Callie thought to herself, “The news is rather interesting today. How does somebody even manage to steal uranium? I would imagine uranium is like super locked down with a billion security guards stationed at every corner armed to the teeth with firearms. Why would they even want to steal uranium in the first place? I am no criminal but even I can think of a hundred much better things to steal. I know there are paintings and jewels worth like millions in museums and you wouldn’t have to worry about the whole radiation thing. Some people are beyond insane.”

Callie logs into ROW. She leaves her inn and cautiously looks around the surrounding buildings as though she were confused and disoriented. She checks the map on her menu.

“This isn’t Marigold? Oh yeah, I was in the city of Crimson Rain last time. We met with my friend Heli and entered the Halloween event Candy Cavern dungeons. We fought with some vampires that were turning people into rock candy sculptures. Then we brewed up some potions to restore them back to normal.”

Callie checks her notifications. She reads, “Hello my dear friend, Callie! I wish to invite you to a banquet, but not a messed up kind of banquet that the vampires were hosting! I promise, I promise, I promise a thousand times over that this is a normal dinner! I am being presented with a small award for my efforts relating to the petrification quest! Please be there or you shall turn into a hare! (I will curse you!) Your friend, Heli!"

“She doesn’t know any curse spells. The sixth? Doesn’t that take place today? What about the time?Huh? This is taking place right now!?"

Heli is a rabbit girl dressed in a chef’s outfit and she is equipped with a frying pan. She has a chubby little ghost familiar named Glutton floating by her side.

Heli and Zinnia are at a large banquet hall that is full with various players and NPC. There is an empty space reserved with a name tag for Callie. They are seated among numerous round table perfect for engaging in group conversations. Even some of the chef NPC that were once petrified are present. They are in much better health and higher spirits than they were a few days ago. They are in the middle of eating a gourmet dinner and drinking fine bottles of champagne.

There is a podium where there is a speaker present. They are dressed in a black tuxedo. Their hair has turned gray with age but they retain the youthful and elegant looks iconic of a vampire.

“First off, I would like to thank each and every one of you for helping out during these distressing times. I thank you not only as the mayor of Crimson City, but as Dracula. That is me!"

Some members of the crowd laugh.

“I am touched that so many people can come together during a crisis. I could not believe my ears when I heard that the Disciples of the Tick of Gluttony were seen creeping around the city. I could believe my ears even less when I head that the community banded together to resolve the crisis before I even caught wind of the unfortunate events. Does not help that I have hearing loss in my old age.”

There is a second wave of laughter.

“I believe that no good deed should go unnoticed and unrewarded. That is why I have gathered all of you here today. I am proud to host and sponsor this banquet along with my brother. Say hello, Nosferatu!"

Nosferatu silently waves and then makes a thumbs up.

Dracula continues his speech. “Please walk to the podium once your name is called for a small token of appreciation. Adam…Becky…Callie. Is she not present? Then I shall continue… Heli.”

Heli walks to the stage where she is presented with a sum of ten silver coins. She smiles so gleefully.

“You will not receive just any participation badge, Heli. Oh no, no, no.”

Dracula waves his finger back and forth as though it were a metronome. Nosferatu copies him and then places his hands behind his back when Dracula turns around to see.

“I have heard that there was supposed to be a competition for who could cook the best ‘dessert’ that brought you to my fair city. I am no chef, but I think your potion was sweet enough to qualify as one. This is why I wish to present this to you. The very first trophy for the very first annual Halloween cooking competition held in the city of Crimson Rain in your honor!"

The crowd goes wild as Heli accepts a gold colored trophy in the shape of the very same potion that she brewed. There are tears of joy in her eyes that she struggles to wipe.

“I am so thankful! I am so glad that I decided to visit the city! I am so glad that I managed to put a stop to the nasty rituals taking place! I just wish my good friend Callie could be here today.”

An eerie voice is audible from somewhere. “Your wish—”

Heli looks left and right and even does a spin. She cannot tell from where the voice is coming from exactly. The voice sounds so uncomfortably close that the voice makes her nervous.

The audible voice loudly shouts out, “Has been granted!"

Heli looks directly above her to see Callie dressed in simple sheet as though she were a ghost. She is rapidly plummeting from the stage lights. Heli shrieks and panics. She doesn’t even have any idea on how to react, unlike her muscle memory. Without so much as a single conscious thought, Heli equips her frying pan and bashes Callie in a moment of sheer panic.

Callie grunts. The sudden unexpected strike hurts. The attack makes Callie loose control of her Wind of the Fairy spell. She comes crashing down against Heli.

“Callie?! Get off me! What were you even doing up there?!”

Callie snickers uncontrollably. “That played out a little differently in my head. I do not mind the bruises you just gave me through. That is completely my fault. I messed around and found out as some would say.”

Callie continues. “Oh, come on! I recognize that look! Don’t be too mad at me, Heli! I just woke up after sleeping for three whole days and had to rush here to make it on time. I was even more exhausted than I thought. When I got here, I peeked in through a window and saw the stars align in my favor as Jade might say. I could not resist the opportunity to sneak through the backstage and get the drop on you.”

“You just embarrassed me in front of the largest crowd that I have ever seen! My heart was practically pounding out of my chest! You know how nervous I get! What were you even thinking, Callie? I will never live this moment down!”

“I am sorry! I thought it would be funny. You can consider that my kind of charm.”

Heli seems as red as a tomato with anger. She has to raise her hand as if warning Callie not to utter another word. She then closes her eyes for a moment to calm down. A couple of deep breaths later and her anger starts to subside.

“I hate you!”

“I love you too.”

Callie is then awarded with her share of the reward and eventually so is Zinnia. They both receive a smaller second reward of a badge with the depiction of Heli’s potion as a reminder of the events that took place that Halloween.

They take a seat at their table.

Heli asks, “So you said that you were really tired these last few days. Would the two of you like to take a vacation? I am about to travel back home later today. The two of you could come stay at my place for a few days if you would like. We could go sight seeing around the city. You would have to pay for your own boat fare though."

Callie sits up straight and then leans forward with intrigue. “Where do you come from exactly?”

Heli replies, “I come from the city of Tan, which is located in the kingdom of Cos, which is on the continent of Sin. As far as I know, you have never traveled there before or you would have stopped by to see me right?"

“Of course I would have if I could. The problem is that I could never afford my own boat. Not the huge kind that could handle traveling across the seas. They are super expensive. Even the price of boat fare was set to such a ridiculously high price that only local nobles and such could ever hope to afford them. No way a common adventurer could ever save up enough.”

Callie thought to herself, “At least that is what the cannon lore of ROW states. There were mentions of the continent but no option to travel to such a place before. Did my discovery of the kingdom of Steel snowball into unlocking even more hidden areas in the world of ROW?”

Callie smirks. “Not only am I uncovering new areas but new characters too! I wonder how their involvement with the rest of the world of ROW will affect the game.”

Zinnia pokes Callie’s cheek and then squishes it. “You are doing that funny face again.”

Heli replies, “We had some overseas transportation difficulties thanks to the high amounts of dangerous sea serpents, leviathans, and similar monsters. Traveling by boat used to be super dangerous and so we ended up with higher and higher boat fares.”

Heli continues. “You don’t have to worry about those kind of ridiculous prices anymore though! The mayor of the city of Tan made the best decision they have made in a long time. The tourist industry was suffering heavy losses these last few years, so the mayor decided to place a generous bounty for every sea serpent hunted. People began hunting and now monster attacks are less common. Boat fare is now about as cheap as a train ticket again and tourism is at an all time high."

Callie asks, “Can I invite a third friend from Marigold? They have helped us out a lot recently and being able to travel to a new area would be such a great way to repay them."

“That is fine with me but we better hurry if we want to catch the next boat. I already paid for my ticket in advance.”

The party leaves the celebration banquet early to travel to the city of Marigold’s public adventurer’s guild. They meet with a certain receptionist working there who stands out a bit more than the others. She has curly light brown hair. She has keen and sly eyes. She has a tail and ears like that of a cat.

Callie shouts, “No time to explain! Vacation! Undiscovered area I promised! Boat go now!"

Melisa raises her brow out of sheer confusion. “Huh?"

The guild master is a tall woman with red hair. She menacingly slams her fist on the counter so hard that part of the counter breaks under their immense use of force.

The guild master repeats, “Didn’t you hear them? No time to explain! Vacation! Undiscovered area Callie promised! Boat go now! Vacation approved for one week! Ten silver coin spending budget on behalf of the guild!"

Moments later the party of four makes a mad dash across the entire city of Marigold to the train station to catch a train back to the city of Crimson Rain. They then made a second mad dash across the entire city of Crimson Rain to the sea. There is a boat and a massive queue of people in line waiting to board a couple of boats.

Heli states, “We made it!”

Melisa and Heli collapse to the floor. Callie is still standing but she is panting and not in much better shape. Zinnia seems unfazed.

Melisa wonders, “How the hell do you two have so much stamina? I thought I was the rogue here. Now I am not so sure.”

Zinnia dramatically poses and Callie joins along. Zinnia replies, “We are just magical like that.”

The party sets sail. The boat they voyage on is old and made of wood. The boat relies on sails and the ocean breeze. The boat is massive enough that the boat could rival a cruise ship and the boat is packed with a massive number of adventurers and NPC.

The party looks over the edge to see seagulls flying around. There are a few small sea monsters including leviathans and sea serpents that swim near the ship in pursuit of fish. There is a salty scent in the ocean breeze and the motion of the ocean makes Callie feel sick.

Callie complains, “The last time that I went to the beach I could feel the phantom sensation of the ocean waves pulling me back and forth for the rest of the day. Made sleeping very difficult.”

There is a new continent is visible after a while. There are some buildings visible in the distance too.

Heli notes, “We are here! Welcome to the city of Tan!”

The architecture in the city of Tan resembles right triangles instead of the more common square and rectangle shapes often used for towers and buildings. There are apartment complexes built like staircases where each floor has decently sized outdoor terraces extending over the next ‘step’ of the staircase. The patios use the space where more apartments would usually be cramped together for a refreshing outdoor area. The main material used in construction is marble which gives most of the city a natural white color. There a large quarry to the left of the city where workers are transporting large blocks of cut marble from.

The trip ends and Callie is the first person to rush off the ship. She holds her hand to her mouth. “Nobody ever mentions anything about VR motion sickness! I think I am going to be sick.”

Callie manages to regain her composure after a few minutes. “Why is there no notification stating that we were the first adventurer’s to discover the area? Does this mean that somebody came here before we did while I was taking a rest from adventuring? What rotten luck. I really thought we would be some of the first people here. Sorry, Melissa."

Melissa rubs her face against Callie’s as though Melissa were an affectionate cat. “Awe, that is okay! I am happy just to be here! I would have called you crazy if you told me even a day ago that I would ever be able to afford the ticket to travel here. I didn’t even take you seriously in the first place when you said you would take me to find a hidden area.”

Heli asks, “Why are you talking about my city like that? You did not discover anything. It has been here from day one."

Callie replies, “It is just a game we adventurers like to play."

People start leaving the ship but there is almost nobody waiting in line to travel in the opposite direction. There is only one person that seems to glance at Callie’s direction a few times. They have a sinister smile on their face. Their avatar has bright pink and blue colors akin to the colors of rock candy. The handle for crystal daggers poke out of their visible sheathes.

They approach. “Hello, Callie. I did not expect to run into you while I was buying a ticket. Did you know that there is a high bounty on your head posted by the Disciples of Gluttony?"

They throw a candy dagger at Callie that strikes her for sixty percent of her HP as damage in a single attack. They throw another.

Callie casts Icicle to block the next hit.

“What is this damage?! This level advantage is insane!”

Callie can see that they are a player at level seventy. Their username is ‘Bubblegum’.

Callie’s party members join the fray. They start tanking high damage hit after high damage hit.

Callie’s eyes gleam red with rage.

“This entire ship full of people could have discovered this hidden area all together! Melissa’s desire! Melissa could have been first! I could have been first! This is all your fault!”

“I call upon the power of the laws of the world of ROW with this chant! I cast my two most forbidden spells starting with Crowd Control into Oblivion!."

Zinnia notes, “That is not a real spell.”

Callie’s Pillar of Earth spell knocks the enemy into the air. Her Hand of Greed spell send them flying across the pier for some time afterwards.

Callie instructs, “Send them to the boat!"

Zinnia replies, “You can count on me! Hand of Greed!" A second Hand of Greed takes over and sends the enemy to the boat.

Callie links her hands together as though she were some sort of scheming villain. “My worst forbidden spell: Thirty Second Loading Screen. My friend taught me these malicious skills several years ago. The little weasel used them against me and I chose to continue the cycle of violence."

Zinnia replies, “That is not a real spell."

Callie snickers. “Come on, we better get out of here quick. The same stun effect, cast by the same person, will not work twice. Their eyes will adjust to the change of scenery soon too.”

Heli replies, “I know somewhere we could hide for a while! Follow me!"

Heli leads the way to a nearby building. The party finds themselves in the middle of a public museum called the ‘Museum for Gluttonous Minds’.

Melissa waves her hand over Callie’s blank and unresponsive eyes. It takes a few seconds before Callie responds and moves her hand out of the way.

Melissa asks, “Do you need glasses? I was wondering why adventurers sometimes go blank for a moment when entering new areas."

Callie avoids making direct eye contact. “Our eyes and brains shut down sometimes when there is a change of scenery. We call that a loading screen. Too much information to take in all at once. I guess we are the ones who got unlucky when it came down to the lottery known as the gene pool. Trust me when I say that there is no pair of glasses in the world that can help us.”

Callie continues. “I have a question of my own for Heli. Why are those vampires called ‘Disciples of Gluttony’ and why is your familiar named ‘Glutton?’. You have already proven that the two of you are not on friendly terms. Is there some kind of correlation that I am not seeing here?”

Heli buys a bunch of tickets. “Not really. They are ‘Disciples of the Tick of Gluttony’ to be exact. There is no stigma on this continent about being associated with one of the seven sins here. Common pet names and nicknames here relate to the sins. I would be called a ‘Glutton’ here on account of being a chef. I was very surprised when I visited your continent for the first time and saw how different things were over there. Call that a culture shock.”

“This continent became famous on account of embracing the legend behind the seven sins and making the legend marketable as well as profitable. We are in the right place if you want to know more about the legend.”

Heli leads to a series of exhibits where there is a collection of large monster sized teeth, claws, and a few humanoid skulls. There are paintings above them in a certain order depicting five angels frolicking about, then the image of a centipede and the same angels locked in battle, then the image of a barren wasteland, and finally the image of humans roaming through overgrown vegetation.

“The legend goes that once upon a time there was nothing but virtuous beings known as angels. Then the seven sins appeared and a clash began that wiped out both sides. The world supposedly ‘ended’ as all life was wiped out. Then the world began anew and was reborn into what we know today, but not without both sides leaving their mark.”

“The monsters that we know today are thought to be descended from the seven sins. Supposedly the influence of the sins and angels were passed down onto animals and onto humans as well.”

Callie looks at the painting of the angels. She bursts out into a smile. Her body begins to tremble with excitement. She takes a screenshot and makes a post.

“No way! Is this foreshadow that they are going to add angels as playable characters to the game? They already have ‘holy’ attribute classes like clerics. They already have demons and everybody was wondering when the angels were inevitably going to be added after that point. Most of the player base was annoyed when dwarves were announced shortly after demons instead.”

Callie then starts twisting and turning with delight. “I am trending as a content creator for ROW?! I have never been trending before! When in Rome do as the Romans do as they say. I better make this profitable for myself as well.” Callie adds a donation link to her post.

Melissa asks, “The centipedes are frightening are they not? I see you shivering, Callie. I am getting goosebumps all over as well."

Callie replies, “We fought them at the kingdom of Steel. They are scary when they jump scare you for the first time. Otherwise not so much."

Heli replies, “You did what?! No way! I thought the descended monsters of sin were only located on my continent!"

Zinnia replies, “It is true! The kingdom of Steel has been fighting with centipedes for as long as the kingdom has existed. They burrow through massive cavern systems in the surrounding area. Do you think that it is possible that some of them built an underground series of caverns linking my kingdom to the continent of Sin?"

Heli replies, “I could believe that if there was a shallow part of the ocean somewhere. They burrow around all over the place here as well.”

“They normally avoid bright places and the surface world though. One of the reasons why the city is made of marble is to keep the pesky creatures away. Creatures that spend their entire lives festering in dark caves are not going to like bright and shiny objects very much."

Callie asks, “So is the story here that the sins are spreading across the world or something? No, that cannot be true. The only ‘sin’ series of monster that we have ever encountered over in my continent was the Centipede of Greed. There were totems resembling the same Tick of Gluttony but never the real deal. There must be something that I am not seeing yet. I feel as though I am being fed pieces to a puzzle that I never even knew existed."

Callie moves along. She sees a series of human sized models of monsters that her recording bot takes screenshots of one after another. One is a centipede that is small in comparison to the size of the real monster. She turns to the next to see just a plain and normal sloth.

“What is the story with this one? They honestly look the exact same as a normal sloth straight out of the animal kingdom.”

Heli answers, “These are the monsters that sins are thought to originate from. Honestly if you ask me, I think the people of the continent just couldn’t make the title of ‘The Six Sins’ trendy so they added the ‘Sloth of Sloth’ as the seventh sin to make the legend more marketable.”

Callie states, “Some of the monsters are missing. Where are the models of envy and lust? I don’t see any paintings about them either."

Heli shrugs. “Probably removed for maintenance. Maybe repainting and touching up the models or something.”

The party exit through the other end of the museum building. They do not do so without some souvenirs. Zinnia has a giant foam hand that states ‘Greed is number one’ and a sticker that she has slapped onto her clothing that says ‘Gluttony smells’. Some people walking around playfully cheer and some people playfully scoff at her audacity before bursting out into laughter.

Melissa asks, “So what is there to do in this city? Starting with where can I buy nice things? I got a nice amount of spending cash and I intend to spend every single penny.”

“Let me see. With a budget of ten silver we could—.”

Melissa deviously smiles. She raises a gold coin. “I am not talking about some mere silver coins. I managed to steal a gold coin from that adventurer that attacked us. I was trying to steal their dagger to disarm them but I will take what I can get.”

Zinnia points. “Look! She can make the same face that you can, Callie! Why can’t I make that face?”

Callie states, “That is why we get along so well.”

Melissa does a coin trick where she nimbly moves the coin along her knuckles. “Imagine that. A hundred silver coins in such a small package. So what can we do around here with a budget of a gold coin? I am buying."

Heli responds, “We could go to the shopping mall! The malls here always have an interesting variety of shops and items. Sometimes they have better quality items that sell for cheaper than what you could find in adventurer shops. There are real bargains to be made and the malls here are unlike any of the malls I saw when I was visiting your continent. They are really fun that way."

Heli leads the party to a place where there are four massive separate buildings. They are all roughly right triangle shapes facing another on the opposite side with the same gimmick of outdoor patio segments on the roof that some apartment towers have. They are divided from each other with a central cross shaped crosswalk. There are pillars supporting bridges interlinking the buildings together.

Heli leads. “First we go the roof! I am kind of starving since we skipped most of the banquet to catch my boat on time.”

The party is greeted by a lady dressed in fancy attire at the entrance to one of the buildings.

“Hello and welcome to the city of Tan’s famous Wonder Mall! Please take one of these fliers just in case you get lost. They have a map and there are plenty of signs and posters scattered about the mall to let you know exactly where you are. If you find yourself lost anyway, please ask one of the various attendants for assistance to the nearest exit.”

“Get lost? How does one get lost in a mall?”

Both the attendant and Heli smile. The attendant repeats, “Welcome to the Wonder Mall. A wonderful mall unlike any other.”

The party walks up a flight of stairs. There are a few indoor restaurants that do not have indoor seating. Instead there are people seated at connecting outdoor terraces. The restaurants include baked goods, burgers, cafes, candy stands, chicken, pasta, pizza, pretzels, tea, and even more options spread across different floors.

After a short lunch the party ventures back to the first story sipping on some bubble tea. They walk past a few clothing stores, a children’s toy store, and some perfume sections. The path through the mall suddenly comes to a dead end.

Zinnia sprays herself with a display perfume once. The smell makes Callie’s nose scrunch up and move around her party so that Zinnia and Callie are on opposite ends of their group.

Zinnia buys a bottle of lavender scented perfume that she stores in her inventory. “This item is effective for repelling adventurers.”

Callie flips her map left and right. “A dead end? Funny, the mall looks so much larger on the outside. This map makes no sense. There seem to be entire rooms and floors that seem inaccessible. Is there some construction work going on or is the map outdated?"

“The map is fine. Finding the secret entrances and niche spaces are what makes this mall so wonderful. Here is one of the secrets of the mall on me. From here on out, I will just follow the rest of you around."

Heli enters the furthest perfume shop next to the dead end wall. She wanders through an isle and finds an empty space in between shelves of perfume where there is a random door. The door is hidden from sight from the perspective of somebody walking through the main hall of the mall. She enters through the door and exits through a small grocery store on the other side of the dead end wall.

“What kind of architecture is this? This is actually kind of cool.”

Callie browses through the shelves of the grocery store until she comes to a screeching halt at something that she sees in the isle.

“Packaged zombie guts?! What kind of messed up place did you bring us?”

Heli urges, “Please check the ingredients first before coming to any conclusions.”

Callie carefully inspects a label on the package. “A bakery stamp? This is cake? No way! Flour…sugar... red food dye… There is no way!”

Callie tears open the container. “Huh, that is the sweet scent of sugar and frosting. I guess I have to buy this now.”

The party’s purchases at the grocery store include: packaged zombie guts, canned eyeballs, minced mice, and radioactive water.

Melissa presses down on a fake skull sitting on the grocery shop’s counter. The skull comes to laugh with some mechanical laughter and movements. The top of the skull opens and a miniature disco ball appears that shines various bright colors around the room. Part of the wall that the ball shines at spins to reveal a hidden entrance leading into a much larger pet store.

There are a number of pets that freely walk around the store. There are a few kept in large glass containers. The selection of pets include: slimes, marching wind-up toy soldiers, miniature golems, poisonous brightly colored frogs, and small ghosts similar to Glutton.

“Awe! They are so cute!” Melissa fawns over a selection of pets available for purchases. She lightly rubs the forehead of a baby dragon no bigger than a stuffed teddy bear. The baby dragon bites her finger and makes her whimper. “Not so cute after all!”

Zinnia leads next. She exits the store and chooses a different store at random. The party enters an instrument shop and exits through the means of a firefighter pole.

“The human architecture is bizarre! According to my map we are now in an underground tunnel and there are still shops here! The tunnel links to all four of the buildings above in one manner or another! There is so much to discover! I want to go in there next!”

There is an accessory store run by a jackal who wears numerous gold bracelets, rings, and earrings. There are a number of accessories beneath glass cases most of which have embedded gems. There are a handful of cheaper cosmetic accessories placed in smaller easily accessible display cases.

“Welcome, one and all. May I interest you in my fine wares? I am a merchant from a distant land. All of these aesthetic designs are something unique to my homeland. I promise you cannot find anything like them in any other shop around here.”

Zinnia points at a blue bracelet under a glass case. The bracelet has an embedded blue gem that is crackling with electricity. She then tries a handshake with Callie and the both of them are electrocuted for fifteen percent of their health.

Callie tries a red earring. She effortlessly makes a searing flame in her hand. She closes her hand and then the flame disappears without causing any harm. She reopens her hand and then the flame appears again.

Heli asks, “Do you think you could embed a fire type mana core into my frying pan to make the flames even stronger?"

The jackal replies, “What an unusual request. I have never been asked to embed mana cores into a frying pan. I welcome the challenge for a fee of ten silver coins. Return tomorrow for your frying pan."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Melissa equips a gold colored bracelet. She nimbly wiggles her fingers as though she were a cowboy in a western film. She stands two feet apart from Callie.

Callie visibly equips her dagger and a sheath for the dagger at her waist. Callie wiggles her fingers as well but her movements are slower and less nimble. Callie suddenly attempts to reach for her dagger without warning.

Melissa pounces. She swipes and takes the dagger a second before Callie can unsheathe the weapon.

“You stole my dagger?! I thought you were just exaggerating when you said you could! There is no way that I could react to that! The speed and dexterity bonus is amazing!"

“That is not just the effects of the bracelet. That is my rogue class and skills in action. You learn a trick or two when you work as an adventurer for several years.”

Melissa happily leaves the store. She rubs her face against her new bracelet. “A twenty silver accessory and I practically got it for free thanks to that generous adventurer’s donation! I am so happy!”

Callie leads next. The party wanders to a dead end brick wall where some of the bricks seem to have fallen out on the floor. Callie places the bricks back in place and then the wall opens up to reveal the next part of the mall.

Callie enters a shop with a poster advertising ‘sin’ series of weapons and armor. There is the depiction of a centipede, tick, and a sloth. The shop is called the ‘Cursed Forge’. The shop is very cramped and tiny. The shop is without a doubt the smallest shop that the party has entered within the mall. There are only three tiny isles and the shop has a very limited selection of items.

“The selection is not so great but they have something relating to each of the ‘sin’ series of weapons here! The quality of everything here is at least rare tier too! I could get a second piece of the greed series of items without even having to lift a finger! Is there anything here that you would recommend for mages?”

The blacksmith is dressed in black. She looks as though somebody took the idea of a witch but replaced the dark robes and light style of dress with eerie armor instead.

“No, I only work with heavy materials and equipment. The best items that I can craft for you are some custom light armor that mix ‘sin’ series of ore with lighter materials. Even then they wouldn’t be ideal pieces of equipment for mages. A dagger could work but I see that you already have one equipped. Your best bet is to buy some refined ore for ten silver and find somebody else to craft a custom item.”

Zinnia asks, “Could I buy that custom light armor that you mentioned? I think that I would like some light greed series boots. I am a hybrid build."

The shopkeeper replies, “That light equipment would work wonders in your case. Let me measure your shoe size."

The party spends thirty silver for an ingot and an order of custom light boots paid in advance.

Melissa asks, “Are you thinking what I am thinking?"

Callie replies, “Oh, you know that I am."

The party returns to the accessory store where Melissa bought her bracelet.

The jackal states, “Sure, I can craft custom orders for a fee. What did you have in mind?"

The jackal looks disgusted when they are presented with the purple ingot.

“You plan on wearing that revolting thing like an accessory?! Do you even have any idea what that is made of? I make only the finest quality accessories here using only the finest of materials! Come back when you have some respectable materials such as gold, silver, or similar ores!”

Callie makes her tone of voice sound a little sweeter and higher pitched. “Are you not curious what kind of effects an accessory made from this material might have? Surely an experienced artisan such as yourself must be at least a little bit curious. It would be a shame to take the ingot to a lesser artisan and waste the potential of the ingot.”

The jackal replies, “Your silver tongue makes me sick. Fine but there are two conditions. The first condition is that you are not allowed to tell anyone who crafted the item. I do not care what the circumstances are, I will not engrave such a grotesque item with my respectable artisan symbol. The second condition is that you will pay double what I normally charge for a custom request. That will be twenty silver total in advance and the price is not negotiable."

The party exit the store.

Callie states, “And just like that I am broke again even with the twenty silver Melissa gave me. I even had to break into my banquet gift funds. This new accessory better be the best piece of equipment that I have ever seen in my life for the cumulative price of thirty silver coins. This is the most expensive piece of equipment that I have ever bought before."

Callie yawns. “I am getting kind of tired. I think that I might have to call it a night sometime soon."

Heli replies, “Then we should head over to my place. We have probably been wandering through the mall for a few hours already."

The party leaves the store. The sun is no longer shining. The sky is dark and the starts are visible.

Heli leads to a spotless apartment that is mostly made of marble. There are colorful rugs laid about that do an excellent job of covering over the blinding marble. The furniture inside is made of wood, leather, or other materials that add color to the blank canvas. There is a small dog house big enough for a single pillow inside where Glutton presumably sleeps. There are posters on the wall of famous chefs. There are potted plants placed on the marble counters.

“I only have one bedroom and one bed so that leaves my couch and the floor for the rest of you. Goodnight!" Heli shuts a door behind her.

“I have a sleeping bag and I can practically sleep anywhere so I don’t mind taking the floor. Goodnight.” Callie spawns a sleeping bag and enters inside. She logs off for the night.

Melissa asks, “So do you want to play rock, paper, scissors for the couch then?"

Zinnia replies, “You may have the couch. I do not need to sleep. I think that I will wander around the town and exploring nearby areas for a while."

“You are a robot, right? Sleeping must feel kind of weird for you.”

“More so than that, I feel kind of afraid to fall asleep and never wake up again.”

Melissa chuckles. “I can promise you that you will wake up again. I can promise you that you will respawn again. That is how the wonderful world of ROW tends to work.”

“The last time that I fell asleep, I woke up to find that my city ended up in ruins. I do not even have any recollection of how that happened. Previous times I was forced to go to sleep for reasons beyond my control that I would rather not talk about.”

Melissa’s eyes widen with shock. “So you just spend most of the nights wandering around by yourself? That sounds kind of lonely.”

“Sometimes I talk with people. Sometimes I hang out with some friends of mine if they are available. Most of the time I keep myself busy by exploring. I wouldn’t call it ‘lonely’ at all. There is no harm in a little solitary adventuring from time to time.”

“You know, I was wondering what the night life of the city of Tan looks like. I am even more curious to see what kind of antics a robot gets into late at night. I think I might accompany you for a while.”

Melissa stretches. She spawns an item from her inventory that she had bought at the mall earlier that is called ‘Radioactive Water’ but the labeling describes that it is actually just an energy drink. She takes a sip.

Zinnia’s eyes seem to shine with joy.

“Really?”, “Yes, really”, “Hooray!”

The duo leave the apartment. They blaze through the city trying out new clothing, admiring geometric statues, and dancing at a disco.

As they wander some more Zinnia states, “The most interesting thing that I saw was a very small island when we were sailing over here. The island is not so far. We could row there in maybe an hour if we borrow a small two person boat."

Melissa replies, “How curious. I did not notice any islands. Maybe I was too busy watching all of the fish and sea monsters swimming by. I counted twenty tasty looking sea monsters in total but there were way too many fish to count."

Zinnia and Melissa reach the shoreline where there are a few boats docked. There is a man renting boats and a sign that states twenty bronze coins to rent the boat for the day. There is a disclaimer stating that the boat is not seaworthy to travel across the entire ocean.

Zinnia pays and then the duo carry a little wooden boat with them into the ocean. The both of them board the boat and then they start rowing. The boat rises vertically, meaning up and down, out of the water and into the air. They row, row, row, and then to everybody’s surprise, they unexpectedly row some more.

There are flying fish that leap out of the ocean and reach as high into the air as the duo are. There are jellyfish flying alongside them. Occasionally a shark approaches that Zinnia has to rotate using her Hand of Greed skill until the shark eventually looses interest and goes away.

They duo reach a floating island made of dirt and rocks in the sky. They dismount their boat at the edge of the island. There is a lighthouse shining down into the ocean. There is a number of houses but none of them have their lights turned on.

A notification appears throughout the server claiming that Melissa and Zinnia have discovered a hidden area. The only problem is that there are so many players named ‘Melissa’ that nobody has any idea who the server message is talking about. Nobody steps in to take credit for the discovery either. There are only a few people who might even expect that the NPC ‘Melissa’ was the person who discovered the hidden area. There are much less people who recognize Zinnia.

Melissa’s eyes seem to gleam with wonder when in reality her pupils have dilated due to the effects of caffeine. “No wonder I didn’t notice the island. I never remember to look up and I always miss these kind of places. Do you think that we are the first adventurers from our continent to discover this place?”

Zinnia replies, “I hope so! I would ask but everybody seems to be asleep here."

Melissa states, “The beacon from the lighthouse seems to be in use. Whoever works there is still out and about. We should ask there!"

Melissa takes the lead. She knocks on the lighthouse door but there is no response. She knocks a little bit harder. She hears the sound of something crashing and bashing against objects. She hears the muffled sound of somebody exclaiming “Damn!” followed by the sound of metallic banging. The door suddenly slams open to reveal a clumsy angel fallen to the floor.

The clumsy angel rises to their feet. They have hair as white as their feathers. “Hello! My name is Peri and I am delighted to have guests! We never have guests from the world below! It is so nice to meet you! Would you like to come inside?"

Peri vigorously shakes their hands and invites the two of them to take a seat by her table. She prepares them cups of coffee and cookies that Melissa accepts but Zinnia politely refuses.

Melissa replies, “You said that you never have guests. Does this mean that we are the first adventurers on the island?”

“To my knowledge, yes it does!”

Melissa gleefully smiles. A single tear of joy runs down her face that she promptly wipes. “This is so exciting! I have never been lucky enough to discover anything new before! Are you really an angel or is that wing a cosmetic item? I always thought that angels were supposed to have two wings, you know, to fly like birds do.”

Peri replies, “I am an angel! One of the few true angels left on this island!”

She then looks away. “We are supposed to have two wings. The story about how I lost mine is not something that I want to discuss.”

Melissa replies, “No way! I had no idea that angels even existed! What have all of you been doing up here all this time?"

“Living our lives one way or another. The same as you, I would assume. So you said a moment ago that you like discovering new things? I can help you with that! My job as the lighthouse keeper here is to guide people from island to island.”

“There are a number of places that I can guarantee no other adventurer has ever even set foot on! There is even a forbidden island that most of the angels from around here do not dare to enter. They say there is an ancient evil contained on that island that could not be defeated and could only be locked away.”

“Supposedly the evil within lies dormant to this very day. I have tried entering the island myself but there is a powerful spell placed on the island that rejects the pure of heart.”

“Not to say that I am calling the two of you impure of heart! That would be mean! I just think that, you know, with that eerie aura about you there is a chance that the two of you might be a little teeny tiny bit impure of heart. Even the smallest amount of that kind of dark aura should be sufficient enough for the two of you to step foot there!”

Melissa’s eyes gleam. She enthusiastically replies, “That sounds like a quest and I am all for it! I want to see what is on that island!"

Peri kicks some of her things that fell aside earlier to make room to walk. The bottom of the lighthouse barely has room for a couch and a table. Things like pots, pans, and clothes essential for everyday life clutter wherever there is room in such a cramped space. There is a ladder leading to the top that passes through a second small floor used as a miniature library packed with bookshelves and a third floor used as a bedroom. The fourth floor is where the very top of the lighthouse and the beacon lies.

There is a lever that Peri pulls. The icon changes from an icon of the moon to an icon of the sun. Peri pulls the lever again and the icon changes to an icon of a bird cage. The light coming from the beacon adjusts accordingly and moves to a different direction. Some clouds part and a path to a new island is revealed.

“You should hurry! Adventure awaits! Oh and be careful not to awaken anybody on your way to retrieve your boat! Angels get super cranky when they awake.”

Peri’s smile looses its false luster the moment that the duo step out of the lighthouse.

She mumbles under her breath, “I hope that the two of you can manage to do what I could not. I will be cheering for you."

She then shouts, “Wait up! I want to come with you! I will wait outside of the cage!"

The trio row their boat to the new island. There is a massive bird cage settled on the island. The gaps in between the metal bars are glowing in a bright light preventing the duo from seeing what is inside. The gaps in between the metal bars are large enough for the duo to step inside without even having to squeeze through.

There is a miniature island contained inside the cage that looks similar to the angel island where Peri lives. There are waves of water crashing against the palm trees on the shoreline. The huts and buildings are decorated with depictions and drawings of skulls and flags whereas the houses on the angel island are not. Instead of a lighthouse there is a dark and gloomy stone tower at the end of the island.

The duo enter the cage. The cage is still visible from the inside but the outside world is not. All that is visible from between the cage’s bars is the seemingly infinite image of an ocean that Melissa and Zinnia cannot seem to pass back through. Even Peri who should be standing right besides the cage is nowhere to be seen.

The duo wash ashore completely drenched by a powerful wave that seems to wish to push them away from the bars of the cage.

As the force of the waves pretty much makes Melissa face-plant into the sand, the first thing that she sees from the ground is something resembling the sun in the sky.

She asks, “What is that? It is the middle of the night so why is it so bright? That so called sun in the sky looks as flat as plaster! So does the horizon! Like the scribbling on a wallpaper that decorates the room of a child.”

Melissa rises to her feet. She vigorously shakes some of the water off her clothes like a cat with a wet fur coat. Zinnia does not seem to mind the water.

The duo is not alone on that shoreline. There are a few people in the middle of washing their dirty laundry in the ocean water. They are all wearing some kind of attire relating to pirates. They all stop dead in their tracks when they see the new people that have washed ashore. One runs away and another follows. Soon they all start running away and leave their dirty laundry behind.

The last one to run away exclaims, “Somebody warn the Captain! We are under attack!"

One of the pirates do not run away. They draw their cutlass and retreat slowly until they are out of the water and have their foot on the sand.

Melissa states, “Hey, wait! We aren’t attacking anybody just yet!"

“I don’t believe you! You are working with the fallen angels!”

The pirate swings their cutlass but Zinnia interrupts by casting Hand of Greed to restrain the pirate.

Melissa states, “So much for diplomacy."

Melissa wastes no time stealing the cutlass out of the pirate’s hand as they are busy trying to defend themselves from being crushed. She then uses the cutlass to slash at the pirate twice while they are restrained. The pirate is left defenseless and they stand no chance even once the spell wears off and they are released. They are immediately defeated.

Melissa points. “We better get to the tower before the rest of them wake up and arm themselves! That is where Peri told us that we would find the ancient evil contained within the island!”

The duo dash through the village. Numerous pirates start to emerge from the huts that quickly surround the duo. There are at least sixteen pirates surrounding them. Not all of the pirates are dressed the same way either. They are all sporting various outfits depicting a number of images such as a kraken, leviathan, or a skull. The number of mismatching outfits make the islanders seem as though they were once members of multiple different factions.

Melissa calls out, “Forget about fighting them! They are all at least level forty! We wouldn’t stand a chance if they surround us! Follow me!"

Melissa leaps against one of the nearest huts and nimbly climbs to the top where she waits for Zinnia to catch up. She then leaps from hut to hut keeping up from above. She leaps down when she reaches the end of the village and runs out of huts.

Zinnia is not so agile and has to cast Hand of Greed on herself as a moving platform to carry her. The fragile wooden hut creaks under Zinnia’s immense weight and breaks. Zinnia falls right through and lands with a stomp on the stomach of a sleeping pirate for a critical hit.

Zinnia runs in a direct line to the tower in the distance. She shield bashes and breaks through a fragile wall. She bulldozes through a second hut in a similar manner.

Parrots follow the duo around. They exclaim, “Squawk! They are over here! Over here!"

The duo reach the tower in the distance with a large mob following them. The tower is much larger in size up close. The tower is several times more wider than the angel’s lighthouse and looks as though the tower could be a fort from an era that has long since passed.

Zinnia locks the tower door behind her with a wooden plank. “That door is not going to last forever. We better be quick or they will just keep respawning. Our odds in a battle are not great when we are stuck in an enclosed space.”

Pirates start bashing against the door.

Zinnia states, “Peri said that we would have to defeat the ancient evil contained within the tower in order to return."

Melissa looks around. “These are cannons! They store gun powder here! They do not have very much remaining but I have an idea that could buy us some time!”

Melissa opens up a barrel containing gunpowder. She and Zinnia then retreat to the top of a staircase ascending to the next floor of the tower. Melissa takes out a small bomb from her pocket. She lights the very short fuse using a match and throws the bomb into the barrel.

The barrel of gunpowder explodes and starts a chain reaction that makes a few more barrels explode. A chunk of the tower is destroyed including the staircase ascending to the second floor and even a small part of the second floor.

“Come on! They may be groggy and half asleep but they are going to realize that they can make a human pyramid to climb up here sooner or later.”

The duo reach the top of the tower where there is an open space. There is a large level forty five parrot standing at the top with the name of ‘The weakened Parrot of Envy’. They are throwing a tantrum that includes shrieking and flapping their red feathers wildly. They exclaim, “Squawk! The fallen angels are attacking!"

There is a woman with the name of Melody tugging at the parrot’s wings and feathers and urging the parrot to calm down. She also happens to be level forty five. She has red hair and freckles. She is dressed as extravagantly as one would expect from a pirate captain with a white puffy shirt, brown boots, a large hat, and a black coat.

“Calm down! The fallen angels have not come here in ages! They are not attacking!”

“Squawk! They are standing right behind you!”

Melody turns to see the intruders. Melissa is level forty and Zinnia is level fifty.

“The fallen angels are actually attacking! Have we finally gotten a lucky break after all this time?”

Melody draws her flintlock pistol. “Okay, Envy! We are taking these lackeys down! They must have some kind of key to escape from this blasted birdcage!”

Melody fires at Melissa.

Melissa casts, “Steal!" She swipes at the air in a sudden burst of speed difficult to keep track of. The bullet is rendered inert in a change from a projectile attack to a physical item. She harmlessly catches the bullet in her hand and the item is added to her inventory.

“A neat trick. Let us see you do that again. Oh wait, you can’t cuz of the cooldown.” Melody fires a second pistol. Zinnia steps in to block the attack with her shield for five percent damage.

Zinnia casts, “Hand of Greed!" Melody is suddenly constricted for twenty five percent damage.

The duo advances while the ranged attacker is helpless.

Melissa throws a dagger aiming for Melody. “Not so tough are you?” Envy extends their wing like a shield to defend Melody. Envy takes fifteen percent damage in her place.

Envy casts, “Squawk! Envy want Hand of Greed!" Envy casts a replica of the phantom hand that constricts Zinnia for thirteen percent damage.

Zinnia gasps. “No way! They can copy our moves?”

Melissa looks frightened. “What sort of fearsome and formidable enemy is this?"

“Envy cast taunt!” Envy bobs their head up and down a few times. Their physical defense rises by twenty percent.

Melissa feels enraged and a sudden urge to attack Envy. She draws her stolen cutlass and lunges at Envy with a slash attack. She succeeds in a second slash while Envy is too busy taunting for a total of twenty six percent damage.

Melody is released from her prison. She frantically tries to aim her pistol at Melissa.

Melissa takes notice and maneuvers around Envy as the two of them clash. She is visible for one small window of opportunity and she is gone the next second. It almost seems as though Melissa and Envy are dancing with how fluidly they move around and evade the other’s attacks.

Melody complains, “I can’t get a clear shot! She is taking advantage of your massive body size as a shield! Get the hell out of the way, Envy!"

Melody is left frustrated and forced to change her tactics. She instead shoots Zinnia while she is immobile. The bullet strikes her with a metallic dink and ricochets off. Zinnia takes fifteen percent damage.

Melody complains, “I feel as though I am attacking a brick wall! Who the hell are you guys?! What is up with your weird sorcery?!"

Zinnia drops to the ground. She raises her shield in time to block the next bullet coming in her direction for five percent health.

“Shield Bash!" Zinnia charges at Melody for nineteen percent damage.

Melody drops her guns and equips her cutlass to block the shield bash momentarily before she stunned and left defenseless. The cutlass is not effective at defending the damage from the shield bash but there is little else that she can do.

“Envy, I need some help over here!"

Envy changes targets. They fly a bit off the ground and their massive claws strike at Zinnia’s shield for ten percent damage.

Melody narrowly escapes the next attack by running beneath the hovering parrot. She nervously smiles.

“We can still win this! Keep it up, Envy!”

Melissa shouts out, “Don’t look so relieved! You are not out of the woods just yet!"

Melissa strikes with a sword slash. Melody defends for thirteen percent damage.

Melody casts, “Duel!"

Melissa’s second attack is blocked but this time no damage is dealt. They are met with a message that states ‘Negated’. Melody strikes in return and the same thing occurs when Melissa defends.

Melissa asks, “So you think that you can out-skill me? I would like to see you try!”

The two exchange a series of attacks. They defend one attack after another in a display of fine swordsmanship and all the indirect damage from blocked attacks is negated. Eventually Melody builds the momentum and steadily gains the upper-hand with her more refined and experienced movements. She lands an attack against Melissa for twenty five percent damage.

Melody nervously smiles. Numerous beads of sweat run down her face. She replies, “With a cutlass, yes. You are not so tough without your stronger friend over there!"

Melissa retreats a small distance away in a dash after the attack lands. She drops her cutlass and reaches into her inventory.

“How about with daggers and bombs?” Melissa pulls out a bomb from her pocket that deals fifteen percent damage and drops Melody’s health down to twenty eight percent.

The explosion is disorienting. There is a ringing in Melody’s ears. Her vision is partially clouded with smoke and the damage that she has accumulated so far is starting to take a toll. Melody feels as though the tower and entire island was trembling. The pain is becoming more and more unbearable by the second.

All that Melody can focus on is Melissa reaching for another bomb. The visual alone is enough to make Melody’s entire body tense up with fright.

She mumbles to herself, “I can’t survive many more of those!”

Melody makes a mad dash and tanks the damage from a second explosive along the way that drops her health to thirteen percent.

“Grah!" Melody lunges with a massive swing dealing twenty five percent damage and dropping Melissa’s health down to fifty percent.

Melissa strikes with her dagger. Melody defends but takes eight percent damage anyway.

Melody grinds her teeth together with rage. “The effect of Duel ran out? No! I can’t loose here! I refuse to loose after all this time! I will not let you!”

Melody strikes with a slash that deals twenty five percent damage. Melissa does not bother attempting to defend or evade. She tanks the attack and strikes in return.

The exchange of blows makes the corners of Melody’s vision darken as she collapses. “Curse you!” She tries to use her cutlass as a makeshift cane to keep herself standing but the strength in her arm gives out. She passes out against the floor.

Zinnia defends against Envy’s claw attack. Zinnia has fifty two percent health remaining. Envy has sixty nine percent.

Envy tries to hover away after their attack.

Zinnia does not miss the opportunity to slash with her sword and deals twenty percent damage. Envy has increased physical defense after casting taunt and resists some damage.

Envy swoops in a second time. Envy’s claws grip around the top of the shield and snatch the shield out of Zinnia’s hands. They throw the shield off of the tower

Zinnia raises her shield in defense and is surprised when she doesn’t take any damage at all. She finds herself getting lifted off of the tower and so she decides to abandon her shield instead of getting dragged along for the ride.

“They can copy Steal too? Incredible.”

Zinnia equips her wand in her spare hand now that her shield is gone. She is now equipped with her wand in one hand and her sword in the other.

She attempts to cast, “Hand of Greed! Recover the shield!"

Envy casts, “Hand of Greed!”

The two spells clash into each other and create a small shock wave before they disappear. Tremors affect the tower and rattle the entire island as the two cast the same spell. Zinnia struggles to maintain her balance. Envy is still airborne and not affected at all.

Envy swoops down for an attack but they cautiously retract their claws at the last second as Zinnia raises their sword showing that she is more than willing to exchange attacks.

Envy makes a second attempt and Zinnia is prepared to frighten off the bird once again.

There seems to be no chance of catching Zinnia off guard, so Envy attacks the third time in an exchange of blows resulting in Zinnia taking fifteen percent damage and Envy taking twenty five percent damage.

Envy immediately casts, “Squawk. Hand of Greed!" Zinnia defends against the attack and takes only eight percent damage. She resists the stun effect as well.

Zinnia replies, “Now you don’t have any spells to defend yourself. I got you this time! Hand of Greed!"

A hand grasps Envy and constricts them. The hand drags them out of the air and down to the tower where they are pinned down. Envy makes piercing screeching sounds. They try to wiggle and move around but there is nothing they can do against the overwhelming strength of the Hand of Greed.

“So you are smart enough to realize that this is the end. Well, do you realize that the attack did not knock you out when it should have? You can stop screeching and squirming because I have changed my mind. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Envy twists their neck a little out of curiosity. They ask, “Squawk, spared?"

Zinnia replies, “Squawk, spared."

Melody wakes up with a gasp a minute later. She grabs her cutlass and slashes around at the air in a moment of sheer panic only to see that there is nobody standing around her. She looks around the tower to see Envy, Melissa, and Zinnia all sitting at the edge of the tower with their legs dangling in the air.

Melody asks, “What is going on? We were in the middle of battle! What are you all doing over there sitting all buddy-buddy together as if you were chums? Pick up your weapons and fight me!"

Melissa replies, “We had a change of heart. We were told that we had to defeat the ancient evil contained within here to escape. Now we are contemplating spending the rest of a really miserable eternity in this accursed cage."

“Squawk, spared.”

Zinnia states, “It did not feel right. It is our fault for entering a place that we were warned was created to contain any trace of malice. We never even considered an alternative means of escape. I hope that you can forgive us for attacking you, or spending the rest of eternity here as enemies is going to be really awkward."

Melody joins in on their brooding.

Soon enough the rest of the pirates on the island make their way to the tower.

“There they are! These scumbags are in league with the fallen angels! Get them!”

Melody replies, “As your captain, I order you to leave them alone. They are even more victims tricked and marooned by the fallen angels. Like it or not, we are all going to be living together from now on”

One of the pirates crosses their arms. “Fine, but I just want you to know that I don’t like this one bit! They attacked me! Also I love you captain. Also please marry me captain.”

“No.”

There are now enough brooding pirates to form a ring around the edge of the tower.

Zinnia instructs, “Leave the party with Callie and Heli so that they cannot find us. I do not want them to come searching and suffer the same fate as us. I hope that Callie doesn’t think that I abandoned her. I am going to miss her."

Melissa leaves the party. She sighs. “I am going to miss her too. Heli was nice as well. I was just starting to take a liking to her. Now I will never even get the chance to befriend her. Everything was going really well for me lately. I managed to install a new guild policy, I acquired a whole gold coin, and I even received a paid vacation. The calm before the storm. I should have known that the world was waiting and brewing something malicious.”

Melissa silently wipes some tears.

Zinnia broods. She mumbles, “I am never going to see her again. I want to see her again…” Zinnia keeps repeating the same few lines over and over again like a broken record.

Melody asks, “So what in the name of the world of ROW did you hit me with? I felt as though the entire world was collapsing around me."

Melissa replies with a quavering voice, “A bomb.”

“That was not just a normal bomb! I am a pirate! I know gunpowder. I know cannons. I know bombs. Such a small bomb cannot possibly make the entire island tremble. I know you had blown up the last of our remaining gunpowder when I heard that first explosion that made Envy panic.”

“I didn’t do that. Zinnia did.”

Zinnia seems confused. “I did not do anything special. I thought that was the effect of your bomb.”

Melody hunches over. “What exactly were you doing when the tower started trembling?”

“I was fighting with Envy. I cast Hand of Greed to try to recover my shield and they copied me. Both of the attacks were canceled out without ever achieving anything. I only recovered my shield after the battle had ended.”

Melody snaps her fingers. “Greed?! That is one of the seven sins!”

Zinnia snaps back in a sassy manner. She replies, “Duh."

Melody replies, “No! I mean like the thing that this cage was created to contain! Did you know that Envy is one of the seven sins? They do not look like much now, but their ancestors were once some of the most fearsome creatures around! They were something powerful called legendary bosses! This entire cage was built to keep their lineage contained and restrain their powers!"

Melissa rises to her feet. She adds, “The cage failed to completely restrain them! The cage is simply not powerful enough! That is why they are still able to mimic attacks!"

Melody replies, “Yes! The cage can barely even handle containing one ‘sin’ series of monsters! There is no way the cage can handle a second ‘sin’ type of mage!"

Zinnia adds, “Plus Envy was copying my ‘sin’ series of magic! That means there were three simultaneous instances of the ‘sin’ series of magic! The cage was not merely trembling. The cage was shattering entirely!”

“Squawk! Hand of Greed time?”

Spells are cast and the island begins to tremble. Spells are cast and the tower begins to crumble. Cracks full of dark elemental mana begin to form in the sky surrounding the tower as though the cast of the skill is causing harm to the very environment they are contained inside of.

Melody shouts in a boisterous, charismatic, and intimidating tone of voice, “Do not stop now! The very sky is splitting apart! Do not give the angels a chance to fix the cage! If anybody has been hording any secret supplies, they better cough up every single mana potion they have right now!"

Zinnia boasts, “My mana is infinite! At least for my day to day purposes according to my best friend, Callie."

Melody shouts, “Not much longer now! We will see the light of the natural sun for the first time and the fabled real sky like our ancestors used to tell stories about!”

Zinnia states, “And I get to see her again!”

In the over-world, water begins to spill from the inside of the metal cage through cracks in the barrier of light. The metal bars from the cage surrounding the island fall off one by one into the depths of the ocean below. There is a blinding flash of light and the barrier is destroyed completely to reveal the complete image of the island that was once hidden. About a hundred parrots ranging from the size of normal parrots to parrots much larger than humans and pirates rush out.

Melody looks at the moon and the stars in astonishment. “The fabled nighttime skies! The so called moon and the stars! They are so beautiful! I thought our ancestors were pulling my leg when they said there was such a thing as the night!”

There is a single angel waiting at the edge of the island. An angel with only one wing.

A number of pirates including Melody menacingly raise their weapons to threaten Peri.

Melody shouts, “An accursed fallen angel! You shall pay for what you have done! For all the suffering that we have endured, all of the longing, all of the promises of a grand and plentiful world stolen from us!”

Peri closes her eyes out of fright. She utters a frightened whimper as Melody raises her sword to Peri’s neck.

Melissa commands, “Sheath your weapons at once! She is no fallen angel! She is the mastermind who planned this entire prison break in the first place! I thought I was a cunning receptionist. She made us do her bidding without ever even telling us a single lie.”

Melissa explains, “You wanted us to fight with Envy the moment that we met, didn’t you? The plan came together when you saw Zinnia’s aura. You knew the cage would break if enough dark elemental mana overwhelmed the cage. Ironically the one thing that you could not do was free these prisoners yourself. Your intense desire to free them kept you pure thus preventing you from ever entering the barrier.”

Peri opens her eyes once she no longer feels the touch of cold steel pressed against her neck. She raises her hands in the air as if victorious. She runs around in a few circles.

“You did it! I knew that you could! I have been waiting for ages for this day to come! I have so much that I want to say! I have so much that I want to know! I have so much that I want to do! I want to meet and greet every single one of you!”

Peri suddenly stops. “But we better leave here as fast as possible! The fallen angels have made a cage to contain you before and they will do it again! If even one of them wakes up to the sound of the metal bars splashing against the ocean, they will see where the lighthouse is pointing and they will know exactly what is going on!”

Envy replies, “Squawk! They are in the clouds!"

The angels remain at a respectable distance. Only a few of them advance to the island.

Melody’s eyesight is nowhere strong enough to see until they get closer and closer.

“There are so many Fallen Angels! They are like a swarm of locusts!”

The angels that advance are different than Peri. They do not have majestic pairs of wings. Instead of boneless wings, they have wingless bones. That is to say that they have wings that are just bare bones like skeletons without any feathers.

One of the angels is wearing a cloak made out of gigantic peacock feathers. The cloak almost makes them seem as though they still have wings even though the cloak is merely an imitation. There is a nauseous green aura surrounding them that looks like a toxic cloud.

They demand, “Return to the confines of the cage at once or divine wrath shall fall upon you!”

Peri steps forth. She humbly places her arms behind her back. “It has been so long that I do not remember a time when there wasn’t a cage containing the island. The parrots and pirates that committed the original sins have perished such a long time ago. We are unjustly punishing their descendants. I ask you, what so called ‘divine wrath’ is there? The few remaining pure angels on the island are not even present as a part of the swarm you brought here. All I see are fallen angels.”

The angel delivering the message replies, “I should have known you would have a hand in all of this. The way you are always staring off in the distance. The way that you always volunteer to take the tedious task of working as the lighthouse keeper.”

“You must understand that history repeats itself! Please come to your senses, Peri. They will commit the same sins as their forefathers once did. Do you not remember how they used to envy our power, our voices, and our melodies? Do you not remember how they would tear the wings off our kindred’s backs?”

“They even dare to dress in the same attire as their ancestors do. They better return to their cages for the sake of the world."

Melody snaps, “And what attire were you expecting us to find on that island? All we had were hand-me-down garments, trees, and rocks!"

Peri replies, “That is stupid. I cannot deny the possibility that a few of them might become as terrible as their forefathers but there is nothing righteous about punishing the majority for the sins of the few."

Peri continues. “When was the last time you took a good look at yourself? Your description no longer even states that you are an ‘angel’ your description states that you are a ‘fallen angel’ instead. Even the laws and logic of the world of ROW agrees that you are wrong. I beg of you to swallow your pride just this once. I extend the same invitation to you, it is not too late for you to come to your senses."

The fallen angel’s nostril scrunches up out of anger. They swing their sword at Peri.

Peri whimpers again. She closes her eyes and raises her arms in an attempt to defend herself.

Envy’s claws drop in to tank the attack and defend Peri.

They cast, “Steal!" They snatch the sword out of the fallen angel’s hand and toss the sword aside.

A second parrot casts, “Hand of Greed!” They make a massive phantom hand appear and forcibly punch the fallen angel out of the way.

Envy then snatches Peri, Melissa, and Zinnia and dumps them all together in the little row boat they brought to the island. Envy lifts the entire boat and flies off. Envy is carrying even more pirates, including Melody, over their back.

Melody commands, “Lets get the hell out of here!"

Large parrots carrying multiple pirates start flying off in various directions.

Melody asks, “Wait, where are all of you going?"

A pirate shouts out at the top of their lungs, “So long, captain! We all want to see the lands where our various forefathers were born!"

A second pirate replies, “Speak for yourself! I am just going there because my forefather said all the guys there were handsome! Unlike this lot of ugly scallywags!"

Melody boisterously laughs. She wipes a few tears of joy. “So this is the end of the tight-knit little community of ours then? So long, all of you beautiful specks of alabaster!”

Another replies, “Oh captain, my wonderful captain! Do not worry! We are coming along with you! Also I love you. Also please marry me."

“No.”

About a hundred or so parrots and pirates all appear from the island. Only five parrots and nine pirates chose to travel with Melody. A swarm of about a hundred or so fallen angels split up to chase after the pirates.

Countless parrots all cast, “Hand of Greed! Hand of… Hand…." The fallen angels are snatched out of the sky or punched around by countless phantom hands that inhibit the flight of the fallen angels. The parrots manage to steadily gain distance over time.

Zinnia’s party with the new addition of Peri, Melody and her crew arrive to the city of Tan.

Zinnia directs the party to a certain apartment. “My friend will know what to do! We should go and see if she is awake!"

There is a knock on Heli’s door.

“Squawk! Hey, Heli! It is me, Zinnia! Open the door!”

Heli sluggishly walks to the door. “Stop messing around, Zinnia! I am trying to get some sleep! Don’t lock yourself out this time."

Heli is met with the surprise of her life when there is a massive parrot waiting for her on the other side of the door hunched over and squished to fit in the small size of the apartment complex’s corridor.

Heli shrieks, stumbles back, and falls down against the ground.

“No! Get out of here! You can’t come inside!”

The parrot, pirates, Peri, and Zinnia all enter the apartment.

The parrots immediately starts opening and closing cabinets and eating the packaged food inside. The pirates start stabbing cans of various drinks. The cans hiss at them in return.

“These things are hostile!”

The cans spray them with their carbonized contents.

Zinnia makes her way over to Callie’s sleeping bag and starts vigorously shaking her sleeping bag. She then unzips the bag to see that Callie is not inside.

“Gah! I hate it when adventurers do that!"

Heli asks, “What is going on?! Who are you people?! What is that monster doing in my room?! Is that a holy angel?!"

Zinnia replies, “What happened was… Now I don’t know what to do with these pirates. I was going to ask Callie but she is still resting in the spiritual realm it seems."

Heli paces back and forth. She responds, “Well they can’t stay here! I don’t have that kind of room and I need my space! If there was not some sort of eldritch horror (the parrot) capable of replicating human voices and a holy angel standing in front of my eyes, I would not even believe that angels are real! This all sounds like nonsense straight out a fairy tale!"

Zinnia replies, “They cannot stay in the city if they are being pursed. The angels will be on high alert here. They will search every public nook and cranny of the city a hundred times over and lurk around in case there are any pirates hiding here. The fallen angels will likely search the nearby cities as well. They need somewhere safe they can stay. None of us know this continent better than you do. What do you suggest?"

Heli asks, “What about Marigold on the other side of the world? They welcome everybody and anybody there."

Melody replies, “That will not work. Envy is exhausted, injured, and severely weakened after ages of being locked away under a magical spell. They do not have the kind of stamina to make a flight to such a distant continent right now. They need time to recover."

Heli fiercely scratches at her scalp as though she were attempting to physically rack her brain. “It is not your fault but you missed your window of opportunity. The entire legion of fallen angels will regroup to lock down this entire area. There is not going to be a single ship leaving the city that they are not going to be aware of. There is not going to be a bunch of parrots flying all over the place and making them spread their numbers thinly a second time either.”

A light bulb shines above Heli’s head and flickers on and off. Heli warns, “For the love of! Stop tampering with the light bulb or else—. Or else that will happen.”

A pirate gets electrocuted. Their skeleton is visible like a cartoon character.

Heli states, “I think I know one place where they can hide until the heat in the oven dies down. Ha, Chef humor. There is a town of elves hidden within the depths of a forest. There is no way the angels are going to be able to see the village from above the canopy as they fly around. I can lead them there.”

Zinnia replies, “Then lets get going."

“No, Zinnia! You need to stay here and stick with Callie. The angels are going to know that the two of you are friends. You two have the exact same dark elemental aura about you. As far as I know, an aura that is almost unique to the people of the kingdom of Steel. Callie is not going to have any clue what is going on when she wakes up.”

Melody surmises, “So we have to split up then. Hide the super conspicuous parrot first and then hide the less conspicuous mages.”

Peri states, “I am a great healer! I should go with the parrot."

Heli replies, “No, I want you to stay here. We cannot leave Callie’s party without a healer and I need to guide the parrot to the elven city. I can handle nursing the parrot."

Melody states, “Four is one of the world’s lucky numbers. A party of four makes a ‘small’ sized party in the eyes of the natural rules of ROW. A party of six makes a ‘medium’ sized party and anything more makes a larger party.”

“A party of four should be strong enough to handle some angels and small enough to sneak around. Callie and Peri are essential members to the task at hand. Zinnia is Callie’s best friend. Heli is out of the question entirely. That leaves us with three out of four party members. I will join the party as the forth member."

“But, captain!”

“I will hear no complaints from my crew! I order the lot of you to escort Envy and protect them while they recover!”

“Aye, captain!”, “Fine! Also I love you captain! Be safe captain!”

Zinnia replies, “There is one problem with that plan. You are forgetting that the angels saw Melissa’s face as well. She has similarly overexerted herself and needs time to rest. If I recall correctly, she has not slept for over fifteen hours. Before we visited your island, she was working, then we were already running all over the place from city to city, took a voyage across the ocean, and went wandering around a mall for a few hours."

Melissa snores loudly on the couch.

Heli states, “You said it yourself, cap! Four is one of the world’s lucky numbers. Looks like you are coming with me! Callie, Zinnia, Melissa, and Peri will form the second group."

Melody responds, “Alright, you caught me there. In that case, I want Melissa to take one of my lucky flintlock pistols. She is agile enough to run around and make the most of the gun. The pistol has an ability that guarantees that one shot per battle will be a critical hit even without backstabbing an opponent. Use the ability wisely. I am sure the pistol could be upgraded someday for a great bonus to critical hit rates but I never had the necessary resources."

Zinnia temporarily receives the gun, some ammo, and gunpowder. The level of the pistol is level forty whereas Melody is level forty five. She seems to have outgrown the pistol a while ago. The quality of the pistol is epic.

Hello! This is the author Ether Marble. Likes and comments are appreciated. Please consider donating to my Stripe or Kofi if you like my content. My goal is to provide entertaining content and I gladly accept donations.

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