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Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Two — Sizing Up the Future

Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Two — Sizing Up the Future I expected the meeting with the generals to be kind of boring, and I wasn’t wrong at all.The generals, who had been drinking and smoking cigars earlier, decided to act a bit more professionally and so they met us in a meeting room where we all sat down. Lieutenant Petalwrought reported on our entire excursion through the dungeon in short, clipped sentences while sitting as if his back was locked in place.Once he was done, Aria delivered a very preliminary report. There were lots of words used whose meanings I wasn’t sure of, and the generals spent a lot of time nodding even though I was pretty sure they didn’t understand any better than I did.Then it was my turn. I bounced on my seat as I explained how I cleaned up the core. I used as many gestures and examples as I could. The generals seemed more confused than not when I was done, but Amaryllis and Awen were smiling, so I decided it probably didn’t matter.“Well, that was... educational,” the Knight-Captain said. He stroked his moustache, then nodded. “I believe we are quite done here for the moment, gentlemen and ladies. I’m aware that the sun has set already, but our magnificent navy has no fear of flying in the dark! The generals and I will deliberate for some time still, but those of you who wish to return to the capital may prepare yourselves for the flight back.”With that done, we left the meeting room.My friends and I stayed back for a bit to say bye to our new friends. I hugged everyone, even Erin and Bron and Lucille, who seemed a bit worried about getting hugged (which was quite silly, but I kept the hugs short so that they wouldn’t be uncomfortable) and then Lieutenant Petalwrought insisted on shaking my hand, even after I offered him a hug.“It was a pleasure working with all of you,” he said. “I’m genuinely glad that the dungeon has been cured of its ills. Hopefully it will be restored and in proper order soon enough.”“I hope it feels better too,” I said.We milled around for a bit, but eventually I think my friends and I all felt a little weary. Not tired; not sleepy. We’d taken some potions to keep awake and judging by how bouncy I felt I wasn’t going to be sleeping anytime soon.We left the knight’s little castle and crossed the training yard back to the sylph warship which was still anchored in place. The sailors we crossed were mostly sitting back and relaxing, a few were even snoozing away next to the crates and boxes they’d unloaded when we arrived.My friends and I climbed aboard the ship and when no one met us on the main deck, we went down a level back to the room where we’d waited on the way over.I found the cot in the corner of the room, spun around, and flopped onto it. “Ah, that was a long day,” I said.“It was,” Amaryllis agreed. She sat down to my right, scooted back, then folded her legs up under her.Awen hopped onto the other side, then she squeezed herself closer to my side. I leaned to the side, ears flopping atop her head and chin on her shoulder. “It wasn’t a bad day,” she said. “The last couple of weeks have been... busy, but not bad.”“Yeah, I guess so. I’m looking forward to getting back to adventuring though. Politics aren’t for me, I think.”Amaryllis sniffed. “Yes, I suppose you’d say that. Perhaps we can take the long way back home. I’ve always wanted to visit the north.”“Oh,” Awen said. “I’d like that. I... I would like to get stronger too. I only levelled up once in the last couple of weeks, and that was today.”“Right!” I said. “We’ll get even stronger then. I need to level up my hugging skills, and... oh, I have a skill I want to put a point into as well.”It had been a little bit since I’d looked at my growth.

Name

Broccoli Bunch

Race

Bun (Riftwalker)

First Class

Cinnamon Bun Bun

First Class Level

Second Class

Wonderlander

Second Class Level

Age

Health

150

Stamina

165

Mana

145

Resilience

Flexibility

Magic

Skills

Rank

Cinnamon Bun Bun Skills

Cleaning

S — 07%

Way of the Mystic Bun

C — 17%

Gardening

D — 41%

Adorable

D — 100%

Dancing

D — 100%

Wonderlander Skills

Tea Making

C — 15%

Mad Millinery

D — 94%

Proportion Distortion

D — 100%

General Skills

Insight

C — 99%

Makeshift Weapon Proficiency

C — 24%

Archeology

D — 29%

Friendmaking

C — 79%

Matchmaking

D — 68%

Hugging Proficiency

D — 57%

Captaining

E — 89%

Cinnamon Bun Bun Skill Points

Wonderlander Skill Points

General Skill Points

First Class Skill Slots

Second Class Skill Slots

General Skill Slots

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.Way of the Mystic Bun was proving to be a great skill at its new rank. Otherwise, not much had changed with my Cinnamon Bun Bun skills. Maybe I could put that spare point into one of them? Or was it cleverer to wait for Cleaning to be ready to become even more powerful?My Wonderlander skills were coming along nicely too! I was going to get a new skill in a couple of levels. I couldn’t wait! I was definitely going to put more points into Proportion Distortion. Sure, it wasn’t the most useful of skills, but it sounded fun!Mad Millinery was only growing slowly. Maybe I had to start trying on more hats? I’d try to remember to visit another hat store.Insight was so close to its max that it was almost funny. Friendmaking was getting close too.. If there was ever a general skill I wouldn’t mind using some of my precious slots on, that was it. Hugging Proficiency too... I was really grinding that one.But in any caseCongratulations! Proportion Distortion is now Rank C!Proportion DistortionRank C — 00%The ability to fit in and fit out. You can now use magic to help you grow up or grow down!I tilted my head as I tried to figure out what that meant. The tilting moved me a bit away from Awen and made my ears flop in the other direction, onto Amaryllis.I poked at the skill, the way it was phrased sounded like an ability that I could use on myself. Was it like when I had used Jumping to jump around?Closing my eyes and pinching my tongue between my teeth, I felt around myself with my magic. It was something that I wasn’t too used to yet. I bet that to someone raised on Dirt it would be second nature.I found a switch eventually. It was kind of buried in the pit of my tummy. I poked at it with some mana, and it sent a tingle across my entire body, like a shiver.Interesting.“Hey, Amaryllis?” I asked.“Yes?” she asked.“Can you hurt yourself with your own skills?”Amaryllis thought about it for a moment. “Yes, but not usually directly. A light application of creativity could turn a harmless skill into a danger, of course. You had a skill that let you jump around. It didn’t harm you, but it didn’t prevent you from jumping off a cliff either.”“Right,” I said. “I’m gonna try something,” I said.Before Amaryllis could protest, I shoved a healthy heaping of mana into the swirly thingy in my tummy.Everything around me shifted. I felt magic clinging to me and my clothes for a moment, then that tingly feeling returned, but way stronger.And then my friends and the room around me became much, much bigger.“Whoa!” I squeaked.My friends jumped, both of them turning to look where I was, or rather, where I’d been. They both looked down at the same time.Their expressions couldn’t be more different. Amaryllis stared in utter confusion before frowning. “You moron, what have you done now?”Awen gasped, then reached down with hands that were very, very big. She grabbed me under my arms, her hands were big enough that her thumbs touched. Then she lifted me up before her and held me out at arm’s length.I wiggled, especially when one of my ears flopped down before me and I had to shove it aside to see.“Tiny,” Awen said.When she hugged me, I laughed. It was weird being hugged when Awen was so much bigger.When the hugging ended, Awen placed me on her lap. “What did you do?” she asked.“I tried my new skill,” I squeaked while I worked to push my ear back. It seemed as if I’d made myself small, but my ears didn’t change in size at all. So they were as big as usual, but since I wasn’t, they were now about as long as I was tall.That was going to be tricky to work with. Though maybe it had just been me using the skill wrong. I needed to practice!I dropped off of Awen’s lap, then ran to the edge of the cot. Awen gasped and reached out for me, as if to stop me from falling off the edge. It was a bit further down that it had been before, but she didn’t need to worry. I stopped pouring mana into the thing in my tummy, and with a snap I returned to my normal size... probably. I was now standing on the edge of the cot, head almost banging against the ceiling.I’d need to be careful not to bonk myself with the skill.“Well, that was something,” Amaryllis said. “Why is it that you always end up with the most bizarre abilities?”“I just say yes to anything I stumble onto,” I said.She smacked herself in the face. “Broccoli,” she sighed with the same tone she usually used for calling people idiots.“Let me try to do the opposite,” I said.“The opposite?” Amaryllis asked. “You’ll make yourself bigger?”“Yup,” I said.“No,” she shot back.I blinked. “No?”She shook her head. “No. Not indoors. Certainly not onboard a ship, no matter how close to the ground we are.”“Ah, right, that makes sense,” I said. “Whelp, in that case I’m going back to being small. I want to see if I can get small enough to fit into a pocket.”“How about you don’t experiment with a new skill so carelessly?” Amaryllis asked instead.“Could you keep it up all night?” Awen asked. “Like a plushie... but warm?”“Uh, I don’t think I can,” I said. “It uses up a lot of mana. I’m not sure how much, but at least a point per second, maybe a bit more? I bet it’ll get better with practice though!”“That’s unsustainable,” Amaryllis said.“Yes, but it’s fun,” I shot back.Amaryllis rolled her eyes. “Broccoli, you’re just so... Broccoli.”“Hey! I’m not a noun you can just toss around like that,” I said.And so we bickered, and we joked around, and we unwound ourselves after a hard day’s work.I think we’d done a pretty good job in Goldenalden. We foiled Rainewts evil plans, helped people learn how to break Evil Roots, and hopefully stopped an entire war from happening.I was pretty proud of what I’d done.That pride wouldn’t distract me from more adventuring though! I couldn’t wait to hop back aboard the Beaver Cleaver, join up with some of my other friends and crewmates, and head off to the next great adventure!

* * *

Chapter Three hundred and Twenty-Three — Adventurers For Hire

Chapter Three hundred and Twenty-Three — Adventurers For Hire “We’re back!” I cheered while hanging off of the airship’s side.Below me was Goldenalden, the great big capital city of the Kingdom of Sylphfree lit by the first clear rays of morning sunlight. It stuck off the side of a huge mountain, with sylph-made plateaus and carved out sections of the mountain giving the city plenty of room. It helped that the sylph, liked building things tall, on account of being able to fly.“Back away from the edge, you dufus, you’re going to trip off the side and I don’t care how good you are at jumping, you’ll splatter yourself at this height” A familiar taloned hand grabbed me by the scruff and pulled me away from the edge.I laughed. I couldn’t help it, I was filled with this great manic energy, and no amount of worrying from Amaryllis was going to rob me of it. “I was holding onto the edge,” I said.“Yes, and I’m sure you’ve never dropped anything before,” Amaryllis said with a huff. “You would feel quite stupid if you tripped off the side of the ship. At least for the few seconds it takes for you to hit the ground.”I grinned, but she was probably right. “Okay, fine. Thanks for worrying.”Amaryllis’ cheeks puffed and she strutted off in a huff.“If you want,” Awen’s more timid voice said from next to me. “I could get some ropes and straps, that way you can hang off the edge of the ship all you want.”I shook my head. “It’s fine,” I said. “Besides, it’s a bit windy.” I had to keep adjusting my ears and hair because both kept getting flicked around by stray gusts.The ship-a sylph military vessel commandeered to get us to the dungeon of the Lullaby Knight-was about as aerodynamic as any sylph ship, which is to say that it was basically a flying brick with sharply angled sides and a partially-armoured balloon.The ship sailed past the busiest parts of Goldenalden, over the blue and red and gold districts, before we finally glided down towards the military port where sylphs in uniform flew up to meet the ship with long cables behind them.Amaryllis returned, carrying her stuff as well as mine and Awen’s. “Here. I figured I would grab all of our things while I was below deck.”“Thanks!” I said. I hadn’t brought too much on our last adventure. A small bag and Weedbane, my new scythe, were about it. Awen had a bunch more stuff, but she was a mechanic and she needed her tools and such.The ship docked, a gangplank was fixed to its side, and after the first few sailors moved across it we squeezed past and onto the docks.“Okay,” I said as I walked with a bounce to my step. The docks clunked and bobbed beneath me. “Where to now?”The sun had just come up after our overnight trip back to the capital, so we had a whole day ahead of us. I hadn’t slept a wink all night. Our guide in the Lullaby Knight dungeon-Lieutenant Petalwrought-had given us potions that were meant to make us resistant to Sleep magic.They worked really well against normal sleep too. My friends and I spent the night in a little cabin just chit-chatting about everything and nothing.“I suppose since this mission was given to us by the king, we ought to report back to him,” Amaryllis said. “But it would be somewhat unusual for three contractors to report back directly to the king unless he specifically ordered us to do so.”“We could pop over to the palace anyway and leave a message,” I suggested. “I bet he’s got secretaries.”“When you’re a king they’re called stewards, but yes, he definitely has people who can take care of appointments for him,” Amaryllis said.I glanced around, got my bearings thanks to the mountain peak poking out above the city, and then we set off to cross Goldenalden. Last time we’d come with a carriage, but this time we simply walked. It was early enough in the morning that most of the city was still sleeping, though birds were darting around after each other and the earliest to wake were already out and about.We stuck to the ground level, where the traffic was even quieter. Most sylph liked to fly around, or at least flutter from rooftop to rooftop, so the streets were relatively quiet except for the occasional donkey-drawn cart.As we moved north and towards the gold district, the streets widened and apartment buildings gave way to stately homes and eventually small estates before we reached the walls surrounding the palace.Two guards stood on either side of the gate, and more waiting in the towers above. These weren’t city guards; they had much nicer armour with a lot more feathers and fluff on their helmets.“Hello, sir,” I said as we came over. “I’m Captain Bunch, these are Lady Bristlecone and Lady Albatross. We’re here to see the king.”The guard blinked at me. I think he might have been close to his change of shift, because it took a moment for him to realise that I was asking for something. “Ah, one moment, ma’am,” he said.A cord was pulled, a bell was rung, and soon enough a butler-looking sylph flew over the front gate and greeted us with a bow. “I’m afraid his majesty was not yet expecting you, though we do have orders to expect your arrival sometime today. If it would please you, we may extend the royal family’s hospitality to you and offer you a stay in one of the guest lounges until his majesty is ready to receive supplicants and guests.”“That would be fine,” Amaryllis said.“Could we have snacks while we wait?” I asked.The butler stared.“We could pay you back. I’m really hungry.”“Ah, yes, something could be arranged, of course. Please, follow me.”The butler led us-and a complement of two guards-through the front gate and across the palace grounds. We entered, then I immediately got lost as we navigated through an unfamiliar part of the palace.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.The butler dropped us off in a room with a few lounge chairs, an end table, and a little bookcase next to a window overlooking one of the greenhouses next to the palace. “I shall return with refreshments in a moment,” he said before heading off.The guards stayed on either side of the entrance. They were really good at staring blankly ahead.“Awa, do you think the king will want us to do more work with dungeons?” Awen asked.“It’s a possibility,” Amaryllis said. “But I doubt it would last for very long. Training people with Cleaning magic to use it the way Broccoli does shouldn’t take too long. A few weeks at most. Sylphfree won’t lack for volunteers. Grab a few soldiers with appropriate classes, have them clean the latrines until they get the skill, then escort them through a few fights until they level up enough to pour points into Cleaning magic, and voila, a new person able to clear out Evil Roots.”“It took me... about two months?” I guessed. I wasn’t great with keeping track of the date, so I just guesstimated how long I was on Dirt for.“Which is impressive,” Amaryllis said. I puffed up with pride, but then she shattered that with her next words. “But I suspect that soldiers undergoing strenuous training can go from level one to ten in as little as a month. Less, if risk is being put aside in favour of speed.”“Soldiers train that quickly?” Awen asked.“Oh no,” Amaryllis said. “Soldiers can level that quickly. Given access to dungeons, with guides and facing threats as a group, they can definitely spend days fighting and working to level up. The training to learn how to fight as a group though? That can take several more months.”“You know a lot about this,” I said.She shrugged. “I had a passing interest in the matter back home. I recall that most career soldiers take six months to a year to train before they’re deployed anywhere, with frequent re-training and additional classes if they specialise in anything. If there’s a draft, though, the average training time is reduced to a handful of weeks.”“That’s not very long,” Awen said.“No, it isn’t, and so you can imagine that the quality will be similarly impacted.”I tapped my chin, then turned to one of the guards. “Hey, mister guard. How much training did you get?”He blinked, then glanced at his companion. “Ah, forgive me, ma’am, we aren’t meant to interact with guests.”“Not even to ask questions?” I asked.He nodded slightly.“What if I need to use the ladies room and don’t know where it is?” I asked. “Would you just stand there while I did the ‘I have to pee’ dance?”The guard’s cheeks definitely took on a reddish hue. He was saved from having to explain himself when someone appeared at the doorway. “Stop bullying the guards, Broccoli.”“Caprica!” I said as the princess entered the room. She was in one of her usual outfits. A tight red uniform, not too dissimilar to the guard I’d been talking to (not bullying!) a moment ago, though it was tailored very neatly, and her uniform’s gold-coloured gilding looked like actual gold as opposed to yellow thread. “It’s good to see you.”“Has it even been more than a day?” she asked.“Does it matter how long it’s been? I’m still happy to see you,” I said. I pulled Caprica into a tight-tight hug, making sure to be careful with where I placed my hands on her back. I didn’t want to squish her wings.Caprica patted my back in return. She was still a bit awkward about hugs, but I’d wear her down eventually. “Well, regardless of all that... how did it go?”“Dungeon cleared!” I cheered at indoor-voice levels.“Broccoli’s right, the dungeon was cleared. She took out the Evil Roots. We’ll have to wait and see whether the dungeon itself will heal after this,” Amaryllis said. “I imagine some of the people who went down with us will be writing reports on the entire event for you to peruse.”“They will,” Caprica said. “But it might take some time before I get access to those. Still, if you say the dungeon was cleared, I’ll believe you.”“Awa, thank you,” Awen said.Caprica found a seat on one of the free lounge chairs and looked ready to say something when the butler sylph returned with a tray before him. He paused a bit on seeing her in the room, but he continued and placed his tray down on the coffee table before leaving the room with a bow.There was toast and jams and little pastries dusted in sugar and filled with creams. Sylph food was always super sweet.“So, what’s the next step?” Amaryllis asked as she plucked a pastry off the platter.“That depends,” Caprica said. She grabbed a piece of toast-which looked like it was still warm-and started spreading jam on it. “Mostly on what you want to do next. I imagine father wouldn’t mind continuing to pay you to clean out our dungeons.”“That could be fun,” I said. “But it sounds a bit too much like doing the same thing over and over.”“Could be good for levelling,” Amaryllis pointed out.I frowned, then picked one of the pastries for myself. It was gooey and yum and I was lucky I had Cleaning magic or else I’d need to get my gambeson cleaned because some spilled out of the back of the pastry when I bit into it. “Mmm, yeah, but we’re here to save the world and have fun. Not just grind and get stronger.”Awen giggled. “I guess not.”“In that case,” Caprica said. “I think there’s another job you could do. But I’ll have to ask father about it first. This is a somewhat politically sensitive topic, and one that I think you’d be well-suited to take care of.”“Do tell,” Amaryllis said.Caprica grinned.

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