Chapter XCVII Meanwhile in White Rock, and Within the Halls (Patreon)

Aya stretched and felt the wind caressing her bare skin. It had been a few weeks since her training with her mistress had started. An exhausting set of weeks in fact, but she was getting the hang of her skills now. She had improved by leaps and bounds. Violet had even joined in on the sessions, but mainly thanks to her interest in magic. Although Violet was still a beginner, she wasn’t even ready to cast her first spell. Violet was learning the basics, meanwhile Aya was only  where she was thanks to her past life giving her a head start. Despite having to relearn a lot of things due to her new list of affinities. Mages had a lot to learn before they could even cast a spell. They needed a basic understanding of magical theory, along with a basic understanding of how to manipulate mana. In fact, there was a lot that a prospective mage had to learn just to be considered an apprentice. Then even more work to be considered a mage. The milestone of low mage merely required a mage to be able to cast a single spell, but for most that took years of work even for talented individuals. A fact that played into why those with warrior classes were so common.

Today however was going to be special. They were actually leaving White Rock. Her mistress, Reina had planned an excursion to a small dungeon not far from the city. It was one of the few dungeons in the area under the protection of the dark church. Most others had been twisted by the Church of Light. Only a couple of dungeons were still wild in the Theocracy, and those were the ones that grew strong enough to protect themselves. The light church though had lost control of a couple dungeons as well. Cases where the dungeon grew too strong to control.

This one was a nice dungeon that was fairly friendly to new adventurers. She had only seven floors populated with cat monsters. The last floor had a humanoid cat monster as the boss. Her mistress had told her a bit about the dungeon, but didn’t plan on her progressing beyond the first floor today. It was a jungle maze where large cats lay in ambush. Their typical levels were between five and eight. The most common monster on the floor was a breed of wolfcat. They work in small packs of three, have an elemental affinity for dark and nature magic. An affinity they use mainly for camouflage. These wolfcats are fairly weak on their own, having very low defensive stats and hp. Even Aya’s own admittedly weak physical abilities were enough to best them one on one. In numbers though, she would need to use her magic. Just because they were defensively weak didn’t mean they were not a threat. In fact just one scoring a solid hit could seriously deplete her health pool, and if it was a critical hit that would kill her.

Thankfully this dungeon was one of the ones that had the realm of false death effect. It also had a curse, that did not mean anything to her. It cursed anyone who failed with a childlike body. There was nothing for the curse to change, although it might have some effect on her future. Although in some respects it might be better if she stayed small. It would mean public feeding sessions in the future would be less embarrassing. Although she had gotten used to it. Didn’t mean she did not still wish to have solid food.

She glanced back down the path. Reina was talking with a priestess she had never seen before. She could not hear what they were saying, and while Aya was curious she knew it was pointless to eavesdrop. The magic barrier they had cast to block sounds meant she could not hear any words. She had a feeling they were talking about her, but had no idea how to eavesdrop without getting caught. So she turned her eyes back to the path again. It would not be long before they reached the dungeon anyway. There she would have a chance to gain her first level up in this life.

“She certainly seems happier now. Hard to believe she used to be an arrogant and prideful young man.”

Reina nodded, “She does. It was not easy to break her of that pride. It was so deeply ingrained in her. Although now she has latched on to me like a mother.”

Her patron giggled, “Well, you only have yourself to blame for that. You broke her of her pride. It was so central to her personality, that she needed something new to center herself. She is also at that age where she needs a mother. Those factors led her to latch on to you. You better get used to it.”

She smiled, gave her patron a friendly look, and said, “Well in some ways it is nice to have a child to care for again. Mine are all grown.”

Her patron concurred, “Looking after young children can often be rewarding. In any case, I seem to have made a good choice in entrusting her to you. Anyway I did not come here just to chat about my little project. Do you recall the Undead King?”

Reina gave her a look, “It is about time for his return isn’t it?”

“There is just under a hundred years before he will return. That brings me to what I want. I want you to train Aya. She has the blood of a hero, but she is not ready to awaken it. She needs the heart and understanding of responsibility to go with it. I have an opening for a champion. I want you to mold her into a champion worthy of me.”

Reina regarded Aya as she walked ahead. Clearly excited about her first trip into the dungeon. “She has potential, I agree. It may take a long time to make her a champion worthy of you, though.”

“We both know that we have time. The time needed to mold her into a true hero. The hero she had always been meant to be.”

Reina sighed, “I’ll do my best.”

“That is all I ask,” and with those words the goddess walked away. Reina knew she would simply vanish when she got out of sight.

Around the same time back in Misaki’s dungeon a young fairy was really wishing she had not followed her mother into the dungeon. A demon appeared, and she mustered up the mana to cast another spell. Although she was starting to run low. She was actually rather worried. Behind her she could hear her sisters frantically digging. Not that they were making much progress.

Before her spell was completed, her mothers spell struck the demon. Its body struck the floor and vanished. She held her spell at the ready, and waited. Another wave was sure to appear soon. Glancing back, she knew they were in trouble. Other groups of adventurers would likely be fine, but they were fairies with poor physical stats. Worse none of them had any knowledge of earth magic. So they were stuck trying to dig their way out of this room, while monsters regularly spawned in waves. What they had been trapped by was a conditional wave trap. It was a simple trap, one that continuously summoned waves of monsters so long as the conditional trigger was active. In this case the pile of rocks blocking the exit was the trigger. They were smaller and fairly light rocks. Easy enough for the average level ten adventurer to move, but for a fairy? Well it sufficed to say they had only made a foot of progress and fought off enough waves to have lost all count. She had even gained a level. That was impressive given that these demons were not worth much experience. At least not for her.

This was all mother’s fault. If she hadn’t charged in here, on her stupid insitance to drag Suzu back home to marry her off. At the very least, they should have prepared before delving into a dungeon of all things, and evidently brought someone not a fairy along. Any race would do, so long as they had the physical stats to move rocks. By this point it was fairly obvious that they weren’t going to break through. Her sisters had to work together just to move one rock at a time. It had taken hours to make this little progress, and all the while demons had been spawning in waves, both small and large. She knew a bigger one was about to appear, and they were running on nearly empty. She had barely 300 hundred mana left, and her mom did not have much more. Her three sisters working on the rocks had even less. They had tried pulverizing the rocks first, but they were dungeon rocks. It took several spells just to break them. Adventurers were not intended to dig through that way, clearly. The rocks were small enough and light enough that the average low level adventurer could move them easily after all. Just not your average fairy.

Several sudden flashes signaled the arrival of the next wave of demons. She cursed internally when she saw it. There were too many. They were running on empty, and did not have the spells for that many, and forget trying to beat them back with physical skills. Fairies were terribly weak physically, and none of them knew any physical combat arts anyway. There was a reason fairy warriors were so rare, although those that made it and evolved tended to make incredible spellswords or other magic warrior classes. The key part being evolving, it was critical that they evolved while meeting some very hard to fill special criteria given their poor stats.

She slumped to the floor tiredly, and let go of her spell. There was no way to win, and she just did not feel like fighting any more.Her mother gave her a look, and scoffed before charging into the formation of demons. She flopped back on the floor and looked at her sisters still digging. The rock they had been working on, finally gave. It rolled down the pile and onto the floor. Her one sister had to dodge, and afterward they all slumped onto the rocks and looked back. One of them voiced her thoughts very well, “We aren’t getting out of here, might as well let them kill us. The false death effect should get us back to the surface.”

She had to agree, but she did not want to tell her sister what would happen first. She knew enough about lust demons to know exactly what they would do. They would attempt to corrupt them, and maybe even try to enthrall them first. Demons loved nothing more than to corrupt a fairy. They were going to have a very interesting night.

Tammi turned a corner, her mind still thinking on a subject. She had dragon heritage. Just a few days ago, she never would have even guessed that it was possible. However, the changes in her sister had provided very definitive proof that dragon blood ran in her veins. A bloodline that could be easily awakened by simply participating in an initiation ritual. One that would begin her transformation into a demon.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but her sister had been strongly pressing her to participate in the ritual. With some very pleasurable persuasion mixed in. Her sister seemed to be even more insatiable now that she was a lust demon. Tammi glanced down at her own swollen belly, and sighed. It would not be much longer before they would give birth, and part of her was looking forward to that. Even if being pregnant had been more her sister’s choice than hers. Honestly she still didn’t know what her sister had been thinking back then. Although she did have to admit that she likely would have gotten pregnant on her own at some point. Amy wasn’t her only partner in that manner. Only that it was doubtful she would have chosen Amy to get her pregnant.

Approaching a door at the end of the hall, her steps began to get heavy. What she was about to do would be life changing. Naturally she was feeling the weight of that decision. She wasn’t even sure it was the right choice, and she hoped she could live with it. It was what her sister wanted, and Amy was right. It would make her stronger,better able to serve her mistress. Not that Tammi saw her much, she spent most of her time on the surface. Although she did occasionally come down here and spend time with her swarm queen, and the little electric mouse girl Eris.

She pushed her thoughts aside, and opened the door. Stepping through, she was greeted by a pair of demons and her sister. Amy smiled, clearly quite happy to see her here. She hesitated at the threshold, but ultimately stepped through. The door closed firmly behind her.