Getting Phyll'd In

“Iz!” Aesandoral shouted as she hobbled over the sand towards me. “Brace yourself!”

The vines that bound me quickly decomposed, and I began to fall. Catching myself on the wall, I slowed my plummet but ultimately collided with the archer as she tried to catch me.

“Ouf!” She gasped as we both collapsed to the ground, and she began to giggle exhaustedly.

“We-We did it!”

“Yeah—” I huffed, reaching for a potion as she buried her head into my shoulder. “Yeah, we did.”

Tears began to flow as she cried into my chest before falling limp to the sand and cheering loudly.

“We’re alive!”

“Obviously,” Sharzin added as she approached us with potions in her clenched fists. “All according to—tch—plan.”

The rogue winced as she uncorked a potion and drank it. Finishing my bottle, I grabbed at Sharzin and pulled her onto our dogpile with a laugh.

“Thank you,” I spoke as I wrestled with my own emotions and hugged them. “Thank you both so much for not letting me die.”

“Of course, dummy,” Sharzin remarked, pushing herself from us and jumping back to her feet before brushing off her clothes. “Like I told you. I prefer you getting punched over Aes.”

“Gee, thanks—"

“Did you guys see that!” Rionriv yelled excitedly as she came running up to us. “That dragon is so done!”

“I did,” I looked to her and smiled. “You were amazing! Tens. Tens. Tens across the board.”

Her smile quickly faded as she looked over me and Aesandoral. Rionriv glanced to Sharzin and then back again.

“You all look like crap!”

With a chuckle, we took the moment to rest and chat, enjoying potions and leftover rations as we caught our breath. Eventually, with our stamina returned to us, we moved towards the small central island where the dragon’s horde of treasure sat.

“Well—” I remarked, looking at the piles of coins and items that the beast had collected over its short few decades of life. “Better clean this all up and get to travelling home. Let’s just scoop everything into the bags, and we’ll sort things out when we return to Dwindlefyre.”

The three nodded in agreement as we got to work clearing out the gold, silver, and copper coins. Setting aside magical items and potions, we split them evenly amongst each other's bags before I stumbled upon a particularly rare and unusual arcane item.

“Oh, no way!” I announced, picking up the finely polished Esserian Oak receiver of a magical weapon from the Age of Mortals.

The device was an arcane firearm that looked similar to a World Eighty-Two submachine gun. Though the weapon I held in my hands didn’t fire bullets, but instead quickly shot darts of magical energy. This ancient Westerriton weapon was the armament of choice for the city guards, making it well over three thousand years old.

Though surprisingly, it still appeared brand new.

“Oooh,” Rionriv blurted as she caught sight of the item. “That looks neat.”

I looked at the weapon and then Rionriv. With a smile, I waved the arcane firearm.

“Here, for when you’re conserving magic.”

Tossing it to her, she took it into her grasp and inspected it curiously.

“But I saw the way you looked at it. Why don’t you keep it?”

“You killed the boss,” I said with a playful wink. “You get first dibs.”

Rionriv stared at the gun and then at me. Even though it was for only a second, I could have sworn I saw the faint shift of colour on her cheeks.

“Iz, I found something weird!” Aesandoral announced, having finished clearing her corner of the horde and drawing my attention away from her blushing sister.

Approaching, I quickly examined the edge of the rocky island where a small, submerged cave opening had been revealed. Long since covered by sand, it became apparent that there was another—unknown—layer to this dungeon.

“Hey, Ri—”

“On it.” She announced, stepping forward and summoning the wind with a snap of her fingers.

The sand fled from the sunken mouth of the hollowed-out island, revealing ancient text etched over the top of the entrance.

CXXIV. I thought. Wait, this is one of Phyllis’ old shoppes.

“Yes, it is.” Phyllis’s voice echoed in the back of my mind. “What a coincidence—how wonderful that you found that for me.”

“Phyllis?!” I yelped, looking around. “How did you know we found your shoppe?”

“Don’t you remember? As per the Ninety-Nine-Z contract, I can look through your eyes whenever I want. So, it was dinner time, and my favourite show was on—”

I sighed and pinched my eyes closed, forcefully rubbing them.

“Uh oh, bad connection. Hey! Stop doing what you’re doing.”

“So, Phyllis, anything we can use to reactivate this place?”

“I’m soooo glad you asked,” She replied delightfully, which meant that this had been her goal since the beginning. “Just put one of those shimmer crystals you lifted from the bandit boob into the skull's eye—you know which one. Then, hit it with a few spells. I’ll send a proper soul gem through once the lights turn on.”

I sighed and faced the triop, who I suddenly realized had been staring at me this whole time

“What’s up?” Rionriv asked.

I explained to the group that the uncovered entrance was, in fact, an ancient Phyllis shop, which she wanted us to reactivate for her. After a quick period of discourse, we entered the tight cave together and were instantly transported to a small rundown shoppe.

Sand had covered much of the floor, and shelves that had once been lined with goods now stood bare and broken. A faint glimmer of sunlight from nowhere gave the illusion that a hole had been made in the roof, even though no such issue existed.

In the corner of the space was a skull the size of Sharzin, half covered in sand. I immediately knew that this was what we were looking for, having been aware that every shoppe had one of these ‘Phiner Phylacteries’ present. Approaching and fiddling with it, I noticed that of the two gemstone eyes, one socket was vacant, with the original soul stone lying expended on the floor.

Following Phyllis’ instructions, I affixed a shimmer crystal, and after a few magical blasts from Rionriv, the gem began to glow.

For the briefest moment, a long curtain appeared at the rear of the store. It flickered into existence before catching a gentle wind and vanishing a moment later. Moving closer to investigate, I found a glowing red soul gem meant to be slipped into the eye socket.

Making quick work of the phylactery by swapping in the gem and cleaning the remaining dust and sand from it, I watched as it began to glow. An ominous red light consumed the skull as it floated up into the corner before, a moment later, the curtain reappeared and out came Phyllis.

“Oh, wonderful.” She exclaimed delightfully as she looked around the space. “Uhhgg-uh! Phyllis-One-Twenty-Four really left this place in a disgusting state. Shame—Anyways.”

Snapping her fingers, the shoppe began to restore itself with magical buckets and brooms heading off to work as she set up behind the cash register.

“Great job, children. Thank you for reopening this store. It will be extremely useful in the future. As a reward, bonuses for everyone!”

She smirked, placing a hand to her chin before continuing. “Wow, Phyllis, you’re amazing. Yes. I know. And that’s not all, everyone! I’m willing to buy everything you found at market value! Now, are there any items you would like to sell to help me restock these shelves before the next dolt—erm, adventurer—stops by?”

Without question, we began to dump out all the loot we weren’t planning on gifting or keeping. This was a surprising amount, much more than even I had been expecting. The resale of the loot alone earned our party over ten thousand gold coins, and this excluded the almost nine thousand gold coins worth of loose currency we found across every level.

By the time we had received the bonus from Phyllis, each member of the triop, myself included, walked away from our dungeon dive with over five thousand gold coins.

“We’re rich!” The girls screamed excitedly, with Aesandoral being the most enthusiastic by far.

I watched from the side as they jumped for joy together—a sight that I particularly found adorable. But that wouldn’t be all they were excited about.

After gathering up the menagerie of pets upstairs and bringing them back into the cozy shop, we all ventured behind the curtain and found ourselves standing directly across from Phyllis’ food court. Days' worth of travel was shortened to seconds thanks to the mall dimension.

“Yayyyy!” Sharzin and Aesandoral squealed as they rushed away to see what food was available.

Hanging back near the entrance, Rionriv and I gave each other a passing glance and smile. While I wasn’t sure where we stood in the long run, for right now, it seemed good—and I was happy with that.

We had survived our first real-world mission together, made ourselves reasonably rich in the process, and gathered enough evidence of our quest to ensure Aesandoral, Rionriv, and Sharzin passed their Winter Quest with flying colours.

Most importantly, I felt like something had changed in me. The struggles of my old life would undoubtedly continue to haunt my dreams, but I felt that, for the first time in my existence, I had truly lived for me. And, in doing that, I had made friends with a trio of truly extraordinary women.

Sure, they may not have had ‘main character’ energy in the beginning, but now, the author in me felt like they had the potential to write a new chapter in this world's tumultuous history.

“Pretty successful first three months,” I whispered to myself, eying the triop as they sat at a table, their pets cuddling to their sides lovingly.

“Hey, Iz!” Aesandoral called out to me.

“Huh?” I replied with a smile, snapping from my trance to look at her.

“Come sit. Phyllis is bringing something called…lasagna?”

“Yeah, and I can’t guarantee I won’t eat yours.” Sharzin giggled as Sharmin licked her face.

“So, come and sit,” Rionriv finished with a smirk, patting the seat beside her. “And keep your pants on, oracle.”

“Hey!” I shot back as the triop laughed.

A smile of genuine happiness stretched across my face. A smile that faded just as quickly as Phyllis emerged from a Tomato Garden with bowls of unlimited salad and garlic bread loaves floating behind her.

“Oh, are we talking about his little pecker coming out to say hello—mwhahahaha—hilarious! That’s good scry-o-vision.”

“Phyllis!” I yelled as everyone laughed harder.

In the end, it was a pretty good start to a new life.