The loot was quickly sorted, with all the crafting materials going into Cara’s loot pile for later use, and the rest going to the Elders to be calculated for the Clan.

They would make Elder Douglas do the appraisals on all this stuff once they got back.

That man was eventually going to hate them all, they were absolutely certain of it. But there was no helping it. His role in the Clan was to manage the warehouse, and the warehouse was in desperate need of new stuff to help them recover from the attack.

The Clan members had gained some new items from the corpses of the attackers, but honestly, most of it wasn’t better than what they were using.

For most people, getting one Epic Grade item was the result of many years of hard work, or a lucky break while out on a resource gathering mission. They didn’t normally come to you by the dozen, or as part of a mountain of other drops.

Doing things with Karl and Dana was never quite what you expected, Elder Alix decided.

If this was a one-off event, triggering the Iron Man repetitive clears, it would be one thing. But this was not the first time that something odd had happened, and the last time that they went out, Karl and Dana managed to completely break the dungeon.

"Well, should we head back outside, give the other Clans a watered-down version of events, and then head back? It’s not been too long, but we’ve done more than expected for the day." Karl noted, shaking the winged Immortal from his reverie.

"Yes, let’s do that. We can also go shopping at the nearby Clan and see if they’ve got anything good.

Sometimes they have food or trinkets that we don’t have at home, and New Home is a Merchant Clan at heart. We can’t just do the dungeons and ignore the potential trade goods."

"Good point, we’ve got to keep true to form. Besides, we’re always up to find new snacks. Not just sweet ones, savoury ones, unexpected ones, fruity ones." Karl agreed.

So, once all the items were put away, they cleared out of the now empty dungeon, and went to greet the Elders of the local Sect.

They were on duty near the dungeon entrance, waiting for the crowd to clear out and finish their morning runs. All that they had to do was collect the entry fee that the Tel Sect charged for entry to the dungeon that they claimed, and keep fights from breaking out.

The second half was usually harder than the first.

There were an unusual number of people staring at them as they exited, but the Elders didn’t think much of it until they began to hear the whispers.

"They have to be the ones that triggered the Ironman Quest. How many boss kills do you think that they got? Do you think they got a second full clear, or just a couple of bosses? You have to do it pretty fast to trigger an Ironman bonus."

Elder Alix chuckled to himself. Not only had they gotten a second full clear, but a third.

He stopped the group at the Elders from the local Sect, and handed over a pair of Rare grade armour pieces as their fee for the run. More than was required, but everyone had apparently gotten the news that they got a bonus run, so he added a second piece.

"We appreciate your generosity. I take it that you did well today?"

Elder Alix nodded. "Indeed. We got a few helpful things to rebuild the Clan’s funding. The repair of the buildings is going to take a lot out of our budget, but the New Home will be back on our feet soon enough.

You don’t mind if we do a bit of shopping before we go, do you? I see that you’ve got the market fully occupied today."

The locals smiled. "Of course, stay as long as you’d like. The New Home Elders are always welcome at the market."

The level of ass kissing was incredibly obvious, but Karl wasn’t surprised.

With the victory that they had just managed, and the arrival of so many Supremes from the Darklight Host to assist them, the other local Sects and Clans would not be in any hurry to offend the Elders for some time.

It was only natural that the Clan would be on edge after an attack, and especially one where none of their local allies came to assist them, only their foreign support.

That was going to taint relationships for some time, and the local Elders did not miss how the items they got were those with barely Rare grade stats, made for basic warriors. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The most common of items, useful but hardly valuable within their own category.

So, while the New Home was generous enough to give them the second item, the message was clear. They were not parting with the good stuff for people who didn’t have their backs.

That wasn’t entirely the Tel Sect’s fault, though.

They didn’t have a large information network like some others did, and by the time that they had received the news, it also contained the news that the Almeixei Sect was blocking everyone else from intervening.

So, they simply hadn’t mobilized at all, and had stayed out of it.

Elder Alix led the way into the market, where Cara and Remi came out of their spaces to join the shopping excursion. Rae considered doing the same, but decided that she would wait.

She didn’t see anything good yet, and she was working on new seasonal designs for the team in Drodh to mass produce.

Once those were finished, she would come back here and examine anything that seemed to be worth exploring. Really, she didn’t have much hope for them. They were all wearing the same outfit, so it was probably a uniform for the local Sect members, and they would have no real desire or appreciation for true fashion.

Besides, Cara and Remi had only come out to check on the snack stalls and herb shops.