*DING*

Through special action skill, Favor Of Darkness evolved into Champion of Darkness Current skill level 9 It went in where?! Skill effect: Very Questionable… Haven’t I warned you? Sigh. Why don’t they ever listen…

Joe groaned. As if that skill ever did anything.

*DING*

Notice! Of course, it does!

Yeah? Like what?

“Describe Champion of Darkness”

*DING*

No.

What the? That never happened before.

“Describe Champion of Darkness”

Nothing happened.

“Describe Champion of Darkness!”

*DING*

La-la-la-la, can’t hear ya…

“Describe…”

A Large, muscular, and furry leg kicked him out of bed.

“Be quiet stupid mastah… I’m sleeping here…”

Neira yawned and dug herself deeper into the pillows. Joe swallowed his defeat. Arguing with her legs would only bring more pain and his chest already hurt him. After hitting the floor his back also hurt now.

“Rough night I see?”

Savil snickered at him from above a plate full of meat a more than one cup of mead. He joined her at the table. At this point, his bare butt no longer bothered him.

“How long was I out?”

“About a day.”

She found a slightly more burned piece of meat, something a human would call “well done” and after slicing it off a bone, shoved it under Joe’s nose.

“Anything happened?”

He opened his mouth and let her slide in the meat.

“Apart for you two going all lovey-dovey? Nothing much. We kept watch in rotation, you kept snoring.”

Another piece of meat found a way into his mouth.

“Oh, there’s an invitation for a formal meal at the guild hall. It arrived this morning.”

She pointed at a fancy envelope resting on a silver platter. A ripped edge and broken seal explained Why she seemed so well informed.

“Didn’t know you could read. What a barging I made.”

“You can pay me the difference. I have plenty of…”

She lolled her tongue.

“…abilities.”

“You don’t say.”

Joe grabbed her toe and moved her foot off his groin. No more demi slaves, that’s for sure. She let out a disappointed huff but continued to feed him while he read the paper.

Dear sir,

It is my greatest honor to invite you to our celebration of one hundred and tenth year anniversary of Moon Dust company hall of Hippyru. The ceremony will take place at the company hall on the evening of the ninth day of the sixth month, imperial calendar. I shall be delighted by your presence.

Guild master,

Ralene Val Hailen

“That reminds me, what day is today?”

Savil gave him a certain look of pity reserved only for such occasions.

“I do believe it is the eighth day today, mastah.”

She showed him a poisonous, sweet face. Smiling demi were not cute at all. Not with the fangs and all.

“”

“Huh? What was that?”

Her ears perked up.

“Nothing.”

“Not fun mastah, not fun at all. Do you want to insult me more? Do it in a way I could understand.”

Joe rubbed her foot that found its way back to his lap.

“Yes, yes. I will. Now, go get that furball out of my bed and do the rounds of the market. We still have some potions left. Also, if you find a buyer willing to pay a reasonable price for our stock, you may sell some. This place isn’t cheap and I don’t plan on burning all of our reserves.”

“And what if I have different plans for today?”

She got up, slowly circled the table and positioned herself over his lap.

“Again?”

She put her arms around him, pulling their bodies together.

“What can I say. I have my needs. When you buy a toy, you need to maintain…”

A pillow flattened itself over her face with a plop, then slide off and landed atop of Joe’s head.

“Go gag yourself! I’m trying to sleep here!”

***

Moaning and squirming like an old man, Joe lowered his body into the steaming water. His back burned while the water turned red for a brief moment.

No more demi. Not even for free, he kept on promising himself. His back already resembled the topographical map of moon’s dark side.

Ah, the gloves… he should’ve made a pair with all the leather stuck in his item box. Yes, gloves and some boots. His last pair felt kind of funky after he failed that enchant.

Resting in the arms of a busty marble mermaid, Joe opened his skill list and scrolled down towards the costume maker recepies. He had a quite a few of those tho, most were, unpractical to say the last. Never the less, some of those items raked him insane amounts of gold. Like the leather bunny girl outfit or the silky, see-through stockings or the latex catgirl catsuit. The catsuit sold like fresh buns. Given how rare the sap bearing trees were, and that his current skill level granted him only ten percent chance of successful craft, he sold them for ten mil a piece for black and fifty mil gold for shiny red one.

He pulled out his ledger and summed up his stock. One hundred seventy-five million gold. Give or take. One tenth of that he held in precious gems and stones so the total value fluctuated based on current market levels.

“Not enough…”

Admission fee to the La’Feallena Library started at five hundred million gold per entrance to the ground level. Entrance to each additional level doubled that. Books he had an interest in started at the seventh or ninth floor. An information that still needed a confirmation and that kind of knowledge also had its value.

With a sigh, he let his mind wander.

The gate possessed a problem. Monsters, he could deal with. His fucktoys had worked out an effective system of cleaning their surroundings. What bothered him were the sticky threads of political intrigues. Navigating those without getting caught seemed almost impossible.

Tomorrow’s party could bring a solution to that.

Browsing through the designs, he picked a simple white shirt with a collar and a plain white leather uniform with two rows of square buttons and an asymmetrical cut.

On second thought, he swapped the color for black and added a half-cape of black wolf fur slung over one shoulder. Adding new boots to that, he initiated crafting. Four hours total and a moderate drain of mana.

Now, what of the girls? Should he leave them? Better not.

Scrolling through all the fancy designs, he picked a crimson mermaid dress with a high cut and off-shoulder straps. Atop of that, he added a corset and some padding. A lot of padding in a certain area. Completing the creation by a pair of high heeled sandals, he set the quantity and sizes and let the box crunch the resulting design.

The total cost of creation? Several feet of leather and silk. Some metal ingots for boots and corset boning and some herbs and minerals for dyes. All that and a migraine.

Joe hauled himself out the bathtub and pat down with a fluffy towel.

Bright stars were shining before his eyes while vibrating hum assaulted his ears.

He really hated auto-crafting.

It felt like a really, bad dinner trying to get out of your gut, while not being sure which way to exit.

With twelve hours remaining, he dug himself under mountain the pillows.