Having finished their stat appraisal, Lilith and Kass got ready to fight.

“Do we have any rules we’re working off of?”

“I’m not sure,” Lilith said. “We’ve both got [Unblemished Beauty], which should theoretically give us the ability to regenerate from more or less anything. We’ll just need to make sure to take breaks if either of us gets seriously hurt.”

“All right, then,” Kass said, getting into his stance, “Let’s do this.”

- - -

Back in the house, Amelia was thinking of what to do for dinner. She wanted to make sure Kass and Lilith would have a good meal before tomorrow’s raid, but didn’t have any meat to make a good stew with. The hunters had been occupied with raid training, so there was less meat being caught, so it’d probably be too expensive to get some meat for a stew.

That is, if she paid for it.

She’d found a good-size jug and filled it with some more milk, draining her breasts enough that she had to wait a bit to fill it up the rest of the way. Now, she just had to find someone willing to trade her some good meat for the jug of milk.

The best bet would probably be Julia. She and her husband used to own a pair of cows, until they got sick a few months back and her husband turned to hunting. She didn’t buy anything from the Morgans, so wouldn’t have any milk already, and she was able to keep a secret. Hopefully, her husband was out hunting, making up for lost time.

Julia and her husband’s house was near the outskirts of the village; formerly so they could raise their cows. Amelia knocked on the door, and soon Julia answered.

Julia was a woman about Amelia’s height, but with none of her bust. Her short, straight hair was black, verging on blue.

She had been Amelia’s closest friend for most of both their lives, and Amelia hoped she could strike a good deal without having to lie to her too much.

“Hey, Jules.”

“Oh, hey. What’s the occasion?”

“Well, tomorrow is going to be the raid…”

“And?”

“And I wanted to make a nice stew for Kass and Lilith, but I don’t have any meat.”

“Oh. So, did you want to buy some? Jens managed to fell a deer in the woods yesterday, so we have some to sell,” Julia said, momentarily slipping into a practiced tone of voice Amelia often heard at market.

“That’s the thing…”

“Do you not have any money?”

“Well, not exactly, but…”

“But?”

“I was hoping we could barter? I give you something in exchange for the meat?”

“And I take it whatever you planned on bartering is inside the jug?”

“Yeah. I was wondering how much I could get for this jug of milk.”

At the mention of milk, Julia’s face soured, imperceptible to anyone who wasn’t as used to her subtle expressions as Amelia.

“Where did it come from? Did you get this from the Morgans?”

“That’s- can we continue this conversation inside?”

“Alright,” Julia sighed, “But I’m not trading anything until you explain.”

- - -

In Milo’s basement, Kass and Lilith were fighting, at a level neither of them had fought before. They got the occasional cut at the other, but it always healed in a few moments. 

Lilith hadn’t used any magic yet, but felt that now would be the time. When Kass lunged at her, she activated her [Disarm] ability, and felt her body move on its own to twist Kass’s sword out of his hand, sending it clattering to the floor a yard or two away.

However, Kass thought quickly; he responded with a slash to the stomach with his claws, before leaping back to pick up his sword.

Clutching her stomach in pain, Lilith felt her regeneration begin to work, but it was too slow. Looking at Kass, he was already leaping, this time attempting a flying kick.

Lilith tried to block, but the pain made her sluggish. Kass’s kick hit her arm, breaking it with a nasty cracking noise.

At this, Kass panicked, immediately laying down his weapon and hurriedly apologizing. However, Lilith managed to stay calm. Holding her undamaged hand to the broken arm, she cast [Healing Touch], feeling the bones rejoin and pop back into position, and looking down, her claw wounds had healed. “All good.”

“Oh, thank the Goddess. I am so sorry about-”

“I’m all healed. We were fighting. It hurt, but it’s fine now. I just hope we got some good experience out of that. You get any levels yet?”

“Not yet, but a few things are close to leveling up. How close is your level-up?”

“Oh, that’s pretty close. That’s about twice the rate I leveled up when training with Casey. However, there is something that might be worrying…”

“Which is?”

“My SP’s already gone up 20 points. I’ve still got 62 more points before I get completely frenzied, but you’ve probably got… less time. How much longer does your [Suppress Arousal] last?”

“Hmmm… maybe another hour? My SP’s currently at 13, so even if it does wear off it shouldn’t be much of a problem. It’ll only be an additional 6 SP.”

“Oh.” Why does his SP increase at half the rate of my own? Am I that perverted? “Well, in that case, let’s keep training.”