"Good evening. I go by the alias Rosa. It is my utmost pleasure to make acquaintances with your guild, Ms. Remilia."
That was the greeting she received upon finally entering her new household, the formerly abandoned mansion in some corner of Etria. A courteous woman in maid dress, hair a shining yet dull shade of purple, and absolutely no discernable presence. Remilia wasn't quite sure if she even knew how to feel about this woman named Rosa, especially taking into consideration the fact that this situation did not call for anything to be felt in the first place.
Regardless, after a brief relaxation at the Golden Deer Pub with Scarlet and the blacksmith Shilleka, being greeted by a maid after dark wasn't something she was expecting.
It would probably be impolite to keep standing still, unresponsive, though. So Remilia did what she did best.
She nodded and moved along.
"Oh, Ms. Remilia, over here!" a familiar voice called, and Remilia saw Rin seated around a rather long table. The orange haired medic was patting an empty spot next to her right - Remilia's left - so the hexer made to head over where she was being invited to sit, and promptly took her seat.
Around the table, a couple of other unknown people were gathered as well. First, she noticed Valeria, of course - and Scarlet, who arrived with her, and promptly took seat next to the brunette.
Then, next to Valeria's right - Remilia's left, from her perspective - was the familiar highlander they met two or three days ago, whose name was... Shreya? Freya? Something like that.
To Freya's right - again, the hexer's left - was an unfamiliar light blonde with a short pair of pigtails, her height measuring up to around the highlander's chest, or at least she assumed. It was kinda hard to tell people's height when they were sitting, the hexer felt.
Far to her right, meanwhile, a group of three more unfamiliar people were observing the four girls of Modem.
One was an equally short boy with spiked, dull blonde or slightly green hair, sporting a red long-sleeved shirt and a stylish mess of a blood colored scarf. He seemed to be looking at Remilia intently, for some reason. Did he... recognize her? That's... impossible, right? She had no idea who this person even was.
Next to the boy, a taller woman was chugging down a glass mug of... was that some sort of juice? The woman's red face seemed to imply it was something alcoholic. Speaking of red, her long hair was also a beautiful shade of red, her eyes a bit leaning more towards vermilion.
Lastly, the third person was... a long-haired man? Woman? Remilia wasn't exactly sure, but they wore a pair of glasses, and along with it, a pretty fitting stare devoid of compassion. They seemed like quite the snarky person, she judged, and if the person's white coat wasn't a clear evidence of them being an unpleasant person to work with, she'd probably have to apologize eventually.
Suddenly, someone stepped up to the hexer, and she turned to her right to see Rosa bending over slightly. "Pardon me, Ms. Remilia. Would you care for a cup of beverage? Tea, perhaps?"
"..." Did she ask for something to drink? Maybe that wasn't a bad idea, even if she just had some cups of water at the local pub. Or, had it been showing on her face? The girl realized she was taking more time than needed to reply, again, so she nodded once more, and the maid - Rosa - headed off to another room.
"...what a weird girl," the boy in stylishly jagged scarf suddenly remarked.
"Arth'r!" the scarlet haired woman - who wasn't Scarlet - hissed and knocked him on the head, eliciting a groan from him. She quickly turned to the hexer, lowering her head in a hurry despite most likely being drunk. "S-sorry 'bout dis moron ov'r 'ere... urp..." she said, before covering up her mouth - whether that was a hiccup or signs of impending vomit, no one could really tell.
Next to her, the person in white coat sighed and shook their head, a male voice barely audible. "Speak for yourself," he said. "You're barely able to talk properly now... I think it's best you rest for the day, Raquna."
The woman, Raquna, let another yelp escape her lips - a hiccup, evidently - before she got up in a daze. "F-fiiine... I'll, I'll go do behehehd... b-buddonly 'cuz you're azzourpuss... lame-o..." she wheezed, tumbling her way up the stairs far to the sides of the lounge/dining room.
As the disappeared, clustered noises were heard, and a strange gasp of surprise echoed from somewhere.
"M-Ms. Raquna, please be careful!" That sounded like that maid, Rosa, but she didn't really look the 'expressive' part. People sure are weird.
Remilia glanced back to the boy who had been hit on the head, Ar... Arthr? Him, who flinched upon recovering and noticing her gaze. "S-sorry, I didn't mean nothin' bad about what I just said!" he quickly clarified. "I just thought you'd be... I dunno, more. Y'know? Right, Simon?"
The man in white sighed again. "Maybe you should sit back while I do the talking," he said, before eyeing the hexer. "Pardon our rudeness. We've been conversing with your guild members for a while now. Ms... Ms. Oriole, was it?" he asked and paused, to which Rin nodded. "Ms. Oriole here had told us about your feats. Arthur seemed to have been expecting someone with... as he would say, 'amazing charisma', perhaps."
"Y-you were too!" Arthur shot back. "And Raquna too! Right? I bet deep down you're thinking she's weird too!" he said.
"..." the man offered no rebuttal to that, but either ways, Remilia didn't care in the slightest.
Then, the quiet blonde girl opposite to her, from her left, stood up slowly. "U-um... I'm... Frederica," she said.
"Oooh, so that was your name," Valeria piped up. "I was wondering since you didn't talk at all..."
"V-Valeria, that's rude..." Rin whispered. "I-I'm sorry about our teammate too!" the medic apologized to the blonde, who didn't respond and promptly sat back down.
Something about her seemed... strange, however. Remilia wasn't quite sure what it was, but she had pieced things together already - whatever 'secret mission' the highlander Freya was on, the other strangers she had just met were basically the highlander's new guild here in Etria, wasn't it? It was easy to understand that those other three people - Arthur, Raquna, and Simon - were their own group, as they seemed quite close with each other.
Freya the Highlander came from outside. And back when the group had encountered Freya along with those two adventurers... Ren? And that other hexer... there had been no sign of anyone named Frederica.
So, naturally, Frederica was also someone who came from somewhere that wasn't Etria.
It wasn't an important question, of course, but the hexer briefly wondered who the blonde really was.
...perhaps... the pale girl thought. ...perhaps she's...
"Anyways, now the entire group is here!" Valeria's voice interrupted her thoughts once more. "As you can tell, that over there is our boss, Remrem. She's the one who grabbed all of us into forming our guild, Modem, and we're totally on the rise and killing it!"
The boy, Arthur, let out a 'whoa!' of awe, most likely (and strangely) fascinated by... whatever it was that fascinated him.
"Oh, and that over there is Scarlet," Valeria added, pointing to the redhead, who balked at such a simple introduction. "She's sort of a killjoy and takes things seriously."
"What- hey!" the red haired landsknecht exclaimed.
Arthur grinned. "Oh, so she's just like Simon," he commented.
Said man readjusted his glasses, wordless. His eyes narrowed, though, so clearly he took mild offense to that.
"A-and once again, I'm Rin Oriole," Rin said, getting up to greet once more. "It's, it's really nice to meet you all, really. We can't thank you enough for... you know, sharing this house with us."
"It's nothing you need to concern yourself with," Simon replied. "Besides, this was the decision of the Sheldon family. It's wiser you give your thanks to Raquna, who's an actual Sheldon herself."
"T-that was- w-what!?" Scarlet exclaimed, getting up in a hurry. "Y-you should've told us earlier! Oh, jeez, we came late and kept her waiting and-"
Valeria laughed. "Hey, Scar, relax! You saw how she was, she's all drunk and stuff right now. Totally no worries!" she said, which only slightly reassured the redhead. "Besides, I did try to be polite to her, y'know, since you made such a big deal out of the whole 'Sheldon family involvement' thing. Raq says she doesn't mind casual at all though, so no need to worry!"
"...Raq?" Scarlet asked. "Dont you think you're getting a little bit carried away there? We just met today, y'know..."
Then it was Arthur's turn to laugh. "Wow, yeah! She's just like Simon!" he said.
Both Simon and Scarlet sent the boy a glare, none of which he noticed.
In the meantime, Rosa reentered the room, a small pouch in her hand. "I-I'm sorry for the delay," she said, and Remilia took a second or two to connect it back to her offer of tea - that still hadn't come, somehow. "It was... a bit troublesome, putting Ms. Raquna to sleep."
"Heh, what, did you German suplex her and knock her out?" Arthur asked, amused by the vision playing out in his head as he spoke those words.
From the corner of her eyes, Remilia noticed Frederica tense, staring at Arthur in surprise. "German...?" she whispered, unheard by everyone present.
Other than Freya, of course, who obviously didn't read into it and glanced back at her for a second before returning to Arthur.
...German? Remilia had to wonder what that was, and why that elicited a small response at all from Frederica. ...and now that she thought about it, what was a suplex? German suplex... sounds like something you do to someone, but just what was that, and why was it amusing for Arthur? Hmm. Sometimes she just didn't get people.
Oh, right. The conversation seemed to have continued while she was lost in thought - she sure spent a bit too much effort wondering whatever that German suplex thing was - and now Rosa was back next to her, approaching and addressing the hexer.
"If you wouldn't mind," Rosa's voice snapped her out of her thoughts just in time, "please accept this gift from the Sheldon family. These are three Grimoire stones, picked randomly from the family's storage."
Remilia blinked and accepted the pouch from the maid, opening it to pull out three beautiful stones. She placed them on the table, the pouch a bit further away, and everyone else eyed the gems she had just received.
"Oooh, hey, aren't those the pretty rocks we sometimes get from monsters?" Valeria asked. "Grimy stones or... something."
"Grimoire stones, Valeria," Scarlet corrected.
"Right, those. Thanks, Scarscar!"
Simon readjusted his glasses, having gotten up to walk over to inspect the Grimoire stones. "Do you perhaps not know about Grimoire stones, Ms... Ms. Wren, am I right?"
"Yep, that's me, Valeria Wren."
Arthur blinked. "Wait, seriously? But, Grimoire stones are, like... so cool!" he said. "You get them from monsters, and they're like, whoosh! You become stronger! And then you can do stuff like boom, kaboom, kaboomle!" (21)
Another stir from the corner of the hexer's eyes, from Frederica. Once again, the blonde seemed to recognize something from Arthur's words, but the hexer had no idea what, and from the looks of it, even Frederica herself was confused as to why she was reacting to his words.
...what part... react? Remilia certainly to wonder, though. Unlike 'German suplex', she had no idea what part of Arthur's sentence this time was eligible for reacting to. He was just terrible at explaining things, and coining words together in an idiotic manner, wasn't he? Like Valeria does sometimes.
This Frederica person sure was... weird. She'd have to keep an eye on the blonde, perhaps.
Oh, not good. Another conversation to get back into.
"...and you, Ms... Remilia, was it? Are you also uninformed about Grimoire stones?" Simon asked.
She blinked. Ah, that. "...I know."
"I- I know a bit about them too," Rin spoke up, "but... more explaining would help, yeah."
"Very well. That is good to know," the man replied, before sighing and turning to his companion. "Arthur, you'd probably make things worse, so you stay quiet."
"Hey!"
Then he briefly glanced over to Freya, who shook her head, and then to Frederica, who cowered slightly, clearly not wanting any spotlight put on her. The bespectacled man sighed again, then went back to his seat. "It seems I'll have to do the explaining here, I suppose."
"O-oh, I can help too," Scarlet interjected.
"Is that so? That'd be very much appreciated, Ms... Ibis, yes?"
The redhead nodded. "Scarlet Ibis. Um, nice to meet you."
"Simon Yorke. Likewise." Turning back to everyone present - sans Rosa, who went back to prepare the drinks she had offered time ago - he held up one of the Grimoire stones that Remilia had received. In particular, he held it slightly towards Valeria, who didn't notice that this discussion was basically for her sake. "This is a Grimoire stone. Within every Yggdrasil Labyrinth, all discovered monsters hold a core within their bodies - those are also Grimoire stones, in a sense."
"Wait, every Yggdrasil Labyrinth?" Valeria interrupted. "You mean there's more than one?" For a split second, Scarlet narrowed her eyes at the brunette, but her eyes widened upon realizing the question for clarification had pretty big merit - there's more than one mysterious maze of dangerous monsters within the world?
"...it's... not a well known fact outside of most places," Simon replied, "but yes, there are multiple Yggdrasil Labyrinths throughout the world."
"There used to be one near where we came from too," Arthur said. "Gotham," he clarified. For some reason, the two suddenly looked quite somber.
Scarlet frowned, while the other Etrians were somewhat confused. And Frederica and Freya too, it seemed. The redhead seemed to recognize something, however. "Gotham... i-isn't that the-"
"Yes," Simon interrupted, and no more words were spoken on that topic. As quickly as an awkward air suddenly formed, he quickly dismissed it with the continuation of his lesson. "Anyways... yes, there are multiple of these labyrinths throughout the worlds. In each of these labyrinths, there are monsters that, no matter what, will never become extinct, for whatever reasons." He held up the Grimoire stone once more. "These monster cores, or Grimoire stones, are essentially the only harvestable clue scholars have to understanding the nature of monsters, and by extension, the labyrinths themselves."
"Because they let us do all sorts of stuff!' Arthur chimed in, before quieting down at Simon's unamused stare. "Sorry..."
"...anyways. It is as Arthur says - these Grimoire stones allow us to do things we normally can't," the bespectacled man continued. "Although extremely fragile while in the bodies of monsters, once - and if - harvested successfully, they prove to be quite resilient and useful. The effects they have vary for each and every stone, but as of the moment, there are no negative effects on us, and they only provide benefits to our capabilities."
"No negatives... t-that's good," Rin said.
"They say you can determine the benefits of Grimoire stones based on its quality and coloration," Scarlet added. "The more refined they are, the more powerful their abilities are."
Simon nodded. "And the coloring scheme, for the most part, corresponds closely to metal. Copper colored stones, silver colored, gold colored. The exception to this is dark colored Grimoire stones," he said. "Each level determines how many different powers a harvested stone may grant you. A dark stone gives you the most."
Valeria frowned. "Wait, but how would you know what... 'power', a stone has? What, do we just keep testing out each one and figure it out? How would that even work?"
"Fortunately," a voice interrupted - Rosa, who gently set a tray of various teacups down, "I am quite well-versed in Grimoire analysis, and synthesis."
"Sin... thesis?" the brunette asked.
Rosa nodded. "Grimoire stones are able to be mixed together, in order to combine their abilities. Of course, it's a complicated process, so one must be trained to perform such a feat with utmost care."
"Whoa! You can fuse them together!?" Arthur exclaimed. "That's awesome! Now we can have crazy combinations - you're hella cool!"
"Did you not listen to her?" Simon asked. "It's an extremely complicated process. It'd take time before we could even get any suitable combinations, not to mention analysis itself is difficult as well."
Rosa nodded, confirming his words. "That is the case, yes. I am tasked with assisting both guilds to the best of my abilities, however, so I will do my best so as to not cause any delays in your investigations, Mr. Yorke."
"Simon is fine," the man replied. "Anyways, back to the topic - another thing to note is the order in which you mix these Grimoire stones in. The catalyst stone will keep the number of abilities it has for the resulting stone; the catalyst and the first sacrificial stones will also determine what skills you can pass on." (22)
Scarlet smiled. "And the third stone, or the second sacrifice, can be used to provide physical enhancements to whoever possesses the resulting stone, right?"
"That's right, it allows users to gain additional strength, dexterity, resilience, or even additional elements." (23)
Valeria whistled. "I don't know what that one means, but it sounds awesome."
"It's that thing, you know," Scarlet said, "magic armor reinforcement. It works the same way, sort of."
Arthur blinked. "What's that?"
Simon frowned. "Haven't I explained this to you before?"
The boy shrugged. "It probably sounded lame, so I forgot about it."
"Tell me you're kidding me..."
Scarlet chuckled to herself, feeling somewhat sorry for the bespectacled man, but nevertheless thought it was a good opportunity to catch everyone present up on these concepts. She turned to Arthur patiently and began explaining. "Part of exploration is about looks - as you would probably agree... um..."
"Arthur," the boy said.
"Right. Arthur." She cleared her throat. "As you would probably agree, because part of every explorer's dream is to look cool and appeal to people."
The boy nodded, grinning. "Hell yeah! if you're not cool, you're lame, after all!"
"Right. But the deeper you go, the more dangerous the monsters get, right?" the redhead continued. "So, in old times, strong explorers all looked pretty similar, due to having to buy the same kind of gear. Eventually, a breakthrough was made in the arts of crafts and forging, though." (24)
"Oh, I get it now!" Valeria said. "They figured out how to use magic to make armor stronger!"
"Not exactly," Simon replied. "What scholars discovered was the ability to grind down certain material down to a special layer of magic, which could then be coated onto other equipment."
"And if they can do that to raw materials," Scarlet resumed, "then they figured that they should be able to do the same to processed equipment, which are made of and more refined than said materials. Businesses began to get into turning powerful armor into magic coating, to make other, weaker armor become just as strong."
"Oh, I think I understand why that'd become popular," Rin remarked. "There are some clothes I wish I could wear instead of vests or hides..."
The redhead nodded. "Exactly. Back in those new times, commissioning blacksmiths became popular. That's part of how Shilleka's grandfather and father became popular among crafters here."
"That's cool," Valeria interrupted, "but how does that work for Grimoire stones then? They're not armor, even I know that."
"Yes, but the same principle still applies," Simon said. "Especially as they're monster cores - just like materials from monsters and from the labyrinth - proper handling allows them to be converted into magic coating."
"And since the stones themselves are the things with mysterious effects on whoever uses them," Scarlet added, "things like enhanced vision or better focus can be passed down without having to become part of the skills passed down. You could hold a Grimoire stone and learn the skills inside, and improve on eyesight and stuff just by holding the stone wrapped in that invisible magic layer."
The brunette clearly struggled a bit with all the explanation being given, but after some time, she nodded weakly. "I... think I kinda get it. Maybe. All this stuff sure is... complicated."
"I know, right? Imagine having to live with that," Arthur laughed. "That's me and Simon, best buds!"
"...oh, the horrors," the robed man said dryly.
"Anyways, that's pretty much the basics of Grimoire stones," Scarlet said. "They're honestly still recent for most people, so scholars aren't convinced everything has been understood about them yet. But-"
"Basics!?" Valeria exclaimed once that clicked in. "That was basics!?"
"Yeah," Scarlet replied. She rolled her eyes, pushing Valeria down on the seat again. "Look, I'll tell you a more simplified version later. Anyways, there's one other thing you have to know about them," she said.
Rin tilted her head, intrigued. "What is that?"
"We're not entirely sure about this yet, but supposedly there's something called a King Grimoire," the landsknecht explained. "I haven't been able to find much on that yet, scholars haven't really published anything on those. But... supposedly, they're, like... really powerful Grimoire stones."
"That sounds cool!" Arthur chimed. "How do we get them? I want one!"
Simon sighed. "It's currently just a myth, nobody knows what monster obtains them at the moment," he said, to the boy's chagrin. "As every monster's core varies, it's not even certain King Grimoires actually even exist." (25)
"That sucks..."
"But yeah, that's all to know about them for now," Scarlet said. "Any questions?"
She looked around, but nobody really had other questions at the moment, so she simply nodded and clapped her hands together.
"Great! Now that that's over with..." The redhead looked at Valeria. "Should we go check our rooms? Assuming you hadn't yet... and, y'know, I'm kinda tired from today, so..."
"Oh, yeah! We haven't!" the brunette exclaimed, then turned to Rosa, who had been standing nearby, ready to help anyone, anytime. "Rosa, where do we sleep? I can't wait to see how our rooms look like!"
The maid nodded. "Of course, I shall lead the way. Your rooms are on the second floor - the mansion holds a large number of private rooms, so your guild members do not need to worry about having to share spaces with one another."
"We get our own rooms!? Holy shit!" Valeria basically rejoiced right then and right there, as if this was what she had been given life for. "This day can't get any better! Take me away, Rosa!"
"I shall do so." The maid promptly turned to the others. "Would any of you care to observe your rooms as well?"
Freya shrugged and got up, and Frederica quietly followed after.
Rin turned to Remilia, curious. "Ms. Remilia, what about you? Do you want to see the rooms too?"
The hexer blinked, then took a sip out of her teacup. "...later."
"Okay then! I'll go ahead and check mine out first," the medic replied and got up. Arthur and Simon soon followed, and as everyone disappeared up the stairs, Remilia was left alone in the front lounge of the mansion.
She picked up the Grimoire stones she received, again, observing them quietly.
...cores... the hexer mused. Hm.
The next few two or three days had went by pretty swiftly. There hadn't been much notable activity - the people from Freya's guild, whatever it had been called, resumed their mysterious investigations whenever they had the chance. The girls from Modem, meanwhile, had a bit of trouble exploring the labyrinth's third floor, as by the stroke of bad luck, it was a floor filled to the brim with those deadly praying mantis F.O.E.s that they had faced before.
And they weren't weakened like the blood-soaked Reaping Shade they fought some four days ago - they were fully healthy ones, too.
Rin herself was adamant that the group avoided trying to fight even one of them, at all costs.
The four may have had some luck with defeating very few of those deer F.O.E.s on the previous floor, but no matter how much more skillful any of them were becoming, it was most likely and understandably nothing compared to the sheer ferocity these Reaping Shades possessed.
For the most part, the members agreed. Remilia felt the medic might have been exaggerating, of course, but it was best they don't argue and have a falling out this early into the whole exploration shtick, so the hexer didn't say anything about it.
But due to the tenacity of the Reaping Shade, the girls had to continuously retread or find hiding places and thus have their exploration progress delayed, not to mention various ambushes by more annoying monsters from the floor.
If anything, the hexer was honestly feeling a bit impatient. What could she do though? It wasn't like she could just waltz up to her teammates and go, "Hey, guys, I think we can defeat those mantis. Trust me!" or the likes of that, she'd probably get the scolding of her lifetime. Especially from Rin, who seemed to be the one passionate about health and safety, of the group.
That's when, during a time of lone relaxation for her at the pub, someone gave her an idea.
"'Ey, Remilia! I got'a small favor, y'see..." Shilleka had asked that evening, seated next to her. "I' been hearin' lots about them big monsters in the labyrinth, but y'know, I'm always just stuck'ere, makin' stuff for others." The dark skinned girl sighed, twirling her hair with a finger. "Sometimes I just wanna check out all th'crazy stuff myself, yeah?" (26)
"..." Remilia simply nodded along, not too interested initially.
"And so I was thinkin', see... what if I went on an adventure with one o'them guilds, just t'check out the later floors?" Shilleka said. "Maybe I could even go along wit' Modem! You girls seem pretty strong'n'all, and on the rise too! What'd'ya think?"
Accompanying Shilleka... well, that didn't seem too hard to do. Surely everyone else would be fine with having an extra person join the group, even if temporarily. Regardless of how things went, though, this did not contribute the slightest to her current dilemma - seriously, how the hell was she going to be able to quickly advance her standing in Etria, if she was going to have to take care of a fourth person now?
It's not like she could just go in alone and... and...
...! Remilia, in a fit of uncharacteristic shock, had to hold herself back from visibly facepalming in front of anyone present. This was a major blunder - how did it never even occur to her? She could just go in to the labyrinth alone and get some practice in! Hell, if she manages to kill some F.O.E.s alone, that'd absolutely shine a spotlight on her, right? That'd be especially even more impressive to everyone, and surely, that'd boost her status and get her even closer to meeting the top chief of Etria.
It was incredibly ridiculous that she had been gravitating around the whole party this entire time. Sure, it's safer and less suspicious to be a beginning, solo explorer, hence she went and formed Modem so as to seem more normal, but since she was already in a guild now, there was nothing strange about getting some 'training' by oneself, was there?
What was stopping her from waltzing into the labyrinth and battling some Reaping Shades? And if she was caught red handed by anyone, what was stopping her from feigning innocence and claiming to have escaped safely?
Clearly, she had been too laxed. The girl then realized that, now, after a day's work of exploring the third floor; now, evening, where everyone was tired and most likely seeking further exploration; now, where she was alone (sort of)... isn't this the perfect moment to sneak off and step closer to her objective?
"...in fact, maybe you girls wouldn't mind just takin' me through a quick tour of th'second and third floors!" Shilleka had been droning on and on.
Oh, right. Her. This was... troubling. As far as the hexer could pick up, this blacksmith's suggestion was to... gather the group now, and take her on a quick visit through the second and third floors, to observe some of the F.O.E.s reported and encountered, was it?
That would be pretty easy to do, yes, but on the other hand...
...troublesome, Remilia thought.
Unless... unless she went with Shilleka alone, without the others knowing. In a way, she was still taking on a quest as a guild, wasn't she?
Actually, that seemed like quite a good idea. Remilia turned to Shilleka and opened her mouth, the dark skinned girl pausing upon noticing. "...guild. Busy."
Shilleka frowned. "Ah. Well... t'was worth a try, I s'pose..."
"Alone... can," Remilia added.
This took the girl by surprise. "Alone? What, like... you'll go with me, 'lone, to the other floors?" she clarified, to which the hexer nodded. "Hmm. I d'nno... that sounds 'specially risky, y'know. Ya sure?"
Understandable doubts, she supposed, but somehow the hexer felt a bit miffed. Regardless, she nodded.
"Hrmm... sure, I guess. You sure you don't wanna tell the others though?" Shilleka asked. "If they ever find out, they'd be pretty mad, golly..."
"Mm." Remilia didn't really think much about it. Obviously, this was her way of saying: "they won't know if they don't know".
Shilleka stared at her for a bit longer, before she chuckled. "Man, y'sure are a weird one, Remilia. A'ight, that's that - let's get goin' to the labyrinth, yeah!"
The two hopped off the counter seats, placed some en as payment on the counter, and headed out the pub.
Meanwhile, having been keeping a tab on their conversation the entire time, the bartending Valerie simply frowned.
"This is why I hate the explorers business," the woman muttered. She noted to herself, to let the girls of Modem know, if the hexer or Shilleka were to go missing after this evening. God knows she'd never forgive herself if something bad happened and she didn't tell the others the truth.
Oh, giant tree labyrinth, why are you such a dangerous place? To that thought, she could not come up with a satisfying answer.
(21) Boom, Kaboom, and Kaboomle are a line of spells from Dragon Quest.
(22) Based on a Classic Mode conversation in the pub with [Man in white coat], implied to be Simon.
(23) In Grimoire synthesis, the first stone determines the number of skills passed, the first two stones determine what skills you can pass, and the third stone passes over equipping bonuses. To make sense of this, we applied a logic for 'equipment stats' explained further in (24).
(24) Fantasy games focus a lot on numerical stats, but visually, stronger armors make no sense if they also look appealing. An infamous example is female armor, which often goes for suggestive appearance, yet may have higher benefits than actual full-plated armor or the likes. To make sense of this in-universe, we developed a system as explained afterwards.
(25) King Grimoires are not obtained during 'Grimoire chances' or such, but by the last digits of specific stats in your Guild card and some others. Obviously, there's no logical explanation possible to incorporate this in-universe. We're still working on it, but for now, it's a myth and unrecorded.
(26) Quest "Observing adventurers I: Shilleka wants to accompany adventurers on an exploration of the Labyrinth. Speak with her to learn more."
