Laying down on his bed with Soph in his arms, Lone stroked her hair and whispered, "Don't worry. I'll think of something. Both you and Sophie will be fine, okay?"

Unable to open her eyes due to the pain but still able to see thanks to Mana Sensing, Soph weakly nodded. "Mmm... I trust you, Lone... We both do..."

"Gao," Garadia roared softly in concern.

Even Kyuubi was awake for once and she looked to be on the verge of tears. The girl hadn't cried once since Lone and Soph had adopted her, which was telling of how much this whole situation was affecting her.

"Master, you have a visitor. They are waiting outside of the front door," the Suite Spirit said as it poked its head out of the wall above the bed.

Lone frowned. "Fuckin' hell... Can barely get a moment of peace... I swear if it's Eolande asking for a hug of something I'll be bloody pissed."

He was still fully clothed so he didn't need to bother getting dressed, thankfully. He quickly left the bedroom and stormed through the living room to open the hotel suite's door.

"What?!" he practically yelled.

"Someone's stressed out," an unfamiliar man replied.

This man was a little bit shorter than him at maybe 5'7 and he was wearing very casual clothes, almost to the point that he looked like a poor farmer.

Were it not for his intricate and expensive-looking cloak then Lone would have immediately questioned how he had gained access to the diamond floor of Madame Cortelle's Palace of Rest.

He had shoulder-length brown hair and a rough stubble not unlike Lone's own facial hair. His deep black eyes had a lazy look to them as he smiled in an uncaring manner.

The man seemed as weak as could be, but Lone knew better than to judge a person by their strength given the fact that there were more than a handful of Divines in town, one of whom he knew of but hadn't seen with his own eyes yet.

"Can I help you? As you said, I'm a bit stressed out. it's been a long day," Lone said.

"Ha, I bet. Anyway, I'm only here to bring you with me, really. I don't wanna be here just as much as you don't," the man said.

"Sorry, I'm busy. Try me tomorrow," Lone replied then attempted to close the door but the man jammed his foot in the way effortlessly.

"Ah, right. I was kinda watching that whole skit with the Divine triplets. I'm not gonna force you or anything but you'll get to meet an Ancient. A nice Ancient. We shouldn't take any longer than an hour or two as well. We can stop by that dragonkin friend of yours or the elf across the hall if you want to make sure I'm not lying," the man said as he peeked into the room curiously. "Man, these suites are insanely luxurious."

Lone's rampant emotions immediately cooled down. "... You're that Divine I sensed before today's fights started, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah, I suppose. I'm not a big fan of attention. I had no idea a whole gaggle of Divines would show up to watch too. Felt wise to stay lowkey. Anyway, you in or you out?" the man asked.

Lone lowered his head in thought for a moment. 'He works for an Ancient... If he's really willing to speak to Elder Talion to prove that said Ancient is amiable and that he is who he claims he is, then I should go. Who knows? Maybe that Ancient can help Soph and Sophie or Rachel.'

"Do you mind giving me a minute?" Lone asked. "I need to, uh, pack a few things."

"Return the girl and those fluffy little blobs to your unique skill's impenetrable pocket dimension? Sure. I don't mind," the man answered casually.

'... He knows a lot. Well, it's a damned good thing he isn't hostile then, huh?' Lone thought.

He swiftly closed the door without being stopped this time and quickly unsummoned his daughters and Soph while instructing Garadia to call him if they needed something or if Soph's condition worsened.

Not 2-minutes had passed between Lone closing the front door and then returning to and stepped through it, however, the self-proclaimed Divine who was going to take him to meet an Ancient had slumped himself along the wall and closed his eyes.

"Are you asleep?" Lone asked dubiously.

"Hmm?" the man mumbled. "Nah. Was just relaxing. We good, or you want to check me for lying?"

"If you don't mind," Lone replied as he gestured to Lipsilk and Elder Talion's suite. "Shouldn't take long."

"No worries. I understand the apprehension," the man replied. "By the way, what's your name?"

"You don't know?" Lone asked in confusion. "Figured you would already, given how massive my adventuring group's event was today."

"Nah. I only knew to look out for a golden foxkin. I was barely paying attention during the fights. Was having too much fun eating the stand food, you see. I'm Glenn, by the way," Glenn explained as he clambered up to his feet slowly.

"Well, I'm Lone. Nice to meet you, I suppose," he said.

Sweat covered Elder Talion's expression as she began breathing heavily, though she seemed to be in a fairly good condition seeing as how she had just used her skill on a Divine being. "He's being honest, Honourary Elder Lone."

"Heeeeh... You're an honourary elder of a world tree? That's practically unheard of. There's less than 50 of those if I recall correctly," Glenn said as he cleared his nose and scratched his head.

"Well, that happens when you help save a world tree from dying," Lone joked. "Thank you, Elder Talion. We won't take up any more of your evening. If you ever need anything, please, let me know. I'm aware that using your skill gets harder the stronger the individual it's used on," Lone offered.

The exhausted High Elf nodded and smiled weakly. "Thank you, Honourary Elder Lone."

"We'll get out of your hair now. Enjoy the rest of your night, Elder Talion," Lone politely said before leaving the suite with Glenn in tow.

Turning to the Divine, Lone asked, "So, what now?"

"Now we go somewhere secluded and I make a call on this little baby," Glenn said as he pulled out a palm-sized communication orb. "We need to go to Leytograndia and I don't know about you, but I don't feel like trekking over the continent for a month or two to get there."

"Leytograndia? As in, the half-magic half-steamforged underground city that's almost impossible to gain access to which was build by the dwarf called the God of Forging, Leylin Goldforge?" Lone could almost feel all of his mortal worries disappearing as his adventurous heart burned anew with excitement.

"He was the co-creator, but yeah, that's the one. C'mon, let's go," Glenn said.

Lone nodded. "Absolutely, let's."

Frappy kicked the wall in frustration as his big and bulbous eyes blinked rapidly.

"'You're not a real member yet,' they say, 'your mutated skill is perfect to help Glenn get back in a timely manner,' they claim, 'you wouldn't be of any help in the meeting anyway, it's better for you to stay out here and wait for Glenn to contact you,' they insist. Do they think I'm stupid? Just because I used to be an everyday frog hopping about the palace's pond a few centuries ago? Bullying is what it is!" Frappy yelled, though no one was close enough to hear him.

Frappy returned to his chair and folded his arms roughly. "Well, I'll show them! I'll perfectly welcome Glenn and the stupid ninetails! He's super important, right? I'll get on his good side and get him to make me important! He's a freak too like me and Snow but at least he's got a personality unlike that emotionless doll."

"... I did hear that he's a bit violent and that he doesn't like unfair power dynamics... I hope he isn't actually really scary..." Frappy's green skin went pale. "That would be bad. Half of the council give me the chills as it is, especially that Pipa. What even is he? Why is he blurry to look at even though my eyes work just fine? What a creepy guy..."

As if on cue, the large orb tied to his round waist lit up, indicating that someone had established a link with it.

Frappy scrambled up to his feet and then injected his MP into the glowing ball. "G-Glenn?"

"Yup. The one and only. Well, maybe not the only Glenn, but you know what I mean." Frappy didn't know what he meant, but he didn't bring that up. He didn't want to seem unintelligent, after all. "Mind sending me a tadpole? Cheers."

"S-Sure. I-Inter-travelling T-Tadpole," Frappy stuttered before he gagged violently and then spat up a tadpole that was almost the same size as himself.

The big black and somewhat grotesque creature swam through the air as if it were water. A small pond of green water formed vertically in front of the tadpole and it then disappeared through the pond, leaving Frappy alone with the mystical green water.

About a minute later, it returned through the pond with a man very lightly holding onto the end of its body while another was riding it with glee.

"What's its name?" Lone asked as he carefully jumped off the back of the massive tadpole - well, assuming tadpoles had a back. He used to be a history teacher, not a biology one.

Glenn retched and swallowed down the vomit that had threatened to leak out onto the floor. "Damned disgusting thing. Why is it so slimy? It's made by a skill, for Primal's sake..."

"Uh, i-it doesn't h-have a n-name. I-It's j-just part of a s-skill, like B-Boss Glenn said..." the frog person wearing nothing but a sweater and a simple pair of shorts answered as it tried to shrink itself into a corner and become as unassuming as possible.

Glenn shook his head. "Don't bother with Frappy. He's super shy. After centuries of working for The Ancient Foundation, he still talks like that to everyone else who works here."

"Well the guy's a frog, for Christ's sake. You don't have any relation to someone called Snapper, do you? She also goes by 'The Guider' or at least used to, according to her," Lone asked.

Frappy started panicking. "I, uh, n-no. I-I've never h-heard of s-such a person."

"He hates disappointing people too if that wasn't obvious." Glenn scratched his head as he started to pick up the... scent of the lingering tadpole. "Frappy, mind getting rid of that freaky thing already?"

"Oh, uh, y-yeah. I m-mean, n-no. I-I'll get rid of it..." the scambled frog person quickly said a few keywords and the massive tadpole winked out of existence.

"Praise the Primals!" Glenn exclaimed. "Anyway, Lone. You good to barge in on a meeting?"

"I suppose? Context would be nice," Lone answered.

"Well, the meeting's being held in regards to you. C'mon, let's go. The sooner we're done the sooner I can get back to my hobby," Glenn said as he quickly paced into the palace, completely ignoring Frappy.

"It was nice to meet you, Frappy. If we ever get the chance, I'd like to talk to you more," Lone said.

'How often do you get the chance to meet an entirely new species that you've never heard of before, right? Well, I guess quite often if you think about Swind, Eolande, Wrath, Greed... Quite often indeed, haha,' Lone said internally.

Frappy just froze. He was not used to responding to what seemed like genuine interest.

Lone didn't have the time to stick around and chat, so he left the strange bipedal frog on his own as he followed Glenn through the halls of the grand and resplendent palace.

'Well, this should be my second time meeting an Ancient. I wonder if they talk like a weirdo too the same way Ythmagobla did?' Lone thought idly.