[Bonus Mission: Complete SS-ranked Mission “Obtain a Dragon Egg”. 1/1]

Yeoman was a bit disappointed. Other than receiving five hundred gold coins, there wasn’t any other reward for handing in the dragon egg. In the original plot, the Red Blade Adventurers presented the dragon egg to the king, and they were allowed to take any piece of equipment out of the royal armory. If it weren’t for the seven thousand five hundred points per party member, Yeoman would’ve considered keeping the egg for himself despite not knowing how to hatch it. He’d be willing to exchange five hundred gold coins for a dragon—even one that hadn’t been imprinted and knew no magic. Luckily, the reward from the adventurers’ guild wasn’t the only thing he got out of the quest. He also obtained quite a few rare items from plundering the Red Blade Adventurers.

[Mithril Chainmail (Rare): It’s surprisingly light for how durable it is.]

[Mithril Daggers (Rare): If you stab someone with these, they’ll dislike you greatly.]

[Mithril Rapier (Rare): A rapier made of mithril.]

[Aran’s Greatsword (Epic): The sword is made of a mithril-orichalcum alloy. Allows the user to cast Flame Slash three times a day.]

[Flame Slash: Coats the edge of the blade with a layer of fire. When slashing, the flames disconnect from the blade and can travel up to twenty-five meters.]

[Zeke’s Bandana (Rare): Allows the user to cast Stealth once a day. Shares a cooldown with other magic tools.]

[Stealth: User makes no sound while under the effects of stealth. Lasts for 1 hour.]

[Sophie’s Robe (Rare): In order to perform at their best, a magician has to look their best too. Allows the user to cast Thunder (1 Charge) or Fire (1 Charge).]

[Thunder: Ejects lightning from a point.]

[Fire: Ejects fire from a point.]

[Current Charges: 3/3. All charges replenish at sunset.]

Yeoman and his party were sitting in Cody’s room at the inn. All of the items they had collected from the Red Blade Adventurers were laid out on the bed. Yeoman was a bit surprised at the aliens’ grading system. Even though some items had special effects, they were rated as (Uncommon) like [Ross’ Vest (Uncommon)] and the [Goblin Shaman’s Staff (Uncommon)]. Meanwhile, the mithril items had absolutely no abilities, but they were graded as (Rare). The only (Epic) item they looted was the greatsword, and Yeoman suspected it was due to the material it was made out of: orichalcum.

“How are we splitting the loot?” Kat asked. Her green eyes flickered as she examined the group. “It was easy to distribute fragments and gold, but this is different. What are we doing? Item value?”

“We’ll give the items to whoever needs them,” Cody said. “I’m assuming this party is the one we’re going to be stuck with for the foreseeable future. As long as one of us gets stronger, the rest of us gets stronger as well.”

“Parties split up,” Joanne said. “Look at what happened to me. I was kicked out by my own sister.”

“That was a self-created group,” Cody said. “It wasn’t one assigned to you by the system.”

Joanne shook her head. “What if the system tells us we have to form parties of four next time? How do you know that won’t happen?”

“We don’t,” Cody said and shrugged. “All we can do is trust each other.”

“I don’t trust her,” Aakash said, gesturing towards Joanne with one of his chins. “Yeoman and I, we went after the sixth person together, and we saw her sister there. Someone tipped them off.”

“You think it was me?” Joanne asked, her eyes widening. “Why the hell would I cooperate with people who kicked me out of their group? Besides, I was with all of you. If I tipped them off, one of you would’ve noticed.”

Cody cleared his throat. “That doesn’t matter. We’re splitting the items according to need. If anyone wants to leave our group, they’ll have to give the items back—or replace the item with something of equal value.”

“And if that person doesn’t?” Aakash asked, one of his heads still staring at Joanne.

“Simple,” Cody said. “Yeoman here will pay them a little visit.”

Yeoman blinked his crow eyes. His human eyes were still blinded. The zombie fungus was useful for recovery, but apparently, it couldn’t bring back his eyesight, not after his eyeballs had almost been sliced in half. “Wait a second,” he said. “That doesn’t work. What if I’m the one that decides to leave?”

“Then the rest of us will pay you a visit,” Cody said, rolling his eyes.

“I’m not sure the five of us can take him,” Ella said. “He’s changed a lot since the beginning of the first stage.”

Yeoman scratched his head. Had he? Honestly, he still felt pretty weak. His brain was such a glaring weakness. Cody could snipe him with an arrow from a mile away. If Yeoman’s skull was impenetrable, he’d feel a lot more confident about his chances of survival. “I don’t plan on leaving the group. I wouldn’t have gotten this far without you guys in the first place.”

Cody nodded. “Alright, it’s settled,” he said and picked up the red robe on the bed. “Who wants to be a magician?”

Yeoman was tempted; after all, who wouldn’t be? It was magic. There wasn’t anyone in the world who hadn’t fantasized about wielding lightning or throwing around fireballs.

Cody looked around, taking note of everyone’s expressions. “Let’s save this item for last,” he said and put the robe down. He picked up [Zul’s Staff (Rare)]. “Alright. Now, let’s try that again. Who wants to be a magician? This staff has a magic shield and one offensive spell. I’m thinking either Kat or Ella should get it.”

Yeoman thought it made sense. Even though Ella was a good fighter, she was still an old lady. It felt a little wrong to put her on the frontlines. If she could stay in the back and fire off some spells, Yeoman would feel much more comfortable. As for Kat, Yeoman didn’t know what her fighting style was like, but if Cody recommended she use the staff, then it was probably a correct decision. As for using the staff himself, it would be too cumbersome to wield both the iron mace and the staff at the same time. If the shadow pouch could last forever, then Yeoman would accept the staff for himself. The fireball could be useful for attacking from the sky.

“Give it to Kat,” Ella said. “I’ll take the bandana and daggers. With a face like that, she’s not exactly sneaky at all.”

Kat took the staff. “She has a point.”

Cody passed the bandana and daggers to Ella. He picked up the red greatsword and glanced at Aakash. “I suppose you don’t want this?”

Aakash shook his head. “My other arms will interfere if I try to use a two-handed weapon.”

Cody nodded. “Then this’ll go to either Yeoman or Joanne.” He gestured towards the sword. “Have at it, you two.”

“He can have it,” Joanne said before Yeoman could say anything. “It wouldn’t sit right with me if I took it. I barely did anything during this stage. He did everything.”

“That’s true,” Kat said. “Yeoman did do a lot.”

Cody passed the greatsword to Yeoman. “You can get rid of the mace if you want.” Cody stared at the items as if he were staring into a bag of chips, deciding on which one to grab. He chose the other staff, [Claire’s Staff (Rare)]. “We don’t really need a dedicated healer,” he said. “We can store this in the shadow pouch, but once it expires, someone will have to lug this thing around.”

“I’ll take it,” Ella said. “Part-time healer, part-time rogue, I like it.”

“Any objections?” Cody asked, glancing around. No one said anything. “Alright.” He passed the staff over to Ella and picked up the chainmail. “Next up, we have this defensive piece of armor. Joanne, Yeoman, or Aakash, who wants it?”

Yeoman shook his head. He didn’t have to defend his body. Besides, he already got the only (Epic) item out of the bunch. Aakash gestured towards Joanne with one of his heads. “She can have it,” he said. “In return, I’ll take the rapier.”

“Sounds fair,” Joanne said, taking the chainmail. She put it on right away. “Huh. It really is light.”

Cody passed the rapier to Aakash. He picked up the black vest. “Anyone need some courage and willpower? Kat? Yeoman?”

Yeoman was a bit offended. Of all the people to suggest giving it to, why did Cody pick him? “I don’t need it. It’ll interfere with my camouflage.”

Cody tossed the vest to Kat. She caught it out of reflex and blinked twice. “Alright,” Cody said. “That leaves us with the final item, something that all of us can use.” He picked up the red robe. “I’m already good at attacking from a distance, so I’ll pass on this.”

Yeoman cleared his throat. “This greatsword is pretty nice,” he said. “I’ll pass on the robe as well.” Compared to his party members, Yeoman felt like he was a bit ahead of them. If he took the robe, it wouldn’t be good for the party dynamic. Also, the robe was too conspicuous. His camouflage ability would never work while wearing it.

Aakash shook all three of his heads. “It’s too feminine for me.”

Ella snorted. “What’s more important? Fashion or survival?”

“Do you want it?” Cody asked, holding the robe out towards Ella.

“I’ll pass,” the old lady said. “It’ll probably work better on Kat or Joanne.”

“Can I have it?” Kat asked. “The staff is a bit limited….”

Joanne exhaled through her nose and sat down. “I’m fine with that.”

Cody tossed the robe to Kat. “And with that, everything’s settled.” His gaze landed on the last item on the bed. “Except for the five hundred gold. We all have some form of attack except for Joanne. Yes, yes”—Cody raised his hand—“you have your talons, but they’re not mithril. We’ll go to the weaponsmith, see if we can’t get you any mithril toenail covers.” He placed the pouch to the side and crossed his arms over his chest. “Now, there’s still over three months of time left. We have a few options: We can try to find rare items. We can relax, have fun in a magical world. We can kill people to obtain Proofs of Murder. We can continue doing quests, get money to buy better gear. We can grind some more monsters, get more fragments. What do you think?”

“We should grind more,” Aakash said. “We have better equipment now; we can kill stronger monsters, get greater upgrades.”

“I agree,” Joanne said. “We have to keep pushing. The Proofs of Murder aren’t worth it. They’re just five hundred points, but one upgrade is worth a thousand. As for relaxing, there’ll be plenty of time to do that once the stage is over.”

Ella rubbed her chin. “Although upgrades are great, I think we should focus on getting items,” she said. “Think about it. With our missions complete, we’re guaranteed plenty of points. However, we’re not guaranteed items. Although we can mimic the effect of most items through evolution, there’s some things that are impossible to buy with points—like the ability to teleport.”

Kat shrugged. “I’m fine with whatever as long as we do it together.”

Cody shifted his gaze onto Yeoman. “What do you think?”

Yeoman’s brow furrowed. Grinding wasn’t a bad choice, but it involved killing things, and Yeoman was trying to do as little of that as possible. Honestly, he wouldn’t have minded relaxing. Even though there were a few times where he took a break sitting on the inn’s roof, he had been working nonstop ever since he arrived in this stage—at least, that’s what it felt like. However, if he expressed his opinion, his party was sure to disagree. They just wouldn’t understand how stressful it was to teach goblins English and how strenuous it was to satisfy so many dryads every day. Yeoman cleared his throat. “If we want to obtain rare items, why don’t we try robbing some demons?”

Cody raised an eyebrow. “Are you talking about Swirling Wind?”

Yeoman narrowed his eyes. Although it was tempting to get revenge for the goblins, Yeoman didn’t think the party was strong enough to deal with Swirling Wind. Their weapons and armor were likely (Epic), but that just increased the difficulty of obtaining them. Yeoman sighed and shook his head. He didn’t even know where to start. “We can rob weaker demons,” he said. “Grinding takes a long time. If we rob demons, we can sell their items at the end of the stage. I think it’ll be a much more efficient way of obtaining points.”

“Until the demons place a bounty on us,” Joanne said and snorted. “Heck, the human adventurers might hunt us too. Even though the two races have their differences, the adventurers’ guild transcends races. They won’t allow a high-ranked group of humans to bully weak demons.”

Cody uncrossed his arms. “Let’s find a dungeon to grind in,” he said. “I think Yeoman made too many enemies. The elves probably want to kill him. The undead are looking for him too. The dryads think he’s dead as well. Also, don’t forget there’s an angry dragon scouring the wilderness, looking for the person who stole her egg.”

Cody raised a good point. The party had already accomplished a lot, cleared all the bonus missions. Laying low and peacefully grinding was probably the best option. As for getting revenge against Swirling Wind, Yeoman would have to wait for the next time the aliens decided to send people into the world of The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons. Perhaps it might never even happen.