Hiya. It's getting to be the Holiday Season around here! There are presents to wrap and breads to bake. As such, I'm going to be putting our schedule here down to 1 chappy a week (on Fridays) until January 6th, at which point we'll be getting back to our regular schedule of 2 chapters per week. This will allow me to give myself the gift of a backlog in the New Year, and for my birthday on the 10th.

Thanks so much for reading until this point, and hey! We just hit over 100k words posted! 

Ven had torn into her gift greedily and donned it immediately. It was red and complemented her hair nicely, and she dirtied it with the juice of hundreds of slimes as soon as they got outside city walls.

She beat them up like they had done something wrong, using the spikes from her new Silverbark Staff to annihilate them. She leveled several times during the experience, but towards the fifth level things began to lag. The bouncing balls of goo were thinning in their numbers, and Ven's knees were beginning to wobble from exhaustion.

"Hey, let's party up. I think it's just you and Nikola in a party right now, but I can set it so you get all the experience and we can help you with your fifth level."

Ven nodded emphatically, her hair swishing with the motion. "This sounds pleasingly unfair."

So they partied up, setting the EXP distribution to Lowest First, and got to work popping slimes. The area was devoid of other Adventurers except for the ones traveling along the path. The mobs in this area were for the barest of beginners, which most were beyond.

Nikola used this opportunity to test out her Rogue Class Skills. She plodded up slowly behind the little round dudes, delighting in Backstabbing them before they could notice her presence. They were delightfully gooey and exploded dramatically when they died, making them all the more delightful to dispatch.

Only partially disappointingly, she found she couldn't test her Double Attack skill on these foes, because they burst at the slightest initial tap. It was impossible for her to hit them once and return for the second attack.

She tested the limits of her Fade Away skill as well. She initiated it and stood still for 10 seconds, and then the few slimes bouncing around her lost interest in her and began to hop aimlessly through the field.

The Rogue waited for one to happen past her, at which point she sliced it in two. The others reacted to the initial death, but then moved on and returned to their aimless meandering. That meant her invisibility hadn't ended when she attacked... so her Fade Away skill didn't stop working when she used her Cleaver, only when she began to walk around. Interesting.

Nikola returned to the area Ven was in. She was pressing her knees together to hold herself up, and she looked wobbly. Nikola wondered how much of this was her actually being exhausted, and how much of this was a mental block from her having been pasted to a prison floor for most of her life, having her energy sapped away. Did her body remember its bone-deep tiredness, despite Ven having been Awakened?

Her form was different now, but her flesh remembered.

"We are almost to your fifth level. What Class Skills have you learned?" Nikola had left 'her NPC' to level herself up.

"I can now cast Fireball, Chain Lightning, Cone of Cold and Earthquake. The final spell I am missing is Waterfall, which I'll gain the ability to cast in..." A ding went off in her brain, signaling a level. "Now."

This would also mean that Violet was Level 5 now. So they had two Level 5's, and two Level 7's. She had heard others were ascending to their Prestige classes already, so they were at least Level 10. Their tiny party had some growing to do.

She was also very aware of the swirling void that sat where their fifth member should be. She wondered if they should put up a listing of some kind, or if adding another body to the mix would simply add more wills that could be used to deceive her.

"We are done training you to Level 5. Our plan dictates that we should now begin traveling to Flapnap and looking for Challenge Rooms and Dungeons in our path."

"I, um," Violet stammered softly, putting a hand up in the air as she approached them from between the trees, "do you think maybe we could also take over another city on the way? Or maybe we can find somebody who's already taken a city or town, and pay them rent or something. I'm really sorry, Ven, but I think it's going to take a little bit before we can rule all of Flapnap, so I want somewhere to live that isn't an inn or a wagon in the meantime. I really... benefit from having a safe place to return to, and I think you will too."

Violet thought that Ven would grunt or growl at the suggestion, but she actually nodded in agreement. Violet noticed she was looking a little worn and pasty, so maybe she was also looking for somewhere stable to recover.

The Archer smiled at the general positivity of the reception. Luke spoke from behind her, startling her out of her skin. "It doesn't matter which city we get as long as we can get to Flapnap from it, so anything around the Copper Citadel and between is fair game."

Nikola nestled her butt against the base of a tree and opened up her map. She had to zoom in to see the tinier settlements sprinkled between the cities. Luke joined her and pulled up his own, and soon they were all seated in the forest together.

"We won't want anything close to or on the main path," Luke decided as his dark eyes scanned the map, "so look for something within a day's travel but far enough to discourage weary travelers from visiting."

Luke's suggestion narrowed their search. There were six eligible small cities: Batscleave, Twinkleberry, Greepool, Morphodale, and Sweetstay.

Batscleave was in a darkened dip in the earth, and appeared darker on the map as well. 
Twinkleberry had the benefit of being surrounded with berry bushes whose berries twinkled in the sunlight. 
Greepool was built around a small quarry. 
Morphodale was surrounded by largely unattended fruit trees, which would attract all sorts of butterflies but smell sickly.
Sweetstay had very few houses, but the houses it did have were well-established and dotted with flowers and bushes.

"I will vote for Batscleave or Sweetstay. The others are too wet, or would smell vomitous," Nikola stated with a wrinkled nose.

"Oooooh, I would love to try for Sweetstay," Violet cooed. She had named herself after a flower and Sweetstay had just the homey vibe she was craving, with cobbled stone paths and lovely gardens filled with fantasy flowers and IRL flowers at once.

"I will help conquer any of them," Ven replied, determined, "I will need the practice for when we also conquer Flapnap."

"I wouldn't dissuade Violet from something that makes her look so sappy. Let's go for Sweetstay; good thing, because it's the closest one. For that much travel, I'd suggest a carriage. I'll pay."

"Oooooh, I wonder if any of the flowers there are edible flowers; I could make beautiful teas out of them, or preserve them..."

"You're seem rather enamored with homemaking," Nikola observed neutrally, but the flatness of her words must have embarrassed Violet, because she curled in on herself.

"That was my dream. All I ever wanted was to be a housewife and to be a grandma early. My friends called me the Grandma Friend, back when I had those, before--" she stopped herself by pushing her fingertips against her lips.
"Oh, I'm taking up too much of our time with my silliness. Luke, thank you for offering to pay for a carriage. It'll be a much more comfortable trip that way."

Much like when they had left Nikola's home village, Luke booked them a horse and carriage and soon they were all stowed away inside, plus one. Ven was sitting upright this time, instead of eating ravenously from The Butcher's lap, and they all pulled out various comfort items for the journey ahead. 

Meanwhile, Nikola swung up her Red Box to study.

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