Kone had the right idea all along, Cain decides the next afternoon when he wakes up with Nemu draped across him. It's all about the fluff.
Shifting around to see the state of the party's aftermath he finds no fewer than fifteen people passed out in his room, both Nemus plus Misha and Mythryll in his bed, then the Vala twins and Dimnys drinking in the tub along with Morgan and a very threatened looking Nathaniel.
"Didn't your brother tell you to be gentle with Elves?" Cain jokes, trying not to wake the others as he gets out of bed, opting to simply transfer Nemu over on top of Misha.
"I am gentle, see. No marks or bruises at all." Morgan announces, proud of herself.
"I'm going to find some breakfast, if anyone's interested. I'm sure the others will be awake soon." Cain laughs, headed for the door, chased by a dripping wet Elven cleric in his underwear.
"I'll join you. Enjoy the tub ladies." Nathaniel calls as he runs away to the sounds of quiet laughter.
"It's not that I don't like her you see, it's just that she is terrifying. You understand, right?" He explains, equipping a robe as he catches up to Cain.
"Certainly. She's persistent though, so I'm sure you'll have time to get used to her, as long as you don't do anything too horrible to make her leave." Cain pats the Guild member on the shoulder.
"We'll be living at our Guild House in Sunnybrook for most of a year this time, I've got high hopes for the pair of you." a somewhat haggard Ghaz jokes, emerging from a room that seems to still have a number of female Dwarves sleeping in it. That party really did get out of hand.
Brunch is ready by the time they get down to the kitchen, loading plates and returning to the tavern, stepping over slowly awakening party goers to reach a booth. Triss and a few other girls from the Orphanage bring up the buffet setup to get everyone fed and mobile for the day, the girls hired as maids having all started their day cleaning the Sunnybrook house as every room of the Graska house, including the floor in the forge, is occupied.
"You'll have a time of it today, getting everyone fed so they can get moving. Get Gramps to pay any extra hands you need from the Guild funds. I'm not sure where he went though." Cain smiles at everyone bringing the food upstairs.
"He's one of the Dwarves asleep on the floor by the forge. Says the heat helps the old joints." Triss laughs.
Kone comes down from her room with a dozen or so young girls from next door as soon as the smell of food begins to spread. Looks like they decided on a sleepover, since everyone else was having an all night party anyhow. Triss brings out a jug of spiced milk to go with the usual juice, coffee and mead in the breakfast selections and the kids cheer. Spiced milk isn't particularly expensive, but it's more expensive than having the orphans drink tea with breakfast, so it's a luxury.
Cain decides to keep his word right away, so he calls Triss over as the evening's guests begin to file out for the day.
"I'm going to head into the Beastkin dungeon today for just a little while. Would you like to grab the couple of Mages you mentioned being in need of some additional levels and join me?" he asks.
"Me, join you? I'm not much of a fighter. I just happened to awaken my interface while very young and didn't know about the random class generator." She laughs.
"No need to find them either, they're already here." Kone indicates a pair of young Dwarves barely into their teens, drinking spiced milk and eating chocolate chip pancakes.
"Well, if our resident Druid is up for it, that makes five if you come along. I'll excuse you from work for the day and I'm sure the others won't mind an extra paid hour or two to cover your chores will they?" The others definitely won't mind the work. There's lots of them here, and the Guild pays well thanks to Gramps soft spot for the orphan kids. He even sends them on make work projects to drag out a little extra time if they haven't found much other work lately. Nobody in the Guild has done their own shopping since the first day thanks to that system.
"Isn't the dungeon a bit high level though? We're only level 25." One of the Mages asks.
"Don't worry, our technique brings the monsters to us, so you'll just have to sit by the gate while the fighting goes on around you." Cain smiles and Kone chuckles, remembering what happens when very low levels go into a very high level dungeon for a carry. Plus, this one is fifteen level higher than the one in Sunnybrook, and the others, but especially Triss, are even lower level than Kone herself was when the Darklight Host started power leveling her.
"If you're sure it's safe, I'm all for it. A few levels would really help with the strength Stat to make my work easier." Triss finally agrees.
Cain gathers up Vala and Nemu, informing the Guild members that are currently in the tavern that they're off to go help some orphans level, causing those in the know to burst into laughter and wave him on his way.
The usual guard is at the gate this morning, giving them an odd look about bringing more children into the Dungeon. Sure, Kone is tough, but the Dwarf knows these kids are just average kids, even if Triss is mostly grown.
"You sure about that then?" he asks as they walk up.
"We're good! We've got a plan to protect them in the middle while we fight." the Spirit Folk Druid assures him while Cain calls out the Greater Golems as well as the Blight Demon Mages. The little skeletons were fun, and a load of extra experience, but today calls for much more area damage that the Lich Lords and skeletons just can't achieve. The Blight Demon Mages have an area attack that spreads [Weakness] and will greatly increase the enemies damage taken.
They set up in their usual cluster by the gate, the Young Dwarves having collapsed from the flood of notifications the second they entered, due to the opponents that always crowd the door.
"Don't worry, eventually the notifications slow down until you can function again. I know, it happened to me once too." Kone laughs in shared misery before returning to the fight.
The combination of Pestilence and Vala's group heal on hit had made her job here very, very easy. Mostly she's just cheering on her Bears, and the ones called by the clones of her that Cain summoned. The clones do significantly more damage now than she remembers them doing, a result of Cain's upgrade in INT, as their damage is based off the Casters spell power. All of the summons seem to have gotten a huge boost in the last few days, they're cutting through the Beastkin almost as fast as they appear, no huge crowds this time.
But just how long are these Dwarves going to be out?
