Just as expected, Coco was lounging in the corner when Bloo returned to the hut. He closed the door behind him. Peeved, he wore the face of a sore loser.

"Lemme guess, you've been sitting there for a while now…"

The bird smiled, "Coco, coco, coco."

Bloo groaned, "12 minutes? Well, good for you, I guess." Bloo placed his leather pack down on the floor. Expletives were spilling out of mouth as he went to take a seat at the dining table, he placed the sack of candles on the table before sitting. "Damn Berry got in the way, stupid merchant tried to swindle me. I can't catch a break, if I wasn't held up, I'd be the one grinning triumphantly right now," the slime complained as he rubbed his eyes in frustration.

"Cocococo?"

"Yep, that pink girl from school threw down a freaking sword to stop me in my tracks, all to tell me about some crap I don't remember," Bloo rubbed his forehead, "I guess we'll wait for the others, those slowpokes…"

Coco shuffled a bit in her nest in excitement, she couldn't wait for the payout. "Cocococo, cocococo?"

Bloo raised his head up, "No I don't like her, but she's obsessed with me, which is creepy."

"Cocococo… Co?"

"I. Do. Not. Like. Her. Period. She's nuts. She transforms into an absolute hellspawn even if you tick her off slightly," Bloo said firmly, planting his fist on the table. "Now don't you doubt that."

Coco narrowed her eyes at the slime, and a smug smirk formed on her beak. "Co...cocococo…cocococo."

"Whaddya' mean it sounds like something someone hiding their true feelings would say?! Are you deaf? I clearly said I don't like her, not one bit!" Bloo affirmed with a sharp growl.

A chuckle came from the bird, almost in a taunting manner.

The slime rolled his eyes and placed his unloaded crossbow on the table, grabbing a nearby cloth to wipe off any grime that could hinder the mechanisms within it. He pulled back the string of his crossbow and played with it, passing the time.

The next person to return was Ed, with his entrance being obvious. A consistent pattern of huffs, puffs, and heavy footsteps could be heard even before he entered the main room. Eventually, the door finally opened, and an exhausted beast fell out onto the oak floor.

"Ed, holy hell, you good?"

Ed lifted his face off the wood floor, "I… got… the… cheese…ah man…I'm too…late…" The beast paused after each word to catch his breath, "I...ran...back…" He said as he placed a block of cheese wrapped in brown paper on the floor.

"Sheesh. Coco, get the big guy a cup of water, he's sweating rivers!" Bloo requested, while running over to tend to his friend, helping him up to his feet.

"Cococo!" Coco ran to get some water for the worn out beast.

"I'm fine, amigo… Just gotta lay down for a sec," Ed said while moving towards the bedroom.

Bloo paced over to support him while he walked, letting Ed lean on him. "Easy there fella, if you fall over you'll crush me!" Bloo said while he and Ed entered the bedroom.

The bedroom was shared between Wilt, Ed, and Coco. The sun gleamed through the square window, highlighting the circular rug in the middle of the room. A large bunk bed took up a large portion of the northeast corner. The top bunk was in a state of severe disrepair, with the wood planks showing deep cracks and bends, likely from accommodating Ed's heft for years. The bottom bunk was in better condition however, with the architecture still sturdy and the bed sheets tidied, definitely Wilt's doing. Coco's nest was in the opposite corner, with twigs and leaves creating the structure. A small bookshelf was placed under the window, accommodating for at least a dozen dusty books.

Ed climbed up into the top bunk, breathing hard. "Gracias, Bloo." Ed took a moment to compose himself, rubbing the sweat from his forehead with his blanket. He snickered, "Seems like I'm tercer lugar, who arrived first?"

Bloo squinted and a hint of ridicule came out, "Ms. Coco happened to arrive first- BUT! I could've been first if certain events didn't occu-"

"Cocococococo, cocococo. Co." Coco walked in and quickly interrupted Bloo's incoming tirade, and offered the purple beast a tea cup with water.

"Gracias, Coco. I'm not much of a runner you see…" Ed said before gulping down the water.

Bloo chuckled, and faced away from Ed to gaze into the window. Peering outside to see a familiar red figure walking by, heading towards the front door. "Ay, Wilt's back!"

The front door creaked open and Wilt stepped in, his longsword stowed away in the sheath on his back. Bloo and Coco entered, with the slime being first to talk, "What took ya' so long slowpoke? You're last place!"

A snicker came from the red leader, "Getting a sword fixed up and restored isn't something that takes a moment, man."

"Pfft, I know that-"

"Cocococococococo!" The bird sharply interrupted, bringing up how it was time for her reward.

A collection of groans came from the boys, even the exhausted Ed in the bedroom made noise. Just as quickly as it brought up, Ed entered the room, and everyone dug into their pockets to pull out 15 silver, and the boys handed their hard earned currency to Coco. Smugness was all over her face as she stashed away the money into her pouch.

"Coco, co." Coco thanked the others, while still wearing a cheeky smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's talk about the emblems now, please?" Bloo mentioned.

"Wait, wait, but first, check out my longsword!" Wilt said quickly, grabbing the sheathed sword's hilt. He pulled out the blade and held it forward. Light reflected off the now sleek and shiny iron, with the double edged blade forgoing its previous rusted and deteriorated look for a now sharp and sturdy attire. The hilt had a bronze glow to it, instead of just rusted brown. Strange characters were engraved in the blade as well, which weren't there before.

"Woah! That old longsword got one hell of a glow up, considering how you found that old thing buried in the mud long ago." Bloo leaned in to look closer at the shining iron.

Ed was in awe, "Wow, it looks like a whole new blade now! Wait, what are those letters on the side there?"

"Hm? Oh that, well that's actually the coolest part, the blacksmith engraved a spell into it, Green-Flame Blade, if I recall correctly."

Bloo's eyes widened, "Green-Flame Blade?! Nice! That spell can kick some serious ass if used right."

"That's why I just had to get it when the blacksmith offered it, didn't even know blacksmiths could even engrave spells into weapons. But enough about the sword for now," Wilt said as he unequipped his blade. "The rubies, any verdict?

The room fell completely silent, and the gentle breeze outside could be easily heard. Everyone just stared at each other for a moment, and a tinge of awkwardness was present.

The dead air was broken when Ed suddenly spoke, "How bout' we cast them into jewelry or weaponry, and resell them in the richer part of the village?"

"I mean it's possible, but not practical. Casting gemstones is pretty technical for average folks like us, making jewelry requires good craftsmanship, and us selling expensive stuff basically out of nowhere publicly, would look… suspicious." Wilt critiqued while rubbing his chin.

"Just don't look suspicious, easy," Bloo said lazily.

"Coco coco coco, cocococococo, cococo cocococo." Coco laid down another idea, she explained how they could smuggle the ruby emblems outside of Mystic Mana's territory, and sell it to a kingdom that doesn't have strict laws about material goods.

"That sounds pretty involved, we'll have to prepare and organize a long trip outside of the village. Said trip can take from days to weeks as we gotta leave the forest and most kingdoms are fairly far away from home. No guarantees on profit either. And what if the kingdom puts us in hot water for trying to sell it? Seems risky, but doable with some planning and mapping," Wilt said, with a hint of hesitation in his tone.

"But Mr. Herriman would be worried sick if we're gone for over a week…" Ed mentioned, genuinely bothered.

Bloo laughed, "The old man will worry no matter what we do. Hell, I'd love to take a good long break from the crummy academy to go on a big adventure like traveling to another kingdom. We can get some of our friends, like Billy, Bloppy, and the others to cover our asses while we're gone. Even better, I think we can stow away on one of the carriages the hunters 'legally' ride out of the village to the very outskirts of the forest. Shortens down the trip time quite a bit, dontcha' think?"

Wilt stared at the ceiling, contemplating, "Maybe there's a better idea…"

"Wilt, that's the best idea we got right now. Let's face it, anything in Mystic Mana's walls is a no go. The adventure will be well worth the trouble since we'll likely come home with coins spilling out of our ears! Do you realize that we can buy ourselves better homes, and finally leave the orphan circle? C'mon man, just consider it, we'll work out the kinks later," Bloo insisted.

The red leader looked to the left, "You're right. To even consider doing anything with the emblems, we have no choice but to face the land…" Wilt rubbed the bandage on his torso, "But we've only had adventures within the large forest that borders Mystic Mana, we've never explored what's beyond the forest together. I'm not sure if we're truly ready for it…"

Bloo walked over and looked up at Wilt, "Mac does it all the time, so why can't we? We're ready for it, no reason to doubt it."

Wilt looked at the slime in front of him, and then to Ed and Coco. He was clearly not fully convinced just yet.

Ed stepped forward, "I'm up for it, despite how scary it sounds. But as long as you guys are with me, I have little to fear."

"Cocococococo!" Coco flapped her wings in excitement as she spoke, and made it known that she wasn't worried about the outside at all.

Wilt's doubtful frown turned into a small smile, "Welp, most of you seem so amped up. I guess we'll give it a shot. Just this once. I'll get a map from from one of the libraries in the village, and I'll inform our school friends of what we're planning-"

"Except Berry and Cheese of course," Bloo quickly added.

Wilt rolled his eyes, "Fine, but it's gonna spread through word of mouth anyway. I assume we'll hop on the hunters carriages next Thursday, so that'll give us a few days to pack up and prepare, since it's Sunday. We'll skip school Thursday morning and stow away. Everyone get that?"

A combined assent came from the other three. Which solidified that their next adventure was on.


Drool was escaping out of Bloo's mouth and onto the desk during Magic History class. The poor slime was on the brink of completely falling asleep in the middle of what was the most boring class he had that day. His eyelids made slow blinks, and the brief moments of darkness were comforting to the tired slime. The teacher up front, who Bloo completely forgot the name of, was droning on and on about the history of arcane focuses, which Bloo didn't care for at all. His head was down on the desk, when a small tap on his right caused him to jerk back up.

"Sleepy in class again?" Berry whispered to him, tauntingly.

The slime groaned, "No, no, what made ya' think that?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that you're drooling a waterfall on your desk and how your eyes can barely stay open," She replied.

Out of all of the desks in the classroom, Berry's and Bloo's had the smallest space between them, which struck out a bit, but not as much since they were seated in the back row.

"Oh, shut up. Lemme' rest my eyes. Wednesdays are so boring."

"You look so cute when you're tired, slimeboy," Berry chuckled, "But you're gonna miss out on info that'll be on the homework later, unless you want me to do it for you again~"

"Homework, bonework, whatever it is, I don't care. It ain't gonna matter when I-" Bloo sharply cut himself off, almost forgetting how he didn't want Berry to know about the planned adventure starting tomorrow.

"Ain't gonna matter when I, what now?" She repeated, in a hushed tone, "What were you about to say?"

Bloo moved his head further away from her, almost causing it to slip off the desk, "Nothing. Don't worry about it, the sleep's talking."

"No, no, you got me curious now, blue bro. Are you planning on doing something fun?"

Damn it, Bloo thought to himself, his sleepy ass really messed up, "No, I was talking about when I leave this crummy class."

Berry gave the slime a very hard stare, which made him uneasy, "Really?"

"Errr… Yes! Yes of course, I don't have any plans at all actually." Bloo said sharply, regretting what he said seconds afterwards.

"Oh so you don't have any plans? Well, let's make some! Wanna go out on a date tomorrow?"

'No." Bloo said boldly, with some bass in his voice.

"Awww… Too committed for you? Okay, how about we instead go to a magic show together?"

"No."

"Flower picking?"

"No."

"Hanging out at my place?"

"No way."

Berry was clearly starting to feel frustrated, and a frown formed on her face. "You couldn't possibly refuse a walk around the village, no strings attached, just us walking around." Her volume began to rise as she spoke, gaining the attention from nearby students.

Bloo noticed the students glancing over at them, which made him feel very awkward, even though Berry didn't care who saw. "Uhhh, okay sure! Calm down please, we'll walk tomorrow, I promise!"

Berry volume lowered, and her frown turned into a big smile, "Yay! That's more like it! I'll come by your place after school tomorrow, so don't ditch on me like last time, kay'?"

And Bloo did it again, making false promises he can't keep to get her off his back for the moment, he groaned, "Yeah, yeah, whatever, let me sleep." He said.

"I'll do your homework for you again, since the blue baby needs his rest. Sweet dreams, Blooregard!"

I hate her so much, the peeved slime thought to himself. Bloo started thinking of what the adventure tomorrow will bring, which eased his mind. The babbling of the instructor was like a lullaby, as it made the slime go unconscious in moments.