As the noon bells chimed throughout the city, Axel finished working through plans and ideas for their team's meeting. Just as he put the pencil down, there was a knock on the door. When he told the person to come in, the door opened to reveal Lyra in the casual attire of linen pants and a shirt, carrying a tray of sliced meat, cheese, and freshly baked bread. Axel got up and helped with the door so that she didn’t need to fight both at the same time.
“I see you brought lunch today,” Axel said as he began to close the door. “Thanks for grabbing that for us.”
“Knowing you, I figured you would forget to grab some food when you are working through a problem,” Lyra replied as she moved the paper on the desk to make room for the tray. “Any luck with the Goddess’s gift? I have been struggling with it a bit as it has way too many options to customize.”
“I worked through the menus, but I can’t say I am used to it yet. Also, I found that I now have the issue of not being able to make any gains because of regeneration. I only planned for Fixed Point, but it seems to have changed to True Regeneration (Lesser), so I get both the pros of rapid healing and the ability to regrow limbs. Still, my body is now resistant to change,” Axel explained his worries to Lyra.
“I am surprised that your core can sustain that,” Lyra began to reply when the door slammed open, and Aria shot into the room like a missile that locked onto Axel the moment she saw him. She flew across the room in a tackle hug that made Axel step back on impact due to the momentum and not wanting Aria to hurt herself by hitting him.
“Aria is free of the little ones!” Aria declared in excitement. “Now for lunch, snuggles, and maybe a bit of planning for the future.”
“It’s good that you are free, and let’s get this started,” Axel told Aria while giving her a light hug, then picked her up to place her on the bed. Aria giggled and flared her wings so she could sit more easily.
Everyone quieted down as food was passed around, and Lyra even had plates on the tray so that they could stack up the food on their plates. As everyone settled in, Axel brought up the first thing on his agenda.
“So, Aria, we need to go over what happened during my and Lyra’s trial that I don’t think you know about,” Axel started and went over the events of the trial, including his meeting with the Goddess.
Lyra then added, “I also had an experience much like Axel after I copied his upgrade. It was such a surreal experience, and I now know how to do it for anyone.”
“Aria wants to talk to the Goddess!” Aria replied almost immediately.
“I can give you the update, as it is called, but it won’t change until you complete a cycle as it needs the extra power from the upgrade of a core to complete it,” Lyra said and held Aria’s hand for a short time before letting go.
“There, you should be able to get the upgrade now. Just be ready for the headaches and pain of the upgraded Journal as Axel and I have been dealing with this all day,” Lyra explained.
“Is that why the chair is missing, Axel?” Aria asked while trying to look Axel in the eye, much to Axel’s attempts to not look back.
“Anyway, chairs are unimportant. We now need to figure out what we are doing next,” Axel changed the subject. “Our funds are down a lot even after the Shadowfang haul. We also need to figure out what we are going to do for our path of power.”
“My original plan and I am guessing Lyra’s has to change drastically as we are now on our own. Aria, I don’t know what yours were, and now you are stuck with us.” Axel kissed her when saying this.
“Aria is not stuck with you; you are stuck with Aria,” came Aria's proud reply.
“Be that as it may, Axel, I have ideas, but you seem to have been working on it more than me,” Lyra tried to bring the conversation back on track as it looked like Axel and Aria would start getting off track with the way they looked at each other.
“Well, we know the standard options, which are hunting to gather material for our Cycle and some money from the extra, the gem creation route of creating a team to get trials and getting money to buy from hunters, and the last is the traveling route where we would take caravans from city to city to make money and have expanded options for our cycles,” Axel started while grabbing the papers on the table to give both Aria and Lyra.
“We also have the issue of a bounty on my head from Fin that will likely be an issue. We also don’t have the strength to get any real jobs with any caravan besides the worst menial work, with the exception of Lyra who would get royal treatment being a healer,” Axel then pointed out the easiest option from his perspective. “Hunting would be what I think is the best bet for us, at least in the short term, as we need to get stronger fast to leave the area. Aria has the scouting training, and Lyra could help deal with any injury issues. We could also see if we can find someone trustworthy to join the team, though I don’t know anyone besides from the village.”
“Aria may know someone. They are new like us and would be unlikely to be working with the bounty hunters as Aria helped them through their trial before meeting Axel,” Aria brought up.
“I can understand why you would choose hunting as it was what our training growing up focused on, but why cut out Trials to gain money so quickly?” Lyra asked after looking over the paper. “Gems are a fast way to money from everything I heard while training with the healers. Though it can be just as dangerous as the hunter's path, if we want to get money quickly, it would be a fast route.”
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“First, it is easier to control the people around us in the jungle while here in the city we have little ability to do that. Second, the gem route and trials need groups of five to work well, and we run into the trust issues with the bounty or even scammers. I don’t doubt you and Aria may be able to fish them out, but that is not my skill set and will still take time we don’t know if we have before people much stronger than us start taking up the challenge,” Axel continued.
“I want to move into the Flame Seeker route, and that will need to be done when we make Adept. This is when the ability to move in a caravan will open up for us, and we can figure out what specialized powers we want. This city or any city only holds a limited selection after the novice stage, but these are just my thoughts. What do you both think?” Axel turned the conversation to his two companions.
“Aria is agreeable with this plan for now. The only issue is storage and keeping the food preserved to sell what we don’t need,” Aria added. “Maybe we can see if our friend Jareth has the tools needed for that. He seemed to have a wide selection of items when we traveled with him.”
“Good thought. I wanted to talk to him anyway for other reasons,” Axel agreed.
“Look, I just want to bring up gem crafting again but hear me out. We get to come to a nice inn every night, there are no bugs, we can take a shower with warm water, and have food that Axel didn’t cook,” Lyra tried to change the plan.
“Well, Lyra, did you or did you not burn the food on every hunting trip, causing me to have to take up the cooking?” Axel shot back, causing Lyra to look away in embarrassment. “But I get where you are coming from. I explained what I thought, but if you are really against hunting for a time, that is fine. Do you have any ideas on how we would get through the trust issues, build a system of profit sharing, then break up with them when we get to Adept or talk them into... (smack)”
Axel stopped his tangent when he was smacked in the back of the head with a pillow by Aria. “Axel, chill a bit,” Aria then looked to Lyra. “Lyra, Aria knows where you are coming from and thinks Axel may be hyper-focusing on what he knows to do, but Aria does not see that as the wrong direction. Growing up in the city, Aria has seen and heard many stories of the ‘accidents’ that happen to new parties in the Trials. Aria also would like to live under the stars again, but the hunting route, if we hunt above our level, tends to be the fastest to complete a cycle.”
“Axel, we will need to get a party of five one way or the other when we are going into the trials to complete a cycle and will have to learn that anyway.” Aria moved between Axel and Lyra as they began to lean forward to argue. “There is a system in place for temporary parties that the Vanguard keeps track of and rates teams, so we can use that, or we talk to Rex and see if he has anyone to recommend to work with on a temporary basis.”
With Aria taking charge of the meeting, both Axel and Lyra relaxed and leaned back. The trio talked in circles for a while until it was agreed that they would at least hunt until their third cycle and find team members that would be trustworthy through taking on temps for their trials. If they could not find anyone that would fit, they would keep hunting and make Adept before doing the Flame Seeker route and finding powers that would work best with them.
With tensions reduced after a decision was made, Lyra brought up what Axel had started to talk about before hurricane Aria entered the room. “So you were talking about your regeneration causing issues?” Lyra asked.
“So I went to the local training center and,” Axel then explained what he learned from the Storm Lord running the center. He also explained that his power was not Fixed Point regeneration but the upgraded True Regeneration (Lesser). He was not sure if there was anything he could do besides going through the standard cycle to increase his body.
“I am not sure if I can help with that with my powers besides going through the body sculpting, which is very time-consuming for me and you. I figured we would still do that, but I don’t know of any other methods to help you, Axel,” Lyra said after some thought.
“Aria has a question. Could you not ask the Goddess? You have a direct line to her now, and would she not have ways to help you?” Aria tilted her head and asked.
Being lost for words, Axel decided to sit in a meditation position and concentrate on his Journal and tried to communicate with the Goddess through the Journal. After about ten minutes of updating his Journal, he received a message from the Power Menu.
Disable Regeneration (Lesser)?
Yes or No
Regeneration (Lesser) has been disabled. CP returned to pool from passive collection.
Axel tested this new function a couple of times to find that it took about thirty seconds for the power to come back online after turning this passive off. He also learned that he could not turn off his proto core's passive, though.
“Well, that is definitely interesting,” Lyra said after Axel told both her and Aria about what he found. “I have never heard of anything but Fixed Point being able to be turned off, but that was an active power that you turned on.”
“Well, with that, we have been here a while, and it is almost dinner. You guys want to go eat in the dining room?” Lyra asked and then led both Aria and Axel to get some dinner.
After dinner, Axel made plans to take a trip the next day to visit Jareth about the hunting expedition, as an expedition sounded better than just a hunt according to Aria. That night, Axel and Aria just fell asleep holding each other, talking softly about their personal plans for their future.
---
Axel and Aria left the platform at the launch near the location that Jareth had given them when they arrived in the city. The store was a nice one-story affair, tastefully decorated with stonework and intricately woven tarps hung outside to give it soft colors. As Axel walked in, he found a human woman standing at the counter and a Vortan man in armor with a sword in his lap that he seemed to be maintaining.
The man gave Axel and Aria a once-over before going back to his task, and the woman greeted them from her station. “Welcome to Jareth’s emporium, where you can find almost anything you need, and if we don’t have it, our competition would not either. We take commissions for rare goods and buy strange or rare items for a good price.” She then bowed slightly to them in respect.
“Hello, would Jareth be in? My companion and I are friends of his, and he told us that if we needed something, we should come here,” Axel asked.
“Your names?” the attendant looked at him and asked in reply.
“Axel and Aria. We traveled with him just recently,” Axel introduced them to her.
“One moment, let me alert the proprietor and see if he is available.” She then pulled out a gem, touched a metal stud, and put her fingers to her temple in the sign of someone having a telepathic conversation. The conversation lasted a few minutes before she placed the gem back on the counter.
“He will be in about ten minutes if you are willing to wait,” the woman asked, and at Axel’s nod, led both him and Aria to a back area to wait while telling the guard to watch the store in the meantime.
As Axel and Aria got comfortable and waited, Aria turned her head as if tracking something, only to shake her head. Shortly afterward, the door to Jareth's office opened with a booming laugh greeting the pair as he walked into the waiting room.
“My friends, what a surprise!” Jareth said while ushering them into his office. “What can I do for you?”