>>>The young Maids listen to Grace's ballad with rapt attention. They'd heard music before but not from an Adventurer and not a song from what was essentially an alien world...to them anyway. The shower of gold never failed to amaze them as well, as did the fact that Grace gifted the shiny new coins to them so casually.

Belle Maids
>>>"Thank you, Lady Grace!" the older of the girls exclaimed.
"Aegelby said you were all leaving today. Please come back and see us again." She seemed sincere and a bit starstruck. They cleaned up what the Party hadn't eaten and dutifully retreated, giggling and whispering to themselves excitedly on the way out.

Piphany
>>>"I'm going to get diabetes if you keep that up..." Piphany mumbled towards Grace half-heartedly.

BradL33
>>>"We'll have to split up what we carry but I think we can take it all with us fairly easy." BradL33 said as a change of topic as the doors closed behind the Maids.
"Most of those Mats and Consumables will probably go in the Herbalist's Satchel. They've all got the requisite Tags so it can store them like your regular Inventory Bags or my backpack does. The Gold can stack in your Inventory Bags too, I hope. Like Grace's 'turbo bazooka' or whatever it is can fit in there, it should hold a lot of those coins.". He sure hoped it did because that much gold was heavy!
"In-game, you could stack a thousand Gold Coins in a single inventory slot. So, we might have to split it up if we're low on open slots."

Tina the Enchanter
>>>"So, you're telling me that we sat there and counted...BY HAND...all those coins when we coulda just jammed it all in a Bag and counted the stacks?!?" Tina said exasperatedly.

BradL33
>>>"well...yeah." was all BradL33 could sheepishly say in reply.
"I didn't think about it til just now. We still have to try it and see if it works."
>>>Packing everything up and experimenting with what best fit where took about a half-hour, as close as anyone could guess, before the tables were emptied. The Merchant's Quarters seemed a bit like a hotel at the end of a trip as everyone stood around, carrying everything they owned, and taking one last look around before leaving.
>>>Varduhn met them in the avenue, with Adana and Jean Louis in tow, to walk with the Adventurers to the edge of town. The air was heavy with humidity but not yet hot, though the promise of a warm day was already in the air.

Varduhn
>>>"They may not show it well, but the village thanks you for what you did last night." Varduhn offered the Adventurers the thanks for the village.
"Maxime found Kaimon and the others just after daybreak. They were shook up but none the worse for wear... They caught sight of the King Triffid too late and it was already between them and the village. They decided to go the long way around, through the forest, to warm the village and got lost after the sun went down. Spent the night up a tree, it seems." Varduhn seemed a little amused by that fact, patting his stomach jovially.
>>>The old Apothecary stopped at the farthest point along the trail where the village was still visible in the distance,
"This is where we part ways, I'm afraid..." he said wistfully.
"Just follow the old roads and they'll take you to Mound City. I wish you good journeys. I am glad to have met you all and hope that maybe you'll think of Belle on occasion. You'll always be welcome here." He gathered Adana and Jean Louis to him to watch the Adventurers take the next step in their journey.
>>>The packed dirt path led past a few straggling houses and field before becoming scrublands like they'd all encountered when they first arrived in this world. Abruptly, a Zone Status Box popped into the visual field, announcing that you'd all crossed into a different Zone having left the town's Zone:
Flat grassy patches interspersed with stands of trees and low hills dotted the land around them. The trail more or less disappeared but BradL33 kept heading in a steady direction. The trees became denser as the sun climbed in the sky. With those trees came wildlife like none on Earth; even the most homebodied could tell these weren't the kind of animals you were used to...
Something deer-like stared at you for a moment before dashing back into the woods. Around the bend from the encounter with the deer, the wood opens up a bit into a jarring scene.
>>>Until now, the more medieval fantasy elements of Elder Tales had been front and center. The ruined overpass and rusted cars overgrown in the forest was a reminder that this world was also supposedly a post-apocalypse Earth...

BradL33
>>>"Looks like a good place for a rest break..." BradL33 said nonchalantly. He looked at the others for affirmation or denial.
"We made pretty good time and not seen anything hostile...yet." He retrieved a container from his backpack as he lowered it to the ground and took a drink from it,
"Should be able to follow the highway from here to the City."