Chapter 5 – To Ludibrium: Town of Toys!

"OMG where have you been, partner?" Hanson gasped as he watched Lea and Dinah walking towards him and his friends. He ran over to hug Lea. She let out a disgusted groan.

"Nowhere in particular." The Bowmaster sighed as she shook him off. She turned to Dinah.

Dinah just walked over to the side of the hall and sat down against a wall. She seemed to be in a daze. Sam struggled and whined in her arms. Its fur was making its master itchy.

"Let's get you cleaned up, for God's sake!" Hanson flailed his arms in the air dramatically and dragged the exhausted Lea up the stairs.

"I can walk by myself, idiot!" Lea hit the Corsair on the head as he whined. How childish, she thought in her head and palmed her face. The two disappeared up the stairs.

Kyle stared at Dinah for a while then turned away. "Get better soon." He said softly as he left the hall, probably going out to buy some potions. Dinah nodded though she knew no one noticed. She sighed, tired and stroked Sam's fur.

"Stupid. Don't tell me you went out the whole morning just to buy this stupid pet." Ivan muttered in disgust as he sat down next to the Bishop and glared at the Yeti. It seemed to glare back.

"Don't make silly assumptions. I was out the whole morning because I was helping Lea get a Zakum helmet." Dinah snapped.

"Zakum helmet? You guys went all the way into the mines?"

"Yeah. Got a problem?"

The Shadower sighed and shook his head. He looked at Dinah's Yeti again. He actually secretly liked it. "And how much was this?" he pointed at it.

"I didn't BUY it. I found it along the way." She snorted and continued stroking it.

Ivan immediately slid away from the Bishop and her pet and yelled, "Are you crazy? It might have rabies!"

Dinah raised her eyebrows, slightly shocked at his sudden outburst. "Ermm…dumbass! Of course it doesn't have rabies! Does it LOOK sick to you?" she yelled back, annoyed. Ivan slowly slid back to his original place and grunted.

"And don't ask any more dumb questions or I'll ask it to bite you. Then, YOU'LL have rabies." She warned, rather childishly. Ivan smirked as the Bishop put the Yeti on the floor and ruffled her hair.

"Stay here, Sam. I'll be right back."

"Sam? What kind of pet name is that?"

"Just…SHUT UP!"

Lea sat on her bed and put on the Zakum helmet she was holding in her hands. She glanced at a wall mirror and smirked. Yay!

Hanson stood at the door and grumbled. "Why wear that piece of shit? It doesn't make you look pretty." Lea switched her gaze to the door and snapped back at him.

"Who cares? It makes me feel stronger and I look cool like this. And I don't want to look pretty."

"I care!" Hanson whined as he sat next to his partner on the bed and hugged her, "You must!" Lea pulled away from him and hit him again.

"You perverted bastard!"

"But…that's just how I am!"

"I don't care. You better change before I get really irritated."

"Ngaww…"

"So…Ludibrium?" Kyle lifted an eyebrow in un-enthusiasm. "Didn't we like…just get here?" Lea turned to look at the warrior and found his statement reasonable

"Yeah." She simply nodded in agreement, "But we need to go there for bossing. Got a letter from Athena this morning and she said it's an order."

Before anyone could debate further, Dinah piped up cheerily, "YAY! LUDI! I love Ludi! I spent almost my whole life there! I miss it al-"

Ivan palmed his face in annoyance. "This isn't time for storytelling, birdbrain. We're discussing important matters here." He waved a hand in front of her face to prove his point. The Bishop pouted and folded her arms, keeping quiet at once.

"It's not really that important. We'll come back here once we're done bossing." Lea shrugged.

"Y-you mean…we have to climb up and down another 20 floors? No way!" Hanson quickly burst out in shock. "I won't be able to survive! I shall die! You all shall go on without me!"

"Stop being so dramatic." Kyle smacked him on the head, "When do we leave?" he asked the Bowmaster.

"About now. First, pack all of your things and make sure you're all fully potted and well."

The five quickly packed their things. Their equipment bags were full as ever as they made sure they packed every single potion bottle they had. Potions at Ludibrium were really expensive and they didn't want to waste their mesos.

"I can't believe you spent almost your whole life there." Kyle told Dinah as they walked towards the Orbis tower.

"And why is it so hard to believe?"

"Everything there is so…overpriced."

"Really? Never realised."

Lea quickly cut in. "Are you rich or something? Are your parents like…doctors or job instructors?" she raised her eyebrows as Dinah gave her the silent treatment for a few seconds.

"I-I have no parents." She finally whispered quietly, trying not to think too much about it or she might cry.

"Oh…I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine." The Bishop squeaked before Lea could finish her sentence. The Bowmaster nodded in silence, feeling guilty for bringing up a topic her friend despised.

"Oh, and I'm not rich. I get my potions from monster drops. Sometimes, I even steal them from the shops." Dinah said cheerily between giggles.

"You STEAL?" Kyle widened his eyes. Who knew someone like her was capable of stealing stuff. She seemed too timid to do so.

"Ah, but of course." She scratched her head, "I always get caught. I only got away once…or twice. I think. I don't remember."

"Stupid. Only thieves are capable of stealing stuff. You're just a mere magician." Ivan mumbled offensively.

"That was insulting." She folded her arms.

"It was meant to be."

The five stopped at the foot of the tower. Hanson looked up. It was indeed very high. So high that it penetrated through the thick clouds and mist above. He gulped as Lea patted his shoulder and laughed. "What's so funny?" the Corsair grumbled.

"No need to worry about climbing." She said.

"What do you mean? Of course I'm worried. In fact, I'm sooooo worried."

Lea unbuckled her bag which was full of potions, elixirs and water bottles. She stuffed her hand inside and began feeling for something. The rest looked at her in an awkward manner as if she were an experimental alien.

She pulled her hand out of the bag. She was holding tightly onto a crumpled scroll. "Here it is!"

"Dahell's that?" Hanson leaned away from the scroll and tightened his grip on his gun, finger on the trigger.

"Oh, come on. As if a mere SCROLL could hurt you." Lea rolled her eyes at the pathetic pirate and turned back to the others. "This is an Orbis Tower scroll. I bought it from a stall vendor that day when I was out."

"When you were out without informing us!" Dinah quickly reminded, placing her hands on her hips.

"Okay, whatever." Lea sighed guiltily, "We can use this scroll to get to the top of the tower immediately. Yes, no climbing, Hanson." She said as the Corsair heaved a sigh of relief.

"Phew. Thanks for putting in a tiny bit of effort to find this scroll." Hanson grinned as the Bowmaster elbowed him roughly in the chest.

"Stay close." Lea ordered as her friends crowded around her. She started mumbling something and there was a flash of bright light. After a few seconds, it was gone. And they were standing in the middle of the town of Orbis.

"Yay, it worked!" Dinah cheered as she stretched her arms. "I feel slightly dizzy though."

"You weakling ass." Ivan said gruffly as they walked to the Orbis station. Dinah looked around her, already missing the puffy white clouds and the peaceful environment of the town. She wondered when they would be back.

"Tickets, please." A lady dressed in a white suit, probably the ride attendant, repeated politely to all of the passengers getting on board the ship to Ludibrium.

Dinah was the last to go. The lady quickly put her arm in front of the Bishop and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Miss. The ship is full. You'll have to wait for the nex-"

She froze at once when she felt the sharp blade of a dagger against her neck.

"I'm sure this ship could take in one more person." Ivan simply said as he carefully brought his dagger away from the lady's neck. She trembled slightly and nodded, reaching out to take Dinah's ticket. She thanked the lady as she boarded the ship.

"You didn't have to do that." She whispered to the Shadower as they walked towards the three.

"And you'd rather take the next ship?"

"N-no, but…this is sorta like bribery."

"So, you'd rather take the next ship?"

"What? No!"

"It's not like I care. But we'll only have to wait for you once we reach Ludi."

Dinah went silent for a while and that caused Ivan to turn to look at her. "A-are you okay?" he quickly asked.

"I know you don't care. But you don't have to be so mean about it."

She walked towards Lea and the rest without another word.

"The ride wasn't as long as it always was." Dinah quietly muttered as they exited the ship. She looked down at the colourful Lego-like floor tiles. She received no reply.

"Ah, Ludibrium. The beautiful town of toys. You grew up here, eh?" Lea gently asked Dinah. She turned around immediately and replied in a soft voice.

"Yesh."

"No wonder you're so cheerful and childish! If you think I'm insulting you, I'm not. It's a good thing. This place is really pretty." Lea smiled and ruffled the Bishop's blue hair. She smiled back, mouthing a silent 'thank you'.

"What are we fighting?" Kyle interrupted eagerly.

"Papulatus."

Dinah raised her eyebrows at the sound of the name. "Really?"

"Yeah, says Athena." Lea shrugged as she walked towards the portal of a huge, toy-like building. "Shall we?"

"It sure is a long way down." Hanson started with one of his million complains. Almost everyone groaned and smacked him or assured him that his predictions were incorrect.

"I-I'm pretty lost here. There are too many portals and monsters here, I can barely tell where we're heading." Lea scratched her head in confusion. "What do we do?" Ivan asked in a rather demanding voice.

"I've been here before. I can lead the way." Dinah volunteered as the rest agreed. She walked ahead of them, taking the lead.

"For once, you're being useful." Ivan whispered to her as she attempted to kick him.

"You've bossed Papulatus before?" Kyle asked, quite surprised. Dinah shook her head.

"I've tried. That was when I was lower levelled. Around…130, I think. But I failed. That thing practically knocked me unconscious. Luckily, a friend of mine passed by." She explained. Kyle nodded at her explanation.

"Is it hard to defeat?" he added.

"Yeaaaaaa-I'm not sure." Dinah quipped, "Back then, it was. Now, I don't know. Haven't been bossing for quite some time."

"Oh."

They came by some Thanatos on the way. Dinah smiled and looked over her shoulder to face the rest. "Let's warm up here before bossing."

Lea liked the idea. She smirked as she jumped above one of the scary-looking monsters. "Hurricane!" a rain of arrows pierced through the monster as it groaned. The Bowmaster landed on the ground with a soft tap, unharmed. Hanson grinned.

"My partner is so pro."

"I know I am."

They began killing the monsters mercilessly. "Genesis!" Dinah exclaimed as the rest spun around to look at her with raised eyebrows. "Fuck." Ivan muttered as they began scrambling to duck under some platforms and get out of the way. Rays of holy light shone from the sky and killed several monsters easily. The monsters still standing were stunned.

"Next time, tell us before you do that!" Lea stammered as she crawled out of her hiding spot, "You could've killed us all."

The Bishop scratched her head in guilt, squeaking a small "Sorry."

"Okay. I'm totally in the mood of bossing already. Shall we?" Kyle quickly said. In fact, he found killing low-levelled Thanatos boring. Just skip to the hard part already.

"Yeah, he's right." Hanson agreed. "I didn't even get the chance to kill one monster!"

"Don't complain." Lea snapped as she walked towards the portal. "And who has the summoning rock? We can't boss without summoning the boss. I mean…does that even make sense?"

Hanson raised his hand. "Me!" he piped up proudly. Lea face-palmed and nodded, "Good."

They went through the portal and found themselves in a vast hall made of stuff-that-looked-like-Lego. There were toy blocks lying everywhere and colourful lamps hanging from the ceiling. In the middle of the hall stood an altar. Dinah was quite attracted with the place.

"Give me the summoning rock, Hanson." Lea commanded as the Corsair scurried over to her to hand her the tiny blue rock with some carvings on it. She walked over to the altar and placed the rock on it. Then, she started chanting.

"I didn't know Lea could speak foreign language." Dinah whispered as Ivan shushed her in annoyance.

Bright golden light shone across the small hall as Lea ran back to where her friends were. "Buff us, Dinah. And be ready to heal us when we are down." The Bishop nodded as she started buffing her friends with various spells.

As the bright light subsided, a blue, seed-looking creature in a clock machine popped up. It didn't look as dangerous as it sounded.

"OMG it's adorable!" Dinah cupped her cheeks as the rest groaned.

"Don't let its cuteness bring you down." Lea reminded as she leapt towards the monster. She summoned her phoenix and Elite Puppet and began firing fire arrows at it. She swiftly dodged the monster's blows and punches as the others looked on.

"She's so cool." Dinah whispered as she watched in awe at her friend. Kyle, who was standing next to her, nodded before hasting off to help the Bowmaster. "Heaven's Hammer!" the Paladin brought his sword that was now shaped like a hammer down to the ground, causing the monster great damage and killing all of its little minions.

The monster, in anger, swiped its hand out at Lea. She was, however, unaware of the attack and was smashed into the colourful wall. Dinah quickly healed her. The pain went away immediately, but the Bowmaster was still exhausted.

A worried Hanson rushed towards his partner. Papulatus' minions were closing up on them. "Hypnotize." He muttered. Dinah widened her eyes when she saw the little minions attacking each other and their boss instead of attacking Lea and Hanson. She snuck a glance at them and Hanson winked. What a handy skill.

The Corsair got up and summoned a few octopuses. He started firing bullets at the monster. Ivan raised his eyebrows at the sight of the harmless-looking octopuses. Their damage were quite high, though.

"Wow, look! The octopuses can fire bullets!" Dinah said in a hoarse whisper as the Shadower nodded. She continuously healed her friends every once in a while. She was carrying out her duty quite responsibly as she healed them before the pain even came.

"I'll go attack!"

"Wait, Dinah!" The Shadower watched as Dinah ran over to attack the monster. Her Holy Arrows caused incredibly high damage. He shook his head. "Bishops."

They managed to destroy the monster's clock machine. Now, they had to destroy the monster itself. "You gotta be kidding me." Kyle sighed in exhaustion.

"This is going to be hard." Lea said as she got up.

"Are you okay already?" Hanson asked the Bowmaster.

"More than fine."

The injured Lea continued attacking the monster. The cute, blue seed-looking creature was casting spells on them, making them not able to jump and stunning them. Dinah shared her all-cure potions with the rest so that they wouldn't be affected by the monster's spells.

"Thanks." The weakened warrior whispered to her as he gulped down the potion. He was immediately free from the spell and he leapt onto the monster in anger, slashing it with his heavy sword.

The monster's lifeline went down fast as they attacked it without stopping, using various skills and sending powerful blows.

"Almost down!" Dinah squealed as she dodged a punch, barely missing her, from the monster. "That was so close. Dang it!"

Lea jumped up and stabbed the dying monster with the sharp tip of her bow. Blood splattered on the floor as the monster moaned. The five closed their ears as its moans were almost deafening. It bled profusely and dropped to the ground. Slowly, it faded away and disappeared.

"OMG WE DID IT!" Hanson skipped around the precious monster drops while whistling. Lea nodded her head.

"Yeah, we did. Now let's distribute these drops among ourselves." She commanded. The rest obeyed and started stuffing their bags with the drops.

Dinah stood aside. She wasn't really interested in the drops and seeing that she didn't do much, she thought she didn't deserve any of them. "Aren't you packing any?" The Shadower asked. "No." she replied softly, "You guys can have them."

He shrugged and walked off, collecting some potions lying on the ground. He grabbed a golden pendant along with the potions. "Here." He pushed it towards the Bishop who was staring into space.

"W-what?" She quickly looked at it.

"No one else here wears something this girly other than you."

"But…"

"It's rude to decline something someone offers you."

Without much argument, she took the pendant. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Thank the monster that dropped it."

Dinah looked up as she saw her friends laughing together, their hands full with the drops. Even Ivan was laughing along. She looked back at the pendant in her small hands. She sighed.

"Maybe I just don't fit it."