Andrea didn't have to search for the rings for a long time since she was using her spiritual sense. Sadly, only two out of the four survived the high temperatures. Andrea picked them up and swept them with her consciousness. After looking inside, she almost spat in disdain. "Demonic cultivators are either extremely poor or extremely wealthy. These were filthy poor."
Andrea sighed, "I guess their wealth depends on how many people they've hunted. Since I caught them before they could rob other people, they didn't have much inside their rings. They are worse than beasts."
Although Andrea didn't generalize, it was a fact that most of the demonic cultivators were scum when talking about moral values. Even if a cultivator wouldn't refrain from using their strength to get the things they want, they would at least have a small restraint. On the other side, demonic cultivators did all kinds of inhuman things because of simple whims.
Andrea gained some middle-level earth-ranked weapons and robes of the same level. Besides that, they had some currently useless crystal coins, beast cores, and other miscellaneous things. There were also Demonic Cultivation methods and skills, which she couldn't learn. There were also some tools to torture people and shady medicines.
The thing she found useful were the pills. But Andrea was somewhat ignorant, so she didn't dare touch them without checking what they were. Therefore, Andrea called Kali.
Kali picked up a minute later.
Andrea didn't beat around the bush and described the pills to her. Miss doctor easily differentiated each type of pill, and Andrea wrote it on a white sheet to avoid forgetting.
There were some low-level earth-ranked pills of different effects, nothing she didn't have. Aphrodisiacs, poisons, and their antidotes weren't as abundant, but there were some nonetheless. The toxins in one of the pills were quite powerful, and Kali warned Andrea not to use them lightly. Andrea nodded since she could clearly feel the strong poison in them.
"By the way, Andrea. Those two black, purple, and green pills are mass-produced [Black Suicide Pills]. They are extremely toxic, but you can rest assured because to make something so toxic and low-level, they had sacrificed its spreading strength. Therefore, these pills won't work to kill people like they work for suicide. The trick is that you must consciously move the poison around the body to have an extremely swift death."
Andrea said, "In short, they are useless to me."
Kali answered, "Yes, but keep them since they can come in handy in the future. Of course, not to kill ourselves but other people."
Andrea laughed, "Don't worry, Kali. I do not plan to kill myself. I will also keep them in my ring until we meet."
Kali said, "The last two pills you described to me are pills to get stronger for a short amount of time at the cost of crippling your cultivation. They forcefully upgrade your cultivation to gain that strength, hence, the backlash."
Kali repeatedly warned her not to use them because they were extremely harmful. Andrea said with a smile in her voice. "Thanks, Kali. I will keep it in mind."
"Darling! You better not use them, or I will have sex with you when you have no cultivation! I'm curious as to what would happen~."
Andrea heard Yasenia's voice through Kali's call and said softly, "I won't. However, if you do that, you will kill me, dearest."
Yasenia's charming laugh tickled Andrea's ears. Then, she said. "By the way, are you still with those four guys?"
Andrea said, "Nah, they are dead. I killed them after they lost value and began being a little bit dangerous."
Andrea heard Yasenia sigh in relief, "Good job, darling~. I will reward you plenty when we meet!"
Andrea chuckled gently and answered, "I will be waiting for it. I already miss you, my love. Anyway, thanks, Kali. I now know how to use these things."
"No problem, telling you this much is granted."
They kept speaking for a bit, and then Andrea cut the communication. She looked at the crab that was looking at her with glittering black eyes and patted its 'shell.' "Let's keep looting this place."
The crab clacked its pincers happily and pointed in a direction. Andrea lifted an eyebrow, "Hmm? That is the opposite direction we've been walking until now."
The crab shrank itself, filled with guilt. Andrea smirked under the helmet, amused at its antics. Still, she crouched in front of it and asked suspiciously, "Did you hide something from me, little one?"
The crab even hid its pincers inside the ore and the black eyes slightly shrunk. Andrea thought, speechless, 'Does this crab have a turtle complex?'
Andrea sighed and said, "I won't punish you, but you have to tell me things without hiding anything in the future, alright?"
Andrea repeated the sentence three times for the crab to fully understand. The crab danced around her, trying to flatter her. She couldn't help but laugh aloud, "You are a very cute little thing. Let's go. I'm curious what good things are in that direction."
Without delay, they began moving in the direction the crab pointed. After some hours of traveling, Andrea felt the temperature rising sharply and became curious. Suddenly in the distance, she could see an enormous volcano. The clouds and ash in the surroundings had blurred it before, but now Andrea could see it clearly. She asked curiously, "Are the good treasures over there?"
The crab nodded, or well, it moved its pincers up and down. Andrea asked, "Wouldn't it be too dangerous for you, little one? You are just in the initial level, right?"
The crab looked toward the volcano, then at Andrea. This kept repeating three times. Then, Andrea saw the crab pointing at her, and then it moved toward her back as if hiding behind her. The heroic woman smiled, "You want me to protect you?"
The crab made a little dance again. Andrea sighed and nodded, "Sure, let's go. However, don't blame me if you die."
The crab spat bubbles at Andrea. 'Don't say so many ominous things!'
Andrea snorted with laughter and said, "Let's go! We should take three to four days to reach the volcano." And so, the journey of one strange crab and one woman resumed.
As Andrea and the crab began their travel, Yasenia, Kali, and Angel were completing more monoliths inside the town. They've decided to look for Monoliths similar to the [Strength Monolith], to gain a small burst of points in a short amount of time.
The ones they completed during this time tested endurance, agility, potential, intelligence, energy purity, and one that pushed the mind. All of them passed these tests gaining between 800~1500 Trial Points.
Now, after going through seven monoliths of this kind, Yasenia had almost 10 300 Trial points, Angel had nearly 11 600 Trial Points, Kali had 7 950 Trial Points, and Sarah had 7 100 Trial Points. The reason Angel had more points was because of the big advantage she gained in the Strength Monolith and, surprisingly, the high score in the last Monolith that pushed the mind.
However, there was an exception. Unlike the other three, the Monolith that pushed the mind was too dangerous for Kali, so Yasenia prohibited her from doing it. No matter how big of an improvement they had made in that aspect, it was still too early to call victory.
Yasenia wouldn't like all their efforts to go down the drain because of external factors.
Nevertheless, since the challenger wouldn't be transported to another place, Kali pleaded to Yasenia to let her try it and snap her out of it if she saw something bad happening. Yasenia had been reluctant, but after a round of persuasion, she agreed.
After she challenged it, Kali didn't last more than ten seconds before the black aura began showing on the outside. Yasenia reacted quickly and snapped Kali out of the Trial. However, Kali was already trembling.
Because of this, the four of them had decided to rest a little while in a plaza full of beautiful flowers and other vegetation. The natural feeling of this place gave Kali a nice and refreshing feeling and adding Yasenia's presence, it was enough for Kali to begin relaxing. Of course, Yasenia wouldn't stop at just calming her, so she was currently pampering her to the high heavens.
They were seated on a bench, and Yasenia was hugging Kali closely, caressing her ears and tail tenderly. "Don't be upset, honey. I'm here. It was just a test. I won't ever leave you.."
The Monolith had shown her various situation where Yasenia left her, used her, or worse things. Even if it was just ten seconds, the heart demons took the chance and flooded her mind with countless bad scenarios.
She kept her heart strong through most of that because she didn't believe for a second that Yasenia could do things like that to her. However, she lost it when she saw Yasenia sacrificing herself for her in various ways, be it physically, sexually, or receiving different tortures. Those situations almost made Kali go on a rampage.
Thankfully, real Yasenia was nearby and brought her out of the illusion before it got out of control. Kali did what she always did when dealing with heart demons. She poured her worries to Yasenia without hiding anything.
This has been her way of overcoming most of her struggles, be honest with Yasenia and do not hide your fears, discomfort, or any other negative emotions. She knew Yasenia would console her and wash her worries away with love.
Kali fully trusted that Yasenia wouldn't judge and that she would guide her through these moments.
And that was what was happening right now.
Kali was between Yasenia's arms, her tail being caressed by Yasenia's soft tail and her ears being gently massaged. Yasenia's mellow and slightly deep voice filled her soul through her hearing sense, reassuring her repeatedly. "I will never do anything that may hurt you, honey. We will always fight together against our enemies, okay? I love you so much. How could I make something that will make you feel so anguished?"
Kali had half-closed eyes and subconsciously rubbed her body on Yasenia's, letting cute noises escape her throat. She was feeling heavenly right now. Yasenia heard them and smiled tenderly, "You are such a cute fox~."
Angel was sitting beside them, looking at their interaction with blushing cheeks. She found them adorable. "Kali, can I pet you?"
Kali made an affirmative sound, and Angel began petting Kali.
Sarah was seated in front of them, feeling slightly awkward. 'Seeing the person you like being so affectionate with other people is… Hard.'
[Host. Don't surrender. You just have to imagine being in the same position that the fox-woman currently is.]
'Even if you are trying to cheer me up, with your emotionless voice is truly hard to feel a positive feeling.'
[Host. You can't complain about how others are made. I didn't choose this setting.]
'Who did?'
[Host. This is just naturally how we, systems, are built. Having emotions would make us deviate from our purpose. The only thing I had before awakening inside of you was preinstalled knowledge about the world given to me from the world itself. My independent thinking process was booted when I was within Host.]
'Interesting.'
Sarah's wandering thoughts stopped when she heard Yasenia speaking. Of course, Yasenia didn't stop her caresses, which had now spread to even Angel, as she asked, "Do you girls want to go shopping? We've already been two days here."
Kali's fox ears straightened as she looked up from Yasenia's embrace. "Let's go buy the pill recipes!"
Angel also grabbed Yasenia's arm and said, "I want to buy formation books!"
Yasenia patted her two dears and nodded, "Let's go then. If you need points, just ask me. Sarah, are you coming?"
Sarah looked at Yasenia strangely and said, "If I don't go with you, where should I go? Am I a bother?"
Yasenia stood up, separating from her two clingy cuties, and approached Sarah. Under her surprised eyes, Yasenia gave Sarah a surprise kiss on the forehead. Then, she said to the stunned woman, "You aren't. I just wanted to confirm. This secret realm is so big that you may have wanted to explore it on your own. Let's go."
Sarah touched her warm forehead, and a deep blush spread on her cheeks, 'J-Just a kiss on my forehead, and I'm already like this….'
Yasenia was thinking, 'I hope these small acts of affection make her less feel awkward. Although I do not trust her, I don't want her to become an enemy. Moreover, little shows of affection like this won't hurt me in any way. But I have to find a chance to separate on good terms with her. Leaving her naivety to the side, she has a good personality, and we could even become friends. But as long as she keeps lying to me about important matters, like the thing inside of her, I will never be able to trust her.