The Outlands

It took half an hour for Eyfura to come back. “Alice, Tess, we’re leaving.” She growled. “Ilmir is outside, the rest of you can do with her what you will.” She stalked out of the room, not waiting for a reply.

“Yikes.” Alice said, “I don’t think we want to keep her waiting. Come on, Tess.”

She left as well, leaving Tess to say a quick goodbye and follow suit. She passed a rather unhappy-looking Ilmir on her way out, but chose not to engage in conversation, instead following Alice and Eyfura out of the building.

“Right. We’re changing the plan.” Eyfura said, “Once we’re confident Tess knows how to handle a dungeon, we’re just going to steamroll through it as fast as possible. We’ll give her a couple hits on bosses or big groups of enemies for EXP, but other than that we’re just going to kill everything ourselves.”

“Why?” Alice asked, “I feel like that’s not going to be good in the long term.”

“We’ve made a bet.” Eyfura replied, not slowing down. “I bet Ilmir that, in a month, Tess would be able to give her a real run for her money in a fight, despite Ilmir’s head start. So, if we play our cards right, we can get Tess enough Skills to make her able to punch up to Ilmir’s level.”

Alice opened her mouth as if to object, but apparently decided against it, choosing instead to remain silent.

They spent the rest of their day finishing off Rogue’s Den. The last two Rewards Crystals were Tess’s picks, which she put into magic stuff again. That meant another set of All Magic (bringing her up to Basic) and a Skill that provided a scaling increase to her base Mana regeneration, making it always at least 1/900^th of her total Mana per second, or enough to completely make it completely refill in 15 minutes.

And that was the end of their night. It was getting late and there weren’t any dungeons in town that were within Tess’s ability to clear. Alice set up a meeting time for their one-on-one outing the next day, and then Tess went back home and was alone for a couple of hours before Ellie made it back.

“Ugh, you would not believe how happy I am to be back.” Ellie said, flopping down onto the living room couch. “That was the worst. Ilmir just was not talking, and it was way awkward. How were things on your end?”

“Better, I think. At this point they’ve just started rushing me through dungeons as fast as possible. Apparently Eyfura and Ilmir made some sort of bet about me catching up to her in a month or something? Did she mention that to you?”

Ellie shook her head. “No, she was basically sulking the entire time.”

“Go figure. Did Gramps say when he was gonna be home?”

“Yeah, he’s just finishing up a couple of things and then he’s going to be back.” Ellie grabbed the TV remote, turned it on, and picked up a controller for her favorite game console. “I need to detox, wanna play together?”

“Sure, I guess.” Tess said, picking up one of the other controllers.

Early the next morning, Tess met Alice in one of the guild’s private rooms. “So…what’s the plan?” She asked, taking her gear out of the bag and putting it on.

“There are a bunch of mini-dungeons outside the city, and I’m going to take you out in my hoverer and get most of them.” Alice replied, getting out from the chair she was in and stretching a little.

“Mini-dungeon? Hoverer?”

“Ah, right. Mini-dungeons are exactly what they sound like. They’re kind of like a dungeon floor or two just sort of planted out in the middle of nowhere. They’re a lot more common than “real” dungeons, but for the most part their rewards aren’t anywhere near as good, and you only get one shot at the Rewards Crystal. In addition, sometimes they won’t have bosses, never have Challenges or rest floors, and can’t grow like real dungeons.

“Hoverers…they’re like rich people cars. They use magic to propel themselves a bit above the ground, making them nice for avoiding traffic or off-roading. As a nice bonus, the nicer ones are built to be able to compact themselves into a form that’s easy to store in a magic bag, so you don’t have to worry about parking or anything. They run off of cores and repairs are pretty complicated, so they’re pricy to own, but I find them worth it.”

Tess finished getting into her armor, and she and Alice began their walk out of the guild and to the edge of the city. “Why not just take the hoverer?” Tess asked once they got outside.

“Unfortunately, they tend to dump a bunch of magic into the surroundings and that can mess up delicate pieces of magic, so most cities will have restrictions on where they can be used. Given the nature of this city…well, there are a lot of those delicate pieces of magic, so in most of the city you can’t use one. It’s nice out and we’re relatively close to the city’s edge, so we might as well just walk.”

It took them about half an hour to get to the outside of the city, passing through a gate in a large wall that encircled the city’s boundaries. From there, Alice took them a bit off of the main road they were on and took the hoverer out of her bag.

It looked like a cardboard box made of metal, at least until Alice pressed a button on the side. A long, glowing, rectangle appeared on the ground around it, which Alice stepped calmly out of. The area began to pulse, and there were some beeping sounds, and after five seconds the box began to expand, eventually resolving into what looked like a limo without wheels. Alice opened the back door, doing a little bow and waving Tess in. “After you, milady.” She said, smirking.

Tess climbed inside, and found the interior to be…luxurious, to say the least. There were a few small refrigerators, TVs, and a bunch of incredibly plush-looking seats around the walls. There was even what appeared to be a bathroom on the far end.

Alice stepped inside after Tess, shutting the door and walking towards the front of the hoverer, looking at Tess’s face with a rather amused expression. There was a small terminal at the front, which she used for about a minute, at which point the hoverer ascended a little and the trees outside began to blur as the hoverer smoothly accelerated. Alice came back and sitting down across from Tess. “So, what do you think?”

“I…don’t think I’ve been in anything this fancy before, not gonna lie.”

Alice laughed. “Get used to it. Now that most of the dungeons we’re going to are outside the city, you’re going to be in here a lot.”

“Does that mean it’s always going to be you and Eyfura with me, then?”

Alice shrugged. “Don’t know, that’s up to Jin and Eyfura. I’m fine with it, but we’ll see if they want you to get experience with different group compositions.”

Alice opened up one of the fridges next to her, pulling out a bottle of water. “If you want anything just take it out of the fridge next to you. We’ll be at our first stop in like ten minutes, so we’ve got a little time.”

Tess rummaged around before finding some apple juice, which she began to drink. “So…does this have autopilot or…?” She asked between sips.

“Yeah. It’s only useable when you’re going to places that are already in the system, but that’s not something you really have to worry about unless you’re heading to a really new dungeon or something. It’s nice, too; manually driving this thing through all these trees would be awful, but the autopilot is advanced enough that we don’t have to worry about it.”

They chatted more on their way to the dungeon, and Tess got to learn more about Alice, and dryads in general. Alice didn’t have much in the way of family, as dryads didn’t really reproduce in the same way other humanoids do. As dryads were an all-female race, they had to find a male of another race in order to reproduce, and any children would always be “mostly” a dryad.

The girl would inherit any secondary characteristics (such as beastkin features like animal ears or a tail) of their father’s race but would be unable to pass them on herself. In fact, Alice said her mother was actually part centaur, and because she had married a human, Alice looked like a “standard” dryad.

Her parents were living a quiet, retired life in one of the other planes, having chosen to pass their businesses on to Alice and live off of their saved wealth for the foreseeable future. She went back and visited them about once a year and had stayed on rather good terms with them.

Speaking of, Tess found out that Alice didn’t actually run most of the businesses she owned. She left the business decisions to people who were better at them than her, instead acting as a financial backer and face for the business, and occasionally a tiebreaker in decisions or other such things.

That was all they had time to talk about before the hoverer gently slowed to a stop. Tess and Alice got out, and Alice pressed a button on the side of the hoverer, causing it to pack up into that box form, at which point she put it into her bag. “Alright, this should be pretty simple.” She said, “This one is just one floor without a boss. Apparently, the enemies are just a mix of stuff from the beginner dungeons. No traps, either. So…I think I’m just going to go ahead and kill anything we come across. Feel free to pick off any stragglers, but I doubt there’s anything here worth our time.”

And she was right. There was nothing new in the mini-dungeon, but the Rewards Crystal at least held something worthwhile.

Fortunately, the Rewards Crystal room’s exit still sent them back to the beginning of the dungeon. At the point, it was back into the hoverer for another, this time shorter, ride to their next destination. They rinsed and repeated this process for another five or so mini-dungeons, until they had a longer, about half-hour drive to the next one.

“Hey, um…how have you been feeling? With regards to your body, that is.” Alice asked awkwardly.

Tess frowned. “I’ve been trying to ignore it, for the most part. I’ve been leveling up fast enough that I’m not running out of slots for cores, and I haven’t expelled anything big, so it’s been…fine, I guess. And I haven’t talked to anyone I knew from before except for Gramps and Ellie, so…I dunno, I just kind of forget?”

“That’s good, I guess. Um…do you need to talk with anyone? Like, do you have any questions or anything about being a girl? I don’t think the guildmaster has too much experience with that, and I don’t know if you’ve talked much with Ellie, but I’m totally open to questions and I’m not gonna be judgmental about it like I was before.”

Tess blushed. “Honestly, I’m worried about…that time of the month, you know? I’ve heard horror stories, and I just…don’t want to deal with it, but I’m going to have to, right?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I doubt your transformation would have removed that particular functionality of the body, given the way you process cores. I can help show you how to take care of that when we get back, if you would like.”

Tess nodded shyly. “Yeah. I…feel weird talking about it with Ellie and Gramps. I think it’d be better if it was with an older woman like you instead, well, someone my age or an older guy.”

“You calling me old?” Alice huffed, crossing her arms and pouting.

“No, I just, I mean…”

“I’m just messing with you, I know what you mean.”

Tess nodded. “Um…are you sure that this isn’t a bit much for just apologizing for a minor offense? That core can’t have been cheap, and you said that using a hoverer is expensive, too.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Look, I like you. You seem like a really nice kid, and I don’t know if it’s the handiwork of Target of Affection or just you being you, but I want to protect you and help you grow as much as possible. The more I get to know you, the more I regret the things I said, and even if this is a bit of a disproportionate reaction, it’s something I want to do.

“Besides, I have way too much money to worry about stuff like this. I could buy that core a thousand times and operate this hoverer constantly for a year and still not be anywhere near spending enough money to notice a difference in my bank account. It’d practically be a rounding error, it’s not a big deal.

“And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, that’s just something you’re going to have to get used to, and not just with me. I mean, you’re wearing clothing made as a rush order by Rachel. She’s like…the foremost tailor here in the Outlands, and her prices reflect that. The guildmaster’s filthy rich, and most parties above rank eight are pretty well off. Give it ten or twenty years and you and Ellie will easily be rank eight. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re rank nine by then. And given the nature of your blessing, you’ll be even richer than most people are. Like it or not, you’re part of the upper crust now, Tess.”

The conversation just sort of awkwardly stopped there, and it didn’t resume for another few minutes. After that they were able to hit up another two mini-dungeons before lunch, and another four after, neatly tying up all of the ones that Tess could clear within close proximity to the city.

Her rewards were all fairly similar to the first, something that would modify the properties of her unarmed attacks at the cost of a little Stamina. They were mostly just modifiers to her punches like Pressure Puncher, things that changed the damage type, a few that amplified things like knockback or gave a minor increase in damage.

“Alright,” Alice said, “Before we end this off, I’m going to cheat a little, and I’m going to take you to a mini-dungeon that’s a fair bit out of your level bracket. We’ll grab you the Rewards Crystal, but let’s not absorb any cores you get, just to keep from overloading you too much with new stuff. Then we’ll head back and look at getting you some new gear. You’re still in the starter stuff the guildmaster gave you, and though that’s really nice stuff, I think you’re long overdue for an upgrade.”

“You…really don’t have to get me new equipment.” Tess said, “You’ve already done so much.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “We’ve been over this, Tess. It’s not a big deal. Operating the hoverer for half an hour will almost certainly be more expensive than whatever we end up getting you. Low-level gear is cheap, because there’s just so much more of it than nice stuff. If it was mid-level or high-level stuff, you’d have more of a point, but you’re seriously underestimating how much money I have.

“You know that thing about it not being worth billionaires’ time to pick up thousand-dollar bills or whatever? It’s that. I’ll make enough money while browsing the wares to pay for whatever I buy twenty times over. Plus, the outfit you’re wearing, not including the armor, is probably more expensive than what we’re going to get. Seriously, don’t sweat it.”

“I suppose if it’s that cheap you have a point.” Tess conceded. “I figured armor was more expensive, but…”

“I mean, better stuff can get pricy. There’s just so much of this stuff from people farming bosses or practicing armor making or whatever that it’s barely worth consideration. If it makes you feel better, you can just give me the cores you get from this mini-dungeon. Depending on how many we get, it’ll cover transportation and the armor no problem.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Tess replied.

“Cool. It’ll be like…five minutes, and then we’ll be there. When we’re in there, let me go first so I can sweep for traps, you use that long-range attack to tag monsters that I’ve distracted so you get EXP from the kills, and I’ll make sure everything stays on me and kill everything. It’ll be a piece of cake.”

“I’ve been a bit curious, so if you don’t mind me asking, what level are you guys?”

Alice smirked. “I’m level eighty-one. Ker and Jin are around the same, and Eyfura…I don’t know, but I’m guessing she’s somewhere around one-hundred and thirty. The guildmaster…most people think he’s that level one hundred and thirty-six we know exists somewhere, but he hasn’t confirmed or denied that.”

“He’s that strong?” Tess asked incredulously.

“He’s that strong. Their party is widely considered to be the best there’s ever been, and he was the leader.”

The rest of the short trip was Tess asking Alice more about Gramps’s party. There were only a couple of stories short enough to tell during that time, but Tess was able to get the picture. There was a lot of respect out there for Gramps’s party, and they had done a lot of stuff in their day.

But she wasn’t able to hear more. They had arrived, and Alice had become quite a bit more serious than she had been the rest of the day. “Alright. This is going to require more focus. Just listen to what I tell you and we’ll be just fine. Ready?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s go.”

In the following collapsible is the full list of Skills Tess got in this chapter that were not explicitly mentioned:

Fighterman481

Well, I ended up in a situation where there were a lot of irrelevant windows right after I said there probably wouldn't be one soon. It's basically the same thing I've done with resistance Skills where if you've seen one you've seen them all, but I didn't really think it was worthing showing more than Pressure Puncher, so...I'm doing that thing I mentioned last chapter.

There wasn't really a good place to expound more on the reason why mini-dungeons of relatively similar difficulty have rewards so much worse than dungeons of the same. I mentioned their rewards were just 'worse', but the idea behind it is that normal dungeons have a far larger selection of rewards, with a few very rare nice Skills and Classes that mini-dungeons don't have, but...rarity doesn't exactly matter to Tess.

And the beginner dungeons are a bit more stacked due to their nature. Always nice to help the newbies get off the ground, you know?

Anyway, I'm having fun writing someone that's mega-wealthy. Get to show all this fancy stuff and whatnot.

But that's about all I have to say, so next time we'll see this higher-level mini-dungeon, and...probably something else, I'm not sure.

And, as always, thanks for reading!