Elves didn’t necessarily live in this city. They lived separate from humans. Speaking of humans, there were mostly just humans here in this city and maybe some short breeds. I was on the third floor but I did have a Birdseye view of the whole city. It came courtesy of an eagle that was flying way above. Apparently, as long as there were birds in the sky, I could catch a glimpse of everything below. Very handy skill.

Sen was deep asleep. She’d been on the bed for like fifteen minutes yet she couldn’t contain herself. I didn’t blame her though. I found her in a very sorry state and made her walk and run along. Granted, I carried her most of the way but even so, it was best to not push her too much. Part of why I considered just letting her go. But… Why do I want to touch it so badly?

All my teenage and adult life I wanted to grope a pair of boobs like they were heavens or something. I wanted a girlfriend so badly, I even paid for one. Obviously didn’t work out and I didn’t even get to touch her. I could have spent money on brothels and stuff but I didn’t have the guts to do that. But no, that wasn’t the problem here. I wasn’t lacking guts. In fact, her boobs were just hanging out in the open. Screw that, I had my own boobs and fat thighs!

But no, I wasn’t talking about those. The tail. The gently waving fluffy tail. It was calling me. It was tempting me… It was… just there.

Gulping, I started petting it. She was my pet but she made it clear she wouldn’t serve me. I thought of her as a pet but she clearly thought of me as a companion. A companion she would forsake the moment she had a better shot at her life. Touching her tail while she wasn’t even awake was… not something I was proud of. So, I forced myself to just take a step back. Let’s not do something stupid. There’s a reason why people don’t like you. Don’t make her hate you too.

Yet, she grabbed my arm. She was awake? No, she just awoke. She dragged me close to her, hugged me and fell asleep. Somewhat bony but kind of soft. I wanted to leave and sleep on my own bed but… but at the same time, I wanted a connection. No, I yearned for it. Throughout the final days of my life, I regretted a lot of things. One of them was lusting after women superficially without thinking how they were humans too. I was objectifying them in the name of sex and I was probably still going to do the same. Cause, humans hardly change no matter how much you want them to. Yet… She’s a person. A real person with real goals in life. Yet, she chose you. Probably because she was attracted to my strength and wanted to use me to survive. Or perhaps because she had no other options at all.

You know what, why not? I’ll give you a chance. I was going to give this one more shot. One last shot.

I proceeded to hug her tightly, dragged my bed and joined the two together for more space, and then just slept.

***

The next morning, we locked our doors and headed out. Sen advised me how it was never a good idea to leave behind important things at our rooms since they could easily be stolen. I assured her that I would just eat the thieves in that case and also told her I didn’t really need to carry anything. She then got the wrong idea that I was asking her to carry all my things. To which she got super excited. Actually, come to think of it, she was really, really happy this morning when we woke up. Apparently, hugging and sleeping on the same bed was a sign of good faith and relationship when it came to Wolfbreeds (her race).

I wanted to burst her bubble but I decided not to. I already made up my mind about giving her a chance. I was going keep a really watchful eye on her though. Any signs of suspicious activity and absorb her I would.

Before that I wanted to snatch one of these dinosaur-like things and give them a nice course of absorbing. Nah, let’s wait till we’re out of the city. There should have been bigger ones outside the city anyway.

“Okay so, first of all, we’ll need a lot of potions!” Sen listed off things as our food started arriving. “Then we need to account for antidotes, traveler’s food and water, soap and other stuff for sanitation-” she paused. “You probably don’t need pads and stuff though,” she spoke softly. I heard that….

We were dining in a fairly normal restaurant run by two old men. Food consisted mostly of Beef Pottage and bread. Neither of which tasted very good but way better than just roasted birds on the street.

 “You can just buy things later. We still have money left over.” And sleeping comfortably had successfully recovered 6 MP. I recovered 1 MP every hour as long as I was resting. That was really slow but it was better than nothing. I noticed I recovered a fair bit after consuming ores; that also restored my HP too. Maybe I could use MP to make coins, buy gems and then… Hmm, that could work. Assuming I got back more MP than I spent, I could just make money forever.

“Okay!” excited, she dug into the beef pottage without even looking at me.

Her excitement wasn’t fake. She wasn’t necessarily forcing this either. But I still didn’t trust her. I didn’t understand why. Because I was betrayed all my life? Because I never trusted anyone anyway? Because people used me, and I used them?

Then how is this different? It’s still the same.

Breakfast was over, and together we bought a lot of things. I also bought her proper adventuring gear; a pair of boots, medium sized backpack that weighed nothing even if full, and some leather armor that protected her chest, which kind of took out the hot feeling. Everything cost about 6 silvers, so I still had one left.

“We need to buy some gems,” I said.

“Gems are expensive. We don’t have enough money. Let’s try to find some in the dungeon.”

No, I couldn’t just go to a dungeon nearly empty.

I had about 17 MP, 7 of which I used to get 3 gold coins and 5 silvers. “How much would 3 gold coins get us?”

“You could probably buy a Red Stone.”

I started recalling some memories from a merchant I’d devoured back in the village. Gems in this world were divided in color and purity. Technically, color itself meant it was impure but that wasn’t important. And they meant the shape of the gem as purity. The rounder a gem, the purer. Gems were mostly used for spell casting and were often used in jewelries for noble women. Apparently, they contained mana.

Red gems were the cheapest while black ones cost a fortune. Fortune was relative but I didn’t get any more information from my already janky memories. Maybe it was best to take a bit of time properly digesting everything before I devoured more people.

We bought two red gems for 3 gold; pea-sized. They were crude and looked shit, but they were definitely worth it and they could probably get me new skills. They looked similar to the stuff that particular spearman used; white ones were fifty gold and above. But if it was that expensive… why did he bring it there? Could it be that… he was going to propose to me after having his way?

I tried searching for his memories but I couldn’t find anything relevant.

[Gem Of Mana absorbed!]

[Magic Increased]

I got 20 MP back. Infinite money glitch.