"Hold on, I didn't say I wanted to join the party for the dungeon yet. Just that our levels are high enough." Alakai replied, frowning a little. "In the game it might not have mattered, but here I wouldn't want to party with people I can't get along with. Since teamwork will be important." He decided to ignore Joan's ranting, as he seemed the type to only act all though and 'I don't need anyone' on the surface. "Lunch sounds good though. We left rather early and I at least haven't eaten properly yet."

Everyone seemed to agree. So they headed to an area that didn't have any crabs walking around. Once there, Joan was the one starting on building a fire. Alakai had the skill too. It came with the cooking profession. But if someone else would do it it meant less work for him. "So did you guys find out how to cook with flavour like that one inn then?" He asked, wondering if the inn keeper had spilled their secret. "That stupid inn keeper won't tell anyone. But I can make some pretty good stat boosting food." Joan answered. "Well you're in luck. I'll do the cooking then." "What difference would it make?" Joan replied with a frown. "Because I'm the one who told that inn keeper how to cook with flavour." All three turned their heads to Alakai now, eyes wide. "What?! You?!" Josie exclaimed in disbelief. "Let me guess, you plan to get rich by getting a cut of the profits huh?" Joan grumbled. "Nothing like that..." Alakai replied. "We get free meals and a free room. Plus he always saves a table for us. But that's all. I wanted to keep it a secret because I felt that information might be useful later on..." All three seemed a bit annoyed at that. Which was to be expected considering food with flavour was in very high demand.

"Don't worry, I'm willing to show you guys as well since we're in this situation. Just promise me, don't tell anyone else. In the end guilds will be looking out for themselves first. If one of them gets their hands on this secret, it could put them in a very powerful and influential position within the city." The three looked at each other, then nodded. "I guess you're right. It's gotten pretty bad already." June spoke. "The largest guilds have started monopolising the best farming spots, pressuring smaller guilds into joining them, some are acting like they're better than others because their guild is so large... There are even rumours of underground guilds doing shady things." Alakai frowned. He hadn't noticed anything like that. Then again, him and Kali were ahead of almost everyone. Plus they had spent almost all of their time out in the field. Only coming back to sleep and sell loot.

"It's gotten that bad huh? We've been farming mostly, so I hadn't noticed..." "Our guild too." Josie spoke, looking a bit sad. "We're just a small guild of ingame friends. But if this keeps going, even we won't have much choice any more." Alakai couldn't help but think about what could be done. All players were in this together, having been thrown into this world just like that. It was logical that people would form groups. But it sounded like the situation in the city might get out of hand if this kept on going. "Let's not dwell on that right now." He spoke, wanting to cheer everyone up a little. "We're on a beach, on a sunny day, soon with food and a campfire as well. Let's enjoy ourselves for now, right?"

Joan just nodded once, and the other two agreed with an 'okay'. Though as the fire started, another question came up. "So...who are you two anyway?" June asked as she scooted closer to Alakai, looking like she was up to something. Alakai started blushing a little again, though tried to answer normally. "W-well...it's actually a bit of a surprise you three don't know us. For some reason people always come up to us two to ask for our help or wanting us to join their guild or party." "So you're well known in the city?" June then asked. "Maybe...I'd rather not draw that much attention though..." "Ohh, you're a shy one aren't you~" June replied with a slight grin, scooting even closer until she leaned against him just a little bit. "I like shy guys~" Of course this meant Alakai's face turned bright red. So he quickly shuffled closer to the fire to get a bit more distance between them again. "I, uh...I'll start cooking some food! Yes!" He spoke, opening his inventory and starting to take out ingredients. "Don't tell anyone about this. But I'll show you what I do when I cook."