《Lady of Curses》


 Chapter 1-What is this?

    It was a nice fresh morning today. The grass was fluffy and comfortable, the ground soft and pleasant. Only problem was that the sun was glaring its rays straight at Aella''s face which wasn''t a pleasant experience so she decided to turn on her stomach and shield her face. Continuing her pleasant sleep she could hear birds chirping and some river flowing in the distance, making a relaxing tune.


    Today indeed was the perfect morning for her, as she could enjoy it as long as she wanted because she didn''t need to go to her work today, making her happier as she won''t have to freeze in the cold winter winds today. With that in mind she wanted to roll in her sheets more and abstract any cold that could harm her warmth.


    But something was wrong because the moment she tried to pull her blanket her hand only grasped the air, so in her half-asleep state Aella tried again and again but no matter how she reached she couldn''t find her blanket. Getting annoyed she sat up and opened her eyes to find her blanket but the moment she opened her eyes she had to close them again because she was blasted with light.


    After what just happened she was much more careful opening her eyes, she made a shadow with her hands before she tried to open them again. Aella started to slowly open them, and let them adjust to the bright sunlight. It didn''t take long before she could see everything clearly without the light hindering her.


    After fully opening her eyes and looking around Aella froze because something wasn''t right, she realized she wasn''t in her bed, not even in her bedroom, no she was somewhere in the wilderness by the looks of it.


    ''Am I dreaming?'' Was the first thought that came to mind for Aella, so she started to test things out. She touched the grass and felt it, she inhaled the air around her and even took a blade of grass in her mouth and chewed it a bit before spitting it out, and as a final test, she pinched herself. ''''Ouch!''''


    Aella checked every sense and none were out of place, so now she was starting to panic a little because it started to look like this was real and she wasn''t just dreaming, so her brain started to try and make explanations.


    '' Maybe this is a lucid dream, or an elaborate prank, or...'' But while her brain was working on trying to explain what was happening to her, her body started to move on its own. Aella stood up and started to look around to see if she could spot any human life. Looking around Aella could see she was in grassy planes, and there was what she presumed was a first from where the sound of the river came.


    Looking up she could see clear blue skies with the glaring sun hanging up there. There were some white clouds and some birds flying so the sky wasn''t too empty. While looking at the nature around her, Aella''s mind started to calm down, she didn''t know what was happening but she did know that she needs to find some kind of human civilization or at least survive, and then when she was somewhat safe she would figure things out.


    So she started moving in the direction she heard the river because she had heard that where is water there is life. While on the move she thought about screaming for help, but decided against it, the reason being that she had no idea what kind of wildlife she would attract with her voice, and she wasn''t too knowledgeable about nature in general so she couldn''t make an educated guess.


    While making her way to the forest one step at a time Aella had time to think about what was needed for her survival. She knew she needed water, food, and shelter. Water she could probably get from the river, but food and shelter were more difficult and even the water was iffy because she had no idea if the river water will be drinkable.


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    But even with those worries in her mind Aella continued her course, and it didn''t take long before she entered the forest''s soil. Entering the tree shadows Aella slowed her pace and started to pay more attention to her surroundings. Aella was high on alert and anxious so every sound and every rustled leaf made her head turn. But even then she didn''t see much wildlife, just some birds and some bugs here and there but nothing bigger.


    *Crakc*''''Ughm!'''' While Aella was making her way to where she could hear the river flowing a sudden shock of pain appeared when she stepped on something, making her almost lose her balance. Aella leaned at the nearest tree so that she doesn''t fall, and then turned her foot''s sole, with her hand''s help, to see how big of injury, if any, she sustained.


    After taking a look she could confidently say that nothing too bad had happened, her foot was fine just a little red and dirty, and looking at the place where she stepped, Aella could tell that the one who caused her this pain was some random branch from one of the trees.


    ''''Wait bare feet?'''' Before her mind could process she asked a question out loud, more for herself than anyone else. Turning her gaze back to her feet she saw that they had nothing on them, and looking up at her legs she could see that she wasn''t wearing any pants. Now in half-panic, she started to look all over her body and found out two things.


    One she was totally naked and two this wasn''t her body. Making these realizations she froze on the spot, her strength leaving her. Aella plopped down now her bare ass touching the ground, while still leaning against the tree with her back. Bringing her knees closer she stared blankly into the space without moving, her mind still processing the information.


    But Aella didn''t have the luxury to be stuck in her mind, and she realized it when another rustling sound was heard. That sound brought her out of her stupor and her mind pushed everything back, making her survival the top priority.


    ''I can break down later, now I need to survive.'' Sure she was confused and somewhat scared, but if she didn''t survive then all those worries would be pointless. So with that in mind, she stood up, grabbed a branch she could find with the intention to defend herself with it, and resumed her route.


    While on her walk, Aella saw some berries and mushrooms here and there, but she had no idea if they are edible, plus some of them didn''t look right like they were pulled out from some kind of fantasy. So she tried to engrave their location in her mind, in case she needs food, but she will probably only use them as a last resort because she didn''t like putting something unknown in her mouth that could potentially kill her.


    Taking a glance at the berries one last time Aella moved on. She was getting closer to the river, and judging by the sound she was really close. And her judgment was right, it didn''t take long before she started to see the river. Speeding up her pace Aella got to the river in no time, and the first thing she did was get on her knees and scoop some river water with her hands.


    *Gulp..gulp...* ''''Ghaaa~'''' Although Aella wasn''t thirsty, she still gulped down a few more handfuls of water. The water was refreshing and she even considered jumping into the river and going for a swim but decided against that, she still had things to do.


    Now that one of the essentials was secured, she could relax a little bit, so she decided to take some time and get familiar with her new body. First, she glanced at the river''s reflecting surface where she could see a somewhat distorted reflection of her face. Aella''s new body didn''t look like anything special she looked like an average woman in her prime with black eyes, black straight long hair, and pale skin.


    She had to say that although her looks were nothing special she had perfect skin, so that was a plus. But all in all, she was happy with her new look, it still was messing with her head that this isn''t how she originally looked, but there was some progress. Aella even checked her teeth, and as far as she could tell they were in perfect condition.


    While looking at her pearly whites, she heard a strong rustling near her so before she could think her body moved on instinct. She closed her mouth, grabbed her stick, which she put down when she went for a sip of water, and jumped to her feet, positioning her stick in front of her, between her and the place where the sound was coming from. Aella was ready to defend herself with her stick grasped firmly with both of her hands.

 Chapter 2-Some hope

    Aella was nervous, but at the same time ready. She raised her weapon a little bit higher, ready to swing it down at a moment''s notice, as the sound grew closer. And suddenly the creature showed itself as it jumped out of a bush. Her first instinct was to swing down but she stopped herself when she saw the figure that was making all that ruckus.


    It was a rabbit or at last something that looked similar to it. This rabbit-looking creature had brown fur, and long ears like a normal rabbit, but it had three long fluffy tails. But Aella didn''t have much time to look at it before it jumped away, out of her vision, after seeing her. So now Aella was standing in the middle of a forest with a branch, she had picked up, over her head fully naked, while contemplating what she just saw.


    ''''Haahhhh... what is happening?'''' Asking this she dropped her hands down, with her makeshift weapon still in her grasp. Aella was now making new possibilities in her mind after seeing the rabbit thing. One of them being that she was transported to another world, similar to how it happened in some fantasy stories, but it wasn''t easy to accept it, so she again decided to push it in the back of her mind.


    Aella took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. After somewhat successfully doing that she remembered her original goal, try to find civilization but if she couldn''t find any then survive. So with that in mind she decided to follow downstream of the river because she knew that she had a higher chance to encounter civilization following a river than just walking blindly in one direction, at least she hoped it was true.


    Decided on her plan Aella took a few more sips of water and started her journey to find civilization. With her trusty weapon by her side and a river of water to keep her company, she took one step at a time through the forest''s terrain. At one point in her travel, she started to relax a little bit, maybe not the best distinction, but for her, it was exhausting to be so on edge.


    Aella still didn''t drop her guard completely and checked her surroundings, but now her journey was accompanied by soft humming. One melody after another was heard from the traveling woman, as her legs continued to work.


    Looking around Aella could see that the nature was beautiful in this place, if not somewhat weird because the more she looked around the more unusual it got, especially the animals. She could see that birds and some bugs and even the fish that were swimming in the river were not something you could encounter on Earth, and even the few more land animals she encountered didn''t look right.


    So while on this path to find civilization Aella''s mind was again fully working on figuring out what was going on, and the more she looked the more she was sure that she was probably not on Earth anymore, whatever that meant. Either she was dreaming or somehow got transported to another world.


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    Now if it was the first option then, she would probably wake up soon, if it was the latter then there was a lot to consider. Two considerations popped into her mind instantly. One, why was she transported, and two how advanced is this world''s civilization? If it''s one of those medieval time civilizations with magic, then she will probably be okay, mostly because she could explore magic to entertain herself, but that''s one of the best scenarios.


    Maybe this world is much darker, and people like her who just wandered from the forest would be put in slavery and made to work just so they could survive. So yes, there was a lot to consider in that kind of situation. At some point, Aella considered just staying in the forest, just because she didn''t know what could happen to her if someone from this world saw her, but as fast as that idea came it went away, after all, Aella had no idea how to survive in the wilderness. She even tried to check if this world has anything like a system, or character menu, she tried saying different keywords like ''''system'''', ''''menu'''' or just ''''open'''' but nothing worked, at one point she just decided to test if she could feel the magic like some of the stories described, but nothing so she gave up, and decided to continue with her original plan.


    Looking up Aella could see the sun peaking through the tree leaves, still shining brightly but it had changed its position quite a bit, making Aella aware that she had already spent a good amount of time walking, but for some reason, she didn''t feel hungry, thirsty or tiered. Aella was sure that this wasn''t normal but she didn''t complain, less things to worry about.


    Aella hoped that she would find a settlement soon because she wasn''t excited to spend the night in this forest, and she still had not seen any predators, here so she concluded that they most likely are nocturnal, and she wasn''t stoked about encountering one when she could bearly see. So Aella started walking faster in hopes of finding a nice place to spend the night.


    There weren''t a lot of things Aella could do at the moment so she just walked, and thought over different scenarios, but sometimes she just played with her stick. At one point Aella was just swinging her wooden weapon and shouting just random words, pretending she was a wizard. ''''Appierieus!'''' Aella said while pointing her stick right ahead and by some lucky coincidence something appeared in her vision.


    At first, she couldn''t fully see what it was but, getting a little closer she saw that it was a wooden wall, a man-made wooden wall. Seeing the wall Aella got a little excited and started to almost run, but halfway there she again slowed down, because her mind was starting to fill with dark thoughts, mostly what-if scenarios. For example what if this was a bandits camp, or slavers secret base, or some crazy cannibals home.


    Aella started to reconsider and think that maybe it would be better not to go. But in the end, she didn''t stop and went with the mentality of what happens, happens, if she gets brutally murdered here so be it, and the faster she gets over with this the better. So she resumed her previous fast pace, ready for anything.

 Chapter 3-Setlement

    The closer Aella got to the wall the faster her steps got. She wanted to get there faster and see what''s behind the wooden wall. As she got closer she got a better look of the wall. Aella could see some towers on the wall evenly spread out, made out of the same material. It was quite fascinating for her, although the wall was bare, except for the towers, its size on itself was impressive. But this sight somewhat confirms that this world was in a medieval setting, although Aella wasn''t 100% sure because all she had to go by is this wall.


    While making her way to this wall, she saw someone peek out of one of the tower windows. They looked at her before they vanished from Aella''s sight, back into the tower. That little interaction made Aella stop in her tracks for a moment before she again started to move her legs. The closer she got the more nervous she became, plus she just discovered that this place wasn''t just some abandoned wall.


    Knowing that there are people there, made her more nervous than before. She started to think about how should she greet them, or even will she be able to understand them, how big of a language barrier is there between them and herself. Or what will she do if they aren''t friendly but want to kill her, yes she put up a bravado, but she didn''t want to die if possible.


    While Aella was overthinking and making up multiple scenarios she arrived near the wooden wall. She saw that there was no entrance on this side, so she started to turn slightly left and see if she could find some way to get inside, or if that didn''t work out Aella would try to call someone and see if they respond.


    Lucky for her, she won''t need to strain her vocal cords, as it didn''t take long before she found giant wooden gates with towers on each side. Looking up as she got closer Aella saw the two towers manned by someone. One of them was someone that looked like a human if you don''t count the brown-green horn that was growing from his forehead. But the second one looked a little stranger, they still looked similar to a human but they had hair made out of green leaves, their skin had a light green tint to it, and they had three eyes. And right now both guards, Aella presumed, were looking straight at her.


    ''''Please state your name and reason for visiting.'''' The starting contest between Aella and the two guards ended when one of them asked for her name.


    Looking back at the horned one who asked Aella answered, ''''Aella, I''m lost and this place happened to be the first civilized place I found.'''' After hearing her answer the two started talking between themselves, but if Aella wanted to hear what they were saying she would need to concentrate a little bit.


    But Aella wasn''t interested in their conversation as she had other things in mind, mostly about the fact she could understand them and they could understand her, knowing this Aella was a little relieved that there was no language barrier between them.


    ''''What are your abilities?'''' A feminine voice brought Aella back to reality, and looking up she could tell that it was the three-eyed guard talking this time.


    The question confused her, as she had no idea about what abilities they were talking about, so she decided to ask. ''''What abilities?'''' And as soon as the question left her lips, both of the guards faces lit up.


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    The next moment Aella saw how the guards jumped from their towers, but only one of them succeeded because the one with a horn got stopped in his tracks when multiple green vines wrapped around his limbs and chest, and he was stuck in place. On the other hand, his companion jumped out of the tower and landed right next to Aella.


    ''''I win.'''' Before Aella could process what just happened she felt an arm on her shoulder and the guard''s voice sounding their victory, and as her vision was still up looking at the towers, she could see the vines that were entangling one of the guards retreat and let him free.


    ''''That''s cheating, you used an ability!'''' The now free, horned, guard could be heard from his tower as he sounded his objections about his partner''s tactics.


    ''''When did ability using become cheating? I still remember the last time, when you punched me and sent me flying. I needed to go see a healer because you cracked my ribs!'''' Hearing these two conversation made two things clear for Aella. One was that this wasn''t the first time they had done something like this. And second, the abilities they asked her before were probably something magical from this world.


    *Thum*''''So what are you planning to do with the newbie?'''' While Aella was still stuck in her mind, she saw how the horned guard jumped down, and with impressive sound landed next to her and the other guard.


    Now that both of them were right next to her, Aella could take a closer look at them. First, she took a better look at the horned guard. He had an impressive muscular physique, he wasn''t wearing anything on top, so Aella took a good look at his dark upper body that was bursting with muscles. His brown eyes still looking at his partner.


    The other guard on the other hand was more lithe, Aella couldn''t take such a good look at her physique as she did with the horned guard as this one was wearing some kind of armor made out of wood and vines. But even with all that armor, Aella could tell that the guard was in top form. The guard''s green eyes were looking straight at Aella. She was looking up and down at Aella only briefly stopping her gaze to take a better look at Aella''s stick she was holding, which by comparison was pathetic when looking at the guard''s sword that was fastened to her hip.


    But while Aella was just standing there and looking at them, not knowing what to do the guards continued their conversation. ''''Well by the looks of it, she''s newly awakened, so I will take her around the settlement and tell her about the basics.''''


    ''''Fine, I''m going back to my post.'''' Getting an answer to his question the muscular guard was ready to return to the tower.


    ''''Here.'''' Helping him, the guard''s partner made some vines sprout from the wood making a ladder so that it would be easier for him to get back up. Seeing this he just nodded his head and climbed back up, leaving Aella and the three-eyed guard alone.


    ''''So Aella nice to meet you, I''m Maya one of the protectors of this settlement.'''' Maya introduced herself with a smile to Aella. ''''I know you''re probably confused about your situation, but fret no I will explain it to you. But before we move on, do you need some clothes or do you prefer how you''re now?''''


    Hering the question about clothes Aella was reminded that she was completely naked. ''''Yes something to cover myself would be preferred.'''' Aella wasn''t keen on walking around naked, so she asked for something that could cover her body.


    ''''Okay.'''' Hearing that Aella wanted some cover for her naked body, Maya stretched out her hand and the next moment multiple green vines came out of the ground and started to form something around Maya''s hand. It didn''t take long before the creation was finished. It was a large cape with a hood completely made out of vines, and Maya was holding the cloth by its hood offering it to Aella.


    Seeing this Aella took the cape and put it over herself, pulling the hood over her black hair. ''''Thank you.''''


    ''''No problem. Now then let''s go.'''' After checking one last time if the cape was comfortable for Aella, Maya turned her three green eyes in the direction of the gate and started walking to them, with Aella following right behind her.

 Chapter 4-Good night!

    Following Maya, Aella went through a side gate, that was right, next to the massive wooden gate. The moment Aella arrived on the other side of the wall, she was greeted by a somewhat wide dirt road with wooden buildings lined on each side.


    ''''You''re coming?'''' Turning her gaze to where the voice came from, Aella saw Maya standing some distance in front gazing with her three green eyes at Aella who just stopped for some reason.


    ''''Yes.'''' Moving her legs at a light, fast pace Aella caught up to her guide while holding her cloak so that it stays in place.


    ''''So before we start, I would like to know how mature your mind is.'''' Both of them were following the road while walking side by side when Maya asked Aella a question.


    ''''How mature is my mind?''''


    ''''Well yes, I want to know what you know about this world, how much knowledge you gained when you awakened.'''' Maya tried to explain what she wanted from Aella, but looking at the black eyes looking at her with confusion Maya decided to go into more detail. '''' Looks like you''re confused, okay we have plenty of time. So we are Safury, we start our lives as weak little creatures, and with time we grow, the more mana we consume the faster we grow. But at one point we reach a point where we gain intelligence and become sapient in the process our body changes its form.''''


    While Aella was still listening to Maya, her gaze on the other hand was directed at the settlement. The different styles of wooden buildings, the shops, and the stalls, all of it attracted Aella''s gaze, but the most interesting part of all this was the people. None of them looked really human, yes many looked kind of human but all of them had something that shouldn''t be on a regular human being. But although many look similar to a human there were those who looked nothing like a human.


    For example, one of the Safury Aella saw looked like a humanoid figure made out of grass, like a green grass manakin, as they had no facial features. It was fascinating and creepy at the same time, making Aella want to meet more interesting-looking people. But while Aella was looking around Maya continued with her explanation.


    ''''Simultaneously we gain some knowledge of this world, some less and some more but all of us get the ability to speak to some level. But here''s the fun part, some of Safury get the bare minimum level so that they could communicate while others gain an amazing amount of knowledge of this world. So based on this knowledge, we look at how mature is your mind.''''


    Suddenly Maya reaches out her hand in front of Aella stopping Aella in her tracks. At first, Aella was a little confused as to why a hand was blocking her path, but in the next moment, a bunch of kids just ran past them a few steps in front of them, they were crossing the road without looking, playing some kind of game.


    Pulling back her hand Maya continued where she left off. '''' Usually, you can tell by the form if the Safury has the mind of a mortal child or adult, but there are plenty of exceptions. All in all, I''m asking if you know basic stuff.'''' Hearing Maya stop talking Aella turned back her wandering gaze to Maya.


    ''''I probably have an adult mind, I know basic stuff, for example, I know that we are in a settlement place where people live, I know what a house and a road are, or that this settlement is encased by a wooden wall.'''' Aella''s dark eyes were still looking straight at Maya as she continued to talk. ''''I know those kinds of basic stuff, but I don''t know what are these abilities, I can guess what they do, but I don''t have the inherited knowledge about them. Or another example would be that I didn''t know we are called Safury.''''


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    ''''That''s great to know. So now that we got that out of the way, I will tell you how things work in this settlement.'''' Before Maya contained she saw a stall making some kind of meat and vegetable kebabs. Seeing and smelling the wonderful food she changed course while dragging Aella by hand, to the stall. ''Two please.'''' After getting her order Aella saw that Maya paid with some kind of crystals, probably this world''s currency. Maya gave one of the kebabs to Aella and continued where she left off.


    ''''Where was I ah yes how the settlement works.'''' Pausing in the middle to take a little bit of her food Maya continued. ''''The first 15 days we will provide the essentials for you but after that, you''re kind of on your own. Now you can choose two options, either become a regular citizen, where you somehow get an income and live here normally or become a subordinate citizen in which case you will be provided with all the basic necessities on top of everything, basically becoming a regular citizen with benefits.'''' Slowly the kabab in Maya''s hand disappeared as she took little bites from it as she talked.


    ''''Subordinate citizen?'''' Aella looked at Maya with a confused gaze. ''''What is that and how do you become one?''''


    ''''Well as I said earlier subordinate citizen is someone who gets their basic necessities without doing anything, but to become one, you need to become a servant to the settlements lord.'''' Maya explained to Aella. ''''Now if you want more information you should go to our library, there you will be able to get more accurate and detailed information about subjects you are interested in.''''  When Maya mentioned the library she gestured with her hand at one specific building, that looked somewhat like a cylindrical tower.


    ''''But now you should probably rest, you can visit the library tomorrow.'''' Aella looked up when she heard Maya, and what she saw convinced her that Maya was correct because the sun was setting and soon it would be night. Even though Aella didn''t feel any kind of physical strain on her body, it couldn''t be said the same about her mental state.


    Following Maya, they arrived at the place where Aelle could sleep. From outside it looked like a small wooden house. Opening the door Aella was greeted by a simply furnished room that looked like it was a living area and kitchen combined. Exploring a little bit more she found where the bathroom and where the bedroom is located. While Aella was exploring her new living area Maya was just standing by the house door waiting for Aella to finish.


    It didn''t take long for Aella to finish her little exploration before she returned to where Maya was standing. ''''Finished?'''' To her question Aella just nodded.


    ''''Perfect, now then, few more things you ought to know. First of all your food will arrive every morning so that you can feed yourself, but don''t expect anything fancy as it''s only there to feed you so that your mana absorption doesn''t get hampered. Next is about abilities, you will probably wake the next morning with words floating in front of you, just don''t panic that''s normal, there you will be able to choose your first ability. Choose carefully as it has an impact on your future path, but you should be okay.'''' Telling about the food and warning about flying words in the morning Maya had done her job, but before she left.''''Good night.'''' She wished Aella a good night so Aella returned in kind. ''''Good night Maya.''''


    After seeing Maya walk away Aella closed the wooden door and went to her bedroom. She threw her cloak in one corner of the room and with her body fully naked she jumped into the bed. The moment her skin couched the mattress and her head landed on the pillow Aella was ready to sleep, but not before she is comfortably tucked in her blanket. Now after achieving perfect comfort Aella fell asleep.

 Chapter 5-Ability

    ''''Chirp, chirp, chirp...'''' It was the next morning, and Aella was awakened by some birds singing nearby. Opening her eyes Aella was greeted by a beautiful morning, the birds were singing, the sun was shining and she could hear some children laughing somewhere outside all was good, if you don''t include that the shining sun was bearing its rays straight at Aella''s face. Her automatic response to getting blinded by the sun was to cover her head with the blanket.


    While Aella was under her blanket considering whether to wake up and go about her day or go back to sleep, she saw some kind of mist that had started to form words right in front of her.


    [Choose your ability]


    [Swordmanship]


    [Farming]


    [Curse of weakness]


    [Botanic knowledge]


    [Hunters eye]


    These were probably the abilities she was told of yesterday by Maya. Aella needed to choose one of them as her first ability. But she wasn''t really ready for it right now, she wanted to learn about them more so that she could make a more educated choice, after all, she was informed that these can make some impact on your life.


    But no matter what she did the misty words didn''t disappear, she tried to turn her head or swat them with her hand or will them to disappear but nothing worked, they just reformed in front of her as if nothing had happened. So given no options she had to make the choice now.


    First, she needed to decide what she wanted to do in this new world, unfortunately, she wasn''t given the option to get magic, otherwise, she would have chosen it without a second thought. The first ability she eliminated from her list was [swordmanship], Aella wasn''t too big on swords, yes it could be cool in the future to take down multiple enemies with her sword as she danced around them, but she liked the idea of fighting from a distance and eliminating threats before they get the chance to get close to her.


    So that gave the [Hunters eye] some bonus points because in fiction it usually is used by archers or other range units. Now another great ability was [Botanic knowledge], Aella already had some ideas how she could use it. Although it wasn''t made for battle so much as [Hunters eye] the [Botanic knowledge] would probably give her plenty of opportunities including a job in this settlement. It was a versatile ability and even if she chooses to take the path of battle, she could still use the knowledge this ability would give her.


    [Farming] on the other hand was pushed into the back of her mind pretty quickly, yes it would give her a concrete job and direction she could follow, but she wasn''t made to be a farmer, so this ability didn''t really impress her as the other two.


    The last on the list was [Curse of weakness], now this ability was calling Aella the most because although it didn''t have magic in its name it sounded magical, but there is a reason she didn''t choose the moment she read it, and still looked at the other options. The reason being that she didn''t know how the curse would work, if it was an active ability she could cast on her enemies, cool, but if it instead was an actual ability that cursed Aella herself then she would be screwed, that''s why she is so hesitant about picking it.


    Right now Aella was presented with two options, take one of the safe roads or risk it all with the possibility she gets something resembling magic. ''''Well, new world new me!''''  So she decided to take [Curse of weakness]. Was it a smart idea? No, but she decided to take this risk, she knew the probable consequences but still decided to follow her heart.


    The moment she decided which ability she wanted the words dissipated as if they never had existed, and at the same time, she felt a rush of power before her head was filled with new information. This new knowledge included how to use the new ability and what it did.


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    This ability has the power to cast a curse on somebody, the curse''s effect is that it physically weakens your opponent. The strength of this curse depends mainly on two factors, how much mana is used when casting, and how many times it has been used, but you also have to put the enemy''s strength in the equation.


    But probably the main thing Aella should concentrate on, is how much she uses this ability, because the more you train and use the ability the more powerful it grows while at the same time, you get more familiar with it making it so that you can better utilize it.


    It was interesting going over this information, but Aella was more overfilled by the relief that her choice didn''t backfire. Now that she has chosen her ability Aella decided to visit the library that Maya showed her yesterday, to gain some knowledge about this world.


    Pulling the blanket off of her head Aella was again assaulted by the sun''s bright rays making her squint her eyes, but she soon got used to it and was able to open them fully. Rubbing her eyes Aella got out of bed and walked to the corner where she last night dropped her green vine cloak.


    ''I should probably get new clothes as soon as possible.'' Aella''s mind wondered about new clothes, while she put on her cloak and made sure it was comfortable and would stay in its place.


    Walking out of her bedroom, she entered the kitchen and living area room, where she saw that on the table there was a bowl of fruits. ''''That''s probably the food.'''' Most of the fruits looked bizarre to Aella with some of them resembling somewhat the fruits she had eaten back on Earth.


    Walking up to the table she grabbed one of the fruits that somewhat resembled a dark purple apple. She spun it in her hand to take a better look at it before she took a bite. The moment the mystical apple entered her mouth her taste buds were assaulted by rich flavor. Aella was amazed by its taste, she took another bite, then another, and before she knew it she had eaten the whole fruit, and Aella only realized it because when she went to take another bite she was met with empty air.


    Seeing her empty hand Aella turned her gaze to where the fruit bowl was and took another fruit hoping it tastes as good. This time she took a fruit that looked like a green-blue sphere that had some bumps all over its exterior. Taking a bite Aella experienced a sweet flavor and the fruit itself was chewy on the outside and soft on the inside. This time she didn''t gulp it down like a ravenous beast but actually enjoyed it.


    After eating those two fruits Aella decided to leave the rest for later as she didn''t feel hungry and had eaten them just to see how they taste. Now that she had done that it was time for her to visit the library and get educated about the world around her.


    Opening the wooden door Aella walked out of her house and while she was closing the door she found that it didn''t have any kind of lock, so she just closed it hoping no one robs her. After checking one last time if her cloak was in its place Aella started her walk to the library.


    It was a little windy outside, making her black hair get swept by the wind. Aella considered putting in the hood but decided against it as the wind wasn''t that strong.


    While walking to her destination Aella started to look around. She saw people going about their life, some were relaxed and some were running in a hurry, making this settlement look lively.


    ''''HREEEE...!'''' While Aella was watching some children playing a prank on one of the residents she hear a horrible screech. By the sound of it, the one who screamed was close to Aella''s location, probably in one of the nearby houses. Aella tried to look in the direction where the screech came from, but didn''t see the person.


    While looking around she saw that people around her started to back away from the location, some were full-on running away. Seeing this Aella didn''t need to know anything all she knew was that she had to get away from there.


    *BOOM!* But before she could even move a step away from her location she lost her footing as something rammed her from her side, throwing her some distance away. All Aella could feel was, one moment she was in the air and the next she made contact with the earth, and seconds later she felt a rush of pain.


    ''''Cough, cough...'''' Aella''s whole body was in pain, and moving it made it worst so she decided for now just to lay there. She still tried to move her head and see what just happened.


    First, she saw some chunks of wood scattered around in multiple directions. Then as she continued to move her vision she saw people running and screaming, but the sound didn''t register to her because all Aella could hear was the annoying ringing in her ears. Moving her head some more she saw the explosion''s center, there stood a house, or what remains of it.  The house was pretty much ripped apart because of the explosion.


    But the thing that worried Aella the most was that there was someone standing in the center of all that. It was humanoid with pale skin, fully naked, and in the center of its chest was some kind of dark blue crystal, from which, as the center, the same collared veins were sprouting all over the humanoid''s body.


    ''''Oh fuck.'''' Aella instinctively knew that if she doesn''t get out of here she will be in some serious danger.

 Chapter 6- Little bit of trouble

    ''''SCREEECH.!'''' The pale humanoid figure made another horrible screech with its head tilted back. From Aella''s point of view, it looked like the creature was screaming at the sky.


    But the screaming didn''t last long. After emptying its lungs, the creature started to look around before its dark empty gaze landed on the injured Aella. Both of their gazes met as they made eye contact with each other. Aella felt cold shivers going down her back and her mind screaming to move as the creature gazed into her soul.


    *Crunch* Hearing the sound Aella''s gaze darted down, now looking at the creature''s feet. The creature had taken a step in Aella''s direction and in the process crushed a piece of wood that it had stepped on.


    Her heart dropped when the creature took another step, then another, then another until it was coming at her in a rhythmic pace. Slowly it gained speed moving faster and faster, while Aella''s whole being screened at her to move, to run, to get away from the nightmarish beast. But no matter how much she wanted to run, she couldn''t, her body was not listening to her, her limbs hurt from the slightest movement, she didn''t have the will to overcome the pain.


    She had heard and read how people in dangerous situations gain strength just so that they can survive, but right now Aella didn''t feel any such strength, she was left helpless on the ground and all she could do was look at her imminent death.


    By now the creature had shortened the distance between them, so Aella decided to try what she could, she used her ability. ''''Curse of weakness.'''' Aella looked into the creature''s eyes as she muttered those words, and the next moment black smoke came out of her mouth and flew in the creature''s direction.


    After making contact with the creature the smoke twisted around its body, before dissipating revealing black chains engraved in the creature''s body where the smoke was. While the process was happening the creature was still on the move, but when the chains were revealed the creature stumbled and almost fell.


    Confused the creature looked around to see what just happened not finding anything it looked at Aella, who had a small smile on her face, happy that her curse worked and hindered the creature, even if a little bit. The creature didn''t take long before it got used to its weakened state, and before long it was ready to continue what it started.


    *Tuk* *Crack* *BOOM!* But before it could make a step the creature was interrupted. The only thing Aella saw was the creature getting punched in the head and then seeing its pale body flying through the air and stopping only when it collided with one of the wooden buildings. It was so fast that Aella''s mind only now was registering what just happened.


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    ''''SCREEEETCHH...!!!'''' The creature wasn''t happy, it dug itself out of the destroyed building and let out a loud screech while giving its attacker a hateful look.


    ''''HAHAHA, come!'''' On the other hand, the one who punched the creature had a huge grin on its face, ready for the battle that will ensue. Aella took a look at the one who saved her, and she almost instantly recognized who it was. It was the other guard who was patrolling the settlement''s gate with Maya.


    The horned guard had taken a battle-ready stance, his fists were coated with a layer of rock, and his skin now had a gray shade to it. *Ssssssiv* But the next moment Aella saw how the horned guard put his hands in front of himself as if guarding himself. ''''Ugh...'''' Soon after something made contact with the guard''s hands making him grunt and slide a few steps back.


    Little confused about what just happened, Aella turned her attention to the creature. It didn''t take long for Aella to get her answer, the creature had by now gotten back to its feet, and right now it was standing with its back hunched forward and its mouth split unnaturally wide open, while in between its jaws, there was a ball of compressed air.


    *Sssssssiv* This time Aella saw how the attack looked and how it was made. The transparent sphere flew through the air incredibly fast, until it made contact with the guard. But this time there was no grunt or movement from his side, because he had prepared for the attack this time.


    *Ssssssiv* Another attack was launched but it hauled the same results as the last. Seeing this the creature changed its tactics. It closed its mouth and started to sprint in the guard''s direction, the creature''s goal was to try and engage in melee. Seeing this the guard changed his stance so he could better respond to the attack that was coming.


    When the creature got close enough it balled his right fist and made a wide swing, aiming for the guard''s head. ''''Got you!'''' But the wide swing was a mistake, the next moment the creature''s attacking hand was caught in mid-swing by the guard. Not giving the creature time to think the guard forcefully pulled the creature''s hand to get it closer to himself and with the free hand punched at the creature''s gut.


    The force behind the punch was strong enough to send the creature flying. But the creature didn''t fly too far before it twisted its own body in the air, landing back on the ground it tried to anchor itself with both its legs and hands, but even then it skidded for some distance before it stopped fully.


    ''''SCREEEEEEECH...'''' The creature made another unbearable screech before it sprinted full speed at the guard. ''If I survive this I hope I don''t go deaf.'' Aella on the other hand was still lying down almost motionless while her ears suffered from the creature''s repetitive screams.


    ''''Heh, don''t you learn?'''' The horned guard smirked seeing that the creature was trying the same strategy. The creature made a wide swing and the guard, same as the last time, caught it. But the next moment the smirk on the guard''s face disappeared because he saw how the creature opened its mouth and got ready to launch one of its spheres point blank at the guard''s face. ''''Fuck!''''


    The guard''s next action was to let go and punch the creature, but he couldn''t. At some point, the creature used its free hand to grab the guard''s arm that he would have used to punch. And the moment the guard let go of the hand he was holding the creature, it used its now free hand to grab the guard''s hand, which was just holding it, reversing their positions. Making it so that the guard had no place to escape.

 Chapter 7-Sunny healer

    Aella saw the situation that was unfolding, and she tried to use [Curse of Weakness] again on the creature but nothing happened. Aella knew that it wasn''t possible to use the same curse multiple times on the same target, but she had to try.


    Lying down on the ground, helpless, Aella couldn''t do anything as her black eyes reflected the guard''s fate. It probably wouldn''t kill him, but he would get badly injured. While Aella''s mind was racing the real world was still moving, and it only took a few seconds before the creature was ready to fire its shot.


    Seeing this Aella got ready for the sound and the result, but she didn''t expect the actual outcome. Suddenly, green vines came bursting from the ground, wrapping themselves around the creature. In a blink of an eye, they fully immobilized the creature, all its limbs were tied, and before it could launch its attack the creature''s head was forcefully angeled at the sky by the vines wrapped around its forehead.


    *Sssssssiv...* The ball of compressed air shot in the blue sky never to be seen again. After the attack was diverted, a vine penetrated the back of the creature''s neck and a second later the same vine expanded in size, decapitating the creature while at the same time showering the horned guard in its blood.


    Without its head, the body felt limp to the ground while the vines went back to the ground. ''''What are you doing Adir?'''' After all that a feminine voice could be heard, and the owner of it didn''t sound happy.


    Looking in that direction Aella saw who was the owner of the displeased voice, and it was Maya. She was standing some distance from the blood-soaked Adir with a judgmental stare. ''''Just trying to preserve the piece in this settlement.'''' Adir answered while at the same time cleaning some blood off his face.


    ''''I presume getting your face blasted off wasn''t part of the plan.''''


    ''''No, it wasn''t, that thing had some kind of ability that didn''t allow me to use mine when it was touching me.'''' With most of the blood that was on his face cleaned, Adir looked back at Maya.''''Plus it had some strength and endurance. I''m reckoning that before it became a mana gobbler it was someone who couldn''t decide their path, or got too greedy becoming a jack of all, master of none.''''


    ''''I see, you think he became like this because of that?'''' Looking with her three green eyes at the creature''s corpse, Maya theorized why the mana gobbler showed up.


    ''''Probably, after all, not many like him get summoned, and this one likely couldn''t wait for his next advancement resulting in him absorbing too much mana in too short of time.'''' Adir turned his in the same direction Maya was looking, while he voiced his thoughts.


    ''''Well, a fool is a fool nothing we can change.'''' Turning her head a little Maya saw Aella just laying there, and decided to approach her. ''''How''re you doing, healers should be here soon so just hand in there.'''' Maya crouched down to get a better look at Aella while informing the laying girl that a healer should be here soon.


    ''''If you don''t count that my body is in agony... and it hurts a little to talk then I''m surprisingly good.'''' While Aella answered Maya''s question with a little sarcasm, she had other things on her mind.


    ''''I see..., as I said earlier someone should soon be here to take care of you, unfortunately, I need to do some things so I can''t really accompany you, but you should be good, bye for now.'''' Seeing Aella give a small nod, Maya stood up and went to do her own things.


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    Aella wasn''t concerned about her physical status, well that''s not true, but the concern was insignificant compared to her other problem, her mentality. Aella was pretty sure she shouldn''t be so calm about all this, something was wrong but she didn''t know what. The only soothing thing she could think of was that her mind was just in shock and she would get the full emotions later, but even that was getting some doubt from Aella.


    Because of what happened yesterday, the whole surviving thing, her body changing, finding herself in an unknown place, those all would put some stress on a person''s mind. Yes, she had a little breakdown in the forest, but that was all. Aella presumed that it was weird that she didn''t break down this morning or at least give it some thought about all that but decided to visit the library.


    Her mind is registering all that like it was nothing, and Aella was sure that she wasn''t that mentally strong. It was somewhat of a problem if something or someone is messing with her mind, but of course, if whatever it is has no malicious intent and only wants to protect her, Aella didn''t mind, after all not getting your mental state thrown in chaos was nice.


    While Aella was having an inner debate about her mental state she started to feel somewhat warm. Getting out of her thoughts Aella started to look around as much as her physical state allowed. She didn''t need to look far before she found the reason the warm sensation was coming from.


    Aella didn''t know when but someone had gotten near her without Aella noticing, probably because she was immersed in her mind. The person''s hand was emitting something similar to the sun''s warm rays that were aimed at Aella. By this Aella concluded that this was the promised healer that came to take care of her wounds.


    While she was getting healed Aella took a better look at her savior. The healer looked like a young energetic girl, with a bright smile plastered on her face, her eyes looking at Aella like two golden suns, her gorgeous yellow hair slowly swaying in the wind while the sun reflected golden light from her locks, her dark skin contracting their golden glow. Her sun hat casts a shadow over her face while she herself protects Aella''s eyes from the sun''s rays.


    Aella was captivated by this healer, so much so that she was the only thing she could concentrate on right now, the pain or the worry about her mental state just disappeared the moment Aella saw this sunny healer, the only thing that could get her out if this trance was the soothing voice that came next. ''''Hey, it looks like you''re back with us. Just give me a moment and you should be back to full health.'''' The healer''s smooth voice comforted Aella, while her bright smile reassured Aella that she was in safe hands.


    The warmth Aella was experiencing from the healing slowly started to dissipate, until it was completely gone. ''''You should be good to go.'''' The healer said while offering her hand to Aella. Taking her hand Aella confirmed that truly her body wasn''t in pain anymore and she could move her body freely without any complications.


    ''''Thank you.''''


    ''''You''re welcome.'''' The healer''s bright smile remained as she answered to Aella''s gratitude. ''''But you''re quite unlucky, you were the only one that was this seriously injured in this incident.''''


    ''''Do these kinds of incidents happen often?'''' Aella was curious and wanted to know if something similar would occur any time soon.


    ''''No not really, usually the inside of the settlement is safe, and even if something like the mana gobbler appears like this one the lord gets rid of them pretty fast. It just happens that this time the lord was summoned at the moment, so the guards took the lord''s place.''''


    Hearing the healer''s explanation made Aella think that she truly was somewhat unlucky that something like this happened on her second day in this world, but at least she survived.


    ''''We need a healer here!'''' Aella wanted to talk with this healer more and ask some questions, but it seems she was needed elsewhere.


    ''''Comming!'''' The healer turned and answered the call before she turned back and looked at Aella. ''''It was nice meeting you, but I got to go.'''' Giving one last smile the healer turned on her heel and went to where she was needed.


    ''''Right, the library!'''' Turning her gaze away from the healer''s retreating back, Aella remembered her initial goal, before she was pulled into this mess. Getting back on track Aella made her way to the library, with the goal in mind of finding more information about everything that was going around her and with hope to get some answers to her questions.

 Chapter 8-Reading some books

    *Tum* Another book joined the pile on the wooden table beside Aella. By now the stack of books that Aella had read was pretty impressive, but considering that she had spent most of this day in the library reading books and learning about this world, it made sense.


    Looking at the wood cover book pile Aella felt drained, but it had to be done. Reading all those books helped Aella learn a lot about this world, or more precisely this dimension, and herself. One of the things that she learned was that she didn''t need sleep or food to survive or function because all Safury, including herself, can survive on mana, but it''s recommended that she still eats and sleeps so that she doesn''t slow her mana absorption rate.


    So what she learned about Safury was that they need mana, it''s essential to their survival and power. Every Safury absorbs mana passively and the more mana Safury absorbs the stronger they get, now if a Sufary doesn''t eat or sleep some of that absorbed mana is spent to replace those things, slowing down the Safurys growth a little bit.


    When Safury absorbs enough mana they advance. Advancement grants Safury new ability, a leap in power, and can somewhat change their form. Well, there is more to it than that but it''s the basics. Another thing is that Safury don''t age, making it so that they can live indefinitely as long as they aren''t killed by something external.


    Another thing that got answered by reading these books was what happened to her mind. Aella found out that when Safury are born they have 3 days of something like protection, which is one of the reasons she didn''t find any dangerous life forms in the forest. In those 3 days, something protects Safury in many ways.


    The protection manifests itself in different ways, one such example is that anything hostile to the Safury instinctively avoids them, there are exceptions like the mana gobbler, but usually, the hostile party avoids the recently born Safury. Another way Safury is protected is through their mind. Aella didn''t really fully understand how it works, but one of the given examples was that if Safury was traumatized by a spider, in those 3 days, then instead of gaining trauma and getting scared of spiders, the protection makes so that the Safury''s mind is more resilient against spiders. So in short instead of getting more scared of spiders, Safury gets more calm around spiders. So this protection is responsible for Aella''s lack of mental turmoil.


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    Knowing that her mind''s situation is somewhat normal made Aella relieved that there was one less thing to worry about. Now the next thing that interested Aella was some information about this world.


    The original world or the core world was inhabited mostly by mortals like, humans, beastkin, dwarfs, elves, and other races, but all of them have life spans even if some were much longer than others.


    Now the question is where Safury live, well the answer is, another plane or dimension. Yes, Safury don''t live on the core world with others but in their own dimension that is connected to the core world.


    When Aella was reading this she was a little disappointed about this fact thinking that she won''t be able to meet other fantasy races, but she was wrong. You see the people of the core world know about Safury, but they call them differently. There are many names mortals call them but the most commonly used one is summons.


    Safury could travel to the core world through summoning, there were many types of summoning that are used but the most popular are contracted or general.


    Contracted summoning is usually when one of the mortal make a contract with Safury and then the mortal is able to summon that specific Safury whenever they need, and the general type is when for example a summoner wishes to summon a Sufary to help with farm work, in those cases, Sufary that get summoned are those who specialized in farming or are physically fit or have abilities that somehow involve the plants. There are more nuances to all that but that''s the gist of it.


    But there is one thing to take in mind when summoning Sufary, the summoner needs compensation. Because for some reason Safury aren''t able to absorb the mana at the same rate in the core world as they are in their home dimension. So to compensate for their wasted time Safury ask for compensation.


    Usually, it''s in the form of summoner''s mana, but it could be other things like mana stones or gems or some Safury ask for delicious food, it varies from one Safury to another. But usually, one way or another the summoning is beneficial to Safury.


    ''''Fuuu... I should go eat something.'''' It took a while for Aella to read all those books and she still hasn''t read all the books she selected, but it was time to eat. Although Aella didn''t get hungry and she wasn''t able to tell if her mana consumption has slowed down, she still was sure that normally someone would be hungry after this kind of reading session.


    But all her plans were thrown out of the window when suddenly a dimly glowing white circle appeared next to her, the circle itself was made out of runes that Aella wasn''t able to read, but she still knew what it was.


    ''''Summoning.'''' Aella murmured under her breath, while somewhat surprised. Slowly the magic circle grew large enough that it was about 3m in diameter. When the circle stopped growing Aella didn''t hesitate to step in the circle because she didn''t want to miss this opportunity.

 Chapter 9-Morning in the forest

    ''''YAWN~.'''' Somewhere in a forest there is a camp with three tents around a campfire. Someone was sitting on a cylindrical wooden stool near the campfire looking over the fire. It was already morning so he could hear some movements in the tents, at least two of them.


    Turning his wolf-like ears a little to try and hear if any movements were made in the last tent, but no luck, it still was quiet. ''''Must have tired themselves out last night.'''' The fire watcher sighed under his breath while moving his attention away from the quiet tent and back to the surroundings.


    *Rustle* It didn''t take long before someone finally came out of a tent. ''''Morning Kayne.'''' Looking over his shoulder the beastkin looked at the elf that just came out of the tent. ''''Morning June, what are you doing waking up so early?'''' Kayne was surprised that June was the first to be out of her tent, usually the elf needs some help with waking up in the morning.


    ''''I just want to be done with this trip, and the faster we do it the better.'''' While talking, June used magic to make another wooden stool, just like Kayne''s and sat down near the fire.


    For the next few seconds, it was totally silent except for when June decided to blow a few of her blond strands out of her face. ''''So what''s the plan for today?'''' Juna asked while still looking at the fire.


    ''''The same as intended.'''' Kayne threw some sticks in the fire while answering. ''''We shouldn''t be far from our target, it should take less than half a day to get there.''''


    ''''Mhm.'''' June just nodded to Kayne''s answer while her blue eyes reflected the flame she was immersed in. For a while after it was quiet as neither of them wanted to start a conversation but instead got themselves absorbed in their own thoughts. *Rusle* That is until another sound was heard from the tents.


    ''''Morning.'''' From a tent came out one giant of a man, he easily towered over Kayne and June. If Kayne didn''t know better he would think that Hubert had some giant blood in him, but as shocking as it sounds he was 100% human.


    ''''''''Morning.'''''''' Kayne and June greeted the red-haired titan while he joined them at the fire. June tried to use her magic to create another place to sit, but Hubert waved at her, gesturing that he didn''t need it, and instead sat down on the ground with his legs crossed.


    ''''By the looks of it, we should probably start moving soon.'''' While tying his hair in a ponytail Hubert looked a the sky and seeing the sun''s position revealed his thought to the other two.


    ''''You''re right, but we should probably eat something before we set off.'''' Kayne agreed with Hubert, but it would be smart to hunt something and eat it before they set off so that they could preserve their rations even if a little bit in case of an emergency.


    ''''Should we wake up Alex?'''' Kayne asked the group if the local archer should be woken up so that he can go and get them their breakfast.


    ''''No, I got it.'''' Saying that June grabbed her tooth necklace. While holding the sharp tooth in her left hand, June directed her right palm to her right pointing at the ground near her.


    It didn''t take long before her magic started working, a white magical circle started to appear it had mystical runes around the edges while the magic circle itself was glowing soft white. A few moments later the magic circle was completed, after its completion it expelled white mist.


    The mist filled some area around the soft glowing circle before something that looked like a wolf with smoky grey fur. After the creature was revealed the mist completely dispersed and the circle was nowhere to find.


    The creature looked around, inspecting its surroundings, but the moment its eyes laid on June it perked up and quickly approached the blond summoner. It tackled the elf with so much force that she was almost thrown off her seat.


    ''''Awww, I missed you too Grefured!'''' While the wolf was waging its tail and pushing its muzzle into June''s stomach, the elf was returning the affection by scratching the creature behind its ears. And while those two were showing their friendly relationship on full display, Kayne and Hubert were just watching those two from the side without making any sounds.


    But it didn''t take long before the pair calmed down. ''''Grefured can you go and hunt something for our breakfast?'''' To June''s request, the summoned wolf just nodded before it ran deeper into the forest to go and hunt some food.


    ''''That takes care of that.''''


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    ''''I still can''t get over you naming him Grefured.'''' While talking Kayne started to take some tools from his backpack, which was near him so that he could prepare their breakfast as soon as Grefured brings them back some prey.


    ''''I''m not great with names, and that one was the first  that came to mind when I first summoned him.'''' June told Kayne while looking at him prepare his tools. ''''Plus he likes it.''''


    ''''Well as long as he likes it.'''' Saying that Kayne continued to prep. He didn''t need much just his knife, a pan, and some seasoning, and some kind of base above the fire, which he asked June. Using her wood magic June made a four-legged base where Kayne could put his pan so that it was above the fire.


    Not long after Kayne was all set Grefured came back with something. In his jaws, there were two decently sized rabbits. If you don''t include their size and the horns sticking out from their foreheads then they are similar to normal rabbits.


    ''''Horned rabbits, nice catch.'''' Getting the rabbits from Grefured, Kayne started to prep them. Kayne wasn''t an expert in preparing prey, but he has picked a few things while on adventures.


    Taking his knife Kayne started to prep the rabbits. Looking at the bite marks he could tell some blood had already leaked out from the bodies so that was somewhat good, unfortunately, he didn''t have time to bleed the rest of it out. Quickly and dexterity he cut open the rabbit so that he didn''t cut into any organs.


    When the rabbit was fully open Kayne started to remove the organs. At first, he wanted to throw them somewhere on the ground near him, but when he saw June with a wooden bowl in her hands gesturing at him, Kayne had no choice but to comply.


    Kayne put the insides of this rabbit in the bowl, which June put on the ground allowing Grefured to eat them. Turning his brown eyes back to the gutted rabbit, Kayne used his knife to skin it. Although Kayne wasn''t a master at using a blade he did it pretty quickly. After that using the same blade he removed the rabbit''s horn in one swift motion.


    After doing the first one the second one was faster, making them both ready for cooking in no time. Putting the pan on the wooden base to heat up, Kayne started to cut the dehorned horned rabbits in sizes he could easily put on a pan and cook them.


    While Kayne was doing the cooking June was just looking at her summoned wolf as he gorged himself with the rabbits organs with his tail waging in happiness. On the other hand, Hubert was meditating with his eyes closed, just sitting there quietly on the side, while some of his red strands swayed in the wind.


    *Kushh* It didn''t take long before Kayne started to cook the meat. While cooking he took some spices and seasoned the meat. Kayne was no master cook, but he has cooked his fair share of meat.


    *Rustle* Not long after meat hit the pan a sound was heard from the last tent. ''''What are you cooking?'''' From the tent came out a dark-haired catkin beauty, she had some leather armor covering her body and two daggers strapped on each side of her waist.


    ''''Some horned rabbit meat, you should probably wake up Alex, the food will be ready soon.''''


    ''''Sure.'''' Nodding to Kayne''s suggestion the black-haired beastkin took something from her pouch that was strapped to her hip. It looked like a glass marble with some black smoke swirling inside it.


    Taking the small tool, she threw it into the tent she just came out of. ''''COUGH, COUGH... FUCK!! SAM!!'''' The next moment black smoke filled the tent and you could hear someone screaming from it while trying not to cough. After the scream, a half-naked man ran out of the tent. He had nothing on except his underwear.


    ''''For once can you wake me up like a normal person?'''' While still standing on the ground on all four limbs, Alex looked up at Sam, asking if she could stop with her shenanigans for one morning.


    ''''You know I can''t do that.'''' Sam squatted down in front of Alex and petted his messy dark brown hair. ''''How else I would show my love to you?'''' Hearing this Alex knew that there was no point in talking any longer about her morning mischiefs. Looking up Alex saw his lover smiling at him. Seeing that he decided to just go back in the tent and get dressed.


    Seeing what just transpired right next to them the trio that was near the fire didn''t even bat an eye as this was pretty normal for those two. So while Alex went back to get dressed, Sam decided to join the already-awakened part of the group. Similar to Hubert, Sam decided to sit on the ground.


    ''''June can I get some plates?'''' First portions of the meat were ready to be plated, so Kayne asked for some plates from their local mage. ''''Comming right up.'''' Not long after June gave the answer five wood plates grew out of the ground.


    After he divided the cooked meat somewhat equally he threw on the next cuts of the meat in the pan. Sam and June took their portions and started to eat, while Kayne gave Hubert his portion and took one to himself.


    It didn''t take long for Alex to finally came out and join them. He asked June for a place to sit. After getting his seat he took his food and started to indulge in it. As for Grefured, he was lying near June''s feet, and from time to time got some pieces of meat that June gave him.


    And like that, they quietly ate their breakfast. It didn''t take long before they finished and got ready to continue their quest.


    ''''We really should get ourselves some dimensional storage item, that is big enough for all of our stuff.'''' June didn''t like to carry her backpack. It was somewhat heavy and if a fight broke out they had to try and put in a safe place, but that wasn''t always an option. Sometimes there was a sneak attack where they needed to drop their backpacks in seconds notice. Another minus was that if they needed to run from the fight they won''t be able to take their backpack with them looking at the circumstances.


    ''''Well, I hope after this mission we will be able to afford at least the smaller ones.'''' Kayne agreed with June because they had had situations where they lost some of their stuff. Although nothing important was lost it still would be better if they didn''t lose anything.


    ''''But that talk is after we finish this quest, so let''s go.'''' Stamping out the fire, Kayne started to lead the party to their goal.

 Chapter 10-Encounter with the wild life

    ''''Incoming!''''


    ''''Got it!'''' Hubert responded by raising his shield, blocking a giant green fist.


    ''''UGH!'''' The punch was so heavy that Hubert felt it through his shield and the heavy armor he was wearing. It will probably leave a bruise.


    ''''Mana blade.'''' Behind Hubert, Kayne announced the skill he would be using so that his party knew what he was doing. The moment he used his skill a light blue blade formed around his open right palm.


    While the monster''s hand was still extended, Kayne went around Hubert, who he used as a cover, and slashed at the monster''s wrist. Unfortunately, the cut wasn''t as deep as Kayne had hoped, but it was better than nothing. ''''RA!'''' Feeling Kayne slash his wrist the monster turned his head and looked at the damage and the one who did it.


    Seeing his wrist bleeding a nice consistent stream the monster got annoyed and was ready to strike the beastkin down. ''''RAAAAWWRR!'''' But before he got the chance, Alex used [Pearcing shot] and hit the monster''s eye, blinding the monster in one eye and dealing some pain to it. Using his uninjured hand the monster grabbed for the arrow to pull it out. When he pulled out the arrow the whole eye came out, so now he was bleeding from one of his eye sockets too.


    The monster wanted to step a little bit back to get some distance from the party and get ready to strike again, but he didn''t get the chance. His feet and ankles suddenly got punctured by wooden spikes, while at the same time, his right calf got a piece ripped off from it by Grefured.


    The monster was losing balance but he didn''t fall. Using his right leg to stabilize himself, in the process of breaking the wooden spikes and mutilating his feet further, the monster made a roar. ''''RRRAWR!'''' When the sound left his mouth his muscles visibly bulged, and all the inflicted wounds healed right before the party''s eyes, as if nothing had happened. His wrist wound closed, his eye regrew, and his mutilated feet and calf healed.


    But Sam didn''t let that stop her. She threw one of her smoke bombs at the monster''s face. It exploded on impact filling the monster''s face with smoke, and while the monster was distracted, trying to get the smoke to disperse, the catkin went around the big monster, and using her skill, she jumped.


    Reaching the monster''s neck she lodged one of her daggers in there. And the moment she landed she sprung away because the next moment a fist came to be in the place she landed from the jump.


    ''''The poison should take effect soon.'''' Hearing this the party got ready to go all out. Trolls were troublesome creatures, they were big they were strong, and above all, they could regenerate really fast. The only way to reliably kill them was you either kill them really fast with strong attacks or use something that could slow their regeneration. Otherwise, they will keep regenerating until the party is exhausted, -that is if the party can stay alive that long,- and then kill it when they can''t fight back.


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    The first to move was Hubert. While the troll was getting Sam''s dagger out of his neck Hubert charged at the monster. Seeing the incoming Hubert the troll responded by punching the human. But Hubert expected this, using his shield he paired the punch. It still dealt some damage to Hubert''s arm, but at the same time it threw the troll off balance a little. And using that window Hubert slashed his sword at the troll, wounding it in the chest.


    While at the same time, Alex shot an arrow, again aiming at the troll''s eye, but this time it wasn''t so successful. The troll did learn from his last mistake and shielded his face with his other arm, leading the arrow to puncture his arm, not his eye. But this gave a chance to Kayne and Sam, who used the opportunity of troll blocking his own vision.


    Kayne channeled some mana in his legs, making him faster. When he got close enough he lowered his figure and used one of his skills to strengthen his fist. He punched straight at the troll''s knee. When the punch landed there was a definite sound of bone breaking, and you could see some bone sticking out. But it didn''t take long before it started healing.


    Sam arrived at the exact moment when Kayne''s punch landed throwing the troll off balance even more. And while the troll was fighting to regain its balance, Sam used [Multy strike], combined with her dagger she left multiple nasty cuts on the troll''s side.


    Not using momentum June used her magic to sprout out a wooden pillar from the ground, right beneath one of the troll''s feet. Normally the troll would be fine and would regain his balance, but this time it was different. Although his wounds still closed fast it wasn''t as instantaneous as before, and the creature wasn''t used to it, so with all those injuries and some confusion about why he wasn''t regenerating as fast as usual the troll lost his footing.


    The troll landed on his butt. Wooden spikes sprouted from the ground impaling the troll from different angles, Grefured jumped for the troll''s jugular biting down hard. The troll grabbed at the wolf and tried to pull it off, but the grey-furred creature didn''t let go. Alex started to pelt the troll with arrows, aiming them everywhere not just its eyes trying to puncture as many weak spots as possible.


    Kayne and Sam joined in the mele, using their agility to slash and strike from multiple sides, while Hubert made one or two of his own attacks, ready to defend his party if the troll decided to stop trying to peal Grefured off of himself and instead attack one of his comrades. The poison slowly got stronger and stronger, and the party could see some wounds that were not healing fast, still at a visible pace, but instead of seconds, the wounds would take minutes, and the deeper ones an hour to fully heal by the looks of it.


    Slowly but surely the troll fell, the final straw was when it finally got the wolf off of himself, but not the way it wanted. Grefured couldn''t take it anymore, all the punching and pulling from the troll took a tool on the wolf''s body, so it decided enough is enough. So the summoned beast clasped his jaws as tight as he could, and with a smooth motion, he jumped off the troll and at the same time took the troll''s throat with him.


    ''''gghhhhrr...'''' The troll wanted to roar in pain but couldn''t, he was clasping his hands around his mutilated throat. His eyes were punctured with arrows, and his lower half was full of wooden spikes. His body full of wounds made from Sam and Hubert, bones broken, and internal injuries plenty. The troll was on its last leg, slowly the breath of life left him, his eyes glazed over, and he fell. The troll''s lifeless body now was lying on the ground, right before the party that defeated the monster.

 Chapter 11-Cave’s entrance

    After the troll was defeated the party could relax. The battle wasn''t really difficult, but it was tiring. All in all the fight went well, no one was majorly injured, except maybe Grefured, after all, he was holding on to the troll while getting bashed by it.


    ''''We should probably take a small break before we continue.''''  June was first to speak, and she suggested they take a break before they contained to their goal. The break was needed for multiple reasons for June personally. One she needed to recover the mana she spent, although she didn''t spend too much it be better if she was full. The second thing was Grefured, he took a beating from the troll, and June was now considering whether would it be better to let him recover here, or to desummon him and then later summon him again.


    Although it will take extra mana to summon him again, he will recover faster in his original home. After considering she decided to let Grefured recover in his home. She waved her summoned companion to her and seeing her gesture Grefured came to her with a limp.


    ''''See you soon budy.'''' Giving the big wolf a few last scratches, she dismissed him. Slowly Grefured turned to mist until there was no more sight of him, only the mist that a few moments later fully disappeared.


    While June was saying goodbye to her companion, Kayne was on the troll digging for the troll''s mana core. It wasn''t hard to find as its location is known, just under the heart. The hard part was to try and get it out undamaged, and if possible cleanly. But for Kayne, it wasn''t difficult he did it quickly and cleanly.


    Kayne wanted to take the troll''s heart too because it was valuable, especially for an alchemist and you could get a pretty penny for it, but the party didn''t have space to store it, so he left the heart alone. Kayne was a little disappointed that they couldn''t take the heart with them but the disappointment didn''t last long, the reason being that the troll''s mana core is also valuable, and with this, they probably will be able to get an enchanted item with dimensional space.


    While Kayne and June were preoccupied, the rest of the party went to retrieve their luggage. Luckily for them, the troll attack wasn''t sudden and they were able to put their backpacks down before engaging the troll.


    When they were on their way to the goal, Grefured alerted the party of danger, next was Alex as he could see better than any of them, and informed them that the threat was a troll. So knowing this information they were able to put their bags down in a somewhat safe place away from the fight.


    It didn''t take long before Hubert and the other two got back with their luggage. They put the luggage in one pile and then sat around it, June and Kayne joined them. They each grabbed some rations and water for themselves and started to indulge.


    All of them sat on the ground, except Sam. June needed to let her mana recover, so she couldn''t make seats for the party. But no one objected, they knew that June needed mana and the more she recovered the better for the whole party. But Sam took her place on Alex''s lap, enjoying her lover''s warmth.


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    No one talked, they just ate their food in silence. ''''AH~'''' That is until this silence was broken by their local catkin Sam. When the party turned their gazes to Sam, they saw two things. Sam looking at Alex with a piercing gaze, and Alex smirking at Sam while having a peace of Sam''s black tail in his mouth.


    Sam pulled her tail out from the archer''s mouth, and then leaned back in him, with some momentum. ''''Ugh!'''' The force from her move was enough to make Alex grunt a little.


    While the pair were having their fun, Kyane was admiring the monster core while eating, when he heard someone coming closer to him.''''How much do you think it''s worth?'''' The sudden visitor sat down right next to him, and Kayne didn''t need to take a look as he could tell it was June by her voice.


    ''''Honestly, I don''t know.'''' Ripping another piece of the jerky Kayne continued. ''''It should make us enough money that we could relax for some time if we wanted. But this troll was pretty young.'''' Kayne didn''t need much knowledge of trolls to know that this one had just recently become an adult. The troll didn''t have much fighting experience, usually, the adults are a lot tougher. So knowing that this was a younger troll it would be a little less valuable, but still would give them a nice sum of money.


    ''''We need to start moving.'''' Their talk was interrupted by Alex. He was looking in one direction with a serious face.


    The party didn''t ask more, they just gathered their things and got ready to on their way. It probably was other monsters, after all, they were resting near the corpse of the troll, so it was only logical that the wildlife would be attracted to it.


    ***


    ''''This is it?'''' The party had finally arrived at their goal. Right now they were standing in front of what looked like a cave entrance.


    ''''Yes, we are here to investigate it.'''' While looking at the cave''s maw Kayne tried to see if he could see what''s happening inside, but he couldn''t see anything as it was pitch black. ''''Report said that there were previous parties sent here, but none returned.''''


    ''''Why they were sent in the first place?''''


    ''''Someone reported strange noises and movements, so the guild sent some lower-ranked adventures here.'''' Kayne still tried to peer inside the cave while he answered June''s question. ''''So we should be careful, we don''t know what dangers this cave hides.''''


    ''''Are we ready?'''' Finally turning away from the cave, Kayne asked the party if they were ready to explore this cave.


    ''''Almost.'''' June needed to summon Grefured. Originally June thought she would need to summon him sooner when they encounter another monster, but after the troll, they didn''t encounter another monster while they made their way to this location. Similar to the last time the glowing circle appeared then the mist and then the wolf.


    ''''Ready.'''' June scratched Grefured behind the ear and announced that she was ready.


    After hearing that the party made their way in the cave. They only brought the essentials and left their big backpacks behind in a safe location. June used her wood magic to reshape a big tree, she made so that this tree could store their luggage in it by making something like a room inside the tree. So the only way to get to their luggage is through something like wood magic or by destroying the tree.


    The cave entrance wasn''t that big so they need to go in single file. And the order was Sam, Hubert, June, Alex, and then Kayne, while Grefured was positioned next to June. All ready and prepared as they could be the party went to confront the danger of this cave.

 Chapter 12-Decision

    Slowly they entered the cave. It was dark, and most of the party could barely see what was happening. The worst off was Hubert and Alex as they could barely see a few meters in front of them. Then was June, but she was a mage who had learned mana vision so she used that to navigate the dark tunnel, but even without it elves were born with better eyes than humans. And the beastmen of the group could see the best in the dark because they naturally had the best eyesight, and if they were in a particular tribe they might see in the dark as clearly as the day.


    So because of Sam''s eyesight, she was in front, well at least that was one of the reasons. The reason they didn''t use any light sources was because they didn''t want to make it easier for an enemy to find them. Of course, if a need arises they will use something to light up their surroundings.


    Continuing their path, the party discovered that they won''t need to use anything to light up their surroundings, because in this cave the natural flora was glowing with soft light. Although the light, coming from the moss on the walls or the mushrooms that were sprouting here and there, wasn''t the strongest it was sufficient for the party to see what was needed.


    It wasn''t long after the glowing plants that the cave started to widen, making it so that the party could make tighter formations and not one straight line. They were moving at a nice pace, they didn''t want to make much noise so they were moving slower than usual, but at the same time they didn''t want to make this last longer than unnecessary, so they weren''t moving too much slower than their normal gait.


    But even then they still made some noise, especially Hubert. The red-haired giant of a man was making some noise from time to time, and most of those times it was his armor as it moved with Hubert''s body.


    ''''Look.'''' In front of her Sam saw some dead bodies, so she quietly informed her group.


    Slowly they made their way to the bodies, while at the same time raising their guard up. It wasn''t unusual for some monsters to use people''s corpses to trap unsuspecting adventurers. Looking around Sam couldn''t find any sight of life and even after using a skill or two, she didn''t find anything out of the ordinary. The rest of the party also confirmed it was safe to approach the corpses.


    There were two bodies just lying there, one was completely flat on the floor, while the other one was sitting on the floor with its back resting against the wall. Both of them looked like adventurers, they probably were the previous adventures that were sent here.


    Sam went closer to inspect the two bodies. Both looked like they were humans, one male, and one female. First Sam looked at the female, she was the one that was lying down on the floor. The body was full of claw and bite marks, and the left arm was gone, something had ripped it off. Looking over the body Sam found a few more things that could indicate what killed the human, but she decided to look at the other body before she made any conclusions.


    ''''Find anything useful?'''' While Sam was looking over the male body, her lover''s voice came from behind her.


    ''''It looks like they were killed, by some small creatures with claws, and in large quantity, or something with many arms.'''' Tracing finger over one of the bite marks, Sam took a better look. ''''And these monsters have some sharp teeth, the attack looks like it was made by savages.''''


    ''''Goblins?'''' That was Alexe''s first guess, and it wasn''t unusual to have that guess. Small, large in quantities and attack like savages.


    ''''Could be, but it would be a little unusual.'''' Sam looked over the body, trying to find if the monster that attacked had any venom. ''''Usually, when the goblin group becomes big enough, they naturally produce a leader. Making the whole group smarter, and at that stage, they start to use tools.'''' Sma pointed at the sword that was near the corpse. ''''And they wouldn''t leave this lying around, plus there would be some kind of guards in front of the cave or at least near the entrance, but we didn''t encounter any.''''


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    ''''So that makes me believe that these aren''t goblins, or we have encountered one unusual group of them.''''


    ''''So any guess what could it be?'''' Sam was about to answer Aelxe''s question, but she stopped when she found something.


    Turning the head of the body, she saw that there was some dry blood near both of the ears, and it looked like the blood originally flowed from the ears down the victim''s cheeks. Sam took one of her daggers and gutted the corpse, and then started to look at the organs, even pulling some of them out.


    While Sam was doing that Alex just stood there and waited for Sam to finish her thing, without batting an eye. Alex was used to these kinds of things from Sam. Although the catkin can be playful and mischievous, she can also be brutal and cold when the need arises. Sam has done some things that some would consider questionable, but Sam has never crossed the line, so Alex didn''t mind it. And the rest of the party similar to Alex himself didn''t mind too much.


    After gutting one body Sam moved back to the female body, and similar, this one also had the same dried blood flowing from the ears. So Sam guts this body too, going through a similar process, inspecting and removing organs. After getting some information that confirmed some of her thoughts Sam stood up and went to where most of the party was gathered while grabbing Alexe''s hand on the way.


    When Sam approached, the party looked at her waiting for her to speak. ''''I can confirm that they weren''t attacked by goblins.''''


    ''''Sigh~'''' Hearing Sam say that, June let out a sigh of relief. June wasn''t particularly scared of them, but the green savages don''t have the best reputation for how they treat the women. And June was happier to die than end in their little hands if things go south.


    ''''But it isn''t anything pleasant.'''' Hearing Sam speak those words the air felt a little heavier. ''''Those adventurers were killed by monsters that were similar to goblins in size, and their numbers aren''t small either. But the biggest clue I found was that they were attacked probably by some skill that used sound.''''


    By now the party had grim expressions all around. Sound attacks were many, their effects varied, plus they were annoying, so unless you were resistant to them they never were good news. ''''And I have a reason to suspect they were attacked by a group of Drekavaces.'''' While saying that Sam showed her party what she found, stuck in one of the body''s armor gaps. It was some black fur.


    Drekavac, was a little monster, with humanoid features, it had black fur in some places on its body. Similar to goblins they liked to move in groups, but they were mostly known for their screams. Their screams were a sound attack that was capable of disorienting their enemies. But if enough of them coordinate to attack simultaneously the attack can easily destroy the eardrums, and rupture some organs.


    ''''So what do we do now?'''' Alex broke the silence, wanting to know what the party was intended to do.


    ''''Well, our options are either to go back and inform the guild about what we found.'''' Turning his gaze from Sam to the tunnel that leads further into the cavern, Kayne continued. ''''Or we go deeper and try to kill all of them or at least a few of them.''''


    Fortunately, these monsters didn''t breed at the same rate as goblins. Making it so that if the party wanted to remove some risk for the cleaners, they could kill a few groups of these monsters. If these were goblins they would just breed more, making all the killing useless.


    ''''I think we should take our chances and go deeper, even if we only scout and confirm their numbers.'''' June was ready to go deeper and get more information about the threat.


    ''''I would prefer to go back and inform the guild.'''' On the other hand, Alex was more inclined to retreat and come back with more people. ''''But I wouldn''t be opposed to exploring a little bit more if we don''t wander too far.'''' Sam just nodded at what Alex said.


    Although Sam didn''t really care what they did. She was fine either way, but if her partner has a preference she will support him.


    ''''Hubert?'''' Turning his gaze to Hubert, Kayne waited for the red-haired man''s choice.


    ''''I agree with June, we should get at least some information about their numbers, even if the bare minimum.''''


    ''''Well then, it''s decided. We will go deeper with the goal in mind of gathering some information. And if it gets dangerous we retreat immediately.'''' Kayne told out loud their decision. ''''Any questions or objections?'''' Seeing that there was none of those two, the party continued their descent into the deeper end of this cave.

 Chapter 13-Fight for survival

    ''''Two up front.''''


    ''''Got it.'''' Following Sam''s directions, Aelx saw two of the monsters in front of them. He aimed his shot, and then let the bow''s string go. The arrow flew at its intended target. Alex used [Multi-shot] when the arrow was halfway, splitting the flying arrow into two arrows.


    *psh* *tuk* The arrows arrived at their target, puncturing the two monsters skulls with the help of Alex''s skill. The two Drekavaces couldn''t make any sound before they were already dead, and their bodies hit the ground.


    Sam walked up to the bodies and made sure they were dead, after all, no one wants to be later screwed by a monster they thought was dead, but in actuality somehow survived. After confirming they were dead she gave the party confirmation of their death. So they moved on.


    By now the party had encountered few of these groups of Drekavaces, usually in groups of two or three. But they did encounter one group that had five of them in it. Fortunately, they managed to kill them all before they could use their screams to attack the party or alarm their allies.


    And because the party hadn''t encountered anything that could pose any significant danger to them they haven''t to retreat yet. They were only encountering small groups of these monsters and had dispatched of them with little to no difficulty, so their confidence rose, but that didn''t mean they became reckless, no they were still on high alert, ready if things go south.


    Walking onwards they stumbled on a fork with two paths. It wasn''t anything unusual they had stumbled on a few of them already. In these situations, they just pick one of the options, and Kayne leaves a mark, indicating a path they chose, and if the path is a dead end they go back and choose a different path.


    So Sam picked the path that was on the right and just went on. It didn''t take long before they encountered something. There were six of those small, black, furry, humanoid creatures resting. The tunnel went straight, then in a small round room, and then across the room the tunnel continued, and the six monsters were resting in that room, scattered about.


    ''''There''s six of them.'''' Sam was first to see, so she informed the party. Without talking the party got in formation. They needed to do this as quickly as they can.


    The first to move was Sam. She ran in using her arsenal of skills to erase her presence and sound as much as possible. In short few seconds, Sam was next to one of the sleeping monsters. Brandishing her blades she slit the monster''s throat as deep as she could, and then without using momentum she stabbed it through the eye into the brain, killing it without allowing the creature to make a sound. But the body did make a small sound, so the rest of its group woke up, but they were half asleep so they still were a little confused about what was going on.


    Almost the next moment an arrow shot from Alex''s bow killed another one. But that fully woke up the last four. When Alex''s arrow made its target, Kayne sprinted to one of the four remaining creatures. He arrived in front of the monster in a blink, and without hesitation punched the creature''s head. The result was that the head exploded, as Kayne empowered his punch by quite a bit.


    June was no slower than Kayne, using her wood magic she impaled one of the creatures with multiple flying wooden stakes, about the same time Kayne made the monster''s head his personal pinata.


    In that time when Kayne and June made their attacks, Alex had shot another arrow, securing another kill, and Sam was about to kill the last monster. She saw the monster opening his mouth, ready to screech, so Sam flung one of the daggers right in its mouth. Feeling the pain the creature reached for its throat and the dagger, but it didn''t even get to do that before Sam was on him, killing the creature with one smooth stab in its heart.


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    *Tud* With the last body hitting the floor they were done. They succeded in killing all six Drekavaces without letting them make any sound. Again they confirmed the kills and moved on. Kayne did ask around if anyone needed some rest, but all declined, all of them wanted to be done with this.


    And by seeing what they encountered next, it is probably right to assume they will be leaving soon. It didn''t take them long before they encountered another room, similar to the one the six Drekavaces were sleeping. But this room was bigger, much bigger, and in the center there was a creature sleeping. All around the room, the party could see many different bones.


    The party took a few steps into the room, before stopping. They took a good look at the sleeping beast and decided they didn''t want to fight it on their own. So without making a sound, they tried to leave, but luck wasn''t on their side. While stepping back Hubert''s armor made a loud sound when he tried to not step on a bone.


    The beast''s eyes shot open and automatically focused on the party. It used its elonged furry black arms to prop itself up, its full size clearly shown. It didn''t wait for the party to make a move before, its wolf-like maw opened. Seeing what was coming Hubert stepped in front of the party and brought his shield in front of him. And at the same time, he activated a skill.


    A giant wall-like shield made out of light formed in front of him, ready to block the creature''s attack. Hubert didn''t need to wait long before it came. ''''RAAAAAARRRRRRRR...'''' From the creature''s mouth came out a roar. For Hubert, it felt like crashing waves one after another, were banging against his shield.


    It wasn''t a pleasant feeling, but luckily the skill held up, and no one was hurt, except himself. But even then he didn''t sustain any major damage.


    When the monster stopped its roar, Hubert dropped the skill, and the party moved to action. Alex didn''t hesitate to aim for the monster''s red eyes, but there was no success there, the monster opened his mouth and used a small sound attack to blow them off course.


    Kayne was the first to arrive close enough to mele the monster. His first aim was to injure the monster''s legs. Although the monster was using both his legs and arms to stand, it still would impair his movements if its legs were to be injured.


    But the monster didn''t wait for Kayne to injure it, the monster used one of his hands to try and flatten the beastkin. Seeing the incoming fist Kayne strengthened his legs and dodged the monster''s fist. *TUD* The monster''s strike landed on the stone floor, and it had enough power to create a small crater.


    After dodging that Kayne was close enough to the monster''s legs. He formed a mana blade around his open palm and while running past one of the legs he slashed at it. But the injury was a lot smaller than he had anticipated. The hide of this monster was tougher than it seemed.


    The monster wanted to turn to Kayle and use a sound attack on him, but it couldn''t, Alex still was trying to poke the monster''s eyes out, plus June was throwing her spikes at the monster in combination with Alex.


    Sam similar to Kayna aimed for its leg, but she didn''t have as much raw power as Kayne, so she didn''t even draw blood. But she hoped that the poison she laced her daggers with, would still take an effect, but her hopes weren''t high.


    Kayne and Sam were ready to take another swing at the monster, but before they could the monster moved. ''''rrrrrrRRRAAAWWW...'''' The monster started running in the direction of Alex and June, with a roar that slowly got stronger and louder.


    Seeing this, Hubert, stood his ground and again used his skill to block the monster''s path. But the monster reacted instantly, when it got close enough it jumped. The monster took its fists brought them together, and with the force of the jump smashed them against Hubert''s skill''s shield.


    Like a meteor, the monster crashed against the light shield, breaking it on impact. Hubert didn''t have much time, so he jumped out of the way, not wanting to be crushed. But at least it stopped the monster''s sprint. The monster looked at the fallen human that was trying to get up as fast as possible.


    That action cost the monster its eye, one of Alex''s arrows was now embedded in the monster''s right eye. ''''RAAAAAAGGGHH.'''' Angry the monster took Hubert by his leg and flung him at Alex. Surprised by the monster''s strength- after all, Hubert was a big guy, plus his armor- Alex didn''t react in time.


    He still managed to jump out of the way, well most of him, but his left leg still got caught. ''''AAAAAAAHH!'''' ''''ALEX!'''' It wasn''t a pretty sight, both of them were alive, but Hubert was barely conscious and Alex had his leg broken.

 Chapter 14-Coffin for the beast

    ''''Grefured, take these to Alex.'''' Without missing a beat, June took two glass bottles with some kind of red-green liquid in them, out of her pouch and handed them to Grefured, those were healing potions. Obeying his summoner''s command, Grefured grabbed the potions with his mouth and ran to Alex.


    While June sent Grefured to Alex, she herself cast another spell. This one was stronger than her usual spikes, and it took quite a bit of mana. Before the monster could continue his path to her, June''s spell stopped it. Giant tree roots emerged from the cave''s floor, breaking it and making large pieces of the floor splinter away in all directions.


    The roots grabbed onto the monster entangling it. The monster''s four limbs and its maw was getting restricted and squeezed by these roots. It took a large amount of mana to create this spell, and June was exhausted, she fell on her knee as her strength left her body.


    In that time Grefured had managed to deliver the potions to Alex. He wasn''t screaming anymore, but it still hurt and he wasn''t capable of doing anything else right now except look around and hold his mangled leg. Seeing the summoned wolf approach with two potions in its mouth Alex knew what he needed to do.


    He took both potions and automatically uncorked the first one and drank it with one big gulp, now he needed to figure out how to make Hubert drink the other one.


    While Alex was trying to keep himself and Huber from daying, Kayne and Sam were ready to strike the monster. The roots kept the monster in place while the monster tried to break free from them.


    Kayne went with his original plan, taking out the monster''s legs, while Sam tried to slash every joint, and weak spot the monster has. Sam started from the bottom, she first tried to slash the achilles heels, it didn''t leave a deep mark, but she didn''t stop. Then she went to its ligaments that were back of the knees and continued up without losing momentum, the black-haired catkin''s speed even rose as she continued.


    Kayne on the other hand, used all he got to destroy the monster''s legs. He started with one leg. He started with a punch, then without losing momentum, he kicked the same leg, in almost the same spot. Then shifting from blunt damage he used mana blade to slash again at the same spot. Kayne continued attacking the same spot, in hopes that it would damage the leg faster.


    While Kayne and Sam were assaulting the monster, the beast itself wasn''t just standing there and waiting for them to kill it. ''TRRRKKK...'''' The roots started to crack, June was still on her knee, and Alex''s leg was healing but at a slow rate, so he still wasn''t able to do much, Hubert was just laying there. Fortunately, Hubert was getting better as Alex got him to swallow the potion, but same as Alex it will take a while.


    Seeing the roots crack, Sam jumped off the best, but in that time she had managed to leave her marks all around the monster''s body. His elbows, shoulders, armpits, neck, and a few scratches here and there around his body. Sam intended to go for the monster''s healthy eye but she decided to jump off instead of risking it.


    And that was the right decision as while Sam was in her free fall, the monster freed one of its hands, but before Sam was too far away, she threw one of her smoke bombs at the beast''s head just to buy them a little bit more time. On impact the bomb activated, and the smoke broke loose covering most of the monster''s face with smoke.


    But it didn''t last long, almost at the same moment as Sam landed on the floor with a roll the monster used his free hand to break the roots that were keeping his elonged jaw shut. ''''RAAAAAARRR!!!'''' With its mouth now free, it roared, strong enough to create a shockwave that dispersed the smoke and made Kayne and Sam take a few steps back.


    ''''Well fuck.'''' June wasn''t one to curse, but she knew that after the monster broke loose from her roots, it will be an end to them if they didn''t think of something. Kayne and Sam were strong in their own way, but that monster''s strength was just overwhelming plus it had some intelligence behind those red eyes, now eye. Sam had pumped the monster with some poison, but who knows how long will that take before it takes effect if it ever will take effect, so there wasn''t much hope in that.


    ''''BUY ME SOME TIME!'''' Without any options left June asked Kayne and Sam to buy her some time. Seeing both beastkin nodded understanding what June wanted to do. The blond elf pulled out another potion from her pouch. But this one was colored bluish-purple. June didn''t want to drink it but if she wanted to survive she had to.


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    June uncorked the bottle and gulped its content down. The next moment, she felt the surrounding mana rush at her, filling her full with mana. Feeling this June didn''t hesitate to stand back up and start casting her spell.


    Seeing June start casting her spell, Kayne and Sam got ready to buy some time. The monster by now had broken off the roots of his second hand and was ready to break those that restricted its legs. Sam sprinted at the monster. She arrived at one of its lowered hands and slashed at the monster''s digits. Sam used quite a bit of her power and skills to do as much damage as possible and she succeeded. It looked like the hide wasn''t that durable in those spots, allowing Sam to make deep cuts.


    ''''RRAA!'''' Feeling the pain the monster made a small roar as it pulled the injured hand away from the catkin. Sam wanted to do the same thing for the other hand, but she couldn''t because the monster had already used the other hand to break free one of his legs, and then pulled the hand up.


    Now the monster was standing only on its legs, making it a little less stable. Kyane was already in motion, similar to Sam he ran at the monster, but his aim was the monster''s leg that he had attacked previously, and right now was still restricted by roots. With momentum, the wolfkin jumped and extended his leg. With the jumping kick he clashed against the monster''s leg with some force.


    The impact was strong enough to make the monster lose its balance. But it didn''t fall, it used its hands to keep itself balanced. Although the monster didn''t fall Kayne wasn''t too disappointed, because the leg he struck was now injured enough that the monster won''t be able to use it completely.


    ''''RAAAR!'''' With another roar the monster balanced on its hands, and pulled the still entangled leg free. Now the monster was free and unrestricted. But it wasn''t in the best condition.


    Now the monster was in worse shape than when they started this battle. One of its eyes was now blinded by Alex''s arrow, it had cuts from Sam mostly in its weak spots, making it so that the monster wasn''t able to move and react as fast. Then there were some small puncture wounds from June and the messed up leg that Kyane was responsible for.


    Though it wasn''t like Kayne and Sam were in the best condition either. Although neither of them had sustained any external injuries from this monster, they were getting tired. They still could go on for a while, but the longer they fought the more stamina it will take from them. And the more tired they get the more mistakes they will make.


    But now wasn''t the time to think about that, their mission was to buy time until June has completed her spell. So the battle continued, as Sam and Kayne dodged the monster''s fists and roars, while at the same time finding a window where they could land an attack or two. There were a few times when the monster wanted to attack June with a roar, but those times Kayne grabbed a rock and threw it at the monster''s face, or Same used one of her smoke bombs.


    And the monster didn''t try to run at June, because with all its injuries it wouldn''t be too fast, and in that time Kayne and Sam could injure the monster pretty badly. So there was nothing the monster could do until it dealt with at least one of the beastkin.


    The monster tried to kill either Sam or Kayne but it didn''t make it in time. ''''Deodar coffin.'''' The moment these words left June''s mouth, Kayne and Sam turned around and tried to get as far from the monster as they could. While on the other hand, the monster got a little confused for a moment before it felt imminent danger.


    The monster didn''t have much time to react before giant roots burst out of the ground, but different from the earlier ones, these had a golden-green glow to them, and they were more numerous. They easily restricted the monster. His legs, arms, torso, neck, and mouth got restricted so that the beast couldn''t move.


    Next came the spikes, similar to roots, they burst out of the ground, breaking the cavern''s floor. One after another those giant spikes impaled the monster, they easily punctured the monster''s hide and muscles, and even the bones were no match for the spikes power. Now restricted and with multiple spikes coming in and out it its body, the monster wanted to screen in agony but couldn''t.


    The monster couldn''t move a muscle in this state, it could only move its eye, as its blood dripped down the stakes. But the spell wasn''t over, like a wooden, spherical jaw, two sides of the dome emerged from the ground and engulfed the monster so that it couldn''t be seen from the outside, only the wooden dome that had teeth like spikes inside it.


    ''''Is it over?'''' Sam asked while looking at the impressive dome. But her answer didn''t take long to get answered. the wooden construction slowly dissipated, until the catkin could fully see the monster.


    It was lying on the ground, with multiple holes in its body. By the looks of it, the monster won''t be able to move anymore and fighting is out of the question. Sam looked in wonder at the monster, its body lying in its own pull of blood. Suddenly the monster opened its mouth and made one last roar. ''''RAAAAAAAaaaarr...'''' The roar was weaker than its other ones, and it sounded like it was calling for something nothing like its previous dominating roars. With the last roar the monster died, but because of the last roar the party didn''t feel relaxed, no they felt cold shivers run down their spines.

 Chapter 15-Mass curse

    After hearing the roar they sprinted in action. ''''Grab Alex.'''' Without turning her head June commanded Grefured to take Alex and to follow her. June started running in the direction of the monster''s corpse. The mana potion was still working as it pumped her full of mana, but her body was exhausted by now, but even then she ran as fast as she could, while Grefured was right behind her with Alex in his jaws, dragging the poor human against the ground. But Alex didn''t make a sound he knew that their situation wasn''t good.


    Sam and Kayne on the other hand ran in the direction where June was coming from. They were exhausted but it was do or die situation. They ran to Hubert, in sync they squatted down and then picked the fully armored man. ''''Uff!'''' Sam let out a slight push of air as she started to carry Hubert. It would be more optimal to take off all of his armor, but they had no time.


    June and Grefured finally arrived at the corpse, she turned around to see how far Kayne and Sam were. They weren''t far and they were steadily approaching her. Seeing that her party is at least somewhat safe, June started to channel a spell, so that when the rest of the group arrives she was ready to activate.


    ''''scree...scrrrEE...sccRRRAAA....SCCCRAAAA'''' While the party was busy saving everyone''s life, Alex was just laying there, not able to help as Sam and Kayne were running with Hubert in their arms. While a wave of screaming Drekavaces burst into the room. Their anger was fully displayed on their faces, while they ran at the party ready to tear them apart.


    Alex saw how the angry wave trampled over Hubert''s sword and shield that were left behind, the monsters didn''t stop for anything, even their kin that got trampled, all they saw was their target, and unfortunately for Alex, that target was him and his friends.


    ''''Ugh!'''' Hubert let out a groan when he was thrown on the ground. But he didn''t complain, because they finally made it to their needed location, and the two beastkin were exhausted, Hubert knew that he was heavy plus the armor didn''t help.


    ''''Live cage.'''' June completed her spell a few seconds after Sam and Kayne arrived. Giant roots came out of the ground and made a spherical cage that encompassed the party and the monster''s corpse. It was a cage that self regenerated so the party should be safe from most attacks, from these Drekavaces.


    As for the sound attacks, Sam pulled out a magic stone and activated the spell it was containing. It created a barrier around them that blocked all sound from inside and outside. ''''Sigh~'''' Finally they could relax June plopped down, Sam and Kayne followed her and crumbled on the ground from exhaustion.


    Now the only thing they needed to figure out was how they will get out of here. But they had plenty of time, they had food rations and if they ended they had a giant monster''s corpse behind them, and for water, June could create some if needed. The only thing they needed was to be careful not to step out of the sound barrier because it wasn''t as big as the cage. But even then it was plenty big for the party.


    June watched as the monster wave crashed into the cage, she saw how those feral monsters screamed at them, how the monsters tried to get through the cage''s gaps, but couldn''t. The monsters started to attack the cage, they used their teeth and claws to break the cage. But nothing worked, the cage regenerated the damage.


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    Slowly the wave surrounded almost all of the cage from top to bottom. Almost no light was coming inside the cage, so Kayne decided to make a small fire.


    Finally, June was starting to relax completely, ready to enjoy some safety in this cage, until she saw something that made her lose hope. The monsters were so many that the cage couldn''t keep up with its regeneration. It would still take a few hours for the monsters to break through but, they were many and the party had nowhere to run, this was bad.


    June informed the rest of the party about the predicament so that they could come up with something that could help. But no such luck, there were some suggestions that would buy a little bit of time, like killing them from afar, but it would get them a minimal amount of time and exhaust them even more.


    That was until Grefured snuggled closer to June, making the elf think of an idea that could work.


    ***


    After Aella stepped inside the summoning circle everything went white for a second. Before the white all around her dissipated into a mist, and showed her a new view.


    Aella was no longer in the library, but instead, the was some kind of cave looking by the floor. There was dark and the only light was a little campfire near her. Looking around a little bit further, she saw a large corpse of a monster, at least she presumed it was dead with all the pool of blood that was beneath the monster.


    The next thing she looked at was the living cage that was made out of wood, and the numerous monsters that were trying to break the cage. Aella was somewhat confused about what kind of situation she was in. So finally she looked at the five people and a wolf that were looking at her.


    ''''Hi, I''m Aella and I presume you''re the one who summoned me?'''' Finally, Aella decided to break this silence by addressing the blond elf that was looking at her with its blue eyes. Aella presumed that this elf was the one who summoned her because the blond elf looked like a mage from Aella''s perspective.


    ''''I''m June, and yes I was the one who summoned you, I wanted you to make those monsters incapable of breaking through this cage.''''  June composed herself and stood up while responding to Aella. ''''As a reward you can take that monster''s core.'''' June showed the monster''s corpse that was just lying there.


    ''''Deal.'''' Aella nodded and automatically went for her monster''s core that was inside its dead body. She needed that core to be able to activate her curs on that wave of monsters. If she didn''t she would drain all her mana and that wouldn''t be good.


    The body was outside the sound barrier, so when Aella stepped out of the barrier. ''''SCREEEEE...'''' She heard the unpleasant screams that were made all around her. So she picked up the pace to get the monster core. The monster''s body was full of holes so it wasn''t hard to locate the core, all she had to do is go inside one of the holes and dig out the core from the body''s flesh. It wasn''t long before Aella had the core free from the flesh, after all, half of the core was already exposed before she even started.


    So now with bloody feet, hands, and the cloak she was wearing she returned to the barrier with the monster''s mana core in her hands.


    ''''Let''s get started.'''' Holding the core in one hand, and putting up the other hand with the palm facing up, Aella activated her [Curse of Weakness]. The moment she did that, black smoke blasted out of her palm, the smoke made a pillar to the sky until it split up into multiple smoke tendrils each aiming for a monster.


    The monsters were numerous so the tendrils had to be as numerous as the monsters. It was a spectacular sight to see, as those smoky tendrils filled the sky above them. A few moments later the curse tendrils started to collide with Drekavaces one by one. After the collision, the smoky tendrils surrounded the bodies of the monsters in all angles and then dissipated leaving some chain marks on the bodies of the monsters.


    ''''That should do it.'''' Looking around Aella could bearly see the cursed chain marks on the monsters, but she was sure she got every last one of them.


    June looked around the cage and with a nod confirmed that the monsters weren''t out damaging the regeneration of this cage, so now they had plenty of time to figure out how to get out of here.

 Chapter 16-Next stage of life

    ''''So what''s your plan now?'''' After getting done with cursing the monster wave, Aella sat down on the floor and asked June about their next step, just out of curiosity.


    ''''Rest, heal and then we think of getting out.'''' June was tired so she gave Aella a short answer. The mana potion had stopped working some time ago before she summoned Aella, and summoning her had exhausted June''s last mana reserves. If she had more mana for summoning then it would be probably someone stronger standing in Aella''s place.


    Seeing June lying exhausted on Grefured, Aella decided to do her own thing. Now she needed to decide if she wanted to go back or to stay and see what happens with this party.


    The decision wasn''t hard, she decided to stay, and see how the party plans to get out. But while she waited she decided to absorb the monster core that she was holding in her bloody hands. So she started to absorb the core, and slowly the core''s mana flew into her body, she could feel how she got full.


    Then a feeling of her body slowly expanding filled her. Her actual body didn''t display any physical changes, but that didn''t stop the feeling of getting blown up like a balloon to its limits. Slowly and carefully she inflated that balloon until she felt little pain coming from the inside, and without hesitation, she stopped absorbing the core.


    Now she had to wait a bit for the fullness feeling to go away and then she can continue with absorption. While waiting Aella decides to again look around and see what''s happening.


    She pushed her black strand out of her face to take a better look, leaving a little bit of blood on her face and hair, but it didn''t bother her. Her dark eyes looked around and see what this adventuring party was doing.


    June and Grefured were just relaxing, the brown-haired beastkin was looking at the fire thinking about something while he sat on the ground. The red-haired giant who had full metal armor on him, was just lying there with his eyes closed. And the catkin was talking with the human whose leg was in the process of healing while coming through the brown hairs of his with her fingers.


    *tap, tap, tap...* While looking around Aella was tapping her fingers against the mana core, making a rhythmic sound. She looked down while tapping her fingers and saw that they left little blood marks where they tapped, even though the blood was slowly getting dry.


    So she turned the core a little bit to get a clean canvas and tried to paint a face on the core. With little effort, she succeeded in drawing a simple face on the core.


    After she had done that she decided to have a staring contest with Grefured. She just started to stare at the wolf until he returned her gaze and then Aella made eye contact and just started. But it didn''t last long, the summoned beast stared at her for a while in confusion before turning his head away and continuing his rest.


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    Before Aella could think of anything else to keep her boredom away, she felt that her body was ready for another absorption session. So she again concentrated on absorbing the monster''s core. And similar to the last time she absorbed until she felt a little bit of pain and then stopped. Aella could tell that she needed only one more session until something would change.


    Again bored Aella decided to test her ability. She already knew a few things instinctively, mostly how to use it and its range, but there were plenty of things she didn''t know.


    The first thing she wanted to know was dose her curse can work in non-living things. So she put down the monster core in her hands and grabbed a small rock that was lying near her, and activated her ability. Black smoke tendrils came out of her palm that was holding the rock and entangled the rock. And in a few seconds, the rock had the same cursed chain markings, indicating that the curse worked.


    Aella wasn''t that surprised about the outcome, she already kind of knew. Her instinct told her that it should work on inanimate objects, but it wasn''t 100% sure before she tested that. But it still was good to know and Aella was happy that her ability wasn''t restricted to only living things.


    The next thing Aella wanted to know was, whether she could curse only certain parts of things, not the whole thing. So she grabbed another rock, this one was slightly bigger and it had more corners.


    So like the last rock, she took it in her palm and activated her ability, but this time she willed so that only a small part of it gets cursed. The smoky tendrils again came out of her hand, but instead of engulfing the whole rock, they started to engulf only part of it.


    It looked promising and Aella started to think she had succeeded, but that didn''t last long. Suddenly the tendrils that were only engulfing one part of the rock, split and engulfed the rick fully. It was so fast that Aella didn''t have time to react. And she didn''t even know what went wrong, it looked like her test was going well until it wasn''t.


    So Aella tried a few more times, and see if anything changed. But nothing changed, at the start, it looked like it was working but the same as the first time the tendrils splinted and wrapped around the whole rock, no matter what she did. Every test was the same with some lasting longer than others, but the end result was the whole rock getting cursed.


    In the end, Aella concluded that it was probably her lack of control over her ability, she just needed to train until she was able to do these kinds of things. The only thing now was to train her ability and get more used to it. But before that, Aella was ready to absorb some more of the monster''s core.


    Grabbing the core in her hands she started to absorb the core the same way past the last two times. Slowly she felt herself getting full, the mana flowed in her until it reached the limit. But this time Aella didn''t feel the pain as her limit expanded, but it expanded more and more until she felt a warm gentle feeling envelop her.


    Suddenly a mist appeared from nowhere and enveloped her like a cacoon, shielding her from the outside world, the mist itself looked similar to the mist that appeared when she got summoned.


    Now there was a cacoon made out of flowing mist in the same spot where Aella was just sitting and absorbing the core.

 Chapter 17-Bloody entertainment

    The party stopped what they were doing and took a glance at the mist cocoon. It wasn''t every day you could see one of Aella''s kind reach the next stage. Usually, Safury advances in their home plain, as it is safer than here, and the environment is more comfortable for them in their home plane. But other than that it doesn''t change much if they choose to advance here or in their home.


    Although there is practically no difference where they advance it still is a rare sight to behold in the mortal realm. For June as a mage, this is a fascinating moment, although, for the others in her party, the moment is as magical as it is to her, the mages and especially summoners this moment is viewed in high regard.


    So June was concentrating on this spectacle using her mana sight to see what was happening in this process. June got so immersed in Aella''s advancement that she totally forgot what was happening around her.


    Looking at the cacoon she saw what was happening inside. She saw Aella slowly going from her previous position to fetal while at the same time Aella started to levitate in the middle of the cacoon. For a little while it stayed like that, Aella just levitated in the middle of this cacoon in a fetal position.


    After that calm moment past the mana in Aella started to shine brightly and expand. June wasn''t fully sure what she was seeing but even then she kept her full attention on the cacoon. The mana expanded and at one point started to go wild as it raged inside Aella''s body. From June''s point of view, it looked like the mana was trying to break free from Aella''s body.


    The mana got wilder and wilder until Aella''s body exploded. Seeing this June''s eyes went wide, she didn''t know if this was normal, but she decided to just continue looking and see what happens. But even then it was somewhat of a shock to her.


    While the mana got free from Aella''s body it still couldn''t go anywhere because the mist cacoon was acting like a container. After the mana got outside the body it calmed down, and at the moment was just slowly spinning in the cacoon.


    June looked at the cacoon and marveled at the sight. Slowly the mana started to spin faster and faster. Then something started to form in the middle of the mana cyclon. It started as a small ball the size of a normal human eyeball. The blond elf mage saw how the mana was getting sucked into this ball.


    Slowly it got bigger and bigger until it finally absorbed all the mana in the cacoon. The spherical object levitated in the center for a bit, and then it started to take a different shape. June saw how the sphere collapsed and expanded while taking this other form. June saw with her own blue eyes how it all happened, at first she didn''t know what happening now, but the more time went by the more June started to understand what was the end shape.


    So June just watched until it finally stopped and took its desired shape. June guessed it right, it was a body. The body was in a fetal position and was levitating in the middle of the cacoon. June couldn''t see fully how the body had changed, because all she could see was mana, and although it could clearly show her the shapes, she couldn''t see the same things, like color, that her normal eyes could see.


    But even without fully seeing the body, she still could see some changes here and there. For example, the body looked taller, it had longer hair, the curves on this body were more defined and a few more things here and there.


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    Finally, the process ended with Aella''s new body slowly returning to the sitting position she was in before this all started. After she was back in her previous position the cocoon of mist slowly dissipated revealing the now transformed Aella, with her eyes closed.


    June could see Aella''s body in full display because when the advancement happened the cloak and the monster''s core fell to the ground. June could still tell it was Aella, but she looked a little bit older and more mature, and there were some changes that she couldn''t see when Aella was still in her cocoon. But those changes weren''t much, just her hair being darker than before and the dark eyeshadows.


    While June was looking at Aella, the others one by one took a look too, while at the same time waiting for Aella to open her eyes and make some movement, because until now she has just sat there unmoving like a statue.


    After waiting for a minute or two, Aella finally opened her eyes. Aella slowly opened her eyes, although there wasn''t a lot of light in this place Aella still took her time opening her eyes.


    Her dark eye lingered, for a moment, in June''s own eyes. But after that moment Aella turned her gaze away from the elf''s blue eyes, and instead, looked at her surroundings. After exploring the surroundings with her eyes, Aella looked at her body.


    With her gaze now on her body, Aella started to move her body, so that she could get used to it. First, she moved her hands, then her shoulders, then her hips, and then finally she stood up.


    After she was up on her feet she started to explore more thoroughly her body and see what changed. It didn''t take long before she figured out how her body had physically changed, and she was happy with the change. After all, she liked being taller with more curves, unfortunately, there weren''t any reflecting surfaces here so she couldn''t check her face, but that could wait, she was in no hurry.


    After she had finally checked all she wanted, she stretched a little bit before starting to look for something. Aella looked around before her dark eyes reflected the item she was looking for, the monster''s core.


    The core was near her so she didn''t need to walk anywhere, she just needed to pick it off the floor. ''''It should be enough.'''' Looking at the core Aella reckoned that it should have enough mana to help her do what she wanted.


    By now the core was somewhat duller in color than when she first dug it out of the monster''s body, but it was expected because most of its mana went to cursing all those screaming monsters that were surrounding the living cage they were in, and then more mana was spent for her advancement.


    Grabbing the core in one hand and pushing up the other hand, similar to how when she first cursed these screaming creatures.


    June watched from the sidelines, as the naked Aella stretched her hand up, and then said. ''''Curse of madness.'''' The moment those words left Aella''s mouth dark crimson smoke tendrils left her outstretched palm, while simultaneously the core she was holding lost its color turning as it turned gray.


    The smokey tendrils weren''t as numerous as the ones that were created when Aella used [Curse of weakness] but there were still plenty of these crimson-collared tendrils.


    With her blue eyes, June saw how those tendrils charged at some of those creatures. When they made contact the creature stopped for a moment, before it went mad. June saw how the Drekavaces that got affected by the curse started to attack their own.


    The chaos started slowly. First were the ones who got cursed, they started to kill their own without a care in the world, and even when they got injured they reacted as if they had no injuries, but the mad ones were disposed of fast as they were just drop in the bucked when it came to the numbers. Then it got more chaotic when those who didn''t get cursed attacked one another by accident, and the attacked party retaliated, making a cycle, involving more and more monsters.


    June saw right before her eyes how the group of monsters went from trying to kill her and her party to slaughtering one another. Guts and blood started to fall all around them.


    June looked at Aella, the reason for this chaos. The elf saw Aella just standing there looking around at how these creatures killed each other with a huge grin on her face, it looked like she was enjoying this. That smile sent a chill down the blond elf''s spine.

 Chapter 18-Potions two sides

    ''''Looks like it''s mostly over.'''' Looking around Aella concluded that the bloody carnival was over. If before the living cage was almost wholly covered in savage monsters, now it was covered in those same monsters blood and guts.


    There were still some of them alive, but there weren''t many of them so she used her new curse to drive them mad and as a result, they killed each other.


    ''''Unfortunately, the smell isn''t the best.'''' The guts and blood had found their way to where the party was resting right now, and the odor that Aella was smelling right now came with it.


    Of course, even if the remains of these Drekavaces were only outside the living cage she still would probably be able to smell the same scent, after all, there was sea of blood around the cage. Plus you have to remember that there was a giant monster corpse near them.


    Turning her head in the direction of June, Aella asked a question. ''''So what''s your plan now?'''' She wanted to know their plan so that she could adjust hers. She wanted to see if staying here would be worth it.


    ''''We''ll rest here and get some of our strength back and then make our way back.'''' While June was telling their plan, Aella went to check on her cloak. She picked it up and turned it around to see its full condition. The cloak was dirty and bloody and it had plenty of damage all around it, and its original color was bearly distinguishable.


    ''''I have a proposition for you.'''' Throwing the ruined cloak down, Aella turned to June. ''''I will accompany you back to where you need to go, and in exchange, you give me some clothes, even a single cloak is acceptable.'''' Aella didn''t mind walking naked, but she still preferred to have something to cover with.


    ''''Sure, but it will take a while to get you something.'''' June was still lying on Grefured, she had almost no strength left in her limbs. ''''All my spare clothes are in my backpack, and that is outside this cave.''''


    ''''I don''t mind, I can wait.'''' And with that, the deal was made. Now the only thing for Aella left to do was wait.


    ''''Ugh!'''' While Aella was deciding how to spend her time, she heard Hubert grunt. Looking over she saw Kayne helping the red-haired man out of his armor. They both looked exhausted, especially the beastkin, but they needed to get Hubert out of the armor, to better see what injuries he has sustained and how much the health potion had done.


    Sam and Alex were in a similar position, but for the archer, the only spot that they needed to see was his leg, but they still took off all the armor.


    Without anything better to do Aella decided to see the injuries on Alex and Hubert, just out of curiosity. She could test her curses capabilities, but she could do that later.


    The first injured person she decided to visit was Alex. Walking over Aella saw Aelx''s head was placed on Sam''s lap and while he was resting his lover was just gently combing through his brown hair.


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    At one point Sam looked up at her while Aella was closing the distance, but shortly after the catkin turned her gaze back to her lover. Alex on the other hand didn''t react at all, Aella wasn''t sure if he even knew what was happening around him, as his eyes were closed and he could be sleeping.


    Aella stopped a few steps away from the pair and took a good look at Alex''s leg. It was inflamed but besides that, it looked normal. Aella had no idea how he got injured so she couldn''t judge if Aelx go lucky or not, so she decided to get some information from Sam.


    ''''So how did that happen?'''' Pointing at Aelx''s injured leg Aella asked while looking at Sam.


    Sam continued to look at Alex without turning her gaze in Aella''s direction but she still answered. ''''While fighting the monster from which you got the core, Alex got his leg injured when Hubert was thrown at him.''''


    ''''The injury looks mild if that''s how he got it.'''' Aella was surprised that Alex''s leg was only inflamed from the look of it, she thought if someone big like Hubert got your leg then it would be more mangled, plus the heavy armor Hubert was wearing probably didn''t help.


    ''''I won''t deny that luck a part in it, as it could have been much worse.'''' Still playing with her lover''s hair, Sam continued. ''''But you have to take in a few factors, one such would be the healing potion.''''


    ''''Healing potion?''''


    ''''Yes, a potion that makes your body recover faster in exchange for using more of your body''s resources.'''' Finally, Sam turned her dark eyes in Aella''s direction. ''''Of course, there are some things the potion can''t do that magic can but that was no concern in this situation as Alex''s had a clean break and few fractions, at least that''s what he said.''''


    ''''So what''s the limitation of these potions, how much can they heal?'''' Aella was somewhat interested in these potions, plus learning about them could kill some time.


    ''''That depends on their quality. I''m not an expert in these things but I can teach you the basics. But if you want more in-depth information about the positions you can try asking June, but it looks like you would have to wait.'''' While talking about June, Sam looked at the elf and Aella followed her gaze. The blond elf was peacefully sleeping on Grefured.


    ''''Returning to the topic of potions.'''' Sam turned back her gaze to Aella. ''''I will assume you know how the potions are made, well at least the most basic information that everyone knows?''''


    ''''Yes alchemy, you put things in a pot you stir them, and vola you got a potion.''''


    ''''Close enough.'''' With a nod, Sam continued. ''''So the quality of potions depends mostly on two things, the ingredients and the level of the brewer''s teaching. The better they are the better the potion, simple as that.''''


    ''''Now, the capabilities of the potion are reflected by its quality. For example, the same healing potions, the ones we used on both Alex and Hubert were capable of fixing the bones, if they aren''t shattered, and they can heal some deep wounds, but they can''t regrow limbs or reattach them.''''


    While listening Aella tried to burn this information in her mind. ''''But there are potions that are capable of that but they are of higher quality. Then there are elixirs, the potions of the highest quality. The healing variant of the elixir can heal any disfigurements, it can cure any disease and even make your lifespan longer.'''' Aella got a little bit more interested in this topic when she heard about these elixirs.


    ''''Of course, there are some side effects using these potions. These are also looked at when determining a potion''s quality, because what''s the use of a potion that can regenerate your limbs back if in exchange it saps all your nutrients so fast that you will die before you could do anything.'''' Sam took a glance at Alex before returning her gaze back to Aella. ''''The exception is elixirs, as they have no side effects.''''


    ''''So by what you said potions aren''t some miracle drugs, except elixirs.''''


    ''''Correct, you can even use potions to harm your enemy.''''


    ''''Interesting.'''' So like this Aella spent some time talking with Sam and learning things about potions.

 Chapter 19-Finaly, back outside

    ''''All set?'''' Kayne looked around to see if everyone was ready. ''''Let''s go.'''' Getting some visual confirmation and some nods, Kyane led the party to the exit from the cave.


    ''''Please.'''' When they walked close enough to the living cage''s edge, Kayne asked June to dispel her spell. June waved her hand and the cage retreated back into the earth. After the cage disappeared the party moved on.


    ''''How''s the meat?'''' While making their way out of this cave, Sam approached Aella.


    ''''It could be softer, but it''s edible.'''' Right now Aella had peace of meat in her right hand as she accompanied the party, and from time to time she took a bite.


    ''''I still don''t understand why would you willingly eat it.'''' Sam was a little confused about why Aella was eating the monster''s meat. She would understand if Aella needed to ration her food, but the dark lady didn''t even need to eat. But even if she did the party had enough rations that they could easily share with her, and they taste better.


    ''''Well this meat is full of mana, after all the monster you guys took out was strong, plus it doesn''t taste bad after you cook it.'''' Aella took another bite before continuing. ''''Only a little bit chewy.''''


    ''''If you say so.'''' Sam still remembers the first time Aella decided to cook the giant monster''s meat. After Aella and Sam finished their conversation about potions, Aella went and looked at how injured was Hubert.


    But Aella didn''t spend much time there and pretty quickly went to a quiet corner and started to experiment with her curses. She spent some time experimenting until she got bored. When Aella got bored she looked around to do something and at one point she decided to see if she could cook a monster''s meat.


    Her first thought was to go and grab some random chunk of meat from one of the dead screaming savages, but then she decided that she wanted the big monster''s meat instead.


    So she went for her meat. When she returned where the party was they were surprised when Aella had a peace of meat in her hands, and she was bloody. They didn''t really know what to do so they just observed her. That was until she took a limb that once was a monster''s and ripped out a bone from it, and then used that bone as a skewer to cook her meat.


    It took her a few tries to get the meat to stay on the makeshift skewer, but after she got it right she just held it over the fire and slowly rotated.


    Kyane didn''t know why Aella was doing that and just assumed she wanted something to eat, so he approached her and offered some of his rations to her. But she refused at told him that she just wanted to try the meat, after that the party mostly left Aella to her devices.


    Aella couldn''t say that meat was good, but it had given her some mana, plus it didn''t taste bad. So after the first try, Aella went to get some meat from the monster''s dead body from time to time. And the monster''s corpse wouldn''t rot for some while because of the mana in its body, so she didn''t need to worry about that.


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    Of course, that wasn''t the only thing that Aella spent her time doing. The party estimated that they were in that cave for three days so that they could recover. So Aella had to do something else besides cooking meat. That something else was experimenting with her abilities and talking with Sam and sometimes with Alex.


    Aella originally wanted to talk with June about potions, but the elf girl was always resting and Aella didn''t want to disturb her, only later she got to know that it was because June used a mana potion.


    So she spent more time with Sam talking and learning. And thanks to all that time she spent talking with Sam, they became somewhat of friends.  And from time to time Alex joined their conversations, as he mostly spent the time lying near Sam without moving much because he wanted to get his leg back to full functionality as fast as he could.


    ***


    ''''Good to be back outside.'''' Kayne breathed in the fresh air as he stepped outside the cave. It didn''t take long before the party found their way outside the cave, and as there were no monsters in the cave it made the way back so much easier.


    ''''I will have to agree.'''' June too was enjoying the fresh smell of nature, after all, it wasn''t a pleasant time when she needed to spend all that time with a mountain of corpses all around her.


    Aella on the other hand didn''t say anything, she just popped the last bit of meat in her mouth and looked around while she chewed it. But she couldn''t see much. All she saw was the little clearing that was around the cave''s entrance, the trees around that made this green forest, and of course the sun and the blue sky.


    While Aella was looking around she saw in the corner of her eye June walking somewhere. Taking a better look she saw the blond woman walking to a big tree near them. When June got close to the tree and touched it, Aella saw how the tree opened and slowly pushed out a bunch of backpacks from inside it.


    ''''Neat.'''' Aella couldn''t help but say out loud her thoughts about storing things inside a tree. Aella wasn''t the only one who saw June''s movement. One by one the party started to walk to where June was to get their stuff.


    While everyone was taking their stuff, June was looking through her own things trying to find something, while Grefured just obediently stood by her side.


    ''''Got it.'''' June pulled out a black cloak from her backpack. After she got the cloak she went to Aella and gave it to her. ''''Here.''''


    ''''Thanks.'''' Aella accepted the cloak, but she didn''t put it on yet, after all, she was covered in blood, and she wasn''t too keen on dirting the cloak the moment she got it. So she decided to just carry it in her arms until she could clean herself.


    ''''Is there somewhere close that I can wash myself?'''' Aella wanted to get this blood off of herself, it wasn''t that it made her sick, it was just that the dried blood didn''t feel comfortable on her bare body.


    ''''There should be a river near here.'''' Sam was the first who answered, the dark-haired beastkin knew that there should be a river near here because they saw one before they went into the cave.


    ''''We should probably visit the river before we depart further.'''' June similar to Aella wanted to wash her body.


    ''''Then let''s go, a nice bath would be great.'''' Kayne was in agreement and started to slowly lead them where the river is.


    It didn''t take long before Aella started to hear the river. Hearing the river the party started to walk a little faster with anticipation. With their now faster gait, they arrived at the river''s shore soon after.

 Chapter 20-Relaxing at the river

    *Splash* Without hesitation Aella dropped her newly acquired cloak on a nearby rock and walked in the river. The water was kind of cold and refreshing at the same time, plus the stream wasn''t too strong making it easy to move around.


    While the others were putting their stuff down and getting ready to join Aella, the dark-haired lady had already arrived at the middle of this river. The water reached right below Aella''s ribs, so she decided to dive to get herself clean from all the blood.


    She submerged her body fully under the water for a few seconds before she broke the water''s surface again as she emerged. While standing back up Aella used her hands to push her black locks out of her face so that she could see again.


    When Aella emerged from the water and finally got the hair away from blocking her vision she was met with the opposite shore of the river from the one she came in, seeing only a bunch of trees that continued the forest she turned around to see what the party was doing.


    When she turned around she saw they were getting undressed. Sam and Alex were already fully naked and coming to the river while holding hands.


    ''''How''s the water?'''' Sam saw Aella looking their way so she asked the black-eyed woman about the water''s condition.


    ''''Nice and cold.''''


    Hearing Aella''s answer Sam nodded. Soon after Sam and her lover reached the shore, and together they stepped in. ''''You''re right, this is nice.'''' Sam had to agree, the cool water was nice in this weather.


    Still holding each other''s hand the couple went deeper into the river until they were in the same depth as Aella. *Splash* Sam similar to Aella dived under the water''s surface, while Alex just stood there and looked down. The water was clear enough that he could see Sam doing her thing even though she was fully submerged.


    They both were some distance away from Aella, so she couldn''t fully see what Sam was doing underwater, but she wasn''t that curious either because there were only so many things someone can do in a river.


    Aella was already turning her attention from the pair until she saw how Alex''s eyes turned big as if he got surprised by something. Seeing that reaction from him, Aella thought for a moment before a slight smirk crept on her face.


    It wasn''t long before the dark-haired catkin resurfaced. Sam pushed some hair out of her face before kissing Alex. ''''Coght something, Sam?!'''' Looking over Aella could see that one of Sam''s hands was around her lover''s neck, while the other was still underwater.


    Hearing Aella''s voice, Sam broke the kiss and looked a little confused at her, but when Sam saw Aella pointing at her hand with her eyes, Sam automatically understood. ''''Yes, I bought a real beast!'''' Sam answered Aella with a big grin, while Alex at the same time just stood there not knowing how to react.


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    Not wanting to interrupt their fun, Aella turned her attention back to the shore. *SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH.* The moment she did she saw how Grefured ran into the river with June right behind him. As for Kayne and Hubert, they had already made some way to the middle of this river in the time when Aella''s attention was directed at Sam and Alex.


    Seeing how everyone was somewhat relaxing while washing themselves, Aella decided to relax too. Originally her idea of relaxing was to lay on her back in the water and just let herself float, but she was in a river right now, so if she wasn''t careful she would float away. Knowing this she came up with plan B.


    She washed herself as quickly as she could, when she thought she was done, she used the water''s reflection to double-check before returning to the shore. Stepping out of the water Aella stretched her limbs and let the sun''s rays engulf her body.


    After enjoying that, Aella found a nice grassy spot and laid down. Closing her eyes, Aella could feel the soft grass under her, the soft sound of the river, the warmth that was coming from the sun gently engulfing her, and the songs of some birds that were near her. It was a perfect spot for her to just slowly let the sleep overcome her.


    But Allea knew that this wasn''t the place for that, even though she wouldn''t fully die if she was suddenly attacked by something, but she still would be sent back to the other plane and she would lose part of her growth, and none of those two things were positive in her current situation. So even though her eyes were closed and she was enjoying things around her she still was wary, ready to react if needed.


    Aella couldn''t help but remember when she opened her eyes for the first time in this new world and this body. Although it has only been a few days from the time she first came to be in this world, it still was somewhat full of action and adventures, not much but still more than she expected.


    She still remembered how confused she was when she first opened her eyes in this world and was blasted by sunlight, how she tried to find an explanation for what was happening to her. She still wasn''t sure how she got here, but she didn''t really care what or how but only that she was here now. The reason she wasn''t too concerned about her life back on Earth was probably because of her mentality changing, plus stressing about it won''t do her any good, for her it was better to just go with it.


    Another factor contributing to her indifference was probably the fact that she didn''t lose much by coming here. She didn''t have any close family, she didn''t have any close friends, plus she didn''t need to go to work bonus point for that she didn''t need to experience the cold winter.


    Talking about winter, Aella started to wonder what seasons looked like in this world. Aella knew that there could be normal weather because she was experiencing it now, she was curious if mana somehow influenced the weather, and if it did how much it influenced the weather. Are there days in summer when the sun''s rays just melt rocks, or if there are days in winter when just stepping outside would freeze your blood, and if there were such extreme days, how do people counter them? Although those were some extreme examples Aella was curious about how dangerous the weather can get in this world, after all, mana was an unknown variable as far as she knew.


    Aella could ask the party about these things, probably June was the best option, but Aella wanted to relax right now. So that will be what she does, just relaxing, plus the party probably wanted to relax too, after all being stuck in a cave where the smell of blood and guts assaulted your nose nonstop wasn''t a nice place. So just relaxing and enjoying their freedom from the cave was a good option.

 Chapter 21-Curios elf

    *Splash, splash.* While Aella was still daydreaming with her eyes closed, she heard someone get out of the water. But she wasn''t interested enough to open her eyes and find out who it was, so she stayed just like she was, and continued her daydreaming without moving a muscle.


    That is until she heard that someone moving in her direction. Aella heard how they were coming closer and closer, so when that person was only a few steps away, she opened one of her eyes to see who it was.


    The mysterious person revealed to be June in her birthday suit. The blond elf was now standing near Aella and just looking at her in a daze. ''''Wanna touch them?'''' Aella couldn''t really tell where June was looking, but she knew that June was looking at her, so she offered June to touch her chest. It was a great way to get the elf out of her daze, plus she wouldn''t mind if June took her on the offer.


    ''''What? No!'''' Aella''s offer took June by surprise, so it took a second to process what was offered to her.


    Seeing June''s reaction and her blushing cheeks Aella couldn''t help but tease her little bit more. ''''You sure? They''re quite bouncy, good for entertainment and stress relief.'''' While saying that Aella grabbed her own boobs and squeezed them a couple of times.


    ''''Ah... yes I''m sure.'''' June didn''t expect Aella to continue this, so it took her a moment to compose herself. Her cheeks were still burning but she was somewhat calmer now.


    ''''Well if you''re sure, but don''t be shy if you change your mind.'''' After getting her fun teasing the elf, Aella put her hands back down and decided to figure out why June approached her. ''''So I presume you wanted something else from me?''''


    ''''Yes, I just wanted to ask some questions.''''


    ''''Questions?'''' Aella was a little confused because she had no idea what questions June wanted to ask her.


    ''''Yes, questions about you, more precise about your kin.'''' Aella could see that June''s face lit up when she said that.


    ''''Sure, but why? Don''t you have books about my kin?'''' Aella didn''t fully know if the mortal world truly had books about her kin, but she was sure there has to be some of them. She didn''t believe that there was no info about Safury.


    ''''Yes, we do, but the information isn''t really that easy to get. You have to understand to get something reliable you have to have Safury that can communicate, and those are either powerful or have a humanoid form, with some exceptions.'''' Listening to June, Aella started to understand.


    It wasn''t that they didn''t have books about Safury, it was just that they were mostly about basic information. But the more in-depth books were not hard to access per se, but you just need to know where to look.


    ''''So it isn''t that you want to learn new information about Safury, but you want to confirm what you have learned is true?''''


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    ''''Yes.''''


    ''''Sure, ask the question, I will try to answer what I know.'''' Aella didn''t have anything better to do so she agreed to indulge this curios mage, and in exchange, she maybe will ask her own questions.


    Hearing Aella agree to her request, June happily sat down next to Aella. ''''The first question I have, is about your awakening. I saw it with my own eyes, but I do want to know how you fell in the process.''''


    ''''Well, there isn''t much to tell, I just lose all the dealing of my body while my mind stays conscious in a dark space. After a while, the system offers what [skill] I want and then slowly the feeling of my body returns, so nothing exciting.'''' While Aella told her experience nonchalantly June listened carefully.


    ''''Ok, so talking about the system, how does it look to you?'''' June shot another question at Aella the moment she finished answering the first question. ''''I have read it looks different from ours.''''


    ''''You''re not wrong there, we don''t see levels, names, race, or anything like that, we only see our [skills], and no we don''t even see our skill levels.'''' Aella didn''t mind June''s enthusiasm so she calmly answered the second question.


    ''''Right, so I know that Safury get stronger by awakening and absorbing mana. So I wanted to know how all that and how mana pool is different from where you store your growth mana.''''


    ''''Now that''s a loaded question but sure.'''' Aella got up from her sleeping position and got comfortable sitting in a lotus position. ''''So we have you''re regular mana pool, that everyone has, it''s where we get mana when we use our [skills], then we have something like a separate pool, where mana that we passively absorb usually end up in.''''


    ''''Now there are times when the passive mana we absorb goes somewhere else than the growing pool. It''s usually when our mana pool isn''t full, or when our body needs something, like healing, food, sleep, and other similar things, in those moments part of the mana we absorb goes for those necessities.''''


    ''''Next is the difference between the two pools or containers. The regular mana pool you can imagine is like a rock, the container doesn''t get bigger or smaller if nothing special happens, and when we go through awakening the container gets larger, so we can store more mana in them.''''


    ''''On the other hand, the growth pool, is made out of something stretchy. It constantly gets mana and when it gets full the container slowly stretches, and even if suddenly the container loses some mana it saves its shape without shrinking back. And so like that it slowly stretches until it reaches its limit, pops, and then we awaken, which results in the container getting bigger. Of course, we can speed up the process by absorbing mana from monster cores or other magical items, but we have to be careful because if the container is stretched too fast too much it could pop before it was its max size, and then it''s just disaster, we either become mana gobblers or in the worst scenario, we can become mana storms.''''


    Aella decided to not reveal some information, like that when the mana in the regular mana pool runs out they can use mana from the growth pool, but if the mana in the growth pool runs out they die. After all, she wasn''t so keen on giving information about that, so she just didn''t say anything.


    ''''Interesting, so another question I have, is about how many Safury are humanoids?'''' After hearing the last question answered, June didn''t hesitate to ask the next question.


    ''''To be honest, I don''t know, but we are much less than those who take the non-humanoid forms, but there are still plenty of us.'''' Aella could answer this question because it was mentioned a little bit in one of the books she was reading.


    ''''I see...''''


    This went on for a while, June asking questions and Aella answering them with the limited knowledge she had read in the books. It was quite amazing how June always had questions to ask.

 Chapter 22-Fun in the forest

    ''''We should get going.'''' June''s never-ending questions finally ended when Kayne announced that they should continue their journey back to the town. June had asked plenty of questions that that time Kayne and Hubert got out, had time to relax a little bit then dress and start getting ready for the road. But at least Aella didn''t get bored.


    Hearing Kayne, June got up excused herself, and went to get ready herself. ''''Grefured, let''s go!'''' The grey wolf at one point, while June was getting her answers, got out of the river and laid down beside June, and decided to take a nap. Hearing her call him, Grefured got up and followed her.


    Aella on the other hand decided to lay on the ground and rest while the others get ready, as she didn''t have much to prepare. But that plan was interrupted, before she could fully lay down, she was approached by Kayne. ''''Hey, can you go look for Sam and Alex, they still haven''t returned?''''


    ''''Sure.'''' Aella agreed to his request with a nod.


    ''''Thanks, if you aren''t back after a while we will go look for you.'''' With those words, Kayne left to finalize preparations for the road back.


    Not saying anything Aella got up, went to put on her new cloak, and started looking for the two missing party members.


    Aella got near the river and started looking around, she was trying to find any traces of those two, but couldn''t find anything. So her first step of the plan was to go ask someone if they saw those two go somewhere or at least the general direction where they went.


    ''''AH!'''' But before she could turn and go find some help, she heard something. Turning her attention in that direction she didn''t see anything just the forest, but she still decided to go in that direction, after all, one scream is better than nothing as a clue.


    While walking in that direction she heard the scream, she, unfortunately, didn''t hear anything else, so that one first sound was all she got. But Aella was sure that the scream she heard earlier sounded like Sam, so she just kept on walking.


    ''''M..M..M..'''' It wasn''t long before she found those two, but she didn''t really expect what she saw. The possibility of those two having fun wasn''t out of the question, but it wasn''t the first thing Aella thought when those two went missing.


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    Looking over Aella saw both of them still naked, Sam bent over with her hand on one of the tree trunks, while Alex was behind her ramming his tool in her, with some vigor.


    When Aella got closer Sam was the first to notice, and Alex followed soon, but even though they noticed their guest they didn''t stop, they just kept on going. Aella didn''t mind, but unfortunately, she would need to end this party of theirs.


    ''''Wanna... join?'''' But before she could say that they need to get ready to continue their journey back, Sam asked her if she wanted to join, while suppressing her moans.


    ''''I wouldn''t mind, but unfortunately, we have to get going, the party is getting ready to leave. So sorry but the Excalibur needs to get back in its seal.''''


    ''''Fine, just let us finish.'''' They stopped for a moment before continuing more intensely, wanting to finish.


    ''''Sure, we''ll be waiting.'''' With those words Aella left, she didn''t mind watching them until they finished, but if they take their time, she would get horny and then she would join and it would take more time, so going away seemed more time efficient.


    While walking away, she heard their bodies slapping together and Sam moaning, it was louder than when she was trying to find them, so they really were going at it.


    Not long after Aella arrived back where the rest of the party was. ''''Where are the other two?'''' Seeing that Aella was by herself Kayen''s first question was about his two missing party members.


    ''''Fucking in the forest, they should be back soon.''''


    ''''Alright.'''' Aella was a little surprised at how Kayne reacted, but it''s probably normal, as those two going missing just to have their fun is probably a normal occurrence.


    ***


    *Step, step...* It took some time but finally, those two came back. Both of them looked fully satisfied.


    They both were naked because they left their clothes here. But Aella couldn''t see any evidence from their earlier actions, because although they were on full display it looked like they had recently washed their bodies evidenced by their wet skin and hair.


    Both of them took some towels out of their bags and started to dry off as quickly as possible, they were already behind schedule, and Sam and Alex didn''t want to make the party lose more time.


    They were still somewhat wet when they started to put on some clothes because when drying they went for speed not quality, so you could still see some droplets on their skin, and their hair was still completely wet, they only dried them enough so that they don''t drip water.


    Aella could see that Sam wasn''t a fan of remaining wet in her clothes, so when the catkin looked at her Aella made a small smirk, and that got her a dissatisfied look.


    It didn''t take them long before they were ready for the road as they were pretty quick about it. Finally, when all of them were ready Kayne looked over, checking if everything was in place, and started moving, while others fell behind him.


    Although the party wasn''t as organized when they were in the cave, they still didn''t let their guard down and were ready if something happened. But that didn''t stop them from chatting with one another, so it wasn''t boring on the way.

 Chapter 23-Aramoor

    ''''Ghaw...'''' ''''CHRAA!''''


    ''''How long have they been at it?''''


    ''''From the very beginning.'''' Looking at the two green humanoid figures, Aella answered Sam''s question.


    The fight between two mad goblins was brutal. Both of them were bloody, one had a missing eye that was punctured by the other''s claw, but the other had a huge chunk missing from one of its shoulders that was bitten off by its opponent.


    Both of them were injured and bleeding quite severely, so by Aella''s prediction it shouldn''t take long before victor is decided. And Aella was right, not long after the one with the injured shoulder made a mistake which the other goblin used to its advantage and landed a successful attack on its neck.


    The goblin saw its opponent try to make a last attempt to retaliate, but before the opponent could do anything it fell limp on the ground. The one-eyed goblin''s face bloomed with a smile of madness when he saw his enemy''s dead body.


    ''''Thut.'''' ''''GA!'''' But his celebration was short-lived, as the next moment his brain was impaled by an arrow, and his body went limp. Now there were two dead goblins, with blood-stained grass all around them.


    Looking to her left Aella saw the brown-haired archer putting his bow down from his shooting stance. Without saying anything Aella turned back her gaze at the goblins and approached them.


    After getting close enough she squatted down and adjusted her cloak so that it didn''t get in her way, after doing that she started to dig out the goblins monster cores. Aella got some blood on her hands but it was nothing much.


    After she got her cores she went back to where the party was, and it looked like they were ready to go. So without saying anything Aella fell in loose formation with them and continued moving.


    It was a little unexpected that they encountered a group of goblins here, because by what Kayle said before the party encountered the goblins, the town should be pretty close. And usually, goblins are found further away from this town.


    ''''So what are you planning to do with those monster cores?'''' While on their way Sam started some small talk with Aella. The catkin was a little curious about the monster cores because she thought that Aella would absorb them then and there, but instead, she was just holding them in her hand.


    ''''Probably absorb them after a while, but before that, I want to see if they can be useful in another way.'''' Keeping her head straight, Aella answered the question without looking at Sam.


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    ''''Well, you could sell them, but two goblin cores won''t give you much.'''' Sam took another glance at Aella''s closed hand. ''''Another use for them is in magic tools, but the goblin core won''t be able to power much, maybe something really small and simple, and even then I don''t think the core will last long.''''


    ''''I see.'''' Aella nodded while listening to Sam. Although the information wasn''t positive she already guessed that the goblin''s cores in small quantities wouldn''t amount to much, but at least she got some information and the magic tools that Sam mentioned piqued Aella''s interest.


    ***


    ''''Looks like we''re here.'''' Hearing Alex''s voice Aella and the rest of the party looked up, but they looked up, but personally, Aella couldn''t see anything yet. Only after they walked for a moment, did she start to see something.


    Getting closer, Aella saw a stone wall and gates that were guarded by two guards on each side, and another guard who was checking the people who were going through the gate into the settlement.


    Without saying anything the party lined up and started waiting for their turn to enter. The line didn''t move particularly fast, but it felt like it was fast for them because while the party was chatting amongst themselves they found that there was only one person before them before it was their turn, they were so immersed in their conversations that they didn''t see how the time flew.


    ''''Welcome, I will need your identification.'''' When it was finally their turn the guard asked for the party''s identification.


    Without saying anything everyone except Aella and Grefured, pulled out some metal cards that had something written on them. Aella couldn''t read them before they were handed to the guard.


    After the guard checked those five cards, he gave them back before turning his gaze at Aella. ''''''Don''t have one.'''' Aella said that before the guard could speak.


    ''''She''s my summon.'''' Hering this the guard got a little confused. It wasn''t that he hadn''t heard about humanoid summons, but they were rare, so he wasn''t so inclined to believe June.


    ''''We will need to confirm that.'''' After saying that the guard signaled one of the guards that were standing guard to go get something, and with a nod the guard went to find something.


    It didn''t take long for the guard to return, he handed a crystal-like sphere about the size of a baby''s head. ''''Please put your hand on it, so we can confirm if you''re truly a summon.'''' Without complaining Aella did just that.


    The sphere that was just a moment ago clear, light up blue in color. She saw the guard was concentrating on something as he looked at the sphere, so Aella didn''t say anything and just continued to hold her hand still.


    ''''Thank you, you can take your hand off.'''' After the guard presumably confirmed that Aella was truly a summon he asked a few questions, before letting the party through.


    Aella didn''t really listen to the conversation they had with the guard because she was intrigued by the sphere, which by her guess was a magic item. She wanted to know what was the item''s capabilities and what it was used for. She already knew that it somehow could confirm if she was a summon and that it could clean itself or something similar. Because although her hands weren''t bloody anymore because she peeled most of the dry blood when she was on the road, she was still surprised that not even one small speck of dried blood stuck to the sphere.


    So Aella only connected back to reality when they went through the gate and heard Kayle''s voice. ''''Welcome to the town of Aramoor.''''

 Chapter 24-Resting bear

    After Kayle announced the town''s name, Aella looked around her. This town was different from the one in Safury''s plane, but it was still a sight to see. She could see multiple people here walking around just going about their day, from adventures going about to children playing.


    The city was lively and the atmosphere was good, but it was past midday so Aella decided to move on and get done with things. ''''So where to first?''''


    The party let Aella look around the town, and they would have probably let her do that longer but Aella wanted to leave some positive impression on them, so they summon her again, and making them wait probably wasn''t the way.


    ''''Adventurers guild.'''' Hearing this Aella just nodded and started to follow the party while they made their way to the guild.


    It didn''t take long before they arrived at the guild. The adventurers guild had an impressive, wooden three-story high building. Walking inside the first thing she noticed was, the receptionists at the other end, a massive board with quests plastered on it, and a bar on the other side where there were plenty of adventurers enjoying themselves.


    But while Aella was looking around she still followed the party as they lined up to one of the receptionists. The line wasn''t too long and it moved at a decent pace, so it didn''t take long before it was the party''s turn.


    ''''Welcome, how can I help you?'''' The receptionist was a mature woman with light brown hair and eyes, she looked a the party and gave them a professional smile as she talked.


    ''''We would like to sell some monster materials and register the completion of a quest.'''' Kayle was the one to speak as the party leader.


    ''''Of course, please give me your license so that we can proceed.'''' Kalye took out his adventurer''s card and gave it to her.


    It took a little bit before the receptionist confirmed what she needed before she handed the card back to Kayle.


    ''''Right, I see that your party has taken an investigations quest, so I will need you to write a report and then we will send a team to confirm things, after that, we will give the promised reward.'''' Still wearing her professional smile she gave them the needed information.


    ''''Of course.'''' Kayle knew how these things go, so he just nodded and started to make way for the next adventurer.


    After they went to another receptionist who dealt with monster materials, and fortunately there wasn''t a line to wait, so they could get right to it.


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    ''''Welcome.'''' The receptionist this time was a tall man with black hair and dark eyes, he didn''t have the professional smile his colleague had, if anything he looked somewhat bored.


    This receptionist had a modified table in front of him that had a section of the table dented in, where the adventurers put their materials. So without saying anything the party started to dump the loot that they got from these monsters.


    While the party was taking their loot and putting it on the table, Aella and Grefured just watched from the sidelines. They started with the goblin monster cores, then with the Drekavaces monster cores, and at the end, Kayle put the troll''s core on top. One interesting thing Aella observed was that no matter how many monster cores they put in the dent of the table, they never went over the edge, so Aella concluded that some kind of magic was at work.


    After the party was done the receptionist started to reevaluate the cores. It took some time before he was done, but after he had counted everything he did something behind the desk, and the cores disappeared, and in their place, some coins appeared. Aella couldn''t really see how many coins did the party get, because they were in the desk''s hole, but she still could see some gold coins, some silver, and even some copper coins.


    She wasn''t really knowledgeable about the value of these coins, for example, how much a loaf of bread cost, but she knew that the coins were 100 of each, meaning that 100 copper coins equaled 1 silver coin and 100 silver coins equaled 1 gold coin.


    While Aella was thinking about coins Kayle took those coins and put them in an empty pouch before strapping it to his side. After that was done they left the building.


    ''''We should probably get a place to sleep.'''' The next thing on their list was to get some rooms, fortunately, they weren''t new to this town so they already had an inn they favored.


    ''''?~~~'''' While they were making their way to the inn, they went by a fountain where Aella saw an elf playing guitar. The melody was soft and calming and was a little unusual in this bustling town, but there were plenty of people stopping by to listen, some even threw a coin or two in the cowboy-like hat that was sitting near that elf''s feet. But the part didn''t stop, so after a while Aella didn''t see the elf or hear the melody that was played by the elf.


    ''''Restin bear?'''' That was what was written on a wooden sight hanging right above the entrance of the inn, which Aella presumed, they were looking for. While Aella was a little confused by the sight the rest of the party had already gone in, so she quickly went inside to look for them.


    ''''So for how long?'''' Aella had missed the first half of the conversation Kayle was having with the lady that was behind a counter, but it looked like she was familiar with the party.


    ''''5 days.'''' Aella went next to June and didn''t say anything, while the lady took a quick glance at Aella before she returned her attention back to Kayle.


    ''''Rooms as usual?''''


    ''''Yes.'''' Hering Kayle confirm, the lady gave him four keys. Kayle automatically gave the keys out, one to Hubert, one to June, one to Sam and Alex, and the last one he kept himself. After that, he gave some coins to the lady, and the transaction was finished.


    ''''Let''s get our stuff sorted, and meet down here after about 30 minutes.'''' With that said the party went up each to their own room, while Aella and Grefured followed June to her room.

 Chapter 25-Trade

    *Tud.* Aella closed the wooden door behind her as she entered the room. She looked around the room and saw some furniture in the room.


    Of course, there was the bed with a chest at the end of it, then a round carpet in the middle of the room, a dresser where you could store your clothes and probably other stuff, and lastly a table with two chairs. Aella wouldn''t call this fancy, but at the same time, she didn''t really know the standard of living in this room, for all she knew this was some high-end stuff.


    After she finished standing at the door Aella decided to take a seat on the bed, while Grefured had already laid in the middle of the carpet. When she sat down on the bed, Aella was a little surprised by how soft the bed was, she was fully expecting a hard, or at least somewhat uncomfortable sensation.


    Although she had already slept once in this world, or more precisely in the plane where Safury live, she still for some reason thought the mortal plane had beads bade out of straw or just blankets thrown on some wood, and only nobility could sleep comfortably, but again made this was true and this in was just really fancy, even if it didn''t look like it from the outside.


    So as a sane person, Aella decides to ask June about all this. ''''June can I ask you something?'''' Aella looked at the elf that was organizing her stuff. ''''Sure.''''


    ''''I''m not too familiar with this world''s customs.'''' Aella took another look around the room before she continued. ''''Could you tell me, where the quality of this room stands?''''


    ''''Quality of this room?'''' June raised her head and looked at Aella with a confused expression.


    ''''Yes, if this room was high class, or just middle-class standard, something like that.'''' Hearing this June atomically changed her expression.


    ''''Well, you could call this a commoner''s standard bedroom. Of course, there are some differences as this is an inn, but yes most commoners would have at least a room of this quality.'''' The elf gives Aella the answer while looking around the room.


    ''''I see.'''' Aella just nodded after hearing June''s answer.


    Seeing that Aella''s curiosity had been fed for the time being June returned to sorting her things. After June sorted most of her stuff, she changed clothes, to a more casual look. After June was done changing her clothes, she looked at the pile of her dirty clothes, there were clothes that just were little dirty, to clothes that were stained with blood and dirt that she had no idea what was the original color of those.


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    But she didn''t look too long before she used her magic to entice those clothes into a wooden cocoon, and just left it there. While June was doing all that Aella was just sitting on the bed thinking about her next move while she looked outside the window.


    ''''What are you thinking about?'''' Aella was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard June.


    ''''Nothing much, just the next steps I should take.'''' Aella turned her attention to June as her eyes left the view outside the window. ''''I think I will say goodbye to everyone and then return home.''''


    ''''Do you need something to do back home that is urgent?''''


    ''''No, not really. Why the question?''''


    ''''I wanted to ask you a trade.'''' When June mentioned a trade Aella got a little interested.


    ''''Sure, what kind of trade?''''


    Hering that Aella was at the latest interested in the offer June went to her bag and rummaged through it before she pulled out a piece of paper that was rolled up. June unrolled it and Aella saw that it was blank.


    ''''I want your help with this.'''' Aella had no idea what June meant by that, and June saw that as it was indicated by Aella''s confused look. ''''Right, this is a special paper, it is usually used for magic spells. You save a magic spell on this piece of paper and when needed you can cast the spell instantly and without consuming your mana.''''


    ''''But the paper has limitations, based on the quality of the paper it limits how strong a spell you can save on it.'''' After June explained, Aella got the idea of what the elf wanted from her.


    ''''So I''m guessing you want me to save a curse on that paper?''''


    ''''Yes, a few if you can.'''' June was getting a little excited because it looked like Aella was agreeing to the trade.


    ''''Okay I can do that, but what do I get?'''' Aella was happy to make the deal, but she had to know what she was getting in return.


    ''''Well I can''t really offer you anything specific, so how about you give me an offer and then I can say if this is a fair deal.'''' June actually had no idea what Aella would want, except maybe some monster cores.


    ''''Sure, then I would like two things.'''' Aella raised two ringers as she continued to speak. ''''One, I would like some clothes, and two I would like you to save some of my blood, sounds fair?''''


    ''''Sounds fair.'''' June was happy with this deal. ''''So do you want to do the blood thing now or later.''''


    ''''Let''s do it now.'''' Haering this June went to get a small glass vial and a knife.


    After that, the elf gave the knife to Aella, who after getting it sliced her finger so that she could get some blood. Seeing some blood tricking down from her finger she took the glass vial from June and put it against her finger so that all the blood would go in the container.


    As the vial was small it didn''t take much before it was more than half full, and as it wasn''t necessary to fill it to the top, Aella gave the vial back to June who closed it. Now one of the requests where done.

 Chapter 26-A witch?

    After receiving the vial and her knife June put them away and then left the room. She offered Aella to come with her, but the dark lady decided to stay here until June was done with the party meeting.


    Aella mostly stayed in the room to think a few things over, plus from what she understood, that meeting won''t be anything crucial, just money splitting and maybe a talk about the future moves of the party.


    As for her own future Aella wasn''t too sure. First was the 15-day limit, some days had passed and she still hasn''t decided if she wanted to be a servant citizen, and if she didn''t want to be one, does she find a sustainable income or just move somewhere else, because as far as she knew that wasn''t the only settlement in Safury realm, but she had no idea how far was the next one.


    Plus if she doesn''t find sustainable income in time she will need to drain her mana from her growth pool.


    ''''Fuuuu...'''' Breathing out a sigh, Aella let her thoughts calm down, she had time before those 15 days are up, and there was no point in stressing herself out as it wouldn''t help her.


    After calming down she decided on her next action. One of her hands was closed in a knuckle all this time, there she was holding her two goblin cores, so she used this time to absorb them. It didn''t take long before she fully absorbed them. These cores didn''t give Aella much so she didn''t feel comparable changes, but progress was progress.


    Aella didn''t know what to do with the now empty monster cores, so she just opened the chest that was at the end of this bed and threw them in the chest, leaving it up to June to decide what she wanted to do with them.


    After she dumped her used cores, Aella closed the chest and sat back down on the bed. Now she just had to wait for June and then they can go shopping.


    ***


    ''''Let''s go?'''' Aella heard how the room''s door opened and June asking her if she was ready.


    Not saying anything Aella gave a nod as she stood up and walked towards the elf. Grefured too stood up and walked towards the elf.


    After all of them got out of the room, June locked the door and went down, with Aella and Grefured following right behind her.


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    While they were walking through the first floor to get to the exit Aella took a better look at the lady that was at the counter. Right now she wasn''t busy so she was ready presumably a newspaper. The lady looked kind of plain with her brown short hair and brown eyes, but what got Aella''s interest was the two bear-like ears that were atop the lady''s head.


    Seeing those ears Aella guessed that the lady was a bear beastkin, which would kind of explain the inn''s name. At one point the beastkin felt Aella''s gaze. She looked up and her eyes locked with Aella''s dark eyes, but it didn''t last long as the beastkin just gave Aella a smile and then returned to reading her paper.


    The smile left Aella a little confused but she soon forgot about it because she stepped out of the inn. The inn wasn''t in the most active part of the town so there weren''t a lot of people the moment they stepped out of the inn but there were still plenty of them.


    While Aella took a little while to look around, June didn''t and just started walking in one direction. Seeing this Aella had no choice but to follow.


    ''''So do you have anything in mind about what kind of clothes you want?'''' While walking June asked Aella if she had any specific clothes she wanted.


    ''''Not anything specific, just pants, shirt, and boots.'''' Aella turned her attention away from the town''s activities and turned it to June as she continued. ''''And some undergarments would be nice.''''


    ''''Okay, perfect then we should be able to get everything at Cassy''s.''''


    ''''Who is Cassy?'''' By the sound of it, June had already someplace in mind where Aella could get her clothes.


    ''''She''s someone I know.'''' Without turning her blue eyes from the road June continued. ''''She is someone I met a few years back when I needed some clothes. It was pretty late and most shops that dealt with clothes were closed, so I was ready to give up, but then I stumbled on Cassy''s shop, and from that time I just go buy my clothes from her, and over the years we have become friends.'''' Aella just nodded while June told her story.


    The walk wasn''t too long and it didn''t take long before they arrived. The shop was a wooden building, that had a dark feel to it, the wood it was built from was ash grey in color, and the roof looked like a dark purple crocked cone, but it didn''t look damaged but as if it was purposely made like that. In the center of the building stood dark brown doors with a sign hanging above them that read <Bats silk>.


    The windows were too dark so Aella couldn''t see anything inside, and then there was a round window located on the roof. This style of house for some reason left Aella a little bit sceptical.


    ''''Is your friend a dark wizard or maybe a witch?'''' June was standing and just waiting for Aelle to finish her inspection of the house, but when she heard Aella''s question she looked at her with confusion.


    ''''No, she''s just a tailor.'''' June turned her eyes away from Aella and pointed them at the building. ''''But I won''t deny that she has a peculiar-looking house.''''


    ''''Peculiar indeed.'''' Without saying much Aella just nodded and indicated that she was ready to go, so June took the lead as they entered the building.

 Chapter 27-Cassy

    *Tink~* The moment they opened the door and entered the building, Aella could hear a bell ring above her, announcing their arrival. At first, the shop was dark, and the only light that existed in this room was the sunlight that was barely getting through the dark windows, so Aella couldn''t see much at that moment.


    *Tuk, tuk, tuk...*But they didn''t need to wait long before the lighting issue was resolved. While trying to see something in this darkness Aella heard someone''s footsteps resonating against the wooden floor, and soon after the room was lit up with light.


    The light that was now lighting up the room was coming from some kind of crystals that were attached to the ceiling. With the decent light now present Aella could see the whole shop. The room itself was in similar dark tones as the outside of the building, but it wasn''t all dark and gloomy, because there were plenty of clothes and accessories all around the shop.


    It looked kind of mismatched because many of the clothes that were presented were in bright colors but the interior of the room itself was dark. But Aella didn''t say anything and looked in the direction where the footsteps were coming from. When she looked she saw stairs that went up and someone was coming down those stairs.


    First, she saw the boots, long, black leather boots with heels. Next, she saw similar black pants as the person walked down the stairs, soon after she saw the black shirt and the belt that was holding the pants. The next thing she saw was the long silver hair that ended at the person''s middle back.


    After a few more steps, Aella could finally see the person fully. She was dressed in all black with long silver hair and two crimson eyes, her skin was pale in color, and her ears were pointy, not as much as June''s but still pointy.


    ''''June!'''' The mature woman who had a cold look on her face before, grew a huge smile the moment she saw June. The lady almost ran down the stairs to hug the blond elf.


    ''''Cassy, good to see you too!'''' June met Cassy halfway and they hugged. The hug lasted only a few moments before they separated and Cassy noticed Aella and Grefured, as both of them were just standing on the side looking at the two friends.


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    ''''Hi, Grefured.'''' The pale woman first approached Grefured and started to scratch him behind his ear, and after she was done that she turned her attention to Aella. ''''Hi, I''m Cassy.'''' She introduced herself while she stretched out her hand for a handshake.


    ''''Aella.'''' Aella introduced herself as she took the lady''s hand and shook it, and in the process, she noticed that the silver-haired beauty had crismon-colored nails.


    ''''So what can I do for you?'''' After giving a nod to Aella she turned back to June and asked for her visit.


    ''''Right, we''re here to get Aella some clothes.'''' June informed Cassy of their intention for this visit.


    ''''What are you looking for?'''' Cassy''s red eyes turned to Aella.


    ''''A full outfit, shirt, pants, boots and some undergarments.'''' While Aella was listing what she wanted Cassy just listened.


    ''''Do you have any preference for style or colors?''''


    ''''I would prefer if the colors were darker shades, and if they were comfortable to move in.''''


    ''''Sure that can be done.'''' While Aella was speaking Cassy went and got the needed equipment and by now was standing near Aella.


    ''''Please stand there and take off your clothes.'''' Cassy said that while pointing at a round elevated platform in the middle of the room. ''''If you want I can ask June and Grefured to step outside while we do this.''''


    ''''No, it''s okay.'''' With that said Aella took off her cloak and hung it up on the wooden coat rack that was standing near the door, and then stood on the platform.


    Cassy didn''t waste any time, she took out her measuring tape and started to measure Aella''s parameters, and after each measurement taken Cassy wrote the information down in what looked like a notebook. It didn''t take too long before Cassy was done and had all of Aella''s measurements down.


    ''''All done.'''' After she said that Cassy looked at her notebook and went over all of Aella''s measurements, while Aella herself got down from the platform and went to get her cloak.


    ''''So I have two options for you, I can make you a completely new outfit, but it would take a day or two if I make it my priority.'''' Cassy talked as she looked in her notebook. ''''Or I can give you one that is already made, it looks similar to what I''m wearing, I would just need to adjust something, and it wouldn''t take longer than a few minutes.'''' Cassy looked up from her notebook and then turned her gaze to Aella. ''''So which option would you like to go with?''''


    ''''The later, the faster we do this the better, I don''t know June''s limit as to how long can she keep me in this world.''''


    ''''Sure just wait a moment and I will get you your outfit.'''' With that said Cassy went back up the stairs, presumably to adjust the outfit, and as Aella didn''t see her taking any of the outfits that were displayed here, the outfit she was talking about was probably stored upstairs. Now that all was left was to wait.

 Chapter 28-New outfit

    ''Speaking of limits, how long can you keep me here?'''' After Cassy went up, Aella turned to June. ''''Because I have been in this realm for days and it doesn''t look like it''s taking any tool on you.''''


    ''''Well you''re right it doesn''t take much from me to support you.'''' June started petting Grefured as she talked. ''''As you probably know new spirits don''t take much from people to support their link, and I''m a mage with plenty of skills that help with summoning, mostly because of Grefured.''''


    ''''So you don''t take much, even now, after all these days you and Grefured combine take barely more than I regenerate.'''' June continued petting as she turned her blue eyes to Aella. ''''So I just need to meditate a little and I''m good.''''


    ''''So how long would it take before you would have problems fully supporting the link?''''


    ''''I don''t know, but if I had to guess probably a few days, and then I would need your help.''''


    ''''Uh-hu.'''' Aella nodded when she heard June''s prediction.


    ''''To be honest, I didn''t think I would be in this realm for this long, especially considering that you took a mana potion.''''


    ''''I can see why you would think that, but Grefured has been my partner for years and over that time the level of multiple skills that are related to this stuff has increased.'''' June took a quick glance up the stairs before she continued. ''''Plus the first two days your link took practically nothing to maintain, the only time you made a dent in my mana pool, was when I summoned you.''''


    ''''I see.''''


    The rest of the time Aella spent looking around Cassy''s shop. Aella looked at all the clothes that were on display and when she looked closer she found out that Cassy was a real master in this profession. Although Aella wasn''t knowledgeable in this area, she still thought Cassy was a master because of all the varieties she had, though she had to admit that Cassy looked like she wasn''t an organized person.


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    *Tuk, tuk...* After some time Aella could hear Cassy coming down the stairs when she looked up at Cassy she could see the lady carrying some folded clothes.


    ''''Here you go.'''' Cassy gave the clothes to Aella. ''''If you want you can change right here and see if the clothes are what you wanted.''''


    ''''Then I will take you up on that offer.''''


    ''''Then let me help.'''' Cassy took the clothes back so that it would be easier for Aella.


    Aella again put her cloak on the rack and then went back to where Cassy was standing. First were the undergarments, she took the dark pants from the top of the folded pile and took a good look at them. They weren''t anything fancy, just plain old black panties, the bra was similar they had no frills or design on them so she just put them on. Aella was a little surprised at how comfortable they were, she was prepared for these undergarments to be a lot more uncomfortable maybe even itchy, but she was proven wrong.


    Next were the pants, those she got on without a problem, and similar to her undergarments they were comfortable, Aella even moved around to check if they were easy to move in, and they were, so she had no complaints. After the pants, she put on the shirt, the long-sleeved shirt was black, plain, and simple but it still looked quite nice, plus Aella liked how it felt on her skin.


    After all that, the only things that remained were socks and boots. Socks, she got on easily even standing up, Cassy did offer her a seat but she found out that this body was more flexible than the one she had before she transformed, so she refused the offer as she didn''t need it. As for the boots, they didn''t take long to get on her feet, and she found out these boots closed with buckles, so that was nice.


    ''''So, how is it?'''' The silver-haired lady was looking at her with a smile big enough that Aella could see her fangs, as she asked Aella the question.


    ''''It''s great, to be honest, it''s more than I expected.'''' Aella had to be honest, Cassy shattered her expectations and went past them, and Aella was happy about that.


    ''''Glad to hear that.'''' Hearing Aella say that the clothes were to her liking satisfied Cassy.


    ''''So how much do I owe you?'''' While June and Cassy discussed the price Aella went for her cloak. Getting her cloak she put it on, and it nicely fit the outfit.


    ''''Let''s go?'''' After June paid for the clothes she was ready to move on.


    ''''Sure.'''' Satisfied by getting her outfit, Aella was ready to finalize her part of the deal.


    ''''Bye, if you need more clothes you know where to find me!'''' While the three of them were leaving Aella heard Cassy giving them goodbye from behind.

 Chapter 29-Moony?

    ''''So how does this work?'''' They were back in June''s room, and right now Aella was staring at the six paper sheets that were laid down on the table.


    ''''You just need to put your hand on it and use your spell, and it should automatically engrave into the paper.'''' June was standing next to Aella while she explained what to do.


    ''''Ok.'''' Aella put her open palm on one of the six paper sheets and then used [Curse of weakness]. It didn''t take long before something happened, the usual black smoke came out and slowly enveloped the paper, but before the curse could fully materialize they got sucked in, yes all the black smoke that was flying around got suddenly sucked in the direction of the middle of the paper as if the paper had turned in a black hole.


    Pretty quickly all the smoke was sucked in and there was none left in the air. When Aella pulled her hand away from the paper she saw a black magical circle in the middle of the paper. It looked unsettling, the circle itself was pitch black, it had smoky lines and it looked like it was wriggling around, but at the same time, it held its shape and stayed in the middle.


    Seeing the magic circle Aella was stunned for a moment before she regained her senses. It was the first time she had seen something like that and it was quite interesting for her. And while Aella was admiring the magic circle June didn''t say anything, because she herself when she saw a magic circle for the first time was stunned a little bit.


    After she had enough Aella moved on, she made another two similar magic circles, and then she made three with [Curse of madness]. They looked similar to the first one but instead of black they were crimson in color and the smokey line made small spikes from time to time.


    ''''So with this, the deal is done.'''' After finishing Aella turned to June and announced the deal being finalized from both sides.


    ''''Indeed.'''' June herself was happy about it too because it wasn''t easy to come across pure curses, and now she had two with three copies of each.


    ''''Well now that we are done I should be leaving.'''' Aella stretched a little before announcing her intention to return to her realm. ''''Say hi to others.''''


    ''''Sure.'''' Hering that June just smiled and didn''t say anything else, she just waved as Aella left. This time there wasn''t any magical circle or anything, Aella just turned into a cluster of dark smoke and after a few moments, she disappeared, as did the smoke.


    ''''Hm...'''' June heard Grefured make a sound as he lifted his head while still sleeping on the carpet with a questioning gaze.


    ''''She just left.'''' June walked towards Grefured and petted him on his head. ''''But we will see her another time.'''' Aella had left a good impression of herself to June, so the elf was sure that she will summon Aella more in the future, and the blood she got from the dark lady will help with that.


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    After the blue-eyed elf finished petting Grefured, she walked to where all the sheets of paper with curses were and started rolling them up one by one. After she was done with that, she put those scrolls away and decided to spend some time reading a book.


    ***


    ''''Fuuuu...'''' Slowly her vision came back to her, as the black smoke cleared from her vision and she let out a sigh. Aella looked a little bit around and saw that she was back in the library near the spot where she was before she got summoned.


    ''''Welcome back.'''' From the back, she heard someone welcoming her back with a calm and chilly tone. Aella was a little surprised by that so she quickly turned around.


    ''''I''m back?'''' Still confused Aella looked at the person the voice came from. As there was only one person besides her around here she instantly locked her gaze to the sitting woman.


    The unexpected greater was sitting down with a book in her hands, she was wearing something that looked like a kimono silvery-blue in color. The lady herself had nice long, straight silver hair, her eyes that looked like two shimmering moons were slowly moving as she read the book, her skin was pale as if she never had seen the sun.


    Aella was captivated by her beauty and had frozen for a moment. She only regained her senses when the sitting lady put down the book she was reading and turned her head and gaze in Aella''s direction, where Aella could see a crescent moon ornament that was put in the lady''s hair as it shimmered with each head movement.


    ''''I presume your first summoning was good.''''


    ''''Yes... wait who are you?'''' Aella almost got sucked into the mysterious woman''s rhythm, but she fortunately didn''t, and she wanted to know who this woman was.


    ''''Right, you haven''t met me.'''' The lady looked down as if she was inspecting herself. ''''Well at least this me, or this form of mine.''''


    ''''But let''s keep that a secret for a little bit longer, and return to how it went in your first summoning.'''' Aella wasn''t satisfied with that answer as she wasn''t too comfortable talking with a person she had no idea who it was, but she still decided to talk to this woman, because what could possibly go wrong.


    ''''Well as I said earlier it went great and I''m sure I will be summoned again.'''' Aella was still standing and she had no intentions of sitting down, while the woman on the other hand was still sitting down and had already turned away from Aella and again was impressed in her book.


    ''''That''s good to hear because the first summoning is quite important because if you don''t leave a positive impression you can be stuck unsummoned for many years.'''' The woman turned the next page as she talked. ''''After all, everyone gets their first summoning but not all of us gets the second.''''


    ''''Not getting summoned second is quite bad, but I didn''t think that leaving a bad first impression would result in not getting summoned again.'''' Aella was starting to get a little curious about this woman.


    ''''You''re right, usually if you mess up in the first summoning you will get a second chance even a third, but you need to remember the more times you''re successful the more those people will summon you again.'''' The woman slowly let her eyes glide over the book''s pages. ''''But if you leave a bad impression you have one less customer. And you have to remember although a second chance is highly likely to happen there are some that don''t get it ever or those who it arrives only after decades. After all, there is always that 1 in 100 unlucky person.''''


    While the lady was talking Aella took a look at the book she was reading, the cover read <Improving your social skills>. The book she was reading now wasn''t the only book that caught Aella''s interest, there were a few more books lying on the desk in front of the woman. All of them were similar to what she was reading, there were few she couldn''t read but those that she could were all about how to interact with others and how to make a good impression on others.

 Chapter 30-Nightlife

    Reading the titles of those books and hearing what the lady was saying, Aella got the impression that this woman was one of the unlucky ones, and the only question was how long has it been after her first summoning, and in what way she had left a bad impression. But Aella didn''t want to dig into someone''s personal life so she didn''t say anything and kept her thoughts to herself.


    After taking a final glance at the mysterious lady, Aella found the table she was sitting at before she was summoned. But when she looked at the table she found that the mess she left behind was clean and all the books were probably put back in their place. Aella didn''t know who did it but still, she was grateful because she didn''t like to leave a mess behind herself in these kinds of places.


    Now that she was sure no mess was left behind her, Aella''s first thought was to go to her house and eat something. She could stay at the library and educate herself more, but she didn''t feel like it, plus she had other things to think about, one of them being where to find a job so that she could earn a living here, because she wasn''t so keen on becoming the lord''s servant, so she left that option as a backup.


    Aella tidied her cloak and started going for the library''s exit before she got stopped.


    ''''Where are you going?'''' From behind her Aella heard the woman''s voice. Turning around she saw the same woman that was just reading her book, was now standing up and slowly coming in Aella''s direction.


    ''''I''m thinking of grabbing a bite.'''' Aella looked into the woman''s silvery-blue eyes as she answered, as Aella had nothing to hide.


    ''''Oh, then please let me accompany you, and in exchange, I will pay for your meal.'''' The woman''s calm soothing voice created words that Aella was a little confused by, after all, why would this woman offer to pay?


    ''''Sure.'''' But Aella won''t reject a free meal, after all, who didn''t like some free stuff.


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    ''''Good, let''s go.'''' The silver-haired lady took the lead as they left the library side by side.


    The moment they left the library Aella could see the dark, starry night. Looking up Aella could see the beautiful moon that was shoving itself in its full glory as the stars around it shimmered and accentuated the beauty of the moon.


    ''''You''re coming?'''' Aella was pulled out of her star gazing, when she heard the lady, who was a few steps ahead of her, calling her.


    ''''Yes.'''' Taking another glance at the moon Aella joined the lady''s side again.


    ''''So, did you have anything in mind that you want to eat?'''' While they started to make some distance from the library the lady asked if Aella had something specific she wanted to eat.


    ''''No not really, plus I''m not familiar with this place, and don''t know many places where we could eat.'''' While Aella answered the question she looked around the city and how it looked different in the night than it did in the day.


    ''''Then let''s go to a place I enjoy.''''


    ''''Ok.'''' Aella didn''t mind going to the place the lady wanted, although she didn''t know what kind of food they could get there it didn''t really matter as Aella wasn''t a picky eater.


    While Aella was following the pale woman she started to look around the settlement, as she was interested in its nightlife. She found a few interesting things, one was how the settlement was illuminated, most of the light came from some plants, the interesting part was that it wasn''t one kind of plant but mana.


    There were some fungus here and there glowing and lighting up the area there were some flowers that gave out light, and Aella even saw a tree that had red fruits that were glowing in warm light. But even though the settlement had all these sources of light, they weren''t too strong, and because of that the settlement was still plenty dim with pitch-black corners here and there, and to Aella it looked like it was intentional.


    The second thing that pulled Aella''s attention to this nightlife was that the people on the street looked different, they looked more nocturnal. More with features or color palettes that looked more used to night than day, of course, there were still Safury that looked like they were more used to the day than night, but mostly the streets were full of Safury that looked more used to nightlife.


    Aella looked around like a child in a wonderland because if she was being honest the nightlife in the settlement looked a lot more magical than the day, she even thought about turning nocturnal herself.

 Chapter 31-Glowing destination

    While looking around Aella found their destination, or at least she thought she did. She didn''t ask her companion if her hunch was right, but instead took a closer look at the place she thought they will be eating.


    It looked like a giant mushroom, with a white stem and dark purple cap with lighter pink dots on it. The stem had what looked like a door at the bottom, there were illuminating long, vine-like plants hanging from the cap''s bottom all the way down to the ground that glowed in a soft purplish-pink glow.


    The cap itself looked like it was cleanly cut at one point as it had a smooth horizontal top, but looking at the rest of the cap, Aella could see that it should have the more traditional half-sphere-looking cap. But the thing that was the biggest indicator that it was the place they were going to eat was, that Aella could see some people on the cap eating at their tables.


    Aella''s hunch on where they were going to eat was confirmed when they, got closer and closer to the giant mushroom until they arrived at the door that was located at the base of the stem.


    The pale lady opened the door and went in while Aella followed right behind her. On the other side of the door was a big room, that was in the same color as the stem of the mushroom. The room''s source of light was small, purple mushrooms that were growing all around the walls and the ceiling.


    Aella saw that the room was mostly empty, with the exception of the small mushrooms, a desk that was a few steps in front of her, and an opening that had stairs leading up. Behind the desk stood a tall lady with a big mushroom cap hat and a somewhat transparent gown that was concealing most of her body from the neck down.


    Aella couldn''t really see how the lady looked or what she was wearing under the gown, because the lighting was low in the room and the receptionist''s face was mostly concealed behind the big hat.


    ''''Table for two.'''' While Aella was looking around and staring at the lady at the other end of the desk, her companion had already walked up to the desk and asked for a table.


    ''''Right this way.'''' The receptionist adjusted her hat, and took what looked like two menus, and led them up the stairs.


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    While walking up the spiral stairs, Aella saw the same small mushrooms all across the walls, and at the same time, she saw some closed doors here and there as they climbed the stairs. There wasn''t much that interested Aella as they climbed the stairs, so she just looked straight as they climbed, but most of her view was blocked by the receptionist and the pale lady, so she just fell into motion and retreated into her mind, where she thought about few things.


    It didn''t take long before they arrived at the mushroom''s top, and they were led to their table. When Aella and her companion sat down they were given the menu, and the receptionist that led them here retreated and went back.


    They were given a table that was near the edge, so Aella could easily see most of the area. She saw that there were plenty of people here eating, so this was probably a popular place to eat, of course not all the tables were occupied, but there were only a few empty tables. Another thing was that the place was dimly lit by a few dark pin circles that were on the ground, and the tables themselves were softly radiating some light purple light, and the tables looked like they were growing from the giant mushroom.


    After Aella took a quick glance around, she finally turned her attention to the menu. The menu itself looked interesting as it had a white background, but the text was glowing with calm purple light.


    ''''Have you decided what you want?'''' While Aella was still looking at the menu, she heard the pale lady, who was sitting across of her, ask if she knew what she wanted.


    ''''Not really.'''' Aella was still looking at the menu as she answered, and she couldn''t decide what she wanted, so she put the menu down and looked at the lady. ''''I will take what you''re having.''''


    ''''Fine by me.'''' It looked like the silver lady didn''t mind. The next moment the pale woman, put her menu down on the table and taped it wither her finger two times quickly. After she did that, the menu lit up for a moment before calming down as a small mushroom grew out of it.


    After the mushroom was fully grown the pale lady pulled off the mushroom''s cap, and put it down on the menu, and then she tapped it like it was a bell. While Aella was still wondering what she was doing, she saw how both of the menus lit up for a moment, before the disassembled mushroom turned into many little pink lights.


    The lights then gathered in one spot before they flew in the direction where the stairs they took up here were.


    Aella had no idea what just happened, so she decided to just take another look around, but this time she looked in the direction where she could see the settlement, and Aella had to admit it looked amazing from this height. The settlement looked more magical from up here than down there.

 Chapter 32-Changing sky

    ''''What will you have?'''' While Aella was still looking at the settlement for her high point, a waitress approached their table and came to take their order.


    The waitress had a similar look to the receptionist who took them up here, she had the same cap hat, and gown but the waitress had exposed shoulders, as her gown wasn''t covering as much as it did the receptionist. Looking around Aella could see that all the waitresses that were walking around had two things in common the cap hat and the gown, it probably was some kind of uniform.


    ''''We will have some earth breaker sushi and a berry jelly cream cake for dessert .''''


    ''''Of course, and what would you like to drink?''''


    ''''Today''s special.'''' After hearing their order the waitress nodded and walked away.


    ''''So do you come here often?'''' Aella had already looked around and admired the view, so she decided to make some small talk with the pale lady, and maybe get to know her better, after all, Aella didn''t even know her name.


    ''''Fairly regularly, yes.'''' The lady was looking right at Aella as she answered the question.


    ''''I see.'''' Seeing that the lady didn''t intend to continue this topic Aella decided to be blunt and asked her name. ''''We haven''t introduced one another, I''m Aella.''''


    ''''I guess we haven''t, very well, I''m Zira and you have already met Suria.'''' Hering Zira''s introduction Aella was satisfied to finally know her name but she was a little confused about who is Suria.


    ''''Suria?''''


    ''''She''s not relevant right now, so let''s leave it for later.'''' And so Aella didn''t get an answer about who was Suria, but she didn''t push it.


    ''''Ok, then moving on, why did you ask to accompany me?'''' It was still kind of strange that Zira asked to pay for Aella''s food. ''''After all as far as I know we are strangers.''''


    ''''To advance my social skills.'''' The answer was a little unexpected, but remembering the books she was reading Aella wasn''t that surprised by Zira''s reason. ''''And you being a stranger is what I need.''''


    ''''I see your reasoning, I presume you don''t have high social skills.''''


    ''''No, I don''t, I prefer to be alone, but by nature that isn''t too optimal, after all even if little I need some social skills to interact with the people who summon us.'''' The two moon-like eyes were looking at Aella as Zira talked.


    ''''So your solution is to read books and ask random strangers to a meal?'''' Aella took a quick glance at the settlement below her before she returned her dark eyes back to Zira. ''''I have to say the plan sounds decent, after all not many would refuse some free food.''''


    ''''You''re actually the first stranger I ask to accompany to a meal, I usually just read books, but I decided to use the theory in practice.''''


    ''''Lucky me.'''' Aella didn''t know how to feel that she was just randomly chosen for basically an experiment, but she didn''t dislike it. ''''So have you learned something, is this social interaction to your liking?''''


    ''''Well, I know your name, and we are talking although it''s not about a topic I was expecting to talk about, but still, it''s acceptable.'''' Zira took a glance at the skies for a second before returning her attention to Aella. ''''But I should be asking you, about my social skills, and what is your impression of me.''''


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    ''''Well, I won''t complain about this interesting interaction, even though it''s unique in its own way.'''' Aella took a deep look at Zira before she continued. ''''And the impression you have given me until now is that you don''t like to talk much and you don''t like to reveal your secrets, but my view about you could be somewhat tainted by this conversation.''''


    ''''You''re not wrong about either of those things, but anything besides coldhearted, cruel, or something similar would be a success in my mind.''''


    ''''Congrats, I guess.'''' Aella was still confused by this whole interaction, but she just went with it.


    ''''Here''s your meal.'''' In the pause they created their meal had arrived. Aella got startled when she heard the waitress''s voice because she didn''t see her approach the table.


    *Tunk, tunk...* The waitress took their food and drinks off her dark plate and then walked off. Aella looked at her meal and saw the two times, the first were the sushi, they looked like nigiri sushi, with the meat being in an interesting light earthy brown color. The drink on the other hand looked more impressive, it was served in a spherical glass, and the drink itself looked like a starry night. When Aella moved the glass it resulted in the drink moving around and while moving it transformed from a calm starry night to a meteor shower.


    While Aella was looking at her food and drink, Zira had already begun to eat, so without wasting any more time Aella picked her first piece of sushi, and brought her chopsticks, which were grabbing the sushi, closer to her mouth and ate. Aella has to be honest with herself and say that the flavor impressed her. The moment she bit into the meat, a flavorful juice spurted out filling her mouth with rich flavor.


    She didn''t know how to describe it, it still tasted fishy but it had something like earthy flavor to it. But although Aella didn''t know how to describe it, she still could enjoy it, so that was what she did, the taste was amazing and that was all she cared about.


    After taking a few more bites of her meal, Aella decided to sample the drink, and similar to the sushi the flavor was amazing, this one was harder to describe so Aella could only say that it was a nice drink on the sweeter side.


    While they were eating no one spoke, because one of them was quiet by nature and the other one was too impressed with the food and the flavor it gave.


    ''''It''s about to start.'''' The silence was broken when Zira spoke. Aella turned her attention away from the food and looked at the pale woman, and she saw how Zira was looking at the sky, so thinking there was something there Aella too looked in that direction.


    At first, Aella didn''t see anything so she thought she was missing something, but after a brief moment she still couldn''t see anything so she was ready to put her attention back on her food, but before she could do that she saw a falling star sailing through the night sky. It didn''t take long before Aella saw another one, and then another, it didn''t take long before she could see a whole meteor shower traveling through the night sky.


    Aella was so immersed in the view that she didn''t see what was happening around her. But she couldn''t be blamed because if she looked around she would see that everyone else was the same, both the guests and the waiters. Slowly the meteor shower ended.


    ''''That was beautiful.'''' Aella unconsciously muttered those words, as she was still looking at the night sky.


    Zira on the other hand didn''t say anything and just returned to her meal, and Aella followed her example and returned to her''s too.


    While continuing her meal Aella felt something wet landing on her head. She briefly looked up and then she got hit with a few more drops of water. While looking up Aella saw that the skies that were just almost completely clear were now fully concealed by big dark clouds. Seeing this Aella wanted to stand up and leave because she was sure that the gentle rain would soon turn into a full-blown storm.


    But before she could do that she saw the giant mushroom platform getting engulfed by something. From Aella''s point of view, she could see how the whole dining area was getting surrounded by a giant sphere. The inside of the sphere had white walls with big circular windows that were colored pink. It didn''t take long before it was fully complete and the guests didn''t have to worry about the storm outside. Looking from the outside it looked like the giant mushroom was now complete with a purple cap and pink dots.


    ''''It looks like we will be here a while.'''' Hearing Zira''s words, both of them continued eating their meals in peace.

 Chapter 33-Confusing morning

    ''''Ughh...'''' It was the morning, and Aella had just woken up by some sun rays that were shining in her eyes, and if that wasn''t bad enough she was having a mild headache. Not the best way to start the day but Aella still decided to wake up.


    ''''Where am I?'''' Opening her eyes and looking around Aella got confused because she was lying on a big bed and in a wooden room, but this wasn''t her room. She could quickly tell it wasn''t her room because the room she was sleeping right now was much bigger and fancier than her own bedroom. ''''And why am I naked?'''' That''s another thing when she pulled the blanket, that was covering her body, off of her, she saw her nude self.


    Taking another look around Aella found her clothes neatly stacked on the nightstand that was right beside the bed she was lying in. Seeing her clothes Aella got out of bed and started to dress, while at the same time, she tried to remember how she got here.


    All she could remember was that, they were at the giant mushroom restaurant having a meal, then because of the storm they had to stay longer, after they finished their meal and dessert, they decided to get some alcohol, which got a little out of hand. They didn''t cause a scene, fortunately, but Aella probably had too much as she didn''t remember anything after, except that she and Zira went somewhere after the storm ended.


    Slowly the puzzle pieces fell into the place, and by the time Aella was fully dressed she was sure that this was Zira''s place. Now the only question on her mind is, did they fuck, or she was just crashing here for the night? Because she had no idea.


    After getting all her clothes on, Aella took a glance at herself through the round mirror that was embedded into one of the walls, before looking for an exit that would lead her out of the room. Pretty quickly Aella found the wooden door that led out of this room.


    Dressed and ready, Aella took another quick glance in the mirror and tidied her hair a little with her hands, before she went for the exit. When she opened the door and stepped out of the room, the first thing she was greeted by was a wooden hallway. Looking left and right, Aella saw that the hallway wasn''t too long and she could count four rooms along the hallway if she counted the one she just came out.


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    Another thing she saw was stairs leading down, so she presumably was at least on the second floor. Wanting to find answers she went to the stairs. Walking down the spiral staircase Aella soon arrived at what presumably was a living area, that was very spacious. Taking a quick glance around she didn''t find anyone so she didn''t linger more than she needed and went for the doors that lead outside.


    Opening the door she was greeted by a beautiful garden with different flowers all around, and in one section of the garden, she saw someone familiar watering the plants. Unfortunately, it wasn''t Zira, but looking at the toned skin, the golden hair, and the sun-like eyes, Aella could instantly tell it was the healer that helped her when she got her first meeting with mana gobbler.


    ''''Hi! Good morning!'''' While Aella was still at the door looking around, she was greeted by the bright lady who had the same smile on her hand that she had when Aella first met her.


    ''''Good morning.'''' Although Aella was still confused about her situation she still greeted back. ''''I''m a little confused, so if you can, can you tell me where we are?''''


    ''''Sure, this is my and Zira''s home.'''' The smile never left her face as she answered Aella''s question. ''''But I have to say, you two were having the time of you''re life. I knew that both of you drink a lot, but you not remembering where you are, shows that I underestimated how much both of you drunk.''''


    ''''Right...''''


    ''''Not to mention when you came here and both went straight for the bed. I''m pretty sure the neighbors heard you both having fun, you both were like wild animals in heat!'''' Well, that answered some questions.


    ''''Right!'''' Suddenly the lady exclaimed as if she remembered something, as she extended her hand in Aella''s direction. ''''Here this should help.''''


    Suddenly a gentle ray of light flew in Aella''s direction. Aella didn''t move and the ray touched her, and as a result, she felt more energetic, and the headache that was gently and constantly pounding her skill settled down and she could no longer feel it.


    ''''Thanks, I''m Aella by the way.'''' Aella thanked the sunny lady and introduced herself.


    ''''I''m Suria!'''' By now Suria had already come close to Aella and offered a handshake so Aella took in and shook hands with this healer.

 Chapter 34-Introductions and frustrations

    ''''Wanna come inside?'''' After the greetings, Suria offered Aella to come inside.


    ''''Sure.''''


    After Aella answered positively, Suria put down her watering tool, and took the lead as they entered the house Aella just came out of. Suria led her to one of the couches that had a wooden table in front of it.


    ''''Want something to drink?''''


    ''''Yes, please.'''' While Aella sat down on the couch, Suria went to make them something to drink. It was an open kitchen so Aella could easily see what Suria was doing.


    ''''So have you decided what will you be doing?'''' While  Suria was looking for cups, she started talking to Aella. ''''I mean for your finances.''''


    ''''No, not yet, I haven''t really looked at the options I have yet.'''' Both of their voices could freely fly through the spacious living area so they had no problem hearing one another. ''''The only solid option I know is that I can become the lord''s subordinate.''''


    ''''I see, do you have any healing abilities?'''' While they continued talking Suria had found two wooden cups, and was now putting some herbs in them. ''''Because if you do, I could hire you.''''


    ''''Unfortunately no, I specialize in curses.''''


    ''''Oh, well then you either have to find some menial work, or go hunt some monsters, and then you can sell those.'''' While talking Suria took a jade green teapot that had two gems imbedded in its side, one blue and the other red, and she started to pour water into the cups. ''''Well, that is if you don''t want to become the subordinate of the lord.''''


    ''''I see.'''' Aella said that while Suria walked to where Aella was sitting and sat on the opposite couch while putting down the hot drinks.


    ''''I hope you don''t mind tea.'''' To Suria''s inquiry, Aella just shook her head indicating that she was fine with tea, and then took a sip. ''''The lord here isn''t bad, if I had to say she is one of the more generous ones.''''


    ''''Good to know, but I still will make that a last option.'''' Aella took another sip of the tea.


    ''''Understandable, well if I get some news that someone that I know needs help I will tell you.''''


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    ''''Thanks.''''


    ''''But enough about this, what do you think of Zira?'''' Suddenly Suria''s tone changed to more energetic and enthusiastic.


    ''''Umm...'''' Aella was a little flabbergasted by the sudden change, but when she looked at Suria''s exciting eyes she decided to answer. ''''Well, I think she is a nice company even though she is reserved.''''


    ''''Good to hear you see... wait...'''' Suria closed her eyes and stopped talking for a second, but took only a moment before she opened her eyes and continued what she had started. ''''You see Zira was in an incident that made her kind of paranoid about social interactions, and because of it she rarely talks to strangers, so I wanted your help with that, you won''t need to do much, just be friends with her.''''


    ''''Sure.'''' Even if Suria hadn''t asked, Aella probably would have tried to have a friendly relationship with Zira herself.


    ''''Perfect, so....'''' Before Suria could say anything else she suddenly stopped and pulled something out of her pocket. It looked like a flat green six-sided crystal, and right now it was glowing light green. ''''Sorry looks like I''m needed elsewhere.''''


    Suria quickly finished the tea and got ready to go but before she left she looked at Aella. ''''You can feel here at home, if you want something to eat we have some food and snacks in the kitchen, bye!'''' With that, Suria left the house and went to where she was needed.


    Now Aella was left alone in this room, with some tea. While drinking the tea Aella started to think about what she should do next, the logical conclusion was that she needed to find a job.  After that Aella finished her tea her dark eyes moved as she observed the living room.


    Finishing her tea Aella put the cup down on the table beside Suria''s cup, after that, she stood up and went to find some way to get income.


    ***


    ''''COME ON! I swear when I get the power I will hunt your kind to extinction!'''' Not too far from the settlement, someone was screaming at a critter as it ran away from them.


    Aella had decided that the first thing she would try was hunting, although it may not be the best option because she has no combating or hunting skills, she still decided to give it a try. But so far she had no luck, she tried to hunt some critters but no matter what she did they always got away from her.


    Even when she used her curses, they did little to help, one of them made the critters a little bit slower, but they still could outrun her, and the other made them go mad. Well the madness wasn''t so bad, because they lost all their senses and just attacked everything around them, but that includes Aella herself, and she right now is only a little bit stronger than an average human back on earth, and those critters are fast and in the state of madness. Aella couldn''t do much to them, because if she wanted to kill them she needed to capture them, and she tried once and almost lost some fingers.


    So she had to options find a group of creatures so that they kill each other, or use [Curse of weakness], and hope that she could catch them. But she had no luck so far. Arguably she wasn''t that long out here, but for Aella who hadn''t succeded even once it felt like she had spent a long, frustrating, time in this forest.


    ''''Sight...'''' After Aella expelled another frustrating sigh she moved on, hoping to get some luck this time.

 Chapter 35-Mad beasts

    Aella continued her journey through the forest looking for her prey. She decided to stop going for lone small critters because the efforts would be wasted, instead, she started to try and find groups of animals.


    Thanks to her aiming only for the animals in a group Aella started moving faster through the forest, she still was careful not to injure herself or damage her clothes, after all, she had only this one set.


    While Aella was moving up her pace, she still kept her guard up and looked around. She didn''t know what kind of creatures lived here, in hindsight, she should have asked someone about it, but at the time the only thing on her mind was to hunt some creature and see if she could make a living out of hunting.


    ''''Uuuuuughhh...'''' At one point Aella heard a beastly cry as if something was dying. Hering the cry Aella started to walk in that direction. She had no clue what was happening there, but there is a chance that there two beasts had encountered one another. But her hopes weren''t high because it sounded like one of them was already dead, because she hadn''t heard anything before the scream, meaning that the battle was really silent or it was just some predator hunting.


    Soon Aella saw something through the gaps between the trees and slowed down, as she got closer she started to crouch in an attempt to not get discovered. Soon she got close enough to see what was happening.


    In a small clearing, she saw five wolf-like creatures, standing around and feasting on what looked like a big deer.


    ''Jackpot.'' Aella had found what she needed, a group of beasts that could kill each other. The wolves were feasting and were distracted by their prey so it was a perfect time to strike.


    Aella slowly aimed her palm at them, and the used [Curse of madness]. Five smoke-like tendrils painted in crimson shot out of her palm and went straight to the wolves, one of them shot their head up as if sensing the danger, but it was too late, the next second the curse was upon them and they went mad.


    The first to attack was the one who lifted his head, the wolf attacked the closest of his companions. It bit into the exposed neck with its sharp fangs.


    Aella could see the blood running down as the fangs dug deeper into the neck. As for the victim, it didn''t just stand and take it but instead struggled. In the madness state it disregarded its own health and tried to twist its own neck so that he could use his jaws against the attacker. But the struggle was in vain because the attacker had a firm grasp on the neck and no matter what the victim did it didn''t let go, even when the victim tried to roll on the ground and use its paws, in the end, it stopped moving, but the attacker still got injured and not lightly.


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    But while those two were fighting the other three were in their own battle. The fight started with closes two looking up at the same time, making a brief eye contact before they went for each other throat. Although they were in a madness state they still had some battle instinct, so they were evenly matched, but that lasted only a few moments before the third one joined in.


    The third one pounced on one of them from the side, clamping the jaws and sinking its fangs into the flesh. The moment one of them got attacked from the side the opponent went for the kill, clamping its jaw around the neck and ripping a huge chunk of flesh when it pulled away, and soon after the unfortunate victim was dead.


    After that, the two wolves that were left turned their aggression against each other, but before they could fully engage the wolf who was from the first fight intervened, and attacked the wolf who was more injured, and dispatched it quickly making so that only two wolves were left.


    Looking from the sidelines Aella could see that the wolf who sensed the danger at the start was a little bit bigger than the rest of the group. But it looked like it didn''t give much advantage right now because while it attacked one of two wolves that were ready to engage each other the one he ignored attacked the bigger one.


    Aella had to say that that particular wolf was lucky, because right now it makes two times it could attack from the side while its victim was occupied with something else, plus the bigger wolf was injured while he himself wasn''t.


    The bigger wolf reacted quickly when the smaller one attacked, but the smaller one still got its fangs into the bigger one''s neck but at a weird angle. The bigger one retaliated with its front paw and managed to injure one of the smaller one''s eyes blinding him in that eye. The smaller one retaliated by clamping its jaw tighter and then with one smooth motion ripping out a piece of flesh from the bigger one''s neck.


    That move sealed the bigger one''s fate, but it still had some energy left, so while the smaller one was still in motion from ripping, the bigger one ponced and aimed for the through, but unfortunately, the smaller one managed to dodge and instead got the bigger one''s fangs in its shoulder, and soon after the bigger one lost its strength and died.


    But although it died it was still holding on to the living wolf''s shoulder showing Aella how deep its fangs went into the shoulder. Now with one eye blinded and a dead body hanging from its shoulder, the last wolf looked around to see if there were more things it could attack.


    At that moment Aella used [Curse of weakness] on the last wolf. The black smoky tendril shot out of her palm and made contact with the wolf and the black chains engraved on its body fully displayed it.


    That move let the wolf see where Aella was hiding and it tried to sprint in her direction, but it was too exhausted and weak to drag its own weight plus the dead wolf''s so it didn''t even make a few steps before it tripped and fell.


    After the fall it just laid there without moving, the only sign indicating that it still was alive was its rising and falling of its chest as it was breathing.

 Chapter 36-Hauling back

    After the last wolf fell, Aella stepped out of her cover and went closer to it. Now she needed to decide how to proceed, she could wait for the wolf to bleed out, but that could take a while and in that time the blood could attract some unwelcomed guests, so it was in Aella''s best interest to kill the wolf and move on as quick as possible.


    The first idea that came to her mind was just to stomp on its head as strongly as she could with the intention of killing the wolf, but Aella wasn''t sure she could kill it with one stomp, another thing was that she didn''t want to stain her new clothes with blood, they already were little dirty from this hunting adventure so she had no intention to get them stained with blood.


    She could try and find a rock big enough where she could drop it on its head and just kill the wolf like that, but again the blood and brain would fly everywhere and she wasn''t strong and accurate enough to throw a big rock from a distance, plus she had no idea how strong a this wolf''s skull is. At one point Aella considered trying to find a sharp stick, but the stick would probably break before she could do any meaningful damage, and she wasn''t sure if stabbing through the eye she could reach the brain.


    While looking around Aella found another problem, how will she get all these bodies to the settlement? If wants to get money for her hunt, she needs to get these corpses to the settlement where they then will appraise the prey and give her an appropriate reward. Aella didn''t have any magic bag that would help her with carrying things, so she had to do it the old-fashioned way and carry them with her own hands.


    Plus she didn''t have anything on her except her clothes, not even rope that she could somehow use to make the task easier, so the only conclusion Aella could find was that she would need to use her own hands and straight to get these corpses from one location to another.


    Now the question was, how much work and time Aella was ready to put in.


    ''''Fuck.'''' Taking another look Aella understood she was about to make a decision she knows she will regret soon after. Taking a deep breath Aella got to work because she had a long day ahead of herself.


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    The first thing she did was pry open the wolf''s jaw that was clamped on the shoulder of another wolf. It took some time and straight but she did it, but Aella was sure she broke some bones in the process. In this process, she got her dark clothes dirty with some blood, but Aella didn''t care because, at the end of all this, she will probably be covered with blood.


    Now that Aella got that done, next was the long and annoying part. She took one of the wolves bodies and started to carry it, after she carried it for some distance she put it down and went back for the second body. After she carried the second body where the first one was she put it next to it and went for the third one and she repeated this process until all five bodies were next to each other, and yes she even carried the wolf that was still alive, but won''t be alive for that much longer.


    After taking a moment Aella again picked up the first body carried a distance before putting it down and then went for the second then the third and so on and so forth. She intended to repeat this process until she got to the settlement, she knew it was probably dangerous not to mention a long and challenging process but she was determined.


    So one by one, she slowly made progress through this forest, covered in blood and dirt. And although her body didn''t feel exhausted Aella could feel that this all put a strain on her mana absorption, and the longer she did this the less mana she absorbed in her growth pool. But Aella didn''t care all she wanted was to get these bodies to the settlement and get the reward.


    From time to time when she took the small brakes Aella looked around for any danger but surprisingly she didn''t encounter anything that could endanger her. There was one instance where a predatory bird was eyeing Aella''s bounty, but the bird was small, and Aella easily drove it away using her [Curse of weakness] and some pebbles.


    So in short the journey wasn''t too exciting it was just the repetitive action of hauling bodies, but even then the determination in Aella''s dark eyes didn''t waiver, because she had set a goal to get her hunt to the settlement and she will, no matter how long it takes.


    And she did just that. The sun was one-third on its way to the horizon when Aella saw the wooden walls she was familiar with. Seeing the settlement walls brought a small smile to her lips because this indicated that soon she will get her reward and be done with hauling bodies. It still was some distance away but with the goal clearly visible Aella got to work with more enthusiasm than ever.

 Chapter 37-Selling the prey

    Adir right now was a little bit confused about what was in front of him. Because just recently he was just going about his duty as he was stationed at one of the gates today. He was doing his job until he saw something move in the forest.


    At first, he didn''t see what it was, all he saw was something dark logging some kind of beast, before the figure put it down and went back deeper into the forest, only to arrive a few moments later with another beast that was put next to the previous one.


    This motion happened another three times before, the mysterious figure picked up the first beast and started to walk in this direction. This time the being carried the animal to the edge of the forest and put it down and then went for the next one.


    But thanks to that Adir saw who was the bloodied figure, and he was a little taken aback when he saw that the one hauling those wolves around was the newby he recently met.


    Another thing that he was surprised by was that Aella didn''t look injured and she took out five of those beasts, after all, she just gained concusses, and usually new Safury tend to stay in the settlement.


    While Adir was looking from the tower with wonder and intrigue at Aella''s antics. Aella herself was having regrets, she started having them a long while back but that didn''t stop her from asking herself why she did this to herself.


    Fortunately, she didn''t feel exhausted, but it still took a mental toll on her, because the repeated action of hauling these wolves one by one wasn''t enjoyable to her. Aella was sure there probably were people who would like to do this and even claim that it was therapeutic, but this wasn''t for her, so she was happy when she saw the wooden wall that protected the settlement.


    Right now she had only one trip left, and she couldn''t be more ecstatic about it. Aella took one of the wolf''s corpses put it on her shoulders and started walking to the gate.


    While walking in the direction of the wooden gate, Aella saw someone familiar come out of the side gate. It was one of the guards Aella met when she came here first time, and if her memory serves her right his name was Adir.


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    Adir made his way to her and they met halfway where Aella put her prey down on the ground.


    ''''Want some help?''''


    ''''Yes, please.'''' Aella wasn''t one to reject help right now, the faster she was done with all this the happier she would be.


    So without talking, they made their way back to where the rest of the wolves were. After they got to the wolves, Aella took one on her shoulders, while Adire took two on his left shoulder and the last one under her left armpit. He made it look so easy Aella was kind of impressed with his strength.


    So like that they made their way back to where Aella put down her first wolf.


    ''''Sigh...'''' After they got there both of them put down their haul, and Aella breathed out a sigh, finally it was over.


    ''''So what do you plan on doing with these?'''' While Aella was enjoying the end of this journey Adir asked her about her plans for these corpses.


    ''''Sell them.'''' Aella didn''t even think twice before she answered, because that was her plan all along, plus the quicker she got rid of them the better.


    ''''Have you decided where you will sell them?''''


    ''''What are my options?'''' Aella had some ideas on how and where she could sell her prey, but it didn''t hurt to ask a local for his input.


    ''''Well your two major options are to go into the city and find people who want to buy these, but usually, they will ask for specific things from the beast and won''t buy all of it, so probably will need to butcher them, or you could sell it here practically selling it to the city and its lord, but the price will be a little bit lower if you do this.''''


    What Aella gathered from Adir''s said was that she could either sell these beasts here and now or go chop them in parts and then go try and find people willing to buy these parts.


    ''''I''m selling them here.'''' Although she would get less money like this, Aella wasn''t ready to put more work into this ordeal if she could help it.


    ''''Okay, just wait here a moment we will get them inside and examine them, and then we will give you the money.''''


    ''''Sure.'''' With those words, Adir got to work, he asked another guard to help him and with both of them, they got the corpses inside, while Aella just stood there thinking about her home.


    While Aella was just blankly staring into space, Adir again came out of the side gate but this time he had a leather pouch in one of his hands.


    ''''Here.'''' The horned guard gave Aella the pouch and with that it was finally over.


    Aella didn''t even say goodbye and just waved her hand as she made her way inside the settlement. All she wanted was to go home and have a shower and only after that, she will think about what to do next.

 Chapter 38-Cleaning after the hunt

    ''''I''m home!'''' Aella announced to no one as she entered her home.


    She had finally arrived at her own home after walking around trying to find it. She knew the general location where her home was, and it mostly was because for some reason she had this instinct pointing in the direction where her house was, but it was somewhat vague, so she had spent some time walking around trying to find her house.


    It didn''t help that she was all bloody and muddy, and people kept taking a glance or two when passing by, but it didn''t bother Aella too much, plus all she cared for right now was to go clean herself.


    So that was what she intended to do. She closed the wooden door behind her, threw the leather pouch on the kitchen table near the bowl of fruits, and then started to undress herself.


    It took some time to undress because of the dried blood and dirt. But it still took her less than two minutes to undress, and the dirty clothes she left lying on the floor near the door.


    Now fully naked Aella made her way to the bathroom ready to clean herself.


    Opening the wooden door that leads to the bathroom Aella was greeted by a nice spacious room with a bath, shower, and sink with a cupboard that was placed right above it. It had a nice cozy feel to it, plus almost everything was made out of wood.


    After Aella got a good look at the room she got in the bath. The shower head, or what Aella presumed was one, was right above her, connected to the ceiling, and it looked like a wooden board that was almost the same length and width as the bath, with holes all over it.


    It looked quite interesting but that was all. Aella quickly found two knobs on the wall, with one she could control the heat, and with the other the water pressure. It took a moment of filing to get just the right temperature Aella wanted but after that, Aella enjoyed the shower.


    It felt like rain to her and with one knob she could control if it felt like a light drizzle or a full-on storm, except the wind. While taking a shower Aella couldn''t help herself and tasted the water, and it turned out the water was a little bit sweet, so while taking a shower Aella periodically opened her mouth and let the water pool in it.


    Slowly Aella got clean as there was less and less blood and dirt on her body. After cleaning her body from all the grime, Aella still lingered in the shower for some time, just enjoying the light rain-like drizzle with her eyes closed.


    After she was done with that she turned off the shower and tried to find a way to dry herself. She couldn''t find anything that could dry her, not even something she could use as a towel, she even opened and looked inside the cupboard but it was empty.


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    While looking around she found something, it looked like a button. The button was located right above the two knobs used for controlling the shower, and it was quite concealed, as it was made from the same material as the wall, the only reason Aella even spotted it was because the button had an engraving on it, that looked like a simplified wind.


    Aella had no better options so she just pushed the button, but nothing happened except a light green light started glowing around the button. That is until Aella started to fiddle with the knobs. They still controlled the temperature and strength, but this time, not of the water but of the air that was coming from the shower head.


    With that now figured out, Aella quickly got dry. After getting her body nice and dry, Aella left her bathroom, after pressing the button to get it back in the normal position.


    The first thing Aella looked at after getting out of the bathroom, were her clothes that she had left on the floor. She walked over to inspect them, and all of them were stained with blood and dirt, even her undergarments. So she took them and threw them inside the bath, carefully so that she herself didn''t get dirty. ''''That should do it.''''


    After that, she started the shower so that the water would fill the bath, while at the same time, she closed the drain so that the water stayed in the bath.


    While waiting for the bath to fill with water, Aella went to her kitchen and opened the leather pouch. After opening it she dumped the content on the table. From the pouch fell out 25, they looked like somewhat spherical crystals, and they weren''t too big, Aella could hold 5 of them comfortably in her palm.


    Looking at the amount she got 5 crystals per wolf. It didn''t seem much even if Aella wasn''t familiar with the currency and economics here, but she couldn''t blame them for giving her this amount after all the carcasses of those wolves looked terrible, the battle was bloody and already ruined some of them dropping the value, and on top of that Aella had dragged those five bodies through the forest.


    ''''Maybe hunting isn''t for me.'''' Remembering how this hunt went she wasn''t so sure she wanted to go hunting again anytime soon. But if she decides to go hunting again she needs a better way to transport her harvest and she needs some tools, at least a knife.


    With that in mind, Aella put all the crystals back in the pouch. She grabbed one of the fruits and got up. While eating the fruit she went to the bathroom, the water in the bath was still flowing and the bath was practically full, and the only reason it wasn''t overflowing was because there were multiple little holes all over the bathtub''s inside upper side of the walls.


    Seeing this Aella turned off the water, with her free hand. The shower got her arm wet, but a bit of shaking took care of it. Now the only thing she had to figure out was how she will clean the clothes because she probably needed at least some soap or something that could clean her clothes. She didn''t mind doing it with her bare hands and water, but she wasn''t too sure if that would work, maybe it would work, but then the question was how long would it take.


    ''''Ah, the cruelty of not having a washing machine.'''' Although Aella was excited about the new world, she couldn''t deny that modern technology was very convenient, and living without it would take time to get used to.

 Chapter 39-Outside the cage

    After finishing her fruit Aella decided that the best course of action was to go and find out if she could buy some soap or something else she could use to clean her clothes. And even if she doesn''t find any cleaning agents she was sure that someone could use magic to clean her clothes.


    The only reason she was a little reluctant to go outside and find what she needed was because she had just cleaned herself and after this outing of hers, her feet will probably get dirty again and in need of cleaning. Aella didn''t mind the dirt itself but more the fact that she would need to shower again. But what can she do, clean clothes took priority for her.


    After walking out of the bathroom Aella went for the wooden door that led outside, but as she grabbed the handle she remembered that she almost forgot to take the leather pouch, after all, you can''t buy stuff if you don''t have money.


    Turning around Aella went to grab the leather pouch, but while her mind was thinking of how she will get her clothes clean Aella failed to see something forming, on the floor, a few steps before her. She only realized when it was too late, both of her feet were already inside the magic circle.


    ''''Fuc-'''' That was the last thing Aella uttered before she was swept away to somewhere.


    ***


    Gricelda looked at one of the torches that were lighting up this place and was closest to the cage she was in and thought about how long she had left before the capturers sold her. She still couldn''t believe that she got captured, but bashing herself for it wouldn''t help.


    She has no idea how long she has been here, but if she had to guess she was probably stuck in this cage for about 4 days. But she wouldn''t be surprised if she was here longer, after all the only light she got in this damn cave room was some torches here and there. The only thing she could use to guess the time was when they got some food, but Gricelda was sure that they brought them food unregulary, possibly to throw their judgment of time off.


    But it didn''t really matter how long she spent here, as she wasn''t able to do anything while she was chained like an animal. Looking away from the torches flame Gricelda looked down at her hands. Her hands were locked up in a big metal piece that locked around her wrists, and although her fingers were free she couldn''t do much. And her feet were in the same position, fortunately, her ankles weren''t locked in one big metal peace but by a chain so she had some freedom of movement there.


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    While looking at her restraints Gricelda was remanded of her state, she was naked, dirty, and in chains, while her ass, legs, and back were feeling the cold metal she was sitting on.


    Looking to her side she saw people in a similar state as her, except the restrains. They similar to her were captured and brought here, the difference was that these people were civilians, so the bandits didn''t see the need to put chains on them. Besides her, Gricleda counted 5 other people, two were missing, probably taken to get violated again, and by the looks of it it was the mother and son pair, unfortunately, they were picked regularly for this.


    So all in all the bandits had captured 8 people in total including herself.


    ''''Curse them, curse them, curse them...'''' Gricelda looked over to the one who was cursing their captors. She saw a young woman in a disheveled state combing through her hair as she cursed the bandits.


    When looking at her Gricelda wasn''t surprised because this woman had started to curse them some while ago. It looked like she lost her mind after the last time they took her away. Unfortunately, this woman wasn''t the only one who was like this, although she was the only one who was constantly cursing the enemy, the other people here had lost hope too, and mostly just sat in silence.


    Gricelda couldn''t blame them, because she herself had lost all hope. She still had a plan to try and escape when the bandits start moving them, but she wasn''t too sure she will be able to escape, but for her, it was better to try and die than just accept the dark fate.


    While Gricelda had all these thoughts swimming around in her mind, she got a little confused, because something stopped. The woman''s cursing had stopped, and that meant she either was sleeping or eating. But when Gricelda took a look at her she was just combing her hair with a wicked smile on her face, as she looked at one spot outside the cage.


    Confused Gricelda turned her gaze in the direction the woman was looking, and what she saw surprised her. There in the spot, outside the cage, where the woman was looking was a magic circle forming on the ground.


    Gricelda was familiar enough that she knew that the magic circle was for summoning, but the question now was, what did the crazy lady summon?


    Slowly everyone inside the cage started to observe the magic circle. It soon grew to its full size, before with a short flash something appeared where the circle was just a second ago.


    Gricelda couldn''t fully see it, but she could see that it was humanoid in shape and that it had long dark hair, everything else was obstructed by the dark.

 Chapter 40-Sweet offer

    Opening her eyes Aella was greeted by a dark space that was dimly lit. Looking around the first thing she saw was some wooden crates that were put next to the stone wall, then when she looked around she could find many things, it looked like she had summoned inside some kind of storage.


    Aella''s first instinct was to go and look at what''s inside the wooden containers, but she resisted and decided to find who summoned her because she needs to know what''s the reward and the task she needed to do.


    It didn''t take long for Aella to find some suspects, all she needed to do was turn around. After tuning around Aella found a big metal square cage that contained 5 people inside it.


    The light from the torches was dim, so Aella took some steps in the cage''s direction so that she could better see the people. After a few steps, Aella was right next to the cage, she looked inside, and what she saw was a little surprising but not unexpected.


    There inside the cage sat 4 naked dirty beastkin, all of them somewhat huddled in one corner all looking at her with their eyes. But what caught Aella''s attention was the dark-skinned elf that was some distance away from the rest of the group. She was the only one that was in shackles both her arms and feet restricted.


    ''''Hello there ladies and gents, but I have to inquire about who summoned me, as I need to know what kind of deal this is.'''' Aella has no idea why she started to talk to them like this, but it got the message across, so it was acceptable in her books.


    ''''I-I did!'''' After Aella said what she needed, one of the beastkin crawled closer to her and told her that she was the one who summoned her. Looking at her Aella could tell the beastkin was a younger female from one of the canine clans. The young woman was dirty, especially her hair, Aella could tell that they were originally meant to be brown, but with all the dirt and filth it was hard to say what shade. But even though the woman was covered in dirt from head to toe, her hazel eyes practically shined when she looked at Aella.


    ''''Wonderfull, now that we have found my employer, I need to know what you want me to do and what are you ready to give for my services.'''' Aella started this weird act and she didn''t want to stop, so she didn''t.


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    ''''Hihihihi...'''' The woman started to laugh as if she had gone mad. ''''I want the dead, I want their filthy lives to end, I want their corpses to rot as maggots eat them from inside, I want you to kill the ones who captured and put me inside this cage, everyone from their group, hihihihi...!'''' Aella was a little taken aback, she could see the rage and hate in the beastkin''s hazel eyes. The hate, the mad smile as she laughed, this woman really wanted them dead.


    ''''Well, I''m not really an expert in killing stuff, I''m more familiar with cursing things, but I''m willing to kill, but now the question is, what are you offering for my services?'''' Aella smiled a little as she asked the question.


    ''''You can take anything you want, my limbs, my hair, my life, heart, organs!'''' The woman crawled to the edge of the cage as she said this, she even took two metal bars in her hands and tried to press her head through them, Aella could tell the woman was getting frantic or even desperate. '''' You can take my, eyes, people from my village have said my eyes are really pretty!'''' The woman let go of the bars, and used one hand to open her eye fully and with the other hand formed a two-finger claw as if she was ready to take her eye right now.


    ''''You can even take my soul!'''' When the young beastkin woman said those words something came over Aella. When Aella heard the woman offering her soul, it was like some kind of primal instinct took over Aella''s body. Aella''s lips formed a face-splitting smile, her dark eyes looked at the woman with glee, and she couldn''t help but offer her right hand for a handshake as if offering the hand to seal the deal so that Aella could get the woman''s soul.


    The woman seeing the offered hand looked at it, and then started to offer her own, but before she could make contact she was pushed away by someone.


    Aella looking from the side saw, how the beatkin woman got tackled to the ground by the shackled dark elf. After the tackle, the elf looked if the woman was alright. The woman was okay but a little shocked by what just happened as she just laid there on the floor.


    After the elf checked if the beastkin was injured, she made eye contact with Aella. Aelle could see discontent seeping through those yellow eyes as they pierced her own gaze.


    ''''The victims and the one who rescues them usually get a part of the bandits loot, so if you help us you will get the first pickings.'''' The elf spoke without breaking the eye contact. ''''Will that satisfy you?'''' Aella looked around to see one more time what was inside the room before answering.


    ''''Yes.'''' Aella slowly pulled back her hand as she answered, she wasn''t angry at the elf for her stunt, but she felt disappointed for not making the deal with the beastkin. But it soon went away as Aella started to think about how to start this massacre.

 Chapter 41-Preparations

    Now with the goal clear, Aella took a good look around the room. The first thing she started to look for was some kind of exit that could lead out of this room.


    It didn''t take long before she found it. At the other end of the room from where the cage was, Aella found a wooden door that led out of here. The door didn''t look like it had a lock, but Aella wasn''t sure, she needed to get a closer look to be 100% sure. But the door didn''t interest Aella much right now, she was more interested in the wooden chests and boxes.


    Aella knew her weakness, she wasn''t capable of direct combat, her only tools were her two curses, which mostly helped if she had some teammates or against a group of enemies, but even then there was a possibility that the enemy was strong enough that her curses did close to nothing, so she needed something that could help her, and Aella was hoping she could find that something in theses boxes.


    So stepping away from the cage she went to rummage through some stuff. Without wasting any time she went to the closest chest and opened it. The lid was heavier than she anticipated but that didn''t hinder her and soon the chest was open. When the lid fully opened it made some noise and Aella froze in place for a moment as she turned her gaze in door''s direction.


    After a moment she saw that no one was coming she continued. Aella tried to be moderately quiet, after all, she didn''t want to attract some unwanted attention before she was ready.


    Looking inside the chest Aella found clothes, it was a full chest with colorful clothes. Aella took one piece of clothing lifted it outside the chest and unfolded it. When unfolded it was revealed that Aella was holding a bright red dress, and by the looks of it this dress was intended for nobles, as far as Aella could tell, and the chest was full of these.


    Not finding these clothes useful Aella threw the dress back inside the chest and moved on. The next chest Aella opened more carefully trying to make little to no noise, and fortunately, she was successful in that. Taking a look at the chest content Aella wasn''t too happy, because this chest was similar to the last one with the exception of one thing, and it was that this chest had a hand mirror put on top of all the clothes.


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    The mirror didn''t look special, it looked like just a plain silver hand mirror, there weren''t even any kind of decorations or engravings on the silver handle. But Aella still took it, it was better than nothing.


    ***


    ''''Finally something better!'''' Aella had finally found something that could help her, a shovel


    It had taken some time before Aella found this shovel. She had opened multiple chests but most of them had been full of clothes and some contained jewelry, the only two that were at least somewhat useful were the one chest that had healing potions in it, she gave some potions to the victims in the cage, and the other chest that she was happy with, was a chest made out of dark grey wood, and in it she found a set of clothes.


    The chest contained a black lace frill dress, with a laced umbrella, black high heels, and a choker. Aella knew that this dress will hinder her if she at any point will have to fight close combat, but she still decided to put it on because she liked it, and she reasoned that if she at any point has to fight close combat she will lose anyway. Plus she liked the choker, not only because of how it looked, it was a black lace choker with tear drop like dark gem in the middle of it, but the gem contained a cleaning spell. Meaning that Aella had to put some mana in the gem and it would clean her and her clothes.


    But except for those two chests, Aella didn''t find anything too useful, until now. When Aella opened a simple wooden chest she found some metal tools in it, and one of them was the shovel she was now holding in her hands.


    You see, it wasn''t that Aella wanted to go rummage through all those chests, but she had no choice. Because the boxes and crates that were labeled were nailed shut, so she couldn''t access them, and the chests that looked interesting were locked either with a physical lock or some kind of magic. So finding a shovel was nice because now she could try and pry some things open.


    Looking at the labeled boxes Aella couldn''t help but smile, because now she can get her hands on the fun stuff.

 Chapter 42- Spear of surprise

    With a shovel in hand Aella started to look for a box that looked the most interesting to her, and it didn''t take long for her to find one. It was a wooden box nailed shut with a label that read <Fire potions>, Aella wasn''t sure what they were but she had an idea and that was good enough for her.


    Aella went closer to the crate, angled the shovel, and then with some strength pushed the metal shovel head between the top and one of the side walls, then she pushed it a little bit deeper so that she could get good leverage, and then started to pry open the box. Slowly and carefully Aella pried the box open, it took some time but eventually, she got the box open.


    After she got the top part of the box out of the way Aella looked inside it. What she saw were multiple spherical bottles with red-orange liquid inside them, carefully arranged inside the box.


    She carefully took one of the bottles and took a closer look. It didn''t look anything special from her side of view, the only thing that was a little interesting was the liquid''s shifting color, but nothing more. So Aella decided to test the potion, she opened the potion and spilled a little bit on the ground.


    Fortunately, Aella was careful as she spilled the potion away from herself because the moment the red-orange liquid hit the ground it combusted in flames, Aella even took a few steps back. Seeing the flames right before her, Aella couldn''t help but smile after all fire is a great weapon, but she had to be careful otherwise she could hurt herself.


    The next box Aella went to open was a long wooden box that had a label on it that said <spears>. Aella needed some kind of weapon that she could use, and she was sure that she could use a spear to some level. Aella could use the fire potions as her only weapon but that wouldn''t be smart or practical, because her goal wasn''t to burn down everything.


    Now with some minor knowledge of how to open these wooden crates, Aella took a little less time than before opening the wooden box. When she pooped the box open she was greeted by a pile stack of spears, with wooden handles and metal tips. Aella put down the shovel she was holding and picked up one of the spears.


    The spear is longer than Aella but not by much. The first thing Aella tested was how to thrust with the spear. She took the needed stanch with wide legs, and then positioned the spear so that she could comfortably hold it, and then did a few thrusts on the spot.


    After doing those thrusts Aella felt confident that she would be able to hit her target, maybe not really precisely but accurately enough that it was better to have a spear than not. One thing that presently surprised Aella a little bit was that the black dress she was wearing didn''t hinder her as much as she thought it would. Although yes the dress did hinder a little bit, but nothing drastic.


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    Now that she had a reliable weapon Aella decided to look for something else that could be useful. But before she could she heard something. Aella heard light echos of footsteps that were getting closer. The first thing that popped into her mind was that the bandits were the owners of those footsteps, so Aella jumped into action.


    Aella with a spear in one hand quickly moved to grab some fire potions, but unfortunately, she could carry only two with her because that was the only amount she could comfortably carry in one hand without dropping them.


    ''''Where are the pockets when you need them?'''' With an annoyed whisper leaving her mouth Aella found a large box nearby and decided to use it as a cover. After she hid behind the box she slowly peeked from her cover and started to look at the shabby wooden door that led outside this grim room.


    It didn''t take long before Aella got to see who were the owners of those footsteps. When the door opened Aella could see two figures walking in. They both were wearing some armor. Aella could tell that one of them was a human woman, she had light leather armor, with some metal parts here and there, mostly protecting her chest and back, but she had some metal covering her arms and legs.


    On the other hand, the bigger figure of those two Aella couldn''t tell much what they were, because they were clad in full metal armor they even had a helmet, so Aella had no way to identify them.


    ''''I still don''t get why I need to do something like this.'''' Aella heard a deep gravel-like voice coming from the man clad in full metal, as he entered the room right behind the woman.


    ''''Because the boss said so, and you know what hap-'''' The woman started to answer to the man''s complaint but stopped the moment she saw the mess Aella had left behind herself.


    ''''Shit!'''' Aella could see the woman''s face contort to dread, and then anger. ''''You go check on the slaves, I will go see what happened to the rest of the merchandise!'''' Quickly the woman issued a command before she moved in Aella''s direction.


    The man took a quick look at his departing partner, before turning his gaze deeper in the room and walking in the direction where the cage was.


    ''''What the hell happened here? I hope everything is here or the boss will be angry!'''' Aella could hear a little bit of panic in the woman''s voice as talked.


    Seeing the woman get closer to her, Aella started to prepare. Aella crouched down so that she could put down the fire potions on the floor near her, with this she freed both her hands and got ready to use the spear. But unfortunately, when she was getting up, she hit the wooden box and made some noise.


    ''''Who''s there!'''' Hearing the noise the woman got on guard, and asked who was there.


    Hearing no responses the woman grabbed one of her knives that were clasped on her hips. Slowly she got closer to where Aella was, her gaze unmoving as she got ready to confront the one who was hiding from her.


    Aella didn''t dear to peak, so she only used her hearing to determine how far the woman was from the box, and when she determined the woman was close enough she jumped into action.


    The woman got closer to where she thought the enemy was, but suddenly a woman dressed in black attacked her. The bandit woman got ready to attack but was instead surprised. ''''WHA-, ghhhh...'''' Before the bandit woman could do anything Aella used [Curse of weakness] to spit some black smoke from her mouth aiming at the bandit, making a distraction, before stabbing her spear right through the bandit''s open mouth, killing her as a result.

 Chapter 43-Starting a fire

    ''''That was lucky.'''' Although Aella was sure her plan would have worked, she didn''t think it would go this smoothly.


    But while she was appreciating the efficient strike that killed her enemy, she started to feel the weight on the end of her spear as the woman''s lifeless body slumped down attracted by gravity. Aella didn''t react much and let the body hit the floor, she just positioned herself and her hands so that when the spear''s tip hit the floor she didn''t lose her balance.


    After that, it took a little effort to get the spear out of the cold corpse but in the end, Aella got it out reasonably fast. When Aella pulled out the spear, she looked as the blood started to pool around the woman''s dead body, her mouth still opened, her face still contracted in shock and confusion. Aella couldn''t stop staring at the body, it wasn''t from fear or disgust, but for some reason she just couldn''t stop looking as if she was in a trans in the same way when you look at the flame.


    Suddenly a sound took her out of the trans. As her head shot up Aella saw the armored figure, that was with the woman, approaching her. Aella got ready to fight as the sound of armor cluttering got louder.


    ''''Ugh, this will not please the boss. We have a member that got killed, and some girl that somehow got in here.'''' The man was talking to himself and not taking  Aella seriously. From Aella''s point of view, it looked like the man was thinking of her like an annoying chore he has to do but doesn''t want to.


    Aella looked all over him, to see where she should aim her spear, and the only spot she found she could hope to injure, was his joints and an opening in his barbute helmet, the opening wasn''t too big but it was big enough for Aella to get her spear through it and injure the man.


    The man approached her nonchalantly and Aella decided to use it to her advantage. Aella got ready and when the man was close enough she decided to use the same trick she used on the woman.


    She used [Curse of weakness] on the man to confuse him, and when the smoke left her moth she stabbed her bloodied spear at the man''s face.


    ''''This again?'''' Unfortunately, her plan didn''t go as planned, the only thing that landed was her curse, but the spear was now in one of the man''s hands, griped strongly so that Aella couldn''t move the spear even a little bit. And while this all was going down the man had a bored look to him, his blue eyes looked at Aella with indifference.


    ''''UGH!'''' Before Aella could even respond, she felt something hit her stomach, and the next moment she felt air rush from her back as she flew through the air. ''''NGH!'''' And it wasn''t long before she crashed into one of the wooden boxes. With her speed Aella had broken the box and was now lying on its content and remains, trying to recover herself.  ''''Cough, cough...'''' when the box broke a bunch of flour went up in the air.


    While still in pain, Aella started to get up. Her vision was a little bit blurry from the pain, but while the pain prevailed her vision quickly recovered.


    Aella saw the armored man approach her, still in that leisurely stride, showing Aella that she isn''t a threat to him. Aella started to look around to see if she could find anything useful, to maybe help her, but she didn''t find anything, all she saw were just more boxes and chests, and some flour but nothing that looked like she could use.


    Unfortunately, she didn''t have time to break open a box that had some useful stuff, after all, she didn''t have the strength or tools for that plus she didn''t have time for that. So it was time to think of a plan.


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    The first thing on her mind was to get away from that guy because she had no chance of winning against him in a straight-up fight. So that was what she did she started to move her body. Aella was still in pain but she beared with it and started to make a distance between herself and the armored man.


    While Aella was trying to run away from the man, he just watched with his blue eyes. He didn''t fasten his pace, if anything he just slowed down, and if someone looked, they could see a smirk forming on the man''s face. The armored man was amused that Aella was trying to escape, he saw it as a game, where Aella couldn''t win, just prolong the inevitable.


    Aella didn''t have time to look back, because she was more concerned about how to get out of this mess. Fortunately, she quickly thought of a way, and it involved using fire portions, unfortunately, she would need to run past the armored man.


    The somewhat round room was set up so that the middle was somewhat empty with the cage located more to the back right across the door, and the boxes, chest, and other stuff were put on the outer edge of the room, but although the layout looked messy, it still was somewhat organized so that you could access almost everything, and in result the layout made multiple walkways that transformed to smoothing like a simple labyrinth.


    Most boxes and chests were only up to Aella''s hips, so Aella and the armored man could easily see each other. So technically Aella could run past him with distance between them, but she didn''t know if the armored figure would let her. But looking at him she decided to risk it.


    So Aella made some way closer to the wall and started to run in the opposite way. Her first thought was to run for the box full of fire potions, but that may alarm the man, and she couldn''t risk it, so she ran for the potions she put down previously.


    The man saw this but, as Aella hoped he didn''t do anything, he just watched her run past him and then just casually continued to follow her.


    It didn''t take long for Aella to get where she needed to, and when she arrived at the box she crouched down and took the two potions. Next, she moved to the middle of the room, so that when she uses the potions the fire doesn''t spread to the wooden boxes. When she got to the clear space she put the potions behind her back, and just waited for the armored man.


    ''''Finally gave up?'''' The man still had a smirk on his face, as he walked closer and gestured with his hands. ''''Well if you''re done running, I guess it''s time to clean up.'''' And as he said that he started to run.


    It was still within Aella''s expectations, but it still surprised her a little bit. When the man was close enough Aella threw one of the bottles right at the man.


    The bottle sailed through the air before hitting the man which resulted in the glass breaking and the red-orange shifting liquid spilling out. The man was ready for it, when he saw Aella throwing something he crossed his arms in front of him to give himself at least some kind of protection. So when the potion ignited it didn''t do much as the only thing that lit on fire was the man''s armored forearms. After this the man picked up his speed and put his hands down, to better see where he was running.


    Aella didn''t have time to do anything else before the man got close to her and grabbed her by the neck. ''''Got you, hehehe...'''' The man lifted Aella off the ground with a sadistic smile. The armor was still on fire so Aella could feel her neck getting some burns, while the man held her.


    ''''You know, at first I thought about letting you live, and have some fun, but that was before I discovered that you could use curses.'''' As he spoke his hand got tighter around Aella''s neck. ''''I''m sure even with your curses you wouldn''t be a big threat, but who knows what''s up your sleeve, so it would be safer for you to die, hehehe...'''' After he said that the force around Aella''s neck dramatically increased and she wasn''t able to breathe.


    Normally Aella would just stop breathing and allow mana to take over so that she doesn''t need air to breathe. But she needed the man to lower his guard as low as possible and so she concluded that the closer to death she was the lower his guard would be. With that in mind, she didn''t let the mana take over and let her face get discolored.


    Aella was still looking at the man even though her vision was starting to get blurry. Her peripheral by now was so blurry that she couldn''t see anything there, but her center stayed clear, especially the man''s face.


    As Aella got closer and closer to death, she saw a sudden glint in the man''s blue eyes and his smile widening as if he were victorious, and that was when Aella made her move.


    In the next second Aella let the mana take care of her breathing problem, and as she regained her straight Aella smashed the fire position she was holding right where the opening of the man''s helmet was.

 Chapter 44-Preparing for chaos

    ''''BITCH!'''' The glass broke easily because Aella used all her strength in that move. When the liquid made contact with the man''s face it instantly lit on fire, and the man tossed Aella away with a scream.


    Aella hit the ground pretty hard, but she didn''t make a sound, she only looked at the armored man as he struggled to get his armor off. The helmet came off pretty easily, but his face was already on fire, so it only helped a little bit, plus the liquid with its flame had already traveled downwards, so he was basically getting cooked inside it.


    ''''AAAAGGghh...hhh...hhhh.'''' Aella watched as the man struggled, his hands moving wildly trying to put out the fire and get his armor off at the same time. It might look musing from the sidelines if you didn''t include the tragic screaming that slowly got quieter and more painful until it stopped completely.


    Shortly after the screaming ended the dance did too, like a puppet losing its strings, the armored man fell to the ground. Now just a burning corpse the man laid there, unmoving. Aella could smell the burning flesh in the air as she looked at the flame devouring the man''s body.


    For a while Aella just laid there, she didn''t want to move because now that she was out of danger, she could feel the pain more prominently, her whole body hurt and the burns on her neck didn''t help. So she just laid there and watched the human-fueled campfire.


    Unfortunately, she didn''t have a choice, because she still had a job to do, otherwise, she wouldn''t mind lying there for a while longer. Aella started to get up, but with every move, the pain flared up, making her first destination clear.


    Her body and mana were already working on healing her, but it wasn''t fast enough for her, so the first place she went for was the chest that had healing potions in it. Slowly but surely she limped to the chest and then grabbed the potions. Aella didn''t even hesitate and popped open two bottles and drank their content at the same time with one breath. Right after she threw the empty bottles away and sat down with her back leaning against the chest.


    She felt the pain lessen, but she was still experiencing it, and it wasn''t pleasant, even breathing brought discomfort. So without looking, she reached for another bottle, and when she got it she guzzled its content without a second thought, just so she could lessen the pain and discomfort.


    The potions slowly did their thing and healed Aella''s wounds, but it wasn''t fast enough for her so that time she drank two more potions before she stopped and just sat there, waiting for her body to get back to normal. Aella just closed her eyes as she felt her pain lessen and the burns on her neck disappear, it felt kind of nice.


    But soon after she opened her eyes and got a move on because she had no idea if she had alerted others with her noise, plus at some point, someone will probably come looking for their dead comrades.


    With the body still aching a little bit, Aella got up, and the first thing she did was put her hand on the gem that was on her choker and channel some mana into it. The dark gem lit up for a moment before a stream of dark liquid shot out and like a serpent could around Aella''s clothes before returning to the gem.


    Now Aella''s clothes were clean, they still had some rips here and there, but nothing too crazy. Seeing that, Aella was kind of impressed because she didn''t think this dress would be able to stay in one piece after all that beating Aella had taken, plus the choker and gem were fine too, even though she got choked, and burned, they had zero damage.


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    Now somewhat clean, Aella went to check the woman''s dead body, in hopes of finding something useful. After getting there Aella didn''t waste time looking at the body''s condition and went straight for looting. But Aella got disappointed because the woman didn''t have anything that could be useful on her, that could help Aella right now. The only thing the woman had was a pair of knives, a small leather bag with some money, and the clothes that she was wearing.


    The only somewhat useful thing that Aella could use right now was the two knives, so she took both of them and the strap and sheats so she could carry them without using one of her hands. Now that that was done the next thing on her list was to find a bag, so that she could carry plenty of fire potions with her because time was ticking and it was better if she surprised them instead of the other way around.


    Fortunately, it didn''t take long before she found something that was good enough. It was a brown sack, it was full of some kind of red fruits, but Aella just emptied it on the ground and took it with her. Now with an empty sack, she went to get the fire potions.


    Aella still wasn''t sure how fragile the glass was that contained the liquid, but she was ready to take some risks and this was one of them. She filled the sack about halfway with the potions before she concluded it was enough. But before she went and gave the bandits some presents she looked at the cage where the imprisoned people were.


    When she looked back she saw how they were looking back at her. Aella was sure that they probably wouldn''t like to be stuck there before she was done, so she decided to try and find a solution, but if it took too long she would just go and free them later.


    She left the sack next to the box where fire potions were stored and went to check on the now-burned man, thinking that maybe he had a key. Unfortunately, he didn''t, or at least Aella thought so because she couldn''t see it and she couldn''t look under the armor because it was hot, and it burned her skin the moment she touched the metal.


    She didn''t have time to wait for it to cool down, so she started to look if any of the boxes may have something useful. So Aella started to look for boxes that were labeled tools because the best she could think of was to find a saw and give it to them and she was pretty sure none of these wooden crates contained a key to the cage.


    Somewhat surprisingly Aella found a box labeled tools pretty fast, and the box was fairly big so there was a bigger chance she found what she was looking for.


    Aella quickly went and picked up the shovel that she had dropped previously. Because of the box size, it was more comfortable to start opening from the side instead of the top. It didn''t take long before Aella heard a cracking sound as the wooden container opened up. The side plopped on the ground and made some noise but Aella didn''t care and just went looking for tools she needed.


    Fortunately, she found what she needed. Aella found two saws and one tool that looked like it could cut some metal, but she didn''t know how effective it was but she still took it with her. The two saws were different, one looked like your average tree-cutting handsaw and the other looked thinner but more durable, and was probably better for metal sawing.


    Aelle carefully took those three tools and went to give them to the people who were stuck in the metal cage. She was careful to not injure herself or ruin the dress more than it was now, so it took a moment but in the end, she delivered the tools.


    ''''Sorry they didn''t have the key for this cage, but I''m sure these tools can help you get free.'''' Aella dropped those tools as she was saying that, while the people looked at her with some confusion.


    ''''That is if you don''t want to wait for me, to finish and then free you.'''' The people were still looking at her as she said that.


    Without saying anything else Aella went to pick up her sack, put it over her shoulder, and then went for the only door that led outside this room, ready to cause some chaos.

 Chapter 45-Finding the missing

    Opening the wooden door, Aella was greeted by an empty cave-like hallway that was lit by some torches on the walls. Aella closed the door behind her and started to walk straight, the only direction that didn''t lead her back.


    *Tud, tud, tud...* The tunnel was empty and quiet except for Aella and her footsteps, it was kind of eerie.


    It took some time before Aella saw something change. Some distance away Aella saw that on the left wall, there was a door but the door had a guard. But it looked like the guard was slacking because right now he was sitting on a chair left to the door and just taking a nap.


    Aella had no idea how deep the sleep of the supposed guard was so as carefully as possible, Aella got one of the fire potions out of the sack and got closer. This guard didn''t have anything protecting its head so it was a nice target for Aella.


    When she got close enough that she was sure she could accurately throw the glass bottle Aella, put the sack down, took aim, and threw the fire potion. The moment the potion left her hand Aella ran, the high heels made enough sound to wake up the guard, but it was too late. The next second he was hit with a fire potion, and as the guard was still in shock, and started to scream Aella got close enough and using one of her knives stabbed the man in the neck, silencing him.


    Aella pulled the knife out and let the man drop to the ground. She watched as the guard clenched his neck with his hands and struggled for his life but in a matter of seconds, the struggling man became an unmoving corpse. Now Aella had to get ready if anyone was behind the door because she was sure that they probably heard the noise she made.


    ''''AAAAAA!''''


    ''''Heheheh, come on scream louder!'''' But it looks like they didn''t hear anything because of what they were doing. Aella leaned closer to the door, intending to get a better idea of what was going inside, because this door wasn''t shabby like the one before, and she couldn''t just peek through the gaps.


    Surprisingly it didn''t take long for Aella to get an idea what was happening. Aella heard four voices in there, a woman''s voice that was screaming in pain and sorrow, a man who was enjoying that as he laughed, then another woman who was talking to someone and from her moans enjoying herself too similar to the man, and fourth person didn''t talk but just groaned, it sounded that their mouth was blocked by something.


    Now this revelation that there possibly are people inside that aren''t bandits meant that Aella couldn''t just throw some fire potions inside and hope everyone burns to death. But there was still hope, they hadn''t heard the commotion that Aella caused meaning that she still had the element of surprise on her side.


    Leaving the dead man, Aella went to get her sack. She moved the sack closer to the door and moved the man''s body out of the way. Now ready Aella initiated her plan.


    *KNOCK, KNOCK.* ''''HEY, I HAVE MESSEG FROM THE BOSS!'''' Aella knocked on the door as loud as possible so that they could hear it, and then practically screamed, so that even if they didn''t hear the knock they could hear her voice.


    It looked like of worked because, not long after she heard the room go quiet, and then some shuffling. Aella stepped back from the door and prepared one of her knives.


    Aella waited as the door opened, and she was greeted by a tall naked woman with some muscles on her. The woman looked at Aella but before she could tell something the man diverted the woman''s attention.


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    ''''Who''s at the door?'''' Aella couldn''t see the man because her view was blocked by the woman, but she could still hear him.


    ''''Some chick.'''' The woman looked back inside the room, as she answered the man.


    After answering her head turned back to get a better look at Aella, but as she turned her head Aella stabbed her knife in the woman''s eye. She used both her hands and all her straight to get the knife as deep as she could, and then without missing a beat she twisted the knife and with a smooth motion pulled it out.


    All that happened in a moment, so the woman was dead before she knew it, and as her dead body fell, Aella stepped to the side so that she didn''t get crushed under it.


    *TUD* ''''WHAT?!'''' The landing wasn''t quite, and the man probably saw and heard it so now Aella had to get ready for the next bandit.


    She quickly moved to the sack, grabbed one of the fire potions, and started to wait for the man to come out. It didn''t take long for the man to appear. He was a little less naked with some pants and a simple shirt on him and a shortsword in his right hand. The man kicked the door so that it didn''t block his sight.


    The man didn''t even glance at his dead naked comrade and just looked at Aella, knowing that she was the perpetrator.


    ''''You!'''' With anger in his voice, the man gripped his sword and charged at Aella.


    Aella was ready for this, she used [Curse of weaknes] to impair the man''s vision and then threw the fire potion. Quick and easy the man''s face was now on fire. And the moment the man screamed and threw his sword to the ground Aella closed the distance and stabbed the man in the neck, and with that, the man was just another dead body.


    After confirming the man was dead Aella sidestepped the body and went to look what was inside the room that these two bandits came from.


    Walking inside Aella got a good look around the room. The room had a table and some chairs on one side, a wooden drawer on to the side near the table, with a bunch of keys hanging above it on some metal hooks. On the other end of the room, she saw two beds some distance apart from each other.


    On each bed, she saw a beastkin. On the closer bed, Aella saw a mature woman, naked and with a metal color and chain around her neck, she was just lying on the bed looking at Aella with tears in her eyes, Aella could see some bruises on the woman''s skin, this was probably the woman that screamed earlier.


    On the other bed, Aella saw another beastkin but this one was a younger male, if she had to guess, he was in his late teens or early twenties. He also was naked but his mouth was gagged by what looked like a piece of clothing, and his hands were tied to the bedrest.


    Seeing all this Aella had an idea of what had happened to those two. So she didn''t say anything unnecessary, and just went and got the keys. She didn''t know which key was the right one to get the metal color off of the woman, so Aella just grabbed all of them.


    There weren''t too many keys so Aella just took them all and put them in front of the woman on the bed. The beastkin woman didn''t have her hands restricted so she should be able to unlock the color herself.


    Next Aella went to the male beastkin, and used one of her knives to cut open the ropes that were restraining his hands. The moment his hands were free the beastkin pulled out the peace of clothing that was stuffed inside his mouth.


    ''''Thank you!'''' The young beastkin thanked Aella and automatically rushed to help the other beastkin.


    ''''Mother, are you alright?'''' The mother-son pair hugged each other. Seeing this Aella got ready to leave, with intention to let them rest, but before she could do that she heard the mother call her.


    ''''Thank you for freeing us, but if I mind ask who are you?'''' Aella could hear some skepticism in the beastkin''s voice, but it was understandable, she would too if suddenly someone covered in blood came and freed her without saying a word.


    ''''I''m Aella.'''' Aella turned to them as she spoke. ''''In short, I''m here to help you, if you want to know more you can ask the others, who right now are still in the cage. I wouldn''t be surprised if one of those keys opened the cage so it would be in your best interest to go and let them out.'''' With that said Aella gave a small bow and left the room.


    Exiting the room Aella looked around to see if someone was nearby, but she didn''t see or hear anyone, so she again used the gem to clean herself, and then took the sack and went on her way, ready to kill more bandits.

 Chapter 46-Other side of the tunnel

    Aella was again making her way down the cave-like hallway, accompanied by her heels hitting the ground and her thoughts. Her head was full of her situation, more precisely about her capabilities.


    She had just discovered that she was wrong about her own capability. Aella knew that her body was stronger and better than before but not to this extent, because before she was sure that any close combat would be detrimental to her, but that wasn''t true, well at least fully. She still believed that one-on-one close combat would be disadvantageous to her, but by using surprise attacks she could do it.


    Another thing she was surprised about was her body''s movement. She could run with her heels almost without problem, and she could similarly move freely even in this dress. Yes, the dress was restrictive in some places but it was like her body adapted to it and instinctively moved so that Aella couldn''t feel those restrictions as much as she would normally.


    It was interesting to think about and uncover these things, after all, who wouldn''t like to discover that their body is more capable than they thought. But even with this new revelation, Aella didn''t let it get to her head, because she had no idea how strong are the rest of the bandits, that''s why she was happy about her sack of fire potions.


    While in her thoughts Aella failed to see the corridor widen, and she only saw the change when two wooden doors appeared before her. The closer one was on her right side and a little distance from that there was another on her left side, but it looked like none of the doors had someone guarding it from the outside, so that was a plus.


    Unfortunately, Aella couldn''t tell what''s behind the door without opening it. She tried to look through some small gaps to see what''s on the other side, but she had no luck on either of the doors, all she could see was darkness.


    So she had two choices either move on or risk opening them and finding out that way. It didn''t take long for Aella to decide on this because it''s probably riskier for her to just leave and not see what''s inside and not check what''s behind the doors.


    Now with her mind made up Aella put her sack near the first door, and took one fire potion from it. With her free hand, she grabbed the handle and slowly opened the door. *Iiiii...* Aella''s eyes shot open when she heard the sound that came from hinges, but she didn''t move her gaze and looked inside the room.


    What she saw was a dimly lit room, full of wooden bunk beds, and people sleeping in them. It didn''t take long for Aella to connect the pieces and see that this was probably a place where the bandits slept or at least some of them. Many of the beds were empty but there were still plenty that were full, and she could see some of the beds were occupied by two people instead of one.


    Aella was happy that it seemed that everyone was sleeping, so she didn''t have to worry about being outnumbered, and even if the door made some noise it was unlikely that it would wake someone up because there were plenty of bandits sleeping here that were snoring loud enough that even if Aella slammed the door shut it would probably be drown in all the snoring.


    With this sight in front of her, Aella dropped the potion she was holding near her, right before the entrance so it would lower the chance of someone going for the door, she let the fire spread for a second before she took three more potions and just threw them randomly in the room with the aim of hitting some of the wooden beds.


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    When the last potion left her hand, Aella closed the door and moved on to the next door. She was pretty sure that the other door was another resting place, and she didn''t know if that group will wake up when the screaming starts, so she moved fast.


    As Aella anticipated the other room was the same, so she used the same tactic as before, one potion before the exit and another three around the room, with that done she closed the door.


    Now it was time to wait, she took her sack and stood some distance away from both doors, waiting to see if anyone runs out of them. With fire potion in hand, she waited until she heard something.


    ''''WAKE UP, THERE IS A FIRE, THE ROOM IS ON FIRE!!!'''' Aella heard how someone tried to wake everyone up, ''''AAAAAA... Cough, cough!'''' she heard the panic and the sound of coughing as the smoke got inside someone''s lungs.


    Aella watched as she saw the smoke slither from the doors gaps, and as the smoke slowly filled and traveled across the stone corridor Aella was standing in.


    Seeing this Aelle decided it was time to move, it was kind of unfortunate that she couldn''t wait a bit longer and be sure that everyone here died because even as she was moving right now she could hear the panic, but at the same time she didn''t know how far will the smoke travel and she had zero information what''s up ahead. So moved on so that the smoke doesn''t alert the rest of the bandits and make it known that there is something wrong going on.


    But before she fully continued her adventure of bandit slaying she there a few potions outside both wooden doors, in the hope that if someone gets out they may get stopped by this fire outside.


    Done with that Aella turned her back to the panic and screaming and with a steady gait made her way further down the cave. It didn''t take long before she stopped hearing the screams and was left again only with her thoughts.


    But fortunately or unfortunately she didn''t have time to get deep in them before she was greeted by another wooden door, the door was right in front of her and the tunnel curved to the left, leading somewhere. This door looked a little different, it was bigger and looked better made, so Aella presumed that it had something important in there. Before she opened the door she looked to the left where the cave continued, but she didn''t see far because after a few steps, it again turned but this time to the right.


    Keeping this in mind, Aella turned her attention back to the door and got ready to open it. She put the sack on the ground took a fire potion and with her free hand opened the door. It took some effort to open the door, and she had to use some of her weight to open it, but fortunately, after she got a small gap open the door opened smoothly.


    The door didn''t much sound but she was confident that if someone was on the other side of the door, they would see how the door opened, so she hid behind the door for a moment, to see if someone came to look who opened the door. Aella stood there for a moment but, she didn''t hear or see anyone so she peaked her head to see what''s behind the door.


    Behind the door, Aella saw a small tunnel that led to an open area. Aella took another look around and then with her free hand put the sack over her shoulder and moved to the open area.


    She moved slowly and carefully, the tunnel was short so it didn''t take long before she was close to the other side, when she was close to the opening she put down the sack and made the rest of her way without it.


    When she got to the opening she saw the open space on full display and after a moment she quickly went back inside the tunnel, hoping that no one saw her.


    The open space was full of bandits, moving around and doing their thing. The tunnel she was in right now was on an elevated surface, so she hoped that none of the bandits saw her, because she wasn''t ready for them.


    She needed a plan, at least a basic one, but to make a plan she needed more information because she didn''t see much in that brief moment, so she will need to risk it and get a better view of the open space and hope no one spots her when she does that.

 Chapter 47-Smoke and wind

    Aella waited for some time to see if someone saw her and then came to investigate this place. Luckily for her, it looked like no one saw her, and she was in the clear. After confirming that she was safe for the moment, Aella took off her shoes to avoid making noise while she walked.


    Now barefooted Aella approached the tunnel''s exit that led to the open space. Slowly she started to see the open area of the cave. The first thing she did was look around the elevated area where the tunnel''s entrance was, but it looked like no one was there. Aella stayed in the shadows as she carefully continued to assess her surroundings.


    Further into the open room, Aella saw how the elevated surface ended with a ramp going down, and there she saw all the bandits doing their thing. She saw that most bandits were just more or less relaxing. Aella saw multiple groups of bandits just sitting either on the floor or by the table playing some cards.


    There were some bandits just chatting or tending to their armor and weapons, she even saw a bandit who was reading a book. But one thing that drew Aella''s attention was that none of the bandits were drinking, some bandits were smoking, but none of them consumed alcohol. So this meant that although the atmosphere was relaxing they weren''t too relaxed, or they just didn''t have any alcohol.


    But either way, it wasn''t a little unfortunate for Aella, she was hoping that at least someone would be drinking, but she had no luck. After taking a look at the bandits she looked a little bit more around the room. She didn''t find anything that interesting, just some wooden boxes and some wooden furniture, the only somewhat interesting thing that caught her eye was the magic tools that were illuminating the opened space.


    She took another look around to see if she missed something but it didn''t look like it, so she just retreated back into the tunnel. Aella took some time to make a plan, it wasn''t anything complicated and was basic, but it should work.


    Aella again approached the tunnel''s end but this time with the sack containing the fire potions over her shoulder. She still tried to stay in the shadows as she put the sack down when she arrived at the end.


    She took a quick look around and found her targets. Her eyes laid on three bandits, one was tending to his sword, the second bandit she selected was using a knife to make some kind of wooden totem, and the last of them was the one bandit who was reading a book.


    In her mind, she focused on those three and then used [Curse of madness]. Three crimson trials of smoke came out of her open mouth, and they instantly honed in on their targets.


    The bandits all saw this and froze in confusion for a second before they got ready. But before they could go into action the smokey tentacles arrived at their designated targets. In an instant two of the targets went mad as their eyes turned red, and they started to attack their closest ally.


    On the other hand, the one reading a book got hit, but Aella saw how he struggled for a bit before he shook his head and looked where she was now.


    ''''Fuck.'''' Aella couldn''t help but swear, she didn''t expect that one of these bandits could resist her curse, and the one who wasn''t affected was the one Aella wanted to go mad the most because he was wearing something that looked a mages cloak, and she hoped that if he went mad he would shoot fireballs and make a huge mess.


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    But now he was looking where she was and that wasn''t good. Fortunately, he was the only one that resisted, the other two were now rampaging around. Well, one of them at least, because the one carving a totem was quickly apprehended, and was right now restrained by three other bandits, but the one who was tending to his sword was still on a rampage, he was a big dude and it looked like they had some trouble to get close to him, especially when the mad bandit swung his longsword.


    Unfortunately, it wasn''t enough to cause too much chaos, so Aella decided to use her curse again. She selected her targets and used her curse and five crimson smoke trials came out of her mouth and went for their targets. The curse''s smoke came out of her mouth and because of that she had her vision blocked for a moment, and that was a mistake on her part.


    Although the smoke dissipated fast, clearing her line of sight, the mage had enough time to attack her, and Aella bearly avoided a wind slash that was targeted at her. Aella bearly saw the spell and instinctively threw herself on the ground, she impacted the ground hard, injuring herself in the process, but she at least avoided the spell that flew over her and left a gash in the stone wall next to her, and confirmed that he was a mage that could use wind magic.


    Aella didn''t have time to sleep on the floor, so she quickly got up and started the next step of her plan. The mage was distracted by the commotion that was happening, because now a total of seven bandits were going on a rampage, and they were trying to restrain them, it would be easier to kill them, but they didn''t, so Aella took advantage of that.


    She picked up a few fire potions from her back and then started to throw them around the open space. Aella wasn''t a good thrower but she had enough skill and straight to land them in the general area she aimed at.


    Aella threw another potion but this time the potion didn''t land where she wanted, but instead flew back to her like a boomerang, in panic, Aella jumped out of the way, and this resulted in her jumping out fully in the open. She was no longer in the tunnel and couldn''t go back, because now the tunnel''s entrance was on fire.


    She looked at the reason why the potion flew back at her and saw the mage holding his hand out. He probably figured that taking Aella out took precedence over helping his comrades because if Aella isn''t taken out the chaos will just get bigger. This realization from his side wasn''t good for Aella because now she had the full attention of a wind mage.


    Aelle thought fast because she saw another spell flying at her, she barely got out of the way and still got cut on her arm as the wind slash flew past her. The moment she felt the spell fly past her, she stretched out her hand while still on the move and used [Curse of weakness] on the mage.


    The black smoke shot out of her hand and like a snake honed on the mage. He tried to use a gust of wind to blow the smoke away from him but that didn''t work, and the next moment the smoke impacted him.


    For that brief moment, Aella looked around to see if she could find anything that could help, but all she saw were flames and some dead bandits on the ground, it looked like the mad bandits almost all have been restrained, and Aella couldn''t have that so she randomly selected another four bandits and used her [Curse of madness] on them. She didn''t like that she had to use so many curses because her mana wasn''t infinite, and she didn''t want to dig into her growth reserve.


    She remembered to not block her sight and let the crimson smoke leave from her hand, and it was a smart move because right after some of the smoke left her hand the wind mage aimed another spell at her. This time she was ready and got out of the way without sustaining any injuries.


    Aella took a quick glance to see if the madness was still ongoing and when she saw that it was still going on now with more vigor she returned her attention to the mage. Now she had to figure out how to get rid of him.

 Chapter 48-Wind bomb

    By the looks of it, Aella''s only option was to get close to him and kill him using her knives. The problem was that the mage had magic that had a good amount of range, while Aella didn''t. Another disadvantage for Aella was that they were in a somewhat open space, so Aella didn''t have anything to hide behind and was just a clear target for the mage''s spells.


    Her only somewhat ranged weapon was now unavailable, because when she dodged the fire potion she lost her way to her fire potions. She could try and wait out when the fire goes out and then grab and use the fire potions, but she didn''t know how long will that be, plus she wasn''t keen on spending that time evading spells.


    Even now as she was thinking Aella was on the move, trying to not get hurt as the spells flew past her from time to time, and even then she wasn''t capable of dodging all of them, she didn''t sustain major injury just some scratches here and there, but if this continued she will eventually go down.


    She could try and wait for one of the raging bandits to wander here and attack the mage, but again that was a waiting game, and there is a possibility that even if she waited the mad bandit doesn''t come here. So her only real option is to get close and kill the mage herself.


    She grabbed a knife in her right arm and got ready. The mage shortly glanced at the knife but didn''t change anything, and let loose another wind blade.


    Aella was ready, she got out of the spells way, and the moment it moved past her she sprinted. She could feel the uncomfortable stone floor under her bare feet, as she ran, but Aella didn''t pay any mind to it, her full attention was only on the mage and to get closer to him.


    As she got closer she saw the mage prepare another spell, so Aella put more effort into running and her speed rose a little bit. Soon Aella arrived at the incline and started to run downward angle, her speed again increased, but that didn''t come free in this situation.


    The mage shot another wind blade, and Aella tried to dodge it. Unfortunately, she couldn''t completely dodge it, because her momentum was fully on running straight, and she was running straight at the spell.


    She saw the blade made of wind coming at her as she tried to evade it. Aella succeded at getting out of the way mostly, but as the blade went past her, she felt her body''s right side shift to her back a little bit as if something impacted the side.


    Aella felt that she got cut, she felt the pain and the blood leaving her body, but she didn''t care, her dark eyes didn''t shift away from her target not even a moment.


    The mage saw this and got ready to cast another wind blade, his goal was to take Aella down with this last spell. Halfway through his casting, his face went pale, realizing that his spell won''t be ready before the tattered dark lady got to him, and similar to him Aella too understood that, and she couldn''t help but smile.


    Seeing the smile the mage started to panic more, he saw his end in the lady''s dark eyes. Not wanting to die the mage did something that normally is considered stupid, but he had no other options.


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    Aella was almost on him when she saw the mage''s expression change, she was only a few steps away from the mage, and as she got ready her knife, she saw a sudden wind ball form right in front of the mage.


    The ball looked like a deformed sphere that constantly tried to smooth itself but failed. Aella didn''t have time to comprehend what it was before the ball expended. The next moment Aella felt an impact and then the weightlessness as she sailed through the air.


    Aella saw the cave''s ceiling as she rapidly flew through the air. For Aella it felt like this moment would last forever but that idea went out the window the instant she felt herself impact the ground. Instantly there was pain coming from her spine as she made contact with the stone ground, and then a burning sensation as she slid for a distance before completely stopping.


    Aella couldn''t get up, her back was in agony. Her body hurt, the slashes from the wind blades. the impact that injured her front and now even her back. She wanted to scream, to curse, hoping it would help her.


    ''''Hhhhh...'''' But nothing came out, her lungs were depleted of air.


    ''What the fuck was that?'' It was the only thing Aella could think about right now. She was so close to killing the mage before he pulled out this stunt.


    Aella just laid there, she heard the battle still going on so that was a positive, but even then anyone could come and kill her, she was in a bad spot. She wanted to close her eyes, to rest, to let all the pain go away, but she couldn''t, she still had a job to do.


    Still in pain, Aella rolled to her side, to see if she could find the mage. Her vision got a little bit blurry as she tried to move, but that didn''t hamper her much and she slowly got on her side. She was now lying on her left side, her vision was still a little blurry so she couldn''t see that well, especially in the distance, so while her vision cleared up she looked at the wound she got from the wind blade.


    It looked like the wind blade had done some damage, the gash was deep and there was a lot of blood coming out of it, her dress and skin were covered in crimson liquid. Her eyes slowly recovered and she started to see normally, looking at the wound she saw that the sight wasn''t nice, but she will have to deal with it later, now she had to see how the mage was doing.


    Some distance away, she saw the mage. He was in a similar state as she herself was. The mage was lying on his stomach, with blood coming out of his mouth, his robe was in tatters, and Aella could see the man''s green eyes looking right back at her.


    She saw the pain and hatred in his glare. Slowly the man started to move his hand, he outstretched his bloody right hand. It took a moment for Aella to figure out what he was doing, but the moment she did, her eyes widened and she got ready.


    The mage used another wind blade, but compared to the other ones he used, this one was smaller and slower, so Aella even with her injured body got time to get out of the way. She used all her weight to roll out of the way. The roll wasn''t gentle on her wounded body, so she had to grit her teeth, as she endured the pain.


    The spell didn''t hit her, but she was still in pain. She quickly looked at the mage and understood that he was getting ready to launch another spell. Aella didn''t know how much mana the mage still had, but she knew that it should be low, so one of her options was to roll around until he exhausts his mana reserves. But she didn''t want to roll around with her injured body so she tried a different option.


    She looked at the mage, and then crimson smoke came out of her chest. The smoke quickly formed into one line and shot at the mage. Aella hoped that now when the mage was weak, she could use her [Curse of madness] on him, and this time succeed.


    The mage''s eyes widened when he saw the crimson smoke coming at him, he couldn''t do anything but just watch. In seconds the smoke arrived where the mage was, and flew straight at him. When the smoke made contact with the mage, his body quickly absorbed the smoke and after a short, while his eyes turned red, Aella had succeded.

 Chapter 49-New door

    Aella saw how the mage''s eyes turned red, and then his body slowly rose. She looked as the mage in his madness disregarded his injuries and just stood up. His flesh was tattered and bloody, and his left hand looked like it was broken. Just looking at him sent a shiver down Aella''s spine.


    Slowly the man turned where the chaos was ensuing, and then started to limp in its direction. The mage was slow and unstable on his legs, but somehow he got where he needed and when he was close enough he stopped and started to channel a spell, with his right hand aiming in the direction of one of the bandit groups, that were trying to restrain one of their teammates. After a while, she saw the mage let loose his spell. The wind blade traveled a distance before it shot right into someone''s back, leaving a nasty cut.


    Aella continued to lie on the floor, she didn''t have the strength or will to get up. She wanted her injuries to heal faster so she willed the mana she was passively absorbing to concentrate on her healing. The moment she did that she started to feel exhausted and sick, but she decided to bear with it, after all, the faster she heals the better.


    It was a little uncomfortable that now mana was going into her reserves as if a drought was happening in her very being. It was a new feeling that Aella wasn''t too fond of, but it couldn''t be helped, she had to do this for her own benefit.


    While she was healing she looked at the bandits for some entertainment. Right now there were twelve bandits, including the mage, going on a rampage, and on the opposite side, there were about twenty of them. At the start, they had more, but this madness has been going on for a while and in that time they had lost some bandits.


    Gazing at them Aella still couldn''t figure out some things. One of them was, why they didn''t kill the crazy ones. It wasn''t logical from her perspective, she would understand if they succeded in restraining them, but they didn''t and the sane bandits were losing manpower by the minute, so it was more logical to kill them, or even cut off a limb or two, but they didn''t even do that.


    Another thing that bothered Aella was, that the bandits looked like they didn''t know how to wield a weapon as if they weren''t too familiar with them. Aella wasn''t an expert in this kind of thing, but even she could tell that these people didn''t have much experience with a weapon. Expect some bandit here and there who looked like they knew what they were doing, most of them looked like they didn''t use their weapons regularly.


    Plus looking at their armor she could tell that it was worn down and old, some bandits didn''t even have any armor. She could just dismiss this and say that they didn''t have armor on because the chaos she caused was so sudden, but still, it was kind of weird.


    It all could be just Aella overthinking, but at the same time why would a bandit group that had this many members, and is very successful by the looks of it, because how else they have so many things in storage, have their members so poorly armored and how they even are this successful with this low if skill. All this made Aella think that something fishy was going on.


    Aella looked on at the disorder that she caused, the mage was shooting his spells from time to time, the burly raging man, one of the first she cursed, was swinging his longsword trying to kill those around him, and the sane bandits were trying to capture them. From the sidelines, it looked kind of hilarious, but that was only for Aella, the bandits that were still sane would disagree with her.


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    ''''AGH...'''' Aella saw how one of the bandits got struck by a wind blade, and because of that they didn''t move in time and a longsword sliced his head open. The body fell to the ground as the madman was splashed with blood and brain matter, but he ignored it and turned to his next target.


    This kind of thing was happening all over the place, the bandits were slowly decreasing in numbers, they sometimes succeded in restraining one of the mad ones, but soon after the mad one just broke free, or the bandits restraining them got attacked, she even saw how one mad bandit ripped someone''s through with his teeth when all his limbs were restrained. The scream and sight wasn''t a pretty one.


    Although the madness was still ongoing while Aella just lay there, she could see the maddened bandits slow down. She was sure that they will get to the end, but slowly they were losing their vigor. Mage was already on his last leg and would topple over at any moment, his body was ready to give up. His spells got slower and weaker, and took longer and longer for him to cast a spell, Aella figured that it wouldn''t be long before he goes down, and to be honest, she was surprised he got this far.


    Seeing all she wanted Aella just started to concentrate on her healing body, she still had her eyes open and was on alert, but at the same time, she was staring into space, waiting for her body to heal, not minding what was happening around her.


    It took some time before she felt like she could move, she still wasn''t fully healed, and there were some visible injuries on her flesh, but finally, she could start getting up. But before she got up she let the mana flow its natural course, and the moment she did, the uncomfortable dry sensation disappeared, as if rain was given to her body, Aella felt kind of refreshed, hurt, and in pain, but refreshed.


    Slowly she got up, her body protested against her moving, but Aella just ignored it at continued. After she was back on her feet, she took a look around to better see the situation. The mage was on the ground, probably dead, most of the bandits were dead or lying in a pool of blood slowly dying, and the only alive people, besides her, were three madmen going at it.


    They were so bloody and dirty that Aella couldn''t distinguish their looks, and none used any weapons just their limbs and teeth. Looking around Aella saw the big guy who used a longsword dead as his corpse just slept on the ground, he had a knife sticking out of his left eye, probably the reason he died.


    As she walked and looked around Aella could see blood, guts, and limbs all around her, the smell was nauseating but it didn''t bother her she just moved on. She let the remaining madman kill each other, while she herself started to look around trying to find something that would interest or benefit her.


    Unfortunately, Aella didn''t find anything that could catch her eye in the close proximity, she was ready to give up, and just wait for the fight to end and then go see how the captured beastkin and the dark elf were doing. But then she saw a door that looked interesting. Different from other doors that were made from wood, this one was made from stone, and almost blended with the wall, so surely there was something important in there, right?


    Happy to find the door, Aella hastened her steps as she approached the door. Her bloody feet left red footprints behind her as she left the gruesome scene.


    Aella arrived at the door and quickly found the handle. After grabbing the handle, Aella started to pull. At first, the door didn''t budge, not even a little bit, and Aella was starting to think it was locked, or she had to push it. But not even a moment later the door started to open.


    ''''HHHHHH...'''' With loud dragging noise the door opened and Aella was greeted by bunch of stone stairs going straight up. Curios as she was, Aella didn''t even hesitate to go up. Her body was still in tatters but by now she had already forgotten about it, the only thing on her mind was figuring out what was at the top of these stairs.

 Chapter 50-Looting the office

    When Aella started to walk up the stairs, it quickly turned dark, and Aella started to trace one of the walls with her hand. She climbed the stairs slowly and carefully so that she didn''t trip and fall. Her body was already in shambles, she didn''t need another injury on top of that.


    With her careful walking, it took some time before she saw some light. The light wasn''t bright, but it was enough to barely see the steps. Now with some light in her vision, Aella could traverse this staircase more confidently, and her gait hastened. The further up she got the stronger the light got.


    It didn''t take long before she saw the source of light and the end of the staircase. Aella could see that a few steps in front of her, there was a wooden door, and right above it was a crystal that was emitting a dim light. The wooden door looked well made, and Aella could see some engraving on the wooden door, in the shape of two trees growing inwards, with some chains binding around both trees and their branches.


    The design was masterfully created, and Aella spent some time looking at it, but eventually, she had enough and decided to see what''s behind this door.


    With a little push, the door easily opened and Aella was greeted by a lavish room. The room was bright from the light that came from the big crystal cluster that was growing from the ceiling. Aella''s bare feet were protected from the stone-cold floor by the red and gold carpet that covered every single corner of this room''s floor.


    Looking more Aella got the impression that this was more of an office than a simple room. Further in the office, she saw a solid wood desk, and it also had beautiful art on it, depicting nature with chains here and there, similar to the door. The desk had some papers on it just lying there.


    Without reservation, Aella went to the desk and took a look at the papers. She grabbed a few from one of the piles and then sat down on the comfortable-looking chair that was behind the desk. Her blood-stained fingers left some smudges on the paper as she went through them, but she didn''t care and continued with her thing.


    Going through the papers Aella didn''t find anything too interesting. The papers mostly were reports about their inventory and the supplies they used, and some were about how their raids, and the casualties in them. The most interesting thing Aella found in these reports was how a group of bandits encountered a demon, they succeded in driving it away but both without many casualties, and the only thing they got from that encounter was a horn that one of them cut off the demon''s head.


    Aella didn''t go through all the papers, not even half, because she got bored reading them, and it served no point to her except to quill some of her curiosity. She threw the papers on the desk and started to go through its drawers. There were six of them, three on each side, so Aella picked on and started from that.


    In the first drawer, Aella found more papers and some letters. She didn''t have any interest in them and just shut the drawer the moment she saw what was in it. In the second drawer, she found a pouch of coins and a small wooden chest, that unfortunately was locked, and Aella couldn''t open it. She took out the pouch and chest and put them on the table. After that, she looked at the drawer to see if she had missed the key, but no, the drawer was empty.


    In the third drawer, she found some ink, a quill, and a stack of empty papers, but nothing else, so she closed it without taking anything. opening the fourth drawer Aella saw something that looked like a journal and three ornamental daggers. She took the journal and the daggers and put them beside the chest.


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    ''''What is this... dirt?'''' When Aella opened the fifth drawer, she saw that it was full of small jars that contained what looked like dirt. There were multiple different colors, but when Aella picked some of them most of them looked like they were filled with dirt, sand, or stone. Every jar had different components by color, but they still were stone, sand, or dirt.


    Aella was confused as to why someone would keep a drawer full of different colored dirt, so she ignored it and put the jar she was holding back in the drawer and closed it.


    In the last drawer, Aella found a grey stone cube, the stone cube wasn''t big about 10x10x10(cm) if Aella had to guess, but she used both her hands to lift it out of the drawer. The cube had a weight to it, but it wasn''t surprising taking into consideration the material it was made of.


    The cube was cool to the touch, Aella rotated in her hand and quickly found a slit going around it. This gave Aella the impression that she could open it, so she put the cube on the desk, and carefully with both of her hands opened it. The cube opened without any resistance.


    When the cube opened Aella saw its content, and it was a crystal sphere about the size of a golf ball. The crystal ball had an earthy green-brown shine to it. Aella was mesmerized by it as she carefully picked it up, out of the box. Aella had no idea what this crystal ball was or what it did, but by the looks of it, it was important, so after admiring it in her hands, she put it back in the box and closed it.


    Now that she had explored the desk drawers, Aella looked around the office once more to see if she could find anything else that could be of interest to her, but a quick glance later she found nothing, the only thing left in the office beside the desk and chair, was a bookshelf, that had some books in it, but nothing that interested Aella, and a comfortable couch.


    Aella wouldn''t mind taking the couch, but she couldn''t really take it with her, so that was that. With nothing better to do, for now, Aella decided to take a peak inside the journal.


    ''''Somone here?'''' But before she could even open it, she heard someone''s voice. Aella didn''t expect someone to come here, so she stood up ready to fight, but before she could draw her weapon she saw who it was, and then just sat back down.


    ''''Hello.'''' Aella greeted the dark elf, it looked like they successfully got out. The elf on the other hand didn''t greet her back, she just looked around the room and then at Aella, or more precisely at her blood-stained visage.


    While the elf looked over Aella, the dark lady did the same. She saw that the elf was no longer naked and was free of restraints. Instead, now the woman had some kind of plate armor on her, without the helmet, and a sword in her right hand.


    ''''Can you open this?'''' Aella got bored, and to break the silence she asked the woman if she could open the wooden chest that was on the desk. The elf woman looked where Aella''s finger was pointing, but didn''t say anything. ''''Please?'''' Aella asked again with a smile on her face.


    Again the elf didn''t say anything, but this time she moved. She got closer to Aella and raised her hand that was holding the sword. After the blade stayed in the air for a quick second it came down and shattered the chest''s top, revealing what was inside.


    Inside the chest was a black curved horn, with bright red stripes on it, and the moment Aella laid her eyes on it she couldn''t help but frown. A disgusting feeling came out of her very being, it was as if the horn itself was her enemy. Aella couldn''t control this feeling of disgust and hate.


    She didn''t know why she had this feeling so she put the horn in one of the empty drawers and closed it. After it was out of her sight the feeling subsided but it still left a nasty aftertaste, and just knowing that the horn was close to her made her uncomfortable, but she could bear with it.


    After all that the elf was still standing in the room, looking at her. So Aella decided to ask for another favor. She opened the stone cube, where she found the crystal golf ball. When she took it in her hand and showed it to the elf, Aella saw how the elf''s eyes opened wide, even though the elf quickly tried to cover that mishap of expression. That was all that Aella needed to confirm that this ball she was holding was something valuable or important.


    ''''Can you tell me what this is?'''' She just needed to know its function.

 Chapter 51-New skill

    Gricelda contemplated whether to answer or not. But she didn''t see the benefit of hiding what the crystal ball was, because she was sure that Aella wasn''t stupid enough not to know that it was something with value. Remembering the gruesome sight outside, and looking at the grin across Aella''s face the dark elf didn''t want to get on her bad side if she had the option.


    While Gricelda was thinking to herself, Aella was getting little impatient, wondering if the elf would ever speak. She was getting ready to put the shiny ball back in its container and ask someone else what it was, ''''It''s crystallized skill,'''' but before she could start doing that she got her answer.


    ''''Crystallized skill?'''' Aella didn''t really know what it was, she had a hunch, but if she could get a more defining description she would be happy.


    ''''Yes, a skill that has been crystallized, or at least part of it.'''' The elf found the couch and sat down as she continued talking. ''''Basically, it''s an object that if you break you can get a level in it for free.'''' With a calm tone, she told Aella what it was.


    ''''So I just break this and I get a skill.'''' Aella turned and looked at the ball she was holding with new intrigue. ''''How do I know what skill will it grant me?''''


    ''''You don''t, the only way to know is to analyze it, so if there''s no description about it, then it''s probably not analyzed or the owner just didn''t write one and kept it to themselves.''''


    ''''Interesting, so how do these things come to be?'''' Now Aella was interested even more. She spun the object in her hand as she asked the dark elf about their origin.


    ''''Well there is only one known way to create them, and that is to sacrifice levels in one of your skills.'''' Without hesitation, Gricelda continued. ''''These things are rare because not many are willing to sacrifice multiple levels in one of their skills just to give someone a level in the same skill.''''


    ''''So these things are rare and valuable?''''


    ''''Value is determined by how valuable the skill is, but even if it''s something simple as farming or fishing it still has a big value, because the crystalized skill is guaranteed to give a level no matter how high a level your own skill is.''''


    ''''I see.'''' Now the question was, can Aella use this? Because while listening to Gricelda, Aella discovered that they had skill levels, and she herself didn''t, so something was different.


    She had multiple options here, she could break it and see if she gets a skill, or she could either sell it or give it to someone. If she wants to sell it she would probably need to analyze it, and that could take a while. Giving it to someone else for free wasn''t a good option for her, so breaking it and risking it felt like the best choice.


    So without further hesitation, Aella firmly grabbed the ball and then put pressure on it with intentions to break it. The crystalized skill borek more easily than she thought. The ball broke into multiple little shards, that scattered all around the room before they turned to light and flew at Aella.


    She was surprised and put up her hands in front of herself in an attempt to block these shards. But the shards didn''t care, the moment they made contact with Aella''s hands and body they got absorbed by Aella''s flesh, and soon every shard was absorbed by Aella.


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    For a moment nothing happened, and Aella thought she had failed, she was ready to move on until black mist started to form letters in front of her.


    [You have absorbed [Growing nature], please choose one of the skills]


    Aella was a little confused because she thought she would get the skill she absorbed, but she still checked the skills she could choose from.


    [Growing nature]


    [Growing spell]


    [Growing curse]


    [Growing rage]


    Looks like if she wished Aella could still get the skill she absorbed. Seeing these options Aella was a little intrigued. The first option that took her attention was [Growing curse], after all, it was something that dealt with curses, so Aella was automatically drawn to it. It was a little unfortunate that she didn''t fully grasp what it did, but what can she do in this situation.


    [Growing curse]- You can now give your curses property to slowly grow in power with time.


    That surprised Aella, but it was a welcoming surprise. It looked like when she thought about wanting a description she could get a description about these skills.


    Now looking at [Growing curse] description Aella was even more inclined to take this skill. The only question was the limit, it says lowly with time, but there is no mention of a limit, so that meant that either there was no limit or it just didn''t want to tell her. Aella of course hoped for the former.


    Aella was sure that she will pick this skill, but she still wanted to take a look at the other ones, just to quench her curiosity.


    [Growing nature]- The nature around you will passively grow more lush and rich.


    [Growing spell]- You can give your magic spell the ability to grow in size and power without limitation, as long as you have mana. Be careful not to lose control.


    [Growing rage]- The more you move and battle the stronger and angrier you become. Don''t let the rage consume you.


    After reading these descriptions, Aella still was set on choosing [Growing curse]. But she was intrigued by the two warnings, she didn''t expect warnings in the skills descriptions.


    She thought about maybe picking [Growing spell], but she didn''t have magic, and she didn''t know if curses count as magic, and even if they did the [Growing curse] was a better option either way.


    So without further waiting Aella chose [Growing curse]. The moment she did the mist dissipated and similar to the shards it got absorbed by Aella''s body.


    After all the mist was absorbed, she got a rush of information on how to use the skill, and now instinctively knew how to use it. Aella was happy and by the information she got the skill could grow in power infinitely, but at the same time, it will grow pretty slowly. Nonetheless, Aella was satisfied that she got a new skill just like that.


    ''''What was the skill, if you don''t mind telling me?'''' Aella was so absorbed in her own world she forgot that someone was near.


    ''''Growing nature.'''' Aella turned her gaze to the sitting elf and told her. She didn''t mind telling her what the skill originally was, because in the end, she didn''t pick it but instead chose something different.


    While still looking at the dark elf, she saw how the moment she told the skill''s name, the elf''s eyes narrowed. They didn''t narrow because of doubt but more in anger. Aella could see the elf''s hands clutch into fists, the elf was angry, but Aella had no idea why.


    It didn''t look like she was angry at Aella but at some kind of invisible enemy. Aella didn''t say anything and left the elf alone, not wanting to disturb her.


    ''''Did you find any information, about this place?'''' But before Aella could do anything she heard the elf ask her. Looking over at the elf her eyes had a glint of determination in them.


    ''''Nothing major, just some information on raids and stuff, nothing too interesting.'''' Aella decided to answer, after all the elf answered her questions so she returned in kind.


    ''''But maybe here you can find something, catch.'''' Aella herself wanted to read the journal, but it would probably benefit the elf more. She herself could read it before giving it to someone, but she wasn''t keen on speed reading it now, so she just tossed it to the elf.


    Gricelda masterfully caught it and without wasting a second she opened the journal and started reading it.

 Chapter 52-Finaly free

    Seeing that the elf was immersed in reading, and probably will be for some while, Aella decided to finish things on her end. She sat up and grabbed the three ornamental daggers and the horn that made her uncomfortable.


    The feeling of disgust and contempt against the horn was so bad that Aella cut a piece of her dress and wrapped the horn in it, just so she didn''t need to touch it directly, and Aella didn''t mind cutting her dress, after all, it was already mostly destroyed, and she will trow in thrash the moment she gets some other cloths. Gricelda didn''t lift her head out of the journal, so she didn''t see Aella''s antics, but if she did take a look at what Aella was doing she would probably let out a chuckle because Aella looked ridiculous while dealing with the horn.


    Aella could leave the horn so that she doesn''t need to touch it or deal with it, but she was confident that this horn had great value and she could deal with her discomfort for some benefits. After she had done with that, she put the coin pouch on her hip ready to go.


    Aella went out of the room and made her way down the stone stairs, she was going to look for her summoner. She could just desummon herself back to her home plane, but it would be better if she had her summoner''s agreement and cooperation, it would drain her less and take less time.


    While walking down the stairs it got darker and Aella slowed down. She had to be careful if she didn''t want to slip and split her head open, and it didn''t help that both of her hands were full. In her right hand were the three daggers which she was holding between her fingers, and in her left hand all her muscles were stiff as she clenched her fist around the horn.


    It took some time before Aella finally saw the stone door leading to the open space. Fortunately, she didn''t fall and was without new injuries. The experience of going down the stairs in complete darkness wasn''t nice and Aella was hoping not to repeat it.


    When Aella finally got back to the open space, she still saw the blood, guts, and limbs all around. The three madmen she left behind were now dead, like the rest of the bandits.


    She saw the beastkins were here too. They no longer were naked and similar to the elf were now with some armor and weapons. Most of them were holding spears, except one of them that had a sword.


    Aella started to look for the woman who summoned her, and it didn''t take long before she found her. The woman was just standing there with a grin on her face, looking at all the dead bodies. She didn''t move a muscle she just observed the bodies like a statue.


    It looked a little bit creepy from Aella''s perspective, but it looked like the woman was happy so that was a bonus. The beaskin woman was some distance from the rest of the group, who were just talking with each other and looking and the gruesome scene. Aella didn''t pay much attention to them and walked directly to where the lone woman was.


    Even when Aella closed the distance the woman didn''t move and continued looking at all the blood and bodies.


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    ''''Hello there.'''' Seeing that the woman wasn''t reacting even when Aella was right next to her, Aella decided to address her first.


    The young beastkin woman slowly turned her head so that she was facing Aella. Her smile was still on her face but Aella started to see streaks of tears running down the woman''s cheeks. The woman didn''t say anything and just hugged Aella, her face buried in Aella''s chest.


    ''''Thank you.'''' Aella heard a muffled thanks but didn''t say anything, and just stood there letting the woman cry in her chest. Aella''s hands were in kind of awkward position, as they were full and she couldn''t hug back or put them in a comfortable position, but for now, she didn''t care that much.


    After a while, the beastkin woman slowly stopped the hug and retreated some steps backward, away from Aella. Now the beaskin woman looked a little more creepy because now she had some blood on her face, armor, and hands.


    ''''We have to go now!'''' The woman was crying for some time because it looked like Gricelda had finished reading the journal and came down. It looked like she was in a hurry, but no one had idea why so although they started to get ready it was at a slow pace.


    ''''We have to get moving before the main force gets back.'''' Hearing that there were more bandits the beastkin started to pick up their pace. The crying woman got back together with the others and they started to pick up some sacks.


    Aella had missed the sacks, that probably were filled with loot. One by one the sacks got picked up, even Gricelda took one, and they started to move in the direction of the exit.


    Aella wasn''t intending to accompany them, as she had already got some nice stuff from the office, and she was ready to go back to her dimension.


    So she walked closer to the woman who summoned her here and got her attention by gently bumping the woman''s shoulder. The woman looked at Aella with a questioning gaze.


    ''''I presumed the task was completed to your satisfaction?'''' The question confused the woman for a moment before she remembered why Aella was here, and she just nodded with a smile.


    ''''Great.'''' Aella gave a smile to the woman as she continued. ''''I have already taken my reward so, I will be departing, I wish you safe travel.'''' And with those words, Aella stopped walking alongside the group and started the process of going back home.


    The group took some glances at Aella but didn''t stop moving and they saw how a magic circle formed beneath Aella''s feet, and with a flash of light Aella was gone.


    ***


    Gricelda was finally free, but if they didn''t move fast their freedom will be short-lived. She read the journal that belonged to the captain of these bandits, and unfortunately, they weren''t just your average bandits. They were backed by a whole kingdom.


    This band of thugs was formed so that they could freely raid and pillage villages and merchants that were in the neighboring kingdom. The bandit''s base, this cave, was near the border, so that gave them a good chance of escaping, but they had to do it fast.


    The main force of this operation was called somewhere else for some time, to deal with close by situation, and they will be gone for some days. The problem was that Gricelda had no idea of how many days they had been gone, and how long until they got back, so the faster they got away from here the better.


    Another driving factor was the nation that was behind all this operation, and Gricelda didn''t want to be a slave in this nation. As a whole she didn''t want to be a slave, but if she had to say Berkanea was one of, if not the worst place someone like her to be a slave. She had some suspicion when she saw those three decorated daggers that Aella found in the office, but now with concrete proof, Gricelda was more than ever motivated to get out of here.


    She looked back to see how others were fairing but saw that every one of them was looking in front with a determined look. So Gricelda didn''t say anything and just continued to lead them. They were determined to get back home, to their families and friends.

 Chapter 53-Needed rest

    ''''Ten nights, with everything included.'''' Karla put a gold coin on the counter as she said that.


    The receptionist looked at the gold and then back at Karla. She gazed at Karla for some time with suspicion, and seeing this Karla knew she had to say something.


    ''''Loot from bandit camp.'''' Hopefully, this will be enough to stop the receptionist from thinking that Karla had stolen the coin from somewhere.


    Hering that the receptionist accepted the gold and gave Karla a key to her room, but there still was some suspicion in the receptionist''s eyes. But Karla couldn''t blame her, after all, she looked terrible, with dirt all over her and her armor, with a spear that had some blood on its blade, and the big sack she was lugging around didn''t help either.


    Karla took the key, looked at the number, and started to walk in her room''s direction. Under the watchful eyes of both the staff and some residents Karla went where the lift was. On the way one of the staff offered to take her luggage, but she declined and continued on her way. Seeing Karla walk in the lift''s direction the lift attendant pressed the button and called the lift down.


    So Karla didn''t have to wait long, the lift doors opened almost at the same time when Karla arrived at the door. When she walked inside she saw the attendant gesturing if she needed help, but Karla just waved her spear indicating that she got it. The attendant just nodded and got back to his post.


    Karla pressed the 3rd floor button. The doors closed and the lift started to slowly climb. While in the lift she started to look around the lift. She was impressed by the spacious room the lift had, all around her she could see some depiction of nature engraved all over the walls and the carpet, it all looked just so fancy.


    Karla had to say she was impressed, and she couldn''t wait to see her room, and by looking at this lift and how the lobby looked she won''t be disappointed.


    When the lift finally stopped and the door opened Karla was greeted by a beautiful hallway, but she didn''t stop or slow her steps to admire it, because right now all she wanted was to get some rest. Karla was tired from the long journey, after all, she and the group had to move fast because they had no idea when the main force of the bandits would return, and there was a possibility they would chase after them.


    So she and the group walked without stopping until they got to this city. They could have stopped in some village and rested there, but none of them wanted to risk getting captured again, so they decided to get to this city as fast as possible because this city was the largest settlement nearby. When they got here the group split up and Karla decided to spoil herself, so she chose this hotel to be her temporary residence.


    Karla found her room and using her key opened the door. The moment she stepped inside the room, she closed and locked the door behind her, and threw her sack and spear on the floor. The armor took a bit longer to get off, but when she got it off she threw it on the floor near the sack, and the rest of her cloaths got the same treatment.


    Now completely naked, Karla found the bed and just went and collapsed on it, days worth of exhaustion caught up with her, and just like that she closed her eyes and went to sleep.


    ***


    ''''Mmmhm~'''' Slowly Karla opened her eyes from her sleep. Looking around she got a little confused as to where she was, but quickly she remembered how she got here.


    She got out of bed and stretched her body, happy that she finally got some decent rest. She wasn''t a fan of the sleeping conditions she had to endure when she was walking to this city.


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    Karla took another look at the luxurious room before forming a smile on her face and finding a shower. The shower was behind a wooden door. The bathroom was spacious and Karla took a pause when she saw it, but after just a moment she found the shower and went for it. The shower was in a corner and had two walls made out of glass and one of them had a door.


    Karla stepped inside the shower and for a moment got confused as to how to use it. But after some time she figured it out, she turned one of the knobs, and the water started to spray from the shower head. The water was the perfect temperature so she just left it and started to wash herself.


    On one of the walls, there was some soaps, both in solid and liquid form so, Krala grabbed one of the many choices and started to wash herself. While doing that she started to think about her future.


    First was if she wanted to go back to her town, and frankly no, she had no friends or family there, and the only reason she would consider going back there was for her job. But she was sure that by now her old boss had already found a new baker and she wasn''t needed, plus she had all the loot from the bandit camp, so she was set for some time.


    She hadn''t checked all the loot she got, because at one point she just started grabbing stuff and putting them in her sack, but she was sure there was some valuable stuff in there.


    So now that she decided to not go back to her old town, she had to find what to do. Fortunately, she had already figured out what she wanted to do, and now she only needed to go get some stuff from the city and she could start her new life.


    Thinking about her future inevitably reminded her of her past, more precisely how she got here. She was just a normal woman who one night decided to go to a bar, there she found a kindred soal another beastkin woman, but all that was a lie.


    The woman got Karla black-out drunk and then kidnapped her. The next moment she knew it she was in a cart tied up and gagged and the woman was taking her somewhere. To this day Karla has no idea what the woman intended to do with her because, at one point in the journey the bandits attacked, they killed the woman because she resisted and took Karla to their base.


    There she met others and slowly lost her mind, it got so bad that all she did was curse them nonstop. Until she got her answer, in the form of her savior, the dark lady, and the rest was history.


    Karla started to think about the black lady and her body started to get hot, so she turned the water a little bit colder and finished showering. She got out of the shower, grabbed one of the towels, and gently wiped herself dry, she was especially gentle with her ears and tail.


    While she was drying herself, Karla saw something on one of the shelves that was attached to the wall near a mirror. There were multiple things there, and some of them she didn''t even know the function of, but one item caught her interest. The item looked like a cylinder and had an engraving of something that looked like a wind on it.


    She grabbed the cylinder and saw that at one end there was a monster core, and at the other end, there was a hole. Her guess was right, Karla thought this was some kind of magic tool, and by the looks of it, she was right. She activated the magic tool and a warm gust of wind started to come out from the open side.


    Seeing this made Karla happy, she quickly put the towel to the side and used this tool to dry herself completely. With this tool''s help, Karla was dry pretty fast.  She put the tool where she took it from, and then exited the bathroom.


    After she got out of the bathroom she opened the window curtains so that she could see outside. From the window, she could see a mesmerizing garden, with a pond on one side. Looking up Karla saw that it was past noon, so she had slept a good bit because she got to the hotel somewhere in the morning. She still needed some rest, but for now, it should do, and she still had things to do. She could leave everything for tomorrow, but the sooner she is done the better.


    Karla closed the curtains and went to where her stuff was. She picked up the armor and the spear and put them in one corner, the dirty clothes she folded and put right beside the armor. Next, she opened her sack and started looking for some clothes, she knew she had some because she remembers putting some clothes in the sack.


    After a bit of searching, she found some plain-looking clothes, that suited her. It took some time to find the right clothes because of the pants and underwear, after all, she had a tail. She put on the clothes and was ready to go out.


    She took a look around the room before checking if she had everything she needed. After confirming that she had a knife and a pouch with some coins she left her room.

 Chapter 54-Bladed instrument

    ''''Fuuu~, that hit the spot.'''' Karla said while walking out the restaurant''s door. She had decided to go eat somewhere else instead of the hotel she was staying at.


    At first, she wanted to go and see what kind of food the hotel was offering, but Karla realized that she could go eat at the hotel at any time, so instead, she decided to explore a little bit of the city and eat somewhere else.


    She found a restaurant that looked good to her and ate there. While eating she listened in to some of the people talking, but she didn''t hear anything of use to her, so when she finished her meal she paid and left.


    Now that her stomach was full, Karla started to wander the city with the intention of finding what she needed. She could ask some people to help her with directions, but she wanted to enjoy the city and a little wandering won''t do her any bad.


    Karla had to be honest and admit that she was kind of impressed by the city as a whole. The buildings, the many different people, and the view all combined made her wonder. Although her old town wasn''t small it wasn''t anything like this city.


    One of the things that interested Karla the most were the many stalls because even in her old town there were times when an interesting stall popped up, either selling some exotic or intriguing food or some unique items, and she was sure that in the city they had similar situation. So when Karla saw a stall she looked over to see if anything interested her.


    And indeed one stall caught her eye. The stall was operated by a kobald that had ice-blue scales, and he was using his icy breath to create something that looked like an ice cream. Karla knew what an ice cream was but she had never tried it, but that was about to change. She walked up to the stall and ordered one, and after a little bit of waiting, she got her treat.


    ''''Mmm~'''' The ice cream was delicious, and the chilly sensation in her mouth was a nice feeling too. Karla continued with her city exploration with her bowl of ice cream.


    Unfortunately for her, the ice cream was so tasty that she had finished pretty fast and now she was left with only the bowl and spoon, which interestingly enough were both made out of ice. She quickly found the nearest disposal point, and opening the lid she threw the bowl and spoon down the hole. Once that was done she resumed her search.


    Karla wondered about the city for a while until she finally found what she was looking for. Right now she was standing in front of a wooden two-story building, that had a sign hanging right above the door. On the sign, there was <Herod''s musical tools> written on it.  Opening the door, Karla heard a bell ringing announcing her presence.


    ''''Welcome to my shop, I''m Herod and what can I help you with?'''' The moment she closed the door behind her she was greeted by a beastkin man with rabbit features. The middle-aged man had some spring to his steps, and with every step, Karla saw how the three ring earrings that were on his left ear, jumped around.


    ''''Hello, I''m here to purchase one of your instruments.'''' Karla didn''t waste time and got to the point.


    ''''Of course.'''' Herod indicated for Karla to step deeper into the shape with his hand. ''''So what are you looking for, anything specific?''''


    ''''I don''t know, I''m not too familiar with these kinds of tools, but something that I can easily travel with.'''' While saying that she saw a piano in one corner.


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    ''''I see, well we have many instruments here, guitars, flutes, small harps, and plenty more that match your needs.'''' Herod pointed at all the stands and shelves he had in the shop.


    So without reservation, Karla started to walk around the shop and look at all the instruments. The selection of the instruments was impressive, and Karla spent a good time just looking around while Herod followed her from behind.


    It took some time before Karla found something that interested her. What caught her eye was a black metallic guitar that looked like it was sprouting two bird wings. At first, the thing that caught Karla''s attention was the color, because it was similar to her savior''s hair color, and after looking at the design she liked it even more.


    ''''Can I take a closer look?'''' Karla turned to Herod and pointed at the guitar.


    ''''Of course.'''' The middle-aged man just agreed with a smile.


    With the owner''s approval, Karla took the guitar off its stand. It was heavier than she thought, but Karla still could easily carry it around. She put the strap around her, and then put the guitar in position, ready to play it.


    *?~~* Karla played a few notes, and it sounded good. With this, she decided to buy this guitar.


    ''''I will take this.'''' Karla turned to the quiet Herod, ready to buy this instrument.


    ''''Excellent choice!'''' Herod led Karla to the register so that they could finalize the purchase. ''''Now before you buy, this instrument has an extra feature.'''' Herod extended his hand indicating he wanted to show her this extra feature.


    When Karla gave him the guitar, he grabbed it by the neck and then pressed something. The next moment two blades came out of the wings, turning the guitar into a double-headed battle axe. ''''As you can see this instrument can be used as a weapon, and you don''t need to worry about breaking it because it is made out of sturdy material.'''' Herod again pressed something and the blades went back inside.


    ''''And the instrument has a self-cleaning enchantment on it, but because of all this it is quite pricy.'''' Herod said that and put the guitar on the table.


    ''''So how much is it?''''


    ''''Three gold coins.'''' That made Karla stop for a moment but she could afford it.


    ''''I will buy it.'''' Karla took about three gold coins from her pouch and gave them to Herod. ''''Is there any more hidden features on this thing?''''


    ''''I don''t know, the seller didn''t say anything, and even the blade function I accidentally discovered myself.'''' Herod put the gold away and pulled a grey wooden case from behind the counter. He put the guitar inside the case and then gave it to Karla.


    ''''I see, well good doing business with you.'''' Karla took the case by its handle and went for the door.


    ''''Thanks for the purchase, do come again!'''' As Karla left the door she heard the bell ring and Herod saying her goodbye.


    Now back outside Karla looked at the sun, and saw that it was about time she returned to her hotel room. Fortunately, she remembered where the hotel was so she made her way straight to it without taking any detors.


    When she arrived at the lobby she could see some people staring at her, but she expected and just ignored them and went to her room.


    After getting inside her room and closing the door, Karla gently put down the guitar case on the floor. Then she opened it and took the guitar out.


    With the guitar in hand, she sat on one of the chairs, put the guitar in her lap *?~-~* and started playing it. Karla had never played any musical instrument so her first attempt wasn''t the best. It wasn''t bad but it wasn''t good either.


    So for the next while Karla just sat there and played her instrument without moving or saying anything she plucked the strings and immersed herself in learning how to play her newly bought instrument.


    She played like this until the night fell and only after she stopped did she see how long she had played the instrument. And the only reason she stopped was because she started to feel a little hungry. But Karla didn''t want to leave her room right now, so she got some dried rations out of her sack and ate them in her room.


    While eating she looked at the sack and concluded that it would be a good idea to see what she got inside the sack before she continued to learn her instrument.


    She put her guitar back inside its case, and then went for the sack and turned it upside down, emptying it in the process. Now that everything was on the floor and in clear sight, Karla got ready to sort these things out, interested in what treasures she would wind in this pile of stuff.

 Chapter 55-Job hunting

    [Right after Aella left the bandit camp]


    ''''Good to be back.'''' Aella appeared in her house in the same place she left. She looked around and found that the place was in the same state when she left it.


    After that, she went to the table where she left her bounty from hunting and hauling wolfs, and put down her new prizes. She put down the tree daggers and the coin pouch normally on the table and the wrapped-up horn she put as far as she could from her, on the other end of the table.


    Now that the horn was out of her hands she felt a little less uncomfortable, its presence still bothered her but she was happy it wasn''t touching her.


    Next, she got naked she pulled off the dress from her body, leaving her naked with a choker, and threw it on the ground. The dress was totally ruined, so Aella had to figure out how to get rid of it. She was a little sad that her new dress was in tatters, but it is what it is, and she wasn''t ready to go find a tailor that could fix her dress.


    Thinking about clothes Aella remembered the ones she left in the bath. Leaving the dress on the ground she went to her bathroom to see what happened to the clothes she got from Cassy. She opened the door to her bathroom and went straight for the bath to see the situation.


    Walking over she saw that the water was now dirty, which didn''t surprise Aella. She put her hand in the water and opened up the drain. The water in the bath slowly drained until it was almost all gone.


    When most of the water was gone she pulled out a piece of clothing from the bathtub. It was still wet and Aella had to unfold the clothing piece to fully see what she got in her hands. It was her shirt, Aella could still see some dirty spots on her shirt although it was wet.


    Fortunately, she got the choker from her last adventure, so she didn''t have to think much about how to clean her clothes, but she has to wear them to get them clean, so now she has to dry them.


    She stepped outside the bathroom and looked outside one of her windows to see how''s the weather today, and by the looks of it, it was sunny, so she could just lay her clothes outside near her house and let the sun do its job. But Aella wasn''t too sure about this option, because she didn''t want her clothes to get stolen, and although it didn''t look like someone would steal her stuff in this place, she still didn''t trust that no one would steal her clothes.


    So she went for the next best thing, she put her clothes around the house near the windows so that the sun could still dry them but in the safety of her house. Her house still didn''t have any lock on it, but no one had broken in until now, so that meant that either people here didn''t usually break inside other houses or that this house has some security system that she wasn''t aware of. Either way, it was probably safer to do it this than just plop them near the house outside.


    The next step she had in mind was to go find herself a job inside the settlement because right now she didn''t have an optimal way to hunt anything, but before that, she decided to have a nap, so that she could rest her brain and let her clothes dry.


    She left anything as is and went to bed, and the moment she put her head on the pillow and closed her eyes she was out.


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    ***


    ''''Yaaawn~'''' After a while Aella woke up from her nap, and the first thing she did was yawn and stretch her body. The nap was a success and she was feeling great.


    As she got up she combed through her black hair with her fingers and got some strands out of her face. She looked outside the window to approximately see how long she had slept.


    Peaking outside the window she could see that the sun was still up, but it was close to the horizon and soon will go down. Fortunately, this settlement has a rich nightlife, so it wasn''t like the jobs in the night were less than in the day. So with that in mind, Aella went to check how her clothes were doing.


    On the first touch, they felt dry, only her pants and boots were a little bit moist, but nothing detrimental and she could easily wear them without any problems. So with that, she got ready, it didn''t take long before Aella was all dressed and ready to go find herself a job. She grabbed the pouch with the crystals she got from her hunt and went for the door.


    Leaving the house she took a final look at her stuff inside the house before she closed the wooden door and went on her way.


    After that, she started to wander around looking for a job. While walking around she found some places that interested her and kept them in her mind, as right now she didn''t walk in and ask if they needed help but just observed her potential options.


    She observed and weighed her options for a while, and seeing one place she almost went inside the building and asked if they had open spots for her, it was a bakery and she had some interest in working there, especially when she smelled the aroma that was coming from it. But she stopped herself and continued on her way, remembering where the bakery was located.


    While still thinking about that bakery, she found an interesting shop. From the outside, it looked like a normal wooden house, with the exception of a sign and an interesting looking lamp hanging right beside the sign.


    The sign looked like it was made from wood and the writing was written with ink, but the bizarre thing was that the writing was always changing, sometimes it was something Aella could read and understand, other times it was just random letters mush together, and there were even times when it was written in letters and symbols Aella couldn''t understand.


    As for the lamp, it looked like a glass sphere, but inside it, there were multiple balls of light fastly flying around and illuminating the shop''s front.


    Aella couldn''t help but be attracted to this place, so without thinking she went for the door wanting to explore what kind of shop this was. The interesting part was there was nowhere where it said this was a shop, maybe the sign could be the indicator, but even without it for some reason, Aella instinctively knew that this was a shop, but she didn''t know what this shop sold.


    Opening the door, there was no sound, no bell, and even the hinges didn''t squeak, it was just total silence, and when she closed the door the sound from the street faded until it was total silence in the shop. It was so quiet that almost every move Aella made could be heard, whether it was her boots hitting the floor or her cloak rustling as she turned.


    Looking around the shop, she saw that it looked kind of old. There were big wooden shelves all around her, with many different stuff in them, and it didn''t look like there was any kind of order in this place, and from the looks of it, the owner put stuff wherever he pleased. While looking around she found out that this place was illuminated by multiple lamps, all over the place, that were similar to the one which was outside.


    Walking around Aelle could see some unique items on the shelves, but she couldn''t find the owner or anything that would show her how to contact them. But she didn''t really mind that because she was more interested in these items.


    While she was viewing everything in here, she stumbled on a little pile of scrolls that reminded her of something. Her deal with June, and that gave her an idea. Maybe she didn''t need to find a job, but she could sell her curses instead. She only needed to find out how valuable her service was, and if anyone would buy from her, because she didn''t know how high was demand for curses was in Safury plain.


    ''''Something got your interest?''''

 Chapter 56-New partner in business

    The old creaky voice made Aella freeze in her place. She didn''t dare to move but while her body just stood there without making any movements her mind was full of it.


    ''How did it get behind me'' Her thoughts raced as she couldn''t understand how the being behind her appeared there, it was as if it spawned from thin air. But slowly she started to realize that in this world there are plenty of ways to do that and she started to calm down, and when she finally got her wits back, she slowly turned around.


    The being didn''t say anything this whole time but just stood there. Even now that Aella was looking straight at them, they didn''t say anything and just stared back at Aella.


    At least she thinks they were looking at her, it was hard to tell when someone was looking at you if they were completely covered in a cloak, from head to toe and the only thing that was showing were two, golf ball sized, yellow flames that presumably were its eyes.


    Aella tried to look deeper into the hood from where she was standing but couldn''t see anything besides the flames, so she stopped trying.


    ''''Yes, I was interested in blank magic scrolls.'''' By the looks of it the hooded person was waiting for Aella, so she said what interested her. ''''And their price.''''


    ''''Well the price varies, based on the quality of the scroll, but the cheapest is two growth crystals.'''' The hooded person didn''t move the muscle, even when they spoke, they just stood there like a statue. And it was a little unnerving when Aella could hear their voice, but they made no movement.


    ''''I see, do you deal with curses and do you buy them?'''' This question was important because if this person doesn''t deal with or even buy curses then she was out of luck, and either had to find another shop or find a job.


    ''''Yes, we do deal with curses, mostly cursed items, but we do deal in curses.'''' As they talked the hooded figure stepped a little closer to Aella, and she was inclined to take a step back but she remained where she was. ''''Do you perhaps want to sell me something, or are you seeking something specific?''''


    ''''I want to sell and was just wondering if you are willing to buy.''''


    ''''I''m willing yes, what is that you want to sell?'''' The hooded person again took a step closer to Aella.


    ''''I''m offering to sell two types of curses, weakness, and madness, but I will need some blank scrolls.'''' Aella didn''t move her feet even though she wanted.


    ''''Interesting, well if I supply the scrolls then I can give you three growth crystals for one curse.'''' This time the hooded didn''t move as they spoke.


    ''''Then do we have a deal?'''' Aella wanted to offer handshake, but she refrained and kept her hands to herself.


    ''''Yes, we have a deal.'''' Aella felt as the hooded person glanced at her arms before they started to move.


    Four grey spider-like legs grew from the hood''s bottom and lifted them up, and then used those legs to climb one of the shelves. Aella just stood there and watched as the hooded person reached where a stack of magic scrolls were. When they started to grab the scrolls Aella was crept out because of how the hooded person''s hands looked.


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    They had two grey hands, both looked similar to humans with five fingers. But they had little longer fingers than deemed natural and their fingers ended in pointy ends, that looked like stone, but the most disturbing part was the rest of their hands. They moved like rigid snakes that had no end, and the arms had multiple joints. So it was kind of creepy and amazing to watch how the hands bent and moved in zig-zag patterns and see how the person could just stretch their hand as far as they wanted.


    After they had taken about 20 scrolls, and wrapped one hand around them like a rope, the hooded person started to come down.


    ''''I would like you to create ten each, as I want to see how much will they sell because I haven''t dealt with direct curses that much.'''' They pulled back their hand and legs in the hood and dropped the scrolls on the ground, indicating for Aella to start.


    ''''Okay.'''' Aella just nodded and started scribing her curses on the scrolls.


    She sat down with her legs crossed and picked one of the scrolls after she unrolled it she concentrated and inscribed [Curse of weakness] on it. After she saw the familiar black circle form on it she put it down and then took another blank scroll.


    The process wasn''t hard and took practically nothing from Aella, so from time to time she glanced around the shop while she was just sitting there. As for the hooded person, they just stood in one spot and looked at Aella without moving or glancing somewhere else. Aella had to be honest they had the statue act mastered perfectly.


    While those two golf ball sized flames observed her, Aella finished inscribing all the scrolls, ten of each.


    ''''Finished.'''' Aella announced to the hooded person as she gestured towards two piles of scrolls.


    ''''I see.'''' The hooded person brought out their hands again, and Aella saw how they bent and grabbed one scroll from each pile. They pulled the scrolls closer and took a look.


    After what sounded as satisfied grunt, they put the scrolls down and pulled their hands back inside the hood, only to then stretch one hand to Aella with a leather pouch grasped between its fingers.


    ''''Here''s the payments, pleasure dealing business with you.'''' Aella took the pouch out of their hand, as she heard their voice.


    She opened the pouch and took her time to count if she got all sixty growth crystals. While she counted the shop owner looked through all the scrolls making sure that all of them were up to standard.


    ''''It looks like all is here.'''' After counting all the crystals, and seeing that there was none unaccounted for she murmured to herself, put the pouch on the hip near the other pouch, and stood up. By the time Aella was done the hooded person was done to and was now looking at her.


    ''''I''m Aella, I hope we can do more business in the future.'''' This time Aella stuck out her hand as she introduced herself.


    ''''Rohcrept, I too wish us a prosperous business partnership.'''' They stretched one of their hands and shook Aella''s hand, indicating the start of a new business relationship.


    ''''Well I have to go, I still have some things to take care of, I hope my curses sell well.'''' After they ended their handshake, Aella smiled and got ready to leave.


    ''''Of course, me too.'''' As Aella moved to the door she heard the old raggedy voice sound behind her.


    When Aella got to the door, she put one hand on the handle, but before she turned the handle and opened the door, she took a long glance around the shop and then one look at the Rohcrept, she smiled and gave a wave to them before she opened the door and left the shop.


    When she got out of the shop, the sun was almost gone. Aella was in the shop longer than she intended to be there, but she wasn''t unhappy because she got herself a nice way to get herself some income, so she had fulfilled her goal for the day.


    But even though she had met her goal she wasn''t ready to go home just yet, so she decided to go and find where she could pay for her rent of the house because she didn''t have much time before her free stay expires and she gets kicked out, so she wanted to do it sooner than later.


    And as she didn''t know many people here she decided to go to one of the guard towers near the gates and see if she could find Maya or Adir there, because they probably know where she has to go.


    So with one final look at the beautiful sky Aella found the closest gates and with a smile on her face started making her way there.

 Chapter 57-Paying the rent

    While making her way to the gates, Aella looked around trying to see if she could find another establishment that piqued her interest, but unfortunately, there were none. Although there were some that looked somewhat interesting and Aella remembered them so that she could visit them later, there weren''t any that had the pull to explore as the shop she just left.


    Aella was a little disappointed but nothing else, she already knew that places like that shop won''t just appear because Aella wished for them.


    ''''Uh, sorry.''''


    ''''No problem.'''' While Aella was in her head, she lost her awareness of her surroundings and accidentally bumped into someone, and as luck would have it they were made out of rock, and although Aella apologized she was pretty sure she was the only one who got hurt.


    After that incident, Aella stopped swimming in her thoughts and fully concentrated on getting to the gate, hopefully without bumping into some.


    It didn''t take long before she finally arrived at the gate, but she wasn''t here to admire the gate but to look for a guard and ask for directions. She would prefer if Maya or Adir were at the gate she arrived, but by the looks of it, they weren''t here, so the next best thing was to find a different guard. It wasn''t hard to find a guard that wasn''t busy with other people. The guard was fully dressed in wooden armor, and Aella couldn''t see even a bit of skin, with a spear resting in their right hand.


    She saw the guard just standing there and looking around. They probably were on the clock, but Aella didn''t see the harm asking them a question or two.


    So without reservation, Aella walked up to the guard. She saw how the guard turned fully to her when she got close enough, but they didn''t say anything just observed her.


    ''''Hi, I''m kind of new here, and I was wondering if you could tell me where people pay rent for their housing.'''' Aella didn''t hesitate and asked directly about what she wanted to know. ''''If you could point me in the right direction I will be on my way.''''


    For a moment the guard didn''t say anything and just stood there looking at her, so Aella was considering just going away and trying to find someone else to ask for directions.


    ''''You can do it there.'''' But before she could fully make up her mind the wood armored guard spoke, and as his slow masculine voice sounded he pointed at the guard house that was attached to the wall near the gate.


    Aella looked over at the guard house and then back at the guard, she nodded and gave her thanks. ''''Thanks.''''


    Leaving the standing guard behind Aella approached the guard house. From the outside, the guard house didn''t look anything intriguing, just a plain wooden house that is attached to the settlement''s wall.


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    *Knock, knock* After she arrived at the door she knocked on it announcing her presence.


    ''''Come in.'''' After a moment she heard a voice from the inside, inviting her in.


    Opening the door Aella was greeted by a short portly man, he looked like a human with black hair and beard dressed in what looked like a green uniform.


    ''''What can I do for you?'''' While Aella was looking at the man, the man asked what was her business here.


    ''''I was told I could pay rent here.'''' While answering the question Aella looked into the man''s eyes and saw that they were completely black, there were no whites or ireses just two fully black eyes.


    ''''Right follow me.'''' The man turned around on his heel and went through a door that was on the other end of the room. Aella followed him and left the room which had only a table and two chairs in it, and went inside a room that looked like an office.


    The chubby black-eyed man went to the other side of the big desk and sat down, and while Aella just stood there the man went through some of his drawers until he found what he was looking for. Now in front of him was a stack of papers and a simple wooden box that had vines winding around it.


    ''''What''s your name?'''' The man looked at Aella asking her name.


    ''''Aella.'''' She gave her name and just continued standing there, while the man turned to the stack of papers and started going through them one by one. It didn''t take long before he found what he was looking for, and he stopped going through the papers and started reading what was on the paper he took out of the stack.


    ''''I see, so you''re staying in the basic house.'''' The man started speaking without lifting his eyes from the paper. ''''If you want access to everything that you have until the free stay expires then it''s one growth crystal per day, but if you don''t need something like food or water then we can cut the price down.''''  After saying that the man put the paper down and looked at Aella, waiting for her answer.


    ''''I will pay the full price, and I would like to pay for thirty days at the moment.'''' Aella didn''t make the man wait and answered him almost immediately.


    ''''Great, now just put the necessary growth crystals inside this box and you''re good to go.'''' The little man pushed the box he had taken out earlier closer to Aella and started to put the papers away.


    Aella approached the desk, she took the pouch that had 25 growth crystals in it and put another 5 inside it from her more recently acquired pouch. Then she took one crystal from it and put it inside the box, and the moment she did the vines moved and formed a 1 on its sides, and when Aella put another crustal it formed a 2.


    The box wasn''t too big, and just looking at it Aella thought that by around the 10th crystal, it would be full, but no matter how many crystals she put inside the box it never got fuller, and if she didn''t see the numbers changing she would think that something was wrong.


    So while still wondering where her crystals were disappearing to, she finished putting all 30 crystals inside the box. When she finished putting the last crystal inside the box, the man, who had finished putting the papers back inside the drawer, tapped the box, and the next moment the vines around the box engulfed it fully leaving no open space, and now looked like a fully closed box made out of vines.


    ''''Your payment is confirmed, you''re free to go.'''' The man didn''t even look at the box, he just turned to Aella and told her that her payment had gone through.


    ''''Thank you.'''' Without saying more Aella turned around and left the man''s office, and then the guard house.


    Now with 55 crystals left to her name, Aella decided to visit the bakery that had attracted her previously, she just hoped that it was still open because she couldn''t get the wonderful smell out of her head.


    So with some crystals on her hip, and the scent of the bakery in her mind Aella made her way to the bakery.

 Chapter 58-Aftereffect

    ''''Mmm~.'''' Aella was enjoying one of her pastries. She got five pastries for one growth crystal, and they were worth it because they tasted just amazing, Aella was sure they could sell them for more and there would still be customers coming to buy that bakeries products daily.


    While Aella enjoyed her pastries, she looked up to the sky and saw that the sun was already fully gone and was replaced by the starry night sky. While looking at the night sky Aella remembered a conversation she heard recently while she was waiting for her baked goods.


    It was two Safury talking about an open bath they took before they came to the bakery.


    ''Maybe I should try and find it?'' Aella didn''t have much better things to do, and there wasn''t much to do at her home so an open bath sounded like a great place, especially under the starry night.


    The only problem she didn''t know in which direction she should start looking to find this place. So with every direction as good as the next one Aella just chose one and started walking, while at the same time enjoying some pastries.


    ***


    ''''DAMN IT!'''' Denal was pissed, he just arrived from hunting down some rebels, and when he returned back he was greeted by a base that was in total shambles.


    The few men he left behind and the slaves were all dead, he still didn''t know the full situation because the moment he saw the door that led to his office open he ran to it, and now he was looking through his drawers and finding out he was robbed.


    His journal, his money, the daggers he got from his majesty for his accomplishments, the crystallized skill, and the demon horn, they all were gone, he was robbed, and when he finds out who did this, he will get his hands on them he will torture them until they beg for death.


    His men were looking around to see what''s the situation was, but by looking at his ransacked office and the blood bath that greeted him when he arrived back things didn''t look good.


    ''''Ugh...'''' Still fuming from anger, he sat down on the chair and took out some paper and ink. Better get done with the report sooner than later. While filling out the report he was thinking about who could have done this, but that question didn''t have an answer right now, because he had few ideas who could have done this, but at the same time one by one these options were dismissed.


    *Knock, knock* While he was concentrating on the report he heard someone knock.


    ''''Come in.'''' He was still irritated but there was nothing he could do right now, but just hope there was some good news.


    ''''I came to report the whole situation of the base.'''' Denal lifted his head to see who was speaking and saw that the man speaking to him was still in full metal armor, probably he didn''t have time to take the armor off because there was a more pressing matter.


    ''''Do tell.'''' Denal was interested what was the damage, and possibly finding the culprits.


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    ''''Well, we found out that all of the men and slaves we left behind are dead, either brutally killed or burned to death.'''' The armored subordinate didn''t move a muscle and stood there as he reported.


    ''''Burned to death?''''


    ''''Yes we found some bodies in sleeping quarters, which both of them were set on fire and everything was burned down with people inside dying in the process.''''


    ''''I see, continue.''''


    ''''We found out that some of the things we sorted in the storage room are gone, including the foulbloods.'''' When Denal heard the last part there were a few questions that popped into his head.


    ''''Do we know how they got out, were they rescued or they were the ones who did this all on their own?'''' He wanted answers because they made sure the foulbloods couldn''t get out of the cage, they even restricted the warrior.


    ''''We aren''t fully sure, and we are still investigating, but what we do know is that they somehow got their hands on the cage key, and from there they made their escape, but there are some things amiss. One such is that the men outside massacred each other. So we believe that they had some outside help.''''


    ''''I see, you''re free.'''' Denal waved the subordinate away, indicating for him to leave the office.


    After the subordinate left Denal continued to fill the report. It wasn''t bad enough that his men and slaves were killed, his office ransacked but now he finds out that the foulbloods and some of their inventory are missing.


    This probably meant that he and his men will need to return to the capital because they couldn''t continue this operation with their base being in this state, and if the higher-ups do decide to continue the operation then they will send people here and that too will take some time.


    ''''Sigh...'''' Denal took leadership of this operation with hopes of rising in the ranks, but it''s starting to be more headache than it''s worth. And now not to mention rise, he will be lucky if he doesn''t get a scolding. Thinking about all that Denal couldn''t help but pull out some of his dirt-collared hair.


    After he finished writing his report he rolled the paper up and then used some string to tie it up so that it stayed rolled up. After that, he pulled out what looked like a circular locket. It was gold in color and on its face there was an engraved picture that showed a goblet with a dagger going diagonally in front of it, and a crown made out of blood floating above the goblet as some of the blood that made the crown was flowing in the goblet.


    After opening the locket, there stood a yellow gem, that Danel gently pressed. The moment he did that a bird made out of pure light slowly formed above the locket. It took a moment for the bird to form but after it formed it shook its head, as if it was alive, and started to fly around Danel.


    Danel took the rolled-up report and gave it to the bird. The bird grabbed the report in its claws and the next moment boltet straight to the door, ready to deliver the report. The wooden door was closed but that was no problem for the bird, before it collided with the obstacle the bird and the report it was holding turned into light particles and went straight through. Seeing the bird was now out of his office Danel put the locket back inside one of his pockets.


    ''''Ugh...'''' Finally done with the report all that was left for Danel was to wait to see what the higher-ups decide. So he relaxed his muscular frame in the chair.


    ***


    ''I guess this is the place.'' It took some time but Aella finally found the open bath place.


    Unfortunately, it took some time because she decided to go in some random direction, and for some time she refused to ask anyone else for directions because she thought that it was a great opportunity to explore the city. And just like that she went in the complete opposite direction and when she finally started to ask for direction she still somehow managed to get lost or distracted in some places.


    So she was just happy that she finally found it. Because she was sick of walking and her tasty pastries had ended for a while now, so she hoped that this place had some good baths and some good food. Because if they didn''t she will be thoroughly disappointed.


    So with that in mind she took another look at the impressive wooden building that stood right before her and then started moving, looking forward finally relaxing.

 Chapter 59-Unexpected acquaintance

    Stepping inside Aella was greeted by a cozy setup. There were some soft looking chairs and sofas on the side, with some plants in pots planted around the room. Right across the room from the entrance was a receptionist''s desk.


    Aella saw some Safury relaxing in the lobby either just enjoying the soft chairs or talking with someone. Indicating that this place was good, as the customers looked satisfied.


    Aella walked up to the receptionist and saw that the one manning the desk was a Safury that looked like a monkey beastkin. The woman looked human with the exception of her ears and the four tails that were swaying behind her.


    ''''Welcome, what can I do for you on this wonderful night?'''' When Aella walked up to the desk, the receptionist greeted her with a beaming smile.


    ''''Hi, entrance for one.'''' The receptionist''s smile was contagious and Aella couldn''t but smile while she replied to the receptionist.


    ''''Of course, what kind of experience would you like to have?'''' This question stubbed Aella a little, and she wanted just say relaxing but she decided to ask the woman for more detail.


    ''''Sorry, I''m here for the first time, can you tell me the options?''''


    ''''O, a first-timer, how wonderful!'''' Aella could see that the receptionist got more energetic as she clasped her hands together in front of her chest. ''''Well we have many options, designed to satisfy any and all of our customers, from lava baths inside volcanos to freezing baths that are made out of ice essence, so just say what you want and we will try to accommodate your wish best of our abilities.''''


    That sounded interesting, but Aella wasn''t really keen on bathing in lava or in ice essence, and she was sure even if she tried she would probably die trying.


    ''''Then I would like a regular hot spring I can relax, and if possible with a nice view of the moon.'''' Aella thought it would be nice to relax while gazing at the moon and the starry night.


    ''''Of course, that will be five growth crystals.'''' The lady took out a wooden tag, from behind the desk, and handed it to Aella while taking the five growth crystals, with her other hands. Yes, only now Aella noticed that the woman had four hands.


    ''''Now then just step through there and you will arrive at the dressing room.'''' With two of her hands, the receptionist showed Aella an entrance that was blocked by a white veil. Aella turned to the receptionist nodded and went through.


    For some reason when she stepped through she felt a little bit dizzy, but as quickly as it appeared it went away, so Aella didn''t worry about it. Looking around the dressing room Aella saw that there were Safury either getting dressed or dressing down ready to enjoy the hot spring.


    After she scouted the room, Aella stopped paying attention to others and picked a free locker. Opening the locker she saw three compartments with the middle one being the biggest, and having some hooks on the backside.


    Aella slowly got naked, she didn''t think much and just showed most of her clothes inside. While dressing down she noticed that the wooden tag she was given was gone, and for a moment she started to panic until she vaguely remembered that it disappeared the moment she entered this room.


    So with that out of her mind, she continued to undress, her important stuff she put in the upper compartment, in the middle she just pilled her clothes without organization, and in the bottom one she put her boots.


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    Now fully naked, Aella closed the locker and went for the room''s exit that led to the hot spring. While making her way to the exit, she stumbled upon a big mirror.


    ''I have to say, I do look good.'' Aella couldn''t help but admire her body, it may be a little bit narcissistic but she couldn''t deny that her body looked fantastic. For a moment she got confused about the black eyeshadow she was wearing, trying to remember when she put it on. But when she tried to rub it off she remembered it appeared when she advanced. She took another quick glance at herself before leaving the mirror.


    The entrance to the hot spring was covered with a transparent silvery veil, and near the entrance, there were shelves full of folded towels. Aella took a look around and saw that some Safury took a towel and some didn''t, so Aella chose not to take it and just went through the veil.


    What greeted Aella on the other side was a big outdoor hot spring with multiple Safury already there, with the night sky hanging above it. Looking around Aella couldn''t find anything like a shower or a place to clean yourself. But seeing that the water was clear and nice Aella just went for the hot spring.


    The path of sleek stones felt chilling to her feet as she got closer to the hot spring. When she arrived at the edge she slowly put her right foot in the water, testing its temperature, and the results were satisfying, and Aella got ready to fully lower herself in the water.


    But before she could do that she spotted someone some distance away. Aella was sure who it was, the long silver hair and the pale skin belonged to someone Aella was happy to see. So she got out of the water and carefully made her way to where Zira was relaxing.


    Zira had her eyes closed, so she didn''t see Aella approaching her, and even when Aella slowly lowered herself into the water beside her, Zira didn''t open her eyes.


    ''''Your hair is as beautiful as I remembered them.'''' Aella grabbed a few strands of hair that were flowing on the water''s surface as she told Zira what she thought about them.


    This got Zira''s attention because the next moment her eyes shot open and she swiftly turned her head in Aella''s direction, and the moment she saw Aella''s mischievous smile the shock on her face calmed down.


    ''''Thank you, your hair''s beautiful too.'''' Zira responded to Aella''s compliment with a calm voice. ''''But I didn''t expect to encounter you here, but it is a pleasant surprise.''''


    ''''Yes me neither, I just found this place, this is my first time here.'''' Aella too was surprised to encounter Zira here.


    ''''I see, so what do you think of this place?''''


    ''''Well the water is great, the view is fantastic, and now you being here, well let''s say it''s near perfect.'''' Aella slowly sunk her body deeper into the water as she responded.


    ''''I''m happy you like this place, I myself visit here regularly.'''' Aella saw a small smile appear on Zira''s face, but it was only for a second before she returned to her natural expression. ''''But I do wonder what''s stopping it from being perfect?''''


    ''''Some snacks, a drink, and some private alone time with you.'''' Aella gave Zira a mischievous smile as she said the last part.


    ''''Well, the snacks and drinks we can take care of right now.'''' Zira lifted one of her hands out of the water and waved at one of the stone statues that looked like a sleeping, sphere-like rock creature. ''''As for the other part, we can take care after we arrive at my room.''''


    The last part took Aella by surprise, but she couldn''t say she wasn''t happy to hear it. The stone creature came closer to Zira and stopped as if waiting for something.


    ''''Yes, I would like some dried fruit and something fruity to drink for me and my companion.'''' After Zira said what she wanted the living rock walked away and went to deliver Zira''s order.


    ''''I hope you don''t mind the thing I ordered.''''


    ''''Not at all, but I have to say you''re more, how to say, open maybe, than the last time we met.'''' From Aella''s perspective, Zira looked more confident and open than the last time they met.


    ''''Well, I''m still shy and awkward around strangers, but even though we have met only a few times, this included, after our last night you''re a little more than a stranger.''''


    ''''I see your point.''''


    Like this, both of them spend their time talking and relaxing. They spoke about what they have been up to, Aella told Zira about her latest escapade of looting and killing some bandits.


    When the food and drinks arrived, they slowly enjoyed that, until they felt like they had enough and started to get out.

 Chapter 60-Similar morning

    ''''Are you sure that this is right?'''' In a dimly lit room, a woman''s voice sounded as she spoke to the person before her.


    ''''We don''t have a choice, if we let them be they will only get worse.'''' The man kneeling across the woman answered.


    ''''I guess you''re right, even I can''t forgive them after what they did to Lucy and Lucas.'''' The young woman clenched her dress that has gotten a little dirty while she was kneeling on the floor.


    ''''I know, even I couldn''t believe what they have done after we found out.'''' The man looked at the floor gritting his teeth while the memories played in his head.


    ''''Brother why did they do that?'''' The sister''s tiers landed on her lap, as she grieved the loss of the happy family, knowing that it was now all fake, or at least filled with lies.


    ''''I don''t know, but if we don''t do something then more people will suffer, and maybe even us, if they find out that we knew about it.'''' The brother lifted his face and saw his sister''s blond hair blocking her face, but he could still see her falling tiers. He couldn''t blame her after all just some time before they had this happy, perfect family, but now they knew what their parents were doing behind the scenes, and the visage of this perfect family was shattered.


    ''''I understand, but will this be enough?'''' As she spoke the sister wiped her tiers, but the paths her tiers traveled down her face were still visible even in this dimly lit room.


    ''''It should be enough, it has to be enough.'''' The brother said as he looked at the materials put inside the white circle that was drawn with chalk. It was unfortunate that they couldn''t get better materials or that neither of them knew much about summoning, or anything else that could help right now.


    ''''Let''s get started.'''' The brother said that as he took a last glance outside the window that showed the everlasting winter. After that, he turned his gaze to his sister and saw determination in her blue eyes, and the sister saw the same determined blue eyes looking back at her.


    With a nod they both put their hands on the wooden floor near the drawn circle and closed their eyes, they put all their focus on making this summoning a success, it was their only chance.


    ***


    ''''Yaaawn~'''' Aella awoke in already familiar room with sunrays shining on her face. The last night was amazing and she could still taste some of Zira on her tongue, and this time she wasn''t black-out drunk and could actually remember the wonderful time she spent with Zira.


    Looking around the room she saw that her clothes were neatly folded in one corner, and just like the last time she was left alone with Zira nowhere to find.


    ''''Mmmmm~'''' Aella didn''t mind and got out of bed. Before getting dressed she stretched out her body and enjoyed the sun''s rays on her naked body. She slowly got dressed before leaving the room. She has already been here once, so she knew where to go. So without any problems, she went downstairs.


    ''''?~'''' When she got to the living room, she saw that Suria was in the kitchen humming a nice tune and cooking something. Aella wasn''t quiet so the cheery healer heard her.


    ''''Breakfast?'''' Suria stopped her merry melody and turned her head so that she was facing Aella, as she ask if the dark lady wanted some breakfast.


    ''''Yes please.'''' Aella knew that she didn''t have to eat, but she wanted to taste Suria''s cooking, plus it wasn''t her style to decline a free meal.


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    ''''?~'''' After that short conversation Suria continued with her tune, and Aella didn''t mind. Instead, she sat down closed her eyes, and enjoyed her humming. The melody was kind of soothing, and Aella felt like she could easily fall asleep while Suria''s calming voice played in the background.


    *Tud* And she almost did fall asleep but fortunately, she was quickly awakened from her drowsy state when she heard Suria put a plate in the table in front of her.


    ''''Please enjoy.'''' Aella was greeted by a nice stack of pancakes, that had some berry jam on them.


    ''''I will, thanks.'''' She didn''t hesitate to dig in, she used the fork to nip off a small part of one of the pancakes. The pancake was so soft that the fork easily went through easily separating her a small peace. After getting the peace on the fork she dipped it into the jam, and then put it in her mouth.


    ''''Mmmmm~'''' The moment those flavors hit her tastebuds she couldn''t help but express the delicious taste vocally.


    When Suria saw Aella''s antics and that she thoroughly enjoyed the pancakes, Suria couldn''t help but widen her smile. She observed Aella for another moment before she returned to her own stack of pancakes.


    They enjoyed their food in silence. Suria was first to finish and after she finished she went to the kitchen and brought out two glasses and a pitcher that contained some kind of fruit drink.


    While Suria was pouring the drink, Aella finished her food too, and with a grateful nod took one of the glasses.


    ''''I have to say you''re a great cook.'''' Aella was the first to break this silence with some compliments to the chef.


    ''''Thank you, I''m happy you enjoyed that.'''' Again another silent moment appeared while both of them took a sip of their drinks. ''''So tell me have you found a job or another way to get some income?'''' This time it was Suria who spoke first.


    ''''Acaully yes, just yesterday I found a way to sell my curses, and by the looks of it I have a way to get constant income.'''' Aella couldn''t help but smile when she remembered that. ''''But talking about money, it''s really strange.''''


    ''''What is strange?'''' Suria inquired before taking another sip of the drink.


    ''''Well, the currency as a whole, because it sometimes looks like the prices in this settlement are random.'''' Aella took a sip and then continued. ''''The rent costs one growth crystal and five pastries cost the same, but the hot spring costs five. Some of the stalls have even more chaotic pricing.'''' Aella was a little confused about it because it looked like their currency didn''t have a set value.


    ''''Ah, I see.'''' Suria started to explain with her warm smile still on her face. ''''You see we Safury didn''t really need much to survive, except for shelter most things for us are luxury, so mostly the prices are equal to what the seller thinks their service is worth without looking at the market price or things like that. Of course, there are exceptions, one of them being that there are Safury that want to let as many people enjoy their services as possible, so they usually set a low price, and if you''re asking why not free, well because no one will refuse some extra growth crystals.'''' After saying that Suria took another sip of her drink.


    ''''I see, I guess that makes sense.'''' Aella had to agree with Suria, if the only thing needed for survival was shelter, and it was this cheap, or even free if you become the lord''s subordinate then yes this somewhat chaotic economy was expected.


    ''''Actually, talking about income and economy, if it''s okay with you I''m interested in what you and Zira do.'''' Aella pulled a black strand of her face out of her face as she continued. ''''I know that you''re a healer, but is that all, and what does Zira do?''''


    ''''Well you''re not wrong about me healing people, but I do sometimes go hunting, and as for Zira she usually goes hunting if she needs some extra growth crystals to splurge.'''' Suria didn''t hesitate to answer, it even looked like she was happy to get asked this question by Aella.


    ''''Hunting huh, that probably isn''t for me.'''' Aella remembered the disaster her last hunt was. ''''The last time I went hunting was a disaster.'''' She still remembers the nightmare that was the transportation of all those bodies.


    ''''I can understand that.'''' It looked like Suria had some memories of her own, but it didn''t look like she was willing to share those.


    While Suria was thinking about the past she felt something and pulled out the same green, glowing crystal, from last time.


    ''''Well, looks like I''m needed elsewhere.'''' She quickly gulped down the rest of her drink before she went for the door. ''''I was hoping that we could chat a bit longer, but duty calls, so I hope that next time we can spend some time longer with each other.'''' With those words, Suria left and Aella was now alone in the living room, slowly sipping her drink.

 Chapter 61-One big ”happy” family

    While thinking about some stuff, Aella finished her drink. She liked the taste of the drink so she took the pitcher and poured herself some more. She didn''t have any place to be, and she could leisurely spend her time, and spending time just relaxing on some soft furniture and enjoying a delicious drink was a good option on this wonderful morning.


    That is until she saw a circle forming under her. Aella saw the magic circle slowly form around her, but she didn''t mind it and just continued to sit there while the circle appeared around her. While the circle was forming Aella took a sip and formed a smile when she tasted the drink, she had no idea what Suria used to make this drink, but she will need to find out the recipe, or start visiting this house more often. As she was thinking about the drink''s taste she turned her black eyes to the glass pitcher.


    ''Suria wouldn''t mind right?'' Right before the circle finished forming Aella grabbed the pitcher and put it in her lap and secured it with her left hand, while her right hand still held onto her glass. She was hoping that Suria won''t mind that Aella borrowed her pitcher for this trip because she just couldn''t resist the taste of the drink.


    When the circle was finally complete black smoke started to rise from the edges and engulfed Aella like a cocoon. Aella didn''t mind and just pressed the pitcher closer to her body, she was relaxed until she felt the couch disappear from under her. The moment she felt emptiness under her she maneuvered her body and hands so that the drink doesn''t spill from the pitcher or her glass.


    The result of her antics was shown when the black smoke dissipated, and she was left in an awkward position on a wooden floor. So right now Aella was lying on the floor, with her right hand stretched up, and her left hand holding the pitcher that was on her stomach, but even though she was in this unique position she succeded and didn''t spill more than a few drops of the drink.


    Aella slowly got up so that she could better scout her surroundings, and the first thing she saw, or better say person was a man in his early twenties with white hair like snow and ice blue eyes, looking at her with somewhat confused expression. But Aella didn''t say anything she just continued to look around the room.


    With a little bit more looking she saw the other person, a girl in her late teens by the looks of it, with blond her and blue eyes. Aella could see that the girl had been crying not too long ago.


    The last thing she paid attention in this room was the window, that showed a view of the snow falling from the sky.


    ''''How can I help you?'''' After Aella got more comfortable on the floor, she turned back her attention to the white-haired man, and while she waited for his answer she took a sip from her glass.


    ''''We want you to kill our parents.'''' He said that with determination, his confused look was gone, and in its place was an ice-cold resolve.


    ''''Sure, but you know, you could have probably done it without summoning me, right?'''' Aella took another sip of her drink and then continued. ''''You know the classics, stab them in the heart when they are sleeping, or maybe put some poison in the food, something like that.'''' They lived in the same house, so it shouldn''t be that hard, or maybe it was that hard after all she has never tried to kill her family member, so maybe it''s more difficult than the media portrayed it.


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    ''''We wish we could, but because of multiple circumstances, they have to die from a disease or another natural cause, so that''s why we tried to summon someone who deals with plagues and diseases.'''' The man''s eyes didn''t waver and he was looking right at Aella as he said that.


    ''''I see, well I don''t deal with diseases or something like that.'''' The moment those words left Aella''s eyes she could see his eyes lose hope and that cold determination. ''''But I can make it look like they died from natural causes.'''' And with those words, the light in his eyes returned.


    ''''So then how are we going do this, because I use curses, and the best option would be to use them when they are sleeping.'''' Aella got up and started talking to the siblings about their plan.


    While she was getting up she saw a circle drawn with chalk on the floor, and in that circle, she saw some kind of dark grey root vegetable, a black dead beetle, a dried paw from some kind of animal, and what looked like a vile of dark blood. The pair of siblings were really trying to summon something.


    ''''Then we can do it tonight, soon we will be eating dinner, and after that, we can execute the plan, but until then please stay in this room.'''' As the man talked the sibling pair too stood up.


    ''''Sure.'''' Aella looked around and saw a simple bed and a table so she didn''t mind staying in this room until they were ready. So with that in mind, Aella put the pitcher on the table and sat down on the bed, and started looking out of the window while drinking her drink from the glass.


    Looking out the window Aella was a little reminiscent of her past life because when she left Earth it was winter and the snow was deep where she lived, so seeing snow in this world for the first time she couldn''t help but think about the past.


    While Aella was swimming in her memories the siblings both left, ready to start their scheme of killing their parents. Aella had no idea why they wanted to kill them, but she didn''t care that much, she wasn''t too keen on other people''s family drama.  But she did care about pay, and she totally forgot about her compensation for this job, because she was more concerned about the drink and the pitcher.


    ''Well, it happens.'' And with that though Aella took another sip and continued watching the snow fall.


    ***


    ''''So have was your day today Elec?'''' The family of four was gathered at the dining table and enjoying a lavish meal, and a man who looked like in his fifties addressed the younger man. Both of them had similar features and even their snow-white hair color was similar.


    ''''It was good father.'''' Elec answered his father before taking another bite of some meat. ''''And in a few days, there should be another shipment of fire crystals.''''


    ''''Good, good, it looks like you will soon be able to take my position and I and your mother will be able to retire.'''' The man chuckled as he said that to his son, and the mature lady with blond hair sitting next to him also made a happy chuckle agreeing with her husband.


    Elec also faked a smile, at his father''s voice, so that they don''t suspect anything.


    ''''Elsa dear you''re awfully quiet today, is everything okay?'''' The mother looked at her daughter and saw that today the girl was much more quiet than usual, because normally she is energetic and is always happy to share her day even if no one asked, but today she hadn''t said anything but a few words.


    ''''Hm?'''' Elsa lifted her head and looked at the mother. ''''It''s fine mother, I''ve just stomped a little bit in my ice magic studies, and I just can''t stop thinking about it.'''' Elsa quickly made up a believable lie.


    ''''I see, but if you need help you can ask father to help.'''' The woman''s concern lowered.


    ''''I know mother, I will ask if I won''t be able to figure it out myself.'''' Elsa gave her mother a huge smile as she answered.


    Just like that the family talked from time to time while they were eating, and from the servants perspective, who were around the dining room, it looked like the perfect loving family.


    As they talked they finished their main course and servants brought out the dessert, and it looked like some kind of pudding. The parents of the family didn''t bat an eye as they started eating, the sibling on the other hand took their time to eat theirs, and they ate it slowly and in small pieces. But even then the conversation didn''t stop and they continued to talk about their day, or some plans that were happening in the future. As if they were one big happy family.

 Chapter 62-The slow death

    ''''Yaaaawn~'''' After they finished the dessert the family still stayed at the table and continued their conversation while enjoying some warm tea. That was until the father of Elec and Elsa gave out a big yawn.


    ''''It looks like I was more tired than I thought.'''' The father was a little surprised by that yawn and the feeling of sleepiness that was coming at him but at the same time, it wouldn''t be the first time so he didn''t think about much and got ready to leave and get some night''s rest.


    ''''It looks like it''s time for us to go to bed.'''' The mother similar to her partner was getting sleepy too so they both stood up, wished their children a good night, and went to their room.


    Elec and Elsa stayed for a few more minutes and talked about their day, they did this so that the servants didn''t find them suspicious. Probably if they just went out of the dining room the moment their parents left, the servants wouldn''t find it suspicious, but even then it was better to be safe.


    After they had spent enough time like this they left the table and started walking to the room where they left Aella.


    ''''Here.'''' While they were making their way to where Aella was, Elec pulled out two small vials from one of his jacket''s inner pockets. In both of these vials, there was a light green liquid in them.


    Elsa didn''t say anything but just took one of the vials from her brother, and after opening it she downed the liquid in one gulp without hesitation, and her brother followed soon after.


    After they both emptied their vials, Elec took both of those vials and put them back in the same pocket he took them out. For the rest of their walk to the room, they didn''t say anything they just walked in silence, fully aware of what they were about to do.


    Finally, they arrived at the room that was placed at the far end of this mansion. Elec led the way as he opened the wooden door and Elsa followed right behind him as they entered the dimly lit room.


    The scene hadn''t changed much from the time they left, Aella was still sitting on the bed sipping her drink as she watched the snow fall outside. The only visible thing that had changed was that the pitcher was a little emptier than before they left for dinner.


    ''''It looks like you are ready to start the plan.'''' Aella took another sip before she turned her gaze to the siblings. Her black eyes scanned them as an empty smile formed on her face.


    ''''Yes.'''' Was the only word Elec muttered to Aella, and then just stood there waiting for her.


    ''''Very well lead the way.'''' Aella stood up from the bend and made her way to the siblings, and along the way, she grabbed the pitcher from the table.


    Again the siblings didn''t say anything but just started to lead the way as Aella walked behind them. Aella didn''t pay much attention to the surroundings and just followed them, while at the same time, she started to make up scenarios in her head trying to guess why the siblings wanted to kill their parents. Those scenarios included something simple as they wanted their parents wealth and just couldn''t wait, to something like, the siblings are in a cult and they have to kill their parents so that they could move more freely so that they can more easily accomplish their goal of summoning the demon king, or another horrific being.


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    There was even one scenario where Aella imagined that the siblings were taken over by some kind of brain parasite and they needed their parents dead bodies to make more of those parasites.


    While Aella was letting her imagination run wild, she could still feel the heavy feeling that was oozing out of those two, but she didn''t say anything. It didn''t really interest her that much, so she didn''t ask.


    ''''We''re here.'''' It took some walking but they finally arrived at the room where their parents were sleeping. Elec carefully opened the door and all of them stepped quietly inside, and when all of them got inside the tool Elec closed the door behind him without making any sound.


    ''''They should be deep in sleep, and they shouldn''t awaken until the morning no matter how loud you are.'''' Elec said that while looking at the two sleeping figures. ''''But I would prefer if you''re as quiet as possible.''''


    Aella just nodded as she looked around the room. She couldn''t see much as it was dark, but the dim light from the outside illuminated the room enough that Aella could discern some things. But she quickly lost interest as it didn''t look like they had anything interesting, so she turned her attention to the two sleeping people.


    ''''So you want me to take care of those two?'''' Aella indicated to the sleeping siluets leaning her head as she spoke to Elec. The white-haired looking at his parents and just nodded at Aella''s question.


    Without saying anything more Aella got ready. She needed to concentrate because she couldn''t just curse them and be done, because if she did that there will be cursed markings all around their bodies and they would probably figure out what was going on quite quickly.


    So she intended to curse only a specific part of them, specifically their hearts. Now there were two ways she could go about it, concentrating all her curse to that one spot, or just not letting it grow further, basically cutting it off from the rest of the body, and right now she could only do one of those things, and that was the cutting off method.


    The difference between those two methods was that one made the curse stronger and the other weaker, and she could do the one that made her curse less effective, in most situations.


    If she had to compare those two, it was like drilling a small hole in the middle of a lake, in one scenario you somehow compress all the lake''s water inside the hole, and the other method was you take a bucket and start scooping up the lake''s water and throwing it somewhere else until the only place that has water in that lake is in the hole.


    In the first scenario, the curse is concentrated in one spot and is more potent even though it has a restricted area, but in the other, its the same as cursing the person normally, but then cutting off the excess making it so that the curse is only in that one area but it isn''t stronger, but weaker.


    Aella would really like to learn how to get all 100% of curse''s power in one area, but she still didn''t know how, all she knew was how to reduce the % until it was only in the area she needed and then restricted it. But fortunately, she had [Growing curse] so it shouldn''t be a problem.


    So while thinking all that she put down her pitcher and the glass on a nearby nightstand. She stretched out her hands and started to concentrate, slowly two black smokey tendrils came out of her hands, one from each, and flew towards the sleeping couple. After the smoke made contact it got absorbed in their bodies.


    Elec and Elsa could see black chains slowly forming on their parents bodies, but before the chains could fully form they faded away, leaving their skin the same as before. And just like that Aella had put [Curse of weakness] on them and restricted the curse only to their hearts, she put [Growing curse] on her curses so with time the curses will get stronger and eventually their hearts will get too weak for them to support these people bodies.


    ''''I''m done, I put a curse on them that weakens their hearts, and with time it will get stronger, so you might need to wait a bit, but eventually, they will die.'''' Aella turned to the siblings as she talked, while at the same time, she took her pitcher in one hand and the glass in the other hand.


    ''''I just hope you have adequate compensation for my services.'''' Aella didn''t forget about the pay, after all, she wasn''t here to do a favor but to do business.

 Chapter 63-Wooden skull

    ''''Of course.'''' Elec took another look at his sleeping parents and then guided Aella and Elsa outside the room. They quietly left the room and then grouped like before, with the siblings leading the way and Aella following them from behind.


    This time their walk wasn''t as long as before, because the room they were going to was pretty close to where they were. They stopped when they arrived at a decorated, wooden door.


    Aella didn''t have time to see all the decorations, and engravings on the door, because Elec opened the door the next moment and walked in the room.


    On the other side of the door, Aella was greeted by what looked like an exhibition room. The room was somewhat dim, but Aella still could see quite clearly around the room. She saw some impressive-looking weapons, some amazing clothing pieces, some accessories, and other things, but all these things were put on display, as it was a small museum.


    ''''These are the things our father collected over the years.'''' Elec walked deeper into the room and brushed his fingers against one of the sword blades. ''''All of these items are of high quality or have inserting  properties, so you can choose one of these items as your payment, I hope this will suffice.'''' Elec''s icy eyes turned to Aella.


    Aella looked around inspecting the items, she took another sip and nodded. ''''Yes, this will suffice.''''


    With that Aella started to walk around the room looking at items, trying to find something that looked interesting to her. Although there were plenty of weapons none of them really interested her that much, but if she couldn''t find anything else that she wanted then maybe it wasn''t that bad of a choice.


    Some armor caught her eye, especially the ones made out of leather, probably made from some powerful monsters materials and Aella knew that good protection was important in this kind of world. Unfortunately, she didn''t find any crystalized skills, because if she did she would probably take that.


    There were some trinkets here and there that truly were looking interesting to Aella, but she continued to look around and kept them in the back of her mind. She walked around for a bit, keeping in mind some items that looked interesting to her until she stumbled upon a necklace.


    The necklace greatly interested her, because for some reason she was instinctively pulled towards it. For some reason, her instincts told her to take it, that this was what she needed.


    The neckless itself looked like a wooden wolf skull. She put the pitcher and the glass on a nearby raised surface, that had full armor displayed on it, and took the necklace in her hands. The narrow skull was made out of wood and had dark markings on it, at first glance the markings looked black but in some angles of light, they looked like they were really dark red color.


    By further inspecting it Aella found out that the jaw of the skull could be opened and closed, and she tested it a few times. She didn''t know why she craved this necklace, but it looked like she found her item.


    ''''I will take this.'''' She turned and showed the necklace to the siblings who were quietly following right behind her all this time.


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    ''''I see, we don''t really know what this neckless does, maybe our father does, but I do know that it belonged to a dark shaman.'''' Elec explained the history of this necklace to Aella, it was a little unfortunate that she couldn''t find out its function, but she was sure that with time she will figure it out. Plus hearing that it was from a dark shaman Aella was sure it has to do something with curses or something similar.


    ''''Well, then it looks like our transaction is done.'''' Aella put the necklace on her belt, and let it hang there by its string, then she picked up the glass and the pitcher. ''''But I have to ask, won''t your father find this necklace missing?''''


    ''''No, he won''t, her rarely visits the room, he usually shows this room to his guests, but he doesn''t really come here without a reason.'''' Elec looked around the room as he answered.


    ''''I see, well then it was nice doing business with you, I will be going now.'''' A magic circle formed under her, and then she got engulfed by black smoke. After the smoke cleared the siblings were the only ones left in the room.


    Elec and Elsa didn''t say anything, they just looked at each other for a brief moment before they left the room and went to their rooms, fully aware that their parents would die in the near future. So with that knowledge, they went to sleep.


    ***


    Aella appeared back in the Safury plane and was standing up, with the table in front of her and a couch behind her. So she sat down while at the same time, she put the pitcher on the table and took a sip from her glass. She was back at Suria''s and Zira''s house.


    ''''Oh welcome back.'''' Aella was a little surprised by the voice but soon found the greeter. It was Suria with her normal smile looking at Aella.


    ''''I''m back, sorry about the pitcher, but the drink was too delicious, to leave it behind.'''' Aella greeted Suria back.


    ''''I don''t mind it, and I''m happy that you like the drink that much.'''' Suria didn''t hold it against Aella for taking the pitcher on a trip. ''''So how it went?'''' But Suria was interested in the adventure itself.


    ''''Well somewhat interesting.'''' Aella didn''t mind sharing the details. ''''Two kids wanted to kill their parents, but they had to make it look like they died from natural cause, I have no idea why they wanted it, but I did get this cool necklace.'''' With the last part, Aella took the necklace and showed it to Suria.


    ''''May I.'''' Suria got closer and asked Aella if she could get a closer look at it. Aella didn''t mind and just nodded and gave the necklace to Suria.


    ''''What an interesting piece, does it have some function or it''s just a necklace?'''' Suria was still inspecting the necklace and following the markings with her finger, as she asked Aella about it.


    ''''No idea, all I know is that it belonged to a dark shaman, but nothing more.'''' Aella looked at the necklace as she answered Suria''s question. ''''But for some reason, my instinct wanted for me to have it.''''


    ''''Oh I see, then this thing might be quite interesting.'''' Suria handed the necklace back to Aella, with a mischievous smile. Aella took the necklace and put it on her hip.


    ''''But you should probably get it appraised so that the effects are known.'''' Suria sat down right across from Aella as she spoke. ''''After all who knows if the effects will bring you some trouble.''''


    ''''I guess you''re right, better safe than sorry.'''' Aella agreed with Suria that it is better to get this thing appraised as soon as possible, although she doubts it has any negative effects on her, she still would like to know what this necklace can do, and maybe through appraisal she could find out why she was so drawn to it.


    ''''If you want I could show you a place.'''' Suria offered Aella to show a place where she could appraise her necklace.


    ''''Sure, but before we go let me finish this.'''' Aella pointed at the pitcher, she wanted to finish the drink before they went to appease her more recent bounty.


    ''''Sure just say when you are ready and we will go.'''' Suria didn''t rush Aella, but allowed her to do her thing and enjoy the drink, while the sunny healer herself just waited for Aella to finish.

 Chapter 64-The messy lab

    ''''So where are we going?'''' Aella had finally finished the drink and now they were making their way to apprase her new item. Aella looked around the lively settlement, and the sun that was hanging above them, and decided to ask Suria about their destination.


    ''''We''re going to visit a friend.'''' Suria didn''t say much more just that they will be paying a visit to her friend. Well, that didn''t give much information to Aella, but at least it was good that Suira knew this person and considers them a friend, meaning that they are trustworthy.


    They walked through the city for a while, and as Aella didn''t know the location of their destination she just followed the smiling Suira. While looking at her she saw that Suria gave a completely different vibe from Zira. While Zira gave the reserved introvert kind of feeling, Suria was almost the complete opposite as she walked with a smile and confidence and greeted some people from time to time, and some people came to her and greeted her.


    It was an interesting sight to see. While thinking about them Aella didn''t really know what''s the relationship between the two, are they somehow sisters, lovers, or maybe just housemates, but they were close that was for sure. Aella had a theory about Suria''s and Zira''s relationship, but she hasn''t confirmed jet, so she didn''t jump to conclusions and just kept an open mind.


    While Aella was thinking about Suria and Zira they arrived at the location, well at least Aella presumed they arrived at the location. Right now they were standing in front of what looked like a warehouse. Before them was a big wooden door, that Suria knocked on with some strength.


    *TUND, TUND.* The sound of her knocking reverberated through the surroundings. Suria put enough strength in her knocks that Aella could see the whole door vibrate a little, which was a little unexpected, Aella thought that Suira was a more delicate healer type, but looking at the strength of her knocks Aella was proven wrong.


    Aella hadn''t taken a good look at Suria''s body, but now that she took a better look she could see some hidden muscles on her. So this changed a few things that Aella thought about Suria, one of them was how Surai hunted. At first, she thought that Suria used ranged attacks to defeat her opponents, but maybe she was more of a melee fighter, but again Aella could be wrong, so who knew.


    While Aella thought about Suria''s unexpected strength, she looked around and saw that they were in a place surrounded by warehouses and storage units. If she needed a place to store some of her stuff Aella now knew where she could rent or buy the space needed.


    *TUN, Iiiiiii.* While Aella was still looking around she heard how the door opened. It wasn''t the big wooden door that was right in front of her, but a smaller wooden door that was a little bit right to her. When the door just started opening Suria was already on the move, ready to greet her friend and move inside.


    ''''Suria, can you stop trying to knock my doors down?'''' From the open door came out a short man, he looked pretty young and the first thing that caught Aella''s eyes about him was his curly, fluffy yellow hair. Aella''s instinctively wanted to touch and feel his hair, but she refrained.


    ''''Don''t worry these doors are really sturdy.'''' Suria said as she walked inside, with Aella right behind her. ''''It would take some real effort for me to knock them out.''''


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    ''''It might be as you say, but it still doesn''t stop you from almost giving me a heart attack every time you do it.'''' The short feminine man sounded annoyed at Suria''s antics, but it sounded that he was used to it to some degree.


    ''''Anyway, why are you here?'''' He asked the question while closing the door after them.


    ''''I wanted you to appraise something, my friend here got something interesting, but has no idea what it does so I brought her here.'''' Suria pointed at Aella while she explained her reason for the sudden visit.


    ''''I see.'''' The man finally turned his gaze at Aella, and scanned her for a moment, before introducing himself. ''''I''m Carl, nice to meet you.'''' Carl stretched out his hand for a handshake. Aella formed a smile while shaking the hand because it looked a little comical when Carl had to get his hand out of the oversized lab coat sleeve he was wearing.


    ''''Well let''s go a little deeper so that we can look at what you brought for me today.'''' His hand retracted back into the coat''s sleeve, and he turned around and started to lead the way deeper into his warehouse.


    While they walked deeper into the warehouse, Aella could see some interesting stuff. She could see some unfinished projects or experiments, or at least what Aella presumed they were. The inserting thing was that the majority of them were some kind of potions, she could see some plants or beasts with some papers and potions around them, so Aella got the idea that Carl was some kind of alchemist and was testing his potions.


    As they got deeper Aella started to see less and less of these experiments and more of the crafting tools used for making the potions, it was kind of messy from Aella''s point of view so it gave a mad scientist look to the place, but maybe this was the norm for the alchemist lab.


    ''''Okay, here we are.'''' In the middle of the messy lab and equipment stood a lone desk, with papers, books, and some glass vials with some liquids in them all around the desk, it was pure chaos, except for a small part of the desk where there was nothing on it.


    ''''So what do you want me to look at?'''' Carl sat down on a chair that was near the desk, and then looked at Aella and Suria, ready to inspect the thing they wanted to know more about.


    ''''This.'''' Aella took the necklace from the hip and put it on the table''s only clean spot. Carl didn''t hesitate and took the necklace in his hands and started to inspect it.


    He turned the wooden skull around in his hands, he tested the jaw that opened and closed and he traced the marking with his fingers. While he was doing that Suria and Aella just stood there, waiting for his verdict on the matter.


    ''''Interesting little thing you got here.'''' Carl didn''t stop looking at the wooden animal skull as he started speaking. ''''If you don''t mind telling, where did you get this?'''' He looked inside the skull''s mouth as he asked that.


    ''''I got it from someone''s collection, but they said that it originally belonged to a dark shaman.'''' Aella didn''t see the harm of disclosing this information so she didn''t mind telling him where she obtained this item.


    ''''A dark shaman you say.'''' Carl''s gaze was still glued to the necklace. ''''That would explain some things, but I have to compliment him on his craft, the dark shaman was quite skillful in that regard.''''


    ''''Well, you have an interesting piece here.'''' Carl finally put the necklace back on the table and looked at Aella. ''''And it is well crafted too, so you don''t have to worry about it breaking.'''' Carl looked somewhat impressed when he talked about the necklace.


    ''''So can you tell what it is?'''' Suria asked the same question what Aella wanted to ask because, by the sound of it, it was something really good or at last a high quality.


    ''''Of course, this is a quite useful item for people who deal with curses. Carl started talking and explaining. ''''Most people who use curses would love to have something like this especially in the early days of their curse using.'''' Aella was starting to get a little impatient, because this little, man with his fluffy hair was saying a bunch of stuff without getting to the main point.


    ''''Yes, you can go on a tangent after you tell us what it does.'''' Suria probably caught on Aella''s frustration and made the little man hurry.


    ''''Impatiant.'''' Carl looked a little offended but he continued.

 Chapter 65-Ring of another

    ''''This necklace lets you curse someone from a great distance.'''' Carl took a glance at the necklace and then returned his gaze to the two ladies. ''''If normally you can cast a curse only on those who you see, with some exceptions as rituals, then with this necklace you can cast your curse on anyone from anywhere.''''


    ''''So how does it work, do I just imagine who I want to curse, and then it happens?'''' Aella was still a little confused about how it operated, but it sounded great that she didn''t have to worry about the distance.


    ''''No, you need some kind of material from that person you want to curse.'''' Carl almost instantly shot Aella''s idea down. ''''You need something like blood, or hair or nail, anything from a person''s body and you''re good to go, you just need to put that material in the wooden skull''s mouth and then activate your curse, while holding the skull.''''  Carl opened the wooden skull''s mouth as he explained how it worked and how to use it.


    ''''Well not as amazing as just imagining the person, but still pretty impressive.'''' Aella was happy that she got such a valuable item. Although in normal fights it won''t give her that much advantage, but if she gets her enemies material without them knowing she could easily get rid of them without them even knowing who did it.


    ''''Indeed it''s impressive.'''' Carl agreed with Aella that this item was quite good.


    ''''So how much do I owe you?'''' Aella wasn''t naive enough to think that she would get her necklace appraised for free. Even though Carl was Suira''s friend she herself met Carl only now, so she was ready to pay.


    ''''The first appraisal for new customers is free.'''' Carl gave Aella back her necklace as he said that. ''''But the next one will cost you.''''


    ''''Thanks.'''' That was a little unexpected but Aella won''t complain, after all, she just got something for free. After taking the necklace from Carl she put it back on her hip, but this time she was a little bit more careful and made sure that it was tightly bound to her hip.


    ''''Now then if you don''t have any more business with me, please leave so that I can continue with my research.'''' The little man got off the chair and started ushering Aella and Suira out of his lab.


    Aella and Suria didn''t resist and let him lead them to the door. Suria opened the door and walked outside, and Aella followed her.


    ''''Well, it was nice meeting you, and do come again if you need something to apprase, or if you need some potions.'''' After saying that Carl closed the door, leaving Aella and Suria outside the warehouse.


    ''''He''s one interesting fellow.'''' Aella voiced her thoughts about Carl out loud, while looking at the door he just closed.


    ''''He is, isn''t he.'''' Suria smiled as she agreed with Aella. ''''But he isn''t a bad guy, just a little unique.''''


    Aella had to agree with that statement, she didn''t know if she could judge someone just by meeting them once, but the first impression she got from him, was that he wasn''t a bad guy, maybe just a little eccentric.


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    ''''Thanks for introducing him to me, how can I repay you?'''' Aella was grateful to Suria for introducing her to Carl because now she knew where to go when she needed something to appraise, and she felt obligated to somehow thank Suria for that.


    ''''Cach!'''' Suira didn''t say anything but just that before she threw something at Aella. Aella fortunately had good enough reflexes so she caught the thing that Suira threw at her.


    Opening her fist, Aella saw a green ring with what looked like hair in the middle of it. It looked like a transparent green jade ring, with some golden hair in the middle of it.


    ''''What is this?'''' Aella picked up the ring with two fingers and angeled it at the sun so that she could have a better look at it.


    ''''Some of my hair enveloped by the ring.'''' Suria answered Aella''s question with a smile. But Aella was still confused, and it probably showed on her face because Suria continued her explanation. ''''By my knowledge, you''re getting summoned a bunch, so if you ever need some help, please summon me.''''


    ''''Sure.'''' Aella didn''t mind Suira''s request, it even helped her, because if she couldn''t do something or was just too hard, now she could summon Suira to help her. It was a win-win situation, Suira gets to be summoned and Aella has a backup. So with that in mind, Aella put the ring on her left hand''s middle finger.


    ''''I''ll make sure to summon you if I need help.'''' Aella turned to Suria and showed her the ring.


    ''''Thanks.'''' Suria still had her usual smile as she nodded.


    ''''It looks like I have to go.'''' Suria pulled out a familiar green crystal as she said it. Aella saw that her smile wavered a little bit as she said it, but it might be just Aella''s imagination.


    ''''How unfortunate.'''' Aella wanted to spend some more time with the golden-haired friend, but it looked like it wasn''t meant to be today.


    ''''Indeed.'''' Suria agreed with Aella, she too wanted to spend some time with the black-eyed lady, but duty called so she could only hope the next time they will have more time to hang out.


    ''''Goodbye.'''' Suria went for a hug as she said her goodbye to Aella.


    ''''Goodbye.'''' Aella returned the hug. They hugged for a moment before separating and going their own way.


    Aella decided to make her way home because she had something she wanted to test. It was about growth crystals, she wanted to see if she could absorb them, and if she could, how much would they fill her growth pool.


    The reason she wanted to do something like that, was because she was feeling close to advancing, and she was getting a little impatient. The last time she advanced she felt amazing, so if possible she would like to advance again as soon as possible.


    Aella made her way to her house, she didn''t pay much attention to the city or things around her. She was more interested in getting home and testing her thing.


    It took some time, but in the end, she finally got home. She put the necklace and her pouches on the table and sat down near it. She took one of the growth crystals, and observed it, before closing her eyes.


    Aella tried to absorb the crystal, and it didn''t take long before she got a reaction. She felt how the mana from the crystal slowly got absorbed by her. Slowly the mana in the crystal dwindled and soon Aella had absorbed all of it. When the last drop of mana got absorbed from the crystal, it shattered into light particles, that soon after dissipated into the air.


    Aella was a little amazed by the spectacular, but her mind didn''t linger long on it because she was more interested in how much the crystal gave her. Looking inside her Aella could see that after absorbing the crystal she had gotten a nice amount of mana. So that confirmed that she indeed could absorb these crystals.


    Happy with this knowledge Aella took the next crystal and repeated the action. She smiled as she felt the mana flow into her, the sensation was satisfying to her, and if she wasn''t careful she might get addicted to it.


    She absorbed the crystals one after another until it finally happened. She felt how she broke her limits, she felt the mana moving inside her. Slowly she got engulfed into a cocoon, and Aella fell into a state of trance. It felt warm and comfortable, and Aella got into a fetal position as she closed her eyes, and happily waited for what will happen next.

 Chapter 66-Some angles

    Now that Aella was comfortably floating inside the cocoon, with her eyes closed and her arms around her knees, Aella saw a familiar messege appear in her mind.


    [Choose your ability]


    [Curse of blindness]


    [Water creation]


    [Curse of sealing]


    [High jump]


    [Curse of itching]


    ''There are some really interesting curses out there.'' Was the first thought that popped into Aella''s mind when she saw the last option. Aella knew that there could be many different curses with many different effects, but [Curse of itching] took her by surprise. After she mulled over the use of that curse and its effects, Aella started to look at the other options and see which one she will pick.


    The first two she eliminated were, [Water creation] and [High jump]. Although they both sounded good in their own way, Aella wanted to go all the way with curses, plus even if she saw those options as viable there were some things that would make her hesitant.


    First the [Water creation], she didn''t know how much she could create with her mana pool, it could be a whole lake or only a glass worth. Another thing about this ability, she probably couldn''t control the water, just create it, and in some situations that would be good enough, but again she didn''t know how much she could create.


    Now [High jump] was a little bit more promising, because she could use it in many situations, even if it didn''t allow her to jump over buildings, she still could use it for quick maneuvering and escaping if needed, so it wasn''t that bad of an ability, but she still would like to expand her curse arsenal.


    There are two reasons why Aella wanted to choose from curses, the first is obvious, she wanted more curses that she could use, but the other reason was because she could instinctively feel what they did. Yes, Aella''s instincts were kind of telling her what these curses did, it wasn''t in a very descriptive way, but she still could kind of tell what each of those curses did deeper than only their names.


    But to be honest, the only curse she needed her instinct to tell her more, was the [Curse of sealing] because the other two were self-explanatory. [Curse of itching] although looked interesting and unique it didn''t sound that appealing. The curse could make someone uncomfortable and probably annoy them, or even drive them mad with time, but it didn''t have that much application besides being an annoyance. Especially in a life and death situation, she was sure that if someone wanted to kill her, they wouldn''t care about an itchy spot, maybe after they killed her. So that was out.


    Now she had to choose from two options, but after thinking about it she decided to take [Curse of sealing]. The reason for her choice was because although the [Curse of blindness] was a good curse, after all, taking someone''s sense that they basically rely on every day for almost everything is an amazing effect, the [Curse of sealing], was more versatile. Plus [Curse of sealing], can seal someone''s sight, it has a weaker effect than [Curse of blindness], but Aella will take flexibility over straight in one specific thing.


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    So with her mind made up, Aella chose [Curse of sealing], and the moment she did it she felt her consciousness slipping and her mind was taken by darkness.


    ***


    For Aella it didn''t feel long before she started to regain consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and started to awake from her dream-like state.


    It was a little weird for the first few moments, and she didn''t move and just stood there where she was. After a while, Aella started to move and look around. The first thing she noticed was that her clothes were on the ground and she was standing on a few of them.


    After she noticed that she stepped off her clothes, but didn''t pick them up and just left them on the floor. Instead, she started to explore her body with her hands. Aella could feel some things were different but nothing too distinctive, so she started to see if she had anything reflective near her.


    It didn''t take her long to find something she could use as a somewhat decent mirror. She took one of the ornamental daggers that were on the table, she didn''t know what they were made out of but they could reflect the image somewhat okay.


    Using the dagger''s reflection Aella started to get a better look at her body. The first thing she looked at was her face, and pretty quickly she noticed something different. There weren''t any new markings, but her face looked sharper, but besides the overall facial features, there wasn''t anything else that changed.


    Then she started to look around the rest of her body, but she couldn''t find anything else that caught her eye. So Aella concluded that the only change she experienced was that she got sharper features, and maybe looked more elegant.


    Aella was happy with these changes, but at the same time little disappointed, she was expecting something more drastic and maybe some symbols on her body, but she won''t complain.


    After getting a somewhat decent look at her body Aella put down the tagger on the table where she got it from and started to get dressed. Her body didn''t change too much so everything still fit her. After getting dressed, she made sure that her necklaces, the new ring, and the choker were in their places, after that she put her pouches on the table.


    She sat near the table and grabbed one of the fruits and started eating it. After taking a bite from the fruit she started to think what she could do next. She didn''t have anything important to do, so she was kind of bored.


    She could go out and see if she could find something fun, but she wasn''t really interested in wandering around the settlement to try and find something interesting to do, so with not many options left she decided to try her new curse.


    Aella took the pouch where she kept her growth crystals, and activated [Curse of sealing] on it with her finger pointing at the pouch. The moment she did that, a strand of dark blue smoke came out of her finger and shot straight at the pouch. Like all the other curses the moment the smoke made contact with the pouch it got absorbed in it, and then a dark blue lock-like symbol appeared on the pouch near its opening.


    After seeing this, Aella put her fruit in her mouth to hold it, and then grabbed the pouch she just used her curse on. She tried to open it but, she couldn''t, even when she used both her hands. The pouch only started to budge when she used a considered amount of straight, and even then it opened only a little bit, and the moment she stopped the pouch again was fully closed.


    Aella could try to use all her straight, but she was afraid that she would rip open the pouch and all her growth crystals would fly all over the place. So instead she just deactivated the curse and put the pouch back on the table.


    In the process of all this, Aella had at some point bitten through the fruit and it had fallen on her lap. So she just took the fruit and started to eat it again.


    This little experiment had helped her understand the curse a little bit better. Even if she seals something shut, it is possible to open it with enough strength, or if need be it''s possible to just break the object and kind of open it that way.


    Of course, that works on physical objects, but if she sealed someone''s senses then Aella was pretty sure they wouldn''t be able to break her curse open with raw physical force.


    To be honest, she couldn''t help but want to try out this new curse on someone, but right now she couldn''t so she just had to be patient. She could try it on herself, but she wasn''t going to do it, because who knows what could go wrong, and Aella wasn''t willing to risk her wellbeing for some curiosity or boredom. So with that in mind, she continued to munch on her fruit and thinking of something she could do to pass the time.

 Chapter 67-Lady of revenge

    ''''WHY AREN''T WE DOING ANYTHING, WHY ARE WE LETTING HIM JUST BE?!'''' In a room that looked like an office, a young woman with deep red hair was yelling at someone as she was leaning over the desk that the one she was yelling at was sitting behind.


    ''''HAVE YOU SEEN THE STATE OF LILY, SHE ISN''T OKAY, AND YOU ARE JUST SITTING THERE DOING NOTHING AS THAT BASTARD IS LEFT SCOT FREE?!'''' The young woman''s voice was filled with rage because her friend has suffered greatly but the madam, who should be responsible for them and protect them, was right now just sipping some tea and reading a newspaper.


    ''''WE DON''T EVEN KNOW THE FULL EXTENT OF HER INJURIES, NOT TO MENTION THAT SHE WON''T BE ABLE TO WORK FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG, OR EVEN WORK AFTER SHE RECOVERS!'''' *TUD* The redhead was getting madder as she spoke and slammed her fists on the sturdy wooden desk, she didn''t care if she injured her hands because right now all she cared about was her friend''s wellbeing, and making madam take action or at least make her speak, because all this time she was quiet.


    ''''DAMIT, WHY AREN''T YOU SAYING ANYTHING, WE ARE SUPPOSED TO TRUST YOU, WE HAVE ENTRUSTED OUR LIVES TO YOU, BUT, But, but...'''' The young woman''s eyes started to water, and soon her rampage calmed down. But even then her anger didn''t subside, the only reason it looked like that was because she was tired of yelling, and the tiers didn''t make it easier. ''''But all you do is just sit there, and let the culprit get away, just why, when we need you the most you do nothing?'''' The young redhead was slowly losing fate in madam, the person who should be on their side all the way, was ignoring her when it was needed the most.


    *Tink* Madam put down her teacup and the paper and finally looked at the crying woman. The young woman had fallen to her knees and was crying on the desk with her head pushed into her folded arms. Seeing this the madam put one of her hands on the crying young lady and slowly petted her, trying to comfort her.


    ''''I understand your anger and grief, and believe me if I could I would make him pay with my own two hands.'''' Madam''s own face contorted in anger for a brief moment, before it returned to her gentle look. ''''But you have to understand, that even if he himself has no real power, the family behind him could easily, at best shut us down or at worst make the rest of our lives miserable.'''' Her free hands was balled into a fist as she said that, and her nails dug into her skin.


    ''''I will take care of Lily, even if she won''t be able to work anymore, after all, every one of you I consider as my precious children.'''' Madam closed her eyes as she remembered the state Lily was in right now. ''''If I could sacrifice myself to make him pay I would, but I''m afraid to leave all of you alone, and if I did do something to him, his family may come after all of you if they found out I did something to him.''''


    ''''So I understand if you''re angry with me Mina, but I want you to know that I will always love you and take care of each and every one of you, even if it may not seem like it.'''' Hearing what madam said, Mina lifted her face from her arms. Mina''s face was a mess, her makeup was ruined and was dripping down her face, there were strands of red hair stuck to her face, and her eyes had become red and puffy with all that crying.


    Seeing this mess of a face that belonged to Mina, madam took a nearby handkerchief and started to wipe Mina''s face clean. She didn''t say anything and with a gentle smile cleaned Mina''s face, the redhead, on the other hand, didn''t say anything and didn''t move a muscle, she only closed her eyes and let the madam clean her face.


    ''''Thanks.'''' After her face was cleaned Mina''s voiced her gratitude. ''''I''m sorry for yelling at you, but it''s frustrating that we can''t do anything.'''' Madam saw how Mina balled her fists so tight they started to lose color.


    ''''I know, it hurts me deeply, but sometimes we must endure so that we don''t bring more misfortune on us and our close ones.'''' Madam took the young woman''s balled-up fist in her own palms, so that Mina relaxed her hands, and doesn''t hurt herself.


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    ''''Mm, I will go now.'''' Mina still had a sad look on her face, but now she has calmed down. She stood up and announced her departure to madam. ''''I will try to get some sleep.''''


    ''''Sweet dreams Mina.'''' As Mina was leaving the room, madam wished her good sleep.


    *Tuk* The moment that door closed madam''s face contorted into the mix of anger, grief, and disappointment in herself. She had failed to protect one of her girls, and the worst part she wasn''t capable of getting justice or revenge because of the offending party''s backing.


    The guilt was eating her, she would be happy to kill that bastard even if at the cost of her life, but unfortunately, she couldn''t do it because the girls needed her. But even if they didn''t she was scared that they would find that she was affiliated with this place, and then retaliate involving this place and that would result in multiple lives getting turned into mess.


    After she stopped beating herself up for not being able to do anything, madam turned her attention to some of the documents that were placed on her desk. She looked some of them over while thinking about Lily. She had bought some healing potions, and even enlisted some of the best healer''s help, she could get. But even with all that they weren''t fully sure of Lily''s nature, all they knew was that she would survive but besides that, it was clear as a fog.


    Madam started to work on some papers, making sure that the documents were all in place, checking what supplies they needed to purchase, seeing how was their storage doing, and seeing if anything was running out. But while she did all that she couldn''t help but have some thoughts wonder from time to time, and they always involved Lily and her situation. She couldn''t stop thinking about it, no matter how hard she tried.


    ''''There has to be a way.'''' Madam put down the papers and leaned into her chair while she thought. She could hire an assassin, but again his family was powerful enough, that it assassination could fail and as a result, she and her girls meet a grim fate. Another idea was to pay someone desperate enough for some money and let them do the killing, but again there was a big risk of them finding out it was her doing.


    No matter how much she thought, madam scrapped every idea she had and she was ready to give up on the whole revenge. It would be unfortunate but there was nothing she could do. That is until she saw a book that was placed on a bookshelf.


    The book itself wasn''t anything special, it was a classic story about a hero rescuing a princess and the world. The story was quite compelling so madam herself had reread this book a few times. But this time what caught the madam''s attention wasn''t the interest of experiencing the story again, but a detail in the story.


    About halfway into the story, the hero summons a companion, that helps him on his quest. The scene is even portrayed on the book''s cover. You could see the hero stretching his hand out as a magic circle formed above his hand and what looked like a fairy was hovering above the magic circle.


    Madam looked at the cover for a while, the gears in her mind moving at full speed, until finally, she found a way to get some justice.


    ''''Summoning.'''' Madam was familiar with summoning to some extent, she hadn''t summoned anything in her life, but she had the needed knowledge to do it if needed.


    She remembered one key importance about the summoning. It was that she could summon something that could help her in any situation, so she could probably summon something or someone that could help her get revenge without being discovered.


    So with this new plan in mind madam didn''t hesitate to act on it. She took one of the blank papers, grabbed the nearest writing tool, and drew a circle on the paper. Then she stood up and walked to the room''s middle. When she got to the middle, she put down the paper on the floor. The circle wasn''t necessary but it helped with visualizing.


    ''''Please help me.'''' With those words, madam started to visualize the magic circle forming and her summoning someone who could help with her problems. She pushed her mana into that vision, while at the same time she pushed her emotions that she felt when she thought about this situation.


    For a while nothing happened, and madam was starting to lose hope, with the thought that maybe it really was impossible to get revenge. But then a magic circle formed on the floor, and the moment it completely formed black smoke enveloped the nearby area. Madam could see that in the middle of all this smoke, there was a silhouette that suddenly appeared, and before she could see any features of that silhouette, she was greeted by a voice.


    ''''Hello, how may I help you?''''

 Chapter 68-The sinister ladies

    The last few days were kind of boring for Aella, there was not much she could do in the settlement so instead she chose to experiment with her curses. So most of the day for her consisted of, eating, going for a walk a little bit, and then she experimented with her curses until she went to sleep.


    She did go out of settlement a few times so that she could experiment on live targets, but nothing much else. Fortunately while experimenting she did find out a few new things about her new curse, and today she was ready to do some more experimenting but she got summoned, and she couldn''t be happier, because now she might have some fun.


    When Aella arrived she was greeted by a smoke screen, that slowly started to clear up. She wanted to make an impression, so before the smoke fully cleared up, Aella looked straight at the silhouette that was right before her and did her thing.


    ''''Hello, how may I help you?'''' Aella''s voice rang out from the black smoke, and after a moment she put one hand behind her and the other one in front of her heart and then bowed down.


    For some reason, Aella had decided to try and imitate a butler, with the hopes that it would leave a greater impression on the summoner than if she just stood there, and by the looks of it she was right. Right before the smoke cleared fully Aella got back to her normal pose and started to take in her surroundings.


    The first thing she assisted was the one she summoned. The lady looked refined, with her sleek dress and long hair that was styled into a bun, she had some age to her, but that didn''t take away from her beauty, if anything the youth was replaced by elegant maturity. Aella was stunned for a second when she laid her eyes on her summoner because the woman standing right before her was truly charming.


    But it looked like Aella wasn''t the only one who was stunned, the lady hasn''t said a thing and just stood there, with her eyes a little bit wide, probably from surprise. Aella wasn''t in a hurry to talk and make things move, so while the lady didn''t say anything Aella took her time to look around.


    While Aella took her time to look around she didn''t find anything interesting, because, by the looks of it, she was summoned to an office, that probably belonged to this woman. The office was more decorated than your average office, but it wasn''t anything too grand or over the top, and it had a comfortable feel to it.


    All this time while Aella took in the surroundings the lady who summoned her didn''t say anything, and even when Aella finished and turned her attention fully to the lady, there still was silence.


    ''''Hello?'''' Aella was starting to get a little concerned, thinking that something happened to the woman, so she broke the silence in hopes that the lady would react, and fortunately, she did.


    ''''Oh my, I apologize, something had come over me.'''' The lady finally responded. ''''I was just a little surprised and happy that I actually succeded in summoning you, you can call me madam.'''' The madam introduced herself to Aella, with now neutral tone.


    ''''Pleasure to meet you, I''m Aella.'''' Aella gave a quick bow as she introduced herself. ''''So what is the occasion for my summoning?'''' After getting up from her bow, Aella asked for the task she will have to do this time.


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    ''''Someone injured one of my girls quite severely, and I would like you to kill him.'''' Aella could see some glint of sadness in the madam''s eyes as she mentioned that someone was injured. ''''If possible I would like to make his death as miserable and embarrassing as possible, and I hope you can make it so that the family name gets some dirt on it on the way.'''' When madam started to mention how she wanted the death to be, Aella saw that her face transformed from sorrow to anger.


    ''''Very well, I can do that but it will take some time.'''' Aella will have to plan a little bit, but she is confident she can pull this off. ''''Is there anything else?'''' She had to make sure that there was nothing that madam wasn''t forgetting.


    ''''Yes, don''t let them know that you''re summoned by me, because I don''t want to pull the people I''m responsible for into this mess.'''' When madam said this she had a serious look on her.


    ''''I can do that.'''' Not reviling her identity might slow down the process but it''s not impossible. The only thing Aella needed now, was to know who was her target.


    ''''So can you tell me more about my target?'''' Madam was the one who summoned her, so Aella was sure that she had plenty of information on the one Aella had to kill.


    ''''Yes, the one I want you to kill is Eric Goldhand.'''' Madam started to move to her office desk as she described the target. ''''He is a young male in his twenties, has blond hair and blue eyes, and has an ego bigger than the mountains.'''' Madam sat on the desk and continued to give Aella the needed information.


    ''''Eric is an active man, you can constantly find him in bars, casinos, and brothels. If something doesn''t go his way he will cause a disturbance and go on a tantrum.'''' When madam said the last line she looked at the office door that led to the rest of the building. ''''The only reason he hasn''t been apprehended or found dead in some ditch is because of his family.''''


    ''''You mean Goldhands?'''' There was a pause so Aella crept in, and asked her questions. ''''I have to say an interesting family name.''''


    ''''Yes, the Goldhands.'''' Madam looked into Aella''s eyes as she answered. ''''They are a powerful merchant family, they have enough money to buy their way out of many situations, and as for their family name, it''s said that they changed it when they got rich for some reason, and now their previous name has been lost and forgotten.''''


    ''''So they basically are a big family with a lot of money, and because they have a lot of money they can get scot-free from most situations.'''' And Eric was an arrogant asshole that did whatever he wanted because he knew that his family will protect him no matter what.


    ''''Yes, and if someone goes against them, they can easily make you disappear, so that''s the reason I don''t want them to know I''m the one who ordered you to kill Eric.'''' There was calm anger behind madam''s eyes as she explained things to Aella.


    ''''I see, well it''s possible but it will take some time, so I hope you are ready for some wait.'''' Aella wasn''t even too sure where to start, she had some ideas but not a concrete plan, and by the looks of this operation could take days, maybe weeks, or even months if she wanted to clear all the conditions.


    ''''I don''t mind, as long as it''s completed, you can take as long as you need.'''' Madam was ready to wait, all she wanted was for Eric to die in a humiliating way, and as long as he died in her lifetime, madam will be satisfied.


    ''''Now, what about the reward.'''' Aella got to the business part of things. ''''I presume it will be given to me after I complete my side of things.''''


    ''''Yes, and the reward will be measured by your performance, the better you do the better will be your reward.'''' When talking about the reward madam format a smirk as she talked.


    ''''Understandable.'''' Aella couldn''t help but smile, it was a nice trick to make Aella perform better by her own will, because who didn''t like a better reward. So if she performed badly her reward would be bad too, but if she performed good the reward will reflect that. Aella had to admit that the madam was a fox in her own right.


    ''''Well then, I will get started.'''' Aella got ready to leave and start figuring out how she will do this.


    ''''I hope to hear about your success.'''' Madam gave a small smile as she let Aella leave.

 Chapter 69-Finding some entertainment

    Aella made her way down the hall while thinking about how will she do this. Right now she had her clothes, the ring, the choker, the wooden necklace, and a pouch with coins that she stole from bandits. Aella''s first thought was to get some of Eric''s material and use it to curse him, maybe in a similar fashion to what she did to the twins parents. It could work, but Aella wanted to do something different and will only use this method if she won''t be able to find anything else.


    ''''Who are you?'''' While Aella was walking down the hall, immersed in her thoughts, a woman with blond hair came to her, and asked her who she was with some skepticism.


    ''''I''m something like a business partner with the madam.'''' Aella didn''t know what to say, because she didn''t know how much of things the madam wanted to keep secret, so Aella opted for a simple business partner. This way if someone has questions they can go to madam and she can reveal the information she wants them to know.


    Of course, Aella will tell that she is a business partner with madam, only to this establishment staff. Meaning if some stranger asks her she will have to think of a backstory.  The woman didn''t say anything, just gave Aella a look and then went in the direction where the madam''s office was. Aella similarly didn''t give much thought to this woman and went on her way.


    ''Now then, first things first.'' To even start her plans she needed the necessary materials, and her first idea of acquiring them was to go and meet the injured woman and the place where she got physically assaulted. Aella hoped that she could find the needed materials if she looked for them there.


    Unfortunately, she wasn''t familiar with this place and had no idea where to look. So for a while, she wandered around this floor, looking for anything that could help. Some of the staff gave her curious or suspicious looks while she moved past them. Aella could ask one of them for the things she was looking for but she didn''t want to disturb them, and it might look weird and kind of fishy, and that won''t do because she was trying to keep as low of a profile as possible in her situation.


    After some time of aimless roaming, Aella found the place where the injured woman was probably kept. It was in a room that was behind a door that looked similar to the rest of them that were placed all around the hallway. But Aella saw a red-haired woman bring a towel and a bucket of water into that room, plus an armed guard was standing by that door.


    Well with that her plan went out the window. Aella knew that this plan probably wouldn''t work, but it was worth a try. Now she could just go up to the guard or the red-haired woman and tell them why she needed the access and all that, but again she didn''t know how much information her employer wanted to disclose, and Aella wanted to make her employer as happy as possible. And she couldn''t just barge inside, that would just create unnecessary chaos.


    So with that, it was time to move on to plan b, try and find Eric in the wild. The madam already told Aella where she could find him, it will probably take some time to find him, but it shouldn''t be that hard if she''s lucky. Now with that in mind, Aella made her way out of the building. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    It took some time to find the exit because the building was large, and Aella found out she was on the third floor. Fortunately, the only people here were mostly staff as Aella found out a bit later, but it wasn''t surprising because it was the middle of the day, and this was a brothel, and a high-class one at that.


    After she walked out of the building she had to make some way to the gate, because this brothel had a nice big garden. After the gate, there was the city, and now she had to figure out what to do. Aella presumed that Eric was probably active at night, and as it was the middle of the day, she had to bide her time somehow. So she started to walk around the city, trying to look for something to do.


    Fortunately, she didn''t have to look too far, because she was in the part of town where most of the entertainment was, and Aella soon found an establishment where she could have some fun. It was a big, fancy-looking wooden building, and similar to the brothel it had its own gated plot of land. But this one didn''t look like a brothel but more of a gambling place. Aella had some coin on her, so she decided to have some fun in this place.


    ''''Hello, how much would you like to convert?'''' When Aella got inside she was greeted by a lady who was manning a desk near the entrance. Aella saw a few other desks similar to this one, but not all of them were open. Aella only took a glance around before she pulled her attention back to the woman who greeted her.


    ''''This much.'''' Aella pulled out ten gold coins and put them on the desk. The woman looked at the coins before she put them away.


    ''''How would you like them to be distributed?''''


    ''''I''m kind of new to these parts, can you tell me what are the options?'''' Aella was kind of lucky to guess the first part of the exchange, but she had no idea how things worked here, and what she was exchanging her money for.


    ''''Of course.'''' The woman smiled and then brought out 7 wood chips. ''''We usually distribute these kinds of chips, the lowest valued one is worth one silver coin, then it goes to ten and then fifty, then the next chip is worth a hundred silver or one gold, and then it goes to ten golds then fifty and finally hundred.'''' The woman showed each chip as she explained things to Aella.


    All of the chips were the same size, the only difference was the number engraved in the middle and the golden color that was on the rim of these round chips. The lowest-value chip had the darkest gold color on its rim and the highest value had the brightest.


    ''''I see, then give me all in fifty silver chips.''''


    ''''Of course.'''' The lady gave Aella 20 chips, and a pouch to carry them in, and Aella was ready to have some fun.


    Walking deeper in she saw that there weren''t too many people here, but it wasn''t surprising, it was only noon, and the place will get busier as the night approaches, so Aella didn''t think about too much. Aella took a look around and found a game that interested her.


    Aella approached the roulette table that had some people around it, five of the six seats were already taken, so she took the free seat and sat down. This round was still in progress so Aella just waited for a little before it ended.


    ''''Five red.'''' The dealer announced, and then distributed and took some chips.


    After the chips got to their respective places, Aella put her bets, and placed 3 chips on odd and 1 chip on a random corner. Aella wasn''t really in need of money, because she doesn''t use it often, so she could have fun with it as much as she wanted.


    After they placed their bets, the dealer waved his hand indicating that the betting was closed. He spun the wheel and Aella put her attention on the wheel. The little ball bounced around until finally, it landed on a number.


    ''''Seventeen black.'''' Aella got six chips while losing the one she put on a corner.


    ''Not bad.'' Aella was kind of happy, so she didn''t hesitate to place more bets. This time she did the same, she placed 3 on odd and 1 on a random corner.

 Chapter 70-Self serving target

    ''''Let''s go lucky number thirteen.'''' Aella put five chips on each worth a gold, on 13. After placing her bet the dealer lunched the ball and everyone''s attention was drawn to it. The ball spun and jumped around, moving from pocket to pocket, the whole crowd was quiet waiting to see where the ball would land until finally it landed.


    ''''Fourteen red.'''' Unfortunately, Aella didn''t win her straight-up bet but she still got ten chips from her even bet. It was time to bet again this time she took ten chips put them on red, and then put another five on a random number, but before she placed them completely down she took one chip off the corner pile, and raised it a little bit over her shoulder.


    ''''I would love your blessing for good luck.'''' Aella turned and looked at the rabbitkin that was standing right behind her. The rabbitkin was with one hand holding a tray with a drink in a tall glass and some grape-like fruit in a bowl, and her other hand resting on Aella''s right shoulder. The blond woman smiled at Aella, before bending a little and giving a chip a kiss. Aella gave a smile in return and put the chip back on top of the pile.


    Aella''s had been in this casino for a while now, and she had gotten a nice big stack of chips, in front of her. Now the question is how she did that, and that was simply because she wasn''t afraid of taking risks and she was somehow incredibly lucky. There were times when she got a nice pile before losing almost all of it, but with time she got it back, and now she had more than ever.


    At one point they brought out a magic item to check if she wasn''t cheating by using some kind of ability or skill, but after finding nothing they let her be. Now normally if someone wins too big they are asked to leave, at least that is what happened back on Earth, but here it was different. If a casino makes a guest leave without a reason, just because they are winning big they will lose their reputation and clients really fast.


    So because of that Aella right now had a big stack of chips that she had lost track of the pile value, and two nice girls by her side. These servant girls could leave any moment and normally they wouldn''t stick around one person, because they can get tips from clients, and the more gusts they meet and serve the higher tips they will get.


    But if someone like Aella appears and starts practically throwing money around as if it''s just metal to her, then of course they will stick around. Of course, Aella liked their company and the drinks and snacks they brought to her, so she didn''t hesitate to tip them generously.


    ''''Fifteen black.'''' Unfortunately, Aella didn''t win her red bet, losing her 10 chips, but she didn''t care because she won her corner bet, so including the 5 that she put on it she got herself 40 chips back.


    ''''Hahaha.'''' Aella couldn''t help but laugh, she had no idea where her luck was coming from but she was having fun. She took 20 chips from the pile she just got and gave each servant girl 10. Both girls happily accepted those chips and put them in their bosoms. Aella was convinced they were keeping a storage item in there because she had given them plenty of chips, and all of them shouldn''t fit in there.


    The catkin on Aella''s left took some kind of berry in her mouth and held it between her lips. Then she leaned down intending to give Aella the berry. Seeing this Aella didn''t hesitate and took the berry, there was a short exchange with thongs before they separated. Biting down on the berry Aella felt the sweet juice flow down her through as she enjoyed it. The catkin similar to rabbitkin had a tray in one hand but she had just a big bowl of berries. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    It was time for the next bet and Aella put down her bet, and then put her hands around the two woman waists. The two beastkin just giggled and leaned closer to Aella. The other people around the table made their bets too and the ball was launched.


    Looking around the table Aella could see that she was the only one left from the original cast. People over time came and left the table, and now that it was getting late and busier it was happening more and more. She wouldn''t be surprised if people saw her and her pile and thought that they could win big too, and some did but most didn''t.


    ''''Twenty-seven red.'''' Aella again won some chips. Her pile was getting bigger and bigger, and she was enjoying it. While making the next bets a newcomer came to this table.


    He was a young male with blond hair and blue eyes, he was good-looking and had a noble air to him. The young man was accompanied by two guards. The newcomer took some of his chips out of a pouch and put them on even. Aella took a quick glance at him but payed no further attention to him. After everyone put in their bets the ball was launched.


    ''''Thirty-two red.'''' The chips were taken and given as needed. Aella got a little thirsty and asked the rabbitkin to give her a drink. After satisfying her thirst Aella made her bets.


    ''''Six black.'''' The dealer announced the results.


    ''''It looks like it''s my lucky day.'''' Aella looked over and saw that the one speaking was the newcomer, as he had won two bets in a row. Well, there are two ways this will go in Aella''s eyes, either he will continue to win, or soon he will lose all his money. Either way, it will be interesting to watch.


    ''''Hi, I''m Eric.'''' The blond newcomer saw Aella looking at him and introduced himself, he even offered a hand for a handshake. But when he said his name Aella froze for a moment and suddenly remembered why she was here. She had too much fun in this casino and had forgotten her original objective.


    ''''Aella.'''' But it looked like she didn''t have to worry as the target had come to her. Aella introduced herself, but didn''t shake his hand, and just nodded with her head, and showed her hands were full, as they were wrapped around the two beastkin women.


    Eric didn''t say anything but Alla could see her got angry with her when she didn''t accept the handshake. So Eric took his hand back and made his bet. While the ball was spinning for this round Aella could see how Eric glanced at her from time to time with annoyance in those blue eyes. On the other hand, Aella didn''t pay heed to those glances and just smirked while enjoying her time here.


    ***


    After a while, Aella could see Eric pull on his hair as he angrily glared at the ball. Over the time he had been here, he had lost more money than he had won. Aella was sure that he had zero money problems so losing money for him was practically nothing, but it looked like his ego couldn''t take it. Seeing this Aella couldn''t help but smirk.


    ''''WHAT YOU BITCH, YOU GOT SOMETHING TO SAY?!'''' Eric had seen Aella''s smirk and that was the last straw. His veins bulged and his eyes looked mad as he shouted at her. He got up and got basically in her face and pointed his finger at her. ''''DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM, I CAN BUY A WHORE LIKE YOU EASILY, YOU DON''T WANT TO CROSS ME...'''' Aella could feel her breath, and she didn''t like it. Eric yelled loud enough that almost the whole casino, heard it, and he yelled like that for a short while, until finally, his own guards started to pull him away.


    ''''DON''T TOUCH ME!'''' He freed himself from the guards with a sharp motion but still took his leave. The guards were probably there to protect him, but primarily to monitor him so that he wouldn''t embarrass the family name. He gave another angry glare in Aella''s direction as he left.


    This confirmed that he was the right Eric, and Aella smiled as she picked up one of the hairs that he plucked out himself. She couldn''t help but smile because the target had come to her, and given her what she needed and she didn''t even need to lift a finger.


    ''''One red.'''' So now that she had everything she needed, Aella decided to fully enjoy herself and stayed in the casino, winning some gold and tipping some to her two beautiful ladies.

 Chapter 71-Sealing fate

    While the ball was rolling for her next bets, Aella put the hair into the wooden skull. She opened the mouth of the wolf, and put the hair into it, and then closed it. The moment the moth of the skull closed, Aella felt a pulse that originated from the skull and went up her entire body. She felt the pulse in every bit of her body, in every muscle and bone, she even felt it somehow go through her hair.


    After the pulse had passed Aella felt the connection to Eric. Closing her eyes she could see his naked body just floating in her consciousness in a T pose slowly rotating. The floating Eric had his eyes opened as he stared into nothingness, and it was a little unsettling. Aella could move the body around with just her thoughts, and if she wanted she could explore every corner of his body, but she refrained.


    At one point the dealer announced the results but Aella missed it because she was fascinated with how the necklace worked. It was kind of creepy how those eyes just stared lifelessly into the void, but besides that, it was kind of fascinating.


    Aella made a few more bets, but she didn''t pay much attention to them. She mostly spent her time figuring out what was going on in her mind space, and from time to time she played with the two beastkin women. With time these women got more flirtatious and daring, and Aella was enjoying that, so she didn''t say anything and just let the fun happen. After a while Aella had enough of gambling and got ready to leave, but before she could one of the girls gave her some kind of card.


    <Secret special service, if you want to spend a night with us, nod and follow us.> After reading this Aella smiled and without hesitation looked at the two girls and smiled. It looked like this casino had some special services that weren''t available for the public, Aella had no idea what triggered her access to this, but she won''t let the opportunity slip by. Spending all this time gambling with them was a delight so spending a more intimate time with them sounded wonderful.


    The moment Aella nodded to them, the two girls, smiled and each got on one side of Aella and locked their elbows with Aella''s own. Slowly Aella got led to a corner of a casino where there were stairs leading up. The stairs were guarded by a pair of buff-looking guards, but when they saw Aella and the two women walking interlocked they didn''t say anything and let the three of them pass.


    They made their way up the stairs, and on the second floor, Aella was greeted by a nicely decorated hallway, full of doors. As she didn''t know where to go, she freely let the two ladies guide her to one of the rooms. When they arrived at one of the doors, the rabbitkin let go of Aella''s elbow so that she could open the door. Opening the door, Aella was welcomed into a fancy-looking room. The main colors of this room were red, pink, and purple with some black tones here and there.


    The room had a big fancy-looking bed that had nightstands on each side, by the looks of it the bed could easily fit seven people. Another thing was a table with a mirror that looked like a cosmetic table and a big closet, that had a full-sized mirror.


    Aella was led to the bed. while the doors behind her got closed and locked. After arriving at the bed edge the catkin, slowly pushed Aella down onto the bed, while the rabbitkin put away both platters and pulled out some kind of potions out of the nightstand closest to her. Looking at the potion Aella was intrigued so while the catkin was slowly undressing herself and Aella, the dark lady with her eyes asked the rabbitkin about the potions. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ''''Don''t worry, these aren''t anything harmful, as long as you don''t overdose.'''' The rabbitkin saw Aella''s curiosity and started answering the question. ''''These just allow you to perform longer, so that fin could last longer, so if you need it you can use theses.'''' Gatting the answer she needed Aella turned her attention back to the catkin.


    The lady was on top of Aella and she had already removed her top and was slowly dancing out of her bottoms. Aella was in a similar situation, she somehow at some point had lost her top, this showed Aella that these women were true professionals, and that just made her smile bigger. Not wanting to wait much longer, Aella grabbed catkin''s dancing mounds of greatness and started playing with her nipples.


    ''''Mmmm~'''' Aella was doing something right, because although the catkin woman didn''t stop her alluring dance atop of her, she closed her eyes and let out a lustful sight, indicating that she was enjoying it. This made Aella just get more eager, so she took one of the nipples in her mouth and started to gently tease it.


    At some point, while Aella was having her fun, she and the catkin lost all their clothes, and a naked rabbitkin joined them. Aella couldn''t see the rabbitkin, but she knew that she had joined them because she had no other explanations for why a playful tongue was exploring her lower lips and her inside. It was a pleasant experience but Aella didn''t let the nipple slip out of her mouth, if anything it just made her redouble her efforts.


    Slowly the three women slipped into lustful bliss, they explored each other''s bodies, they didn''t let any of them feel left out. They changed their positions, changed their dynamic, and moaned the whole night, and not one of them was allowed to rest longer than a minute before they got dragged back in.


    ***


    ''''Ughh~'''' It was the next morning, Aella slowly opened her eyes and looked around. Right now she was sleeping in a bed, with two beauties using her breasts as pillows. Not wanting to wake them up, Aella looked around trying to move only her neck and head, to see their last night''s result.


    Their clothes were all over the place, she could see the clothes on the floor, on the nightstands, in the bed with them, and she even found a sock in the far corner of the room. Looking over the nightstand she saw a few empty potion bottles, seeing that Aella couldn''t help but smirk, the reason being that she had taken none of them, but the girls needed them so that they could keep up with Aella''s libido. But although Aella had surpassed them in stamina and vigor, these two minxes had far superior technique than Aella herself, so it evened out.


    While Aella was waiting for her partners to wake up, she closed her eyes and looked into her mind space, and saw that Eric''s image of his body was still floating there, and it looked like she could curse him at any moment she wanted. So without hesitation, she used [Curse of sealing] on him, and the next moment a lock symbol appeared under Eric''s balls.


    You see while Aella was testing [Curse of sealing] she found out that she could seal practically anything, and that she could set conditions on the seal on which it opened. For example, she could seal close a door, but with a condition that if you knock on it three times in a row you can open the door. So normally you won''t be able to open the door, but if you knock on it three times in a row it will open just like any other door.


    So Aella used [Curse of sealing] on Eric''s genitalia with the condition that it will only work normally if he ingested the performance-boosting potion, the same potion the girls used tonight, and as Aella made the curse grow with time Eric will have to take more and more potions until he overdoses and dies. The dark lady was sure that this death will be satisfactory for madam. And as Eric is a proud man with an inflated ego, he won''t tell anybody meaning that no one will know, and won''t be able to help until it its too late. Now all that is left, is to wait and see how the arrogant man will fall, dragging his family name through the mud.

 Chapter 72-Fated end

    Aella woke up in another fancy bed with a beautiful elf woman next to her. The past few days she had spent walking around and entertaining herself in a multitude of ways, she had been to many casinos, brothels, massage parlors, pubs, and many more. She even was in one place where a naked wrestling contest happened, and you could bet on who would win, it was an interesting experience.


    She did all this to pass the time. Unfortunately, Eric still was alive, and she hoped that sooner than later he would drop dead because if this continues she will start losing mana through her link, and as madam isn''t capable of supporting the link most of the burden gets put on Aella. The link will start draining her mana faster than she could passively absorb in about 5 days if she is right in her evaluation. When that time comes she will need to spend most of her day meditation, and that won''t be fun.


    Fortunately, while she was walking around in the entertainment district Aella heard some rumors about Eric. Usually, it was nothing new, everyone knew who Eric was and there were plenty of rumors about him, but this time it was different. It sounded like he has a lot shorter temper than usual, he always looked dissatisfied with something, and from time to time he looked crazy, with his eyes bloodshot. This all was good news to Aella because, by the sound of it, Eric would soon be in the grave.


    So without worrying too much, Aella looped her hand around the sleeping elf woman, closed her eyes, and went back to sleep with a smile on her lips.


    ***


    ''''GO AWAY!''*Shatner* Eric there a glass at the maid that brought him dinner to his room. The maid quickly put the food down and ran out of the room before she could be injured. After the maid closed the door to his room, Eric spent a few moments staring at the door. The past few days were awful for Eric.


    Some few days back he had gone to the brothel for some fun time, but he for some reason couldn''t perform and had to use a potion. That hurt his ego, but the smirk on the woman''s face when she saw that made Eric angry, and he took it out on the woman, but that didn''t help his ego still was hurt.


    After that incident, he went to many more brothels to prove that he didn''t need potions and to stop rumors from sprouting. The problem was he still needed the potions, it''s just that he took them before he went to any of the brothels. But although the presents don''t say anything about his lack of functionality in that area, the servants in the mansion are starting to catch on, because he increasingly needs more of those potions by the day.


    Eric because of his ego was starting to lose his mind and took his anger on practically anyone he could. Another thing was that because of his ego, he didn''t pay attention to what could be the reason for his dysfunctionality, all he cared about was his reputation. He didn''t care about his reputation as a whole because there were plenty people who hated him, but his ego couldn''t take his reputation in bed being bad.


    The blond man prided himself in his prowess in bed and his resilience against alcohol. He liked to show men how much alcohol he could drink and women how good he was in bed, and now one of those things is slowly taken away from him. Plus it didn''t help that he had nightmares about it when he slept. Eric right now was in a loop of self-destruction. Unfortunately, Eric wasn''t smart enough to connect some dots, and his ego was too big to seek help, so he was doomed, and he, himself didn''t know that.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    While Eric was stressing about his reputation he had already eaten the food without thinking about it, and when his fork clanked against the dish he looked down and saw that he had eaten everything. Now that he had eaten it was time for his nightly fun, but before he got ready he went to one of the drawers in his room. Opening the first section Eric was greeted by a bunch of potions, the one he used to help him with his problem.


    Without thinking much he started to open the glass bottles and drink their content, one after another was emptied by him, until he felt some heat in his nether reagon. After he felt that sensation he took some potions and put them in his storage ring, in case he needed more. After that he looked in the mirror and saw how disheveled he looked, he couldn''t go out looking like this so he called maids.


    ''''MAIDS, I NEED TO GO OUT!'''' With that screen and him pressing the bell near his bed, Eric didn''t need to wait long before his room''s door opened and four maids came in. They didn''t say anything they just undressed and then dressed him in the right clothes, they combed his hair and took care of other things, all the while Eric just stood there with a bored expression.


    The maids were professionals so they took care of Eric''s needs quickly and then left. Eric took a look in the mirror, saw that he looked perfect, and then went out of his room. Outside his room stood two guards, and as soon as Eric started walking away they followed. Eric looked at those two, he didn''t like that they constantly followed him. Unfortunately, he couldn''t do anything about it as they were under his father''s command. So Eric could just glare at them but nothing will change.


    As Eric couldn''t do anything about the guards he soon forgot about them and decided to visit one of the brothels. Outside the mansion there waited a fancy-looking carriage just for him, so without hesitation, he climbed in, with the two guards following him, and gave the instruction to the driver. With the destination set the carriage started to move.


    The road to the brothel was uneventful and they soon arrived at their destination. Eric didn''t wait for anyone and got out of the carriage and went straight inside the brothel. Inside there were already plenty of guests and girls milling around in the lobby, but the moment they saw Eric come in, the sound got a little bit quiet. Eric didn''t care and went straight to the receptionist.


    ''''Is Scarlet avable?'''' Eric went straight to the point, he didn''t want to waste time, he just wanted to feel good.


    ''''Yes, she is available.'''' The receptionist looked through the journal and saw that Eric''s asked woman was available.


    ''''Good, I will have her for tonight.'''' The receptionist just nodded and gave him one of the keys to a room. Eric grabbed the key and just went straight upstairs and to the room.


    He soon located the room, and using the key he opened it. On the other side of the door, Eric saw the room. It was a fancy-looking room with a big bed almost in the center. Seeing that Scarlet wasn''t here yet Eric got out of his clothes and went to lay on the bed naked. He saw that his mast was fully standing but he decided to take 2 potions for safety. So he gulped two potions and put the empty bottles back inside the ring.


    Soon after that the door opened and a gorgeous red-haired woman walked in. Seeing that Eric was already naked and ready, she dropped her red dress on the ground and slowly crawled into the bed. Seeing this Eric couldn''t help but smile, and his grin widened when he felt the woman''s hand wrap around his mast. This will be a great night, at least that was what Eric thought.

 Chapter 73-The silent celebration

    ''''I hope this is satisfactory.'''' It was early in the morning the sun was barely speaking above the horizon, when Aella boldly strode into madam''s office with the most recent newspaper in her hand. The madam herself was going through some documents when Aella threw the paper on her table and interrupted her.


    The mature woman looked up and saw the standing lady with a wide grin on her face and with those dark eyes indicating her to read the newspaper. Without saying anything madam turned her attention to the paper and with steady speed picked it up and opened it. The moment she did the first thing that popped in front of her was a title with big bold letters that made her smile.


    ''''So it looks like you did it.'''' Madam put down the paper and looked at Aella. The dark lady was by now sitting in one of the chairs with a relaxed attitude, waiting for madam. ''''And you did it excellently.'''' Hearing that Aella couldn''t help but smile, the only thing she did was curse the target, and the rest of the lifting was done by his own ego.


    ''''Thank you for the compliment, but I have to say it was more of a self-destruction than anything else.''''


    ''''Maybe so, but it still wouldn''t be possible without you.''''


    ''''Oh, I know so I will be gracefully taking my reward.'''' Aella knew what her contribution was in all of this, so she wasn''t shy about asking for her reward. Seeing this madam didn''t get mad but smiled even wider because she knew that without Aella her revenge would be just a distant dream.


    ''''Of course.'''' Without any more delay, madam took out something from her table''s desc. It looked like a large coin. Aella stood up and took it from madam''s hand. Taking a closer look the coin was pure black with golden outlines, and in the middle of the coin, there was a mole drawn in gold. Aella was a little surprised by the drawing of this animal but she lingered in it for just a moment before she looked up at madam with a confused look.


    ''''Don''t worry I haven''t screwed you over, if that''s what you think.'''' Madam saw the look on Aella''s face and continued her explanation. '''' That token can let you in some place that you normally have no access to. Just know that when the mole, opened its eyes you will be close to one of these places.''''


    ''''Sure.'''' Aella was still not fully convinced, plus she didn''t like the riddle, but it didn''t look like madam was lying to her, so she just went with it. She could use some force to get more information from the mature lady, but in Aella''s eyes it wasn''t worth it, of course, if she discovers that this token was useless she will reconsider her thinking.


    ''''And here''s a bonus.'''' Madam took another coin from her drawer and pushed it forward to Aella. This token also was circular but it was golden with an ''M'' in the middle of it. It had some symbols around the edges, but that was it.


    ''''With this, I owe you a favor, and as long as I can do it and is reasonable I will do my best to do it.'''' This token for the moment felt more valuable than the other one for Aella. So she took it with a smile. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    ''''Now that my business is done, I will be taking my leave.'''' Aella put both of the tokens into a pouch and announced her leave to madam.'''' If you ever need me, you know how to get hold of me.'''' And with that, Aella returned to her realm, leaving madam alone in her office.


    After Aella disappeared, madam took another look at the newspaper before returning to her previous task.


    *BANG* It wasn''t long before she was interrupted again, moving her vision up to see who was the one that so loudly and violently opened her office door, madam wasn''t surprised when she saw Mina standing there. The redhead looked somewhat disheveled and somewhat in shock. Madam didn''t say anything and let the young woman catch her breath and speak first.


    ''''Did you hear about the news!?'''' These were the first words that came out of Mina''s mouth, but again madam didn''t even feel a little bit of surprise, if anything she was expecting this.


    ''''Good morning to you too Mina, and yes I have heard.'''' Madam greeted Mina before she returned to her documents.


    ''''But... wha-!?'''' Mina was little shocked because she was expecting something else, not this nonchalant response, and madam could see that so she returned her gaze back to Mina.


    ''''Did you expect my response to be different?'''' Madam had taken care of Mina for a long time, so she could read the redhead practically like an open book.


    ''''Well yes, I thought you would be more excited about these news, after all that bastard is dead, and he died in such a humiliating way.''''


    ''''I''m happy about it, but you have to remember that although he was an insufferable Eric was still part of the Goldhand family.'''' Madam returned back to her documents as she continued. ''''So you can probably guess that they won''t be happy if people start celebrating one of their member''s deaths so openly, plus I have work to do.''''


    Hearing what madam said Mina claimed down because the mature woman was right. It was no secret that many hated Eric and were probably quietly celebrating his death, but people also knew that if they started doing it in the open, the Goldhand family will take that as a disrespect and then those who celebrated will be in trouble.


    Madam wasn''t saying that Mina should not be happy about Eric''s death, but she did say that she could keep that to herself as all the others did. So without saying anything more Mina just nodded and went out of the office and quietly closed the door behind her, leaving madam again alone with her work.


    ***


    Aella was in her home, so she put the stuff she got from this trip in some corner and decided to take a shower. She had plenty of showers back in the mortal world, but for some reason, the shower in her home felt better.  Not taking her time Aella got ready and went to her shower.


    While she was enjoying the water sliding down her skin, she thought about her most recent summon, more precisely about the mole token. Aella had enough mind to figure out that that token could either lead her to some secret market, organization, that deals in some more sketchy things, or to some kind of treasure, and remembering what madam said it was probably one of the first two.


    Leaving the reward aside, the time she spent in the core world this time was quite nice, although the days were somewhat repetitive Aella still had fun, so she hoped that her next summon would be soon. It wasn''t that she had no fun in the Safury plane, but the mortal world was more fun for her.


    Still thinking about this, Aella got out of the shower and got dressed, now she had some time to spend so she started to think what she could do while thinking about it she started to play with the ring she got from, the green ring smoothly slid between her finger, while the silver hair inside it reflected the moon''s light that shined through the window.


    ''''I could go visit Zira.'''' After this idea came to her, Aella didn''t hesitate to get ready and go visit the silver-haired beauty. But after stepping a few steps out of the house she disappeared with a cloud of black smoke, and when the smoke cleared there was a summoning circle left in her spot, that soon after alose disappeared.

 Chapter 74-Some caching up

    ''''Please take my shift, thank you.'''' Those were the first words Aella heard right after she got summoned. She didn''t even have time to fully comprehend her situation fully before a familiar elf asked her to cover some kind of shift, while the blond elf herself went to sleep in a nearby tent.


    Looking around the campsite with four tents, and a campfire in the middle of these tents, Aella quickly got an idea of what she was just asked to do, so without making a fuss she sat down near the campfire. This was the most bizarre first interaction, but Aella will have time to ask questions after everyone has woken up.


    As Aella kept the fire going and looked at the starry sky from time to time, the night passed peacefully, and at some point, Aella got lost in her thoughts. Her dark eyes looked at the dancing flame as she herself was in a trance.*Rusle* But her trance was soon broken when she heard some movement, but because the sound was coming from one of the tents she didn''t panic and just slowly turned her gaze to the sound.


    The tent''s flaps slowly opened and from them came out a brown-haired wolfkin. He stretched his limbs ready to start the day but the moment when he saw Aella sitting near the fire he froze, with a mixture of confusion and curiosity, he opened his mouth to say something but no sound came out of it.


    ''''Good morning Kayne.'''' With no intention to prolong this silence, Aella greeted the familiar beastkin.


    ''''Good morning?'''' Kayne was still confused, so it took some time for him to process what was happening in front of him. ''''Did June summon you to cover her shift?''''


    ''''I think so, those were her first and only words she said right before she went back in her tent.'''' Aella had almost as much information as Kayne right now, so she herself wasn''t sure if June had summoned her just for this.


    ''''Anyway, want something to eat?'''' Kayne wasn''t ready for June''s shenanigans right now, so he decided to let the elf sleep and get information from her later.


    "Sure." Hearing Aella''s positive answer, Kayne went back into his tent. After disappearing for a few moments, he reappeared with a small linen bag and a metal cylinder bottle in his hands.


    ''''Here, something to snack on until I''m done with breakfast.'''' He gave both of those items to Aella and went back into his tent. Intrigued by them Aella opened the bag first and saw some cookies. She used two of her fingers to fish out one of these baked goods and took a closer look before she popped it in her mouth.


    It tasted amazing, she hadn''t expected that from the plane look it had, but the cookie actually had a nice flavor to it. She ate three more before she stopped and decided to take a look at what''s inside the cylinder. It was a container with a screwable lid, so she turned the lid and opened it.


    The moment she took the lid off, she was treated by a nice scent of fruits. Inside the container was some kind of fruit tea, and it was warm. Wanting to taste the drink, Aella poured some tea into the lid and took a sip. It was a little hot so she burned her tongue tip, but it was nothing new so she just put the tea aside for the moment and decided to eat some more cookies. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    While Aella was crunching the cookies between her teeth Kayne came back to the fireplace and started to prepping. He got out the pan and made sure it was secured above the flames, then he put the ingredients next to him so that they were easily reachable.


    Aella didn''t really pay much attention to Kayne''s cooking, she just saw him put the butter in the pan before she zoned out while being captivated by the dancing flame. In her vision she could see Kayne moving his hand, putting things in the pan, but it was like a background to her.


    In systematic movement she continued to eat cookies and drink tea until she heard movement from another tent. Looking over Aella saw the giant man step out of his tent as the blazing red hair fell over his shoulders. Hubert similar to Kayne was surprised to see Aella, but he didn''t say anything he just nodded in her direction.


    ''''Good morning.'''' Kayne looked away from his cooking to greet Hubert and the blue-eyed tank greeted him with a nod and then walked away somewhere. After Aella lost sight of him she returned to her previous activity of staring into the flame. Not long after Sam and Alex also came out of their tent and after exchanging morning greeting with everyone sat down near the fire.


    ''''So how have you been Aella, got any interesting stories?'''' While Kayne was busy cooking food, Sam sat down and started talking to Aelle while Alex sat behind his lover and started to play with her dark hair.


    ''''Nothing much, mostly killing.'''' That wasn''t wrong because that''s basically what happened at every summoning until now.


    ''''Well yes, but you have to have something more interesting, did you encounter someone interesting, or maybe where did you get those?'''' While saying the last words Sam pointed at the ring and the necklace Aella was wearing.


    ''''Well, this one I got when I fulfilled a request.''''  Aella lifted the neckless with her fingers showing off the markings on it to Sam.


    ''''And this one I got from another Safury.'''' She positioned her hand so that Sam could better see the green ring. The dark-haired catkin gently pushed Aella''s palm closer to her self and took a better look at the ring and the golden hair it contained.


    ''''They gave you a nice ring.'''' Aella saw the mischievous smile form on Sam''s lips, implying something.


    ''''Yes it''s a nice ring, plus if there''s ever a need using this ring you can summon her here for help.'''' Aella retracted her hand as she said that, on the other hand when Sam heard this her grin just widened.


    ''''But enough about me, how have you been?'''' Talking about her own stories and adventures wasn''t as interesting to her as listening to other people''s adventures, so she started steering the conversation in that way.


    ''''Well nothing much, we kill some monsters then rest, then kill again then rest again. There are some missions that are different but mostly they include killing.''''


    ''''It looks like we are similar in that regard.''''


    ''''I guess so.'''' Sam had to agree to that, both of them had done a lot of killing as of late.


    ''''So what are you doing now.'''' The party was in the middle of some kind of forest area, so they had to either be on their way to the mission or their coming back from completing one.


    ''''There was a report of a lesser demon wandering near one of the villages, so we took the mission of finding out if it''s true, and if possible take care of it.'''' The moment Sam uttered the word demon, Aella got uncomfortable and she felt some rage building in her, but as quickly as it appeared it disappeared.


    ''''I see, it looks like this will be some fun adventure.'''' Aella kept her smile while still thinking about the demon, she will have to try and see if June would be alright if she sticked around longer so that she could see that demon, that is if it''s real and not some villagers overreacting.

 Chapter 75-Accommodations and start of the mission

    ''''Ready to go?'''' Kyane asked as he looked over the party and the site where they just slept. The party hearing Kyane''s voice answered positively indicating that they were ready.


    With their bags on their shoulders, they started to move, and Aella was with them, following closely. She had managed to convince June to let her stay, although it didn''t take much convincing, she just asked the elf and she got back a simple yes. Aella later asked again because when she asked the first time June had just woken up, and looked somewhat half-dead, and after getting another ''yes'' she was ready to follow the party.


    She understood that they had some way to make it until they got to the village, but they would make it before sunset if nothing major happened. So with that in mind, they started making their way to the village. The path was interesting from Aella''s perspective, they were going through something like a forest but from time to time they would find themselves in a clearing without trees, so Aella imagined that from the bird''s point of view, it looked like a forest with multiple bald patches around it.


    From time to time they would stop to either look where they were, or take a short break, but besides that nothing too interesting happened. They did run into a few goblins, but they were quickly taken care of, they took a short rest after and then continued on their way.


    When the sun was 3/5 on its way to the horizon, the party entered another clearing and saw some structures in the distance, it looked like they had finally arrived at their destination. With Kayne leading, the party made their way to the village.


    While walking Aella could see some people working in the fields and it didn''t take long before some of the villagers noticed them. The people living here mostly gave them a look or two, with some children taking a moment to stare at them, but none of them approached them, so the party continued to make their way to the village''s center.


    The village itself wasn''t protected much, there was a stone wall around it, but it didn''t look as big or as impressive as a city wall, but although it wasn''t as sturdy as the walls of some cities it looked like it was good enough for its intended purpose, as the villagers were still living here.


    Looking more closely Aella could see that although the walls didn''t look that impressive the villagers and guards on the other hand looked to some level of battle-worn, not everyone but a large part of them looked like they were ready to fight some monsters if need be. While Aella was looking around the party smoothly got to the village center, with the only stop being the entrance where guards checked them.


    This village didn''t have an adventure guild in it so they went straight for the chief''s house. It was practically in the middle of the village so it wasn''t hard to find.


    ''''Welcome!'''' But they didn''t even have to come close to the house before someone greeted them. Taking a look Aella saw that the one who welcomed them was a man with simple brown hair and eyes, he looked like he was pushing 50 but even then he had an impressive physique, even his somewhat loose, simple clothes couldn''t hide his muscles.


    ''''I''m guessing you''re the chief of this village, were adventurers here to look into the demon problem.'''' As the party leader, Kayne was the one who introduced them and gave the explanation as to why they were here. The man who greeted them gave Kayne a nod before he stretched out his hand for a handshake, which Kayne gladly shook.


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    ''''That I am and we are glad that the guild has this quickly responded.'''' The village chief didn''t allow them to stand in one place, instead, he started to lead them somewhere. ''''This village might not be much, but we will try to make your stay as comfortable as possible.'''' They walked right behind the chief as he talked to them.


    ''''Thanks for the warm welcome but I would like to ask some questions regarding out quest.'''' Kayne was the only one who was walking right beside the village chief and keeping up the same pace.


    ''''This is the least we can do, after all, you will be dealing with a demon, and you can ask anything, I will try to answer the best of my abilities.'''' The village chief gave Kyane a friendly slap on the back as he smiled.


    ''''Great, then could you tell me when was the demon spotted, do we know for sure it is a demon, and where it was spotted?'''' Kayne started with some simple questions, when, where, and is it really a demon.


    ''''Well, first off its a high chance it is  a demon, because the people who had spotted it, all say that the creature looked like a demon.'''' The friendly smile of the village chief despaired and in its place came a serious expression. ''''Now, it might be some weird beast but there is a really high chance it is a demon.''''


    ''''The demon usually is spotted near the tree line where the forest starts, as it lurks between the trees and is usually seen watching the village, and the only times it had been spotted by one of us is in the middle of the day.'''' As he said the the village chief looked at the sky, but soon after looked back at Kayne. ''''Another thing is that a few days back it started to kill our farm animals, they aren''t protected by the wall, so the far off barns get broken in at night, and the next day we see gutted and bloodied corpses of one or two animals.''''


    ''''It''s starting to affect people, there are some that are afraid to leave the walls even in broad daylight, so I and the rest of the village are really glad you came this soon.'''' As the chief talked about it Aella looked around and saw many villagers giving them looks, either with interest or hope. ''''This village had fought its fair of monsters but a demon is on a whole different level.'''' Hearing this Kayne nodded, because it was common knowledge that even a low-level demon is still a force to be reckoned with.


    ''''Well, enough about the demon, for now, you all are probably tired so you should get some rest.'''' While saying that the chief went into one of the buildings, it was a two-story building made out of wood, and by the looks of it, it was an inn. The inn wasn''t anything out of the ordinary so the group gave it a quick look before they went inside right behind the chief.


    ''''Hi, Anny.'''' Chief greeted the receptionist who was cleaning down the counter. ''''Can you get these guests settled they''re here to take care of the demon problem.'''' The brown-haired receptionist hearing this stopped what she was doing and took a look at the party, who was just standing there.


    ''''Of course right this way.'''' Seeing that they looked decent for adventurers Anny didn''t hesitate and started to lead the upstairs.


    ''''Well have a nice rest, I will see you tomorrow!'''' The chief gave them a smile and a wave and left the inn. The party gave their goodbye to the chief and started following Anny with Kayne in the lead.


    ''''So how many rooms would you like?'''' While slowly making their way upstairs the brunet asked them about their accommodations. Kayne took a quick glance over the party and then answered with, ''''Three will be enough.''''


    Anny registered his answer with a nod and then led them through the second-floor corridor. She only stopped when they were almost at the very end of it. ''''Here are the rooms, please get comfortable and if you need anything don''t hesitate to ask.'''' With a gentle smile, Anny showed them their rooms and then went back to doing her own thing.


    ''''Well, you heard her, let''s get settled.'''' With that, the group split up, with Aella and June in one room, Hubert and Kayne in another room, and the last room got occupied by the lovebirds.

 Chapter 76-Finding the target

    ''''So what''s the plan?'''' June''s dreary voice sounded out as she was trying to eat her breakfast and not fall asleep at the same time. It was the next day''s morning and the group had gathered on the inn''s first floor to get some food in their stomachs and discuss the plan for today.


    ''''I think we should go out and just take a look, try and find some clues or trails.'''' Kayne took another bite of some sort of meat before he continued. ''''If that doesn''t work we can ask the locals for more information.''''


    ''''And if that doesn''t work?'''' Sam''s voice sounded from Kayne''s left as she stuffed another egg in her mouth.


    ''''Well, then we will brute force it and be on the lookout all day and night, taking shifts until we get sight of it.'''' Kayne''s answer wasn''t a pleasant one, as no one wanted to be alert all the time, so everyone hoped that it wouldn''t come to that including the brown-haired wolfkin himself.


    ''''Then we better get started, don''t want to drag this longer than it needs to be.'''' Although June was sleepy and would be more than happy to just go back to sleep, she knew that the faster they started the faster they would end, meaning she would get days off and as a result, she could sleep as much as she wanted. The party agreed with her, so they finished their breakfast, went up to their rooms, and got ready.


    Aella had nothing much to do, so she just followed June as a shadow without making a sound. Mostly she kept quiet because she didn''t have much to say or add, but another part was keeping her quiet was the demon. The closer they got to meeting it the more she felt it. The feeling was a little unsettling, something like a mix of hate, excitement, and curiosity was bubbling inside her, it wasn''t so bad that she couldn''t suppress it, but it was always there, just boiling in the background.


    Aella still wasn''t sure where the emotions were coming from, or why she felt this way about demons. It was like an instinct. her weary being making her feel this way. She just hoped that she could find out why when she meets the demon.


    While Aella was stuck sorting her emotions, June had gotten ready and summoned Grefured. While June walked out of the door Aella just automatically followed her while still stuck in her own head. They were the one of the first ones to be down, as June didn''t have to wear armor or anything like that, the most time-consuming process on her part was the summoning, so they waited for the rest of the party to arrive.


    Fortunately, it didn''t take too much time for the rest of them to arrive. They only needed the essentials, their armor, weapons, and a pouch or two, as they weren''t going anywhere far. ''''Ready?'''' Kayne made sure that everyone was accounted for and ready before he led them outside the inn and towards the walls.


    ''''Oh, good morning, it looks like I almost miss you!'''' While they were on their way, they ran into the village chief, the man had a smile on his face as he greeted them. ''''It looks like you are already leaving to investigate and find the demon.'''' Kayne moved a little bit away from the party as he went and shook the chief''s hand.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ''''Yes, the earlier we get this done the better, we don''t want to delay this more than it''s necessary.''''


    ''''I see, that''s good to hear.'''' Chief was happy that Kayne and the others were such diligent people, he had heard about adventurers who don''t take things seriously. ''''Then I will get out of your fur and let you do your thing, good luck out there.'''' With a smile and a wave, the chief wished them well. Appreciating the gesture the part said their goodbye and continued on their way.


    While walking to one of the gates that led outside the walls, they got plenty of stares, some were full of admiration some were made out of curiosity, and most of them were full of positive emotions. These people were putting their hopes on them, their livelihood, because if they failed to get rid of this problem, the panic would just grow, and from that this settlement would slowly crumble.


    Under the gazes, they finally arrived at the gate, and it didn''t take long before they were on the other side of the wall. But even though they were outside the wall, they still got some people looking at them, and some of them were the brave farmers who despite the threat of a possible demon, stayed outside the wall to farm, either because they had no other options or they just were that brave.


    The party sped up their tempo and soon arrived at the forest where the demon had been spotted. When they arrived at the treeline Alex and Sam split up from the party and started to look around to see if they could find anything, but they still stayed close enough that the party could come help them if something unexpected happened.


    Aella watched them work while following June, and although she didn''t understand some of the actions Alex and Sam took, she still was interested. While Aella was quietly observing, the party slowly got deeper and deeper into the forest, and it looked like Sam had found some tracks.


    She informed the party with a simple motion but didn''t make a sound of fear that their enemy could be nearby. Aella was a little confused as to why they didn''t speak because she was sure that they were easily seen because of Hubert, plus they weren''t that quiet, but she didn''t intend to question the professionals so she just kept quiet.


    The party started to follow Sam a few steps behind her as she followed some kind of trail. At some point while following the trail Aella started to see some drops of blood smearing the green grass that led to somewhere. It didn''t take long before they found out where it led. Some distance before them they saw their dark-haired catkin crouching behind a tree looking at something, while at the same time throwing them a signal to be careful.


    Seeing this, the party slowed down and carefully approached the spot, and soon they saw what Sam was looking at. Between the trees, there was a monster ripping and eating some kind of deer. The deer looked bigger than the ones on Earth, but it didn''t matter right now, what did matter was the creature that had ripped open the deer and was now eating it like a wild beast.


    The creature had leathery brown skin, it had a somewhat human-like face, his mouth was full of sharp teeth, he''s head was decorated by a horn that grew out from his forehead and then curved up and split into five ends, and the monster''s arms looked longer than normal and his hands ended in four-fingered claws, and the legs of this creature looked somewhat like humans, but they were longer and lankier. And right now the monster was just standing above his prey and ripping chunks out of and eating them raw.


    ''''They weren''t wrong this is a demon.'''' While Aella looked at the creature she heard June quietly confirm that indeed the thing they were looking at was a demon. The others in the party also heard this, and you could feel the air around them grow in pressure, as they got ready to attack.