Florifel looked expectantly at Baleg. She had wanted a B rank quest, but he had said no. So, she had asked what would change his mind. He had told her that, if they got a party to form a platoon with the Budding Lilies, he would let them go to the Hall of Na.

Now, the Budding Lilies and the Try Hard Party were waiting for Baleg to decide if he should let them go.

"Your lowest rank is C," Baleg argued, eyes locked on Leander. "It doesn't matter that most of you are B plus."

"Come on, Baleg. Have a heart. We want to go to something that gives more quest slots, so we can train," Florifel pleaded. They hadn't had a downtime in forever. She wanted to take her girlfriends to a spa resort, darn it. 

"Train, or laze around?" Baleg was onto her, it seems. Florifel huffed. Lilia bit her bottom lip before speaking.

"Baleg, it would be a good training opportunity for us to platoon with a tank, berserker, healer, and archers. We still have two spots in the party and being in a platoon with the Try Hard Party would help us decide with what classes we can fill the spots with," Baleg was not convinced.

"You had been in plenty of platoons before. You know full well how a tank bashes with his shield, how a berserker charges, and how an archer can let out a barrage after a barrage," Lilia's cheeks colored crimson. Well, he got her there.

"Why won't you let us go to the Hall of Na? There are just human bandits in there," Alberta snapped. It was worth just twenty quest slots, but it would be enough to fill their quota for this month.

"You don't think like adventurers!" Snapped the half-orc and all eight adventurers blinked at him. "With a C rank platoon, you can take many F rank quests, and you can do them all solo. Then, you can have your downtime in no time."

The Budding Lilies scooted closer to one another.

"With the five members of the Try Hard Party, if they all take just one hour to do a quest, we can finish the quota for next month and this one in two days," Florifel spoke with an evil grin.

"Yes, they do need to become more independent of one another, we will be doing them a service," Lilia agreed.

"Don't you think we will be exploiting them?" Alberta was not sure that the boys would let themselves be used like that.

"Who can say no to three pretty girls in need?" Florifel batted her eyelashes and the three began to cackle.

"I don't like this," Jean murmured to Leander. "The hags are going to try to foist their quota on us."

"Jean, don't call them that. I am sure they will do double the quest we do," Leander whispered back. He was not one hundred percent sure, but maybe something along the lines of 80%?

"If word gets out, we fill in another party's quota, people will begin to try to use us. I say we scram," Morris suggested, and all five nodded. They began backing away, but Alberta saw them.

"No quest undone, my ass. They are just talk," she spoke loudly enough, so her voice could carry around the hall.

"Yes. Afraid of some F rank quests. Lazy asses," Florifel's voice was also loud, and a couple of people turned to look at the gathered platoon by the front desk.

"Guys, you already agreed to form a platoon with us. It is not fair to back off now," Lilia placed the final nail in the coffin.

"The Try Hard Party is backing away from a platoon?"

"Who do they think they are!"

"I bet it was Jean's idea. Can't be seen slumming it with B rank mages now that he is A rank again."

"Morris is no better. He used to pull rank on their tank, you know? Shameless."

The whispers continued as the Try Hard Party members gaped openly. The girls were smirking, and the five boys made their way to them with bowed heads.

"You will pay for this," Jean promised.

"Silence, slacker. Keep your words for the clients," Florifel said, and she poked out her tongue at him.

"Here are your licenses," Baleg handed them each a scroll and pointed at the door. "Now scram."

Platoon number 23, as they had kept their number from Samkiel's disaster, seeing as it had been free, went out, and they began to look at their scrolls.

"Babysitting!" Armaros exclaimed happily.

"Oh, look. Pumpkin ran away again," Morris said with a snort.

"Really? You know, you don't need to return him to that awful family of his. Bring him home to Fluffs," Armaros begged, and Morris sighed.

"Armaros, a quest is a quest," he began, but Armaros scrunched up his nose at him.

"Just because Pumpkin is a hamster, he doesn't deserve a life where he is loved and respected?" Armaros snapped. Morris backed away from him, but Armaros came in close and began to poke his chest. "Bring the hamster home, or you are sleeping in the dog house!"

Armaros then turned in the direction of little Christopher's home.

"But we don't have a dog house," Morris murmured. "We don't even have a dog."

"In the barn, then," Jean said with a snicker. Morris glared at him.

"Do you think that, if I buy a ginger hamster and hand it over instead of Pumpkin, the clients will notice?" Morris wondered out loud.

"You really are something, Try Hard Party. You can start drama over a hamster. Honestly, you are unbelievable," Alberta shook her head and headed to the cat sitting quest's location.

"Well, that garden won't weed itself," Leander said, eager to get in more exercise than his thirty minutes of walking in place and the trek to the guild hall.

"Neither will the dog wash itself," Dorian spoke. He hated having to wash animals. They hated it even more and always tried to either bite him or scratch him. And they got him wet from head to toe and stinking.

"Helping out at the florist shop sounds almost like downtime," Lilia told them all, and she headed towards Fawn Boulevard with a smile.

"Mucking the stables. Me, a lady, mucking the stables," Florifel complained loudly. Jean snickered.

"I only need to help out at the tea shop," Florifel send him a dirty glare, and she stomped off. She hoped the desperate housewives at the tea shop molested Jean to high Hell. He deserved it.