Around the prison island groups of armoured soldiers were helping the respawned prisoners from under the rubble and bringing them to medical camps they set up.

Officially the L.F.T.O “liberated” the prison camp and all the other destruction was collateral damage.

“Well, it’s good to know you’re alive!” John exclaimed happily.

“Yup! Nice to see you’re not deader either!” the Thief replied happily.

The two were maintaining highly uncomfortable eye-contact, uncomfortable for everyone except them that is.

“I’m really sorry to have to stop… whatever… it is you’re doing…-” Crown began.

“But how the hell did you find an army of rabbit-riding knights in the cave?!” she demanded pointing an accusatory finger at the Thief.

The Thief shrugged.

“Well…” the Thief began.

“First I landed in the water near the beach out there…” she pointed to the end of the wooden bridge linking the island and the mainland.

“Then I ran into some kid and asked him to tell me where I was,”

“He got pissed off for some reason and got me in trouble with his father,”

“I asked the fisherman but the same thing happened, they kept getting upset when I mentioned the surface,” she explained.

“They kept telling people of a higher status about it and I kept going up the chain of command until I met with some lord, then a prince, then a king and eventually Lorb.”

A fire crackled between the group.

Bromy and Alex were too busy stuffing their faces with actual food, quickly diminishing the rescue party's supplies.

“Anyway, so I was sentenced to death by the king but I just shining-stepped out of their prison and accidentally joined a revolutionary army,” she explained.

“HOW’D YOU MANAGE THAT!?” Revenberry and Crown demanded in unison.

JohnWillStab shook his head,

“It can happen…”

He thought back to how he met Atwoz back in the game.

“Anyway, I told them my guild got trapped in some prison, I didn’t mention the whole Lorb thing,” the Thief said concluding her adventures.

Bonifacius was helping the soldiers pull the prisoners from under the rubble.

Foxly took another sip of the remarkably good alcohol the strange soldiers brought.

“Are they human?” he asked not able to see any skin from under their armour.

The Thief nodded.

“Some, they’re mostly the normal races you’d see above the surface,” she explained.

“Mostly?” John questioned.

“Some are rabbit-people,” she clarified.

“I think they’re called Cunikin,”

John nodded.

“Are we talking furries or rabbit-eared animal girls?” Bromy asked with a look of great seriousness.

“Uhm… both?” the Thief replied uncertainly.

“It’s like harpies… I think…”

JohnWillStab nodded.

“Great! Does that mean the rabbit-rebels will help us get out?” John asked.

“Yeah, the thing about that is…-” she began.

From her tone alone JohnWillStab got a bad feeling.

“The leader of the rebellion is the prince, we kind of have to go meet with him to talk about all this stuff,” she explained.

“Apparently getting out is a big problem because of some big monster in the sky, it’s invisible and can teleport around!”

“It can also insta-kill everyone in one hit!” she explained.

“That’s… overpowered…” John remarked, his attention shifted to Lorb who was disguised with a fake moustache.

He shrugged.

“I don’t remember making that thing…” he said having a sip of the expensive booze directly from the bottle.

The group sat around and chatted a bit longer before they were approached by a large, intimidating figure wearing armour that covered it completely from head to toe.

The armour itself was obsidian coloured and just as shiny with large shoulder-pads.

Despite the crystalline nature of what everyone assumed was obsidian, the armour was polished to perfection making it smooth and completely devoid of sharp edges.

“We’re heading back to the capital, your group is meant to meet with prince Gordon in the marble palace,”

“Your safety is guaranteed there,”

The deep, masculine voice explained.

The group was placed into a rabbit-drawn carriage where they were slowly brought towards the castle.

It was large and spacious on the inside, the wooden floor and soft, pillow-like seats were a total contrast to the rags the group used as beds in prison.

Bromy looked outside the window practically drooling at all the new flora and fauna he’d get a chance to cut up and document.

Bonifacius was excited to see what kind of hats and outfits one could find in this abyss.

Revenberry wanted to go home.

Alex was interested in examining more of the foreign food not to mention expanding their garden with some unique plants.

“Isn’t it weird how there’s a system of nobility and royalty here?” Crown finally asked.

JohnWillStab shrugged.

“Royalty is just genetic democracy except you don’t have to hide the fact you ignore the choice of the majority.” John shrugged.

“True,” Foxly agreed.

“The booze here is good,” the Thief said noticing John sounded a bit down.

Crown breathed a sigh.

“Who put a stick up your ass?” she asked looking over to John.

“What? I’m not into that kind of thing, even if I’m temporarily a trap…” he said looking visibly disgusted at the suggestion.

“That’s not what I mean!” she exclaimed, “I’m asking why you look so fucking gloomy!” she clarified.

John shrugged.

“No reason…”

“My god he really is acting like a chick…” Alex though not daring to say his comment out-loud.

A grin spread across Bromy’s face.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s just that time of the month for John,” he said smugly.

“IT’S NOT!”

“FOR YOU INFORMATION I HAVE NOT BEEN SHITTING BLOOD AT ANY POINT IN THE MONTH PLUS THAT I’VE BEEN HERE!” John exclaimed.

The entire carriage went quiet.

“…”

“…”

Bromy slowly turned to face John with a confused look.

“I’m seriously questioning your knowledge of biology…” Bromy said.

Before the group could further question John’s questionable knowledge of the human body Lorb appeared in the centre of the carriage sitting cross-legged.

“Ah, yeah, I should mention I fixed that,” Lorb explained.

“What do you mean… fixed?” Bromy asked anxiously.

“Well, I thought the whole ovulation thing would get in the way of adventuring and stuff, so I undid it!” he announced proudly.

“…”

“And you can’t see any possible consequences for messing with biology like that?” Bromy asked with raised eyebrows.

“That seems pretty irresponsible…” he continued.

Lorb nodded along.

“Don’t worry, I took men into account too, random boners are no more!” he exclaimed.

“Well, I mean it’s a fantasy world, biology is weird anyway,” Alex reasoned.

“Mm, yes I guess that does make sense,” Bromy relented.

“Tis good to see thou used thy power to improve the human flaws bestowed upon mankind by nature!” Bonifacius exclaimed with a thumbs up.

“Not you too, Bony…” Crown sighed.

Lorb jumped to his feet.

“I also streamlined a few other details…” he continued.

Everyone raised an eyebrow.

“Streamlined?”

Lorb nodded.

“When was the last time you people had a proper bath?“ he asked.

Nobody replied to the questioned except for Revenberry.

“Like two days ago before we got stuck here,”

Everybody else’s faces were bright red.

“Well, fear not! For I made all races sweat clean water!” Lorb explained smugly,

“…That said you’re still like… covered in blood and what not… you might want to invest in a vat of bleach or something…” Lorb added.

“Hold on, how do people expel uric acid then?” Bromy questioned.

“…”

Lorb looked away awkwardly.

“…”

Bromy’s expression became gloomier.

“What did you do!?” he demanded.

Lorb waved his hand gesturing for Bromy to calm down.

“Well, there’s more uric acid in the body than I expected, so I kind of…”

He looked for the right words to use.

“Added a super-pressurised organ in the body filled to the brim with uric acid that you all better hope never pops,”

Lorb scratched his head.

“Give it a few years and you’ll be able to make people explode by stabbing them in the right place with a sharp enough weapon!”

“…”

“…”

“Fuck…”

Lorb waved his hands.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll figure a better solution out if I don’t forget!” he said dismissively.

“I streamlined some other processes, but I’m not going to spoil those,” he said with a sadistic grin and a wink before disappearing into a puff of some.

Everyone rode the rest of the way in uncomfortable silence.