The trip would normally take a horse drawn cart around two weeks to arrive at an average pace, this included stopping at night. As his Chariot roared down the road, the trip would only two days, arriving on the second. They made it to the border wall between the countries.

“Um, are you perhaps Master Hephaestus?” A border guard asked nervously.

“I am. Here is my medallion.” He channeled his magic into it and it sounded a message.

“The wielder of this medallion is Duke Hephaestus of the Kingdom of Dunlap. Only he can activate this marker as it will only respond to his magic.” Then a symbol of the Dunlap royal family floated above the marker.

“Ah, thank you milord. May I ask what business you have in Merluka?”

“Friendly.” Is all Phaestus said.

When he spoke with Ella about the current status of both Merluka and Obai, she told him that he was not required to announce his purpose. She recommended that since he was not doing anything hostile, it would be easy to just summarize it as ‘Friendly’ in case there was someone watching with lie detection on.

“Understood milord. Uh, you don’t seem to be transporting anything. So uh, tax will be ten small copper per person milord.” Phaestus handed over forty copper and they were on their way again.

As it began getting dark Rorroco asked if they were going to stop for the night.

“Nah, Dite, can you cast [Full Rest] on me?”

“Yup.” She casted the spell on him.

“Wait, you plan to travel at night?” Rorroco asked surprised.

Phaestus smiled and flipped a switch, causing the area in front of them to brighten up.

“What?! Is that a magic tool?” Rorroco said as the headlights came on.

Phaestus continued to pilot his Chariot down the road. The rest of them slipped off to sleep while Phaestus continued their journey.

Ruby woke up a few hours into the night, “Uncle, I need to use the bathroom.”

“Ruby?” Phaestus answered her.

“Oh, right…” She got a sad look which caused him to bring his Chariot to a gradual halt.

“Hmm? Is something wrong Eric?” Dite said bleary eyed.

“We should take a break.” With that he shifted them, Chariot and all into the Haven.

“W-what! What is this place?!” Rorroco looked around as they climbed out.

“Did the Queen not mention this place?” Eric asked, pulling his mask off.

“Oh, my, you are to my liking.” She said with a carnivorous look in her eyes.

“You try anything I throwing you out of my Haven.” Eric then went onto giving a short explanation of where they were.

“Oh ho! So this is the secret hot spring she talked about?” Rorroco was back at her normal size, relaxing in the water.

Eric was grilling some food while Ruby was helping. Micah was stretching and moving her body.

“You know Eric, this will just make me want to pursue you more.” Rorroco moved to the edge of the deep end, letting her upper body rest on the heated stones.

With the new spells, Eric had been doing some upgrades to the property. He spruced up the hot spring area to make it like high class modern one of Japan. He also added a holding building that could act as either a jail or location to keep people he did not want to see the Haven as a whole. It was completely sealed, durable, and made to look like something built from the world to those inside. His home could also run long term now since he installed the Basilisk Queen Monster core to power everything. He expanded the magic circuit network so that it would maintain the hot spring at perfect temperature.

“Rorroco, how do you like your steak?” He asked, ignoring her earlier comment.

“Rare please.” She said a bit disappointed.

Ha! I am immune to such teasing now! Thanks to… Micah… Who endlessly teased me before and after we got married…

“Shrink down and come eat.” They all sat at the stone table he added with nice cushioned seats.

“Mmm! This is so good!” Rorroco ate her food happily.

Eric finished up his food, “Alright, you three can relax here and I will continue the trip.”

“No!” Ruby grabbed onto his arm.

“I want to stay with you.” She said with teary eyes.

“You can rest in a bed here Ruby.” Micah offered.

She shook her head and would not let go.

“Just let us be with you brother.” Rorroco said.

Eric looked around and saw that none of them wanted to stay in the Haven without him. “Haah, fine, don’t complain if you feel stiff later.”

They shifted back into the world and Phaestus summoned his Chariot. Ruby’s ears stood straight up and she looked off into the distance.

“What is it Ruby?” Phaestus asked.

“Battle. People fighting.”

“Phaestus, at this time it might be a bandit attack.” Micah commented.

“Let’s go then.” Phaestus said, climbing into his chariot.

They rapidly approached a campsite that had several wagons in a protective circle, with bandits attacking the people present.

“Shit, they must be having a hard time seeing them. Lighten the area with brightness of the sun [Flare]!” Phaestus put his arm out the window and fired the spell into the sky above the battle lighting the area up.

The battle stopped for a moment before the merchants began pushing back, now that they could see clearly.

He pulled near to the battle, “Ruby, stay in here!”

Phaestus, Dite, and Rorroco charged toward the battle.

“[Resize]!” Rorroco increased to her full ten foot size and pulled out a large metal club from her personal storage magic.

“AHH! A giant! Run! Get away!”

“Phaestus, shift to them!” Phaestus moved Dite into the battle.

She immediately began dancing around the battlefield cutting the bandits down with them missing her by a hairs breath each time.

“Brother! There are bandit archers further back!”

“Become a rain of explosive fire and strike where I desire [Meteor Shower].” Multiple fireballs formed in the air and obliterated the bandit archers, and cut off the bandit’s escape.

Pulling out his mithril blade he cut down a bandit that was attacking a woman.

“Gather up you lot! We are gettin’ outta ‘ere!”

That must be the leader. Let’s send you to the holding cell.

The leader disappeared before his fellow bandits causing them to become more disorganized and eventually cut down.

Rorroco helped move the bandit bodies while Phaestus had them bring their injured to a grouped location. Dite helped with the people who could not be moved.

“Warm and comforting, mend wounds and broken bones [Mass Healing].” The group of people were healed rapidly by Phaestus.

“Thank you milord, thank you for your assistance.” The caravan leader was bowing repeatedly to Phaestus as he finished healing the group.

“It is no issue. Is everyone present and accounted for?” He asked.

Before the caravan leader could respond, a woman cried out.

“Mana! Mana where are you!?” A woman was running around in a panic.

“What’s wrong miss?” Dite asked.

“Mana is missing!”

“Not just her, another three children are missing too!” Another woman added.

“Damn, they must have made off with them, are there any of the bastards still alive?” The caravan leader asked.

“No sir, they are all dead.” A man in armor said crestfallen.

“Not all of them. One moment.” Phaestus summoned the captured leader.

“W-What?”

“Freeze my target’s movements [Paralyze].” The bandit froze up and fell over stiff as a board.

“What?! What you do to me?!” He yelled, unable to move more than his eyes and mouth. Phaestus kneeled down next to the bandit.

“Hello, I just paralyzed your movement, so you are not in danger, yet. Some of your people ran off with a few of the people of this caravan. I would appreciate it if you told us where they went.” Phaestus had a dangerous smile on his face.

“Ha, like I would tell you. None of me men will talk.” Phaestus laughed lightly.

“Not after they see what happens to you. Become a slow sinking pit [Quick Sand].” The ground around the bandit changed and he began to sink slowly.

“W-what?! Stop this! If I die you won’t ever find them!”

“You see Mr. Bandit, that won’t matter. You can choose to talk or not. But when your people over there see what happens to you, I am sure they will be willing to have a pleasant conversation. Isn’t that right gentlemen?”

There was no answer. “Hmm, seems they are a little shocked, could you kick one of them for me please?” Dite kicked a body and a male nearby groaned out faking the pain.

“Ah, there we go. So, you are about a third of the way buried, feel like chatting?” The bandit could not turn his head to see if it was one of his men or not so the panic was becoming apparent in his eyes.

“A-alright! I’ll talk! I swear I’ll talk!” Phaestus touched the ground near the bandit and stopped him from sinking.

“There, I have paused it for one minute. Now answer my question.”

“Alright, look, two days ago a group of people came to us offering to pay us some coin to let’em take any kids or half of the good lookin’ women for themselves. They didn’t want any loot either, just people. If I were to guess, they are slavers from Goun!”

“I see, would they be heading back to your camp?”

“Y-yes, their cart and leader stayed back at the camp! They will most likely leave in the morning!”

Phaestus thought for a moment, “Dite, what do you think? Would they wait until morning after we joined in on the fight?”

“It is hard to say.”

Phaestus looked toward his Chariot where Ruby was staring out the window toward them.

“No, we can’t risk waiting. Where is your camp?”

“W-what?”

“If you give them up, I will not bury you alive with a small air pipe. Only for you do die of dehydration days from now.” Phaestus glared into the bandit’s eyes.

“West of here! I promise, it’s west of here! Look for a small group of trees and a large black rock about the size of your giant friend!”

Phaestus stood up and told the caravan leader to strip the man of his things and tie him up.

“Milord, I am sorry to ask, but could you please help us get our children back?! Please, you three are so powerful!”

Phaestus smiled, “No need to ask, I had no intention of leaving them to be enslaved. Please have one of your people come with us so that your people know that we are there to help.”

Rorroco shrunk back down and they loaded into the Chariot with Ruby and headed off westward across the field.

“B-boss! We need to get out of here now!” A man in leather armor broke into a tent where an older, dignified man with cold eyes sat.

“What happened?”

“A group of powerful people helped the caravan this time! The bandits got wiped out and we won’t know if they might be coming this way!”

“How powerful?”

“I would say a Class A adventurers! Maybe ‘S’.”

“Alright, pack up the goods and we leave immediately.”

“EVERYONE GET UP! WE ARE BEING RAIDED!”

The two men get outside to see a masked woman cutting down multiple people, a giant crushing large groups, the whole encampment was surrounded by fire, and a masked man was approaching them, an angry look in his eyes. He muttered some words and the two men fell to the ground, unable to move. The next thing they knew, they were inside a dimly lit stone room along with some of their own companions.

“We’re done here Phaestus. You captured the slavers right?” Dite asked, approaching him by the slaver’s tent.

“Yes, take a look at this Dite.” He handed her a slave collar that had a Mark of Domination imprinted on it.

“They are spreading.”

“There are about twelve inside the slaver tent. The remaining four were regular ones. Either they are producing more or this guy is a big fish.”

She nodded in agreement. “What do you plan to do?”

“We will return to the caravan for now. Tomorrow morning I will take them to Lady Vannil.”

She agreed.

“Brother, what do you want to do with all the stuff here?”

There were only twelve dead bandits, but plenty of other loot was about.

“It may be best to turn it over to the local government to compensate those who lost loved ones.”

“They won’t accept Phaestus. It is more of a finder’s keeper’s kind of thing. But they would accept remains or clearly labeled keepsakes.”

Phaestus shifted the bodies into his septic tank to be processed into magic while he moved all the armor, weapons, and loot into his Haven storehouse he built. Phaestus had issues with tossing corpses into his septic tank before, but he was too furious to care. His thoughts kept remembering the dead look in Ruby and Heroes’ eyes.

The guard they brought with them approached with the enslaved people. Phaestus quickly removed the collars from the twenty of them.

“Can any of you drive a cart? You can? Good, please drive that cart while the guard here drives the other. We will take you back to a caravan that is not far from here. You can decide what you want to do after.” They followed his orders happily and the returned to the caravan.

“Mana!” “Mama!” The parent and child hugged each other while others embraced as well.

“Thank you so much milord. Please what is your name?”

“I am Duke Hephaestus of Lenmos, it was my pleasure to assist in stopping such an atrocity.”

“D-Duke Hephaestus! Truly! To think we were saved by our future lord!”

He looked at the man quizzically and he was happy to explain that they were moving to Lenmos.

“We heard of the mighty and kind Duke of Lenmos. We were having a hard time in our hometown due to increased taxation and decided to move. We sent a letter a little over a month ago and just received the reply a week ago.”

“Hmm? Are you the people of the town of Yauli?” Phaestus asked.

“You remember us! We are truly honored milord!” They bowed their heads.

“Phaestus, do you think you could take them the rest of the way and we continue our journey tomorrow?” Dite asked.

“Oh yes! Please big brother! Please!” Ruby chimed in along with Dite’s suggestion.

“Sounds good to me. Rorroco, are you alright with that?”

“Of course!” She answered him with a happy smile.

“What about the rest of you? If you had a destination, I might be able to help.”

“U-um, milord, many of us were also immigrants to places to the north. Some were wanting to go to Alta, Dunlap, or Meerka, but we spoke and think we want to try coming to Lenmos first. Would be able to start a new life there?” Many of the people were either children or women.

“I apologize if this is a painful question, but what of your families?” He asked them.

Most of them looked down sadly. Phaestus gritted his teeth.

“Very well, I understand. I will welcome you all to Lenmos. Gather up together.”

They moved about to bring their carts close together and group up.

“Everyone present? Good.” Phaestus chanted the [Mass Teleport] spell several times, charging it up to expand the area of effect, and in a flash of light they were just outside Lenmos.

Rorroco caught the dazed Phaestus and carried him. Dite wanted to protest, but Rorroco would be able to carry him more comfortably.

“Is big brother okay?” Ruby asked worriedly.

“He is Ruby, he just used a lot of magic recently and just needs some rest. Everyone! Please follow us to the main courtyard! The inn should be open, we will cover the costs of any who have no place to rest!” Dite called out to the people they brought back. After getting them all settled, updating Douglas and Ella, the tired group turned in for the night.

“Hmm?” Eric’s eyes cracked open blearily.

“Right, we returned to Lenmos. Haaah, I used way too much magic.” He tried to lift his arm but it was held down.

He looked to find Micah sleeping next to him. He tried to caress her face with his free hand, but it was also stuck. Looking over he found Rorroco laying his other side.

My chest feels heavy too, I bet a royal gold that it’s Ruby.

“Mm, big brother?”

He saw her ears standing up as she looked into his eyes. “Hey Ruby, sleep well?”

“Mm! Are you feeling better big brother?”

“Much better.”

Her ears and nose twitched happily.

HER NOSE TWITCHED! Oh, Micah would have died at that cuteness.

“Could you help me get these two up Ruby? My arms feel like they are asleep.”

“Mm! Big sister Roro! Please wake up!” Ruby nudged Rorroco.

Rorroco woke and sat up, the sheet slipping off her, showing that she was completely naked.

“Big sister Roro! You promised big sister Micah that you both would stay clothed!”

“Hmm? Oh, but I got too hot last night.” She said tiredly.

Eric shut his eyes the moment the sheet started slipping.

“Rorroco, please get dressed before Micah wakes up. Ruby, make sure she does it.”

Rorroco was disappointed that he was not looking but decided to do as asked.

This giant woman is not good for my heart…

He caressed Micah’s face waking her up while Rorroco watched jealously. After a quick visit to the Haven to wash up they headed to his office, where Douglas was sitting at his own desk to the side of Eric’s.

“Master Eric, good to see you. Lady Micah explained the situation to me last night. Ella is speaking with them to help find work for them here. Some would be useful working at the new inn or the bathhouse that we finished last night. The [Carpenter] and [Cement] spells have greatly accelerated our progress.”

“Wanda finished the grimoires already?”

“Two of each, we are waiting to get the remaining ones, Al seemed really happy. The cost for the spells ran at five gold a piece. Which will be cutting our budget a little short.” Douglas said with concern.

“Hmm, well, I have a large amount of weapons, armor, and goods that I got off those bandits. Here is a chest of coins as well. Use half of the chest to help get the new people settled in. The other half can go to the town budget. I will head over to Alta and sell the goods to Rexar.”

“That would greatly help us Master Eric. But are you sure about seeing him?” He bowed his head.

“Yes. I need to address it Douglas. I can’t keep avoiding it.” Eric said with sad eyes.

“Big brother, aren’t you tired?” Ruby asked.

“I am good now Ruby, I will be back shortly.”

“I will go help Ella with the people, could you change me Eric?” Eric changed Micah’s clothing to that of Dite.

“Well, I guess I will go check on my brethren in the meantime.” Rorroco headed out.

“What do you want to do Ruby? Help Micah? Go check out the giants with Rorroco? Or come with me?”

“Um, I want to go with big brother.”

Eric smiled warmly and changed into Phaestus. “I will be back in a few hours. I plan on touring a bit with Ruby. Before returning.” With that, he teleported the two of them to Alta.

“Ah! Master Phaestus, oh wait, Duke Phaestus. How are you today?” Rexar welcomed Phaestus and Ruby into his shop.

“How are things Rexar?” Phaestus asked hesitantly.

“Good, very good. Profits are up, and casualties due to large monsters has plummeted thanks to you.”

Phaestus had a bit of a pained face. He came to Rexar to sell items, but also to deal with something that had been plaguing him since the battle with the Basilisk Queen.

“Rexar, I-.”

“Don’t say it. I don’t blame ye. My son was a fool.” He turned to face Phaestus.

“Listen good Lord Phaestus, I don’t blame you for his death. His blood is on his and that damnable church’s hands. There was no savin’ him at that point. In truth, I appreciate you stoppin’ him before he did something worse.” The burly old dwarf sat down on a stool heavily.

“My only regret was that I couldn’t save him before he attacked his own kin. Haaah, damn stupid boy.” Rexar’s wife, a half-elf human came in and hugged him.

“I don’t blame you either Lord Hephaestus. No one here or in Dunlap blame you. Luxa made his choice.” She stood and hugged Phaestus who could not let go of his regret of killing the son of a friend of his.

“I’m sorry, I know you didn’t want to hear it, but I am sorry.”

“Big brother.” Ruby hugged him as well.

After some time and they came accept their emotions Rexar spoke up. “So then, is there anything else ye need?”

“Yes, I have a twenty-eight sets of armor, several weapons, and other goods. I wanted to see if you might be willing to buy them.” With that, the goods he got from the bandit camp appeared.

“Hey! Some of you lot come in here and inspect this stuff for me!” A group of workers came in and started looking over the equipment.

“It will probably take us a couple hours to look this over. Why don’t you walk around the city for a bit? Get some tasty Alta food for your wee lass.” Rexar smiled broadly at Ruby who smiled back.

“We will in a bit. I just remembered I needed to drop off some things to a friend in Meerka.”

“Oh really? A noble?”

“Madam Inquisitor, Lady Vannil.”

“Really? Could you take a letter for me? It is for me daughter Fizzy.”

“Wait, she hasn’t told you? It has been months!” Phaestus was surprised that Fizzy had not told her father about her move.

“What ya mean?”

“Haaah, she moved into my domain at the town of Lenmos.”

“What!? Alright, tell ye what, I will pay ye a gold if you could bring Ellen and I to Lenmos for a bit.”

Hahah, that is the face of a father that wants to have a word or two with their kid.

“Alright. When I head back to Lenmos for the night I will take the two of you. Keep your coin, just give me a good price on the stuff.” He said with a playful smile, causing Rexar to laugh. With that, Phaestus teleported the two of them to Meerka.

“Greetings Lord Phaestus. Here to see Lady Vannil?” The soldier did not get startled this time and led them inside.

Inside Lady Vannil’s office she had a few other nobles present.

“Come in Duke Hephaestus. Allow me to introduce you, this spry old woman here is Lady Liara of house Bolma, and this one is Count Warden of house Griffon. They are friends of mine who I am working with in regards to those cursed slave collar you brought me.”

“A pleasure to meet the both of you.”

“So, what bring you to meet this feeble and senile old woman?”

“You are neither of those things and you know it.”

“Grandma Vannil!” Ruby went over and hugged her.”

The three other adults looked at her incredulously.

“What?” Lady Vannil blushed a bit and gave Ruby some candy.

“I am here because I ran into a bandit attack yesterday. There were slavers from Goun present with them, and they had these.” He summoned the collars onto her table.

“Oh dear, most of them are the empowered ones that rob people of their will.” Lady Vannil commented.

“This may be bad. What happened to the slavers?”

“I currently have them imprisoned in a pocket dimension. I brought them here to seek Lady Vannil’s assistance.”

“Of course. Gil! Abi!” She called out.

The two soldiers entered the room and she ordered them to bring some other soldiers to take in some prisoners down in the main hall.

They went downstairs and Phaestus dropped them in at an odd angle so the fall would stun them. He did not have to worry about them hurting anyone since he already removed all their equipment.

“UNHAND ME! Do you know who I am!?” The dignified man declared.

“No, we don’t, please enlighten us.” Lady Vannil said coldly.

“I am Viscount Larriam of Goun, I demand that you release me at once!” The man’s haughtiness struck a chord with Phaestus, causing his magic to flare up in anger.

“Hee, keep him away from me!” He tried to struggle free, but the soldiers would not let go.

“Tell me Viscount Larriam, where did you get these?” Lady Vannil tossed the marked collars on the table nearby him.

“Those are not mine! I was unjustly imprisoned against my will!”

“You just lied to me.” Lady Vannil had activated her [Truth Speaker] spell before they appeared.

“W-what?”

“She can detect lies Viscount.” Count Warden chimed in.

“Guh.”

“Now, I don’t know how long I can keep my very angry friend here under control. It may be best that you give me something.” Lady Vannil smiled wickedly.

“I-I can’t tell you! They’ll kill me!”

“What do you think I am going to do?” Phaestus took a heavy step forward that caused even the soldiers to take a step back.

“P-please!” He begged.

“Give me something.” Lady Vannil said coldly.

“A-Alright! Look, I got it from Count Lauxas! He is my parent house! He ordered me to take the collars and get a bunch of products!”

“Are there a lot of these appearing in Goun? Or is this a special case?” She continued.

“I-I don’t know! I have not heard of many other people getting them! I know that other people get them from Count Lauxas!”

“Thank you. Soldiers, take him and his men to the dungeon. I will have more questions for them later.” Lady Vannil ordered.

The soldiers took them away and Phaestus calmed down with the help of an adorable rabbit girl.

“Are you good now big brother?”

“Yes, thank you Ruby.”

She was sitting on his lap back in Lady Vannil’s office.

“You brought us a very helpful bit of information. If we can prove the source, we can hurt the church’s power even further, hopefully to push them completely out of Meerka. I will see about an investigation is this Count Lauxas. Could I ask you a favor though? Could you take some of these collars to the Alta Council and Dunlap Royal Family? The more nations who know about these the better. Maybe one of us will find a method to easily break or stop their flow completely.”

Phaestus agreed and followed with a question. “Is there a magic or tool that can detect curses?”

“There are.”

“This mark is basically a powerful curse. Maybe try seeing if we can detect them. If we can stop the flow over land and into ports, it will help protect the people better.”

“That is a great idea Duke! We will get our people on that as soon as possible!” Lady Liara excitedly stood up causing everyone to smile at her.

“I’m, sorry for my unladylike behavior.” She sat down blushing.

“Well then, Ruby, next stop will be Dunlap.”

“Okay!” She said happy she was getting to see so many new places.

They said their farewells and Phaestus took them to the next location.

“Good to see you brother.” “Welcome Duke Phaestus, what brings you to the palace today?” The King and Queen welcomed him and Ruby.

They were in the side meeting room instead of throne room.

“By the way brother, who is that adorable little beast-kin with you?” The Queen asked.

“This is Ruby, Micah and I saved her from some Goun slavers, which is a part of the reason for my visit. Take a look at these.” He handed the marked collars over.

“What is this strange mark on this?” The King asked.

“It is similar to the mark that is on the foreheads of the Heroes, The Mark of Domination. They found a way to use it since they can’t apply it to a person of this world.” Phaestus explained.

“This is bad.” The King’s mood darkened.

“Damn Church of Light!” The Queen gripped her armrest so hard it cracked the stone.

“Big brother?” Ruby asked a bit scared, but he assured her that everything was okay while petting her head.

He explained the bandit group, the collars, Lady Vannil’s investigation and a method to experiment with to see if it would be able to stop the flow of the collars.

“We will do it brother. We will do what we can to get these things found and destroyed!” The Queen declared.

“Thank you Duke, we will start immediately. You will be heading to Alta now?”

“Correct your majesty.”

“Good luck then, if you get any new information, please inform us.”

“I will. Oh, and by the way, do you have a sister named Rorroco?” He asked.

“Oh! You met Rorroco, and here I thought she would never leave the mountain. I told her about you, I guess you peaked her interest. I look forward to you becoming more than brethren to me in the future.” The Queen smiled slyly.

“Haah, well, thanks for confirming that, we will be on our way.” He bowed to them with Ruby and the two teleported out.

They checked at Rexar’s letting him know about the collars, he went off to the council to get them onboard.

“Well then, shall we walk around a bit?” Phaestus asked Ruby, which she happily agreed.

“Oh, what a cutie! Here, have an extra!”

“How adorable! Here, have a piece of candy!”

“What cute lass, are you thirsty?”

Vendor after vendor fawned over Ruby who acted shy most of the time.

As they were walking past a weapon shop, Ruby stopped and stared at it.

“Ruby?”

She looked back at him, her ruby red eyes burning with determination. “Big brother, I want to learn how to fight!”

“Ruby? You don’t have to.”

“I want to know. I, I lost my mother because I was weak, I want to be strong like big brother and big sister! Lady goddess said I could become strong right? Because I am a Nephim!”

Nephilim Ruby, a Nephilim. He sighed and scratched his head. It shouldn’t hurt for her to learn? Right? So that when she is older she will be able to defend herself.

“Alright. First we need to find out your strengths. Let’s head back to Rexar’s.”

They arrived back at Rexar’s shop to only find his wife Ellen present.

“Hello Lord Phaestus. Rexar is still over at the council. They did finish appraising the items, it came out to thirty-two gold, seven silver, four large copper, and eight small. Is this sufficient?” She handed over a large bag of coins.

“Yes, thank you Ellen. By the way, do you happen to know of anyone who might be able to help Ruby here? She is wanting to know how to defend herself.”

“Oh, so you want to know her strengths? I can help with that, this way.” She said with a smile.

She led them to a room that seemed to be a training room.

“This place is used by some of our workers to, work out their differences, but it is my personal training hall most of the time. Now then, Ruby, please pick a training sword first. Also, what do you feel is your strengths?” Ellen asked as Ruby picked a sword, but it seemed a bit heavy for her.

“Um, I’m really fast, my legs are strong. I also have really good hearing! And, and, a good sense of smell.”

“Hmm, okay, let’s try daggers first.” Ellen said switching the sword with two training daggers.

Ellen stood at a distance from Ruby. “Now, come at me.”

Ruby nervously crouched before dashing forward quickly. Ellen easily dodged, smacking Ruby’s rump with her training stick.

“Ouch!” Ruby rolled, got back into a crouching position and dashed again.

Ellen this time blocked Ruby’s attacks one after another with ease.

Hmm? She’s focusing on just using the blades only. She left marks in the ground.

“Ruby! Try kicking!” Phaestus called out, Ruby followed what he said and did a kick that caused Ellen to jump back in a panic.

“Stop! Ruby stop! That is enough.”

Ruby stopped, “Um, did I do something wrong?”

“No, not at all Ruby. Lord Phaestus just revealed your greatest form of attack would definitely be kicks. Most people focus on using weapons while using kicks as a support. But you are the opposite, your legs are insanely strong. That kick there would have been strong enough to drop a rock boar.”

“A rock boar?” Ruby asked.

I want to know too!

“A rock boar is a monster common to the mountainous region around Dunlap. It is considered a Class C monster. No child your age would be able to do that Ruby.”

“Ruby, watch this.” Phaestus started doing a sweeping motion while keep his body continually moving. He then quickly shifted his movements in a smooth manner, swinging his leg out as a high kick.

“Lord Phaestus, what was that?”

“A martial art I learned a long time ago. I was never any good at it, but I think Ruby might be able to-.”

SWOOSH. A gust of air lightly blew into them.

They looked over at Ruby seeing her fluidly dancing around using the motions he showed her.

“Ruby.” Phaestus was speechless as he watched her throw out kick after kick while flipping around agilely.

“That is amazing. I think that martial art is a perfect fit for a bouncy rabbit-kin like her. I am willing to bet, with the right equipment, she could easily beat a B-Rank adventurer. When she is older, she would probably easily reach A-Rank, maybe even S-Rank.” Ellen watched warmly.

Ruby stopped, breathing a bit heavy. “S-sorry, I’m a not strong…”

Phaestus kneeled down and hugged her, “Are you kidding Ruby? That was amazing. If you train your stamina and strength more, I am sure you will become very strong.”

She smiled brightly, returning the hug.

“Well ain’t that a cute sight.” Rexar returned, watching the two.

“You returned. Everything go well at the council?” Ellen asked.

“Aye, everything went well, they were of course, just as upset as I was with what we learned from Lord Phaestus. The Caster Guild is making the collar detection their highest priority. Mr. Barlett will be using his information network to get the information out to all towns as well. Anyway, shall we be going? You finished packing your things for the day Ellen?”

“I did, we are ready to go Lord Phaestus.”

“Very well. Let’s go Ruby.” “Mmm!”

The group appeared inside Phaestus’ office.

“Welcome back Phaestus. Welcome Rexar, Ellen.” Dite was in the office, lounging on a chair, reading a book.

“Dite! So good to see you.” Ellen and Dite hugged.

“What brings you to Lenmos?”

“Just some, family, matters.” Ellen had a dark smile on her face.

Wow, she is upset, sorry Fizzy, but the sooner you get your lumps, the lighter it will be than much later down the road.

Ellen and Rexar asked to be shown to Fizzy’s workshop, which they did.

“Thank you Lord Phaestus, that will be all, it may be some time to, catch-up, with our daughter. So we will come by tomorrow to head back to Alta.” Ellen had a dark and ominous aura about her.

“Um, alright, we will see you tomorrow then.” Phaestus could not feel anything but nervous.

Holy hell mothers of this world are terrifying!

They quickly returned to the estate, but before they got far, they thought they could hear Fizzy scream in terror.