I was completely stunned. "What is it?" I said.

  "It's your mage staff silly!" Abigail said.

  "But it has pink on it," I said.

  "Yeah, healing crystals are pink," she said.

  "Ok, what does it do? I see bone and pink crystal at the end," I said.

  It was a smooth long white staff made from bone. It had some rune etchings and a strip of leather wrapped around it for grip. At the end was a V-shaped socket that held a heart-shaped pink crystal.

  "The bone part enhances your bone magic and the healing crystal enhances your healing magic," she said.

  "Aren't crystals dangerous? Or is it like Marcy's crystal bombs? As long as you're not taking the crystals into your body, you won't build up toxicity?" I said.

  "Exactly. Magic crystals can be perfectly safe when used in items. They're naturally occurring magical phenomena. They've only become dangerous now that people are taking them like drugs," she said.

  "I didn't know that either until I visited Granny's Grimoires again and asked her about getting us magic focuses. She said she couldn't make them, but she told me what I would need and who to look up in Ravenhold to get it done."

  "So I bought some crystals and other things from Bobbin and went to Arthur Ashkinson. He's an artificer who works out of the lower city. He wasn't cheap but now we both have magic focuses! I have a wand and you have a staff. Isn't that great?"

  "Yeah, that is pretty great. Does the crystal get used up though, like it does when you pop them?" I said.

  "Yeah, that does happen, but the slot at the end of your staff allows you to change out the crystal. It's lucky that all healing crystals are shaped like hearts," she said.

  "Yeah, that is lucky. Cool. So how much did it cost?" I said.

  "About, mumble mumble coins," she said.

  "You can't say the word 'mumble' when you're mumbling," I said.

  "Ok. Hamma whatsit googaw coins," she said smiling.

  "That's not how mumbling works, but just tell me how much it was," I said.

  "It was 1,010 coins," she said sheepishly. "But we still have at least 2,000 coins left!"

  "Oh, that's fine. I thought you were going to tell me we were in debt or something," I said sighing in relief.

  "Well, we would've been if I hadn't haggled him down," she said. "He wanted something ridiculous like 10,000 coins!"

  "What the hell? You basically robbed the man! How did you get the price down so low?" I said.

  "Oh, I just promised I would perform at his daughter's birthday party. He said his daughter loves bubbles and princesses, so I said I could deliver both of those things!" She said.

  "You didn't actually tell him you're the runaway princess, did you?" I said mortified.

  "Of course! Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten the price down so low," she said.

  "Oh my god. I hope he doesn't tell the authorities," I said.

  "Well, if he does, we'll just kick their asses with our cool magic focuses!" She said.

  "If he was planning to tell the authorities, he could have easily booby-trapped the focuses somehow," I said.

  "Ha ha!" Abigail said.

  "What?" I said.

  "You said booby!" She said.

  "Uh, yeah. Um, are you ok, Abigail?" I said.

  "Yeah, why?" She said. It was at that point I noticed she was swaying on her feet slightly.

  "You didn't have anything weird to eat or drink did you?" I said.

  "I don't think so unless you count those things Sally kept pouring me. Butterscotch shots I think she called them." Abigail said.

  She swayed a bit too far in one direction and started to fall. I caught her and laid her on the bed. "Abigail, you're drunk. Sally got you drunk," I said. "I don't know why she would do that, but she did."

  "She said the shots would make me more fun," she mumbled with her eyes closed.

  I curled up next to her on the bed, and said, "I think it's time for the princess to go to bed."

  "But I want to stay up and play with your thingy!" She said.

  "You can do that another time when you're sober," I said. "Now go to sleep."

  "Ok, good night Grandpa," she said.

  Wait, what? I shook her. "You didn't play with Grandpa's thingy, did you?" I said concerned.

  "No! That would be gross," she said. "Good ni—" she mumbled into the pillow for a while before falling asleep.

  "Good night, Abigail," I said, kissing the back of her neck and closing my eyes.

  I opened my eyes. Abigail was sleeping soundly next to me. I got up and got dressed and by the time I was done, she was opening her eyes. "Where are you going?" She said.

  "Downstairs," I said. "You should join me if you're feeling up to it."

  "My head hurts a little, but not too bad. I should be able to handle it," she said.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  "Drink some water and the headache will reduce," I said. "It's likely from dehydration."

  "Ok," she said.

  I went downstairs. Sally was up making breakfast. "You and I need to talk," I said.

  "What about?" She said. "Sounds like you're about to reprimand me."

  "Why did you get Abby so drunk last night? She was sloshed," I said.

  "I was just trying to show her a good time. How was I supposed to know she'd thrown so many back? She asked for more so I gave it to her. Is that so wrong? She can make her own decisions and her own mistakes. We don't control her, regardless of how much she needs it sometimes," she said.

  "I suppose that's true. Ok, well you better be cooking some good hangover food. Because she is hungover. Surprisingly, not as bad as I expected though," I said.

  "Bacon, eggs, and hash browns! Best hangover foods that exist!" She said.

  Abby got down shortly after. Sally, Abby, and I ate breakfast together and I filled them in on what happened with the bounty hunters and Olivia.

  "You're courting some dangerous enemies, sonny. You better be ready to face the consequences, because they are coming," she said putting hash browns into her mouth.

  "I am. What do you think I'm trying to level up so fast for? And why Abby and I got new grimoires? We're preparing," I said putting a piece of bacon into my own mouth.

  "Yeah, Sally! We're going to be so ready, the bad guys won't know what hit them! But we will, because we'll be the ones hitting them," she said shoveling eggs into her mouth.

  "That made so much sense," I said.

  "Hey! Don't make fun of the girl. Just because she's dumb as a rock, doesn't mean she isn't precious as a gem," Sally said.

  "Yeah, what Sally said. Thanks, Sally," Abby said.

  "No problem, kiddo. I'll always have your back," she said.

  After breakfast, Abigail and I headed over to the base. Stylus, Marcy, and Nico were there.

  "Stylus, status report," I said.

  "So, the mercenaries are gradually getting stronger now that they can absorb the cores from their defeated enemies. Two of the teams have been able to defeat the mini-bosses, and the third team always gets to the mini-boss but is afraid to go further. They don't want to get hurt," Stylus said.

  "Good. I'm fine with that. Have them keep absorbing cores and running the dungeon until they feel comfortable. I don't want any casualties on my watch," I said.

  "Yes, sir," Stylus said.

  I handed Stylus a coin purse full of gold coins. The coin purse suddenly turned into 3 gold purses. "Use that to continue paying yourself and the mercenaries for a while."

  [Multiplied Generosity activated!]

  "Yes, sir," Stylus said.

  "Very good," I said. "So, Nico. What do you have to report?"

  "The noble branch is in the upper city like we expected, but it's basically an impregnable fortress," she said. "All they do all day is throw parties and bribe nobles with women, money, and expensive booze, but they have tons of money to hire the best protection possible."

  "They even have Haglor the Unstoppable. He's one of the strongest B-rank adventurers out there. He's an expert with a sword and a bow. No one has ever seen his face, but he always wears the same armor - the Duskborn Aegis. It covers every inch of his skin."

  "And that's not all! They have 8 more adventurers almost as famous as Haglor. There's Haymere the Unfettered, Judan the Undisturbed, Callian the Unchallenged, Be—"

  I stopped her there. "I get it. They all have Un in their names. This is going to be a tough one. We might have to form a plan for this one. Or we could just train up and try to outmuscle them."

  "I'd advise against that," Stylus said. "From what little communication I've had with the higher ups in the Red Tail Fox Company, I learned they're planning some big soon. Something they needed a huge increase in crystal acquisition for."

  "My gut tells me the noble branch is behind this and it's only a matter of time before they enact their plan. We need to make a move now."

  "Ok, that sounds bad. I guess we will need a plan this time. Marcy, any ideas?" I said.

  "We could create a distraction with one of my bombs and then kill all the official members of the noble branch while their guards are distracted," Marcy said.

  "That's not a bad idea," I said. "Ok, say we do that. How would it work?"

  Marcy detailed her concept and I liked it. I decided that's what we would go with. It was still morning and we would have to wait until dark to enact the plan. I decided we should all run the dungeon to get our stats up before the hit.

  Abigail and I ran Marcy and Nico through the first and only dungeon we had ever done. I lost count of how many times we completed it. By the end, we stood back and watched as Marcy and Nico took down the boss by themselves.

  Nico slid between the Crystal Canine's front feet, putting her arms out and cutting its legs. It stumbled slightly but stayed upright. Marcy threw a red bomb in between its front feet. When it went off, a cloud of red crystal went up around its legs causing it to lose strength in them.

  From a combination of Nico's slices and the strength-draining bomb, the canine's front feet collapsed underneath it, slamming its jaw into the ground. The canine wasn't done, however. It pushed itself forward with its hind legs, thrusting its face and mouth dangerously close to Marcy. Just as the canine was going to close its jaws around Marcy, Nico grabbed her and pulled her out of the way.

  The canine's teeth closed on air. Marcy lifted her crossbow and fired a bolt at the boss, getting it right in the eye. It yelped and squirmed. Nico used this moment of distraction to leap onto the canine's shoulder, run up the back of its neck, and bury her daggers into the base of its skull. The canine gave one final yelp and collapsed, dead.

  I walked up to them as they were digging out the boss's core. Nico handed the core to Marcy. "This is yours. I got the last one," she said.

  "Thanks," Marcy said.

  "No problem," Nico replied.

  "Not bad for a couple of noobs," I said.

  "Hey! I'm pretty sure we made that look good," Nico said.

  "Yeah! We kicked its ass!" Marcy said, punching the air.

  "I'm just kidding. You guys did great. I feel confident leading you on a mission now," I said.

  "Yay! We passed!" Marcy said jumping up and down.

  "Nice," Nico said.

  "Yes, you both passed, but it wasn't a test. We would've kept going until you got it," I said.

  "I'm here too!" Abigail said waving her hands.

  "And we're all very happy you are," I said putting my arm around her. I checked my stats.

  [Stats]

  [Strength: 645]

  [Agility: 637]

  [Stamina: 670]

  [Intelligence: 6,864]

  It was a nice little boost but I remembered Olivia mocking me for having 4-digit intelligence. Her intelligence score must have been in the 5 or even 6 digits. This just showed that I needed to graduate beyond a C-rank dungeon and take on something harder. My 10 times stats gaining attribute was nice, but it didn't matter if my total stats were still lower than my opponent's.

  Although my new staff should help considerably, I was still nowhere near capable of going toe-to-toe with this Haglor person. We would have to use subterfuge since we were on a timeline. Then I would find a way to hit harder dungeons. If we got into a pinch though, I might be able to rely on having two grimoires at level 7, especially the healing one. I could probably tank a lot of hits if I combined my regeneration ability with my advanced healing one.

  I destroyed several of the reward chests of crystals with my Crystal Breaker ability until I hit 1,000 good aura. The system rewarded me with another good aura level up to good aura level 5.

  [Good Aura Level 5: People can tell you're an exceptionally good person. They will automatically trust you have good intentions until proven otherwise. High level people and people with high perception can see through your deception. This effect is negated upon entering combat.]

  I activated the ability to maintain this aura effect even when my actual aura was below the threshold. It would drain some of my mana once my aura dropped below the level, but not enough to make me go empty unless I dropped significantly below the threshold.

  After that, I stopped destroying the chests and Abigail began carrying them in bubbles for Marcy to make bombs. She said she needed them for the plan and she was running low. I figured since we were getting the reward chests anyway, we might as well put them to good use. Marcy was quite thankful and excited by the increasing pile of chests. I decided we still weren't going to sell any more crystals to Bobbin. We would just gather them for Marcy.

  After talking, I found out Marcy and Nico didn't have character classes. I tucked that information away in my mind for later. I was hoping we could eventually resolve this whole issue with the king, so we could visit the adventurer's guild again and get them classes. That would have to wait until we had stopped the Red Tail Fox Company's plans. We didn't have time to be held in the dungeon if something went wrong.

  Now that Marcy and Nico were ready and we had gathered the crystals for the mission, we headed back to our base.