AnnouncementIzumi Original Stat Block:Str:8 Dex:12 Con:8 Int:14 Wis:10 Cha:15 Mana:5 Stamina:8Izumi Modified Stat Block:Str:10 Dex:12 Con:10 Int:14 Wis:10 Cha:18 Mana:16 Stamina:10The group sat down around a table down in the pub part of The Inn. Lilit sat down across from Rana, pcing Awenda on one side of her, and Izumi on the other. The same waitress from before came by to take their orders.

  “I’m sorry. But I don’t think we ever caught your name,” Lilit said. She’d hated having to refer to this woman as just ‘the waitress’ even in her own head.

  “Oh, well thank you. You can call me Sapphire.” The blue eyed elfin woman answered. “Now what can I get you dies?”

  They pced their orders and sat back. Sapphire sashayed away, hips swaying gently. There weren’t that many, but it’s like all the women sent here were just so beautiful. Lilit tore her eyes away and refocused on the group she was with.

  “Alright, Izumi why should we take you on in our group?” Awenda started the discussion.

  “Wow, just going to jump right in, huh?” Izumi cleared her throat, “Well, aside from the fact that I am extremely helpful around here, I would be a huge asset in the dungeons. My css fits right in with your group.”

  “How do you even know what csses and roles we have that you think you could fit so well in?” Lilit asked.

  “Well, just based on armor and weapons, I can tell that big girl over there,” she indicated Awenda, “is some kind of sponge for soaking up damage. Rana on the other hand,” Izumi pced her hand over Rana’s on the table, “is some kind of damage dealer with her duel wielding axes. You though,” she turned to Lilit, “I’m not so sure about.

  “Ultimately it doesn’t matter though. My css is versatile enough to work in pretty much any role. I’m a conjurer. While right now I only have one summons, I can use him however we need. Either soaking up damage or dealing damage. My future summons may even be good at crowd control. On top of that, I personally use ranged weapons. I noticed all of you are close up fighters, so just that right there is spot you’re weak in.” Izumi sat back, proud of herself.

  “Why do you want to leave your current group?” Lilit asked.

  Izumi sighed, “Well, you might have noticed that I love the dies. The group I’m leaving behind is a bunch of swinging dicks. Real sausage party, you know what I mean?”

  Lilit couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Rana on the other hand let out a great big guffaw of a ugh. Awenda didn’t react at all.

  “So, you just want to come with us because you think you’ll have a chance of getting id?” Lilit sounded disgusted.

  Izumi stared her right in the eyes and in a sultry tone answered, “I don’t just think it, beautiful.” She winked. Lilit found herself blushing. “Besides, have you looked around? Most of the adventurers are men. There aren’t exactly a ton of women, let alone all women groups. How could I not want to tag along?”

  About that time, Sapphire showed up with their lunch. Everyone dug in and ate silently for several minutes. By some unspoken agreement, they all kept conversation during lunch much lighter and focused on enjoying their meals.

  All too soon they all sat back from the table. Full from a delicious meal. Lilit kicked off the questioning this time around.

  “We agreed to split loot drops as evenly as possible, to the point of jointly selling rge value items and splitting the gold. The only exception is if a piece of equipment will obviously benefit one of us in the party, then that person uses the equipment no matter who picked it up. Is that something you can agree to?”

  “That sounds more than fair, and is a sight better than what I had going with my st group. They were very much a keep what you kill kind of group.” Izumi answered. “What do you do if equipment is more general and would benefit more than one person?”

  Lilit leaned back impressed with the thoughtful question. Awenda beat her to the answer though. “We haven’t had that come up, but we would talk it out and come to a decision that helped the party.”

  “Party first. I can respect that.”

  “You’ve obviously been here longer than we have, what level are you even?” Lilit asked.

  “I’ve been here a just little longer than you dies. I’ve done one dungeon with my former group. I’m only at a level two, so I shouldn’t be that far ahead of any of you. Especially based on the amount of loot you all sold earlier. You’re all probably close to level two yourselves,” Izumi said.

  Rana finally spoke up. “Why don’t we take one of the training rooms and see how well she meshes with us all. We already needed to do that to help Lilit get a little less squishy.” She winked at Lilit who rolled her eyes.

  Everyone agreed that would be a fair trial. They pushed away from the table and all headed back upstairs. First to their rooms to retrieve their gear, then up to the fifth level. Lilit was the only one that was even a little out of breath by the time they reached the nding.

  “What even is your stamina?” Awenda asked Lilit.

  If it had been anyone else, she would have gotten defensive. But, Awenda was just so forthright and earnest in everything she did that it was hard to be offended by her question. Instead, Lilit answered a little sheepishly, “I’m sitting on an eight. I didn’t think it would be all that important in my role in the party.”

  Rana and Izumi had pulled ahead as Awenda quietly questioned Lilit. She pced a hand on Lilit’s arm, “I understand the reasoning, I think, but you should probably do something to raise it.” Awenda said.

  Lilit silently agreed, nodding. She was rewarded by a shy smile from Awenda before they both hurried to catch up to the flirty duo.

  Looking around, there was a rge open area with several booths set up along the perimeter. To the left and right were long hallways that led away from the nding by the stairs.

  In the middle of the square, Lilit and Awenda caught up to Rana and Izumi standing in front of a rge bulletin board. Posted on the board were the rules for this level. Down each hallway were training rooms. To the left were individual rooms and they cost a gold per hour to rent. To the right were rooms for parties to use that were three gold per hour. The booths contained trainers you could sign up for and hire to teach you. Their prices varied based on experience.

  “We don’t need a trainer for this. Let’s head down and grab an open party room. Does anyone see where we need to pay?” Lilit asked.

  Izumi answered, “You pay the room itself. There’s a slot for you to insert coins beside the door, inside the room.”

  They headed across the room and down the hall on the right. The first few doors had rge glowing X’s on them. There wasn’t very much room between doors, maybe a dozen feet or so. So, it wasn’t very far down the hallway before they came to the first avaible room.

  Rana pushed the door open and they all stepped inside. Lilit looked back next to the door, and sure enough there was a small coin slot, but nothing else to the left of the door. The rest of the room stretched out in every direction, clearly rger than it should have been. Something the group was coming to be used to in The Inn.

  Lilit conjured three gold pieces from her account by concentrating on her need. “I’ll cover the first hour.” She quickly inserted the gold pieces into the coin slot. The lights in the room dimmed and a ping was sent to Lilit’s Delver.

  She pulled up her arm and a screen popped up above it. Choose your targets. Then it listed several options. Automatons, Skeletons, Bullywugs, Spider. There were several more exotic choices after that. Lilit showed the group her screen, and asked “What do you guys think?”

  “I’m tired of bullywugs, and it looks like spider only gets one, so it’s probably a big fucker, which isn’t what we’re looking for. How about we just go kind of basic? Skellies or automatons?” Rana asked everyone.

  “That’s fair. I vote automatons, I’m curious what they look like if I’m honest.” Awenda threw out.

  “Sounds good to me,” Lilit said before selecting automatons with several taps on the Delver.

  There was a grinding noise from the wall opposite the door. Spotlights fshed on, highlighting the middle of the wall as it split open, revealing six bronze automatons marching out. The lights in the room came back up.

  “Ok. To make this close to what we’d actually be doing in the field, I want Awenda to pull the mob to her. Then I’ll come in from behind and get an individual’s attention. Rana and Izumi can keep an eye on things and make sure neither of us gets overwhelmed. After I fell one, I’ll switch with Izumi and we’ll go back and forth a bit,” Lilit calmly informed the group.

  Awenda simply stepped forward and let out a deafening roar, drawing the attention of all six automatons. The others circled around to the rear. Several of the automatons in the front were wielding short swords and bucklers. Two in the back were using spears to jab past their comrades. In the very back was an archer. Lilit figured he’d be the easiest target for her, and the most danger for Awenda. So, she targeted it.

  Lilit stepped forward as she swung her mace into the back of the automaton. A rge dent formed and some red, noxious smelling hydraulic fluid dripped down through gaps in the ptes. The automaton turned quite a bit faster than Lilit thought something that rge should.

  It quickly zeroed in on her and stowed its bow. Instead, it pulled out a long dagger. The automaton stepped toward her and jabbed toward her ribs. Lilit leapt back, avoiding the strike.

  “You’re supposed to be using that new shield you bought. Quit dodging and start deflecting. It’ll keep you in range to counterattack.” Rana shouted at her.

  Lilit felt a little embarrassed for forgetting essentially one of the main reasons they were here. She stepped back into range of the automaton. It circled to the side a few steps before lunging forward again.

  This time, Lilit, against all her ingrained senses, shoved her forearm in the path of the dagger. It skipped across her wing-shield, and past her body as she stepped forward for another strike. Lilit was now within the guard of the automaton. She swung her own mace into the side of the automaton’s head. A deep ringing sound echoed around the room and a deep dent formed in the automaton’s armor. More viscous fluid dripped from under the helmet.

  The automaton stumbled to the side. It flung out an arm to catch itself, but Lilit followed doggedly on its heels. She struck the helmet again with her mace. This time it was knocked clean off and skittered across the room a jumbled mess. The automaton slipped to the side, and crashed down onto the ground. It twitched once and then y still.

  “Great job!” Izumi called out. “Now step back and see what I can do.” Izumi stepped forward, held out her hand and commanded, “Phantasm! Arise!” Then she pulled her short bow out and fitted an arrow to the string.

  A few feet in front of Izumi a fme appeared on the ground suddenly. It shot to over six feet in height before just as quickly dying down. Out of the fmes stepped a dark robed figure. Long spectral cws extended from the ends of the sleeves.

  “Phantasm, tank!” Izumi commanded her summons.

  The phantasm let out a sickly shriek that grabbed the attention of the mob of automatons away from Awenda. The first automaton to reach it immediately received a deep ssh across its chest. Four cw marks tore through the bronze like paper, leaving it dripping viscous fluids. It sidestepped a thrust from an automaton’s short sword.

  Then the lead automaton sprouted an arrow from the middle of its face. Lilit had nearly forgotten about Izumi and her archery. The phantasm was very eye catching and it was hard to look away as it continued to engage the automatons, dancing away from strikes between delivering deadly blows.

  “Awenda, can you take back the tank role?” Izumi asked after her and the phantasm brought down their second automaton in as many minutes.

  Awenda nodded and let out another roar to grab the attention of the remaining three automatons. They turned and rushed across the room once again.

  “Phantasm, fighter!” Izumi shouted before Lilit could step forward.

  The phantasm paused before it faded from view. It quickly reappeared at the back of the pack of automatons. It raked its cws across the back of an automaton in two quick swipes. Then it just as quickly faded back away as the automaton turned to engage it.

  Izumi drew and released an arrow into the breastpte of the automaton. It turned toward her. As soon as it took a step forward, away from its brethren, the phantasm flickered into view behind it again. It swiped quickly with each cwed hand and faded from view once again. Izumi let another arrow fly as the automaton was beginning to turn away.

  The automaton colpsed to the ground, fluid leaking out of the many cuts and tears across its body.

  “Alright, let’s let Lilit have another go.” Awenda called out as she backed away from the remaining automatons. Her shield hung between her and danger.

  Lilit had to march across the room to reach one of the automatons. One had a short sword with buckler, and the other a spear. Lilit decided to attempt the spear wielder this time. She pulled back her arm and rushed the st few steps, bringing her arm down on the back of the automaton’s head.

  There was a loud bonging sound. The automaton swept around to target her. It swung spear first toward her mace arm though so she hoped back instead of interspersing it with her shield arm.

  It swept past her and Lilit leapt forward to deliver another strike. This one dented in the automaton’s shoulder, crippling its ability to raise its arm. Limiting the range of the spear as well. It also lurched to the side from the force of the blow.

  She was well inside its guard. It already couldn’t bring its spear to bear on her, and she’d made it even harder to do so. She pressed the attack while she could. She already felt herself breathing heavier and moving a little slower.

  On her backswing she aimed for the automaton’s head again, but misjudged and smmed her mace into the top of the breastpte. The automaton lost its bance and fell over onto its back.

  Lilit went to step forward to finish off the automaton when her face was sprayed with red, viscous, hydraulic fluid. Lilit looked over, and Awenda was pulling her broadsword from the other automaton’s torso, letting it slide to the ground to finish bleeding out. Apparently she had gotten bored waiting for the others to kill the automatons.

  Lilit refocused on the final automaton. She stepped forward as it was struggling to rise, and delivered a vicious blow to its head, leaving it hanging on by a few wires and gears.

  When Lilit stood back up, she received a ping on her Delver. Lifting it to her eyes she found two messages. One from the room asking if she’d like to pick out different enemies for the next round. Scrolling past that she found a notification that she had improved a skill.

  She clicked into the message. Stamina increased by 1. Stamina at level 9. “Wooh. Check that out.” She held out her arm for everyone to see her Delver screen.

  “Congratutions,” Awenda spped her on the back, nearly sending Lilit tumbling.

  Lilit looked around as all the automatons suddenly glowed brightly for a moment and then faded away into nothing. There were unsurprisingly no loot bags left behind from these enemies. Otherwise people might start farming the training rooms she supposed.

  “Do we want to keep going?” Lilit asked.

  “Yeah, we haven’t even seen what we can do as an entire team. And you need more practice blocking instead of dodging. Don’t think we didn’t see you jump out of the way of the spear with the st guy,” Rana said.

  “Ok. You’re right. I just need a minute to catch my breath. What do you guys want to fight this time? Same thing?” Lilit asked.

  “Pull up the list again. I want to see what’s avaible again,” Izumi said.

  Lilit pulled up her Delver. She opened the message from the room. You may continue with the same enemies or choose new ones. Your time remaining for the room is 00:45:36 a timer ticked down. Lilit chose new enemies and the list of combatants reopened.

  “Skeletons?” Rana asked hopefully.

  Lilit sighed, “Sure.” She highlighted the skeletons option and noticed a slider on the side. “Oh, look at this.” She moved the slider and the number of enemies changed.

  “Oh! Yes!” Izumi and Rana shouted together.

  “More skellies for me to smash.” Rana added.

  Awenda interjected with some common sense, “Let’s start with ten and then we can go up from there depending.”

  “That’s reasonable,” Lilit said before the other two could argue. She adjusted the slider and pressed ok.