As we were walking back to the entrance of the town I realized how odd it felt to be walking inside of a city that fits my size again.

‘Ow! Please don’t scream so loudly inside my head!’

“Who’s that?”

“Yeah?”

‘She’s, err, she’s my familiar…’

“Oh, okay. But what was that outburst for?”

‘Yeah, what was that for Lizz?’

‘But why was it so delayed then?’

‘So your brain turned off and it took this long to process everything that happened?’

At this point I can hear giggling coming from Charlie.

After a bit more bickering from me and Lizz we eventually reach the dirt wall and climb over it.

“Hey, we need to get back up.” Charlie says to one of the wizard pickits.

The wizard nods and a part of the dirt wall we’re standing on starts floating back up to guards we passed earlier.

After we’ve stayed up next to the entrance for a while another mound of dirt starts floating our way.

When the dirt cloud arrives Charlton steps of off it with two other pickits.

“These are the other two that will be following along.”

‘I thought you said a handful?’

Charlton then raises his hand.

“We only have three fingers, so Charlie plus these two is a handful.”

‘Oh, right. Well, should we get going?”

“Yeah, it’s probably getting late outside, I wish you all luck.”

Charlton then runs and rolls down the hill while us four start walking out the tunnel again.

‘By the way, what are you guys’ names? And in case we encounter monsters, how do all three of you fight?’

Charlie is the first to answer.

“Well you know who I am already, and I fight by using earth magic, that’s how I was able to disguise myself when I was outside guarding the entrance earlier.”

‘So not everyone can go outside as rocks then? And speaking of before, did anyone else take over guard duty when you left?’

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“Yup, that’s why I talked to the guard when we came here.”

‘Just making sure, and you two then?’

“My name is Diifan Dar” Says one of the two, this one covered in full body plate mail and carrying a giant shield on his back.

“I take care of holding the frontlines while the others prepare magic or whatever they’re using. This shield is real sturdy to, and the edges are sharp enough to use as a slashing weapon as well.”

‘A large shield and sword in one? And I’ll assume you have strength enough to wield it as well, which would need you to be really strong, especially if you do it while wearing all that armor.’

“Well actually I’m using earth magic to make it all lighter. All pickits can use some earth magic, however each individual can use it at different strengths.”

‘You’re using it right now? But I don’t see a wand?’

Charlie then steps in.

“We pickits can use earth magic without needing a wand, but as a tradeoff we can’t use any other magic, even if we have a wand attuned to those spells.”

‘Okay, then how about you?’

I look towards the other one who is wearing some dark green clothing.

“I’m Baom Ann, I tend to either stay a distance away and shoot the enemies with arrows or I try and sneak up behind them.”

‘Do you also use magic in some way?’

“No. I can use it, however throwing large boulders at people isn’t very good for someone trying to stay hidden.”

‘Alright, in that case, Charlie, Diifan, you might need these.’

I then hand them a couple of blue jellies each.

‘Eat these and they’ll restore some energy.’

“Huh, that’s useful, thanks Plush.”

We then reach the end of the cave.

‘You guys really sure about this? You’ve never been outside without your disguises before, actually, have you even fought anyone with that shield or bow before?’

“Correction:” Says Charlie.

“Those two haven’t been outside at all, neither with nor without their disguises. And don’t worry about not having fought anything before, there’re more than enough monsters underground to get a good bit of firsthand experience.”

‘Good. Also it’s starting to get late so we might want to hurry, how good are you lot at running?’

“We’re not the best at running, however we have other ways of going fast, so go ahead and run, you won’t lose us.”

As she says that Baom starts running before I can even prepare myself.

“Last person there pays the troll toll!”

‘Troll toll?’

“The entrance fee to the city, they do have one, right?” And as Charlie says that both she and Diifan start running, with me close in tow.

We caught up with Baom due to him slowing down when he realized only I knew which way the city actually was, and now he’s unable to create a lead again.

After running for a bit we exit the forest, at this point all three of us are running side by side, neither of us capable of pulling ahead, however this is when all three of them jump and start rolling instead, and somehow going even faster than when they were running.

Feeling too stingy to pay twenty copper out of my twenty four gold for the entrance fee I start using solidification to create stilts under my feet, making each of my steps longer, as well as channeling phasing into said stilts to make them go inside the ground and then letting go before I pull them out, making me shoot out and perform huge leaps with each step, and soon I’ve both caught up AND passed with the three fur balls rolling towards the gate.

‘Erm… I didn’t? It was just sort of a spur of the moment kind of thing.’

<*Sigh*>

Due to the giant leaps I’m able to perform I reach the gate first and explain to the hectic guards that the three balls rolling this way while creating huge dust clouds aren’t monsters.

After a few seconds they all arrive, however-

*SLAM* *SLAM * *SLAM*

All three of them are unable to stop and simply crash into the walls next to the guard post to slow down.

One by one they all fall out of the wall and walk over to me.

First comes Diifan.

“I’ve endured harder hits than that.”

Then comes Charlie while holding her head.

“Ugh… You didn’t tell us we needed to stop ourselves!”

And finally comes Baom.

“Why did I think there wasn’t going to be a wall around the city…?”

Charlie then uses earth magic to fix up the three holes in the wall and says.

“Well Baom? You may have gotten to the wall first but you certainly didn’t get to the gate first, pay up.”

“What!? Just because I’m an archer and can’t take as hard hits as you!?”

“Well you’re the one who suggested we did this in the first place.”

“Urgh… Fine…, how much is it?”

The familiar lizard man guard who was watching finally seems to snap back to reality.

“It…*cough* It is five copper a person, Plush goes for free since he's got a guild card.”

“Okay, here you are.” Says Baom as he pulls out fifteen copper coins from a pouch that he had somewhere on his person.

I then ask the guard:

By the way, what’s your name? I’ve met you a lot but I never asked.

“I’m Rupert Tillian, but call me Rupe.” He says while putting the coins Baom gave him into a different pouch.

We wave to each other and part ways as me and the pickits walk inside the town.

‘It’s gotten kind of late so we should probably head to an inn, I know just the place.’