“Follow me Chesy, let’s move to another room so I can adjust you more.” Ceri guided the centauride to come out of the [House Cart]. While doing so, Staas widens the door to make it easy for his horse friend.
“How in the All-father’s name did you manage to pick her, Adra?” The elf-girl grew more and more impressed as she saw how Chesy walked down the cart’s ladder. “She’s talented, well built, even really obedient.”
“Like I said, it was Staas who chose her, my participation ended when we found out where to find centaurs.” Adra acted so humbly when it came to Staas, it was somewhat disturbing to the Sagittarius Party with how cheeky he usually behaved.
“How, Your Grace?” Ceri redirected her question.
“Dunno… instinct?” The boy guessed.
“Do you even know what instinct is, Staas?” Gytha wondered.
“Nope.”
Amid their discussion, an elf boy with an appearance younger than Ceri walked out of the house’s door. He’s all geared up with a
Following what Adra said, Staas ordered 2 Succubi to accompany them by circling their painting on the book with a purple [Luminescent Magic Pen]. They also ordered a banquet for breakfast. Contradict to his status as the Creator and Champion of Nature, Staas is not a vegetarian, nor does Gytha. Though the two of them are the only ones who routinely eat in the Spirit Grove. The nymphs can survive with just photosynthesis since they don’t move much. “Alright cutie, wait a moment okay?” The Succubi waitress took both books from their tables alongside such a warming smile on her face. Then as seductive as they move, she brought those orders to the Service Counter at the center of this Demon Tavern. With that, the three now only need to wait for their Succubi to bring them their banquet. “Staas look! Isn’t that Ceri’s little brother?” Gytha whispered to the boy sitting next to her with her eyes gazing at the group of people far across their table.
“Hm, Ceri? What are you doing?” Staas came back from the Winking Bat alongside Gytha who tried her best to support Adra who’s been drained out... mostly mentally. “Your Grace, you’re ba— oh… I see which tavern you’re choosing.” Ceri almost laughed seeing Adra in that state. She was standing next to Chesy while holding a bucket of water with both her hands. “Shut it… when I told Staas to pick the chatty one, I didn’t expect she would bring the whole orchestra in her mouth.” The half-mer got himself off of Gytha and took himself into the [House Cart]. “Must be hard having both libidos of men and mer…” Nah, Ceri didn’t pity him at all. “So how’s the tavern, both of you?” She asked the two shorties. “The lady we picked has the scent of goat milk, which is Staas favorite drink… so yea… it was a lot of fun.” The girl reported with a smile. Staas then raised his thumb as a sign of approval. “Though most of the time we and our succubus were just busy laughing
9 days have passed, and the three have already finished all their dungeon run. All that was left was just the Enchanted Werebear Nest. “Are you sure this is a nest? It felt more like a village.” They arrived at a palisaded place with wooden towers lined up behind those walls. It is, however, unguarded. Just like every other dungeon, nest, and lair entrance, adventurers are free to enter it. The Unknown Artisan designed the monsters inside to magically stand on their post as soon as someone triggered the place mechanism. Those who are previously lost also got revived. “We’re up against werebear, they’re like primitive humans who have the ability to shapeshift. So yea… of course they’ll live in a humane society.” Adra explained. One thing that differs the nest from a normal village however, is the existence of animal leathers that coated their palisades and gates. There are also a bunch of mer and monsters being impaled near their gate to ward off wande
“Hmm… I think we went a bit too far.” Gytha glared at the scattered piles of werebear bodies lying full of blood around the village. “Don’t worry, their dead are temporary since they’re part of the nest,” Adra assured the girl. “What matters is we survived, and the first stage awaits.” The three stood before an opened bronze gate. Although unlike one in the wyrm’s lair, the bronze on this gate only covered a couple parts of the gate like its hinges, latch, rails, the sandglass frame, and a sign that said ‘Moeder Beer’. The rest were made out of wood. “Hm… this gate opened on its own, is it okay for us to just enter, Adra?” Staas asked before making a rash decision. “The sandglass up there hasn’t started counting yet, so the stage trigger is probably the same as before.” The half-mer answered. “Alright, then let’s not waste any time!” Staas led the two to enter the first boss stage of the nest. Just like they predicted, the gate shut it
“Look! The bear came back.” Said Staas right after the fog perished. “Ah… the sandglass not even a quarter filled yet, this boss will go on quite a while if we choose to play survival game.” Adra staring at the sandglass from the tree they’re hiding. “Can we even kill the bear? Her fur is too much of a hassle…” The boy reminded. “You know Staas, I’ve been thinking, now that you also hold the power of water, can you make something like acid or poison?” Adra curiously wondered. “Poison?” Questioned Staas. “That’s right. All this time you possessed the power to make organic matter, which is powered by nature elements. Now all you need is to make them liquid and create a poison… or potion, but the latter is more for your friend than foe.” The half-mer explained. “Hmm…” But before they could go on further with their idea, the mother bear spotted them. However, she grew more careful after how she got dominated by them before. *Groargh!* As she roared, the water around her began to
The journey from the Bronze Gate to the Silver Gate was as bloody as ever. Another village was laid for the three, and those werebears were mercilessly attacking them. Though sadly they’re heavily outmatched and got massacred instead. “The sandglass looks bigger than the last one…” Commented Gytha as they were done with those mobs. The Silver Gate just like the Bronze Gate was made mostly out of wood, except for a couple of metal parts like a latch and rails. On this one, however, there were banners waving on top of it, with the flag and symbol of the Bear clan. Under the sandglass was a silver-plated sign with ‘Berenmesije’ written on it, meaning the Bear Maiden. “Are we gonna fight the daughter now?” Staas asked. “No… I don’t think so.” Adra somehow looked nervous seeing her title. “Hmm…” Not so satisfied with the answer he got, the boy proceeded to open the gate as wide as possible to assess the stage before triggering the start. Inside appeared to be some sort of a grassle
The Maiden was ready, her enemy was right in front, and her claymore already raging with anger. All she needs is just to swing it and unleash her fire on the short nature boy. *Shht!* *Shoot!* *Tack!* Thuck!* Yet before she could do it, arrows rained down on her. None of it missed her body, yet most of it got completely reflected by her armor, and the rest… went burned by her exposed skin. She might not be hurt by them, but it activated some mechanism that shouldn't have been activated with the number of members the party currently had. "What...!?" Being hit by that many arrows in a matter of seconds, made the Maiden think Staas brought an army behind his wall of trees. She then swiftly ran to the left hut and grabbed one of the boxes filled with swords. Each of the swords in her hand went set ablaze and thrown till it spun like a whirlwind full of fire. They cut an archery target during their flight, taking it along with them to the training dummies. Now blessed by the Maiden,
“I never thought I’ll get to witness your ‘immortality’ so soon.” Adra hesitantly said as the three walked out of the second stage. “Ahaha…” Gytha awkwardly chuckled. “Better not talk about it.” The girl glanced her eyes to Staas who quietly led them on the front. “Does it hurt? You know… dying?” Adra whispered as silently as he could. “Depends on which one.” She answered with a weak smile. “Say no more, I get the gist.” As they continue to walk, they realized the path between the silver door and the gold door wasn’t filled with some kind of arena where tons of werebear hunt them to death. Instead, lines of stalls stood tall with all kinds of tools and equipment free for the picking for them to prepare themselves to fight against the final boss. And at the end of the path, they saw the Bear Maiden chilling behind a desk with all kinds of crossbows presented before her, ranging from the most primitive one to the newest and most advanced repeater crossbow. While in her hand laid