This is a problem, Kay thinks to herself as she munches on a particularly large chunk of food. The exact type of food is difficult to identify, essentially a large mass of cookie or bread, somewhat hardened by age, nearly the size of her head. The problem isn't the taste, of course. It is quite good, much better than the sorts of stuff she was used to eating, and the quantity certainly isn't an issue, either. Even taking large bites out of it, a good deal remained and while she fully expected to finish the entire thing, her earlier hunger is already largely quelled.

The problem? Her newfound ally. Now she owes him a debt, and she hates owing people debts. Okay, technically one could argue that she owed him a debt already for him paying for her adventurers guild membership, but she figured that doesn't really count. She didn't ask for it, and had no real interest in the subject. So far as she is concerned, If he wants to throw money away, that's his business and it has nothing to do with her. Food however? That's something tangible, something significant, something which can't simply be shrugged off. She had fully intended to just go off on her own and leave him behind as soon as possible, but it's awfully hard to justify now.

Well, she can worry about that later. She must admit that it is pleasant having her stomach filled, and the fact that it's being filled with something pleasant in itself is all the better. Even if it does make her debt all the more significant. The naked mouse takes another large bite, looking over to her 'comrade' with narrowed eyes. He looks to her with an excited expression, which puts her more than a little on edge. He clearly has every intention of using her, and while that's hardly a problem, it would be hypocritical of her to claim otherwise, it also means that he won't be giving up anytime soon.

"Is it good?" he asks, watching her with an expression far more hungry than her own, even when she was on the verge of starving.

"It's okay. A little dry." she shrugs.

"Great!" Frederich says, making it unclear whether he was actually paying attention. "Now, as for a weapon, I know the perfect place."

Kay keeps her head down for multiple reasons. One, is to avoid the unpleasant blue glare ahead. As the pair have traveled through the city, their direction changed accordingly, and while she could sense that it was considerably farther away, it remained no less blinding to look directly at. The pillars of light offered their own element of frustration, on one hand being terribly unpleasant to look towards, but on the other, she found herself constantly compelled to turn in their direction. Every little while she felt the urge to peek upwards towards them, even though they constantly stung at her sensitive eyes. Speaking of eyes, that was another reason to keep her head down, to avoid letting others see them. It seemed that there was little risk of violent retribution from the sight of them, no matter how bizarre they looked, but the eyes of strangers upon her still made her terribly uncomfortable. Even before this entire mess, she never needed extra justification to avoid the gaze of others.

The pair pass by many shops, most simple small tables or booths, a few more elaborate tents, and a couple full buildings, albeit small ones. All around are countless mice of all ages and manner of dress, both window and regular shopping (not that even the finer shops tend to have actual windows), the crowd and proximity of which kept Kay in a state of constant anxiety. Having to constantly watch her step, lest she trip on the wet, uneven ground or accidentally bump into someone in front of her made relaxing and enjoying the scenery quite difficult. Neither ended up happening, however. For the first, she was quite conscious of her positioning, able to tell the difference between the shallower pools of muddy water, and the deeper less visible holes. As for the second, there is a certain crowd consciousness where nobody truly seems to be paying attention to one another, yet still everyone manages to instinctually bob and weave around even the largest and most irregularly moving mice. It isn't long before they escape the market district, and thankfully for Kay, the population thins out considerably. From here, the city isn't empty by any stretch, as there are still a large number of mice about enjoying the fresh air, but seeing as how there is air virtually everywhere, it encourages them to space out a little further, if nothing else.

As the pair continue walking. Frederich occasionally tries to force some small talk, which Kay justifies not responding to due to the fact that her mouth is full. This is entirely by design, of course, making a point to take a large bite just as she sensed that her armored companion was about to make some bland or inane observation. Her oversized ball of food was rapidly dwindling, however, and this strategy won't last forever. The fact that her new ally always seemed to have some bland or inane observation to make certainly didn't help. There is a sound of faint hammering in the distance, leading Kay to wonder if they were perhaps nearing the wall, but as they grow closer it is considerably louder and more intense than the general carpentry she had heard from outside the city. It isn't long before they arrive at the source: A primitive blacksmith forge.

Kay, of course, is hardly an expert on metal-working. Hardly a surprise, because only a few short weeks ago, virtually no mice were, it being a brand new variety of crafting only studied by a select few within the castle. Still, from looking about at the sorts of tools and devices about, one naturally gets a certain image in mind of what a blacksmith should look like: barrel chested, muscular arms, long, scraggly fur, old, world-weary, and maybe a few tattoos for good measure.

The actual reality offered none of that. For one thing, the blacksmith was a girl, not a man. This isn't too shocking, as gender roles generally aren't much of a thing in mouse society. The odd thing was her size. She was a small, white slip of a mouse, considerably shorter than both herself and Frederich. Kay wonders if she is simply small or just quite young, and on closer examination, it's clear she is both. Her diminutive stature is all the more exemplified by the huge hammer she somehow wields in a single scarred paw which slams down repeatedly on a glowing red bar of metal.

"Hey, Jerin!" Frederich calls, waving a paw. She doesn't respond, however, back turned to the pair, softly humming to herself. Looking down, Kay notices the strangely small girl has a tail of woven colored yarns which drags along behind her. Normally it would be quite muddy, but unlike most of the rest of this city, the small forge has a stone floor. It is enclosed by four pillars of stacked stone, some crude and less than reliable mortar between them offering marginally more support. Between each set of pillars is a long wooden table, on which assorted weapons, armor and tools are set. Within the enclosure is a solid metal cube serving as a crude anvil, an endlessly burning forge which emits a constant plume of smoke up above (a source of constant annoyance to the citizens of the overcity), a series of wooden racks and a long trough of water. Along, of course, with the mouse herself who wears a heavy rubber apron which, similar to the hammer, doesn't seem to slow her down in the slightest.

The armored mouse sighs, takes a deep breath and shouts out. "Jerin! You've got customers!"

This finally catches the small mouse's attention. She pauses mid-swing and turns to the pair, finally noticing their presence. She sets the hammer down effortlessly, and bounces towards them with the child-like energy one would expect from her appearance. "Oh, sorry, didn't notice you there! This is noisy work. What can I get for you?"

Kay continues to stare at the girl, baffled by her appearance. She is small and there's no sign of her being heavily muscled, yet she can swing that massive hammer with no difficulty at all. In any other context, one would mistake her just another child, but clearly there's something very unusual about her. Well, her appearance isn't totally normal. Her tail is clearly unnatural, and must have been lost in some sort of incident. Such isn't too uncommon, as they're a part of the body that is easy to get caught in things, and can be cut off if absolutely necessary. Her paws are another matter. They don't appear to cause her any obvious discomfort, but the normally pink skin is reddened and dark, covered in heavy burn scars. Kay is a little embarrassed to find herself staring at them, namely when she peers up to see this behavior noticed by the young blacksmith.

"Oh, don't mind these." she says, wriggling her somewhat ugly looking fingers to show that they are fine. "I got these scars when my sword was melted after being hit with a mouse laser while fighting an evil God in outer space." she adds, clearly expecting that to explain everything.

"I... see." Kay replies, quite obviously not understanding in the least, but having a strong suspicion that further explanation would make things no more clear, likely quite the opposite, in fact, so she abruptly drops the matter.

"So, what brings you here, Frederich the... the..." the small girl hmmms, tilting her head. "What was it again?"

"Frederich the Mighty!" the armored mouse says proudly, chest puffed out, the armor naturally designed to accomodate such gestures.

"Are you sure? That doesn't sound right..." she shakes her head. "Anyways, do you need your armor repaired again?"

"Nope, I'm here to get a weapon for my team-mate today!" he says, giving Kay a pat on her shoulder which makes her frown. She greatly dislikes being touched. "She's a 'protagonist'!" he adds proudly.

"Huh. I don't know what that is." Jerin says.

"I don't think anyone does." Kay replies, pulling away from the armored mouses hand.

"Anyways, I figured since apparently she's special, we need to start her off right. Just any old plastic or glass weapon wouldn't do, so I want you to bring her the biggest, scariest most dangerous weapon you have!" he grins enthusiastically.

Kay would object to this, but she's struck dumb by the idea. Why on earth would she want to carry something big, scary and dangerous? Those seem like terrible qualities to have in a possession.

"Ooooh..." Jerin says, her blue eyes lighting up as she quickly turns, digging through a wide assortment of completed crafts. While Kay knows very little about crafting in general, let alone metal-working, even at a glance it's clear that the objects here put virtually all of the others in the market, including the ones she was personally so impressed by, to shame. There a wide assortment of axes and maces, even the simplest clubs are intricately designed, shining and clearly very much lethal. Along a small rack behind her are a series of long blades without guards, a single metal piece with a hole at one end which fingers could fit through. These imitation needles are terribly rough compared to the original, with the artisan unable to come anywhere close to copying the straightness and smoothness of her old blade, but each effort was a little superior to the last, even if she still has a long way to go towards reproducing the holy artifact. "Ahh, here we go! This should be right up your alley!"

The tiny mouse slams a massive... thing down on the table. It's hard to recognize exactly what it's supposed to be, especially for Kay who has little experience with weapons, so all she can do is view it piece-meal. The handle is easy enough, although it's pure metal and unusually long. It's the head of the device that gets confusing. Is it an axe? It sort of resembles one, but aside from a single curved blade there are multiple serrated edges along the top and back, a large round hole at the center which seems to serve no particular purpose. The rear of it is wide and blunt, looking more like a hammer, but right at the end, where the long handle pokes straight through the hole at the center and out the other side, it ends in a long two-pronged fork. While the naked mouse largely gets the idea from sheer extrapolation, it appears to be multiple weapons crudely fused together.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"What the?" Kay says, looking down at the device, flabbergasted. "How am I supposed to use this? I'll bet I can barely lift it! Oh..." she adds, expression softening. She gripped it in one hand to demonstrate how unwieldy and impractical it was, but contrary to appearances, it proves to be strangely light and well balanced.

"Ha, that's great! And yeah, I was worried it would be super heavy too. Guess that's the work of a master crafts-woman for you!" Fred says, smiling as he takes it from her paws. Or at least he tries to. "Oof!" as it immediately falls, clattering to the ground, the blade nearly catching his toes in the process.

"Hey, be careful with that!" Jerin calls out. "I won't be held responsible for any injuries!"

Frederich looks rather embarrassed and smiles sheepishly, crouching down to pick it up. At least he tries to. With one hand, it won't budge at all, and even with both, it's clear he's straining to lift it up to the surface of the table. Kay takes it from him before he ends up injuring himself figuring that if Jerin isn't responsible for injuries, that leaves her as the most viable candidate.

"Wow, you're pretty strong!" Jerin smiles.

"Yeah... I guess so." Kay responds, looking to the weapon, her eyes wide with surprise. Is this because of the curse mark the head of the adventurers guild told her about? She doesn't really know what to do with this new information. She never held much value in brute strength.

"You sure are..." Fred says, wriggling his sore fingers. There's just a hint of jealousy in his voice, but it passes quickly, replaced with general enthusiasm. "Anyways, it's perfect! How much?"

"Heh, glad you like it! This is my finest work yet, I think, and it can be yours for only 2,000 crumbs!"

Silence from the pair as Kay turns to Frederich. "Um... that sounds like a lot. Is it a lot?"

He simply nods in response, white furred face looking extra pale. "Yeah, that's a lot."

"Hey, that's my masterwork! It took me a whole day to make it, and I can't give it away for cheap!" Jerin frowns, both disappointed that they're questioning her pricing, and similarly disappointed that she might not be able to send her finest weapon out into the field.

A single day doesn't sound like a whole lot of time to create a master-work, Kay thinks to herself, but knows better than to say it out loud. It doesn't matter to her, of course, she'd be fine with just anything... or at least that's what she would like to say. As ridiculous as it looked, it did feel awfully nice in her paw.

"Um... pardon me. I hate to be a bother, but I saw you two chatting at the stall of the adventurers guild, and was hoping that I could speak to you." a very soft, barely audible voice squeaks out from behind them. The three (Jerin is included, of course), turn to face the mage. She's clearly a magic user. Even Kay, who'd only known a single mage in her life, the since dismembered and deceased Hannah, could tell. From the trademark full-length blue robe with the fancy embroidery along the cuffs and collar depicting strange runes, geometric shapes and assorted patterned sigils, to the oversized staff she clutches in her shaking fingers, it's the sort of loose and impractical gear which would be help little with most city professions.

The robe is pretty much a given for any self-respecting wizard. The wide cuffs make it difficult to make out any hand or body movements, useful in a wizards duel for making ones hand-signs necessary for spells difficult for others to read, and the inside is inevitably lined with thick pockets and pouches to hold all manner of essential material components needed to weave said magicks. It's also favored by the less fashionably inclined magicians as they're comfortable, easy to wear and require little really effort to arrange properly. As for the staff, it is also a common tool for fledgeling mages. Such energies can be channeled through organic materials (and some minerals as well), but can potentially be quite volatile. If one harnesses them at the end of a staff, even should such energies go wild and explode, your hand will remain undamaged. Many magic users consider such staves a sort of 'training wheels' however, and will forego such tools, choosing instead to rely on channeling energies directly into their hands. They feel that the added risk is worth it for the general prestige and sense of power which comes with the more 'hands on' approach. Sadly, this approach proves far less rewarding when one finds themselves shy a few fingers.

While the basic elements are there, the unusual aspect is she sheer quality of them. The robe is finely spun, with her paws partially covered by dark, fingerless gloves, a similar style on her small feet which peek out below the hem of her gown. The staff, while mostly made of wood, is strangely intricate, made of three serpentine winding limbs which intertwine meeting as a carved piece of red glass at the head, the whole thing standing at nearly twice her height. Jewelry isn't an entirely rare sight in the city, but quality jewelry certainly is, and the fine metal circlet, lined with small blue stones is clearly of very high quality, intricately designed to rest on her forehead, visible underneath the robes hood, little metal arms curling about her ears to hold it in place. Matching clothing let alone matching jewelry is also quite rare, and the fact that she has a virtually identical looking necklace visible above the heavy v-neck of her robe implies both must have cost a great deal of money.

In many ways, the girl reminded Kay of Frederich, at least in the same sense that their attire didn't quite match the rest of their demeanor. While dressed like a noble, if not some sort of queen, she had a very mousey manner to her, even by mouse standards. She avoids meeting the gaze of Kay, which at first can be attributed to her bizarre eyes until she shows a similar trend towards both the armored man and the blacksmith. She is small, short snouted, ears narrow and always somewhat flattened back. She has jet black fur, aside from the thick white rings about her shining black eyes, the pattern continuing with a stripe along her nose, ending in more white about her mouth, down her throat and spreading out to her chest and stomach.

There's an awkward silence, as everyone waits for the other party to talk. Kay and her group are somewhat more justified in this, since this girl said she wished to speak with them, and well, this is a perfect opportunity, right? Still, she fidgets nervously, saying not a single extra word, seemingly waiting for explicit permission to continue.

"Um, okay..." Kay finally speaks up. She doesn't want to, but someone has to. The silence, even if only a few seconds long was downright agonizing. "What do you want?"

There's a little more quiet. This time, the strange girl clearly knows that it is her turn to speak, but has trouble finding the proper words, or any words for that matter, her mind going through the looping mathematics of trying to reach just the right solution to her given problem. "Alright." she says. "You two are adventurers, correct? I was hoping that I would be able to join you."

It should go without saying that exceptionally dressed individuals are quite rare in the city, even if three of the four mice Kay has conversed face-to-face with were more or less fashionista's (and really, even Jerin herself looks quite smashing in her non-work attire, the red and black suit she had obtained shortly before her final battle). Most mice wear simplistic garb, your basic shirts and skirts and cloaks and capes. Items with few stitches, often made of plastic rather than cloth, and rarely having any sorts of pockets or buttons. Some do have small bits of wood which work through rope loops, but proper round buttons are exceedingly rare. As for zippers, the clothiers guild has been tirelessly researching such matters, but it would still be some time before they could be practically applied. In short, for Kay to encounter so many different spectacularly dressed individuals is astronomically unlikely, and does little to help her own ego. While she never did have much use for clothes, she can't help feeling spectacularly under-dressed in comparison.

"Well, I guess I can see why you'd want to join me. I am quite the accomplished hero, after all." Frederich says, rubbing his chin, trying to come up with a delicate way to phrase this. "It's just that I'm not sure we need another inexperienced adventurer tagging along."

The new girl's shoulders slump and she bows her head. "Ah, of course. I understand completely. I was just thinking that maybe if I offered to pay for that lady's weapon, perhaps you might let me come along. I'm sorry for bothering..."

"Wait, you'll buy this weapon? Well, then welcome aboard!"

"Huh?" Kay asks, eyes wide. "What are you talking about? You just said we don't need anyone else!"

"Come on! It's clearly destiny! She came along right when we needed her, and her money can help fund out journey!" Fred smiles, before forcing a stern expression. "Um, I mean clearly this young woman is of noble and honorable character, and seeks to aid us in our travels. It would be truly a crime to turn away such a proud and powerful sorcerer."

"I'm... not all that powerful..." the mage says, somehow slumping her shoulders even further.

"Hey, we all have to start somewhere. My name is Frederich, the Mighty, and this here is Kay!" he grins, waving a hand to the still dumbfounded naked mouse.

"Wait, wait..." Kay shakes her head. "Come on, we can't seriously be doing this. We don't even know who this is, and I never agreed to be part of some huge adventuring band." she sighs, turning to the small, anxious mage. "Look, nothing personal, I'm sure you'd be really helpful, and I appreciate you wanting to buy me a weapon, but I really don't need it." she says, although she can't help peering longingly at it through the corner of her eyes. "There must be plenty of adventuring groups out there, and I have no doubt you can find one out there which will be happy to have you."

"No, it has to be with you!" She blurts out, rushing over towards Kay, taking the larger paws in her own. "I'm- I'm sorry. My name is Mia, and I will admit I am inexperienced and eager to begin a career adventuring, but nobody else will do but you!"

Frederich looks somewhat deflated upon realization that he wasn't the motivating factor. As for Kay, she simply sighs. She already has a pretty good idea where this is going.

"It's because I'm a 'protagonist', right?" she says, looking down to the smaller girl. She can make little sense of all of this class and experience stuff, but one detail she did pick up on is that apparently it would greatly benefit her allies as well. If this gets out, she might find herself swarmed with wannabe adventurers eager to follow her around.

Instead, Mia looks confused. "What? No. It's because you are marked by a dark lord."

Everyone freezes. "What-what did you say?" Fred asks, eyes wide.

"What, isn't that common knowledge? Where else do you think she got the curse-mark from?" The mage asks, head tilted to one side under her hood. Her earlier anxiety appears to have faded, but likely not for long.

"I guess I didn't think about it..." Frederich says, before his eyes again go wide. "But don't say that out loud! Are you trying to cause a panic?" he asks, looking over to the blacksmith who has clearly overheard the entire conversation.

The small blacksmith simply shrugs. "I've got no problem with dark lords. Some of them are actually pretty nice once you get to know them." she smiles, looking towards Kay. "I was wondering what was up with your eyes. Figured it would be rude to ask, though."

"You weren't wrong." Kay mumbles, looking back to the mage. "Okay, let me get this straight. You know I'm cursed, and you know that the curse comes from some dangerous monster. That doesn't explain why you want to come along."

"The connections between the dark lords and the primal elements of sorcery are no secret. I've studied most of my life, and have made little head-way in unearthing the secrets of mysticism, but now? Now there's a direct link to those primal powers directly in front of me. I need to learn more about them, and in turn, improve my own abilities."

Kay stands silently before finally speaking up. "So, this curse mark... do you think you can do anything to fix it?"

The mage frowns. "I'm-I'm sorry. That is rather far beyond my talents." she says in a low voice, before immediately perking up. "But, if I have some opportunity to observe and study it well... well, I certainly can't promise that I'll be able to cure it, but I'll definitely try my best!"

Kay looks the young mage up and down. As much as she dislikes the idea of dragging a whole group around, the mage does seem the soft-spoken sort, and Kay was already stuck with Frederich. One more might not be so bad. In fact, she can act as a sort of babysitter for him, so she won't have to deal with the noisier fighter nearly as much.

The naked mouse sighs, reaches over to pick up the massive metal axe. "You pay for this, and any other rations and supplies that we need and you can come along."

"R-really? You mean it?" the mage chirps in an unexpectedly high voice. "Oh, thank you so much, I promise not to let you down!" she says, before stepping over to the blacksmith table, reaching down into her robe and pulling out a particularly large pouch, tied shut. Jerin looks to it hesitantly before undoing the drawstring and looking inside. Her eyes go wide as she looks up to the incredibly pleased looking Mia. "Keep the change, of course."

"Of course." Jerin smiles, barely hiding her sense of childish excitement, not so much at having earned a lot of money, more the sense of having sold her finest weapon. Also, the fact that she won't have to stand there slowly and count out two thousand individual crumbs is a nice bonus as well. She waves a scarred paw to Kay. "Nice meeting you! Good luck fighting the shadow king!"

"Huh?" the naked mouse asks, head tilted to one side.

"Oh, is that someone else? Sorry, I have trouble keeping track."

Jerin is happy with her sale, Frederich is happy having another less experienced party member to mentor, and Mia is, of course, happy to partake in a grand adventure. Kay, on the other hand, is considerably less pleased. This town is dangerous. I've got to get out of here quick, she thinks to herself, before I end up owing more people money.