"When we're strong enough, we can go back there and fix things."

Ame rolls her eyes at Elizabeth and then sighs wistfully.

"I haven't been thinking about it much. Finding a way home, I mean. But it is an appealing idea, getting strong enough to come slamming down on that city like a reverse-endbringer, leaving a swath of creation and healing in our wake..." Ame shakes her head, smiles ironically. "I doubt it would work, but it's cathartic to imagine."

Abyssal frowns. "...Why not? I'm not sure what an endbringer is but if you get strong enough you can overthrow whatever tyrant is running things in your city unless it's ruled by an Emperor Dragon or something."

Ame winces.

"An endbringer is what we call a final dungeon boss that doesn't live in a dungeon," she lies... or does she? It's not like anyone actually knows what endbringers are. For all she knows they are dungeon bosses that somehow got loose and hopped worlds... "Death and destruction on a mass scale."

"That's the thing though. There is no tyrant. No king to overthrow. No Emperor Drago..." Ame trails off, then suddenly laughs. "Well, we did have a gambling and prostitution cartel run by a man who certainly wished to claim the title of Emperor Dragon," Ame admits, deeply amused. "Some of his thugs came after me to kill me 'cause I was a whore not under their control. That's how I---how I got driven out of the city in the first place."

"Anyway, if I had to describe how we were ruled, I'd go with 'a bureaucratic republic of wealth'. A network of interconnected and interdependent electees and appointees who's only purpose seems to be getting in each other's way. Chains of law stretched in every direction like a tight web, preventing collapse into anarchy at the cost of preventing... everything else too. So many laws that they're impossible to enforce, impossible to obey, so they're wielded like a whip to keep the poor from bettering themselves while the wealthy live above the law short of murder and sometimes even then. The very word 'hero' twisted by propaganda to symbolize compliance, poisoning those with good in their hearts against the idea of change. Decoys at every level of politics to divert the ire of citizens away from even knowing the names or faces of their true rulers, and to fool the credulous into thinking their grievances are being heard. All of this wrapped in the lie of national pride, that we were greatness, unrivaled, that it was impossible to do better, that everything wrong was your own fault, because look, this one guy got rich by being a brilliant merchant, why can't you? You must like being an impoverished wage-slave."

Ame grunts, shaking off the pall brought on by contemplating the mess that is Earth Bet.

"Oh, man. I've heard that some of the trading cities get like that. There's so many different layers of nobles and guilds all looking out for their own interest that nothing short of a Demon Lord will break the deadlock..."

Ame manages not to sporfle too obviously. She isn't even really the Demon Lord yet.

"You have the right idea, yeah. Just multiply the scale by, like, ten."

"Sounds miserable. Even at home... There was politics, corruption." Abyssia sighs. "It seems sort of inevitable."

Ame makes a noncommittal noise, returning to her meal.

Maybe someday, a Demon Lord will descend on Earth Bet like the healing touch of a lustful goddess, but Ame can't imagine that happening in the next decade even if it is possible.

"So, you said something about shopping, Liz? What are our priorities for new equipment?"

"Liz, am I? Hmph. Just, things that increase our capabilities. All you really need are better weapons and some books maybe, my equipment is already fairly solid but I'll be trying to enchant extra foci... Abyssia can buy better guns, I assume. Or maybe some light armor for the both of us wouldn't go amiss, but wearing armor is awful and I hate it."

"You're the odd one out for not having a three-letter nickname," Ame teases. "So I fixed it."

"My sword is cheap but is swording okay. I need a new shield though. Something that's both tougher and lighter, hopefully. If that doesn't cost my whole share I can upgrade my sword too, I guess."

"You want mithril or lanthine. Both are expensive. Past D tier, better materials stops being the limiting factor on gear and the quality and amount of magic on it matters more, but for now it's mostly materials. Maybe we could also all use some rings or bangles with holdout spells or minor stat boosts, every little edge and all... But the thing about spending money on adventuring gear is that it's very hard to have enough money that more won't help."

"True. Alright, let's see what's for sale."

Shopping here in the blossoming but not yet flourishing dungeon town of Letersoot is fairly productive! Bys buys a chainmail shirt and sells two of her guns to buy a different gun with a glass scope, after loudly arguing with a gun store owner. Liz buys a small grey gemstone that is literally difficult to look at, and a flask of red liquid that she warns the other to to not open. Someone is found who can fix Ame's shield and apply [Durability II] and [Projectile Magnet] to it. Alternately, she could get a curious hexagonal shield made out of a bronze-like metal called amphisgold, which is lighter, a tad frailer, and currently unenchanted, but able to regenerate by pouring mana into it.

Rumors heard while shopping include:

They're having some trouble with the sewers, something about toxic gas. Would it kill them to have a decently leveled civil engineer or architect brought in?

There's some dhar leaking from the direction of the destroyed village of Malkin. Some corrupted beast or necromancer probably. Hopefully the Grail Knights hear about it and clear out whatever it is.

Supposedly there's a lady desperately buying up as many sapphires as possible. What could she need them so badly for?

A whole D-rank team got wiped out the other day. They were last seen on the 6th floor heading down.

The rumors are idly noted as they shop.

Ame tries on the bronze hexagonal shield and finds that it's a really good fit for her. A shield that can regenerate? That's just way too fitting not to appeal to her. And also the sharp points on the hexagon might be useful in a pinch.

"How much?" Ame asks of the shield. "And what enchantments can I get on it?"

1 gold 6 silver for the shield. And while making the enchantments stick properly through repairs is a slightly more specialized skill she'll have to look for elsewhere, amphisgold has an ability to accept enchantments just a hair under the level of mithril!

Erk. That's twice her share of the day's delve. Maybe she'll skip the enchantments... for now at least. But she does like the shield a lot. Ame decides to splurge and buy it.

Will they give her anything for her old shield or should she just throw it out?

Buying, fixing, and reselling damaged gear is a well established business model and the merchant is working very hard to make sure she doesn't feel scammed to sell it for 4s 8c.

Ame is happy with this outcome!

That is probably all the money Ame should spend today. She will content herself with tagging along with her party until they're also done.

They don't take too much longer to finish their own shopping.

Along the way back, outside the tea house and inn that Ame intuited as a barely-trying-to-be-subtle brothel, a woman who is obviously the manager is arguing with an Adventurers Guild badge-wearing older lady.

"-this nonsense about ghouls and undead. Probably ran up some gambling debts for some rogues, why should I use valuable resources on that?"

"No, no, Lily's not like that, she's demure and conscientious."

"I know exactly what's going on here, to say that your business is demure is a laugh."

"That's beside the point. I have two witnesses who heard her scream. And I know that smell, it's unmistakable. Undeath."

"I really only have your word for it. This is nothing more than back-alley life taking its toll. It's not a monster, or a bandit group, or anything so threatening that the Guild needs to step in. I can't help you."

"Are you seriously going to ignore undead creatures in the middle of town when there's a necromancer in the area just because the one they went after is in a line of business you dislike-"

"You can issue a bounty as usual if someone wants to investigate. We have rules about illegal bounties and the terms of completion, of course, and I doubt digging through back alleys to find one of your whores will qualify. You'd better watch your step, if you disrupt the ordinary course of business much we'll have to arrange for some... Inspections with the Baron's guards. Good day."

The madam lets out a low scream of frustration as the Guild representative smirks and walks away.

Abyssia looks at Elizabeth. "...Would you be able to tell if there's undead around?"

"I mean, maybe? It depends a lot on what kind and how long ago? I don't know that much about dhar and necromancy. For good reason."

Ame stops walking halfway through overhearing this conversation. Her teeth grind at the smug threat the Guild lady delivers as she departs.

Ame doesn't wait for her party. She turns and stalks toward the frustrated madam without hesitation.

"Hey. What happened?"

"-Oh - Adventurer? It's Lily, one of my girls. She was taken last night by some sort of... Ghoul or something. I'm sure of it. I don't, I can't offer that much money..."

Ame takes the woman's hand, gives her a kick of generic healing and revitalization just because, and holds her gaze with a serious intensity.

"I'd spit in the face of anyone who'd discard a whore's life like that, just for the satisfaction of proving them wrong. You matter. Lily matters. More than that sanctimonious cunt or anything she cares about. At least to me. My name's Ameron, those are Abyssia and Elizabeth. How can we help?"

She blinks and flinches back at the sudden magic. "Wh- It's not a good idea to annoy the Guild! And did you just cast Refresh without asking? Ack. Thank you, but ack. Um."

She takes a deep breath and goes serious.

"Right. I'm going by Rose, by the way. Flowers, it's a whole - not important. So. It was late at night, Lily was going back to her place, it's just two blocks away. She screamed and her panic button went off. It's a piercing, actually, I make them, the clients like them, fires if they get in danger and it went off- I went out with my crossbow and ran after her but the signal was moving north fast and I couldn't keep up. It smelled like undead in the alley where she screamed. The signal - went north and west, towards the old forest they say a necromancer's hiding in - and then turned murky and stopped. He must have her, then, right, but there's no way I can go after a necromancer and even you three..." She makes a doubtful face. "You don't have that gear-covered or larger than life look that high levellers do, sorry."