Fujiwara shrugged at Umichi's response, seeing it as simply letting the mood hover around in a weird spot. "Well, it's fine to joke around every once in a while, no?" he asked as the group returned to the Citadel. The experience seemed to level up Ayame (which brought her to 4), but Fujiwara knew that 4 was nowhere near enough. The next few days would, for sure, be filled with training. ----------------------------- It had been 10 days since that quest completed. Fujiwara, striving to catch up with Umichi, he spent the days training Ayame (and himself) on the go from sunrise to sunset. They were both tired, yes, but with the team constantly on the move and quests taken by everyone else before they could accept them, it seemed to be the only way to get any experience or money. The grind was, admittedly, quite tiring... But at the same time, the two of them had become resigned to the fact that it was really the only option. Luckily, with the amount of grinding that the two had done some fruits of their labor seemed to arise. Fujiwara had hit level 10 (at which point he dropped 4 points into STR and 2 into AGI) and had saved up quite a bit of money by being stingy on repairs and taking up repairing metal weapons as a talent to learn on the side. Ayame, too, managed to gain quite a bit; catching up with the rest of the party and hitting level 7 (and distributing her stat points evenly, with slightly more emphasis on AGI), she had amassed about 8000 col and had taken up cooking on the side to keep the group's morale up. The two had decided to be relatively self-sufficient, but at the same the money they saved could quite easily benefit them in the long run. In the end, it was mostly just Fujiwara dragging Ayame on every grinding session outside of town. Nobody else seemed to mind, and the stockpile of monster drops almost assured that they could instantly complete any quests that didn't involve quest-only drops. Fujiwara had also used these sessions to brief Ayame on basic MMO terminology and the usage of <> and their tactical importance. Their teamwork by then had improved significantly, and in the end the speed at which they cleared monster waves was known among them as one of the fastest. --------------------------- The time in Tolbana had left Fujiwara with little more than wanderlust; the days constantly moving about the first floor had left him feeling bored as he walked about the town. When Suki suggested that they search for data for the labyrinth, he was more than happy to take up the suggestion. "I've been doing the same thing over and over, so I'll go hunt around for some information. I'll let you guys know if I find anything out." he said, sighing and tapping his fingers in his hands impatiently. Ayame, on the other hand, decided to take up Paka's suggestion without much more discussion. Unlike Fujiwara, Ayame was much less accustomed to doing the same thing over and over, and a break from the daily grind seemed to be a nice idea. "I think I'll stay here, Hideki. Maybe I cook something up for the group..." she said before thinking for a second and turning to the others. "Do you think the inn's got ingredients for some stew at the moment?" As she asked the group, Fujiwara noticed a man who almost seemed to be walking right into them. Moving to the side to left him through, he noticed the man bump into Ayame and apologize quietly. As he watched the man start to walk off, Ayame opened up her inventory to check if she had the other ingredients for the meal she had in mind before she noticed something off. "...Hey... I'm missing some money all of a sudden..." she said in slight bewilderment. Fujiwara shook his head and turned to the man who had just walked by. "...I think I know why. Hold on a moment." he said, quickly slipping over to and in front of the man who had just walked by. "Excuse me, but I think you may have been a bit too conspicuous there. I can understand walking through a crowd and not noticing, but if someone makes way for you and you still bump into someone... It's a bit conspicuous, don't you think? Now, if you would... Please come with me for a second, if that's alright with you."