The "Best" RPG Ever-55

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Mira stood in the glyph room, the map spread out on the raised part just in front of the glyphs. Rayna was using some magic to display everyone's locations on it: Nora green, herself red, Mira purple even though she had made it clear she didn't need help remembering where she was. Something about wanting it to be a proper marauder's map. And the armor was a black dot, but right now it was a black question mark in the general area they knew it to be patrolling.

The first step was to close off access to the glyph room, so it wouldn't come running in there every time a door opened or closed. She waited for them to get into the first hallway and then closed the open door leading "north" into it. The armor came running, and they slipped into the room full of inactive armors while it went back and forth between those doors before resuming its patrol of the north-south hallway up top. Rayna now had a better read of its location, and showed it on the map.

In the hallway, the fox-girl nodded to Nora, who led the way around through the room of broken weapons and then waited for the armor to come near that end of the hallway. Then she sent a spark toward it, trying to reach the strange gemstone "eyes" powering it to start draining them. The electricity wouldn't pass through its faceplate, even though it certainly seemed to be made of metal and had obvious cracks in it, but fortunately there were other avenues to take with the several holes already blown into its arms, legs, and torso, and electricity tends to find the easiest path more or less automatically. She drained it for as long as she dared, with Rayna giving it an illusory image of someone in the exact opposite direction doing so, and then stopped to run away when it started to turn toward them.

As soon as they cleared the door into the first hallway it closed behind them, and the armor ran up to it before going over to the other two doors to try and reach them, finding both still closed. Then it displayed some unusual intelligence, returning to the room of broken weapons and, as far as Rayna could tell, just...waiting there.

The illusionist made a signal on the map to close the armor into that room and let them into the north hallway through the storage room. It paced furiously for a bit until the door into the first hallway opened; then it ran back and forth there for a little bit before beginning to patrol that hallway instead. The doors through the storage room were still open, and they returned that way to enact the same strategy again.

Knowing which way to aim this time, Nora sent a spark through the highest-up hole in the guard's armor and began discharging the gem inside. After a brief shower of sparks it went running toward the west end of the hallway, and then the door in front of her closed before it could run back after them. The elf noticed at this point that she was panting somewhat heavily.

"Hey...you holding up there?" Rayna whispered. "Any kinda read on how much juice it's got left?"
"Hff..I'll b-be okay, in a minute. I-I'm not really sure—"

She was interrupted by a loud explosion from the hallway, and a noise like metal shattering and landing in several places at once. Both of them jumped back in surprise, the fox-girl falling on her back and flailing her arms for a second or two before recovering.

"U-um.." Nora offered a hand to help her up. Rayna's ears were folded over the sides of her head.

She took the hand and stood, brushing herself off. "Oww...I think I just went deaf. What happened?"

"W-well, uh..I d-don't hear the armor anymore," she said.

"Hang on.." Rayna had lost concentration for displaying things on the map for fairly obvious reasons. She closed her eyes, focusing on where it was, and made several question marks on the hallway and displayed a request to open the door into there. Mira got the message, and it swung open.

The illusionist led the way inside slowly, gradually unfolding her ears to listen in case of some kind of surprise attack. They found several piece of broken, half-melted metal, like shrapnel from a grenade, scattered across the floor, and in the middle of the hallway there was the armor, lying on its back with the helmet and a chunk of the platemail near the "head" just gone.

"O-kaaaay...I guess we can confirm that our guard dog exploded," said Rayna. "But why, though...?"
"Hmm." Nora pulled the gem they'd used for a brief test out of the inventory, and examined the elements inside more closely.

"I th-think...the fire and electricity balance each other out somehow," she said after a moment. "Th-there's probably some tolerance for one of them being m-more than the other, but the amount I j-just drained..."
"Let the fire loose. Cool. I'm just glad that didn't happen before we got the door shut," said Rayna.
"Yes...I-I'm sorry this didn't occur to me sooner, or we could've t-taken better precautions."
"It's fine, it worked out. And we know what to do if we encounter one of those things again," she said. The near door south, toward the exit, swung open, and Mira ran in just afterward.
"What happened?!"

"We blew it all up," said Rayna, gesturing toward the armor lying on the ground.

---

Zack's group was waiting at the front gate to town while they opened it up, and Lynn happened to turn around and see the others coming. She gave them a wave, and Rayna ran the rest of the way, tackling her friend into a brief hug. "Hahah, hey there!"

"Hi again." The fox-girl stepped back out again, panting slightly from the effort of the run and blushing a little bit, slightly embarrassed and not totally sure where the desire to do that had come from. "Uh, h-how'd you guys not beat us back by a long shot?" Still, Lynn had returned the hug, and seemed to be smiling even now, like it was just normal for her to do that...

"Yeah, feels like we were in those ruins forever," said Mira, catching up. "I thought you'd clobber those cats in like five minutes."

The gate was open, and Zack started inside, waving the others to follow—which they did.

"Well, we had a longer trip there and back," said Katherine. And we found out our animal friend is terrified of thunderstorms, she added mentally. So we waited around in the cave for it to end.

"Oh yeah, that'll do it," said the witch. "We heard that storm from inside the ruins, but it was over before we were through.

"Anyway, who's hungry?" said the catgirl. "Once we get back to the house, I'll cook something worth fighting over."

"I'm surprised you have the energy after all the walking and fighting," said Rayna.

"Oh, it's just not a hard or even stressful thing for me. In fact, once you get good at it, cooking can be pretty relaxing. I seriously can't wait to get back into a kitchen again." Even if it is one with weird magical appliances.

The first stop was the guard station to report their success and get paid. Everyone avoided the subject of just how their respective quests had gone on the way there, not wanting to leave the two back at the house out of it; it would be easy enough to go over that during supper, after all. Nora gave the guard-armor power crystal to the Captain along with Rayna's map and the journal, which she was of course immediately able to read.

---

The door to town opened, and everyone started pouring inside. Aria stood up, leaning on her cane, and waved to them. "Hey, welcome back! Everyone get paid?"
"You know it," said Katherine, coming close enough to take her up on an offered high-five. "Now it's time for food. Everyone sit tight while I get to work in the kitchen!" She briefly pointed dramatically in that direction before realizing how silly that looked and just going there.

"You, uh, want any help there?" said Lynn. "Or at least a hairnet for all that fur?"

"Hey, I'm well-groomed," she said, taking mock-offense. "Fine, you can help out if you want. I'm sure I've effectively got enough hands as it is, though."

Everyone else filtered around through the house—Nora making a beeline for the library, Zack to his bedroom to change out of the armor and back into normal clothes, and so on. Clera nodded to Aria—an obvious signal to not go running off—and went up after the knight, apparently having some business with him.

Mira sat next to Rayna on the couch and leaned in her direction slightly, only to be met with a hand. "After food," she said. "No point doing it now only to get interrupted."

"Doing what now?" said Aria, taking a careful few steps back to a chair.
The fox-girl visibly blushed. "Uh—nothing, nothing."

"Petting~!" Mira half-sang over her.

"I-I'm just curious what it feels like, is all."

"Sure, sure," Aria said with an exaggerated shrug. "Whatever you're into, I guess."

"I-I'm not 'into' it!" Rayna blustered.

"Surely you're a least a little tempted," Mira teased. "I mean, don't those ears just look irresistibly soft?" She reached over to wave at them with a hand, which Rayna tried ineffectually to pull herself away from without standing up or falling off the couch. "Anyway—" she added more quietly "—aren't you already on team 'get Kath to let us pet her'?"

"I can hear you!" the catgirl called from the kitchen.

"It's a persuasion tactic!" the witch yelled back.

"Well It's not working!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," said Aria. "It's just because she's so resistant to it, though, and I have a real hard time backing away from a challenge."
"You do know there's a much bigger challenge upstairs right now," Rayna pointed out.

"Zack doesn't count," Aria said, crossing her arms. "Anyway, I barely know him."

"What exactly is different here, then?"
"Well, the way she says no just makes it feel like she's playing hard to get," said the shifter. "I'd never do anything like that without someone's express permission, but it feels like a 'maybe yes later' kinda no."

"I can still hear you!"

"Well I don't hear you denying it!" Aria yelled back.

---

The wolf followed Zack upstairs and curled up in the corner, falling asleep before he was even halfway through changing out of the armor. His wolf-ears flicked around, involuntarily picking up a conversation downstairs which he really would've preferred to not hear. It drew his focus enough that he nearly ran over Clera on the way back to the stairwell, but reacted just in time to step back away again.

"...Hello?" Since she'd been waiting only a few steps away from his door, he had to assume there was something she wanted to ask him.

She cleared her throat, trying to verbally put aside their near-collision and suggest what she had to say was serious. "Zack...you and Rayna went to get various supplies yesterday, and something recently occurred to me..."

"What?"
"Well...While the anatomy of various kinds of people on this world vary widely, there are enough similarities to humans to...That is, I just wanted to confirm whether either of you thought to procure certain, necessities," she said, dancing around the subject with all the grace of a drunken bear.

"Yes," Zack's ears folded down in annoyance. "The left door under the sink in every bathroom. What, do you think I'm stupid or in denial or something?"

"No.." She looked a little hurt by the accusation, but stood her ground. "I am sorry if I implied anything offensive to you, but as it has been a week since your group first appeared in this world, and we don't really know how...I merely wanted to ensure that everything was taken care of before it is needed rather than after."

"...Sorry." Zack looked away to one side. "I'm just used to people assuming I haven't accepted what's happened at all. I have, it's just..."

"I understand. Perhaps I could have put that more gently," she said. "I wanted to ensure it was taken care of as soon as the thought came to me. It should probably be mentioned to everyone at some point where they are, just in case."

"Yeah..."

"I, can take care of that, if you wish," she offered.

"Sure. Thanks." His discomfort must have been glaring for a second or two there. Of course he agreed it needed doing, but with this crowd, he really didn't want to be the one to do it. She nodded, and went downstairs ahead of him.

Apart from Nora, Clera had to be the only other person taking things seriously around here, he thought. Not that taking things less seriously was horrible, exactly, but...to him it seemed like there was such a thing as being too comfortable with their situation. He could swear everyone was acting more like girls than when he'd first met them too, although...maybe that was his imagination. It hadn't even been that long since he'd met the other four, after all, and Mika—Mira had acted bizarre from the instant he'd first seen her.

The wolf had finally noticed him leaving his room, and interrupted his thoughts by brushing against his leg. He nodded vaguely to the animal, took a deep breath, and tried to put those thoughts aside for the moment. It would be more comfortable sitting on a couch to wait for dinner than standing around up here.

---

Fortunately, the catgirl's bragging about her cooking abilities was well-founded; Lynn was also a decent enough cook to competently help out, resulting in an excellent meal for everyone that night. Everyone talked about what they had done today, including Aria mentioning she'd activated the crystal and put a 'few' (actually several) notes throughout the house should Loren come while they were away. She changed the subject shortly after to how everyone who hadn't already (essentially meaning Zack's party) should write their skill trees down for her to look over right away, that very night. The idea turned into an insistence before long; she said, "You could be running a terrible build and not even know it!" So that was what the four of them found themselves doing.

The shifter paced around the dining room with her cane, watching them fill out the skill trees while Clera stood by attempting to silently remind her to be careful and not fall over. It was pretty clear that the vertigo was starting to fade, or maybe her sheer determination was pushing through it. She leaned slightly forward onto the stick to look over Zack's skill-tree-in-progress. "What's with this three-towers tree design? It's like you have a triple class or something.."
"I can only buy these with points I earn in dark form, and those with points I earn in light form," he explained, pointing to each side in turn. "The middle can use either one."

"...Why would someone like you pick such a convoluted progression system?!"

"It's not like the class description told me that," he said, glaring back.

"Okay, look. All the good combat skills are on the left or right, right? The middle's all magic and general stat stuff. Am I wrong?" She could be wrong since he actually wasn't finished writing it yet, but she wasn't as far as he could remember. "So you should make a conscious effort to switch back and forth whenever you don't particularly need one or the other. I'll bet you've been favoring light lately, based on your spent points. Right?" He nodded. "Don't do that, it's bad for your growth."
"But I get two swords."
"The shield is a weapon too!" she waved frantically, and Zack sighed in resignation.

"Wait—what do you mean 'someone like me'?"

"..Hmn?" Looking through her tree, Nora noticed something that she hadn't before. The skill tree she'd been using all this time was a big wheel with spokes for various elements, of course, but now there was a smaller wheel with one-skill-long spokes and a single skill in the center. But all of them were marked "???" Since Aria was busy with Zack at that moment and didn't hear her, she took a moment to copy that part of her tree down and waited for her to come over before pointing it out.

"Question marks?"

The elf nodded. "Th-that's exactly what I'm seeing. I d-don't remember seeing these before, either."

"Uuugh, this is awful." Aria waved her free hand about in annoyance while leaning the other on the cane. "Your progression's so straightforward otherwise, just take a balance of elements that'll cover most weaknesses. But if there's something amazing hiding in the mystery skills then you'll have to save up for it."

"I d-don't spend them very often anyway," she said quietly.
"You should probably do something about that, too. You're more use keeping everyone else alive with each point you remember to spend, got that?" She pointed in Nora's face, and the elf leaned back away from the finger slightly but nodded. "Just reserve, some points, in case those mystery skills are useful."

She proceeded on to the witch, who had torn off a sheet of paper twice as wide as everyone else's. The contents, squeezed onto the left side of said paper, were a winding, twisting mess of interlocked lines travelling vaguely upward. "...What am I even looking at."
"I get a 'seed skill' for each demon I eat," said Mira, pointing at the bottom. "Then the branches go up and mingle with each other" (This point she illustrated by folding the fingers of her hands together). "There's only three so far but I'm sure the total for an archdemon goes to...umh, more than ten? So I needed space for all those other demons. And I get this huge burst of bonus points from each demon to get me started on that branch and stuff based on it. I'm aiming for these skills right now," she said, pointing at a few particular skills, "but I'll switch priorities if something more attractive shows up with the next demon I eat."

"...What am I doing trying to give you advice? You're a major MMO player, right?"

"Mm-hm!" she nodded cheerfully. "So can I go play~?"
"Just...finish writing it down and then go do your weird petting thing."

Reaching the catgirl last, she found everything already written out. Katherine had the advantage of three effective writing hands—her physical one and two more telekinetic ones—and had naturally seen fit to show it off. Aria looked at the tree for a moment and crossed her arms. "Lemme ask you a question. What kind of psion do you want to be, exactly?"
"Uh..a good one?"
"No, look look look. You've been spraying your points all over the place. Why?"
"Well, I need better telepathy to do better dream-walking, like making what we did last night work; I need telekinetic stuff to fight monsters effectively; I thought this pyrokinetic stuff sounded pretty cool so I started on the way there, but then I started needing the points elsewhere..."

"Katherine. You can't just buy up skills like a kid in a candy shop. If you want the really good stuff you need to prioritize. I can't believe the person whose prime stat is intelligence is having trouble with this."

"Well, I'm not having trouble," she said, annoyed. "I've been highly effective in every fight I've participated in."

Aria sighed. "Just, look. You'll never get to do amazing stuff like this if you just keep leveling the low-tier skills," she said, pointing to some of the higher-up skills allowing things like directly hitting enemies with telekinetic force, picking up and throwing them around or even briefly 'puppeteering' an opponent's body.
"Yeah, that's true I guess..."
"Just—make a plan now that you've got it all in front if you, and resist the urge to jump off of that plan unless you're legitimately desperate."
"Fiiine..."

---

I'm a little concerned that some of this one will feel a bit abrupt or rushed, maybe, but honestly I came to the realization that a huge part of my writer's block lately on this story was from being stuck with the ruins scene. I already showed the interesting stuff I wanted to show like two or three parts ago, and now it just felt like it was dragging. The "power gem" exploding makes internal sense and could lead to interesting possibilities later, but I do apologize if the relative anticlimax compared to some other battles left you disappointed. They just had a good plan and executed it well for once; that has to happen sometimes unless your heroes are just plain incompetent.

As soon as I was done with the ruins the good ideas for scenes just kept coming, and there's even more stuff I'm eager to write to come after this. So even if it does feel abrupt I'm quite happy to be past those ruins.