“Ok, melt everything.” Ozzy waved his hand over everything in the Fridge, giving the order to get rid of all the left-over ice covering the few remaining containers “We dock today, everything needs to go.”
“You sure?” Mia asked, there was quite a bit left, unwittingly paying attention to their consumption rate, if they arrived today, they still had two rows of crates.
“Yeah, all of that needs to go, part of it was cargo for…ah not important.” He waved her off “Just needs to get unloaded by the end of the day, so if you would.”
“Okay, okay.” Mia rolled her eyes, raising her hands and for the last time, removed all her ice from the Fridge. “There.” She said, looking towards her makeshift room as her bed was moved out of it, it really was the last day…
The large doors to all the storage areas were wide open, Chuck and a few others going through the inventory to make sure everything had made it through and nothing was stolen, misplaced, or broken.
“Thank you Mia! Now, why don’t you head up? Should be able to see Lexon by now.” He pointed up towards the ceiling.
“Alright…thanks again, Ozzy, Chuck…” Mia waved them off, running upstairs, ignoring Crim who had been glaring at her the whole time. She did appreciate the two, talking to them had helped her recover a good bit of her speaking ability over the week, now back to just below her usual ability.
[Now you can be picky about who you talk to again.]
‘Shut it.’ While true, the bigger issue with it was not being able to convey what she meant, leading to that multiple hour-long interrogation, that mess being the main reason why she had tried so hard to get over it, and it worked, for the most part. It was satisfactory. She just had to remember next time she got stuck in a yearlong loop to take a break and have a healthy conversation with someone…hah…
She made her way up, passing by faces she had grown familiar with, but outside of Ozzy and Chuck, she didn’t grow that close to anyone, Fria, the only other one that was near her often enough, had been avoiding her. She figured it was because of her brother but… she tried not to care.
Making it to the deck she ran out to the side, looking ahead and seeing it, Lexon, the dungeon island.
The island stretched out over the horizon, the entire island covered in buildings large and small, all topped on top of each other as they climbed up the face of a volcano, they all looked twisted and intertwined, an odd sight. Further down by the coast were several buildings half submerged in the water, boats lining all around them on the outer edge.
“Liking the view?”
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Mia spun around “Jackie…yeah.” Glancing back, it was amazing, beyond what she could imagine.
“The island itself is covered in one gigantic dungeon, well, specifically it’s a haunt… not like it matters much.” Jackie leaned over the side, pointing to the half-submerged city “Lexon is now just the group of buildings in the ocean.”
“A haunt?”
“Yeah, it’s like a dungeon, but outside… lot of weird properties. Ask the guild when you get there, you’ll need to register to even step foot on the mainland.” He shook his head “From what I understand, the outer layer of the island is somewhat safe, then it suddenly gets really dangerous, you’d have to be evolved twice over to ever survive in there. Then the closer you get to the center, the safer it gets, till it is just like it is on the outer layer.”
He then pointed to the volcano “Minus the exact center, the volcano. Dead zone, nothing ever comes out after going in.” shrugging, he continued “there are also several mini dungeons scattered about, place is extremely popular with the adventurers or anyone looking to get rich quick… while the city in the ocean stretches all around the island so…try not to get lost.”
“Yea…” She stared at the city, the island, the volcano, excitement filling her every core “Guild first, register, then go in.”
“Correct, they shouldn’t give you any trouble if you show them your strength, you just need money to take care of the registration fee, speaking of which.”
Mia’s attention fell on him as he dug threw his pockets, pulling out a small pouch “Your payment for a job well done.” He said, tossing the bag to her.
She got it, quickly looking inside “…five gold?” she blinked, still unsure how much this even was.
“Sett set you up with a good job he did.” Jackie rubbed his nose, sounding proud of himself “Emergency request, increased pay on a hard to fill position, especially on such short notice. And you were heading to Lexon anyways. A good deal if I do say so myself.” He leaned forward, giving her a thumbs up “Usually a job like this pays only 2 gold for all the stuff you had to manage, and could do it effortlessly.” He straightened himself up “Keep that in mind if you ever want to travel by the water again, I’ll spread your name around to some buddies.”
“Hm, thanks.” Mia took the bag, stuffing it into her inventory with the rest of her money. She wanted to ask how much this was but, felt like it would ruin the mood…
“Should last you a bit, even with everything getting busy.” He pulled up his pants, stretched his legs, then pivoted away from Mia “Well, I got a ship to dock, feel free to stick around or run off. Lexon awaits!” he then walked off.
Mia went back to staring at Lexon, the half-submerged city coming into view as they approached. She sat there for an hour, excitedly planning what she was going to do. As they got closer to the docks, someone leaned up next to her.
“Must be nice, getting all that money for not that much effort.” It was Crim.
“Nope!” She yelled, leaping off the ship and grabbing hold of the side, freezing her hand in place to control her descent sliding down the metal boat’s side.
“Wa-What are you doing?!” Crim yelled as Mia slid down the side of the ship, approaching the water.
“Not dealing with it!” she yelled, freezing the surface of the ocean, it wobbled a bit, but she had covered enough surface to make a decent sized platform.
“You crazy kid! You can’t do that!” Crim yelled, getting the attention of Jackie.
“Mia?! What in Gaia’s name are you doing?!” Jackie soon joined in, drawing a crowd of people to watch “You can’t get off here! You must wait for us to dock!”
“Not dealing with him!” She then ran atop her platforms all the way to the port, leaving the Screaming Siren and her crew behind.