Novaris. Septer. 905. AGC.

  Nodel. Waxing Crescent ??. Day 4.

  During the two days that Arelion was cooped up in his tree house, he spent a lot of time working on additional techniques. Naturally, he had been aware of the plans the rest of the party had been making and had acted accordingly. Granted, two days of work were not enough to fully master the techniques, but it was a good starting point that he would improve on.

  Now, as far as the techniques he was working on. Well, there were three of them. The first two, he was able to work on his own, but for the third one, he was waiting to speak with Lili. Mainly because Lili was pretty good at stealth, and the third technique was meant to help him with that. So, he decided to wait until he could speak with the elf about stealth and get insights on the entire thing.

  For the other two techniques, one was to help his defenses by giving him some extra magical padding while also making him harder to hit in general. Meanwhile, the second technique was intended to serve both as a repelling and an attracting force. It was a technique to help him either keep enemies away from him or bring them closer. The thing was, the entire concept and how it worked required a lot of mental work to get it to function properly.

  In the end, time passed relatively fast, and before he knew it, his seclusion period was over. And even though he wasn't a people person, Arelion still liked to be able to roam about. So as soon as he was able to leave his house, he quickly got dressed and went out with plans to get some good food and drinks before heading to Lili’s shop.

  Alyx woke up feeling like a brand new gnome. Looking around, he found himself in Ally’s bedroom and wondered how they had gotten there from his own room, which was nowhere to be seen. Still, it's not like it was that big of an issue, and the gnome looked over to the beautiful, blue-skinned woman sprawled next to him, admiring her long, curvy body. His admiration eventually turned to action as he began moving to wake her up in the best way possible. However, before he fully committed, Alyx decided to check the date.

  Looking over at the clock on the wall, which his eyes had glazed over, Alyx focused on the time and date. It took a second for his brain to register exactly what day it was, but once he did, panic set in as he realized it was the 4th of the month. In his panic, Alyx sprawled out of the bed and from between Ally’s legs as he began to get dressed. Of course, his movements woke up the beautiful elf.

  “You okay?” She asked groggily.

  “Yeah, it's just that we lost ourselves, and I didn’t realize how much time had passed. I wish I could stay, but I have somewhere I need to be today,” The gnome answered, trying to explain while also putting on his robes.

  “Wait, what day is it?” Ally said out loud, but Alyx never responded as she gasped.

  “Oh my! I can’t believe we have been at it for so long!” She exclaimed as she got out of bed, Alyx turning to admire her full beauty as the sheets fell away.

  “Yeah, looks like all those drinks did a number on us, and it didn’t help that we slept so much,” Alyx told her, tearing his eyes away from her as he finished dressing.

  “Yeah, maybe we should cut back on that next time,” she said, walking over to him.

  Turning back around, now fully dressed, the gnome found Ally completely nude and looked up at her, giving her a hungry smile, “Nah, I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he told her as she knelt to give him a goodbye kiss, also returning the smile.

  “Same, just make sure to visit me again soon,” she told him, her eyes lingering over his gnome-hood. After all, Alyx may be short in stature, but he was plenty big where it counted.

  “Of course, I will be back before you know it,” He answered, turning around to head towards Lili’s place, a cleaning spell starting as he made it out of the door.

  Arelion entered Lili's shop to find most of the team already there. Drex was on the floor resting, his head picking up when Arelion walked in. Like always, Lili was wearing a short dress and working on some alchemy. Meanwhile, Rose and Tesilim, who were basically wearing the same thing—shirts and shorts—were reading some books, with plenty more open around them.

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  “Hey Arelion! Welcome back,” Tesilim said, finally looking up from his book and over to the dark-haired elf wearing all black.

  “Glad to be back,” Arelion responded as his eyes shifted to Rose, then Lili, both ladies giving him nods of acknowledgment.

  “How have you been?” Rose said, trying to be polite.

  “Alright, considering I have been trapped inside a mind for around two weeks.”

  “Right, sorry, I…” Rose responded awkwardly, feeling dumb.

  “No, I am sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Still, I am here now and feeling good.”

  “That’s good, ready to do some missions?” Tesilim asked.

  “Yeah, I have been working on some techniques and am ready to get a better feel for their possible uses. Also, just ready to stretch my body,” Arelion answered, sitting down.

  “Good to hear. I am assuming you are aware of everything going on with us, right?” Tesilim continued.

  “Yeah, I am aware of the wolf, the aberrations, Juniper, Jolly, and so on.”

  “I have to say that part of your powers is pretty convenient,” Lili finally pitched in after finishing whatever she had been doing.

  “Yeah, just wish we didn’t need it. I love Jasmine, but I'd rather be one person.”

  “I get that. I don’t know how I would feel if I had to share a body with Tesilim,” Lili said teasingly.

  “Hey! I would be a great body roommate!” Tesilim declared getting smiles from Lili and Rose.

  “Don’t listen to him, he is terrible. He tried to pee in his soul,” Drex commented, getting laughs from Lili and Rose as well as a rare smirk from Arelion.

  “Don’t say that! They will actually believe it!” Tesilim yelled, trying to reprimand Drex, but without much effect.

  “Alright, so what's the plan for today?” Arelion asked, trying to get things moving after spending two days cooped up.

  “Well, we planned on doing some simpler guild missions, but we are still waiting for-” Tesilim began, but was interrupted as the subject of his sentence burst through the door.

  “Sorry! Sorry! I, err, I got lost doing research. Yeah! I got lost doing research,” The gnome stared after fumbling for words, and of course, nobody believed him. His clothes and hair were disheveled, and he had two obvious hickeys.

  “What kind of research?” Tesilim said, giving the gnome a predatory smile.

  “Research! Important research! About, uh, cheese, and souls.”

  “Uh-huh, sure, did this research also involve a beautiful woman?” Lili added.

  Alyx, knowing he wasn’t going to fool anyone, finally gave up, “Maybe. Look, it doesn’t matter; I am here now. By the way, hey Arelion, I hope you are ready to do some experiments.”

  “Sure, though only after we kill a few things.”

  “So, Alyx, who was the research subject you were with? Is it someone we know?” Tesilim said not letting it go, he still hadn’t forgotten about Alyx exposing the Jolly situation.

  “No, you don’t know them, now can we get on with things. You guys want to give me crap, but you aren’t even armored up!”

  Words that the gnome had to eat minutes later. Turns out Arelion had brought his gear in his bag of holding. Meanwhile, Rose had brought hers but had taken it off while she worked on things at the shop. Then Lili was at her house, and Tesilim had also brought his, which were upstairs in Lili’s bedroom.

  Armored up and ready to go, the party made their way to the Adventurers Guild. The plan was to take on some simple requests that didn't require them to go too far from the city. Quests that they hadn't taken before because they sounded too easy or a bit too annoying. These quests often involved escorting people out of the city and letting them collect resources. Or simply hunting down weak beasts.

  Now, even if the quests were fairly easy, it meant that the party could train as they completed them. They began setting challenges for themselves, as only one or two engaged the monsters they were meant to fight. And considering how easy and near the quests were, the party could complete a good number of them.

  Further adding to the entire thing, the walking back and forth or general waiting allowed the party to talk and spend time together, or even train amongst themselves when they were stationary. This was especially true for Arelion, Rose, and Tesilim, who got an idea of how their techniques could work while in the field. It also allowed Arelion to speak with Lili about stealth.

  “So, Lili, I have some questions about stealth. And from what you have shown me and my sister, you are pretty good, so I was hoping you could give some tips on it,” Arelion finally broached the topic during one of their walks.

  “I could, but my type of stealth will not be very effective for you. From what I have seen, you are very shadow and darkness oriented, is that right?”

  “Yes, part of my Innate Magic deals with that. However, I don’t see how that has anything to do with your stealth,” Arelion asked, genuinely confused, and wondering in the back of his mind if Lili was trying to avoid teaching him.

  “Well, see, the entire thing about stealth is to stay unnoticed. We stealthy types do everything to accomplish this. From shrinking our Presence and power to look like something else, or simply erasing any trace of magic we leave. However, you don’t need to go about that via enhancements, which is what we mostly use.”

  “Okay, so what is it that I am supposed to use?”

  “Your powers. Your Innate Dark and Shadow magic are already made for stealth. Those two are some of the best embodiments of stealth you can ever find. Shadows and darkness are everywhere, and many often don’t pay attention to them. They also lack real substance, making them hard to notice. So, honestly, I am a little jealous. All you have to do is lean into those powers and concepts, and you will eventually even beat someone like me in stealth.”

  “I see. Thank you,” Were Arelion’s only words as he went deep into deep thought.