Jason stared at the message floating before him. He felt confused, because he had assumed the ‘compensation’ the system had given each of them was related to their special perk, or maybe the free skills they’d been granted. Apparently, this was not the case.

Therissa meanwhile, was staring at him.

“You have mail from The Voice?” she asked.

“The Voice?” Jason asked. “Do you mean the system messages?”

She gestured at the screen. “The User Interface. The... force, that sends the messages and gives us our classes and skills. We call it the Voice of the World.”

“Ah, I’d wondered what term people used,” he said. “But uh, I guess so. We actually all got messages about some kind of compensation when we first arrived.”

He tilted his head, considering. “Well, Lumi and I did. We’re assuming Kera did too, but she didn’t get a chance to see her initial messages, so we didn’t know for sure.”

“Why would the Voice... owe you something?” Therissa asked.

Jason hesitated. They’d already given the elf woman enough information to cause themselves real trouble. So far she’d been receptive to helping them, but her descriptions of this Darklight Archive made him pause. Simply telling her directly that someone or something had interfered with the... Voice... somehow seemed like the equivalent of telling her that some madman held all the nuclear launch codes and was willing let one rip just to see what would happen. That sounded like exactly the sort of thing the Archive would want to know about, and might be serious enough to make the woman go back on her word.

So he hedged his answer a little.

“It’s got something to do with whatever happened to bring us here, but we don’t actually know all the details. We got some notification about it, but we had other things to worry about then.”

That was true, if a technicality. The gem on the table flickered slightly, detecting the slight misdirection, but it remained a truthful blue. Fortunately, the woman seemed not to notice, as she was still standing next to Jason, staring down at him and the others instead of watching the gem.

Therissa gave herself a slight shake.

“Well, you lot are just full of surprises, are you?” She said with a laugh. “I’d be half tempted to think you’re here for some special purpose.”

Therissa winked at Jason. “You don’t happen to be orphans with mysterious pasts, do you? No? Alas.” She smiled before turning back to the silver device on the table.

Kera barked a short laugh in return.

“I wish,” she said.

Therissa reached out and pressed a finger to each of the red runes that currently lit the top of the device. A small box with a lid materialized on the table in front of Jason as Therissa returned to her chair.

“Normally,” she said, “I’d offer you one of these rooms to deal with your correspondence in private, but under the circumstances it might be better if I stick around, if you don’t mind.”

Jason shook his head. “No, that’s fine.”

He pulled off the lid of the box. It was filled with an assortment of small bags and flasks. Jason quickly ran his hands over them, activating his analysis skill.

He began to laugh. He couldn’t help himself. He leaned over it banged his head lightly against the table and grabbed the edge as gales of laughter shook him, trying not to fall over.

“Wh-what is it?” asked Lumi. She stood up and leaned over his shoulder. Then she covered her mouth for a moment, smothering a laugh with a snicker of her own as realization dawned.

“It’s...It’s an MMO starter package!” he managed after a moment.

Still chuckling to himself and shaking his head, he began withdrawing items, listing off the functions of each one.

“Let’s see... one bag of currency, one potion of free skill points, some vials of arcane powder...”

He pulled out three flasks of a yellow liquid with flecks of silver floating in it.

“This one’s your typical booster, [Potions of Treasure-hunting] that no doubt boost loot drops...”

There were a pair of small cloth bundles too, tied with string.

He picked up the purple one. “This looks like...”

Then he laughed again, shaking his head. “Yep, it’s a random collection of dyes. Good grief.”

Jason tried to peek inside without opening it. As expected, he only saw darkness within; he’d have to actually open the package. That could wait until later.

He turned to the last package, this one wrapped in blue.

“And this is...,” he began.

The ‘package’, which was really just a cloth bundle, had its own interface screen pop up when he picked it up.

Please select one of the following options for your personalized [Premium Class Bundle]: Alchemist, Artificer, General. Items received consist of randomized class-relavent materials.

He sighed and plonked his head against the table again.

“It’s a loot crate, basically.”

Twenty minutes later saw the four of them sitting around the table, which was now covered in various flasks and bundles. Nobody had elected to open the smaller bundles yet. They already had far more than they could carry.

Therissa cleared her throat.

“Well, That was certainly an experience. I’ve never heard of these... what did you call them? Starter Packages? But they sure do have a lot of stuff in them. I suppose now is as good a time as any to explain how your Vault works?”

“Vault? You mean like a bank vault?” asked Kera.

Therissa nodded. “That’s right. It’s one of the benefits of being a licensed adventurer, and in fact many people register even when they have no intention of taking on jobs, just so they can make use of a vault, as well as the mail system.”

“Your Vault is your own personal storage space. I see you have a [Handy Haversack]. A Vault is basically the same, except that it holds a greater amount and can only be accessed by you at any Adventurer’s Lodge. Well, your Vault can be accessed by certain other authorized individuals or by someone you’ve willingly given your AVL to, but that’s really only ever done in the case of your death. Suffice to say, under normal circumstances you’re the only person who can access it.”

“Oh good,” said Jason, relieved. “So we don’t have to haul all this stuff back to our room.”

“Indeed not,” Therissa replied. “I can show you how store it away for now, and you can come back later to go through it as you wish.”

“Is there anything you wish to keep for now?” She asked.

Each of them elected to keep their class bundle and their pouch of coins, which they put into Jason’s bag. Since there was no reason to just leave them lying around in the Vault, Jason and Lumi also each drank their skill potion, which immediately granted them an additional five skill points.

Kera had other ideas, however.

“Therissa? How much do you think I could get if I sold this?”

The elf woman looked at her with surprise. “You don’t want it for yourself?”

“Well, I do,” Kera replied, “But I’d like to see what my options are here. Unlike Jason and Lumi, I don’t think I need huge numbers of skill points for my class. So I’m thinking maybe I could just hang onto it, and maybe sell it if we could get something really good. I can always drink it later if I change my mind.”

“I don’t really know, to be honest,” Therissa said. “Skill points don’t exactly grow on trees, especially once you start hitting higher level totals and you slow down. Older adventurers might very well pay an awful lot for something like that. You’d probably be better off talking to the Vendor’s Association about it.”

“Vendor’s Association?”

“That’s right,” Therissa said with a nod. “They’re a loose organization of merchants vaguely tied to the Wayfinders. They specialize in buying up all the weird things people like us pull up out of old ruins or the occasional dungeon, and sell them off to other adventurers who might be looking for specific items. They’re also often responsible for handing off more dangerous objects to the Archive, who pays them very well for such things.

“If anyone could tell you how much free skill points were worth, it would be them,” she finished.

“Speaking of points,” Jason said, “I’ve been meaning to ask. Is it better to spend stat points on our primary stats like Might or Intellect, or on other stuff like Magic Resistance?”

“That’s a subject that’s a bit of a debate, really,” Therissa said. “Either way, you get a sort of a two-for-one value. See, each of your secondary stats is related to the average of two of your primary, so by putting one point into say, Magic Resistance, you’re getting the effect of having put a point in both Intellect and Spirit. Also, the secondary stats tend to be more directly important.”

“Thing is,” she continued, “each of your primary stats has their own passive effect, as well as contribute to two different secondary stats. Take Spirit for instance. For every two points of Spirit, you’ll gain one in both Magic Resistance and Resolve. But you also get more mana for every five points you have above ten.”

“That’s why my mana was so high,” commented Lumi. “I’d wondered why mine was so much higher than Kera’s at first, even though I was only gaining half as much per level.”

Therissa nodded. “Exactly. So, while some people feel like it’s better to specialize in certain secondary statistics, like Magic Resistance, because you can reach truly incredible heights with them that way, others will argue that only spending on your primary stats will have a greater overall impact. Someone who only spends points in Magic Resistance might be able to shrug off most spells, but someone who put all their points in Endurance would be very difficult to kill in general and be quite resistant, although not immune to, most forms of poison or mental assault, because Endurance affects Fortitude and Resolve as well as making you more resistant to injury.”

“That’s really good to know, then,” Jason said. “I think I agree more with the second group.”

“What about skill points?” he then asked. “We’ve sort of been using them on an as-needed basis, but we really don’t know how it all works. Is it better to save and buy new skills, or to rank up the ones you’ve got?”

“It depends on your needs,” Therissa replied, “but since they're limited, usually most people rank up the skills they use a lot of. Higher crafting skill levels mean better results, higher spellcaster rank means cheaper spells and you can manage the harder ones. As for specialized class skills, they usually end up functioning at a higher efficiency or provide more options, and so on. Since mostly you get new skills instead of more ranks from your classes, people usually focus on ranking up.”

“Thanks. Just wanted to get that out of the way,” Jason said. “So um, I think that’s most everything, apart from I’d like to maybe try and sell some of these potions so we can outfit ourselves. We should talk to one of these Vendors I’m guessing?”

“You could. Jerrik owns the item shop next door, he’s a member. Just don’t mention to him that you were the one who made them. Hmm. That poses an issue. There’s no major ruins around here, so I’m not sure what excuse you can give him. But I guess that doesn’t really matter in the short term, because I can buy them from you. The Lodges always have basic supplies available for purchase, and I’ll either sell it to someone else eventually or pass them on to another Lodge. Nobody will ask questions if it comes from me.”

“Ah, actually,” Lumi said, “The subject of source reminds me. Show her the core, Jason.”

He pulled out the [Inert Dungeon Core] from his bag, and Therissa flinched backwards away from it, alarmed.

“Please tell me you didn’t make that, too,” she said.

“No, I didn’t. We acquired it earlier today, in a dungeon.”

“You killed a dungeon? By yourselves? How on earth...?”

“I think it might have been, well, like a baby one,” Lumi spoke up. “It only had five rooms, and half of them were empty. The core room didn’t even have monsters living it until we showed up and the dungeon.. made some, I guess.”

Therissa glanced briefly down at the [Diplomat’s Eye] sitting on the table, as if she wasn’t sure she believed them. But of course the gem still glowed a pale blue.

“You’re... not lying. Wow. That’s...” She paused. “Don’t do that again. I don’t mean killing it. That was the right idea. But going in by yourselves...? It takes entire armies to slay a fully mature dungeon. You were very, very lucky you weren’t all killed. What kind was it?”

“Kind?” asked Jason. “Oh, like the theme? I couldn’t say really. Snakes, maybe; that’s what the entrance implied. But the core room had a whole bunch of salamander monsters in it.

Therissa frowned. “Hmm. That’s concerning. Salamanders aren’t exactly native to these woods. Did it have a Boss?”

“Yeah, it did. Some guy called Keeper Seraptis. I don’t think the dungeon made him, because he didn’t de-spawn when we killed him, and I couldn’t target him with [Basic Harvesting].”

“An actual Keeper?” Therissa said, now even more alarmed. “Plus a non-standard theme for the region? That’s a bad sign. That dungeon might have been manufactured.”

She drummed her fingers nervously on the table, thinking for a moment. “I should really contact a member of the Black Thorns to come and investigate the site, if you can tell me where it is. Would you give me permission for that? I’ll leave your names out of it, but it’s important. It’ll probably turn out that this Seraptis was the creator, but I’d like to make sure we don’t have a rogue wizard on our hands.”

“I think that’s probably ok, if you leave us out of it.” Jason looked to the others for confirmation. They nodded.

“Between Raelin and I,” Jason said “we can probably give you a good idea of where it lies, especially if you have a map you can show me.”

“I think that probably wraps up everything we need then,” he said, “apart from selling the potions. Lumi, Kera? Want to add anything?”

They shook their heads.

“I guess that’s everything then,” Jason finished. “We’ll probably want to come back and ask about available jobs later, but for now, we’ve got some shopping to do.”

“Shopping?” Therissa asked. Then she blinked. “Oh. Yes, I imagine you don’t exactly have a lot of extra clothes, arriving as you have. And you’ll need equipment, too, if you are planning on accepting some Lodge tasks. Am I correct in understanding that is your intention for the moment?”

After a brief look at one another, Jason nodded to Lumi, indicating she should take the lead here. After all, she was their de-facto party leader for the time being.

“Yes, that’s right,” Lumi said. “We don’t really have a clear end goal right now, beyond maybe talking to some Wayfinders, but if I understand correctly that will require us to do some traveling, which means we’ll need equipment, and honestly some experience dealing with local threats wouldn’t hurt either. There’s too much we don’t know yet to go haring off on our own.

“I highly doubt traveling to another world is a simple matter,” She continued, “otherwise people would do it all the time."

“Then there’s the question of how much any of us actually want to go back,” Lumi said, giving a significant look in Kera’s direction. “We haven’t really talked about it, but even I’m in no huge hurry to get back. I miss my parents, sure, but I can’t say I’m not having fun. I mean, how often do you get to explore a whole new world?”

Jason shrugged. He had to admit, he wasn’t in any particular hurry himself. And he agreed; there was no way getting back would be some simple process.

“So, yeah,” Lumi said. “I think our next order of business is to get geared up, buy clothes and traveling supplies, and take on some jobs to get us some experience.”

“Well then,” Therissa said, “I think I can help with that. You said you’d like to sell some of your potions, right? I can take you down to meet with Jerrik and his wife. Together they run Fanciful Finery, but they don’t do just clothes. You should be able to get everything you need for basic equipment from them.

“I’ll get you set up with a letter of credit, courtesy of the Lodge, so you all can get yourself squared away. Those potions of yours are worth quite a lot; if you spend more than they’re worth, just make me a few extras, eh?” She said.

“That should be acceptable,” Jason said. “We also got a fairly decent amount of coin from those starter packages, too, in case anyone wants to make personal purchases or something.”

After a brief discussion on basic pricing, Therissa led the three friends back downstairs, leaving the cleanup in the room until later. They exited the Lodge, and made their way to another one of the buildings that surrounded the market square. Jason was surprised to see large plate glass windows with shop dummies behind them, not unlike a modern clothing store. A sign hung above the door with the words “Fanciful Finery - Bespoke Outfitters” engraved on it underneath a carving of a bolt of cloth.

Therissa pushed open the door, beckoning Jason and the others in.

“Hey, Jerrik!” Therissa called loudly. Jason winced a little. The woman really did have a voice like a bellows when she wanted.

“Got some new customers for you!” she yelled.

The interior of the shop was as similarly modern-looking as the exterior: numerous shelves and wooden racks were dotted about the place, with all manner of clothing on display, with a great big three-part mirror set into the central floor space. Jason could see several doors side by side in the back, which he assumed were the equivalent of changing rooms.

Modern tailors didn’t have many swords and knives present though, nor did they usually peddle pieces of armor, all of which were here in abundance alongside the more mundane clothing, which was made from both silk and wool, as well as a few pieces made of materials Jason couldn’t identify. The armor was all primarily made from leather, with only a small handful of display pieces made fully from metal.

Jason supposed that even among adventurers, plate-wearers might not be especially common. After all, if you considered the ‘standard’ adventuring party of wizard, healer, rogue, and warrior, only one of those would actually be wearing full metal armor. If you took MMOs as your example, then it was even more skewed: most players took up dps classes, which usually wore leather at best, and a full raid might only have one in ten members wearing plate.

People just didnt generally want to play support. He’d inquire later, out of curiosity, as to how things worked when real lives were on the line. It seemed to him that then, the more armor the better.

On the weapon side of things, most of what was found here were thing Jason thought of as pretty standard weapons. Lots of bows, and the occasional crossbow, because no doubt the locals did a lot of hunting in the woods. A fair number of smaller swords, probably sold to the local guardsmen he’d seen patrolling the market. There were a few exceptions, like a battle ax that had been hung up over one wall, and what looked like some kind of staff in a glass case, but mostly it was simpler weapons. Things suitable for average people living in a town, who might feel the need for some extra protection when beyond the walls.

An older gentleman, dressed in a silk tunic with dark pants, appeared from somewhere as Jason was taking everything in. He greeted a Therissa with a smile.

“Ah! Therissa, good to see you! I’ve been meaning to stop by the Lodge; Raelin passed on a request from one of my associates over in Feron. They wanted to know if we had any prism scarab chitin available for armor. I don’t, but we’re closer to the Wastes than they are, so I was thinking maybe I’d post a time-sensitive bounty in case anyone’s feeling ambitious.”

“Well, you are in luck, my friend,” Therissa replied with a wave towards Jason and the girls, “because I happen to have here some newly minted adventurers, flush with an unexpected windfall, who are just getting started. They’re in need of a full set of proper gear, and thanks to some circumstances I can’t discuss, I’ve extended a line if credit to them. If you’d be so kind as to see to their needs, you can bill the Lodge afterwards. You know I’m good for it, and you just might be able to talk them into taking on your job afterwards.”

Jerrik rubbed his hands together gleefully with a smile. “A full set, you say? For all three?”

Jason nodded. “More than just gear. Clothes, armor, spare weapons, traveling supplies... the whole works, if you’ve got what we need.”

The older man bowed slightly to Jason, and gestured for them to come further into the shop. “Either I’ve got it, young man, or I can get it, on my word as a member of the Vendor’s Association. Please, do come in and have a seat, all of you.”

“I’ll leave them in your hands then, Jerrik." Therissa said. "Just bring me the bill when you come to post your notice; I should have some business of my own to discuss with you by then. Got in a shipment today you might be interested in.”

“I look forward to it,” he replied, with another small bow.

Therissa gave Jason and the girls a final wave, and exited.

“Please, please, come sit," Jerrik said. "Tell me a little about yourselves. You must be from quite far off, I can’t say I’ve ever seen clothes like yours before.”

Jason started to try and steer the conversation away from their origins, but he was interrupted from the need to do so by the arrival of the man’s wife, Nissette.

“Ah, Jerrik, have you seen- oh! Customers?”

“Yes indeed, they are, Nisette” the man said cheerfully. “Therissa brought them over. They’re here for a full outfitting, it appears. Clothes, armor, adventuring gear, the whole nine yards.”

“Pun intended of course,” he said with a wink at the girls.

Nissette just rolled her eyes at her husband. “Well then, let’s not waste their time jawing. You were about to ask them all about their recent travels, weren’t you?”

Jason couldn’t make out what the man muttered under his breath, but he could guess.

Nissette ignored Jerrik’s grumbling and barreled onwards, asking Jason and the girls about their classes, what sort of materials and colors they preferred, and the kinds of armor and weapons they would be using. At some point the discussion changed to hairstyles and clothing cuts and other such subjects, and Jason realized the woman fully intended to give Lumi and Kera what amounted to a fantasy makeover.

Eventually, Jerrik pulled him aside, leaving Nissette to usher the girls into a pair of changing rooms, presumably to get proper measurements.

“Sorry about that, lad. The wife’s both a [Designer] and an [Artisan], and she loves getting the chance to do custom pieces for people who are willing to pay for the good stuff. You strike me as more the utilitarian type, who doesn’t care much about what exactly he’s wearing as long as it gets the job done.”

Jason shrugged. “More or less."

The man rubbed his chin a little, thinking. “[Artificer], eh? Haven’t seen one of them before, but of heard of em. Adventuring enchanter types, right? You’ll need something with boatloads of pockets, then. I think I’ve got just the thing, and I think you'll look pretty good in it, too. It’ll need some quick modifications, but it sounds like Nissette’s going to be awhile with those two, so we’ve got some time. Come along, I’ll show ya what I have in mind.”

Jerrik led him over to one of the shelves with an assortment of basic clothing.

“Now the first part’s easy. You said you’ll probably be moving around a lot, and will be handling a lot of caustic or volatile stuff, and that means a leather tunic. You’ll need a simple light shirt to go underneath, and some heavy duty leggings.”

He pulled a few items off of the shelves and passed them to Jason.

"Now, you get those put on, and I’ll adjust em for you. No need to wait around here. I may not have [Clothier] levels like Nissette, but she taught me how to unlock [Resize], so we don’t have to sit around with needle and thread for hours."

“Oh is that like how loot changes to fit the wearer?" Jason asked. "We got a sword out of a chest, and it was too big for Lumi until she tried to put it on.”

Jerrik gave him a nod. “Exactly the same. The skill lets me adjust any individual aspect of a piece of clothing, whether that’s shirts, belts, pieces of armor, even weapons, to suit whoever’s trying to use it. It’s damn useful in my line of work, and I’m blessed that my wife both had it and was willing to teach me. Saves an awful lot of time."

“I can imagine.”

Jason heard Nissette chattering away at one of the girls as he passed by the closed doors to enter one of the unoccupied rooms. The shirt and pants were overly large before adjustment, and Jason wondered if that was on purpose. It was probably easier to adjust something down once someone was wearing it than to squeeze into something too small. He had to hold he pants up with one hand as he exited the room.

Jerrik beckoned him over to the large mirror in the center of the room, where he proceeded to run his hands along Jason’s arms and legs, tugging at this seam or that and muttering ‘Resize’ every so often. It was a little uncomfortable for Jason, but that was outweighed by his fascination at how each time the man activated his skill, the material twisted and shrank to just the right length, leaving him with a set of perfectly tailored clothes at the end of it all. He resolved that if he ever put more ranks into [Basic Tailoring] and found himself making clothes for the group, to definitely ask about how to get this particular skill.

After fitting Jason to a set of clothes, Jerrik demonstrated a second useful skill, which allowed him to take a different set of clothing and copy the size adjustment over, rather than needing to repeat the process. Shortly, Jason had three sets of wool shirts, leather tunics, and leather leggings, plus undergarments as well.

Next, they moved on to what would be Jason’s outer armor. First, Jerrik had him try on a few different vests, eventually settling for a flexible one that came down to almost mid-thigh, and had a bandolier across the chest that was perfect for smaller items, like vials.

Then had Jason try on a long leather coat on top of everything else. The coat reminded Jason of many a movie featuring witch or vampire hunters; Almost like a cloak, it was worn open and unbelted and had a large outwards flare around the ankles to avoid tripping yourself. All he needed was the hat, which perhaps thankfully was nowhere to be seen.

Jerrik ended up making some actual adjustments to the coat, sewing numerous additional pockets and attachment points to it, both inside and outside the breast and near the waist.

Finally, he gave Jason a pair of utility belts, meant to both be worn crisscrossed underneath the coat, providing still more storage space for odds and ends.

Jason was tempted to think the whole ensemble excessive, but then again, it wasn’t all that much different than some of the outfits he’d seen rogue types with in games. He couldn’t deny the potential usefulness, either, after Jerrik explained how once Jason had some experience with enchantments, he could turn each of the pockets into a miniature bag of holding, so he could carry any number of assorted objects and magic items for all purposes.

After that, Jason thought that maybe, just maybe, once he actually had an assortment of magical gear to put in them, he'd know what being Batman felt like, always having the answer to ever problem.

It wasn’t too much longer after Jerrik finished with Jason that Lumi finally exited her changing room. Unlike Jason, who’d been all over the shop following Jerrik around, the girls had firmly remained in their changing rooms while Nissette came and went, pulling out individual pieces and taking them back one at a time, presumably making adjustments in private.

Jason was pretty impressed with Lumi’s result as she came out to examine herself in the giant mirror. The word ‘dashing’ came to mind, looking at her. She leaned a little more towards ‘badass’ than ‘handsome’, and her clothes were designed for utility over beauty, but at the same time, she possessed a strong sense of style.

Her shoulder length, faux-red hair had been cut short, until it was now nearly a typical men’s tussled cut from back home, giving her a slightly more professional-looking air. She was dressed in a relatively tight-fitting ensemble of red-dyed, heavy wool clothing plus studded-leather vest and thigh-high studded-leather boots, as well as had the sword she’d found in the dungeon belted at her waist. A sort of half-skirt of wool with a side pouch covered her backside down to her knees, and leather bracers protected her wrists and forearms but left her hands open.

Jason eyed her appraisingly, and complimented her on the result.

”Looking pretty great, Lumi,” he said. “I like the new hair, it suits you.”

“Thanks,” she replied. “You clean up pretty well, yourself. You’ve got a real Van Helsing vibe going on there. We just need to get you a mechanized crossbow and a fancy hat and you’ll be good to go.”

Jason laughed. “The thought had occurred to me as well. But I think it’ll be different once I actually fill all these pouches with stuff. I’ll probably look like some mad chemist-turned-inventor-turned-assassin, like I just turned up for a job faire and applied for everything at once.”

“Could be a good look for you,” Lumi commented with a grin.

“We’ll see.”

The two joked back and forth a bit while they examined themselves and each other in the mirror, and then proceeded to ask Jerrik questions about picking out various gear for a good twenty minutes.

Then Kera came out of her dressing room, led by Nissette, and Jason and Lumi were both floored.

The girl had undergone a near-complete transformation. Gone was the image of a short, scrawny, punk girl just barely into her college years. Now taking her place was that of a stunningly elegant sorceress.

Kera’s short black hair had somehow been magically grown out longer, to just past shoulder length, and she was dressed in a long, blue silk robe with silver and gold highlights, with an open-fronted skirt divided into three segments, held together with a sash at the waist. Her blue and silver serpent belt still wrapped her waist, expertly blended in with the sash as if it had always been part of the outfit.

Kera was also wearing a set of knee-high cloth boots that gave her a bit of extra height, and Jason caught flashes of pale skin through the gaps in her dress as she walked shyly towards them. Short, oversized bell sleeves left her arms free, with her forearms covered by handless, elbow-length gloves. Dark, feathery ruffles lined her collar and hem, completing the look.

Jason and Lumi just stared speechlessly at her a bit for a moments while Kera blushed furiously under her friends’ gazes. Nissette beamed upon seeing the impact her work had.

Jason was pretty sure his own face was at least a tiny bit red. Who’d have thought the girl would clean up so gorgeous? Lumi certainly appeared to be feeling the same.

He cleared his throat a bit awkwardly.

“I suppose high-fiving Lumi would be a bit crass...?” he asked with a wry grin. “You look, um... just, wow.”

Kera just blushed harder, if that was even possible.

“Well I do believe this counts as a success, then,” Nissette said with a grin, motioning Kera to come examine herself in the mirror while her friends attempted to distract themselves.

After a few moments of that, the woman moved to open the glass case that contained the staff Jason had seen earlier. She withdrew a long, thin staff of silver with a crystalline orb at its head.

She had Kera hold it in both hands.

“Personalize,” Nissette commanded, one finger resting on the staff. The metal at the head of the staff twisted and flowed, and the orb shrank, until it took on the form of a lizard’s head clutching the orb in it’s teeth. A spur of metal that gave the impression of wings flowed back and away from the head.

Jason thought the head was a pretty good likeness of Ceri.

Nissette peered at the results of her skill curiously.

“Why a lizard?” She asked. "Not what I was expecting, to be honest."

“My familiar is a drake,” Kera explained. “We left him sleeping in our room rather than take him out shopping. I didn’t know how people would react to him.”

“Ah, I see. Yes, probably just as well,” Nissette replied. “I take it everything is satisfactory?”

“More than just that,” Lumi said enthusiastically. “You’ve done an amazing job for all of us. Thank you so much.”

Jerrik looked them over one final time, and he too pronounced them properly accoutered, passing Jason back his backpack, which Jason had been filling with travel items he and Lumi had picked out, among which were included a large number of empty glass vials and bottles.

They thanked both Jerrik and Nissette for their time, and promised to return if they found anything else they needed.

Finally, they made their way back to the Inn, only to be gushed over by an enthusiastic Leska, who brought a rather late lunch up to their rooms. It was a relatively simple meal, just bread, cheese, and sliced meats, but Jason discovered he was quite famished, and relished every bit of it.

Afterwards, it was finally time to discuss their future, the job Jerrik had asked of them, and what Jason was looking forward to most: finally experimenting with new potions.