Megumi breathed a sigh of relief when she and Poro-tan reached the dock. She immediately ran to solid ground and jumped up and down excitedly.

Finally! No more rocking boat! People stared at her as they walked by, but she didn't care. No more fish! No more nasty dried meat that felt like it could break Megu's teeth!

She turned towards the pirate ship and watched in glee as it sailed off into the distance. They had directed the crew to point the ship back out to sea and to go as soon as they reached shore. The undead would fall lifeless once they exceeded her maximum range, but this plan would hopefully help them avoid problems with local authorities. As it was, they could say that they simply escaped if anyone came asking questions.

There was one thing Megumi wanted more than anything else at that moment; ice cream! "Come on, Poro-kun, it's time to go celebrate! Megu want's to eat something sweet!" She stomped along happily leaving the docks and the sea behind her, ignoring the groan that came from Poro-kun's mouth at the mention of sweets. Seriously, who the hell doesn't like sweets at all? They wandered the city's marketplace which was adjacent to the docks and she couldn't help but stare at all the random junk people were hawking.

She saw fake magic talismans, all kinds of exotic fruits and vegetables, and all kinds of random household items for sale. One guy was screaming loudly over the noise that he had beautiful jewelry for sale; Only 20 GP a piece. She wasn't ever the type to fixate or care about shiny things, but he did seem to have nice looking stuff; they were all fakes of course, nothing of real value could be sold that cheaply. They were pretty though.

"Is there somewhere that sells ice cream or cake around here?" she asked one of the merchants who was selling fruit.

"Keep heading straight up towards the mountains and you'll come to the restaurant district. Would you like to try one of my Ringle Fruits? They're just 2 GP."

She hesitated for a second. Megumi had never had one of those fruits before, but she was kind of curious about the taste. It resembled an apple, but with bumps all over it. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, she paid the man and took a bite out of the fruit. It was absolutely delicious! She hadn't ever had anything exactly like it before, but it reminded her of a blend between an apple and a banana. She bought two more from the man and placed them in her bag for later.

Before they had left the market she had amassed a small collection of fruit and also some strange chewy candy that a merchant had been selling. The sticky substance was formed into little cubes. They were brown in color and melted in her mouth. Things were looking up on this side of the ocean, that's for sure!

Once they reached the restaurant district, it didn't take long to find the ice cream shop as it was simply called, "Ye Olde Ice Cream Shoppe." They went inside and found that instead of the ice cream coming in bowls as it had in the shop she had frequented in Northpost, it was served atop a cone shaped container that appeared to be edible. That's so interesting! She ordered one for her and one for Poro-tan. She enjoyed teasing her pet and made him eat it despite his vehement protests.

They continued walking along and she noted that it was starting to get late. "We'd better go find somewhere to sleep for the night, Poro-tan. I don't want to stay in this city for long. I want to go find a small town somewhere and plant that seed we cultivated in Northpost." she winked at him as she vaguely referenced the dungeon core.

After a good hour of walking up and down steep streets, they finally found a section of town with some inns. They found one near the main road leaving the city just before sunset. It was a huge building that stood around 7 stories tall with a flat roof, as was the style of all the buildings in this town. It was crammed between a general store and a butcher shop. All of the buildings in Oleander were crammed against one another; the city planner must have been a crappy one.

The innkeeper was a tall, skinny man who had to be near death. He was so old and frail that she didn't know how he got anything done in a timely manner. Since they had come into so much money as of late, she didn't feel bad about splurging. She paid 200 GP to get a suite on the top floor. Surprisingly, they didn't even have to take the stairs to get up there. Instead of stairs, the building had a magically powered lift that carried them to the top of the building at the push of a button. Living in the age of technology is a wonderful!

The room itself was lavish and even featured more than one bedroom, a kitchen, and most importantly a breathtaking view of the mountains. She grinned excitedly at being so high up off the ground. Megumi stared at the mountains as mist began to roll through the town and began to obscure everything below in a haze.

"Poro-tan, go ahead and sleep in the room by the door for a few hours, Megu is going to go explore a little on her own."

Her pet just shrugged and wandered off to his room and she saw him begin to strip down before she stepped out of the room. Luckily, Soul Trap had an extremely long range, and she could literally go anywhere in the town without endangering the life of her precious toy. She took the lift down to the ground level and stepped out into the moist air. She brushed a stray hair away from her face and wandered up and down the streets, enjoying her time sight seeing.

She found a small shop that sold clothes and picked out a new dress for herself. It was a blue summer dress and she liked the way it fluttered when she twirled. It was too hot to keep dressing as she had been, so she was more than happy to put the new clothes on immediately. Megu needs to invest in a larger inventory bag sometime. Maybe Megu can get one of the backpack variety instead of a pouch like this one and have Poro-tan carry it around for me. Those hold a lot more so I could buy more stuff.

She continued her walk and noted a few important sites to check out tomorrow before leaving town. There was a armorer and a weapon smith, an apothecary and a store that sold magical accessories. She still had nearly 6000 GP, which was a pretty good pile of money to work with.

The next site that she noted was the local Adventurers Guild. She walked by the entrance and saw something troubling on the board posted outside. There, right in plain sight was a wanted poster depicting a crude drawing of her and Poro-tan. The bounty was 1000 GP. She groaned in frustration at the revelation. Megu was so stupid for showing her powers in Bridgeport! She kicked herself for blowing the cute harmless image she had worked so hard to cultivate over the last several years.

Word must not have gotten out very widely yet, however, as she hadn't encountered any problems in the city thus far. Every member of the guild, however, would know their faces. She turned away from the building and walked back towards the hotel. It didn't take long for her to notice that she was being followed. Damn! Someone must've saw me by the guild! Stupid! Megu should've stayed far away from that place once she realized what it was.

She had to think about how to handle this problem. It sounded as though there were a few sets of footprints gaining ground on her from behind. Curse these short legs! Megumi continued to walk as fast as she could now and ducked into an alleyway before transitioning into a run.

Poro-kun was too far away for her to call him, not that she needed help anyway, probably at least. She turned around quickly and stood her ground. Three burly men came charging around the corner with swords drawn.

"We know who you are! Come along quietly and things will go easier for you. Where is that traitor, Hideki? If you cooperate we'll be lenient on you, girl."

She blinked in surprise at the implications of what the man was saying. Do all these idiots think that Poro-kun is the evil mastermind? Megumi had to stifle a bout of laughter at the thought. "Megu has to do as he says! He said he'll hurt Megu's family if I don't come with him!"

Two of the three enemies lowered their swords at hearing this and even the leader's grim expression seemed to soften a bit. "Okay, just tell us where he is, and we'll take care of the bad man. Everything will be okay, you have our word on it."

Megumi started towards the men, her ruse successful once again. Score one for being cute and innocent looking! However, when she got close one of the men lunged at her with his blade. She only just barely fell backwards and out of harms way. Apparently things wouldn't be going so easy after all. They almost had Megu! Can't let myself be careless anymore!

She scrambled backward as the three men advanced on her. She let loose a Eldritch Blast towards the man at the front of the formation and connected, sending him flying backwards into his two fellows. One of them was knocked down, while the other charged at her again. She just barely had enough time to yank her staff out of her magical bag and parried the blow.

The man was much stronger than her, so it did little to push him back, but it was enough. The man she had blasted was dead and she had already joined him to her cause. Just as the man was about to finish her off, his former comrade in arms ran him through from behind. The third man was back on his feet and made a desperate bid to end her life.

Megumi had to give the man credit for his bravery, and for the fact that he probably knew her pawns would die if she did. She dodged the swing of his sword and dove behind her undead minion. The life force had gone out of the second one now and she brought him back as well. The fight had completely shifted to her favor at this point and she had her two men engage with the final man.

Her undead were basically weaklings, especially compared to Poro-tan, but they had numbers on their side. The enemy combatant was able to successfully put down one of them, but the other cleaved its sword into the side of the man's neck. He fell to the ground limply. *Ding*

Congratulations! You have reached level 20!

+1 TP

Megumi took the opporunity to cast Sangine Infusion on all three of the dead adventurers, and to her surprise, two of them yielded her a TP. She left the three husks of human remains on the streets and carefully made her way back to the inn.

Spoiler: Poro-tan's Stats Name Hideki (Poro-kun) Level 017 (11,668/13,655 EXP to next Level) Class Warrior HP 750/750 MP 50/50 TP 1 Adventurer Rank C Attributes Vitality 28 Magic 2 Endurance 23 Magic Resistance 5 Strength 21 Luck 6 Agility 13 Dexterity 15 Passive Skills • Warrior's Essence - Level 3 (+30 HP regeneration/min)

• Sword Mastery - Level 5 (+50% proficiency with swords)

• Tiger Style - Level 1

• Turtle Style - Level 2

• Stalwart - Level 1 (+5% natural defense)

• Fortify Health - Level 1 (+50 HP) Active Skills • Holy Blade - Level 1 (Envelope blade in holy aura for 15 seconds)

• Shockwave - Level 2 (Release shockwave from blade) Spoiler: Megumi's Stats Name Megumi Level 020 (18,660/21,911 EXP to next Level) Class Necromancer HP 400/400 MP 800/850 TP 3 Villain Rank C Attributes Vitality 16 Magic 61 Endurance 9 Magic Resistance 43 Strength 5 Luck 15 Agility 8 Dexterity 9 Passive Skills • Mage's Essence - Level 4 (+120 MP regeneration/min) Active Skills • None Necromancer Magic

• Sanguine Infusion (50 MP) - Level 9 (Absorb life essence of recently deceased, 9% chance to gain +1 TP from human victims)

• Corpse Explosion (30 MP) - Level 6 - (+60% damage from explosion)

• Corpse Absorption (10 MP) - Level 1 (Absorb a corpse's essence. Recover 80 MP)

• Raise Undead (20 MP) - Level 10 (Raise weak undead to fight for you. Max: 50)

• Soul Trap (350 MP) - Level 1 (Trap soul of a recently defeated foe. Max: 1)

• Spirit Barrier (100 MP) - Level 1 (Erect a barrier using souls of the dead for fuel. Blocks spells and projectiles)

• Eldritch Blast (75 MP) - Level 11 (Unleashes a roiling ball of Eldritch energy that burns its subject on contact for 5 seconds)