The petite brown Chimera squirms underneath me. This brown cat/deer blend woman is just exquisite -.

-

"I fell in love with you… w-well, at least your - juice," she says and giggles, embarrassed with herself.

Huh…

I look over at the girls and see that only Hukarere is still watching us, and intensely so.

I guess I just made a woman fall in love with my - milk. Who's the real succubus now?

"Pff…" Roxanne scoffs inside my mind and pouts.

Nyehehehe.

"What's your name?" I ask the petite Chimera.

"Oh… uhm… I'm Kai," she answers and gives me an awkward smile.

"Kai, I'm Wolf Ryder-…"

"Yeah, I knew your name," she mumbles.

"- and after tomorrow, we're leaving town. So, would you like to meet up again?"

She looks into my eyes and nods earnestly, "C-certainly. If you could spare time to have some 'fun' with me, I'd love it."

I smile gently and kiss her deer nose. Her stubby tail ruffles the tablecloth under her as it wags uncontrollably.

"I'll come here tomorrow at eight hours after midday, though I won't stay for long," I say.

"I-I'll come!" She answers excitedly.

I caress her cheek and walk away. The girls get up, and Hukarere signals for Ririmu to come with us.

We pay our tab, and I notice a considerable amount of money being charged to us as "cleaning fees." Maybe I'll be less messy next time.

We go to a bathhouse and rent a room for ourselves.

I hold Hukarere's pale hand and say, "I'd love to have you with us, but I want some private time with my wives."

She blinks blankly once before smiling and shaking her head. "I'm thankful for your consideration, but don't worry about me, I'm still just a guide."

"Hm…" I merely nod and walk away.

That's right, I have to maintain boundaries. I can't let myself fall in love with every woman I - sleep with like I did with Klein and Osaria.

Hukarere and Ririmu enter the public bath area, and we part ways. We head over to our reserved room and start our usual routine.

I'm rather satisfied right now, but Roxanne is in the mood, so I put some effort into playing with her body to satisfy her. Meanwhile, Alissa shares the details of our meeting with Wahinui with Ciel and Yunia.

"Why doesn't she want anyone else to know?" Ciel asks.

"It'd likely cause an uproar among the townsfolk," Yunia answers.

"I assume that she's responsible for the town's order, or something like that," I say.

"She doesn't want any outsiders bringing chaos to her town when she seemingly has everything under control," Yunia adds.

"I see…" Ciel says and nods in understanding. "The way that their minds and memories are controlled frightens me. It sounds like a never-ending nightmare."

"Couldn't you learn how Arreira did it and use that method to remove your memories from the golems?" Lina asks.

"Oh… that's true," I mumble. "I'm not sure about how ethical it would be to use the Chimeras as test subjects. Perhaps I could convince Wahinui, but I have no idea if there are any side-effects to repeated memory resets."

"Maybe you could study their core? Their souls should be bound to it, and it's generally a gem with a mana storage enchantment," Yunia says.

"How would I find that gem?" I ask.

"No idea." Yunia shrugs. "Their Threads have been cut, so I can't follow them. The gem has a maximum range, though, but since the Chimeras can apparently travel as far as Ozymandias, I wouldn't dare to guess where it is."

"Hm… I'll spread some Hollys and Shads around to try and find their cores."

"I guess this is another challenge," Alissa comments.

"They always seem to stimulate us to grow," Ciel adds.

"Not too hard, but not too easy," Lina completes.

"I don't think we have enough time to study the 'memory reset.' It might not actually be the challenge," Yunia says.

"Then what's this challenge about? We didn't put any real effort into getting the Chimeras to help us, so it can't be that," Hana says.

"Maybe it's Hihiriwa? Surviving him?" Alissa questions.

Roxanne - takes my toy out and says, "Maybe one part of the challenge is actually identifying that it's a challenge -."

Yunia frowns and asks, "Are we sure we should be treating this as a deliberate challenge?"

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Aren't we looking too deep into it? It could simply be that Arreira is showing us his pet projects one-by-one."

"There are quite a lot of weird locations that we skipped by taking the Core's portal," Lina adds.

"Or they're each a set of challenges, too," Alissa says with a shrug.

"Are you sure that we shouldn't see this as a challenge?" Hana asks with a cheeky smirk.

"Perhaps that's the true challenge: recognizing if there's a challenge here," Roxanne says and giggles.

Hana grabs my - toy and shoves it back into Roxanne's mouth like a pacifier.

"Now that's meta," I say with a smile.

"Meme," Ted says, and the girls ignore me, except for one.

"Meme?" Yunia questions, very confused.

"Just Earthling things; it's safe to ignore him," Alissa says. Her coldness stabs at my heart, but it really only makes me chuckle.

"Anyway… what Roxanne said made no sense," Yunia continues.

"Well, yeah, she always has to say some dumb shit," Hana teases.

Roxanne ignores Hana and pulls - it out again, then says, "Alright, let me... - lemme rephrase it: the real challenge is finding out what the… the challenge is."

"Ah~, I get it," Yunia says in an understanding tone.

Roxanne smirks and adds, "See? You were all just too dumb to… - to understand me at first."

"Quiet, slut. You've said enough," Yunia says in a cold tone.

I make Roxanne shut up again.

"Well… I understood what she said, but I don't think that's the answer," Alissa says.

I let my appendages move on their own as I say, "I think the challenge is getting past the Maw and surviving Hihiriwa. Learning how to manipulate the Chimeras' memories is just a side-objective, like not letting The Lady kill the baby."

"How would learning to manipulate their memories help us?" Ciel asks.

I shrug. "We could make Hihiriwa docile to us."

"What if you screw up?"

"Then I screw up. Whether we take that risk or not will depend on how easy it is to manipulate their memories."

"Are we going to trust Wahinui's advice?" Lina asks.

"I can't think of a good reason why she would lie to us. Not after our talk about Paradise," I reply.

"We don't have to trust her words, just keep them in mind when we interact with Hihiriwa," Yunia says, and I nod in agreement.

"Okay," Lina says with a nod, but her bangs are wet, so they don't sway like they usually would.

I summon three Hollys and three Shads, then order them to find any gem with the "flavor" of [Spirit Magic]. I let them out through a small window, and they quickly spread out around town. I'm not very confident that we'll find anything, though. If Arreira didn't want them found by the Chimeras, he could've hidden them in the deepest parts of the town's island and closed off any path that led there.

We get out of the bath and find a cozy place for a meal, which is, of course, more conjured food. It's a bit unfulfilling to eat conjured food all the time, so we'll have a late-night snack in private to keep ourselves in good health. This food does help a lot in refilling my MP faster than normal, so I guess I can't complain that much.

After that, we return to Oritiki's estate.

"You all party quite a lot," Oritiki comments.

"We have to rest and enjoy ourselves whenever we can," I reply.

"Our lives are quite hectic, so the time between rests feels much longer than it is," Yunia says.

Oritiki nods and replies, "I understand what you mean. Life's been quite calm here since we rarely do expeditions anymore. You tend to forget how tiring adventuring can be, especially now that I have a home to return to." She looks over at her husbands sharing a drink in their living room and smiles warmly.

Now I get what Wahinui said. Oritiki just wants a quiet life with her husbands. Without the Divines for her to serve or her nation to help protect, she's lost nearly everything that used to motivate her. In a way, we're similar, or rather, we'll become similar. After we survive our Fate, we'll likely give up adventuring.

We eat dessert with Oritiki, a simple caramel crème brûlée made from Dragolite eggs and milk from some winged pig animal with a weird name.

Hukarere and Ririmu go back home, and we cuddle up in Oritiki's living room. Ciel's feeling a bit neglected, so she pulls me into her squishy bosom and gives me a scalp massage.

"This feels nice," she whispers.

"Now you understand why I got [Massage]?" I whisper back.

"I do…"

"Love you."

"Love you, too." She kisses my forehead.

Shortly after that, we head off to bed.

Today is the 14th.

-

Today, we'll go back to wearing clothes. Even though I enjoyed brandishing my - member like a weapon, I'm still much more comfortable being clothed.

Hana increased her [Summon Wings] by 1 (now 4), which takes one point off from [Reduced Mana Cost] (now 2+0); Lina increased her [Dodge] and [Cursing Magic] by 1 (now 2+6 and 11+4); and I learned [Dancing] with 1 point.

My shoulder is still hurting a bit. [Heal] doesn't stop the pain, so it must be because of my sloppy self-[Heal] that made the skin so sensitive.

Breakfast is omelette au fromage with Dragolite eggs. I pull out our charcuterie board to add some non-conjured food to our meal. I notice that Oritiki and her husbands don't eat that much of it, though it doesn't seem that they dislike it; they just don't feel like eating it.

"Do you have any plans for today?" Oritiki asks us.

"I think it would be best if we just take it easy and train a little, perhaps," I reply.

"Wolfy got a date with a fan at Taamu's tonight," Alissa says with a cheeky tone.

"We'll meet again for a short while since we enjoyed our time together so much," I say with a gentle smile.

"She only gets one orgasm and one cumshot," Hana states, and I nod in agreement.

"I want to read a little," Lina says.

Oritiki turns to Hana and says, "Let's spar again, but only with wooden weapons."

"Sure," Hana answers and chuckles softly.

"What? What's so funny?" Oritiki asks.

"'Only wooden weapons,'" Hana repeats with a snort.

"Ha. I'm too old to fall for that kind of provocation."

Hana pouts, but it's quickly replaced with a smile.

Hana and Ciel spar with Oritiki for a while, then Hukarere and Ririmu join in. Alissa and Lina read a new book together. Roxanne uses her workbench and a small summoned bird to test the effects of gasified Decay goop. Yunia diligently meditates to learn how to use her instant casting Gift while occasionally asking me to mix up her magic skill points. Aoi continues her magical training alongside the golems.

Aoi is quickly learning [Earth Bullet] and [Conjure Water] by observation, showcasing her growing talent with magic. Jarn has mastered [Telekinesis], giving her much more freedom of movement, and now, she's learning [Manipulate Metal] from Lina, who's playing around with a sheet of metal while reading. Ted and Suzy are learning [Wind Blade] from Aoi and Ciel, with which they create a deep groove in the still not repaired patio, earning them a glare from Thor.

While Hana and Ciel spar in the backyard, the rest of the girls and I relax on the rooftop terrace in comfy lounging chairs. We're up high enough that we can see down the slope of the mountain. The mountain town in the foreground, the colored clouds in the distance, and the starry galaxy sky in the background would definitely make for a beautiful painting. This is one of the few times that I've wished that I had a camera.

With Gify's help, I practice copying an elemental's "spirit eyes" so that I can see behind my back. I've quickly learned that making eyes is much more complicated than making limbs because they need a connection to the brain.

I give [Summoning Magic] to Yunia and get her to summon a small bird for me. After helping her adapt to the information overload, I observe how her soul changes when she activates the summon's vision sharing. For each sense she decides to share, a new appendage appears, protruding out of the soul brain.

I might be able to improve the senses of my soul appendages with this information. Now that I know how to add taste, I get an idea for how to make a tongue, but that'll have to wait for later. I focus on adding the "extra eye brain extension" to my soul first.

I manage to establish a faint connection to my spirit eye, but it's not actually useful for combat yet. It'll take a while until it's completely integrated, but I'm already used to the extra vision from my summons, so I can just keep it active all the time.

I create horns and a tail for myself. I really need to improve my integration of these appendages to my body so that I don't have to undo them every time that I'm doing anything mentally intensive.

"Does nobody ever find it weird that you can change race like that?" Rei asks with a raised eyebrow.

I point to my horns and respond, "These things are fake, so I haven't really changed my race."

He sets down a few cups of iced juice on the table in front of us, then rubs his warthog chin in thought. "Looks pretty real to me."

I dismiss the horns and create fox ears. I try to flick them, but their movements are still a bit stiff and awkward.

"Oh, I see what you mean, but I can imagine lots of ways that you could use such skill," he says.

"Yeah… I've been trying to integrate this skill with my combat style… while also using it to have some fun." I smile wryly.

There are so many things I've wanted to do with it and so many things I still have to train that my dream of becoming a werefox keeps getting pushed further and further away…

Lunchtime arrives, and we eat Manta Gull ribs, the flat manta-ray-like big bird. This time, it isn't conjured food since it was actually hunted by the Celestial Horns. They caught one as large as an SUV, so it will easily feed all the Horns and us, and there'll still be quite a lot of it left.

The taste is a bit gamey, but it's kind of good. It tastes like an odd mix of bird, beef, and fish, for some reason.

After lunch, Oritiki goes off to inspect the supplies being assembled for them. Thor also leaves the estate to go shopping, leaving us with only Rei and their servants.

The Hollys and Shads observe that the town is busier than usual with soldiers moving supplies and tools everywhere around the Military Docks in the west side of the town. A few hundred soldiers are being mobilized for this expedition, so they need a lot of stuff.

Now that Lina's had her time to read, Hana gets her to train [Dodge] and "Speed." The golems continue to tirelessly train, but the rest of us take a short break to cheer on Lina.

"Faster, faster!" Hana barks.

"You can do it!" Ciel cheers.

"I know you can handle the pain! Don't stop now!" Roxanne adds.

"Bite her hand! Bite her hand!" Aoi exclaims.

"They aren't training offense, Aoi," Alissa says.

"If Hana can't dodge a bite, then she needs to be faster," Aoi replies, confidently.

"It's good for the teacher to also train themselves while training others," Ted says.

I snort and ask, "When did you get so philosophical?"

"Our wisdom comes from you," Suzy answers.

"You don't need to butter me up," I respond.

"We merely speak the truth," the doll golems say in unison.

I snort again.

"You're doing amazing!" Ciel cheers again.

"Embrace the pain!" Roxanne continues.

Lina's anxiety continues to increase, and her face burns red not only from the exercise but also from her embarrassment.

"Cheer a bit more, it's working," I say.

Lina sends me an angry glance, but she doesn't have the energy to complain.

Alissa smiles evilly and joins the cheerleaders, "Lina! Lina! Lina!"

Hukarere and Ririmu also join in and cheer a bit, too.

So much attention is directed at my little Lina that she almost freezes in horror.

"Don't you dare stop now!" Hana barks.

Lina pushes herself even harder, not because of the cheering, but because of the shame.

Yunia and I share wry smiles, then silently return to our own training. The second-hand embarrassment is too great for us to join in with the silliness.

Lina eventually tires herself out, and they take a break. Hana carries her and flies up to us while Ciel and our guides prefer to use the stairs.

Lina sits on my lap, and I use a [Clean] magic tool to make all of her sweat disappear. Once I'm finished, she lays against my chest and molds a sheet of metal into the shape of a face for Jarn.

"I miss this kind of liveliness," Rei says with a gentle smile.

"Why? Don't you have regular parties with the Horns around here?" Hana asks, then takes some big gulps of her watered-down Tonique iced tea.

He gently shakes his head. "It's not the same thing. I used to have lots of siblings, and back then, every day was like a big party."

Ciel smiles adorably and plays with her dark hair as she says, "It's non-stop fun when your family is large enough. There's always someone doing something interesting, so you're never really bored."

He looks down at his cup and gives us a pained smile. "After the Calamity, most of my siblings volunteered for expeditions intended to try to make contact with the rest of our nation, but none of them returned…"

I stop my training and solemnly say, "Our condolences."

He shakes his head. "It's been such a long, long time since they left that I've mourned for them for as long as I really should. Now, my only wish is to rebuild our family with Oritiki."

Hm…

He turns to us and smiles with his mouth and eyes, almost closing his beady little warthog eyes. "We've convinced her to retire in a few months. Her body is very strong, so we'll be able to spend a few years making babies."

I use [Sense Soul] on him.

His smile fades, and his expression becomes neutral, then he looks away for several long seconds. He takes a drink, then turns back to us and loudly exhales. His eyes dart between each of us, and he awkwardly taps his tusk as he asks, "Apologies, it seems that I was lost in thought. What were we talking about?"

"Our tea. Do you like it?" Alissa asks, thankfully taking the conversation somewhere happier.

He nods and smiles. "Oh, yes. I do, very strong. I like strong drinks, but I still prefer alcohol."

Alissa smiles back and says, "It's actually quite watered-down, you should try having it the traditional way."

I saw Rei's soul change. The "structures" of at least two locations in his soul brain were changed. The first location is a structure that's constantly changing. It was "scrambled," becoming a confusing mess, but as soon as the "reset" was finished, the location went back to rapidly changing again. The second location is a larger structure that's also constantly changing, albeit much slower than the other. This one, I couldn't quite catch what changed since it was much more subtle, but I can see at least one "smooth" area that seems unnatural.

Is the fast one related to short-term memory…? It changes so quickly that it could be. I have no idea what the other location represents, though, but I'd guess that it's related to memory, too.

It seems that I've found where memories are made, but I still have a ways to go until I can create new golems that don't contain my memories.

I stop observing Rei's soul. I've learned all that I can from him.

I decide to rest and lay down on the chair. Lina rests her head on my arm, and I pull her closer to my chest. My hand reflexively lands on her head, and my fingers run through her silky hair.

I look down at my other free hand and start messing with the inner part of my soul.

"Alissa, tell me if my mana organ has moved," I say through [Bind] and give her a point in [Sense Soul].

I try out a few different things and manage to make it stretch a little, though I have no idea where it's stretching towards. If I could cover myself with my mana organ, then I could try out the dragon transformation that the girls and I want so much.

So many things to train, but so little time…

I return to my spirit eye training. This ability is definitely a higher priority right now.

Alissa and Hana train [Mesmerizing Butterflies] together, wowing Rei and the servants who pass by. Ciel's now training [Fly] by dodging Hukarere's and Ririmu's attacks and blunted arrows. Alissa is too good of an archer to help Ciel train her dodging.

The glaive is actually a pretty good weapon for flying. Going for chops while diving has less chance of getting the weapon stuck in the enemy than a spear. Lances and pikes have superior power in comparison to the glaive, of course, but they're disposable weapons, so they aren't a practical main weapon for prolonged combat.

Roxanne presents a new weapon to us: caustic goop gas. Throw it at someone and watch them die a horrific death as their eyes and lungs are burned away, leading them to suffocate.

I feel like I'd be hard-pressed to find a reasonable situation where this weapon could be used on humanoids.

The sun sets, and the day ends. It seems like it passed by quite quickly. Even though we mostly just trained, it still felt like a short vacation. When compared to how our adventures usually go, nothing too eventful happened, but tomorrow will be very different.