Chapter Ten Obtaining a Map
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Hey, guys just letting you know there is some sexual content in this chapter. If you don't want to read it, just skip over the part contained in the two horizontal lines. Also, you are almost caught up with the Royalroad version so my accelerated release rate will be slowing down soon.

Arlie found a bench near the entrance that gave a good view of the shopkeeper's counter and sat down. Ria sat down next to her, and Failed Hero was left standing nearby. “What makes nobles think it is okay to change someone's gender at birth?” asked Hikaru as he awkwardly shifted from foot to foot.

Arlie sighed, and said, “It's not as big of a deal as you are making it out to be, and they are technically doing the child a favor.”

Hikaru clearly didn’t like the statement, and angrily replied, “How is changing someone's gender at birth a favor?”

Arlie realized he clearly knew nothing about nobles, and adjusted her posture looking him in the eyes, “I’ll make it simple. Nobles by tradition and custom are only allowed three sons. The first two compete over the right to inherit the family title, and the loser joins the adventurers guild. While the third son joins the army. Some noble families are allowed a fourth son, and that son will join the navy. Daughters, on the other hand, have no such limit. Their lives are a bit different. They actually have a few more choices than boys do, but they are still prisoners of tradition. In their case, they either marry or join the clergy. Some noblewomen however if they prove to have the talent can join a mage clan as an apprentice.”

Ria interrupted and said, “my great grandmother took a noblewoman as an apprentice. She lived to be one of the more powerful mages in our clan. The resulting ties also benefited the clan in other ways.”

Hikaru with a confused expression on his face asked, “So why can the daughters join mage clans and the clergy, but not the boys?”

Arlie leaned back in the chair glanced at the counter to see it was still empty, and then answered, “mostly tradition, but women tend to be better at channeling magic and divine power than men.”

Hikaru remained silent as he digested that, and then he said, “Your nobles sound like the ones that existed in the middle ages, but there are some differences.”

Arlie considered his statement and realized he wasn’t completely ignorant of nobility. He just wasn’t used to dealing with them, and it sounded like the nobles have his world changed their practices at some point in the past. She then glanced over to the counter and noticed an older man moving behind the shop counter. Glad to see that she could finally buy the map, she excused herself and Ria followed her. While Hikaru went about his own business.

She reached the counter, and the old man turned a kindly smile towards her. “How may I help you today?”

Arlie returned a business smile, and replied, “I need a map. One that covers northern Varixyies, and most importantly has the Red Temple on it. Preferably it also has routes through the forest marked on it.”

“A map? I do have a few. Let me check my inventory,” replied the old man in a curt professional tone. He limped off into the back room, and Arlie realized that he had an injured right leg. He came back, after a short wait with a few rolls of parchment under his arm. He placed them on the counter and then rolled one out to show her. It was a high detail map, and it glowed with an enchantment.

“These four meet your requirements. This one meets them the best, but I am not sure you can afford it, young lady,” said the old man. Arlie looked the map over, with an appraising eye. It really did meet her requirements, and more it even showed the user's current location. Making it an invaluable tool for navigation. She looked over her shoulder to ask Ria her opinion, but didn’t actually need to say anything.

Ria was already looking at the map,  and when she looked over to ask her opinion Ria said, “It's a good map, but it will cost more than the budget you set aside this morning. Perhaps look at the others?

Arlie knew she was right. She really liked the map, but this one was easily worth a hundred gold marks, and that wasn’t in the budget. Not that she couldn’t afford that, but for something she was only going to use for a single trip to the Red Temple that was a fairly high price. A guide would be better, but few people actually risked a trip to the temple. The local monsters kept most people away.


While Arlie was talking with the old man and working on buying a map, Ixil was lounged out on Ria’s bed going over her recent encounter with Thron. Being a demoness she often had no trouble getting what she wanted from human men. Especially young boys like Thron, and she found him quite cute. Right now she was feeling quite horny, and she had wanted him to help relieve her aching need. She had chosen Thron because Horon was rather busy conducting maintenance on the parties' equipment, and she didn’t want to distract the boy.

Unfortunately, Thron proved to be entirely blind to her interest, and she had been quite blunt with him. She had stopped just short of outright telling him what she wanted, but only because it had become quite obvious that he was blindly infatuated with Arlie. She found that fact to be quite amusing. Especially since her demonic traits made her very aware that Arlie could never love him. Not the way he imagined she did anyway, as the girl was a full-fledged lesbian. She also wasn’t very good at hiding it. She had noticed that both of the twins were aware of her interest in them, and she had seen her check out a few of the prettier girls they had passed. Sure she had tried to be discreet about, but Ixil had noticed her clumsy attempts at hiding her sexuality.

Arlie was also a very cute girl, so she could see why both of the boys were interested in her. Thinking about Arlie she thought it might be fun to corrupt the girl. Thinking about the cute little mage girl, she reached a hand under her skirt. Her fingers rubbing over her bare labia and sending spikes of electricity up her spine. It was far from enough to sate her aching need, and she imagined it was Arlie teasing her pussy. Feeling the need for more stimulation, she moved her small chest wrap out of the way with her free hand and began to tease her bare breasts. While they were small, they were sensitive enough. She avoided the nipples and gently traced circles around her small mounds. The gentle stimulation sending more electricity up her nerves.

Her mind indulged deeper into the fantasy that she had conjured up. She imagined it was Arlie’s fingers teasing her mounds, and that she had corrupted the girl into engaging in this carnal act. A light moan escaped her mouth, as she moved her fingers into her slit, and began to tease the entrance. She avoided her clit, as she wanted to drag these feelings out. She moved her fingers in and out letting the feelings build, and build.

Then suddenly she pinched and rolled one of her nipples. Triggering a small orgasm, and a loud moan escaped her mouth. Her lust fueled fantasy had her imagine that it was Arlie playing with her nipple, but she was still far from satisfied. So she quickened the pace with her fingers and then more moans escaped her mouth. In the distance, her ears picked up the front door opening. A fact she ignored, as her fingers began reaching deeper into her pussy.

She switched nipples that she was teasing, and began to pull on it more roughly than the last one. Each pull sending jolts of pleasure to her brain. Heated breaths escaped her mouth, as another series of loud moans escaped her mouth. At the same moment she heard some footsteps, and the door to the bedroom open. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Horon standing there just staring at her masturbating on the bed. Since he was just staring at her display, she ignored him, and then pulled her fingers out of her sopping pussy, and went for her clit. She gently played with her clit sending great bursts of stimulation up her spine, and then her vision went white as an orgasm rocked her small body. Her back arched, and fluids spurted from her pussy and onto the bed. A large stain quickly started to spread across the sheets.

With the orgasm, her mind cleared, and she focused on the intruder. “Are you just going to stand there being rude, or are you going to show me a good time?” she asked while spreading her pussy. While she focused on the obvious erection straining against his pants. He had clearly enjoyed the little show beforehand, and she still wasn’t quite satisfied.


Arlie handed over a few gold marks and took the map she had bought and placed it in her bag. She had looked over the other three maps that he had to offer, and chosen a decent one with a leather backing. Its level of detail was a little lower and it wasn’t enchanted like the first one had been, but the price was far more reasonable. After a bit of haggling with the shopkeeper, she had purchased it for ten gold marks. A full two marks and some silver lower than what the shopkeeper initially wanted. Although she suspected it was partly her cute looks that had played a factor.

After wishing the old shopkeeper a good day, she and Ria departed from the guild. Their next destination was the town library, which was fortunately not all that far from the guild. The guild was placed in the center of the market square, and the library was just next door. So a short walk later they entered the building. It was a fairly large building with row after row of wooden bookshelves. Not far from the entrance was a counter where a younger man was sitting with a bored expression. He saw them enter and then introduced himself. “Hello, I’m Gib Rish. Are you looking for something in particular, or just browsing?” asked Rish, and Arlie had to keep from laughing. His name was just so peculiar. After composing herself, she said, “We will be fine, and don’t need any help.”

She knew Ria visited this library often, and likely knew where the books on the Red Temple were. Ria then tugged on her arm, and led her into the shelves. As they were walking into the shelves, she remembered Ria mentioned she had some research of her own to do, that she had forgotten to ask about. As they passed countless books, she asked, “You said earlier that you had some research of your own. What are you looking up?”

“I just need to reference a few books on magical theory. It has to do with my current pet project, and I’m not ready to reveal anything to the clan yet,” replied Ria. Arlie knew enough from that to know it best to stop asking. Ria had just insinuated that she was too early in her research of a particular spell to share details with anyone just yet. So she figured she would let her do that on her own.

Not long after, Ria showed her a shelf full of leather-bound books, that she said contained relevant information on the Red Temple. She pulled one off the bookshelf at random and sat down at a nearby reading table and flipped it open. Ria told her she was going to look up a few books on magical theory before leaving.

The book proved to be somewhat illuminating, and by the time she had closed it, she had learned a great deal about the history of the temple. She had already known it had been built by one of the few male mages in her line John Contrey. However, her books had been a little light on the how and why. The temple had been built under the direction of the gods for the sole purpose of the trial it contains. Reading the book had allowed her to learn a bit about the trials, but nothing important. Putting the book back, she noticed that Ria was sitting a nearby chair with her nose buried in a book the title was obscured by the table.

Grabbing another book, she sat back down and began to read through it. This one was also a little light on what she wanted to know. The same could be said for the next seven books she read, but the eighth had some interesting details in it. This one described the guardian of the temple.

It was described as an ancient golem, but the book was a little light on physical details. Unlike modern golems, it was actually intelligent as it had a more complex artificial soul, and embodied two elements. Fire and Earth were the elements it was said to embody. The book hypothesized that the elements the guardian embodies are related in some way to the trial the temple holds. A theory she found interesting, and the book wasn’t without evidence to support it.  Still, that left a wide degree of possibilities as far as the trial went.

Fire was typically considered to be the embodiment of heat, but that was only part of the equation. Fire was actually quite the complex element and shared traits with some other elements. It also had a high compatibility with earth and lightning. Earth embodied stability and the physical world, but it also encompassed solidarity and strength.  Thinking of these elements and what they represented left her wondering how their traits would manifest in the trials. Unfortunately none of the other books shed any real light on what she wanted to know and she was left wondering about what this meant.

After hours in the library, Ria let her know it was time to head back. So she closed the latest book, and placed it back before following her cousin back out of the library. Rish was long gone replaced by a kind-looking old woman. Who did a good job of looking professional. They didn’t need to talk with the librarian, so they were out in moments, and walked down the darkening streets towards Ria’s home.

When they returned to the main room, they found that Rose and Lily were already back and they were both in the main room settled into some chairs with their faces flushed red. It took Arlie a moment to realize why, when she caught the scent of lust in the air, and heard a lewd moan coming from the bedrooms.

“How long ...” asked Ria only to be interrupted before she could finish the question.

“Since before we go back. The two have been at it for hours, and it is kind of distracting,” said Lily as she rubbed her thighs together. Arlie noticed that Lily was doing the same thing, and realized that the two were getting turned on by the noise, and smell.

Rose then added her two coppers, “We tried to stop them, but Ixil kicked us out, saying it was rude to be there if we weren’t going to join in.”

“Of course a demon would say that. She will stop once she is satisfied, but it may take a while. They;re rather lustful creatures after all. So which bedroom is she in?” asked Ria.

The twins looked at each other, and remained silent for a moment or two before replying in sync, “Yours!”

Ria’s face instantly darkened, and she stormed off down the hall. Arlie had a pretty good idea about what was about to happen, and decided to find a distraction, “Let's make something to eat, while those three have their fun,” said Arlie. The twins were quick to agree and followed her into the kitchen. Since Lily was terrible at cooking they had her chop the veggies. That was simple enough that she hopefully wouldn’t mess up. Since it was already late they decided to keep the meal simple, and the distraction helped them ignore the sounds coming from the bedroom.

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