Chatting

I enter my Domain and look around. I don't see anyone so I walk upstairs. I enter the Alchemy workshop and see Ramia working. She's brewing something and a small brown doll walks next to her. It's made of something that resembles clay. It's about three feet tall and only has three fingers on each hand. Its feet don't have any toes. It starts tapping on her thigh when it notices me.

"Eric, I didn't h-hear you come in." She says with a smile upon turning around. "What are y-you doing here?"

"Innu and Luna wanted to visit a Dungeon. I got some materials for you from the monsters." I explain while taking the Rotten Ent Bark out of my inventory.

"Thank you! Can you give them to Dolly here?" She says while motioning to the doll. It walks forward and I give it the Bark.

"Dolly?" I ask as the doll walks over to a shelf.

"I have to name t-the dolls I create. But I'm n-not good at names." She replies embarrassed.

"You seem to be getting the hang of this magic." I say and she nods happily.

"Yeah, it's a lot of f-fun experimenting with. I'm making some special clay to go with the Demons Golem Blood you got. I'm hoping to make a doll with five fingers. But it's surprisingly hard to do. This doll took most of my mana to make, and it only has three. I'm worried I'll waste the Blood." She says and I walk over to her. I pat her on her head.

"It'll be fine. We can always get more Blood. Besides, think of this as practice for when you make a doll with my blood." I say causing her to look up at me both excited and surprised.

"You'd let m-me make a doll with your blood?"

"Yeah, I don't mind. As long as you don't take too much." I say with a small laugh causing her to puff her cheeks. Before she can respond Liz walks into the room.

"Eric, are you free?" Liz asks upon seeing me.

"Yeah, why?" I ask and she smiles.

"There's something I need to ask you." She replies before motioning to the door. I tell Ramia bye before following Liz out.

"What is it?" I ask as she brings me downstairs. I see Asami waiting at the table.

"Mater, we need to talk." Asami says in an unusually serious tone. I nod, motioning for her to continue. "We need to talk about the Guild."

"What about it?" I ask causing her to pull out a folder. She opens it up and shows an estimated cost of something. I can't tell what it's supposed to be for. But it does surprise me that it's nearly 200,000$.

"We need to hold a party." She says, causing me to pause.

"A party?" I ask a little confused.

"Yes! We need to celebrate the new Guildhall, and thank the Silver Garden and Blue Locus guilds. The best way to do that is to hold a party. Remember, we wouldn't be a Guild without them. That and they did help a lot with the Devils. Also your grandpa, we'll need to invite him too." Asami explains.

"Okay, and that party is going to be 200,000$?"

"Yes, we need to hire chefs, pay for the food, decorations, and much more." Asami says and I just nod, trying to think of why that costs so much.

"There's also another matter. The Guild currently only has seven members, nine if we count Eimbis and Barrai, and ten if we include you on top of that. Now that you're getting your second Ruins, we'll look greedy if we wait to hire new members until after the Ruins are cleared. That said, people won't find out about the Ruins until you get the Dimensional Door to them. This is so other Guilds don't try to steal it during transport. So, we should look at people. We should get two or three new members at least before clearing the Ruins." Liz says and Asami nods in agreement.

"Yeah, we should. I'm sure Luna and Innu would like more members to spar with." I say causing the girls to laugh.

"Let's just hope they can keep up with them. Even if they held back, most Lyna would still struggle against them." Liz says.

"So, when would we be having this party?" I ask and Asami smiles.

"Idealy this weekend. So in four or five days. But the chefs might not be available on such short notice. So we might have to postpone it. But I'll still try to keep it to the weekend." Asami replies.

"That works. Was there anything else?" I ask and they each shake their heads no. "Then Liz, have you ever heard of a Corrupted Forest Core?" I ask causing her to think it over.

"No, why do you ask? Did something happen to the Forest Core the Dryads gave you?" She asks very worriedly.

"No, no. I got another Core from a Dungeon. But this one's corrupted." I say before telling her what Observe told me.

"I'd take it to the Dryads. They might be able to heal it, or let you know if it's safe. It isn't necessarily bad after all. It could even be good, as long as it doesn't create too many Undead. Even if it did, you could trap it in a dome of sorts here in your Domain. Then you could farm the Undead creatures it creates endlessly." Liz says and I shrug.

"Yeah, that could be good. But I'm worried about the unknown thing it'll give me." I say and she nods. "But I will ask the Dryads." I continue and she smiles. She takes her phone out and starts typing.

"Okay, Treena says she'll come visit tomorrow after school. I didn't tell her what you want though." Liz says with a mischievous smirk.