floors as well! There shouldn’t be anything entirely out of the ordinary until the boss. Just like the first nine floors.”

“Well that’s good to hear.” Geoff commented as he sighed in relief.

“The twentieth floor is a squid monster of sorts. I couldn’t get too much out of the map data but apparently, it swims in lava.”

“What the hell…” Geoff’s expression immediately snapped back into concern in disbelief.

Nightingale chuckled as he sat back in his seat. His changed to a more serious tone as he crossed his arms and legs.

“I figure we’re going to have to come up with a different strategy for that one.”

The remaining party members sat back down in unison.

“Sounds like ranged damage is going to be necessary for that floor. I don’t think we can do much about that squid can we, Scottie?”

Scottie nodded his head in agreement.

“I guess I’m back to using my bow then.” Shin said, toying with the arrow in his hand.

“The others teams might not know about that. Not too many people have beat the tenth floor yet.” Nightingale added.

Shin looked around at the other tables filled with adventurers. He used his [Perception] skill to listen in on their conversations. However, they continued gossiping about their own adventurers. Some of them passingly mentioned the festive activities going on outside but quickly steered off to other topics. The tavern was as lively as ever.

“Shin, hweuch, stop dozing off.”

Fuyumi’s stumbling words and hiccups caught him off guard.

“Oh, I’m just making sure no one else is listening in on us.”

“Hweuch, you be-tter be.”

Shin chuckled as Fuyumi was completely red from the alcohol.

“God… damnit”

She rested her head on the table and repeatedly flicked the glass mug with her finger to make a sharp cling sound.

“What’s the matter, Fuyumi?”

Geoff tilted his head with his hand on his chin, taunting her.

“It’s nothing.”

Fuyumi turned her head to turn away from Geoff.

“Who knew Fuyumi would be such a lightweight, haha?!” Scottie laughed as he emptied another mug into his stomach.

Shin’s drinks from his cup were sips in comparison to Scottie.

“Shut… hwech… up! Ugh…”

“Just rest for now, we’ll catch you up later, okay?” Shin replied, gently patting her back.

“Fine…”

“So, when do we want to meet up again to face the lower floors?!” Prezzo asked, perking up from his seat.

“How about in a week? That should be enough time to rest and get ourselves ready for the next set of floors.”

The party members sat back in silence thinking about Geoff’s suggestion until Shin spoke up.

“That sounds good to me. I think we could use some time to do handle our own errands and prepare equipment too.”

Malady, Nightingale, and Scottie nodded while Prezzo stuck out a thumbs up. Meanwhile, Fuyumi drunkenly mumbled.

“Then it’s settled! If anyone needs to contact each other, remember that we have our party message window in the top left. I’ll probably be busy during the week. Everyone else, stay in touch if you want and we’ll meet up again in a week! Meeting adjourned!

Geoff knocked on the table like he had a gavel.

Everyone got up from the table, pushing their seats out from under them. Geoff looked at Malady, Prezzo, and Scottie and smiled. They then all stuck their hands out. Fuyumi, Nightingale, and Shin shook their hands one by one, bowing in the process. Fuyumi’s sloppy posture clumsily shook everyone’s hands except Geoff’s whose hand she slapped out of the way. She smirked while she bowed. However, no one could see her facial expression.

“We don’t do this whole bowing thing in Italy so this makes me feel all weird and embarrassed!” Prezzo said, scratching his head.

“Don’t worry about it!” Nightingale replied, firmly grabbing Prezzo’s hand with both of his own.

“Thanks for joining us!”

“Thanks everyone.”

The party of four left the table, leaving Fuyumi, Shin, and Nightingale at the table. Fuyumi sat back down, resting her head on her arms on the table, while Shin and Nightingale stood by the tableside.

“I’ll be leaving her in your care. I’m going to explore the city some more and see what else I can dig up. Let me know if you need anything.” Nightingale said, with his hand on Shin’s shoulder.

“Yeah, no problem. I’ll probably do my own exploring too. It’d be good to pick up new equipment too, maybe.”

“I’ll see you around then.” Nightingale waved as he walked away from the table.

Shin exchanged a wave of his own back before exhaling deeply and sitting back down next to Fuyumi. He nudged her arm.

“You need some help?”

“I’ll be… hweoch… fine.” She gave him a cold shoulder.

“Alright then, I’ll be heading out too.” Shin said, turning around.

As he took a step forward, he felt a light tug on his coat.

“I think I need some… help.”

Fuyumi’s blue eyes peeked out from a crevice between her arm. Her normal pale complexion was completely replaced by a peach red coat.

“I thought so. Here, let me help you up.”

Shin extended his arm out to her. Fuyumi rubbed her eyes before taking his hand as he pulled her up from the seat. She briefly stood on her own before lightly stumbling forward. In reaction, Shin pulled her back toward him by her hand. She fell back into his chest, pressing her silky white hair up against him.

“I got you.” Shin spoke calmly, holding her by her shoulder, but he could feel his face turning red.