Good Old Days?

After she left Lefiya and Ais showed her to the tower where her room would be, it was a decent-sized room now that the boxes and supplies had been cleared out. When they went to get bedroom supplies Stella wondered if she could put the bed in the bag, and to her and everyone else nearby the bag could in fact fit the entire bed, along with some drawers, and an entire wardrobe. She wondered how big of an object she could put into the bag, that would be tested later.

Placing the furniture in the room made it look a lot more homely and Stella she hadn't had a room to sleep in that was hers in years.

"Hey Stella, we are heading to take a bath. Want to join us?"Tione asked

"Yea I feel dirty not having taken a bath in a few days."Stella replied

Stella went to join the women to go bathe and she had to admit she hadn't had a proper shower in absolute ages, most of the time it was using river water and soap to clean herself.

"This is heaven! I haven't bathed with warm water in years!"Stella was currently melting in the bath she couldn't remember when she last bathed with warm water.

"Really? What was your life like while you were exploring then?"Lefiya wondered how she had lived without warm water baths.

"Not all that great, it was mostly just trekking through purple painted landscapes till I found a Silverwood tree, then I'd take a break, and then harvest some of the sap the tree produces then continue exploring till I found something."Stella was happy to tell people about her past.

"When I needed to bathe I'd find a river and use the Silverwood sap to purify it so that the taint wasn't an issue. Never use lake water while in the taint, that water is scummy and I've watched some poor guy get pulled in and eaten by tainted fish and squids."

"What did you do about food?"Tiona started to get interested in Stella's adventure, it was so different from the dungeon.

"Ah that's a hard one to deal with, most explorers bring a huge amount of dried rations with them, and turn back when they run low."

"The more 'adventurous' ones or as most called them the 'insane maniacs' hunted tainted animals and cut out the parts not yet tainted." Stella remembered the times she did that when she didn't have enough food.

"Did you ever do that?"Lefiya asked, Ais and Tione were also just as interested, the 4 ladies were now enjoying time in the bath listening to Stella's adventures.

"Oh, yea turns out the brain and heart are the last infected parts, though this only really works in the earlier parts of the tainted lands."

"After you get far enough into the taint the animals are entirely tainted and they spew the super noxious gas into the air when killed."

"How did it taste?"Tiona and Tione were pretty curious about the taste of animal brain, or animal heart as they hadn't tried it before.

"Honestly not that bad, the brains are best boiled in my opinion, they become super soft and you can practically slurp them like noodles if a little tasteless. The hearts are rather protein-rich but are super chewy."

"Ewwwww, stop, don't say anymore!"Lefiya was grossed out and didn't want to hear anymore.

Tione and Tiona were rather interested and found it fun to listen to while Ais was wondering why Stella did such things while exploring.

"Did you find anything cool while exploring? I need to get the image of a 14-year-old eating monster brains out of my head!"Lefiya quickly tried to change the topic.

"Oh, yea some of the minor stuff was small towns or cities that were long abandoned."

"One time I found an obsidian obelisk floating out in the middle of a clearing, I, unfortunately, had to leave it early because I heard voices and didn't want to meet people that far out into the taint."

"Then there is my best find, A huge walled city. The walls were easily 7-8 stories tall, and the buildings were just as tall if not taller even in their ruined state."

"That's where I found the magic bag and the other trinkets."Stella recounted her finds during her time exploring.

Shortly after Ais asked if other adventurers thought she was scary and Tiona asked her if it mattered what they thought of her, Lefiya butted in shortly after saying how they respected her and looked up to her.

Loki came in shortly after and tried to touch Tiona only to fail after all but Lefiya dodged and left the shower.

Stella entered her room and sat down at her bed, a lot had happened in the last few days she had found the city of thaumaturges, died and came back to life, appeared in the dungeon and escaped, met with the Loki familia, and become part of it, gotten her own room to live in, and shared her adventures during her time as an explorer.

She decided before going to bed to check what was in the storage bag.

4x pouches of multicolored dust

1x small jar filled with colored crystals

1x Black leatherbound book with a skull on the front

1x bolt of durable fabric

1x ring with a yellow gem

1x small tattered green journal

1x potted Silverwood tree

1x potted Greatwood tree

1x potted cluster of Shimmerleaf

1x potted cluster of Cinderpearls

1x potted colony of Vishrooms

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Word Count: 936

And BAM we got some more of Stella's backstory, along with an inventory of what she high-jacked from that dead guy. This fic follows the Sword Oratoria storyline, I don't know if I want to entirely follow the story or diverge, it will likely be both but if you have suggestions (or power stones) throw them at me!