When the fellowship woke back up in the morning they were all feeling slow as sloths, but not bad per se. Their first night of true relaxation had done them good, but it was clear that it would take a couple more before they felt fully restored.
Livia was the only one who was struggling, with so nearly being back in civilization, just not to the point she so desperately felt she needed. But it was time to let go of such considerations, there was too much work to do.
Brunner had some awkward questions at breakfast for her first however. "So, where are you from Livia… Unless all you've got left to sell is that hammer, then I take it you are not a trader from Dormata?"
Livia's eyes darted left and right. "Uh, no I'm just from a smaller village around Dormata, called Riverfarm. Nowhere special, you know?"
Brunner just rolled his eyes. "Then why are you talking so funny, like you're in such a rush?"
With being on the edge, and already nervous, this actually helped Livia turn that nervous energy into some proper prideful anger–despite how she’d been so relieved at hearing English for the first few days… After a while the strange dialect had turned grating; so this actually pushed a real button for Livia.
Her eyes bulged. "I talk funny, I TALK FUNNY–like you don't all talk like the chef from the muppets, like the weirdo cops from Brooklyn Nine, what's wrong with you that you would genuinely call the way I talk funny…” She breathed heavily before deciding on one final cathartic outburst. “I MISS AMERICA, I MISS NEW ENGLAND!"
The outburst did serve to make Brunner shy back, but it did not remove the smiling mustasch. "What's that, some old friend of yours?"
When Livia just pretended to look around crazily he went on talking calmly. "Fair enough, no need to worry, you may keep your secrets. But my advice would be to say that you are from one of the smaller continents,” Livia had to give him a nod at that.
“Even if it is not confirmed, there have always been rumours of strange Human tribes around there," Livia looked very relieved at Brunner showing such grace, but the [Arborist] was suddenly looking like he was reminiscing. “I never spotted any on Zisle though, despite that being where most of the rumours led,”
The words returned the peace and the rest of breakfast was amicable, but it was time to return to Salcret.
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Kalle had left home in great haste; and although he had talked about doing so often, and his adoptive grandparents were ready for it on some level, the suddenness of his departure of course had them worried.
Now that they suddenly saw him coming back up their hill, with a few friends in tow, it was both cause for a different kind of worry, that he had failed and given up for some reason, but also such great relief that he was okay and that they would get a chance to say everything that there had been no time for the past few weeks ago.
"Liam, Ella, would you guys believe I missed you?" The playful barb made the old couple laugh, and the cheer spread quickly to the three slightly nervous spectators.
"Gosh, what happened to your hand?" Asked Ella worriedly.
Despite all the healing that the group had provided him, the lower arm was still bright pink; although there was no question it would soon be restored and had long since become merely uncomfortable for the stoic Kalle.
"Uuurh, who is your friend?" Liam didn't look concerned, but he did indicate Harold's strange new get up with an amused air.
The group had gotten used to it over the past week and Brunner had barely commented, since he was so used to meeting strange [Druids] on his travels already. But even for Liam and Ella; a mere [Farmer] and a [Cultivator] working at a village orchard, reminding them of his [Druid] Class was enough that any further questions over the smelly outfit could wait.
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There was no hesitation at all over the whole group being able to stay at their old guest house for the winter, there was plenty of space after all.
Liam even gave them all cheeky looks and told them how there was a strong possibility that their stay might be free, depending on the amount of work they performed over the season.
Everyone blanched at this except for Harold, since most of them had plenty of other plans; but when they assured him he would be welcome to their share of the workload as well, if he had nothing better to do, that actually got him to start planning some of his training for once.
Kalle's reunion had been a happy one, and it was even better once he told his old folks all about how the originally low-ambition plan of theirs had grown and evolved, rather than fall to blight in the field.
Meanwhile their young mosswolf was busy making a new home in the nearby woods.
As it turns out there was an extra large wasp nest, right by the orchard’s green, that was soon convinced to move out.
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The following weeks Livia taught them all she knew about min-maxing a Class. She wasn't really a gamer, but the turn fantasy literature had taken the last few years had her in the know regardless, or so she felt.
She convinced Harold to get on a brutal training regimen, meant to take full advantage of his supernatural recovery, that had him sprinting to Brunner's farm and back at the start and end of each day; and he was not taking the road.
Any wasp nest the [Chaos Druid] ran into along the way had its most aggressive inhabitants collected and added to his growing army. The beasts were larger than any Livia had heard of back on Earth, but then again… There was no question that even a massive swarm would get destroyed by a competent mage, considering they lacked any sort of intrinsic magic power of their own to resist larger Spells.
Besides that she encouraged him to keep developing his Domain Spell and start asking Brunner for help with working out the kinks in the unique fighting style he was imagining, which the [Arborist] happily supplied in exchange for the occasional spar.
Kalle meanwhile was busy developing his [Telekinetic Push] to a truly useful level, and even writing down some scripted lines, which he figured might improve his [Words of Fortitude].
Oscar in the meantime was doing a bit of everything, he had less than a year left before having to decide on a Class, and despite considering a couple of options, nothing was yet set in stone.
All he knew was that whichever choice he ended up making; he could stand to get in plenty better shape together with Harold, while adding on the occasional spar with Brunner to work on his sword skills.
Oscar was also helping Kalle work out his telepathic magic against different types of physical resistances, inventing games and learning the best angles to push from, and the progress they saw surprised them both.
Livia was the one who was really keeping busy though. She had visited the town and started getting to know some people, but mostly she was fishing for ways to prompt different Classes.
The knowledge she had from the books was a great help, because she knew which ones had the potential to develop into real powerhouses, despite their seemingly mundane natures.
In the end she decided she still had to let the strange mission statement, that she had gotten from the floating Beard and magic hat, dictate her choice.
Livia made the choice to become a [Guild Master].