<~> CHAPTER 75

I spent some time filling out the form with everyone's help. They told me to put myself down as a heavy skirmisher with scouting capabilities. Maxwell classified himself as a defender, Piper classified herself as a healer and skirmisher, Aria a scout and archer, and Luna was a mage with a heavy damage and area magic specialty. I had been a bit surprised there was this much thought that had gone into how they classified themselves but I suppose, realistically, it made sense. If they would be sharing information about themselves with employers, getting a good idea of how everyone fought would be ideal.

"Having Helena and Aria on our team will make it a lot easier to get jobs," Piper said happily.

Maxwell nodded. "It was always a challenge to take jobs that wanted more than three people and while our party had the bare minimum to function well, a lot of people didn't trust our damage output to just Luna."

"What exactly is a skirmisher anyway?" I asked.

"A frontline fighter, someone who can take a lot of punishment and keep going," Piper replied. "They're also more geared toward doing damage than protecting others like Maxwell does. The two of you joining us means that our group composition is now one dedicated defender, two melee fighters with me doubling as a healer, an archer, and a mage. We also have two different people good at scouting. We don't just have a well-rounded party, we have a stronger than usual one."

"Will wearing a blindfold make it harder for us to find work?" I asked.

Maxwell shrugged. "Probably not. As long as you don't bump into things you won't seem very blind. People are also accustomed to strange magic-imbued items from the dungeon doing odd things. A blindfold that replaces your sight with a different kind isn't that farfetched of an idea in general."

I glanced over at Luna who had been quiet for a while. I think this is what she meant by people forgetting to include her in conversations. Since she could only talk to one person at a time through the rings, it made group conversations like this much more difficult for her to participate in unless one of us ask for her opinion directly.

I nudged her. ("Hey Luna, if you want to say anything I'm all ears.")

She smiled and looked at the top of my head. ("I'd say that I'm more ears than you are.")

I laughed. ("True. Any thoughts on all of this? Our team composition or anything?")

Her smile wavered. ("The unspoken thing in this conversation is that I was holding back a lot of our ability to get work and find other teammates. Just one damage focused teammate, a mute mage that doesn't even have silent casting doesn't give people a lot of confidence that we can handle ourselves. Aria alone would help us find work more easily but a skirmisher like you will make us look much stronger on paper. I would be thrilled to have you join us, even if I didn't love you as much as I do.")

My heart skipped a beat. Love? She was serious, she didn't even realize she said it that way... Man, I knew she was serious about us but... wow. If I had a tail right now I don't think I'd be able to stop it from wagging.

Luna tilted her head. ("Helena?")

I cleared my throat. ("I'm glad that I ran into you that night as well. You and everyone else really saved me. I'm not sure I would have made it up here... or even known where to go if I hadn't run into all of you.")

She smiled and patted me on the leg.

Piper looked up from the form she had finished filling out. "Looks like we're about ready to move on to the next place."

"We should see about getting that pelt fashioned into armor before anything else. It could end up being expensive," Maxwell said. "I also kept one of the frost salamander glands, we should get Luna something made to empower her water magic in places where fire won't cut it. That will be a cheaper way to make you more versatile since we can't afford a silent casting tutor yet," he finished looking at Luna.

She smiled a bit and nodded. I nudged her again and she looked over to me surprised. ("Oh, yes. Something like that would be nice. I'll have to practice with water magic more though.") I repeated her words as closely as I could out loud for everyone's benefit. It made me kind of happy that I could repay her the favor for all the translating she did for me.

Maxwell nodded. "There's still snow on the ground, there should be plenty of opportunity to practice during the caravan trip."

("Why would snow matter for that?") I asked Luna.

("Water and ice magic are easier to cast with direct sources. You don't need to do the step that creates the water if you have some available. It'll make it easier to focus on getting better at the other parts of the spells when casting,") she explained.

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I indicated the hunk of crystal tied to my belt. "I also like to visit a jeweler or something, I want to make some of the crystals into something to remember the good parts of our dungeon trip."

Piper nodded. "That will give us the opportunity to see what that particular form of crystal is good for. If we're lucky it can be made into something strong."

"I'd be happy with something pretty even if it isn't useful for anything. Like I said when I gathered it, I just liked it for how it looked. Having a chunk on my belt also makes it easier to see with the blindfold as well," I said with a shrug.

Piper went up to the reception to turn in the form and get me officially signed up and registered with their group. The association kept a directory of groups for people to hire and they would act as a middleman if needed for common jobs like caravan escorting or harvesting particular dungeon materials. We could also work directly with people if we wanted to, which was more common for independents like us, but those jobs could be difficult to find. Larger companies were set up and worked directly with the hunter's association to provide larger-scale expeditions both inside and outside of dungeons. A lot went on here but the part that was most relevant to me was that I had to pay fees and/or taxes anytime I took a job through the hunter's association or delved into one of their dungeons. It was still possible to come across uncharted dungeons, but those were considered much more dangerous for obvious reasons.

We were finally finished up with the association business and could move on to checking out how much it would cost to get myself some better armor. The light armor I had been using had served me well but I would need something better if I couldn't use my werewolf form in front of others. Having strong armor would make my human form a bit safer, but I still wasn't sure how well my regeneration affected it yet. It healed me up in the aftermath of the fight with the umber hound but I haven't been hurt in my human form since and my wounds didn't seem to carry over from my werewolf one.

Piper led us to a portion of town set aside for craftsmen. There were enough materials coming out of the dungeon to keep many different weapon and armor smiths in business. You could tell from the sounds of metalworking and woodworking going on in this part of town that they had no shortage of customers.

("How large is this town compared to Ironcastle?") I asked Luna.

("It's small compared to Ironcastle but that's honestly not a fair comparison. Ironcastle was already a large settlement before the dungeon was discovered there. It's named for the iron mines in the mountains the city was built into. The city was first founded as a mining town but the inner part of the city was built into a fortress during the Corbex-Tatianna war. Ironcastle was in a strategic position at the edge of Tatianna's territory and was a rich source of iron. The iron veins haven't dried up there yet but the city's focus shifted a little when the dungeon was discovered inside the mountain. From what I have heard, the city had already been growing before that but the dungeon exploded the city's expansion and now the city extends much farther out than the edges of the Trimfall fortress.")

("Why the name Ironcastle?") I said flatly.

Luna giggled. ("It is a dumb name. The city had originally been called Trimfall, hence Trimfall Fortress, but after almost one hundred years of everyone but them calling the city Ironcastle, they officially changed it. The city has gotten so large that it was easier to call the entire city Ironcastle and reserve the name Trimfall for the district immediately around and inside the fortress. Tatianna, the silver dragon, had a dragon child and that child's family has become the royal family in the city-state since. That district is reserved for members of their family and their servants, as well as some of the original founders of the mining town.")

I frowned. ("I feel like it's going to take a while for me to get used to the history of this world.")

("Are you interested in history?") she asked.

("A little maybe... but the bigger problem is that I lack a lot of context for historical events, I don't even know how long ago the Corbex-Tatianna war was. That's just one example of a major historical event that I haven't even heard of and I can only imagine there are similar events that have been really influential on the region we're in that I should know about.")

Luna shrugged in response. ("Maybe, maybe not. I would say that most people don't know much about history. I know a bit more about Ironcastle than some other places since it was close to where we grew up, but the biggest reason I know any history is because I grew up in a manor with a well-stocked library. Most people don't have the opportunity to learn much about history, they're too busy learning whatever trade they need to survive. You don't seem to realize that you're far more educated than most people in this city and I would say a majority of Ironcastle as well. The fact that you see the value of knowing history at all is a testament to that, many people in this city can't even read.")

("I can't either,") I replied.

She pinched my arm. ("They can't read any language. You speak two and can read and write in your own language. It'll take time, but I don't think it will be hard to teach you to read draconic too. Oh, we're here!")

Piper waved us over to an armor smith shop tucked away just off of the main street. At a glance, the shiny armor on stands in the front drew my attention but Luna pulled me away from them before I could even get a closer look. ("The ones they put in the front look fancier but aren't as practical. We're here to get something commissioned anyway, don't make yourself look like an easy mark,") Luna teased.

We stepped inside and the shelves were so packed with armor of various shapes and sizes that the room was difficult for me to walk in. I looked around at the different armor pieces stacked nearly from the floor to the ceiling, it made me intimidated just looking at it all. The armors were made from all sorts of different materials, metals, leathers, pelts, animal scales, and combinations of all four and more. It was reassuring that we were coming in to have something custom-made because I wouldn't know where to even begin looking for something.

"Why are there so many different kinds?" I mumbled mostly to myself.

Aria held up a metal gauntlet and pointed at a little stamp marked into the metal. "Most of this stuff is made by apprentices. You can get a good deal if you know what you're looking for and the apprentice is skilled, but you could also buy something that's junk if you don't know better." She flipped the gauntlet over and pointed at a strap. "I can tell by looking at this one that this strap would dig into your arm if you wore it. That would be fine for a draco or a drakken because of their thicker skin, but humans and beastkin probably wouldn't be able to use something like this at all, it would be too uncomfortable."

"Helena, come over here for a moment. The master smith needs to talk with us," Maxwell called out.

Aria set the gauntlet back on the counter and the two of us wiggled our way through the shelves and over to the desk.