I had a sense of déjà vu. The same thing happened before. When I was about to molt, Pylanor had said I was completely fine and there was nothing physically wrong with me. Now, he said I was completely fine as well despite missing a leg. It gave me hope that one way or another it would grow back. I knew certain lizards could shed their tail and then have it grow back, but I’d never heard about spiders possessing such a mechanism. Maybe I should have paid more attention when I was younger…

Good thing the pain wasn’t as bad anymore. It seemed that with a day passing, the pain ebbed away to a fraction of what it was. It was still there, whining in the background, but perfectly manageable. It seemed to be a repeat of when I got my arm smashed by the first troll.

Stupid trolls, they already cost me an arm and a leg so far.

To be fair, that kind of pain suppression didn’t seem natural. The bone in my arm from my first troll encounter was completely smashed to pieces. There was no doubt in my mind that it should have hurt way more after the first day. I wondered if that could be inherity related as well.

We entered the guild hall and took our usual spots.

‘’You’re about to witness something you’ve never seen before, Nira.’’ Seralyn grinned as she beckoned over the waiter.

I knew where this was going, I didn’t do anything to stop it though, I mean, who cared?

‘’Huh?’’ Nira cocked her head at the statement.

‘’Wait and see.’’ Seralyn smiled.

I sighed and let Velariah order for me. I told her to surprise me.

It didn’t take long for Nira’s face to be turned into one of surprise. I wonder what caused it? Maybe it was the five omelets? Maybe the three servings of four sausages? Perhaps it was the quintuple steak surprise? For all I knew it could have been the ten chicken breasts with lemon too.

Maybe it was a combination? Who knew?

I started eating without a care in the world, the fight had drained me quite a bit. The harpy was more focused on me eating than her own food. Seralyn had a great time observing her expression while Draco simply sat back and enjoyed his food.

‘’I haven’t eaten properly in days, give me a break!’’ I joked.

Nira seemed to focus more on her lunch after that. Good, she needed that.

‘’Elania can go days without eating, but it seems using her uhm… abilities, drains her quite a bit.’’ Velariah finally explained to the harpy.

After continuing eating long after the others had finished, it was time to stop by the Lore keeper for administrative reasons. Velariah pulled up her small bag from her pack that still contained the troll warlord’s and some other troll ears. After she had inspected them and put them away the Lore keeper asked for my tag.

She pulled out a golden template tag and the orange-colored orb. She then placed my silver tag on top of the new one and put the orb on top of it. After the orb glowed briefly she removed it and handed me my new gold tag. A ‘’III” was embedded next to a copper-colored sword that was placed next to my name.

Next up was Nira who needed a replacement tag. Velariah had insisted on paying for it as Nira didn’t have any money on her right now. Besides, from what she said earlier it didn’t sound like she had much to spare. We, however, hit the motherlode with that chest we found. In addition, we would also receive five gold each as reward money for this quest completion.

I was surprised to see the Lore keeper pull out a silver tag after looking up Nira’s name in one of the documents under the desk. I was even more surprised when she pulled out a silver orb. She placed the document on the desk, the tag on it and then the orb on top of that.

The orb lit up briefly and when she removed it I could see Nira’s name with a ‘’II’’ and a silver drop of some kind next to her name. I imagined it resembled a drop of blood to indicate she was a healer.

Still, though, she was only mid-tier silver ranked?

She didn’t look that weak to me.

When I asked her about it she stammered.

‘’I-I Haven’t been fortunate with parties…’’ She looked to the floor after that.

I didn’t know it was that bad.

‘’Would you like to join us?’’ I suggested. ‘’At least for a while?’’

She looked at me with bright blue eyes.

‘’Would that be okay?’’ She seemed hesitant.

I looked to my other party members. They nodded in agreement.

‘’Seems to be fine. Besides…’’ I chuckled. ‘’We were planning on paying this newly discovered dungeon a visit.’’

‘’New dungeon?’’ Nira looked at me curiously.

‘’We discovered a new dungeon a couple of days ago a bit outside the village,’’ Velariah added to the conversation. ‘’I’m surprised you haven’t heard about it yet.’’

Nira shook her head. ‘’I had no clue.’’

She finally took her tag and the Lore keeper pulled out a pouch with coins inside, judging from the sound it made. She emptied it on the counter and counted the coins. When it was clear there were exactly twenty gold coins in it, she handed it to me. I thanked her and turned to the rest of my party. It was time to divide the rewards.

When I asked Nira how much a new wand would cost she said it would be a couple of gold with a very soft voice.

That seemed very expensive.

‘’Healing accessories are very pricey,’’ Velariah explained.

‘’I can see that…’’ I sighed.

I could already see the direction in which this was going as well. I was going to end up buying her a new wand with my own money. It was possibly naive to buy someone I’d known for less than a day such an expensive item, but the prospect of a capable healer for our party was tempting. She had already helped heal Draco and me while I was knocked out from the pain earlier on and she knew I sacrificed a leg to get Draco out of danger. I doubted that left a bad first impression, especially with someone who has struggled to find a party to go adventuring with.

‘’How come you haven’t found a capable party to stick with, Nira?’’ I decided to ask.

She shook her head. ‘’I’ve tried a few but they always ended up wanting to do… other things to me.’’

‘’You gotta be kidding me,’’ I said instead of thinking about it.

There was no denying she looked good, but this was just so messed up.

‘’I came to this place to see how I would fare with elves.’’ She added.

‘’Doubt it would be much different, really,’’ Velariah said. ‘’As long as nobody is keeping the boys in check, they tend to go too far, unless they are ex-military.’’

Seems there was a thin line between adventurers and scoundrels.

Maybe I should be happy with a freak party like ours. Draco seemed to be the complete opposite of what Velariah had just described. I hadn’t perceived the elves as being overly arrogant or xenophobic, though. Sure, they were careful with me at first, but it seemed that they even managed to accept something like me into their society, and I was of a non-documented species.

‘’Where did you come from, Nira?” I asked. I felt like I was interrogating at this point, but I’d like to know what she was used to and prove that we didn’t quite work the way she was used to.

‘’The human kingdom to the southeast, from a village near my tribe’s forest.’’

‘’Your forest?’’ I inquired.

‘’The harpies from my tribe live in a small peaceful forest a while from here.’’

When she didn’t seem to want to continue Velariah stepped in.

‘’Harpies are a female-only race. I have the feeling that’s why so many guys in her previous parties thought they could make advances on her. Am I correct in that regard?’’

Nira nodded.

Oh, that explained a thing or two.

I could see Seralyn eager to ask a question but Draco stopped her by her shoulder. Whatever it was, it was probably awkward for Nira.

‘’Right, so, wand. How much do you need?’’

‘’What do you mean?’’ The harpy asked.

‘’Money for a new wand,’’ I stated.

‘’Nonono, you don’t have to.’’

‘’I don’t think it was a question,’’ Velariah said. ‘’I’ll toss in some as well.’’

Nira awkwardly covered her face with her wings.

‘’Same here.’’ Draco stepped forward.

Seralyn rolled her eyes. ‘’Fine.’’

‘’You think four gold is enough?’’ I asked.

When Nira didn’t answer, Velariah said it should be more than enough. I took the coin pouch that was still in my hands and handed out four gold to each of us. Velariah said we’d report the chest that was still on my back to Valtheril first before sharing its contents. Draco was entirely fine with it, Seralyn slightly less so, but at least she was understanding.

‘’Alright, so.’’ I started. ‘’We still have plenty of things left we can do today. Hopefully, Coldanus finished his second axe-shield, we could also look for a wand. Is there anything else?’’

‘’I think that’s it,’’ Velariah added. ‘’Not a bad idea to take the rest of the day off after that.’’

Agreed. I’d love to just go home, take a nice hot bath and bury myself in pillows for the rest of the day.

‘’Oh,’’ Velariah added. ‘’We could look for some saddlebags for you as well.’’

Oh right, there was that. Not entirely excessive.

Putting saddlebags at the sides of my abdomen brought me to an entirely different idea. I knew I was going to spend money again, after all, I had jinxed it earlier by thinking we weren’t going to spend much. What I had in mind, though, came because of our newly discovered spider cavalry tactics. It seemed to be a strong move and I’d like to elaborate on the premise of it.

I’d have to visit Dworag, he would know more.

After a brief recount of shops we’d have to visit, we decided that Seralyn and Nira would check the magic item shop for a wand. I had no idea there was something like that in this town so I took a mental note to check it out with Velariah sometime.

Velariah, Draco and I would visit Coldanus to see if he’d finished Draco’s second weapon. After that, I wanted to stop by Dworag to see if he could create something I had in mind.

But first, we were going to stop by Velariah’s mansion.

When we arrived at her home, a majestic white horse was waiting in front of the door. Its heads were looking at me with curiosity, unlike the horses that belonged to the traders we ran into earlier.

I wasn’t familiar with horses so I was careful when I petted their heads. The animal (animals?) seemed to appreciate the gesture as it closed all four of its eyes.

Cute.

The door opened before Velariah could knock and Valtheril walked outside, fully armored as was usual in this family it seemed.

‘’Oh, welcome home.’’ He looked over the three of us and noticed my leg cut off halfway.

‘’You guys alright? Did you get into trouble?’’

‘’More or less,’’ Velariah admitted.

Valtheril sighed. ‘’It doesn’t matter that I keep telling you to be careful does it?’’

‘’This one was on me.’’ Draco stepped forward. ‘’I got myself in a terrible position and Elania had to get me out risking her own life, what you see is a result of my actions. I apologize deeply.’’

Valtheril scratched his head for a second.

‘’I accept your apology. I was about to leave for Goldleaf, can I help you guys with anything?’’

‘’We found a chest with coins in the woods,’’ Velariah said. ‘’Long story short, we believe these are connected to the money Elania brought in earlier when you first met her. We found out the coin you confiscated was in the possession of a certain human called Nick Miller. Elania mentioned she found a wooden rabbit figurine on that human. We found the same kind of figurine in the chest we found today. We were wondering if that would help your investigation.’’

Valtheril seemed lost in thought for a second.

“How much is it?’’ He asked

‘’Almost twenty-five gold,’’ Velariah answered.

‘’Any black coins?’’ Valtheril continued.

Velariah shook her head.

‘’Then keep it. I will inquire about the matter in Goldleaf. I’ll be back in a week to ten days. You better not set the house on fire while I’m gone.’’

That was a joke in this world too?

‘’Will do,’’ Velariah said as Valtheril mounted the horse.

‘’And I thank you Elania for keeping your party members safe. I knew I could trust you after our first meeting and you seem to hold up to my expectations. I look forward to returning and working on our little project.’’

With that, he left us behind.

Also, it seemed Valtheril didn’t mind us looting whatever as long as there were no black coins involved. I wondered if they had some special property in addition to their value. Were they closely regulated? It seemed to be the case from what I’d seen so far.

Valtheril left the door open and Velariah cut loose the chest and took it inside. She soon reappeared and we were on our way to the weaponsmith.

‘’You know you didn’t have to apologize, right Draco?’’ I told him.

‘’I felt it was appropriate. I should not have put you in a spot where you had to sacrifice a limb to save me.’’ He answered.

‘’Look.’’ I started. ‘’From the info I managed to gather so far, I have the feeling that leg will grow back. Even if it doesn’t, I’d take that any day of the week over you dying.’’

‘’Grow back?’’ Velariah asked.

‘’You remember what Pylanor said, right?’’

‘’Yeah, but I didn't know…’’ She paused for a second. ‘’It makes sense from your earlier experience, I guess?’’

I nodded. ‘’I sure hope I’m right. I’d rather not get used to being wobbly.’’ I smiled slightly.

‘’I hope you don’t have to,’’ Draco said.

‘’I’ll be fine, don’t worry.’’

I really didn’t want him to feel any worse than he already did.

We made our way to Coldanus’ shop. There was no sound coming from behind the building. I assumed he was still asleep, it wasn’t that late yet.

Velariah entered the building, leaving me with Draco once more.

I could see that what happened was eating away at him.

How was I going to deal with this kind of thing? It was not like this was a common occurrence back in my old life.

‘’Seriously Draco. I’ll be fine. Don’t let this get to you.’’

Straightforward it was.

‘’If you say so…’’ He let out.

I sighed. I prayed this body would heal itself in some miraculous way. I doubted Draco would let this go otherwise.

Molting right?

How did that happen last time?

Right before the itching started we had killed a Saibon Boar and a Bunbear. I didn’t feel anything like it now. Would it happen again if I killed more monsters?

Entering that dungeon would be the best way to find out. Creatures in dungeons possessed far more corium than those outside. It wasn’t hard to put one and one together in that regard. The dream I had called it an ‘’evolution’’ and I was fairly certain it meant the molting process. Evolutions were linked to inherities and inherities were bound to corium collection.

I thought about the commission I had in mind for Dworag. It should still be helpful in dungeons, but if the dungeon core in question turned out to be ‘’friendly’’ to me it would be excessive. Not only that, but it appeared to be a fairly low-tier dungeon too. I doubted it would be harder than the trolls we fought.

That’s it. I wanted to go dungeon exploring. I’d waited long enough.

The anticipation was killing me. Shame I had just lost a leg. A dungeon could possibly make it regrow though… I figured I should try to find out. To put Draco at ease if nothing else.

The door opened and Velariah walked outside with a smile and a second axe-shield in hand. She handed the weapon to Draco who inspected it and took it in his free hand. He then held both shields forward in a blocking motion.

‘’I feel… stronger…’’

He turned the handles of the axes inside the shield so that the blades of the axes were pointing forward while he braced with his shields. He then swung them both down at the same time through the air.

‘’It seems you were right… this does seem to work with my inherity.’’

‘’That’s some great hypothesizing you did, Elania.’’ Velariah praised me.

‘’I mean, all I did was try to see how these inherity rules worked. I guess it worked in Draco’s case, but I don’t know if the same will be true for everyone else. Trying can’t hurt though.’’

‘’It seems I must thank you once more, Miss Elania,’’ Draco said.

‘’No need for that. Let’s stop by Dworag. I have an idea.’’

‘’Oh no.’’ Velariah grinned. ‘’I wonder how it’s going to end this time around.’’

‘’The idea I have will make things easier for you as well, so you better be serious about it.’’ I fired back at her.

‘’Oh, now I am curious.’’ She reacted.

With that, we were off to see the armorsmith in question to see if he could craft one of my new glorious ideas.