Megumi stalked away from the guild hall trying to mask her irritation. Everyone always looked down on her because of her status as a necromancer. It was something she had put up with for the entire two years she had been a member, and it irritated her to no end. While those lazy fools sat in the hideout criticizing her, she was out in the world furthering their agendas. I swear, once I'm done with this place, the first thing I'm going to watch burn will be that insipid cesspool of a guild hall. She let out a chuckle at the thought.

Poro-kun followed along behind her like a puppy dog, and she led him in the direction of the town armorer. His equipment was severely lacking. It wasn't like either of them were exactly high levels, but his equipment was just sad. When she had examined his gear, she found that his sword was showing signs of rust and had more chips along its edge than she could count.

She checked how much GP she had at the moment, and with the haul from the past day's work, she had a total of 739. Jeez, the adventurer's guild doesn't pay worth a damn. No wonder the poor guy has such shoddy equipment. Don't worry, Poro-tan, Megu is going to take good care of you so that no one can break you before she's had her fun with you.

Megumi spent the time walking deciding where to place Poro-kun's new talent point. It appeared that he only had one sword style that he had invested in, and that it was an offensive type. That suits me just fine. He can swing away while I blast the shit out of people. A perfect partnership!

She considered investing another point into Warrior's Essence but ultimately decided to forgo that for now and placed the point into Sword Mastery. With that done, she invested her latest talent point in a new skill, Corpse Drain. It was an important spell that she had only just unlocked, and it would allow her to siphon MP from a deceased target so long as it was a fresh kill.

When the two of them entered the shop the middle-aged armorer gave them a slightly odd look before he reached for a battle axe and stepped out from behind the counter, "Is he bothering you, little lady?"

With some effort she stifled the urge to bust up laughing again at this situation and cleared everything up in the usual way. It was starting to become a regular routine at this point, and she found it amusing every single time just to see the look of embarrassment that crossed her pet's face.

Once the explanation was over with, she and Poro-kun browsed the shop. It looked to her that he was still pouting. "Time to get you some serious upgrades, Poro-tan!" She had purposely not told him the reason they were visiting the armorer. The poor sap must've thought they were there to shop for her. His face lit up like a small child in a confectionery.

He's so easily bought and paid for. I doubt I'll have much trouble corrupting this one. She grinned and the two of them walked over to look at swords. After a bit of haggling she got him some slightly better hard leather armor, a quality steel sword, and a kite shield, all for 275 GP. Due to her cute nature, she always had a way with convincing people to give her things for lower prices. Cuteness was her secret weapon, and she was never afraid to use it to her advantage.

"All right, Poro-tan! Now that you've got some gear, it's time for us to go to the dungeon and earn back some of that money Megu just spent on you. You'd better be grateful, by the way," she winked at him and they headed to the outskirts of town. She pulled out the piece of paper she had grabbed off the request board and looked it over.

Rank D Quest: Steal the Northpost Dungeon Core Infiltrate the Northpost dungeon as an adventurer and steal the dungeon core. Kill all witnesses and bring the prize back to the guild so that we can shape the dungeon to our will and get all the profits.

Reward: 1000 GP

Northpost tended to draw newbie adventurers like flies to dung, and the reason for that was that there was a low level dungeon right outside the edge of town. Not only will I get to earn some loot, but I get to slaughter some weaklings for fun and push Poro-tan to his limits. This should be a blast.

Once they were away from the crowds, Megumi filled her Poro-kun in on the quest directives and allowed him to speak. "See, Megu knows how to show you a good time, right?

"Good time? Seriously? What the fuck is the matter with you that killing low level adventurers is your idea of a good time?"

He never learns. She squeezed on his soul causing him enormous pain for his insolence until he begged her to stop. "Now, that wasn't the proper way to respond to my generosity, pet. Megu got you some shiny new gear, and she even let you speak and this is how you show gratitude? Keep it up and Megu will see that you suffer for the entire night once we're through." She flashed her cruelest looking grin at him.

The would-be-hero shrank back like the weakling he was and she was satisfied enough to leave it at that. They entered the dungeon a few moments later, and then it was time to go to work. The first few rooms were populated with the same kinds of animals that roamed the fields around town, Were-Hares and Giant Wasps. She let Poro-kun slice and dice them while she sat back and relaxed, twirling her staff, which was made from a large bone taken from a Bone Dragon. It had runes carved into it, and a glowing green orb sat atop the staff in a small divot. It was her most prized possession.

The low level creatures offered them almost no experience, but she just enjoyed watching the sight of blood splatter all over the place. They traversed the tight spaces of the dungeon fighting monsters until they came to the first small room. A mini-boss that looked similar to a gigantic spiked toad was fighting with a low level rogue, who was rolling around and slashing desperately at the beast, while a white mage stood back and supported him.

"Can you guys give us a hand?" the mage asked between casting. "We bit off more than we can chew, it looks like."

You have no idea. She smiled innocently and, to be on the safe side, cut off Poro-kun's ability to speak. "Sure. Megu and Poro-kun will be happy to lend a helping hand."

She forced her will upon Poro-kun and he ran over to join the fight. She made sure to have him hold back his true strength and watched as he slashed and dodged as the mini-boss's tongue darted out at him left and right.

"What levels are you guys? Want to keep working together? We have a map of the entire dungeon that shows each of the boss rooms. Maybe with the four of us we could even challenge the next mini-boss."

A map. That'll be useful. Hopefully Megu can avoid getting your blood all over it, not that it's a big deal either way though. "Megu and Poro-kun are new to the area. We're only level 4. What levels are you?"

"I'm level 3, and Rikku is level 4." The mage cast another holy bolt at the monster which connected and injured it slightly.

Satisfied with the information she had gained, she changed Poro-kun's orders. When he danced away from another tongue strike, the rogue had moved in to stab the creature in the side. Green blood sprayed out onto the rogue. Now! she ordered.

Poro-kun raised his sword and performed his Shockwave skill. Razor sharp ki smashed into both the frog and the unfortunate soul who was in close contact with it. The attack ripped both of the targets to shreds.

The white mage screamed, "What the hell are you doing!" She ran to her partner's side and prepared to give him a life-saving potion. That was when Megumi cast one of her favorite spells: Corpse Explosion.

The body of the mini-boss exploded in a mass of bone shrapnel, viscera, and green flames that enveloped the low level white mage and her dying comrade. Megumi laughed maniacally as she watched the unsuspecting fools being consumed by the green flames. Before the bodies were completely gone, she cast Corpse Absorption on both the fallen adventurers, regaining most of her spent MP.

Poro-kun looked as though he wanted to throw up, but she wouldn't let him. He needed to grow a thicker skin toward this sort of thing, as she had no intention of stopping anytime soon. "Poro-tan! Look through what's left of those corpses and see if their map is still intact. We need to keep going if we want to get this done today. Megu has a feeling that there's a lot more fun to be had in here as well!"

After a minute or so of sifting through the puddles of gore and clothing parts, Poro located the map and the two of them were once again on their way.