"Shit!!! My weapons…" I heard her whisper as she looked at the farthest corner from her in the room where she had left her equipment…
"Do not be afraid; I will not harm you... I have been the one who took you out of the ice coffin and healed you..." I said in Elvish... speaking in a strange language, so far for me, it came as something natural, as if it were my second language...
"So you're not going to take advantage of an unarmed captive; you're not going to make me your slave?" She said as she covered her body with her arms, in a useless gesture since she was dressed, that there was even a touch of disappointment deep down... "wait... how do you know, Elvish?" Her gaze changed from hostility to imperious curiosity...
"Take advantage of me; make you my slave... what kind of barbarians do you think we are? I have only rescued you... I have already told you that I have no bad intentions...?" I turned red as a tomato, and I felt guilty even for the compliments I paid to her beauty...
"Then why have you disarmed me, barbarian cheater… uncivilized liar… manipulator… no, I won't let you have my body even if you try to deceive me…?" I couldn't tell if it was anger or an act; it was difficult for me to read herp changing body expression...
Since when did this game become one with situations of a hentai RPG...?
"Calm down. I only took them away from you to prevent you from killing me as soon as you saw me... insurance in case you were hostile... this is also the first time I've spoken to an elf..." I told her with my palms outstretched and my most sincere smile...
"Good point, but if you come close, I will cut you in two before you blink." I could feel the air mana forming in her palm, so I believed her…
"As for the elvish… mysteries of the sanctuary, what is your name?" I asked her, trying to reduce the tension...
"You are then one of the pioneers of the new race... I did not expect that anyone would go as far as to take that ability from the old trickster... My name is Ildravel ap Jurien, but you can call me Ildra" I recognized the trickster as the merchant of Dreams.
"My name is Lion... if you're calmer, you can get your weapons back now. I have no intention of hurting you; I've already told you..." She stood up unsteadily and took her weapons. You may think it was a mistake, but yes, I wanted her to act more relaxed and calm; I needed her to feel safe... "now if you feel calmer, tell me your story..."
"uyyyy don't be shameless; we don't have that much confidence... Yet... I never tell my story to a guy on the first date... not even if he is my "trusted savior. Besides, I still don't know if we are anatomically compatible to go out with you…" she said while looking at my pants. I turned even redder than before... I think she was amused watching how she made me blush with every little hint in her words...
After laughing for a while at my expense, she began to tell me his story and many other things, and this is what she told me...
Ildra was a proud hunter and mercenary of the wood elf race; she refused to tell me her age... it was non-negotiable for a lady to say her age... According to her, she was a famous mercenary and a renowned wind rider. Whatever that meant... While in one of the forests of the elves nation, they received news and a reward for the head of a Gnome named Svern, who had stolen something from the royal treasure of the Bolgruts, something very valuable... The bounty on Svern's head was 5,000 gold coins, but returning the box to them was more than 100,000 coins.
All the ancient races knew that the Bolgruts had the legendary box of the Ilures in their possession, and that they had monopolized it for the last 30,000 years... The Bolgruts were one of the most powerful, warlike and developed races in Athair, being by so close to achieving transcendence and going to the promised land, that's why no other race had dared to attack them or steal the box...
The box itself was a treasure created by the first race that came to Athair from the second universe, and it is what allowed their civilization to reach the world of dreams, and thus be able to cross to the land of Athair.
The importance of the box was that in Athair it was not possible for a race or an individual to gain affinity with dream energy. It was possible for some individuals to gain affinity with dream mana through the remains of magic left behind by the Dream Riders back, but it was unlikely... Only here in the land of dreams would the box choose a recipient from among the new races so that their bloodline would carry the energy of dreams and could awaken it; it was a way to guarantee Shot...
Individuals who had an affinity for dream magic were called Dream Riders, and only they could freely cross into the dream world or take someone with them…
The Bolgruts not only monopolized the box, preventing the new races that arrived from having an affinity with dreams, but they hunted and killed all the Dream Riders they could; there were very few left, and those that remained were very careful about being hunted or discovered.
The reason was simple, without the help of the Dream Riders the new pioneers of other races would be defenseless upon their arrival in Athair and could easily be exterminated by any of the dangers that inhabited those lands, when the races were extinct or their forces were exhausted. Bolgruts would conquer those lands at zero cost.
Thousands of mercenaries were searching for the gnome throughout Athair... although there was a possibility that he was no longer in those lands... or That was Ildra's bet...
Chance had it that the merchant was in the elven nation at the time, so Ildra managed to propose the following deal to the merchant: she would travel to the land of dreams with the merchant on her next journey, whether she caught Svern or not. It was the merchant's thing; he had no interest in the box of dreams....
There were too many problems... plus it would expose him to the Bolgruts and that had a bad ending. However, in exchange for taking her to the world of dreams, she let him copy two racial characteristics to transform them into abilities... Dim vision and detect magic...
Ildra's plan was to get Svern's head and collect the reward; on the other hand, the box would be delivered to the elder council of the Silvan's so that they negotiate with the Bolgruts to share the use of the box...
Ildra entered the sanctuary to check it for the gnome... after several difficulties in unlocking the different test rooms due to not being a "precursor" or participant in the tutorial, she managed to inspect much of the sanctuary. Although her instinct told her that it would be in the ice area where the gnome would hide since he was famous for his multiple ice spear spell...
She did not find the gnome anywhere in there; however, she did seem to find the gnome, and when she entered the room for the last test, he attacked her from behind, leaving her immobilized with a spell in the room while the test was activated. Then she was stuck on a ice coffin...
You can imagine the rest of what happened while the temperature dropped to absolute zero... She was only able to survive thanks to her tough mercenary body that had long ago reached tier 3, or sublimation state (I didn't know what that was). But she gave it as common knowledge), and because she was a 6-circle mage, that gave her a huge amount of life mana reserve... When her consciousness was turned off in the ice coffin, she still managed to work. If her magic continued working, it wouldn't last forever, but that's what kept her alive until I rescued her...
"Well, after this hunter has bared her soul to her savior, now it's your turn to undress... I mean, bare your soul..." I didn't know why, but of every three sentences Ildra said, one tended to be spicy...
"I know where the box and Svern's head are... I killed him..." she didn't gave me time to react, she with superhuman speed threw herself at me and hugged me, eating me with kisses...
"Tell me where he is... tell me, and I will be in your debt... be a good boy and tell me.".
It took me a while to regain my composure, but in the end, I was able to tell her my story until I reached Svern... She was surprised by the customs of the land. She looked at me amazed and asked everything that came to mind... even things about sexual customs... my marital status... Furthermore, she was excited when I told her that I didn't have a partner... When I finished the story, she looked at me funny...
"So the gentleman has not finished the last test for fear of not being able to save the damsel in distress... an omnimagic and one who has also touched the box... a potential dream rider... your seed will be worth his weight in gold when you have your real body in athair... I have to be the first..." Many things were incomprehensible, or perhaps after so long without a partner, I preferred not to understand her... I felt at times like an object man...
"Don't worry, you can finish the test without fear. According to legend and ancient stories, you will not finish the tutorial until the goddess of magic in the central room blesses you. It will still be easier if we go for the box and svern's head now," she said, looking at me with sincere gratitude in her eyes.
We walked back down the hallway. Ildra cast a spell that made the cold more bearable; it wasn't wind magic, life, or fire, it was something different, but it protected us from the weather... I understood the meaning of the words she spoke, but I didn't understand the logic that linked them...
According to what she told me on the way, the box would close two minutes after opening, so it was safe to approach... There was no sign of the wolves; only the box was there. We picked it up, and I guided Ildra to the other side of the forest to the entrance of the cave...
"I don't have an affinity for earth mana...that's why I couldn't detect it...." We went deeper into the cave. She cut off Svern's head and put it in a large jar that she took out of his backpack...
The next thing left was to return to the ice scale room... I hadn't had time to notice the message in the room...