The giant of a man Eldrid and his elf wife Kialas were good hosts as they paid for my party's dinner. And while we were eating Eldrid and I got into a conversation about the necromancers causing issues lately with Eldrid saying gruffly.
"The closer you get to the mountains separating New Atha from Ecesh, the more monsters and otherwise higher-leveled monsters you meet without exception besides some migratory monsters," Eldrid spoke before knocking back some of the inn's strong beer before continuing.
"The issue is that the Orc Necromancer Queen is destroying the natural balance in the mountain monster's habitats as she is leading armies of undead to kill stronger monster groups to add their numbers to her hoards. Which is naturally making monsters run out of the mountains and into the lower leved area's closer to New Atha and Duchess Iyana's holding in the city of Lundhaven."
Lundhaven was supposed to be the city we were supposed to escort that merchant to. But the merchant clearly was cutting his losses after seeing how utterly unsafe the roads were if a necromancer and his hoard had managed to get within five hours of New Atha itself.
Which from the perspective of a mostly defenseless merchant... That made sense honestly. I couldn't exactly blame him for saying 'Hell no' to probably running into more insane necromancers.
Either way I looked over and saw that Drakia and Rose in hushed conversation with Eldrid's wife so I looked back to my meal partner and said wryly. "We got a mission closer to Lundhaven and our merchant we were supposed to escort cut us loose after seeing the necromancer... Any advice to getting to Lundhaven without needing to spend a bunch of money?"
The large man blinked before chuckling as he spoke. "Hmm, you guys are new to the whole adventuring gig right?" And at my nod, he continued with an easy smile. "Well, this fortified Inn acts as a waypoint for several settlements so you could wait to hitch a ride and act as additional escorts to any merchants that come this way and are heading your way."
He then leaned in and spoke more quietly. "Or... Or there are the dungeon tunnels connecting through the older dungeons and into the dungeons across the Continent." He said and my lips twitched at that advice.
Basically, the super powerful and very fucking old dungeons would use their great power to create dimensional tunnels to their sibling dungeons that had reached a certain depth so they could share sentient corpses and monsters between the dungeons. And humans and other beings if they dared could fight through the dungeon to take one of those dungeon tunnels to be basically teleported across the Continent of Atha which was the only true method of teleportation in the world. Without like a week-long ritual and countless resources used in the teleportation.
This was partly why everyone was so surprised when I could do short-range teleportation and why it was so effective in combat.
The issue was that all dungeons that were intelligent enough to realize that sharing their specialized dungeon resources was the smart move were more than a century old, and had monsters with an average level of thirty before the levels would jump upwards greatly the closer you got to the dungeon core to say nothing of the terrible traps the dungeon would create to kill you.
"That's a bit out of our wheelhouse," I said with a weak smile while shaking my head before continuing. "Besides the nearest deep dungeon is out of the way anyway."
The large man nodded and said evenly. "That's all the advice I can give you then. But on the bright side, merchants typically come through here every day or at least every other day."
I hummed as I really didn't want to trek for literal days on my feet as I couldn't carry Rose and Drakia at the same time without getting tired quickly while flying.
"Alright, thanks for the info and the meal Eldrid." I spoke holding up a beer flagon up in a salute making him chuckle as he tapped his own flagon against mine and then we in unison chugged our beers down before slamming it on the table with us both laughing heartily.
Even as I had a good bro moment with a fellow warrior I heard Eldrid's petite elf wife snort and complain helplessly. "Men!"
And Eldrid just toasted his wife and called out shamelessly. "And that's why you love me dear!"
Said elf was likely not the type to do well under social pressure as she flushed and hid her face in her hands as several other people cheered and laughed in merriment.
Eventually though after some more food and drink were shared. My two girls were ready to retire with the manager of the Inn comping us for a weeks stay in a room for killing the necromancer... Though food and baths weren't included in that reward so we had to pay for that.
"Well this is cozy," I said looking at the well-made bed and I quickly lifted up the thickly stuffed mattress and inspected the edges for bed bugs or anything but surprisingly there weren't any signs of any bugs.
Rose actually giggled and said gently. "Jake, this is an official establishment, they run through all the rooms with magic every week or so to get rid of any bugs. And other nasty stuff, if it weren't for them rewarding us with the room, actually renting this would be rather expensive honestly."
Which made sense as security in this world of monsters and otherwise crazy bastards wasn't cheap but either way I just flopped face-first onto the bed as I idly looked at my stats that had gone up a good bit since I went from level 9 to level 15.
"You girls willing to share the bed?" I asked with a yawn as Rose and Drakia looked at me with humourous eyes as I dropped my armor and other stuff besides my sword Siren into my inventory so I was comfortable.
And I left Siren out of my inventory due to its special ability to sense hostile intent while I am sleeping and would make a loud noise to make me up should someone with ill intent aimed at me or my general area come close.
-
Jing watched with ample patience as her target of observation as well as her clan's hope of revival fell asleep next to his women who had bound their fates with the chosen one. 'A bounded one... And one with such a troublesome history as well.' Jing thought with some foreboding while looking at Drakia.
Sure the church of that damned useless pervert Light Goddess loved to give their newborn bounded ones new identities and lives after their souls were pulled up to the afterlife. But if the body's old life had a... Problematic past, and they ran into the source of said problematic past?
The ninja's lips twitched wondering how the hero would react to the situation that would arise when he eventually went to the nation of Draygro across the sea.
But regardless of that, Jing refocused on the man who was the lynchpin for so many people's ambitions and was rather happy that his actions today hadn't required her to get involved as although she was more than willing to protect him. He however needed to fight with his lower-level party members to gain the XP, which would put him on the level of the other great fighters of this world.
"Jake, what time do you wish to be awoken?" The perverted nun Rose Winter, spoke very quietly making Jing listen in closer and ignore the deviant elf and large warrior male's antics in the next room.
Jake grumbled and buried his face into the large breasts of said nun smiling with a deviant light entering her eyes that made Jing roll her eyes.
'What is with the perverted nuns and priestess of all the faiths?' Jing thought with some despair. As although as a kunoichi she had connections and actual blessings from the darkness goddess. She would never... Never be an actual priestess or nun of the Darkness Goddess as said goddess had even weirder mental issues than the degenerate Light goddess!
But then everyone stiffened as a moaning whine rang out as the large man next door screamed out. "Stomp on me harder mommy!"
Jake's utterly disgusted face as he raised his face from the breasts of the perverted nun who whined at his exit from her embrace would haunt her days. And then Jing stiffened as Jake looked around before seemingly looking in her direction and spoke out.
"Jing, present yourself now." He ordered forcefully as he sat up on the edge of the bed.
And old instincts kicked in as his dominant glare fell upon her hiding place in the shadows with her popping out of the shadow and landing in a respectful crouch. With her head aimed towards the ground as her liege lord prepared to give her. Her new divine mandate.
'Damn.' Jing mentally cursed as both girls flinched at the sight of her arrival and Jake... He just looked exasperated out of all things!
-
Whelp now I need to decide what to do with the ninja following under the orders of the Queen while going to the duchy of one said Queens sisters who wanted said sibling dead and themselves in power.
Taking in Jing, I saw that she was wearing the same similar outfit as before with her wearing a tight body glove that outlined her ample form while dark-shaped plates that were strapped to her body offered some protection. While lastly she had a sword sword strapped to her side and daggers an other knives strapped to her body in multiple places.
But just ogling the ninja woman wasn't why I had called her out of her hiding spot as the dark spot I had called her out of. Was too dark to be natural in the candle-lit room.
"Jing, I have a favor," I spoke and her eyes moved from the floor to my feet. 'Dear gods this woman was trained well.' I thought with some exasperation. But regardless I continued. "Can you like... Not watch when I get intimate." I finished blankly.
Although I had a very strong suspicion... But I was damn near sure that when I got intimate with Isha from the goblin extermination quest, I could feel her watching or something.
But to my question, Jing closed her eyes and responded quietly. "It's not that I desire to watch and enjoy your copulations out of some deviant desire... But I have had to kill many assassins and ne'er-do-well's that sought to end your life before you could grow into your power."
'Do I keep the bodyguard and possibly my life... Or do I get to fuck in peace? This is too damned hard to choose!' I thought before shaking the nonsense thought away as I sighed and muttered under my breath. "Fine, I will just pretend you don't see anything."
Instead, though Drakia asked bluntly. "Jake is she another of your lovers beyond being just your bodyguard as the Hero?"
Jing actually looked up at the Dragonkin with shock at her saying that and as I face palmed I heard Rose giggle at the ninja's reaction.
"No! I... Wouldn't be adverse to serving in that way... But we don't have that kind of relationship!" Jing said with utter embarrassment before she looked down and it was only my strengthened senses that allowed me to faintly hear her mutter. 'I wish he made me serve like that...'
'Ugh this world is too damned degenerate.' I thought weakly as I realized I wasn't summoned here to this world to save it by slaying the demons and orc armies... I was summoned because the gods and goddesses were perverts. And the many people who got their powers from them were equally perverted and useless!
Like Eldrid next door... How the hell could I trust a man to watch my back in battle when I learn his fetish is being choked out with his genitals being kicked in at the same time!? I am utterly fucked if the demons and orcs are even halfway competent!