Chapter 126

Svinn sent one of his goons to pick us up right on schedule early the next morning.

I study him with my light spell, which he doesn’t like before we set off. This guy seems a bit shifty and doesn’t like us looking at him too long. Plus he tries to stay in the shadows. Svinn is right to not want us to trust him fully.

He looks and acts like some kind of shadow thief gang member if I were to summarize it.

He’s a dwarf all right but unlike the others he’s covered head to toe in dark colored heavy clothing and armor. It’s designed to almost give a chivalric feel, but…everything except his eyes being covered bothers me. He also has the look of an experienced veteran with sharp eyes that take in every detail.

He also wouldn’t shake hands with us when we extended our hands, though it was only me and a couple of others that tried to shake his hand.

Wow so unfriendly, are all of them like that? Or do dwarves not like contact with humans?

He spat on the ground instead, which made me tempted to want to throw a punch at him but like all dwarves he’s stronger than he looks. He does have the language enchant so I’m curious about him already. But he doesn’t want to talk to us unless he has to.

But turns out the foreign quarter is rougher than we thought.

We still have a lot of questions for Svinn about the aftermath of what happened with getting my adventurer’s license. I can’t talk to this guide dwarf about that though. It has to be in person with Svinn when we get a chance.

Fortunately before leaving the dream state last night Fox put a small illusion over the race part of my license to make it look like it said human instead of abomination. She also made the illusion as long lasting as she could but had to spend a lot of effort on it. And it’s possible if anyone verifying documents at gates is a mage they may smell it. But usually grunts and non-mages work gates and doors, and places that verify identity.

We started out going through a ton of back alleys and down rough looking streets full of rubble since both the buildings and the streets are in ruins with sometimes just having bed sheets hanging over some doorways. Although many buildings have two or three floors, the stairs are littered with holes in them.

It looks like there are gangs everywhere in the foreign quarter; perhaps it’s partly cultural bleed through from the dwarves into foreigners living in their city, because the very nature of dwarves is that they naturally thrive by teaming up and cooperating to solve their problems. So someone living in their city has been sort of naturally pushed this way by the already existing social systems in the city. I can see them using children as runners on many of the street corners once I learned what to look for. And all of them no matter what age are in poor torn up clothes designed to blend in an acting like they spacing out but actually aren’t. In some areas they have groups of two to four hanging out at street corners and are watching their small territories. It’s a medieval version of a barrio in New York or Los Angeles.

It’s a bit poorer than the rest of the city but still there are nice residential areas in the foreign quarter too.

Who knew dwarves had gang problems. This is getting interesting. I’m tempted to want to talk to some of them to find out what they are like, but they’d probably not like that.

My attitude did change shortly after that however.

I beat up two human thugs that tried to grab Rina and Asakura each while we were moving through the city. Then by the time we get to the rendezvous point another two human guys have tried to touch Asakura’s boobs and grab her again, which she crushed the face of the one and beat down the other with her hammer.

We then had to leave before the city guards came. Because he was probably going to drag her off like an orc I have no pity for him. He was even heading towards an alley. And others are checking us out now too.

We also can’t trust that the dwarven city guards won’t racial profile humans.

I don’t dare underestimate them now, after two attempted kidnappings right in a row right in front of my face.

“Where are the city guards anyway?” Asakura exclaimed.

“Ah that’s the problem! There aren’t enough guards in the foreign quarter,” I realized after.

“Shit, you’re right Shun. We should get out of here,” Rina said.

“Stay close to me both of you,” I warned them.

Both Rina and Asakura now feel naked almost, not because they are but because they feel unsafe. A lot of little medieval hoodlums are always checking us out as we go through the streets and we look like we don’t belong here.

People also shy away from us, if they are honest folk. The others that aren’t honest glance at our weapons quite a bit. What few women live in this area, some of them are bundled up like little they would in a third world country, because of being afraid they’ll get assaulted. Humans have a lot of disadvantages here it seems, and economically this area isn’t so great.

Then as we pass another street we can some tight communities have their own security guards to stay safe. And those guys for sure give us ugly looks to stay out of their turf.

But still no real city guards here a whole mile of town later.

Yeah, we need to get away from the foreign quarter area. Women don’t like that sort of thing, even when they are tough.

Asakura now doesn’t want to go into the dungeon anymore. Rina has cold feet too. But they are concerned about staying in the foreign quarter without me too. So now we have a sort of awkward situation. The new shadowy guy sent by Svinn didn’t really care and half the time he’s way ahead of us and he didn’t even stop so when any of this happened; I’m concerned why he would act like that. In fact, while the two attempted kidnappings to place I could have sworn he’d disappeared right before then. So right off the bat I’m already mad at him for not stepping up to the plate and whatever other shitty nonsense he’s involved in but that I can’t prove.

The other dwarf is unhappy and complains a lot in dwarven ahead of us from how the tone of things sounds. But he’s using some weird non-traditional dialect so the translator enchant I’m carrying isn’t picking it up. The girls go off to use the restroom and so does the other dwarf. But he’s watching them too closely as they walk off.

I don’t like how seedy and evil this human foreign quarter feel like. Everyone has been leering at both of them too.

Their beauty attracts too much attention and I’d also spotted some thugs following us.

Are they slavers I wonder?

Slavers would probably have an easy time preying on a poor quarter in a city that can’t escape. It also makes sense that a bunch of gangs in a demi-human city would be conducting slaver activities under the radar.

I decide to not take a chance. I tighten my resolve and my grip on my weapons and equipment.

“Rina, Asakura…I’m going to put you in the box. The danger of kidnapping here is too great and I don’t want to lose you,” I said.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Rina said. Does she even understand what that means though?

Asakura sighed in relief too and gave me a quick hug. “Thanks. I feel scared.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“What you mean that inventory box thing? You still haven’t told us how that works exactly,” Rina said, thinking aloud.

“Don’t forget me. Don’t let them get me Shun,” Rina said worriedly.

The dwarf is still moving ahead of us unawares.

I activated the box and then bystanders are a little bit shocked when I’m holding an inventory box over the air and then push Rina headfirst, upside down into it. There’s a bit of an echo as she disappears quickly with a sort of calling out, “aaaaaah,” like she’s falling.

People are giving me weird suspicious looks.

Asakura laughed at it.

Then I summoned Rina again after closing the box. Sure enough its working. I want to test the de-summon too. It goes off without a hitch. I like this spell. It works awesomely. And I can use it on pretty much my whole team to put them in the inventory box. Although to be fair, doing it to Rina the first time meant I had to verify there was a slave crystal for her and all that jazz in the box, which there was. She was actually happy for me to get started on it. The whole time we were in the foreign quarter she was extremely scared and had noticed more than once her and Asakura being watched or followed. She was aware of how vulnerable she was too.

I think at one point two gangs at once were following us, due to the lure of both of my women.

Asakura protested and wanted to help me, having mixed feelings; but I still want her wait in pet de-summoned mode. She finally gives in.

The dwarf guide is ahead of us at the street corner and finally turned back towards us wondering where we got lost too. It will be tough to explain it to the dwarf guide…oh well. Its his own fault for disappearing on us and I suspect we would have had another kidnapping attempt just now too, if I hadn’t just de-summoned both girls, because that’s always what happens when he goes that far ahead of us. Is he in league with the slavers? I strongly suspect as much.

Sure enough when I check to verify in my box I have a bonus slave crystal that I didn’t previously had for Rina, and the already existing one for Asakura. Because I didn’t have the summon and de-summon spell earlier I hadn’t been able to observe how this would work on a first time putting someone in a slave crystal.

It’s very interesting.

I found a clue just now!

I have to catch up to him first. Because I’m behind him I can take a quick look in the inventory box without him noticing.

He frowns when he sees the girls are missing and I’m not upset or screaming for help. But if he says anything it will reveal himself for being corrupt. He’s not sure what to do to keep his cover. I can see an odd look of aggravation and anger on his face studying me.

“Come on, let’s keep going,” I said to him.

“What? You…want to still …go to the dungeon? Even though your women are missing?” he probed.

“I sent them away. They weren’t going to come actually,” I said.

He gives me a blank stare. I think he’s trying to read me and figure this out. But my messing with his head has him totally confused.

Technically he can’t make me bring the girls. And because he’s not related he also can’t force me to call for help or take some other action. After two minutes of a staring contest we keep going.

Yeah, he’s definitely corrupt. Why else would he be too interested in someone else’s family?

So I have slave crystals for Rina, Asakura, Ayumi Sensei, and Sunghee that are all unlocked and usable and already setup and earned, I just hadn’t ever looked at them while they were inside the slave crystals. I do have others that I have that are still locked but I don’t want to use my fixed slots to unlock them when unlocking them more slowly through effort and special means will save more of my fixed slots for later. I want to stick to the original plan of confronting monsters and bosses that the demon box throws at me to force open bonus slave crystals, since that’s the most profitable in the long run for long term growth.

Of course, it’s fun to look at the miniature slave crystals to see how they look and see how they are and what’s going on. When I glanced at each slave crystal, sure enough there is Rina, Asakura, Ayumi Sensei, and Sungee and all of them are naked and in suspended animation frozen in the pose that they’d last had before being put there. All that is, except Ayumi Sensei, who is curled up into a fetal position that makes it hard to study her features with her long beautiful auburn hair covering part of her face and chest. I haven’t unlocked Haruka’s yet, so to me hers appears like an impenetrably opaque inky black crystal that I can’t see into.

So I guess their clothes will re-appear on themselves when I summon them? I better check to make sure before I summon them in public.

That made the dwarf guide yell at me though when he realized I wasn’t moving fast enough and that the other two were missing. Of course I didn’t let him see what I was looking at but he’s suspicious. Then he yelled at me for letting the two girls slink off somewhere.

After a good half hour of moving around we finally reach the rendezvous point. It’s a huge courtyard in a good sized stone building that looks like a mix of an armory, a barracks, and partly a small fort all rolled into one. There are dwarven clerks, and city guards everywhere, and in the middle there’s a bunch of other people, none of whom I recognize.

The shady dwarf rogue left us after that, once he’s acknowledged by Svinn.

“Oh good you’ve made it here. Good to see you,” Svinn said as we reached him. He pats me on the shoulder, which is hard to do for a dwarf with a human. Then he pulls me over into a corner so we can talk privately.

“Just so you know I made some good progress. We should be able to pull this off,” his eyes twinkled mischievously.

“That’s good,” I replied.

“Where’s Rina?” he asked in half panic.

“Too dangerous. Thieves and kidnappers keep hounding the girls ever since we arrived here. I’ll take them later when I’m sure it’s safe for them,” I explained quickly.

After ten minutes of him trying to make me give in, he finally sees I have willpower that’s high caliber and won’t budge. Then he gives up, but looks depressed.

“But what about the issue of my license? Were you able to work something out to cover us so I can do this job without fear of getting arrested?” I asked.

He laughed, “well I have a lot of clout in this city. I just told the city guards that the story created by that old license shop hag and her crony was a spin story used to get bribes and because we caught her stealing from us she’d acted out in revenge on us. And because I did it in front of a lie detecting dwarven priest the city watch decided to arrest her and the cat beastkin guy. So we turned out OK,” he said happily.

“Are you sure that’s going to work?” I asked.

He nodded. “It will work for now. You still have to be careful. But I want you to understand this only worked because she’d already been damaging her credibility for years by stealing from foreigners and non-dwarves in the city. She’d given us a bad name, plus it was known that she’s related to dark dwarves and has associations with them. So she’d burned her own bridge before this even began. Then when the testimony of Svinn the dwarven folk hero is added in your defense no one believed her,” he finished.

“It sounds too good to be true. I don’t believe in luck. I’m worried this won’t really be put to rest,” I said with my arms folded.

“I’ll not lie to you Shun. There’s a chance this could come up again. So you’ll have to keep your guard up,” he said.

I frowned. “So now I don’t even know if I’m safe or not really.”

He shrugged, “it could be worse. For now just stay under the radar and do stuff that helps your image in the eyes of the dwarven people. If people see you doing good then of course if such a story surfaces again they’ll question it.”

Somehow I still don’t feel that his answer is good enough. Do I have a future here? It feels like I’m gambling and I don’t like uncertainty. I want to know if I’m going to be having to duck in every alley and hidey hole every time I just go out on the streets to even do simple stuff like buy groceries.

I sighed, shaking my head.

“Cheer up. I know this is tough for you but you have Rina and Asakura to help you. Things could be worse,” he said.

“Not by much,” I glowered back.

“There is one complication though Shun.” Svinn chose his words carefully, “because I backed you it means from here on I have to stay separate from you and your team or people may think I am connected in this. According to dwarven standards that means if they think I’m connected to you then they may question the story I cooked up to cover you in the future. So from here on out you are on your own and I can’t be around you,” he frowned.

Fuck.

This is terrible news. It’s almost worse than being hunted because I know Svinn is a badass. And who doesn’t like having badass crusher tanks with you when in a medieval hell world?

“Sorry,” he apologized again.

“I guess it’s better than being hunted or an outlaw,” I admitted.

“It was really touch and go for awhile there Shun. You got really lucky. The only reason I did it is because I know you saved a lot of our people. So please stay good, and be good. Please help us out too, OK?” he again smiled.

“Fine. Let’s get this over with,” I said walking forward with him out of the dark area where we’d been talking.

“Let me introduce you to the teams,” he said. He does regard me carefully. We approach where the other adventurers and staff are gathering.

One of his assistants gives me a bracelet though. It looks kind of cheap.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“It’s a disposable language enchant bracelet. It works by proximity too, so you don’t have to be wearing it for it to work. It can be in your bag but won’t work while within a magic inventory bag. The charge will only last for about a week. After that you’ll have to pay to get it renewed and going gain on your own dime,” Svinn said.

“Only a week? But that’s not very long,” I protested.

“Are you sure there won’t be any chance of seeing Rina?” he asked eagerly.

Oh jeez…What? He’s fixated on Rina? I suppose I should have predicted that. Some people like it when girls are extremely skinny, but not emaciated like she is.

“She’s not feeling well anyway,” I explained.

“Dang,” he shook his head in frustration.

Of course right after that the shadowed dwarf said something in dwarvish to him. Svinn looks unhappy. I swear Svinn just cursed in Dwarvish but I’m not sure. The other assistant looks interested and serious but otherwise no way of reading him.

Is the shady guy in league with Svinn?

I thought the shady guy had left, and he is in different clothes possibly to throw me off but I recognize his moustache whiskers and eyebrow pattern.

How am I supposed to trust any of them now? What the hell are they doing?

All I can do is keep my guard up and close, ready to move.

I guess this is as good a time as any to put the language enchant bracelet on.

“Hey you are supposed to be ready to go,” Svinn said to me gruffly.

I shrugged. “I’m as ready as I usually am.”

“And you didn’t bring your girls…I mean gang,” he’s trying to raise the issue I see.

“The truth is, there were too many creeps following us to use Rina and Asakura. I can’t risk them. But I’ll help,” I said having to re-explain all over again when other dwarves were grilling me and Svinn again for the third time straight.

Svinn gives me a long hard look.

I gave him a long hard look back.

Neither of us budge for a bit, but finally he gets bored.

“That’s not part of the deal,” he said, practically yelling. “You are supposed to earn the right to be in the Dwarven Kingdom.” I guess this was a basic entrapment scheme. I’m starting to have doubts about Svinn. Wow, he’s getting snippy and mad; more than he should. I think it’s an emotional reaction of some kind.

“Shouldn’t we get started? We have a deadline?” someone else said that I didn’t recognize. Nor is there anyone from any of the dwarven towns we’d saved either.

It turns out there’s like over thirty people here among those that are mercenaries and adventurers, not counting all the town and dungeon officials, nor the clerks and scribes. All of them are dressed to go into a fight and in medieval fighting equipment at least that is among those that are veterans. They look very serious too and are watching anyone that looks like a newcomer. They also look like a bunch of hicks comparing dick sizes and egos. Just the looks on their faces make me want to avoid the trouble they are worth.

The non-veterans look a bit more worse and poor off and some come from this group. But some of them look like they just came from a farm to escape possibly becoming serfs or being servile for the rest of their life but with not quite shaky knees but a deer in the head lights sort of look to them. They aren’t all dwarves either, but there’s a bunch of humans too. Truthfully the dwarves look a bit more confident than the humans but make up for it with sour puss faces.

Actually almost half of them are humans? This is weird. Why are there so many humans? I don’t like it…I like humans but it raises suspicion about Svinn’s attitude of humans being the grunts which I’m just fitting together now. From a dwarf’s perspective wouldn’t the humans be like less trustworthy? Or is it done that way purposefully because humans might be missed less if there are casualties?

I don’t like this. This whole city is full of shady types. And now I don’t know how far to trust Svinn?

“So how are we going to do this? Should we do draft picks or by lottery?” a guy in brown robes asked. He looks like he’s some kind of leader and not technically in charge, but carrying his weight in his own right with a loyal following already. He looks like he’s trying to dress humble but underneath the robes I can see a flashy expensive belt buckle and a mail shirt of some kind.

“Come on let’s just get it over with, we’re in a hurry,” a gruff deep voice said.

“We need time to pick and go over things so each team is balanced,” another guy, this time a dwarf said.

“So you all want to put a ‘go’ on this mission then? No one is holding back? I want to remind you none of you are being compelled to go in the dungeon as is required by law,” Svinn asked.

Everyone nodded.

He was ready to proceed.

“Of course we want to go! We can survive!” the gruff deep voiced guy said again. He’s wearing a strangely shaped cowled robe and hood so I can’t see his face, but he seems way too tall for a human. I want to get a better look at him but the room is fairly dark too. His features have been obscured on purpose and I also see something like a face bandanna tie up over his mouth, so that even while studying his face under the cowl I can only see dark angry looking eyes.

He…is he…no it couldn’t be.

Does this world have giants?

I try to not stare at him. He could be a giant. He’s got about half again a man’s height beyond a normal person’s height.

“Yeah but if your team survives too that’s a big deal,” the brown robe guy said again. Brown robe dude doesn’t seem to be afraid of the giant, but is at least giving him a wide berth and a lot of scrutiny.

Giant guy is giving some scrutiny and a smug look back.

“But if we make the objective of getting an adequate food for the army is the main item in question whether or not we have a good survival rating or not for our teams,” again the thin guy. He has blue eyes and steel gray hair. But rather than old, in contrast to the air he looks wiry, maybe a bit young, and almost like he’s trying to dress as some kind of knight or something. He’s also dressed to be way more showy and rich than the others.

“What are you supposed to be anyway? You won’t fool anyone with that get up,” a dwarf said.

The guy shrugged in response. “That doesn’t matter. My team will get the most food and get the bonus. I don’t really care what else happens beyond that,” he appeared to be polishing his cuticles vainly with a knife.

“Screw you. Everyone knows I’m the strongest. You won’t beat me,” the gruff deep voice of the giant or whatever the hell he is, in the dark clothing and hooded robes said again. Again his back is to me but the guy is about…eight feet tall more or less. I noticed people also avoid staring at him in the face.

Is everyone afraid of him? What the fudge is he?

And Svinn had the nerve to think my race is in question, what really would be trouble is if you were with a guy that’s so big nobody can put him in his place and he knows it. He’s actually taller than the goat man, Akira.

“You all know the rules. Meet the goals, do your time or no immigration papers. And a reminder I don’t make the rules but I follow them the same as you, and I have to enforce them with no free rides to anyone,” Svinn said. He glanced at me.

Was he saying the last part to me personally?

Some of the humans are openly glaring at him.

I don’t really think it’s worth the trouble to glare at Svinn for just keeping the laws.

It won’t matter really. If I can summon and de-summon the girls they can’t be deported anyway but I don’t want anyone to know I have them, especially if I’m in the team with the giant. The lives of a lot of the village girls around here that are now adventurer-wannabes don’t look like they were so great, judging by how they look and their expressions. A lot of them looked afraid to show off even their faces. It made me surer I was doing the right thing seeing how they are all eyeing the new recruits in a strangely greedy way.

I also notice there are very few females here as adventurers. It’s a male dominated world after all. Of the thirty guys here, only two, oh wait three, were females and both of those were like…almost dressed in a fashion sense that was similar to how females in an Arab world might dress because of fear of men, kidnapping, etc. I can’t ignore how strange it is.

It’s too bad this is a hell world; but thinking that saying is starting to become cliché.

“I get the new guy. It’s my turn,” the gruff deep voice of the giant said looking at me.

Damn.

He looks like he could snap a man’s spine with one hand. Who the hell wants to be on a team where everyone is afraid to even take a piss?

“Wait a minute. I was supposed to be my own team and pick my own people,” I objected.

They all laugh at me so hard some of them are crying.

“What? It’s a reasonable request,” I said.

“Sorry little dude. It doesn’t work that way,” The big asshole said.

“I’m afraid he’s right. You have to work your way up from the bottom, same as everyone else,” the knightly looking guy said, who was one of the other team leads.

Svinn nodded after he said it to confirm.

What? This bites…

“So you’re with me,” the big guy jerked his massive thumb to his side to signal me to go stand by him.

“Wait, it’s my turn to pick though,” the brown robed guy said.

“That’s true, it is the big guy’s turn regrettably,” the knight said sighing and shaking his head.

“But you know how that will end up already,” The brown robed guy spat back at him, giving him a shut up look.

Something is going on between these three team leaders. But I’m not sure what it is yet, but it probably is something to do with the giant.

“Yeah, whatever. I need to recoup my losses from last time. It’s not fair if I have less team members than you do. How come you don’t lend me some of your peeps,” deep voice said. He acted like he didn’t care and knew he’d get his way. Everyone gives worried looks to him.

The other two are shaking their heads with a ‘I can’t believe this guy’ kind of look.

“But that’s because you kill more team members than anyone else. Not my fault,” the fancy knight guy said.

Oh shit. I was just assigned to the fail team! NO! Fuck. I need to get the hell out of here.

“I object. I go to brown robe guy’s team,” I said, raising my hand.

“Why did you want to go to his team anyway? Vetoed by the way,” the richly dressed imitation knight asked.

Of course, he gets ignored.

The deep voice guy roared angrily at me. Yep, definitely not human is he? He twisted his head at me, while I smile and try to look meek. Oh …he’s got horns. Is he a demon? No…the dwarves wouldn’t put up with that. A horned giant? Or something else?

No…I don’t think he’s a demon, but the horns are weird.

Brown robed guy is about to object but then the big guy grabs him by the throat and his voice is cut off and a yelp instead. Suddenly the dwarven city official guard units surge forward with their spears.

“That’ll be enough of that. Back off!” one of the commands.

Big deep voiced guy puts the other guy down. “Heh. I was just teasing and kidding. Don’t worry. Oh you’ve got something on your robes bro,” he said flicking off some bed crumbs and patting brown robed guy on the back so hard he almost fell to the ground.

The city guard guys don’t want any trouble so they let him go. But brown robed guy is still trying to breathe from the tap on his back. The others are annoyed at his aggressiveness and some of them are ready to grab their weapons and some back away.

Why are they putting up with this crap?

I want to leave but they’ve already shut us in here and locked the door.

“Easy that’s enough,” the rich looking team lead guy said.

“Fine, you can have him. He jeopardized his immigration status anyway,” Svinn said diplomatically while giving me cold hard look. He had intervened to save the brown robed guy, who …I think I smell magic coming off him?

Damn dwarf…

I think he just sold me out. I’m really not happy with that. I can’t believe I’d been trying to help these little bitch whiny dwarves. Svinn avoided eye contact with me after that. Note to self; don’t trust Svinn anymore.

“Don’t worry I’ll look after Rina and Asakura for you, since I know where your quarters are. I’ll guard your apartment while you are gone,” Svinn said.

If I didn’t have the ability to de-summon them then I’d be really pissed right now. This is a classic move from old times. David has Urriah killed to steal his woman…I should have seen this coming a mile away.

As soon as I get some cash together I better start scouting out other towns near here.

Such a trap...

The big guy is giving me a harsh look that is also playful at the same time. I try to give him a ‘what up bro’ kind of nod and try to look cool.

He gives me a brief nod.

Maybe we can work this out. Hell all of these guys are a shifty bunch.

The rest of the others are picked by taking turns like kids picking their friends during recess at school for ball games. It seems I’d been one of the hot draft items though, since I’d been first and the most heated for what they were after. It’s just that being the hot draft pick worked against me this time around.

The others are scrawny and skimpy second hand choices.

I wasn’t surprised that I was the first pick, just because somehow it’d been leaked that I had some mage skills. But right after that the two women were picked by the knight guy and the brown robed guy respectively. They probably were trying to protect them from that big asshole I bet I think while I mask my emotions.

That also angered ‘Moose’, which is my secret nickname for the eight foot tall guy hidden in robes who picked me. His voice even sounds like someone who would have the name of Moose or Bear. I won’t be able to call him Moose to his face yet, since he has anger issues. And I won’t nick name him Bear, because he’s too much of an asshole to deserve a cool nickname.

That Moose guy feels dangerous.

There were several draft picks right after that that looked like thieves, and a couple of guys that looked like fighters with football player builds trying to do the whole cliché warrior thing and some that were even in plain clothes and a bit too thin, but all wearing like medieval farm clothes which consist of like a type of primitive trousers and shirts. These guys are poorly armed too. The big guys managed to get some big homemade baseball bat sized clubs but the others have like rusty machetes and old hunting knives.

I guess I’ve taken it for granted how rough this world is. Not everyone even has the chance to have weapons even as good as the crappy salvaged weapons me and my team were carrying.

Unlike video games and rpgs a lot of these folks aren’t in a specific desired identity in form of what they are trying to picture themselves as or trying to shoot for in both the new guys and the more experienced adventurers. Maybe they don’t have the ability, maybe its lack of training, but probably at least half of it is the hell world grinding people into the dirt so bad they don’t have any opportunities in life to make their situation better. They have only the most basic survival or work the family farm skills so far, so they couldn’t go for anything more out of life. Also with the exception of the fake knight guy even the experienced adventurers are lucky if they can even get a shield. Even the lowliest leather armor is really expensive here.

There are no knights, no mages, or crusaders, other than me. Svinn seems to have purposefully left out to the three picking team leads the extent of my skills too, which is good and the only thing good going for me right now, but I don’t know if he’s constrained by any rules or laws or just doesn’t care. I prefer it that they don’t know, and I really don’t care for any of them acting entitled and expecting me to hand out magic and stuff to them like its candy.

There was a dwarven sharpshooter though that did look like a good candidate in one of the early round picks. It’s a crossbow wielder of some kind. He looks like he has good equipment and is properly outfitted, but disguised by a leather long coat of some kind to look fairly mundane and not stick out. But I’m disappointed when he’s put with a different team. We get the big football player sized guys, but I don’t have a lot of hopes for them.

If this really is a dungeon, why are all the dungeon adventurer wannabes so poorly equipped? Even if they knew how bad it was they would have at least tried to have saved for proper gear wouldn’t they? The clubs aren’t going to cut it.

We are then herded off to meet with our individual teams specifically.

If it’s like this I need to unlock the other girls in the slave crystals quickly and just ditch all teams but my own. I don’t like this setup of being caught in another’s system but I don’t know the playground rules here, nor do I have authority yet. Somehow I need to establish myself as my own team first.

It means I might also have to bring in Fox, since she’s probably the strongest out of my harem so far.

I still don’t get why I can’t go in with my own team. This looks shady on so many levels.

Shun to do list;

Make money, and expand the harem plus find a better place to live.

Train Rina to not act out. She needs battle skills.

How do I travel around town without having medieval pedos and creeps try to touch my women?

Find a safer town to live in.

Find out if all dwarves are ass hats? Depending on the answer go find another kingdom to live in.

Conduct more magic research and build my power and skills.

Does this town have a wizardry school of some kind? Find out and find someone who knows where to find stuff in this city and what’s available.

Note to self; I still haven’t resolved the repaired or…is it modified(?) slave crystal. But I can’t do anything about it yet, until I find some place that actually can show me how such things work. For now I have to shelf it even though I don’t want to.

Are there any survivors left still of the people that came to this world with me? If there were, how would I find them?

Even if Akira ditched me, he might not be as bad as some of these creeps; unless he’s still trying to do that whole King bullshit.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

Countdown to the next release is happening! Today I got the map finished for the new release. Cover details in the works still.

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