Since the crazy mission that resulted in Misty owning a new coat (That she stopped using a few days ago in favor of this and that), Lantea started taking her missions a bit more seriously. Not only did she bother to listen to the briefings to know what she might come into contact with, but she started customizing her gear as well. Actually bothering to visit the training hall that she previously considered a sign of weakness, she decided to retire all of her swords. She did miss the Spur, but when she learned it had limited upgrade options, even that one had to go.
The blue knight fell in love with guns. Knowing her next set of missions would consists of defeating the slime family of monsters, she crafted herself a shadowtech alchemer and decided to never let it go. Practicing every available second with it, she destroyed several decorative stands in the guild hall to the displeasure of the guild's quartermaster and barista Rayfan. Fortunately it was known she did it, but noone saw her and thus it couldn't be proven, to Ray's great anger.
After one of her training sessions, she very nearly bumped into Zenihdrol. Paling a little bit, she didn't know if she was finally seen. However the ever chilly GM just winked and ruffled her hair. Stunned as she was from before, this just finished her. She always had a ladyboner for the man in charge, ever since he pulled her out of the abyss the day they met. That jelly helmet was burned into her retinas forever.
Shaking the surprise off and taking a few breaths to calm the jackhammer pounding in her chest, she turned to follow as she wanted to ask about something. Instead she nearly not bumped into Misty. As the two tumbled down the slope connecting the two storeys of the guild hall, they managed to entangle themselves in a pink and blue mess. "Mhmph, leff goh o mah fafe!" Lantea's muffled voice said, her head buried somewhere below the pink knight. Her arms shot up, shoving the weight off of her. "Sorry! Was in a hurry!" Cheery apologized, her cheeks red in embarrassment. Lantea's eyes were kept on her face. Pinky gave the other knight a quizzical look. "You got a bit of jello right there." Lantea pointed to Misty's jaw. "Seriously how are you not round with all of the candy you eat?"
The pink haired knight grinned: "Hyperactivity. You wipe it!" she said, angling her jaw up. Lantea put on a mischievous grin of her own. Time for some payback for the time where she stepped into Snarbodung. Quickly closing in, Lantea timed it to exhale over Misty's skin before licking the jello off. She felt her tongue going over goose bumps. Before Cheery could move, Lantea bolted, leaving Misty stunned just as she was before.
She didn't flee too far before running into the one person she didn't want to run into. In front of her was Rayfan with one of the new guild members, who was pointing the finger of blame at her. Digging her heels into the ground Lantea stopped running and started jumping to the side aisle, but a hail driver blast froze her to the ground. "Damn I have to get me one of those." she sighed, being slapped right after. "You! Two months of cleaning duty to pay up the damages!" Lantea tried giving the quartermaster puppy eyes, but it was no use. The recruit behind them made a mistake to laugh out loud at her situation. Rayfan turned around: "You, chip her out of the ice, and then help her." When the recruit took a breath to protest, Rayfan pointed a warning finger: "Because you laughed."
Two hours later, the two of them were waltzing around with mops, groaning and glaring daggers at each other. When the silence got unbearable, Lantea thrown her mop to the bucket and pointed at her guildie: "Whyyyyyy?" she whined. The other knight looked up and shoved his helmet backwards, revealing a bandage: "One of the ricochets from your guns hit me in the head!" he growled back, muttering something afterwards. "What was that?!" Lantea said, pointing her mop in a flourish like matter at the other knight. "I said your guns stink!" He said and took the mop as a staff. "You're just jealous 'Cuz you don't have one!" The blue knight teased, faking a strike from above and then going from below. The recruit caught it easily though. "Not bad….?" She paused, asking for a name. "Cryker!" he said, spinning around and slammed the mop-staff to Lantea's head from the side.
She flown aside, landing next to the water bucket. Grinning, she grabbed it and held it over her head. Cryker's face sunk as he realized what was about to happen: "Bombs? No fair!" He yelled as he started running from the blue, splashing death. They turned a corner only to see Rayfan again, who was alerted by their antics. The two of them stopped cold in their tracks, immediately setting the bucket down and starting to wipe the floors. The senior member shook his head: "You two are like siblings." They both turned to face him, their faces displaying shock and hanging jaws, matching perfectly. Rayfan shook his head, turning to leave: "Three months!" Both Cryker and Lantea flipped him off as soon as he turned a corner.
A few days later, Lantea figured out the reason for all the slimes appearing. Apparently the cubes of jello were smart enough to form a monarchy of sorts and the boss blob was thinking about expanding their empire to the rest of the clockwork. Of course, the Order couldn't have that if they hoped to use the core to get off the planet. And so, Lantea was asked to dispatch them. Remembering her pathetic performance against the Snarbolax, she decided taking few more people would be better this time, so she put a sticker up on the request board.
Within the hour, she was joined by Misty, Cryker, and against all odds, Rayfan. When they geared up, Lantea hit the button on the elevator and they begun the trek to the royal jelly palace. "Why are you here? Do you intend to sunbathe while we do all of the work again?" the blue knight asked her Guild Master. Cheery grinned from ear to ear: "I'm out of candy. You have a mission to the jelly place. How could I NOT join?" She laughed madly as Lantea facepalmed. Turning to Cryker, she whispered: "Whatever you do, be a good boy and don't listen to the crazy lady." The recruit nodded furiously, adding: "Hai, onee-chan!" It was Rayfan's turn to laugh when Lantea facepalmed for the second time.
The elevator finally descended and in front of them was a sunny garden level of the clockworks. Loading her gun freshly upgraded to Mk II, Lantea took point. Pretty soon they ran into the first slimes and their weapons got to work. Lantea found out two things. When she started running around the room clockwise, the bouncing bullets of her gun were dealing monstrous damage to the slimes all buckled up in one place. That much she trained for. The side effect of that though was that all of the angry slimes started chasing after her, leaving the others to pick them off one by one without taking much damage, if any.
They made their way through two levels pretty quickly and reached an elevator that displayed a skull on it's destination board. "Here we go." The blue knight said and took them down. The next level was again small, just like when they encountered the Snarbolax. Weapons charged and they all amassed on the button that triggered the gates. As soon as the bars lowered, a giant slime with a crown appeared in front of them, along with a bunch of it's subjects. "Punch me a hole!" Misty ordered and the weapons discharged, making a way straight to the big slime. "MinemineminemineMINE!" the pink knight shouted, dropped her weapons and made a beeline to the boss mob. With a giant leap she crossed the last few paces and her teeth sunk into the giant cube of jello.
Ten minutes later, the party was hauling a load of sweets to the guild hall's storage, along with some special candy the jelly king appeared to keep in a safe. When Brinks saw it as she carried it around, he stopped her with a wave of a hand. "You! I need those, can I maybe interest you in a trade? Pick one of these!" he said and opened a chest. Putting aside the velvet padding, inside were two weapons. Lantea's eyes lit up as she saw the love of her life. Inside was an old looking gun, with a six shot revolver. Nearly drooling, she looked at the Token trader: "Ca… Can I really have?" When the older knight nodded, she shoved the jelly gems into his hands and grabbed the gun.
She caught up to the rest only in the guild hall, where she found people teeth up in jello. Afraid there would be nothing left for her, she pulled up a seat and dug in herself. In the corner of her eye, she noticed two visitors snickering and putting something in the heap of sweets. Soon after, the feast was interrupted by a cracking sound and "Owie!"
Looking to the source of the pained gasp, she found Misty with her eyes tearing up, one of her teeth on the table right next to a grey, stone looking ball. "Medic!" she shouted, moving in to comfort the pink knight who dug her face in her embrace. Patting the usually forever-happy knight on her pink mane, her heart filled with intense, burning rage. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed the two visitors trying to hide their foul smiles and looking for the exit.
As soon as the medic arrived, she let go and stormed after the two culprits. Hitting the alarm on her way, the door to the guild hall slammed shut right in front of the two morons. Their gear was far above Lantea's, but they apparently were just visiting Heaven and left their weapons home, unlike her who just returned from a mission. Spinning the drum on the Antigua, she slammed it into place and pointed it to the two cowering visitors, death and fury in her eyes: "You. Made. Her. Cry!" She yelled and shots started echoing through the hall. When Lantea appeared in the infirmary, she set a pile of new gear near the bed where Misty was resting. "They say they are deeply sorry and bought you some new outfits to make up for it." she said cryptically. Outside the town was filled with laughs as two knights ran home wearing nothing but their trunks.