Waking up Rak felt an uncomfortable warmth. In his house in Alp usually he’d feel a bit cold, but in his home in reality he’d feel a perfect equilibrium. Alley’s room is abnormally hot, even after throwing of the covers and squirming around the bed.

While Rak can be considered conscious right now, his eyes are still shut and his mind intent on sleeping. Rak’s movements have roused Alley from her sleep, the roaming hands and feet at first made her annoyed, then angry and finally caused her to laugh.

“What are you trying to do?”

In the first place, Alley always expressed herself fairly forwardly, and now that she saw Rak was sneakily taking advantage while they slept she couldn’t help but smile. She had only been annoyed that he had woken her up and then angry that he kept proding her, forcing her to open her eyes.

“It’s so hot in here.”

The words came out but they were mumbled. Thankfully Alley is more than just a simple person he she can easily discern the near incoherent words whispered.

“Interesting way to sleep.”

Somehow Rak managed to half climb on top of Alley and halfway spoon her, his hands around her ribs and the left leg hooked around her right leg. While it isn’t a sexual position it can be consider very intimate, and in some ways, that intimacy can spark great arousal.

One of the reasons why Rak climbered Alley in his hazy state is due to her very cold body, somehow her body temperature is well below the room’s temperature. This is her natural constitution that is further embellished with her job as a hunter and the value of a lower level body temperature.

Instead of pusing Rak away, Alley slowly squirms about, forcing Rak to reposition himself in a ‘natural’ way. In some ways, Alley is thinking a few steps ahead and luring Rak in a possible trap.

Before Rak finally manages to come to he’s playing the part of a big spoon and his left hand entirely grasping Alley’s breasts.

“What is that smell?”

The first thing Rak notices isn’t his attentive member standing at attention, the firm breasts in his hands, the smooth legs, but the unmistakable smell of a woman. Unable or perhaps unwilling to restrain himself, Rak takes a deep breath and opens his eyes.

Opening his eyes a glorious view of a very athletic mature woman comes into view. Alley, pretending to be asleep scrunches her nose lightly holding in a small laugh.

Rak’s view would tempt even the most docile man what not an active man like himself. With what could be consider an seven richter scale quake his little man twitches. Just as Rak’s thoughts began to return to him, Alley slowly turns over, giving Rak another unresistable view.

“Oh? Your awake.”

Being as forward as she is, Alley reaches out and lets her hand fall on Rak’s chest and slowly slither down before stopping at his stomach.

“How did you sleep?”

The soothing voice, the smell, the view. Everything is triggering natural reactions within a young man like Rak. Not being too unfamiliar with the female body, Rak manages to return to his senses and follows Alley’s gaze down. Just as his eyes meet his little brother a lithe hand reaches out and two finger run down the rising soldier.

“I should have known you were a morning person. How about we exercise a bit before getting food?”

At this point in time, Rak can’t think of any reasons to reject the proposal or perhaps it’s better to say he’s looking for reasons to agree instead, and there seems to be no issue finding some. Being experienced in such matters, Rak doesn’t answer and let’s his actions express his intentions.

“Ah!”

Letting out a rather a little yelp, Alley is flushed red, Rak unexpectedly moved his hands to her already firm nipples and arrogantly but gently pinched. The action caused a slight pain but pleasure soon followed. It wasn’t much, but the sudden nature of it was what caught her unaware.

“You little fox.”

“What?”

The mood already fiery Rak let out a smug smirk. Rak’s gleeful smile vanishes as Alley retaliated, her hands already behind enemy lines. Alley’s hand moved deftly and with purpose, the action causes Rak to twitch and his back slightly arched backwards.

Both Alley and Rak are facing each other on their sides but slowly they are becoming engaged in a strange competition that they both seem to be simultaneously losing and winning. It’s only after their lips finally meet that they become united in their goal.

After wrestling each other, Alley’s impatience gets the best of her, strange for a hunter, but this is no hunting situation and something else entirely. Her physical strength makes it easy for her to whirl Rak on his back and place herself onto of him.

Rak lets out a quiet grunt but relaxes his body quickly, a knowing glint in his eyes. All that wrestling made him realize the gap between their strengths, he was no match but instead he slowly understood she was allowing him to occasionally get the upper hand.

Due to Alley’s fervent gaze, Rak may have have thought she was about to devour him or become feverish. Alley´s hands guide Rak inside her, the warmth is unique as Alley´s physical body is a few degrees lower than the average human. But Rak cannot pay attention to it and can only feel the rush of pleasure wash through him.

“Calm down.”

Alley’s voice allows Rak to regain some of his composure and he attempts to calm himself, the attempt is somewhat effective but the continued assault of pleasure fights back with aggression.

“Ah!”

Very intentionally, Alley lets out a whimper but it may as well have been her shouting from Rak’s perspective, his hips move in response, wanting to do something. Prepared, Alley works with Rak’s rhythm and their fighting evolves into a new form, one where Rak is clearly at a disadvantage and Alley in full control. This allows Alley to continue her slow movements, of which Rak wanted to speed up in his excitement.

Through integrating to Chaos theory and recent training, Rak’s senses have been enhanced further, each movement rings with mind shaking stimulation, if not for his increased clarity he’d long since succumb to the overwhelming pleasure.

In the case of Alley she has even sharper senses and the stimuli competes, but her clarity attribute is well within its limits, allowing her to fully enjoy every sensation without losing any of her faculties.

Rak’s desperately tries to thrust his hips to increase their pace but Alley continues to move along with him, causing untold frustration in Rak, his eyes redding his breathing growing even rougher.

“Want to go faster?”

“Yes!”

In truth Alley herself wants to increase the pace but she is enjoying the view of Rak growing increasingly violent in his attempts. Patience is a virtue Alley has in large swathes but she herself won’t deny herself pleasure for too long.

When Rak is at a point of wanting to scream, Alley sitting on top of Rak, begins to increase the speed her hips moving up and down. This sudden action causes Rak to nearly convulse and quickly reach nirvana. Alley herself lets go and lets her senses overcome her, still on top of Rak she twitches, her muscles contracting violently on occasion but otherwise she is frozen still.

In the end Alley jumps off Rak whose breath cannot return to normal and his body still twitching occasionally. The sight causes even further joy in Alley who is already beginning to recover due to her physically superior body and well trained mind.

If this was the real world, Rak might have gone back to sleep but his fatigue hasn’t dropped low enough. The intense events didn’t last longer than fifteen minutes and while it did drain some fatigue it's only by roughly ten points. Ten points for an event lasting fifteen minutes can be considered near the maximum amount lost in such a time frame without using special abilities that cause great strain on the mind, like |Steady hand| or more advanced abilities like it.

Right now Rak is somewhat out of it, but that isn’t because of exhaustion but instead due to a scary dip in the clarity attribute. The clarity attribute responds to particular emotions and sensations and it does so more dramatically in Chaos theory than it does in real life. It can be compared to stamina in some ways.

This sort of attribute having such a large effect on a person can be scary, but at the same time it can be seen as something great. Increasing the clarity attribute will make a person more resilient. People can gain items or abilities that give them extra clarity, either by a certain percentage or incremental numeric values.

The downsides of having items or abilities increasing a person’s clarity is the dependency that can be formed. With limited number of equipments applicable to be worn at any given time, people will have to make choices that can be as dramatic as life and death.

Speaking of life and death, what has been shown and talked about so far may not seem too bad but these things do become a great deterrent. At the moment, out of people entering Chaos theory from the real world, it is only the incompetent or destitute that suffer seriously from the death penalty. Later it will be those that advance in levels and jobs while the below average and the worst of the worst will simply pay the cost and brush it off.

When Rak finally comes to, spread eagle on Alley’s bed, he can’t help but feel a bit embarrassed to end up like this. In Rak’s mind it is the woman that should have been exhausted like this, not the man. Though his experience might not actually agree with him, that is still the prevailing thought at the moment.

Walking out of the bedroom and into the larger living room area filled with various animal paraphernalia, everything from leather, fangs and claws. This sight isn’t surprising but the relaxed, fully dressed Alley who is currently relaxing and waving her hand in the air is what Surprises Rak.

Rak´s thoughts move towards thinking that what they did just did is just animal behaviour, a lot like his adventure with Arlina Medin, who also ‘used’ him for his body. His thoughts not are not along the line of feeling used but the casual nature of it all left him a but puzzled. Yes, in his life as a young, somewhat spoiled scion of a wealthy family, he did partake in quite a bit of depravity.

But it was depravity, it wasn’t innocent or casual. It was all hidden behind closed doors and sometimes in suspicious buildings. No matter how Rak tried to think it over, sex and everything surrounding it has always had an element of being forbidden or even wrong.

When talking about depravity and the like, it is good to mention that while it does mean an act of moral corruption, what is considered corruption is key. The act of natural sexual intercourse has this element of corruption in many people’s eyes and thus events including it has taken on the element of depravity. This is all very subjective but nonetheless, this how something can be called depraved and not be depraved at the same time, in short it is all semantics and perspective.

“You know.”

Alley shifted her eyes towards Rak but her hands kept slowly moving in the air, navigating through something Rak can’t see.

“I don’t think you’ll be a good hunter.”

“No kidding.”

Rak hasn’t responded to the offbeat statement. He half agrees with her but the other half feels challenged.

“It’s not that you can’t be a hunter. You are too impatient, even if you are diligent.”

“Oh? How am I impatient?”

For some reason or another Rak has immense respect for Alley, not only is she physically strong, her confident manner when dealing with both himself and Url and even her ability to concoct that Bear’s blood. From strength to ability and general demeanor, Alley impressed Rak to no end.

“You should understand that yourself.”

At this point Alley turned back to whatever she was fiddling with and ignored Rak. What she was saying is that Rak should understand his own personality. If Rak compared himself to an impatient person he would of course not seem impatient but if Rak compared himself to a hunter? Nine out of ten, if not ten out of ten times he would appear impatient.

“If your going to critique me, do it all the way.”

While there is definite respect for Alley, Rak still holds onto some pride as a scion of a wealthy family, or even just as a man. Being impatient doesn’t have to be a bad thing and be altered to being decisive instead.

After giving it some thought Rak agreed with himself that yes he was decisive rather than impatient. But Alley’s definition of patience is not something the average person will agree with. As an advanced hunter she can stand still for hours on end, and depending on some specific situations, a couple of days. No normal person will agree to be compared to this level of patience.

In many ways, Alley is a peak athlete and Rak is an amateur enthusiast that only exercises two times a week, any comparison is going to be pointless for the most part.

“I will help you get ready for whatever job you want. You must be qualified for a quite a few already.”

After their previous strenuous exercise, Alley has gotten a far better understanding of Rak’s clarity attribute. Her saying that he is qualified can be considered a stamp of approval.

“But your not ready for the hunter job introduction quest.”

Many jobs require certain level of skill in very specific things. Physically apt person walking to a place where hunter introduction quest is given may not receive the quest due their lacking archery history, their lacking basic hunting of any animal and so on. Not all hunters use bow but most at least have some level of skill in it. There are types of hunters that only hunt in deep waters with spears, for example.

There are also quite a few situations where being in certain circumstances, extraordinary or mundane, that will directly allow a person to gain a job. Gaining a job through such circumstances can bypass the more direct job introduction quest. Introduction quests are hard to acquire if a person is already affiliated with a different job but that is a whole different ordeal and not too relevant to Rak’s current affairs.

“Shouldn’t you be a merchant anyway?”

“In what way am I a merchant?”

Rak said the words but even he knew he was being a bit difficult. The words clearly came out with a tinge of frustration. Perhaps his ego being bruised caused his current mood or that he considered himself to be an entrepreneur, not a merchant. In his mind, he is a creator, the innovator, the direction to follow, and not someone that toiled away laboriously like a merchant.

Merchant work being thought of as laborious is one issue, Rak’s past few weeks have been the definition of labour and most of it has been manual labour at that. Rak way of thinking can be understood when taking a look at Rak’s life and how he ‘works for a living’ which is a poor way to describe it but suitable in context, after all, what is ‘work’ for a scion of a wealthy family?

“You sell beer?”

“No, that’s right. I do sell beer but that’s just me setting the business up, aside from some subtle tweaks, I won’t be doing much. I’m actually ninety nine percent finished with my brewery.”

No matter how Rak tried to explain to Alley that he wasn’t a merchant but an entrepreneur it was clear from her expression that she didn’t believe him or didn’t understand.

“Forget it. Think of me as a different kind of merchant, an advanced merchant.”

“You are definitely not an advanced merchant.”

With a shake of her head Alley looked with some contempt, she was thinking boasting is fine but pretending to have an advanced job? That’s a bit too much.

“Bad phrasing, let’s say a different kind of merchant. Like two fighters but with different jobs.”

“Ah. I understand what you mean.”

Alley really does understand. As an advanced hunter she has come across quite a few people with combat related jobs and while there a lot of people with similar jobs, quite a few are unique or rare.

“Well that’s good then.”

For some reason, even after finally convincing Alley that he wasn’t some random merchant he wasn’t satisfied. It might be that he feels a bit inadequate before Alley, but seeing as he knows quite a few people that are ‘better’ than him, namely his oldest siblings, his older siblings peers, his parents and their peers and so on. Understanding all this, it might not be so simple as a feeling of inadequacy, though that might seem like the obvious explanation.

“So if i’m not fit to be a hunter, what should I be?”

“I don’t know. You don’t want to be a merchant?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry but all the jobs I know about are combat related.”

“I should be fine with a random combat related job, right?”

“Sure.”

Rak’s eye twitched, from Alley’s tone it was clear that she didn’t believe her own words. What Rak doesn’t know is after their bout earlier, Alley was certain Rak didn’t have any experience in fighting. Their ‘wrestling’ was more like tumbling about and could only meet the mark of playfulness. Rak’s constitution was only decent in his stamina, strength and dexterity were too lacking.

“How about you talk to town hall about job clues? You can even go to a city and have a thorough test of your aptitude.”

Rak’s gloominess finally went away when he heard ‘aptitude test’ finally something official and tangible. In truth, most of Rak’s hesitation and insecurities lies in the lack of information. Rak also felt like a light went of in his head.

“I’m simply too ignorant of this world.”

When this thought began running around his head he was more and more uplifted and convinced. Thinking further Rak decided he should go meet up with his parents so he said his goodbyes to Alley and began making his way back to hi house. Alley managed to take no note of Rak’s change in mood and just casually waved goodbye.

Alley had been satisfied with their morning rumble, it was nothing amazing for her, Rak was just different from what she has experienced in the past and her curiosity got the best of her. This is similar to Arlina’s attitude only Alley is far more shameless and unattached, as even Arlina has some thoughts of her encounter with Rak, sometimes even tempted to reach out to Rak for another round.

When Rak arrived back at his house he tied down the horses and summoned two large square wooden containers which he filled with numerous small green blocks. These blocks came from Rak inventory and if he had to carry them around they’d weigh around a ton in total. Rak only took a small portion of it out and filled the containers to the brim and then quickly got into the house and into bed to log off.

Back in the real world Rak directly went from his capsule and into the shower, the water came out in both vapors and direct streams. Not five minutes passed when Rak turned the water off and in its stead hot and cold air began drying him up directly.

“Good morning sir.”

Rak’s new assistant voice came from the surroundings. The woman’s appearance faded into sight as if she was standing in front of Rak. Rak’s naked appearance didn’t cause the slightest reaction in her.

“You’re Henri? Good.”

The abhorrent arrogance of a spoiled rich person oozed out of Rak as he returned to reality and was again within the reach of his usual power. The personality shift would cause quite a few people to frown both in displeasure and confusion.

“I need you to set up a meeting with dad. If mom can be there, that’s good too. Also I need you to contact a cartographer and have them sign a confidential agreement. Have them arrive at my mansion as soon as possible.”

“Of course sir. Anything else?”

“Let me know when mom and dad can meet me the instant you know, this is urgent.“

“Yes sir.”

After the conversation was over Rak waved his hand and his assistant vanished.

“I should write it all down first.”

Rak’s plan is to have a cartographer create a rendition of his map in Chaos theory, seeing as he can’t import it directly into reality he can only use a method like this to convey the information.

“Pen. Pen. Where is a goddamn Pen!?”

There is no need for Rak to yell to have one his in house attendants come to him, but by the time they arrived with a physical pen Rak already realized he could summon a holographic pen and draw onto the table. It isn’t rare for Rak to be flustered, he has always been a rather passionate person, only it is rare for this passion to be endearing. Perhaps only in Chaos theory will Rak be a person that evokes positive empathy.

The map slowly comes together, it is as crude as can be. Numerous circles in three varying sizes, the smallest circle representing a village, the medium sized one a town and finally the largest a City. These circles are then connected with either a simple line or a jotted up one. The straight lean means it is a normal road while the jotted line means it is a rarely used road.

“Pretty good.

Anyone looking at this ‘map’ would cringe. From a certain point of view it is possible to see the person making this map has some ideas on what they are doing but the execution of it fell apart after the first few circles.

Alongside each circle is a capital letter, namely v, t and c. as expected, v means village, t represent a town and c a city. Next to these letters are names of villages or those that Rak managed to remember, he’ll have to confirm it later but for now it is more important to get a prototype set up. These are some of Rak’s thoughts.

“I doubt anyone in the family has travelled like this.”

Rak’s guess is entirely correct, noone with ideas of doing great things in Chaos theory has taken it upon themselves to wander between cities like the vagrant Rak met. Of course that vagrant’s story and reasoning can’t be simple as just wanting to travel.

What he should worry about is whether someone in the family has managed to find someone on par with Hormby, the travelling vagrant and self proclaimed herbalist.

“Yes?”

“I have scheduled a meeting with your father’s assistant, you can meet him in exactly five hours thirty six minutes and twenty five seconds. You have been alloted up to fifteen minutes, five minutes at minimum.”

“Five minutes that’s a bit...”

Rak’s expression can be described as gloomy. Rak’s relationship with his parentss is one of dismissal, lacking attention and lacking approval. In their own malformed way, they do hold love for all their children, but they also don’t make much time for them.

“It’s fine, they’ll have to acknowledge the value of my map.”

As these thoughts came to Rak his frown changed into a cunning grin and later into a twisted smile.

“I doubt any of those old bastards have been gathering map information. But they must know about job advancements.”

It is expected that most of the Devion family members are attempting to generate wealth but not everyone of them are willing to bend like Rak has. Rak being the youngest by quite a few years his youth may have been to his advantage when adapting to Chaos theory. In addition to this, Rak is the only member of the family not working for the Devion family as a manager of some company or another.

After mulling things over a bit Rak contacts his personal assistant again and asks for various things from new clothing to specific food he wants.

“And that cartographer?”

“I’m sending over two types of cartographers, one is a known hobbyist and the other is a fantasy concept artist and has a few maps in his portfolio. They have already been picked up and will arrive within the hour.”

“Humm. Good. Henri, right? Good. Maybe you should come with them and delegate for me.”

“I’ll make my way to your immediately.”

Henri was under no delusion, she understands from Rak’s tone and rather suspicious little smile that she’s not just going to be delegating.

“I may have jump in and out of Chaos theory a few times to make sure I don’t miss important details.”

On the map Hormby transferred to Rak, multiple herb nodes were on full display and other valuable resources. These resources are the type that require some investment to fully capitalize on. For example the herb nodes need to be quarantined to a degree and the soil maintained. The herbs themselves do not require tending but the area can still be squandered away with mismanagement.

These resource nodes and the like are not valuable to Hormby, he can sell the information to local villages, towns or even some city folk but that requires negotiation and he may even need to guard himself against people with malicious intent. It is enough for Hormby to pillage these areas and move to the next one, the value of the loot is well beyond the cost to continue his journey and the cost of his drinking hobby.

Rak does not understand the value of these resource nodes as he has not touched a crafting profession job and only understands it as a miscellaneous specialization in certain hobbies. Just like Orlic practices his brewing, Url his taming, Arlina her gardening, a form of herbalism job and Alley’s concoctions, which is not directly related to herbalism, despite what one might assume.

Time slowly passed while Rak went back and forth from Chaos theory and jotted down details onto his virtual document. The weightless holographic pen made it so that Rak’s already poor artistic abilities were highlighted. People can develop a sense for the holographic pen but the vast majority use various weighted physical pens, even when drawing digital art. The holographic drawing is most valued in free hand three dimensional art.

“This should be enough.”

Not every place Hormby visited has a herb nodes but various seemingly useless markers are placed along the path from Alp and to the small village Farla. Hormby did not spend much time in Farla but it is the furthest most village on the map.

“Why are there only mountains near Alp?”

After the cartographers arrived alongside Henri, Rak showed them his poorly made skeleton map and they immediately went to work. Rak wasn’t expecting it but the time it takes to create a map can be incredibly time consuming but the two men worked tirelessly for three some hours before having a proper map set up. Rak had been watching the processes and even went back and forth to Chaos theory to double check things.

“I guess I don’t have time to break in the new assistant.”

With great confidence Rak and Henri took off in a automated vehicle towards the Devion family mansion.

“Do you need anything on the way Rak?”

Rak’s eyes glimmered and a devious little smile crept forward but he shook his head, thinking it would be good get distracted before the big meeting.

“No. You did great today Henri. In a weeks time, if you haven’t disappointed me we can increase your status by one.”

An excited smile bloomed. There is a reason why people devotely work for the Devion family, and that’s because the Devion family, like many really wealthy families have. Namely, things that money can’t buy but influence can. Clearly Henri has some task that is out of her reach.

Outside the Devion family is a large gate guarded by four men in rotation, each behind bullet proof glass. Most systems have automated security and Devion does as well but they still retain a layer of guards as well.

“Open the gate.”

“Don’t we have to check them?”

“That car has Rak Devion inside, there is no need, the automated system already confirmed it.”

“Captain said we are here because the automated system isn’t infallible, we should check it either way.”

After thinking for a moment the guard agreed. Henri dealt with the inspection and before long Rak entered the Devion family mansion after a long time away, a tinge of nostalgia emerging for his eyes.