The next morning, I opened the door when it was knocked on and was greeted by a tall woman dressed in all black.

“Kayden sent me to show you to the dining hall.”

I nodded and picked up the still sleeping Mezu before following her.

“So… it will be pretty loud there. He probably won’t sleep through it.”

“I think you’d be surprised what he can sleep through.”

I could see that Alcoroth had already put a spell over his ears. I don’t know why he put it on already, or where he was. But at least now, until he takes it off or Mezu wakes up on his own, he’ll just be sleeping comfortably.

There was a bigger problem to deal with when he woke up though. We ended up missing meals yesterday and I only gave him a few fingers. I didn’t wake up surrounded by dried blood, so he didn’t take an arm while I was sleeping. That meant when he did wake up there was probably a short window of time to feed him before he took it upon himself to eat.

“Uh… do you know how long Kayden will take?”

“No. He just told me last night to go fetch you in the morning. Why?”

“Nothing just curious is all.”

I really hope that Mezu doesn’t wake up before I actually get to meet them. Cutting off my full arm and handing it to a small child probably wasn’t the best way to introduce myself to people. I mean Kayden took it pretty well I think and well Valera didn’t really have a lot of time to say it bothered her.

With them it was just a couple of fingers. My whole arm would be more shocking. I’m sure if it had been that much Valera wouldn’t’ve been able to ignore it as easily as she did the few fingers. Eventually, I’d have to show them but doing it out in the open would certainly be attention grabbing, and I should be keeping somewhat of a low profile. Even if this was supposed to be a safe space, I just met Kayden. How much could I really trust him let alone a bunch of people I didn’t even know the names of?

“Alright then let's get going then.”

I followed her down the hallway.

I was only slightly curious as to where Alcoroth was. The last time he left was when Mypheryn was around, and as much as I’m glad I don’t have to interact with him much after last night’s discussion, at the moment it wasn’t great not having him around. How was I supposed to enjoy this quiet with the chance that Mezu could wake up in the middle of the dining hall and demand to be fed?

If only I had fed him last night, he’d be willing to just eat what I was eating but now he’d definitely want my arm. It's not like I could go into another room and just cut it off and then return as if nothing happened.

As we left the building and headed towards a long building with picnic tables outside.

Eating outside at them would be a good spot. It would’ve been great if Alcoroth was here then I could just lay Mezu down on the bench without needing to worry while I went to go get the food. Limited options were always great to have.

I nervously entered the dining hall and luckily it was quieter than I was expecting. Not because there was a general lack of people but more because they all seemed generally half asleep. She stood in line with me but went off on her own afterward. I got my food and went outside, setting Mezu down before starting to eat.

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I made it halfway through my meal before Alcoroth returned.

“Wow, you managed to keep the young master asleep all on your own.”

“No thanks to you, where were you?”

“None of your concern.”

Alcoroth sat down on the table looking down at Mezu whose head was on my lap.

“He’s going to be hungry when he wakes up.”

“Don’t you think I know that? I can’t exactly just cut my arm off here too. The less I have to explain to the least amount of people possible the better. I’m not that great at talking and I don’t want any extra attention aside from the fact that I carry around a child with pointy teeth.”

Adorable pointy teeth, but still pointy teeth.

“So, you want me to keep him asleep until you can cut your arm off in peace?”

“I’d appreciate it.”

Alcoroth chuckled.

“How fortunate that I agree with you on this one, but don’t think it will happen again.”

“I wouldn’t dare think that.”

Alcoroth laughed some more, and I continued to eat.

By the time I finished, Kayden was walking over to me followed by a tall decently buff elf. Her hair was tied up in braids and yet was still shorter than the hair I’ve ever seen on an elf before (not that I’ve seen a lot of elves). It was black which fit well with her darkly tanned skin. Her eyes were a piercing blue and stood out against her skin. I glanced at her ears only to confirm they seemed about the same size as mine.

“Ah Quartz there you are!”

I did my best inviting smile I could muster. The sound of Alcoroth’s laugh made my face twitch in annoyance.

They got to the table and Kayden sat down. He had large dark circles under his eyes. There was something about his eyes that looked a bit odd aside from the scar. I looked at him more closely and saw that his earrings were actually like the ones he had given me. He was hiding his appearance.

“Quartz this is Sailhin,”

I turned my sight on and saw a glimmer of mana surrounding his face. Generally, things were the same, the shape of his head and his type of hair. The main difference was the color of things, his skin was a purple-ish ashen grey color. His eyes were a darker but matching tone, and he had the familiar pupil shape of the other elemental-kin I’d met. I didn’t know why an elemental-kin would feel the need to hide themselves like this.

Alcoroth nudged me though and I focused back in on what he was saying.

“-she managed to throw a party together and if you get along with them, we can send you up right away.”

“What really?”

A bit convenient, well a lot of things were convenient for me.

“Well right away in the sense of, I don’t want to explain the thing about your limbs to anyone here… so I’d like to get you out of here as soon as possible and by ‘managed to throw a party together’…. They are three pairs of adventurers that want to start climbing so it seems convenient to just put you together and send you on your way.”

Three pairs? What was this? At least he acknowledged how oddly convenient this was. Wouldn’t it be even more convenient if those three pairs happened to be avatars as well? Well, there wasn’t a notification of a quest change, so I guess I wasn’t necessarily that lucky.

I glanced over at Alcoroth briefly as if I could even read his facial expressions.

“The thing about his limbs?” She asked raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, he can just show you it later I guess, but what do you say?”

“Well, I mean I guess it depends on them. Are they okay adding a random seventh member with an adorable yet vicious contract partner to their thrown-together party?”

Sailhin laughed, “we’re a pretty odd mix ourselves. Even though we started climbing separately as pairs we did get close with each other while staying here. And I’m sure that Brick and Dodger are quite tired of being here as is. If it wasn’t for the fact that there is a minimum party size, I’m sure they would have headed- “

There was a crash, and a body flew through the doors of the dining hall behind her and landed on the ground.

“You piece of shit! If you’re that weak, don't go picking fights in the morning!” A loud female shouted from the hall.

From the doors stepped a tall, pale skinned, black-haired woman with a braided mohawk. Her shirt was short-sleeved and loose while her pants were well fitted yet at the same time seemed to be struggling against her muscles. And across her body were the black intricate markings I’d never seen before.

In the past I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to pick a fight with her, now though, I wanted to fight her. It looked like it’d be fun.