The Treasure Trove part of the Random Encounter wasn’t even the several reward cards and the two hundred coins they got, nor the Amethyst Chip that came with it. Ash combined it with another Amethyst Chip and combined the Polished Amethyst that resulted with another that he already had from the Deck erector, getting a Superior Amethyst.

And that wasn’t even the Treasure Trove part. The Bog Maw had come from somewhere and that place was basically its cavernous nest. Inside, they fought through another number of parasitic bugs the Bog Maw used to have, or symbiotic ones, or both. It was a whole lot of bugs, and it ended with Tinniel first getting, and then upgrading an Exploit Weakness: Insectoid ability card. It was her first uncommon card, which appeared to take 10 creatures killed of that type. The level 3 was going to take 50.

She was exhausted from shooting bugs with her Exploding Arrows by the time they reached the inner caverns, but she was already Amateur 4 with her stat points spent. Using her tracking skills, and gaining more xp from the effort, she ended up leading the directly to the Treasure Trove.

The large pile of armor-wearing skeletons, skeletons with bits of robes or jewelry attached, and coins was impressive and macabre. Lucky for them, they could pass their hands over the area and collect up the coins into a single card that slowly increased in value and rarity. The items were a bit harder, and while Rachel had no issue prying jewelry off corpses and declaring it non-magical or potentially useful, Tinniel did not enjoy the idea of touching dead bodies.

The best part of the haul was a smattering of gems. He ended up, after combining them all with the gems in his inventory, with three Superior Aquamarines, a Superior Opal, two Superior Amethysts, a Polished Garnet, a Superior Topaz, two Superior Sapphires, and only a handful of chips of other types.

“Two Superiors don’t change into something else?” Rachel asked, disappointed.

“I’m going to guess and say it’ll take four or five,” he said, “unless that’s the top rarity, but I doubt it. Hell, it might even take ten.”

His Arcana flashed, together with Clever, and told him how it really was.

 

Five Superior gems are needed to craft the next higher rarity.

 

Good lord. The one after Superior had better be really good, if he was going to save up dozens of gems in the hope of turning more jewelry or armor into anything of actual substance.

He put this away for now and joined in the harvest.

In total they got twelve common rarity pieces of jewelry, none of them very good, three uncommon pieces of jewelry, and a single rare bit of jewelry. This one was definitely for Mizu or Netsu, since it increased the damage of melee weapons and increased the speed of the wearer. For now it went to Rachel.

As for the armor, he didn’t wear any, and neither did the other two. The helmet and breastplate might end up on Netsu once they joined back up. The full set of leathers automatically resized themselves for Tinniel, who first didn’t want to wear them, until she realized it was giving her almost double her normal hit points at no penalty to her movement. They also conferred a small percentage of resistance to blunt attacks, and a smaller resistance to slashing and piercing damage.

Plus, hovering a gem over them told him the armor set had three gem slots.

As it happened, leather armor got much the same gem enhancement as the jewelry: mostly resistances. Sapphires, being blue, added to magical damage and mana pool. Ruby added to fire resistance and hit points. Topaz added lightning resistance, and also increased the wearer’s stamina. The Polished Topaz had these two, while the Superior Topaz also added retributive shock damage with a chance to stun every time the wearer was hit with a melee weapon. Opal added holy resistances, and required you to have Good Reputation status, because it also put you on good terms with the clerical orders, and made you all incoming healing more effective.

Overall, it was clear that Superior gems really were superior. They added three or four effects onto the armor, while uncut chip gems only added one, at much lower potency. It stood to reason that waiting might end with something truly amazing.

Then again, Tinniel still wasn’t Journeyman, and he was about to hit Expert. He took her aside and asked her what she wanted to do. She agreed that at least a Superior Ruby was a great idea, seeing as how her health was far lower than his. Once the gem was added, the whole suit of armor ended up with crimson trimming, on brown. It wasn’t the prettiest, not yet. He thought that adding a Superior or better diamond would make it truly something to behold. Tinniel said she would be okay waiting.

They ended up with a magical halberd none of them could use, and a longsword they also couldn’t use. Neither fit into the inventories easily, and didn’t collapse down into card form, so they were forced to juggle inventory items around, and quickly eat some of the rations they’d brought along.

Periodically, Ash checked in with Waffles to see if contrition really was the word of the day. If Kirith really was done with her bullshit, they wouldn’t mess with Lucifer and Jezebel. So far he’d been able to keep the dog’s existence as a Familiar a secret from the enemies, so…

The angelus was staring soulfully into the golden retriever’s eyes, and holding out a hand for him to sniff.

He swore, and nearly had Waffles growl and snap at the girl, but mastered his emotions. He figured it was a good opportunity for a bit of spying and building in a safe exit if her people tried to betray him. If Waffles was amongst them, he could unleash a devastating backstab if the need arose.

He had Waffles befriend Kirith, and listened intently over the next few minutes as she made hesitant enquiries of Lucy and Jez. She seemed genuinely interested in who they were, she appeared delighted to meet the baby, and laughed when little Damien swore like a sailor. She was also appreciative of their efforts to help heal up their orren Mauler, because they’d lost their principle tank.

“Let’s get moving,” he said.

They did, and returned topside to find the Warlock alive, the Cleric exhausted from an extensive ritual, and the orren watching over them with wary eyes turned Ash’s way. He wandered over their way, and noted the shift in the Mauler’s bearing. He held up two hands and shrugged, then put on Replenishing Aura and Soothing Sayings. Although the Warlock had revived at only about ten percent of his health, and Ash’s healing spell didn’t do a whole lot of healing, he soon had the Cleric feeling better, and the Warlock wincing less. Mana wasn’t how the Cleric did his healing, but it was going to make the Warlock feel less like a steaming pile.

Afterwards he approached Kirith.

“We’re only about twenty kilometers out,” he said, and pointed off to the northeast where several city-sized floating islands hovered, their huge undersides studded with apartment-building-sized pink crystals. The air around them was full of dirigibles and swooping winged creatures, the size of gnats, barely visible in the distance. “I don’t know what the situation is on the ground, but that’s our destination.”

“We’ll end up there too, then,” Kirith said. “Hopefully we can get Ariella out in the open and you can talk her down.”

Ash blinked several times. “What makes you think I want to do anything of the sort?”

She appeared confused. “You… you just helped us defeat this vile abomination.”

He kind of enjoyed the non-spork world, and the way people talked here. Then he reminded himself Kirith was a criminal, and possibly not a reformed one.

“My team and I were here to grab the Treasure Trove,” he said. “And that thing was probably too much for the three of us to handle. That doesn’t make us allies, and it sure as hell doesn’t make us friends. But I’m not the type of person to just leave someone to die, especially when they helped me.”

They stared at one another for a few long moments. He had to admit, she looked incredible. Somehow, despite the rain, the blood, the grime and grit, she was easily far more beautiful than anyone else. Rachel’s fur was matted with dirt, blood and grub parts. She had this naked look of someone lost about her that was endearing and cute. By contrast, Kirith could still have appeared on an episode of a TV show riding a dragon. She held herself with an air of command and confidence that was also attractive, and was probably a racial ability she had.

“If you want to prove you’re an ally, you’ll want to head to the nearest town there, about twenty kilometers that way, and when I get there, you’ll help me make it a safe place.”

She continued to stare.

“I’d recommend you take all the ill-gotten gains you have from fourteen or fifteen extortion schemes and make sure I succeed in my mission. Then I’ll see if Ariella wants to talk.”

“And you’re confident she’ll wait instead of trying to attack us every time we stop and rest.”

“I’m not confident of any such thing,” he said, and added a shrug. “If I were you, I’d either post a watch, or show Ariella that you’re doing some good in this world.”

She considered this, then roused her troops and got them back to their small skyship, which was essentially a Viking longship with a series of powerful repulsers on it. They’d moored it behind a huge boulder, which appeared to rise vertically off the ground, and soon veered out of sight.

After a short bit of time helping Tinniel level up, talking with Rachel about her own stat situation, and getting Lucifer and Jezebel ready, they all strapped on their wingpacks and took to the sky.

The situation hadn’t left a bad taste in his mouth. He had done Good, and received 2 Reputation points in the Good category. It wasn’t a system he had leaned on at all, yet. It also hadn’t penalized him for being an unwitting accomplice to a demon, thankfully. He had avoided being recognized as the messiah of an evil god, and this suited him just fine. He was now headed out to his parents, and that was far out of range for him to have gotten as the spreader of demon taint.

The half hour of flying had seen the floating town grow, and then grow more, and grow even more.

The town itself was floating some hundreds of feet in the air, and the pink crystals holding the town up were even larger than he thought. From a distance, he could feel them using his Attuned attribute, the hum vibrating his bones and making his teeth buzz. It also had a smell… like cotton candy, but expensive cotton candy. He knew that made little sense, but those were the two things that converged in his mind when feeling out the magic emanating from beneath the town.

As for the town itself, it was ringed with a wall of tall, sharpened logs, and sported tall wooden guard towers maybe two stories high. The ones atop the central temple put them at about twenty or thirty meters up, but were simply manned.

The guards shouted out warnings and commands before shooting off small beams of Force damage wide of Kirith’s longship in warning. The Mauler/Pilot presumable took them down. Soon the ship had swooped around and headed for the docks, which extended out and away from the island. Ash noted a number of extra guard towers perched atop the warehouses, overlooking the ships already moored there.

Ash then signaled them to veer around, to follow after Kirith’s ship and enter by the docks. They wouldn’t want to have people shooting at them, and thinking they were raiders or something equally ridiculous.

“Who are you? What business do you have here?” A harried-looking dock master jabbed a quill in Ash’s direction and glared over thick spectacles.

“Ash, Ash Phoenix. I’m here to inquire about my relatives, who are one kilometer that way. I have a quest.”

“Oh, a quest? So I suspect you think it’s fine to barge in to someone’s town unannounced, without a writ or a letter of introduction?”

Ash took a deep breath and spent his two Reputation levels. “I promise we have no wish to harm this town.”

To his shock, no UI message appeared like he was used to. A new pop up simply read Socialize: Partial Success.

“You’re bloody right you don’t,” the dock master said, but he did appear mollified. “You’ll send along word of where you’re lodging, and I’ll put it in the ledger.” This was not a request or a question. “Inside, you will not be allowed to carry open weapons. All blades must be heated and tied closed. You will not harm anyone, theft is punishable by the loss of a hand, and murder is punishable by death. Since this is a dry town—”

He glanced sharply at Jezebel, who had just gasped.

“That’s right, young lady. This is a dry town, and there is to be no imbibing of spirits anywhere. No loitering, no solicitation of any kind, and no one out after the tenth bell. Anyone caught out in the streets will have a month’s peon duty.”

Ash didn’t know what that meant, but would figure it out.

“We fully intend to abide by the laws here,” Ash said.

“Good. Then you’ll be heading to immigration, where your names will be recorded, along with the length of your intended stay.”

A fantasy world with an immigration bureaucracy? Although, now that he considered this, Ash wasn’t entirely surprised to find his parents in the middle of a place like this.

The immigration building was thankfully empty, with Kirith and her crew in the middle of an inspection of their ship. The orren who took their information and put it in a ledger was actually a female, surprisingly enough. The male orren had been a huge edifice of stone, like a butte had gained the ability to walk, but the female was slender and more like a spire of stone broke itself off from the middle of a windswept canyon.

She took their information with hardly a word, which he was starting to understand was a racial feature of the orren. She was brisk and efficient, and handed them a single piece of parchment with the town guidelines on one side, and a crude town map on the other side.

“Return the map after several days, please,” she said, in a hollow voice.

“We will, thank you.”

They were gone before Kirith and Co. showed up, making their way up a thoroughfare mostly devoid of traffic. Only a handful of carts, coaches or wagons passed, pulled by horses or fantasy creatures he didn’t have names for.

Although the town defenses weren’t much to remark upon, the buildings here were works of art. Every single one of them stood three or four stories, with cupolas, towers, outdoor gardens, tall stone or wrought iron fences, and elaborate carvings around all the leaded, stained glass windows. The whole effect was somewhat Victorian, though they had floating lanterns, machines floating here and there made of brass with filigree, and crystals. It was was all very magi-tech.

Rachel and Tinniel stuck right on his ass like ticks, with Jezebel and Lucifer lagging behind to give little Damien some time to wander here and there, loudly spouting obscenities in the most adorable way possible. Waffles stayed near the parents, to make sure nobody tried to mug them or they didn’t wander off to have sex and forget about their baby.

“Can we hit the tavern first?” Rachel asked, clutching his forearm. “I feel far too dirty for this neighborhood.”

“Same,” Tinniel said.

She squeezed his hand. “This place is a little much. I could really use some stress relief in the form of a serious pounding.”

“You are so… horny!” Tinniel declared.

“You can have some too if you want,” Rachel said. “I’m not greedy.”

“Gross!”

“What’s gross is after a thorough session, my gaping and drooling puss—”

“Could you not?”