Who Are We, Really?

The Hook

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" 

Alaska was currently standing in a smithing room with a Dwarf staring at the Manticore's core that she had with her. Erika was with her for once as she really wanted to know what Alaska was doing with the cores. 

"Is that like... you don't know what to do with it or are you asking what I want to be done with it?" Alaska was confused by his statement and wanted him to clarify. 

"I'm asking what you want, idiot. This is a big core, I can make pretty much anything you'd want, little lady." 

Alaska and Erika deadpanned as he called her little lady seeing as he was half their height and they were pretty small already. In age, this guy probably ranged from 50 to 200 years old, Dwarfs were a mystery.  

"Short sword and dagger!" Alaska's immediate answer meant she had this locked in the moment he asked his question, it also meant she wasn't going to try and change mid-order. 

"I only take payments upfront, that'll be 6,000G, I can imagine the manticore you slew got you more than that." 

Erika pulled a bag off of her waist and opened it as a small rift appeared above it, the gold fell out of the Dimensional Storage unit until the thing was full but the Blacksmith was most surprised at the fact she was using Dimensional magic in the first place. 

"That's quite the skill you have there. Ever since the level system's been abolished it seems like you youngsters are only getting stronger by the minute." He took the bag of gold and picked up his toolset, "This will probably take a week or two to forge... I'm guessing you want me to utilize all the paralyzing power for the dagger, eh?" 

She nodded her head vigorously and the Dwarf chuckled. 

"Well, go on and head out. I'm sure I don't need to show you the way out, do I?" 

They shook their heads and headed out of the shop and were back on the streets before they knew it. But, now it just came down to what to do now, the manticore battle had drained their batteries for fighting today so they both thought it might be a good idea to chill today. 

"...You wanna get something to eat?" Erika was the first to give an idea and once Alaska thought about it, she had noticed she hadn't eaten today and neither had Erika. 

"Oh yeah." 

The two girls head over to the shop district and search around for a place to eat. Of course, they got a few looks from everywhere, some noticing the princess, some noticing they were both wearing Templar gear, and others noticing Alaska was a Black Cat. None of the people made any big noise about it, just a few gasps and points but they found a casual place to eat, went in, and got seats before long. 

While looking around the menus, Erika was the one to come out and ask, "Where's Ayame and Lisbeth?" 

Erika had noticed them with them when they left the Explorer's Hall but after that, she didn't know. 

"Oh they're uh- Actually, where are they?" 

Both of them had no idea where their friends were but they were big and strong so there really was no need to worry about them. Wherever they are, they wouldn't have left the city without them so it's safe to assume they're perfectly fine. 

"What the hell do you- never mind, I see what they mean when they call you absent-minded." 

"Who the hell said that?!" Alaska looked up from her menu but sighed when she noticed she only talks to two other people besides Erika, Lisbeth was the prime candidate to say something like that, which brought another idea to Alaska's mind, "So, Lisbeth is pretty cool, isn't she?"