Room Service dinner turns into room service drinks and a long night for everyone involved. Misha is the first one awake, waking Cain when she rolls over in bed.
"What time is it?" he asks, the curtains around the bed making everything dark.
"Sometime after noon, I think. Let's see if the others survived and get something to eat."
Char and Mythryll are cuddled together on the couch, which Cain just realized is a hide a bed type. The first of them he's seen in this world. Lickity is asleep in the good chair by the fireplace, looking quite comfortable, while Cixelcid is sprawled out on the rug.
"Maybe we should let them sleep?" Misha asks.
"No need, everyone but Lickity is awake, we just didn't want to open our eyes and face the hangover." Char whispers from the couch.
"In that case, I'll order breakfast in." Misha says softly.
Being the understanding and experienced hotel they are, the kitchen had no problem sending up breakfast for 6 in the middle of the afternoon. The smell of bacon finally roused Lickity, who stumbled around like a zombie until Cixelcid fed her a cup of coffee, saying that was her natural state in the mornings.
"So, I know Lickity has a shop to stock, and Cid has guild matters to attend, but what are the four of us going to do today?" Char smiles "We could take a quick quest from the Hall? They have a lot that should only take 3 or 4 hours, and it's a good chance to walk and talk."
Char is right, there are a huge number of random quests at the hall. Many simple like finding a few herbs. Some more dangerous like killing a bandit or wandering monster.
They decide on a level 40 fire Lizard quest. An alchemist needs 1 single hide from them, and they're found within an hours walk of the city. Just the sort of thing they need to pass their afternoon.
"So where all has everyone been since transferring in? I know a lot of transfers our level have been here for years." Cain asks.
"Personally I've only been from the starting Village here, stopping off at the ice caverns in between." He shrugs.
"I went east to the Elf forests before making it to the ice caverns. There's wisps and lots of cool stuff out there, plus the trees are huge." Mythryll smiles at the memory.
"The Spirit Folk race gets its own transfer point on the far side of the Elf forest. I spent a few years there, and then worked my way here. The Ice Caverns sounded too cold, so I didn't stop there, but there's a wilderness dungeon not far from there full of gargoyles. I spent a few months trying to tame one." Char laughs.
"I was stuck in that starting town for over a year, trying to get enough levels to leave. It was awful. But then Cain here showed up and in a few months I got 30 levels where the first 10 took me a year." Misha smiles and squeezes Cain's hand.
"So how long have you two been together?" Char asks.
"We first joined party 3 days after I arrived." Cain answers before realizing that's not what she meant at all.
"About 2 months." Misha answers for them both.
"That's sweet, I liked watching the local kids going on dates in the park my father built." she smiles sadly. "I wasn't allowed to date, not with an arranged marriage waiting."
"So you were from a wealthy family?" Mythryll asks, still taking in everything around them, enjoying the forest.
The Shaman laughs. "You could say that. I married an Emperor after all."
"Wait, An Emperor? I get the feeling we're all from different worlds to begin with. Misha didn't know about VR games, my world only had about 2 Emperors left, and their roles were ceremonial"
"What a strange thing. Who runs the nations then? The magistrate and Senate?" Char asks surprised.
"Pretty much. The system just kept getting more complex and corrupt every few decades." Cain tries thinking of a way to explain his world's politics and fails.
"So you were an Empress, in a palace, with your kids and the Emperor and servants and all?" Mythryll is intrigued by the Empress thing.
"As much as I hate to break up story time, we're here." Misha says, pointing at the fire Lizards.
They look like huge iguanas. The heads and tail shape are identical, just red. Cain calls out the full complement of his summons, nearly draining his mana, and Char sets out a mana and healing totem, slinging them over her shoulder.
These things are no joke. Their bites are taking chunks out of the Greater Golems. A few of them have been killed already, and the quest item obtained, but the tenacious lizards just won't let them leave.
"Mythryll, Blizzard please." Char calls, sending lightning at them with minimal effect. As fire Lizards, cold damage should hopefully be more effective.
The Blizzard is getting it done, the pack of fire Lizards is dead and the group rapidly retreats, talking animatedly about the viciousness of the Lizards.
"It's like they thought Golems are food, they were just ripping chunks off." Misha shudders.
"And then they called more over for dinner. Not even shocking them could deter them from attacking that golem." Mythryll laughs and the group moves into a discussion of the various strange fights they've had, lasting all the way back to the city walls.
"You all look pretty chipper, didn't find the fire Lizards?" The guard Sargeant asks at the city gates.
"Oh, we did find them. They ate the Golems. More than once." Cain laughs and the guard smiles.
"Welcome back. There will be fresh quests up in the morning if you're not feeling like fighting Zombies."
"Thank you so much!" Mythryll cheers. "It's good experience, but that place smells so bad."
"So, look for quests tomorrow instead of hitting the dungeon?" Misha asks hopefully.
Their return to the Hall is attracting attention, more than Cain would expect even with 3 beautiful ladies in his party.
"So tell us, who was the sacrificial chew toy?" One of the adventurers asks. "Surely you didn't make the ladies do it?"
"Of course not." Cain sounds a bit offended by the insinuation. "A true gentleman would never do such a thing. I summoned a golem for them to chew on while we completed the quest."
The Adventurers present raise their mugs in salute at the ingenuity and let the party go collect their hard earned quest reward.
