Chapter 11: Midnight Conversation + Feat Unlocked!

My axe cleft into the owlbear’s back, and it bucked so forcefully with its anguished cry that I was ejected from atop it. Skidding several feet across the ground, I stopped upon colliding unpleasantly with a boulder, cracking it down the middle.

I clutched the back of my head with my off-hand, gritting my teeth from the dizzying pain, and scrambled to my feet, eyeing the monster cautiously. I was in real danger here. That fucking hurt, muddling my senses as I struggled to keep myself steady.

The beast lurched for me, and I narrowly sidestepped, head still ringing. Suddenly, I remembered that I had abilities at my disposal. I pulled up my HUD and considered my options.

Standing next to a boulder, I figured Rock Toss 1 might be a good call, but before I could activate it a meaty paw swiped at me, colliding with my shoulder and knocking me forcefully to the ground.

The owlbear was ready to bear down on me. Looking at my moves, I realized most of my powers were either ranged attacks or required a sword or pointed weapon, such as Flame Sword 2 and Charged Thrust 1. Beast Bond 2, maybe? Could that work?

I activated Beast Bond 2, but the creature didn’t even acknowledge it, squawk-roaring its spittle into my face as it prepared to take a bite out of poor ol’ Bucky. Just as its beak was descending, I felt its body reverberate with the force of something as I heard a familiar cry.

“Blue!” I shouted, and sure enough, my dragon-steed had come to the rescue right in the nick of time. “I am going to get you so much dragon pussy one of these days,” I promised, and he whinnied his approval.

The owlbear stumbled off me from the force of Blue’s strike, and I was no longer pinned down. I rolled sideways and used Great Jump 1 to close the gap between Blue and myself, landing atop his saddle with ease—except that my delicate testicles felt the full force of the landing.

We were in a heavily wooded area now, trees thick all around us, and it was hard to take off in flight. Instead, we charged toward the owlbear on hoof, and Blue emitted a piercing cry that carried with it a powerful draft of his icy draconic breath. The owlbear was met with dozens of shards of icicles and the force of an arctic gale directly in its face. Slick droplets of blood dappled the forest floor as the creature turned tail in retreat, but I certainly never hoped to see it in my neck of the woods again, so retreat wasn’t quite enough. This was my territory, so although I always fashioned myself an animal lover, it turned out that when push came to shove I was much more of a woman-lover. I wouldn’t abide any powerful monsters threatening my girls when my back was turned. This thing had to die.

I gave chase, charging forward with my steed, now at the perfect range for a finishing blow. Fire Bolt 1 ripped forth from my palm, hitting the owlbear in its fleeing backside and erupting in flames. The bear was overcome with intense pain, and the force of it caused him to charge blindly into a tree, knocking himself unconscious. I was thankful for that bit of mercy as I hopped off of Blue’s back and delivered the killing blow with my axe.

***

“Honeys, I’m home!” I called out with a jovial boom of my voice, descending from the sky majestically on the back of my arctic-breathed dragon-steed. Five worried women poured out of the sliding door of my humble home, throwing their arms around me, looks of relief and worry upon each of their gorgeous faces.

“Your arm, honey!” Daisy said in a syrupy-sweet tone, tracing the shoulder wound. “Oh no!” Then she scowled at me. “You need to be more careful! Don’t you know it kills me to see you hurt like this? Humph!”

“He’ll be fine,” Autumn reassured her, but her voice was shaky, too. “Heroes heal quickly.” Even she was carefully scanning every inch of me for wounds, and to my utter shock she didn’t ask anything about XP for the moment.

“I really need to put on some pants next time I fight,” I groaned. “Flopping around like that is really ill-advised.”

“Poor baby,” May Belle cooed, planting a combo of kisses onto my chest.

“Come inside and warm yourself by the fire, Bucky,” Ivy whispered softly in my ear as she tugged at me by the elbow.

“No, wait,” Autumn said. “I need to speak to Bucky alone.”

“Are you going to be greedy?” May Belle asked skeptically. “If there’s sex involved, I want to—”

“No,” Autumn said. “Strictly business, I swear. It’s hero business that is important for only him to hear. I will need your trust on this.”

All four of the other girls gave her a tentative look, but it was all for show. They ultimately nodded and headed back inside.

“I am fucking cold,” I noted. “So if we could speed this along…”

She reached out and started rubbing her hands on my arms in circular motions, as if that was going to do the job of warming me up. “I’ll do my best, but there is much to tell you. First of all, there is something you should know about marking.”

I perked up. “It isn’t as simple as you made it out to be, is it?” I said.

“Yes and no,” she sighed. “There is an incredible responsibility you have for these girls once you’ve marked them. For one thing, if something happens to you—if you die, mainly—your mark may fade and they will be able to breed with another man again one day. However, understand that few ever do. Such is the true devotion of a monster girl to her love, so your greatest hope of ensuring their happiness after your passing is to leave them children to raise. Many towns are formed by monster girl orphans and their mothers, and in these communities they can find some semblance of peace.”

I swallowed hard. That was a lot of responsibility. “Well, I don’t intend to die,” I said, chuckling anxiously.

“Of course,” she replied with a curt nod. “But heroes do die, Bucky Drake. Most of them. I do not think that will be your fate, but you deserve to know. So be careful about marking, Bucky. I am not saying you shouldn’t do it. You should. Having monster girls locked down and devoted solely to you is a powerful boon for many heroes so they can continuously reap their benefits and buffs. But it carries with it some risk to both of you, and they’ll have tremendous power over you, too, since you won’t even be able to gain XP if they’re unhappy with you or feel unsafe.”

“That’s a big one. But keeping you girls happy and safe is what I live for,” I said, but inwardly I cringed as I tried to process all the new information.

Her shoulders tensed, her lips tightening in a serious expression. “Still, you need to select the girls you mark carefully. Daisy was happy to be marked by you because you are caring and she craves security and belonging. Like all monster girls, she can sense the qualities she is looking for in a mate. But some girls won’t be the best match for you.”

I frowned. “Is this your way of telling me that you don’t want me to mark you? I can respect that if it’s the case, so don’t hold back on me.”

She smiled at that. “Oh, no. Absolutely not. I would love nothing more than for you to mark me, Bucky Drake. There is no man I have met in four hundred years that I would like to be marked and bred by more.”

I gulped. “Bred? As in… kittens?”

She blushed. It might have been the first time I saw her do it, but she kept the eye contact strong and even put a hand on my chest. “When the time is right, yes, of course. I want it badly. I am sure the others feel the same, too.”

“I, uh, finished inside Daisy and May Belle. Should I be worrying about that?”

She laughed. “Only now you think to ask this? But no, a monster girl will not be able to be bred until she is emotionally ready to get pregnant. Elves, though, you need to be more careful with.” She stopped and seemed to consider something very carefully. “Also, I hate to generalize since I know I’ve gotten a bad reputation for doing so, but I would be very careful about the bunny girl if I were you. From what I’ve heard, they almost always want to be impregnated.”

I winced. “Noted,” I said. “Butt stuff only. Is that all?”

She giggled. “There’s still more to discuss, I’m afraid. You should also know that the amount of monster girls you can mark is dependent on you doing your job as a hero and a provider. You have to do quests, expand your home, and, most importantly, keep them safe, happy, and satisfied.” I nodded, not knowing what to say. It was straightforward info. “Now, Look at your HUD, Bucky.”

I opened the HUD and studied it. “Okay, I’m looking at it. What am I looking for?”

She squinted at me as though she couldn’t believe me. “Well, by now you should know my first question.”

“5780 XP to level up,” I grinned.

“Do you remember how much you had before?” she asked. “After the Elfmaid’s Favor?”

“6400 or something like that,” I shrugged.

“Okay, so you killed the owlbear, then,” she noted. “Because it gave you XP, I mean.”

“Right. Should I not have done that?”

“Oh, no, you absolutely should have, and I’m very happy you did,” she said, waving her hands to dismiss my worry. “Anyway, the point is this. Look at your Skill Points.”

“16,” I noted.

“Did you notice that you only got 8 new skill points at this level?” she asked.

I did not notice that, but now that she mentioned it, yes. It was true.

“That’s because starting at level 9, you get 8 new skill points per level. It stays like that indefinitely.”

“Is there some kind of chart about how much XP it is to get to the next level?”

“It depends wildly on the health, status, class, and habits of the individual at the moment that they level up,” she explained. “Usually it’ll take more XP to level up each time, but occasionally the number can be wildly unpredictable. In short, no, there is no stable chart.”

“Got it,” I smiled at her. Welp, that complicated planning, but it was good to know. “How many different skills are there out there?” I asked.

“Thousands,” she said. “No one knows the whole list. And heroes are eligible to receive almost all of them, so using Discover is fairly risky for a hero. Sometimes you’ll get something like Flame Sword 1. Other times you’ll get something like Power Fart 1 or Sniff 1.”

“Sniff 1?” I asked. Power Fart 1 seemed unworthy of comment.

“Enhanced smelling.”

“That’s not all that useless, though,” I nodded.

She cocked her head sideways and looked up like she was considering it. “True, it has its uses for tracking and such, but it also drains a disproportionate amount of energy from what I’ve heard.”

“Is there anything else I need to know?” I asked patiently, even as I shivered in the cold of night.

She grabbed my hand. “One more thing. I—I think I should tell you I’m sorry.”

I looked at her puzzled. “Sorry for what?” I asked.

“I abducted you from your home. I was desperate, and I don’t regret it, exactly, but I know it’s not what you wanted, and—”

I broke off her apology with a harsh laugh. “Autumn, if you could send me back in time, I’d go bitch-slap myself for resisting. I’ve got everything I could ever want right here.”

She grinned, and her eyes practically lit up to hear me say those words. “Which is?”

“A plot of land, a humble home, and a world full of slammin’ hotties that are mostly down to fuck,” I beamed, wiping a tear from my eye as I succumbed to the beauty of my own words. “And I have you.”

She giggled. “It is a pretty good deal, isn’t it?”

“Hell yeah it is,” I nodded. “And I’ll earn my place here. I’m going to be the hero you want me to be.”

“You already are that hero,” she said in a near-whisper. For a long moment we looked into each other’s eyes. She broke the silence after licking her lips and finally worked up the courage to ask what she wanted to ask. “Can I… kiss you?” she said, her long lashes batting sweetly up at me.

Once again, she blushed, but before she could look away, I pulled her in by her thin waist and planted a slightly cold kiss on her lips. I felt her purring into my mouth as our tongues danced together under the moonlight, but soon I heard the invasive sound of the sliding door.

“Oh, this is bullshit!” Daisy pouted.

“You fuckin’ said you weren’t going to be greedy, you foul temptress!” That was May Belle, obviously.

Autumn just giggled.

I laughed. “Stand down, girls. It was just a kiss.”

“Humph! Well now I get a kiss,” Daisy pouted.

“Me, too!” May Belle insisted as well.

Suddenly the two beautiful elves’ heads appeared at the door to see what was transpiring outside. “Are we kissing now?” Ivy asked, hope tinging her voice.

I chuckled, my cheeks red. This was heaven, I was sure of it. “I am honestly pretty tired, but as long as it doesn’t go much further beyond kissing by a warm fireplace, I think I can manage. I can’t exert myself too much or this arm might not heal properly.”

Now Autumn contributed to the mischief. “Technically, blowjobs should be fine,” she pointed out. “What do you say girls? Should we help Bucky grind for Level 10?”

A chorus of cheers rang out in the midnight air. The evening was long but supremely relaxing. I was spoiled by my five girls until I could take no more, and I finally passed out by the fire.

“2183 XP to go to level 10,” I groaned, checking the HUD one last time before I fell asleep with five naked beauties surrounding me, competing for my cuddles.

Feat Option unlocked: Harem Knight. Would you like to select this feat?

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