Since Lucas had time to kill before his party reconnected with him, he decided to go check out the new bobble he had, the Alfar Knight’s Night. It was a silver- and black-crested armlet, and it glowed as he pulled it out. He equipped the item to see if the system would tell him what it did, and he instantly noticed that the armlet seemed to absorb light around him, creating a bubble of semi-darkness. Over three-fourths of the light in a two-foot radius around him vanished and then, to make things even more interesting, the stolen light appeared to bunch up into a tiny, little moon that hovered a foot away from his wrist. It circled through the air as if orbiting some unknown object.

It took a minute, but Lucas eventually developed a theory as to what the armlet was. Alfar were mostly casters and marksmen, and camouflage wasn’t the only way to stay hidden. The small moon was likely designed to draw the attention of people trying to attack him. Combined with the fact that he was now partially hidden in a cloak of darkness, it would make him harder to hit. The enemy would likely misjudge his exact location, and the ball of light would hopefully entice someone to shoot where he wasn’t. This little “bobble” would definitely be helpful, either to him or anyone else in his small-but-growing cadre.

Speaking of Archers . . . Lucas suddenly remembered Katie. He had been holding onto the item Isabel’s Tears because none of his core party were Archers, and she had proven herself in the last fight. Without her help, that tank would have shut us down pretty quickly. Our efforts to attack would have been thwarted, and the drawn-out fight might have resulted in one of us dying if the enemies had attempted a Multi-Shot sooner. Yeah, she definitely needs a reward for that battle, Lucas thought, pulling out the special bow and setting it aside to give to her.

He heard footsteps approaching from behind while he was sorting through his backpack and trying to plan out the next attack. “You’re still here?” Liu’s voice called out.

“I just got back. The monster acquisition was a complete success,” Lucas said without bothering to look up. Now that he knew who she was, he was imagining that it was the scarred Liu behind him, not his wife, and avoiding looking at her helped him do that. “I guess the better question is: Why are you still here?”

“Ah! That’s easy,” she laughed. “I didn’t want to get up. The bath was nice. I don’t want my boss to realize that I just spent my time soaking in a tub instead of handling player tickets all day, so I did eventually have to.”

“What’s handling player tickets like?” Lucas asked.