Chapter 365 - Sold for Jerky (Patreon)

My minion doesn’t seem to like the people I introduce to her very much. I can feel her tension and the way she constantly monitors them.

Well, it’s fine. She is just shy around new people. She even gave a chance to Nevan and liked Duplicaniel because he looked like me. Vega is a good girl! They might not become friends in the 24 hours we have, but she will bear with it because of me.

But damn, as I listen to how she found a lair of gray lizards and then spent a day collecting kinetic energy to blow up the roof and bury them inside, I can’t help but be moved. She is indeed a good disciple.

“So where are you currently in your world?” I ask her.

“I left the village after beating a few people! I know master said to lay low, but I couldn’t help it. Plus, I didn’t even tear their limbs off, and broken bones will heal soon enough,” she declares somewhat satisfied. “You said you would do much worse, but I held back!”

I wish Sophie and Maya wouldn’t look at me like that.

“It was also really easy to steal from them. The locks were easy to break and no one used mana-based ones! After an hour, I left half of the things I stole behind because they were too heavy to carry with me.”

Just how much did she take?

Minion continues, “I tried to steal as much as I could, as you showed me in that bunker! You know, ‘steal and sell anything that’s not glued to the floor’!”

Nodding to that, I look away from where most of Group 4 is.

I do not deserve the kind of looks I’m getting from them.

Vega’s eyes shine as she happily describes how weak-hearted most of the people from the village were and how easy it was to deal with the monsters and animals further from the village.

It looks like she has fun even though she is on her own now. Well, it’s only been a few days, so she might get bored after a while. But so far this minion of mine is happier than in the village. Something she wouldn’t be able to achieve without getting stronger.

“Wanna check the wolf?” I ask her when she is done with her story.

“Yes!”

Getting an answer, I stand up, and Sophie, Maya, twins, Izzy and Lily follow us to the rest of Group 4 with Biscuit and the black wolf.

“So your name is Vega?” Lily asks with a somewhat soft voice and a gentle smile. Trying to be friendly with her.

Other members of Group 4 seem somewhat careful but curious. I didn’t tell them that much about Vega, so it makes sense.

My minion glances at me and then at our black haired healer and nods while answering Lily’s question, “Yes. Vega is the name master gave me! He said I’m the brightest star of his tutorial. That in the darkness of the tutorial, he found…”

I quickly cover her mouth with my hand, but the expression she makes tells me that she knows very well what she is doing.

Little devil.

As a punishment, I flick her nose.

Seeing us coming, Tess leaves Gareth and a few others who stand in front of the wolf and moves to meet us. Her barrier against listening surrounds us, and Sophie adds some mana jamming from her web.

“Will you introduce us?” she starts first.

“Sure. Vega, this is Tess. Tess, this is my disciple Vega.”

“Hello!” Vega just says simply, and Tess smiles at her understandingly.

Probably by intention, she doesn’t pressure my minion, knowing the little half demon will prefer it, and instead, she turns to me. “Did you know about this?” she gestures behind her at the giant black wolf.

“I just knew Biscuit liked his disciple,” I say and watch as Biscuit floats out of our house.

In one of his tentacles, he holds a piece of deer jerky he stole from the sealed cupboard where I was hiding it. He puts the small piece of jerky in front of his disciple.

The giant wolf looks at the ground where the small piece of deer jerky is and then at Biscuit, who floats there proudly.

“Anyway, he is surprisingly reasonable. It’s not only because of Biscuit, he seems to be like that,” Tess continues. “He knows about the tutorial and tournament, but some customs or rules seem to stop him from being aggressive while here. Or it could be his personality. He is surprisingly naive.”

The black wolf lowers his maw and sticks out a small part of his tongue to take the jerky on it together with a few stones and some dirt. Yet he doesn’t complain and eats it all while thanking his master.

“I’m lost here,” Tess sighs. “All of our disciples were much weaker than us. The others seem to be the same, and yet Biscuit’s is so strong. I bet he could take on most of the people from Hell difficulty with ease. We are trying to get some information from him, but he refuses to share much and doesn’t want to tell us his name. He says some things he doesn’t want to say and that the system will censor other ones.”

“Of course, the system would do that.” The system is an asshole.

“He also said for us to just be patient and that a lot will be revealed over the tutorial,” Tess mentions. “He trusts the system and the tutorial a lot.”

“Master, I want to pet him! Like Ashenwolf!”

“Soon, minion, soon.”

“I’m Vega, not minion!”

“You just said you are 1st minion and other minions have to listen to you.”

“I’m Vega!”

Nice, acting dumb strategy while looking cute. Classic minion.

“Maya said you talked to Miwa?” I turn to Tess.

“Yes, just visit her house. I was able to make another deal. You will see when you talk with her, a small surprise from me.”

“What have you done, Tess?”

“You will see.”

Haaa. Bullied in front of my minion. My image will never recover from this.

(Asshole with too much mana and weak body!) the voice sounds.

Surely he isn’t talking to me? My body got quite stronger, and my passives and traits help a lot, so I wouldn’t consider it too much mana. Actually, I’m sure I can raise it even more. It’s been too long since it threatened to break my body.

But glances thrown my way as the wolf said that tell me enough. Well, no worries, I will convert them soon.

“If you don’t want to share information about the tutorial, system, and similar stuff, I don’t know what we could be talking about.” I stop by Gareth’s side in front of the giant wolf.

Biscuit is already sitting on top of his head. It’s nice to see that minions respect their masters.

(My master has summoned me for 12 hours only, asshole. In that time, I have decided to test you and other assholes to see if you are a fitting company for my master!)

He even keeps talking like Biscuit is some mystical guru, and the respect he treats him with makes me curious. I just wish he wouldn’t call us like that.

“So a fight?” I ask.

(Great! It’s good you understand! Yes! I will fight you and…) then he stops in the middle of the sentence, his golden eyes looking up towards Biscuit, (But master! I promise I won’t hurt him much!) he complains.

Even though Biscuit doesn’t say anything, a bit of his mana flickers around his body.

The messages are then exchanged only between the wolf and the little corgi, and after a minute, the black wolf turns to me again. (Asshole with too much mana. Surprisingly, master is worried you might hurt me, not about me hurting you. I do not understand; you feel weak.) The giant head lowers, and the black wolf sniffs me.

Just that head is as big as a bus.

“Ten pieces of jerky if you let me fight him,” I tell Biscuit.

(Food!)

“I don’t have that many. Twenty.”

(Sustenance!)

“You won’t die of hunger, but okay, thirty.”

(Friend.)

“I won’t hurt him, don’t worry. He is your disciple.”

(Food!)

“Okay, deal.”

The black wolf seems to be shocked. (M-master, did you just sell me for measly…)

I ignore the wolfy boi and turn to Tess, “Can you take care of Vega for a bit? I will go to Miwa to get the stuff.”

“I will go to minion Miwa too!” Vega in my arms says.

“It’s a surprise for you. And you should get to know the others at least a bit. I will be back quickly.”

“It’s not a problem. I will make sure she is safe, and we will send you a message if anything happens,” Tess smiles at Vega. “You can call me Sset in front of others.” She gestures at Gareth.

The definitely-secretly-evil man looks at Vega with a weird expression, especially at her red eyes and horns. I wonder what goes through his head after remembering what Brainiac said about Gareth only caring about people from Earth. That also makes me wonder about Gareth’s disciple and how Gareth sees him.

Damn, I love this place. So many interesting things to see and think about.

Anyway, “Minion, if anyone attacks you, fight back. Use the kick or kaboom. Otherwise, you can trust Sset and the others, and I will leave my anchor on you.”

Then I turn to Biscuit’s minion, “See you soon, Wolfy Boi. We will fight before you leave.”

The giant monster just snorts, putting its massive head on the ground, and while communicating with Biscuit, he looks around.

I create an anchor and then fly for a short moment, stopping in front of Miwa’s workshop. As probably often, there is a lot of heat coming from inside and the clang of iron to be heard.

I have to wait ten minutes before the second person in craft ranking calls, “Just come inside and don’t touch anything.” Then the clanging continues.

“Already preparing pizza?” I try to lighten the mood as I enter the smithy.

The place isn’t that big, but there is a massive anvil in the center, and just a step away from it a few tables with inscriptions, a wall with tools on it, and a floating stone that radiates a lot of heat, powered by Miwa’s mana.

Miwa doesn’t seem to be amused. “I picked out the items you offered. I want that small dagger made of voidsteel and a mid-sized piece of broken voidsteel blade. For that, I will make the pizza you want and add some extra ingredients.”

“Deal.”

Miwa, holding a silver hammer in her hand, smashes it a few times on a piece of some metal alloy on the anvil and feeds more mana to the floating stone radiating heat. The heat spikes, and she redirects it towards the anvil that absorbs it and then emits it towards the metal on it.

While it is heating up, she turns to me, “I can also show you this arm.” She lifts her right arm made from silver-like metal with a slight pink hue. Even with all the heat inside, it seems like it didn’t absorb any. As cold as it would be outside. And that just seems to be a property of the metal, no inscriptions of the arm activated.

“So what do you want?” I ask.

Tess is really good at dealing with people. I could get used to such surprises.

“Sset told me you know the person I want to meet.”

Huh, I don’t know that many people. Tess could do that as well, so why bother me?

Miwa continues before I say anything, “I wanted to meet that person ever since I bought the first of their items.” She gestures at the darker corner of the room.

There I notice multiple items laying on the table. Items I quickly recognize. All of them are somewhat ugly but apparently have good performance. And Miwa has more than half a dozen of them.

“I want to meet Tent C… Fuc… the person who is first in the crafter rankings. Sset said you can connect me with that person.” Miwa seems to be ashamed to say those words, but her expression changes for the first time.

She ignores the metal on the anvil that starts to melt, and instead, there is a deep interest in her eyes. Nearly a creepy amount of interest.

Is it how she saw me looking at her arm?

But now I also know why Tess seemed to have so much fun. Damn it.

***

Next Chapter