"This looks a little gay..."
One of the men that saw the scene inside the hollowed tree gave a queer smile, his expression dark and within the next seconds, he retched along with his other subordinates.
The impact of seeing a sturdily built man cuddling with a young man with a frail figure with a skin that looked fair like a boy-toy gave them a shock that they would never forget in their entire life.
Dan knitted his eyebrows while Charlotte struggled and came out of the hole, fortunately, her Divine Arts of Transformation can manifest clothes or else she would have to settle with leaves and bushes.
When Dan woke up, the first scene he saw were several foreign men staring at him with disgusted expressions and Charlotte's manly and dignified face, giving off a vibe of an embarrassed maiden.
"Fuck..." He mumbled and rubbed his aching temple, although he requested that she should transform into a man, Dan didn't know that her perception of a manly person was this strong. She even replicated a perfect six pack abs along with pectoral muscles and biceps which bulged, emanating a mighty and manly sensation.
Normally, she would look handsome and attractive, but Charlotte didn't match her current figure with her expression. Instead of looking collected and stoic, her expression looked like a shy maiden that was about to be scolded for being naughty.
Suddenly, a feminine voice interrupted the standstill, "What's going on here? Is there a problem?"
The men turned around and stared at the incoming young woman whose visual appearance looked similar to Charlotte along with her age. The only difference was she gave off an air of undeniable authority. Like an insurmountable mountain, people would feel suffocated if they stared at her casually.
"Miss Boss, it seems like we found two gay men in the middle of doing it..." One of the men chimed in and she revealed a similarly disgusted expression upon hearing his words. However, she maintained her indifference and said, "Both of you," Her attention turned to Dan and the former perked his ears.
"What are you guys doing in here, so deep in the forest?" Her expression somewhat indescribable, two men inside a secluded area and one of them clearly had an expression of a swinging that way. The answer to her question was obvious but she didn't want to assume until the condemned admitted to it.
"Young miss," Dan clasped his hands together as a gesture of respect before saying, "We're a part of a tourist group but we suffered attacks from powerful beasts, and only two of us survived, " Dan activated his acting skills and his eyes shone in a melancholic light while his face looked pained and sorrowful.
The men sympathized to his feelings, after all, who among them didn't experience losing a valuable brother from the attacks of beasts? Their disgust to them lessened and they only felt that both of them were somehow pitiful.
As for the gay man, they wouldn't mind him going with their group for as long as he won't randomly grab their snatch.
"I see, however, you can't expect us to believe anything that you say, right? How about this? Show us some proof that you are indeed, a member of that group that you're speaking about..." The young woman, clearly the leader of the group, said.
Dan inwardly clicked his tongue, cursing himself for carrying a stone, only to drop it on his foot. However, at this crucial time, Charlotte chimed in. Speaking in a deep tone which contained a hint of femininity which sent shivers down the men's spines, she said. "Ermm, young miss, I have this token with me, I hope this can prove our identity as a member of that tourist group."
She took the jade token of the Paradyne Academy and the young miss, recognized the two of them as unfortunate students that wandered too far inside the Wilderness.
With Dan's bullshit as a support, he managed to have her believe that they both wandered like headless flies inside the Wilderness and only managed to survive after finding a water source.
Fortunately, the leader of the Tyrannical Jollibee Gang, Caitlyn was a woman whose external impression looked cold, yet quite compassionate to her comrades. The reason why she earned this much respect from these group of battle-hardened men was that her prowess when it comes to Cultivation exceeded even Charlotte, reaching the Early Stage of Spirit Tempering Realm in such a young age of nineteen.
But of course, if not for the fact that Charlotte was currently injured, her strength at the peak of Organ Tempering Realm along with her young age at sixteen would thoroughly astonish them down to their very souls.
The group continued their journey with Dan and Charlotte in tow. The men sighed in relief when they found that Charlotte didn't seem to be willing in approaching them. Instead, she just stuck closely at Dan.
However, the scene of seeing a dignified man whose physique, at least a head bigger than Dan hugging his body from behind made the men endlessly cringe in their journey to the extent that Caitlyn pleaded Charlotte to temporarily stay away from her boyfriend.
But Charlotte remained unwilling, fear visible on her face as she denied her request and Dan could only helplessly smile in response.
Thankfully, the men of the Gang only bore ill-intent towards the members of the other Gangs and even though they were just strangers; they still treated them with the respect that they deserved as human beings.
But Dan knew that because they lack ruthlessness, they stayed at the bottom rungs of the Society of Gangs, completely unable to rise due to their enemies' incessant pressure.
This time, with hopes that they could hunt a Spirit Tempering Realm Beast, they journeyed out towards the heart of the Wilderness, but only they didn't manage to hunt anything, they even picked up two baggage which equals to two pairs of mouth that needed to be fed.
Their boss' kind heart endlessly bothered the ruthless members of the Gang to the extent that they had long since planned a rebellion in hopes of usurping her position. But because of her sheer strength, everything that they did behind the scenes would be crushed before it could come into fruition.
Night came and the Gang camped at the Northern Border of the Wilderness, according to Caitlyn, they would reach their destination; The Desert Wilderness Bazaar, in about half a day's journey.
In the middle of the night, Dan went out of his tent and left Charlotte cozily sleeping on her own as he approached Caitlyn's tent.
"Ermm, Miss Boss," Dan said in a hesitant tone because it was in the middle of the night, he didn't want to become a bother.
"What is it? Dan?" Caitlyn's voice echoed inside and Dan said, "May I come in?" Caitlyn took a moment to reply before she voiced her consent, and when Dan came inside the tent, he saw a single futon and some comb laid atop it.
"I have a matter that endlessly bothered me about your group, ever since you picked us up, Miss Boss..." Dan said and Caitlyn frowned since Dan wasn't a threat to her, she said, "What is it? Feel free to speak..."
Dan sighed and continued, "I noticed that apart from you, most of your men had quite a good cultivation yet their equipment are subpar, some are even in the brink of being turned into scraps," Dan stopped speaking and stared at Caitlyn's expression.
The latter turned somber and despondent, one of the reasons why the group of her Gang became so slow was because of the lack of weapons and armors along with not having a Forger that would forge items exclusively for them, this forced them to buy their items inside the bazaar where prices were highly inflated and absurd.
"Don't worry, Miss Boss, I didn't come here to mock you, instead, I came here to offer a cooperation." Caitlyn's expression changed and she lifted her head, staring right into his eyes in an effort to see through his deceit.
But what she saw was a terrifying calmness and confidence that brimmed in his eyes and exuded itself within his natural movements akin to that of a dignified merchant.
"What kind of cooperation are you talking about?" Caitlyn became interested and Dan gave a small smile as he said, "I will personally forge weapons and armors for your Gang, however, you must gather the materials yourself and If you're planning on selling the items, I should get at least twenty percent of all the profits..."
Caitlyn took a moment to register his words, but still, she remained her calm and thought that his proposal was quite logical and good, however, she didn't decide as she said, "Sure, we can do that, but what is your success rate?"
"Seventy Percent."
"Eh?" Caitlyn absentmindedly mumbled, her F cups juggled in the air and paired with her slightly reddish hair along with her innocent and adorable expression, this painted a scene that would prove fatal to any third party men.
Calming his nerves, Dan assumed a dignified expression once again as he asked, "So, what will Miss Boss' decision be? "
Caitlyn revealed a small smile, "I will agree to this terms however, you must swear a cultivation oath that you would never create weapons and armors for other Gangs apart from our group until our contract lasts."
"How long do you want the contract to go on?" She added and Dan mused for a moment, "Until I find a way to safely return back to the Empire of Eternal Faith..."
"Agreed." Caitlyn nodded her head, the Empire of Eternal Faith was a distant Empire that would take at least several months to travel even by using a Unicorn Horse which could travel in speeds four times faster than a normal horse, meaning their contract would last at least six months or more.
Dan bit his wrist and Caitlyn did the same, dripping their blood against each other's wrist, they swore a contract bound by their blood and Dan swore an additional oath with his cultivation.
Before he left back at his tent, Caitlyn gave him three batches of forging materials for a simple light armor asking him to forge what she needed. If Dan succeeded and met her standard, the contract would take effect. Else, they could just forget about it.
Returning back to his tent, Dan carefully shoved the sleeping Charlotte to the side and calmed himself down, preparing to sleep. But before he could do so, Charlotte suddenly embraced his body using her manly transformation and Dan could only wryly smile since his strength wasn't enough to push her gigantic body away.
Without any other choice, he could only let himself become a body pillow for Charlotte, and even though her physique looked like a man, she still was a woman inside and as the saying goes back at his previous life, "Traps are not gay" so it could be said that his manhood was safe.