"Will you be making this dungeon part of your regular rotation?" The berserker asked as they exited the dungeon.
Cara answered on Karl's behalf. "It's a fair trip from home, so I'm not certain how often I will e back to play here. However, it was a lot of fun, so I might bring a team and see what sort of scaling we get. Dungeons that scale to the capabilities of the team entering them are so much more fun than the ones that are the same difficulty every time."
"Well, that's always a consideration. A long trip to do a dungeon run is moderately inconvenient, given the limitations on transportation magic.
However, now that we know the tricks to grouping with you, I suspect that we can prepare a group to keep the dungeon just slightly under Supreme Rank, to maximize clearance speed, and minimize difficulty."
Cara shrugged. The dungeon would give her a random modifier on danger, and it wouldn't always be a one percent buff in the entertainment value.
"If you'd like an escort around town, I have plenty of time this afternoon. You can pick up a trinket for Karl's wife, and perhaps something for the Lady Rae? We have a wide variety of options here, and not all of them are Elven in origin."
Cara took the berserker's hand and pointed into the market.
"Alright, off we go. Now, the first thing that we need to get is a gift for the Dana Mage so that she doesn't get mad at me when we get back.
Are you married?" The berserker shook his head. "Oh, then you might not know yet. But keeping women happy is mostly a matter of distraction.
You see, if we give her a gift when we get back, she will be mad at Karl for wandering off on an adventure without her, but she will totally forget that it was me who brought him here."
The Elves laughed at the Badger's clearly devious train of thought.
Throwing Karl under the wagon just to keep her own innocent act up.
Shameless.
"How did you decide to e here, anyhow?"
"Oh, there was an untethered pocket dimension that collided with our Guild House. We relocated it to this star system and stabilized it out there somewhere. Now, it shouldn't run into anyone, and those annoying old High Elves and their slaves won't be our problem anymore."
In the crowd, dozens of heads discretely turned their way.
They thought that they could just dump a bunch of slavers here like nothing, just because they were also a form of Elf?
Oh, no. That was not how it worked at all.
There were more than a few Elves here who had suffered in the past, and they would happily gather a posse and go discuss the finer points of civilized behaviour with the residents of that pocket dimension as soon as they found it.
"Well, that's one option.
Still, the luck that it would take to not only end up here simply because there were Elves, and to have a Titan Clan dungeon, when you've got a World Dragon Avatar that will bump up the difficulty and loot tables for it.
That's pretty impressive."
Cara preened with pride. "Of course I'm lucky. What sort of badger would I be if my luck was bad? Ooh, follow me over here, I think that might be another good gift for our Guild Members. We've got vegetarians at home, and I don't smell any cream in your ice cream."
The Berserker chuckled as he let Cara lead him around by the hand like an excited child, though he was old enough to be her grandfather in human years.
At three hundred, he was still relatively young for an Elven warrior. But in human years, he was ancient, and the badger's aura didn't feel like she had lived a long life. It was difficult to tell with some beasts, as they always felt rather young.
But Cara had excited pubescent energy.
While it was possible that she was actually much older, as she was an Immortal Beast, nobody would believe that without being provided solid evidence to the contrary.
Karl knew that Lotus had recipes to make ice cream without milk. There was no way that she didn't have at least three. But she probably didn't have any Immortal Rank Elven Recipes for it.
And if Cara brought her back some sweet treats, the Cleric would be overjoyed.
"You know, if you've got a foodie in the group, we sell cookbooks," the berserker noted, with a gesture toward a book store.
"It's a good thing that we didn't bring Remi along. If she found out about a bookstore, we'd never get out of here before dark. Karl, be a dear and go look at paper, I need ice cream."
Spending time with the kids at the New Home Merchant Clan's school was definitely influencing Cara.
Or, was it the ladies of the Tiny World?
Either way, she didn't used to be the one with a sweet tooth.
Cara dragged the berserker into the ice cream parlour, while one of the mages from the group acpanied Karl to the bookstore.
"If I don't acpany you, there is a good chance you'll never get out either. The librarians can be a bit scary."
"Worse than the blue dragons?"
The mage nodded solemnly. "They've been corrupted by questionable Fae reading material and too many night shifts alone in the Romance section. Letting an unacpanied fox enter the bookstore is just begging for trouble."
Tian was about to offer to protect Karl from the scary women when he realized that he would also be in danger.
Perhaps even more of it, since he was smaller and fluffier.
The young Elven woman behind the counter immediately sat bolt upright as a gentle chiming bell announced Karl's arrival to the shop. Her eyes were glued to his ears, and Karl gave her a warm smile.
"Good day, Librarian. Do you happen to have cookbooks? Perhaps something suitable to home cooking for a large family?"
The mage behind him sighed. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
Karl winked at him, and let just a hint of [Fox Charm] slip before he turned back. If Opal had taught him anything, it was that giving a romance addict the wrong idea was the best way to keep their minds working.
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