910 Taking A Good Break
While we were having a bountiful dinner full of cooked meals this time, as I've grown a bit tired of just ordering food even for Arcadia, the rest of our friends finally logged in. Rita, Lily, and Jenny were finally back into the game. Angelina had logged-in again and she sent me a message saying she was having a good time in the Mine Dungeon with her party, they were uncovering some new secrets and had recently discovered a nest of mutated demonic beasts, which they had slain successfully with the help of the Queen's "Shadows".
They were soon going to come back with tons of news, so while we waited for their return, we discussed what had transpired so far with Rita, Lily, and Jenny. My daughter had also logged-in with her friends, and they were now just a few hours from reaching the city at long last. It took them days to get here because they were constantly visiting Dungeons they came across, so they leveled up a lot.
"With Angelina and my daughter's group approaching, our entire team is going to only get larger now." I laughed, slightly nervously. "Anyways, that's what just happened when you weren't here. Did you girls get your rewards by any chance?"
"Ah, yes, I did get mine!" Rita nodded. "I got a shit ton of nice stuff! And EXP and Gold! My Level's already hitting max soon!"
"I got a weird ticket for… skill fusion? But can't we do that already?" Lily wondered, rising an eyebrow.
"It seems like a special kind of ticket thing…" Jenny said, she had already Ranked Up recently, and finally reached Level 150. As a newbie, she had been lagging a bit behind us, but was catching up quickly. "So I can fuse skills without skill points? That sounds pretty nice actually!"
"I think so, and the resulting skill will also have some "Divine" Power to it or something…" Lily analyzed the ticket.
"Well it also has no restrictions! So we can fuse any damn skill, even without them being to an appropriate level. And it's a max of four skills?! Wow, this is insane!" Rita was getting excited about using it.
"Do Players always fuse their Skills together like this? I think this is the first time I am even given the option to do so…" Acorn said, even as the Honorary Player Title holder, he couldn't access the Skill Fusion tab.
"Yes, maybe…" I nodded. "Brisingra, Nieve, did you two get it as well?"
"Yeah!" Said Brisingra with a nod. "I think I know what skills to fuse together. My skill slots have gotten a bit tighter, so freeing some would be really nice."
"We can still learn new Skills using Skill Points, but yes. The whole skill fusion option does not seem available for us." Nieve nodded.
"That's a pity, but it's also nice you can at least fuse up to four skills together…" I said while slurping on some noodles. "Hmm, I wish there was a way to upgrade the Title Effects…"
"Maybe in the future, it could be some sort of Quest Reward, the System does seem to favor you to an extent, giving you special quests from left and right." Mark laughed a bit, eating pork buns. "Oh, these pork buns are really good. Your cooking only gets better every day!"
"Heheh, well it's thanks to the Cooking Spirits effects that the food is so super tasty." I giggled. "So, are you girls joining in for the exploration on the Ancient Valley?" I asked Rita, Lily, and Jenny. "There was a message saying the place had Ancient Guardians of sorts… I'm worried it'll be more like a Dungeon."
"It IS definitely like a dungeon at this point!" Johanna suddenly said. "After all, that place has been abandoned for thousands of years, right? Even if sealed within the Smithy of a God, the accumulated Mana inside the ruins is bound to turn into miasma and give birth to monsters. The Ancient Guardians left might have also become corrupted as well, for all we know."
"You know a bit about dungeons, huh, brat?" Rita eyed Johanna, who have been acting like she's part of the family already. "Just like two days ago you were really annoying…"
"A-Ah, well, my granny said I had to be friendly! W-What's wrong with that?! Wanna go for a round or something?" The angry druid girl barked back.
"Enough, Johanna, don't fight." I said. "Rita, just leave her be."
"Tch… Fine." Rita shrugged. "You're lucky my bestie's the nicest person in the world, or you wouldn't have gotten away with all the shit you told to her the other day so easily."
"I-I said I was sorry!" Johanna groaned. "Uggghh…"
"Yes, she did say that." Nieve vouched for her out of nowhere. "As long as she regrets her words and also respects my lady, it is alright. Right?"
"I-I guess?" Acorn wondered. "Why are you looking at me? I don't think I have much of a saying in these things! I'm just the Alchemist of the Team!"
"Err, even less myself, I just joined recently…" Brisingra sighed. "But I would say that Johanna has a lot of room to grow! Let's keep her around. Having a powerful Druid like her is useful. I've seen her fight a couple of times in her spars with your Familiars, she seems to have great potential… I also want to join the exploration, naturally!"
"Of course dear, you're coming without a doubt. You're our only connection to the Ancient Elves, the Overseers of Time." I nodded. "But first, it looks like some of our friends are finally here."
As the day was slowly coming to an end, the door of the smithy was knocked, and Angelina and her party arrived. They looked both proud and also exhausted. I wanted to explore the mines myself, but we had no time to do everything, so that they took care of that job was really nice.
"We're finally back! How is everyone doing?" Angelina stepped inside the large hall.
"Angelina! Welcome back!" I said. "How was the expedition?"
"It was really insightful, I would say…" Gandalf groaned in exhaustion.
"We fought like a thousand Demonic Beasts." Sighed Anikitty.
"Uuuggh… I don't want to enter a mine ever again." Erdrich sighed.
"Alright, sit down to eat with us and tell us everything that happened!" I said.
