Since the whole Demon Island was made up of sand, there were large deserts and sandstorms, but the capital city was an exception to the latter. A wide river divided the city into two halves and the palace was on a smaller sand island in the river. Two long bridges connected the city and the smaller island.

After reaching the city, Elena and Dred saw the same sandstone pathways and buildings. The mansions closest to the palace had concreted swim pools and grass-covered lands, but as they got further away from the river, the grass turned sparser. “This city is really nice,” Elena remarked, looking at one house after the other in curiosity.

Looking down, she saw Dred’s paw marks left in the sand at a few places where he left the pathway. “This place would be much worse if we had to fight. The sand is very soft and slack. It’d be harder to get a footing without using Earth Magic,” Dred remarked.

“Hehe, only for you~ My boots have an enchantment on them!” Elena stuck out her chest.

“Sure, sure, but don’t underestimate my body,” Dred replied just as proudly.

“I wouldn’t dare to~”

“We are here,” Tren stopped in front of a building and interrupted them. It had a table in front of it with an anvil and a hammer on it. Elena and Dred entered without any hesitation.

“Hi~” Elena slipped through the door and looked around.

“Welcome- pets aren’t allowed inside,” the storekeeper furrowed his brows upon seeing a two-meters-tall black panther enter the store.

“I’m not a pet,” Dred replied as he walked forward and sat down in front of the counter. Looking into the storekeeper’s eyes, he added “I should be alright like that, right?”

“Yeah… What can I help you with?” the purple haired and purple-eyed man went on as if nothing happened.

“I’m looking for throwing knives since mine are getting a bit dull,” Elena smiled.

Nodding his head, the purple haired man turned around and went to the back of the shop and soon returned with a three smaller cases. Putting them on the counter, he opened each of them and revealed three sets of throwing knives. Grabbing one throwing knife from the first set, he raised it up and held it in front of Elena. The knife was completely white in colour with a visibly good aerodynamic.

“This throwing knife was smithed from Tiridium, which is a light but strong type of metal. In case you don’t plan to fight against scale-covered or hard-skinned monsters, this set is a good choice. It also has an enchantment on it which makes these daggers return to their owner. All you have to do is keep a small enchanted plate on you else the daggers won’t return to you.”

The storekeeper introduced all three sets of throwing knives. The second one was made from a harder and heavier metal, while the last one was good against any type of opponent and had a penetration increasing enchantment on it. Of course, the latter was the priciest one. After some ‘consideration’, she said she’d check other stores as well.

“We’re just wasting time anyway. Let’s check a few more stores before finally going to the herb store,” Elena whispered in Dred’s mind.

“Mhm.”

Although she didn’t need new throwing knives, she still decided to buy a new set in one of the weapon selling stores to keep Tren’s suspicion low. The Spell Scroll store had nothing that was worthy enough for her so she didn’t buy anything there. The sun was already setting when they reached their final destination, a herb store. It was in one of the mansions close to the river. The yard was filled with different kinds of herbs both in front of the mansion and behind.

“How come the herbalist store is in the owner’s mansion?” Elena asked, looking at the servants carefully picking the herbs on the herb fields and placing them in different bags.

“The lord of this land is Bat Challion, a pure-blooded vampire. He moved to the capital city sixty years ago and bought this land and had been here ever since. His herb plantation turned into one of the spectacles of the city,” Tren replied, pointing at the different coloured herb fields. Some of them were rainbow coloured, while others had only one or two colours. But all of them were planted in an orderly manner, creating a rather beautiful scenery.

“The Lord opened his store two years later in his mansion and started selling pills and mixes which had healing effects or gave temporary physical strength boost. His business is flourishing up to this day since he has a wide variety of pills and mixes with different kinds of effects. There are even herbs that help the user gather Mana or speed up its circulation in the user’s body!” Tren went on with his explanation.

“Interesting. Hopefully, he’ll have what I need,” Elena laughed.

“I’m sure of that.”

A servant opened the double doors of the mansion in front of Elena and Dred and closed it when everyone entered. “Please follow me,” another servant bowed in front of them and led them to another room. The hall of the mansion was ten meters tall and marble columns held up the ceiling. The walls and the floor were covered with a reddish coloured marble as well and the lack of pieces of furniture in the hall only filled Elena and Dred with a sense of marvel.

“It feels as if I was in an ancient temple, hehe. Though I can’t imagine myself living in a place like this,” Elena shook her head.

“I’m not living here either~ My private quarters are quite different!” a male voice resounded in the hall. The servant leading them stopped and after bowing his head, he left them alone. A long and red-haired man walked towards them, rolling a lock of his hair around his finger. He smiled at Elena, revealing his long fangs.

His red eyes reflected the sunlight that shone through the windows as he stopped in front of Elena and looked at her. “Oh, pardon my rudeness. My name is Bat Challion, the owner of this place. I haven’t seen Miss here before, so I decided to welcome you personally!”

“It’s really nice of you~ My name is Elena and he is Dred, but I don’t think you’ll profit a lot from us,” Elena replied.

“Even if you walk away empty-handed, I can still welcome possible customers, can’t I?”

“Indeed.”

“Please follow me in that case,” Challion said and led them to the end of the corridor, straight into a spacious room. Different kinds of pills and bottles of liquids were kept in display counters.

“What is Miss Elena looking for?”

“I’m looking for poison,” Elena said casually.

Tren furrowed his brows upon hearing her.

“Ho? What kind of poison do you need? It depends on what’s your purpose with it,” Challion raised his brows.

“What do you have?”

Nodding his head, Challion stepped closer to the display counter and picked up four bottles. Raising the first which had black coloured liquid in it, he said, “This is called Phylancore, which is a vicious type of poison. It’s got a very strong corroding effect, so if it got on your skin, you’d quickly… melt.”

Raising the dark red coloured one, he continued, “This is called Blyndo, which has a powerful paralyzing effect. If you use it on your weapons, even a shallow cut can slow down the victim’s movements and make killing them much simpler.”

“This third one is called Silondrophe and although it’s a bit slow, if it gets in the victim’s body, they will surely die. This is a very lethal poison, so it’s advised to use with caution,” he said, pointing at the dark green liquid.

“And lastly-”

“Please don’t continue. I’ll buy Blyndo,” Elena interrupted him.

“As you wish. Do you need only one bottle or do you wish to buy them in bulks?”

“Depends. How much does it cost?”

“One bottle is five gold coins. It may be costly, but I sell high-quality products only,” Challion said as a smile formed on his face.

“I’ll buy five bottles of it, it should be enough for a while,” Elena replied and pulled the necessary amount out of her storage ring. Even if they’ve got a lot of gold coins from Cor’s cave, she still hesitated for a moment. Looking into Challion’s eyes, she handed over the money. The servant behind the counter turned around and walked through a simple wooden door and returned a few seconds later with five dark red coloured bottles.

In a bottle was only four centiliters of poison, but if she poured it all into the hilt of her dagger, she could smear her daggers in poison every time she sheathed her weapons.

“Thanks for buying~” Challions mused.

“Mhm, I may return in the future,” Elena replied and after saying goodbye, they returned to the palace. When they entered the palace, a servant told them Jotun was waiting for them in the dining room. Thanks to their perfect metabolism and different bodies, they could go on for a whole day without even getting hungry. But after so much walking and wandering around, even Elena and Dred felt hunger.

Dred opened the door in front of Elena and let her in.

“Haha, since when do you behave so decently? It’s human’s custom~” Elena said.

Smiling back, Dred closed the door and went after her without saying anything. At the end of the twenty meters long table was Jotun, with all kinds of food filling the table. Elena and Dred sat down beside each other, two chairs away from Jotun.

“*Gulp* I heard you left the palace today. What were you doing?” Jotun asked and cut off another slice of meat with his claw.

“Am I supposed to report to you?” Elena raised her brows.

“You aren’t, I’m just curious. And why are you so cold to me?”

“Well, weren’t you holding my neck last evening? I don’t think any girl would be nice to you afterwards.”

“*Gulp* You might be right. So?”

“I bought a set of throwing knives and a poison with paralyzing effects. Maybe I should use it now,” Elena said with a smile and looked at Jotun’s food.

Jotun’s eyes twitched as he stopped eating for a moment and looked down. He couldn’t help but sniff his food, but noticing he had been eating it all this while without any problem, he realized he was being toyed with. “You aren’t funny. I could hang you if you didn’t have your pretty rings after this kind of joke.”

“You’re no fun, I was just kidding. Woah, this meat is really delicious! Right, Dred?” she turned to the side, only to see him eating in his panther form. He bore his claws into a lamb leg sized piece of meat and tore out a large chunk of it, making even the bone visible. Two bites later, the whole leg disappeared in his belly without any traces.

“...”

“What? You said it’s delicious.”

“Hahaha, your boyfriend is quite hilarious sometimes,” Jotun laughed at them, not minding Dred’s behaviour and eating habits. “This is the meat of a monster called Trumpala and it comes from the Dead Land. It’s quite pricey, but as you said, it’s taste is wonderful.”

“What is this Dead Land? I’ve seen a map before, but it was called Beast Kingdom if I recall correctly,” Dred asked.

“Well, when Padinyss changed the flow of Mana with the Ring of Water and turned this area into the center of the planet, many kingdoms and empires fought to take their places. This caused a lot of bloodsheds, but it served its purpose. Padinyss was able to showcase his monstrous battle prowess and beat down even the idea of resistance. The most populous races united and created their own Kingdoms in the area, led by their strongest.”

“Well, not necessarily the strongest since not everyone is interested in being the king, but surely the kings are surely one of the strongest of their own races. But there was a problem. The monsters have great senses and the powerful ones followed the flow of Mana, looking for a place where they could evolve more quickly.”

“That’s how the Dead Land came to be. It’s a strongly monster-infested area, filled with monsters above the five hundredth level and even monsters on the same level as I can be found. Many of them are intelligent as well, so hunting Trumpalas is a dangerous thing to do. Luckily, I’m not a poor guy,” Jotun laughed.

“Interesting. Well, I’ve eaten enough so if you don’t mind, I’m returning to our room,” Elena said as she stood up followed by Dred.

“Mhm, good night.” Elena and Dred turned around and left the dining room. Feeling a bit sleepy, Jotun stood up and went to bed as well. He didn’t notice Elena’s shadow that extended and slipped up to his plate on the table. Finding his teeth a bit slimey, he licked them…

But both his teeth and tongue were dark green.

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