Rupegia

Chapter 21: Bargain

We finally get to our destination, the Root of the Abyssal Forest.

Purple grass, brown dirt, black leaves, brown bark with blotches of ominous white and green. Simple, small, and weak trees that look like birches fill this forest. Huge mushrooms glow a light blue and bring a little light to this darkness. Plenty of red and yellow fireflies buzzing around. Frogs croak on a lake near us. A faint weird smell on the air makes me think of "death".

The sky is filled with galaxies and nebulas, none are familiar to me. The ground is completely broken and full of holes, we can see the abyss through them just like the chimera sky lands. This place is a mishmash of sky lands clumped together.

On the distance, huge roots with the same ominous blotches can be seen clumping up and moving upwards until they disappear on a black mist.

The next levels are called Trunk of the Abyssal Forest and Crown of the Abyssal Forest. Hopefully, we will never go to these floors, the crown, more specifically.

Ciel flops down on the grass and laughs.

"That was horrible," she says with a smile.

I raise one of my eyebrows at her.

"Yes, nothing like running for our lives in the morning, a rather pleasant and fun experience," I say.

"I know you are being sarcastic but I do enjoy things like these, it's why I was born," Hana says with a satisfied grin on her face.

"Don't complain, Wolfy, you chose both of them, it was pretty obvious how they would turn out to be," Alissa says, flopping down beside me.

"Ei, you are the one who recommended them to me," I say.

She smirks.

"Anyway, we weren't really in that much danger, you can always use [Gate] to send us to a safe place," Ciel adds.

"I know you enjoyed it too, Wolfy," Roxanne grins.

"No, I did not."

"I know you enjoyed carrying Lina," she continues.

"Yes, that I did," I smile.

Lina smiles shyly.

"I... enjoyed that too, even the running," she says.

"Even you!"

It's almost mid-day but these floors are shrouded in an eternal night. After resting and cleaning our sweat we have a quick lunch.

I put an extra point into [Blessing Magic], with this we can use [Rainbow Shield], we will need it here. With this spell on every once in a while a small rainbow forms near us. I split the girls extra points between [Mental Resistance] and [Pain Resistance], thought it's not much it will help a bit. 

I summon a spirit elemental and a light elemental. The spirit elemental is going to circle around us as early warning, unfortunately Alissa's [Sense Presence] is useless on this floor.

"Ah, the nostalgic and also horrible feeling of not knowing when the enemy will attack," Hana says.

"We got too used to Alissa's [Sense Presence]. It really is too convenient," Ciel says, twitching and looking around.

"Some things we only appreciate when we lose them," I say, giving a kiss to Alissa's hand.

"My ears and nose still work, you know.

"That..." I try to speak but I actually forgot she has better senses than us, I also relied too much on her [Sense Presence].

We walk surrounding Roxanne, Alissa, and the light elemental. Aoi decided to ride the light elemental, apparently her hair is very, very soft.

Roxanne is a bit happy and anxious, there's a monster here who has very valuable materials for her potions.

We move closer to the gigantic roots while being vaguely aware of our position on the map, the terrain is far too complicated. We all tie ropes to each other, better be safe than sorry when someone falls into the abyss.

The spirit elemental picks up something.

"Stop," I whisper.

I point to the direction where the signal came from. We all huddle up and look out for every direction, the signal is a trap, the attack will most likely come from the opposite direction.

Out of a bush a shadow slides out into the grass, Symbol of Darkness, a threat level 6 monster, but only if you are caught by surprise. I cast [Spirit Light] and throw it into the shadow, it slows down and I see it tremble.

Ethereal tendrils shoot out of the shadow and hit my arms. Horrible pain but it's much less than the dark bullet from the Shadow Satyrs. Lina whimpers, she must be fighting another.

I charge forward and pierce my sword into the shadow, it enters deeply into the ground. The shadow grows out of the ground and tries to engulf me, I immediately dodge back and leave my sword there, the shadow is stuck.

I draw my dagger and wait. An arrow pierces it and tendrils shoot upwards, trembling.

Lina is fighting one alongside Ciel. They are pounding and slashing it, I feel they are in quite a bit of pain. Hana is just starting to fight hers, Alissa pinned it with an arrow. Roxanne is casting a long spell, she won't be much help, these monsters are resistant to magic.

The tendrils of my monster stop trembling and they shoot out towards me, I dodge but one hits my head.

I see Alissa sprawled on the ground, tears running down her cheek, her hand clawing on her face as she goes insane. She's dying, the monster is eating her mind. A filthy man approaches her, he pulls down her pants...

FUCK YOU!

I dash forward and stab my dagger on the shadow repeatedly. Tendrils hit my chest and make me stop breathing. I win the endurance battle and the monster tries to retreat from me, it can't run further than where my sword is.

I move back and catch my breath.

"[Firestorm]!"

Roxanne casts a very contained firestorm somewhere, it burns specifically where the monster is. I can't hear shrieks but I can "feel" them, a horrible pain and darkness over my heart.

The light elemental hugs me and the pain goes away, I melt on her arms and nearly fall asleep. The sound of a fireball hitting the grass and exploding gets me back on the fight. When I got out of the way Aoi fired a few towards my monster.

Lina recovers her breath and moves to my side.

"You okay?" She asks.

"Now I am," I answer and break the elemental's hug, she really is soft.

We dash towards the shadow and repeatedly pound it down, slowly breaking apart its existence. The closer the light elemental gets the more it trembles, it desperately tries to pull out my sword from the ground but it has little physical strength.

It tries to send tendrils towards us but it misses our heads this time. I intensify my stabbing and a tendril hits my heart, I immediately feel cold and sluggish, I almost pass out. The light elemental touches my shoulder and I feel two opposite forces battling inside of me, it's not pleasant.

Lina increases her speed seeing my suffering and the ground gets littered with small craters. The shadow loses power and the elemental wins the battle for my heart.

The tendrils disappear and the shadow "cracks", light escaping from those cracks. With the sound of shattering glass the monster breaks apart repeatedly until it turns into dust and that dust turns into nothing.

"[Firestorm]!"

Roxanne casts another small storm. I look in time to see a weakened Symbol of Darkness, filled with arrows, crack and disappear amid the fire.

Mentally tired we all huddle up around the light elemental. She starts to dance and twirl, we just stare at her absentmindedly, slowly it heals our hearts.

"Did anyone get hit in the head?" Hana asks.

"I did," I answer.

"Did you get a nightmare too?

"Worse than a nightmare it was an illusion, for me it was real, it feels like a memory instead of feeling like a dream."

"Even with our resistances it's still like this," she frowns.

"This is why everyone hates these levels."

"Yeah, but I can see it's worth it, though I didn't get hit in the head. [Summon Monster] really is powerful," Ciel says.

"It will help a lot against Darean," Alissa says.

"We need trinkets like mine, they help a lot with things like these," Roxanne says, showing us her amulet.

It's a simple metal necklace with a medal in the shape of a closed fist, unremarkable.

I grab Alissa's hand and kiss it, the dance of the elemental makes us temporarily forget the oppressive forest we are in.

We move on and now I summon another spirit elemental, this one will patrol the top of the trees, we are looking for a Beholder, threat level 5. This monster lives mostly near the huge roots we are going towards. It's a small black eye with bat wings, two skinny legs with claws and a small mouth with very sharp teeth. It's even more difficult to find than the Symbol of Darkness, it's very small and it even casts a spell similar to [Ignorance] on itself. The danger is the poison, its extremely effective but very slow acting, you just need a tickle from the monster to get poisoned.

There are small groups of Eldritch Horrors, little balls of purple flesh that move similarly to the Symbol of Envy. They move rather slowly and their blood is acidic so we just use them as target practice. These are the monsters Roxanne wants. She prances towards every corpse to analyze it and prod it, then makes me carry them all. She wants even the proof of extermination, the single purple eye they have.

We reach the roots and start looking for the stairs, too much of a mess here, the map is useless. The roots smell of mold and the air is stale, this place just keeps getting worse.

Ciel stops us and looks at Alissa.

"You got poisoned."

Roxanne pulls out a small flask and gives her to drink.

"Damn, to sneak up on Alissa the little shits must be good," Hana says.

"Exactly, it's why we are here, they are too good," I say, "One must be stalking us, we stay here I will try to use my [Redirect Mana] to look for its trail. Spirit elementals, sweep the area."

I sit down and the girls surround me. I kill my senses and focus on identifying the sources of mana floating around here. Every stream of mana I sense sends me shivers down my spine and makes my heart hurt, they all seem to be coming from the roots and going upwards.

Time passes and I finally get a trickle of something foul, it makes me feel twitchy and anxious. I open my eyes and let my instincts take over, I point towards a root on top of us and cast [Lighting Bolt].

"IIIIIIIIIIH!" A high pitched scream fills our heads as a black ball falls down in the middle of us.

An arrow immediately pierces it and it's followed by a spear. It struggles for a moment and dies.

"That took a while," Ciel breathes in relief.

"How long was I out?" I ask.

"About half an hour, I think."

I have to work on my sense of time while meditating.

"Now let's get the hell out of here."

We hurry along the roots until we find the blessed stairs.

The damp air, the smell of moss and nature, the feeling of the normal ground, the familiar trees, the pitch black darkness. Finally we are out of the dungeon and into The Smirk.

We all groan, the atmosphere of that floor was really oppressive, except for Roxanne, she loved those Eldritch Horrors.

I look around, we are not anywhere near close the door to the dungeon.

"Someone is entering the dungeon," Alissa says, squinting her eyes at the direction where I believe the doors is.

"Some dungeons are dangerous because they teleport you right outside the entrance, perfect place for an ambush," Roxanne says, a little pain in her eyes.

Hana consoles her and we leave the forest. We use our dinghy and we reach home well into the night.

Today is the 30th.

Alissa is the one who eagerly wakes me. Ciel ends up cuddling with Lina and they are both still sleeping. I gotta convince Ciel to sleep naked, she's the only one who sleeps in her underwear. All I want is to wake up one day with my morning wood buried into her ass.

"How are you always awake before me?"

She smiles and swallows.

"Your breathing gets faster before you awake. I wake Hana and Roxanne when it's time."

"And you are that sensitive to my sleeping patterns?"

"Yes, I can tell when you are having a bad dream. I was trained to have light sleep in case I needed to protect my master."

There are some things I just don't know how to react to.

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Good thing is that yesterday made me grow quite a bit. I increased my "Strength", "Endurance", "Speed", [Blessing Magic] and [Summoning Magic] by 1 (now 11, 12, 12, 0+15 and 7+13).

Alissa and Roxanne leveled up. Alissa increased her [Bow Use] by 1 (now 26) and gained [Enhanced Stamina] with 1 point. She now has 10 skill points left.

Roxanne increased her [Potion Brewing], [Fire Magic] and her "Endurance" by 1 (now 11, 23 and 9) and her [Poison Brewing] by 2 (now 4). She has 8 skill points left.

Hana should be the next one to level up.

With Roxanne and Ciel's success at chantless casting I believe it's time for everyone to learn a few spells, a single [Earth Bullet] is powerful when used chantless, doing it point blank to someone can send even a dragonkin flying, like I did. I put [Inspire Growth] on Ciel and Roxanne and [Increased Growth] on the other girls, hopefully it's enough to brute-force some skill learning without having to delve too much into the theory.

When the spirit griffin appeared Aoi apparently got fired up and started to push her flame breath and fire balls to the limit.

I put their extra points into [Earth Magic], except for Alissa, who wants to learn [Illusion Magic], she read the book a few times and wants to try it so I give her a single point in it. The first spell of [Illusion Magic] is [Ghost Lights], it's used to distract an enemy when it looks at you, perfect if you want to make someone incapable of dodging your arrows even if they are looking right at you. [Ghost Lights] is easy to cast but it requires good control, if you screw up your allies will be affected by it.

Leaving them to their training I focus on my training for [Summoning Magic]. Increasing that summoning to level 30 takes too many points, I'm going to put Nononya's notes to use and try to level this skill asap.

I summon 3 Symbols of Darkness and 1 Beholder, slowly of course, no need to overuse mana already. The Symbols of Darkness will now be called "Shad", Shad 1 will stay with me, Shad 2 will stay with Roxanne, Shad 3 with Lina. These monsters can easily hide in our own shadows and they will stay as a countermeasure against assassination. Unfortunately I can't summon one for everyone so this is one of the reasons why I have to train.

The Beholder will now be called "Holly". It will stay mostly on top of our house as a sentry and will follow whoever leaves the house. This one can easily hide among people but it's risky, the [Ignorance] spell isn't perfect and it would cause an uproar if a monster was found inside the town, so it will remain far away from groups of peoples. If it's revealed that I can summon monsters then it might attract too much attention, more than the annoying amount I already have.

With these monsters and the 2 clay golems all summoned at the same time my mana drops to 1/6th. It's quite massive but this is only for training. I try to keep the maximum amount of senses on but at 4 it's straining me, 5 makes my head hurt.

The Shad's don't see like we do, they have a sort of "mana infrared", they see mana in the air directly but their vision isn't that great for much else, they don't serve as scouts unless you are hunting a mage. Interestingly they can't detect each other unless they are really close.

Holly has dark vision (can see in absolute darkness) and hawk eyes, so she's(?) the perfect choice for scouting. Holly's poison doesn't work too well yet, it has a very delicate mana signature so I can't recreate it even with level 30 [Summoning Magic].

I have one of the clay golems stare at Nononya's notes while I try to meditate and practice [Earth Bullet], even though I have very little mana. Basically multi-tasking. I level [Nature Magic] to 30 so I can use [Manasynthesis], with this I can recharge mana even faster just by staying in the sun.

I can meditate with my summons out and my sense of time doesn't get too disrupted. But it feels weird, like I'm looking through a movie. If only I could talk to them telepathically I could seriously multi-task.

Time for lunch comes and after that we all leave to the hunters guild to sell our stuff. We are going shopping after this.

At the guild I get the stares like usual, I have a tendency of being dramatic and call my women goddesses but they are not that eye-catching, at least not without their dresses. It's just that the male:female ratio of our party attracts attention, specially when I'm not a charismatic 2-meters tall hunk.

I see a request to investigate the Spriggans at the Spiral Springs, it claims that they suddenly started wearing ropes with weird patterns on them. I just move away from that board.

Then I overhear a conversation about hunters complaining that they don't cut down the Sea of Trees anymore so the monsters use it as breeding grounds. This means that whatever is protecting the Sea of Trees likely made a deal with Rabanara, now what could a magical being offer a Lord that's worth so much?

When I turn around after having my fill of the conversation I see a bear like man staring at me. His eyes are bloodshot and he clearly looks drunk, I think he's the leader of Escutcheon. He doesn't look like he has been having good days, I hurry Roxanne to the dismantling area and the others to leave the guild and wait outside. I should have brought Alissa, the loss of her blessing is stressing.

"Mr. Ryder! Good to see you, how was your hunt?" Gordon asks with arms open wide, a bloody grin, and the usual shining bald head.

"Wonderful, you might want to get Sonny here and it's not just because I want to tease him."

Gordon chuckles while I pull out a male minotaur, the Kite Dragon, the 3 Shadow Satyrs, a pile of scrap metal from the Living Armors, and the Beholder. Gordon smile twitches in surprise but he tells his assistant to get Sonny. Gordon seems to be unable to decide where to start, his eyes dart between the Kite Dragon, the satyrs, and the Beholder.

"S-so many rare monsters... such 'luck'," he sniggers.

I sit down on Roxanne's lap and she runs her fingers through my hair.

Sonny comes and his body jerks twice, once to look at Roxanne and again to continue marching forward, pretending that didn't happen.

"Most scales are good, even the skull, it could be made into some wonderful plating. The satyrs are in good condition, somewhere there's a filthy potion maker that will be delightful in having their brains, eyes, and hearts. The Beholder has a considerable amount of poison on its claws and it's poison gland isn't ruptured, the damage to the eye is regrettable but there's no other way to kill them," Sonny reads his report.

He gives us 70 gold for it all. Ah, money, money, money, money. One day I want to kill the Symbol of Envy, I might get a rose coin for it, so juicy.

Roxanne takes the gold from Sonny, she deliberately touches his wand and gives him a wink. He jumps in surprise and tries to keep his body upright.

"Any, uh, if-if that's all I will come to, no, be leaving to my, my, room?" He questions his own words.

"That's all, I will see you someday, Mr. Sonny," Roxanne says with a small bow.

"Yes, uh, bye."

He awkwardly leaves. I wonder how old he is, he seems to be nearly 20.

"Boy, come more often, even if just for teasing him."

"If I do you will eventually stop being surprised at my visits," I say smugly.

"It better be this way, if not you will get in your head to fight that Symbol of Envy someday."

Mind reader. I smile awkwardly.

"See?" He gives me an exaggerated disapproving look.

Roxanne chuckles.

"My greedy little man," she hugs me tighter.

I cough.

"Say, I saw the leader of Escutcheon, I forgot his name-..."

"Logan."

"Yeah, that one. He's looking pretty, uh, pretty bad, out of shape, you know? Anything happen to him?"

"You would know," he gives me a smug smirk, "After the he met that ancient dragon he started drinking a lot. People heard him muttering things like 'coward' and 'abandoned'. They say he was chasing that woman that died with you. His fellowship is taking an extended break, if they haven't disbanded already, so nobody is around to confirm these things."

I raise an eyebrow.

"Didn't know you were such a fan of gossiping," I make my tone as disapproving as I can.

"Hey! I'm here all day waiting for monsters, what do you think I do to pass time? It's not like I enjoy it or anything..." Gordon looks away embarrassed.

I just smirk and he shakes his head, he realizes he fell for my teasing.

We leave the guild and go buy more armor. Everyone gets a proper padded barbute this time, Roxanne and Alissa get a comfortable high-quality padded coif. All the girls will now have to properly tie their hairs before using the helmets. We shouldn't skimp on protection, we have been avoiding monsters with projectiles but it won't always be like this.

Roxanne looks at herself in the mirror.

"I look so…"

"Protected," Ciel completes.

"Safe," I add.

"Unfashionable," Roxanne frowns.

"There, there, nobody will notice," Hana consoles her and rubs her back.

"But I want them to notice."

"You only need to make us two notice and we notice you, all day, every day," I say.

Hana nods in agreement. Roxanne her lips curve upwards a little and she shakes her head in defeat. At least she can still use her hat over her coif.

Now everybody has scale armor, we also add fur padding to help with blunt attacks. It might get hot but Lina is going to focus on a temperature regulation enchantment next.

There isn't much cloth armor here. Space in the Shore of Leaves comes at a premium, there's not enough space for livestock. People prefer to use the abundant monster fur and leather than waste the precious wool in disposable armor, wool is also a bit weaker than some of the fur of monsters. Even the everyday clothes made of wool are made with economy of materials in mind. Rabanara seems to import most of its clothes instead of making them here.

We are now low on money. No more extravagant dinners, theaters or expensive food until the next break from my classes.

We spent the afternoon shopping so after dinner I spend my time trying to talk to Ciel without the skill system. I talk like a toddler. Surprisingly I can't chant magic in English, it just does not work.

Today is the 1st of the 8th month, the month of Love. Ciel told me this month the brothels are all cheaper, it's also the month most people marry or decide to have children.

Roxanne wakes me up, she's starting to pick up a style, though it's still difficult to discern it I feel a bit of mischievousness with the rhythm she takes.

I increased my "Willpower", [Nature Magic], [Earth Magic] and [Andraste Language] by 1 (now 16, 16+14, 0+3 and 7+3), [Summoning Magic] by 2 (now 15+15), my MP by 20 (now 690) and my "Magic Power" by 5 (now 265).

The girls only grew a bit of MP, Roxanne and Ciel are likely to acquire [Redirect Mana] in a few days.

I have been wondering how I am going to "unlock" level 40 spells. First time was when I prayed and increased "Piety" to 10, second time was after I got "Wisdom" to level 16 so maybe it's related to stats? What do some of these stats do anyway.

"Roxanne, what are the effects of 'Intelligence' and 'Wisdom'?" I ask.

I know that "Willpower" helps with mana control or with modifying spells. "Endurance" is about stamina and having your body resist shutting down. "Dexterity" is minute control over your muscles. "Charisma" has some sort of mental effect on others that can be dampened with [Mental Resistance].

"'Intelligence' is your ability to learn new things, they help with skill growth, yours is quite high, even for a scholar. 'Wisdom' helps with improvement and efficiency, it helps you apply better what you know," she answers.

What does "Piety" and "Wisdom" have to do with not being able to use higher level spells? Is it a glitch of the system? Meaning that since I'm abusing something that shouldn't work this way it simply does not allow me to cast these spells but a normal person would achieve the requirements before being able to cast the spell? Or is it some arbitrary restriction that the "God" that brought me here created just so I couldn't easily use the highest spell possible?

Now that I think about it, why do we automatically learn spells as soon as we level? Is there some reason why people wouldn't learn it?

"Roxanne, did you ever hear about someone that has the level to cast a spell but can't for some reason?"

She taps her chin with the tip of her finger and thinks deeply.

"Nope!" She gives me an innocent smile, "You thinking about 'unlocking' your level 40 spells?"

"Yeah, level 40 has some very interesting spells. Anyway, Why do we automatically learn spells as soon as we level?"

"Spells are just muscle memory for mana, once you reach a certain level you should have enough knowledge so that you can stabilize your mana and cast the spell properly."

"If I try to learn a spell with a very high level, is there some danger?"

"Shouldn't be, it should only waste mana if you are using System Magic."

Lina's Trivia: System Magic are the simplest and more well develop magic schools, Rabanara only teaches System Magic. The other magic schools are much more complicated and dangerous. Not many people practice these schools outside of the race that created them.

"Hmm... so the other magic schools aren't safe?"

"Yes, they could have some nasty side effects from malformed spells."

"Why is System Magic safe?"

"Skills are based on the collective knowledge of all humanoids that have ever lived. System Magic schools have explored very well how to create a spell and how not to create a spell, they know exactly how to manipulate mana safely. So what the skill system passes to us the most popular spell, which is the version that is the safest and easiest to control. Without the system we have to manipulate mana in a 'raw' state, which is very dangerous."

"Then perhaps if the system gives you spell 'muscle memory' and I don't have the 'muscles' to cast this spell then it won't give me the spell?"

"That sounds... plausible."

"But how do I gain this missing 'muscle'?"

Roxanne shrugs.

"It took us a long time until we learned how to scratch that 'itch' you told us to cast spells chantless. When we did it's like a new world of magic opened to us, perhaps it's something similar, you are lacking some sort of 'perspective' about the world," Ciel joins in.

I got access to level 20 and 25 spells when I decided to pray to the gods before the goblins village extermination, it's when I decided to "trust" the Gods. I got access to level 30 spells when I had a better perspective on the differences of monsters and humanoids. Maybe the "Wisdom" and "Piety" increase was just a coincidence, it's not the stats it's the knowledge about the world. Magic is very dependent on our knowledge and visualization of the world.

"I know I have tons of technical knowledge of physics so this is helping me level spells fast but I don't have in-depth knowledge of mana and magic, if I focus on these two then perhaps I could get a new 'perspective'?"

"Perhaps," Ciel says.

Roxanne nods in agreement.

I have created skills, but maybe if I create a Unique Spell I would understand mana better. But then again, Unique Spells require me to manipulate raw mana, which is known to be dangerous...

Nothing else will come of thinking about this "perspective" for now so I go back to my training. The girls spend the morning training the same way. This time I search Nononya's notes for the anatomy of more magical beasts, most of the ones she investigated are simple animals, what I need is to understand better how elementals work.

The nature spirit griffin brings the spirit cat with an oversized head again. Both play tag and frolic at the grass. Aoi kept glancing at them but she focused on training her fire breath. I did notice a small growth on its size.

Hana's [Earth Bullet] is pitiful, she never had much talent in magic but I pray that she gets help from the Gods, just a little more power and it could be a trump card for her.

Back to the elementals, it seems their body operates a kind of inverted [Manasynthesis], they let mana course through their body and converts that mana into energy for the cells when necessary. This removes the need for veins and allows for the body to be easily reformed.

Elementals do not have organs except for a source of mana, they move entirely by some sort of [Telekinesis] their cells are capable of using. Their cells are like spirits, held together by a thin layer of mana, which is why they are so vulnerable to emellanat, it easily cuts down their mana cells.

So this is why even summons that are non-corporeal require a lot of mana to be summoned, their cell "spirits" require to be built and maintained. The mana cost covers the conjuration of the materials to build the body of the elemental while the maximum MP reduction is caused by a small part of the "mana source" or "mana organ" on the summoner to be transplanted to the summon, giving it life.

This "mana organ" is where we store mana and how we gather mana from the environment. It's said to be part of our soul, but this mana source is not the only thing that gets taken, a small part of the soul goes with it and it's used as a base to give the summons its simple soul.

The nature elemental's body is the most interesting, it's plant-like cells allow it to unglue from each other and then re glue themselves in basically any way it wants to with extreme ease. It can also use [Grow] on itself to quickly increase the size of its vines.

Lina kept her back always touching mine as she felt my [Earth Bullet] and tried to copy it.

Lunch comes and the time to talk to Vanea draws near.

"So, the time to speak to Vanea is coming. Anyone has any objection?" I ask.

We already talked a lot about it, we won't ask for help, we will carefully bargain with her. She doesn't have many allies, the information we have is very valuable to her, she needs us more than we need her.

I don't hear any objection but Hana looks pained. I go to her side.

"If you don't mind can you tell us, or at least me and Roxanne, what happened to you and your family? It would help in understanding your pain," I whisper.

She breathes deeply.

"It's fine, I guess it's better that everyone knows more about me," she answers.

"It's not much, really. My family used to transport alchemy and potion materials from Sommerland to Ryutake, I was in charge of protecting our wagons. For most of the time nothing happened but about a year before everything fell apart the attacks intensified. Filthy bandits throwing their lives away to our swords, coordinated attacks uncharacteristic of the region, something was wrong. Our stores were being sabotaged and we started to lose merchandise and customers, people were ending contracts with us and little by little we were being driven out.

"Dad kept firm, instead of fleeing he made us work harder until we could move no longer, we held on for a few more months but it was useless in the end. Father lost all the money but refused to back down, he started smuggling, he avoided taxes and transported some dangerous things, I don't even know what, I wanted as much distance from that as I could.

"Smuggling didn't last long, an investigator from the empire suddenly appeared and knew exactly where to look. Someone betrayed us, don't know who, the bunch of mercenaries we employed have no real loyalty. I don't know what happened to them but dad was supposed to be locked away for a long time, but he was always frail..." She looks even more pained.

Both me and Roxanne squeeze her hand and kiss it at the same time. Hana smiles faintly and shakes her head.

"Mother is certainly on a prison somewhere, she would never sell herself after meeting dad. I have a brother and a sister too, they weren't trained enough to be worthy of being a Blood Slave like me, there's a chance they were sent to a noble as a servant slave but I don't know. The Judge made sure we were all separated and couldn't reunite easily. I chose slavery because there was a chance I would be sent to a lazy noble who only wanted a pet."

She finishes her talking and keeps her head down.

"If I become a noble is there a way I can release all of your family?" I ask.

Hana immediately raises her head and stares me deeply.

"Y-you would do that?" Her eyes show hope and pain.

"I don't know what I can do, but I would if possible."

She pulls me into a bear hug.

"Your father would be difficult, your mother is a bit less uncertain. Your siblings would certainly be able to be released, the word of a noble with a blessing and a wife with another blessing certainly carry a lot of weight for a Judge. For your sister it would be very easy if she decides to marry Wolfy..." Ciel trails off.

"Is she human or dragonkin?" Alissa asks.

"Human."

Alissa looks disappointed.

"Stop with this, I won't be getting another woman," I say.

"Yes, yes," Alissa giggles.

"Anyway, thank you for sharing, Hana, I understand why this is difficult for you," Ciel says.

"Yes, but from what you told us your father was too proud. We won't let the same thing happen to you again," Alissa says.

"We are all cowards here, we will run the moment things get too dangerous," I say.

"Starting over won't hurt, as we never had that much to begin with. The most important is that we stay together," Roxanne says, giving another kiss to Hana's hand.

Lina just gives Hana an innocent smile.

For a second Hana makes a crying face, then she collects herself and smiles with a bit of pain. I raise my head towards her.

"Whenever you are ready let the tears out, it helps clear your mind," I whisper.

She nods to me. It helped me, at least.

"Group hug!" Roxanne declares.

Hana's bear hug was already hurting my ribs a bit, now things are much worse.

"Can't... breathe... help!"

Alissa finds no stalker these days. With Holly on the lookout we will not miss it again.

"What happened to you?" Is the first thing Lyle says to me when he enters class.

That's expected, I can't really hide this scar on my neck.

"Had a fight with some monster, got a little too close to danger," I force an innocent smile.

Lyle frowns but remains quiet.

The professor asks the level of [Space Magic] others are at, everyone is around level 4 while I'm level 19. I lied and said level 10 and still got a big reaction from the class, the gnome professor wasn't that surprised since he saw me use [Telekinesis] chantless.

"You planning on becoming a space mage, Wolf?" Lyle asks.

"No, I just have a bit of talent with [Telekinesis], it's why I have so many levels with it."

"If you are progressing this fast then you could certainly enter the advanced classes easily."

Lina's Trivia: Beginner is considered up to level 10. Intermediate is from 11 to 30. Advanced is from 31 to 60. After that you are granted the tile Grand Magus of the magic school. There are very few people in history acquired level 100 on any skill, most of them are either the creators of such skills, an emperor with a fascination for such skill, or a hero.

"I don't plan on increasing it much more, I would rather keep away from learning [Gate]."

"If you were to stay in Rabanara you could get the favor from the Lord to be free from working for the empire," Hatara says with a smile.

It seems she also wants me here. If I didn't want to leave and become a noble, joining the knights sounds somewhat like a good career path.

Before I can answer I feel a chill, a vicious gaze pierces my soul, this damn family and their stupid eyes. It seems Lina didn't need to ask Nononya where to find Vanea, she already knew about my fight. I turn my ring green so she comes back.

"Good day, Mr. Ryder. A pleasant day for a chat isn't it?" Says Vanea with a beautiful smile.

"Good day, Mr. Ryder. I heard you went deep in the dungeon of the Morning Dew," says Silvane with an innocent smile.

"Good day Miss Silvane, Miss Anara," I answer with a smile, thank the Gods for [Acting] and [Mental Resistance], "Yes, I was hunting for money, these floors were horrible but rather profitable, unfortunately I never got the morning dew in any of them. Anyway, I would love to chat Miss Anara."

"Should we move somewhere more private?"Vanea asks.

"Yes, please."

Lyle and the others look worried, hopefully they won't gossip, I don't want many people knowing I'm associating with Vanea.

We get up and follow Vanea towards the offices building. She leads us to the top floor into a large and luxurious office. On the door there's a metal plaque written "Vanea Arana, Chairwoman".

The office is very large, it has a huge window overseeing the courtyard below, a lavish table with comfortable chairs and one large chair for her, two long comfy sofas with another decorated table, and multiple plants on the walls surrounding a painting of her family. They have a little sister I never met, a mini blue-eyed Vanea. The Lord's wife is a beautiful and delicate woman with long silky black hair and kind blue eyes, certainly recessive genes.

"You are part of the administration?" I ask her.

"Yes. I'm trying to get acceptance over [Cursing Magic]. The old quacks are too afraid of that magic school, they don't know who created it so they think it might be related to the undead like [Bloodwork] is," she sits on her chair and waves her hand dismissively.

"I admit I know nothing about that magic school."

It's one of the magic schools that I never mentioned for fear of what the reaction would be.

Silvane grabs a chair and sits behind Vanea.

"I would be very surprised if you did. Only a few mages in Dyrmorder or the savages at the Wild Steppes know anything about it. I wanted to bring it here to give us more power but unless if the emperor himself or his ministers endorse it the quacks won't accept it fully due to its... dark nature."

No wonder, just the name makes me apprehensive.

"Is it a complete magic school?"

"It is, surprisingly."

Lina enters the room.

"Excuse me…"

I motion her to sit besides me. She trembles once but it stops, [Mental Resistance] doing work again.

"I would like to know more about this school, does it have any books written on it?"

"Only a few, they are restricted so you won't be able to get them."

"I want to submit my work on [Golemancy] and exchange it for a chair at the university, would that be enough?"

Vanea smiles.

"Certainly, make sure you don't announce it to anyone else before you get your chair, the quacks would tremble in their boots if they knew what you were searching for. But anyway, we aren't here to discuss this."

Everyone tenses up and straighten their postures. My moral support is assembled, it's time for battle.

"Yes. I assume you know what happened at the 25th," I smile a bit.

"Hard not to, seeing how much noise you made. Both during battle and the aftermath. It seems you might be requiring some help?" She smiles back.

"Help? Have you seen how we fought? No, we don't require help, we are rather fine for now," I bluff.

Vanea thinks for a second. I think it worked, her followers must not have seen the fight themselves.

"Surely you understand Darean is more than a mere position 1 adventurer," her soft and commanding tone is unchanging.

She just confirmed for me that Darean is behind the attack.

"Yes, but we aren't his main target, he's coming for us as a personal vendetta. His employer must be pretty mad from losing such an important team with absolutely nothing in return."

She thinks longer. Does she know it was a kidnapping team that attacked me?

"You don't think he will attack again?"

"Attack? No, he won't. His trap failed once and now it will never work again."

"What gives you such confidence?" Her face shows a hint of worry and skepticism.

I simply smile, the answer to that is a secret.

Vanea looks down, her eyes race about, she's rapidly thinking of something

"Do you have a Gate Scrubber?"

Blunt, but I can't just straight up admit it.

"No," I keep my face expressionless.

Vanea stares at me for a few seconds.

"I can have you searched," her tone turns stern.

Careful now.

"Yes you can, but you won't find anything. Even if you get the empire's lie detectors," I lie.

Vanea stays still, my spidey senses are tingling.

"It seems you don't want to go that far. Why are you so interested in this scrubber?"

"A Gate Scrubber was stolen sometime ago. We believe Darean tipped off a group of thieves who then sold the scrubber to the kidnappers, giving Darean his connection," Silvane confesses.

Vanea gives her a look but Silvane doesn't budge.

"Vanea, it would do well to show a bit of trust once in a while," Silvane says, no hint of unease in her voice.

Information is key here, Silvane wants our trust so she gave something for free. The empire knowing they lost a scrubber would look really bad on them. I will certainly never tell anyone about this scrubber, I look at Silvane and give a grateful nod.

"I see, but like I said, I don't need help. If I sniff a trap I can just walk away, I'm not tied to Rabanara."

Silvane's poker face twitches. I'm sorry but I don't have loyalty to either of you.

"But you won't leave yet?" Silvane asks.

"I do not wish to. The only tie I have here is the university, with my research and blessing I can enter another rather easily. I don't need help Miss Anara, you do," I smile again.

Her eye twitches.

"Since you don't have a Gate Scrubber what help can you provide us?" She asks.

Good, she fell for my bluff, she thinks we aren't afraid and that Darean is an inconvenience instead of a threat.

"Information. I can help you get someone close to Darean."

"Who?" She's fails to completely contain her eagerness, it seems she really was cornered by Darean.

"What can you give in return?"

"I don't know the value of the information if I don't know the person," she smiles.

"We can just agree in something preliminary. You will keep me updated on any move Darean makes, you knew I was being stalked and did nothing."

"I am not that heartless, I lacked a lot of information," Vanea looks a bit offended.

"I didn't mean to offend, but you knew something and never warned me."

"Fine. But you will have to provide all info that you know, everything, even whether you really have the scrubber. You can keep it as long as you keep it quiet from the empire," she slips a hint of anger in her tone.

"A fair deal," I bow lightly.

"The name?"

I slip her a piece of paper. "Farana Uiara, human, level 37. Small body, around 160cm tall, traces that resemble the elves, thin chin, small red lips, pale face and freckles, braided brown hair curled inside a hat. She doesn't have any breasts but her ass is big and her hips are wide. Her hair smells of Ranja hair products, expensive and possibly from the High Forest."

Silvane lifts an eyebrow.

"Who gave you that description?"

"A dragonkin."

"Figures…"

Vanea breath quickens for a few seconds and then she controls herself.

"That's his bitch, the little thief, she leads the thieves. We have to find her and capture her. She also has the help of someone with [Illusion Magic]. "

"Yes, she was using [Ignorance] when stalking us."

Vanea thinks for a second.

"I want you to fight for me. Help me capture her," Vanea says, moving her body closer.

"No," I answer immediately.

"You don't understand, I don't have enough reliable people that could stand against an illusion mage, if you killed those kidnappers then you are good enough to fight for me," her gaze is unwavering.

Shit. I can't tell if she's bluffing, she was being pushed into a corner, there's a very good chance she's telling the truth.

"I have to talk to the others about this. If we do we are at minimum going to ask for a lot of money, you must know our rates from when we escorted the representative for armorer's guild. We are gonna ask for a lot more than that."

Vanea reclines back, her posture relaxes.

"That's fine, Rabanara is rich."

"And we are going to ask for protection, you must make sure nothing happens to us before, during or after the battle."

She narrows her eyes.

"You are going to have to fight, I can't hold your hand during the battle."

"But you can help us prepare, we are going to fight against a mage and we don't have that much experience."

She sighs, her authoritative voice is nearly gone.

"I will prepare something. But I will only protect you as long as you are in Rabanara."

I nod.

"Do I have the word of Miss Vanea Anara, daughter of a True Noble?" I ask in a stern tone.

She growls.

"You will have to share everything you know."

"Deal."

She glares at me one final time, "I, Vanea Anara, daughter of a True Noble give you my word, let the Gods observe me and judge me for my actions."

An oath that Ciel taught me. Everything we agreed to is now under watch by the Gods, if she screws me over I can invoke the Gods wrath upon her.

"Now spill everything else you know."

It wasn't much but it was valuable information to her. I also gave her the remaining corpses and she will give me the bounty, but silently, no need to increase my fame. She glares at me when I tell the truth about the Gate Scrubber but I'm keeping it, she said it herself, it's also my guarantee Darean won't try to kidnap me again.

Vanea says that after our fight the underworld got spooked about what the spirits on the corpses I have could spill and decided to hide. She is making sure no necromancer that could pull the spirits of the dead appears in Rabanara, they could do it even without a body.

The kidnappers had bribed the guards to keep their patrols away from the location we were to fight, it backfired on them since the guards only found a small amount of dried blood the morning after. With this there was nothing to start an investigation so the guard just dropped it, not even the people of the slums wanted to testify that they heard the screams, they know nothing good would come from it.

Vanea never saw the fight, she knew the kidnappers were bought and on the move but couldn't find any more lead on the target, she only knew later that they failed and disappeared, obviously died. She heard a rumor that Darean was targeting us and when the kidnappers failed someone slipped that Darean might have fucked over some valuable hired swords by sending them into a trap. With this she connected the dots and assumed we killed the kidnappers.

"Here's how we talk. This one is for giving me your answer, turn it and it will send a signal to me that you accepted or rejected," Vanea points to an Emergency Ring.

"This one is a compacted lithograph, I will send you the place where we meet. Keep it close to you, it will warm up when it receives a message," Vanea points to a small metal box.

That box has a glass window where I can see a white and black liquid floating around it, they don't mix. I assume the black liquid will form words when the message comes. It's a fantasy pager.

"With this we conclude our business," Vanea gives a wicked smile.

I hope I haven't made a deal with the devil. 

Outside of that office the tension on my shoulders dissipates, it went as well as it could have been, Alissa gives me a quick shoulder massage. We go back to Lyle with Silvane in tow, she makes a small excuse that Vanea wanted to know in detail about my [Sense Soul], which is not totally a lie but covers my back in case someone gossips that I'm meeting her in private.

We are going to get another influx of money, perhaps I can buy bone-and-chain armor for Hana. I kind of quit trying to have her wear plate, too expensive and the prices fluctuate too much. With [Alchemy] I think Lina and Roxanne can work together to maintain it.

"I'm not really against fighting for her, if you want a job well done you do it yourself," Hana says.

"You made her do the vow, the last thing she needs is the Gods turning her luck against her. She will be a good ally as long as we keep a distance and the advantage," Lina says.

Lina seems to be getting more interested in the games of the nobility. It's not that different from the negotiations of the merchants, just more ruthless.

"Fighting is our specialty, after all," Roxanne says.

Ciel and me are anxious.

"Wolfy, I think this is a time we have to fight, we can make sure this ends as quickly as possible," Alissa says, grabbing my hand.

I kiss it.

"We are not going to do it alone, she said she didn't have enough allies, not that she doesn't have any. The most obvious ones are Haaran and his knights. If our allies are not good enough we can always just walk away," Lina says.

Now even she is encouraging us.

"This time you won't be forced to put your points into sneaking, we will be able to fight full force," Alissa says.

I don't have the energy to go against this argument. I look at Ciel and she doesn't either.

I need to clear my head, I ask Hana and we all spar a bit. I train more of my [Telekinesis], I'm getting the hang of casting it on myself but I won't be able to use it for long when I have all my summons out.

I can win against Alissa if she gets tired, otherwise she's just too fast for me. Lina had a very large growth on her martial prowess, the system gives too much of an advantage on melee. With her skill points she can already win against me, though I can't win against Ciel or Hana so it's not that big of a deal.

"Do you think I should use a style, too? Now even Lina can get the upper hand on me," I ask Hana.

"I don't think you should use a style from the system, you should create your own," she answers.

"Why is that?"

"Your [Telekinesis] permits you to fight in a way I have never seen before, perhaps there is a style the old heroes used that could fit you but you still have quite a lot of unique options on how to fight. If you combine [Telekinesis] with [Fly] or [Rush] you could have incredible freedom in fighting."

"It will take me a while until I learn [Wind Magic]."

"Still…"

"I could teach you," Ciel's bright smile lifts my spirits.

"Later, there's too much to learn. Let's leave it for when I learn more about Andraste or when I finish my courses at the university."

"Awn…"

I will certainly buy you some teacher cosplay one day.

"So anyway, how should I go making my own style?"

"Well. Style is all about the strategy, [Sword Use] only tells you how to use a sword, the style tells you when to use the sword. I can show you the [Imperial Tower Style] as basis but you have to think of it on your own.

"You have to think about things like posture, stance, footwork, strength, precision and speed of attacks or defenses, which direction to cut in, when and how to combo, grappling and bare handed attacks, feints and counters, weapons to use, and how to fight specific weapon and enemy type combinations. There's a lot to think about and your [Telekinesis] changes all of them, if you just adopt an existing style it will be very inefficient.

"I see... it will really take a long time to develop a style, I guess I should just use a single point in [Imperial Tower Style] while we spar. By the way, how does this style compare to yours?" I ask.

"This style is all about sword and shield while mine is more than just that, it encompasses all the weapons I use. It's also about fighting multiple enemies and how to counter them or overpower them. The imperial style is about coordination and working together with a simple sword and shield, the empire will never send their soldiers to be outnumbered or to work alone, I think this is why it would fit you well as a basis. It even tells about coordination with mages and archers, which you already do occasionally."

Yes, that's certainly interesting. Coordinating with Alissa and Roxanne when I retreat opens up attacks for them, I already did this a few times before, if I master [Telekinesis] or [Rush] I can enter and leave attack range basically at will.

While we talk Ciel pokes Roxanne's Shad with her finger. You shouldn't feel anything except for the mana leaking.

"Wolf, you are not looking at us when we... go to the bathroom, right?" Ciel asks, frowning slightly.

"I'm a pervert but I'm not that perverted. Besides, I can barely see a proper outline with their vision."

"That's, good to know."

We go back to sparring and I start getting pummeled by Lina, I better develop a style fast, she's reading my movements already. She's a bit scary when we spar, there's a fire in her that reminds me of Hana, but at least Hana knows how to go easy.

Tonight I act as human dildo for Hana and Roxanne as they take the stress of the training on each other. Alissa gives me a few scratches, I really do enjoy the feeling of her nails.

After we are all done Aoi gets out of her bored trance and pulls me and Hana together with her little claws. She always sleeps with either of us but when we sleep together she wants to sleep between both of us.

I spend a few more moments staring at Vanea's ring. The shrieks of that space mage I killed keep repeating in my head, I'm scared of fighting, I'm scared of the unknown enemy. I have to trust those women, even Ciel who doesn't want to fight got convinced. They trust me and I trust them.

I turn the ring green, I hope I didn't make a deal with the devil.