Today is the 30th.
The demand of semen has been nearing the production capacity of Ryder's Baby Factory. To resolve this we have requisitioned an upgrade, [Enhanced Semen Recharge] has been upgraded by 1 point (now 0+6).
We have one last breakfast of fruit salad with Chantilly.
I sit near Hana and whisper in her ear.
"Hey, Roxanne," Hana strains her face trying not to smile, "what do you think Chantilly is made of?"
"Uh..." She looks at her large bowl blankly. "Milk?"
"Yeah and what else?"
"Sugar?"
"And...?"
"I dunno," she shrugs.
Hana lets her evil smile surface.
"Fat... loads and loads of fat."
Roxanne and Ciel freeze, one with a spoon entering her mouth, the other mid chewing.
"N-no, no, nooooo..."
Both of them look at their bowls with pain and sorrow.
Lina purses her lips and pushes the bowl away. I look at Alissa, she rolls her eyes and continues eating.
"It's highly unlikely we will eat anything like this again so soon," I say while I grab more of the salad. "Eat all you want just one last time."
Roxanne and Ciel look at each other then nod.
Nothing was left of the breakfast.
"Let's make a picture," I say.
I fill the gnomic magic tool with mana and with a little awkwardness we position the smoky quartz on the table, we prop it over glasses and pots. Behind it we leave a wide canvas and we stand in front of the bed, prepared for the picture.
I sit down on chair with Lina on my lap. Alissa and Ciel sit down on my sides, each holding one of my arms. Roxanne and Hana hug each other with one hand over my chest. Aoi on Hana's shoulders, and Gify on mine.
The mana starts to seep out of the tool and it flashes. Smoke leaves the canvas, a rather faint and somewhat blurry image is burned into it. Looks like an old school picture without the sepia filter.
"Amazing..." Alissa mutters.
"Gih."
"Beautiful indeed," Ciel says.
"Hohoh, I always knew my glasses make me look sexier," Roxanne says.
"You might be sexy, but damn, I'm hot," Hana says.
"That's the smile that conquered my heart," I say.
"Awn..."
"My eyes are so..." Lina looks incredulously at herself.
"Cute," I say.
"Cute," Ciel repeats.
"Hmm..." Lina purses her lips.
We take one last walk on the market. Now with the Christmas wreaths the girls can more actively participate. Lina and Hana spend a long time together bartering with the animals. It was mostly Hana talking, with Lina coaching and helping out.
It's wonderful that the animals and magic beings here have a different view on sexuality, the girls can all use pretty dresses without attracting attention. They could all walk naked without anyone batting an eye.
Roxanne is sporting a rather risque black dress with her back exposed and only a loose and thin piece of cloth covering her nipples. It would certainly turn heads if we were among humanoids. Hana is using something similar. Her vibrant hair and the large breasts straining the dress would attract even more eyes.
I walk with Roxanne on one arm and Alissa on another. Roxanne seems distracted with the corners of her mouth on a smile.
"Something on your mind?" I ask her.
She snaps back to reality and readjusts her glasses.
"Well I'm just feeling sad we are leaving this place," she says.
"I know, right. I would love to live here," Alissa says, she turns her head around and looks at the market with a warm smile.
"It's just so different, so lively. The Holy Academy was so quiet and strict, it was suffocating. And then when I decided to travel I was always tense. I think that when I
met
that man who tried to... do things, I got a little paranoid but still. Traveling with you feels so relaxing."
"I have to agree," Ciel says from behind us, "though we shouldn't grow complacent, there's still much danger out there."
"Don't have to remember me, I will never forget invisible assassins," Roxanne says while nodding repeatedly. "But... even though we get into so much danger I just. I just don't want to leave, ever."
I see the corner of her eyes water.
"Getting sentimental on me now, eh?" I tease.
"Shush! Don't ruin this!" She glares at me.
I chuckle and kiss her soft hand, this appeases her a little.
"We already said our vows so I'm not saying something new but I'm glad you are here. I trust all of you deeply," I say.
Ciel gives me a kiss on the neck and Alissa a kiss on the cheek. I tap my cheek repeatedly until Roxanne takes the hint and gives me a kiss too.
"This place actually reminds me of home," Roxanne continues, "the first home, before the Academy."
"What's the name?" I ask. "We can certainly visit it sometime."
"Mashoor. My parents don't live there so..."
"You are going to have to meet your parents one day."
She frowns and looks away. I pull on her hand and she looks at me.
"Look. I can't go back to my parents, I won't let you run away from yours."
"I'm, I'm sorry, Wolfy," she lowers her eyes, the sadness on her face breaks my heart."
I release her arm and grab her pale cheek.
"We will do it together. You won't be alone with them we will be
all
there."
She purses her lips and strains a smile. "Thank you..."
"Love you."
Now she smiles.
"Love you too."
She recovers and we continue our stroll.
One last lunch in the dryad all-you-can-eat restaurant and we are ready to leave.
Arlo takes us to a residential floor. Deep within we enter a room.
"Oh, huma-... humanoids!" Exclaims a woman.
An average brown-haired woman. She's wearing grey robes with an embroidery of the Anara heraldry on the shoulder.
"Oh hello. Didn't expect other humanoids here," Alissa says.
"Me too," she nods with a smile, "it's very rare. Actually not so much, there's one or two of those weird druids around who appear once in a while."
"They are only weird to your human standards," Arlo says in tired tone.
"Which is why they are weird. They are different from normal humans."
Arlo does a noisy shrug and turns to us.
"We will be sending a word to the Lord of Rabanara that you are an acquaintance of our Lord. Is that alright with you?" He asks.
"I have a close relationship to Vanea," I say, "she even know of my Gifts."
"Much better this way, then," he noisily nods.
He turns to the woman and hands her a sealed letter.
"To the Lord, please."
The woman grabs the letter and puts it on the ground in front of her. The black circle of [
Gate
] appears and disappears, taking with it the letter.
"So where to?" The woman asks.
"Can you take us just outside Rabanara?" I ask.
"Sure. Simply walk north and you will reach there in a minute or two."
"Thanks."
I summon Holly to the surprise of the woman and send her first to check the area. Once I deem it clear we all go through the [
Gate
].
Now we are back at the humid and oppressive Sea of Trees. The moss and mud is still humid from the rain of the last few days.
Hana sighs with sadness.
"That place was so nice. Reminds me of the streets of Betzenstein, the wereapes there were noisy but I miss it. The Tree made me feel nostalgic," she smiles faintly.
"Is that in Sommerland?" Ciel asks.
"Yep," her mouth smiles but I see a hint of pain on her eyes.
Sommerland must be where her family is locked up. When I become a noble I will see what I can do to free them. I could convince them to become my Blood Slaves like how Hana is.
We easily reach town and enter through the east gate.
There's a considerable number of UFO's flying around the sky of the town. Not the same number compared to the university but it's noticeable. I wonder if some air control legislation is going to be implemented to prevent accidents.
Me and Alissa go to the hunter's guild while the other girls go back home. I gave them my 2 small clay golems to help clean the house.
Another fight is breaking out as we enter the guild. The booze from lunch must be still running on their blood. Not that there's really a specific time that these people start to drink.
Taking a look at the request boards I see a few asking to escort children into the Sea of Trees for leveling up. Getting a few levels and some skills could be wonderful for their job prospects, parents must be saving money so they could pay for a request like this.
"I want to talk with Carmen, can you go to Gordon without me?" Alissa asks.
"Sure, no problem. Report to her the Hooknose nest we found."
I enter the waiting area of the disassembling room and after half an hour Gordon calls me.
"Oh, storm elementals, how rare," he says.
He closes his eye as he feels the mana in the broken stones.
"We went a little deep in the Sea," I say, "we were just exploring when we found them, couldn't resist and fought."
"They should be tough nuts to crack."
"And they were. But we were tougher."
Gordon chuckles and passes a large hand over his shining bald head, then he calls Sonny. No job for him since there's no guts to butcher. The albino Incubus weighs the stones and runs some calculations.
"You should go to the Gambler's Den, Mr. Ryder," Sonny says, "put your luck into some money before it runs out."
"Got other plans for that," I say with a smirk, "I'm gonna need all the luck I can get."
"Remember to not die," Gordon says.
"That's my first rule."
"Heh, and the second?"
"'Let's never get into a situation where someone needs to die.'"
"Hah, good man."
I take my 4 gold coins and leave. I won't show the Gatuns since there's no reasonable explanations why they would be at the Sea.
Outside Alissa is talking with Carmen. For a split second the brunette madam gives me a gaze that makes me feel like prey. Even with the [Mental Resistance] necklace
and
after living with Hana for so long Carmen's gaze still makes me feel like piece of meat.
Alissa hands me a bundle of coins.
"Reward for the information we gave," she tells me.
"Soon you will have a little more, I'm sure," Carmen says with warm smile.
"You want to stay a little longer?" I ask.
"No, it's okay, let's go home."
"Goodbye Alissa, Mr. Ryder."
"Goodbye Madame Carmen."
Back at home Roxanne calls me to practice [
Heart of Fire
] on the bath. She's developing her own chant for it.
I spend my time trying to move but even with my body retaining shape moving it requires mental effort, it's very tiring.
We sprawl on the floor naked. Her body is warm so I scootch over to her and rest her head on my chest, her hand trails down and strokes me very lightly. I trace my hand through her black hair and smell the calming lavender.
Alissa is lightly practicing her [Illusion Magic] besides us, every once in a while we see her body flicker and turn into two for a second, [
Double Image
]. We both stare at her, she looks like a snack all concentrated and stuff.
Aoi is casually staring at us, amused at our efforts of trying to turn into fire. Lina is right outside maintaining our weapons. Hana and Ciel are outside sparring, Gify is with them, teasing the one who's losing.
"Wolfy, what's the level 40 spell of [Summoning Magic]?" Roxanne asks.
"Uh... It's a spell called [
Bind
]."
Alissa's eyes shoot open.
"What does it do?" She asks with anticipation dripping from her voice.
"No idea, which is why I'm not touching it yet."
"Hmm..." Alissa pouts to me.
A sigh escapes my lips.
"Look, there's way too much that could go wrong with a spell like that," I say with a stern tone. "What if you are pregnant and then I summon you and the baby stays in place?"
Both girls look at me with surprise.
"That sounds horrifying," Roxanne says, her pale face slightly paler.
"And that's not the only thing that could go wrong," I continue, I let my tone turn even more stern. "What if she becomes like an elemental and loses her personality? What if it requires lots of mana to keep her summoned? What if something on her changes permanently due to the binding? I love you too much Alissa to risk you for something like this."
She frowns and lowers her eyes.
"I'm sorry Wolfy, I was being stupid," she says.
"It's okay, I just... Won't risk you."
"What if you tried with something else? Like a monster or an animal?" Roxanne asks.
"Kweh!" Aoi lifts her head in excitement.
"Come over here," I tell Aoi.
She scampers over to my side and I flicker her forhead.
OW!
"Ow," she closes her eyes in pain.
I think I hurt myself more than I hurt her.
"Don't look down on yourself just because you were born as a monster. I won't risk you either," I scowl at her.
"Kweh..." She lowers her head in apology.
I sigh again. These women are too reckless.
Roxanne smirks and chuckles.
"Be a little happy that they wish to be bound to you so much," she says.
I scoff and smile faintly.
"Aside from Alissa's fetish with domination I don't need unconditional loyalty. I want companions that trust me."
"It's easier to just run from responsibility and simply give eternal loyalty," Roxanne says, she looks down and smiles with a hint of sadness. "I know because that's what I do."
"You have so much 'Intelligence' and 'Wisdom' and you act so air-headed most of the time," I flicker her forehead.
"Ow... Heheh," she shows her tongue to me. "What can I say, I'm lazy and you are reliable. Point me to things and I make them go 'BOOM!' That's what I do."
"And potions," Alissa adds.
"And potions."
"Wolfy," Lina says from the door way, "what if you find a stray animal that's dying?"
"What if the animal dying causes feedback?" I say.
"Feedback?"
"Uh... Something like our souls become connected and when it dies it hurts my soul."
"Oh. That's true. Then just a small normal animal should do."
"A bird," Alissa says, "it won't get in the way and can move more freely than something like a cat or dog."
I wanted a dog, though.
After a little handsy we go back to our training. I admit that training naked is slightly distracting but the benefits in morale outweighs the problems in concentration.
Hana barges in on the bath, she seems rather annoyed while Ciel comes behind her with a very smug smile.
"Wolfy, fuck me, now."
I turn back into human and lay down on the floor, erection rising at her command. She sits on me and grunts in relief.
"What's up... With you?" I ask.
"Eheheh," Ciel smiles innocently, "she lost to me and now she became quite the Symbol of Envy."
"Stupid [Glaive Use]... It's not a spear...! You shouldn't be able... To use a spear so... Effectively!"
"Not my fault [Imperial Hasterrum Style] also cover a lot of spearmanship."
Hana mutters a blasphemy towards the skill system only I and Alissa could hear.
"Be thankful I don't like betting," Ciel says.
Hana grunts.
"What did she try to bet?" Roxanne asks.
"Wolfy's cum," Hana answers flatly.
Ciel frowns and turns red.
"No. We bet his time," she says.
"Same thing," Hana shrugs.
"For you, you sex-crazed slut," Ciel shows Hana her tongue.
"That's a compliment," and she smiles ferociously to me, I nearly freeze as her man-eating gaze turns up to eleven.
"You are... My slut..." I let it out between shockwaves.
She smiles and hugs me, allowing me to smell the alluring scent of her sweat. I grab her cheeks and feel her emerald scales, then I pull her close for a kiss. I run my hand through her red hair and feel how silky and puffy it is, the high elven products completely removed the mating of her hair.
Ciel's good mood seems to vanish when I give my attention to Alissa during the bath. She fidgets and pulls Lina tight on a hug.
For dinner we have pasta with bean sauce, I made this sauce trying to imitate tomato sauce but it only faintly resembles it. I'm craving for some spaghetti al pomodoro, though.
I miss tomatos, I miss pizza, I miss margheritta, I miss the red sweet and savory goodness, the heavenly brother of pasta, the secret ingredient of sauces, the sweet paradise of ketchup, the orgasmic barbecue. Alas, it is not to be.
At night Alissa cuddles with me while she reads Toroo's book on [Illusion Magic], it's an introductory tome. This magic school is incomplete so the spells on it aren't really the safest or the most efficient yet. Spells like [
Ghost Lights
] and [
Double Image
] are simplified enough that they activate every time someone looks into your eyes. In a battlefield this could result in your mana dropping like a rock and you being hit with overuse.
I spend my time leisurely looking at the souls of the little two golems. I want to focus on them now, they could be excellent servants if I improve them.
I sleep safe and sound. The Tree of Mana is a great place but home is home and my home is this house.
I don't think I have enough mana for a [
Gate
] between High Forest and here, we will have to leave. It will be heartbreaking to leave this place.
Today is the first day of the cycle, Genn, the day of Light; also 1st day of the 9th month, the month of Combat.
I play with Hana's mane as she lays her head on my belly. I breathe in deeply and stretch.
"Darean is fucked and now we can relax," I say.
"Just one month of relaxation though," Hana says.
"You looking forward to leaving this place?"
"Not really, there's enough ways to gain a living here and nothing is really lacking for me," she turns her head to me and smiles wryly, her emerald scales on her cheek tickle my belly. "Though I'm worried about growing too soft, you pamper me too much."
"He pampers
us
too much," Alissa says.
"You all pamper me too much," I say.
"What was that thing you said once, tushy?" Hana asks.
"Uh... 'touché'?" I question.
"Yes, that, touché," she licks my abs and gets up.
My [Fire Magic] increased by 1 (now 0+3).
Alissa increased her "Charisma" by 1 (now 11) and her [Illusion Magic] by 1 (now 4). Her practice of [
Double Image
] is already giving results. That spell makes the target see a double of her that she can control at will.
This month the Coliseum is holding multiple spectacles. A few places on the town are reserved for public duels where hunters and guards participate en masse because there's a few talent scouts out there looking for the better warriors.
A considerable number of knighthood candidates start by showing themselves on these duels and then at the 1st of next month a martial arts tournament will happen. It's there that the nobility will compete for the best candidates.
I spend my morning researching improvements for the golems.
The soul "expands" and covers the entire of the body, knowing this I try to find on the soul where the heart is because that's where we normally gather mana for spells. What I did notice is that I can't really correlate pieces of soul to anywhere on the body, it's like I'm seeing a "window" into some different space. With this my search for the "mana organ" becomes a matter of scouring through every inch of the soul.
I recruit Alissa and Hana for this effort, I look into their soul inch by inch while they cast spells and then meditate. Finally I noticed a specific place where it seems like the complexity of the area reduces as they cast spells and then increases slowly again as they meditate. I assume this is the "mana organ".
Now on the golems, on the exact same place of where the mana organ should be there's a similar "construct". It slowly reduces in complexity until we fill it with mana, then it goes back to maximum complexity. With this I'm certain I found the "mana battery" and that my assumption of the mana organ was correct.
I spend my time observing the surroundings of the battery and organ. Hopefully the organ is what's responsible for collecting mana from the environment like we do. Then I use [
Mold
] on their souls and modify it to be similar to a mana organ.
Curiously I can't fill a mana organ with mana like I can a mana battery. At least there's a level 35 spell for [Nature Magic] called [
Mana Transfusion
] that allows me to do it. I'm rather interested in the mana battery, maybe I could teach something to Lina that could help her enchantments.
The "feeling" of feeding a mana battery is nearly the same as an enchantment or magic tool. When you grab a magic tool it is like you are standing in a slope, you "feel" like moving downwards and when you "let go" the mana is sucked. A mana battery feels a lot stronger the more "empty" it is, when nearing empty it's the difference between standing near a hole and standing near a valley.
"Ohohoh! Now you are self-suficient," I pat both little golems.
Both of them kneel and lower their head towards me.
"Oh, look, they are learning. Ciel taught them that," Hana says.
I must admit it's adorable to see a teddy bear and a cloth doll trying to look dignified.
"Raise, both of you," I say.
They stand tall (heh) and straight, waiting for the next order.
"Can you teach them spells now?" Alissa asks.
"I have to look where in the soul are skills stored."
"Everywhere?" Hana questions with a shrug, "I always thought it was like a box that increased in size with every Level we gain."
"Yes but the soul itself doesn't increase," I say. "How do you fit more things using a box that has the same space?"
"Tighter!"
"Or just better organized," Alissa says.
"Not sure how the second one would work and why would we need soul fragments for it," I say. "I believe it's something more like how warped-distances spaces work."
"You can use [
Warp Space
] now right?"
"Yeah, hopefully it will give me some insight. Well this will have to be left for later, let's go make our lunch."
This time we make some good milk roux for our lasagne, I have buckets of cow milk so they will last us a good while. We roast some Dragolite on garglic and oh Gods, it almost feels like home, almost.
"Logan has started his initiation at the temple," Ciel says. "He can quickly rise as a battle priest, maybe one day he can be a Templar."
"He certainly had the body for one," Hana says.
"Don't they learn magic too? Would he have the talent for that?" I ask.
"There's different types of Templars, because they have to learn martial arts they don't have time to learn all spells," Ciel says. "Not even the healers learn all spells from [Light Magic]."
"Considering my cheats you might become the first one to learn all spells then," I say with a cheeky grin.
"That wouldn't count because of cheating," Ciel rolls her eyes.
"Yet you wanted to learn [
Holy Spirit
] from me," I say.
"Different, uh... that's a different case," she crosses her arms looks away.
After lunch it's return classes for [Space Magic]. The professor is skipping [
Gate
] and focusing on teaching us the level 40 spell [
Warp Space
]. Lucky me.
The skill has some uses for combat but mostly it is used for creating Bags of Holding, House Carriages, House Tents, or the Hyper Loop found on the Capital. What makes these items special is that they are much bigger on the inside, allowing for easier mass transport. They are so expensive you don't even find them for sale in Rabanara, they are almost exclusive to nobility or rich merchants.
Bag of Holding doesn't look very useful when you have [
Item Box
] but they can be used to transport items for quick reach. Like say storing a longsword on a bag tied to your arm for emergencies, or storing battle-potions where they won't be so easily destroyed in case you are hit. You can also apply some [
Telekinesis
] enchantment to it so they weigh less than normal.
We learned that [
Gate
] does not create a "wormhole", it merely switches the position of an object. It's quite literally someone editing the "coordinate" property of an object like in a game editor.
[
Eternal Gate
], the level 50 spell after [
Warp Space
] is the one that creates a permanent wormhole. A wormhole being bending space so much we can poke a hole and transport things from one place to another instantly. This is the spell that created those portals with a white veil inside the dragonoid maze of the Wisps of the Proud.
"So father is quite interesting in meeting you, Wolf," Lyle says.
Noo...
"Why is that?" I ask, containing the frown that yearns for release.
"Well you did save us from a large group of kidnappers, he only wants to show his gratitude," then he cringes and looks away. "I was kind of... vague with how the fight went so he got even more curious about you."
Oh I see, at least he didn't tell him of my Gifts.
"How did you describe it for him?"
"Yeah I can see how he would be interested," I massage my temple. "It's no problem, I will talk to him when the time comes."
Note to self, Lyle is terrible at telling stories, either that or he's very scared of his father.
"He wants to meet at the next class break. Are you going out for hunting?" Lyle says.
"I think nobody wants to leave next break so we should be free."
"The 11th then?"
"Sure."
"Thank you," he smiles apologetically.
"So, what did you guys do this break?" I ask.
"I spent most of my time practicing my magic, father says I can participate at the next battle," Lyle says, his savage gaze turns warm for a moment.
Garanae sighs and Hatara smiles wryly. "I have been trying to focus on [Fire Magic] but I don't have enough "Magic Power", I'll have to stand guard near the backup," he says.
"At least he will be right outside my position," Hatara says.
"Yeah but..."
"We get it," Lyle says.
"Oh, so your [
Heal
] is already powerful enough for you to act as support," Alissa says.
"Nooot really," She curls her ponytail on her hand in discomfort, "Just enough that I'll accompany a temple healer."
"Experience in battle is very important, do your best in there," Lina says.
Hatara blushes but nods in agreement to her words.
"You would know," Alissa says.
Lina smiles adorably.
"What about you? What did you all do this break?" Lyle asks.
"Deep exploration on the Sea of Trees," Alissa says, the trio perk up their ears to her words. "Met a nest of Hooknoses, avoided a bunch of monsters, ran away from poisonous spores, and finally met a Storm elemental."
"Oooh... how was it?"
"Like cracking a nut," I say.
Alissa recites our battle, omitting the instant-casting.
Ciel's turn for attention. She immediately initiates things during bath and makes sure my tongue is occupied, either with hers or some other part of her body.
The grabbing doesn't stop as she makes full use of the time reserved for her. Her tentacles keep me glued to her while we practice Andraste after dinner. Lina pouts and plops herself on my lap.
I casually [Massage] both of them until Lina decides to strip and mount me. Ciel gets irritated but waits until I'm done with her to have her turn.