“Grimgar's Weaponry?” Stacia answered in the form of a question.
“Stacia is right. He happens to be a friend of her family, as well.” Alburet supplied, watching the line move up. “He has good stock and gives decent prices. If you go, mention my name or Stacia if we aren’t with you. Oh, and you should exchange info with Stacia while I think about it, Karen.”
Karen blinked, “Wait, she can use a Mindstone?”
“Everyone in this world can, as well as Homestones.”
“Wow. That is kind of neat,” Karen said, fishing out her Mindstone and tapping it to Stacia’s. “So now I can send her dirty messages about innovative positions.”
Alburet face palmed, “What did I just do, ugh.”
Karen chuckled, “Gave me a way to see if she ever gets free of your grasp. If she does, I very well might have to snatch her up, for her massages if nothing else.”
“I will never leave master’s side,” Stacia said, linking arms with him. “He be the only thin’ I want in the world.”
Alburet shook his head, “Never going to let her get away. You might understand a bit more when we get out to hunt.” He smiled, then noticed his message icon blinking. Checking it he found a message from Fluffball.
Message from Fluffbalclass="underline"
Al, thinking of hunting again today. Are you up for joining me and if so are you bringing Stacia along again?
Alburet replied to her and got another message a few seconds later. He chuckled and informed the women with him. “So Fluffball wants to join us. I told her we’re at the portal guild already and that she needs to hurry.”
“Oh tha’ be nice, I like her master. Iffin she gets me Ma’ to help her she will be even better.”
“Is that the Lunari Berserker you’ve mentioned?” Karen asked as the line moved forward again.
“Yeah, she was with me and Stacia over the last two days. She was with us, Gerald and Marysue for the Chieftain, too. I can attest that she is good at what she does, though she is very reserved and blushes easily. So maybe kid glove her for a little bit until she gets used to you.” Alburet said, directing the last bit at Karen.
“We will see, though I normally don’t change who I am for anyone.”
They were only two people back from the front when Fluffball came hurrying up to them, “Oh, good, I made it. Sorry about the delay.” Fluff smiled at Alburet and gave Stacia a quick hug before greeting Karen. “I’m Fluffball. It is good to meet you.”
Karen tossed her an invite to the group, “Good to meet you, Fluffball. I’m Karen. I’ve heard about your adventures killing the orcs over the last few days. That’s where we’re headed now. Is that okay with you?”
“Oh, sure,” Fluffball said, grooming an ear. “Just glad to be able to hunt with my friends.”
Karen’s lips quirked up when Fluff groomed an ear, “Maybe I can be counted among them by the end of today, then.”
“Hey, no line cutting,” one of the people said behind them.
Alburet turned to meet the eyes of the man who had spoken up. “She is part of our group, she was just a tad late, is all.”
“Well if she’s part of your group I guess that’s okay,” the guy said with a shrug. “just no more additions, okay?”
Alburet and his group were the next ones to see the receptionists. “Not a problem,” Alburet replied, turning to the front. He motioned Fluff and Karen to the other receptionist first, as he and Stacia stepped forward to Kim.
“Morning, Kim. Looks busy today,” Alburet greeted the receptionist.
“Well, it’s the first day we’ve been open in two weeks. We remodeled to help mitigate the waiting times. To start with, we just need to set you up an account and have you deposit some coin in it. We then issue you a soul bound gem that is linked to your account. Once you have that you can follow the signs and use any portal you want; the cost is automatically deducted from your account. The cost of using each portal is listed on the door for that portal. You can check your account balance at any time by holding the gem,” Kim told him in a brisk voice, as if she had been relaying the same information all morning so far.
“Okay then,” Alburet placed twenty gold on the counter. “Set me and Stacia up please, Kim.”
Kim smiled, taking the gold as she picked up gem in her other hand. “Alburet a two-souled Summoner, account being opened with ten gold.” The gem seemed to pulse with light for a moment before she held it out to him. “Just accept the gem and bind it to you, once that’s done you are free to go.” Her smile was real, not the professional one she had been wearing when they had made it to the front. She repeated the same for Stacia, frowning slightly over the lack of a class for Stacia but ignoring the discrepancy when the gem activated as normal.
They accepted the gems and bound them, clearing the pop up notification. He noted Fluffball was done and Karen doing the same thing with the other receptionist next to him. He smiled at Kim, “Thanks, Kim. With this change it looks like we won’t be having the chance to talk as much anymore.” He saw Karen stepping past the desk to where Fluff waited and gave Kim a small bow, “See you later.” He dropped an extra gold piece on the counter as he left.
“Good hunting, Alburet, and you as well, Stacia,” Kim said as they walked by her before she turned to help the next person.
Stacia let out a relieved sigh, “Thank ya, master. I was hoping we would nay have an issue like the duel last time.”
“Duel?” Karen asked as they climbed the stairs heading for the portal rooms. “What duel was this?”
Alburet gave her the quick rundown as they looked for the correct portal. He finished as they found the one they wanted. A plaque next to the door listed the portal as the Orc Grasslands, with the cost being a single gold. “Huh, so it’s as cheap as if you had a full group. Nice they aren’t gouging us.”
“I thought for sure it was going to be the two-gold fee like it was if you went alone,” Karen said. “Are we ready to go?”
The others agreed they were ready. Karen stepped onto the rune, followed quickly by Fluffball. Alburet snagged Stacia for a hug, “You ready to let them see you in a different way?”
“As long as ya be with me, master,” Stacia replied, a hint of nervousness to her voice as she held him. Alburet shifted them both onto the rune, so they appeared in front of the fort still in the embrace.
“Okay, now that everyone is here let me go grab the quests for this area real quick.” Karen said before she darted away into the fort.
“Stacia, go get some jerky and tea from the quartermaster,” Alburet said, giving her ass a playful slap. He watched her hurry off with a smile before he turned to summon his other minions. He summoned Bob and had to dismiss the prompt asking if he wanted to change minions. “Heya, Bob, welcome back. Ready to kill some orcs?”
“It has been awhile master, is everything okay?” Bob asked, looking around a little nervously.
“Yeah. The bridge between worlds was down for a bit. You okay there? You seem a bit nervous.”
“Are you going to replace me master?” Bob asked bluntly, while looking at Alburet directly.
“Nope, not going to happen. I take it you’ve heard about the option, though.”
“Yeah, the IRS held a meeting and informed us that it was being offered to all Summoners. Then you didn’t call on me or Tiny for almost two weeks, so we were getting a bit nervous.” Bob replied before letting out a deep breath, “Now I feel much better, having heard it from you.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. You are one of my family Bob. I am not going to get rid of you. Now let’s call Tiny up and reassure him.” Alburet turned and summoned Tiny to the world. “Hello Tiny. Welcome back, sorry for the delay, and no you are not being replaced.” Alburet said as he dismissed the prompt asking if he wanted to replace his current minion.