The moment Rowan felt they were far enough away from the camp to be safe, he collapsed.

Not that Vorn was doing much better, expending all of your Mana was exhausting on a good day, add on to that several battles to the death, and you get the picture. They were completely wiped.

Ark came running up to them not much later.

“Guys, that was incredible! And stupid! But mostly incredible! I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything as impressive from two level twenties!” Ark exclaimed, but then her eyes narrowed, “What the fuck! Why does your throat have a suspiciously deadly looking scar on it! I don’t know if my heart can take it if you nearly die every fight you have!” She finished, exasperated.

“That’s fair, but you have to admit, it was a pretty awesome fight! Did you see when we cannonballed into the Titan’s eye? While on fire! I don’t think I’ll ever forget that!” Rowan laughed boisterously, easily showing the most emotion Ark or Vorn had ever seen.

She just shook her head and sighed, “At least you had fun. For the record, though, you do know that delving is plenty dangerous without pulling idiotic stunts like that, right? Or are you trying to win an award for the coolest death?”

“If I do go down, you’re damn right I’ll get that award. Although, I really am sorry for worrying you. I just haven’t gotten over the after-battle jitters yet, so I’m excitable.” He explained.

“I guess that’s fair. The last ‘exciting’ fight you had did end up with you being dead to the world for a day, so I can see why this wasn’t a problem then.” Ark said.

“Also, don’t think I didn’t notice those arrows and that final plague beam! You were incredible! I don’t think I would have been able to pull off those shots even in my old world, especially as dark as it is.” Rowan complimented.

It was a little weird seeing Rowan so emotive, but neither of his party members could say they disliked it.

“So, did you already get the blood from all the Orcs down there? I noticed you going through the corpses, but like you said, it is very dark down here.” Ark asked.

“Yeah, I got everything.” He looked down at himself for a moment, “And even if I didn’t, I think I have enough on me for a few vials.”

“Yeesh. I was complaining about needing a shower, but now I feel I can’t really complain. At least take a dive in the river before we go.” She said, finally taking stock of just how… messy he was.

“Fair. The nearest one is pretty far, though.”

“I gotcha.”

Their pinky twitched and a large volume of water poured on him.

Rowan quirked an eyebrow, “Is that really the best use of our limited Mana?”

“Hey, I regenerate more Mana in a minute than most mages use in a day, I can afford to be a little wasteful. Besides, I think I just solved our little Blood Rage problem. Assuming there’s not some bullshit Title thing that makes blood magnetized to you or something.”

“You realized you totally just jinxed us right?” Rowan said, his voice still light and amused.

“Fuck.”

“Care to fill me in?” Ark asked.

“Sure, let’s walk and talk, I can tell you want to get out of here.”

— — —

“Wait, you're telling me you only got four levels from that!” She shouted near the exit of the dungeon.

“Yeah, I just figured that it was slower since I’m a higher level, is that not the case?”

“NO! You just beat three boss level creatures, one which was probably the strongest in the dungeon! I don’t care if you have a Mythic Equivalent Path, that just doesn’t happen!” Ark yelled in disbelief.

Orange turned to silver, and Vorn said, “Well, technically, we have two. Honestly, I should have figured this out sooner. I thought it was convenient that we shared levels, especially since I got retroactive stat points when I unlocked my Path, but it would appear that we need twice as much ‘experience’.”

“Well that sucks for you guys, how will you keep up with me now?” Ark joked good-naturedly.

“It’s not the end of the world or anything, but this is certainly inconvenient. Especially since we both level our Path in pretty different ways. Mine through learning and experimentation, and him through combat.”

“I don’t know, it doesn’t sound that bad. You just need to point each of your Paths towards supporting one another. Vorn you could… I don’t know, maybe make, like, a bestiary or something. Something that you can research and experiment with while actively helping Rowan. Rowan could be the muscle behind that, getting you samples or whatever. That’s just from the top of my head, though.” Ark said, unaware that she had just blown Vorn’s mind.

“Divines smite me, I’m an idiot! I should have thought of that! Thank you so much, Ark! I’ll put some more thought into other things we can do, but I’m for sure doing the bestiary thing! That’s a great idea!” Vorn exclaimed in excitement.

Ark turned away for a moment, unused to genuine praise.

“Well, thanks. W-we should get out of here already, I’m sick of Orcs! If I never have to see another one of these bastards, it’ll be too soon.” She bantered, trying to lighten the mood.

“I can’t disagree with that.” Vorn said as they reached the exit.

Shining silver returned once more to neon orange, “So, do you want to join our ‘party’? You were a valuable member, and I would be remiss not to offer.” Rowan said, completely monotone once more.

“S-sure. I’ll meet up with you back at the guild tomorrow?” She tentatively asked.

“Of course. Hmm, actually-” Ark’s heart stopped in her chest for a moment, “make that two days from now. We’re going to have to do some shopping with our new funds.”

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She let out a silent sigh of relief, “Okay, cool. Wait! I’m an idiot, we need to head to the guild together right now to get our money!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Let’s get going then.” Rowan said, unphased and already moving towards the exit.

— — —

“Your total comes out to… forty-nine brights and twenty-six lumies. The blood from the chieftains and Orc Lord will need to be negotiated, as they were all E50 or above, with the exception of the Behemoth. Do you want to do that, or will you let the guild handle it for you?”

Vorn was glad that Rowan was fronting right now because he was gaping like a fish in his soulspace.

“E50?”

“Huh? Oh, the ranking? Yeah, it’s just a simple combination of the monster's level and rarity. Epic Fifty. Monsters with higher rarities are drastically more dangerous, so they pay more.”

“Hmm, I don’t think we’ll have much time for negotiation, how much of a cut does the guild take?” Rowan asked.

“Just three percent, it’s one of our main services.” She says, matching Rowan’s bored tone perfectly.

“Let’s go with that, then.”

“Alright, sir. Here’s your earnings for now, come back in one to three days for the rest of your funds.” She languidly tapped a crystal against their guild card, transferring half of the total earnings.

With that, they had made over ten percent of Vorn’s life savings in a week! Well, five percent if you count their cut instead of the grand total, but still!

They walked out of the Guildhall twenty-four brights and sixty-three lumies richer. The other half went to Ark, even though she was insistent that they should keep the sixty-forty split.

As they left the private teller stations, designed to keep people from robbing each other, Rowan couldn’t help but notice the looks he was getting. Perhaps it was them doubling their level in one dungeon, or maybe it was the large scar that now marred their throat, either way, people were staring.

It was, in a way, comforting. After being essentially worshiped everywhere he went, the lack of recognition was nice, but the stares brought with them a sense of nostalgia that was uniquely pleasant.

For Rowan at least. Vorn despised the attention.

Finally, they exited the Guildhall.

“See you guys in a couple days, I guess.” Ark grumbled, still not happy about them giving up part of their ‘share’.

You didn’t save Rowan’s life and get less than half, it just wasn’t how he lived. And it wasn’t as if Vorn would let that go either, they were both honorable men or trying to be.

“So, what now?”

“Now? We go home and crash.”

— — —

After sleeping for roughly four hours, about eight times longer than they physically needed at this point, they were ready to face the day. Or, in this case, night. Most businesses ran late because of the odd sleep schedules Attributes caused, so it wasn’t an issue.

The first thing on the docket, their budget. They had a total of 4 blinds, – four hundred brights – so they had a lot to work with. They still needed to pay for rent and food, though.

Sadly, they couldn’t spend all their money on toys.

They decided to dedicate roughly twenty percent of their funds into their savings, the rest was theirs to do with as they pleased.

“First, we need to get you geared! I don’t care how much you like being light on your feet, a little bit of leather can save your life!”

“We literally got our throat slit and lived, so our need for armor is dubious at best.”

“Yeah, and maybe having some leather there will keep our head attached instead of on the ground next time! You literally have over three hundred Strength! You won’t even notice the armor!”

“It just doesn’t feel necessary. What creature that we would be hunting couldn’t get through leather? Isn’t my skin tougher than leather at this point?”

“Well, we obviously wouldn’t be getting standard light armor, it would have to be made of a pretty high-level creature.”

“Maybe we should have skinned one of those Orcs then?”

“First, gross. Second, yeah, maybe we should have.”

“Do you think we could even afford armor that would protect me from a level fifty creature?”

“… Probably not. Well, maybe we could get you some weapons. Your daggers aren’t looking so hot after being set on fire. Heh.”

“This is why I don’t think you're funny, but that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

“Hurtful, but fair.”

— — —

“What do you mean, you don’t have any weapons! This is a blacksmithery focused exclusively on forging them!” Vorn shouted.

“I don’t know what to tell ya son, the war hasn’t been kind to my stock. The military gets a twenty percent discount on all armaments and armor, along with priority to sell to them first. Nothing I can do.” The blacksmith gestured at his empty weapon racks.

“Is there nowhere we can buy gear?” Vorn asked, desperation slightly tingeing his voice.

“Nowhere legitimate. The military isn’t buying all my gear, just most. A noble benefactor has been buying the rest, and sending it to the military for brownie points. He’s been doing the same thing with every other legitimate business, ‘far as I’m aware.”

“Well, thanks for your time, I guess.” Vorn said, dejected.

“Can you not summon weaponry? It’s just metal, a simple crystalline structure. Give it an edge and make it durable, and I’ll use it.”

“I don’t know, maybe. I’ve never conjured metal or earth before, just manipulated it. Granted, I don’t see why I couldn’t.”

“Well, we’ll try that if worse comes to worst. At least until I can loot some more monsters. Actually, I know we were turning all the monsters into currency because you were saving up, but now that we don’t need to do that, is there a point?”

“I mean, kinda. Looting enemies is mostly random. Sure, it won’t be anything completely unbelievable, but it’s the God of Madness that gives us loot, so there isn’t much rhyme or reason. Money is just more reliable than the gamble that looting or destroying is. Also, I’ll be damned if we rely on a spell we’ve never tested in a dungeon, we need to rent a training area so I can test that weapon summoning spell.”

“Fair, but can’t you just test it here?”

“And get the guard to kick our ass? I think the fuck not. It’s not hard to sense when magic is being used, and I’m especially not subtle with my casting yet. Plus, in case you hadn’t gathered, it’s very fucking illegal to cast inside city limits outside of a designated area.”

“That does make sense.”

— — —

Their next stop was an artificer’s shop. Vorn was almost glad for the weaponry shortage, as it increased their funds for this exponentially. They could always [Loot] or [Destroy] to find weapons, it was just, as stated earlier, a pain in the ass.

What could you do, though?

As they entered the store, Vorn was immediately enraptured. Magical devices of all shapes and sizes adorned the walls and shelves. It was a magic nerd's paradise.

Generally, Rowan piloted, as he had faster reflexes and better control of their body, but the moment Vorn laid eyes on the items in the store, he was already in the midst of taking over.

Like a squirrel in a peanut factory, he was off.

First, he picked up various magic notebooks, Rowan remarked that they were very similar to his world’s digital devices, just without internet access. It allowed him to write and erase freely, along with ‘uploading’ magical images. The correct magical term for ‘uploading’ was convoluted and had nine syllables, so they were sticking with computer terms. Advanced magic was just like that.

Next on the docket, communication stones. They were actually pretty cheap for how they worked, only costing two brights each.

Gods, one good dungeon run, and Vorn was already losing touch with money. He used to make twelve lumies an hour for Divine’s sake.

Either way, he had money now, and the point of money was to be spent. He bought four comm stones, backups for themselves and Ark.

Next was a magic rope. How was it magic? He didn’t know, but they did need rope, and it was right there at a pretty cheap price.

As he was reaching for a heating stone, he felt a tap on his shoulder and nearly jumped out of his skin.

Turning around, he saw nothing. He was about to start searching before he heard a voice from directly ahead of him, “Hey, I’m right here.”

And he was, A man of similar height to them was standing directly in front of them and neither of them noticed.

“U-uh, were you the two that partied up with Ark?” He asked nervously.

“Yeah, why? You know her?” Vorn asked, still trying to figure out how the fuck someone sneaks up on a guy while standing right in front of them.

“N-not exactly. I’ve been wanting to join up with her, and she has a really cool Path, and she’s really intimidating… sorry, I’m rambling. Uh, can I join you two, is what I’m trying to ask.” He finally got out.

“I mean, I’m fine with it, but you gotta run it past Ark too. We can discuss it at the Guild, we’re meeting up there in a day and a half.” Vorn explained.

“O-okay. That makes sense. I should have done that in the first place, but she’s so cool, and people never notice me unless I touch them, and I didn’t want to touch her without permission, but she never heard me when I spoke to her, so I gave up, and I- you get the point, sorry. G-goodbye, and thanks for your time.” He quietly mumbled and then awkwardly waved goodbye.

Vorn was going to say something back, but by the time the guy was done waving, he had already disappeared.

Strange.

Well, it was time to get back to shopping!