Mike took in the atmosphere of the blacksmith's shop, while he couldn't smell how well maintained the weapons were he already had a good impression of the shop from how neat the environment was soon the last member of the party walked in and the door shut behind them setting off a small bell, then footsteps was heard from the door behind the counter and a short man walked out from the back, he had a magnificent beard but that was the only facial hair he had, he spoke in a deep voice
"Can I help you with something?"
Mike gave a nod and pointed to Clare
"We're looking for a mace for her"
The shop owner gave a nod and fell into thought for a moment while he muttered
"A mace…"
Then he walked over and looked at Clare, specifically her build and her arms before he asked her some questions about the mace, while Clare and the shop owner talked Mike looked around for some weapons that might have some bloodlust in them, but when he was done looking around the shop he had not found anything and gave a sigh, just then did the shop owner return with a mace, the mace was a cylinder shaped solid piece of steel with a handle, Clare received the mace and swung it around for a bit before she gave a nod and showed a beastly smile
"Master I like this one"
Mike gave a nod
"Then let's buy it"
After paying for the mace which was only 500 the group said good day to the shopkeeper and made their way towards the dungeon, after they made their way inside they moved towards the first floor boos and on the way there they ran into a group of four goblins, Mike turned to Clare and spoke
"Show us what you got Clare"
"Yes master!"
Clare dashed forwards, she was fast alright, a bit faster than Elina and Rebecca even, when she reached the first goblin she raised up her mace high and yelled
"[Heavy blow]!"
Then she brought the mace down shattering the skull of the goblin in one hit, even carving out its chest with the same blow, then she swung the goblin carcasse into another gobin that was attempting to stab her with a rusty dagger before she made a horizontal swing that sent another goblin head flying after hitting it clean off its shoulders, at this point the cowardly natures of the goblins showed and the last two tried to escape but were quickly finished off by Clare, then she quickly dug out the monster crystals from their chests and returned with her bushy tail slightly wagging as she presented the fruits of her labor to her master
"Here master"
Mike gave a smile
"Thanks Clare, you did well"
Clare lowered her head slightly while her tial picked up a little speed, with Clare's cobat test out of the way the group breezed through the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor before they arrived at the 4th floor where they began looking for the boss room while slaughtering the lesser lizardmen of the 4th floor on their way, then after sometime they eventually found the boss room but found that there were two teams in waiting in front of them
"Well this works out, we can take a break before the boss…"
Mike tried to hide his irritation with that statement and so the group made camp or at least sort off as they waited for their turn to kill the boss, while they waited they munched on some preserved food and drank some water…
After about 2 hours of waiting it was their turn at the boss and so they walked past the giant imposing doors that shut tightly after them, inside was a slightly taller lesser lizardman and five normal lizardmen, Mike gave a sigh and let his servants handle it which they did rather quickly and so after receiving the stone of passage for the fifth floor they decided to end their dungeon run for the day and used a stone of passage for the first floor and quickly killed the first floor boss before they made their way out of the dungeon with a total of 84 monster crystals and 3 stone's of return to sell, making their way towards the guild Mike was quite happy with their progress today and quickly made a plan for their continued dungeon exploration
"Julie, let's start off from the 5th floor tomorrow"
"Okay… You're after the increased price of the crystals?"
"Yeah, it goes from 25 a piece to 50 a piece, so double the price"
"Oh… In that case let's do as you say"
They arrived at the guild and as usual Mike went in to exchange the monster crystals and the stone's of return for a total of 2400 which was their best so far, Mike was on his way out of the guild when someone called out to him
"Hey you"
Mike looked back and found the young woman he had meet in the dungeon before, the one that spun her knife around like Mike usually did, Mike greeted her
"Hello"
The young woman looked at Mike for a while before she asked
"Are you new here in the city?"
Mike gave a nod
"Yeah, we arrived not even a week ago"
"Oh I see, so that's why I didn't recognize you… Anyway you got a name?"
"Yeah Mike, what about you?"
"Me? My name is Lily"
"I see, nice to meet you Lily"
Mike raised his hand as he walked past her and walked out of the guild, Lily stood and watched him leave before she muttered
"But I wanted to talk with you some more… Oh well"
Mike arrived outside the guild and meet up with the others, Julie narrowed her eyes slightly when she saw him which caused Mike to get slightly guilty, but the two of them remained silent until Elina asked
"Master are we heading home now?"
Mike gave a nod and took Julie's hand as he answered
"Yeah let's"
While they walked Julie tired to casually ask him
"So what took you so long in the guild?"
"Well…"
Mike eventually decided to just tell the truth and told her about Lily
"Hmm… So you just exchanged names?"
"Yeah"
"In that case you don't have to look so guilty, I am fine with it"
"Really?"
"Yeah"
Mike gave a sigh of relief which made Julie pout slightly as she asked
"What, you think I am some sort of psycho bitch that won't let you have any female acquaintances?"
"No, not at all…"
Julie gave a charming smile and spoke
"Very good Mike, max points"
The next morning Mike awoke as usual, but to his surprise Julie was awake, or at least sort off awake anyway, he heard the toilet flush and then half a minute later the door to the bedroom was opened by Julie that was weaning one of Mike's shirts, her short red hair was messy and her eyes showed she wasn't quite awake , she stared at Mike for a bit before she trotted over and sat down on the bed before she hugged him and spoke
"Comb my hair... please~"
"Sure…"
Mike was used to her random demands when she wasn't entirely awake so his mind quickly kicked into gear and he grabbed the comb from the night stand and began slowly and carefully combed her short red hair, after a while Julie that seemed a bit more awake now spoke up in a quiet voice
"This is nice… My mom used to comb my hair like this…"
Mike gave a smile and continued combing her hair until she asked him a question he was not prepared for
"How was your mom Mike?"
Mike's hands stopped, but only for a moment before he continued combing her hair as he spoke in a gentle tone
"My mom was a tortured soul, she struggled a lot… And after my little sister was stillborn she just kind of broke…"
Julie gave a nod and continued
"And your father?"
Mike gave a sneer
"A drunk that liked to beat me up when he was bored… So glad I put him in a coma with an empty bottle of booze, what about your parents, how are they?"
Julie gave a sigh and slowly spoke
"Well my mother is a nun… So when she had me she was punished a lot, I don't know who my dad is, but my mom was nice to me"
"I see…"
Mike continued to comb Julie's hair a bit more before he was done and patted her on the head
"There"
"Thanks Mike"
Julie and Mike wore some clothes before they headed downstairs and greeted the three servants before the five of them had a nice breakfast and prepared for heading down to the dungeon for their first expiration of the 5th floor
"Well then, let's go"