First thing after flopping out of the fog filled gate like a fish washed up onto the bank of a river, Fresh rises up to the tips of her toes, stretching as she reaches up for the ceiling of the large room. Not having a body was fun. But having one now again, after not having one for a little bit, makes her aware of how… odd it feels.

There is a tension in her upper back, behind her shoulders that she had never even realized that she had. It feels as if she had just been in a constant state of stress for so long that she didn’t even notice it anymore and had accepted it as her normal state of being. It feels like someone took a hose, plugged it into her brain and just gave it a good washing out. Her mind is clear and focused and she’s aware of every sensation in her toes, hands and heart.

“Wow… I feel great, guys,” says Fresh, lowering herself down to touch her toes.

“Me too, what a weird feeling,” says Basil, looking at her hands, as if she wasn’t sure if they’re real or not.

They’re in a large, square, stone chamber. There are no furnishings of any kind, except the gate and a single desk with a few shelves behind it, where a woman sits. Jubilee walks on ahead, clearly having trouble walking correctly as they seem to wobble a little to the left and to the right. It’s like they forgot what being in their own body was like. “Feels fucked,” they say, looking around the room. “Having bones is fucking gross.”

“Maybe,” is all that Shamrock says, his gruff voice echoing around the room. Fresh blinks, looking at him and then around at the space they’re in. Is it safe for him to be here, like this?

“Hello!” says a chipper voice from across the room. A woman is sitting behind a desk in the middle of the room, waving them over to her. The four of them exchange a nervous look, before turning back her way. “Don’t worry about that. You’ll readjust in a few minutes. It’s normal.”

“Okay!” says Fresh, wobbling over her way. Jubilee places a hand in front of her, stopping her from moving to the stranger.

“Don’t worry,” says the woman, lifting her hands, but not getting up from her desk. “You’re in the central-city. Congratulations!” she cheers, clasping her hands together once. “Everyone who beats a dungeon is welcome to stay here, if you’d like. Otherwise, we’ll arrange transportation back to your home. Where are you coming from?” she asks.

Jubilee and Basil exchange a look for a moment, deciding on some unspoken plan.

“The east,” says Basil very plainly.

“Ah, that’s great. I’m an eastern girl myself,” replies the woman, scribbling some notes down into her book. She sighs, smiling a nostalgic smile as she writes in her book. The woman looks back up, tilting her head as she looks past Basil and Jubilee at Shamrock. The woman blinks.

“Hi,” says Shamrock, nodding to the receptionist.

“Uh, hello,” she replies. “Is he with you?” she asks, pointing at Shamrock.

“Obviously,” replies Jubilee, placing their hands on their hips.

The receptionist taps her chin with her pen. “Hmm… we’ve never had a slime before.”

“Shamrock’s a man,” says Fresh, pointing at him.

“Miss, he’s clearly a slime,” argues the woman, continuing to think.

“Is that a problem?” asks Jubilee.

“Well… no, maybe?” She gets up from her desk, digging through a bookshelf next to her as she looks for something. Pulling out a scroll, she reads through it. “We get things like anqas or some druids with some wolves or things like that now and then. But I think you might be our first slime.”

“Man,” argues Fresh. Jubilee nudges her.

“Hominid slime,” concedes the woman. “Is he safe around people?”

The three of them look at Shamrock. “He’s safer around people than she is,” replies Jubilee, pointing at Fresh who can only reply with a hurt laugh and a scratching of her cheek.

“Hmm… well, he’s an unusual pet -”

“He’s our party-member,” interrupts Fresh. Jubilee nudges her again.

“- but I suppose that you have him under control at this stage,” says the woman, apparently not too bothered. She shrugs and sits back down, making a note. “So, two humans, a slime and…”

“Demon,” replies Jubilee, as if this weren’t meant to be some great secret.

“Oh, fun,” says the woman, making a note.

“Every day a little more,” replies Jubilee.

“Classes?”

Basil and Jubilee look at each other. “Priestess,” says Basil. “Demon,” shrugs Jubilee. “Craftsman,” replies Fresh. “None,” is all that Shamrock says. The woman looks down at her ledger and then back at them.

“That’s an odd composition… you beat the dungeon with that?”

“Hey, if it works, it works, okay?” replies Jubilee. “The dungeons are fucky these days, always shifting shit around, so you gotta play the same game.”

“Hmm…” She thinks for a moment, tapping her chin with her pen before nodding and making another note. “That about does it then. So will you be staying?”

“Yeah, for a short vacation. We’re sick of that shit-hole,” replies Jubilee.

“I do miss it sometimes,” she sighs, smiling. “But things really are better here. It’s hard to go back once you stay for a while.” She gets up, dusting her hands off. “Great! You’re free to go. The adventurers’ guild is by the dungeon. Otherwise you can find lodging at just about any of the taverns in the city,” she explains. “When you want to go back home, let me know and I’ll arrange a carriage.”

“Thank you!” beams Fresh, excited to go on and see this new city. She feels really tired though, for some reason. So finding a bed also sounds like a really great idea. Jubilee just waves the woman off and walks past her as she sits back down. Basil and Shamrock say a quick ‘thanks’ each and then the four of them head out of the entry area.

“That was rather anticlimactic,” says Basil.

“They just want some information for their statistics,” replies Jubilee as they go through a passage.

“They didn’t want our names?” asks Fresh, a little surprised about that.

Jubilee shakes their head, gesturing for them to follow as they head towards a large archway. “Turns out that a lot of the people who clear the dungeon are serious characters who like their privacy.”

“Huh…” says Fresh, that makes sense. She looks around, stopping in her tracks. She feels like they’ve forgotten something. But she can’t put her finger on what it is. “Hey, Basil?”

“Yes?”

“Is Thyme taken care of?”

“Thyme?” asks Basil, seemingly lost in her thoughts for a moment. “Ah! Yes. Thyme is living out on the farm, remember?” asks the priestess, laughing and waving her off. “The one west of the mountain.”

“Oooh!” replies Fresh, bonking herself on the head. “I completely forgot. Man. I wish we could have become better friends.”

“There, there,” consoles the priestess. “I’m sure you’ll get your chance one day. For now, I hope we’re good enough,” she smiles.

“I dunno,” replies Jubilee. “I think I could trade you guys up for a few anqas.”

“Yes, yes,” says Basil, making a show out of yawning as she keeps walking forward. The four of them reach the archway and look out into the city. A man, a guard, apparently very nervous looking, terrified, in fact, sprints past them in full speed down the passage, towards the passage they had just come through.

“What’s his problem?” asks Jubilee, shaking their head, as they look back forward to where the others are already looking, awestruck.

Sure, they have been to many cities before but each of them, while having their own distinct features, were essentially still just cities.

But here, there is something different in the dew-tinged air. The warm, yellow glow of thousands of safe, strong, warm houses fills the darkness. The leaking of the soft radiances coming together into one perpetual night-shine that might keep even the darkest of entities at bay. Voices fill the air as people walk around in close groups, even in this early, early, early morning hour of the day. But there is an openness and a connectivity between each and every one of them that Fresh can see just from the way that they walk next to each other.

If there are red strings here to see, they are tightly pulled between the clusters of people. Strong, competent, happy people who share equally strong feelings about their own companions and perhaps even this place as a whole.

She can feel it. The lightness present in them as they walk over the clean, brick streets of the curvy road that bends around a large root of the giant tree. That lightness carries in their postures, in the tone of their voices. They don’t feel like they’re just walking through a city at night. They feel like they’re walking through their own home.

“It’s beautiful,” says Basil, sounding more than wowed.

Jubilee doesn’t make a snarky comment this time, simply sighing and looking around. But it isn’t a tired or an annoyed sigh, rather it’s like the sigh after coming home from a long day of work. “It’s okay.”

Fresh smiles, looking at Shamrock who seems to have nothing to say. But he’s busy watching the world move around him with curious eyes. But he seems more intent on seeing if the world is watching him, than the other way around. Fresh leans down. “Don’t worry, Shamrock,” she says. “I’ll make you some new armor, I promise, I… uh…”

She blinks.

“Hey, what happened to your armor anyways?” she asks, scratching her cheek.

“Dragon ate it,” replies Shamrock.

“Ooooh!” she replies, hitting her fist into her hand. “We’ll make your new armor together, okay? It’ll be an ‘us’ project,” she promises. The man nods, before turning back to the city.

“Honestly, how can you keep forgetting the whole fucking dragon thing?” asks Jubilee. “It was fucking huge.”

“Gigantic even,” nods Basil.

“It was big,” agrees Shamrock.

Fresh shrugs. “I think I’m just tired, guys,” she says. “Let’s find a place to sleep.”

“Adventurers’ guild?” asks Jubilee.

Fresh digs around in her pocket and pulls out a key that she always keeps with herself. She smiles, looking at it. “This was really a great investment,” she says. “I wish you didn’t scare me so much back then about it, Jubilee.”

“Please. You need to be kicked in the ass regularly, or you wouldn’t stay alive,” replies Jubilee, motioning for them to follow.

“Can we do a sleepover tonight?” asks Fresh.

Jubilee shakes their head. “Well, considering that the guild only has one fucking bed, we’ll probably have to.” Fresh pumps her fist, letting out a quiet cheer. “Anyways, you know what? Fuck it. After one-hundred floors of a dungeon, we’re doing a sleepover.”

Basil agrees. “Sounds good to me. Uh, no offense, but are you safe to touch, Shamrock?”

“Yes. Sometimes,” says the man.

“Oh.” Basil seems to think for a moment. “But won’t we and the mattress get all wet?”

“Yes. Sometimes,” says the man again. Basil sighs.

Jubilee waves them off. “We’ll put him in a bucket, it’ll be fine.”

Fresh shakes her head. “It’s okay, guys. Slimes hold their moisture inside of themselves. Otherwise they’d dry out. Right, Shamrock?”

He looks at her. “Yes. Sometimes.”

“See?”

Jubilee plants their hands on their hips. “’Sometimes’ isn’t good enough to get me into a bed with a literal acid-monster.”

“He’s not an acid-monster, he’s Shamrock!” argues Fresh. “Anyways, he can sleep next to me,” says Fresh. “Then you don’t have to worry, Jubilee.”

“Do I sound worried?” sighs Jubilee. “Worst case, I’ll die in my sleep and this will all be over.”

“Please. Nobody is allowed to die inside of the house, remember?” quips Basil.

The four of them continue their walk along the street, admiring the odd beauty of this tranquil city, as they make their way to the central-adventurers’ guild.