After taking a few days of recovery Callie, Mat, and I decided to officially register ourselves as a party and sell the excess materials that were still in my bag to the association.
The pink welt across my chest and stomach was just barely visible now. I could hide it under my clothes, but I appreciated that it wouldn't be a scar I would have to look at forever.
Callie was her usual bubbly self and walked circles around Mat and I. As we walked down the main street that connected the tower to the association building, we struck up a conversation.
"Where did you get that bag?"
I scratched my head and looked at the pack hanging off my side.
"Well I actually got it from the tower. It said I completed a time quest or something. I have never received anything else from the tower and I am not quite sure how much it holds. At least, I have never filled it up all the way yet."
"I wonder if I can get one… Was it in this tower."
"Yes, I was doing the first floor over and over again and eventually it just gave me the bag as a prize."
"I will have to try that on one of our off days."
We had worked out a schedule of going into the tower for two days and then having a day off. That way we were still making progress, but also ensuring we had plenty of time to take a break or get our gear repaired.
It wasn't long before we ended up at the main desk of the association. They had made some more upgrades to the main lobby and a lot of new technology had been implemented. It was almost like we were in a science fiction game at this point.
"Hello, how may I help you?"
"Right, we want to register as an official party."
"Here you go."
The receptionist handed us a slim tablet that had a form for registering parties. I quickly ticked the boxes and then paused on the name. We had discussed a few options as to what we would like to be called.
I entered the name, 'Soaring Comet'. I had never been good at the whole naming thing. Callie wanted something to sound like we were flying and Mat had wanted something to do with space, so we had come up with this name as a compromise.
I was listed as the party leader. I tried to put it to a vote, but Callie and Mat had both agreed since I was the one to bring them together that it should be me. I will admit that I felt like an immense burden was put onto my shoulders.
First of all, I was in charge of storing and selling any loot or materials we collected on our hunts. I was also the point person when it came to any kind of negotiations and such. It was almost like we had formed a guild.
For the time being, I didn't feel like joining any guilds and they both had agreed with me. It was not uncommon to be hassled to join a guild these days. Being in a party at least gave the impression that none of us were available.
There was also the added bonus of not having to pay guild fees since we were just registered as a party. If we ended up making a lot of friends, we could also go the guild route later on, but for now the status of party members was enough.
We each handed the receptionist our association cards and in the top right corner a small emblem appeared. It was a ball soaring through the air. Once we came up with the name for our party it was simple to come up with what we wanted the emblem to look like.
This whole aspect still felt like some kind of video game to me. At one point none of these procedures existed in our regular day lives and now they were normal. It was amazing how we could all just forget about what 'normal' used to be.
The outbreaks had pretty much destroyed the wilderness to some degree and decreased our food supplies, but with the towers centered around meat drops, and gathering different plants and herbs, it was almost as if they were created for this kind of emergency.
Silver City at least had fully adapted to using the drops and materials gathered from the towers as their main source of supplies for our everyday needs. I had even heard in the news how the leaders of the city were spearheading the initiative to show other large cities in the country how to do the same thing.
Now there were children being born who did not know what farming was other than the kind of farming done where one hit a dungeon floor over and over again. If the towers were ever to disappear one day, our economy would crumble overnight.
Maybe that was how the towers worked. From what I could tell, someone or several someone's were actually controlling the towers and we were some form of entertainment for them.
The first step of the plan was to cripple our society and make us reliant on what came out of the towers. That just begged one question. What was the second part of their plan? It felt like some kind of sick joke.
"Kai?"
"Yes."
I had gotten lost in my thoughts.
"Did you want to go eat at that restaurant on the corner before heading over to Dyno's workshop?"
"Sure."
For the few days of rest, in between texting Mat and Callie about our party information, I had been consumed with thoughts about the mystery of the towers, Kei, and who could be talking to me beyond the screen in the white room.
It was starting to become an unhealthy obsession. I knew this, but what else was I supposed to do while recovering from a horrific injury? That was right, all I could do was use my brain.
After eating at the corner restaurant we headed back to Dyno's workshop. The familiar hammering in the distance greeted us as we entered his shop.
"I will be right out!" Dyno called from the back.
Callie found herself a chair immediately and waiting with her hands in her lap. Mat looked around at the goods he had not gotten a chance to browse during our previous visit. I moved over to the smaller weapons in the opposite corner of the store.
I definitely preferred these smaller knives for throwing, but it was difficult to cut through the tougher monsters with such small blades. I had the short sword in my pack, but it just didn't feel as at home in my hands.
"You're always browsing these smaller weapons."
I jumped as I turned to find Dyno right behind me. He had a bundle of cloth in his arms. He gestured for me to go up to the counter as he sat down with the bundle in his hands.
"First things first, little lady…"
Callie jumped up happily and held out her hands for her trusted staff. The stones on the top glittered in the light. He also handed her a cloak made out of gray leather. I suspected it was made out of some kind of animal we hunted in the woods recently.
She tried on the new equipment with a giant smile on her face and started modeling it for us. We let her turn and twirl as she got used to the new weight.
"That leather is known for making it easier to cast healing spells. It is also pretty tear proof as well. Mind you it will still hurt if you get slashed with something, it just shouldn't cut through the material."
"Thank you, Uncle Dyno!"
I slight blush coated Dyno's cheeks and I had a feeling that he could never say no to Callie. She was just that adorable. He probably wasn't charging her full price either. Bringing Callie to any kind of purchasing would probably be a good idea.
Dyno handed her a paper and she brought the paper to me. We had all contributed money into a party fund, of which, my association card was needed to purchase anything.
"Now for the big guy. I had a hard time finding a way to synthesize some of the materials you brought back, but I think this might be my best creation yet."
Dyno pulled a giant shield out from the back of the counter. It was not made of metal like the previous shield, but it seemed sturdy at first glance. I worried it wouldn't be as easy to use as the last shield he wielded.
"It doesn't look like it, but this shield is easily one of the most sturdy ones on the market. I crafted it from the bones taken from monsters."
Now that I was looking closer at the shield it reminded me of the armor of the crab monster I had fought in that one beach dungeon. It had been painted over, but parts of the shield did look like its shell.
Mat picked up the shield and hefted it up in a mock shield bash. He grunted at the weight of the shield. The smile on his face told me he was happy with it.
"And lastly, I have the armor I showed you before and some new weapons I would like you to try out."
I saw the new armor that he had stopped me from trying on a few days ago and, next to that armor, was a wire and a few different weapons one might find a ninja carrying. I gave Dyno a dubious look.
"Don't give me that. Here I will show you how they work. This wire was taken from a spider type monster so it is more flexible than you might think."
I shuddered to think what coming across such a spider would be like and I watched carefully as Dyno demonstrated how to use the wire. I stared at my hands and then the wire and I began to worry about whether or not it would cut into them.
"Oh, right. Here I made these gloves for you to handle the wire."
Dyno handed me a set of gloves that had the fingertip part missing, save the thumb. I pulled them on and flexed my hands a few times. They fit my hands well and I began to wonder when he had time to completely map out my hands to make them.
I shot a look at Callie, but she avoided eye contact with me. He must have recruited her for this mission. The gloves were thin, but the wire did not cut into my hand at all when I was wearing them. It was truly amazing what one could do with monster parts.
Dyno had a training dummy in the corner of his workshop, so I attempted using the new weapons with that as my target. The movements were stiff and I wondered if I would ever master them.
"It will be tough to get used to, but this wire should be able to cut most of the monsters at the levels you have been going into lately."