The six of us found the inn we were planning to stay at for a while. Maxwell and Piper went to go get the rooms settled as soon as we arrived. We would be taking three rooms this time. It was still relatively early and Milana and her group weren't here yet, so we headed to the bar next door to relax and grab some dinner after everything was settled with the inn. It's already been a busy day.

  We sat down at a large round table in the corner of the bar. Now that Iris was with us, our group was getting pretty large. Maxwell waved and ordered us a round of drinks.

  "So, what's the plan for tomorrow?" I asked.

  Maxwell nodded. "Well, I'd still like to find an armorsmith that can work with that pelt we found. I also need a new shield."

  "Oh, that reminds me... I also have the head and damaged pelt of that floral king deer I hunted," I reminded him.

  "Hmm..." Maxwell glanced at Iris. "If there's enough material, we might be able to fashion something for Iris with that. I don't know much about their value as materials. Was there a lot of mana in the skull?"

  "It was the brightest part of the monster," I said tapping the side of my blindfold. "The rack of antlers look pretty impressive even if they weren't magical."

  "I don't know what they're worth, so we'll have to track someone down who does. Probably the same person who can work with the pelt I claimed." I had a feeling Maxwell was trying to avoid saying umber hound here for some reason. Maybe he was trying not to draw too much attention to ourselves.

  The waitress came by and sat six mugs of alcohol down on the table, including one in front of Iris. The young mousekin reached for the mug, but I put my hand over it before she could take it. "No alcohol for kids."

  "I'm not that young," Iris grumbled.

  "Can we have something else to drink for the girl?" I asked the waitress.

  "Something without alcohol? Well... we have some imported juice but it's more expensive," the human woman answered.

  "Sounds good. Bring her some of that."

  "You were serious about the alcohol thing," Maxwell said once the woman left.

  "I was. Alcohol is bad for younger people. Maybe small amounts would be fine, but not the way we've been drinking lately. We haven't even eaten yet."

  "You know, if it's about getting drunk, I can cure that with magic," Piper said.

  I shook my head. "It's not about that. It can affect how the brain develops. It's bad for you."

  "I don't really like beer anyway. I'm just thirsty..." Iris said. She seemed like she was trying to placate us.

  "Beer makes you more thirsty too," I added.

  "Alright, no beer for Iris. Let's get back on track," Maxwell said, cutting in.

  "Is there anything you want to buy before we go to the dungeon?" I asked Luna.

  She shook her head. ("I think I'm ready to go. Some of the earlier floors will be a good opportunity to practice with some lightning magic,") she said to the group.

  Iris perked up. "Oh! Bella's voice is so pretty!"

  Luna's face flushed and she looked a little bashful. ("Thank you, Iris.")

  "Do we want to have something made with those lightning shards for you?" I asked, whispering the expensive bit.

  ("It would be nice to have a focus made from a few, but now that Fen'ritt is gone, we'll need to find someone else who can work with them,") Luna said to the group.

  Piper nodded. "Either another enchanter or a skilled jeweler."

  "If we find a good enchanter we can have Helena's armor enchanted at the same time," Maxwell pointed out.

  "True... I'm a little concerned about the money though. I know that I have a lot right now, but I'd like a buffer in case delving the dungeon doesn't pay as well as we'd like. You said it paid worse than the Fallow dungeon, right?"

  "It does, but now we don't need to set so much money off to the side from our gains, and since you made a deal with Milana, we don't need to save for silent casting training either," Maxwell replied.

  ("I'm excited to see how much stronger I am. Between the new rings, learning silent casting, and the lightning magic, I have a feeling that I've gotten a lot stronger.")

  "My little Luna is growing up," Piper teased.

  Luna stuck her tongue out at Piper.

  "Is lightning magic that much more potent than fire magic?" I asked.

  Luna shook her head. ("It's not that lightning is stronger, it's just a lot faster. From what I can gather from my experimentation so far, the mana conversion isn't great, but you pay for that in near-instant attacks. It'll give me a lot of versatility.")

  I took a sip of my beer while thinking. "What about chanting? I know you can't do that anyway, but didn't Milana say that you needed to know the chant to silent cast it?"

  ("That's part of why the mana conversion is so poor, but lightning magic is so rare it would be hard to find chants for it in the first place. I'll have to work with the raw magic instead,") Luna replied.

  "Can you just create new chants? How does that work?" I asked, taking another sip of my beer. I looked over at Iris, who was sipping her juice. I had been so distracted by the conversation I hadn't noticed when she had gotten it.

  Stolen story; please report.

  "I don't know the full details, but creating new chants isn't as simple as you would think," Piper said. "Some of the bigger spells have really long chants too, so coming up with your own would be difficult."

  "Where do the chants come from in the first place then?" I asked.

  "Archmages or dragons," Maxwell answered. "Archmages have been able to work out some new chants through extensive trial and error that only they have the mana for. Dragons live and breathe magic, so many chants were gifted to the 'lower races' by the dragons."

  "Lower races?" I said. I got a few raised eyebrows from that. It seems that I hadn't been able to keep the hostility out of my voice.

  Piper patted my arm. "It's just what dragons call... basically everyone else. Not everyone agrees with them of course, but most are hardly in a position to argue with a dragon in the first place. Not because of political reasons, but because most dragons are significantly stronger than almost everyone else."

  "Hmm... Well, fine," I conceded.

  "Have you ever seen a dragon, Iris?" Piper asked the mousekin.

  She shook her head. "No, I was never able to watch when they've come and gone from Ironcastle. I was usually too busy."

  "Did you grow up here in Ironcastle?" Piper asked.

  "...yes. I grew up as an orphan here," she answered.

  Aria nodded. "Yeah, you remind me of myself. I grew up in Merquis though."

  "You're were an orphan?" Maxwell asked Aria curiously.

  "Yep! I grew up with... I grew up with Rodrick... He was kind of like my big brother..." Aria's mood soured instantly when she brought up her former teammate. She cleared her throat and continued. "Anyway, yeah. We spent a lot of time doing our best to survive on the street until we were old enough that no one would argue with us delving. It was really dangerous when we started out, but some older adventurers helped us when we first got started."

  "Is that why you were so adamant about bringing Iris with us into the dungeon?" I asked.

  Aria glanced at Iris and shrugged. "Maybe. Iris seems like a better kid than I was. Maybe it would be nice to pass on the tradition."

  "T-thank you, Miss Aria," Iris said with a hesitant smile.

  Aria laughed, "Miss Aria! No need to call me that kid. Just Aria is fine. If you're going to be joining our delving team it would be bad to stand on formality."

  I was quite torn by this situation. On one hand, bringing Iris into the dungeon sounded like a huge risk. She won't be in the front like I am, but I would have died several times over if it wasn't for my regeneration. Even the others had a few close calls when we were in there.

  But at the same time... I didn't know of any other way to help the girl. I didn't know anyone here. I caught her pickpocketing once. If she continued to do that, it would only be a matter of time before she ran into real trouble. I could barely help myself. Sure, I've grown to like fighting monsters and letting my new feral instincts loose, but it's always in the back of my head that I really have few other options.

  ("Are you alright, Helena?") Luna asked me privately as the others continued joking around.

  ("I'm worried about Iris. I'm scared she'll get hurt in the dungeon and it'll be our fault...") I replied somberly.

  Luna grabbed my hand under the table and squeezed it. ("From what you've told me... Our world is a lot more dangerous than yours was. Iris may be a little young for this, but taking children her age into the dungeon isn't unheard of. It's a sad reality, but orphans have a tough life. Unless their parents had set enough money aside for the child to live on after their death, most orphans go through life like this. They have to find a way to scrape by and survive. Even if that means putting themselves in danger.")

  ("That's so unfair though...")

  Luna squeezed my hand again. ("I know... but the world is harsh and unforgiving. Perhaps we could give Iris some of our money to live on, but if anything happened to us, she would be in the exact same position she is in now. This way is... truthfully, more dangerous for all of us. But at least this way she will be able to contribute to us taking care of her, and someday she'll be more equipped to go out on her own if she can't stay with us any longer.")

  ("Do you really think this is the best way to go about this?") I asked her.

  Luna nodded. ("If we want to help her, then yes. I think it's the best we can do. We'll just have to be careful with some of our early delves. Get her stronger and ease her in.")

  ("The woman who checked her magic affinity mentioned something about a grimoire. Should we look into something like that for her?") I asked.

  Luna tapped the table in thought a few times before shrugging. ("Grimoires can be expensive, but maybe one suited for the utility of wind magic would be cheaper than the offensive ones I've looked at. I don't have any affinity with wind magic so I can't help her at all.")

  I thought back to the glowing lights in the skunkkin's hand. ("What about other kinds of magic? I saw three lights glowing when she was tested for her affinities.")

  Luna tilted her head in thought. ("That means Iris has strong affinity with two other types of magic, but the woman who was inspecting them wasn't able to identify the two others. They weren't any of the common ones so she wasn't able to give her any advice on anything but wind magic. Something similar happened to me. I suspect one of my other affinities might be with lightning magic based on how well my experimentation with the lightning shards is going. They could be other things like spatial magic or shadow magic though. They aren't common paths for hunters since they are usually not very combat-oriented. Only a mage interested in more esoteric magic would be able to identify them and I don't know of anyone that we could just ask. Even if she did have powerful magic of another type, it would be unlikely to help her in the dungeon anymore than wind magic would, and she would have to find a teacher able to use that kind of magic as well.")

  ("Is teaching her to be a wind combat mage that bad of an idea?") I asked.

  Luna shrugged. ("Yes and no. Until she grows her mana pool a little more, she probably wouldn't be immediately helpful, but like that mage Vera said, fire and wind work together better than a lot of other combinations. A lot of groups don't like to take multiple mages because their magic can interfere with each other, and there's still some risk of that for us, but our magic also has the ability to create more powerful than normal effects. I think it's worth training her in some combat magic, even if she won't be our main powerhouse.")

  I smiled. ("No, that would be you.")

  ("Of course!") Luna said confidently.

  Maxwell cleared his throat. "Guys... Aria and I are going to share one of the rooms tonight..." Aria looked away and blushed. Luna and Iris both looked surprised by the news, but I kind of wasn't.

  Piper slammed the table. "Finally! You guys have been beating around the bush for ages now. You two were even slower than these idiots," she said pointing to us.

  Maxwell sighed. "I knew you were going to react like this." He looked disgruntled by the scene, but Aria looked happy.

  "That leaves Iris with you tonight, Piper," I said cutting in.

  Piper laughed, "Don't try to change the subject for him. I'm not done yet. Barkeep! Another round over here!"

  Hello! Lots of worldbuilding in this one and Maxwell and Aria finally got together! Piper is understandably elated. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for reading!

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