After helping Mei get cleaned up, I talked to Gram about funds to get some new armor and weapons.
"Hmm, funds? Oh, yes there are a few gold coins in the vault, come, and I will show you."
Gram led the three of us down to the basement that was nothing more than stairs leading down to a set of three doors, one in front and one on each side. I could almost stretch my arms out to touch the two doors opposite of each other. Mei tried one of the side doors, but when she pulled it open, there was a red brick wall completely covering the doorway.
"Why is there a wall behind this door?" I asked, looking at Gram.
In response, Gram opened the door opposite to the one Mei had opened, and there was the same brick wall there as well. This was strange, there wasn't any other brick in the building, maybe save the oven in the kitchen, but it had brown bricks and not red. These bricks were also perfectly made and placed by a master, no one else could create such fine work, but why?
"I have no idea why they are just walls, The whole place is like that you know? The thing is, some rooms have opened up upstairs, maybe go check it out before you leave to the dungeon, but first, come in here and grab what you need. Don't be shy, this is all yours now, I have been collecting items with the gold so there might be something in there that you girls could use, but I think you might need to get some breastplate hammered out!" Gram said as he opened the door to what I assumed would be the vault.
It was, and to my surprise, there was a good bit of coin and different types of armor and weapon, but there was something that caught my eye and pulled at me. It was a glass triangle-shaped object, and it was sitting at the end of a long shelf at the end of the room. Gram must have noticed me staring at the thing, and spoke up.
"I found that on my first run through a dungeon! I have no idea what it is, but when I brought it down here, I had to put it in that spot on the shelf. It was like I had no choice in the matter, but I don't know what it does. Take what you need, but try not to rob yourself blind, this place does cost money to run!"
With that last comment, Gram turned and left back up the stairs, leaving the three of us alone. Mei turned to me with a screwed-up expression on her face.
"What was that?"
"Hm? What was what? Did I miss something?" I asked looking around, unsure what Mei was talking about.
"The hairy thing that was just talking to us! Was that a real person?! He looks like a hairball a cat coughed up!"
"You're not wrong, but that was the Guild's previous leader."
"No way! And that furball went into a dungeon? What do you think that glass thing is? Hey! Look there is a robe over there, Lesha! Come we go see it?!"
"Yes, we will go see it while K gets the other things we need, right?" Lesha asked me, giving me her patient easy-going smile.
"Yeah, I got the stuff ready, you two find something for us to use."
Mei was a real mystery, where did she come from? She couldn't have been living alone all this time, could she have? Looking at her, it was easy to see, but she knew how to talk well, maybe the word choices were a little rough, but, she must have had parents and lost them or they were taken as slaves.
The wars had created many orphans and too many people were conscripted to go into a meat grinder of constant battle and death. The dungeons may claim lives, but we humans had killed more of our own kind than any dungeon ever would. Sad, but then, I wasn't here doing this because the world was a friendly place to live in where everyone got along and sang songs together.
I first walked over to the triangle, and looked around it; it had four sides all going up to what looked to be an extremely sharp point. So, what did I do? I reached forward without control, but I wasn't trying to stop my body; something told me that I needed to do this. As my finger poked the point, and it easily broke the skin.
{Guild Leader} Rank Ruby
{Guild Level} 1
{Total Guild Experience} 2%
{Total Guild Funds} 8433 Gold Coins
{Total Guild Expenses} 3450g/month
{Total Guild Members} 6/100
This time the sign in my eyes was blue instead of red and when I was finished reading them over, I closed it up. The first quarter of the distance down of the triangle was now filled with an electric blue with red blood swirling around inside with it. So, this must be like a record or a note of the guild, but I wasn't a Ruby rank!
Then there was the matter of the Guild expenses, which were crazy! I was pretty sure Dad and I paid something like fifty gold a month between the two of us! Heck, I was lucky to make two gold per day! How were we supposed to make that much money?! Ugh, just another thing to add to the list.
Still, it only said six members, which reminded me of Mei, and that I still needed to mark her.
"K! K! Look at me!" Mei called.
I rolled my eyes while still looking away, but then turned to look at the two of them. Mei actually looked cute in her new robe, and this Purple one fit her a lot better. I could also see that it was made out of a special kind of fabric that was made in the far north called Kieve Cloth. It was known for being very smooth and nice on the skin.
"Well, you look really good Mei, it suits you. I bet it feels better on your skin, as well?"
"Mhmm, they don't hurt my points no more!" Mei said with a big smile.