"You know, Celene. I've been thinking…"
The two Hunters were on their way through the swampy land of Siren Marsh, sauntering on the only humid ground while trying to stay away from any roaming monsters. Hunters have no business combating monsters after all.
"Can you shapeshift into your wolf form and give me a ride to our destination? I'm getting bored of walking here and there."
"Wha— no way! My wolf form is too big! People will mistake me for a monster!" Celene's face burnt red, she was mad just from the idea. "Especially not in an adventurer-infested province like Siren Marsh."
"Shame." Dov sounded pretty bumped out about it.
"What with the sudden request, anyway? It's not like you to complain about such a small thing like this." The lycan stared at him confusedly. "Do you hate getting dirty in the swamp? But we've been here together many times already, even our home base is in this city."
"I honestly couldn't care less about that. I'm not like All-father who hates dirty water." The masked Hunter then sighed. "I'm just… tired. I've used my 5th Act and that business with Leyna only made it worse."
"Maybe we should go straight to home base first, get a nice rest before starting the next part," Celene suggested.
"Yeah… sure, why not."
The two took the west route from the Right Naiad's Eye. They traveled until they meet a huge bridge that can help them cross the Great River of Atargatis straight to the city gate. But as someone who practically worked and live here, they knew that's not the correct way to enter any Siren Mars's city.
"A medium one please, mister." Dov ordered a canoe to borrow right from a shop beside the bridge.
"Oh, Night Hunters. Coming back from a hunt?"
"You can say that."
The way the shopkeeper treated them showed enough how often they visited this city. The guy is a humble mer, about a head taller than Dov. Merfolk has the ability to change their bottom half from fish to feet, and now he's standing on his two feet.
He strolled a couple steps under the bridge, close to a line of holes underneath it. Each hole seems to lead to a storage of a type of boat, and right now he was standing before a hole with a 'medium canoe' sign written.
The shopkeeper then made a couple wavy motions with his hand, as if he was controlling a flow of water. And indeed he did, as soon after, a medium-sized canoe came out of its hole and splashed straight into the river.
That canoe was artfully painted in black with patterns of a black bear. A glance is enough for anyone to tell that Dov owned this one. Although he himself prefers a normal unpainted one which is why he ordered a medium canoe, not his medium canoe.
"Hop in, Celene. I have no interest being thrown into the water."
"Jeez, Dov. Things like that won't happen again."
With their canoe ready, the two then ride on with Celene in the center, rowing the paddle. She's so heavy compared to Dov, so Dov sitting in the front didn't ruin much of the boat's balance.
Siren Marsh has a long history regarding adventurers, legend said that the Adventurer System was made here by the Unknown Artisan. The reason for its creation was of course monsters, which continued to terrorize the residents, rendering the Naiad—the Champion of Water, stressed out and frustrated about what to do.
But that was hundreds of years ago. Now all the residents were safe since this province was guarded by numerous Protectors. However, the number of monsters roaming around did not decrease. Rather, they increased along with the creation of the Adventurer System.
Even then, unlike most bodies of water in this province, the river surrounding Maid's Harbor was fully clean of monsters. With that, Dov and Celene were safe to ride on their boat unless they got attacked by other adventurers.
Luckily, that didn't happen, and they managed to arrive at the south gate of the city. This gate however is a bit unique as it has three entrances. The left and right entrances were for pedestrians, while the middle one was for boats as it was connected to a waterway, not a road.
That's right, a waterway.
Siren Marsh is quite out of the ordinary compared to other provinces when it comes to their cities. The street in Maid's Harbor is made fully of waterways with tiny concrete roads for pedestrians to walk on its side.
This is the home of the merfolk after all, and they prefer to swim most of the time compared to walking. So any other races that wanted to travel through the city need to use a boat unless they wanted to get wet or trouble themselves crossing bridge after bridge.
"Oh, the sun is rising!" Celene said as she was busy rowing next to the resting Dov.
With morning came, so started the activity in this city. Like Penn said before, this is an international city filled with merchants. However, even though a lot of the shops here were owned by merchants from all over the continent, the shopkeeper was mostly from one race, one gender even.
The mermaids. A beautiful water creature, with smooth skin full of thin scales, and lower half that they can alter between fish and feet. The female counterpart of mermen.
They didn't name this city Maid's Harbor for nothing. Now since the city's activity has started, the roads and waterways went crowded with these beautiful ladies. Not to mention, they carry their name with pride, shown by how they dressed in a maid outfit, with the shade of their shop owner's element.
Although, their dress was a tat bit different from your normal housemaid since it resembled more of a bikini. Though of course, their half apron and skirt were still intact and their head and limbs were still decorated with ruffled lace.
*
"Dov, we've arrived! Wake up!"
After a short relaxing ride, the two Hunters stopped at a three stories house with walls covered by winterstone. It looks like a cold white tiny fortress from the outside, as even the door seemed to be reinforced with diamonds. Dov spent a lot of money to make this home base fully protected.
"Already? Tck, I wanna get some sleep." Dov lazily got up from the canoe.
"It's just a couple minutes ride, what do you expect? Come, there's a warm bed waiting for you inside."
As the two got off their boat, that canoe suddenly rode itself off somewhere following the waterway to find a good parking spot. Dov can of course summon it again by visiting the nearest boat shop.
The Hunter then placed his hand on some kind of magic sensor below the door handle and it quickly lit up in purple. The door got magically opened as it recognized Dov's flow of elemental energy.
"Haviva, can you get me a glass of water." Dov suddenly called to a name right after he walked through that door.
"Hm? Oh, Dov. You're home!"
A mature-looking voluptuous demon came and welcomed them to the home base.
Her eyes were shining dark purple, her long hair was silky black, and her skin was smooth ashen. It's easy to tell how powerful she was by just the sheer size of her top and bottom. It's seriously questionable how she can still walk carrying something that big.
That aside, the wall in this place was fully painted in white, mostly due to the winterstone influence. However, despite how protected the building was, this home was filled with tons of comfy pieces of furniture and paintings of cute animals, a perfect resting place after a long day of hunting. Even Dov knew too much violence can ruin his mentality.
"Want me to get you something sweet and cold instead? You've completely exhausted your stamina and mana." The demon came to him looking a bit worried.
"Sure sure, you're the master of energy…" Dov weakly replied as he threw himself onto the sofa.
"Hehe, mistress would sound better. Just a second okay." The demon then went to the kitchen to fetch him the drink.
"Uhh… I'll be in my room," Celene felt a bit pity seeing how tired Dov was. She didn't want to bother him and quickly made her way to the stairs. "Wake me up when you ready, Dov."
"As always…" The guy retorted.
At that moment, Dov was so exhausted, that he even tried to take off his mask to get a breather as soon as he sensed Celene closed the door of her room.
"Wowowowow— not here." But the demon came rushingly to stop him. She immediately grabbed onto his hand and teleported him somewhere inside the building.
And that somewhere is her very room.
"My drink, please… Haviva." With no hesitation, Dov threw his mask to the floor and gulped that drink till no drop left. And in just a couple seconds, he was completely relaxed, healed from all that energy loss. "Seriously, Haviva. What can I do without you."
"Hehe, anything for you, Dov."
The demon is a succubus and a high-level Broker at that. Her power made her room completely isolated from the outside world, immune to even a Hunter's senses. This made Celene couldn't know a single thing that happened here.
"What happened? It's not like you to be this reckless."
Being asked, Dov then proceed to tell her every bit of his story. She's one of his most trusted colleagues, so he didn't hide anything from her.
"Ouh… is it fun, doing it with Leyna?" Haviva teasefully asked.
"Well, she's a human." Dov struggled to answer it.
"Mhmm…" The succubus smiled widely seeing his reaction. "Say… 'Dov', how about we replenish that ring of yours?" Then as she said that, Haviva slowly took off each piece of her clothing one by one. Her eyes won't rest staring at Dov, fully in a coquettish manner.
"Right now? Won't I deplete my energy and die then?" The Hunter sounded (fakely) unmotivated.
"Ohoho, you know that won't ever happen." As the last fabric fell, she laid her body close to him and talk straight to his ear with seductive whispers. "Relax, as long as I'm around, you are…"
"Infinite."