Lana placed the dishes on the table so everyone could eat. Once she was seated, Almin told her "132."
With a shocked expression she said, "excuse me?"
"We had 132 intermediate crystals in our bags. We didn't count the ones in yours."
Dobin chimed in, "I did. 61 in there in total plus the 17 basic tier crystals."
She dropped the fork she just picked up. "Are you telling me we killed 193 of those fire snakes? In TWO days??? We can get the books?"
The team nodded grinning.
She was so excited she jumped up and gave everyone a hug. "Staying out paid off! Not only did we have more time to hunt but the emergency meant we didn't have to register our crystals and pay taxes. They are all ours! They would have taken 20."
"Tomorrow, we go to the library first-thing." Lana hurriedly grabbed the remaining meat from her bag and put it in the fridge. She was grinning ear to ear, "we earned this meal tenfold!"
They decided to rest for the evening. The boys went back to their room soon after dinner was cleaned up and remnants packed to send with them. They always brought the dishes back the next morning, cleaned so that was never an issue.
Exhausted, Lana and Kattie did their meditations. Kattie wanted to do some studying, but Lana was ready for bed. Before turning off the lamp by her bed, she sent a text:
Are you okay? You looked like hell when I saw you. Were you guys attacked by the dalki? Is that why Leo was with you?
Yes, but we are okay. Just need some rest. Thank you for looking out for us.
Do you need any food?
No, we are heading to the store to buy some, thank you though.
She returned a smiley face, good. I'm exhausted. Tell your friend that training we did saved our lives today. I owe him a really big one. Sleep well.
Lana closed her eyes and was asleep in seconds. She forgot to turn off her lamp.
***********
Vorden had bigger issues to think about after his conversation with Quinn on the way to the store. Peter needs to eat human flesh? Best not to get Lana involved in any of this. We are quite the trio aren't we, us three roommates. Still, he smiled at his watch reading her message a few times. At least someone he knew got out of there in relatively one piece.
In the dark space in the back of his head, the little one was smiling as he had gotten up to see what was going on with Quinn. He read the messages on the watch. Quinn looked safe and they were working on the plan for Peter to keep Quinn safe. Both Lana and Quinn were safe. Maybe they would not be another Caser. It was time for him to take a nap.
**************
Despite having Tuesday and Wednesday off while the teachers dealt with the missing students and the dalki investigation, the friends learned on Thursday they would still get the weekend, so they knew the market was still on. Lana had spent a lot of time over the past few days doing a lot of things. One of which was to grow a lot of wheat for bread and buy a lot more yeast. They also got a new classmate named Fex which spawned whispers of draft dodger since it was so late into the year. Almin had his level 5 metal book. Alto had his level 4 water book. Lana was trying to think up some crafty way to get a level 5 or 6 book for Dobin. Anything higher would be near impossible. She didn't sell all her crystals on Tuesday. She needed to talk to someone first.
Lana had given the boys extra money to go play power fighter. Clearly it was helping them and they had a bunch of free time. Kattie could see Lana had something up her sleeve so she decided to stay with her. Lana was glad of this because she didn't know how to access the directory and needed help. With a great deal of assistance, she found the name she was looking for. Alex Way.
Alex was a forger who had a stall near hers so she saw what he produced when people carrying his gear stopped by her stall. Not knowing much about beast gear, she decided if people were buying his gear, he must be good so it was him she thought of.
She sent him a text to ask if he was available to discuss an order. He was and asked her to come to the forge that he declared as "his" giving her the number. The girls arrived and were shocked by how hot it was in there. What they saw was a tall, thin blond that looked like he didn't eat enough sandwiches. He was drenched in sweat.
She approached him with her handout. "Hi, I'm Lana Plantwell. I was wondering if I could commission some weapons and maybe some intermediate armor?" She set her bag down and pulled out one of the crystals. "Can these be used for both?"
Alex took it and examined it closely. "This is the fire snake crystal from Caladi, right?"
Lana nodded.
"Yes, it can be used for both but the properties of the weapon and armor will be a bit different."
"How much would you charge? How many crystals for each? I'm looking for a pair of daggers, a battle ax and four sets of armor."
"The four sets of armor are 4000 credits each plus 3 crystals each. The two weapons are 3000 each plus 2 crystals."
"Can I pay those thousands in more crystals or do I need to go sell them then pay you?"
"You can pay me in crystals as well. Do you have enough? I will also need to measure those that need the armor."
"Sounds fair," she counted out 40 crystals and placed them on the table because holding them would be too much. "Should I have the others schedule an appointment to see you for measurements?"
Alex's eyes got huge when he saw how many crystals there were. Lana thought about it and added 4 more to the pile. "Buy yourself some food," she said with a wink.
She turned to Kattie, "Do you mind handling this aspect for me? Beast gear and I don't get along."
Kattie was shocked and happy at the same time. Ability books and better gear. There were even still crystals left.
Lana leaned close to her ear, "I'm going to sell the rest."
Kattie nodded.
To Alex, "thank you. Just coordinate with Kattie here on completion and such. She's here now so can you measure her first? The daggers are also hers."
Katie looked at Alex, "Is it possible to add a loop at the bottom of each hilt on the daggers and some string so I can throw them and bring them back to me?"
Alex nodded, "With the extra crystals I'll be able to buy the materials to do that for you, gladly!" He seemed excited to have such a big order and couldn't wait to get started.
"I'll send a message to the boys that they are to schedule a time for fitting with you." Then she did just that.
In their pods, their watches all went off. Those looking for a game read the message, those fighting waited to read it. All were happy and left to meet him as soon as their hour was up.
Dobin and Alto just added additional money to their account but didn't want to spend it all in one day. They wanted to break it up anyway.
Wednesday the boys spent the whole day in the VR room. The girls prepared deserts and Lana ensured they had the stall for the weekend, then she decided to back it down to only Sunday for the rest of the year. Preparing all this food for two days was a bit draining and she still wanted to do experiments. She couldn't do them if she was always cooking. This would be her last double weekend. This also meant her friends would get back a day of their weekend as well. She decided Sundays would be best for the rest of the year. This is the day the students got their weekly stipend.