Daniel blushed as he denied the accusation. “No way. We need their help to stop the war.”

Orrin stared at his friend.

“It just makes sense. They are the ones being oppressed, so they’d be more likely to accept some help, right?”

Orrin continued his dead-eyed glare.

“And you already said you’d go. You could stay here if you’re scar-“

“Finish that sentence and I’ll drop your dexterity to zero and kick you,” Orrin threatened.

Daniel gave up and smirked sheepishly. “Jude told me they are absolutely gorgeous. If we save them and one wants to thank me…”

Orrin rolled his eyes in disgust. “You know they had an elf slave down at the market. You’d be saving a lot of time and effort if you just bought one.”

Daniel paled. “That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s the same thing,” Orrin argued and lowered his voice an octave in a bad imitation of Daniel. “Hi, I’m the [Hero] and saved your species. Do you want to come to bed with me or should I get mad and leave you undefended and alone to the next invader?”

Daniel’s head dropped. “That’s…that’s not…”

“That’s exactly what it is,” Orrin’s voice rose as he stepped closer. “Damnit Daniel. There’s an entire section of psychology devoted to savior complexes and white knight syndrome. Do you know how often my mom complained about the paramedics who bring in girls and leave their phone number with them? It’s fucked up. That’s without bringing into play the entire [Hero] aspect. You realize you are essentially a rock star to these people, right? If I find out you have groupies, I’ll… I don’t know what I’ll do, but it’ll be bad, okay?”

Daniel nodded along at his scolding. “I didn’t think of it like that. Seriously, O. I swear.”

Orrin’s temper cooled at Daniel’s repentant tone and stepped back.

Daniel caught his eye and cringed a bit as he said, “I still think we should go, though.”

Orrin didn’t respond but pierced Daniel with another stare.

“From everything we know, Odrana isn’t going to just want to work with the guy they tried to kidnap. We can at least gain some goodwill with the elves and try for diplomacy if that’s the way Madi thinks we should go. We can’t sit here and do nothing. Silas’s reports have the elves lasting another month or two before the Odrana army forces their way into the forest. We need to help them now, not after the war is over.”

Orrin watched Daniel’s impassioned speech closely. He decided that despite believing his intentions to be mostly pure, he wouldn’t let him out of sight if and when they got to the elven forest. However, all he said back was, “Fine.”

Daniel appeared shocked. “Fine? That’s it. You’re not going to argue with me that we should try some other hair-brained plan?”

“I trust you,” Orrin shrugged. “You made some good points. Plus, I know you’d try going yourself if me and Madi said no.”

Daniel at least tried to look offended but just broke back into his grin. “You know me too well.”

Orrin tried to hit his friend, but Daniel’s [Side Steps] activated. Orrin tripped over his own feet and slammed his knee into the corner of a chair.

Daniel laughed. “You deserved that.”

Orrin groaned and rubbed his knee on the ground. “Asshole.”

After Orrin felt that he had gotten all the work from Daniel he was going to, the boys gathered up their notes and returned to their room. Daniel had fallen asleep, obviously worn out from his sparring all day. Orrin rolled through his skill lists again. He had been pissed to find no [Treasure View] option for the [Map] skill but figured that would have been too easy anyway. He was still scrolling through his skill options, trying to find any spots for improvement.

All of his boosting skills had grown a little more in experience from the few spars and his habit of keeping his dexterity boosted around Daniel. However, it was going to take another few weeks of dedicated leveling to hit that 10,000 mark for each. With fourteen ability points, Orrin had almost used up most of them to bring [Teleport] to the next level.

Would you like to upgrade [Teleport] for 10 AP?

Yes or No

He’d decided not to yet. He still wanted to buy [Merge] as well. He had lots of interesting ideas for that skill but at a cost of 20 AP, Orrin couldn’t make himself save the points.

“I should get some new skills related to poison, water, and steel to see if I can get new wards,” Orrin mumbled to himself, careful to not wake Daniel. Extra wards specific to the new dungeon would probably be invaluable. He narrowed down a few low-cost spells related to each area of magic and noted them to discuss with Daniel tomorrow.

For poison, he narrowed his options down to two spells. [Venom Bite] or [Toxic Touch]. Both fell under the poison heading and only cost one or two ability points.

[Venom Bite] – become the predator. Coat your teeth with venom and bite your enemies. Intelligence modifier attack damage. -1 AP

[Toxic Touch] – your touch becomes toxic. MP cost variable to toxicity. -2 AP

He was leaning toward [Toxic Touch] even with the higher cost. He didn’t think biting was going to become his new attack method and although the intelligence damage modifier sounded powerful, especially for him, Orrin couldn’t see a situation where he needed to get close enough to bite someone. He also didn’t think he’d need to touch someone, but [Toxic Touch] was only a point more. Slapping someone with poison sounded better than going full vampire. Orrin smirked as he imagined Daniel and Tony freaking out about vampire skills.

While water magic had more options, including a lot of water attack spells, Orrin was pretty sure he wanted to get [Water Reservoir]. For one ability point, he would be able to make water. It would free up lots of space in his [Dimension Hole], letting him carry more food. In addition, the water magic would probably give him a water ward. He’d considered some sort of water-breathing spell as well, but the cost for those types of skills was more than a few AP and the descriptions mentioned air and water magic. Spending that amount of AP and risking not getting a water ward wasn’t exactly a safe choice when the end goal was the ward, in Orrin’s opinion. [Water Reservoir] also used a very small amount of mana for a gallon of water, so he wasn’t worried about running out of MP.

Steel magic was the most expensive of the three fields of magic. The store had nothing that costs less than three ability points. He’d found a few things that made him think of Ira, the member of the Dragoon team he’d saved. What appeared to be the base spell [Control Steel] allowed manipulation of the metal at a basic level. Additional options were greyed out, with a notification that the base spell was required before purchase. Spells like [Sharpen Steel], [Quench Steel], [Temper Steel], [Steel Pull], [Steel Push], and many more made Orrin wonder just how many spells Ira had to take for his flying, shredding knives of death. While [Control Steel] cost five ability points, each additional option cost another three AP. Orrin continued to scroll through the add-on abilities that all seemed to stem from [Control Steel], looking for anything that jumped out. He really didn’t want to spend five points on something as useless to him as [Control Steel].

He’d also searched for [Lightstrikes], which he knew existed thanks to completing the Obtain Level 10 Quest. He hadn’t taken the upgrade at the time. Now, he couldn’t find a way to upgrade his base spell, as the system store gave no indication that such an upgrade even existed.

He kept going over different options until the day crept up on him and he fell asleep.

When he woke up the next morning, Daniel was already half-dressed. He had strapped Gertrude, his oversized sword to his back holster and then tried to put on his pants. Orrin chuckled when Daniel’s sword caught the fabric and bent him backward as he tried to finish getting clothed.

“Shut up,” Daniel muttered, taking his sword off and putting it back on its stand before getting dressed like a normal person. “I’m just tired.”

Orrin stretched and didn’t make a move to get up. “Are you ready to hit the storerooms today? Anything you’re looking out for in particular?”

Daniel finally got his pants on and sat on Orrin’s bed to strap up his shoes. “That’s the plan. I’m not really looking for anything. I thought you were just going to take everything of value and well figure it out on the other side.”

Orrin groaned as he sat up and started pulling on his clothes. “Yeah, but also, we can grab anything we might need for the dungeon. Do you have anything packed for the trip?”

Daniel patted Gertrude on his back. “What else do I really need?”

Orrin put his head in his hand and sighed. He double-checked that everything from his [Dimension Hole] was stored away in their room and headed down for breakfast, ignoring Daniel’s questions as they left.

Emily had already arrived and was nursing a cup of something. Orrin’s hopes of another coffee-drinking friend were dashed when she poured some more tea for herself. Madi was eating a plate of eggs. There was no sign of Garret.

“Good morning,” Daniel chimed in, as he started loading a plate with food. Living at the Catanzano’s house meant a free breakfast and Daniel was taking advantage of that fact.

Emily just nodded at him. Madi waved her fork in greeting.

“Garret’s late?” Orrin tried to make conversation.

“He’s always late,” Emily replied, sipping more of her dirty water.

Orrin loaded up a plate as well, although with much less than Daniel. He also grabbed the entire carafe of coffee and put it within arm’s reach. The party of four ate quietly for a few minutes.

Orrin was on his third and final cup of coffee when Garret strolled in.

“What a fine day it is,” he grabbed an orange and started to peel it as he sat near Orrin. “Everybody already here?”

“We were supposed to be here half an hour ago,” Emily said with a frown.

“There’s no harm done,” Madi tried to mediate. “We still need to go over the final preparations. Have either of you given any thought to what sort of things you’d like to requisition from the Guild’s stores?”

Garret popped in a slice of his orange and spoke around his full mouth, “I’m really not picky. Anything I can carry out and sell is what I’d like.”

Madi shook her head in disappointment and turned to Emily. The fire mage shrugged a bit.

“There really isn’t anything that I could think of either. I saw the list of supplies you’re planning on bringing and I know you explained Orrin can carry some things in his storage skill, but unless we find books on fire magic theory, I’m with Garret on taking valuable stuff. The Guild doesn’t really sort anything in those rooms. I’m sure we can find some rare monster parts and make some extra gold. I still think it’ll be mostly a waste of time, though.”

“What if we find a relic?” Daniel asked, too casually.

Orrin rolled his eyes.

“We won’t,” Emily answered confidently. “Even with the Guildmaster turnover rate, anything of real value would have been found. It’s more likely we find a few small scraps of Red Bison hide or some precious metals. Relics would mean paperwork. Paperwork doesn’t just disappear.”

Madi coughed. “Paperwork does disappear sometimes. If somebody wanted it to happen.”

Emily turned slowly to appraise Madi. “Do you have some information we don’t have?”

She shook her head. “I just know how administrations work. People mess up. On accident or on purpose doesn’t matter. We don’t need to find a relic. A few pounds of cold iron or Mythril and we can make some amazing weapons or armor. Even a sliver of dragon bone and we can get some enchantments made.”

“You can enchant dragon bone?” Daniel looked up from his plate. “Gertrude has dragon bone. Why did nobody tell me this?”

Madi turned to Orrin and raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t tell him?”

Orrin was thankful he had just lifted his cup to his face. A large gulp of coffee and a shrug was enough for Madi to roll her eyes.

“Dragon bone can be etched with a rune and store mana for later use,” she explained. Madi put her spear in its short form on the table. “I have a thumbnail size flake of dragon bone in here. I can compress the length about a hundred times before it needs to be charged. Just some mana at the end of the day and it’s all good to go again.”

“What kind of runes? What are the options for enchantments? Where can I get this done?” Daniel asked, his food forgotten at the prospect of upgrading Gerty.

“We can worry about that later,” Orrin interrupted. “At the end of the day, we get the supplies on our list and then search for anything of real value. Then we can worry about enchantments and getting stuff made.”

Garret slapped his legs and stood up. “Alright, everybody ready?”