Arthur and Tess walked along the shopping strip, stopping at every food cart along the way. After the initial bowls of food, Tess decided it might be more fun to share the food. She had some real joy in feeding Arthur, and being fed by him. Her favorite was at a cart that had baked desserts, where she fed Arthur a cupcake. In that moment, one of them had their thoughts triggered to feeding each other wedding cake, their wedding cake.

Of course they drew plenty of attention, many old adventurers looked upon them with a nostalgic smile, as they remembered their youth. They also brought negative attention, from some who glared around them with disgust, as they felt mixing of the races was wrong. However they merely ignored those people, and just enjoyed each others company even more. For the most part the negative people kept away, mostly because they either could sense Arthur's core strength, or couldn't, so they didn't want to risk crossing someone so strong.

There was one daring duo of young adventurers, who dared to risk it all. Arthur had seen these two older teens, one of them using wind spells to blow up women's skirts, while the other just enjoyed the view. Arthur was disgusted by this immature behavior, and had no intention of dealing with them, until he realized they were following them. Arthur had cast his own wind spells to block the one teens several times when he tried to blow up Tess' dress, but eventually he became too annoyed with them and decided to step up his efforts. Arthur had taken note of professor Geist's fire pillar spell, and despite his dislike of the former professor, Arthur was able to actually learn something from his short time teaching. Again the teen was preparing a wind spell, but this time Arthur took a different approach, and ignited the teens boot on fire with a blue flame. The teen panicked and aborted his spell as he and his friend tried to put out the flames. The second teen put out the flames quickly enough with his water magic, then turned his sights on Arthur. However as he was preparing his spell, he became entangled in vines.

"You can look out for me all you want, but just know I'm looking out for you too," Tess said as she intertwined her finger with his.

After a few stands down they noticed one that had absolutely no business, and decided to check it out.

"Excuse me, what do you sell here?" Arthur asked.

The man's eyes lit up. "It's my own creation. I call it iced cream." The man stated as he opened a compartment on the top.

"No way this can be the same thing," Arthur thought to himself, as fog was seen billowing out from the extreme cold inside.

The man grabbed what looked like a waffle cone and a large spoon, and began scooping. The scoops were purple, and looked like ice cream Arthur was familiar with from his previous life, but the real question was, would it taste the same.

"Hear you go," The man said as he held out the cone.

Tess' hands were full, one holding his hand, and the other holding a skewer of meat on a stick. Arthur took his free hand and took the cone. Arthur was about to take a lick of the frozen confection, but noticed an almost pleading look on Tess' face as she looked at him. Arthur sighed and leaned the cone in for her.

"Brr, it's cold, and it tastes sweet, it's so good," Tess replied happily after licking some off the cone.

"Thank you miss," the man replied. "Oh, you've got some in your nose."

"Oh," Tess giggled a little and tried to lick it off, but her tongue just couldn't reach.

"Just a moment, I've got something," the man said as he was looking around.

"That's ok, I've got it," Arthur replied. He then leaned in and kissed Tess' nose, removing the ice cream.

Arthur remembered back during his youth in his previous life he had two friends who dated. He remembered one time something similar happened with the girl having icing on her nose. The boy had done the same as Arthur just did, and the girl had the same exact reaction.

Tess stood there completely shocked, her eyes wide, and a bright blush on her face. The man had an approving smile on his face as he looked away, impressed by Arthur's "skills".

"Ahem, sorry to interrupt, but that'll be three coppers," the man said.

Arthur handed the man the cone back and pulled some coppers out of his pocket and placed them in the counter.

"Thank you very much sir," Arthur said as he took the cone back and led a dazed Tess away.

Tess was quick to recover, seeming even happier than before. As they walked they noticed Curtis was getting quite a bit of attention. As Arthur and Tess walked sharing an ice cream cone, they saw he was not alone, but with Lilia. Lilia was looking at crystals for her staff, desperately trying to ignore Curtis, as her face was as red as a tomato from the embarrassment she was feeling. He on the other hand was on his knees, professing his love for her, while also begging for forgiveness, which was causing quite a scene. Arthur and Tess couldn't help but feel bad for him, but they weren't about to get in the middle of this, and turned around and walked down the other side of shops.

If they had stayed a little longer, they would have seen Adam and Theo a few shops down, looking rather amused at the prince groveling. Eventually Lilia had enough and cast a wind spell around them, muffling their voices. No one knew what was said, all they could do was watch as she spoke to him, and he seemed to be pleading. Eventually Curtis was seen jumping back up to his feet and kissing Lilia on the lips quite passionately, leaving her face so red she looked like she was about to burst into flames. Lilia removed her spell and walked away covering her face, as there was some whistling and clapping from Curtis' actions. Curtis then grabbed the crystal Lilia was looking at, and tossed the shopkeeper a few gold coins and followed after her.

After about an hour, the shops were closing, and Arthur and Tess had to end their date.

"Welcome back you two," Claire greeted as they entered the camp.

"How was your first date," Lilia asked.

"Great," Tess replied happily. "When are you and Curtis going to have yours?"

"What?! Uhh Umm," Lilia replied, her face bright red again.

Almost everyone was already asleep, with only Lilia, Claire, Angela, and Kathyln still awake. As Tess enjoyed waiting for a reply from Lilia, Arthur heard a scraping noise, and noticed a little blue puff ball nawhing on a stick of ice.

"So it appears our party grew while we were out," Arthur commented.

This got Tess' attention from Lilia, and she followed Arthur's gaze to the little light blue puff ball sitting on Kathyln's lap.

"Awww, your egg hatched," Tess cooed, then walked over.

"It hatched shortly after you two left," Kathyln replied as she fought to keep her eyes open.

"Are you ok?" Arthur asked.

"It's late, and he doesn't want to sleep. I've fed it, and now," Kathyln paused to yawn. "it's getting water. Hopefully it'll sleep after."

"Wouldn't it be better to give it a bowl of water rather than chewing on ice?" Tess asked as she reached to pet it.

Kathyln reached out and grabbed Tess' hand. "He's a biter, he's already bitten Curtis." Kathyln released Tess' hand. "So the ice should keep him busy for now."

"Thanks for the warning," Tess replied as she pulled her hand closer.

"Also Claire said the ice will help it regulate its body temperature better. If he were back in frozen hell before we cleared it, if there was any liquid water it would have been ok since it would have been cold enough."

"So do you have a name for him yet?" Arthur asked.

"No, not yet," Kathyln replied.

"How about Tyson?" Arthur suggested, with a dark humor from his past life, but no one knew the reference.

"Hmm, no, he doesn't look like Tyson to me," Kathyln replied as she studied her bond.

Tess suggested another name for the bird before the topic of discussion went back to Arthur and Tess' date. Arthur was going to sit beside her, but the other girls swarmed around her not leaving him any room. This was of course alright with Arthur, since he wasn't one of those clingy boyfriends, and besides he had work to do.

"Sylvie," Arthur called out through their bond, but no reply. "Sylvie!" Arthur called out even louder.

"Hmm? What is it papa? Are you and mama back yet?" Sylvie asked groggily.

"We are, but I need you to come here now, we have something to do," Arthur replied.

"Ooo, is it for mama?" Sylvie asked excitedly.

"No. Do you remember Windsom?" Sylvie didn't reply, but Arthur could feel a wave of dread and fear coming from Sylvie. Arthur took that as his response and continued. "He paid me another visit, but this time he used static void to keep anyone else from noticing him."

"What does he want?" Sylvie asked as she remembered their last meeting with the Asura.

"The elixir he gave us, he wants us to use it. And for some reason, he wants us to use it tonight."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but he did seem pretty set on it." The reason why, was something Arthur had thought about significantly since the meeting. He didn't allow it to ruin his date with Tess, but also couldn't just leave it alone. "The only reason I can think of is time."

"Time?"

"Remember, he said they wanted to train me, but I needed to be at the white core stage first. It's possible that something has happened and they can't wait much longer to start my training," Arthur theorized.

"I guess that makes sense," Sylvie replied, still feeling uneasy as she remembered everything they learned the last time they met with Windsom.

A minute later Sylvie arrived and jumped onto Arthur's lap. Arthur then pulled the elixir out of his dimensional ring and stared at it, as the golden specks sparkled in the light of the fire.

"Are you ready Sylvie?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Sylvie replied as she placed her paw on the marble.

The two then began absorbing the elixir. Neither had ever used an elixir before so they had no idea what to expect, although from what they saw with the one that was used to save Tess' life, they knew at least this one would probably be quick.

The girls were still talking, asking Tess questions about her date with Arthur, when a golden light began shining from Arthur.

"Arthur?!" Tess asked in concern.

The light then became blindingly bright. Everyone was shielding their eyes, other members of the party emerged from their tents to investigate the light. After a few seconds the light died down, until it was gone completely.

"Arthur?" Tess called out as she slowly walked over to him, as he remained seated on the log with Sylvie on his lap.

Arthur then began to fall over to his left. Thankfully for him, once the light started to shine, Angela had grabbed her wand out of instinct, and was able to cast a quick wind spell to keep him and Sylvie from falling.

Tess rushed over to his side, everyone else awake right behind her. Tess caught him, and with the help of Durden, picked him up and laid him on the ground with Sylvie still on his lap.

"Arthur? Are you ok, please answer me?" Tess said with a worried tone as she knelt down by his head.

"Uhhh, wow, that was a rush," Arthur said as he regained consciousness.

"Arthur!" Tess practically yelled. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"I think I'm ok," Arthur replied as he sat up. "That elixir packed quite a punch."

"Elixir? What elixir?" Tess asked.

"Umm, I got it a few months ago in Xyrus, but I had kind of forgot about it. I remembered it and figured now was as good a time as any," Arthur replied, not a lie, but a half truth.

"I've never seen an elixir act like that," Claire commented as Tess checked his core.

Tess gasped.

"What is it?" Durden asked, as Arthur checked his own core.

"Arthur's core, its...its," Tess stammered from the shock.

"It's in the light silver stage," Arthur replied in nearly as much shock.

"What?!" "How is that even possible?" A few of them asked.

Arthur looked down to Sylvie to see her stirring awake.

"Hey Sylvie, how are you feeling?" Arthur asked.

"Ughhh, I feel dizzy?" Sylvie replied, not through her bond with Arthur.

All eyes were wide, and locked on the little dragon.

"Did Sylvie.." Kathyln started.

"Just talk?" Lilia finished

—————————————————————

In the adventurers guild building, Kaspian was working late, approving expenses, writing reports, filling out order requests, and approving pay stubs. He was working alone, the two other employees that worked there were long gone for the night.

As he worked in complete silence a creak was heard from outside his office. The guild building was supposed to be empty and locked from the inside, so he took notice. He sat in his chair completely still and silent, as he waited for another noise, but none came. He focused back on his work, when a creak was heard again. This time he grabbed his reaper and a light emitting artifact, and walked to the door. At the door he steeled himself for whatever he may find, and kicked the door open and jumped out, his blade held out in a defensive position. Moving the light artifact he scanned the room for anything, but saw nothing.

"I must be working too hard. Perhaps I should call it a night," Kaspian thought to himself and turned around to go back into his office, to see a hooded figure in the doorway.

"Ahh," Kaspian yelled as he jumped back and into a fighting stance, wind mana focused at the tip of his blade.

He then raised the light artifact, and could now see the face of the hooded figure to be that of an elf woman with dark hair.

Kaspian let out a sigh of relief as he lowered his sword. "Lance Aya, what brings you out here at this hour?"

"The council has heard you found another tunnel," Aya stated.

"That was days ago," Kaspian replied as he leaned back against the desk. "If they really cared so much they would have already sent me a survey team, or at least told me one was coming."

"The council is very busy. They can't respond to everything as quickly as they might like, but they do respond," Aya replied calmly.

"Well it doesn't matter anymore. I have a team going in in the morning," Kaspian informed the lance.

"Yes I saw that," Aya replied as she held up the paper. "Do you honestly think the council would approve of you sending their children?"

"They are also adventurers now, and from their accomplishments so far, pretty good ones," Kaspian stated, sounding impressed as he remembered the two dungeons and quest they completed.

"Regardless, this is still dangerous. You should have sent another team," Aya said, sounding more like an order than a suggestion.

"Lance Aya, I have the utmost respect for you and the council, but remember that when the council asked the guild to run this operation, we were given full authority to do so as we saw fit," Kaspian said. "Now look again at that list, you'll see I'm sending my own niece in there with them. Do you honestly think that I would allow her in there if I felt they couldn't handle it?"

"You do realize what will happen if anything happens to the prince or princesses?" Aya reminded him in a dark tone.

"Do you not think I took precautions?" Kaspian said, then raised his index finger. "One, the twin horns are a very experienced party that has avoided any accidents for over ten years. Two, the leader of this dive is Helen Shard. She is an excellent leader, who is not blinded by greed. If she feels it's getting too dangerous, she'll abort the dive and come back. Three, there are two AA ranked adventurers going on this dive, both of which I have full confidence in their abilities."

Aya lifted the paper up to read it. "Jasmine Flamesworth and Arthur Leywin."

"I'm sure at least one of those names is familiar to you," Kaspian said confidently.

"Princess Tessia's family speaks very highly of Arthur Leywin, and he was Elder Virions disciple," Aya said emotionlessly.

"So now do you have some confidence in my decision?" Kaspian asked.

"Just because the royal family of Elenoir speaks so highly of him does not mean he has my confidence," Aya stated. "The only thing I can say for certain is that he will kill to protect the Princess, but until I meet with him myself, I will hold out on making any judgments."

"Well take it from someone who has dueled him twice, and wasn't even sure I could win. His strength is nothing but impressive, and his skills are top notch." Kaspian smiled confidently. "I wouldn't be surprised if one day he was one of your fellow Lances."

Aya didn't reply as she walked forward and handed Kaspian the paper back. "I will be staying until they return, and if anything goes wrong, I'll lead the recovery team in."

She then walked past Kaspian. He then turned around to speak again, but she was already gone.