Rix had shown up.

  “That doesn’t count as three!” Aelin stomped over to confront the redhead.

  Rix knelt down and picked up the three crystals. “I have thirty-three crystals; isn’t that what we’re supposed to be counting?” She smirked as she stood back up and held out her hand to help Ether up.

  “That’s...!” Aelin looked at me. “Why’d you let her steal the kill?!”

  I grabbed Ether’s other hand, and we both helped her to her feet.

  “ETHER!” Miel ran over and began inspecting her daughter. It took only a moment before she turned towards me. “I told you that you weren’t ready for fighting like that!”

  I could still taste the rotten eggs in my mouth, something that didn’t go away when I started to wipe my face with the back of my sleeve. I stopped when I realized that the blue leather had a slight green tint to it.

  “We beat them.” Aelin decided to come to my rescue.

  “You have no idea how dangerous that was…” Miel put her arm around her daughter. “I lost you once…”

  I waved Aelin off before she could snap back. “Why don’t we get out of here before anything else respawns?” I looked over the group. “I think we’re done for the day.” I swallowed, which triggered a cough, as I turned back to Miel. “Sorry, we’ve gotten kind of used to running over small stuff that I forgot there were Event bosses on this floor.”

  “Just because you’re over-leveled for an area doesn’t mean you still can’t die.” Miel closed her eyes. “I still have to breathe. It only takes a little bit of water to drown. It doesn’t take long to pull all the oxygen out of the air or fill it with smoke.” She held up her hand when Aelin tried to speak. “I know that there are water-breathing passives, but not everyone will waste a skill slot for something that they’ll rarely use.”

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  Her warning took what was left of the fight out of us. We followed her back towards the gate in silence.

  As we were walking, Rix touched her CB and pulled out a staff that looked like it had the same blotchy, mixed-up pattern that the humanoid slimes had. She held it out towards Justia. “Slime Staff. Recovery plus one and cures poison from targets you heal.”

  Justia took the staff and held it in her hands. “Wow. Thank you.”

  Aelin started grumbling.

  “What did you get?” I looked at the blonde.

  “Health potion.” Aelin tapped the toe of her boot on the grass. “Just a regular health potion.”

  “All we got was a speed potion.” Ether held up the yellow vial. “At least yours is a little more useful.”

  “Don’t knock buffing potions.” Miel squeezed her daughter again. “Most people use them when they do raid fights.”

  “That’s not until floor ten.” Ether tried to extricate herself. “That’s not until next year.”

  “And that potion will give you the same buff as the one that you’ll want when you try it.” Miel began keying in the gate.

  “Ready to come back?” Nefer’s face appeared on the screen beside the gate.

  “We should have come back a while ago.” Miel glared at me.

  I thought about pointing out that it had been Aelin that wandered off, but I decided that she probably didn’t need the redirect.

  “It should be connecting now. Your room is still reserved.” Nefer smiled, then the screen went dark.

  “Let’s get you all showered and into some clean clothes, then we can go get something to eat.” Miel gestured at the open gate. She was the last one through, like there was a part of her that expected one of us to run back into the woods.

  Not that there was much of a point now that Fray was level four. I was going to have to look at what skill she’d gotten. I had a feeling I was going to be the last one to get cleaned up, so I would have the time.

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