The Outlands

The rest of the expedition turned out to be much less exciting than the beginning was. Most of their time was spent out on missions to chart land that they knew had no dungeons, and though there was a brief break to raid the other nearby dungeon, once they had finished they were right back to the monotony of regular exploration. And, as Alice had once put it, regular exploration was a lot less exciting when they knew they wouldn’t find any dungeons.

Still, even regular exploration had its benefits. The terrain was far more varied than Tess had expected, and they did come across some rather stunning views from time to time. And, as they explored, it had eventually dawned on Tess that she had never actually really seen untouched wilderness before, not in the same way she was here.

She had been camping before, of course, but nothing like this. In the places Gramps had taken her, there had always been campsites or hiking trail or any other number of signs that people had been there before. Out here, they couldn’t even reliably find a game trail, and they often had to forge their own path.

It was a fresh experience, and one that she enjoyed, but all the same she was happy when Gramps finally announced that the expedition was coming to an end. After the announcement, the guild gave everyone a week to return before Gramps would give a closing speech and the convoy would pack up and begin the trip back to the City.

And soon enough, Tess found herself standing amidst a large crowd of people, waiting for the closing speech to start. Tess was surprised to see that her group got more than a few surreptitious glances, and that not all of those were directed at The Rumors. Tess, Ellie, and Maven received a not-insignificant portion of the attention, which felt…weird.

She had gotten used to being gawked at at school, but people here weren’t looking at her like she was some sort of freak. Tess couldn’t quite place the emotion, but it was something more akin to curiosity than anything else, like…almost like what she imagined she would look like if she randomly came across a celebrity.

“Something up, Tess?” Alice whispered. “You seem distracted.”

“I noticed people were looking at us. And not like, you, but like, us.” Tess replied, motioning at her teammates. “It just seems sort of odd.”

“You and Ellie are the subject of some of the hottest gossip out there at the moment.” Alice replied, barely constrained mirth evident in her tone. “Everyone wants to know what the Guildmaster’s grandchildren are like. Everyone in the guild who has been keeping their ears to the ground knows how fond the Guildmaster is of you, and that makes you people to keep an eye on. Again, be wary of people approaching you out of nowhere; there’s a good chance they might want to use you for your connections.”

“It probably helps that you’re the most beautiful person here by a longshot.” Ellie said, elbowing Tess playfully. “I can’t exactly blame people if they can’t keep their eyes off of you.”

“Oh, stop exaggerating.” Tess said, elbowing her back. “There’s got to be someone better looking than me here.”

“You literally got a Skill that constantly brings you towards the ideal of beauty.” Ellie replied. “I don’t think I’m exaggerating.”

“Yeah, but it’s my ideal, and I prefer someone more…cute than traditionally beautiful.” Tess countered. “And while there is a lot of overlap, there are thousands of high-level people here, I’m sure someone is using illusions to make themselves as beautiful as can be.”

“If they’re doing that, then they’re not a good freelancer.” Ker snorted. “That’s an extravagant waste of Mana. Even though we’re theoretically safe here, if there is some sort of attack, there’s no guarantee of our safety. The Titans may be here, and I’m sure they’re more than capable of handling anything this region has to throw at us, but they’re just one party. It wouldn’t be unreasonable for one or two people to slip through the cracks of their defenses.”

“In general, you shouldn’t be wasting time with pointless spells like that unless you have a good reason.” Jin said. “There is a time and place for them, but not–”

He was cut off as Gramps’s voice began to echo throughout the area. “Hello everybody, and thanks for coming along on this expedition!” He said cheerfully. “It pleases me to say that, thanks to your tireless efforts, it’s been yet another successful trip!”

A cheer rose up from the audience, and Gramps gave them all a smile while he waited for the cheer to die down. “But, as fun as this has been, it is time to pack it up and return to our daily lives once again. The main convoy will be leaving tomorrow morning at ten, but for those of you who wish to continue activities in this area, as always, there are a few options.

“First off, this base is going to be expanded upon to become our guild hall for the region. If you wish to help in its construction, we will provide a wage for each day you work. So long as you work on construction for at least three days a week, we will provide meals free of charge. You will not be under any obligation to stay for any length of time and are free to leave when you wish, but do note that we will not provide transportation back until after construction is finished.

“We will also be hard at work setting up a teleport gate here, but we do not expect that to come online for at least another few months. Those of you who are able to teleport manually, we have posted the coordinates of this location to our app, but do be aware that it takes approximately sixty-two hundred Mana to teleport a single person here from the City.

“And, finally, one month from today we will begin rank re-evaluations and testing, starting with my party. As always, examinations for ranks nine and above will be personalized and public, and schedules will be posted in the guild hall and in the app as they are made. Time slots are first-come first-serve, and we will be making extra time for them for one month after they are opened. Now, I do believe that is all, so go enjoy your night! We will be having our customary feast in one hour, which will last until sundown. Dismissed!”

There was another cheer, and people began to go their separate ways. “So…what now?” Tess asked. “Do we just hang out until the feast? We don’t exactly have anything to pack.”

“If you three younger girls would come with me, that would be fantastic.” Ava said, causing Tess to jump. Like always, Tess had no idea she had approached, even with her tremorsense and other heightened senses active. “Evan wishes to speak with you.”

Jin nodded. “We’ll leave them in your capable hands, then.”

“Much appreciated.” Ava said, flashing him a smile. “We’ll return them to you before the night is up.”

“What’s this about?” Tess asked as Ava led her and her party away. “Work stuff?”

“Sort of.” Ava replied. “And you can say Appointed, I’ve got my standard obscuring magic up, no one will hear what we’re saying.”

“What do you mean sort of?” Ellie asked curiously. “How can it be only sort of Appointed stuff?”

“It’s not official business, but an informal get-together we like to have after major events we were involved in. It’s usually not required, but Evan wanted to make sure you three attended the first one you could.”

“So, it will be us and your party, correct?” Maven asked.

“Rachel will be there, and perhaps Amara as well.” Ava said. “They tend to do a lot of work keeping the peace while we’re away.”

They chatted a little more as they proceeded, Ava guiding them into the camp’s main structure as they did. The structure itself had changed remarkably from how it had been at the beginning of the expedition, the temporary-looking wood or earth walls having been replaced with…whatever modern buildings were made of. It was probably some combination of a bunch of materials, but Tess had never really looked into what went into buildings.

Whatever it was made out of, the point was that it no longer looked like it was temporary or a work in progress, and now looked like it wouldn’t be out of place in any regular city. And, in doing so, it had become quite out of place where it was, a normal building out in the middle of nowhere, no other signs of civilization to be seen.

Once they were inside, Ava led them into the employees-only section of the building, and then up the stairs to one of the private rooms. Within they found Gramps, Rachel, Eyfura, and Atum sitting around a large table laden with food, already beginning to dish up and eat.

“Ah, you three, glad you could make it!” Rachel said warmly. “I made everything myself and there’s plenty to go around, so please eat as much as you want!”

“Thanks, Rachel.” Tess said, grabbing a plate from a stack at the end of the table. She took a moment to figure out where she should start, and then decided potatoes were as good a place as any, and headed over to start adding them to her plate.

“So, what are these things usually like?” Ellie asked, grabbing a plate and moving over to a pot of pasta.

“We basically just have dinner and chat.” Gramps said. “Talk about any troubles we had and how we might improve next time.”

“And speaking of chatting, you’ve got quite a bit of explaining to do, Tess.” Eyfura said, smiling slightly. “From what I understand, some very big stuff has happened and I haven’t gotten the full story yet. So, let’s hear it, what exactly happened?”

“Give her a break, Eyfura.” Atum chuckled. “She hasn’t even finished getting her food yet. Her stuff is going to take the longest to get through, so we should go through everything else first so she can have some time to eat.”

“I guess.” Eyfura huffed. “I’ve just been dying to know, and Dominion won’t tell me anything, she says it’s not her place to say.”

“It’s not that long of a story.” Tess said. “I don’t think you need a play by play of how I dealt with Olga or anything, and the rest really isn’t as complicated as you might think.”

“Let’s start with that, then.” Gramps said. “I believe Olga attempted to flee right around when we got to base camp, correct?”

Tess nodded, setting her half-filled plate down and sitting herself down in the nearest seat. “It was right when we found that first dungeon.” She said. “We had just finished going through it or there was downtime or something, and I got called away while I was sifting through cores. I cut off Olga as she was leaving, and she offered a competition to us instead of a fight, thinking she could beat us by using a game neither of us knew.

“Death knew the game, so we beat her with Death’s help and then sent her packing. After we got back, Mom and I had a long, private talk, and I went to Amy with the request. By changing how Fortune would be seen by Monster Breeder, we fixed the problems with our Descent, got me adopted, and as a sidenote made Descent essentially unlimited for us.”

Tess shrugged. “And really, that’s all there is to it. Like I said, unless you want a play by play of the game, it’s not too long; most of my reasoning revolves around that private talk, and I don’t want to divulge the contents of that talk without Mom’s consent.”

“How has that worked out for you?” Ava asked. “It’s quite the atypical relationship.”

“It’s been great!” Tess said happily. “I go and visit Mom about once a week, and the group chat was a little awkward for the first week or two, but we’ve more or less returned back to normal. Mom’s noticeably happier now, and it’s nice to have a mother figure in my life again. I still feel the same about my birth parents and about Gramps, though, so don’t worry about any of that. It’s just…more happiness.”

 “Well, we’re glad you’re enjoying it.” Rachel said, smiling warmly at her. “Why don’t you finish dishing up? We’ve kept you from your food for too long as it is.”

Tess nodded, then grabbed her plate and resumed getting her food. Once she had finished grabbing everything she wanted, she found her way over to where Ellie and Maven were sitting and took a place besides them. Once she was properly seated, Gramps began to speak again.

“So, Rachel, would you like to go next, or should we?” He asked.

“Mine is pretty fast, so I’ll go.” Rachel said. “It was business as usual, really. There was the standard uptick in criminal activity in the City, but I kept the worst of it at bay. As far as Hearth and I can tell, there isn’t anything else worth worrying about that happened. So, pretty boring, but that’s for the best. How about you guys?”

Gramps grimaced. “I think we made a mistake announcing the rank changes before the expedition.” He said. “Unfortunately, there were a lot of reckless people this time around, no doubt looking to increase their standings before rank re-evaluation happens. We had a lot more deaths, and we couldn’t retrieve nearly as many as I would have liked, only seventy five percent or so.”

Ava sighed. “Admittedly, I had hoped that we were past this.” She said. “We give them this warning every time we have an expedition, and if they had done their research, they would know that every expedition has a death toll, but there are always some people who don’t listen. Usually, those people are inexperienced, but this time we even had a few deaths from people who really, really should have known better.”

“The next few times we have an expedition, we need to arrange for there to be more body retrieval personnel.” Atum mused. “I imagine that with the expanded space in the upper ranks, we’re going to get a lot more people trying to make something of themselves, even years down the line. The parties we had on standby weren’t enough now, and I don’t think they’ll be enough next time.”

“Agreed.” Eyfura said. “This place was relatively tame, too. We still have a couple of high-level areas that need discovering, and those are sure to come with higher body counts.”

There was a slight lull in the conversation, then Gramps turned to the three younger girls. “What do you three think?”

“Us?” Ellie asked confusedly. “I’m not sure we really know enough to say, though.”

“Humor me.” Gramps replied. “I’d like to get a fresh perspective on this.”

“Well…it’s better to err on the side of caution.” Ellie said slowly. “And it seems to me that much of our issue comes from people not wanting to go on the guiding outings because they want to have their own achievements, right? If we could…I don’t know, make smaller outings led by very competent parties, then we could make each participants’ contribution bigger, so they’d be more attractive to more people.”

Maven frowned. “You would have to regulate that closely.” She pointed out. “These outings would be more dangerous, and if an entire outing gets wiped out, then the burden of retrieval becomes significantly larger.”

“Not as much as you would think.” Eyfura said. “The problem is mostly the time spent getting to the place of death and looking for the corpses. The number of corpses doesn’t have a very significant impact. I think the idea has merit, but Maven is right in that we’d have to set strict regulations for it to work. It’s something we’ll consider for sure, though.”

From there, the conversation turned to more trivial things, and a sort of comfortable atmosphere filled the room. It felt…well, it felt almost like Tess was back in civilization again; the food was phenomenal, the building was modern and the furniture comfortable, and the conversation was pleasant and oftentimes unrelated to freelancing. So, she let herself relax and enjoy the moment; the next day she would have to begin the journey back, but that was something she would deal with later.