We spent half a day trekking toward the ruins. Nothing noteworthy had happened but I found out I got no stamina at all. In the end did Nino end up carrying me. Luckily I am so light that she did not seem to notice my weight. I guess Izumi did not mind because he could freely look at my tight short shorts. For all honeyed words yesterday, he sure violate my dignity with his eyes.

At around dusk we setup camp next to the trail. I helped to acquire water for Seris by using some lifestyle magic. I felt it was easier to do now than earlier this morning. Seems like I am improving! Since we haven’t hunted anything we had a stew made out of bread, vegetables and meat jerky. It was not the most tasty thing, but all that walking built up a hearty appetite.

At bedtime we slept in our bedtime inside a big sleeping bag. It had enough room to fit us all comfortably. Since we could be attacked we did not undress and had our weapons close at hand. It seems like my designated sleeping position is at Izumis chest... What a cruel master he is. Before I fell asleep I heard smooching noises, seems like they wanted a goodnight kiss. Wonder what they see in him, that make them so in love with him despite being slaves.

The next day was just like the one before, but on the third day we got ambushed by green ugly humanoids who are called Goblins. It seems like the gods ran out of originality when they made this world. Recycling monsters from fantasy works on Earth.

”Gugagah!” The ugly goblin cried out at me.

On both sides of the trail stood about ten goblins in total. They wore loincloths made out old animal hides and scavenged fabric from dead adventurers. All their weapons are rusty and dented from neglect of maintence.

”Cover Lotus and Seris!”

Izumi cried out in a commanding voice to our party. And as if in synchronisation he and Ninos moved in front of us. Ninos with her enormous axesledge stood in front of me, and Izumi with his magical sword guarded Seris. The goblins now started to look a little worried, so they backed off a bit to regroup.

”Lotus, use Lesser Smite. Seris, use Fireball!”

As if woken out of a daydream I instinctively started casting my Lesser Smite spell at the closest goblin to me. By the time my smite went off, Seris had already turned two goblins into ash. My smite hit the goblin with such a force its jaw got blown clean off. This sudden violence struck fear into the attacking goblins which caused them to hesitate.

Ninos charged in and with one swing she outright murdered three goblins with one swing. Her brute force caused blood, limbs and gore to spread everywhere around here. Izumi at the same time used precise strikes to impale the heads of the remaining goblins in front of him.

By the time this slaughter happened, the surviving goblin was charging at me. So I readied my staff into a defensive position to be ready to strike. Just as it got in range I poked it hard in the throat with the staff, which caused the throat to be crushed. Huge amounts of blood clogging the airpipe which caused the goblin to suffocate. Without any prior training I managed to use the staff proficently, thanks to my patron god.

The battle itself had not taken any more than a minute, but the results were apparent. On the ground laid mutilated goblin corpses. And I had a strange but good feeling. It was as if my soul had absorbed something.

”Seems like her cherry popped, haha.”

Izumi chuckled as I took in this feeling. Lame joke there, dude.

”I do not feel anything.”

Ninos with her usual self said it without any hint of strong emotion.

”That is because goblins are too easy for us. Only Lotus, the newbie will get anything out of such weak foes.”

He responded to Ninos confidently as he sheathed his sword onto the back.

”Should we get their stones?”

Nyaya asked with her hunting knife ready. She looked eager to do it.

”Yes, they are not worth much but they are easy to carry.”

Izumi then ordered everyone to attempt gathering stones.

Apparently the stones are much like gall stones for monsters. Over time magical energy accumulates in their bodies which causes it to crystallize into usable stones. They are usually found in the center of the body. Which means you are required to dig through guts to find it. Pretty disgusting. There have been rare cases of humans and elves having stones in them, but often it is not of any more harmful effect than their weight is higher than normal.

Books are wonderful, I thought as I brought up this piece of information from my mental library. I can see now why Izumi thought I would be useful, for more than an extra bedwarmer in his party. This made me wonder if my Phylactery is a kind of magical stone. It looks a lot prettier than the stones we dug up from the goblins, but it would not be an crazy theory.

After we finished getting the stones I felt as if my connection to my patron god had grown stronger. So I self reflected on my classes shallowly.

[Cleric (Mistral) LV.2]

[Lesser Lich (Holy) LV.2]

Seems like this was enough for my bond to get stronger. And also my race class leveled up... I wonder what this means. I feel more stronger and less frail than before. To think just one level is such a difference in percieved power. Also it feels as if my Phylactery got bigger now... Hope it do not get too big in the end, because right now it is about the size of a tennis ball. A far cry from the marble size it was before, luckily most of it is buried inside me.

We moved on quickly once our business was concluded. Nino maintained her weapon on the way meanwhile Nyaya and Seris had girl talk. After a long walk, did we arrive a kilometer outside the ruins at dusk. So we decided to setup camp for the night. By now I have gotten mostly used to outdoors life so most of the preparations went automatically for me. Also during our sleep, Izumi could not stop touching my Phylactery. I did not feel anything special but it seemed to calm him down greatly. He who usually would be doing lovey dovey stuff with his other girls now slept like a log. What does it remind him of so much that it calms him down? I may never know. And somehow I have become his favorite. The deathly looking girl with nearly no tits, and who constantly refuse sex. Do not make sense at all to me. Maybe I tick off a lot of his fetish boxes which makes it worth it? Or is it something else...?

We all woke up when the sun hit our faces the next day. Even Izumi who tend to be up first of all, lazed around while hugging me tightly. He seems to be in a particularly good mood today. After a hearthy breakfast he started drafting a plan.

”Alright girls, now that we finally are here at the outskirts of the Karantian ruins we need to be thorough in our planning. My client want a special artifact from the massive tower over there. And if what previous scouts has said is true; We will expect resistance from undead and beasts who have made lairs there.”

Izumi looked gravely serious as he briefed us. Seris looked a bit scared, so Nino comforted her by patting he back.

”So that is why I brought Lotus with us. Because of her special innate talents as one of the rarest good aligned liches, she will be able to easily counter the undead. While her talents are not awakened fully yet, I expect with our support that she will. Do you understand girls?”

The girls nodded in aknowledgment and then looked at me. I guess they got great expectations of me now. I feel pressured a bit.

”To fully take advantage of Lotus we will first train her in the dungeon below. If all goes well she should be ready to face the tower within a day. A little real combat experience goes a long way, as you saw when she defeated two goblins by herself.”

I now saw that the girls looked in awe and adoration of him. Are they airheads? All he just did was to make a careful plan. I am not saying that I am a genius, but all it looked to me was reasonable. If only it did not require taking advantage of me, then I would not feel so cynical Oh well, not like I got any choice. I am bound to my masters will.

”I will give you credit Izuma where its due, at first I thought of you as an sex crazed impulsive idiot. But spending time with you has changed that. This planning session was very good.”

Izuma looked at me with his jaw open. It was like this was going through his head; ”Did Lotus just give me a compliment? The sky must be falling down.” Ever since he bought and enslaved me I have been pretty cold to him, so it must be a shock for him.

”I see your opinion of me has changed. I got what it takes when I need to.”

He then winked at me, and in the same second the girls swooned. You will have to work way harder than that to win my heart over! My boyfriend at Earth put in significant effort in to win me over. And it was not with gifts or dates, but with lots of interactions with me. The moment we bonded, I felt the happiest I had ever been in my life.

”You got a long road ahead of you, master.”

I replied to his flirting, and then grabbed a book which I haven’t yet fully memorized. He made an expression which screamed; ”Challenge accepted” and then individually briefed the girls. Me was not needed because they were going to essentially power level me.

”Karantian civilization...”

According to one of the books I had read and memorized, the reason why the civilization ceased to exist was because of them tampering with life itself. Lords and nobles wanting to live forever contracted the leading necromancers, scientists and alchemists in their fields in order to defeat death. Their more successful experiments was liches, but they was only seen as failures because the decaying bodies made it impossible to enjoy earthly delights like food, alcohol and sex. The other experiment performed by religious sects. In order to cheat death they created the first vampires whom preyed upon the life force of all living things. That too was considered a failure, because it made them need to live as hunters for the rest of their existence.

As for the undead stalking the ruins? They are soul less husks from which the experiment which finally destroyed their civilization went cataclysmically wrong. In a final desperate attempt they tried to create their own reincarnation system, but the gods meddled with it. The result was that all people connected to the civilization perished in an instant. No matter if they were guilty or innocent, divine punishment was dealt. Their souls was forcefully taken, and the void left inside them got filled with negative energy leaking from the realm of a evil god. With no souls their brains and bodies detoriated, and they eventually got driven into madness.

”...What a shitty way to go.”

I talked to myself as I thought of what happened in ancient times. I guess Izumis client is after immortality then, huh.

”You seem to be deep in thought, Lotus. That is great, because your knowledge will come in handy as we ascend the tower.”

Izumi looked very happy to see me think this much. He then whistled to get everyones attention.

”Alright girls, let’s now carefully find our way to the dungeon!”

With a command from Izumi, we now sneaked our way toward the dungeon entrance with the help of Nyaya. Her keen senses helped us to spot and deal with small fry like goblins and wolves before they could alert every monster in the area.

We finally arrived at the dungeon entrance. From the looks of it, you could easily fit two large horse carriages side by side in it. It was made out of damp stone bricks which had plenty of moss growing on top of it.

As we descended into the dungeon, I heard a familiar voice that I never want to hear again in the distance...