As soon as Phyllis left Misaki went about the process of fortifying her new tunnels. She didn’t do anything overly complicated. At each door, she installed a simple puzzle to the door, with a rather deadly trap that would blast anyone who tried to open the door with a bolt of demonic magic. She made it as deadly as she could, which was enough to instantly kill the average adventurer. The higher-level ones, thanks to their vitality would be able to take the hit. They would still need to treat the wounds it causes or risk dying. Hopefully, if anyone found her tunnels the traps would make people think twice about the tunnel. Especially since it would be a great deal of effort for no apparent reward. 

When she was done, she went up the stairs and headed for the kitchen. She entered to kitchen to find Emily sitting at the table. She hadn’t bothered to look ahead with her dungeon sight, and given the late hour, she expected her to be in bed. Walking towards the counter, she started adding wood to the stove while saying, “Do you want anything?”

“Sure,” replied Emily half lost in thought and trying to figure out why she had done what she had done. What was bothering her the most was that she had cheated on her husband with her brother turned sister. In fact, her husband hadn’t even crossed her mind until after she had done it.

Misaki simply smiled and went to cooking a light meal. Something that became rather apparent was that while normally she didn’t need to eat. Now that she was pregnant she did. She also started getting cravings, although being a dungeon she couldn’t be sure of what symptoms she would get as the pregnancy went along. As for Phyllis well, it was too early for her to feel any symptoms. Something Misaki didn’t need to ask, in order to know. Between Phyllis’s mom and Lily, she had some ideas of what to expect mostly post-pregnancy. Neither one could tell her what to expect during pregnancy. During the lecture, she had gotten from Phyllis’s mom she had learned that symptoms vary by race and person. Humans can get nauseous, Elves get hypersensitivity, and beastkin suffer from extreme mood swings to name a few. Still, none of this was really on her mind. Rather the way Emily was behaving had piqued her curiosity.

“So is something wrong?” asked Misaki as she placed some strips of bacon in a pan. Well, it wasn’t ordinary bacon though since it came from a magical boar-like animal with an affinity for fire magic and wings. Emily was a bit distracted by her thoughts and absentmindedly told her exactly what was bothering her. Only to turn red when she realized what she had said.

“You did it, because deep down inside you wanted to. Ruby gave you the push, but it was ultimately you that made the decision,” said Misaki. Emily made a few complicated expressions before replying, “You mean I wanted to have sex with my sister?”

“A little more complicated than that, but that was the gist of it,” replied Misaki as she materialized the book Milith had given them onto the table. Misaki was thinking of reading it a bit, before going to bed. Finishing it before bed was out of the question though. Seeing as the book was over fifteen hundred pages long. Emily having decided it was best to work out her feelings on her own, used it to change the subject.

“Isn’t this that summoning book that Milith gave you and my sister?” asked Emily.

“It is. However I have no idea why a book containing a single spell has to be fifteen hundred pages long,” replied Misaki.

“Well, most higher tier summoning spells are ritual spells. It is most likely a ritual spell as well,” said Emily.

“Ritual spells? You mean those magical rituals that involve odd dances and human sacrifice?” asked Misaki as she finished the bacon adding it to a pair of plates, before moving on to the eggs she had set aside. These weren’t ordinary eggs either, coming from a magical version of the chicken that has blue feathers, a pair of horns and apparently laser eyes.

“Odd dances, yes. Human sacrifice though only occurs when using illegal blood magic. For reference, Summon Hero is one of the most famous ritual spells. A spell circle is drawn on the floor, and then thirty mages and twelve priestesses conduct a ritual dance as they weave the spell. Most ritual spells have high mana costs, which is one of the biggest reasons why they require multiple mages. Which is why some ritual spells can be cast without the ritual, by a single mage if said mage is sufficiently powerful,” said Emily as the two got into a discussion on ritual magic.

The next morning on the outskirts of White Rock, near the temple district. A small tent city had been erected containing most of the surviving priests and temple soldiers in the city. Disturbing the early morning peace a squad of troops were running through the paths towards the larger tents in the center of the tent city. Stopping in front of the largest tent, they asked the guard to notify Head Priest Darious that they were here to see him, and that it was urgent.

The head priest was in the middle of a meal when he was notified. He wasn’t particularly happy about what happened two days ago. Losing his god hurt him, he had never even considered it to be a possibility. Sure he had heard the stories about gods being killed in battles, sometimes in fight with other gods, and sometimes with dragons. He had never considered it happening to his god, because such battles were practically unheard of. Not only that, but his god was so much stronger than that girl that he should have won if it weren’t for that strange buff spell. Which is why he was working on a plan to capture her and turn her over to the gods. That quest he had gotten said something about her being weakened from the battle. However, he wasn’t stupid enough to go charging after such a powerful being without a plan, even when it was already weakened.

He had them ushered in and give their report.

“It took a while, we weren’t able to recover the original artifacts, but we did find another artifact,” said the squad captain as he placed the collar that Aurous had been planning to use on Milith on the table. Darious picked it up and examined the collar, finding it has the same appearance and magical feel as the collar Aurous had given him. Still, the signature was slightly different meaning it was not the same collar. He used appraise item on the collar.

“The clan lock is a bit different, but it is definitely the same kind of collar as the first one,” thought Darious. Before looking up to the guards and telling them they did well to find it. Dismissing the guards, he had someone go find his commanders. It was time to formulate a plan for getting the girl. He already knew she had left the city, and that some brothel girls and mercenaries were taking her towards Bordertown. Why they were taking her out of town was beyond him, but he didn’t care either. He had a couple of his men following them, and to keep an eye on the girl. She was too powerful, for him to not have at least one eye on her at all times.

As soon as the commanders of his garrison arrived he began to work out the plan. She had a lead on them, but carriages were not known for being fast. A cavalry force should have no problem catching up with them. The temple soldiers were also better trained and equipped than any mercenary or adventurer. So capturing the wagon shouldn’t be all that difficult. Still, he didn’t want to much damage done to the wagon or the girls it was carrying so he took his time planning. It was around noon when he was satisfied with the plan

Phyllis broke camp as soon as the sun was up. Making her way south with the best speed her legs could carry her. She found herself cursing her reduced size though as it took her more steps than it used to maintain this pace. Which meant her stamina was draining at more than twice her normal rate. Fortunately, she had a lot of stamina, which meant she could keep the pace up for a while. The forest started thinning around noon. She was getting close to spot she was planning on stopping for a brief break, when she sensed a large number of people hiding in the trees. Meaning it was most likely bandits were preparing an ambush, slowing down she briefly considered ignoring them.

However, there was no way she could justify ignoring the bandits. Afterall she would feel terrible if she ignored them, and someone fell victim to these bandits. So instead she used her skills to identify all the bandits in the area. None of the bandits were mages, most had physical combat classes and were outfitted with whatever they could find. Clearly not the most successful group, not that she had to worry. The average level for the group was about twenty, and there were only about thirty bandits. The highest leveled bandit and most likely the leader was only level forty-three. In other words, the group was no match for her.

Well, a trap you knew about was one you could use to your advantage, so she decided to walk right into the ambush. Her new appearance she gambled would mean they would take her less seriously. Which she figured would make it easier to annihilate the group. Walking into the clearing, it wasn’t long before a couple of bandits showed themselves.

“What’s a cute little girl like you doing out here all alone?” said the leader after he showed himself. He was a tall man, with a fairly nice and almost complete set of plate armor. A few of the pieces were mismatched and of clearly different styles. He was missing the helmet and a gauntlett though. All of it was in decent condition, with only minor scratches and dents. In an old worn sheath on his belt was the well-maintained hilt of a double-edged sword. She couldn’t tell the condition of the blade since it was sheathed. The man’s face was sporting a rather nasty scar. Which was probably one of many such scars, and made him look more intimidating than otherwise would have.

“Just heading to White Rock,” said Phyllis. 

“Oh, really care for some company? We can have some fun?” said the bandit leader as the others were filtering out of the trees and surrounding her. She was not all that concerned, and found it a bit funny. If just one of them had bothered to use the Analyze skill, they would all be running away. Of course, them moving to surround her was exactly what she wanted.

“No, not really, I’ll be fine on my own. Also, I’m not a fan of men, especially ugly men like you,” said Phyllis.

“Well that doesn’t really matter, you’re coming with us anyway. You’ll make us quite rich, get her boys,” said the bandit leader. Immediately the bandits rushed at her. Phyllis pulled her blade and rushed the leader while executing a skill. Her blade flashed as blue flames ripped off in an arc. Three flaming arcs slammed into the bandits in front of her. Killing all of them with a single, strike. Then she turned and executed another skill, this time a bolt of lightning flashed off her blade and jumped from bandit to bandit. In an instant, all the remaining bandits were dead, with the entire battle if you could call it that lasting barely two seconds. Phyllis didn’t bother to loot the bandits and instead continued on down the path.