"He was trapped in the bathroom for an hour - I didn't even know dungeons did that - and then the first floor boss room was sealed and you were nowhere to be found, so he wandered the first floor looking for you and eventually assumed you were dead and came out. What happened to you?"

He offers Ame a spare cloak.

She's not actually cold, but Ame takes the cloak and uses putting it on as an excuse to think over her cover story.

"I got lost," Ame says blandly. "The Heart of Thorns chased me... somewhere. I think it was the third floor, somehow skipping the second, because you say that staff came from the final boss. It was this kind of... the room had this fake sky, and the monster had this glowing heart thing. After that I tried to find my way out. I still haven't seen the second floor, so I have no idea what was going on, but eventually I found the first floor again and... decided to work out some frustrations."

"I'm glad Arwen didn't ditch me."

"He was so mad. You don't leave people behind, he said - very loyal sort of person, Arwen is. You know they say he loves his militiamen more than his brothers-"

He glances over at the loot. "...Yeah, that's definitely a wyldfire staff, it's one of three things the final boss drops. It's a high-E-rank channel for aqshy and ghyran."

"I've heard those words before," Ame lies, "but I don't actually know what they mean."

"What, aqshy? It's the wind of fire. And ghyran is the wind of life."

"Right, that was it," Ame agrees.

She sits, swaying a little, an occasional hitch interrupting her steady breathing.

When the cart arrives, she gets up and gives guard guy his cloak back.

Guard guy has been separating a portion of the loot, if she wants to check his work.

It's not like she would know if he's ripping her off. She decides not to comment.

He leaves her the wyldfire staff and what looks like just over half of the rest of the stuff.

Arwen is with the cart, as is a frazzled-looking young teen and an annoyed horse. His face lights up seeing her. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, things got weird, but I survived. Sorry I worried you."

"Hi, thanks for rolling out so late," she says to the frazzled teen.

She points at Arwen, mock serious. "You're not getting sixty percent of this batch of loot, though. Now let's get back to town so I can pass out in comfort."

Frazzled teen blinks a bit sleepily at her boobs. "Sure?"

"-No, no. Well, you can use the same room in our clanhall as yesterday."

Off the cart goes.

Ame leans on Arwen, just a little, as they stroll after the cart.

"And you can use me in that same room again once we get there, as long as you don't expect me to, like, move much. I'm definitely not up for anything I'd ever charge for. I'm just saying, your cock is welcome, if you'd rather. So's his, why not," Ame adds, sleepily-impish, raising her voice to make sure Frazzled Teen can hear.

Frown. "I'm not really in the mood. And he's a bit young, isn't he?"

(...Frazzled Teen wakes up a bit more, and drives the horse a bit faster.)

"I think that's his decision."

Walk walk walk.

Slightly deeper frown. Then he sighs slumps a little bit.

"Raz is going to make you leave."

"This is not surprising," Ame deadpans. "Any particular or new reason?"

"That dungeon has been basically the safest, most boring, most predictable dungeon in the world. Nowhere near enough to make this place rich, but good to make a living. And then you go in, and it does something unprecedented."

"...yyyyeap that would do it."

"You must've leveled like crazy, though. If anything proves you've got the makings of an adventurer, crazy nonsense happening and you coming out of it alright does."

Heh.

Once they make it back to town, Ame gives back the borrowed shield and asks, "I guess I'll hang onto my loot and sell it all tomorrow? Unless there's someone around who buys all varieties of dungeon loot right away regardless of need, and in the middle of the night."

He shakes his head. "They're all asleep. Like I will be soon, I hope."

Arwen gives the cart-driver three copper and he busies himself unhitching the horse, leaving the loaded cart somewhere out of the way.

Ame pauses to give Frazzled Teen Cart-Driver a shoulder pat and to say, "Thanks. Feel free to come find me after I wash up, I'll be in there." Ame points.

Ame heads to the baths alone. She takes off her shoes and flops fully clothed (for her own extremely relative standard of 'fully') into the tub. She wriggles out of it all, leaving it to float in the water as she leans back against the lip of the tub, arms draped over the edges.

Despite not moving, her breath shortens into soft panting, and her hips squirm under the water.

Even though she's not moving or touching herself, Ame cums, letting out a soft moan, and suddenly her pussy lips bulge outward before stretching wide open, revealing a mass of translucent green slime forced out of its hiding place by her orgasm.

Relaxing with a long sigh, Ame scoops her Healing Slime out of the bathwater and smiles at it for a moment, before she softly casts the dismissal and watches it evaporate.

After a few moments idle, Ame finally rinses herself and her clothes and wrings them out to dry.

Still naked, she leaves the baths and goes to the room she shared with Arwen before, flops face-down onto the bed with her legs spread, and instantly falls asleep.

He blushes and stammers something about taking care of the horse.

Nothing disturbs her sleep.

A new day, and new things to do.

Ame summons and dismisses a Healing Slime, just for practice, then gets dressed and heads out.

First, Ame needs to sell off all of her loot. If that's straightforward, she'll put the profits towards getting herself a new better-than-wicker small shield (and paying off those knives). She knows how she fights, now, so she can make much more of an informed decision.

The loot buyers haggle pretty hard, but with moderate effort her pile of loot is worth approximately nine silver coins, and another three and a half if she wants to sell the wyldfire staff. Arwen also gives her a silver and a few coppers, as her share of what they got together before they were separated. She can get a banded wooden shield for one silver coin or a sturdy (but also heavy) iron shield for one and a half, and travel food for a few coppers.

Ophile calls her over to hand over her new clothes after an hour or two. They feel nice indeed - something between silk and cotton, not quite as good as the former but definitely better than the latter. "I stopped making them when I heard... You know. But I'm glad you're alright! And they're finished now!"