Rhua and Lucy slowly hobbled over to where everyone had gathered. crossing over unstable ground and joining them in a circle.

"Ow ya doin little hatcot? Naht sen yaz in a long time!" Barry was excited at the prospect of seeing Lucy. It has been a fair few weeks since he last heard from her, particularly as she went off to do a separate request for him.

"Barry, it's so great to see you! I've missed you so much," Lucy hurried over to him, jumping into his hairy arms and enjoying his grandpa-like hugs.

"Gross. So what's been happening over here butty? I better not have taken my sweet & precious ass time coming for nothing... I'd hate to kick the teeth out of you." Emcee's awkward humour wasn't missed by the trio. This fool is nuts. The words float to the tip of Rhua's mouth, almost getting free. Everyone unfamiliar with her paused with curiosity and shock as they looked over in her direction.

Barry to laugh at Emcee's words. "Ah, dun mind her mun, soft as shite tha one. Like a teddy bear reallys heh heh!"

Emcee, along with her companion Frank, stared at Barry. The trio were trying to think of what method of execution she was going to use. Wardi imagined a straight-up decapitation. Rhua thought of strangling, and Lucy thought of him being blown away by the great wind of ability of hers.

Wardi broke the silence, "So...there was this man. He spoke fluent Valisisk and Lissic and~." Both Barry and Emcee moved in closer. Their expressions filled with terror upon hearing this.

"Say that again, butty. I think I heard you say that he spoke Valisisk AND Lissic?" Emcee had laser focus on Wardi. He felt as if she was burning with some secretive attack only given to the high rankers.

"...Yeah, there was this man, Gwyn, I think. He did most of this, well, sort of anyway. He started it off, but honestly, if Bompeeyo hadn't turned up purely by someone cutting his power cell again, we would be dead. His power, his moves. I've never faced anyone like it. He could have taken out Edge by himself with one hand. Could fight close and from afar with a blade that ripped through armour and the castle walls as if they were butter. And he didn't just have one or two; when he finally got serious, he had seven of the things. All moving and fighting independent of him.

Who was this person that seemed to wield such a devastating power? The two rankers weren't quite as bothered, more interested in knowing how someone seemed to have access to a language that had been dead for the longest time. Especially being able to learn Lissic alongside it. It's always been held close by Colossi.

We worked together to eventually overcome him, but I don't know if you saw? That light that appeared from the sky was him being fully revived after we barely took him out. It wasn't visible until it came closer to the ground...but the mark of Serilia appeared. He clashed with Bompeeyo, though it was a one-sided beatdown just like how he did to us. He got himself blasted up into the stars at the end of it all. Probably the last we see of him."

Wardi had a thought to check his status window but was interrupted by Barry speaking out loud, "I doubt that mun. Until ya confirmed it with ya own eyes, never say that sorta thing." I'm thinking this is probably related to the matters we have to deal with, thought Emcee. To be honest, you three, if that light didn't catch our eyes like it did, I would not have even bothered to come over, heh heh."

Rhua, out of fear, tried to joke in response. "Ha, good one Emcee, that's funny!" Emcee looked at Rhua with confusion and responded, "What are you laughing at? I was serious you twat."

Shame and embarrassment caused Rhua to go bright red in the face, and she tried to fade into the background. Lucy tried to keep the conversation going. She wanted to know what's been happening in the news.

"Did you ever figure out what that white light was in the eastern lands? It seems like that light is not too dissimilar to the one from Von Manor."

Huffing and stomping his hairy foot, Stonker spoke out. "Beh, we know not why whitey lighty happen in east; we did smashy punchy stuff with Mandems, kahee!"

Glad Laks, who up until now had no expression on her face, then seemed to begin trying to speak, really, bloody, slowly. "The man dems have gained sentient system access."

"The gobheads have as well. We clashed with them on the way to the Tusen Atolls. Isaac's Shanti has been completely decimated, and Grindo Town as well." Rhua informed the newcomers.

"Ah feck mun...we dun need eneh moar feckin trouble now eh heh. Am thinkin tha this is prolly related, but it's still early days ya hear me?" Emcee could tell the trio were trying to pry and get more involved after hearing Barry say that.

Don't do it; you lot are going to get yourselves killed. You'll only end up dealing with tears and heartache, luvs, she thought. "Ey, don't yous get any fucking ideas now. Leave this to the high rankers and the big guilds. You lot are way too bottom of the barrel for this." - "Too right boss!" Frank, trying to be a brown noser interjected.

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"I don't think a fight is avoid able Em cee they should train up." Glad in the longest minute of their lives said.

"Aye, she's got a fair point there mun! If a war is coming, then we will need all tha help we can muster, ya hear me?" Barry was psyched up at the prospect.

In a snapping moment, Emcee lashed out at the two in her group trying to suggest such things. "It will just end in death. Lots of death, Barry, Glad Laks. You two and I both know it. Things are taking a turn in the world. They should stick to being low-tier adventurers, not up in the big leagues. Look at them! They probably only cleared the three-star and above dungeons because they got so much help from you, Barry."

Fuck off Emcee, we are not as weak and naive as you think!" Growled Lucy, sick of feeling like she is never going to be enough. Emcee brushed it off, Frank was furious at the audacity of her verbal jab.

"Damn right Lucy, you go girl!" Rhua shouted, cheering her bravery on.

Barry, not wanting anything to escalate, spoke up in defence of Lucy, "Emcee...you were like em once. All of us were. Doesn't matter if they want tha quieter life; all of this is gonna have a knock-on effect down tha line."

"Heh, Barry right! Stonker agree kahee kahee."

Wardi hesitated in talking. Fearing that he may face the wrath of Emcee or even Frank for saying the wrong thing. He told them about the incident at Areya's Manor.

"You should know that Areya is making moves in the west too. We had been trying to finish a request for someone in the Murk Marsh and hadn't long finished up. When a few squads of her goons started to give us chase. It's all kind of a blur after we were saved for a minute by the Revitalizer Guild."

"Hmph, and what did those fairy pansies do exactly? Get an entram to fight on your behalf like a bunch of chicken shits?" Emcee trying to verbally bully Wardi caused him to stop his talking.

Rhua spoke for Wardi after he was thrown from his trail of thought: We ran into the fields, and one of her higher-up Art users seemed to have a scroll that could transport large things. Zainab was able to take her out, we assume. After we got enveloped by some purple orb thing, when it dissipated us, me and the rest were in one of her prison cells within the manor."

Rhua's head began to scream with pain as her memories of the day began to intrusively rise to the surface. For a brief moment, two figures she didn't recognise were there in the cell. a young girl, she assumed, and some insect-like thing, their silhouettes showing a simple outline.

Barry picked up on her pain and used his Advanscan ability on Rhua. What av you five been up to for ya memories to have been wiped? Through his own eyes he could see the status effect of memory alteration. He looked at the other two in the trio as well. They both had the same effects.

"So where are the other two of yas anyway? You lot rarely separate." "Funny enough, we were going to ask you the same thing, Barry. Have you heard from them? We've tried to reach Horace on the shellnet, but he's not answering." Lucy was worried, but Barry cheered her up, ruffling her hat around.

"Can't say I have mun. I know me cousin Larry has bin tryin teh get in touch, though." "It's been a couple of days now. Do you think they're ok Barry?" Wardi asked.

"Aye, of course mun! You lot don't go doing things ya bloody shouldn't do. I don't see why those two would end up getting snuffed out, heh."

Lucy's face saddened and quivered at his words. Barry held his custom strength Sad-Away white powder under her nose, Lucy flew off towards the labourers in the background. "Did you just drug her!?" Emcee, now looking concerned for Barry's behavior, stared at him with a suspicious eye.

"Why would I do that? It's just a small pick-me-up I made from one of those old Crank energy drinks mixed with some Baogugga leaf."

Emcee, now even more concerned, raised her voice, with aggression in her tone. "So you bloody drugged her then! Why skirt around the answer!?"

"Heh heh, it's not illegal, and it's passed strict testing procedures. I don't do half measures!"

Lucy, in an attempt to stop them from starting a fight, told Barry the news. "Oh, by the way, Barry, we actually have a new companion now. They're called~" But Emcee put her hand on Lucy's face to stop her talking, causing Lucy to look like an angry red berry as she flailed at Emcee's hand to get it off.

While those two were bickering, Wardi took the opportunity to check his status window. It surprised him completely that he didn't receive any experience up until now. Heading over to the others, he told them to check as well.

They had a similar response as he did: surprise. "How come we didn't get anything for that? That was a really tough fight!" Lucy was annoyed at how much effort she put in only to get a pat on the back.

"I'm just glad to have made it out to be fair; it was looking like things were going to go to shit. It's really opened my eyes to how far behind we are compared to others." Wardi said

Rhua shook her head in disagreement and response, trying to shoot down any ideas Wardi may have just spontaneously gotten. "We've never been grinders, Wardi. For us, it's always going to be a marathon rather than a sprint. It'll be years before we could even reach the top 1000s, let alone the 100s or 10's. Frustrated, he knew Rhua was right, but he hated to admit that at their current stage.

"It's like trying to swim through cement that had pretty much been set the night before. You can do it, but at some point you're going to get hardened by the environment." Holding his hands on his head, Wardi felt overwhelmed.

"Hva I helvete, was that a joke or an analogy!? What the frigging hell are you talking about?" Rhua snapped in response.

"Well, it sounded good when I thought about it. Sheesh, don't bite my head off, Rhua!" "Then don't say stupid things that MC would say. We don't need two of you trying to be comedians." She huffed, walking away. Wardi called out to Barry, getting his attention: "Barry." Who looked at him and nodded. "What will you be doing now then? Are there other things you four are involved in?" Barry shook his head.

"Nah mun. Will be returning to the shop for now. Got things I need ta work on ready for the next outing. Sure, it won't be long before I get involved in something mad though! What aboot yourselves? What are ya doing next?"

Looking around at the destruction in the castle and the efforts of the soldiers now acting like labourers. Wardi could feel it was time to do something a bit more community focused. "Think I'll be sticking around for a little bit," nodding towards a group of three girls failing to lift a boulder into a wagon for an Autom to transport.

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