Novaris. Sax. 905. AGC.

  Nodel. Waning Crescent ??. Day 28.

  After waking up and watching Lili put on one of her dresses, they both went down to get some breakfast before returning to his room. They planned to go out and speak with Juniper along with the rest of the team, but before doing so, Tesilim needed to do something. And that something was to summon Drex.

  “Hey buddy, welcome back. Did you enjoy your small vacation?” Tesilim asked the drake as he stretched his scaly body.

  “It was alright, and seeing as we are back in the city, it looks like everything went fine,” The drake answered in his slightly deeper tone.

  “Yup, we are all good,” Lili said, moving to scratch Drex, the drake quickly giving way to the scratches.

  “Great, are we taking a break now? I was promised a beautiful forest drake when we got back,” Drex added amid a few relaxed grunts and growls from Lili’s scratching.

  “Yeah, we are resting today, though we,” Tesilim motioned at himself and Lili, “Are going to speak with Juniper, you can stay here if you want.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Drex answered after rolling so Lili could scratch another spot.

  Letting Lili pet Drex for a little bit longer as he recovered from his mana headache, the trio spent a few minutes in the room before they split. Drex went to meet with Jolly while Lili and Tesilim headed out to get the rest of the team, but not before telling the drake to meet them at Lili’s shop in a couple of hours.

  They picked up each member of their team at their respective homes or homes adjacent. Everyone, for the most part, was wearing their casual clothes; the only ones who didn't really change were Lili and Alyx. Lili was pretty much always wearing a dress, while Alyx always wore his robes. Meanwhile, Tesilim wore simple tan pants, a white shirt, and leather boots. Then there was Rose, who the team had seen in casual clothing much like Tesilim’s, the redhead looking somewhat tomboyish. As for Jasmine, well, they mostly saw her and Arelion wearing armor, but now she wore a nice, modest white blouse with blue flowers spread throughout, which went well with a set of comfortable-looking black cloth pants.

  After everyone was together, the group headed towards Juniper's house, following Lili's lead. As expected by Tesilim, the wood elf lived in one of the many small tree houses around the city, her home being about a ten-minute walk from Lili’s shop. Arriving at her lovely tree house, Lili knocked on her door. The wood elf answered a minute or so later, and the party instantly smelled a foresty aroma as she opened the door. Upon seeing Lili, the beautiful, petite, brown-haired elf gave them a bright smile, at least until she looked around and did not see her brother. Instead, she saw the serious, determined faces of the group, and her demeanor shifted; her face and shoulders dropping.

  Heading inside the elf's house, the party tried to make themselves fit but found it hard to get comfortable in the small but lovely space. Still, no one was going to complain; they were just there for support and tried to shuffle to a comfortable position in the naturely decorated room. Of course, that meant Lili was the one to sit down with Juniper, whose hazel eyes were already watering.

  “Is-Is he dead?” Juniper asked, her sweet voice barely holding together as Lili gently reached for Juniper’s hands, holding them in hers.

  “No, but he is different,” Lili answered, and hope returned to Juniper, swiftly followed by confusion.

  “Different?” Juniper asked, her head tilting a little, her long hair falling around her shoulders, and caramel colored dress.

  “Yes, he is different, it is hard to explain, but I will try my best,” Lili said, gently patting her friend's hands.

  Throughout Lili's explanation of the events, Juniper's reaction was as expected, even if Lili held back many of the gruesome things the party had seen. The elf was distraught upon hearing what the aberrations had done to her brother, and she had even been partially angry at the party for not bringing her brother back, at least until the final part. Upon hearing how her brother was doing, the wood elf's mood became hopeful, even more so when she learned about Jolly’s and Amphis’s possible involvement. So, even though the party didn’t want to leave the elf, they eventually decided it was best to give her some space. Of course, before leaving, they made sure to get her in contact with Jolly so the dryad could facilitate easy access to her brother. Then, with that done, the party headed back to Lili’s shop.

  Arriving at the shop, the group sat down, finally feeling at home in their unofficial base of operations.

  “I feel bad for her,” Jasmine began as she accepted a cup of tea from Lili.

  “Yeah, but there isn’t much else we can do for her,” Rose said, rubbing her friend's back comfortingly before taking a swig of cold beer provided by Lili.

  “I think she will be fine, her brother is alive, which is better than the alternative,” Alyx added, not really worried about the issue anymore. The gnome wasn’t one to get hung up on things like that, considering all the messed-up things he had dealt with.

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  “Is it bad that I am also not worried about it? Also, we completed the quest, somehow, it counted that as a quest completion even though we didn’t bring the brother back to her.”

  “No, Tesilim, it's not bad, you are just more jagged, your world got destroyed, and you survived the apocalypse, I think you have just adapted to put things behind you,” Lili told him, mimicking Rose by reassuringly rubbing his back.

  “Your quest being completed is rather interesting; it shows that maybe the quest system is much more adaptable than we thought,” Alyx said, pondering Tesilim’s statement on the system issue between sips of his tea.

  “I hope I never become like you guys. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why you feel like you do, but I don’t ever want to stop caring for people,” Jasmine told them, her voice holding no judgment; instead, the half-elf sounded disillusioned at what her own future might hold.

  “Jasmine, I don’t think the issue is that they don’t care, because otherwise they wouldn’t have helped Juniper to begin with, or even gone out of their way to do half of the things they have done. Instead, it's more like they have done all they can, and things have turned out alright, so they are just moving on with their lives,” Rose told her friend solemnly, and got a simple nod from her in turn.

  Luckily, the somber mood brought by the conversation didn’t last long. Drex barged through the door a minute later, sauntering through the shop like he had just conquered the world. The action got everyone's attention, and they couldn’t help but smile at the drake.

  “Hey Drex, good to see you again!” Rose greeted.

  “Glad to have you back!” Alyx added.

  “Good job with the aberration, really saved our butts there,” Jasmine told the drake as he stopped by her to receive even more rubs.

  “Of course! What would you guys do without me!?” The drake half growled in confidence.

  The addition of Drex changed everyone's mood and brought the talks back to much lighter matters. This eventually got everyone talking about their plans for the foreseeable future. So far, they had all been adventuring without too much care, even after the few serious moments they’d had. However, during those moments of combat and as they gained experience, three of their team members were shown how much they lacked. To that end, the party discussed taking some time off from serious adventuring and spending it instead on training.

  “I am not so sure about this. I can’t stop; I am already broke as is,” Tesilim complained.

  “It's not like we have to stop taking missions; we would just take the easier ones. Plus, now that we’re dating, I think I can pause your loan payments for a while,” Lili told him with a devious smile.

  “That sounds better, because we also need gold,” Jasmine said, her hand gesturing at her and Rose.

  “Okay, so it's sounding like a plan, we take, say, about a month maybe, to do some training, get you guys enhancements up to shape, maybe have you learn some spells and techniques,” Alyx told the group, indicating that Tesilim was going to do both, while Jasmine and Rose would be more technique-oriented.

  “I like this, it will give me time to further train Tesilim in combat, so he doesn’t rely too much on his die,” Lili said.

  “Plus, Arelion will be taking hold soon, and it will let all of us work better together as a team,” Jasmine pointed out.

  “Holy crap! I forgot about that!” Tesilim blurted, looking at Jasmine in amazement, like he couldn’t believe she was legitimately two people in one. Luckily, the half-elf didn’t seem offended, giving him a beautiful smile instead.

  “Alright, so what, we wait for Arelion, and do our own thing in the meanwhile, then do some team training afterwards?” Rose asked, making sure she had the plan down.

  “Sounds good,” Lili responded, getting nods from everyone else as well.

  After feeling like they had a plan for the following days, the party headed out looking to grab a bite to eat as a group. After all, so far, even though they had spent a lot of time together, much of that time had been under stress, while out in the field or while talking about work. And it was vital for them to spend time as a party while simply being able to relax. So, seeing as one of the best ways to relax was to enjoy a meal with friends, that's precisely what the party did.

  “Ugh, this is gross,” Tesilim said, his face contorting as he forced himself to swallow the bite he had taken of the greenish egg.

  “You idiot! You’re supposed to use the sauce; it mixes well with the egg’s flavor,” Lili told him as she laughed at him along with the rest of the party.

  “I hear you, but I wanted to try it without it first,” Tesilim responded after getting a hold of himself.

  “Is this your first time eating leaf chicken egg?” Rose asked him.

  “Uh, yes, also leaf chicken? Is that where the chicken lettuce thing came from?”

  “No, Tesilim, that’s from something else,” Jasmine told him with a giggle.

  “I am pretty sure the dish you’re talking about comes from a snake-type creature, I forget its name, but they have a few farms here in the city,” Alyx answered.

  “Okay, don’t tell me anything else, I don’t want to know where this food comes from, I think I will enjoy it more that way,” The Chaos Elf responded, legitimately unsure how he felt knowing he had eaten snakes.

  When all was said and done, the party finished their meandering through the city after the sun had set. They then said their goodbyes, and everyone went their separate ways. For Lili and Tesilim, this meant passing by her shop to get some of her supplies before heading to the inn. There, they briefly met Drex, who had left them as they had begun their earlier journey through the city, choosing to spend more quality time with the drake he had met. Leaving the drake to do his own thing, the two head up to Tesilim’s room. And after taking a delightful shower together, they got ready for bed.

  However, before falling asleep, Tesilim decided to check his status, receiving a pleasant surprise upon doing so.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  ?? Status Screen ??

  Name: Tesilim Telsy.

  Race: Chaos Elf.

  Age: 24.

  Rank: Mid D Rank.

  Progression to Next Rank: 50%.

  Chaos Meter: 50/100.

  Arcane Mana: 1225/1225.

  Arcane Regen: +6 Per Minute.

  Pure Arcane Mana: 612/612.

  Pure Arcane Regen: +3 Every Minute.

  Order Mana: Locked.

  Presence: Unlocked.

  Chaos Points: 13/100.

  Afflictions: None.

  Abilities: 11.

  ??

  “Huh, looks like all the fighting we have been doing has paid off,” Lili told him, also looking at his screen.

  “Yeah, it feels unreal seeing how far I have come,” Tesilim answered, his voice sounding far off as he became lost in thought, looking back at his journey so far. Of course, lost in thought as he was, Tesilim failed to notice Lili disappearing under the sheets until she spoke once more.

  “Well, it is real, very real, and I think we need to celebra-,” The white haired elf said, her last words turning more into a mumble.