It wasn’t too long after picking up the dungeon quest that Kaldalis caught up with his friends. They weren’t hard to miss. Clustered together in the middle of the clearing just outside the gate, people parted around them, shooting them annoyed looks that went completely unnoticed.

Kaldalis shooed his friends off to the side, out of the main thoroughfare, before Balrim invited him to their already-formed party. They started sharing what quests they had almost immediately.

Balrim’s quests were up first, which seemed to annoy the others, and Kaldalis wondered if they had made a game of who could share first. The Talsar had quests for every crafting skill, but everyone else was able to decline the quests for the skills they didn’t have, and accept the ones that they did. Kaldalis looked forward to getting some experience points for Charmcrafting, since it seemed a good idea to devote some time to it anyway to build a larger pile of charms to share with his friends.

Reno and Ess had collected a solid batch of generic kill quests, ranging all over the jungle. They’d both sought out quests that took them far afield rather than the ones that stuck close to the town.

That was a good sign.

The farther from town, the stronger the monsters. Which likely meant better experience points overall, too. Kaldalis was glad to see that a couple of them overlapped with the quests he’d acquired as well, although there were plenty that didn’t.

Courbois had a similarly small number of very focused quests to what Kaldalis had, but she had managed to find an entirely different set from him. That made sense, as in the earlier parts of their time on the islands, they hadn’t overlapped much, so she had an entirely different group of NPC connections than Kaldalis. One of the town’s chefs was seeking a rare wild spice, and had asked Courbois to see if it existed on these islands. A member of the crew that worked on construction of the town’s walls had her tools stolen by curious wildlife, and needed it retrieved. And a researcher whose name Kaldalis didn’t recognize had entrusted Courbois with seeking a specific medicinal herb that would treat an embarrassing rash.

Myrin, however, seemed convinced she would be the winner as she shared her own crop of quests.

“I thought you were with Balrim,” Kaldalis said, looking at the collection of seemingly mismatched quests.

“I was,” Myrin said with a smirk. “But while he was collecting all his crafting bullshit, I was doing math.”

“Ah yes,” Reno said with a sage nod. “The real bullshit: math.”

“You designed the currency-” Kaldalis began, incredulous, but stopped himself. “Nevermind. Forget about it. So go ahead and explain the math, Myrin.”

“These quests are the most efficient experience points per quest available,” Myrin explained. “That’s because of the added difficulty of where they take place.”

As Kaldalis accepted the shared quests, and they populated his list and map, he noticed what she meant.

“These are taking place off the coast,” he observed. “Underwater quests?”

“Yup,” Myrin chirped cheerfully. “The underwater environment makes the quests more challenging and exclusive. Also, the mobs underwater get to a disproportionately higher level as soon as you get more than fifteen feet away from the low tide line. High levels and high difficulty mean high rewards.”

“As long as you have a plan for everyone else to handle the underwater component,” Kaldalis said, checking his inventory to confirm that his fishing rod was still there. “Because I can hold my breath literally forever.”

Courbois cleared her throat at that, clearly covering a laugh.

Kaldalis elected to ignore it.

“I’d appreciate it if we could take those on later in the afternoon, though,” Kaldalis added quickly. “I want to make sure we’re where the action is right off the bat. As much as I want for us to grow as fast as we can, a major objective for me is making sure we’re out in force and coordinated. We have to make sure questing goes smooth for everyone, not just us, and that means being in the jungle when everyone is in the jungle.”

“Don’t worry, we got this,” Balrim said, “as long as we get some crafting time in, I can distribute some water breathing gear. Though only for us right here, obviously. It’s a resource-intensive craft.”

“Let’s get that out of the way,” Kaldalis said, gesturing back towards the crafting area. “Because I’m pretty sure once Myrin gets a taste of blood, we’ll never get her to sit still long enough for us all to get crafting done. Besides, as long as we all do it together, we should be able to make it fun.”

There was a chorus of agreement at that, though Myrin crossed her arms with a huff at the accusation. She couldn’t completely hide her smirk, which told Kaldalis he was probably right.

Together, the group started towards the crafting center.

Halfway there, however, Kaldalis ran into another familiar face. One he’d gotten used to not seeing around town, no matter how he looked.

It was surreal to run into them randomly, now that he was no longer actively keeping an eye out.

“Dalgaard,” Kaldalis called out across the way, drawing the healer’s attention.

“Kaldalis,” Dalgaard responded cautiously, obviously taking on a more guarded stance as Kaldalis approached. “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Kaldalis said, looking around. He saw a handful of Dalgaard’s former gang lurking around, though it seemed the mercenaries weren’t along for the ride anymore. “Everything is fine on my end. How are you holding up?”

“Fine,” they snapped a little more sharply than necessary. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Not to put too fine a point on it,” Kaldalis said, lowering his voice, “but you’re between crusades right now, right? Sometimes it’s rough to be a causeless rebel.”

“Maybe,” Dalgaard said. Their guarded posture grew more inwardly-drawn. “Let me guess, you’re about to stick me with some dirty job, and want to feel like you’re doing me a favor for it.”

“No, not at all,” Kaldalis said quickly. “I just don’t want…” He grimaced, wishing he could take back the start of the sentence, but with it out there, there was nothing for it but to follow through. “I don’t want to make the same mistake again. I didn’t check in on you after what I dragged you through, and we know where that got us.”

“So what’s your cause?” Dalgaard asked, the faintest hint of honesty peeking through their sarcastic tone. “If it’s so hard to be causeless, you must have something.”

“The usual,” Kaldalis said, gesturing over his shoulder at his friends. “Camaraderie. Shenanigans.”

“We’re going to stitch n’ bitch,” Myrin said with a big cheerful grin and a gesture at the nearby crafting center. “Well, they’re going to stitch. I’m just along for the second thing.”

“You’re welcome to join us,” Kaldalis said, “and your friends are as well. But there’s no pressure. We’re just going to get crafting quests done and chatter like idiots.”

“That might be nice,” Dalgaard said, briefly glancing over their shoulder at the nearest of their own companions. “I think we ought to… Try and get comfortable with the idea of being welcome around here.”

Kaldlais considered it a win as Dalgaard’s party joined his own, and the small crew became the better part of a mob as they descended upon the crafting center. With the quests all over the place, the crafting area was sparsely populated, with the majority of the crafting stations being open. Kaldalis and Dalgaard’s combined teams swarmed the place, and set to work cranking out their crafting quests.

It went well enough.

Kaldalis had to admit to himself early that the small talk with Dalgaard’s crew felt a little forced. The group that had remained loyal to Dalgaard had, for one reason or another, isolated themselves from the community. Now they lacked social confidence, and struggled to relate to the other adventurers. But Kaldalis and his friends did their best to be friendly and open with them, breaking the ice and setting a welcoming mood.

They didn’t discuss anything serious. The weather on the islands. The monsters around the town. The food in the food court.

Everyone agreed without saying it aloud that the topics of Garyung, Onirioago, and the Jormongumo were off-limits.

But they did discuss the mercenary crew. Apparently Voker never showed up again, and while Yosini had seemed an okay guy, he had stuck with his former party trying to figure out what had happened to Voker rather than joining up Dalgaard’s crew in town.

Kaldalis finished making charms for the quest using the pile of materials he’d accumulated that morning, and then kept on crafting even afterwards, letting himself lose track of the passage of the work as he chatted amiably with Dalgaard.

It felt nice to renew that connection.

They hadn’t been the best of friends or anything before Ara’s attack. But now he didn’t feel as if there was outright hostility.

It also felt nice to have a growing pile of charms. As he crafted them, he called out their randomized stats, and freely tossed them around to whoever called it first.

For a while, only his own friends spoke up, but after he produced a particularly good healer charm, Balrim told Dalgaard to take it, and then it was a proper free-for-all. The others joined him in the act of charity, with Courbois handing out charms as well, while Ess carefully passed out weapons and Reno distributed food and potions. Meanwhile, Balrim produced a mix of everything, and tended to be producing higher quality products than anyone else.

Dalgaard’s crew offered the fruits of their own labor, too.

As Balrim finished the last of his mountain of quests, Kaldalis didn’t feel like they’d fully cleared the air with Dalgaard. Staying off of the uncomfortable topics meant that they didn’t have a proper conversation about what had happened. But seeing them smiling and laughing along with everyone else was a strong start to turning things around.

Maybe the kid would be alright after all.