I jump up screaming and my hands immediately dart to my crotch to check if everything is back in one piece.

“What the fuck?!” Elsa looks at me bewildered from her lying position on the ground of the training arena.

“Oh? Ahh…”

-Bug.- Jane provides me with an excuse.

“I thought I felt something crawl on me. I’m not really good with bugs…” I walk around in circles waiting for my heart rate to slow down.

Laughing at me Elsa stands up and dusts herself, “This makes me feel a little better now. If you ever tell anyone what I told you I’ll make sure even the princess knows you’re scared of tiny bugs.”

“Do whatever you want. I’m not ashamed of it. Look at those fucking things,” I point to a mix between a raven and a bat, half a meter long, dozens of which sit on the arena walls, “and wait till you see the spider-rats. Or rat-spiders? Whatever, it looks like a rat but with six legs, a short stubby tail and hundreds of small shiny spikes on its torso,” I hold my hands to indicate its twenty centimeters or so length, “If those nightmares exist I don’t want to imagine how their bugs look like.”

“Whatever you say, scaredy cat.”

“Just you wait. I’ll find the equivalent of a cockroach in this world and throw it at you. We’ll see how high it’ll make you jump.”

“Not as high as you did just now,” she laughs at me again.

“That’s it,” I playfully tackle her and lift her up on my shoulder.

“Put me down! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Her screaming attracts the attention of everyone in the arena.

“Payback for letting me suffer until I bled to death.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” she smacks by back with her hands and struggles to break free but I hold her firm which sends her into a fit of yelling and cursing.

“I think I saw something crawling next to the pit latrines. Since you’re so brave I’m sure you won’t mind getting rid of them for me so I don’t have to worry about something going up my leg why I pee, right?”

Her struggles intensify and eventually, she manages to slip off.

“Don’t dare do that again, asshole!” she hits me like a girl and I protect myself with my forearm.

“It was a joke. Don’t get your panties all in a bunch,” I reach around and spank her with a cupped palm so that it sounds like a stronger hit than it actually is.

In response, Elsa’s knee jumps upwards and the world suddenly freezes.

-So that’s what it does,- Jane’s voice appears in my head.

-Did you just stop time?- I ask in amazement.

She chuckles, -Nothing as impressive as that. I just activated Increased Processing. I think everything is just slowed down.-

-Cool, so you can use skills now?-

-Apparently so. We’ll need to test it with a physical skill once you get one because I’d guess that I can only work with mental ones.-

-Still, better than nothing. Anyways, any idea on what to do about Elsa’s knee being disturbingly close to colliding with my balls?-

-Move out of the way?-

-I’d love to but it seems only my thoughts are sped up. I can’t even move my eyes to look somewhere else.-

-Ohh… that explains why your eyes are glued to her breast,- she snickers.

-Funny. Deactivate the skill on the count of three. Ready?

-One,- Jane begins the count.

-Two,- I prepare to clench my teeth.

-Three!- I direct all my attention to moving out of the way.

Increased Processing Skill (Active) level up.(+2)

The world shifts and I angle my hips back and to the side. The knee hits my inner thigh, slightly softening the blow, before it slides upwards hitting one of my jewels and the inguinal canal.

I fold onto myself from the pain, unable to breathe as I fall to my knees. It’s at this moment, when I compare it to the pain of having your dick ripped off and thinking that this isn’t so bad, that the worst pain I’ve experienced so far hits me.

As if a coal fell behind my eyes the pain is so intense I puke and then fall to my side. Spasm after spasm passes through my body but slowly the coal seems to be extinguishing and the pain recedes.

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hit so hard,” Elsa kneels by my side and turns me on my back, away from a puddle of my puke, “You’re bleeding!”

She grabs her waterskin and holds it to my mouth so I can rinse the aftertaste of stomach acid. She then washes away blood from my face while I pinch my nose to prevent any more from leaking out.

“Please don’t do that again…” I tell both Jane and Elsa.

-Sorry.-

“Sorry.”

By the time I can walk and think again the cooldown is finished so I recast an anchor and ask to borrow Elsa’s watch.

She gives it to me and worriedly asks where I’m going.

“I really did just want to pee,” I exaggerate a limp and walk out of the arena towards the latrines.

It could just be my imagination but as I urinate into the hole in the ground I think I see some red streaks mixed into it. Trying to ignore such hypochondriac thoughts I look for whatever it is I saw crawling the last time I visited this stink hole.

Ignoring the buzzing of what resembles flies, I look at the ground until I spot something move. It’s brown and lumpy and I would've mistaken it for dried feces if I didn’t just see it shoot out an appendage to grab a fly from the air and swallow it.

Knowing what to look for I take a few steps back so I’m not so close to the stench and look for more. A cloud of flies is gathered next to a part where some soldier just emptied his bowels in. Underneath it I see a bunch of the turd toads, with a few more rolling towards it.

-I wonder if they also count as monsters…-

Deciding against touching them, even though Elsa’s reaction to finding one of these things in her bed would be priceless, I head towards the servants quarters to have a word with those who killed me for the second time.

“Tell Salifa that I need to talk to her and that I arranged for people to tell the guards about you if I don’t come back,” I whisper in Simca’s lowered ears.

And just like that, I’m back inside the small servant's room being glared at.

“How do you know my name?”

“None of your business. Lisara, come closer I want to tell you something.”

The four look at each other in surprise but after a moment Salifa motions Lisara to proceed.

“The rest of you hug the wall and plug your ears.”

“No. We wo”

“Salifa, shut up! Backtalk again and you’re not getting out of here alive. You are strong but I’m sure an army of mages and the whole royal guard are more than enough to silence you, care to test my hypothesis?”

The three look at me in anger and bewilderment while Lisara bites her lower lip. Reluctantly they lean on the wall and put their hands to their ears.

“Eyes on the wall,” I have no idea if that’s how hare anatomy works but there’s not much more I can do.

I look at them calmly as they turn around grudgingly before putting a gentle hand on the back of Lisara’s head and bringing her close to whisper in her long ears, “I was summoned here against my will and I have no intention of aiding the humans. Help persuade your leader that I want to help and to take me back with you to your tribe, and I will reward you with a daughter. When they ask you, don’t mention anything but the fact I promised you a daughter. Nod if you agree.”

She nods and I send her to switch places with Salifa at the wall.

“I want you to take me with you to your tribe. In turn, I will share with your elders' knowledge from my world,” I cross my arms and lean one foot on the wall behind me, “Sound like a good deal?”

“Sounds too good, how do I know I can trust?”

“Do you know how to remove Simca’s crest?”

She hesitates to answer so I do for her, “I already know you don’t. Your kind may be familiar with slave crests but public crests like this one didn’t exist back then, did they?”

“No, they did not. Go on, I’m listening,”

“Simple solution really, change the crest from a public one to a private one. Problem solved.”

Her eyes widen as she smiles, “Simple indeed. What’s even better is you’re not needed for it, so how do I know this knowledge is worth the risk of taking you with us?”

“Why don’t you tell me,” I lean forward until our noses are barely touching, “How much will you pay to know how a baby’s sex is decided?” I move my head back as it's getting hard to keep a serious face with her whiskers tickling me, ”Amongst other things,” I smile greedily at how eager she suddenly looks, “Your expression tells me everything I need to know. So do we have a deal?”

I reach the dining hall in time for the second round of food and squeeze myself next to Elsa.

“Hey! Don’t come so close, you smell,” she tries to push me away but I insist.

“You don’t exactly smell like roses yourself, princess.” I sniff her a few times for show, “Hmm… just the right mix of blood, sweat and puke. My favorite,” I lean in and give her cheek a lick.

“Eww, disgusting,” she wipes my saliva away with her sleeve and the table laughs at her expression.

In retaliation, she grabs a finger of greenish goo from the table and tries to smear it on my face but Jane activates Increased Processing at only twice the normal speed, causing the finger to move slow enough for me to wrap my mouth around it.

“Yummy.”

Elsa pulls her finger back and I make a popping sound with my lips.

She laughs. I laugh. The table starts a food fight which is quickly broken up by one of the servants going ballistic at us for wasting food.

We all enjoy a pleasant conversation and I learn that it’s impossible to level up unless I have a class to level in.

I was also explained that while I will get some experience from killing raven-bats and turd-toads it will be minuscule. When I asked why, they said that apparently those count as simple animals and not monsters. The difference between the two being, that animals won’t usually attack unless threatened, while monsters will even go so far as to hunt humans.

-Makes sense considering monsters can level up just like the sentient races.-

Dinner finishes with Ralc coming to escort us and my evening ends as usual with me trying to sleep with Elsa. Tonight is a resounding success as I even manage to make her utter our safe word and grunt ‘Freeze’ through gritted teeth.

So as we lie cuddled, I wait for Elsa to fall asleep on my increasingly numb forearm before I go off to meet the hares outside the walls. Once her breathing tapers off to a constant rhythm I wiggle out of her embrace, grab my stuff from the locked box in my room and turn around to see Lisara smirking at me.

-Oh no…-

“Couldn’t wait to see me again?” I try to smile confidently as I sit down on the box.

“Not exactly. You see,” she takes a step forward and touches my face, “there’s been a change of plans,” a small current passes between us and my body goes limp.

Lisara picks me up like I’m a sack of potatoes and throws me on the bed.

“Salifa vetoed against bringing you with us,” her head hovers over my face as I can’t move anything this time, not even my mouth. “And since she’s the leader and the highest leveled amongst us there wasn’t much I could do. But I want you to know that I did try so I’m here to collect my reward.”

I feel her take off my pants and massage me to full length.

-At times like this, I really hate the fact that I get turned on so easily…-

-That's what’s bothering you? How can you even get an erection when you can’t even blink?! It’s like this skill was made for raping people…-

My eyes dry out and start hurting by the time she finally manages to push me inside of her.

-Say we kill her… and just like last time the skill doesn't wear off… how long till someone finds us and calls for help?- I escape into the comfort of my own mindscape. The pain from my dry eyeballs is still there but somewhat dulled now.

-Well… if anyone’s gonna find us it’ll be Elsa. And she already showed you how she reacts. No… I don’t think killing her is the right option,- Jane joins me wearing nothing but the T-shirt I tend to wear when I’m at home.

-Any suggestions then? Because the way she’s riding me we’re gonna have to wait for Elsa one way or another for this to be over…-

-Well…- she walks up to me and puts a hand on my sternum, -I might have a way to speed things up,- she smiles seductively and pushes me backward.

Not wasting any time the T-shirt is gone and Jane jumps on me.

Self-pleasuring branch unlocked.

Dexterity +1

Endurance +1

Mindgasm twig unlocked.

Focus +1

Sensory Sharing Skill (Passive) level up.(+2)

I wasn’t even done reading the notification when Lisara gets off me, gives me a kiss on the cheek together with her thanks, takes a dagger from her pants on the floor and ends my life with a quick stab through my ear.

The world goes dark and the next time I open my eyes I’m on the floor of the training arena suffering from a light headache and pain in my groin. Blinking more frequently than I normally would, I look around the arena while I scratch my stubble and ponder how should I proceed now.

Not far from me Elsa is taking turns sparing with the two spear users. It may just be my imagination but it feels like they’re taking it easy with her, and whether that is true or not doesn’t matter as Elsa seems to think it is, so with every spar she’s getting tenser and more annoyed.

Raven seems to have taken a liking to the bow and arrow and has an instructor next to her showing her how to hold the arrows and bow in the same hand as well as how to shoot them rapidly while moving.

From the few tries I saw, her main problem seems to be that the ricochet of the bow once she shoots an arrow causes the arrows held in her hand to fumble out of her fingers.

The other two earthlings are sitting and chatting with the soldiers.

-Yigal is nowhere to be seen again…-

The headache is almost gone and the pain in the groin is only a slight discomfort now, so I ask for Elsa’s watch and after a quick stop to the toilets and a light rinse with a cloth and a water barrel I head to the servants quarters. There I grab a certain slave by her long ears and after ordering her to shut up and follow, I head towards the main palace building.

It takes longer than expected to find my way there so I order Simca to show me the way, and after whining a warning or three about it not being allowed she leads the way until I’m stopped in front of a door by two fancy guards on each side.

I point at the mark I have pinned on my gambeson, indicating me as one of the so-called earthling ‘Heroes’, but they refuse to let me pass.

-Shit… it slipped my mind. Why didn’t you remind me?-

-Huh?- Jane answeres after a slight pause, -What was I supposed to remind you?-

Jane’s image seems to be glitching in and out of existence and she still can’t concentrate on anything. The short conversation we had which is usually unnoticeable by others seems to have taken almost eight seconds.

-Remind me to never fuck you again, that’s what. Get a hold of yourself!-

I recast an anchor but I can’t help but regret the wasted half hour and that I didn’t do it before coming to stand outside the princess's personal chambers.