“How were the kids?” Vlad asked while they waited for Sular.

“They will grow safely… Gor is almost as big as I am. Suria wants to become a templar… And the church gave them the breathing technique,” she happily replied while she was observing Goulash.

The heavy cloud from her mind visibly lifted. It was very endearing of her, how she took care of everyone around her, especially those that needed it. Just to be sure, he glanced at her attributes.

[Bread, Goblin Warrior

Level: 7

VIT: 17.1 / 25.0 (- 4.5 / 24h)

CAC: 5.0

ISS: 5.0

NSS: 5.1

MPA: 3.5

Poisoned

Internal bleeding]

Vlad’s hand suddenly grabbed her shoulder and turned her to face his face as he lowered his back. “What happened?” He almost shouted. She flinched and retreated a few steps back, her leg colliding with the bed and her wide eyes tearfully staring at him. Vlad took a deep breath to calm himself. He was unnerved, even scared.

“I am sorry. I didn’t want to spook you,” he apologized. After he said that, she relaxed a bit and slowly nodded. He wondered how such a fearsome warrior like her could be so meek. In battle, she did not even flinch when a bullet grazed her armour and when the goblins made a mess in the camp she turned into a little tornado. He liked that dichotomy very much. He took a step back too, and asked again; “Could please tell me what happened? You are poisoned and internally bleeding for more than a day,” he softly explained.

“We were… attacked by a beast…” she said, now much calmer.

“Why didn’t they heal you?” Vlad asked, a tinge of anger crept into his voice.

“There were too many hurt goblins… And too little potions…“ She meekly explained.

Vladimir sighed as he understood what had occurred and searched for the potion he made yesterday. The goblinette before him was sometimes just too selfless. Za’Dek was a really good father with good morals. Now, he could acknowledge it and promised himself to never hurt her.

[Antidote

Beginner-grade. Able to neutralize most weak poisons and venoms.]

He handed it to her without hesitation. She blinked at him.

“Can I? Doesn't it belong to the church?” She asked, worried about stealing from her backers.

“I made it. Now, drink,” he firmly dictated. She nodded again and gulped it all. The poisoned status went away, but internal bleeding was still here, so he took another one.

[Potion of Regeneration

Beginner-grade. Stops light bleedings, outside and inward of body. Slowly regenerates light wounds.]

“This one too,” he handed the vial with the clear liquid to her. Again, she quaffed it.

“Thank you,” she mumbled and turned back to Goulash. His regeneration completely stopped and Vlad counted he had to make another 4, maybe 5 more Potions of Limb Regrow. In the first two days, he forced him to drink his Potion of Light Healing and Potion of Regeneration to stabilize him. He was in really bad shape… The prince had to be a sadist; a brutal one to boot.

“I am truly sorry I set off so much,” he again apologized and returned to his, now-foul station. He quickly cleaned it up with clean water from the pipe on the wall and started making another potion.

In an hour, priestess Sular hastily arrived.

“Devils are increasing efforts to find you,” she declared without reservation or even without a greeting.

“Hello to you too,” he greeted her with a smug expression, “I just wanted you to know that the beginner-grade Potion of Limb Regrow was a success,” he triumphantly stated, completely ignoring her warning.

She blinked a bit and her mouth opened without a sound. Then she shook her head and said, “I… Did not expect you would be successful so early… Or at all,” little gold coins could be seen in her eyes.

“Yes, I know, it’s a good thing. What did you say about devils?” He pretended to be modest.

“Nothing much, just Ssirze and that Miaras whore wants you. A lot. An official bounty was issued,” she responded and tossed him a poster. His roughly drawn face was staring back at him with 2000 gold coins and ‘alive’ under it.

“2000 is a lot for a bounty?” Vladimir asked, remembering he would have to ask about the local economy.

“In this city? No… They don’t want to make a lot of waves yet, but a lot of nobles take this as a game and a hunt. It’s not happening too often now, most of the bounties were either old and inactive... or for Sou’Rek and Za’Dek,” she clarified.

“Are we safe here? I still need to make the potions for Goulash. Oh, and I have written the new recipes here,” he handed a bunch of papers.

She flipped through it and once satisfied, nodded. “Good, 10 000 coins for all of this, minus resources you have used… So let’s round it to 8 000 coins,” she counted.

Vladimir didn’t know if she was cheating him of money but refused to deal with it. Cash will come later, now he just needed some funds to run away. He had plenty of ideas on how to make a lot of gold or whatever currency the society required. He briefly wondered how gods would react to non-magical teleportation. Or maybe it was advanced enough that the line blurred… He shook his head to clear it.

A sudden hiss coming from his apparatus drew his attention back to the potion brewing. He swiftly turned down the small fire, coming from the same crystal as the ones in the cell, except this one had different enchantment and name; Low-Grade Crystal of Fire.

‘I invoke the fire from the plane of elementals to burn the plane of materia’

He long knew that being able to read these enchantments were something highly irregular. Enchanters were even rarer than alchemists as they could use only magic on it. Seems like divine enchanting did not exist. With the orcen race ratio of magical users at an incredibly low rate, there were only 10 families who were able to enchant and they were all nobles close to the royal family. At least, that was how Sou’Rek explained it to him in the cell.

“What about Sou’Rek?” Vlad felt… bad that he completely forgot about him. Goulash, Bread and the potioneering took all of his attention.

“Heh! That moron left two days ago to the harbour. He is waiting for you there,”

“I need to make the potions… Borrow me another table with the tools and I can make it sooner,”

“Sure, the same rate as before. I will take it from the 8 000 we owe you,” she grinned. She was always happy to sell. She ordered her assistant and in a few moments, another two tables were brought to his lab. He smiled at the sight of it and made a plan of action.

Hours later, Vlad was… utterly drained. Two times it almost exploded, three times he failed and one time it just went poof. He was foul-smelling, dirty and completely exhausted. However, the 5 stable Potions of Limb Regrow were sitting before him on the metallic table.

Sular stayed the whole time, taking notes, even inviting another alchemist, but both stayed out of Vlad’s way.

Bread was just silently watching him with glazed eyes, flickering between falling asleep and alarm, when Vladimir suddenly burst into motion to correct the apparatuses.

“It’s done,” Vlad stated and sat right down on the ground. He took the canteen handed to him by a small, green hand from behind and took a big swig. “Thank you, Bread,” he tilted his head back and smiled.

“Thank you, Vlad, for helping Goulash,” she unexpectedly hugged him and kissed him on the cheek with her small, yet full lips. Vlad felt like a high-school inexperienced boy and Bread was completely red.

“Ehm… Again?” Sular laughed at their embarrassment. It was extremely unusual for her. Orcs and their enslaved goblins were mostly very open at sex and dating. Damn, she herself had attended several very passionate parties, where she was used like the nasty nun she was.

Potions were done and he felt as his eyes were closing by themselves.

“Where do I sleep?” He asked as the only bed there was occupied by slowly recuperating Goulash. The bed was brought and he slept like a baby. Before he completely lost it, he just asked Bread to pour prepared potions into Goulash every few hours or so.

The next day he woke up to an ugly, green face. Goulash was staring at him from the side of his bed, the potions had worked as his new limbs seemed fine. “Thanks,” he just flatly said and left. Vladimir blinked a few times, not yet completely woken up. Then he felt something warm on his left arm. He looked that way and saw bare naked Bread lightly snoring with her head on his trained biceps. It was the first time he saw her naked and daaamn, she was beautiful, yet adorable.

Her skin was without a single flaw and the olive-green colour was giving her an amazingly exotic appearance. Her firm, yet supple, full breasts were slightly moving up and down as she calmly breathed and her cute, little nipples were just in a faintly darker colour. Her firm, trained flat stomach was fully exposed to him alongside her nethers. She had just a small patch of black hair above her clean slit. Her hips were just in the right wide range, making her ass formed but relatively small. Her legs were long for her body and exquisitely sculpted. He knew that she hid even more power than him in her body.

Vlad’s member slowly hardened as he felt her. However, he knew it was not the time for such a thing and quickly calmed himself down. Instead, he slowly disentangled his arm from her and stood up. She just softly groaned and turned her flawless little back to him. Her perfect ass poked at him and he had to use all of his control to not slam his dick inside her.

He went to the pipe and poured water on himself to calm down.

He asked the temple guard on the outside for a meal and Sular. He just nodded, grinning and went for them.

Sular came with two assistants in another hour. Bread had already woken up and Vlad helped her to braid her hair after she had to clean herself. The goblin breathing technique was as it worked even better than his own. Evolution wasn’t fair, but he would not complain, as he had his own cheat.

“Here is your gold,” Sular threw him a small sack with 6 large gold square plates. Each plate has a royal family printed on the front and a flag behind. “Each of the plates is 1 000 as you already guessed,” she paused as if something just hit her, “It’s a clean gold, so the temple of commerce will be accepting it even in the human lands. There should be no problem,” she added.

“Fine, so to harbour today,” Vlad nodded. He could already feel the trepidation. Finally, the broader world, more opportunities and he hoped, a cure for his freaking cancer, that has haunted him for so long. He did not ask for the healing because he did not know how much money he will need in the harbour. He was still completely oblivious of the local economy, which probably had already bit him in the ass, not that he would know.

“Yes, I am going with you. We will use my presence as an excuse. I would have to go there anyway and now is a good time as any. We are leaving in an hour,” she explained and prepared to leave.

“What about Goulash and Bread?” Vlad asked, stopping her.

“It’s their decision. The revolution is dead for some time anyway. The goblins have dispersed and Za’Dek is dead. Sou’Rek does not want to have anything with us. Why Staumaz abandoned him, I do not know, but he just lost a good leader,” she sighed. “However, the situation will get better, now with the new recipes and the breathing technique. God Staumaz authorized one favour from the church,” she said, greed mixed with adoration in her voice. “Do not make mistakes; that favour means you can ask for almost anything,” she stated as she saw Vladimir frowning.

“It is…a good thing, Vlad,” Bread softly said, standing beside him.

At that moment Vlad thought again about healing his cancer, but… He could heal it himself. He just needed resources. A favour from a god and his church could be invaluable.

“Where is Goulash?” Vladimir asked, wanting to talk to him.

“In the mess hall. You should wait for him here,” Sular replied with a harsh stare as she saw that Vladimir was preparing to leave.

Vlad saw that the priestess grew fond of him; only, he could not tell why. Was it a sudden influx of cash? His ability to adjust and create alchemical recipes? Or he just impressed her with how he acted towards Bread and goblins overall? He put these questions in the back of his mind and decided to just enjoy it.