The guard led us to the city lord's mansion, and we entered. A butler took us into a room with a short rectangular table. The city lord was seated at one end, and the butler motioned for us to sit at the other. I sat down, and Lila sat next to me while Elaria stood behind. A maid poured some tea making me miss coffee that neither of the two worlds had.
The city lord wore glasses with a strip of red glass at the top, and while the maid was pouring, he tilted his head down, looking through the red at each of us. I think the red glass must be something that can tell the circles of mages, like the balls at the guild.
He spoke after the tea was poured, "I'm Harris Rivers, the city lord. I apologize for what happened in my city today and would like to thank you for showing mercy to the other party."
I waved like it's nothing, "You're the second person to apologize for that guy, so this must be something common."
His eye twitched in slight irritation but also seemed to grasp another meaning, it could happen again and be very bad.
"I'll have to look into it. Again, thank you for showing mercy."
"No problem. I was in a good mood, so I didn't mind giving a second chance." Though he won't get another if I can just take care of him.
I stood up, indicating I was ready to go and He also stood, we shook hands.
Before we left the room, he said, "If you need help with something while you're here, don't hesitate to ask."
I'm sure he would be happy if I owed him a favor.
We left the mansion and headed to the guild to exchange the Ogre ears; we received 75 silver and 250 contribution points for the ogres. We split the contribution in a way that both Lila and Elaria were promoted to D rank. Elaria didn't have the strength to be D rank, but I'll have her work on that soon.
We went home, and all took a bath. Elaria made some fish and chips; the fish was flaky and not rubbery like whenever I had tried making it.
---
The next morning, Elaria made some rice porridge for breakfast and brought it to Lila, who was sitting on the bed before putting on her clothes, the end of her tail gliding around her upper thighs and lower stomach. I was sitting on the end waiting for those two to eat so we could leave to hunt again.
After Lila tested it for temperature, she decided to drink it rather than eat it with the spoon. She stuck out her chest, tilted her head back slightly, and put the bowl up to her lips. A few seconds later, some came out of the corner of her mouth and dripped off her chin on her breast, running down between. Elaria stopped eating and went to the kitchen area.
I felt my little brother start growing, and knew we were never going to get going if I kept watching. I lay on my back behind her, looking at the ceiling. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elaria return with a wet cloth and clean the spills off Lila. Many scenes started flashing through my mind involving the two of them, Elaria really has patience with Lila, but right now she isn't helping me want to leave sooner.
When Lila was finally done and dressed, we left for the guild to see what other quests we should work on. When we reached the guild, Lila climbed on my back, resting her cheek on my shoulder while we waited behind the group of people at the mission board.
Suddenly, Lila yelped and jumped off, making me fall to the floor.
Bang!
Crash!
Dead silence.
I turned quickly and stood up. The temperature dropped enough I could see my breath. I grabbed Lila's hand that was raised slightly, with ice needles floating above, pointed at the figure of Azreel Schmuck passed out and slumped against the wall a distance away. Blood was running out of his mouth and mangled jaw.
One of the guys that I recognized as part of Azreel's party spoke, waving off the curious gazes from the other people in the room.
"Alright, fun's over; he touched her tail and got smacked for it."
The room returned to its normal noisy atmosphere, with people chatting and drinking.
I patted Lila's head, "Don't kill him now, it's too much trouble."
Then I had another idea on how we could give him yet another smack in the face, as well as help the party that dislikes him. I whispered in her ear and winked at the witch girl who was looking at the slumped figure in dismay.
Lila turned toward the rest of his party members with a menacing face, also shifting the ice needles in their direction, "Is he in your party?"
The witch girl answered, "Nope, I don't know him."
Good thing they were smart enough to take advantage of the opportunity and could later claim they were "forced" to kick him out.
Lila pointed at the counter where Ann was, "Prove it."
The party walked up to the counter and gave Ann their guild cards that also showed their party members.
"I don't know that guy."
"He's not in my party."
"Mine either."
"Stranger to me."
Ann knew they were kicking him out by denying they knew him. She scanned the cards, editing the information, and smiled, "Nope, he's not in your party."
Lila dispelled the ice needles and climbed on my back again when I turned back toward the mission board.
We decided to go for Orcs today. Orcs are much like the upgraded version of goblins, each being about as strong as Ogres but traveling in groups and more intelligent. Orcs are also shorter than Ogres, being only 6-7' tall. They often have dark red skin, often with tattoos indicating which tribe they came from. They also usually have some low-level mages among them.
For the increase in difficulty, they are rated as C rank and pay 25 silver per 10 killed; unfortunately, they only have basic mana crystals inside them.
When we were about to leave, Ann stopped us, "There is a small dragon terrorizing a village a ways from the city. There isn't another party able to accept the quest. It doesn't pay as well as it should since it's a small village paying for it. Would you be interested in it?"
A dragon, even if it's just a small one like she said, should have at least a middle-grade mana crystal worth 100 basic ones,maybe even a high grade with a thousand, enough to make up for low pay.
"How far away is it?"
"About 100 miles." (160 km)
Should only take us about 3 hours each direction, so only a 1-day hunt.
I nodded, "Sure, we'll take it and go tomorrow."
When we turned to leave, we were again stopped, this time by the witch girl.
She glanced toward the still-passed-out Azreel, "Thanks."
I nodded, and she went back to her table.
We left without being stopped again and headed out of the city.
After we passed through the gates and were partway to the forest, I felt Lila's tail slip under my shirt and down the front of my pants. Her hands made their way under my shirt, wrapping around my chest while she clung to me like a koala, pressing her breasts into my back.
I let out a small growl, "We aren't going to get anywhere if you continue."
"Hmm, I don't mind; there's no one around other than Elaria, and we could take a small break. The grass looks so soft here."
A sudden picture of her lying on the grass, eyes rolling back into her head, tongue hanging out with a silly expression on her face filled my mind.
I shook it away and pulled her hands out from under my shirt, holding them out so she wasn't holding onto me.
"Elaria, take Little Pervert or we aren't going to get anywhere."
As Elaria reached out to pull Lila off, Lila let out a disappointed sigh and pulled her tail out of my pants with a pouting look on her face.
"Fine, fine, I'll stop. For now."
I let her wrap her arms around outside my shirt again, and we continued toward the Orc territory.
After a while, we reached the place outlined on the map and I cast a personal shield around Elaria since she couldn't protect herself.
We found a party of 5 orcs and killed them with some wind blades. Seeing as they weren't difficult, we decided to hunt them like we did the Ogres yesterday for more practice.
When we found another group, I made Lila get off my back, and I took my turn first.
After only a few minutes, they were all dead so Elaria and Lila took their ears off while I devoured them.
Lila and I kept taking turns killing the groups of Orcs while we made our way deeper into their territory.
After a few hours, we'd killed nearly 70 Orcs and came upon their camp. Since Orcs were much more intelligent than other creatures, they knew how to build very simple shelters and even had some fires going to cook some meat.
There were probably 100 little tents set up, some Orcs were milling around while the majority were fucking reminiscent of typical Orcs, and I so do not want to ever see that again, so ugly.
Rather than nuking it with a bunch of ice needles, I set a barrier around the camp, and we ran in swinging our swords.
It took nearly half an hour to slaughter all the Orcs. After collecting their ears and devouring the corpses, I decided to stay here while converting the mana stones into another mana circle since I think I should have enough.
'Kitty, is there a best way to use mana stones to get another circle?'
[Yes, absorbing the mana stones directly should result in approximately a 10% loss, while devouring them, then converting energy into lesser energy, then directing it into the mana core shouldn't have any loss, assuming you can control it.]
'Do I just buy lesser energy in the shop?'
[No, I will teach you your first lesson in creation rather than you relying on me to do it once again.]
'Alright, what do I need to do?'
Half an hour later, I was able to follow her instructions and gained a new skill, Creation (upgradeable). It would be upgraded as I learned to create more things with energy.
I used my energy that I got from devouring all the crystals and other things to increase my mana circles to 6. I think it took about 300 crystals worth of energy to do.
I could feel an increased connection to the mana in the air, giving me better control over it as well as being able to control it at a greater distance.
I also felt as though I could move objects however I wanted with only thinking about it and mana would automatically make it happen without having to cast spells on them as long as they weren't too large or heavy. I wondered if I could pick up Lila and I causing many scenes to flood my mind.
I still had a few mana crystals left, and I gave them to Elaria to form her first circle. After she was done, she looked extremely happy, with a few tears in her eyes.
"I never thought I'd have a magic circle."
Lila gave her a hug around her waist from behind, poking her head under Elaria's arm and looking up at her, "Someday you can have 10 circles."
She nodded, smiling, and we headed back toward the city, Lila again riding on my back.
When the city was just coming into sight, I felt a disturbance in the mana of something hurtling towards us and quickly erected a barrier.
Boom!
Something crashed into the barrier and exploded, causing the air to ripple with fire and heat.