Well I guess their best wasn't good enough

An hour later, you pull yourself out of the summoning circle in the tower to see Sera, Celestina, and Zalreanne waiting for you, the former two looking concerned while the latter has a faint scowl across her gorgeous face.

"Well, what happened while I was out?" Sera looks at Celestina as well, and the latter just shrugs and looks behind you. You turn to see Ari, then Tlax, then Mariel crawl from the portal.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! I hate that spell!" Mariel winces as she takes a seat beside you. "Damn it, why can't she stick to frost magic?" Everyone but Tlax and Celestina look at her quizzically, so you turn to the snake woman.

"The ssspellcassster made a huge bolt of lightning, and it killed usss both. We were so clossse..." she pouts and curls into a ball.

"Wait, when the dwarf got me it was just the two of them left, and he was almost dead. You mean to say you couldn't take the easy win?" Ari talks with a frustrated excitement.

"Why don't you get zapped next time, then tell us all about 'easy wins' after? Besides, you dropped before we did." Mariel glares daggers at her. "At least we got that stupid dwarf. Thinks he's such a great archer with his crossbow and all..."

"Well, at least you made Selena's day. She got some sort of staff that she seemed very happy with, wished me good day, and headed off. You know, they really might take you up on that deal one of these days." Celestina pipes up, the sole person in the room who's unfazed by your loss—or, in Zalreanne's case, by her continued presence.

"Ssspeak for yourssself. You just watched, we had to get sssmassshed by that crazy woman's may-ssse." Tlax pokes her head out of her coiled tail briefly before retreating to sulk.

"Well, let's look on the bright side." It isn't normal that you're the sole voice of positivity, but the narrow defeat seems to have really hit your champions' spirits. "We were outnumbered but still took out five of them: that's not bad. Besides, maybe they'll finally get over their obsession with this place for a change! We could use some adventurers who we sort of get along with, especially with that other group still out there doing who knows what."

"Since when are you all happy about losing? Aren't you the one who went to ridiculous lengths to stay alive last time we were under attack?" Ari snaps at you.

"Hey, come here." She glares, but walks over, and sits down next to you. You grab her by the waist with one arm and snuggle up with her, her expression softening slightly in response. "I'm not saying I'm not annoyed, but we already lost. I'm sure we'll have the chance to beat up some adventurers later, but in the mean time yelling at each other won't do any good."

"Sorry, babe, you're right. I just..." she trails off and rubs her hair against you. "Just give me a bit to get over it."

"Sera, you okay? You're awfully silent." The angel looks up from the ground and turns to you, determination burning in her eyes.

"Next time we fight, that barbarian is going down. No help, no interruptions, just me and her." She runs a finger over her throat.

"Well I'm glad that you're at least taking this constructively. Tlax, want to come out of there?"

"Hssssssss"

"Suit yourssself." A muffled giggle comes out of the coiled tail in front of you. You turn to see Mariel staring enviously at Ari, so you grab her with your other arm and drag her to your side, at which point she leans her head on your shoulder and sighs.

"How am I taking this harder than Sera? I was barely even interested in fighting back when I was with Enileve, and that was supposed to be our whole job." She stares off into space as she talks to herself.

"Well, to be fair, you at least had a chance of winning. Maybe you'd be less mad at yourself if you got knocked out in two seconds flat and didn't even see how close it was." Ari quips, and you're **** to stifle a laugh as the red-haired angel wheels around, eyes burning with rage.

"You know what, forget the barbarian. You and me, in the arena, right now. You talk a big game, miss I'm-so-great-at-everything, let's see you back it up." She draws her sword.

"Sure, miss I'm-only-good-for-fighting-and-I-can't-even-do-that. Hope you're ready to crawl out of that hole again." Ari launches herself to a stand and draws her enchanted blade, and the two march out of the room. You stare at the door.

"Erm, do you think we should...?"

"Oh, let them get it out of their systems. Sera at least will feel better after she hits something hard a few times." Mariel rubs her head against your shoulder. "Besides, Tlax, if you want to come out, a comfy spot just opened up." The gorgon slowly unravels herself and slides over to Ari's vacated seat.

"So anyways, Celestina, why didn't you fight us? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but I expected you'd want the rewards and all." The ranger looks up, having spaced out despite all the commotion.

"Hm? What? Oh, uh, yeah, I guess I got some good stuff recently, don't really need more. And, uh, I've got to head off for a while soon, job stuff, figured I'd leave Tina here with you guys. It would be nice if she got to know Ari. I think the two would be great friends." She spaces out again.

"Well, couldn't you have done that after beating us?"

"Huh? Wha? Oh, yeah, um, I guess? But maybe I'd die, and I didn't really want to walk back, and you know, maybe you'd be mad at me if I did. I was trying to be friendly and all, I even asked them not to fight you, but they really wanted the extra drops." She fidgets a bit as she speaks. "Besides, I like you too, you know. Wouldn't want to ruin that, especially given..." she trails off.

"Given what?" You tilt your head slightly, earning an annoyed poke from Mariel as her headrest shifts.

"Oh, uh, that reminds me. I brought the stuff you asked for." She digs around in her enchanted bag, then pulls out a number of wrapped boxes of various sizes. "Say, not that I'm complaining or anything, but don't you think this is a bit much?"

You shrug. "I'm sure our guest will enjoy your presents." Zalreanne's head shoots up, having largely been in her own world until now. She shoots you a dark glare.

"Explain, imp." You return her glare, and she averts her eyes.

"Come now, pet, aren't we past such posturing after how your last little outburst went? Suffice it to say I asked Celestina to pick you up some presents from Broadbridge for your behaviour. We'll get to you later. For now, let your master talk to your betters." She looks like she wants to say something more, but looks down and stares at the floor instead.

"So anyways, I imagine we'll have a bit of peace and quiet now that Celestina's friends have claimed all of the spotlight rewards. Anyone have any thoughts on what to do next? I feel like we should be using the next few days for something, but I have no idea what."

"What got you so motivated? Last time I was here you seemed pretty content to just laze about and get laid." Celestina looks up, interested. "Um, not that I'm complaining." She smiles slightly, although her face falls again soon after.

"Remember how Shadowdagger and his friends turned all bony?" She stares at you absentmindedly for a second, then nods. "Well, it seems like they must have been working with someone, because some sort of messenger that dropped by a few days back and said that he was uniting all of the monsters on Mt. Imporne to attack the great wyrm."

"Oh, and you're going to help out? What does this have to do with David's party?" She cocks her head, her long hair shifting past her ear.

"No, he didn't seem interested in me being in charge. Anyways, he threatened me, so Mary here—" you give her a squeeze, and she smiles and snuggles in even closer. "—gave him a taste of our displeasure. In any case, it turns out the messenger was just a bag of bones, and when I thought about it his voice was the same as the one that Shadowdagger used once. So whatever is up, something that managed to win over a group of decently powerful adventurers and come all this way is probably worth taking seriously."

"Huh, that's odd. I've never heard of monsters changing adventurers' classes before. Other than you and Ari, I guess. And Zal, apparently? There's so much to this game that's so... different. And you're so real." She looks at you again as if considering something, while you're equally puzzled in response. Of course you're real? How else would you be standing here?

"So anyways, Mary, Tlax, any thoughts?"

"Ssssssssss..." the gorgon seems to have fallen asleep, her chest gently rising and falling as she leans against your right side.

"Well, why not work on the tower? If we really have no other plans, we might as well at least collect some materials. Say, what did we need again?" You flick open the menu and take a glance.

"Another mana gem, some manasilver, and something called... black iron? Right, we were talking about it this morning. Well, the mana gem seems like a bad idea for now: the last thing we need is another world bounty right as we're dealing with this necromancer thing. Anyone know where we can get the others?"

"Well, we could go back to the dungeon from two weeks ago?" Mariel sits up slightly, then bites her nail and frowns. "No, that's too far, and the only manasilver we saw was in the dragon's lair. Pissing her off is probably a bad idea..." she shrugs, then closes her eyes and goes back to cuddling. "Maybe we should ask Ari when she comes back? She's always good at this stuff."

"Um, what about Deepcrag Mine?" Celestina speaks up. Right, she's an adventurer: she probably knows more about this stuff than any of your dungeon's denizens.

"What's that?" Each one of your hands plays with your respective partners' hair as you talk.

"Oh, it's a black iron mine a bit higher up Imporne, off on the far side. Even has a bit of manasilver apparently. It's a level 20 quest location, lots of fetch quests and escort missions and stuff. You know?"

You tilt your head to another annoyed poke, this time from your gorgon. No, you don't know.

"Oh, right, I guess you don't do a lot of quests out here. Basically, um, some monsters like to attack it a lot, so adventurers have to come help out, and in exchange they get some ore and some loot. Make sense?"

You nod. If only adventurers spoke common like any civilized monster knows how to. You've learned a lot from Ari these past months, but it still seems like every conversation with a 'PC' yields some new bizarre phrase.

"Thanks, we'll probably check it out. Say, do you want to tag along? It might be fun, and maybe you can do that... 'fetch' quest?"

She gives you a weak smile. "Sorry, I'd love to, but I really have to get going soon. Say, you don't mind if Tina stays in your tower while I'm out, do you? Might as well get her used to the place, and it's really nice."

"Be my guest, although you—she?—won't be able to leave without me there to accompany you."

She nods and gives another weak smile. "Thanks, that should be fine here. You know, I hope she likes it here, and I really hope she and Ari get along..." She stares off into the distance, and when you open your mouth to respond the room lights up with a red glow. Ari climbs out with an annoyed expression, and Sera marches into the room.

"Ladies and gentledaemon, miss can't-even-fight, at your service." She takes a deep curtsy, grinning from ear to ear.

"Right, Mary, do you mind filling the rest of the group in? I've got a bit of business before we go." You stand up to groans of protest from Mariel and Tlax, then pick up the various boxes Celestina handed you earlier. "Come, pet, I need to discuss something with you." Zalreanne looks up and gets to her feet, frowning slightly but following nonetheless.