Rosalie furrowed her brow as she looked down at the hollow cube item. Zoey found herself similarly perplexed. "Reduce divine influence? Does that mean it'd make our shards … normal?"

Because there was only a single divine influence changing how these dungeons worked, to Zoey's knowledge. Ephy's. Her patron's.

"That seems to be the reasonable assumption," Rosalie said. "But how does one 'fill it with energy'?"

"And why would we want to make shards more normal?" Delta asked. "It's a good thing that they're this way."

Rosalie gave an exasperated look to the foxgirl.

"No, seriously," Delta said. "I'm not just saying that. If we 'stabilized the shard', then we won't get any of the crazy loot, either. And Zoey's class wouldn't work with it. Right?"

"Most of it would," Zoey disagreed. There's nothing making any of my skills ineffective inside a normal shard." She shrugged. "It's just that I can help more with add-ons like, uh, the ones in this fight, than a typical boss." As it stood, Zoey was better at fucking than fighting, at least for now.

"I guess that's true," Delta said. "But still. The loot wouldn't be as good."

"We don't know that for certain. Just that it wouldn't be as weird," Rosalie said. "And only probably. Besides, I wouldn't mind some functional loot. Real weapons and armor."

"We get those sometimes."

"Sometimes." Rosalie frowned. "Then again, at a minimum, Zoey's runes won't progress as fast without those types of encounters."

"I don't think it'd be a bad thing to do some regular shards, here and there," Zoey said, taking a stance that surprised Rosalie and Delta. "This one was more normal than most, but I'd still like to try a real shard. One where we could bring in a full set of armor, a weapon, and potions." Since the shard usually stripped them naked. "You know, try to complete it the old-fashioned way." With no body-suits, fuckable add-ons, wall-pussies, molesting vines, or other shenanigans going on. Not that Zoey had any major problems with any of that, necessarily. "Just, I don't think it's a bad idea to focus more on actual combat skills, here and there." Especially with the looming threat of 'the end of the world'. Zoey wanted to be as well-rounded of a wayfarer as possible. She didn't have the greatest idea of what those threats entailed, but seeing how the class Ephy had granted her had plenty of combat functionality, Zoey could infer she would need a diverse skill set.

"It's never a bad thing to have options," Maddy chimed in. "We get to pick when we use it."

"True," Delta said. "Still. I'm surprised we got something like that." She frowned. "And I figured Zoey's influence is mostly a good thing, not bad."

"We'll look more into how it works," Rosalie said. "Something this strange, we'll want thoroughly investigated by an inspector, anyway. It might have hidden effects."

"I'd bet my ass it does," Delta said, snorting.

"Maybe it can act as a de-stabilizer too," Zoey suggested. "If we wanted things to get even less normal."

Delta blinked, then perked up, her ears twitching in excitement. "Now that would be something."

"Hm," was all Rosalie had to say on the subject. She tucked the item away into her inventory, then reached into the sarcophagus to draw their next reward out.

Emerging from the inky black portal came …

A pot?

A small black cauldron with two sturdy handles on either side. It was surprisingly mundane-looking. Zoey knew not to trust that impression outright. With interest, she inspected the item.

 

Item Smelter: Melt magical items down into their most fundamental form, producing a potent reagent for permanent stat boosting potions.

 

"Permanent?" Zoey said, her attention latching to that word instantly. "As in, lasts forever?"

"That is what permanent means," Delta said, though she studied the small cauldron with a curious look, obviously understanding Zoey's point—she was surprised by the immense potential. "I bet there's a trick to it. Or some downside. Because that's way too strong for a third-advancement item."

"Plenty of Zoey's class is 'way too strong'," Rosalie pointed out.

"Mostly the sex items. Not something like this. As in, normal."

Rosalie grunted in agreement.

"Though, if if it is one of her items," Delta said, "maybe only lewd artifacts will have a strong effect, when melted? The ones that come from her class? Because there's no way we can go buy a bunch of junk and turn it into infinite stats."

Rosalie considered that theory. "It's a plausible interpretation."

"And we are collecting a bit too many of those to make use of," Delta said. "All the rings, piercings, body-writing ink, cat ears, buttplugs—it'd be ridiculous to try to use it all, even if the shard didn't pick and choose what we can bring in."

"So we can melt down everything but our best," Zoey said in realization. "And still benefit from them."

"It specifically says it turns items into a 'potion reagent', too," Rosalie said. "Who wants to bet catalyzing a permanent stat potion will be absurdly difficult?"

Zoey wouldn't be surprised if it was. "Good thing we have a genius alchemist on our team."

Delta faced her, eyebrows raising in amusement. "Okay, Hotshot. Glad you're finding your confidence."

Zoey blushed. "I don't mean me," she protested. "Sabina."

"She's part of the team?" Delta asked.

"Well, I mean—yeah. Not the wayfaring team, but she's on our side."

Rosalie frowned at Zoey. She hesitated, her mouth opening, then she seemed to change her mind, teeth clicking shut.

"What is it?" Zoey asked.

Rosalie bit her lip. "We're headed to Mantle. And, with my family there … well, we might have contact with …" Again, she hesitated, picking her words carefully. "More qualified alchemists," she finished bluntly. "In case it turns out to be too much of a challenge for Sabina."

Zoey blinked several times, for some reason caught off guard by the obvious claim. Of course Rosalie's family—the d'Celestins—would have access to some of the best alchemists, possibly in the entire world. That went for every kind of profession, no matter how common or uncommon.

Delta crossed her arms, growing suddenly agitated, her fox tail flicking back and forth. "We're not telling Sabina to fuck off just because Mommy and Daddy have deep pockets," she said to Rosalie. "Maybe that's how oldbloods work, but normal people care about things like loyalty. She's our friend."

"That's not what I was saying," Rosalie said defensively—and warily, as if she'd expected a reaction like Delta's. "Just, it'll be an option of ours. And considering our … situation," Rosalie said, hesitating on the word, "we should use any resource we have."

Their situation. The whole end of the world thing, which Rosalie couldn't say outright, since Maddy hadn't been caught up on that development.

When Rosalie framed it like that, she was obviously correct. Could they afford to be sentimental and not employ the best artificers in every career? Just because Sabina had been the woman they'd first got in contact with at Treyhull? Zoey had enormous respect for the woman; she was clearly phenomenal at what she did. But best in the world? That was a lofty title. Certainly, Sabina wasn't the highest advancement alchemist. That went without saying.

But dropping her for another alchemist made Zoey feel kind of gross. She'd assumed they would keep Sabina—and Fe—as their primary contacts for their respective classes. But was that stupid? Too sentimental, considering the magnitude of their mission?

Rosalie had always been more of a pragmatist than her. And for good reason; she was the heiress to what was practically a nation, or even a coalition of nations. She'd been raised to make effective decisions, not ones that 'made her feel good'. Hence why she'd been the one to bring it up. And she'd even predicted their reactions, by her hesitation.

"It's not a terrible point," Zoey said, placing a hand on Delta's shoulder. The foxgirl had quickly taken to Sabina during their half-trip between Treyhull and Mantle. Though her quick irritation probably stemmed more from a deep-seated dislike of 'oldbloods' than anything, from how quickly she'd sneered the word out. Rosalie was right; for all that Zoey knew Delta wouldn't suddenly change her mind on Rosalie as a person upon revealing her heritage, it might cause some issues. "But," Zoey said. "We can trust Sabina. That matters more than anything. And she's good at what she does, even if she isn't the best."

"Mm," Rosalie said.

"We can talk about it later." Zoey had been saying that a lot, recently, when it came to big-picture decisions, but it simply wasn't the time, not down in a loot chamber of a third-advancement shard.

"Do you think we'd get to choose the stat?" Maddy asked, seeming nervous by the brief rising of tensions, her gray eyes flicking between each of them. "And Zoey has special potion skills too, doesn't she?"

Delta paused. It was enough to distract her; the foxgirl started laughing. "We're gonna be butt-chugging stat boost potions, aren't we?" she cackled. "I didn't even think about that."

"Perhaps the alchemist decides what exact stat it catalyzes into, as well," Rosalie suggested, also happy to move on. "Or maybe it's random. We'll need to find out." The blonde took a step forward and held the small black cauldron out for Zoey, who took it and deposited it into her inventory.

Reaching into the sarcophagus one last time, Rosalie groped around, then nodded. "That was it."

"No sex toys?" Delta protested. "Really?"

"Thankfully," Rosalie sighed.

"We did get the brewing chamber," Zoey said, nudging Delta. "The shard wasn't a total wash, don't worry."

Delta perked up. "The more who finish in it, the stronger the effect, right? That's what you said?" She grinned up at Zoey. "We're gonna have to start next shard off with a bang. Imagine all four of us cramming into that thing."

Zoey's heart skipped a beat. Rosalie and Maddy's faces rapidly turned scarlet.

"Anyway," Rosalie coughed. "The exit is over there. And I assume those four chests hold our stolen inventories. Shall we?"