Ms. Tephalia had Ashe and Salelia take us out of her manor once our business was finished for the time being. The two handmaidens took the opportunity to apologize profusely for pushing me more on edge than what was considered comfortable and stated clearly that they want to thank me properly for saving them last night."Oh! Sally! We should invite him to that!"
"I was just thinking the same, Ashe. The two of us also work part-time at a place called "The Basket." Ask for the two of us there, and we"ll be sure to give you our best service, at your own pace, free of charge."
"It"s the least we could do to make up for our poor misjudgment earlier! Please consider it!"
"I"ll uh … keep it in mind," I answer.
We make it to the door and the two of them bid us off with beaming smiles on their faces as the three of us walk out of the premises, which includes pa.s.sing a gate where two Centaur post guards stand on each side holding spears. Looking above their heads, I read their names as Linolio and Simones.
"Oh! Sir Kotori! Good morning!"
"Huh? Oh, uh … morning?" "Sir" Kotori? I think.
"Please pardon me for my selfishness, but may I … shake thy hand?" Linolio asks.
I look at him with a quirked brow. "… Sure? Did you want one as well?" I ask Simones.
"I-It would be an honor!"
The two of them switch their hands holding their weapons to shake with their dominant ones, both of which I do with a firm grip. While shaking Linolio"s, I concentrated on him until I see a new green status window for the first time.
[Name: Linolio
Race: Centaur
Cla.s.s: Halberdier
Measurements: 215 cm in height [~7 ft], 468 kg in weight [~1,032 lbs]
HP: 1097/1097
MP: 329/329]
"Keep … up the good work." While trying to maintain conversation and not be so confused at what is going on, I drag that line longer than needed.
""With pleasure, sir!""
Well, not sure how knowing one"s "Measurements" helps me in battle, but at least I know "Size Up" works if I concentrate on one person enough.
As I make my way out of the premises with Ren and Erizora behind me, I thought I heard "He"s cooler than I thought he was!" out of earshot, but I"m probably just overthinking things.
Once I"m sure no others are around to see and hear, I heave a deep sigh. "I was able to say all of that to Ms. Tephalia, so why didn"t I do the same with Ms. Umeiyon?" I mutter.
"Ms. Umeiyon? You mean the Lizardman girl from last night?" Erizora asks.
"Did you run into her while you were venting out your energy?" Ren adds. "What happened? And why do you look so down?"
"It"s … complicated, I"m too tired to explain it right now."
~~
It was about an hour before I made it back to Ms. Tephalia"s bedchambers. Ms. Umeiyon was so happy after seeing my status earlier that she was running on about the things she thought would come. I couldn"t even find a spot to jump in and say my opinion because of how I was still absorbing her outrageous request of producing offspring with her. Even Nyra was also speechless to say anything obnoxious.
Ms. Umeiyon was so happy, in fact, that alongside with healing my exhaustion from the monster slaughter earlier, even though I turned it down before, she gave me more than twice of what she previously offered in the beginning just to see my status out of pure joy. I mentioned I"d rather just have it all in coins instead for some reason, so she just exchanged the two lumps of Chaos Ore for the number of white gold coins that she heard were recently worth at the sizes she had. Like Nyra guessed, they were more than what was sold in the market back in her days.
I was caught off guard when she suddenly ripped the rags off her body, but before I could get a glimpse of her naked form, her very being was glowing white. Using what I a.s.sumed to be the "Ancient Magic" that was listed in her skills, she changed her form from what I guessed would be the standard look for Lizardmen into something much larger. With marine blue scales all over the backside of her form while a yellowish-white, fleshy underbelly was seen below, large wings spread out to the total span of maybe one and a half soccer fields, a maw riddled with pointy teeth, and a pair of horns in the matching color of what was on her claws jotted out the back of her head, her transformation was complete.
If I didn"t believe it at first, I did then. Ms. Umeiyon was a legit Dragon. Around these parts, it seems they take the form similar to what"s recognized in Western European Mythology back on Earth.
"I"ll give you some time to think things over. If I don"t see you again before then, I"ll be right here eager to hear your answer!" she exclaimed cheerfully with the same tone and pitch in her voice she spoke to me in her smaller form. With that, she lifted herself off the ground with a few flaps of her wings, creating such strong gusts of wind that nearly blew me off my feet, before taking off. I could remember the joyous laughter she made as she flew with freedom and grace while doing aerial acrobatics.
And so, I was left with 15 white gold coins, 15 million karos, out of her having a good day after finding the best "mate" to possibly help save her race. I spent the remainder of my time counting out all the money I "earned" from yesterday in my [Storage] while collecting my thoughts and explaining to Nyra how I"m a Champion. Since she was going to be my partner from now on, I figured she should know that much about me.
Nyra was ecstatic that I represented Ms. Obina as her Champion, as that is the one G.o.ddess that she and the majority of other Pixies back in her home revered the most. For how crude her humor and euphemisms can be, it"s plain to see where she got them from.
I left out how I"m from another world, of course, and as for how I"m able to have two cla.s.ses at the same time, aside from leveling up my cla.s.s enough as a Brawler, I"m as dumb as her in that regard, so I couldn"t answer very much.
I"ve wanted to learn more of what all of my skills can do, but I didn"t want to keep the girls waiting any longer than I could, so I just selected the ones that seem the most boggling—mostly the Underdog-related skills—and checked their descriptions.
[Underdog Bonus: Gained after acquiring the "Formidable Underdog" t.i.tle; user gets a boost in how much EXP he earns and a bonus in stats when leveling up from now on.]
[Size Up: Gained after acquiring the "Extreme Underdog" t.i.tle; allows the user to appraise his enemies for information. Concentrate on one target for further details than their defaults.]
[Status Sorting: Gained after acquiring the "Fearsome Underdog" t.i.tle; allows the user to move things from his status—other than his stats, race, and primary cla.s.s—to another window that cannot be viewed in public or accessed by any appraisal-type skills.]
[Hyper Perception: A skill evolved from the "Focus" skill when at maximum level of mastery; the user"s able to perceive his surroundings with a faster thought process, slowing the movements of the world around him to react to more quickly.]
[Devil Eyes: An exclusive racial skill for those in the Devil race; depending on the individual, it will heighten the user"s senses/instincts, dramatically increase his stats, help activate special skills/spells, and/or better his control of mana when activated; the user will fall in KO if the skill is prolonged to a certain extent.]
So, even the description stated "Devil Eyes" is exclusive to the Devil race, but couldn"t explain why I, a human, has it. I even double-checked my status to make sure my race is correct, and as expected, it still stated as "Human." I"d really need to figure out how I can get more info out of this, how to even use it/activate it, but most importantly, don"t abuse it to make me drop in KO as I likely did last night. I"d be in deep s.h.i.t if that happened out in the open while in the middle of a battle.
"Size Up," I experimented it on one of the post guards later on with succession after concentrating on one person enough. At its current level, it seems I can see one"s name, race, cla.s.s, measurements, plus their HP and MP in numerical detail than just how full the bars above their heads are.
"Underdog Bonus" seems to explain how I got more EXP than I thought I"d get and get so much of my stats increased. They must be preset to a certain amount at each level up that"s separate from what I earned in real time. I could already see then how ridiculous that will quickly get.
Finally, my latest new skill, "Status Sorting," seemed the most interesting. When I pulled my status up with the skill in mind, a gray window appeared next to the light blue one, and as the skill described, I could move skills, spells, abilities, and even t.i.tles over to the new window that won"t be seen by others.
The scariest thing about this skill, however? I could even move and change parts of my name to the other window. "Majin Kotori," "Koma Jintori," "Jin Manto," even with the whole thing moved over, I"d get a "(N/A)" symbol. The possibilities of what I could do with such a world-breaking skill frightens me. For the time-being, I just went with my original name and moved a bunch of my skills, spells, and t.i.tles over to hopefully not garner very much attention, including the "Natural-Born Brawler" t.i.tle if the old drunkard from last night found that to be a threat.
In the end, aside from the silver coins I stored in its own pouch, I found a total of 610 gold coins from both the Toxic Troll"s stash and the cultists from last night, which would make a little more than 6 million karos then, coming to a grand total of 21 million I have on hand. I planned out what I wanted to do from there before heading back to the bedchambers through [Portal], and the rest was history.
~~
"So, what do you want to do now?" Ren asks.
"Have the two of you eaten?"
Gyuuuuuun.
"I-It"s not what you think! Lady Tephalia really did feed us! Honest!" Erizora defends with a flushed face.
"Don"t worry, I"m hungry from the energy I spent earlier, so let"s grab a quick bite and decide what to do next."
""Yes, Master.""
I could also use this chance to ask them some questions, like what Ms. Tephalia said about them being with me.
~~
The next couple of minutes, we stroll through the city while figuring out where we could find some food. Since we aren"t in a hurry and there are no emergencies going on, I take the time to really take in the surroundings that I can see better in daylight than I could last night. I may have already seen it from atop that hill earlier, but walking the streets inside it now? I could see that it"s big with a capital "B." Seeing the buildings made of wood, stone, and mud up close, the city"s foundation really was designed to accommodate the larger-bodied races like Lamias and Centaurs. Some of them I could see even Erizora being able to walk into comfortably without ducking her head. Then there are those that got damaged from the infiltration last night that some of the public service are working to repair them as we speak.
Surprisingly, the "public service" doing the repairs have different lower halves from Arachne, and there are equal number of females and males of that group doing the labor. I confirmed it with Ren and Erizora that they are a subspecies of the "Insectoid" race called "Giant Ants." It seems their colony is stationed somewhere outside of the city and messengers were sent to request their a.s.sistance with repairs after the infiltration died down. Giant Ants are known to be quite industrious and hard-working, making them the best people to go to for anything involving building homes that would get done within a few days, faster than Humans back home wouldn"t even dream to achieve. Seeing the antennas jotting out of their heads on closer inspection, I could see the resemblance. The girls had to snap me out of it when I was in awe of how they use the ant lower-halves to climb up the walls with ease despite carrying heavy-looking materials in their hands. The lady Giant Ants are especially surprising, while I could see how lean their muscles are, their true strength is contrary to their looks. I wondered if this is similar to how the ants back home are able to lift objects ten times their body weight.
Aside from the girls snapping me out of it, I"d probably take the moments to really marvel at the architectures so foreign to me and the process of building them if it weren"t for the strange comments I receive from the locals along the way.
"Good morning, Sir Kotori!" [Male Centaur Guard
"Hey~! Mr. Kotori~! How"s it going?!" [Arachne Shopkeeper]
"Mr. Kotori! What"s up?!" [Male Imp Adventurer?]
""Hi, hero~! ♥"" [Harpy Messenger(?) Trio flying overhead]
Some races were obvious, but I could only guess what a few might"ve been along with their occupations by appearance alone. I didn"t have a lot of time to look into them more thoroughly with "Size Up" as they quickly pa.s.sed by.
That aside, I"m experiencing one h.e.l.l of a culture shock with all of these people greeting me the way they are right now.
"… Hey, Ren, Erizora, did something happen?" I ask while glancing back.
"What do you mean?" Ren asks.
"They"re all so … friendly, towards me, and some are watching me strangely, kind of like what Ashe and Salelia were doing earlier on our way to Ms. Tephalia"s room. How do they all even know my name?"
"Well, isn"t that expected? You"re a hero, Master, the whole city pretty much knows what you did last night."
"Of course, your great strength deserves every reverence and respect it could get," Ren and Erizora say, respectively.
Again, the word "hero" being said repeatedly makes me a little uncomfortable, but I try not to show it.
"It wasn"t like I did all the work, though. There were others who helped, h.e.l.l, you two and Ms. Gallofree were with me leading the offensive. Shouldn"t you also get some praise, too? And let"s not forget how I destroyed a building, unintentionally attracted monsters into the city with Nyra"s power, and … oh yeah, I killed a bunch of dudes with her. I even tortured some of them more out of my own satisfaction instead of "justice." I don"t think a "hero" does any of those."
"I don"t think the killing part could be helped," Ren starts. "Frankly, I was amazed you held back from offing most of them up to that point, and while I wasn"t sure what you were going through when Nyra tried to possess you, you must"ve gone through a lot. It"s incredible you were still able to discriminate who to fight and who to protect alone from that curse"s history. Being able to overcome that while bearing those eyes, while it may still be intimidating, it"s also amazing in itself."
"As for the others like Ms. Gallofree who"ve helped with defending the city," Erizora continues, "while I"m sure they"re getting pats on the back for their efforts, you stood out the most with how much you contributed to the fight. For us slaves who fought with you, as do all others, we"re more like … accessories, additional tools that an owner also "wields" at the time. Since slave owners take responsibility for their slaves" actions, that means it"s thanks to those same owners that we"d even fight for a side, and so they take all the credit at the end, as do all the spoils and riches the slaves collect from their enemies" persons."
I think back to the moments Ren and Erizora have collected the items and money from their defeated enemies last night and bringing them to me. Ms. Carmen, who"s their current legal owner, did say to help me out with the offensive, but I wonder if she was implying that as well.
"Still, that"s gotta be rough for you guys, not having your credits paid when they"re due," I say. "Well, the prowess both of you showed last night was great in their own rights. If anything, I appreciate the efforts you two had put into last night"s fight."
"I-It"s no trouble at all! On the contrary, it was an honor for us to fight alongside a person of such strengths like yours. For you to not only concern us on something so minor but to praise us and even go so far as to treat us with food, we are not worthy of such kindness!" Erizora exclaims.
I sigh internally and scratch my head for how serious she"s taking this. Being so humble despite her size, she might fit right in j.a.pan, same goes for Ren.
"Hey-hey-hey~! There"s our city"s hero of the hour! Come on, come on! I got a nice kebab fresh off the flames with your name on it, free of charge!"
I look over to the girl who yelled all that and she waves her hand at me with a smile. What makes her stand out the most is that she"s an Arachne like Lili, but having a large, fuzzy-brown, tarantullike spider half. She also has more of a muscular physique in her upper human half, and even her arms match her spider body having many hairs. She stands behind a counter of a large stand, and further in the back I see many kebabs of large, skewered meats slowly spinning over the fire set in some kind of grill. Above her head, I read the name as Sarud with "Size Up."
Now that I think about it, I remember Lili talking to someone about their kebabs while I was still coc.o.o.ned. Is this the girl she was talking to? I think as we walk over to her. "A free kebab? You sure that"s okay?" I ask.
"You"re new around these parts, aren"t ya?! My kebabs are the finest meals to have on-the-go! Having made from the freshest and high-quality monster meats coated with my secret spices, you can"t get these anywhere else! I"ll give one of these fine beauties to you as a welcome to our city and thanks for saving it! My stand wouldn"t be here otherwise! What do you say?!"
"Th-They smell so good. Even though I never had one, I could eat four of those right now," Erizora says while drool escapes from her lips.
"… *Zuu. Gokin.*" I could recognize that slurping sound from Ren behind me.
"… All right, then. One for me, and five of your freshest ones for my friends here."
"That will be 120 karos, please!"
Pretending to pull a pouch out of my pocket, I take the one from my [Storage] after quietly chanting the Null Spell and give the tarantula girl two whole silver coins (200 karos). "Keep the change."
"Thank you, kind hero sir! I"ll have them right out!"
"M-Master! You sure that"s all right?! You"re basically paying for your own anyways, plus extra!" Erizora exclaims as Sarud gets the kebabs.
"Girl"s gotta make a living. I"d feel bad for her selling herself short if they"re as good as she made them out to be. Plus, you never had one before, and bigger bodies need more food for energy, right? Might as well try something new when you can, and if you say you can eat four, then I think I can believe you—mmph?!" I suddenly get swept up and off the ground before my face is planted to something incredibly huge with the excellent mixture of softness and firmness at the next instant.
Erizora has got me in a tight bear hug, firmly pulling me into her t.i.tanic b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
"N-None of the previoush rentersh were ever thish generoush to me before! I"m sho happy~!" I hear Erizora cry.
"E-Eri! Calm down! I think you"re suffocating Master!" Ren exclaims.
Nyra exclaims.
… I probably wouldn"t mind dying in this manner.