"Astrid, it's time."
"No! I'm not ready!"
"It doesn't matter if you're not ready, it's going to happen. If all four of us need to gang up on you, it'll happen. We don't want you to force our hands, but we've agreed. It's gotta go."
Astrid turned from Skandr, who'd been the spokesman for the traitors, and instead locked eyes with Benedict, Felix, then Muti. Every one of them nodded solemnly at her in an answer. She was, in a word, outvoted.
"It has nothing to do with you! It's mine! I can do with it what I want!"
"That's how it was, but you can't now. It's affecting us, as well as the people you walk past. You need to get rid of the gambeson. Frankly, it's disgusting. I don't care how many times you've mended it, how many times you washed it, how many times it's been treated magically, it's horrible and it needs to go. It stinks when it's just been cleaned, when it gets wet it smells like something died in it, and it's more patches than its original material, so. Get. Rid. Of. It!"
Astrid pouted as she put a hand on the lovingly folded garment on the table. Being in no hurry to turn in the materials from the Boss and the rest of their delve, the party had gone to bathe and then into Astrid's room to talk about their experiences and take just a little bit of a break. They were ahead of schedule, not as much as they'd like to be, but as a party, they decided to give themselves an extra three hours of relaxation by returning early today to just rest and get their armor and so on repaired. So, they lugged the two backpacks, each one completely full of at least 60 kilos of mana–blessed iron, and then reunited when they were all clean.
"This was a gift from my father!" Astrid repeated for at least the fourth time. "He's always called me his light, and this helps me remember how much he loves me."
"I'm sure he'd treat you exactly the same if you were presentable." Benedict pleaded. "You literally just got the nasty thing cleaned with magic a couple minutes ago, and I wouldn't be able to pick it out with my nose from a rotten corpse."
With pleading eyes, Astrid turned to Muti, who answered, "I fear that the monsters can smell you before they can see you. You smell of a predator, and a predator must not warn their prey of their approach."
The Warrior felt her lips purse in unhappiness and a hint of disgust. Muti hadn't intended it as an insult, but she just said that Astrid smelled like an animal. She looked down at the gambeson, which was, admittedly, no longer scarlet and gold, the embroidered suns on the quilted vestment threadbare. Having been pulled, brushed, and twisted by her armor constantly shifting over the fabric, its original beauty was mostly lost. She sniffled, not quite sure why exactly she was so emotionally attached to what was, admittedly, a ratty and well-past reasonably used garment, but the thought slowly settled over her that maybe it wasn't the garment that she cared about. Instead, it was her parents' presence that kept sticking with her. Sure, she was an adult now, nearly 20, but she'd always had two loving parents who took care of her, and she hadn't seen them for a year at this point. They said that the war had fallen into mere skirmishes and might end soon, that the Hordemaster who'd begun this fight was stepping away, and besides that, Astrid had never really worried for their safety, but she just plain missed them.
"Okay. I'll sell it."
"You're not gonna find anybody willing to buy the stupid thing." Benedict answered bluntly, and Astrid started to jut out her chin stubbornly before she took a deep breath and nodded.
"The shops should still be open, I'll go ahead and see if they have anything in my size."
"Well," Felix said as he pushed off of both his knees to stand up, "I'd say we all go with you. Take the trophies to whoever's still manning the desks, get paid, and see if there's anything at the shops that maybe we want to buy or something we want to do with all this good material we've got."
"Yes!"
"I suppose I don't need to study."
"I shall accompany the leader."
Astrid squinted at her for companions, each one suspiciously eager, too eager, to go to the shop when usually, if they didn't know something was being purchased for them specifically, they were loath to cut into their potential rest time.
"I don't know what you all are up to, but I know it's something, and I don't like it. Just for the record."
"Duly… noted." Skandr snarked as he literally took a note in his spellcrafting grimoire.
"You're going to waste paper on that? I mean, it was just a… never mind." Astrid shook her head, gathered the soon–to–be–retired gambeson in one arm and pulled the party's purse from its lockbox. Once prepared, she squinted at Muti and Felix. "You two usually aren't in on it, so your punishment is you have to carry the backpacks with all the trophies and iron while I carry the money."
Muti's grin was wide and almost shining against her dark skin as she hefted one backpack onto her shoulder, and on the other side, Felix nodded once, bent down, and shouldered the pack. The two magic boys were still grinning suspiciously happily, and Astrid shook her head at them as she made her way out the door and down the stairs. Her party followed, keeping suspiciously quiet as they went, and every second, Astrid grew more exasperated, though the joke, which she suspected wasn't particularly mean spirited, was still hidden from her. Despite everything, she found herself smiling as she made her way down the hall towards the Guild representative's office, where she gave a quick report to Greely, who'd been politely excited for the news of their successful Boss clear. Then, they made their way to Lily's office, received their payment, and walked out with the purse several gold heavier and their backpacks still weighed down by the mana–blessed iron.
The simple part complete, Astrid made her way towards the shops. A part of her slightly hoped that the sellers wouldn't have anything in her size right now, that she'd be able to go for one last journey into the Dungeon with her father's gambeson while they prepared one that could fit her frame. As she ducked through the doorway into the armorer's shop, the clerk, an energetic boy named Tommund, looked up, grinned widely, and said, "You're finally here for pick up? It's been done for a week!"
For the brief second, Asher was confused, but Skandr and Felix's excited laughter quickly tipped her off, making her turn her head towards the other four, all of whom smiled in a knowing way.
"Happy birthday?" Benedict ventured. "I mean, we're still like a month early, but…"
"Skandr," Astrid warned, fighting the smile that threatened the corners of her mouth, "if this thing is red and green, I'm gonna tie you up in it while painting your jerkin piss yellow."
"No green, I promise!" he laughed as he raised both hands, begging for mercy.
"Well, you have my curiosity." Astrid said to the boy who stood with a confused look on his face. "Bring it out and show me, and I'll let these four know how much they messed up."
Tommund didn't hesitate to rush off, only disappearing into the back of the shop for maybe fifteen seconds before he came out with a bundle of fabric in his arms. It wasn't the familiar muted crimson of her longtime companion, but instead a darker blue, a color commonly found in all fabric here in Purcell. After the little clerk handed it over and she held the clothing out in front of her, Astrid saw that it was already perfectly sized for her, and instead of being embroidered with many small suns, a single large sunrise was emblazoned across the breast. She chuckled and turned towards her friends, who smiled and gestured for Tommund to explain.
"The gambeson has been lightly enchanted to reduce the impact that is sustained against it. Instead of granting any additional attributes, the rest of the enchantments were for self repair and self cleaning. It's pretty common for Iron tier underlayment, which is why it'll carry a heavier mana signature than you might expect, but I've been told that the rest of your equipment isn't particularly magical for your level, correct?"
Astrid found herself blinking several times, trying to understand what exactly she'd just been told. This wasn't just a replacement, it was a massive upgrade! Sure, it didn't give attribute points, but she didn't expect that from what she was wearing under her armor, she'd never considered it to be real equipment! Then, reality settled over her, and she asked with her heart in her throat, "And how much does it cost?"
"It's been paid for in full, but the total price was—"
"She doesn't need to hear that." Skandr cut him off, waving a hand between the two. "Happy birthday, like we said."
"Wait, you were serious? I thought that was a joke, I…" Astrid wanted to protest, but instead, she turned away from Tommund and instead just wrapped all four of her party members into a hug. Muti kissed Astrid's cheek while Benedict postured and tried to convince them that he wasn't at all embarrassed. Felix and Skandr laughed as they returned the hug, the Lightningmage accepting the kiss on the cheek while Felix blushed and waved her off. Astrid laughed and gave another quick squeeze before releasing and stepping away. Looking at her allies, she chuckled.
"Thank you all. I guess I won't be looking for that new hammer just quite yet."
"Why not?" Skandr asked, his smile growing wider. "All you're really looking for is something big and heavy, right? We've got big and heavy. Sure, I think we were all hoping to make some more upgrades than we have, but I think the hammer will be a lot cheaper and easier to get used to once we get it. I mean, we all want new armor, but getting that right now wouldn't work out. For me, I'm about as equipped as I can be without getting Iron tier equipment that's going to give me mana burns, so I'm out. Getting a replacement axe for Felix or swords for Muti won't be worth it right now, since, again, we're so close to that Iron tier, and Benedict feels much the same. The only person who can get a significant upgrade for without starting to tread dangerously close to getting poisoned by their equipment was you, because you don't need magical equipment to make your hammer a lot better for your purposes."
Not for the first time that day, Astrid squinted at her party members and shook her head with a laugh."You practiced that, didn't you?"
"I wanted to say it instead, but they were saying I was being too dramatic." Benedict spoke, and Muti nodded severely behind him.
"He was too loud."
The rest of the party echoed the sentiment in general, and Astrid laughed as she thanked Tommund before making her way out of the armorer's shop and towards the weaponsmiths'.
"What if we hadn't gotten mana–blessed iron from the troll?" Astrid asked. "Sure, it is the most common first clear reward, but that's only like 80% of the time. What if instead the Boss'd been a crusher variant?"
"Then we would've just bought a really dense hammer for you." Skandr answered. "You know, made out of different mana–blessed iron? It's not an amazingly rare material, so… we'd sell what we didn't need for what we wanted. Like usual? Anyways. The reality is that you're using your shield as a weapon almost as often, if not more often than you use your hammer, just because it's so much heavier. The shield works fine as a weapon, but if you had a hammer that weighs as much as the shield, you'd get a better bonus from Steady Load as well as being able to do more damage with every hit. I mean, if you'd hit that troll with a better hammer before, you could've done some heavy damage to it before it continued fighting. Going into the Trials? That's one of the best things that we can do to get you to your peak."
"And," Felix added, "you're going to be the center of our possible success in the Trials. Since you've said you want to be able to be a finisher and a supportive frontliner, you're basically be our problem solver. Better to have you perfectly outfitted for that, right?"
Astrid continued her giddy smiling and nodded in acceptance. "Then, again, thank you. Now, let's go get this new hammer figured out!"
***
Once the Steel tier Smith learned that truly, all she wanted was a really heavy hammer, not one that was anything more than durable, they settled on a fair price pretty quickly. With them supplying all the materials, or at least the vast majority of them, the Smith's price of five gold was more than reasonable, especially since all of the excess mana–blessed iron was worth more than that. Effectively, they were getting paid to get Astrid a new hammer! It wouldn't be ready for her to use when they left the next morning, but when they returned from this next delve, her brand new weapon, shiny and ready to deal death, would be waiting for her.
"And none of you want anything right now?" Astrid verified, jingling the party's purse meaningfully.
"I think that when we're closer to leaving, we can get that figured out." Felix answered with a shake of his head. "Any additional funds that we have at that time will allow us to better prioritize. What will be the most impactful for the party as a whole."
After having been told much the same thing something like seven times now, Astrid gave up and simply gave each member of her party a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek, her cheeks hurting from smiling so widely. Muti, who she embraced last, took Astrid by surprise by dodging the hug, poking Astrid once hard just under her ribs, and then darting away and fading into stealth with a victorious smirk.
"You're a menace!" Astrid called after the disappearing Rogue, laughter tumbling from her lips as she called after her mischievous party member.
"Do you think that I'd be able to get away with that?" Benedict mused. "I never would, that's way too touchy, but, like, if I was a girl?"
"You know the answer to that." Skandr answered. " Muti's special, she always has been. Plus, you can't start off with pokes and gentle teasing. You have to start with a fist fight for dominance in a dirty alley, then steadily make your way up to pokes and running away. It's kinda like math, you start with counting and get to addition."
"You're lucky I'm happy today," Astrid reproved the Bard with faux seriousness, "or else I'd be making you do push-ups or something."
"Then I'll restrain myself from making too much of a fool of myself. At least, before I've gotten myself back in your good graces."
"I think," Felix shook his head, "that she's saying you shouldn't ask stupid questions at all, and that you're just lucky this time."
"I think you're right, but I also know that I'm gonna continue saying stupid things for as long as I breathe and speak, so I'll just try to regulate myself a little bit."
The party continued teasing each other, enjoying the brief respite they'd given themselves before they were to get back in the Dungeon the next day. They ate an indulgent dinner, joking with each other about how every birthday present that they gave from now on was going to have to be better than what it happened this time, with the only real agreement coming to the conclusion that any presents bought needed to come through expenditure of personal funds, not through party funds. Astrid weakly protested against that, as the only one who was making frequent expenditures for the letters she sent her parents, but she very quickly gave up on doing anything other than bowing her head and accepting.
Then, after retiring early for the night and getting good sleep, the party gathered together, ready to resume their delve. Seventeen days remained until the deadline Greely had presented them with. Seventeen days to get as close to level 21 as they could manage. Starting with today.