Chapter 21: Sometimes, Single Player Isn't Bad Either

Lit up by balls of light with more vibrant hues than the standard street lighting, the slave market was bustling with activity. Slave were the only product for sale here, and they came in many different kinds.

The most common were debt slaves or captured unregistered people. The former were those who took out loans and couldn't pay them off, or couldn't pay their taxes. The latter were people from wild villages like Therina's, who had been unfortunate enough to either be conquered or captured while they were outside the village.

Next there were criminal slaves, those who were sold to slavery for their crimes as long as the crime was not one warranting a death sentence. The final lot were those who were sold into slavery, or sold themselves. These people had the greatest benefits as a slave, such as conditions on whoever bought them, and certain rights they withheld despite being labelled as property.

All slaves could be redeemed from slavery by their masters with the exception of criminal slaves, but even then it was extremely rare. A slave who was redeemed and tossed out to survive on their own would more than likely sell themselves back into servitude as many could no longer function independently after living as a slave for so long.

The slaves in the market weren't the higher value slaves, such as exotic races known for beauty, those highly capable and so forth. They were all sold in auction houses and high profile slave stores.

All those that were displayed in the outdoor slave market were cheaper goods. The females were all dressed in thin clothing that only really covered up their breasts and crotch, while the men only had pants.

Each one had a black slave crest tattooed on their chest, a complicated magic array with arcane rules and encrypting methods filling them.

Each slave trader had their own encryption on their slave array, much like a password. This prevented anyone tampering with it, or forcefully breaking the seals and inevitably freeing the slave.

Many of the arcane designs were for imprinting the slave's compulsion rules, as well as certain other compulsions, such as using all reasonable means to return to the trader upon the master's death, a common practice used to deter slave theft.

"They look cold, and they're mostly scrawny," Styx commented in Therina's mind as he looked at all the chained slaves up for sale, or currently being sold at auction platforms.

"They are also very expensive."

Therina strolled through the slave market unnoticed by those around her. Someone would occasionally spot her and ask if she was interested in any of their "products", but she would merely shake her head and state she was inspecting prices.

"Look! That slave is only 20 silver coins!"

"Need I remind you that we only have approximately 13 silver left? Also, this young human boy is weak, malnourished, and appears to have a crippled leg."

"But he is cheap, you could surely haggle the price down even further."

"Styx, do you not prefer girls anymore?"

"Of course I do! But there aren't any around all that cheap. A male slave would be better for labor if there is a choice, even though they can't breed monsters."

Therina bobbed her head in agreement and spent a while longer inspecting the various slaves and their estimated value before returning back to the inn. She had also looked for any elves, particularly those from her village, but if they were still up for sale, it wasn't in the outdoor markets.

The young elvish woman removed her outer armor and wore some cotton sleepwear before relaxing on the hard packed bed. She did, however, have to adjust her position several times to avoid spots where there was an uncomfortable lump in the mattress padding.

There was a small bedside table with a light array on the top of it, all one had to do was tap it with their hand to turn it off or on.

"Therina, I wish to make more monsters," Styx suddenly said in her mind in a serious voice.

"…I cannot help with that at the moment."

Therina was truly helpless in this situation. As much as she cared for Styx, she was at least half a day's travel away. She could also tell that rather than wanting to create more monsters, he was more interested in the act itself.

'This lecherous dungeon…' She thought to herself with a faint smile.

"You can help. Use your hands."

Therina's head blanked out as she simply responded, "What?"

"I said, use you hands. I can't touch you, but you can touch yourself, can't you? I will watch."

The elf's face flushed the most crimson it had been the last month, her ears practically turning pink.

"If… that's what you want," She nervously said as she pulled her cotton pants down to her ankles and slipped one leg out.

"Hrm hrm, good, start with the fingers of one hand, massage the clitoris."

Therina mentally rolled her eyes as she already knew well what to do, and the things she liked. She ran her hand down from her stomach her bare vagina. Styx had mentioned pubic hair to her before, but she informed him that tree elves didn't grow any, and that went for both genders.

With her legs spread wide apart, her fingers were spread out in a V shape as she massaged the sides of her vagina, occasionally pinching and rubbing inwards over her downstair lips.

"Haahhhh~~"

Her vagina began to secrete its natural lubricant from the stimulation. Her middle finger slipped in between her slit, gently circling around the entrance of her vagina as it collected up the fluid and spread it around her nether region.

She gradually stroked up and down her slit at just the right speed, paying extra attention to softly rubbing and pinching her clitoris, which was especially sensitive and sent waves of pleasure crashing through her body.

"Ngghh~ mmahhh~~" Therina release a long moan which she tried to muffle as arced her head back.

"Hey! What are you doing!? Keep looking down! If you don't look at what you are doing, I can't see it either!"

Styx's voice had broken her out of ecstasy and left Therina feeling a bit downcast, but she looked back down and resumed focusing on what she was doing.

Her middle finger had returned back down to her vaginal entrance, softly applying more pressure as it sank its way into the tight entrance leading to her cervix.

She began breathing more heavily as she slowly stirred her finger and slowly slid it in and out of her. As this was a service for Styx too, she used her other hand to gently spread her lips open and reveal the tight meat hole clamping around her finger as it slid in and out of her entrance which was only getting wetter.

"Two… use two fingers now," Styx said in a voice filled with intense concentration.

Therina extended her ring finger, and making sure it was covered in her natural juices, pushed it inside the tight hole of her vagina, which was now wrapped around two fingers.

"Haahhhh~~"

Two fingers didn't fill her up anywhere near what Styx did, but it was enough to begin scratching her inner itches. She hooked her fingers and rubbed them against the inner walls of her vagina. As a Thatcher who works with threads, her fingers were especially dextrous, and the feeling of her nimble fingers reaching all the right places quickly made her mind turn work.

Therina's entire body quivered as waves of pleasure vibrated through it like tsunamis. She moaned especially loud and curled her toes as her vagina tightly contracted around her fingers.

"OaaahhhhHHH~~"

She couldn't control herself.

She pushed back against her rhythmically contacting vagina and dug her fingers as deep as they would go, attempting to pierce through the final barrier preventing her from reaching an even larger orgasm.

Sadly, such a pleasure remained just out of reach of her fingers as the ecstasy gradually departed from her body and left her panting heavy, hot breaths.

"That was excellent. It appears that even apart, we can be together," Styx's pleased voice echoed in her mind, like a comforting embrace after just reaching a climax. "There is still some money left, get an adult toy to use next time."

"…Okay," Therina mumbled in deep embarrassment and quickly pulled up her pants before lying face down on the bed.

Styx couldn't tell, but as she was lying down, one hand was extended under her stomach and into her pants. The gently and dextrously pleased herself while imagining his voice in her head, her eyes holding a slightly delirious gaze.

~~~~~

The following day, Therina mostly acted like last night never happened. However, there was an incident in the morning of her sniffing her hand in embarrassment before desperately trying to scrub it clean before leaving the inn.

Today, she found a large public carriage running a bus route and paid a 2 copper fee to board it. All of the seats were full, so she had to stand up while the carriage made its way through its route. Many passengers tried to offer her seats, or even sleazily flirt with her, but she snubbed and glared at them all, so soon enough nobody wanted to interact with the haughty elf.

The carriage had good suspension and there were no major potholes in the roads, so the journey way very smooth and pleasant. Although, Therina did turn hostile and even draw one of her daggers on the bus when it began to get more crowded and her personal space was encroached.

Thankfully, that confrontation was somehow resolved. Styx had worried that he was about to lose his best, and only, servant.

~~~~~

In the centre of the city, Therina stood before a giant pantheon like construction, giant stone pillars everywhere and impressive carvings which left Styx figuratively drooling with inspiration. If anything, he merely danced in spins deep inside his dungeon.

Throngs of rankers, adventurers, mercenaries, even soldiers belonging to the city and kingdom entered and left. People who called themselves countless different things congregated here to enter the city's dungeon to earn loot and experience.

Therina entered the giant pantheon along with the crowd and found herself in a giant dome roofed chamber covered in relief carvings. Giant creamy white polished tiles covered the floor, only broken by the blue and black tiles that formed a pattern on the floor.

Many preformed parties entered and challenged the dungeon together, while others would introduce themselves around, hoping to bring several others into their party or enter one themselves.

There were even pack mules, or at least that is what the people were called. They were those who weren't very adept at fighting, and would instead hire themselves out to carry everyone's bags and loot in return for a share of the earnings.

Of course, one could hire an actual, four-legged pack mule too. There were no rules against it, but most animals tended to have a flight tendency when placed in danger, which was a one way trip to losing all of their equipment and loot.

There were so many people in the pantheon that voices chaotically echoed through the room and irritated Therina's ears.

She gracefully slipped through the crowd and to the dungeon entrance, where a large formation of city guards had a defensive formation around the dungeon.

While the city lord controlled the dungeon, summoned monsters could not be controlled by the dungeon, and if they were allowed to grow beyond the number that the dungeon could hold, they would form a Dungeon Break and burst out of the dungeon in a monster wave.

This was mostly for contingencies though, as there never seemed to be enough monsters for everyone each day anyway.

Therina took out her identity card and pressed it on the verification pedestal with her hand. It tested the card and her mana before flashing green in confirmation that there were no issues.

As a registered citizen of the kingdom, she could enter any dungeon for a price of 5 copper, while a non-resident of any kind would have to pay ten times that amount. If they didn't make decent progress or others had already killed all the monsters, they could even make a loss just on the entry fee.

With her entry paid, she proceeded beyond the city guards' fortification and descended down a set of stone stairs wide enough for twenty to stand abreast.