NIGHT

the card itself seemed harmless enough. yet, two steps into the labyrinth, and she had already spotted her first threats. usually, there would be a long corridor before the branch out into rooms. not this one. the walls, though rocky, was lined with frost, its material seemingly reflective. it almost reminded her of the cave she’d been to earlier, though night steeled herself to forget that incident. she hadn’t expected the interiors to be so different from the previous breaches down under – so the snow underfoot had caught her off-guard. the player drew her sword, ready to fight, an

so it was business as usual, as night caught a glimpse of a trade window being opened on bistro’s interface. the player gave the attendees a nod, rising from her seat. “then i’ll be off first.” “safe travels!” “stay safe!” “good luck out there.” she paced up the steps to the main street, slow. there was effort in keeping the cards, and keeping an eye on the dealers as they continued to converse about some other arrangement. when night decided she wouldn’t gain much from eavesdropping, her pace quickened, and only upon the entrance of the scarlet line did she pull

‘so that’s what bistro’s doing with those items’, was a thought that barely registered with night, just as the broker accepted their agreement. “no, there won’t be any changes to procedures after all.” bistro gestured to night for a moment, puzzling the latter. “if you’re ever so worried about that, here’s your opportunity to ask one of the sole collectors as part of that deal.” “-- ah…” for a moment, night believed to have noticed jean deflating a little. “... no, no it’s okay.” “really, jean? i thought you knew this the whole time.” “no,” je

“300k…” “... is that the standard fare for items like these?” jean nodded stoically, her expression almost annoyed. “we used to offer them at about 200k per piece, but this trade is clearly outside of regulated scope. known players, often collectors, would come seek the guild out for other offers, and the costs in comparison could be seen as good will to them to encourage further trade, i suppose.” “... still, 300k is a little…” bistro was quiet for a moment, as all eyes fell on her. then, the broker finally nodded. “okay, sure. that’s the price of doing

“well? what’s it going to be?” night looked up towards bistro, still uncertain about the trade. usually, if bistro figured that an item like this was something that would help her out, then the deal would’ve gone through without needing night’s intervention with it. so the discrepancy in procedure worried her a little. the player examined the cards once more, wondering greatly about the implications of saying yes, before turning to their dealers as their bickering started to simmer. iris was the first to meet her gaze before jean. “so? have you made up your mind yet?”

“you can escape it with a teleport crystal. we still got to keep the loot.” jean simply continued staring back at iris, starting to tilt her head. “someone else in our guild used it out of regulation…?” while the two got into a growing debate, bistro simply turned to night, slightly sheepish. “well, if anyone asks, i wasn’t present to witness a couple’s feud.” “they’re a couple?” night’s question went ignored. “i figured it would be best to let you make the call,” bistro clarified, with her intentions, gesturing towards the box of car

“instructions: when within a generated dungeon, a new card must be drawn after clearing each room, and the deck to be reshuffled upon entering a new floor. the dungeon ends and the item is consumed when the world arcana is drawn…” “a moderate size…? wait, it says here that it applies only to dungeons, though.” jean pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “that’s technically an incorrect reading of the item’s description. it doesn’t apply only to dungeons, it simply states that it generates them. it could work for labyrinths too, since you’re headed into one soon.” “

each card had a specific print on them, illustrated in a wonderfully minimalistic design. they were modeled after the major arcana, with their respective title and number denoted at the bottom and top of the card, respectively. jean continued. “the drop rate for this item is low, and it comes only from a specific set of monsters we’d been designated as best for farming. i suppose that person must have found another origin for these items to drop from, or our old members have been losing ground over their territories. either way, it’s none of our business for now.” as night

“this happened rather spontaneously, so you do have to forgive my timing.” night eyed her broker warily, before turning back to jean, exhaling. “alright. what’s the trade about now?” at night’s cue, iris tapped on a menu option, which summoned a deck of cards on the table between the attendees. while most of its contents remained in a rectangular box, there were a few pieces underneath it that demonstrated the respective cards’ backing, gilded in gold upon matte abyssal blue. with a hand, iris picked up the box and offered it to night, as jean spoke. “take a look

“hey.” the broker waved to her weapon, and then patted the cushion next to her. “come here and take this seat, night.” “do i have to sit down?” it wasn’t as though she was expecting to have stayed for long. night believed she was here to grab something and go. “i figure i’d be heading off to the labyrinth soon.” “you will,” bistro reassured her, watching night round the side of the couch. “this is in relation to that.” so night took her place as asked of, noticing iris and the stranger exchanging a look, with the former having her interface open. they muttered so

funny how she kept being sent to investigate the same rumor over and over again. night was practically stationed at the ming garden now, after the first two visits yielded rather poor results for their parties. laid upon one of the benches near the center of the garden, the player had a book lain over her face, open to its centerfold, her eyes closed to block out the sunlight. it was noon, it was bright, and she didn't exactly want to be here, counting down the hours till eve and hoping a ghost (gosh, she hated ghosts) would show up one day. still, since the garden was accommodating for h

no silver platters – well, night wasn't exactly offering on the basis of their relationship between leader and follower. between the lines, it had meant to be a forfeit, the way the player wasn't exactly feeling up to sparring, choosing to abscond if she possibly could. her eyes shifted to the side, away from lessa to scan the crowd. it wasn't possible for night to be so honest with everyone else watching. so how could lessa do it? "let's just see where it goes, yeah?" the thought about allowing fates to guide them, being out of control of the outcome again was terrifying.

what did she need... well, everything, to be honest. but she wasn't going to run nari out of stock to make a point, and neither did she see the point in perpetuate crystals over incarcerates. night squinted, holding the item in her hand, and then looked up to make sure she wasn't being watched for her discretion. but she would take them. she wasn't even sure if anyone else was going to find a use for them, in complete honesty. night gathered the lot in two hands, before dropping them off at the counter. "you should make more of these. not like i'm biased, or anything."

last run. night pushed open the door, almost stumbling, a peeved look on her face. it made no difference to the alchemist lounging at the counter, reading a book with a cup of matcha beside her. between them, upon the counter's bend, was everything night needed to get ready for the journey ahead that bistro could provide her. the player stopped, while picking up her items, wondering if she should be making small talk, just in case. but she didn't need to stay stuck, contemplating. "hey." without prompting, her friend was already looking up from her read. "be careful out the

she hated to admit that she needed to pop by for some supplies, especially after the encounter with the chef up on that random mountain, in pursuit of some distant sword art. what was he doing up there, anyway – it wasn't as though she'd seen him pick a fight elsewhere before, and he was always wandering around with his mess of a kitchen! night eyed him warily, as his demeanor shifted in the split second they made eye contact once again. she dropped the col pouch on the table. he scooped it up, wordless, and handed the box of treats over. both of their expressions seemed steeled

thread closing. NIGHT + 10,143xp | (831 * 0.7 * 14) + 2000 + 12,021col | (xp * 0.15) + 10500 Dazia + 4,908xp | (831 * 0.7 * 5) + 2000 + 11,236col | (xp * 0.15) + 10500 + Pirate's Treasure (2)

the cat, originally unimpressed, simply gave the tsuchinoko a sniff before pulling back, just in time for the reptile to snip with its tiny mouth outwards. nyanko seemed to bristle at the attack. “wow, it doesn’t seem as though they get along.” “right…? maybe smiggle is just mad about being caught.” indeed, between its scrunched up face and aggressive wriggling in basuke’s hands, it did seem as though his guess was accurate. but a hop into his hoodie pocket, and the worm was feeling right at home with a tiny screech. “i didn’t even know it could do that,

“ah, nice job, nyanko.” the fight was tough, but it didn’t seem as though smiggle thought the kitten was being malicious – after all, the worm wasn’t exactly protesting much. but at nyanko’s capture, basuke came running over, excited. “oh! did you find him? good kitty!” smiggle’s beady eyes opened from being shut, and its body stopped wriggling around. nyanko decided to let the familiar go, and before it could start another excavation attempt (did it even want to, still?) its owner scooped the tsuchinoko up with two hands, bringing smiggle closer to his face and rubbing it

night was taking the more direct route – instead of rounding the pit towards where she thought basuke was headed for, she slid down its curvature, half-jogging when she reached the bottom. while the amount of destruction smiggle had made was slight, given time, this destination might be rendered unusable to unsuspecting individuals. so perhaps they needed to act fast. well, night would’ve rathered act fast. she couldn’t be bothered to spend all day hunting down a fat worm, she had better things to do. as she looked around in place, she felt the ground next to her

as they continued traveling, night noted that they were getting towards higher-level territory, at least relative to the average player level on the first floor. and so, slowing down behind nyanko, she turned to basuke, walking beside him. “so, what level are you right now?” “somewhere headed towards 20,” he replied, pulling up his interface. night didn’t need the specifics, because all she needed to know was his capability of withstanding the most frequent threats in the area. she gave him a nod, and they continued on their way. eventually nyanko led them to a cl

“ah… um. basuke, this is my familiar. his name is nyanko.” nyanko introduced himself with a peep. night couldn’t remember if he’d met the familiar before. perhaps it had been too long if he did, or the kitten seemed like he changed a lot; either way, basuke nodded and tried to introduce himself to nyanko, too. “hey little guy… ” he reached a hand out over the cat’s head, only for nyanko to shy away from the hand, and drop himself to the floor, leaving a devastated basuke behind. the familiar continued strolling down the way he was looking earlier,

so night set the parameters on her interface in search of the aforementioned tsuchinoko. found a match, though with little accuracy, and looked up in the direction of where her display was trying to tell her to go. night raised a finger and pointed down a path of a dirt road. “we’ll walk this way until we see your worm, i guess.” and basuke nodded, almost excitedly from over her shoulder. he had been watching the player navigate the interface, acknowledging every bit of information, even if he couldn’t read it, as important with murmurs of affirmations. “got it. so we follow the

but of course, when the player was done scribbling out a portrait of smiggle crocs v, night had to admit that it looked like a bee without wings that looked sort of upset. her first thought was, ‘is basuke okay?’ she felt sorry for the drawing, and almost wanted to offer her services of redrawing crocs on his behalf. “he has smooth skin, and is about this small,” the boy mentioned, shaping out an estimated size for his mythical being using his hands. it was roughly the size of a small box, almost equal to an apple, perhaps, which confused night even further into disbelief. she looked

“but it’s like, kind of unusual? he never gets this far away from me. and you can track, right; can’t you, night?” woah, too many things were being asked of her at once. the player pulled out a canister from somewhere and started to take a swig, if only in hopes that the drink would wake her up. “i can,” she said, gesturing to the pit smiggle had apparently made. “but i need to know a little more about it before i’m able to hunt it down. its name is smiggle–” “smiggle crocs v.” “smiggle…” what? sorry? was she getting clowned on right now? “... smiggle crocs v.”

night appeared, looking extremely disheveled, ill-equipped to handle the situation, and generally confused about the situation. “sorry,” she started, trying to comb through her hair to be a little more presentable. “basuke, do you mind explaining the problem again, in full detail?” “ah– yeah!” basuke appeared somewhat embarrassed now, before gesturing to the hole in the ground. “look, smiggle usually digs into the ground and leaves these as traces of where he’s been, right? and they’d always been where i’m camping–” “–you’ve been camping?” night was piecing things