Jeolas had been relaxing the day from there on, somehow not growing tired as he waited for the others to arrive at the designated place.

  As they did, their frills jumped in exitement, sitting at his table and buying a round for all three of them.

  "We aren't sure what you did, and those slime things scared us at first, but within seconds, no one was there anymore. Not a single soul protecting the cities wealth. We should probably run away now, though that damned black sky and the desert bejond are in our way. We are rich now and can't even spend that damned money because the people from the bank will know if it is used to pay inside the city walls."

  The two explained their gratitude for his help visible, but not as overwhelming as Joelas needed it to be.

  "The beasts are leaving you alone because you are contracted to me, so, as soon as I call in that favor, make sure you are out of sight of these beasts, I don't know if a lingering scent is enough to drive them off. I'll store that favour until I need something of you two, and you can go around the city without the fear of being killed by the black sludge auddenly coming for you. An incursion like that does indicate it is trying to do something bigger, though. Now, let's just celebrate todays success."

  He said, and the gel the other two ordered arrived.

  As they began slowly smearing the gel on their skin, mixing it with their own mucus to ingest it as efficiently as possible, the robbers began to talk about their heist.

  "At first, Tolan guided us inside, where I quickly dispatched of the locks.

  Now we expected to have to hurry and evade the guards, but that became unnecessary as everyone ran away, given the timing, we knew it had to be your distraction and ran inside, acting scared so long as there were still people around. When that was done, we proceeded deeper, dodgin cameras, and shaking our heads whenever one of the guard posts was empty. Soon, we noticed that the creatures did not come anywhere inside, and the few that somehow managed to climb in did so seemingly on accident and completely ignored us on their way outside. At that point, Tolan's knowledge of the buildings structure saved us from a few traps they put inside, and I had to break a few more locks before we finally arrived at the safe, a gigantic construct that Tolan knew the code to, easily opening it as I destroyed the alarm with my acid. Then we went inside, stashed parts of the currency preservation bars, and escaped.

  They probably won't even care, keeping the coins at the same value to cover everything up and avoid inflation. Following that, they will wait for us to turn them to coins and catch us using that interaction.

  We escaped the way we came and were out of the place just as most of the slimes dissipated into thin air."

  When Hila recounted the tale, Tolan spent most of his time nodding along, while Joelas tried piecing together how that might have worked.

  "You worked at the bank, right? Either you were fired earlier, or you did this to make your already great income even better. May I ask where you teo met, and how you came to the conclusion that a heist would be a good Idea?"

  The duo smiled at that, Tolan spreading his arms magnanimously as he confessed.

  "We met in this very inn, consuming gel and complaining about our jobs when we decided to come together and make the best out of our situation. With her being a professional locksmith, and my job as a guard of that place, we were a match made in Laquar."

  The explanation made Jeolas nod, before he halted and flexed his frills.

  "How do we know eachothers gender, by the way? My system claims that I am genderless."

  He asked the other two quickly explaining it.

  "I don't know how Abberations like you do it, but any half past developed civilisation develops their gender as they grow, either feeling feminine, masculine or any other type that they think describes them best. We assume that those gender differences come from a time when we still interacted with those inferior surface races, in between our fall from Laquar and the Archons search for a safe home."

  The Hero tried his best to give the expression of wrinkled brows, asking a final question to help him piece together the bigger picture.

  "And what is Laquar? Where do we find that place?"

  A question answered with polite laughter, followed by visible confusion when he did not react at all.

  "The great sea? The starry Void? The blackbess we see when the light of day finally stops pestering us? Iur connection to that place is the main reason we only act at night, because the dailight distances us from the stars our ancestors descended from to help the mortals against the first Champions, people just like the ones you described in your market speech, a speech that has many politicians worried, if I might add. They are currently everywhere trying to stop your fans from spreading, though some break their contract and are subsequently killed by a stray slime. I don't know how much of what you said was true, but given that the system supports you, you must be a good guy."

  He concluded, a smile spreading across Jeolas face as the gel finally kicked in.

  "Thank you. I will go to sleep now, I really don't want to stay awake longer than absolutely necessary."

  And thus he went to sleep. Drifting in and out of dreams as his past lives judged his actions.

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