"Dude, there's just too much to browse in an hour. We didn't even buy anything!" We're both rubbing our eyes after dismissing the screen.

"Yeah," I agree, checking the in game clock, "It's probably best if we know exactly what we're looking for."

The walk over to the General Workshop is quiet, everyone else in their wonderful, handmade beds inside stone houses. Richter compares them to the houses he saw the merchants and higher ranked guardsmen live in. It brings a smile to my face knowing that something so simple for us to create is giving them comfort and safety that's on par with those of much greater position in the city. Our people are living and eating like royalty, our little militia is wearing and wielding items greater than the army, and we're about to see this world first hand in luxury.

"Will it be easy to get everything packed up, Sonny?"

[Indeed. The layout of the dungeon will be saved and minimized within my core. All of the items, however, will need to be packed inside the vardo or in the rucksacks since they are not technically part of the dungeon itself. I will mark the trail, as well as notable resource location on your maps such as ore veins, special trees, unique hunting grounds, other settlements, and other possible dungeon locations. Our destination will be fifteen miles away from the capital city, Coronus. Though it isn't far distance wise, the location is defended on three sides by geographic borders and there is no straight path leading to it from anywhere except the path I've chosen. Lady Dawn herself has stated that our future location will be a prime growing spot for Linqs.]

"Thank you, Sonny. We really appreciate you taking the helm on that. You mentioned earlier, though, the Traveller something?"

[Starting tomorrow, the Traveller Vanishing will occur in eight days. At a nonstop pace, the vardo can reach our destination in ten.]

"Hmmm," I muse aloud, "Pretty sure we're gonna want to stop every now and then for all kinds of reasons."

"Yeah, dude. Arent you still trying to get the milestone prizes?"

[The route I have planned will go through locations where the monsters will increase in level. There is a longer, safer route, but I took into account the possible desire to become stronger and to acquire better material. So, I found a balance between both possibilities and noted possible changes in the route if the situations should change.]

"She read my mind," I say with a grin as Richter and I bump fists.

"Dude, she's like a GPS, but, like, way cooler. So, Sonny, what happens during the Vanishing? Do we as travelers just, like, vanish?" There is a drop of sarcasm in his voice, but its become a real concern for me as it approaches. We'll be gone for twelve hours IRL, but that translates to thirty six hours in game.

[Yes. Your presence will be lost for thirty six hours in this world. It will be as if you stopped existing for that amount of time, the world continuing without you.]

"It sucks," I say, shrugging my shoulders and turning my palms up in resignation, "But it'll be like that when the game gets released. People coming in and out of this world whenever they have time to spare. Not like us, spending a week at a time here."

"I guess so."

This time he opens the door for me and I step into what could be best described as Christmas morning, in the middle of a large family opening presents.

There are piles of crafting items and what look like half finished items. Some of the items are from the wish list I gave to our two rogues. The only one not here is Mika. I assume she has taken residence in the Alchemy Lab for now.

Serenity is sitting at the same work table I brought her to the first time we came here. Next to her are four crates filled with potions, each crate holding twelve bottles. The bottom two are faintly glowing red. The next one is blue. The third is yellow. The crate on top is an assortment of different colors, that I'm sure I'll hear about later. In her lap is a Pawn Box. Everyone's attention is drawn to the two of us as the door closes behind us.

"Don't let us interrupt," I chuckle as I find a spot nearest Victoria who is finishing up something at one of the center work tables. "What's this?" I ask, glad she has taken such an interest in crafting.

Instead of telling me, she motions me to take off my leather vest, an order I shyly obey. Someone whistles at me as I pull the vest off and I accept the piece of armor she hands me. "Its a scaled brigandine! Wow!"

[You received Simple Scaled Brigandine

[Dura: 115/115

[Armor: 6]

She kisses my cheek, "If you break this one, your ass is catching lizards for days. D'you know how many scales I had to use?"

It fits perfectly and makes little to no noise.

"Thanks Vic, this is great!"

"I also discovered our skill has an innate dismantling ability when it comes to leather equipment," she says proudly as she shows off a half sheet of leather, "Even though a vest is made from a whole sheet, when I deconstructed it I only got a portion of the whole amount back."

I nod my head slightly, "I see. Still, if we need materials for something more useful its better to deconstruct, right?"

She pulls out a small object from her storage bracelet and hands it to me, "This is from one of those boxes. It said it was a 'Pocket Canoe.' Rachel activated it earlier and its about thirteen feet long and can hold up to three people. Eight hundred pounds max. It even has three oars." The toy sized object is made from some kind of polished, dark wood and I almost want to use the command word to check it out, but I hand it back. I have to insist she hold onto it, "You opened the box, its yours. Right?"

"Oh great," Kona whines from another work bench, "Guess I get to keep the forty five pieces of Obsidian."

She's pouting and holding up a card, but its still kind of funny to me. The card is similar to the one I got for materials when I opened all those chests. It's a one time use object that displays its contents and can either be accessed right away or have the items placed into a storage unit of some kind.

"At least it wasn't plain lumber like I got from one of them," I say, trying to make her feel better.

Dawn shakes her head, "I told you to add them to the inventory and you can open another one." She tosses the Faunus a small chest and Richter another, "Here you go, handsome. Er…"

The others relentlessly tease her, a non-stop onslaught of mocking quips from all around her.

"Enough! It was just a slip of the ton-!"

Her hands shoot over her mouth and the tension thickens like soup, threatening to boil over as everyone leers at her.

"Thanks, Dawn," Richter says, trying to steer everyone back in the right direction, "So, how does this work?"

I tell him about the odds and he opens the lid. There's a light popping sound and a small flash, the only thing left in his hands is a pair of blue tinted sunglasses.

"Whoa," his only words as he tries them on. "Haha! Cool. They give me an ability called Arcane Sight. It allows me to see magical auras from, like, traps and stuff. This game- er… place is so cool!" The NPCs seemingly skip over the part where he called this place a game and we continue forward.

Romana got one hundred pieces of stone, which is actually great since we ran out making the houses. Its enough to make one more house with a little left over for something else. She declines the last Pawn Chest, enjoying everyone else opening them as she works on more furniture.

Elsbeth's Pawn Chest contained fifteen pieces of something called Mana Scorched Wood. She explains that if a strong enough tree is struck by high level fire magic and it survives it turns into a Mana Scorched Tree. It continues to look like its smoldering under a blue flame, though the wood itself is cool to the touch. The material name in the inventory list lights up yellow when I activate my Minor Survival Skill. I find Obsidian on the list and it does the same. A jolt of impending creativity shoots through my brain.

Dawn got a Minor Ring of Power, an apprentice level accessory that boosts her Strength by two, though it doesn't count toward the DecaStat point. She admits that at this point she'd rather have gotten more metals.

We urge Serenity to open her's and she finally does with a nervous smile. A pop and a flash later, she's holding a reddish brown stick. Its about sixteen inches long, and the end bends in obtuse angles ending in a crescent shape. In the center is a floating red gem, the same color as the stick.

"Its a wand…" she says in a whisper, forcing all of us to crane our necks to hear the description.

It gave her a small MP use reduction and a special once a day ability that recharged at midnight.

She speaks in a rhythm, "Concussive Wave. It only deals… my level in damage. But it pushes… everyone within… five feet from me… back fifteen feet."

During her pauses she takes a deep breath. Dawn explains that she used to have a pretty bad stutter too, but lots of practice and therapy helps keep it under control. She imparted some tips and tricks to her fellow Infernus in the hopes that it would help.

Kona opens up the last box and is delighted to find a plain looking silver ring, "Its a Minor Ring of Magic! It's like Dawn's but with Arcane! Alright!"

We're all very glad for her, but it brings us to the next four, the Bishop Chests. When asked, everyone agreed that Dawn, Vic, and I would get one. Also, Kona would open the last one just to pacify her and depending on what she gets, it would go to the one who needs it the most.

"And," Dawn adds, "Since you won your little pillow fight, we decided you would also get the Jester's Box."

I give everyone my thanks and we open our prizes.

[Amazing! You received 12*Barrel of Frost Dragon Ale]

[Fantastic! You received Basic Golem Manual!]

[Great! You received 100*Steel Ingots]

[Fantastic! You received Training Grounds!]

All of our prizes astound us, bringing up a cascade of plans and ideas. Except the ale. That brings a waterfall of drool, but its a little too late for it right now. We put everything away, it being almost midnight already, but everyone sticks around for my Jester's Box draw.

"Okay, with the ale, I feel like we got a lot of the things we need. So…"

I slowly turn the small red and white chest, admiring its unique design. From the side marked "Need," I turn it back to the side marked "Want." With bated breath, I guide the lid open, half expecting it to be a cure for my mom. I almost choked on air when I had that thought. How would I even get it out of the game?

[Suprise! You received 5*Vial of Cosmic Slime]

[Vial of Cosmic Slime, Elseworld.]

[A 1 ounce vial containing the remains of a Cosmic Slime. By using the supplied dropper, one may apply the Cosmic Slime to any surface of two objects and they will be permanently fused together. Only extremely powerful magic can seperate the two objects. Use 1 drop per square inch. Uses left: 600/600]

Before me is a sea of blank faces. Nobody gets it.

I just described this staggering new item with such reverence that sweat started running down the sides of my face like an overzealous televangelist. I know they're all probably tired, but the yawn I see on a couple of their faces makes my eye twitch.

"Like, what's so great about slime? I used to make it all the time as a kid,” Rachel says with an eye roll.

"No," I say in a whisper, "Not like this. This. Is. Super glue… Magical super glue…"

The gravity tugging at them, but not yet pulling them in.

"With this, we can craft ANYTHING we want."

There it is. Their collective jaws drop. I can hear their pupils dilate as they realize what it is I mean by "anything."

"We only have five bottles and each bottle has six hundred drops. Each drop covers one square inch. So, we have a little to play with but I have no idea where we're even going to get more. It's description has it marked as Elseworld."

[The Cosmic Slime is a moon size, Tier 7 Boss that comes from another universe to feed on the collective positive energy of a world. The closer to paradise, the higher the chances of it attacking. When it does, it inadvertantly sticks to the planet until it is absorbed, just like a regular slime.]

"Dude, that has got to be the most messed up monster description I've ever heard. It eats happy thoughts and it's made from super glue?"

Dawn is appraising one of the bottles, "Just be happy we didn't have to fight one to get these."

"Well," Victoria stretches her arms up then rests an elbow on my shoulder, "The way Arc is now, it won't be attacking anytime soon." Its a morbid thought, but we all agree. I keep two of the bottles in my inventory and give one to each of the players.

"Just in case. I don't want anyone accidently using it, getting stuck to a chair or something forever. I mean, it'd be funny for a little bit but then we'd have to hear about it the whole time." We all laugh light heartedly as we all get our stuff together and head out the door.

"Um, Sonny?" Serenity timidly starts a question while walking next to Dawn, "Is there any chance… this slime… will come alive?"

We all grind to a halt, the thought not occuring to us in the slightest. Did we just mistake these doomsday devices for life saving tools?

She's taking too long to answer.

Oh no.

What if--

[Not at all. The bottles are especially made to suppress the slimes natural regeneration ability. However, I would advise you to not let it get on any other Slime creatures. Contact with the Cosmic Slime after initial use is okay, but not straight from the bottle. It is possible for a mutation to occur. Highly unlikely, but possible.]

Right away, all of the bottles are apprehensively placed in my storage bracelet as the others keep their distance from me in a playful manner. Kona is the closest to me, so I chase after her all the way to the Bath House. The others laugh and jog to catch up.