“Are you trying to give this old lady a heart attack?” A beautiful woman, roused from her sleep by the sudden appearance of a group of people, asked.

In front of her were four people and a large black dog.

Martel’s eyebrow twitched, though it couldn’t be seen behind his mask. “Firstly, Lily, you’re not that old. Secondly, we are in the front of your shop during operating hours when I told you we’d show up. Thirdly, it’s not even that late. Why are you sleeping?”

Lily’s eyes narrowed before she pointed to herself. “Am I beautiful?”

“Yes, very,” Martel responded, trying not to look uncomfortable. He knew that Lily didn’t like him very much, and he didn’t want to provoke her.

“Then, of course, I need sleep. Have you ever heard of beauty sleep? I’m so beautiful that I need to sleep 24/7. I can feel myself getting uglier just by talking with you, so hurry up. What do you…” Lily began before she noticed the figure in his arms. 

Martel was carrying a woman with white fox ears, nine foxtails, and covered in black spots. Even with those black spots, her beauty was only slightly suppressed.

As if noticing Lily’s gaze, the woman briefly glanced around. “This place hasn’t changed much in nearly 200 years. Oh, but where are my manners? My name is Rio, and I was a frequent customer of the previous Lily. May I ask how she is?”

At her question, Lily was snapped out of her trance before a trace of sadness crossed her face. “She recently passed away.”

“That’s unfortunate. She was a… Unique person. Although she tended to alienate and keep others at arm’s length, I truly considered her to be a friend.”

A strange light flashed in Lily’s eyes. “Well, she often complained about the shield hero’s party.” She said before her eyes scanned the room and spoke under her breath. “It seems like the curse continues.”

Martel’s eyebrow twitched as she still spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. “Can we get down to business? Kogane misses her mama, and I’d like to surprise her by reuniting them both in better health.”

“Speaking of Kogane, are you still starving her?”

Martel rolled his eyes but could only explain when he saw Rio’s concerned glance. “We think it’s because the excitement caused her fourth tail to grow while she was without food for several days. Don’t worry. She’s fine and healthy now.”

“Thanks to my potions.” Lily chimed in.

“That I paid for.” Martel retorted.

Rio chuckled at their altercation. “Thanks for your care, Lily. You wouldn’t happen to have any more of the potion to counter Dougal’s curse, would you?”

Lily’s eyes went wide. “Your curse is from Dougal? How long ago did that happen?”

Rio’s expression stiffened, but she was not able to hide the sorrow in her eyes. “Over a decade ago.”

“A decade? A decade! Has no one else come up with a cure in all this time?”

“No.”

“A bunch of useless people.”

“Is there a problem with her having been cursed more than a decade?” Martel asked.

Lily shook her head. “Nothing irreparable. Unlike normal curses, Dougal’s curse remains until the bearer has no strength and dies. This is because it feeds off the energies it takes away to sustain itself. Additionally, it will cause the afflicted constant pain. Well, that level of pain is only a small tingling compared to the pain of the regeneration potion Laelynn took.” She added with an accusatory glance.

“What!?” Rio couldn’t help but exclaim as her already weak face became even paler. “Someone was brave enough to take that potion?”

“I’d say closer to ignorant and brave,” Lily replied, but her tone was not mocking.

“It’s a regeneration potion, right? Even if it’s painful, such a potion shouldn’t be deadly by its nature, right?”

Rio could not help but shake her head in disbelief. “How old were her wounds?”

“Over six months. They were previously treated, and she was missing multiple extremities.” Lily darkly replied.

Rio couldn’t help but take a breath of cold air.

“Well, she’s fine now, but what’s with a serious atmosphere?” Martel couldn’t help but ask.

Rio couldn’t help but pause for a few seconds before she answered. “How much do you know about the strongest level of people in this world?”

“I know they are referred to as ancestor level, but not much else,” Martel replied, a little confused by the sudden change in topic.

“You are correct. These are split into two categories, normal and peak ancestor level. Generally speaking, it’s only possible for someone to reach ancestor level. Only by participating in the waves can they gain the required XP to reach Peak Ancestor, the strongest people in this world. Do you know how strong adult true dragons are?”

“It depends on age, but the strong ones are considered apex predators. It takes around four ancestor level figures to subdue one.” Martel replied as he briefly went over the information in his Codex from the many books he had scanned.

“You are correct,” Rio answered, a little surprised by Martel’s knowledge. “What if I told you that a single individual, at the cost of an arm, killed a true dragon on his own?”

“I’d find that hard to believe,” Martel replied.

“Are you talking about Urog?” A previously silent voice asked. This woman’s body was grey and covered in compact muscles. She had two large tusks that slightly peeked over her bottom lip, revealing her race, an Orich. However, her purple eyes betrayed that she was not pureblood.

Rio could not help but give the Orich, Eferhild, a weird look before a sly smile briefly appeared on her lips. “Seeing as he is also an Orich, it’s not too surprising that you have heard of him.”

“I didn’t hear he lost an arm in that fight.”

“That’s not too surprising. It’s not a matter of pride, but the ingredients for the potion are scarce. If memory serves, only 11 potions were made, and now it sounds like all have been used up. I seem to recall that the rule was that money couldn’t buy it.”

Martel didn’t reply, but he completely understood the importance of such a potion. He also could not help but feel extremely grateful for Lily as such a potion was priceless. “So what does all of this have to do with the potion itself?”

“Luckily, the dragon fight was before the previous Ninth Wave, so the shop was still open, and we got him here in a couple of days. Oh, I feel it pertinent to mention that he was part of Jonathan’s party like me. Anyway, Urog was a frontline fighter who utilized his Talent to become the enemy’s punching bag. His Talent gave him extra HP and tough skin, which allowed him to trade blows with the enemy. In other words, he would let the enemy attack him so long as he can get the killing blow. He experienced more pain on the battlefield than anyone else I know. The fact that he said that the regeneration potion was ‘too painful to take again’ seriously, much less with the low survival rate.”

“How can a potion that regenerates the body have a low survival rate?”

“Because of the pain,” Lily replied. “Even though the regeneration potion can regrow limbs, it doesn’t target a specific part of the body. In other words, the entire body goes under the process of dying and being reborn. While the body won’t die, the pain of reopening old wounds, the destruction and rejuvenation of all the body’s functions, along with the pain of regrowing nerves, is too much for the mind to bear. Even if the body lives, the mind can shatter, and they will end up brain-dead at worst and insane at best.”

Martel’s scalp numbed at the thought of the pain that Laelynn had gone through. “What’s the survival rate?”

Lily gave several seconds of pause. “Laelynn was the fourth.”

Martel couldn’t help but break out in goosebumps. Given the scarcity, the potion could not be given out casually. This meant most of those who had received the potion were most likely similar to Urog, extremely powerful people. Even then, before Laelynn, the potion had only a 30% survival rate. He was pretty certain that most people would rather remain invalid and take those odds. “Did… Did she know?” Martel asked with a hoarse voice.

Lily couldn’t help but grind her teeth. “Yes. Now, do you know why I was so pissed off when you told me you could block her pain? Did you know when you did so, she had just passed out? Did you know that was the first time she remained passed out because the pain was so great she immediately woke up before? Did you know the entire time she was muttering ‘this pain is nothing if I can be useful to master’ even after she bit off half her tongue?”

At this point, Martel’s face was pale, and he was shaking. He didn’t know, and he couldn’t help but blame himself. Previously, he had shrugged it off as an opportunity for her to temper herself. He didn’t realize how severe and risky it was! He still clearly remembered the moment when Laelynn woke up. The very first thing she did, with an expression of pure joy on her face, was to express how happy she could be useful to him. That thought struck Martel’s chest like a sledgehammer. “I… I owe her.”

“You only realize that now?” Lilly added with a ticked-off expression.

“Lily, don’t be too hard on him,” Rio said, becoming a peacekeeper. “He didn’t know, and she did it of her own volition. I hate to seem selfish, but can we start my treatment? I may have gotten used to the pain, but I’d like to be able to know what life without it is like because, honestly, I can’t remember.”

“Yes, come to the back room,” Lily replied. “Speaking of which, the Adventurers Guild should have had a decent amount of the potion that was given before the shop closed. What happened to that?”

“Dougal appeared 15 years ago. Given how briefly he appears, there was a rushed subjugation, and a large number of people needed it, so it was used up.”

“Isn’t that bastard showing up a bit often?” Lily asked with narrow eyes.

Rio sighed. “If not for the fact he appears to have an injury that won’t heal, I’d say we are already lucky.”

“We’ll be lucky when he dies.” Lily retorted before she turned to Martel. “Set her on the bed. Given how weak she currently is, we will have to start with a bath with some of the potion before she takes it. Otherwise, the shock to her body could be deadly.”

Martel nodded and set her on the bed.

“Good, now you can get out,” Lily told him unceremoniously.

Martel’s eyebrow began to spasm, but he obediently went out. Regardless of her treatment of him, she was far too useful to alienate. He had already checked through various channels, but her potions were leagues beyond everyone else’s. 

Once Martel made his way back to the main room, his eyes briefly landed on the last woman who had yet to speak. The lower two-thirds of her body was that of the green snake. Her upper body was that of a woman with a seductive charm. However, the current expression on her face did not match her appeal. Her eyes were looking at the ground in shame and embarrassment.

Echidna gently fixed her dark green hair as her eyes trembled. She was a weak person whose only appeal was her looks. Her looks were the foundation of her worth as a slave. In her mind, one of the most important factors in how she would be treated would be affected by her first impression. She tried very hard to make a good first impression but appeared to fail miserably. A few words from her new master drove her to tears and made her fall asleep, where she subsequently woke up with him giving her a lap pillow. She felt extremely embarrassed by this as that was supposed to be her job… Even though she didn’t exactly have a lap.

At this point, Martel sat back on the lobby sofa and his mind extended to the small shield affixed to his arm. [Are you there?]

[Where else would I be?] A feminine voice retorted back.

Martel’s lip curled. [Excuse me for trying to be polite, Ms. shield goddess. Did you still want me to answer your question?]

[Oh, yes. If Echidna is not a Lamia, what race is she?]

[She is a Medusa.]

[Medusa? I’ve never heard of that race.]

[It’s very strange. Back in my world, there were legends about a Medusa, but that was an individual, not a race. You’ve never heard of this race before?]

[No, which means it’s either a new or foreign race.]

[What do you mean?]

[In the beginning, there were my 11 sisters and me along with the other races. By the way, they each had a small population at the beginning. Anyway, my sisters and I were different from them as we were given authority over the rules of this world. For example, I have protection and justice in my domain. Along with this authority came inherent knowledge based upon the rules of this world. When my sisters and I sacrificed our physical bodies to create the weapons and the System, we integrated them with the rules of the world. This is why you can obtain information from the System.]

[What I mean by a new or foreign race is one created due to the interference of a different world’s rules as the rules dictate the different species. For example, even though there were none initially, the demi-human races fall in-line with this world’s rules. I have an inherent knowledge of the races that could have come into being from the inception of this world based on said rules. However, we are being invaded by another world. The fact that I’ve never heard of this ‘Medusa’ race most likely means that she is a Lamia with blood from another creature from the other world. In this instance, the rules of the two worlds would’ve combined and found an equilibrium. The result is a new race with unique characteristics. Of course, if the other world’s rules have a creature that perfectly lines up, it will be used instead. Whether or not that is the case, you can probably find out when the System finishes upgrading.]

Martel nodded as he brought forward the progress bar in a holographic screen only he could see. [What exactly does this mean?]

[I can’t be completely certain. This happened after you teleported back to your world. Most likely, there were some significant changes in your body that the System was able to incorporate. This process initially started from the influence of foreign creatures but was incomplete. Whatever the result is, it shouldn’t be bad. By the way, please don’t leave to your world again.]

[Is it bad?]

[You’re lucky you left the shield on the sword that was your Talents temporary second soul container. If you took the shield to your world for more than an hour, as you did, you would’ve been considered as abandoning your duties. The System would be completely removed from you, and you would have to start again from zero progress at best. Of course, this is also hypothetical as you could end up being completely rejected by the System as well.]

Martel’s eyebrow twitched. [Well, I’m glad I was cautious, at least.]

[I don’t recommend doing it again for a significant period of time. Even if you abuse this loophole, if you make no progress, especially during another wave, it will be the same result, and you will lose the shield. Theoretically, I could make an exception for you to accept it again. But at that point, it would be more beneficial for me to send the shield to someone who has a high level. Hestia or Cynthia would probably be good alternatives, even though they are indigenous.]

[I see. Is there any way to switch weapons from their holders naturally?]

[No, unless you can destroy the connection the wielder has and very quickly find a substitute. However, I will have no idea how to do that as it is beyond my ability.]

[I see. By the way, would you mind if I gave you an official name? Calling you Shield-goddess, among other things, is a little cumbersome.]

[No, your naming sense is terrible!]

[How rude. I put some serious thought into it. How about Alessa?]

[… Fine, my name is Alessa from now on. And don’t think my acceptance means I like it.]

Martel couldn’t help but roll his eyes at her response. [All right, that sounds great… Loli-big-boobs.]

“Excuse me, Mr. Hero, can you please come here?” Lily asked through the cracked door.

Using it as an excuse to ignore the belligerent goddess, Martel immediately stood up and walked to the door. He opened the door and briefly witnessed a beautiful sight before it was immediately covered by a barrel full of water that perfectly dunked on his head. Martel didn’t move as snickering from both sides turned into laughter at his predicament. His sore eyebrow twitched again beneath the bucket and his mask. There is no way he could not have seen that coming with his experience, but it was completely out of his perception. As such, he could only contribute it to his curse that lowered his perception under the circumstance that it was under the influence of someone who loved him. 

Understanding the implications, Martel broke out in a cold sweat. The instigators of this little prank could only have been Rio and Lily. There was no way that Lily loved him, which only left Rio. Given that he had only met Rio not half an hour ago, he found it nearly impossible that she already had any romantic feelings for him. This meant that the word ‘love’ did not inherently mean romantic, but any type or amount of love could trigger it. For some reason, Martel can help but think there would be a lot of suffering in his future. Realizing that they only called him to play the prank, he turned back into the front room with the barrel still on his head.

“I can’t believe you fell for that,” Lily said with an enlarged voice to ensure that he could hear her. “I feel sorry that you’re going to be around this fellow in the future.” She continued to the giggling Rio.

Ignoring Eferhild, who was desperately holding her gut, and Echidna, who was desperately trying to hold back her laughter, Martel removed the barrel from his head and dried himself off with magic. After a few minutes of waiting, the door between the rooms fully opened. Martel couldn’t help but become absent-minded at the sight that walked through the door. Now the epitome of health, Rio exuded a holy charm that still had a bit of seductiveness and mischievous hidden underneath. That, coupled with her damp clothing and loose robe, made her quite the sight.

“What’s the matter? Haven’t you ever seen a beautiful woman before?” Lily asked, noticing the entranced look in Martel’s eyes.

Martel snapped back to attention, surprised by his absentmindedness. “Of course I have.”

Lily couldn’t help but smile. “What’s with the virgin response?”

“Who are you calling a virgin?”

Lily’s smile turned beaming. “Don’t worry about it, Mr. Virgin. From the looks of it, your problem will be cured soon.” 

Martel’s eyes narrowed, seemingly angered, but he was laughing on the inside. “I’m not an animal who would pay or force a woman to do anything.”

“I didn’t say that. Funny how you went there.”

Martel rolled his eyes. “Don’t go projecting your problems on me.” 

Lily flinched, seemingly striking a cord. “I’m not projecting anything. I just haven’t spent any time trying to find the right guy. Besides, if I were casual, there would be men lining up, unlike for a certain somebody.”

Martel rolled his eyes. “The men are all yours. I’m just surprised you’re looking for a guy, not a gal.”

Lily scoffed. “Please, just because they appreciate the female form doesn’t mean I have those tastes. I just find most men to be ass holes.”

Martel could help but nod. “Well, I can’t argue with that. Most men are assholes, but most women are also the same. We are all ugly underneath our masks.”

“Even you?” Lily asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“Especially me,” Martel said with deprecation, thinking of the beautiful women that he was unfair to.

Lily narrowed her eyes at his response. “Speaking of ‘under our mask,’ I was wondering...”

“Oh, I forgot I was still wearing it. My identity will be leaked soon anyway.” He said as he removed his mask to the rapt attention of all the girls… Minus the hell hound gnawing on the bone in the corner of the room.

There were several seconds of silence before Lily broke the calm. “And here I was thinking you are wearing the mass because you are handsome.”

Martel nearly spat blood.

“That’s not very nice,” Rio said with a chuckle. “I think that my master is plenty handsome.” She said, emphasizing the word ‘master.’

Martel thought little of the praise and shrugged it off but noticed that the other girls gave a subconscious nod in acquiescence. Before he gained the draconic mutation, his appearance could have been considered slightly above average, which he continued to believe. After, that began to change subtly. 

While it was a stereotype in many different worlds that dragons pursued sensual pleasure, that did not make the reverse untrue. His body had undergone subtle changes, and he emitted an aura that was appealing to the fairer sex. However, it was only a little and at a subconscious level. These changes were further exacerbated after his body changed from obtaining the drop of blood from Shiva. He hadn’t changed much in his own eyes, but the subtle changes made a difference.

“All right, all right, you’ve had your fun.” He said before addressing Lily. “Have you considered my offer?”

“Your offer?” She asked with brief confusion. “Oh, you mean about partnering with the Red Dragon Trading Company? It would be more convenient to be able to obtain commissions all over the world without having to meet someone, but I’d like to sleep on it first.”

[You were already sleeping, though.] He couldn’t help but think. “Very well. You already have the identification token, so if you agree, just go to the branch in the city.”

Lily cocked an eyebrow. “If I have additional conditions?”

“Conditions can be discussed.”

“Sounds like a plan.” She said before she turned to Rio and handed her a storage bag. “Your clothes are in here, and feel free to keep the robe.”

“Thank you very much.”

Lily waved haphazardly. “Think nothing of it. Your master made me a small fortune. Besides your clothes, I left you some potions to take over the next few days to get you back to peak health as you are still weak. After that, just go level up a couple of times, and you’ll be fine.”

“Will do,” Rio said with a nod before she walked over to Martel. “Can we go see Kogane now?” She asked with slight timidity and anticipation.

“Naturally, but I want to surprise her, so follow my lead.”

Rio nodded, everyone gathered next to Martel, and they disappeared with a flash of purple.

The now solitary Lily stared at the place where they disappeared for several seconds before she made her way behind the counter to her special sofa. Just before she settled down to continue her nap, she mumbled to herself, “So, someone else’s developed transportation magic. Interesting.”