“Alright, seven tentacles just as the request said. Congratulations on completing your first adventure so quickly."

Armityle and his team watched from one of the booths as Randall was at the receptionist's desk turning the monster materials in and receiving his reward. While the rabbit was busy with that, the wolf turned to his other companions, looking over at the two sharks sitting across from him.

“So, what do you both think of him?"

“He seems to have potential. He handled our target pretty well and has a good handle of his fire and wind magic, bonus is he is a sorcerer so he can cast without chants like you can. He will probably develop quickly," Nel said, staring toward the youth even though his eyes were closed, a soft smile spread across his snout.

“He's still young, and sorcerers can only use magic, so he will have to work on getting other branches to help with his deficiencies. Monsters are one thing, but if he would have to fight other people, he'd be hard pressed to win or get away without us," Neil also answered, shaking his head and resting it on a paw. “And are you sure it is a good idea to bring him along, especially with how we are?"

The wolf looked at the taller shark and gave a slight chuckle, reaching up and lifting up the pendant on his necklace, rubbing over it a bit as he thought on the matter.

“I don't think that would be an issue, you know our rooms are soundproof. But thinking on it, it will probably be best to head off from here so we're not still close to that corrupt duke," Armityle said, holding the pendant up higher next to his muzzle. “And we can show our new employee his new home and workplace, eh? Probably been a long time since he's been in a safe home after all."

He and the brothers continued to talk for a little bit longer, agreeing on the idea and some other things before the wolf saw their little teammate coming back to the table, holding a couple coins in his paws.

“Ah, finally done Randall?"

The rabbit gave a quick nod and smiled as he held out his paws to show off the copper coins and a silver one he received as reward for the quest.

“Yeah! It was only a silver and few copper coins, and I know it isn't much, but still! I've never gotten to hold money before."

Armityle looked at how sincerely the younger male was smiling and gave a small nod as he reached over and gave him a few pats on his head, surprising the lapine a bit before he relaxed into the paw rubbing his head.

“Well you'll probably be handling a lot more now that you're with us, especially since all those coins are yours to keep little guy. And since you were able to complete your first quest, we were thinking of going to one of the larger cities outside of this area so we don't have to worry about your duke come snooping around for you or the others that escaped. Plus, we can pause out of here to show you your new home," the wolf said, holding up his necklace for the rabbit to see again.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Hmm, I think this should be far enough," the wolf said as the team's hydra/drawn carriage came to a slow stop, who had been running at full speed for nearly a full hour. They had to be about halfway between the towns by now and they had not seen or past by any travelers since they left, so they should not have any unwanted guests even though they were in the middle of empty grasslands. Armityle reached up and rubbed each of Shika's six heads, earning a soft hiss from each of them for the affection before he and the others hopped out. He reached up and pulled the necklace he wore off, turning to look at the rabbit who was watching as he flicked the necklace forward.

“Release!"

The pendant and chain lit up as the command was spoken, the light growing rapidly in size as the building inside began to materialize in front of the group, before the shine began to fade and leaving behind only what looked like a large shrine home. The wolf smiled slightly as he saw the Randall stare over it, reaching down and petting the rabbit on the head as he spoke.

“Welcome to your new home Randall. Let's get in and show you around shall w-"

That was he was able to say before the doors burst open and before the wolf could react, a green blob slammed into him, sending him flying as he grunts.

“Gah! Rokuru, stop!"

Armityle tried to fight as the green slime that launched itself on him began expanding after leaving the shrine, starting to engulf and gurgle around him. As he struggled, he heard a little chuckle come from Nel before the shark spoke to Randall.

“Well, that'll keep him busy for a bit, so let's go inside shall we?"

He watched in shocked as the sharks both chuckled at him as he struggled, before walking into their home with the rabbit.

Damnit…

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Are you sure its fine to leave him like that?"

Randall was still looking behind him even as they entered through the doors that had been thrown open by the slime. In response, Nel and Neil but chuckled lightly and Nel waved his paw a bit.

“Rokuru was just missing its master after staying in the shrine for nearly a week to recharge its mana. It got a little overeager on our last quest and tired itself out while ignoring us, so it got punished, heh. He'll probably get free after a little while. Now," Nel paused as he turned around, before gesturing around them. “this is our storefront for the Autumn Moon Shrine. What do you think?"

A little startled at the sudden turn the shark did, he took a second to calm down before he looked around, not expecting the “store" to be right there in the front of the shrine. He had heard of the stories of the Autumn Moon Shrine, bits and pieces here and there back at the mansion and before that in his village, and if they were true, he was now at the very place that people would throw their savings away to try and buy gear and weapons that couldn't be replicated anywhere else in the world. The sudden pressure of that realization struck him hard and he started to wander around the different shelves that lined the walls and stood on the floor with the typical eagerness of a child his age.

Randall stared at the various cards that lined the shelves as he walked, from breastplates, greaves, gauntlets, and helmets to axes, ball and chain, bows, daggers, spears, swords, and more. He also saw that not only where their item and weapon cards on the shelves in the store, but there were also an assortment of potions on one wall: antidotes, invisibility, love, mana, recovery, sleep, strength, and even silver alchemy potions and different poisons. As he continued to look through the store floor, he became more and more in awe of not only the wide variety of products there were, but all of them were of very high quality… he was really beginning to see exactly why people would throw all of their money into this place. Before long, he stumbled back to the shark brothers and rubbed the back of his head as he looked at them.

“This is a really big place and there's so much stuff too, you guys really make all of it yourselves?"

“Neil doesn't have a production job, so it is just Armityle and I that do it. He makes all the gears, items, and weapon while I do the potions and we have crystals and scrolls out too. I also make some treats when we set up for a couple days."

“Treats?"

Randall was intrigued by that as he turned and looked to the desk he saw in the middle of the store, looking at the trays that were on the top. So that's what those were for, he thought to himself chuckling a little bit.

“Yeah, I like to make little treats, even those sell out like crazy for some reason…" Nel said, a light blush crossing his face, which only got darker as his brother chuckled behind him.

“Cause they're delicious. Boss can cook well enough for us when we camp, but in a proper kitchen or your lab is where you shine little bro."

The rabbit chuckled again as the shark was getting more embarrassed by the compliments, before Nel waved it off and turned around, leading him towards the back. He followed after him and through the curtain that was behind the desk, and almost instantly the atmosphere and look of the place seemed to change from the open storefront area to something that felt more like a cozy home to him. Nel then pointed at the two doors to their left and then at another door that was set behind a spiral staircase.

“This first door leads to my lab where I make the potions and poisons, or a few other things if someone requests it. The one beside it is the forge where A.T. makes all the gear and items that you saw while the one in the back is our storage area that we keep all of our materials. Inside there are boxes that he made to make copies of the material cards we put in them so we have a steady supply of things. Then we have a bathroom and our kitchen to the other sid-"

GSHAAAAAA!

Randall turned just in time to see a miniature Shika come barreling towards him through the curtains, before he felt himself get pulled to the side by Neil and out of the way as the hydra, and the once-more shrunken slime Rokuru, kept rushing forward and then up the stairs. He stared after them for a moment before he saw Armityle walk in from behind the curtains as well, still grumbling as he wiped off bits of congealed slime out of his fur and onto the floor. The rabbit's eyes then widened in surprise as the slimes began to wiggle and bunch together, forming what looked like an even smaller copy of Rokuru which then headed for the stairs itself. He couldn't help turning to the wolf in bewilderment and ask him about it.

“The bits of slime just became a bigger slime… and how did Shika get some small to come in and run up the stairs like that?"

The wolf looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he kept wiping down on his fur while he spoke, voice showing no hint of confusion or looking down at the baffled lapine.

“Another of the skills I stole from a monster, high compression, that allows me to condense objects and magic I touch. It also works on monsters, but not us for some reason. As for the mini-slimes, that's part of Rokuru's body division skill that allows him to replicate himself into smaller bodies and reform his original size whenever he likes. Also, his normal size is bigger than Shika and the shrine."

Nel and Neil both nodded at this, which further left the rabbit confused as he tried to imagine the bouncy, affectionate slime being bigger than the building they were in and the huge hydra that had been pulling them for the last couple days.

“Anyways, it's about time we get started for dinner, it has been a couple hours since we last ate while out on the quest."

Almost immediately after his statement, the wolf's stomach let out an audible growl, which only served to cause the others to bust out in laughter as he rolled his eyes and grumbled a bit as they all moved into the kitchen area. Here is where Randall got to watch Nel in all his glory as he began to cook, or dance in his opinion as the slim shark almost seemed to float from one part of the kitchen to the other as he gathered and prepped the food, diced the fruits and vegetables, cracked some noodles, tenderized the meat and so on. The whole thing left him in awe, especially considering how the shark always kept his eyes closed, which caused him to finally ask the question to Armityle.

“Is Nel really blind? He moves way too well to not be able to see."

“Hmm?" the wolf started, turning to look over from the shark in question to the rabbit beside him. “Oh, well, he is blind if you only think about his eyes. He was born that way from what the two have told me, and when we met it was Neil had been protecting and aiding him as best he could. To help him I taught him how to use Magic Perception so he can see by sensing mana instead."

Armityle smiled briefly as he said that, as if recalling the memory. “He took to it better than I did honestly and in strong, mana-rich places he can see better than he would with regular sight since the skill gives a 360° field of vision, but the opposite is also true where in places with sparce mana he can only see the sources of mana rather then the environment as well. And the reason he can move so well here is because the whole building is saturated with my mana from when I wear it and while I'm inside to use as fuel for all the magic stones to provide the light, water, and so on."

Randall nodded as he tried to think about it, realizing there were far, far more skills and abilities out in the world than he could have ever thought of while he was locked up as a slave. He continued to think on what they had done and about the wolf's crazy high level as he watched the shark continue to cook. Soon, however, his thoughts were interrupted as Nel set down several plates in front of them on the table: spaghetti. He blinked as he knew he couldn't have zoned out for that long, and as he turned up to look at the others, they just smiled and Nel stepped back to place down some extra food in a bowl on the floor that he figured was for the Shika and Rokuru.

He suspicions were confirmed a few moments later as the tiny hydra and slime both came down the stairs from earlier to begin gobbling down on the pile of food left for them. He turned back as he saw Nel sit back down next to him and began eating with the others, only to almost immediately begin wolfing it down as he tasted it… it was the most delicious food he had ever eaten! The noodles were just the right mix of soft and firm, soaked in its own juices and mixed with an irresistibly tasty and hot sauce with a lot of meatballs to chew on.

It only took him a few minutes before he cleared his plate, and as he looked up he saw that Armityle had devoured his own, larger plate just as quickly as he did and was licking the bits of sauce from his muzzle while beginning to ladle more of the spaghetti onto his plate. He smirked as he saw the bunny looking his way with the empty plate, and began to put more on his plate as well along with more the sauce. By the time that Randall had gotten full, he and the brothers both had three full plates while the wolf had somehow eaten twice as much, and he was starting to feel exhausted after eating so much and using so much mana from the fight earlier.

“Aaaaaaah," the rabbit yawned softly as they all finished eating, his jaw popping a bit as he did so as he stood up from his chair along with the others. “I'm exhausted. Where do you guys sleep in here?"

“Upstairs is the living area, but we're have to go with you or you'll end up thrown outside," Neil said as he stepped past the rabbit while Nel and Armityle were gathering everything from the table. He followed after the bigger shark as they, along with the now full hydra and slime, ascended the spiral staircase to the second story. Randall looked around as it came into view, only to immediate notice that the large lizard statue that was standing up in the middle began to move. The stone beast's raised right arm lower and it turned on its small pedestal to face him and the shark as it stepped down onto the hardwood floor, slowly approaching them as it looked between him and Neil.

“This is why I said one of us has to come with you. This is Guardian and he is a golem Armityle built to guard our living space in case anyone manages to try and sneak behind the curtain and come up here. If we're not around then he pounces, restrains, and walks any intruder out the door in front of everyone," he said while giving a knowing smirk to the rabbit as he reached up and stroked the golem on the head, earning a soft hiss from it… or him as he nuzzled back.

“Guardian, this is Randall, he is our new teammate so he will be living with us as well ok?"

After Neil said this, the stone beast turned its unblinking, featureless eyes towards the nervous rabbit, leaning in closely, as if examining him, before its maw parted and its smooth stone tongue gave his cheek a lick. The rabbit blinked at the lick, before he nervously reached up with a paw, and Guardian leaning in to nuzzle it on his own, much to his surprise.

“Wow, I saw a few golems before, but never any as detailed as him before."

Randall continued to stare in wonder at how detailed the lizard golem was, every scale was in place and he could see the contours and curves of what would be muscles on a person. He listened to the shark on how the team had worked together to gather quality materials to construct Guardian, some of which he had never heard of or could even imagine from the names alone, and how the wolf had taken nearly a week to sculpt the fine details before it was complete.

Soon enough they were soon joined by Armityle and Nel after they finished cleaning, and they all set down on the couches to relax and watch some comedy type of movie from a video crystal on the screen. After the movie was finished he was shown where the bathroom was and allowed to take a nice, long bath for the first time since he could remember, although he was blushing for part of it as the other three decided to also get clean and shower just off to the side in clear view. While he had been forced to watch or help his fellow slaves before with cleaning, but none of them were ever as fit and good-looking as the trio since they were always kept in such terrible conditions.

After they were all cleaned, Randall was shown to one of the three rooms, at least the one of them that was not being used by the others and allowed to finally relax. He plopped down on the bed and signed at how soft it felt, much better than the inn's bed where they stayed at after he was rescued and on another level entirely from the hay-covered map in the noble's basement. He sighed as he thought about how things have changed in just a few days.

“I'm really free and I get the be an adventurer like I always wanted. I wonder what will happen next…"