Entry Thirty Five

Alexis

Entry Made: 17th of the Month of the Golden Eagle, in the Seven Hundredth and Fourteenth year of the Holy Empire

Clay regained consciousness early this morning shortly before Rook departed. Her first words were something about 'never going back there again, and I'll fucking chop my legs off before you throw me out into the ring again'. And then she punched the doctor who was attending to her in the jaw.

I dearly wish I could claim I was surprised.

In a happier turn of events, I've recovered enough to venture out of the clinic and check up on our Guild. Most of them appear to be faring relatively well – Pure and Melina have continued to provide a steady flow of income into our Guild. Less reassuring is that His Majesty's updating of our finances has been rather inconsistent of late. I'll need to remind him of that.

And now begins the rather arduous task of replacing all the equipment we lost. The 3000 en worth of equipment we stockpiled has become obsolete remarkably quickly. I'll talk with the proprietor of Napier's Firm for a discount in a bulk purchase, but honestly I doubt it'll have any effect.

I visited Jules, and he appeared to be studying several spellbooks. I am not well-versed enough in the arcane to tell what spells he was attempting to study, unfortunately. To be honest, I wanted to ask him about why he went on yesterday about me being able to leave when I wish. Does he doubt my loyalty? But ultimately I decided against raising that issue. There'll be a better time for that sort of thing.

I feel utterly useless like this. Moving too much hurts, and I don't have any way to aid the Guild. I can only pray to the Goddess for a speedy recovery.

Rook

Good news, bad news time, I guess.

Good news was that we found the entrance to the seventh floor of the Labyrinth. Rossa was actually pretty helpful, since I guess many of the beasts of the Labyrinth aren't too used to dealing with Fire. She was pretty frail physically, though, so our progress wasn't the fastest. Nobody complained much actually.

Bad news is, the seventh floor is filled with these sea dragons things that are a damn sight tougher than anything we've seen so far. We didn't get into battle with one ourselves, but we ran into a group of soldiers the Senatus had sent down here battling one of the things. Apparently they'd gotten their rears handed to them by the dragon and were fleeing for their lives. Just our luck to have been caught up in the chase. Rossa wasn't good enough to keep up with the rest of us so Zack had to scoop her up and carry her while we ran. I think she was a little humiliated by that.

Worst news is that the soldiers we ran into are the lucky ones. There're corpses all over the place. Most of the poor bastards they sent down here aren't equipped to deal with the starfish, never mind the High Onneps and Walruses and whatnot. Met that Kujura dude and apparently he agrees with me on that too. He's on the verge of simply ordering a general recall and leaving hunting Olympia to seasoned explorers.

Meaning us, I suppose. Although I don't feel that seasoned after all. Heh.

Midori was pretty quiet during our trek today. She's still got that limp, but she seemed to perform well enough in the Labyrinth. But she's… I dunno, driven? I wonder what that's about. I tried asking her about it when we got back from the Labyrinth but she shook her head and told me that she'd tell me some other time. I hope she's feeling okay.

Time to go pass my findings off to Alexis. Wounded or not she's still our leader. She'll probably want to know more about those dragon things too. So that's three different kinds of monsters we're not sure about in the second stratum alone – the crocodiles, the giant fish, and the now the dragons.

Well we're in for the long haul, aren't we?

Zack

Today's Labyrinth venture was pretty uneventful. When I got back I saw Lady Juliana sitting at her desk reading some letters from home. I guess it's to be expected that she's homesick. Also she got beaten pretty badly in the Labyrinth, so I guess it's also a blow to her pride.

I'm not really sure what popped into my head, but I suggested going out for a hunt. Something to get her mind off things, maybe restore her self-confidence. Well, she seemed interested, we got to talking, and well, long story short, we decided to try taking on the Hammerhead Shark around Ayutthaya.

She decided to go ask Jules and Alexis to join her on this hunt, using the logic that it was encountering the Hammerhead Shark that was what allowed for us to meet up in the first place. I'm not sure, but I think Alexis' grinding her teeth. Not sure what that was about, but anyway, Jules pointed out that the three of them hadn't fully recovered yet.

Lady Juliana was adamant, though, and eventually we agreed on setting out in a couple of days. This should either be a great victory, or… well, a disaster. Let's hope it's the former. We could all use a bit of cheering up after the trouncing we've taken after the past couple of days.

Geoffrey

Thought for the Day: Too much curiosity can be a bad thing

Received a request to observe fauna behaviour in the second stratum at night.

Shall plan an expedition soon. Wonder what sort of location he has in mind.

Adrian has recovered fully. That is good.

She has boundless energy. I only wish I could teach her to redirect that energy to productive pursuits.

She has been spending more time with the Arbalist Sidney, and the Farmer Pure. That is good. She should interact with others approximately her age.

My greatest wish is that she grows up to be strong woman like her mother.

Tinker

Finally found a Guild that doesn't look half bad! And they shouldn't have any reason for turning me down. I mean, they go into the Labyrinth to kill things, and I'm good at killing things. By blowing them up. So this should be a good match, right?

And anyway, there was no reason to kick me out of the Navy. I mean, so what if I brought too much gunpowder onboard? It's not like anyone got killed! And all the damage to the ship could be fixed. Plus I figured out how to make my latest concoctions more stable, so that sort of thing wouldn't happen again. Theoretically, anyway.

Guess I'm nervous about how they'll see me. Chin up, Dwayne! You'll never get this job if you don't believe you will!