Rupegia
/ Rupegia 10 The Good Days - Part 2
I hang on the wall a small clock I found, now everyone can look at the time. I still want to give a pocket watch to everyone one day. Then afterwards I go back to practicing [Redirect Mana]. Alissa installs an archery target on the backyard for practice and Hana does physical training. I'm worried that Roxanne only leaves her room to eat and take a bath.
I go back to bed and start moving my "inner mind hand". It's a weird feeling to understand but there's clear gestures that I can do. It's not just "move" and "push", there's more movement that I can do but I don't know what it does since I have nothing to test it on.
I'm trying to test the borders of this "inner mind" space but it feels like it's infinite, perhaps I have to do something else to reach the border. When I was half-dead I had that weird feeling that I was the room, before that I had a very strong wish to grab all the mana, to engulf it, to eat it.
I feel like the secret is on hunger. I was out of mana so I will waste it by casting [Wind Armor] on myself repeatedly. When I finish and go back to meditating there's a clear change, my "hand" feels like a "mouth", I can feel the mana and taste it. I want it, I need it, but I can't reach it.
I need it… I need it. I need it! I NEED IT!
I feel the change. That same familiar feeling of expanding my soul, the mana flowing around is part of me now, even if it's weak I can feel it. I feel a stream coming from the wall, is that because of Roxanne? I wanna follow it. I touch the wall, it blocks me.
The air is now a part of me, the wall isn't, I can't cross. But air is just atoms and the wall is a bunch of solidified atoms. I will just turn the wall a part of me so I can cross.
It's too hard. It's resisting me, how is it doing that? The air doesn't resist.
"Master?" Asks Alissa.
"Oh? What is it?" I open my eyes.
"The sun is setting, Roxanne got the bath ready for us."
Wow, again I completely lose the track of time.
This time bath has no groping of Alissa. I'm also saving myself for tonight, we didn't use the special clothes Alissa got for Hana yet.
Dinner is orc meat pie and roasted vegetables.
A bit of cuddling after dinner, I use Hana's breasts as pillows and Alissa laying down on my lap and reading. The smell of their perfume fills my nose.
Finally, I lay down on bed and cover my eyes while they change.
A succubus and an angel. Both of them look at me with hunger.
Black gloves that caress my chest, white gloves that pull down my pants, two mounds covered in thin silk that bounce in front of me, the fearsome smile that makes me feel like prey, a delicate hand that touches my dick. These women are gonna use me. I change my skills into what I call "Sex Maniac" build.
Something warm and wet wraps my dick and moves in incredible smoothness. Two thick thighs wrap around me and push a woman's lower lips in my mouth, I open my mouth and thank for the meal, those lips will feel all the power of my tongue. I put small bites every now and then for a change of pace. The feeling on my dick changed and now something tight and much warmer envelops it, I instinctively move my hips to match hers. I use my hands to pinch and rub Alissa's nipples.
Even with [Enhanced Sexual Stamina] I still feel it coming I tell Alissa and she unmounts me and drinks it all up. One done another to go.
"Time to switch," I say.
"You still want more?" Hana says.
"No way I'm not fucking you tonight."
Now I gotta use all my remaining tongue strength to make Alissa cum. She's not the kind that specifically likes being rough and energetic so I can take my time, meanwhile Hana is breaking my hips.
Hana leg power is astounding, the bed creaks and Alissa looks back in surprise. Those thick thighs being caressed by that black cloth makes her look like she's sculpted as the image of a goddess, her body is too perfect. Her mane hair waves as she vigorously sucks the soul out of my body, this is the power of the dragon woman. She squeezes her insides and tries to wring out my cum.
She grabs my waist and increases even more in power and speed.
"Y-you will hurt master," says Alissa, amazed and worried.
"I can… handle it..." I say.
It hurts a bit but there's no way my pride will let it say that, that dragon woman was tamed by me and a little bit of pain is on par with the duty to satisfy that monster. No, monster is too rude, she's a goddess, my goddess.
Alissa might be awakening something in her, she starts rubbing herself while looking at Hana and pushes my head further into her lips. She squirms and in a few minutes she cums. Then she dismounts my mouth and the angelic white athletic thighs move to the side, she doesn't stop rubbing herself though. Now I can focus entirely on Hana.
My hands that were pinching her nipples with all my strength now move to her thighs. I put my nails into them and match Hana's rhythm, the smacking sound grows even louder. I start to get angry, you won't finish me, woman, you are mine, I will finish you.
I pull her from the top of me, turn her around and do her from behind. I use all my strength, all my speed, all my stamina and destroy her. I put her on a choke hold and her back bends. I feel her insides squeezing me but I don't even know if she came or not, I don't care, I'm just focused on destroying her insides. I. Will. Fucking. Destroy. You.
The white angel and the black succubus, I will have them painted while we fuck and then I will kill the painter. Those two are mine and now the succubus needs to learn her lesson. I feel the strength leaving my body, I pull out the skills and feel it coming stronger than I ever came before.
The speechless Alissa, the white angel, furiously rubbing herself to this sight. The tamed dragon succubus who stopped begging for more and can barely hold her breath. What is more erotic than this sight?
I pull it out and cum all over her back, I cum so far it even hits Alissa.
"Clean this," I order Alissa.
Still expressionless, she obeys me and licks Hana's sweaty back. Then I get hard again at the sight, I use Alissa's head as my cock sleeve and end up cumming one last time inside her mouth. My balls and dick hurt, I overdid it.
"I'm surprised I can still maintain this blessing while doing things like that to both of you," I say.
"What do you mean, master? You are more likely to earn a blessing from the Goddess of Love like this," Alissa says.
This fucking world… Or rather, this world is about fucking.
"M-master, can you heal me a bit? My back hurts a lot," Hana says.
"Sure. Ah, Alissa, Hana has a skill that allows her to turn pain into pleasure, that's why I'm rougher with her," I say that because Alissa was looking at me worried again.
"Rougher…?" Says Alissa with a surprised look, "Master, I thought you were giving it your all when I brought these clothes for the first time."
"Well… uh… I kinda like things rough but I go easier on you since I know you are more sensitive."
"Oh..." Alissa looks a bit dejected.
"P-please don't look like this, I can't be like this all the time, you pleased me perfectly."
"Even I will die if he does it like this everyday. Tomorrow I'm gonna have some sore muscles," says Hana while tapping Alissa's shoulder.
"I-I see… I'm happy to hear this," Alissa says with a small smile, her tail sways once.
Seems like we recovered her pride.
"Now, the Clothes of the Berserker are a bit too stimulating, let's leave them for special days," I say, "Tomorrow I will also be very sore, I will have to take it easy."
"The wh... nevermind," Alissa shakes her head with a wry smile, "Master, didn't the priest tell you to rest from physical activity for a day-cycle?"
"Hahahah, I will apologize or whatever but no way I'm abstaining from sex. You two are far too delicious to wait."
Hana shrugs and talks.
"Something tells me he would go insane if he abstained for a cycle."
That's a bit much, I'm not addicted… I'm not.
"T-that seems true..." Alissa agrees while looking defeated.
Ah, whatever. I wasn't such a pervert on Earth, it's this world fault that I'm like this because it completely screwed with my life. I'll be damned if I won't enjoy it to the fullest until I die.
"Think it like this, I could die tomorrow so I should just do what I want, this one of the rules I live by," I say.
"Isn't the first rule 'don't die'?" Alissa asks.
I shrug.
"Those rules concern decision making, living without regrets is a general life lesson. One is for future planning, the other is for present enjoyment."
"I… Kind of understand," says Alissa.
Hana shrugs again.
We wash ourselves and I have another perfect nights sleep among naked goddesses.
Today is the 12th.
We wake up and have sandwiches with dried orc meat, Rabid Rabbit meat and pickled vegetables with some tea.
I have to learn how to shave with a straight-edge razor. Alissa and Hana try to help but I have to let them do it for me for now because I had to use [Regeneration] to heal myself from the cuts. Luckily my beard grows very slowly at this age.
I'm too tired to train so I help clean the house, ignoring Alissa's protests. We also dismissed the maid now that Hana is going to help. Cleaning is much harder without all the chemicals we have from Earth.
We send the casual clothing and heavy sheets to the nearby washer, we seem to be going through a lot of sheets. The washers have magic tools and a good variety of strong chemicals that help washing. But the sensitive clothing, like some of the more expensive underwear and dresses we bought, are washed by hand because even with [Clean] it won't get the dirt that's deep into the clothes.
Hana is the one who volunteers for doing the most of the washing since her skin is tougher, it won't be damaged as easily due to the chemicals but I still cast [Regeneration] on her. Washing by hand, sweeping the floor, cutting and preparing the food, carrying loads and etc., she really is the best for hard labor. Alissa has much more softer hands, she does everything else Hana isn't as apt, she's the manager of the house and deals with the delicate things that it's better that Hana doesn't touch.
I help, but just a bit, my modern knowledge of cleaning isn't as useful in this world where things are either old school or solved by magic. But I still wanna learn how things are done.
For lunch Alissa blanches Dragolite meat. It removes a lot of the rosemary flavor so it tastes much closer to chicken. We shred it and fry these not"chicken dumplings, all that's needed is some catupiry.
Alissa and Hana leave to retrieve my armor and scour the shops for a few more ingredients and tea. It warms my heart seeing them work together, I only hope they will kiss one day. I have no idea how to categorize my feelings for both of them.
I got back to training [Redirect Mana]. This time I keep focusing on penetrating the wall, it's extremely tiring. In the end I can't do it, I think I need a change of perspective.
Air is just atoms floating around and colliding with one another, solid matter is atoms bonded together, so this means that it's probably the bonds that impede me from "possessing" them. But how to "possess" an atom of air in the first place? I try to focus on moving my "soul" as little as I can so I can see how exactly the "possession" occurs.
I can't really feel the individual atoms change but I can feel the "wave", like a pixelated picture that changes color. I can see a "wave tip" where a single pixel turns color, then the next pixel in front changes color and the 2 pixels besides the first also change color. This continues, forming a cone with the "possessed" atoms. The way I "move" is actually hundreds of these cones together, forming a wall.
I try to use a single cone to enter the solid wall. I can focus much better and the resistance is less but there's still resistance. I have to reduce the size, reduce until it's the size of an atom. Reduce, reduce, reduce, reduce!
I push through, I don't think it was the size of an atom, it was just really, really, really small. I can now see into the empty room nearby, well it's not "seeing" but "feeling". I extend my body again and pierce the next 2 rooms following the mana trail and finally reach Roxanne's.
This is the first time I see her room. I can feel the clothes spread on the floor, the multitude of glass flasks spread around the shelf, the smell of multiple unknown ingredients, the smoke that fills the room. Finally, working on a desk there she is, mixing on a small glass, holding a spoon in one hand and a small piece of round glass near her eye with the other. She's working, in her underwear.
I didn't "see" her, I "felt" her. I felt her cute feet, her sexy soft thighs, her lacy sexy panties, her lower lips, her soft belly, her cute small breasts, her ghost nipples, her luscious lips, her delicious tongue, her cute nose, her mischievous eyes, her silky hair. I never used this on a person so I never thought I would receive this much information about her body, I covered her room instantly when I got through but only after a few seconds I could process what was happening. I could even taste her, this is the amount of information this skill gave me.
I stop everything and return my soul to normal. I sit down and hold my head thinking about what I have done. Then I hear a knock.
"Hey Wolf, did you do something? I felt some weird mana enter the room," Roxanne asks.
FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, now what do I say!?
"Ye-ye-yeah, I… Am testing [Redirect Mana]. I saw… A lot of mana coming from your room… So I tried to redirect it, didn't think you would be able to feel it."
"Oh? It's that skill you used to get mana to heal me, right?
"Yeah, that's the one."
"Hah, that's an interesting skill, you gotta tell me how it works. It tickled me all over my body."
No, no, no, no and no, I will never tell you that.
"anyway, I don't know how it works fully yet. I won't use it again on you."
"Oh no, please do, it felt really good."
Please stop.
"I-i-is that so? D-don't you think it's weird I can make you feel like that?"
"Hm… if it's you I don't care. Anyway, I'm going back to work."
"O-okay, work hard."
There's no way I can deal with this, I'll just forget this happened and move on. In the future I could use it on Hana or Alissa though…Well I'm playing with fire here.
I go back to meditating and focus on touching the mana stream. No more exploring for me.
I feel something warm. I open my eyes and Alissa is snuggled on my side. I turn around and pat her head, her tail starts swaying a little.
"How did it go?" I ask.
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"We found a good charcuterie, lots of good meat, we filled half the ice box," Answers Alissa with her eyes closed.
I massage her ears and she shivers a bit.
"Tomorrow I will go to the university, can you come and pick me up for dinner?"
"Can I stay with you there?"
That hurts my heart, I want you there but you will be bored most likely. You also have other things you should do, like trying to be more selfish.
"No. I would want it, but no. Me and you need to learn how to be far from each other once in a while."
"I don't want to learn that," she looks at me with puppy eyes.
Okay, you are being more selfish but that's not the way I wanted.
"Neither do I… but we have to, maybe if we had a way to communicate from long distances."
"There is, there are Emergency Stones and Bound Lithographs."
"What are these?"
"Emergency Stones are pair of rings with a small stone in them, if there's an emergency one side can send a signal to another but their range isn't that great. Bound Lithographs allows you to send a small drawing to the receiver but they are quite expensive."
"Can you buy an Emergency Stone for me? If we can have at least 2 different signals then it will be quite good. Lithographs will be for real emergencies and when we have more money."
"Ok..." She answers in a faint voice.
What's up with you today?
"Did something happen?"
"Nothing happened, master."
"You are more… in low-spirits right now."
She stays quiet and her beautiful eyes show a hint of tiredness.
"Say it."
"I had a thought. I didn't want to fight again," she looks at me with sad eyes.
"That's normal, I think about this every day."
"But I'm not supposed to think like this, I trained my entire life to fight."
I sigh.
"Even if you try as hard as you can to be act as a tool you will never be perfect, you are still just a hum… I mean, just a normal person in the end."
She looks down and remains in silence.
"Don't believe in yourself. Believe in the me who believes in you."
"What?" She looks at me again, confused.
"Hahahah, just another reference to my homeland."
"I… think I get it."
"How about this, you don't have to reason everything, just accept it."
"Ah..." She lets out a weak smile and hides her head on my chest, her tail sways.
This fucking world… You are still just a teenager and you are forced to think things like this. Our relationship isn't helping her state, it is totally unhealthy but I don't think I want to correct it. You cling on me and I cling on you.
We stay like this for about an hour.
Today Alissa washes Hana, she seems to be back to her usual mood. Alissa touches Hana all over her body and my heart tingles but there's no real sexual tension, Alissa doesn't seem to really swing that way.
We have dinner and Roxanne brings out another bottle of wine. She has been drinking increasingly more, she also looks worse each day.
"Roxanne, is everything okay? You look tired today, again," Asks Alissa, Hana also looks at her with worry.
"I'm so close… I can feel it, I can smell it, I just can't touch it."
"What?" I ask.
"The Moonlight Moss, it's so close… I can almost finish the elixir," Roxanne eyes are vacant.
"Don't you think you need a bit of rest?"
"No!" Her bloodshot eyes stare into mine, "Not now, I'm so close, just a final sprint and it's done. If I stop now I will lose my train of thought."
"Hmm… I think you might be a bit too eager. Just be careful Roxanne, you don't need to isolate yourself too much, it's okay to come to us and enjoy yourself a little."
She sends me a sharp gaze for a second. What was that? Then she sighs.
"Perhaps… I will keep that in mind, thank you all for your concern."
Hana pats Roxanne's back.
After dinner we have our normal cuddling session. Me being hugged from behind by Hana, and Alissa being hugged from behind by me. I try to practice some [Mana Control] but Hana improved her hair stroking technique and I fell asleep.
I woke up being carried in Hana's arms and felt all giddy. She put me in bed and undressed me, put me in the amazon position and for the first time we did it slowly and with love.
Once she finished using me I saw Alissa masturbating on the side of the bed, she totally awakened something. Then I took her while Hana was stroking Alissa's hair and finished for the second time. I'm still feeling drained from yesterday.
Today is the 13th.
I want these days to continue forever. This is heaven, no more, no less.
Sandwiches for breakfast with plenty of ingredients to choose from, this time I give Alissa a good kiss for she gave me another present.
"Cheese! I love cheese. What is this one from?" It tastes buttery and nutty.
"Well, sheep," says Alissa.
"I used to eat a lot of cow cheese on my homeland. Now that I think about it, why are there no cows here?"
"The town lost all cows at the last wyvern attack a year ago, I heard. The cow ranchers didn't feel like coming back until someone found and destroyed the nests," says Roxanne.
"Oh, I heard that wyverns attack often."
"Yeah, they migrate from the Sea of Trees and create nests year after year. One day they try to migrate past the town and attack."
A small urge to kill wyverns appears on my heart.
After breakfast Alissa comes to me.
"Master, you should buy at least 2 more sets of good quality clothes so you can go to the university with pride," she says.
"Hm..." I'm actually too lazy to go buy more clothes to myself.
"You look well in good clothes, Wolf," says Roxanne over sleepy eyes.
Oof.
"Agreed, you look very handsome in good quality clothes, master," says Alissa with a nod.
Double oof, but still, laziness.
"Thinking about dressing you up makes me very excited," Hana says with her man-eating gaze.
Oooooof.
"Alright..." I concede.
We go out to buy some clothes and an Emergency Stone. The stone is a pair of rings with a white stone on top, 1 gold. If I rotate the stone clockwise a green signal appears on the other ring, if I rotate it counterclockwise a red signal appears. Green will be for Alissa to come to me, red will be for emergencies or danger.
I put Alissa's ring on her left ring finger, she gives no reaction. I'm slightly disappointed, I have to ask Ciel about how marriages work in this world.
We buy black velvet clothes with a purple rose embroidered in the chest. It seems velvet is the fashion and the girls both liked the style of Roxanne's clothes so now we have matching outfits, makes me feel a little uncomfortable.
They also chose a weird cloak. It has a very wide hem, it doesn't touch the ground and the cloak stays straight but the corners of the hem have bracelets that go to my wrists. It's black with small grey pigments.
The second set is made of wool and it's a light white frilly shirt and black straight silk pants. I look kinda pompous. Finally I have two sets of black cloth shoes.
We spend the rest of the morning looking around. We end up passing by magic tool shops and it makes me think that some modern inventor must be stuck on this world like me. But I lose hope in that because all these tools are still incredibly inconvenient to use and have none of the modern simplicity.
A simple bedside lamp could come with the ability to change the color of the light, some come with annoying sounds that play while turned on, others play random animations, there are even those that you can write reminders in the light. The problem is how incredibly complicated, obnoxious and abstract is the process to use these options. To change the color you have to spin the stone with your whole arm and stop when you reach the color you want, to play a sound you have to scream it to the stone for a minute and hope it gets the sound right, to change the animation you have to literally pray with the stone in your hand and hope a new animation appears. It's just quacks trying to appeal to the commoner to sell junk.
We go back home at 11 and prepare lunch. Roasted orc meat with fungi sauce and a creamy soup of sweet vegetables to eat with soft bread.
After lunch Alissa takes me to the university and then she will go look for an Emergency Stone. Hana went to spar on the training grounds and I feel jealousy appear again. I know it's completely irrational and I need to stop being so possessive, but still.
I talk to an attendant at the university's reception and the chubby Mathias comes to greet me. He takes me a few buildings deep into the university.
The university seems to like small pools with squirting jets of water that produce small musical sounds, there's a few between the orderly buildings. I see a few beautiful trees that are giving some fruit, then I see a fruit fall on the ground and shrink until it disappears. Is that safe to eat?
The archivist building is bigger than normal and it only has a few very small windows. Once inside the smell of old books fills my nose, it's very nostalgic, I already read my fair share of old books.
The archivist is a man who's so old and thin you would think he's using magic to stay alive. He has one assistant, a young man who's probably going to be succeeding him soon.
The archivist talks in such a slow tone his voice almost makes me fall asleep.
"There's only one surviving record about [Golemancy], it's from a diary of a mage who was also a philosopher. He gave us some good insights into summoning magic and the principles of the soul. He had succeeded in one test of this skill but he died soon after of old age and the proof of that experiment ended up being lost before his body was found," he says.
"Here are the transcript of his notes. If you need the original text you will need a special permission from a head of department or higher," says the assistant.
"That is fine by me, thank you," I take a bundle of papers.
Then Mathias takes me to my new office. This one is pretty small, enough space for a desk that 2 people could have dinner in, a potted plant on the corner and a tall document drawer on one wall. They provide all paper that I could need and a better magical tool pen than the one that I have. On the door a small wooden plaque with my name engraved in it is hanged. Below my name it's written "Junior Researcher", I almost feel like clapping the tip of my hands in excitement just like Roxanne.
"Mr. Ryder, one thing you should know is that these offices are protected from burglary by [Space Magic]. If you want to practice [Space Magic] inside please warn the building manager first so your office's protection can be maintained," Mathias says.
"Understood."
"That is all that I have for you. By the way, Mr. Ryder, is there any progress in [Redirect Mana]?" He asks.
"Quite a bit, actually. I have a better understanding of the skill now but the thing I'm sure of is that it requires a tremendous amount of 'Willpower' to use it."
"That's quite interesting, there's a few people who are eager to see the results of your skill, Mr. Ryder. Well then, I will be off, until next time," he bows and leaves.
Is that so? I barely entered the university and I'm already attracting attention again.
I sit on my desk and start to read the query results.
The mage who wrote this journal was a summoning specialist. He was studying the essence of summoning magic.
"Where does this conscience come from? The summoned beings clearly have a soul since they can be detected by [Sense Presence], if that is not true then a few hundred years of our knowledge was misguided. So I would rather assume that summoning magic truly creates a soul, a very peculiar soul.
"I have been training my [Sense Presence] for years just to understand more about this summoned soul. I have a little pride in saying no one else on this world has a 'Sense Presence' as high as me and I have looked quite far for someone better than me. So believe me when I say that what I see inside the soul is something that does and does not make sense.
"The skill [Sense Presence] gives size, direction, distance and the possibility of identification of soul type. We unconsciously ignore the identification information and immediately associate that information with a type of living form. But by having a skill as high as mine and a very careful analysis I can say that the identification information is actually a 'shape'.
"This 'shape' is often something incomprehensible, something that hurts me just by trying to look deeper into it, perhaps this is why our brain ignores the information immediately. I can say that the 'Willpower' required to understand the shape of the soul was inhuman and you can look into my status crystal, I actually do have a pretty high 'Willpower'. The fortunate thing is that not all souls are incomprehensible and most have parts that are comprehensible, leading me to identify patterns.
"The most common pattern is cubes, those patterns are found in all summoned creatures, in fact I think this is the reason why summoned creatures are so obedient. They have the simplest soul form of all while humanoids have the most complex. I tried to identify soul patterns inside hundreds of different kind of humanoids and I could only identify a few patterns during my whole life. But from those patterns I found something interesting, the ones who had understandable patterns where all summoners like me or people who used frequently the elemental spirits of their magic schools.
"As every mage should know every elemental magic school has a spirit that you can summon, except for [Space Magic]. These spirits are commonly used as assistants to the mages, which means they have a lot of contact and have to think in similar ways. If we believe that the soul contains the personality or intelligence of a person, what can we infer from the fact that summoned souls and the summoner's souls share a few patterns?
"It means that either the summoned souls are a copy of a part of the summoner's soul or the summoner changes his own soul so that a part of it can connect to the soul of the summoned creature. But even the summoned creatures have souls similar to one another. So if we assume that their soul is part of their personality we can infer that their souls is merely a small piece of what makes a humanoid conscious and capable of following orders.
"If summoning creates a body from mana and molds a simple soul inside this body, can we simply create a soul and infuse that soul on a new body? If it works I will call this [Golemancy]."
The notes detail a bunch of experiments and other conjectures about summoning magic, not sure if I can use them to help train summoning. At least I have solved the mystery of my acid trip.
But now I have another mystery to solve, how do I understand what each soul is going to do? Perhaps I could start by copying the soul of a summoned creature but that will require me to observe the soul with a high [Sense Presence], seems doable but also very complex. I was thinking about my soul manipulation that I did with [Redirect Mana], I wonder if I can use it to feel someone's soul.
I summon a bird and concentrate again. I move my soul towards the bird on the desk and envelop it. I can feel it, taste it, it's a particularly disgusting feeling. It only felt good with Roxanne because she is a beautiful woman and it went only skin deep.
I share my touch feelings with the bird and oh boy, this could be sexual quite easily. It does feel really good to be touched by a soul.
Ok, bad thoughts, I gotta concentrate.
I can certainly feel the bird but I can't penetrate it, I guess I will do the same as with the wall. I'm still sharing the touch feeling and I start feeling a tickling sensation when I try to penetrate the chest. It's getting stronger and starting to interfere with my concentration but I soldier on and continue.
I do it, I penetrate the body of the bird. It's even more disgusting, I can taste the raw meat. But the bird itself is not feeling much different, only tickles a little more inside. I envelop the outside and spread through the entire inside of the bird, this could be a good diagnosis tool, I can feel every vein and bone and organ of the bird. This soul touch is starting to frighten me.
Now where's the soul? I'm using my soul to touch it physically but there's no soul there. Hm… I need to concentrate more, I can still absorb more information about the bird but I'm getting tired, I'm near my limit.
Just, a bit more. There's something… Odd, with this bird. I can feel everything on it but there's something hiding, some information that's evading me. Is this the soul? The mage did write that our mind tries to avoid looking at the shape of the soul. I just need to force a bit more. A bit… More… More!
Something starts to assemble on my mind. I feel that I can now see something that was trying to hide, like a magnet that wants to escape and gets hotter the more you press. It's as if I'm putting the pieces together, I know that the pieces fit, I can see how they fit. I just need to put them together so I can see the bigger picture, I need them together so I can see the shape they make… A bit more… MORE! Oh, well shit, it's just a fucking cube.
I let the pieces go and my mind starts to hurt, that was super tiring even if I didn't move a muscle. My muscles are okay but my mind is tired, I don't want to think anymore, Alissa come save me. I send the green signal to Alissa.
"Master, are you okay?" Alissa asks.
"Hm?"
"You are very absent-minded."
"Oh… I'm very tired. Working on [Redirect Mana]."
Roxanne chuckles and sends a thumbs up. I guess I look just like her right now. Alissa sighs.
Oh shit I barely paid attention to them during bath, that was shameful of me.
Tonight I need comfort, I don't let Alissa read and I keep kissing her deeply while Hana strokes both our heads. Then when Hana has enough she takes me upstairs and abuses my body. Then it's Alissa's, the awakened peeping pervert, turn. I'm actually super drained today but I endure, even if my balls and dick hurt I will please my women, I did not receive such a gift from the gods to let them stay unsatisfied.
Today is the 14th.
I wake up in heaven and think about yesterday. The bird's soul was just a cube but there's more info below that, there's more intricacies that I can look for. I summon the bird again and do the same, I hold the pieces of the soul in place and try to observe them further.
The cube has an intricate geometric engraving, it starts as a circle and slowly turns into a web and then into a grainy pattern to form another circle. This pattern repeats as I get closer, it's like the engravings change the closer I get until they stop. It hurts my eyes, something's resisting my approach with great force. There's something below the geometric patterns, something like a language. I don't understand, I can't look at it for long but it's there. I have to look, I have to look harder.
"Master?!" Alissa says with a desperate voice while shaking me.
"What?" I ask completely confused.
"Yo-you were moaning and writhing about."
"What?" I'm even more confused.
"What were you doing?" She seems even more worried.
"Trying something out, there's some hidden knowledge that's hard to get to."
"You are hurting yourself."
"I… honestly I wasn't squirming and moaning. I don't know why I my body did that, it moved on it's own."
"Master… please be careful, this looks dangerous."
Yeah, it does. My heart is burning right now, my body is lethargic and my mind is spinning. But this is exciting, I'm looking at something no one did yet, or at least I think that mage did but the proof got lost.
"I know, I will stop now," I say.
Hana is at the doorway and the worried face of both of them breaks my heart. I have a feeling that even the Goddess of Knowledge won't approve of me hurting myself.
I go downstairs and reflect on what I saw while sweeping the floor.
That was feedback. The way I'm seeing inside the soul requires some sort of contact, "feeling" the soul is not like seeing, it's not something passive, it's an active sensing. The soul is not something we should be looking at it seems, or at least I shouldn't be using my naked soul to look inside another soul. I need to put "gloves" on my soul to interact with another soul this directly.
[Sense Mana] and [Sense Presence] aren't passive sensors. With [Sense Mana] I can see with precision the shape and distance of the mana. Mana is flying to the air and not passing through me, how could I sense them without active sensing? There's no light that hits mana, gets changed into a different color and hits our eyes so we can see it.
To sense mana or a presence we have to modify our souls in a similar way to the way I was changing my soul with [Redirect Mana]. I wasn't manipulating my soul directly, I was manipulating the mana inside my soul and using that mana to stretch my soul to touch other things. That's how I absorbed mana from the world, I stretched my soul on mana stream and redirected the mana that was now inside my soul so I could absorb it. To successfully look into the soul of somebody I have to invent a skill like [Sense Soul] or something like that.
But why am I so good at this? Why nobody managed to come to these conclusions? There's spirit magic and other people could use [Sense Presence] or [Sense Mana], they could have put some willpower into it and noticed the small details. Is my analytical mind so rare here? Perhaps it's skill system instant-casting and [Redirect Mana] that gave me a new perspective on my research.
"Your grin is a little creepy," says Roxanne.
"Oh? I didn't even notice, I made some breakthrough and now I'm digesting things. But your face is even creepier, you look like a ghost."
"Hahahah," Roxanne's ghost-like face lightens up, "I also made a breakthrough, but I learned this means I have more work to do so I'm rather tired right now."
"You really should rest, I'm worried about you."
"Awn. Thank you, but I have done worse, I'm fine."
"Yeah, done worse but that still shaves years of your life."
"Guh..." She flinches, "I… will take a break…"
"Yes, do it please."
Roxanne goes to the sofa and lays down, I tell Alissa to bring some good tea and cookies to her and tell Hana to keep her company.
Shit, I told her to take a break but now I'm the one who wants to touch a soul "bare-souled" again. I guess I will laze around the sofa with them and think about what I saw.
Hana uses her stroking skills on Roxanne and she collapses on her lap, I use my ear massage skills and make Alissa collapse on my lap. We spend the rest of the morning lazing about.
We have sweet bread to go with sweet vegetable soup and more orc meat with fungi sauce.
After lunch a messenger appears. Silas invited us to a subjugation force for a large goblin camp found a day from the town.
"This must be the one we reported some time ago, isn't that right, master?" Asks Alissa.
"I think so too... oh, so this letter is a request we can't turn down?" I ask
"Please, master, we have to go," says Hana.
"It's just a question."
"Oh, sorry. Well yes, we can't turn it down," answers Hana.
"Technically we can but we can be kicked out of the guild if we do that," says Roxanne.
"I see. Well, what does 'shock squad' means?"
"It means we will be the ones doing the slaughter," says Alissa.
"Blessed with good luck," says Hana with a grin.
I frown. Alissa grabs my hand and I sigh.
"That's actually quite a good position, we will be watched by everybody," says Hana.
That makes things even worse.
"I'm actually pretty shy among strangers, I don't feel blessed," I say.
"That's no problem, master. Keep near me and I will brush away anyone who comes to bother you," says Hana with a smile.
A bit comforting.
"Master is kind and wise, those are your strengths. If you don't want to deal with problematic people leave it to us, we will keep you safe," Alissa adds.
A bit more comforting.
"Even I know that. Wolf is a precious gem that breaks easily," says Roxanne with smirk.
Eh, please, that had the opposite effect.
"Miss Roxanne! That wasn't something good to say," scolds Alissa.
Roxanne runs away to her room and Hana laughs.
To be honest I actually do feel blessed, blessed to have these girls.
The departure will be on the 16th at 1PM. We have enough time to collect our money from the auction and get our reserved equipment.
Since we are going to fight all of us, except Roxanne who we locked out of her room for her to rest, went to the training grounds to brush up on our skills.
Alissa draws a crowd with her archery skills and Hana has a line of students challenging her for a spar, some people are betting heavily in favor of Hana. I go to my corner and practice my fireballs again.
After training I feel something change heavily in me, I look and I gained 4 points in [Mana Efficiency], my [Sense Mana] increased by 2, my MP increased by 100 (now 455) and my "Magic Power" increased by 10 (now 210).
Wow, I guess my knowledge about mana increased a lot during this time but I never practiced it properly so it must have accumulated somehow until now. Or maybe this is the Goddess of Growth helping me prepare, regardless I guess I should thank her.
Thank you Goddess of Growth.
We take a bath together and Hana tries to brush Alissa's tail, it ends badly and I have to do it to compensate for her. Hana is gets sad but I guess her talent lies in stroking hair.
Dinner is sandwich of fried minced meat, a proto-hamburger. I used lots of leaves and squishy vegetables to make it as close to Earth's burger than I could, the girls loved it. "Refreshing" they said, they were going to put some heavy sauce on it which would make it soggy and impossible to eat with your hands.
I tried to carry Hana who fell asleep in the sofa but I fail, to my utter shame.
"Awn, that was cute. Don't feel bad, I'll play with you more today, okay?" She asks and strokes my hair again.
Tonight Alissa teaches Hana how to use her mouth, she doesn't have fangs so it goes well. She's more of a storm while Alissa is much more delicate. I finish inside her mouth and she tells me she loves the taste, I just don't know how to answer to that.
After that Alissa rides me while Hana uses my face. I feel my balls shriveling.
Today is the 15th.
I wake up and Hana is trying to suck my soul through my dick. I endure the pain in my balls and dick and cum again, then I feel something change within me.
I gained the skill [Enhanced Semen Recharge]. What the fuck.
Hana laughs her way out of the room. Alissa assumes a poker face and freezes on the bed, staring at the distance. I go out and Roxanne runs to her room laughing, Hana told her.
You know what, fuck this. I will wear it with pride, what kind of man has his balls drained every day for so long he develops a fucking skill? I'm a pervert and I can become a sex god in a few seconds, this is my talent and my biggest source of dopamine. Bow to me, unworthy men who cannot even please your own women.
"Rejoice, Alissa, this means you can do hold back less if you wish to do me," I say.
She looks at me, looks at the distance, looks at me again, opens her mouth as if to say something, then closes it and blushes. How can you still blush like this?
We eat toast with pâté, butter and tea after everyone calmed down. Roxanne sends me a few gazes, Hana seems to be in a good mood and Alissa keeps her poker face.
The auction will start accepting bids at 3PM, we are not required to be there at the start but I want to see it. It will take at most an hour, then we will have to linger a while to receive our money.
I'm getting anxious so I try to spend time sparring with Hana.
"Roxanne, did you ever get your share of the bounty from the Symbol?" I ask.
"Oh shit, I forgot! Eheheheh, can we pass by the guild before we go to the auction?"
I shrug.
Roxanne is locked out of her room so she's just watching us from the window on the living room.
"You work too much Roxanne, you have to clear your mind once in a while or you will block yourself and stop progressing," Warns Hana.
"Hm? What do you mean?" Asks Roxanne.
"Mental progress, skill training, and muscle training are all similar. Sometimes your mind won't learn if you don't stop to rest. This goes for martial training and muscular growth, if you overdo it you stop or even lose progress," she answers.
"Hmmm, perhaps there's some truth to that."
"Hmph," Hana grunts while casually parrying my attack and countering me.
"We all care about you, so don't overdo it, ok?" Says Alissa, while practicing her bow.
That got her. She lower her eyes and looks a little guilty.
"Thank you… I don't know how to work as a team properly, so thank you..." Roxanne says.
"Awn..." Hana stops the spar and gives Roxanne a sweaty hug.
"Eck!"
In the end Roxanne practices her water and fire a bit. She shows impressive control by making very small spells, she did not go rusty while working non"stop. I think this is how she uses her [Explosion], an extremely small and concentrated ball of fire and water conjured inside the target. Direct manipulation of other living beings is extremely difficult, I guess her spell is so small and concentrated she can basically bypass that.
For lunch Alissa shows a meaty pasta sauce that reminds me of Madeira sauce.
Then we all get ready to go and holy shit the women look hot. Alissa melts my heart with her cute white frilly dress and small white shoes, Hana looks majestic with a risque red silk straight dress open on the back and Roxanne makes me uncomfortable with a black slightly gothic dress with a huge cleavage and black knee socks.
Roxanne and Hana go by magic carpet while I ride Alissa. We pass by the monster hunters guild and the hall nearly stops for them. This is a bit too much attention, I'm sweating cold. Thankfully Roxanne doesn't waste time, her reward was already ready. Then we are finally off to the theater.
The theater is an amazing place, it has beautiful Gothic architecture and a blood red color from it's bricks. It's a half circle where the entrance is on the circular side. The walls are full of details and arches in relief and statues of all kinds of humanoids in different postures. With a sword in hand, reading a book, shaking a flask, holding an orc head, putting on a crown, tilling the land, and many others. All the statues are supposed to represent a great work of art that became known around the world.
Inside, the bricks turn yellow and give a majestic feeling to the architecture. There are large sets of stairs that take to the 3 levels of stands that there are. On the walls are paintings on huge canvas depicting the plays being shown. I really need to come here one day and watch one of these plays but the luxury puts me off.
The guards at the entrance knows who we are and they direct us to a specific stand where Silas is. It's a balcony on the 3rd floor where we have central view of the stage. Silas is sitting there talking to a majestic man with a huge red fur cloak and black and gold clothes with a few jewels embedded.
"That is the lord of Rabanara, Alaraste Anara," whispers Alissa.
Oh fuck, oh fuck. Silas sees us entering and points to chairs besides him.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Ryder. It's good to see you here," says Silas.
"G-good afternoon, guildmaster. I was curious to see how it would go," I answer and sit down to his left.
"It's just a small event, nothing special."
Alissa sat on my other side and Hana and Roxanne sat down on the row behind us.
"Good afternoon, Miss Alissa, Miss Roxanne and Miss Hanafuria," he looks at each girl and nods. They give a greeting and nod back.
"This is the lord of Rabanara, Alaraste Anara. My lord, this is one of the fellowships who fought the Symbol, the fellowship Helios. Miss Hanafuria wasn't present at the battle.
The lord turns and looks at us. He's a dark haired man with square jaw and a well kept stubble. He has a deep, stoic gaze, his black eyes pierce me and then pierce the girls. He has an aura of authority, I wonder if it's a skill.
"Greetings to you all," he says. I mimic Alissa and give a small bow, "I see it now, the man, the mage, the archer and now a strong shield. You will do well tomorrow, look for my elite squad, you should work together with them."
"Elite squad?" Whispers Alissa.
"Elite squad?" I repeat reflexively. I'm sweating.
"Yes. They will be the main power on the subjugation tomorrow, your mage and your archer are very powerful killing forces, have them work with my elite squad."
"Say 'as you wish, my lord'," Alissa whispers.
"Y-yes, as you wish, my lord," I obey, Alissa pushes my back and I give a small bow.
For a split second I notice a small smile on the Lord's face.
"A large amount of goblins are amassing on that camp, we couldn't find it's exact location so we are calling every reliable fellowship that has a tracker," Silas says, "Also we will require quite a lot of firepower so we calling for the Lord's help this time, he will lend us a subjugation squad with a genius magician. The elite squad, yours and 2 others will be the main killers of this operation. But let's leave the details for tomorrow."
He smiles faintly and we turn forward again.
In a few minutes it starts. On the stage a man appears in a proto-suit.
"Gentlemen and gentlewomen. Good afternoon to all of you and to our Lord Anara who's watching over us today," and he motions to our balcony.
Alaraste gets up and waves once, then he sits down. The lower floor can't see me sitting but all the other balconies can, the amount of gazes in this direction makes me freeze.
"Tonight we are all here gathered for an auction of the body of a legendary creature, the Symbol of Hate. This creature is an aberrant monster that lived for 203 years, we know that it's soul is so deformed it doesn't even obey the Monster King. It reached 5 meters and 12 centimeters under normal posture. It has 12 spider legs with a hair so sharp that can draw blood if you carelessly touch it. The body of the spider is as tough as a plated knight while the body of the human has a skin as tough as an ogre. It's mouth is composed by hundreds of small teeth that painfully tear and shred anything it eats, don't smell them, you will puke. Its hands sports such long, sharp and tough nails that it used it in combat as a weapon similar to a dagger. The hero who was stabbed by these nails barely survived."
Oh, that's me… don't call me "hero" though.
"It is a being that literally fed on pain. It captured its prey, tortured it, harmed it and then like a caring mother brought it back to full health, only to start the cycle of pain again. Only when someone's mind is truly broken is that mercy is given and the prey is finally eaten alive. It's the embodiment of misery, it's cunning allowed it to avoid all who were sent to exterminate it until it underestimated the destructive power and cunning of two humble fellowships. I present you the corpse of the Symbol of Hate!"
A large square glass cube floats towards the middle of the stage and the theater explodes in murmurs.
"Impressive, what a fierce battle," says Alaraste, his eyes widen.
The body is floating inside the glass cube. You can see floating besides it the two missing spider legs, the missing spider leg tips, and the bloodied and partly burned arms and head. The finger daggers on one arm are still bloodied with my blood. The head has its eyes and mouth open. The arrows are still stuck on its eyes, the artwork of Alissa. A piece of intestine dangles from below the Symbol, now that is my artwork.
I feel a slight shifting behind me. Roxanne is looking away and Hana is squeezing her hand. The auctioneer continues.
"You can all see the damage required to stop such monstrosity. Incredible accuracy with arrows to hit the eyes. Fearsome swordsmanship to be able to cut legs and the tips. The unbelievable cut below the entire thorax of the spider. The courage to throw oneself into these frightening daggers on its fingers. And finally, the most impressive is how destroyed the main body is, the genius of the mage who blew up the entire torso of the Symbol with one attack. Fortunately for us the arms and head survived such gruesome fate."
Roxanne is being praised but she looks paler than she normally is and looks down. Now Alissa turns around to give her hand a squeeze.
"Fortunately for all of us the most interesting parts survived, the human head and the spider body. Even with most of its eyes destroyed the nervous system of the spider is still intact, the legs and the innards still hold most of its contents and there's still a lot of blood inside the body. A treasure trove for those who are looking for 203 year old monster parts that have been soaking in mana and pain for all this time."
"Let us start the bidding! The body will be sold in its entirety along with all the severed parts. The initial bid is 1 rose coin!"
"1 and 10!"
"1 and 20!"
," 1 and 50!"
," 2 coins!"
Starting good.
"2 and 30!"
"2 and 40!"
"3 coins!"
Oh boy.
"3 and 50!"
"4 coins!"
Keep it going!
"4 and 20!"
"4 and 30!"
I'm at the edge of my seat. I can taste the money.
"4 and 40!"
"..."
"4 and 45!"
It's slowing down. Oh no.
"4 and 50!"
"..."
"5 coins!"
"…"
"..."
Oh.
"…"
"Is that all?" Asks the auctioneer.
"It's a 1."
"It's a 2."
"It's a 3!"
"SOLD!"
177 gold coins for us. 107 after paying for Hana. I'm rich, bitches!
I look back and find that 'Hauberk' is a few rows to the side, I didn't notice them coming.
Gunther is with his eyes closed, he holds an expressionless face. Lorthar has his hands clasped and he's praying. Minerva is crying with an ugly face and snot dripping from her nose. It's kinda heartwarming, 22 gold coins for each is still a lot, they could even retire and buy a farm somewhere.
The lord quietly leaves. Silas motions us and Hauberk to come with him. We are taken to a room, in there we sit on one of the luxurious sofas and wait. There's a man with a thick magnifying glass with inscriptions on the lens, he must be the metal appraiser.
An old man with a large black and purple robe and pointy hat appears. He carries a jeweled metal staff with a giant shining yellow jewel at the top. He walks slowly and a bit wobbly but I can feel a strong savagery in his eyes. Another man with a proto-suit holds the arm of the old man and they walk together.
"Grand Rizek. Pleasure to have you here," says Silas.
"Hoh, pleasure to be here, even more pleasured that I lived long enough to see such a legend be killed," the old man responds in a raspy but very strong voice.
Silas simply smiles and the man is brought to a chair. He turns around to us.
"Hah, wouldn't have imagined such squirts would bring that thing down. The tortured souls that were victims of that evil thing thank you."
We simply nod, slightly overwhelmed at his vigor.
"Now, Sebastian."
Another butler, another Sebastian. With a *poof* he materializes 5 rose coins and puts them on the table. The appraiser inspects each coin and then nods to Silas.
"Then it's done," Silas snaps a finger and another man with a proto-suit appears, "Please take Grand Rizek to the storage area."
Rizek leaves slowly.
"Who was that man?" I ask.
"A mage that belongs to the lords court. He's a genius of [Electric Magic]," says Roxanne.
Electric, eh…?
Silas stores the coins in his [Item Box] and brings out a huge sack of gold coins, another with silver coins, and a last one with copper coins. Then one of his helpers count the coins and separate the parts for each of us. The guild takes 5%.
"Glad to do business with you. We will see each other again tomorrow," Silas says with a smile.
"I'm glad I met you, even under those circumstances I'm glad I met you," Gunther says, he and the other 2 companions come and shake our hands.
"What are you going to do now?" I ask.
"Move to a calmer area, we can take it easy now and possibly find a nice place to retire," Answers Gunther, he lets out a large smile and his eyes look far away.
"Be well," I say.
And finally we leave. Tomorrow we will pay Ghulam and retrieve the equipment we reserved for Hana. Tomorrow a new adventure begins. I'm only a bit excited, a tiny little bit.
Chapter end
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