Rhua and Jaga continued their conversation. Jaga was filled with excitement at the prospect of what could be in store for her.

"I've made up my mind. I'm going to be a Chevallier just like you Rhua!"

Feeling like she was passing on some sort of mantle, Rhua was stern on the outside, giddy on the inside. She stopped what she was doing and stood tall and straight.

"That's great. I think you would make a fine addition to our noble way. Just remember though! If you pick a class like this, you will be reliant on learning fast. This is not for the faint of heart, Jaga." Her intended attempt to look serious paid off. Jaga was captivated by this sight.

"And one last thing. Never let your equipment fall behind either. You better be willing to buy something better as soon as it becomes affordable, because an upgrade is quite often the difference between your attacks connecting or missing their mark. Getting defeated or taking a deathblow and still standing."

And now Jaga's starry-eyed staring turned into a teary-eyed sob. "How long is that going to take? We don't get paid much being soldiers here."

"As long as it needs to. We didn't rush in our adventures. But many have long since surpassed us. I'm sure you recognised the four people we spoke with, right?" Jaga shook her head. "I've seen the guy with the Mohawk once or twice here in passing. No idea who the others are. The king didn't like us knowing much about what was happening elsewhere; we had a bit of censorship going on."

A concerned eyebrow raise came from Rhua, new information that she was going to pass on to her friends. "I see...the guy with the Mohawk was rank 9, Barry Bernard. The colourfully tall woman was Glad Laks, rank 7; Stonker was the chubby Koan rank 5; and the broadsword user was Rank 4 Emcee Wotters."

"THE TENNERS WERE HERE!?" she shouted with such volume that everyone stopped to look at her. Her face turned jordbar pink, and Rhua pulled her in for a hug, chuckling to herself.

"That was quite a response Jaga. But yes, that was a few of them. We are good friends with Barry, though we are nowhere near his status. If you want to progress, your best bet is to form a party like we did early on." Rhua looked at the other two girls and continued to speak. "What about them? If one of them takes a Lùth route, then the other becomes an attacker. You'll be ready to go straight into things."

Jaga pulled away. She stared over at the two with a sort of painful expression on her face.

"You can find lots of potential party members in the cities, and sometimes, if you're lucky, you can find someone ready to join outside the dungeons. I wouldn't rely on that one too often, though; dungies can be a little too into the grind mentality."

"Dungies?" Her face had a puzzled look about it. Rhua had to explain, "Someone that grinds dungeons constantly to gain materials, equipment, experience points, that sort of thing."

"Doesn't that take the fun out of it? I'd be so bored if all I did was the same thing over and over. From what you said...I think that may be something unavoidable?" Jaga went from bursting with excitement to being sad again and now questioning her decision.

"It's worth it occasionally. Rhua in her best armour didn't achieve quite the look that gives off that vibe that could seal the deal. She swapped out to one of the more recent additions, the Winged Hussars Gelatinum Plate. The wings fluttered in the wind, and at her position to the big orange friend in the sky, she could pass a fiery angel ready for battle.

Unfortunately for Rhua, she forgot about the side effect. And it kicked in quickly.

A Gobhead soldier, like a fluttery nuisance to the scent of a fresh number two, couldn't help but magnetize towards it. "Danny get back here! We ain't done laying the bricks you tit!

The Gobhead rushed down from the scaffolding, head bobbling frantically as he tried to reach Rhua.

"I MUST HAVE SHINY THING! GIMME GIMME GIMME YOUR MAIL BEFORE MIDNIGHT; DON'T NOBODY TRY TO TAKE THAT ARMOUR FROM MEHHHHHH!" Danny the Gobhead shouted. Rhua decided this was a good opportunity to demonstrate consent.

"Some equipment and items have special effects Jaga. They're usually positive...this one has a negative. Makes people like this one running at me unable to control their thieving nature. When you get those types coming at you, the best method is usually to do THIS!" She shouted sternly, sticking her greaves firmly into the Gobhead's bobbling skull.

"You don't get to touch. Bugger off." Jaga backed off slightly as the Gobhead desperately stretched his arms out trying to reach Rhua's armour, "BUT I NEED IT, THE SHINYYYYY!" struggling and failing to achieve his goal, the nuisance blurted out.

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"It's mine. So NO!" She lifted Danny up into the air, trying to copy Bompeeyo's technique, and kicked him up the scaffolding. A windy BOOF was heard by those nearby, and he screamed "EEEEEEE" as he crashed into a group of four trying to mix paste for the bricks.

"Make a mental note: there's strategy where you wouldn't think there needs to be. An important adventurer's freebie from me. A parting gift from Rhua came in the form of a Brinzium chest plate she removed from her inventory and handed over.

"What's this? Jaga looked at the dark metallic brown armour, examining it all over. She finished and looked up to Rhua, puzzled expressions riddling her face. "My first upgrade after outgrowing the starter gear. Who better to make use of it than a future chevalier, eh?"

"No cap, this is so fire. Thanks, Rhua!" Jaga jumped and beamed with joy from the lovely gift she received.

***

The day passed, and progress was really beginning to show already. Almost all the debris was cleared up, and the walls had begun to look just as they did before. Wally...and tall, with a hint of grey.

Lucy and Bagu had nothing else to do and had been talking between themselves. "If we didn't have the system, this would have been such a chore. I can't imagine how the Terrahuums managed before the merger." Lucy sat on a makeshift pillow she conjured in the air, lying across it.

Bagu sat on a gelatinous ball that he had made using her Aqua Art and his Gorthen Art. Every time he moved, it wobbled slightly. "They had way better technology than we did. They had machines that could tear through the ground like Eyron-Bru and airships that could fly like Eagle...though not as fast."

The pair of them heard some soldiers mucking about, laughing amongst themselves. "Oi, oi, time for a drink. Get the keg over here then." Lucy, curious about their antics, floated over, hiding behind a wall, watching them sit around a fire pouring the foamy yellow liquid into their glasses.

"Lucy, you can ask them if you want to. They would probably just throw the drinks at you out of friendliness." Bagu encouraged her.

A fire lit up in her. Stepping down from the pillow and walking over to them with a knot in her stomach twisting and jabbing her insides the closer she got to them, she mustered up the words, "May I join y~" One of the soldiers threw a full-to-the-brim glass at her. She slowed it down with her wand to catch it.

"Of course. Get it while it lasts, before that idiot begins drowning his sorry ass in the stuff." "HOOOOO." The group shouted as one of the soldiers punched the speaker while drinking his beer.

The smell was a little off-putting. It burned her nostrils when she lifted the glass up. This can't be healthy. She began drinking it. It tasted a lot better than she expected. A little bit of Eple [Apple] with some karmal [caramel] tones to it. Oh, I could drink this all day.

It had only been three drinks, and Lucy was feeling the buzz. "I MISS HORACEEEEEE~," she angrily sobbed. Lucky for her, Rhua and Wardi were off doing their own thing and not there to deal with the antics.

"Who's Horace? Bagu was curious at Lucy dramatically calling for him. "He's HICC, a legenddddd. And MC and DILLLLEEE. B-Bagu... I fink yoUUU should be a fing."

"A fing? What the heck are you saying? Your words are all over the place, you silly goose hahaha." Lucy began to stand up. Her cheeks were rosy, and her eyes were seemingly independent of each other. One was open whilst the other was closed, swapping around whenever she needed to blink. She began to cast a Raiton Art; the symbols formed around her as she shouted, 'ZiNg-zInG ZZZaaaP!'

An electrical whip shot out of her hands at Bagu. He had no time to react, barely defending as it crackled across the forest air with a strike against his arm, ZATHWACK. "OW! Lucy, what the hell was that for? Are you crazy!?" Bagu rubbed his stinging arm and keeled over slightly in pain.

"HICC* I *HUCC TolD yOu yourrrr a FING."

***

Wardi had spent the day chatting with Jaqin and had retired for the day. Jaqin was impressed at the self-assembling tent that Wardi threw out and even more so when he peeked inside.

"Bloody heck, these things are spacious. How much did this set you back?" Wardi had long forgotten the cost, but he recalled MC saying it was "An unmissable, future-proof decision that you would only regret down the line if you didn't buy it... Zing-zing."

"200000 HFC something in that range. It was before the auction house really took off and the more business-focused types got their hands on it."

He whistled in response at the cost. "It would take me three years to save up enough. Adventurers really make bank with this sort of thing, huh?" Shaking his head, Wardi told him, "We made the decision as a group. Five wallets are better than one, after all. We're not making big coin doing what we do; most of our money is purely by chance."

"I see...so what is it that you do exactly? Doesn't exactly sound like you are involved much." These types of lines used to bug Wardi, but after eight years, he had numbed himself to it.

"Adventuring isn't what you think mate. There's no chosen one that becomes the idol of every place he visits after saving it from evil. It's not acquiring the best sword that can tear the mountains in half. We do requests, and sometimes, if we are unlucky, we end up in fights that don't leave us with one less limb."

"Like the fight at the castle?" Jaqim answered back at Wardi.

"Exactly like that one. That would have been a request at the highest tier if that were for a monster hunt. More than likely, they would have had to make a new tier just for it. He beat the shit out of more than forty on his own...you are grasping the seriousness of that right? Heh"

"I'm still processing it to be honest. Sorry, I crossed a line didn't I with that one?" Wardi waved his hand at Jaqim. "What requests do you typically do?"

Hmm, they still haven't decided on a proper scheme yet. I've heard people use letters, and I've heard people use materials too. If I were to use dungeons, we can't handle beyond five stars without expensive potion use. I'd say we're comfortable around three stars; four stars starts to push it."

"Damn. There are still people that haven't cleared the ones and twos dungeons though, so that's pretty good. What kind of money do you make from those requests? Your attire is crafted, isn't it? So I imagine you'd be needing a fair bit of coin often to keep up?"

Wardi began to speak only to be alarmed by the sound of a ZATHWACK coming from the castle. "Did you hear that, Jaqim?" He stood up with his hand at his rapier. "Come on. Let's check it out."

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