Micky was riding the high! Prin didn’t know how lucky she was to have met the herald of justice. Like she literally didn’t care! Micky flipped out man, literally flipped out, like literally! All of this while he was randomly going out to grab some things and give his mounts some attention. They needed that on the regular and he had to bet that Cerus was busting down the gate to get out of her pen.

… Except she was loving the adoration and spa like treatment of the school facilities that the staff loved her, so exotic! No it was Casper that really wanted to get up and run. Of all things the lazy lizard was the one that needed to get some movement in. No! He made Cerus run laps on the circuit along with Casper. Sure, she bucked him off a time or two, but when he mentioned she was getting fat in front of the keepers, and then they apologized and stated they would be cutting down her snacks! Oh she raced as fast as she could go! Granted, she was still p/o’ed because she was outpaced by many of the beasts on the circuit like the earth dragon or the koimie or the cheetah… In fact, there were many that outpaced her, she wasn’t even in the top 20 of species on the circuit today, and it wasn’t a busy day either…

So begrudgingly she took her exercise, though her endless complaints were something that Micky had gotten tired of instantly. But he knew he needed to do it, and so did the rest. At least Prin and Casper seemed to be having fun, even though they were paced endlessly. Some were even a bit trolly about it. But they stopped at least circling her after Casper ‘accidently’ tripped one of the ostrich riders with his tail. That got a laugh from the entire circuit, especially the slower crowd.

But the day eventually had to end. He made sure to mark down some events like pollo and such though. They seemed interesting and there was a hobbyist league with no pressure that simply joined the events for the fun of it. There were of course leagues but they were much more annal about everything, even signup had a bunch of questions like his class, tier and skill list. Usually a major no no.

Micky figured he probably could do well in league since it was more based on the strength of the mount, but didn’t want to push things, a relaxed hobby league, not even the hobby league that still got annal and trolly but more about getting out and bonding with the mounts.

Traveling back was a bit of a hassle though. He had the full gaggle with him, even Kux was out and visible. True, Susan, Littlefoot, and Pinky were back home manning the fort, but the rest of them were out and about.

Micky dove down a back ile in a convenience store to grab a contraceptive talisman though. Susan and Littlefoot had played and interesting prank on him when they were having ‘fun’ one time. They had actually gotten him pregnant. They had worn a reflection curse [Charm] that had reflected the pregnancy back on himself. It’s fairly niche, but it served the point. Worse, he had to ask Marry for a [Witch’s Brew] to terminate the pregnancy. It’s very problematic for a man to get pregnant without proper procedure… As in lethal. Luckily it isn’t hard to cure. Besides, magical prenancies aren’t real pregnancies until the child is actually born. Really he was just cursed, like any other magic. He could have gone to a [Priest] of any type to have gotten rid of it, even one of the life types. It just would have been awkward and cost a lot more…

At least now he had a contraceptive charm, it event prevented that specific scenario…

The walk back was uneventful. Micky checked in at the school to make sure his schedule was accurate and took the group to the library for a bit. Kux was a little hyperactive as this was the first time she had been in the school library. Her curriculum was a little more ‘hands on’ then the rest. She would also have to pay the way herself, but the underacademy was a bit special.

Micky never asked Kux what her curriculum was. He specifically never asked what courses she was taking. He didn’t ask what the entrance exam was, or what it was like. He definitely didn’t ask about the teachers…

Micky didn’t even think about it. He just enjoyed his day at the library, copied some interesting scrolls and tablets, and went on with his life.

Soon they continued their little outing. Micky had his quickly scribbled pages, ironically the easiest to copy being the tablets, a piece of coal and a rubbing onto parchment and done. But not all were transferred to tablet. Of course, he could have bought some off a scholar, but Micky was cheap and pour so he couldn’t afford, or wouldn’t, a quick copy and paste.

Prin, obviously, wanted to visit the arms and armorers. She wanted to compare the capital’s smithing to back home. And they weren’t even allowed into the first place. This put a damper on the mood but Prin found a little hole in the wall place that had high quality… the highest that they’d ever seen. But it was expensive and the reason why they were let in, was because the boss was an ass. So he didn’t have any customers, and didn’t care. Course, it was also not like the kids could break anything, and they were so underleveled it didn’t matter what his class was, they could break them over their knee without a sweat.

This didn’t deter them. They eventually found one within their price range, not that they were shopping. But they did mark it down should they, and likely would, need new equipment. Considering that they were all Tier 1, it was very likely to happen. Though Micky was ahead of the others in that regard.

After they finished lookeeloo they quickly lookeeloo at the active fighting happening just in front of them. On the side of a building. Fighting vertically. Clearly the advantage goes to those with the high ground. And the battle seemed to mostly be about maintaining the high ground. There were some spider cavalry, but they weren’t ‘charging’. Instead, they seemed to be using their better positioning to out maneuver the infantry. All of those were hooked into the building with devices that attached themselves.

Now and then, one of these ropes would be cut, then they would fall down a ways. But they wouldn’t instantly reel themselves in once they reattached. No, they slowly let the real out to slow their inertia. Micky saw one bandit? Pirate? Combatant panic and slam on the breaks of their rig. There was a sudden and definitive *SNAP* and the combatant went still. The rest of the combatants ignored the still combatant, not even cutting the rope when the others closed in. Clearly they were out of the battle. The spider cavalry routed the opponents and they quickly fell away from the fighting to escape from battle after their own spider cavalry was cut down.

The victorious combatants cleaned up the battle and looted the still hanging corpses. The spider cavalry latched onto the loot and started to haul it up. Gecko mounts also appeared and they seemed to be the major haulers, larger and slower, however, any spider mount that got too close lost a leg...

With the battle quickly coming to an end and Micky was soon back to his pack for some ‘activities’. Susan had recently gotten obsessed with this thing she did with…

“Micky Derral Anderson! You get over here this instant and give this old lady a hug!”

That can’t be right… That sounded like his mother. She was back at the village. She was living peacefully… OMS it is his mother!...

“Oh, hey mom, what are you doing here…? Oh Dad’s here too, greeeat…!” Micky stated as he was swept up into a hug by his parents. He even hugged the little bratlings… Really, what made their hands sticky? They were all sticky, but none of them had anything that could make their hands sticky…

“So yes, what are you doing, here, right now?” Micky asked.

“Yes, well, you see. The village no longer exists...”