After changing the towel on Emma’s forehead Amanda let out a sigh. She never thought herself to be so soft as to help this girl out with no payment. But being rescued in the dungeon and getting the 1000 gold must have been her wage itself.

She got out of the bedroom, entered the living room gazed out through the window. Clouds had started to subside and the crimson sky could be seen in its virgin glory. Then her eyes fell upon the gate as it was opening. The first to enter was Mikhail and Diego while dozens of known and unknown faces started to appear. The men all walked along the stone pavement and toward the house.      

When they opened the door and entered, Amanda welcomed them with a surprised face. Guiding them all to the dining room, she found chairs for each and everyone to sit upon.
         
“So, you’ve brought friends. You must be Diego's sister” said Amanda as she eyed the new brown girl.     

“Yes, I’m Diego’s little sister, Gabi. Pleased to meet you”.

“Ah, glad to see you. Looks like you guys didn’t fail on your mission. But I wonder where did all these people came from” said Amanda.

“These are the assholes who kidnapped Gabi” hissed Diego.

Amanda left her mouth half open and her eyes narrowed and said “Ahh…sure".

But she quickly regained her composure and went towards the cupboards.  

"Anyone want any chips?”.

“I do” said Lau enthusiastically and raised his arm.

When Amanda brought the chips out she scanned everyone quickly and asked: 

“Judging by the fact that a fight hasn’t broken out yet. You guys are friends now?”

“Yeah. But more specifically no one is trying to kill each other because Bold and I are old-time friends. The bestest of buds” said Lau while stuffing the chips into his mouth carelessly.  

“Mind elaborating on that one? We haven’t really gotten into the details of your shining friendship now, did we?” said Mikhail.

“You see, Bold and I had each other’s backs in middle school. We also used to hang out for hours in-game centers. We chilled together chatted about all sorts of nonsense” said Lau with pride.

“Yeah. I was like Sherlock and he was like Moriarty. He was always nagging and pissing me off” said Bold with a grumpy mood.                        

“So, he was always a troublemaker?” asked Thompson.

“Kind of” said Bold.

“Come to think of it. You never introduced us your friends, Lau” said Mikhail.

“Oh, sure, sure. The small unit here is Bob. The fancy guy there is Ryan. And the guy with hair like a lady's is Kratos”.

“Its Kranos you fucking imbecile” corrected Kranos.

“Why did you decide to kidnap Gabi in the first place? From what Kranos had said your reasoning wasn’t hinged on just getting gold” said Kenji.

“Yes. It’s cause of the soul gem inside her” said Lau lazily.

“Inside her?” repeated Bold with bewilderment.

"And it's not the only that was inside her" said Ryan with a giggle.  

Diego grabbed hold of Ryan's golden hairs and brought his face close to his own.

"Say that to my face, one more time"

Seeing Diego's devilish eyes, Ryan's face became red and he started to bawl.       
“It happened a week ago. Brother and I found a strange white gem. When we let a friend in a distant town see it he said it might give me some special ability if, well, I ate it” reported Gabi.

“And did it do anything?” asked Amanda.

“Yeah. Gave me a much faster mana regeneration”.

“It would have given her more abilities if you idiots just waited and found the gauntlet for the gem. And cause of your stupid friend’s uncaring advice, your sister’s life is in danger” said Kranos while brushing his long hair with his fingers.

“What do you mean?” asked Gabi.

“Here, look at this”

Kranos brought out a round device from his bag and showed it to everyone.

“This is an item we got from a dungeon mission. It lets us locate elemental gems that are swallowed by someone”.

“Okay” said Mikhail.

“Don’t okay me. Anyone with this device will be able to locate your sister’s location with ease. And what do you know. Your sister is the only person being displayed here cause no one else was stupid enough to eat a gem. And the ones who ate it before. They were probably killed and the gem inside them was stolen” said Kranos with a grim face. 

“Ah, really?” gasped Gabi.

“Then how do we make her spit it out?” asked Diego.

“You’ll have to die for it to be thrown out of you” said Kranos with a smirk.  

“Y-you serious? There is no other way?” raged Diego.

“You never know what is lurking in this game. We just wanted to kidnap your sister and let her be in good custody until we found a way to pull that gem out of her without killing her. But unfortunately, you people were just too impatient” said Lau with a brimming smile.  

“So, you’re saying you actually planned to help her?” asked Bold.

“Hey, me and my gang could have easily killed her and took the gem. But we didn’t. We are very gentlemanly folk” said Lau.

A cry was heard from the other room. It was Emma’s voice. Bold jumped and dashed into the hallway.  Lau, Mikhail, Amanda and Thompson followed him.

When they entered the bedroom Emma was tumbling on her bed and throwing curse words one after another. Her face was tomato red and the heat tanned Bold’s hand when he checked her body temperature.

“Oh boy, not again. This is the third time since you guys left” sighed Amanda as she entered the room.

Bold bit his lips, got up and said:

“I’m heading out”

When he went past everyone, Mikhail grabbed him from his shoulder from behind.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I don’t know. But I am going to find a cure for sure” said Bold with a confident tone. 

“With those legs of yours? You were still limping when you got here, remember?” said Mikhail. 

“Even if it takes me my life I have to find a cure. What kind of a weakling I would be if I can’t” said Bold desperately. 

“Calm down. Don’t make such an emotional decision. Just sit down” said Mikhail.  

"I-I, I have to go” grunted Bold. 

“Who do you think you are? A superhero? Some ego you got there. Sit down and we’ll think of something. But I'm sure your rash actions won't help anyone” said Mikhail.   

“Think about what? It's not like you can find the location of the cure just by thinking about it” said Bold with cold eyes.  

“We need to remember that we couldn’t find any cure despite roaming through this entire city. And wasting any time in unnecessary shenanigans isn’t affordable now” said Mikhail boldly.

“Then what do we supposed to do?” Bold grunted.

“Don’t you or your men know anything about the Faranhiet desease, Lau?” asked Amanda. 

“Fahrenheit disease? Yeah, I do” said Lau. 

“Wait, WHAT!? You do?” cried Bold.