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Leo

It was early morning when Leo woke up, and his body was aching as a result of Allis’s ‘Special’ venom. It's effects on the local inhabitants helped them last a little longer in bed, but unfortunately for Leo it worked ‘way’ too well on a human, as he lost complete control of himself. The effect was like a super snake viagra aphrodisiac that had a child with the world's most dangerous energy drink for his balls. It also made him unable to remember the entire affair, which really pissed him off because a third challenger, a waitress, entered the ring to help bring him down.

Leo made Allis swear to never use the stuff on him ever again, because of the state it left him in. Since he couldn't magic away the pain of exhaustion, he was stuck in bed for the day as Elaria went out to tell Glia the unfortunate news of his current state, while Allis stayed behind to help him study.

‘Damn, and I really was looking forward to what she was going to do with her tail….’ Leo thought disappointedly while he was reading the book on this world's general history.

“An eruption of energy elevated the gods to power… A war culled their number… A pantheon was founded… The mortal world was shaped by the pantheon..bla bla bla… Created the elements…. Structured mana… Skip!” Leo muttered with complete disinterest before flipping to after the creation of the world, to more historical documents.

“Does the creation of existence and the elevation of the gods really bore you?” Allis asked critically as she sat on a chair next to the bed.

“Religion is a touchy subject on my world, and the story of how the world was created has been told countless times. I've read lots of iterations of how the world was made, many myths, fables and religious texts. The topic bores me, and is irrelevant to the here and now. Besides, they either don't exist on my world, or have taken a hands off approach for the last millennium or so.” Leo explained a little tiredly, as the topic in relation to his world was an even larger can of worms than trying to explain science.

“What? No gods?” Allis asked with a little shock, while her hood perked up to further emphasize her surprise.

Leo shrugged as he continued to flip through the book. “No magic, and no gods. We work very hard to prove the existence of things that exist, but if all we have are hundreds of religions telling a different story, and no god to come out and say which one is correct, then we simply can't verify any of it.” He clarified for the bewildered selarin.

Allis cocked her head at Leo, as if she realized something. "But Leo, the gods are real here. In fact they most often assist in rituals that relate to them, speaking directly to all involved." She informed him, and he put down his book to look at her skeptically.

Leo raised an eyebrow at the remark. "Wait, so if I go pray at a sanctified temple, would they actually speak with me?" He asked curiously, as he did have ‘many’ questions that he definitely wanted answers to.

Allis crossed her arms and wore an expression of doubt. "Only if one wants to, they are picky about who they show themselves to if it doesn't immediately involve them. So you might get lucky with one of the pantheon, but more often than not a minor God will respond."

"What's the difference, and do the pantheon rarely interact with mortals?” Leo inquired further.

"Those of the pantheon are the founding gods, they have existed before creation. Minor gods are mortals elevated to Godhood by the pantheon to help with interaction on the physical plane. There are twelve on the pantheon, and about a hundred minor gods. They only get involved in major events, probably like the upcoming war. And minor gods directly work under one of the pantheon, many residing in capital city's or secluded temples. "Allis explained while sliding into a high attitude, but frowned immediately for the slip up.

'Ok, maybe there's more to this than I thought, so visiting the nearest temple just got bumped up in priority, right after making myself some money.' Leo thought while furrowing his brow.

"Where's the nearest sanctified temple?" He asked.

"The only one in selaria that I know of is the capital's temple, the rest are either not sanctified or in the middle of nowhere." She answered.

'Definitely going to need to make my money first then.'

Leo started reading the book once again, and Allis decided to snake her way up next to him on the bed, resting her head on his shoulder. Leo still had some mixed feelings about her, especially from his monogamous human side, but he shrugged it off to focus on his book.

[ The first era, referred to as the founding era is speculated to have been the period of early creation, in which the ordering of the world took place…….. ]

‘Hundreds of thousands of years ago, and nothing of note…’

[ The second era was marked by the minor God conflict, in which two of the pantheon fell….. ]

‘Well, minor gods rebelled against the pantheon….’

[ The third era was marked by the rise of the lich king, ending with his death, but not before three races were driven to extinction…. ]

‘Undead, that sounds fun….’

[ The fourth era was marked by the first summon and started the Arachne conquests….. ]

‘The first summon, huh? And he helped these ‘Arachne’…. I wonder if they are straight up spiders, or if they're humanoid…. No, no, I'm not going to think about fucking a spider……. Stop It brain!’

[ The fifth era was marked by the creation of runic enchanting, and the fracturing of the Arachne empire….. ]

‘The new medium allowed mages to undermine the empire…. How though? I mean, I can think of a few ways, bombs, magic guns, traps, and other magical fuckery. Maybe all of those ideas were lost, it was what, six hundred thousand years ago?’

[ The sixth era was marked by the hell rift, and the demonic crusades… ]

‘.....Huh…..’

[ The seventh era was marked by the second summon, followed by the closing of the hell rift and rise of tiefling domination.... ]

‘Tieflings? Like as in D&D?...........Ok you can go ahead brain…..’

[ The eighth era was marked by the end of the tiefling empire and the start of the war in heaven, in which the pantheon fractured and half of them were sent into exile…. ]

‘Oh Damn, an actual war of the gods….’

[ The ninth era was marked by the end of the war in heaven, and started the age of progress…. ]

‘Age of progress? Maybe a renaissance of sorts?’

[ The tenth era was marked by the wrath of terra…. ]

‘Oh fuck, the forces of nature basically pressed reset on civilization….’

[ The eleventh era was marked by a summon, which started the era of subjugation by the light born.….]

‘Christ, they purged four of the races they enslaved…...’

[ The twelfth era was marked by the unification of the dragon race, and extermination of the light born….]

‘Genocide doesn't solve genocide, I’d put money on that there were at least some of them who didn't agree with what their people were doing…..’

Leo closed the book and let out a sigh, as he had only been reading for a few hours. "That didn't take nearly as long as I thought to get through."

Allis stirred from her nap and raised her head. "Done already?"

Leo leaned back in his pillow. "Yeah, I skipped over a lot of filler, the main points paint a pretty broad picture. In terms of what should actually be relevant to me, I need to focus on the book on Selaria, since hundreds of thousands of years of ancient history isn't priority knowledge. All I really need are the key points and events.”

Allis adjusted herself to cuddle closer to Leo. “I thought that humans were knowledge seekers, is none of it really that important?”

Leo rolled his eyes, as the book had very little ‘knowledge’ that would hold his attention for long. “Eh, I've basically consumed so much medi- history, that I scan over everything that seemed like a more or less predictable outcome. Anything that I don't register as particularly new or important just bores me if I’m being honest. But the sixth and ninth era’s do interest me.”

“Oh? I got why the ninth would be interesting, because many advanced secrets were lost after the wrath of terra. But why the sixth?” Allis asked with genuine interest.

“It's not so much the invasion or the demons that caught my attention, but the portal they used to get here is definitely something that I want to investigate.” Leo answered as he closed the book and tossed it on the pile, before pulling the one on Selaria out to read next.

Allis was silent for a moment before she became a little crestfallen. “Right, you want to find a way back home don't you….”

Leo grinned before breaking out into laughter. “Ha hah ha, Fuck No! I'm mostly interested in other worlds.” He finished while hooking an arm around the cool-scaled selarin to comfort her.

Allis blushed a little at being pulled in, but looked genuinely confused. “But... How you describe your home, it sounds like everyone lives in the lap of luxury, not to mention all of the wondrous creations.”

Leo let out a sigh as he recalled his ‘luxurious’ lifestyle. “That may be true, but let me explain why that kind of life, the one I lived anyway, is very stagnant. I wake up, go to my ‘work space’, sit there for twelve to fifteen hours and go back to sleep. All of my food and shopping is delivered to where I live, and where I live is about two to three times larger than the room we are in right now. No magic, no world wide conflicts to worry about, very little social interactions, and my job is to create exciting experiences for ‘other’ people. Does that sound like a very desirable life?” He explained a little pitifully.

“That sounds...” Allis trailed while her shoulders and hood slumped a little.

Leo winced, knowing exactly the word she wanted to say. “Sad?... Yeah, safe to say If I ever do get the chance to go back it'll just be to bring back some stuff from over there, and to take care of some things that I left behind.”

‘Mainly chucking my storage drives into a fire…’ He mentally noted to himself, if he ever did get the chance.

Allis perked up, and laid her head back on his shoulder. “Well, glad you're staying then.”

Leo smiled as he began to more or less resolve his feelings on Allis, flipping open the book on Selaria to start reading.

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Elaria

Elaria was lucky enough to only escape with a slight limp from the incident with Allis’s venom, because Leo went the entire time at a dead sprint rather than pacing himself. She and Allis would probably still be in bed with him otherwise.

Elaria had to go tell Glia the bad news regarding Leo, and try to reschedule for next time. Coming up on the guard's base, she thought about visiting the head guard and telling her about her potential release from service, but she will leave that as a surprise for when Leo eventually pulls through. The acting superior that has a subordinate pay to be released from duty gets a fourth of the payment, so that should more than make up for the ‘missing’ equipment.

Walking into the base she came across Glia, who was just leaving.

Glia smirked upon seeing her friend. “Hey Elaria, I knew you were eager but I think we should wait till we're back in your room.” She teased.

Elaria rolled her eyes, though when it comes to ‘those’ activities she couldn't deny it. “Hey Glia. I have some bad news.”

Glia drooped her shoulders and tail, while a disappointed expression crossed her face. “I knew it was too good to be true…. Did he run off in the middle of the night?”

“What, oh no. He...” Elaria trailed as she looked around for any eavesdroppers, because Leo told her to keep any ‘specifics’ regarding his activities away from people who didn't already know. She moved away from anyone that might overhear them, and explained Leo's situation.

Glia looked blankly at Elaria.“....Elaria.”

“Yes Glia?” Elaria sheepishly responded.

“My next day off is a week from now….” Glia stated coldly while narrowing her eyes at her.

“Sorry.” Elaria apologized.

“I have to wait an entire week, thinking about what you've just told me.” She stated irritably while running a hand across the sleek black scales on her head.

“Sorry.” Elaria apologized.

Glia closed her eyes and shook her head. “A week that I have to either watch grass grow, or watch him practice magic just out of my reach…”

“Sorry.” Elaria apologized.

Glia let out a resigned sigh. “Well, at least he put that bitch in her place. I got into an argument with her when she refused to give me medicine for someone in the infirmary.”

Elaria understood the feeling, but after hearing Allis’s story, and nearly dying from pleasure together, she couldn't help but empathize with her. Elaria knew what it was like to have no control over your life, to slip into the thoughts of despair and self loathing. But that's where the similarities ended, and she didn't want to think back to those painful memories, she's left that horrible life behind.

Glia noticed Elarias mood change.“Elaria? You alright?” She asked with a bit of concern.

Elaria shook out of her daze. “Oh! Yeah, sorry. Well she's reigned in her attitude since meeting Leo, so I think your next meeting will be better. She’ll most likely even apologize for the way she acted.”

Glia arched her brow as she looked visibly taken aback. “Apologize? Damn, he really did fuck the arrogance out of her..... So, what are you gonna do now? I have the day off so I could join you.”

Elaria chuckled as she waved a hand for her to follow. “Sure, I'm just going to pick up a few materials for Leo. He wants to start making rune enchanted items to sell, so I'll be stopping by the black smith and carpenter before heading back.”

“Wow, those things go for a lot. What's he gonna make?” Glia asked curiously.

“I don't know exactly, he said something about cooking bread.…”

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