TQH Reboot Vol. 1 pts. 1-5 (Patreon)

((Originally, I was planning on writing about 30 chapters that were 1k words each for ease of posting daily for at least a month when posting to RR and SH. However, these first five chapters ended up being a total of 8,232 words instead. I didn't want to try and divide them up into eight chapters since I felt like that would have ruined the flow of them, either. I also planned on trying to get the first 10 chapters or 10k words done, but last week ended up being more draining than I expected it to be. Almost reached the goal, though.

All that being said, I really have no idea if people are going to like this reboot. Personally, I'm already happier with it. Zurie is a bit lewder. Woofen gets a personality and banter upgrade imo. There's more of a focus on the characters instead of immediately going into grinding for 30 chapters most of which were spent alone. I've also decided that there will be fade-to-black sex scenes instead of constantly blue-balling him. So anyways, here it is. I hope that it's not complete garbage!))

Vol. 1 pt. 1

I screwed up. I seriously screwed up.

“I am unsure of whether I should praise you for you such a bold display, or to pity you for being so desperate. You must be one or the other to have attempted this heist of yours, after all,” the woman across from me, Zurie, said.

Well, I might have screwed up, but at least I had a pretty nice sight to look at. Was I about to die? Yeah, probably. But at least I got to see one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen before right before my death. That made things at least a little bit better, right?

No. It didn’t. That was why I replied with nothing more than a good, ol’ fashioned, “Fuck you.” Maybe if she hadn’t already cut some new scars into me just by gently grazing the tips of her nails across my skin, I wouldn’t have been so vulgar. But there I was, on my knees with my hands bound behind my back by her magic with blood trailing down my arms and neck from where she grazed with her nails.

No matter how nice of a sight she might have been, I wasn’t ready to die yet. Death was still death even if it was a beautiful woman who delivered it to me.

“How vulgar, not that I expected much from a stray beast breaking into my home,” she replied. I seriously didn’t like that everything about her drove me crazy, the probably-killing-me part excluded. If it wasn’t her body that made me think death by her might not be so bad, it was that sultry voice of hers. It was a proper woman’s voice. The kind of voice that had some age and experience behind it to separate her from the girls while being spoken in a way to purposely drive any man wild. Heck, I never accepted anything but the full price when it came to taking jobs, but I would have given her a discount if she asked me with that voice. “Not only do you speak like a beast, but your eyes even wander like one. Is that the kind of man you are? Even when you face death, you cannot help but to lust for your killer’s body?”

Shit. I was too obvious. I had to admit, I felt a little bit stupid having her call me out like that right after I tried acting tough.

But I had a plan to steal my pride back. All I had to do was take my eyes off of that chest she was hanging down in front of me to look up into her eyes. If I was going to die, it was going to be while looking my killer in the ti—eyes! The eyes.

“How precious.” She brought a single finger toward my chin and slid it underneath to tap up against it from below, tilting my head back. Thankfully, she chose against bleeding me with her nail some more. “It is not as if I am unaware of the effect my body has on people. You may have attempted to steal from me, but I am not such a cruel woman that I would deprive you from your final sight being a pleasant one. Please, look to your heart’s desire. It does good for my ego to be reminded that such a young man finds interest in an old woman such as myself.”

I couldn’t help but to scoff when she called me young and herself old. “Seriously? You look half my age. What are you, maybe in your twenties? I thought you were only going to give me a nice sight, not make me laugh.”

“Oh? I would have expected a man as… rough as you to feel complimented upon being called young.”

“Sure, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to hear a little girl call me young.”

“Little girl? If you say that I look to be in my twenties and then call me such, I wonder what you call actual children.”

“Annoying little brats is what I call them.”

The woman, never breaking contact with my eyes, smiled. Her smile was every bit as alluring as her voice and body. It drew me in and made it impossible to keep direct contact with her eyes. I was only able to look away from her smile when she stood up straight again and walked away for a few steps before turning back to face me. “It would be wise of you to not judge age by appearance. I am likely old enough to be your great grandmother’s mother.”

“That’s a fancy way of bragging about not having any wrinkles.”

Her smile grew even wider to the point of getting to see just a quick flash of her teeth. “I have a feeling that you do not believe me.”

“Does it matter what I believe right now?”

“I suppose not. Now, tell me something. The woman who sent you here – I am sure that she offered to pay you quite the reward. Most likely enough to retire and buy land somewhere where no ‘little brats’ would ever be able to bother you. Am I correct?”

“Mostly. The only thing you’re wrong about is that I’d probably get drunk and gamble it all away in a couple of nights.”

“Are you simply self-aware and honest or confessing your faults before death?”

“You tell me.”

“The latter it is.”

I sighed. “Figured as much.”

“Now, there is something else I would like to know. Who do you prefer between me and her?”

“Depends on the context. Doing business with? Her, because she never tried to kill me.”

“One could argue that she killed you by knowingly sending you on this job.”

That shut me up and made me think about it for a few moments. She had a point. If my employer knew that I’d most likely die here, and she sent me on this job knowing that it was suicidal, then I could seriously blame my death on her. Partly, at least. “You have a point.”

She looked pretty proud of herself. “Of course I do. Though, I was curious of another context. Our bodies. You see, that woman has been quite a nuisance to me as of late, but there is nothing that I can do about her right now. It would make me feel, as you would say, ‘warm and fuzzy inside,’ to hear your thoughts on the matter.”

“Seems to me like you already know the answer if you’re assuming my answer will make you warm and fuzzy.”

“Yes, but I wish to hear it directly from you.”

I was surprised that she didn’t kill me yet. I figured that maybe, if I kept playing along with her and kept the banter going, that she’d spare me. Or maybe all I had to do was make her feel as flattered as possible. I doubted that she’d be the kind of woman to spare a thief just because he told her how attractive she was, but I also doubted that I’d still be alive this long after being caught. It was possible that I might be able to smooth talk my way to freedom or at least buy enough time to think of some other way to escape.

So, I looked her body over. I was going to have to do a damn good job of praising her if I wanted the smooth-talking route to work out for me.

She smiled again once she saw how closely I was looking at her body.

Starting from the top, she was a tall woman with long, blonde hair that looked like it’d be a pain to keep clean and brushed. Her ears were slightly pointed unlike any chosen’s, but not as much as an elrafi’s. Her eyes were red like wine, which would normally be enough to intimidate somebody from how bestial such eyes were, but they were irresistibly beautiful with depth that rivaled the oceans. The rest of her facial features were young and sharp, but not so young that she wasn’t clearly a mature woman.

Her skin was something else. Pale and without a single flaw anywhere to be seen. Her beauty was almost otherworldly in how flawless everything seemed. No chosen girl was supposed to be as attractive as she was. Then there was the fact that she had a chest no woman should have been able to have without a gut sticking out past it. Her chest barely looked contained by her crimson dress and served as the top of a perfect hourglass figure.

I couldn’t see much of her hips or thighs, but the way that her dress hugged her figure told me that they must have looked just as good as the rest of her. I could see some of her leg, though, given that a slit in the side of her dress showed off just how long and slender it was. I imagined that leg wrapping around behind my back as I—

“Well?” she asked. “Are you so lost in my body that you are lost for words?”

“I was taking my time thinking of what to say,” I lied. I was lost in her body.

“Then I am sure you have much to say after taking so long. I am ready to hear the praise you wish to sing of me.”

That was my chance. All I had to do was say all the stuff I was thinking out loud. Deep eyes like oceans, great tits, nice hips, long leg – all that stuff. I could do it. I never let a woman down before and this would be no different. I took a deep breath, looked her in her eyes, and said, “You’re damn beautiful.”

And that was it.

Nothing else came out.

All that time I spent checking out her body, trying to think of “poetic” ways to explain her and all that – none of it came to mind when I needed it the most.

My own mind betrayed me.

“Is that it?” she asked, not exactly sounding that impressed.

“No?” I answered, though I didn’t exactly sound like I was answering. I sounded more like I was asking myself that.

“How disappointing. Well, I have given you enough time to enjoy the view. Now it is time for—”

“Wait! Hold on! Just – give me a minute. I’ll think of something better to say.”

“You already had your chance.” She tilted my head back even farther and brought another nail against my neck, holding it there like a knife prepared to slit it open.

“I – I’ll do some free work for you! You name a mark and I’ll steal it for you. Or kill them for you. Either works.”

“I have enough servants to do that for me already.”

“Then I’ll uh… I’ll—”

I cut myself off that time and leaned backward, falling onto my back, to kick up at her neck. The sudden thrust of my foot was enough to make the blade in the tip of the boot slide out, and I managed to stab it right into her neck.

While she was distracted with that, I swept her legs out from underneath her with my other leg before jumping onto my feet. The magic she used to bind my arms behind me wore off which allowed me to pick my sword back up which quickly found its way against her neck as I pinned her body down with my own.

I was half tempted to tease her about talking too much and letting her guard down because of that, but I didn’t want to fall into the same trap that I lured her into.

“Where’s the gem?” I asked her.

As she held one hand over her neck where I stabbed her, she lifted her other hand up to point toward her desk in the center of her study.

“It’s a shame to kill a woman as beautiful as you, but we both know that’s the only way I’m getting out of here.”

I pressed my sword against her neck.

Then I stopped.

Something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong.

“Seriously… you’re a shit actress,” I said.

Zurie’s lips curled into a smile once again as she removed her hand from her neck, revealing that the wound was already completely healed and that no blood ever escaped her. “You might be thinking that you will simply cut my head off rather than slit my throat, but I can assure you that would not work, either.”

“And if I stab you straight through the heart?”

“I will admit that it might tickle a little.”

Something as absurd as that shouldn’t have been believable.

But I knew that she was telling the truth. I always knew when somebody was pulling my leg or being honest, and every nerve in my body screamed at me that she was being honest.

It was impossible for me to kill her.

Not that I would get the chance to, anyways.

She managed to bind my arms and legs in place with her magic once again. She didn’t even have to move or say anything. All she had to do was look at me and that was enough to make the blood flowing through my veins obey her.

“I appreciate your spirit,” she said. “You are a man who refuses to surrender even in the end.”

“I’ll be honest, I feel pretty tempted to surrender and hope for the best right now,” I replied.

“And you have an amusing sense of humor. Tell me, how desperate are you to live?”

“As desperate as I need to be.”

“Good. In that case, because I need a man like you, what do you think of becoming my hound?”

“You mean like your servant? Well, if it means not dying, I wouldn’t mind that. Plus this place is pretty nice. I wouldn’t mind getting to stay here if it means all I have to do is clean the place up. All I’ll ask is that you don’t make me wear some sort of stuffy suit.”

“Making requests even in your position? You truly are amusing. And bold. I do appreciate that in a man.”

“Great. So, I guess you’re my boss now. Mind letting me move again?”

“Why would I do that? You must undergo the ritual first if you truly wish to serve as my hound.”

“That doesn’t exactly sound like a good thing.”

“It is not, but it is necessary.”

“I’ll be honest, I really prefer good things instead of things that ain’t good.”

“All I have to do is take your soul from your body. You won’t even feel a thing.”

“That uh – that sounds a lot like dying to me. You know, I think we’ve got a pretty good thing here. We’ve got some banter, some sexual tension – come on, I know you can feel it. So, instead of something like taking my soul, how about I treat you to a night full of service and then a nice, hot meal in the morning?”

“Do you usually attempt to seduce women after you try killing them, or do you do that beforehand?”

“Usually before. This is a first for me. Hoping it won’t be a last.”

“I see. Well, should the ritual be a success, I would not mind allowing you to enjoy the pleasures of my body. I would even be willing to let you do whatever you want to me so long as you become my hound.”

I gulped. “What uh – what does this ritual consist of other than taking my soul and all that?”

“It is no fun if I spoil it for you.”

“Listen, I’d just really rather keep my—”

“I told you. I want you to become my hound.”

The last thing I saw before my vision went black was her hand approaching my neck at a speed far faster than what should have been possible.

And then I couldn’t see, feel, or hear anything.

Vol. 1 pt. 2

I woke up to the sight of a dark, stone room. Looked like a basement of some sort. A basement with really, really tall walls. Seriously, the tallest walls I’d ever seen. What kind of insane basement had walls that high? What was the point?

Wait…

Why was the floor so close? I was standing up, so why were my eyes barely above the floor?

Something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong.

I raised my arm… only to not raise any arm at all. Instead, what I raised was a short stump covered in dark fur.

I jumped at the sight of what my arm became.

When I tried out my other arm, the same thing happened.

It was as if my arms turned the legs of some small animal.

Then I remembered what Zurie said to me.

I want you to become my hound.

There… there was no way, right? She didn’t actually turn me into some sort of hound, did she? Wasn’t that just some sort of figure of speech? An exaggeration? Some sort of kinky teasing? I knew that some people were into that sort of thing – treating others like beasts whose only purpose was to obey. Now, I wasn’t into that and wasn’t hoping for it or anything, but I would have preferred that over being turned into an actual beast!

Even when I looked straight ahead, I saw… a snout, sticking out from my face instead of just my nose.

She actually did it. She actually turned me into a damn beast.

No, wait. How was that even possible?

Did I get turned into a soul beast? No, that wouldn’t really make sense. Soul beasts were supposed to be beasts who killed and absorbed the soul of whichever person, or other soul beast, that they killed. From my understanding, the soul would basically get… reset. Instead of retaining memories from whatever body the soul was originally in, it would turn a beast into a soul beast and the soul beast would basically believe that it always had a soul. It would have its own memories and all that.

But that wasn’t the case. I could still remember everything from before. I remembered all the women I’ve spent money on to spend the night with. I remembered the time I drank a bit too much and ended up leaning out the window and vomiting all over some unlucky little brat who was walking by at the time. I remembered everything that happened with Zurie.

So, if I wasn’t some soul beast, what was I?

I didn’t know what was more important: the fact that I had no idea what I was or the fact that I had no idea where I was.

Figuring out the latter seemed easier, so I went with that instead and turned around to see if there was anything that might give me a clue behind me. Surely enough, there was somebody there. Somebody standing there with a body wrapped up in bandages, leaving only his sinister grin with a mouth full of jagged teeth uncovered, as he dressed up like some sort of butler with a top hat.

He was the same bastard that was on guard duty in Zurie’s mansion. The one who I stabbed a dagger through his forehead since he caught me.

I’ll admit that I jumped again when I saw him.

As soon as I calmed down, I asked him, “Where am I? And how are you alive?”

I tried to, anyways.

Turned out that I didn’t exactly have a functioning voice anymore. Instead, the only noises that left my mouth were whines, grunts, and barks. I even sounded like a damn beast! How was I supposed to live like that?!

“Apologies, but I am afraid I cannot understand a single word,” the creepy butler said. “I am, however, happy that you have decided to speak with me this time instead of immediately going for the kill. My forehead is still sore thanks to our previous encounter.”

So… he knew who I was. He knew that I was the man who tried to kill him.

That made things a little bit awkward. Especially when he talked about his forehead still being sore.

“I am sure you have many questions but, first, allow me to confirm something. If you can understand me, nod your head,” the butler said.

I had nothing better to do, and I didn’t see any option where lying or playing dumb would help my situation, so I nodded my head just as he requested.

“Wonderful. You are the man who sought to kill me and steal from my lady, yes?”

Well, killing him wasn’t exactly a part of the plan, but I nodded my head.

“And do you still have all of your previous memories?”

Another nod.

“Excellent. The ritual was a success. I am sure that my lady will be elated to hear that all of her work has paid off. However, before I report to her, we must test your ability. It will not matter if the ritual was a success or not if you are not even capable of defending yourself, after all.” The butler turns around and walks out the door that was behind him, leaving me alone in the room with only the flickering light of torches on the walls to keep me company.

I had no idea what to expect from what he said. It was obvious that he wanted to test me in some way, but how?

The how became obvious once he came back into the room with an extra friend. Walking in front of the butler with a collar around its neck connected to the rod that the butler held was none other than a goblo. A redback goblo at that. A pretty weak, but aggressive, beast with green skin and a red-colored back. It was only as tall as a kid despite being mature, and all it could do in its situation was scratch at the collar around its neck in an attempt to break free.

Even if it was a soulless beast incapable of thought or feeling, it still had a few instincts built into it for the sake of survival.

The butler then thrust the rod forward while lifting it up, pushing the goblo toward me while removing the collar from its neck. “In case it is not obvious, we expect you to kill this beast,” he explained. “I will not deny that this test may seem… barbaric, but we wish to see how you do with adapting to your new body. What better way than to immediately put you in a situation that will force you to get as much out of it as you can?”

The goblo itself stumbled forward before regaining its balance. Once it did, it set its small, yellow eyes on me and licked its lips. It wasn’t the sexy kind of lip licking either, not that it was possible for goblos to be anything even slightly resembling sexy in the first place. It was a hungry kind of lip licking.

Something like a goblo would have barely reached up to my knees back when I was a chosen. Now? Now the beast was at least three times my height.

And I had nothing to fight him with except my new, small body that I was still getting used to.

I wasn’t happy about the situation, and I seriously didn’t want to play along with this whole thing. I wanted to get out of there and find out how to fix my body, then spend the rest of my life never going anywhere near Zurie or the creepy butler again.

But I had no choice but to play along for the time being.

Vol. 1 pt. 3

What was I supposed to do?! I ended up being chased around the room by a hungry goblo that wanted to tear me apart and devour me!

Its limbs were longer, it had long and sharp fingernails that could easily scratch me up, and it had a mouth full of long, sharp teeth that would be able to tear into a thick hide with ease! And my hide wasn’t exactly thick!

“Do you seriously expect me to kill this bastard?!” I barked at the butler while being chased.

He couldn’t understand me still, but he still replied with, “Do try your best. It would be a grave disappointment for you to fail here.”

“Come on! At least trip it or something for me!”

The butler watched with a smile as he stood perfectly still. Could he even see? Was he even actually watching? The rest of his face, eyes included, were covered up by bandages.

“Ki-he-ka-ka!” the goblo shouted as it chased me. There was no meaning to what those noises meant seeing as how it was just a beast, but that didn’t stop me from barking back at it to tell it to shut up.

I needed to figure out what to do. Being in such a smaller body, I was most likely going to run out of energy before the goblo did. I would be screwed if that happened. One of the biggest problems, though, was that I had no way of attacking outside of biting it. My nails weren’t even long enough to be used as claws or anything, so scratching wasn’t an option. I only had my teeth to rely on. I was never a brute fighter or anything. I preferred to use stealth and kill before I was ever seen. Most of the time, I tried to be sneaky enough to not have to fight or kill in the first place. I’d just get in, steal whatever my target was, and get out. Killing was only done in times of need, like when the butler tried to stop me the night before.

And the killing clearly didn’t work in that case.

Thinking of the butler, when I looked over at him again, I noticed just how close he was to the wall.

That gave me an idea.

If he was just going to stand there without actually doing anything, then I would use him. What I wanted to do would be difficult in my new body, but not impossible.

It was one of my favorite techniques that I perfect as a chosen for getting to the upper floors of buildings that were next to each other.

I ran up to the butler and jumped onto the wall behind him! Then, the moment that all of my paws were on the wall, I launched myself off of it and onto the butler’s back. Just as I figured he would, he remained perfectly still and didn’t budge at all from me landing on his back. That let me jump off of him back onto the wall again, and then I repeated the process a few more times. Each time took me even higher until I was able to land on top of the butler’s shoulder, my front legs hanging over his front and my back legs hanging down his back.

The goblo wasn’t able to reach me, but I couldn’t feel too happy about that. Why? Because the butler stank! Seriously stank! He smelled like death when I was this close to him!

“I must admit, I did not expect this,” the butler said while I tried to cover up my nose with my front legs.

Now that I was on top of the butler, the goblo backed off and stood nearby to stare up at me. The fact that a beast was staying away from the butler means that there must have been a pretty damn high level difference there. Beasts were usually dumb enough to attack people even several times higher in level. They only stayed away when the power difference was so overwhelming that even mindless beasts without intelligence could recognize it from pure instinct alone.

“Now, do keep in mind that you will not be leaving this room unless you can kill the beast. Staying up here will not do you any good. Though, I will admit that I am impressed you thought of using me. I had all furniture from the room removed, but you still managed to find something to use.”

Surprisingly, his breath didn’t smell anywhere near as bad as the rest of his body. If anything, it was the one part of him that didn’t stink. Maybe that had something to do with how his teeth were still pretty dang white despite his lips and the skin around them looking rotten.

Now, I just needed to figure out how I was going to kill that goblo. My fangs felt pretty sharp from when I pressed them against the top of my leg, so biting him would hopefully be effective. Goblos weren’t exactly durable beasts. They were small and clumsy, but savage and usually came in large groups. A single goblo wasn’t all that intimidating unless somebody was a brand-new adventurer… or somebody who was put into the body of a tiny beast.

Seeing that goblo standing there waiting for an opportunity gave me an idea. It wasn’t an idea for how to kill it, but it was still an idea.

And that idea was sticking my tongue out at it.

Was it immature? Yeah, sure. It was. A man, even if in the body of a small beast, shouldn’t have been doing that at my age. But did it feel satisfying after being chased all around the damn room with it trying to kill me? It did. It seriously did.

Now, as long as I was able to avoid getting bit or picked up by the goblo, I would probably be fine. What I was thinking would give it the chance to scratch me up pretty bad, maybe, but getting scratched up was survivable. It was also a lot better than dying.

It’ll be just like that time you had to eat a dead rat and were too dumb to skin or cook it first, I thought. Thinking back to that… I might have only been a little kid left on the streets by myself, but that was still pretty stupid of me. I could have at least tried to get the hair off first.

Well, disregarding the ignorance of my youth, I prepared myself for my attack. I bit the brim of the butler’s top hat and threw it off to the side before climbing up onto his head. His shoulder wasn’t big enough for me to stand on, but his head was. Plus the bandages wrapped around him provided better footing than the smooth fabric of his suit.

“Standing on my head is certainly not how I expected this to go,” the butler said.

Honestly, I was surprised that he was actually staying perfectly still. He was seriously intent on not interfering with the fight at all, and he must have determined that moving at all would be doing exactly that.

Guess he never considered that he might be used.

Vol. 1 pt. 4

With my paws on the butler’s head, I locked my eyes onto the goblo’s neck and crouched down. I only had a single shot at my plan.

The goblo kept on walking back and forth, wanting to catch me but backing off every time it remembered how overwhelmingly powerful the butler was, so I waited until the goblo came its closest to us…

And then I jumped!

I launched myself off of the butler’s head with as much force as I could, letting gravity do the rest of the work as I approached the goblo’s neck with my mouth wide open.

The goblo’s eyes widened as it reached up to try and grab me.

It succeeded.

But not quickly enough.

My mouth reached the front of the goblo’s neck and I wasted no time in sinking my fangs into its bumpy skin that tasted like somebody took a piss on some old leather. The goblo screeched out in pain with one hand gripped onto my tail from when it caught me. Its other hand soon came to grab onto my torso, applying enough force to cut into my skin with its nails as it desperately tried to pull me away from its neck.

The imitated pain of beasts was always annoying to me. Even if it was impossible for a beast to feel any pain – to feel anything at all, they always acted like they did.

Some people would ask things like, “But how can you know that they’re really soulless and not capable of feeling anything?”

The answer to that was always easy. One, they didn’t release souls upon death. Two, it could be seen in their eyes. No matter how much of a show they put on, and no matter what species they were, they always had the same, empty look in their eyes. There was nothing really in there. Without a soul, they were nothing more than husks following instincts like a golem following the orders of its creator.

Maybe if it was a person I was tearing the neck out of, I might have felt bad when hearing all those pained noises.

But it was impossible to feel any sort of sympathy for a beast. Especially when it came to a beast that was trying to kill me.

At the same time, I couldn’t hold a grudge or anything against it. It was just a beast. It didn’t want to kill me.

Remembering how I saw other beasts fight in the wild before, I shook my head from side to side to rip and tear into the goblo’s neck, pulling its flesh away and getting lucky with severing one of its arteries.

Unfortunately, getting lucky resulted in having blood spray all over my face. I had no idea how I was going to get all the blood out of my fur.

More importantly, I felt the goblo’s grasp on my body loosen. I let go of its neck and dropped to the floor once I felt that. The goblo, instead of trying to put up a fight any longer, reached up to hold onto its neck as it stumbled backward before falling onto its back. Its body went still as a puddle of blood formed around its neck.

I checked out where it grabbed me now that I didn’t have to worry about it trying to kill me. There was some blood where I felt its nails dig into me, but I wasn’t sure whose blood that was considering just how much sprayed from its neck.

“Well, consider me impressed,” the butler said. “I am honestly rather surprised that you managed to come out of that fight with as little damage as you have. I expected a brawl on the ground where you both tore into one another. Though, I suppose I am to blame for preventing that. I did not expect you to treat me as part of the ‘arena,’ but I did not tell you that you could not, either.”

I was already tired of his voice. He sounded too damn friendly for somebody who just put me in a fight to the death against a beast.

“Now, if you would not mind, please stay still for a moment.”

It wasn’t like I had a choice.

The butler walked up to me and kneeled down before placing a couple of his bandaged fingers against my forehead.

Is he… reading me? Is he a reader? I thought. If he was, I was about to be extremely disappointed. Readers were almost always really cute girls who knew what to show off to keep adventurers coming back for readings over and over again when they really didn’t need to. That was the kind of reader I would happily burn my money on. Not some creepy butler who smelled worse than a rotting corpse!

“Oh? It would appear the ritual really was successful. You have obtained level two and your cap remains at sixty. Well, I suppose we can not tell if it was completely successful until you kill somebody with a higher cap. That aside, it would appear all of your skills are gone. That… is unfortunate, but not unexpected. Ah, and you have already gained a skill. Combat Expertise: Biting. Of course, it is only level zero at the moment. Perhaps the most interesting thing, if I may, is that the world is not sure how it should classify you. You are neither chosen nor beast. Not any known variation of mortal nor soulless, for that matter. In other words, I should congratulate you on being the first of an entirely new type of species unlike any the world has ever seen before.”

So, in other words, he didn’t have any idea what the fuck I was supposed to be, either.

Great.

“Now, my lady should be back soon. Let us go wash you off so that you are presentable for your meeting with her,” the butler said.

Wait, what was that supposed to mean?

He didn’t plan on washing me, did he?

“There, there,” he said as he approached me with his hands reaching out to grab me.

“No way!” I barked at him. “I’m not letting somebody else, especially another man, give me a bath!”

I backed up as he approached, but there was no chance for me to escape. He suddenly moved quickly enough that I couldn’t even react in time to him wrapping his hands around me, picking me up as if I was some tiny little thing.

Which, to be fair, I was.

But I still hated it! And I couldn’t even bite him to try and get him to drop me because I didn’t want to taste his bandages and whatever was underneath them!

All I could do was hang from his hands and bark as he carried me out of the room.

Vol. 1 pt. 5

I found myself sitting on a boosted chair at a table across from none other than the woman who turned me into whatever it was that I could be called. We were back in the same room that we fought in – her study. Any signs of battle were already gone as the room looked just like it did when I first entered it. Gaudy and full of bookshelves with a desk covered in various papers and messages.

She seemed awfully happy with the sight of me and my hair that was puffed out and far too fluffy looking after being dried off by the butler.

One day, I would get my revenge for being forcibly given a bath and treated like a toy the entire time. One day.

“To think that the man who tried to kill me is the man now sitting across from me in such an adorable body,” Zurie teased, her smile refusing to leave.

“I seriously didn’t think you meant it when you said you wanted to turn me into your hound,” I barked at her.

“I see that your noises are as precious as your appearance. Shame that I cannot understand you, though I cannot be too bothered by that. I much prefer your current voice over your former one.”

“What kind of weird woman prefers a beast’s voice over a man’s?!”

“You must feel extra talkative. Though, I suppose I understand. If I were in your shoes, I would have an endless amount of questions to ask. Alas, I cannot understand any of them. How unfortunate. I suppose they will be going unanswered.”

“You could just start talking! Explaining even a single damn thing about this is going to answer at least a few of my questions!”

Zurie’s smile grew even wider. “You are too precious. If only I had known how enjoyable this is, I would have done this long ago.”

Seeing as how she clearly enjoyed listening to me bark at her, I stopped barking. It wasn’t like she could understand anything that I was saying anyways. So, if she was only going to tease me, then I wasn’t going to give her anything to tease me about. I shut my mouth and turned my head away from her.

“You look like a pouting child. Are you purposely trying to make yourself as adorable as possible? Because, if so, I must say that it is working. I did not know it was possible for such cuteness to come from a man who was previously so… gruff.”

Nothing I did worked. No matter what I tried, she found it cute or cuter.

Somehow, I felt even more defeated with the situation than I did when she was about to kill me. Wait… did she even kill me in the first place? I was still alive with all of my memories. That wasn’t supposed to be possible after death. So, I must not have died. In that case… what happened to my real body?

“Well, I suppose that I have teased you enough for the time being. I am not so cruel that I would leave you without even a single answer. Though, you will have to pardon that I may not answer your questions in the order you are hoping for,” Zurie explained.

I turned my head to face her again since I wanted to try and express at least a little bit interest to let her know that was what I wanted.

“Ghoul, are you there?” Zurie asked, looking toward the door behind me.

The door opened up and the creepy butler stepped inside. “Of course, my lady. What is it that you require?”

“Water, please. I may be talking for a while.”

“As you wish.”

“Oh, and chocolate.”

“No.”

The butler left and closed the door.

Did he…

Did he say no to his employer? Did that creepy butler seriously say no to not just his employer, but an insanely powerful woman?

And why did she want chocolate anyways?

No, more importantly…

Why was she pouting like some little kid?

“What a sadistic servant I have,” Zurie said and sighed. “Well, his sadism aside, let us move on. As you know, you are no longer a being that falls under any known classifications. That is thanks to the ritual that I have recently perfected. It is my own original magic that has made this possible, to put it simply. It is also thanks to this.” She leaned down to take something out from one of the drawers of her desk. The way she leaned gave me a pretty nice view down her hanging valley given that she was a woman who clearly liked to show off. Then again, it would be hard for her to cover those things up while still looking good. The only clothes I’ve ever seen that could cover up a chest like that basically looked like potato sacks.

“Here,” she continued, placing the target of my raid on her mansion onto the table. It was a bright, shining ruby with a swirling vortex of energy within it. Even somebody like me could take a single look at it and know just how extremely valuable it had to be. “This is what combined your soul with the body of a beast. Rather than the beast absorb your soul, it would be more appropriate to say that your soul absorbed its body and created a new form based off of it.”

So, she seriously did put me in the body of a beast. I still wasn’t sure whether I wanted to believe that or not, but if she was the one admitting to that, then I found it hard to refuse her claim.

“Now, there is a reason why I chose to do it this way rather than simply letting a beast take your soul to turn into a soul beast. I—”

“Your water, my lady,” Ghoul said, making me jump since I didn’t even hear him come back.

“Thank you,” Zurie said. “And the chocolates?”

“No.”

And again, Ghoul left the room while leaving Zurie pouting like a child.

“He is lucky he is useful. Now, where was I? Ah, yes. As you know, mortals are only allowed to level up to their cap. There is no removing that cap no matter how hard they try. The only method of raising the cap is by dying while at the highest possible level and living their next life with a higher cap. Beasts that have turned into soul beasts, however, inherit the level of the strongest being they have killed. A beast who kills a man who is level fourteen will, of course, become a level fourteen soul beast. If that soul beast then goes on to kill a man who is level twenty-three, the soul beast will become level twenty-three. Both of these growth methods are inconvenient for obvious reasons. Mortals may never ascend their cap without dying and soul beasts may only level by killing those who are stronger than them. As for you, if the earlier trials’ results have been replicated in you, then you will be able to – one moment.”

Zurie stopped to take a large sip of water before letting out a satisfied sigh and continuing. “You will be able to level as a mortal while inheriting new caps by absorbing others’ souls. Every soul with a level cap should add their cap to your own, but you will not acquire what level they were upon death. That may sound worse… but the thing is, you will be able to kill those who are weaker than you to increase your cap as well. In other words, you will grow as you have always been used to, but you will now be able to—potentially indefinitely—increase your cap.”

That sounded…

Pretty damn nice, but why?

Why me? Why was she doing any of this?

“I can tell what question must be burning within your mind from that expression,” Zurie said. “You want to know why.”

I nodded my head.

“Well, it is simple. I am sure, with what kind of man you looked to be, that you are familiar with what they say about a woman scorned. My primary intention with you is to deploy you, after enough growth, to become the ultimate weapon that will kill the man who made me this way. Killing him myself is not only impossible, but it would not be nearly as satisfying as raising a hound to kill him. He truly hates such beasts from the bottom of his soul, you see. There is not a death more suitable for him than by a hound.”

Wait, she wanted me to do what?

I didn’t know much about her situation, but… the man who created her? I heard rumors, but—

“Oh, and I have another intention. I plan on sharing my bed with you. After all, you are simply far too precious to not sleep with when under the same roof. And it is as you said before, I could feel the... tension between us.”

Now… now hold on. I thought I heard something pretty serious there that I wanted to know more about. The whole killing thing and—

Zurie leaned forward, allowing her breasts to rest on the desk which made them look like they were about to overflow from her dress as she rested a single hand on top of her cleavage. “Truth be told, I am already awfully tired and would like to retire soon. You will be joining me… won’t you?”

She slowly traced the tips of her fingers across her exposed skin as she tilted her head ever so slightly, her eyes staring directly into mine even if mine weren’t able to stare back into hers given the sight she was giving me.

“Though, I must warn you. I have a habit of being very clingy in my sleep. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of my body pressing against yours throughout the night, perhaps it would be best if you sleep elsewhere instead. And my hands have a habit of wandering where they should not all on their own.”

Her tone was nothing like when she explained everything just moments ago. Instead of sounding serious and professional, she spoke in a low, seductive tone as her eyes relentlessly assaulted me. I felt like some small beast trapped in the eyes of a hunter waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill.

But when I looked at my would-be hunter, I couldn’t feel more excited about it.

I knew from the moment I laid my eyes on her that, with her body, she could make any man do anything she wanted.

And I was eager to prove myself right about that. I mean, where was the harm in spending a night with her even if my body was so tiny? I could always just get the fuck out in the morning while everybody was still asleep.

I might have been pretty damn stupid at times, but I was never an idiot.

Only an idiot would have said no to sharing a bed with her for a night. Even if she said that she would kill the man in the morning afterwards, it would still take an idiot to say no.