Chapter 27: The Price

Chapter 27: The Price

I open my eyes and the first thing I see are the orange eyes that I love so much.

"Hello, my love," I say.

She smiles but then pouts.

"Hello, my stupid husband."

"Ouch."

"You..." she frowns in anger and then her expression lightens, "There really wasn't a better way?"

"I don't think so, couldn't risk having the undead reach us. Talking about it, where are we and where's the undead?"

We are in a bed, it's not my tent or bed. Roxanne is sleeping besides us in another bed.

"I found us a safe place. Enough cover for us to hide in a basement or cellar or whatever. I was outside a while ago, the undead spread out but didn't find us."

"Good. Whose tent is this?"

"The twins, these are their beds."

"For some reason I would prefer to get up immediately," I smile wryly, she shakes her head and smiles too, "How long was I out?"

"Two hours."

I give her a kiss on the nose, she brightens up a little.

"Did anyone get hurt?"

"Hana hurt her legs, Ciel already healed her and the corruption. Roxanne scraped on the walls but she ended up floating down safely, though she was very dizzy and tired. Hana held you and Aoi without problems. If you give a point to Ciel in [Light Magic] she can use [Refresh] on Roxanne and we should be fine."

"Can you call her? My body is still heavy."

She nods and reluctantly parts with my body. A minute later I hear the light jingling of scale armor, Alissa came back with Ciel in tow. Ciel is still armored and the shield strapped to her arm is damaged, it was a disposable shield anyways.

"Good to see you up, old man," she smiles at me.

Not really up yet but whatever. I smile and nod back.

"[Refresh]."

Roxanne shivers and stretches herself, she yawns and rubs her eyes. "That felt soo goood," she says.

"How's Hana's arm?" I ask.

"Healed, but it's sensitive," Ciel says, "Her scales will need some [Regeneration], though. Lina is fixing her shield but she needs you to fix the hole in the metal."

"Can we stay the night here? I don't think it's a good idea to walk back yet."

"I think so," Alissa says, "There's space for all tents but they will need to be next to each other."

"We can just use the gag."

Ciel rolls her eyes.

I stand up slowly and Alissa supports me. My body hurts, some vitality was definitely used when my MP reached the negatives.

"[Refresh]."

My bones creak and I feel like stretching myself.

"Oh yeah, that felt really good," I say.

I'm still feeling very tired though, mentally tired.

I put Ciel's extra points back to [Wind Magic].

I go outside the tent and pull ours. The faint sweet perfume of the girls is much better than the smell of leather of the tent of the twins.

This basement is basically a cellar full of broken barrels and broken glass bottles, this once housed dragonoid alcohol. Another tent right next to the one of the twins opens up and the quartet comes out.

"Wolf! Good to see you up again," Lyle says.

"Yeah, that was a close one," I smile bitterly, "Thanks for lending the tent."

Gwinevere grins.

"No problem," says Delwyn and waves his hand dismissively.

I know exactly why they lent it to us.

"Let's stay here tonight, I will summon a few dogs to stay around, they can't see in the absolute darkness but they will be able to hear things."

It seems these undead can perceive the environment through something else other than their eyes.

"Understood. I sincerely thank you for your effort, I realize how close you were to danger," Lyle says and bows.

The twins bow more conservatively and Ankara simply nods. Oh well, progress.

"Don't need to bow, I only did the necessary" -I wave my hand and they straighten up- "We are not completely safe yet."

"Then simply accept my gratitude," he smiles.

"That I will. Now I gotta get the girls on the top back and position some dogs. I'm still tired so after that I will retire to my tent."

"Understood. We already ate dinner, we could share some meat with you if you wish."

"No need, I have my own."

We nod to each other and I turn around, I see the pulley and scaffold are on the ground. I guess the space mages have brought it for me, I put them back into my "Items" and go upstairs.

The upper floor has plenty of chairs and tables, there's a long counter where Tankar and the space mages are staying. Hana, Lina, and Aoi are anxiously looking out through the windows.

I pop my head up and Lina comes running to me as quietly as she can. Her head hits my chest as she hugs me.

"Sorry I got you worried," I say.

Lina shakes her head, rubbing it on my chest.

"I understand what you did and why you did it. But that doesn't change the fact that I was worried," she says, her voice muffled as she buries her head on my chest.

"That's way better than a certain someone."

"I can still hear you!" I hear Alissa say loud just enough that it carries up to our floor.

I smile wryly. Then I pat Lina and kiss the top of her head, she tightens the hug.

I summon 3 Labradors, from what I remember their hearing is excellent. I discreetly also summon a Holly.

"Hana, come down, let's grow your scales and then we fix your armor," I say.

"Sure."

I break the hug and we move to our tent. I spend 30 minutes being hugged by Hana while I use [Regeneration] on her. Her breast pillows are the best, Ciel's are just as comfy but her breasts are more sensitive to prolonged use.

Hana's scales were only a very small stump. As I healed them they visually grew until they were back to her former glory, though they look blunted, now we have to sharpen them again.

"Even the irritation went away. Thanks, Wolfy," she tests her scales by raising and lowering them.

She hugs me and I get a head massage by her breasts and a brain massage by her hands as a reward.

After that we eat dinner, a simple hot sandwich with bean paste and ground meat.

I use [Manipulate Metal] to heat up our damaged metal equipment. The spell also allows me to slowly mold it without the need for a hammer, unfortunately this reduces the quality of the tempering so it's not a perfect fix.

With the repairing done I release the stress of Alissa and Lina with a skillful use of the gag, I'm not feeling as depraved as I was when we first entered this dungeon.

Today is the 14th.

Lina wakes me up, she still can't finish before I'm awake.

"It's too thick," she says.

"You can say that again."

We have a quiet breakfast, no cooking so no smell escapes this basement.

After that we move out, we only use a single [Spirit Light] in low power. I thank the Gods Holly exists, she scans the area and makes sure we are in the clear.

I deliberate if I should cast [Rainbow Shield] on us. With emellanat we haven't even taken a proper spell for it to help. It doesn't activate unless it reaches my skin so my shield prevents it from showing its usefulness.

Eh, I will cast it, better safe than sorry.

"The dogs heard some movement yesterday so make sure to keep noise to a minimum," I say.

The quartet looks apprehensive but nod in understanding,

We slowly move through the middle of the road to avoid tripping over the debris. Huddling up together we sneak by the ruins.

Holly sees movement in the distance, I extinguish our light.

"Lay down!" I whisper anxiously.

The floor is dusty and nearly makes me sneeze.

We spend tense minutes like this. The nearly imperceptible figure moves about the ruins without a set goal, it meanders through the streets. When it comes closer my heart beats faster, then it moves away and I relax. Then it comes back and the mood swings stress me out.

Eventually it moves away completely.

"Ok, let's go."

I'm extremely scared of being ambushed at the exit. My only comfort is that it is possible that the undead do not know where the exit is, monsters are born in a dungeon without knowledge of its layout. There are quite a few paths that take us to other places so if they don't know where the exit is they would need to guard every door.

Alissa's ears twitch and turn to our left.

"I hear metal hitting metal," Alissa says.

"The undead must be fighting guards," Hana says.

"The undead are not considered monsters of the dungeon anymore so it's possible the guards recognize them as intruders. That or the undead are simply trying to gather more followers," Ciel says.

"That destruction undead seems smarter than the average," I say, "It is possible only he has a power similar to the [Create Undead] skill. He said 'followers', this means they are bound to him, somehow. Which means there might be a limit to how many souls he can bind."

This is nearly the limit of my knowledge on the undead. There's not much information on that skill, possibly to prevent other people from trying to acquire it.

"Yes, there should be a limit or he would have turned the entire dungeon into an undead army," Ciel says.

We are casually chatting about this because Holly gives me confidence no undead is nearby, but the quartet and even Tankar seem to grow even more tense as time passes. I see one of the space mages reciting a silent prayer.

Our way is clear of guards, allowing us to progress quite fast.

"I smell corruption," Alissa says, "They must have spent some time here... I smell blood too, I guess they fought a guard."

"Well, they cleared a path for us, so we gotta thank these orc-brains," Hana says.

A minute later everyone notices the brutalized and rotting corpse of a dragonoid. Lyle shivers and even Gwinevere seems pale.

"You fought something that did this?" Lyle points to the corpse.

"You saw Hana's arm yesterday?" I ask back.

"I didn't, her wound was hidden by her vambraces."

"Yeah well, a single attack pierced her shield and rotted half her forearm."

Lyle frowns and looks sickened at the corpse.

"I sincerely underestimated their power," he says.

"Not just you..." I whisper.

I take a look at Ankara and he's gritting his teeth. Tankar looks pensive, perhaps he's remembering his stupid words of fighting the undead by himself.

"That wound was the most painful and horrible thing I have ever felt, and I'm a masochist," Hana says.

Delwyn massages his eyes but his expression quickly turns serious.

"These undead must be quite the danger to adventurers then," he says.

"Yes, which is why killing undead is very profitable," Ciel says.

"You didn't learn any spells against the undead, Miss Ciel?"

"No, I was simply a warrior priestess and then a healer when I was working for the temple."

If I had more spells unlocked I could possibly teach her. The higher levels spells at [Light Magic] school are one of the few ways to permanently deal with the undead. Fucking terminators, that's what these goblin dicks are.

We finally reach the long hall without any more encounters. It should be noon already but no one wants to stop. Alissa runs ahead with Holly and then comes back half an hour later.

"It's clear," she says.

"Alright, let's run from this place," I say.

Lyle and Delwyn break into a full blown sprint as we all run towards safety. With relieved breaths we reach the large double doors.

"Honestly we shouldn't stop," Alissa says "Let's keep this pace as long as we can. The sooner we leave The Smirk, the better."

The 4 turtles look at me concerned.

"Just because we left the dungeon doesn't mean they won't keep following us, they are not bound to the dungeon," I say.

The 4 make pained faces but even Tankar won't help them on this matter.

"Let's just eat a snack first," Lyle says.

"Alright."

On the other side of the double doors we stuff our faces with sandwiches and drink water as fast as we can.

"Don't eat too much or you will puke," Hana says.

Lyle looks at his massive sandwich with puppy eyes and returns half of it to the space mage.

We can't run on the difficult ground of the cave but we maintain a quick pace. After a long march and a few blown Skritters we finally we reach the comforting and oppressive darkness of The Smirk. Halfway there.

We keep our hurried pace, it's been so long since I last saw the sun even I am getting anxious.

Alissa suddenly comes back from scouting.

"I saw lots of tracks," she whispers.

"Any idea on the number of people?" I ask.

"Seems most are two-man groups, standard scouting parties."

"Keep close to us, don't scout too far and make sure our rear is safe too."

"Understood."

I signal the girls to gather and spread them around us. Hana front, me right, Lina left, Ciel back, and Roxanne middle. I summon a Shad and a bird at the same time to cover my spell casting.

Lyle comes towards me.

"Wolf, is something wrong?" He asks.

"There are too many scouting parties on this forest. Something is going on, alert the others."

Lyle pales and tenses up, he quickly marches back and spreads the news. This has been a bad day so far.

Gify pops into my shoulder.

"Gih..."

Danger is coming. Godsdammit. I turn my emergency ring green.

"Girls!" I wave my hand and they come to me, " Gify says danger is coming, we are going to wait and prepare for an attack."

"We shouldn't show our emellanat. If they are thieves they will be very enticed in stealing it," Hana says.

Lina and Ciel are the only ones with protection from spells now.

"Agreed, prepare for battle," I say, then I point to Lyle, "Hide behind a tree, this could turn ugly.

The quartet pales and moves. The girls faces harden but Lina seems angry.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"I am ready, I will do it," she answers, resolute.

"We will do it," I say.

She nods to me and looks towards the woods, waiting.

A minute later Alissa comes running back.

"What is it?" She asks.

"Gify said danger is coming."

She stares at him and nods. She nocks an arrow on her bow. Just another minute and Alissa turns back to me again.

"Twenty people are running towards us," she says.

Aaaaah, shiiiite.

"We are going to assume they aren't good news, we must not get surrounded so I will use warning shots," I summon two wind elementals, "Pay attention to my signal."

They nod and Alissa holds my hand, I'm trembling again.

"We did this already, we will be fine," she says.

"Gih!"

Yes, Gify is here too to keep me straight. He shares Alissa's feelings and a wave of bravery, anxiety, and anger washes over me. In the end this helps keep me focused. The flood of emotions stuns us for a moment.

"Your fear is a bit overwhelming," Alissa says, her breath is haggard.

"Your anger too," I say and kiss her hand.

I can feel an incredible need to strangle the men coming towards us. Regardless of their intentions they are causing us grief. They dare act so aggressively, they strut towards us as if they are immune from harm!

Alissa steels herself and nods to me. I see the fire in my eyes mirrored in hers, for now we are in sync.

Gify pops out of existence.

The wicked shall be slain by my hand!

We spread in our usual battle formation and draw our weapons. I take my time to look at our situation.

Alissa is stoic but I know the angry storm inside her heart. A broadhead arrow nocked into her enchanted warbow, she keeps both types of arrows on the quiver hanging from her waist. She looks almost like a statue, ready to react to any movement.

Roxanne looks sharp and confident, the spherical gem on her black metal staff changes from red to blue and back with simplistic beauty. Anyone who looks at her would know she's dangerous, a clear contrast to her air-headed nature. She grips the staff harder and the gem pulses with a faint light.

Hana shows a mix of anger and excitement. Certainly not the face you want to see when a tall dragonkin charges towards you with its wings spread and sword held high. She stands straight and tall, her spear and shield pointing forward and ready. None shall pass through her guard.

Ciel shows a very serious look, it does not fit her kind and adventurous mood. It gives me even more motivation to fight hard so I can see her smile again. Her green glaive stands upright, threatening with a chop anyone who dare come close. Her face may be cute and round but her eyes show the calmness of experience, it would be a mistake to underestimate her.

Lina shows a dark look, anger is clear on her face and I fear she might turn too reckless. The quiet little girl should not be forced into a situation like this, I pray she retains her "Sanity". Her hammer and heater shield do not combine with her slim arms and cute face, but it's her expression that will make others wary. She has the eyes of someone who will crush anything.

The quartet of cowering little animals hides behind a tree alongside the praying space mages. Lyle anxiously grips a simple simple metal staff with a gem that flashes with faint light every few seconds. Delwyn keeps his eyes closed as he mutters a silent prayer. Gwinevere holds a red wand with black vein-like carvings, her eyes race about as if she's lost on what to do. Ankara looks pale and his hands tremble as he holds a beautiful and ornate long sword, it almost looks ceremonial. Tankar stands in front to protect them with a plain but well maintained long sword. His expression is completely emotionless and he breathes deeply to keep his emotions in check.

From the way we just came I hear lots of footsteps slowly increasing in volume. Small lights come out of the trees and quickly approach us. A large group of men wearing reliable"looking padded leather armor appears. Their most expensive equipment seems to be their metal plus grey scale kite shields. There are 7 spearmen with shields, 5 long swordsmen, 5 archers and 3 robed mages. The mages use simple wooden staffs with no gems.

They quickly move into a line and start to spread around us.

"[Lighting Bolt]!"

I cast it towards the front of the man at the flank and everyone stops on their tracks.

"You will not surround us," I say, mustering all my austerity.

"Easy the're, mate. We a're not he're fo'r a fight," A scarred dark-skinned man approaches.

He's the tallest of them all, he has an enviable black beard. He pronounces his "r" with a retroflex flap instead of the american way.

"Then for what reasons would you try to surround us without a single word?" I ask.

"Just making su're we a're all on a nice, comfo'rtable position to talk," he spreads his arms and grins, his round face gets rounder. I only see mischief in his eyes.

"Yes, talk, what reason do you have to follow us?" Hana says.

His beady eyes scan over everyone, he spends a moment longer at Hana's spear, then stops at me. He narrows his eyes, his face turns into one of deep thought.

"Well. We a're he're to make a simple t'ransaction," his face softens and he smiles.

"Not interested, go away," I say.

"Not that simple" -he shakes his head- "We simply need the fou'r lit'tle noble kids behind you and nobody gets hu'rt. No need to fight, we a're not wicked."

Good, it's not related to Darean.

"Impossible!" Tankar barks.

"Not fo'r you to decide, I'm af'raid," the man lowers his head in mocking apology.

"What are you going to do with them?" I ask.

"Simple. We need money, ransoming nobles give loads of money," he grins, his teeth are shining white.

I look at Tankar. His expression shows so much anger in those eyes that I believe that if I decided to sell them he would cut me down immediately.

"Perhaps we could make a different trade, we have some very valuable things with us," I say.

"Oh, it would be ha'rd to offe'r me something mo're valuable than those lit'tle nobles," he looks at me dubiously.

The men around him tense up, they are about to strike, maybe I have a bit more time.

"Lina, turn around your shield for a second."

She scores her shield on the ground and turns it.

"Emellanat!" One of the men exclaims.

"We have more," I say.

The men relaxes, greed is like a drug for them.

The leader pauses for a second. He scans our equipment, he spends a bit of time looking at the transparent, yet still very visible, crystal at Roxanne's ungloved hand. It's my [Rainbow Crystal] spell.

"How much?"

"One single handed sword, one bastard sword, another small shield, one glaive, and one war hammer. You see we aren't showing these weapons since they could attract... Unwanted attention."

The leader scans me again, he must be evaluating if I'm lying or not.

"We are going to need more," he finally says, then he points to Aoi, "And the d'ragon too."

Greedy fucking bastards!

I look at the girls, they all keep a poker face, even Aoi. She should understand the words by now but the only expression on her dragonic face is that of hunger.

"I carry a lot of money with me, 90 gold coins. I'm sure the little nobles must carry some more with them," I say.

"Why would you car'ry so much?" The leader asks.

"I don't trust banks and I'm a well-paid adventurer. I wouldn't be escorting four nobles if I were cheap."

Now he stares at the two wind elementals. Judging your chance of survival?

"Throw us the weapons, now."

Too bad it is zero percent.

"Okay," I look at the girls and switch to English, "Attack, don't hold back."

The advantage of secret signals.

"What did you say...?" The leader asks.

Roxanne's clothes suddenly ruffle wildly.

*Bloosh!* An instantaneous burst of mana and the head of a mage explodes with a watery sound. [Rainbow Crystal] shows its power.

The bandits look back and freeze at the gory scene behind them. The ones hit by the blood seem to be pale, one man pukes.

Fucking thieves are gonna get what they deserve.

"[Discharge]!" I cast.

"[Firestorm]!"

"[Wind Storm]!"

"[Earth Bullet]!"

"[Earth Bullet]!"

An arrow and a fireball flies.

"AAAAAAAH!"

"GAAH!"

"HEEEEL-..."

3 Spearmen get incinerated by Roxanne, 3 long swordsmen get cut down by Ciel, 1 mage is killed by Alissa, 3 archers get wounded by Hana, Lina, and Aoi's spells. The survivors are being shocked by me. The last enemy mage interrupts the area spells. Tankar sprints. Hana draws her breath.

"You are now level 22."

*FOOM!* Hana spews fire. With my spell stunning them they can barely raise their shields to defend themselves, 3 spearmen get badly burnt.

"UAAAAH!"

"HELP ME, HELP ME!"

"Hold the leader," I order Shad.

I stop my spell. Hana flies towards the last unharmed spearman and skewers him instantly with her spear. Lina charges a long swordsman. Another arrow flies and enters the eye of an archer. Ciel charges forward and defends herself from an arrow with her shield. An [Ice Lance] explodes the head of the last mage.

I cast [Rush] and charge past the front line towards the archers. Arrows fly past me and get stopped by the wind elementals. I approach one archer and slash at his arm, my blade feels resistance before it even touched him, it's [Wind Armor]. But it was weak, his arm is cut off regardless, then he falls back and draws his dagger.

"GUAA-...!" The screams of the leader gets muffled by a shadow that covers his entire body. He swings his long sword in desperation but it's useless now that he's covered.

I slash downwards, I cast [Telekinesis] and his measly weapon can't parry my attack. My sword gets buried in his head and I have to cast [Telekinesis] again to take it out.

Lina fights the last long swordsman with ferocity. His morale is broken and his attacks are desperate. Lina enters his range, his sword slides past her neck, [Wind Armor] slows the blade, leaving only a shallow wound. On the way back the sword scrapes her helmet as Lina pushes the sword away with her shield. She swings her hammer and smashes him on the knees.

Hana's leaves her spear inside the dying man, she draws her sword and flies to the nearest burned spearman. His face is partially burned and his shield is still on fire. He weakly raises his shield to parry and gets cut in the shoulder for his lack of strength.

Ciel reaches a burned spearman and quickly slices his armor. [Sharp Blades] makes quick work of the padding once she opens up the leather with her stabs. To make things worse for him his shield is on fire and his leather armor on both arms is so hot it's burning his skin.

Tankar reaches the last burned spearman. His spear arm is burned so even with his reach he has trouble keeping Tankar away, who starts to add more wounds to his damaged arm.

There's also a request to exterminate an Oodogloo. Whackers indeed, the monsters keep reappearing. Right now this bounty is below our pay grade, if it doesn't pay in gold it isn't worth the effort.

"Oh hello, Carmen," Alissa says.

A shiver runs up my spine. The brunette milf from yesterday comes towards us.

"Hello Miss Alissa, Mr. Ryder," she nods at me with a sensual smile, I nod back.

Her high heels clack and her slender legs peek out from her short skirt. She stops by very close to me, her large breasts, nearly bursting from the tight uniform, stand exactly on my eye level. Her perfume fills my nose and suddenly all I want is to be stepped on by her.

"A pleasure to see you back so soon," Carmen says.

"We are here in passing only. We are going to deliver some proofs of subjugation and a corpse to Gordon," Alissa says.

"Oh is that so? How did you manage to fight those dragonoids? All I hear is..." She shudders and I feel the urge to hug her and make her feel safe, "how they rape their victims as soon as battle ends, alive or not."

I try my best to turn and focus on the request board again. She either has stupid "Charisma" or she's a siren in disguise. I don't know what would happen if I didn't have Vanea's necklace.

They talk for a few minutes.

"I have to get back to work," Carmen finally says, "Come see me again."

"I will. Until later, Miss Carmen."

"Until then, Miss Alissa," Carmen winks and walks away. Damn those legs.

Even more gazes are on me, a mix of envy and anger. I just wanna curl in corner and disappear.

"Gih."

"Quiet you... Alissa lets go see Gordon."

"Hello there, Mr. Ryder."

He stares at Gify, his mouth hangs open in surprise but recovers and smiles again.

"Hello Mr. Gordon. The surprise this time is that there is no surprise."

Gordon snorts and shakes his head.

"Good, don't even think about one-upping yourself. Though that nature spirit is a surprise in itself."

"Anyway, here," I pull out the corpse of the horned sky blue female dragonoid and the proofs of subjugation. Gordon gasps. "We didn't kill many monsters. Had to kill some bandits, though."

"Oh?" His face instantly turns to me, "I heard some nobles got attacked by kidnappers, was that you?"

"Yeah we were escorting them to Wisps of the Proud."

"Ah... I see, you certainly had me surprised for a second. Thought you were hunting wild dragonoids."

"No, no, I would rather never have my women fight rapists like those."

"That would hardly be the worst part about them," Alissa says, she raises one eyebrow towards me.

"For me it is, I have confidence in our skills but some things you just don't mess with."

She rolls her eyes and pats my head. Gordon shrugs.

"I kinda get that," he says, "Ah yes, I heard the university is mounting an emergency expedition to that dungeon."

"We found a library there," I say, "It was just on the border of undead territory so I guess they don't want the undead to corrupt the books."

"A library on a dungeon?" His grin disappears and an uncharacteristic pensive frowns paints his face. "That's new. Why didn't you bring all the books with you?"

"The dungeon is all a mana solidification, can't bring anything out of it."

"What a bother."

"I know, right? The nobles I was escorting spent a day copying the books and didn't even copy half of them."

"There was a maze near that dungeon though," Alissa says, "We found a treasure chest with a high elven spear."

"Now that is a surprise, guess your nickname rings true again," he goes back to smirking.

I shrug and slump back on Alissa's lap.

In the end we only got a single gold coin from the corpse and proofs. Not worth the danger.

We meet back with the girls at the Bazaar. Hana had delivered the bounty plates and got our reward. Average of 95 silver for each head, 2 gold for the leader, 1 gold bonus for bringing him alive. Lina helped Hana in selling the excess equipment we got.

They were low-lives that lived by ransoming lower nobles. Why they chose to kidnap Lyle or Ankara, which had the money to pay for a proper escort like ours, is a mystery. The person who tipped them was incompetent or wanted them dead.

Alissa found some steel-coated bodkin arrows, even more penetrative power for her, something she lacks. The focus of her archery is pinpoint accuracy at close and up to middle range, this is why she didn't develop strong muscles for using stronger bows. An arrow through the eye is an arrow through the eye.

We enter the Bear Hug, it's a shop that was clearly cut in half horizontally by something very sharp. The beams were joined together by [Nature Magic], you can see a small amount of bark growing where the two architecture styles meet. The lower part is rustic and whimsical, the upper part is more modern and minimalist.

"Welcome!" The gruff bear waves towards us, "Miss Hana, good to see you again. Coming back from another job?"

He simply nods at me and I move deeper into the monster fang swords section. The shop is quite long and filled with racks upon racks of all kinds of weapons.

"Good day, Wick," she smiles and they crack each others hands on a crushing handshake.

"Kweh! Good, day!" Aoi says.

Wick chuckles and looks at Aoi warmly.

"Good day to you too, little one," he says.

"We came yesterday from an escort in the Wisps of the Proud," Hana says.

His beary face turns soft as he seems confused.

"Wisps of the Proud? Never heard of that one," he says.

"Barely anybody does. It's a very bleak and dark dungeon filled with dragonoids."

His mouth hangs open, creating folds on his neck.

"Yeah, everybody reacts like that," she laughs, "But it's not like you imagine, these dragonoids are actually creepy in the way they don't show emotion. My [Taunt] did nothing to them, they must have tons of 'Willpower'. I think they don't even eat their kills."

"Oh that makes it better," he breathes out, "Still, the job must have paid well, right? You can't make too much money with them."

Their meat is difficult to use, the scales aren't as tough as real dragons, there are better components for alchemical use. Overall they really aren't that good for selling.

"Yeah, but we got this beauty out of it." With a *poof* she pulls out the high elven spear.

"My, oh, my. A treasure chest?" He glances at Hana and she nods, "It's enchanted too!"

He pours some mana into it and the spear elongates.

"You know a nature mage?" He asks.

Hana points to me. Gify pops into my head.

"Wow!" He looks at Gify with curiosity, "You certainly got the talent. Learn how the elves maintain their weapons so you don't lose this beauty so easily."

I nod back emphatically. I have an idea of how to do it but I will need Lina's help to complete my knowledge.

"Say, I got a new item that I think would be excellent for that young lass over there," he points to Lina, she's bent over looking at some javelins.

She suddenly stiffens her back and look at us with surprise. Wick laughs and goes deeper inside the shop. He comes back with an engraved steel axe, it has a spike on the back. There are two small transparent gems at the handle. The engravings reminds me of circuits.

Lina opens her eyes wide when she sees it. Wick hands her the axe and she stands still, unsure what to do.

"Go on, activate them."

Lina pours a small amount of mana on both gems. Suddenly the axe head melts and in two seconds it hardens, its shape changed into an engraved hammer, its shaft elongated a good half meter.

"A switch-axe," Lina mutters.

"Exactly, I got this directly from Mountainhome. There's rarely any dwarves around here and curiously those who do are mostly mages, for some reason. You, young warrior, would make a good use out of it."

"How much?" I ask. Lina looks at me in surprise.

"Two rose coins."

"Oi, that's a bit much," Hana says.

"It's doubly enchanted, you know," he purses his lips and crosses his arms in sass.

"Yeah but this ain't Mountainhome. You said it yourself, you will have some difficulty selling this here."

"Fine, fine. One rose coin and 70 gold."

We have that money but it will be tight. The [Extend] enchantment on that switch-axe is perfect for her. If she learns how to improve that enchantment then we can transform that switch-axe into a pole-axe, fixing her main weakness, reach.

I discreetly look at Hana and wink.

"You know, the [Switch] enchantment is good and all but that [Extend] is a bit lacking," Hana grabs the axe and flicks it about, "I mean, barely half a meter? Her war hammer is just a tad longer than this axe at its longest! This is not a pure dwarven weapon, their weapons are normally longer than a human's to make up for their smaller frame."

Wick cringes and scratches his cheek. Did he get swindled?

"One rose coin and 50 gold," he says.

"Nah, one rose coin," Hana says.

"One rose coin and 40 gold."

She hands over the switch-axe.

"Thirty gold," he seems a bit strained.

"Ten gold," she says.

"Too little profit for me," he shakes his head, "Twenty gold."

She narrows her eyes and thinks for a moment. "Deal."

Lina grabs some heavy and cheap javelins.

"These too, they can be useful for disabling shields," she says.

Hm... If I give her [Throw] this could work.

Ciel and Alissa come back to us.

"Nothing?" I ask.

"Yeah," Ciel drops her shoulders, "There's no crystal alloy weapons anymore. Without Aremut the number of crystals is too low."

Lina's Trivia: Aremut was a kingdom that exported huge amounts of attuned crystals. Their mines were abandoned after the kingdom fell to the undead. You can grind these attuned crystals to dust and use them to coat weapons, helping in casting spells. Ciel had one such glaive once when she was a Warrior Priestess.

I produce the money and hand it over to Wick. Lina receives the axe and squeezes it hard at her almost non-existent chest. She walks with a spring on her step, but that's not all she's getting.

Roxanne takes us to a jewelry shop. She was thoughtful enough to bring us to a middle"range shop. I can see the subtle changes in architecture, this shop seems to have been destroyed 3 times.

The items on display are mostly polished simple metal bracelets, necklaces, and earrings. None of the girls wear earrings, they seem interested in it, though, even Hana.

"I think for you we need something simple and smaller. Perhaps like a choker," I say.

"Choker?" Lina innocently asks, tilting her head.

I beckon the saleswoman and asks her to show us the chokers. She brings to the counter a large drawer full of small chokers.

"Look at the leather ones, they are more comfortable. It also needs a bit of resistance so no cloth or thin metals," I say.

She suddenly turns into a very pensive expression. Her eyes move wildly through the multiple choices, scanning each of them.

"Don't tell her the price," I whisper to the saleswoman.

She smiles kindly and nods.

I walk back and check on the other girls. Roxanne is the most obviously excited one, she seems to be enjoying dragging Hana around, showing her all the different jewelry. Alissa is more contained but her swaying tail betrays her expression, her ears perk at each new thing Roxanne shows to Hana. Ciel is the most calm, priesthood gives few material benefits and she seems accustomed to it.

"See something you like?" I ask Ciel.

"Yes, but I have seen them so many times just seeing isn't exciting anymore," she smiles bitterly.

"Sorry. With the money short we should keep upgrading our equipment," I say to her, also smiling with some bitterness.

I want to pamper them more, so much more.

"If you did waste money on jewelry I would force you to return it," she sends me a sharp gaze that quickly dissolves, "But I would forgive you for good intentions."

I see a small smile on the corner of her lips.

I move towards Alissa.

"Choose one, we will come back here one day," I whisper to her.

Her expression doesn't change but her tail sways faster.

I go after Roxanne and smoothly get her to release Hana and use myself as sacrifice. With a silent thank you, Hana goes back to looking a things on her own pace, she seems to be fond of earrings. Aoi surprisingly showed some interest in earrings too, perhaps she would like a piercing one day.

I get on Roxanne's rhythm and engage with her enthusiasm. I'm used to doing this with a certain someone so I have experience on this area. It's enjoyable seeing her trying out the jewelry and showing the ones she finds beautiful. Some women want to be pretty only for themselves, for their own ego, but if you convince them to also dress themselves for you then things get much more interesting, and sensual.

When Roxanne's energy dips a little I interrupt her.

"Let's go see Lina, she might need help choosing."

"Oh, right. Knowing her shyness she will never choose something for herself," Roxanne says.

We go back to her and she seems torn between two. Both are brown simple leather chokers, but one has white geometrical embroidery while the other has pink heart-shaped embroidery.

"Pink," Roxanne says.

"White," I say.

Lina turns to us and her eyes spell desperation, they quickly switch between each of us, uncertain in who to choose. The saleswoman gushes at her cuteness.

I lean over her and whisper.

"In the end, you should trust your feelings and go with it."

She twiddles her thumbs and taps the glass in anxiety. Then she suddenly picks the white one.

"Victory!" I celebrate with a raised clenched fist.

Roxanne winces and hunches over. I rub her hand and she slowly recuperates. Lina has her head hung low in embarrassment, her cheeks dyed red.

There's a square metal plate in the middle of choker, she could fit a gem there for enchanting.

I use a small key and open up her collar. With it open it's easy to remove the small tag, a yellow metal plate with her info carved on it. I hand the tag to the saleswoman and she deftly puts it on her choker.

Roxanne lifts Lina's hair while I put her new choker. I give her a peck on the cheek.

"You look much cuter," I whisper.

She blushes again.

I pay the saleswoman and we go home. Lina is fidgety, her body barely containing her happiness. I feel like we have to be careful with Lina, everyone wants to pamper her, there's nobody to rein us in when we go too far.

When we reach home a messenger was waiting for us in front of the house. Vanea sent the message, she wants to meet us at 2PM on her office at the university. I was planning to meet her tomorrow but I believe what the bandit leader told her must have piqued her interest.

The university is so empty, so quiet. It's quite creepy since I only come here when classes are on and there's hundreds of students about.

I'm not really nervous about it due to our oaths so I just take my time and calmly knock on the door to her office at the exact time she wanted.

"Come in," she says.

I enter her office and immediately see something is wrong. Her chair is at her side, I can't see what she's sitting on.

"Hello, Mr. Ryder. It seems you had quite the eventful break, didn't you?" She asks, a hint of warmth on her voice."

"Y-yes. Just a simple job became so much more in an instant," I smile and bow slightly.

"A nature spirit, undead, and bandits, what a combination. You sure you aren't a hero?" She asks.

Oddly Gify does not respond at his mention, he's simply curled and "sleeping" on my shoulder.

I walk closer and sit on a chair, Alissa does the same. I got a glimpse of something very weird and my brain can't process it yet.

"I am sure. Even though I have a Gift, I have no such lofty ambitions."

There's no need to hide it from her. Her oath is the most valuable thing I have right now.

She stares at me and taps the table, judging my words.

I'm sweating cold but not because of our talk.

"Who knows about your Gift?" She asks.

"Lyle Rizek, Delwyn and Gwinevere Griffiths, Ankara Gartania, Ankara's knight Sir Tankar, a duo of space mages serving Lyle, and the bandit leader."

"Remove the leader from that list. He's already dead, too much of a liability."

I frown, my mind taken off from what I saw. I wanted Lina here, I want to hug her and feel her little ass rub on my crotch like she always does.

"Well then, this already solves another curious thing I had to stop," I raise my eyes to her, puzzled, "Likely Ankara Gartania was snooping around, looking for information on you."

He didn't waste a second, it seems.

"Not unexpected," Alissa says. Her voice is calm but she's sweating cold too.

"He promised me he wouldn't do anything, if he continues I will pay him a visit secretly," I say.

I won't let him jeopardize my life here.

"I already dealt with it. That stupid family," she rolls her eyes, "You better stay away from the Gartanias, they are glory hounds. They passed too many generations without a True Noble so they are looking for any opportunity to rise in prestige. It seems that horrible nature has stuck hard on their youngest son, too."

"Oh? I had no idea. I have no plans to work with him again so it wouldn't be an issue anyway."

"They are worse than mercenaries, at least hired swords are predictable, you never know who the Gartanias have sold their loyalty to. Unless you are the emperor don't rely on them. Also, it's extremely likely Ankara was the target of the kidnapping."

"I thank you for your advice," I bow slightly.

She smiles smugly at me. Now that her own necklace she gave to us is having a good effect on her eyes I can see how beautiful and refined her face really is, a delicate and sensual rose. Yet full of disgusting and dangerous spines. I will never touch her, I will never feel attracted to her, specially because of what she's actually sitting on.

"Excuse me, but what is that?" I point to her "chair".

Vanea stands up with a maniacal smile and looks down.

"Smegma, get up."

I use my [Sense Soul] and shivers run through my entire body.

Soul InfoName:SmegmaRace:HumanLevel:37

That's Farana Uiara, Darean's lover. She's wearing a blindfold, a ball gag, a lacy black bra (first time I saw a proper bra on this world), very small sexy lacy panties, long black silky gloves and thigh highs. Her hair is glossy and shiny, almost as good as Alissa's. There's a round cylinder protruding out of the middle of her legs, its contour can be seen pressed on her panties. A clear white liquid drips out of the middle of her legs.

Alissa lifts her nose and sniffs at the air, then she recoils and pales.

"You should know her, you captured her for me," she undoes Smegma's bra, small pink nipples are shown, "This is Smegma, my newest assistant. I have been training her very well, Haaran and his knights assure me her ass is incredibly tight. Would you like to have go at her? I would like to watch."

She pulls down Smegma's panties and I can clearly see two very wet dildos are shoved inside her, one on each entrance. Vanea grabs one and pumps it. Smegma moans loudly and a long trickle of liquid drips down.

Vanea licks her wet hand and caresses Smegma's head with the other. Then she sits down at her real chair.

"Was that all you had for me?" I ask.

"In the empty office there's a space mage waiting for you, he will take you to the Dream Eater we got for you. Tomorrow morning a messenger will come, invite him inside and tell him of a spot where he can drop a 'coordinate' for [Gate]. He will take you to your teacher of [Godly Language], you should discuss with the teacher how your classes are going to be like."

"Understood. Then excuse us, please."

"Awn, that's a shame. In case you want to have a taste of her she will always be by my side."

We hurriedly bow and leave the office.

"What the fuck," I whisper.

I actually wanted to talk to her about the emellanat the mercenaries had but fuck getting inside that place again.

"What. What did she do to her?" Alissa whispers back.

"I don't know and I don't want to know."

Gify finally stirs awake and opens his eyes.

"Gih!"

"I agree, I will never touch her while I'm still sane."

Alissa nods.

"Wait, why did you ignore us when we entered that place? You could have helped us absorb the shock, you know."

"Gih, guh... Gih!"

Coward, you were as useful as goblin jizz.

We are both shocked so we take a few minutes outside recovering until we have courage again to enter the empty office. There's only a bored man sitting on a chair.

"Mr. Ryder?" Asks the man.

"Yes, that's me."

"Please use this portal."

A familiar black circle opens, the man immediately crosses it and we follow behind. I just want to get this day over with.

We are brought into a very large room, it's made of blue slabs, there are no windows, and only crystals for light. I think we are below the castle. There's 7 familiar knights here.

"Good day, Mr. Ryder. Oh, a nature spirit," Marduk says, he gives me his characteristic crooked smile.

"Good day, Sir Marduk. This little one decided to attach itself to me."

"Gih."

"I see, you are certainly an interesting one," he says.

Who? Me or Gify?

The red skinned man turns and bows to Alissa, surprising her a little.

"Good day, Dame Alissa."

"T-that's not necessary, I'm a Blood Slave," she hurriedly shows him her mark on her wrist.

He straightens up and finally forms a full smile.

"It is necessary. Your archery and keen senses were a great help during our capture of the little spy and we owe you an apology as we nearly allowed you to die to the invisible assassins," he says earnestfully.

I force a smile because I want to forget of what I have done. Alissa seems the same.

"I... I will accept it, then," she shyly adds.

Something very, very angry is about to be unleashed. No one is allowed to make her like this. Uuuugh, let's get this day over with, already!

"The Dream Eater is ready?" I ask, trying to hurry things up.

"Yes, it is over there," he points to a half-meter tall airtight metal box, "Give us a signal and we will unleash it. We will stay back to make sure you can absorb all of its soul, is that okay?"

"It is. I will kill it with magic only. The people inside this room, are they trustworthy?"

Marduk's face twitches for a moment.

"Yes, they are all loyal knights of Vanea and Haaran."

"Good. Open it up, please."

Marduk nods and waves at one of the knights.

"Open up and scatter!" He barks an order.

"Yes, sir!" He clenches his fist over his chest.

I guess this is the standard salute.

The knight moves to the box while everyone else moves to the corners of the room.

"Do it!" I yell.

I focus and summon a 3 meters tall earth elemental and a normal wind elemental. The young knight pulls a lever and one of the sides of the box falls, then he runs to his friends.

Out of the box a dark grey smoke comes out, it forms a fuzzy shape equal to a Shadow Satyr. It's a smoky human with horse ears, horse legs, completely black skin and a straight, featureless face. It wields a very curved scimitar, almost a crescent.

Then a long oval wooden mask covers the face of the satyr, it has a round sleeping face carved into it. There are rectangular slits on the eyes and mouth, the hole of the slits are white and glow when the monster casts spells. This is a Dream Eater, quite creepy.

It charges towards us.

"Wind elemental, hold it in place. Earth elemental, kill it," I order.

I cast [Gravity Crush] on the mask.

The wind elemental spins, twirls, and dances, a small tornado starts around the Dream Eater, causing its smoke body to dissipate. It tries to gather its smoke but the wind is too strong, it tries to inch its mask forward but my spell holds it in place.

The earth elemental is big and heavy enough to just ignore everything. It slams its fist down on the ground and the mask shatters in hundreds of pieces. It's dead. I dismiss the elementals.

Marduk walks towards us, his mouth hangs open.

"You, uh, y-you didn't chant?" He asks.

"No. I have a Gift, talk to Vanea and make sure this never leaves this room," I say in a monotone.

He reflexively salutes, his red skin glistens with cold sweat.

"Yes, sir! Uh..." He realizes he called me "sir", "Mr. Ryder... Anyway, did it work?"

I summon a Dream Eater, exactly the same as the one we just killed. The knights freeze in their steps and murmur between each other.

Having one spell being chantless is one thing, having multiple is another, being a Gifted person that can cast spells chantless is mind blowing. I can see a mix of respect and fear on their eyes.

"Then I would like to return, please," I say.

"Yes. Artan, open the portal."

"Yes, sir!"

The black circle appears.

"See you soon, Sir Marduk," I say and give him a short bow.

"Huh? Ah, yes yes. Until our next battle together," he gives a short bow.

Alissa bows as well.

I enter the circle and hurry back home.

I spend the rest of my day at our balcony, having tea and cookies with the girls. I think I need a vacation.

Watching the hustle and bustle of the streets is quite relaxing. So many people have to work hard and here I am, sipping tea with more flowers than I have hands to hold.

Today's bath time was monopolized by Lina. All she wants is to show her gratitude to me by having her vagina fuse with my dick. Now that is something she's not shy about expressing.