The jingle of coins rang through Nagami's ears, grinning like a madman as she jostled the coin pouch in her hands. Even when the gang left the Golemight Smithy and waved goodbye to Fio, Nagami continued to shake the pouch like a salt shaker, finding it intoxicatingly delightful how the pouch's sense of weight and musical jingle itched all the right parts of her brain. As she continued to shake the coin pouch, a tuft of the fluffy collar on Zalroth's direwolf pelt cloak[that's coated that's under the effect of Material Coating to make it Iron] rustled to life.

  "From my slumber, I haz returned," Zalina muttered tiredly as she slowly poked her head out of the fur, emerging like a crocodile from below the murky swamps of a swamp. The little Fae of Fortune repeatedly blinked, her groggy mind struggling to register her new location, doubly so with the constant clang of coins clouding her thoughts.

  "Finally decided to wake up, have you?" Zalroth remarked jestfully with the Fae of Fortune garbling incoherently with hunger. As he removed one of the loot room silver coins from his Inventory, Zalina's eyes lit up with glee when the silver treasure coin crept into her sight. Grabbing the coin with her mouth, Zalina slinked back beneath the droves of the cloak's fluffy collar.

  "So she really does eat treasure," Kaze remarked, carrying a more stable but still uneasy Al on his back.

  "Isn't that one of those coins Chronia was bragging about finding the other day. But if you have those, couldn't we have used them for buying stuff?" Metsu asked confusedly, wondering why Zalroth would be so concerned with money if he had those coins.

  "Yeah, but that was before Zalroth used his Appraisal Skill on them and figured out they weren't money-money but like an enchanter's money equivalent material for enchanting," Nagami explained matter-of-factly as she and Metsu tailed behind Zalroth.

  "Oh... no wonder she was stuffing her face with candy at Haruko's food stand after giving all the coins to Yumi the day after she got them," Nowa said nonchalantly as she equally nonchalantly carried the sleeping Kaira on her shoulder like he were a log of wood.

  Skipping around to Zalroth's side, Nagami glanced up at Zalroth with a cheeky tone before asking, "So, which inn are we staying at anyway?"

  "Which ever has rooms with multiple beds," Zalroth stated blankly, getting excited snickers from Nagami, who teasingly mentioned how much she enjoys a good sleepover with her friends. Metsu joined in, not intending to tease Zalroth but genuinely liking the idea of a sleepover during a road trip. Whilst she imagined what sleepover games the group could play, a sign in front of a building caught her attention.

  "That one?" Metsu mentioned as she physically pointed it out. The others turned their gazes to Metsu, following her outstretched hand until reaching the sign sporting a language they had never seen before.

  "You're able to read this world's language?" Nagami asked in surprise as she inspected the sign herself before instantly giving up trying to understand it. Metsu shook her head dismissively, denying any claim of knowing what the words said by herself.

  "No... Nero just told me what it says," Metsu mumbled meekly. Once again, the others found themselves having to praise Nero for being such a reliable companion, especially with his less than a day-long life. Metsu couldn't contain her gratitude for the praise her Nero was receiving.

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  "Now sporting rooms for groups of up to ten people," Zalroth read aloud, only adding to the others' confusion as they all focused on him like he'd murdered someone.

  "Ok, now how do you know what it says?" Nagami quipped, wagging her finger in a pseudo-condescending way as Zalroth unamusedly glowered down at her.

  "You'd be surprised how useful being forced to learn every language can be," Zalroth uttered coldly, almost speaking with utter disdain and disgrace at having to mention such a fact.

  "Oh, so that's why you'd sometimes only speak in a random language in primary school," Nagami remarked, mildly annoyed at her younger self for believing Zalroth was just speaking jibberish all this time.

  "Huh? So what, you learned the language of another world when you were a kid on Earth?" Nowa retorted with befuddled snark. Thinking over Nowa's comment, Zalroth recalled the particular book in question, mulling over how odd even his no-nonsense father found the Hexagon-covered book. He thought over what parts to exclude from his explanation before simply explaining that he learned the language from a strange grammar book.

  "So, travel from this world to ours is possible," Kaze muttered with a reserved comfort in his voice.

  "Well, that's reassuring... for our stuff anyway," Nowa joked, with Nagami booing the delingent for stealing the joke she was going to make.

  Nowa feigned ignorance of any sort of stealing, sassily mentioning it was such an obvious thing to say that Kaze could've done it. The two girls continued to bicker as they made their way towards the inn with Kaze following them to ensure they didn't cause trouble, leaving Zalroth standing with the disheartened Metsu.

  "Is something wrong, Metsu?" Zalroth asked as he scooped Metsu off the ground, who didn't bother responding to being picked up other than with a weak exhale. But, after a few seconds of thinking, Metsu raised her head along with her small, balled-up fist.

  "No... just you stole thunder back there," Metsu murmured, disapproval evident in her timid tone as she lightly bonked Zalroth on the head without any digital numbers appearing.

  "Look on the bright side. The others will be more likely to ask you for help with translating stuff over me," Zalroth said calmly, bringing up how impractical it would be for him to do it given his role in the group as a whole.

  "Yeah... suppose so," Metsu mumbled, timidly poking her finger tips together while appriciating Zalroth's attempt to console her. Taking a single step forward, Zalroth halted just as quickly, catching Metsu off guard and mildly worrying her with the serious look in his scowling eyes.

  "Something wrong?" Metsu asked sheepishly. Noticing her concern, Zalroth shook his head as a smirk formed on his face, which surprised Metsu even more than the seriousness his eyes had shown moments prior. With a playful air coming to his demeanor, Zalroth began advancing after the others.

  "Nah, just remembered something dumb I did as a kid," Zalroth remarked smugly, with Metsu nodding as she knew how it felt to be randomly attacked by such a thing.

  Even later in the night, Zalroth stood beside the window of the group's rented inn room, still donning his equipment and armour while the others had swapped into bed attire and long since fallen into slumber.

  "To think I'd still get those signals after all this time," Zalroth uttered in his mind, gazing out the window in an ingrained trance. Watching the rooftops, he sat in perfect silence, the only sound in the room coming from the occasional quiet snore from his friends. But, as he waited, he spotted a few cloaked figures jumping from the rooftops, and turned his eyes into murderous glares as he determined their destination was Golemight Smithy.

  [Activated Ability: Particle Warp]