Chapter 77: You Have Been Marked

Earl Vermonte bon Housen took the soulium knife and stabbed the near-death guard in the heart. His body quivered once before all life immediately left it.

[

Derick Ulton (Royal Swordmaster <Lv. 45>) killed!

+ 0 exp

]

"You-!" Duke Ashburn stood up in shock and shouted, but was quickly silenced by the earl abruptly raising his hand.

"This man was already going to die. There is no point in giving experience to this elf if that is the case."

The earl also didn't receive any experience from this action due to the world's system. It promoted killing other exotic races, so one would get at least five times more experience from killing them than the equivalent level monster.

Killing someone of the same species however gave no experience, preventing those who hungered for power from killing their own kind.

Duke Ashburn truly hated this earl from central and wished he could kill or expel him, but his hands were tied. Any such action would create a backlash that he wouldn't be able to shoulder.

Earl Housen rubbed a seemingly plain bracelet around his wrist which then lit up with a large number of tiny, complicated Horönheim arrays. The air in front of his hand shook and twisted before opening up to show the inside of a box several cubic meters in size.

Several maids in the room looked at this device in awe, which was a rare manufactured space storage device. Nearly all festivals had magic rings or other equipment which could store items in a separate space inside of them, so a large number of them were in the kingdom, but they were rare enough that people in the poorer outlands didn't see them as often.

Blood refused to stick to the eerie curved blade, but he still wiped it off with a cloth before placing it inside

"Have this body taken to the temple to give his rites of passage into his next life. I wish to investigate this dungeon immediately."

~~~~~

⠀

Therina floated in the dream realm with her eyes scrunched closed in agony. One of her two tails was severed in half and stained in violet-red blood. She had healed it to prevent the bleeding, but it wasn't growing back.

"It will be fine. Just come back and we will focus on helping you heal. I will send Aura to come pick you up and bring you back safely."

Styx had a rare touch of tenderness in his voice as he mentally comforted her.

"No, I can do this."

The natural energies in the dream realm helped Therina heal, even if it wasn't helping her tail grow back.

Once she had recovered enough, she exited the dream realm and returned to the physical plane. She put away her tails and looked around the wreckage of the area.

There was rubble everywhere while city guards had cordoned off the entire area with a large barrier. She quickly hid among the rubble with Concealment fully active and picked an indescreet position to peer out and investigate the surroundings.

All the guards' backs were facing her as they were busy placating the crowd of unhappy citizens and overzealous reporters.

There were a couple of angry and distraught people too, whose relative or close partner were near the epicenter of the destruction.

The biggest problem facing the naiad was the barrier not only prevented people from sneaking in, it also prevented her from sneaking out.

"Aura will be there momentarily to help get you out and protect you until your business in the city is done." Styx's deep voice resonated in her mind, not allowing her to refute him in any way.

Before Therina could respond, the air seemed to whistle before the barrier around the area exploded in a series of shards. The magitech devices the guards used to erect the barrier immediately exploded in a burst of mana backlash and caused destruction to anybody or anything near it.

Whist the damage was localized, the ground was fractured and broken, and a handful of passer-bys were injured too.

"What is going on?!" One of the guard commanders howled as he rapidly moved to the nearest barrier device.

The guards who were in charge of the device panicked and quickly tried to look over it despite not knowing the first part of how it worked.

"Sir, we don't know. It exploded without any prior warning."

In the centre of the wreckage, Therina saw the enormous mana fluctuation and hazy outline of Aura, her tail casually swaying behind her.

"Come," The transparent Aura casually stated before grabbing Therina and vanishing from the location.

Therina's mind spun as the image in her eyes blinked form one to another in quick succession with no transition between them. Even time seemed to distort as she could swear some of those images were from when the city was being constructed and dungeon expanding, but before she could process anything, she appeared with the now visible wolf girl in a back alley half the city away.

"I cannot stay for long. It is bad," Aura plainly stated without explaining anything to the naiad before looking towards her ass. "It hurts, yes?"

"…Yes."

"I will get something to help."

"…Thank you."

Therina truly was grateful to the monster lord, but she would have been more grateful if she had not brought them so far away from the market place she wanted to go to.

"Come with me first, we need to find the city lord's son first."

She then led the wolf-eared woman to a nearby public transport route where they got on a large magic driven carriage.

"Three coppers for a day pass," The public carriage driver said before putting out his hand for the money.

Therina took out six copper coins from a hidden pocket in her sleeve and passed them to the driver.

"Only one is needed, miss," He stated before passing back three copper along with a thin wooden tag and today's date on it within a small magic circle.

The naiad turned her head and glanced at Aura, but it seemed nobody other than her could see her. She saw how the wolf-girl's mana rampaged through the carriage like a storm, but everyone seemed to be completely unaware.

Nodding her head in response, Therina headed towards the back of the carriage were she had Aura sit on a spare seat before sitting beside her.

Aura sat in silence and gazed outside in curiosity, and from what Therina seemed to sense from her, trepidation.

"What is it?" Therina whispered under her breath.

Aura turned her head and looked back at her.

"I should not be here."

"Why?"

"Because it is against the agreement."

"Which agreement?"

"With the god of the kingdom."

"Is that dangerous."

"I don't know."

Both Therina and Styx thought that if it was enough to make a Fifth Step Monster Lord nervous, it was a very serious matter. He told them to leave immediately after doing their business.

~~~~~

⠀

Therina stood in the market and purchased several food products for Aura to eat while waiting. The market was much busier than it used to be and almost as if by prediction, she picked up Gabralter on the edge of her magic perception not long after arriving.

Gabralter found her too when she stopped using Concealment and hurried over. He couldn't see Aura though, who stood directly beside the Naiad and watched him in curiosity.

"Therina!"

Several people in the crowd turned their head and secretly watched what was happening. There were also a bunch of smitten girls looking over in jealousy and displeasure. They had all dressed up to come out today, and seeing the rumored elf appearing shattered their fantasy of being swept off their feet by a Prince Charming.

Therina turned to the tall man with golden lochs and casual middle class clothing which was far too clean and spoke words she had already rehearsed with Styx.

"It is you again. I don't know you, so please keep your distance."

"…Like I said, I know you though."

"And how exactly do you know me?"

Therina was staring intently at an array of jewellery on a stall as if contemplating what to get, but her long, pointed ears were entirely focused on what he would say.

"That… you wouldn't believe me. Just trust me, and let me help."

"You cannot help me."

"But I can! Enough of this, come back with me!"

Gabralter grabbed her arm but the golden haired naiad shoved him away and onto the ground with all her strength. Therina instantly felt bad because in her disgust over him touching her, she had missed the chance to leave a dream mark.

"That… apologies, but I dislike being touched by men," Therina awkwardly said while helping dust his shoulders, her mana swirling in her body and imprinting the dream mark on him.

She knew he would explain things to him as they stood, so she decide to ask him in his dreams where people were more instinctual and much easier to interrogate. She also didn't have to touch him, which she found touching anyone other than Styx and her fellow dungeon sisters to be disgusting.

Therina spotted some guards walking in their direction and quickly backed away with a panicked expression.

"Therina…." Gabralter began but turned his head and saw the guards approaching before scrunching his brows. "Don't worry, stay by my side and you will be safe."

"…I have to go…" Therina vanished into the giant crowd and immediately after a plethora of young and hopeful girls in the vicinity tried to take her place and set themselves up in the city lord's son's arms.

"What are you doing?" Gabralter asked with a dark expression not to the girls around him, but the city guards who just arrived.

The guard in front, this team's leader looked at Gabralter for a bit before recognizing him.

"Young Master Gabralter, a pleasure to see you. I am confused, we are just patrolling."

"Patrolling?"

"Yes, due to your recent appearances, this market has become much larger and busier and as such, safety concerns for the public's general wellbeing have been elevated too. There are a number of teams constantly patrolling the market to apprehend any thieves and protect the citizens."

"Eh? What? Just that?"

Gabralter hurriedly looked around, but he couldn't spot Therina no matter how much he tried.

~~~~~

⠀

"Aura, let's go now. We need to get out of the city."

The wolf girl beside her nodded her head immediately, but had at some point collected an additional person. Therina first smelt the nasal irritating scent of urine before looked at a quivering woman under the wolf girl's arm.

The woman had wavy, long blonde hair that escaped out of a plain grey robe she used to mask her presence. Not even her robe could hide her large beasts, which bounced from left to right as she was being carried face down.

On the crotch of the robe was a giant stain that was still dripping while her whole body quivered in terror. She didn't even appear courageous enough to cry out loud as she was paralysed in fear.

"Aura… who is that?"

"An observer."

"So, she saw you?"

"Yes."

"And that is bad?"

"I cannot be seen, or bad things may happen."

"Fine, but don't eat her in the city. The city lord will immediately know if there is a death and the fact that a Monster Lord was inside the city."

Therina looked at the quivering mess of fear and spoke in an icy voice, "Looks like this is an unlucky day for you. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, so don't take this personally."

Aura grabbed onto Therina and the world flickered between scenes once again as they vanished from the dungeon city as if they were never there.