Megumi crept through the streets as carefully as she could and avoided any people all the way back to the inn. She cursed herself again for going all out in Bridgeport as she rode up the lift and went to the room. "Poro-tan, get up. You need to keep watch. Megu just had a run-in with the Adventurers Guild."

Poro-kun sat up and stared at her blinking himself awake. "Word has spread all the way across the sea about what happened in Bridgeport? What little reputation I had is now ruined! Thanks for that, Megumi!" he said in despair.

Megumi didn't give a damn about his reputation, but this whole mess would make things inconvenient for them in the future to say the least. The word hadn't gotten out to the common people yet though as they hadn't encountered any problems so far. She now had three TPs of her own to spend and one for Poro-tan. It was time to allocate them, they would need to get a lot stronger if she intended to keep breathing long now that the cat was out of the bag. 

It was also entirely possible that her own guild had been informed of what she had done before Tylus had come to execute her, in which case, she would be hunted by them as well for breaking the code. She left Poro-tan by the front entrance and went to her room. After examining his skills, she decided to invest another point into Fortify Health. As for herself, that close encounter earlier could have gone pretty badly if she hadn't fallen over like an idiot when the man had charged her. It was time to look into some more options for herself. She opened up her skill tree to see what she had available.

It looked like she hadn't unlocked any new offensive spells after hitting level 20, but she had unlocked Undead Mastery, Soul Trap Mastery, and Magic Skin. It would be good if she could make her pawns stronger through, in particular Poro-tan who wasn't as disposable as regular summoned undead. Magic Skin was similar to Spirit Barrier in that it was a shield of sorts, but instead of souls for fuel it used her MP and only surrounded her body. It could be useful in a pinch like the one she had been in tonight, so she bought level one of the skill. With her remaining two TPs, she bought Soul Trap Mastery and upgraded Sanguine Infusion again. With all that taken care of, she went to bed.

***************************

The next morning, she awoke as sunlight streamed through the large window in her room. She looked out over the beautiful city and its mountains and almost forgot about all her worries for just a moment. Megumi knew that her course had been set for a long time now, but there was truly no turning back at this point. Did she even want to if she could? Little remained of the girl whose reflection stared back at her through the window. She shook off the thought and got ready to go. No regrets!

"Poro-tan, we need to be out of the city early, but we need some supplies. Let's get a move on." She knew that he had no choice but to obey her commands, but it was still nice to have someone to talk to, even if she knew he hated her guts. In the end, she didn't really care anyway. They rode the lift down and handed the innkeeper the key to their room and headed out into the morning sun. 

The fog had already retreated and it was beginning to get hot again already. The first place they went to was the general store next to the inn and bought various supplies and foodstuffs for their journey. She found that the merchant did have magical bags for sale, and she got Poro-kun a large backpack style one that could hold up to 100 items. It cost her 1000 GP, but it was worth every penny. Additionally, she found two good cloaks and a collapsible tent that she bought as well. Before leaving the place she was about 1800 GP poorer. Easy come easy go. Megu will just have to pillage some more soon!

After leaving the general store, they hit one of the restaurants. She let Poro-tan order his own food this time and was surprised when all he ordered was a plate full of meat. He ordered sausages and bacon along with a large piece of steak. When it came to the table he asked for hot sauce and poured it all over everything before digging in. What kind of person orders all that for breakfast and then has the audacity to make it spicy as well? No pancakes, waffles, fruit, or anything normal to go with his breakfast? Megu just doesn't understand Poro-kun's weird tastes at all!

The next stop on the agenda were the various equipment shops. Poro-kun's armor was in pretty poor condition and she bought him a new set of light armor and a kite shield. Nothing fancy, but better than the junk he had been wearing before. If he's going to be Megu's meat shield, then he had better be equipped to do it well now that we have some money. Poro-kun seemed to be grateful when she gifted him the new set of armor at least, so that was good.

They stopped at the apothecary and got some more health and MP potions which she slipped into her bag. The shop next to it that sold accessories had a lot of good stuff, but everything was ridiculously price so she passed on that for now. After their little shopping spree was complete, Megumi had only around 1000 GP left. "Okay, Poro-tan, I think Megu has wasted enough money for one day. Let's get on the road."

It had been lucky that they had managed to avoid running into anyone from the adventurer's guild, she didn't exactly like the idea of the general public or the local government sending soldiers after them. The road wound up the small rolling hills leading out of the city and then forked off. One pathway led to the south along the base of the mountains, while the one they took wound its way ever higher up into the cloud covered peaks. This is going to be a long, and arduous walk. It's okay, though! Megu is tough.

The mountain town of Rivean was their next destination, and it was where she intended to use the dungeon core to seed a new dungeon. By becoming a dungeon master, she would lure adventurers to the small town, and she had every intention of feeding that dungeon well. It would make them rich as well as strong enough to do what was next. She grinned as they trudged along up the cobblestone road.

After a several hours of passing small farms and taking in the beautiful scenery, they ran into the first sign of trouble, a gigantic red serpent slithered its way onto the road. It was twenty feet long at least and the head featured a spiky hood. It raised its head and drew itself up fifteen feet off the ground and stared them down. "Poro-tan, circle around it!" 

She sent her minion running, but the snake concentrated on her. It didn't strike as she thought it might, but instead flames began to roil inside its mouth and it shot a gout of flame directly in her direction. She wouldn't be able to dodge in time so she cast Magic Skin hoping that it would do the trick. Her body became enveloped in a blue glow and when the flames hit her, she felt slight warmth but did not burn. Unfortunately, the attack ate nearly 500 MP. She couldn't just use this spell casually it seemed. She ran backwards as the snake began to come for her and pulled a MP potion out of her bag, quickly downing it in a single gulp.

Poro-tan stabbed the creature in its back and it's attention was no longer on her. It didn't appear that his blade sunk very deep into the creature, however. It turned and struck Poro-tan with a speed belying of something that size. Her toy had managed to get his shield up just in time and the creature's jaws snapped around it. Flames began pouring out of the creature around the edges of the shield as it bit down. 

Megumi unleashed a barrage of Eldritch Blasts at the creature in the few seconds that this had all happened and two of three shots connected. The thing had tough skin and some sort of natural magic resistance, however, and the damage was minimal. She cursed under her breath and ran to position herself to hit the thing in the head.

Meanwhile, Poro-tan was yanking his shield trying to back away from the hot flames that the serpent was spitting all around him. He stabbed the creature over and over with his sword, but as her magical attacks had shown, the thing had thick skin and he was having a hard time dealing any real damage to the thing.

It was time to do something reckless. Her mana had recovered a little bit, thanks to her high MP recovery and that potion, and she decided to go in for a close head shot. She cast Magic Skin once more and Charged towards the occupied snake from the side. It had definitely saw her, but considered her a lower threat than Poro-kun, so it continued trying to cook him. She grinned as adrenaline pumped through her veins and she blasted the creature from a distance of about three feet away directly in the side of its head, burning out one of its eyes. 

For the first time, the thing really showed that it was in pain. It let out a hiss and turned towards her and unleashed another gout of flames. Her shield held, just barely and she ran to the side to get out of the attack faster. Her MP was now critically low. She would need a little time to recover and definitely could not take another hit from that thing. Potions didn't come cheap, but now was not the time to be frugal, she downed another one while she ran.

Poro-kun hadn't wasted the opportunity he had given her and slashed his blade with all his might at the upper part of the snake's neck as if he was chopping wood. The blade bit through the scaly armor and sunk halfway through the creature. It hissed again but the fight was all but over now. Poro-kun repeated the motion and the upper half of the beast fell to the ground while the bottom half spurted bright red blood. 

The head of the snake was still alive for the moment, but it could no longer move. Poro-kun came up from behind the thing and stabbed his sword downward with all his might, finally putting an end to their snake problem. "Good... job, Poro-tan!" she panted. 

Rivean was supposedly a two day journey up the mountains and they would pass by several smaller farming villages along the way. Megumi intended to spend the night in an inn if possible rather than out in the open in her tent after seeing that horrible beast. After resting a short while, the two of them left the body of the gigantic serpent behind them in the middle of the road and continued their journey.