The girls chat with each other while we chill in the hot water. Hecate is seated on my lap with her back leaning into me, eyes closed. She’s slowly catching some quality rest over the course of the last day.

Shino is the next person closest to me, hugging my left arm from the side with my palm between her slim thighs. She sneaks a peck on my lips when I glance at her with the other girls not paying attention. Truthfully, I think she’s the only one not realizing that they are acting like that just to give her a little push.

As much as Marcia would love to be on my other side, Teffith has taken that spot, currently observing the pale-skinned spidergirl with a warm smile and occasionally exchanging a few words with Ghilerie just next to her. They seem to be growing on each other. They do have some similarities.

My eyes wander over everyone’s exquisite figures. It’s just impossible not to stare at all these alluring breasts of various sizes and shapes or the many different bodies just dripping with sex appeal. And hot water.

Natalie notices my gaze lingering over her for a brief moment as she is chatting with Shino and our eyes meet. Our samurai princess notices that and turns to me too. Both of them are now glancing at my face and I smile at them.

“Sorry for earlier. I didn’t notice we have gotten so close to you. I just wanted to make sure you know that it wasn’t intentional.”

Shino immediately realizes what I’m talking about and turns into a freshly boiled tomato as usual.

“I can’t believe I had sex in front of my best friend…” she mutters quietly, covering her reddening face with her petite hands.

A very faint blush surfaces on Natalie’s cheeks which clearly isn’t caused by the temperature of the pool and she nods faintly.

“It’s okay. I wasn’t really bothered by it. It was… an unusual but a little interesting experience, to be honest. I’m just glad Shino wasn’t uncomfortable with me watching you two make love to each other. And… with you know…”

She drops her gaze for a fraction of a second, letting me know that she has noticed that I have noticed what she was doing during our sexy time, which somehow escaped the attention of our mutual best friend. But, it’s not that surprising, actually. Shino’s mind was clearly focused on something else.

I wink at the blond-haired bard. “No worries. If you didn’t mind us, then I surely didn’t mind you. And I’m sure Shino didn’t mind either. I know she wouldn’t mind that.”

The person in question uncovers her face, still blushing furiously, and looks at Natalie.

“Of course, I didn’t mind, Natalie-san. I was worried… what you would think of me after… this…” Shino adds, definitely not getting what the two of us are talking about.

Natalie rolls her eyes. “You drew porn in front of me, sometimes even with three or more videos paused in front of us for references, and even ran your ideas and sketches through me. Surely, you don’t think me watching you do it with the person you love could make my perception of how lewd and shameless you are increase even more.”

Shino drops into the water with a loud splash, most likely to hide from the world. I can imagine that the part about them watching porn together to use it as reference material wasn’t supposed to be revealed to me or others.

I raise a brow at Natalie and the very corner of her dainty lips rise into the faintest little smirk. Looks like even she can have moments where she just can’t stop herself from teasing her best friend a little.

Smirking back at her, I reach under the water and pull our timid companion by the nape of her neck back into the open air before she suffocates herself. Shino takes a deep breath and looks at me with a completely flustered expression, constantly running away with her eyes.

I pull her a bit closer to me and whisper, “That’s hot.”

She smiles weakly and we share a tame kiss after I let go of her, exchanging loving pecks with our faces turned towards each other. Shino breaks it first after noticing a certain spidergirl looking at us from my lap, getting too embarrassed to continue.

Something brushes over the inner side of my thigh, soon poking the sleeping beast resting in between them. I turn my face to the other side and bonk Marcia on the head.

“No horny.”

“Ow! Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut…”

Sprawled over Teffith’s and Ghilerie’s laps while on her belly, she gives me an upturned gaze just from above the surface of the water.

“Should have been nicer to the others if you aren’t satisfied now.”

She whines playfully while making puppy eyes and puckering her lips. “What if I apologize very, very honestly to them? Can I get just one more fuck? It was amazing when you did me so savagely but please, just one more, a bit slower this time?”

“You are an adult. Suffer the consequences of your actions.”

Marcia looks down with exaggerated hopelessness but soon glances back up with a mischievous spark in her eyes.

“You are right. I’ve been a really bad girl. Bad girls should be punished. You should spank my butt really hard.”

With a few quick movements, she ends up pointing her behind straight at my face while standing over Teffith, flashing both of her holes for me, Hecate, and Shino to see from up close.

“Come on! Spank me!” She wiggles her butt. “Spank me so hard it will stay red for a week! I need to learn my lesson! And then, it will hurt even more when you slam your hips into my ass while fucking my pussy! It’s the worst punishment, right? Come on!”

I sigh heavily while some of the girls chuckle at the scene. Placing one hand on Marcia’s plump asscheek, I give it a good squeeze, grabbing as much of her tender flesh as I can. She giggles excitedly when a second hand follows with the same for the other half of her juicy ass.

Then, with my fingers firmly holding onto her bottom, I quickly lift her above the water and throw her forward, towards a deeper part of the pool.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh! You chea—”

*SPLASH*

Everyone chuckles again as I ostentatiously dust my hands off. Marcia resurfaces in the middle of the small underground lake and crosses her arms under her impressive tits, spitting a mouthful of hot water and pouting at me.

She soon laughs too, shaking her head, and jogs back to us, without causing any more trouble. Her antics have a great effect on the people around and she knows it well. She’s always been perceptive and knew what to do to bring out a fun atmosphere.

“Alright. Let’s get our new spider friend all cleaned up and get out. We’ve been here for a while. If we set everything up properly, this should be a decent place to take a longer rest. It’s both warm and safe, with just two easily blockable entrances,” I say while brushing over Hecate’s slim tummy.

She quickly complies with my intentions without me even having to ask and sits up. I give her some pats and start carefully washing her body from behind, starting with her shoulders, back, then arms and legs.

Shino moves to Hecate’s front and takes care of her hair in the meanwhile.

“Hecate-san's hair is so damaged and mistreated it’s making me so sad…” she comments with a sorrowful expression.

I lean over Hecate’s shoulder to give her a peck on the cheek.

“We’ll fix it. She will be a new woman in a flash. But, I think short hair suits her, personally.”

Shino nods. “I think so too. She will definitely look beautiful in her own way after it heals. Not like Hecate-san isn’t beautiful already.”

She then proceeds to wash Hecate’s front with her delicate fingers. Shino doesn’t leave a spot behind and gently takes care of the spidergirl’s body, including her intimate parts, blushing a little bit during the motion and shooting me occasional glances. Hecate shows no reaction to any of our actions, most likely leaving herself in my hands without a shadow of doubt or hesitation.

Wrapping things up, everyone leaves the pool and gets dressed. Natalie goes to grab Paul while I leave to bring Kamil here. The two of us arrive back in the chamber second, just after the other duo walks inside, making it look like I was with Kamil the whole time to Paul, and like I was with Paul but went to grab him to Kamil. It doesn’t seem like anyone has realized something is not right. For now, at least.

We slowly set up a camp by one of the black walls, as far from the water pools as possible, and share a meal together while chatting a little. Hecate doesn’t leave my lap as I feed her some of the tasty but not too heavy pieces of our rations. Better safe than sorry for a bit longer.

When we talk about securing the exits properly, my new companion looks at me intently and I nod at Hecate after sensing what she is thinking about. After the meal, she walks up to each of the entrances and we watch her weave a barely visible wire in her hands and all six spider legs. 

In just a few moments, a complex web is present on each exit, barely noticeable without a close source of light. We check the thin threads and realize how sharp they are. If somebody were to walk into them, he would end up with some shallow cuts. And if somebody was pushed or pressed into them, it could get much worse. Incredible.

Afterwards, we set up the guarding duty and decide to get some proper sleep. This time, I join in on the watch and take the first shift with Hecate. The two of us sit together with her, no surprise, still on my lap. She seems to be taking her new role very seriously.

Soon, Marcia takes over and we head to my tent. No other girls ambush me inside so I quickly prepare the bedding and bring Hecate with me to snuggle together for the night. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t want to leave my side anyway.

It’s pretty hot around so we both strip naked and lie on the mattress. After I invite her, Hecate wiggles closer to me and embraces me from the front, nuzzling herself to my body with her arms wrapped around my torso. 

As she drifts off to sleep, her black spider legs gradually curl around my body, pulling us more into each other. It does seem a little spooky at first, seeing six sharp and durable spikes tightening around you, but it doesn’t reach uncomfortable levels and just stays as a tender hug. I can move her spider legs away with no effort, but of course, choose not to do it.

So, we get a good night of sleep in this interesting hug and wake up shortly before breakfast. Somewhere along the way of the upgrades to my skills and body, I have gained the ability to be able to wake up exactly when I mean it. Some people back on Earth have this power but I didn’t count in that group.

Nothing much has happened while we rested and the web seals seem untouched. We go for a quick breakfast and prepare to depart. Hecate is already starting to look a little better after the night. She’s recovering fast with just a bit of proper nutrition and rest. 

We gear up, check everything, and resume our journey through the dark tunnels of the abyss under the deadly desert. Hecate joins Shino and Kamil at the front to scout and peeks ahead with her eyes perfectly fitting this place. She’s really good at silently and sneakily gathering intel and navigating through the maze of caverns and passages.

In a few hours, we reach a crevice leading to the surface and jump out to check where we are. After Natalie does the same trick with her magic to point the directions of the world, we notice that we are now not that far from the other end of the scorching hot valley of death. Perhaps a day or two of travel, depending on the presence of any obstacles.

Since we have been doing fine underground, we all agree to continue just below the surface, getting rid of the unbearable heat. With the additional safety of Hecate’s sharp senses primed for detection in dark places, it’s not that bad of an idea. Hopefully, we won’t run into any more worms.

Our new spidergirl member shows a bit more active approach during the few encounters we stumble on. She still keeps herself relatively close to me but fights alongside everyone else more freely. She has clearly regained some of her lost vitality and stamina. These six obsidian spikes move with a deadly speed and force, impressing everyone around.

I’ve lost count of how many times one of them has suddenly appeared out of nowhere to block an attack aimed at me before I could respond to it myself. It’s not like I haven't been able to avoid or counter it, she just doesn’t give me the chance to even do so, protecting me from almost everything that ends up moving towards me.

I guess it will be a tad harder to get through this protect the queen mentality than I have first assumed. She most likely still sees herself as an expendable pawn even though she allows herself to receive some affection. Perhaps she’s only doing that because it would be impossible to refuse anything coming from her queen, which is me at the current moment.

Nothing much I can do about that right now besides showing Hecate that I care about her more than just about her being my tool and talking to the silent spidergirl with a warm tone. She certainly enjoys snuggling up to me a lot with her chilly body so there’s that at least.

We are traversing the caverns and tunnels at a surprisingly quick pace thanks to Hecate and Shino working in tandem to scout ahead. My samurai girlfriend is certainly warming up to our new companion too. She often trots to Hecate to wipe some blood off her face or help with something minor. 

They are of a similar height more or less so it looks like they are sisters with completely opposite looks and elements, like darkness befriending light. It’s extremely cute at times. Hecate was wary of her a bit in the beginning but she seems to have acknowledged Shino as my companion, or perhaps mate after she peeked at us in the bath, if she even understood what was happening.

Thus, in less than a day, we notice a change in our surroundings. The brownish stone and hardened sand take a darker, greyish shade. Pure rock starts dominating the caverns and passages.

We look for a way up to check the surface and find ourselves past the mountain range dividing the Barren Valley from the forest biome just outside. Everyone sighs in relief from finally getting out of that hell with both above and under the surface almost equally inhospitable.

“So, what now? We don’t have horses anymore. Are we walking to the closest town or village to find some or are we not that far from our destination?” Marcia asks after we stretch a bit and take a short rest.

I glance at Ghilerie while making sure that being outside doesn’t have any uncomfortable effects on our new party member. Hecate did squint her eyes for some time after we resurfaced but she seems to have gotten accustomed to the lighting now, fortunately. I was a little worried the lands above would be troublesome for her to traverse.

“I’m not yet exactly sure where we are, but I don’t think we are too close to my settlement. Finding any town marked on the map would be the best plan, for now, I think,” the blonde elf answers.

Paul nods. “It should allow us to precisely pinpoint our location and also to ask locals about the region. I’m all for it.”

We all agree and Shino walks up to me and Hecate.

“Is Hecate-san okay on the surface, Sensei?”

I smile at my considerate partner. “Seems like it so far. Let us know if you feel any discomfort or anything else, alright? No hiding any pain or other things,” I say to the spidergirl.

Hecate nods obediently and I brush through her still slightly damaged hair. It will take a short moment for the missing bits to regrow. I tried speeding it up with Rejuvenate but that took quite a bit of time to slowly regenerate hair so we decided to postpone it for now.

“Also, as much as I hate throwing more clothes onto you, we’ll have to dress you up a bit now, Hecate.” I kneel in front of the pale-skinned beauty. “I’m afraid you running around in just panties and a shirt will gather more attention than your eyes or legs, which I would like you to wrap around your stomach when they aren’t needed, if possible. Could you do that for me or is it too inconvenient?”

As usual, Hecate doesn’t answer but her six spider legs instantly move to coil around her waist and tummy, creating a black corset or a piece of chitin armour that covers her stomach. Funnily, it neatly accentuates her breasts, slowly regaining their proper proportions.

“Thank you. Now, for the clothes, hmmmm…”

“Sensei. Maybe we can let Hecate-san wear a cloak with a hood. She could have it down or up depending on the situation and just a cape won’t inconvenience her legs and… ummm… down there… too much…”

Shino blushes a little, not knowing how to mention Hecate’s precious place, where the thin and deadly wire-like webs originate from. I chuckle at her and ruffle through her soft black hair.

“That should work. Thanks for the suggestion, Shino.”

We choose a fitting cloak for our new friend and Hecate accepts it without a word of protest. Or rather, without a sign of protest since she hasn’t given us any words yet. She tries it out a bit after I ask her to and confirms that it doesn’t restrict her movements and senses. Great.

In the meanwhile, the rest of the squad has been analyzing the maps we have and the path we took to more or less deduce where we are by the edge of the Barren Valley. From what they tell us, we don’t seem to be too lost and there is supposed to be a village two days' worth of walking from our position.

After getting ready, we depart towards it. Ghilerie and Teffith take the lead, much more experienced in traversing through forests and wilds in general. It’s already been long past afternoon when we have surfaced so we don’t cover much distance before setting up a camp for the night, the first time in a less deadly environment in quite a bit.

Besides Hecate, Teffith joins me for the night. While the snuggly spidergirl ends up as my little spoon this time, the dragonewt lady nuzzles her face into my neck from behind, with her arms gently wrapped around me. It always feels amazing to be in the middle of such a warm and beautiful sandwich.

Without delay, we rush forward soon after breakfast, which for quite a few girls consists of very nutritious milk they have given up on for the time we were in the caverns. It was a little too awkward and suspicious to continue the experiment down there, but now, they can again enjoy the benefits. And I can enjoy something else at the same time.

Hecate only watches from the side with her calm and neutral face. It’s pretty obvious she has no idea what the other girls are doing. I will hold back from explaining things properly until she becomes more accustomed to us and me in general. 

I have a feeling that she would jump into it instantly if I told her it’s mostly for my pleasure or the pleasure of both sides. The first part could touch on that deep loyalty of hers and unnecessarily push her to do it just because I’m her queen.

Deep inside, I am aware that it could be impossible to completely get rid of that strong subservience and reliance on her superior, but I would want to at least try to work on it a little. I’m just not expecting fireworks to not get disappointed. I’ll accept her nevertheless. It would be unkind to try and push her away with how dedicated she is, forcefully changing her nature.

Nothing notable happens during the day. We just move through the dense forest in search of any roads, walking in the general direction of the nearby village. Everyone gets a tad livelier now that we are back on the proper surface and Ghilerie clearly feels at home between the trees. It’s somehow mesmerizing watching her stride around with a light step, bow in hand.

On the second day, we encounter some wild boars. They are much bigger than their Earth cousins and have six tusks in total, looking quite scary. Certainly, if a dumpster-sized boar with six sharp spikes rushed at me, I would be quite terrified back then.

“Why don’t we hunt them down?” Teffith suggests as we observe the herd from afar. “We could bring them to Ghilerie’s settlement. They would surely appreciate more supplies, right?”

I glance at our hunter elf and she nods. “I think it’s a good idea. Thanks to Alastair’s generosity, I should be able to store one or two in the necklace he has gifted me with so it’s not a bad idea. The meat won’t turn bad before we arrive at my home.”

“We have much bigger storage artifacts on us so there will be no problem keeping all of them if you want. We are going there too, anyway. Even if we wouldn’t enter the settlement, we can always drop them close,” I add.

Ghilerie gives me a nice smile. “I would appreciate it a lot. I have no idea what the food situation looks like back there, and while it shouldn’t be bad, some more wouldn’t hurt.”

“Alright. How do we do it, then?” Paul joins in.

“Please, leave it to me. I didn’t show you much in the past weeks so I would like to tackle it alone. This is what I’m best at in the end.”

I exchange glances with the rest of the squad and everyone nods.

“No problem. We’ll jump in if things go south,” Paul replies.

We back away and spread out a little. I thought Hecate would be more hesitant to split for me, but she complies with my request and takes position a bit further to my side. If any of the huge boars somehow escapes our professional hunter, we’ll catch them before they can run away. I have a feeling it won’t be necessary, though.

Ghilerie approaches my position before going after her prey and I raise a brow at her. The beautiful elf blushes ever so slightly while fiddling with her fingers around the bow’s grip. I smile and extend a hand to her.

After she takes it, I pull her closer and join our lips in a tender kiss. She leaves the lead to me and I take her warm tongue for a short and slow dance while brushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

With a soft smile, she breaks the kiss. “Thank you. Now I feel fully revitalized.”

I chuckle and peck her lips once more. “You are welcome. Good luck out there.”

She turns around and quickly paces away. It would be nice to have a decent viewing spot to watch her efforts instead of trying to pinpoint everything amongst the trees but there aren’t any hills or rock formations in the near vicinity.

I look at the nearby tree while thinking about it and an idea dawns on me. I shape a whip with my artifact weapon and shoot it at the very top of the closest and thickest pine. The rope extends mid-air and coils around the top part exactly as I wish for.

Starting to reduce its length, I jump towards the tree and begin running up the wooden trunk, getting pulled upwards by the retracting whip. Reaching the end of the rope, I cast Void Chains in the form of leather straps to attach myself to the tree.

Now, I have a decently better view of the boars below and the stalking Ghilerie. It’s not perfect but the density of the forest isn’t high enough to completely obstruct the vision and the prey is hanging around a small clearing.

Ghilerie seems to be setting something up at a few spots around that glade. Most likely traps of some sort. This is getting exciting. I knew she should have some tricks up her sleeve since she’s been a hunter for a long time, but I tried not to get my expectations too high. This might actually be a better show than just her headshotting each pig.

After around ten minutes of silent sneaking around, Ghilerie finishes her preparations and takes position to the south of the herd. I’d say, around fifty or so meters away from it. It’s quite a bit but I’m sure it’s nothing to her. 

She draws a single arrow from the quiver and nocks it against the bowstring. The magical magnets Sirgia wove into it cause the artifact to float towards Ghilerie’s elbow and help her draw the bow almost as much as its durability allows. I can feel the tension just by looking at the magnificent black weapon.

Without even the faintest swish from the bow, the arrow gets launched forward, whizzing through the air at an incredible speed, whistling faintly. It hits the smallest boar out of the six present in the clearing right in the knee.

It releases a high-pitched pained cry and the whole crew raises their heads to look around. I honestly expected them to run away immediately after what I assume is a failed shot, but the wild boars do something completely unexpected.

They quickly turn their backs to the injured member and start trotting backwards until it’s surrounded from all sides. This has somehow turned into the ‘Get down Mr President!’ situation out of the blue.

I take a glance at Ghilerie but don’t find her at the previous spot. She must have moved immediately after firing. A few quick looks around while following her presence through our connection allows me to find her soon.

She’s crouching down from the west now, with another arrow already nocked in. She releases it and the projectile whizzes past the group, piercing into a random tree. Another one follows after it almost immediately, hitting another tree.

This far into the hunt, I realize I have no idea what’s happening anymore and what to expect. I’m no hunter and know shit about the craft or profession, especially in this world, but her actions are just so weird to me. It makes no sense.

But, they do have some effect on the boars. Two of the biggest and meanest wild pigs break off the circle and rush towards the direction where the arrows came from. The rest of the squad tightens the ring to protect the smaller one again.

The two attackers charge through the trees. They notice Ghilerie standing up and gain even more speed after locking onto her. I can tell that they have gotten furious.

But, before they can reach her, both boars trip over something and tumble forward as one mass of bodies. After finally stopping, five small green formations light up on the ground and around ten slick wooden branches shoot out of them, completely binding the beasts and pinning them to the ground.

This time, I catch her changing positions and Ghilerie returns to the south with a very quick step, preparing another arrow while running. She stops after reaching around a hundred meters from the herd, launches an arrow into the sky, and instantly starts running again.

She circles the pack, arriving at the north, and repeats her previous motion, this time drawing the bowstring only around halfway. She lets go of the arrow and takes a deep breath, staying still with her eyes closed.

With a simultaneous thunk, both arrows she has fired into the air hit the ground at the same time, one in front of each of the two boars facing the directions they have been shot from. Both beasts immediately lunge forward just like their brothers or sisters. And they both end up restrained in the same way.

At the moment when the arrows came down, Ghilerie jumped into her next move and is currently rushing at the last remaining boar, excluding the smaller, wounded one. With her completely silent and quick steps, it only manages to notice her approach just before she slits its throat in a slide.

The giant beast drops onto the ground. The air is filled with squeals and groans coming from the four restrained boars and the injured one. Standing over the smaller boar, which is clearly limping away from her in fear, she nocks another arrow and fires it straight up. It explodes silently with a bright green flash, a signal for everyone that the hunt is completed. 

I jump down my tree and arrive at her side pretty much at the same time as the others. Ghilerie is just finishing slitting the throat of the smaller and hurt boar, kneeling by its body.

“That was certainly something. Although, I have to admit, I understood nothing from what I saw,” I begin.

She glances up at me with a sweet smile. “Would you like me to explain while I take care of the other four?”

Everyone else nods with me. Looks like I’m not the only one curious about it.

Ghilerie stands up and we walk with her to the first trapped pair. “These are Steelhide Boars. People tend to use another name for them though. The Harem Boars.”

“Harem Boars?” Shino asks, furrowing her brows adorably.

Our elf specialist chuckles and points at the dead body of the smaller beast. “That one is a female. It’s smaller and has no tusks. There’s always one at the center of the herd. The males gather around her and try to court the female to join her pack.”

Marcia snickers. “A reverse harem of boars. What a ridiculous thought.”

“I know, right?” Ghilerie smiles at us, kneeling down to slit the throats of the two bound animals. “The males become the female’s bodyguards after getting accepted, pretty much. They will sacrifice themselves without a second thought to protect her. That’s why the best strategy to deal with them is to prevent the female from running away.”

“What do they get out of it, though?” Kamil asks.

“Sex.” Marcia giggles.

He rolls his eyes and groans.

“You are not wrong,” Ghilerie replies with a soft chuckle. “It’s in their nature to find a female to copulate with. The males have quite a high libido. And the urge to leave an offspring does play a role in it too. But, in general, that’s just how their little communities work. There are some species with a reversed situation too.”

“Yeah. We even have the prime example of one right here.” Marcia elbows me a few times with a grin.

Shino giggles cutely by my other side and I squint my eyes at her. She looks away with a faint blush. The other girls chuckle at us.

“Humans and other humanoid races are well-known for it so it’s not that surprising,” Ghilerie flashes us a soft smile, making Shino even redder. “As for the Steelhide Boars, their male to female ratio is completely skewed, which is believed to be the reason behind them grouping up like that. Only one in like fifteen or twenty is born female.”

“That could explain it. It’s nothing new for species to evolve under some special circumstances and adapt to their situation or environment,” Teffith comments.

We move to the last two while Ghilerie continues her explanation. “Getting back on track, after their female is injured, the males get a tiny bit angry and tend to rush towards the attacker to take them down as quickly as possible. They are really strong and heavy so splitting them up is advised.”

“Big and stupid,” Kamil sneers.

“True. But if someone would suddenly shoot an arrow into your mate as you are casually having a picnic, wouldn’t you be furious too?” She glances at him.

As much as he would love to say no, we all know how hot-headed Kamil can be. He would most likely lunge towards the direction of the attack even faster than the boars if it hit Marcia or someone he considers close. So, he just keeps his mouth shut while scrunching his face.

After dealing with all the boars, we help Ghilerie store them and take a short break before resuming our journey. She shares some more knowledge about them with us while we rest and explains what parts of the boars are the most valuable.

No surprise she aimed at the throats, the skin seems to be a popular material for durable leather armour. And fewer arrows in the body means both fewer holes and less damaged meat. Not giving them a chance to fight back allowed Ghilerie to leave their tusks pretty much undamaged too.

We depart an hour later. Before the day ends, we manage to find a road and follow it straight to the village we have been aiming for. Asking Humans about an Elven settlement isn’t a good idea so we don't do that but we now know where we are at least.

Ghilerie decides to sell the tusks to the local hunters. While Elves mostly avoid Human settlements, their hunters sometimes trade with the nearby villages. It’s nothing but beneficial to them if they manage to befriend their neighbours. The hate towards non-humans seems to be the strongest in the more urbanized regions, which isn’t that surprising. I’m glad to know this is a thing.

We spend a night at the local inn. The owners don't seem to have any problems with my non-human companions and are a really sweet older couple. After waking up, we stay shortly in the village to gather some possible intel and to listen to a bit of gossip.

Fortunately, we don’t learn any disturbing rumours like a raid of a certain Elven settlement somewhere in the area. But, at the same time, nothing too helpful reaches our ears too. We surely aren’t that far now so we’ll manage.

Eager to finally reach our goal, we depart to cover this last remaining bit of distance and start looking for the signs leading to Ghilerie’s home.