After several more hours of hunting, they did end up finding a sed boss fight, which at their quick pace, hadn’t been a guarahough Natalie wouldn’t call it especially fortuitous, either.

  The bad news was that, despite upgrades in equipment, their quickly growing exhaustion made the sed fight much tougher. Not only that, but the oppo wasn’t a single powerful enemy like the dryad, but three weaker elementals that formed a collective boss: a water elemental, a fire, and a stone one. Natalie could keep the attention of two with some sistency, but not all three, as was certainly the iion of the enter.

  Being weaker to several entities pared to a sirong one was a on weakness of teams, but especially theirs, where Sofia wasn’t the greatest off-tank. Normally, the fighter would be the oo keep the third elemental’s attention, and Sofia did mao do so, but it wasn’t her area of expertise. Her elusive fighting style meant she was also somewhat easy to ig least for short bursts.

  Natalie didn’t kly what happened, being occupied with her own enter with the other two elementals, but when they came out victorious, there were several more serious injuries than the previous fight against the dryad. Ironically, Natalie was the one who’d gotten out in a better dition than most of the rest of her team—though she was still beaten up herself.

  The worst injury by far was Sofia’s. Not by virtue of being life-threatening, but rather, the hand she wielded her rapier with had been twisted in a rather gruesome manner. Patched up by Liz, and with her supernatural endurand recovery speed granted from her css, she’d be fine by tomorrow, but only with a full night’s proper rest. It wouldn’t be wise to tih their fighter incapacitated in such a way, so their delve had e to an end.

  Which wasn’t too big of a problem. They hadn’t had many hours left in them regardless, so nobody set. They looted the boss monster chess, receiving another smattering of useful items. Their incredible luck didn’t tinue, sihey received no rares this time, but receiving several funal unons was still more than wele.

  Following that, they delved into the sed floor of the dungeon just to take a look. They didn’t take any fights or veoo far; after peeking around the magma-dotted cave system, they exited through the provided portal—portals always spawned near dungeon dests—aurned back to the surface.

  It was early evening as they walked bapus, den with far more treasure than they’d expected sidering their inauspicious beginnings. Natalie eve a bit smug about it; Elida would certainly have expected their trip to have been ht crippled by her interference, but that wasn’t remotely the case. Sure, they would have doer had the woman not robbed them blind, but by all measures, Natalie and the rest of her team sidered their first long delve a success.

  After handling their earnings, liquidating the obvious items into credits, theing ed and ged into casual clothes, Natalie and the team had an evenio themselves. It ought to be enough time to handle a big-ticket item, actually. With their ret earnings, and the timer making the barracks a strict requirement having expired, it was time they used their credits to purchase something essentially all students were desperate for—private dorms.

  Natalie, Jordan, and Sofia had already researched the various dorms scattered across the campus and narrowed down their choices. While they hadn’t been able to ihe actual interiors, which they po do today, they’d still been able to decide on their feasible options. Dorms weren’t just one enormous bloewhere on campus; they could choose from several buildings, and each varied in both luxury and positional venienaturally, the three of them didn’t care overmuch for either. They simply wanted out of the barracks.

  “We’re really getting a two bedroom?” Sofia asked.

  “Why?” Jordan said without missing a beat. “Thinking of making it o’d get a little cramped with all of us in one bed, but I guess it’s worth sidering.”

  Sofia only huffed in reply, seeming exasperated at Jordan’s teasing. Natalie, on her part, only shivered at the nightmare that would be sharing a room with Sofia.

  She wondered what Sofia thought of her and Jordan sharing a room. Obviously, they had framed it as a cost-saving measure, but she didn’t think most people would buy that. Did Sofia think she and Jordan had something going on?

  As in, not in the sexual way, which they very much did, but romantically. That they were girlfriends.

  The idea sent a little thrill through her that was distinctly fusing. Maybe because of how odd the idea was? Her and Jordan, girlfriends? No, they were just best friends with bes. Jordan wasn’t anything to Natalie besides someone she wao spend her life with, and occasionally bring to twitg, moaning climax.

  For some reason, those thoughts felt absurd in Natalie’s head, but puzzling over the topic was fortunately cut off by Sofia tinuing the versation.

  “Regardless, we might be able to lock a room down tonight. Are we trying to move in if we ?”

  “Definitely,” Natalie said. “I’m so tired of those barracks.”

  That wasirely true. The barracks themselves were tolerable. More accurately, she was tired of her and Jordan taking care of their ‘energy gathering sessions’ in public bathrooms. Having her own dorm would solve so many headaches. Not to mention Natalie would be free to stay at other people’s rooms, too. Sammy had mentioe was stri freshmen camping out at other people’s dorms when they were supposed to be stu the barracks, but getting her own room lifted that restri.

  And, she supposed, she could even bring irls back. Though with Jordan sharing it, that could be tricky. Still, the reduced rent was worth it. Not to mentioing to have Jordan in her bed every night. The cept of that was bizarrely entig, and not for the exg moments, but the simple idea of getting to cuddle up with Jordan eaight before bed. Though, she probably wouldn’t want to cuddle? They were just sex best friends. Did those cuddle?

  “No disagreements there,” Sofia said. “I wouldn’t mind it so much if it weren’t for the noise. Feels impossible to get an uninterrupted night of sleep.”

  Natalie hadn’t had too much of a problem with that, but she uood the se. She guessed Sofia was a lighter sleeper than some. Which might be a problem.

  Soon enough, they arrived to the first didate. The dorm building was a hive of activity, with the weekend’s ret delves meaning freshmen were finally able to afford moving in—which was their group’s situation, too. The building was well staffed for the increased traffic, having undoubtedly been prepared from previous years. Despite the time, approag the end of normal business hours, they were showing people around aing out rooms. Te was ung in some ways, but in this insta least, they were willing to aodate the eager freshmen. Small blessings.

  The tour wasn’t especially exg. Te had a strong emphasis ression that carried over to nearly everything, and so the ‘starter dorms’ weren’t much to write home about, even by Natalie’s low standards, ing from the middle of nowhere.

  Which wasn’t to say they were crappy. Just pin. The kit was kitted out, which meant they could prepare their own meals if they wahough Te’s cafeteria was free, and pretty incredible to be ho, so Natalie wasn’t sure how often she’d do so. Having the option was hough.

  Each of the two bedrooms came with their own attached bathroom, which was an bonus—having to share oh Sofia would’ve been a nightmare. And a clutter.

  The shared living room was pact but more than enough for their needs; it wasn’t like they’d be hanging out there ofte students didn’t have much time to sit around. It would only serve as a space to study.

  Everything came pre-furnished, sieudents were obviously not in the position to be buying their own and moving it in. It tion if they so desired, but Natalie had no i. There peal to izing the space, but she’d postpone any real efforts for that for when they upgraded to a more perma space; this was just their small, cramped, but blessedly private starter dorm.

  Initial pns had been to check out all three of the choices they’d scouted out as potentials, but after a brief discussion, they came to the sensus they simply didn’t care—this one had everything they needed, and from their preliminary research, had beeop choice to begin with. Not wanting to deal with the chaos of cheg out the other buildings uhe frenzy of the freshmen rush, and possibly missing their opportunity to move in now, they sighe appropriate paperwork and passed over the initial fees.

  The pri credits, of course—made Natalie wince, regardless that this was one of the cheapest rooms and split three ways, but she reminded herself that her means for earning credits would only grow iure, and expoially so. The better gear, higher level, and more effit delvers they became, the more and more credits that would be p into their ats. While expensive now, rent for this dorm would be nearly insequential ter on.

  And so, those administrative tasks dohe three of them set off back to the barracks. They had moving-in to take care of.