It was one quick step. Not even a leap. And yet, we’d easily traveled a couple miles in the blink of an eye. We’d landed right back to where we started at the outer edge of the forest, packed neatly and safely between the trees and the seemingly endless expanse of empty grassland. We were still nowhere near a city and yet I felt as though we’d returned to civilization after years of roughing it. At least, the sort of civilization where clothes were the norm.

            There was not a naked body in sight for miles, because of this I could finally breathe clearly again. Feeling the smooth, yet now oddly stiff texture of my shirt against my body, I clutched it and held on for dear life. Perhaps due in part to my Memorization trait, I acclimated to their ways without too many difficulties, but I was by no means ready to accept that as a permanent lifestyle for myself. For either of us, really. During visits, maybe, but for now I was desperately happy to be clothed again.

            Still, despite the troubles and worry they caused me, they were good people. Good enough for Yua to accept our departure, not with a heavy sigh of relief, but with a longing look aimed squarely in the village’s direction. Five years gone, less than one day back. Even I had to say that was a little cruel.

I took her hand and she gave me a small smile back and that was all that needed to be said. In another silent thanks for bringing her back, she wrapped my arm up in hers. Feeling oddly proud of her for being so resilient, I peered off into the distance, memorized our next destination and cast Dimensional Step again and we were off.

            Thankfully, Yua and Mana’s wishes for us to stay there just a bit longer proved useful, as after Mochi was done punishing Chibi’s provocations in ways that I could not hear, but that made even Kimiko blush a bit, Mochi had stopped by to let us in on one more piece of information regarding the humans in the forest. Namely, where to find them.

            We already had the general direction of their encampment, but apparently all we need do to find them was keep an eye out for the large orange barrier they hid under. So, after a jaunt through my portals along the tree line separating the village from Guerraway, we decided to check from a higher vantage point as we’d yet to find anything.

            The humans were hiding, after all. Mochi mentioned that their barrier shone like the sky just before nightfall, so if we couldn’t see it from the outside of the forest, then they were simply too deep within the trees for its light to reach us.

            “Think you could find them if I teleport you to the top of a tree?”

            Yua, who’d been using her cat-like night-vision turned to me when she’d come up empty handed. She considered my proposal for a second before firing back.

            “I have a better idea. What if you just open a portal higher above the trees and I just peek through? If the barrier is as big as Daddy says, we should be able to see it from up high. And the higher I am, the more I can see.”

            “I can do that, but then maybe I should be the one to look.”

            I’d done plenty of testing for the Dimensional Step spell, but the thought of what might happen if I lost focus and cancelled the spell prematurely didn’t come to me until she offered to put her neck on the line.

            Yua, however, shook her head.

            “Cat-kin have better eye sight than humans. I can definitely see further than you.”

            “True, but we’re looking for a big ball of light. I feel like it’d be hard to miss.”

            “Hmm.”

            She looked away, seemingly deep in thought, but her tail drooped sadly and as always, it was the best way to tell what she truly wanted.

            “… You just want to look and see if you can see the village from up there, don’t you?”

            “Hehe. Is that so bad?”

            Yua grinned, but I could tell there was a deep longing hidden behind her smile, so I relented. I knew her leaving the village without a fight was too good to be true, but if this helps…

            I swear, it’s like nobody believes me when I say we’ll be coming back.

            “Just be careful.”

            “Okay!”

            Checking our surroundings to confirm that we were still surrounded by nothing but grassland and that the area was free of distractions, I focused on a spot high above the trees and cast a full-bodied Dimensional Step right beside me.

            Eager to perform her little experiment, Yua stuck her head and torso through the blue lights. To keep her from plummeting the roughly four-story drop back down to me, I squeezed her hand to keep her rooted to the soil.

            While she was busy existing in two spaces at once, I tried not to think about how she must have looked like someone about to take a long step off the edge of a steep, invisible cliff way up there and focused on the spell. Thankfully, she didn’t spend too much time enjoying the sights before pulling back out of the portal.

            “Well? Find anything?”

            “Yup,” she said. “The barrier is over there, about three miles into the forest. I almost didn’t see it.”

            She pointed to the north east and I nodded. It was farther in than I was expecting. My map gave me a good idea of how large the forest was, but that explains why we couldn’t find it the old-fashioned way.

            Nodding more to myself than anything else, I placed a map marker roughly where she pointed and started towards the tree line again. Yua hurried to follow before overtaking me to guide the way.

            Seeing her walk on through the forest with as much ease as she had when she wasn’t wearing boots, I smirked. Matching her casual stride through the foliage, I didn’t feel the need to be quiet just yet.

            “So, did you see the village?”

            “Only the smoke from the bonfire. We’re too far away,” she paused, then added. “We’re are out of the village’s patrol range.”

            “We’ll need to be careful then.”

            I didn’t want to rely on Mochi’s offer to help should things go wrong, but I also wasn’t stupid enough to ignore it. But this means the only way to call in backup would be via teleportation. Not even Tama’s ears were powerful enough to hear us this far away.

            Yua looked back at me as she walked, confusion written on her brow.

            “Why would we need to be careful?”

            “You didn’t think we’d just straight into a fight, did you?”

            Please don’t tell me the village broke her too. If she’s turned into a full-on battle nut after having so much freedom we’re going to be in trouble.

            “No, but I thought you wanted to talk to them first.”

            “I do,” I said, ducking under a low-hanging branch. “But we’re not going to blindly walk up and just ask them to leave. I want to know what we’re up against and what they’re doing before all that.”

My fight with Tama and Kimiko’s repeated well-meaning jabs also made it clear that I lacked fighting experience, especially against other people. So, running in guns blazing would be about as risky as it’d be stupid.

On top of this, while my Merchant class did help out a tiny bit when it came to negotiating prices, past failures in that regard made me doubt it’d be all that helpful here. And my being human certainly wouldn’t be a big boon either, regardless of what Mochi thinks.

            So, we were going to have to tackle this the same way we did the dungeon. Meaning: don’t get cocky. With that as our definitive plan, we hurried towards our objective.

            
            After another hour of trudging through the forest, I noticed a heavy orange glow resting behind the trees. Moving as stealthily as we could now that we were in potential enemy territory, we found ourselves stood in front of a large dome spanning hundreds of feet in every direction. As if the magic were only thrown up in a haphazard haste, the barrier cut clean through several trees and bushes, scorching the remaining halves and leaving nothing but charred lumps of ash in its wake.

The large, almost glass-like structure was made of nothing but a translucent light, and yet it somehow didn’t make the surrounding area any brighter. While it was several few shades dimmer than a roaring campfire, the light it left off seemed to forget its own existence once it past the first row of trees. Only elongated shadows stretching out in every direction left proof enough that it was there.

It was almost laughable how such a huge ball of light was so hard to find.

            We’d confirmed the barrier’s location as Mochi promised, but on top of that, we’d inadvertently discovered why the animals had suddenly started acting so strangely. No doubt thanks to the mass of fiery light, Yua was able to confirm that there were no animals anywhere near us.

            She looked to me, concern for her people plain on her face.

            I whispered, “Can you tell if anyone inside it can hear us?”

            Mochi and Tama said they only saw humans, but that didn’t mean there were only humans there. They themselves said they couldn’t gather much information thanks to how well hidden the invaders actions were. For all we knew, they had a beast-kin in there lounging about.

            Thankfully, Yua shook her head.

            “I doubt it. If Daddy’s ears hurt just listening to them from this far away, none of our kind would be able to tolerate living right next to the noise.”

            “Right. No need to whisper then,” I said, peering through the light. “Can you see anyone?”

            All my eyes could catch were a bunch of trees and rocks under the dome. Though everything inside was essentially trapped under a wall of light, they were still covered in a paradoxical swathe of shadows. I came to the quick and confusing conclusion that the barrier must protect against its own light, but somehow still let the sun’s light in. If I couldn’t use magic myself, I’d have to issue a complaint to the Goddess for how nonsensical this sounded.

            “I can’t see anything, either,” Yua said, squinting at the darkness.

            “Then let’s have a look around.”

            Using the trees themselves as cover, we circled the barrier. Able to move freely thanks to Yua’s ears giving us the okay, we dashed from tree to tree to bush, and then back to the trees. Hiding behind the thickest trunks we could find, we stopped only to take another look into the barrier and continued on when we found nothing.

            We eventually found what we were looking for when a small clearing opened up within the barrier and a large tent slowly came into view. Looking fit to hold an entire circus beneath its roof, it was easy to say that Mochi’s guess that it could house a couple dozen people simultaneously was right on the mark.

            A lone campfire illuminated it, casting its flickering colors on its solemn purple face. It was too far for me to hear, but when I saw the sap nesting in the fire logs burst and send embers floating up into the sky, I knew the fire was recently made or at least still in use.

            And as if to secretly longing to prove me right, a man languidly stepped out of the tent and took root in front of the fire. He took a long swig from the wine bottle he carried and threw his head back in what might have been a delighted sigh before dropping it into the grass beside him.

Focusing on his distant form the best I could, his info box popped up and I gave it a quick read.

            His name was Arthur, a human and a level 10 Swordsman. Nothing too special about him other than he didn’t seem to go to the Tama school of always carry your weapon on you, as he looked completely defenseless sitting there half-drunk. Probably not their best lookout.

No. Actually the “drunk” status effect appeared below his name as I read through his info box. He definitely wasn’t the best lookout.

            However, it was the tag beneath his name that really caught my eye. He was a thief.

            “Mmn…”

            Grumbling quietly, Yua’s ears twitched again and again, not as she looked at the man, but off to the left of the tent. Tracing her line of sight, all I found was another copse of trees. The shadows cast by their thick branches kept me from seeing more, but if Yua’s repeated wincing was anything to go off, that had to be where the cave was.

We must be about where Mochi and Tama were when they scouted the area. I took a knee behind a tree trunk and searched the barrier for who might have made the fire. The place had no defenses to speak of, save for the row of tree trunks that had been carved into steaks and buried to wall off their encampment.

They clearly assumed the barrier to be more than enough, but I was sure they had to have someone acting as lookout. Otherwise, why keep a fire burning if you’re not using it to cook?

“Tch.”

Yua clicked her tongue and pressed her lips into a thin line. She looked pained, but before I could ask what was wrong, her ears twitched again and she clenched her fist.

“What do you hear?”

“Tch… I don’t know. It just sounds like a bunch of people are slamming something metal into rock. Again and again… I think I understand why Daddy gave up listening so easily.”

“If it’s too much, you can…”

“No,” she said quickly, taking a knee beside me to hide behind a bush. “I can handle it. I spent more time in the human city than Daddy ever did, so I’m used to noise. I just can’t figure out what they’re doing.”

“I figured as much. They’re probably mining something.”

“Mining?” Yua turned her attention back to me, curiosity arcing her brow.

“Yea. I thought as much when we heard what Mochi and your father had to say, but if you’re hearing the same thing, mining is the only option I can think of. That or they’re testing the sharpness of their blades by bashing them against rocks.”

“Hmm. But what would they be mining?”

“Could be anything. Gold, silver, copper. Maybe even just iron. Metals are probably more important to humans than they are your tribe, Yua.”

Or at least the only metals I noticed during our visit belonged to their weapons, cookware and any coin they may have on hand. They certainly don’t use any to make looms to craft clothing. That’s for damn sure.

“Something wrong?” she said and I must have been looking rather worried as she put a comforting hand on my thigh.

“Tell me, Yua. Do your people own this forest? And I don’t mean you live there, so it’s yours. Do you have some kind of document proving it’s yours?”

She shook her head and watched the man behind the barrier, who seemed to find an excess of comfort where he sat, as he shoved his hand down the front of his pants and just watched the fire flicker lazily.

“We don’t have any documents like that, no. We do fight the bears for control of the forest regularly, but that’s it. Is that what you mean?”

“Maybe…”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because that man is a Thief. If whatever they are doing counts as stealing, then that would be why.”

Explaining my reasoning while thinking back to the real story of how Tama got his scars, I put up my hand in front of us and used Material Creation along with the excess wood I had on hand to craft a large empty box. A long eye slit ran sideways across its face, but I covered the rest of it with the fallen branches and leaves I collected back home before making our cabin.

What I made looked sort of like a bush, but was a little closer to a fallen section of tree. Either way, we now had ourselves a camouflaged hiding place.

Yua stared at it confusedly for a moment before asking, “What’s this for?”

“We can watch them from inside this box for as long as we need and it should keep them from seeing us.”

“I see.”

Curiosity peeked, but looking as serious as a soldier crawling through war-stricken trenches, Yua dropped low to the ground and crawled into the box. I watched her in awe. Not because of her readiness to accept my plan, but because she seemed to have done a complete one-eighty from how she acted back in the village.

Back there, aside from her repeated fights, she was nothing but smiles and joy. She was almost childlike in how much fun she was having. And now she was cool, calm and collected, even though we were still close enough to her people to see their bonfire’s smoke. Hell, she even adjusted her skirt to keep her panties hidden.

It’s like the Yua from yesterday and this one now were two entirely different people.

“You doing okay, Yua?”

“Well, it’s a little hard to see through this hole. Could you make it bigger?”

“Sure…,” I said, crawling in next to her to work my magic. “But that’s not what I meant. I thought you would have been more upset to leave the village after such a short stay.”

Yua arched a brow at me, then laughed softly before turning her attention back to the camp.

“I do regret not staying longer, but not leaving. I want to live my life with you and staying there for too long would only make me want to live there. Your promise to let me visit every once in a while is more than enough for me.”

Reeling from the critical blow she’d just dropped on my heart from out of nowhere, I steeled myself not to act with my more basic instincts and grab hold of her to give her her that same love back physically. Instead, I forced myself to watch the campfire.

Then she added,

“Shame you didn’t accept my parent’s offer to just move into the village, though.”

“Yea… Sorry, but that’s not a lifestyle I can keep up with.”

My sanity couldn’t possibly handle more than the occasional visit. And even that might be pushing it. Yua giggled.

“Hehe. I know. It’s fine. Besides I like the home you made for us, too.”

“Good. I’m glad,” I said, then fought to change the subject to get back to work. “Can you hear him from here?”

I pointed to the man, Arthur, and Yua turned her ears towards him.

            “Yes, but he’s not saying anything right now.”

            “That’s fine. Just keep an ear out incase anything changes. We might be here for a while.”

            I wasn’t going to go at this half-assed like I did the dungeon. We needed as much info on our potential enemies as we can get before acting.

            Understanding this, Yua nodded and shifted in her spot besides me to find what comfort she could in laying on the ground together we watched and waited.

 

            After three and a half hours of nothing happening other than Arthur taking the occasional swig of wine or scratching himself in places he probably shouldn’t in front of a lady’s eyes, we decided to start taking turns. There was no real point in both of us watching one man do nothing.

            Letting Yua take her turn, I crawled back out of our hiding spot and rolled onto my back as she took my place. After so long of essentially watching nothing move but the fire Arthur occasionally poked with a stick, I was fighting off the urge to close my eyes and leave the protection of our backsides to Yua to favor a nap. But I yawned and stretched, and ready to look at literally anything else, I laid back in the grass and took in our surroundings.

            It was a forest. Great. Good. Trees and bushes were strewn about everywhere I looked. Very intriguing. Ooh? Look, over there, there’s a bunch of rocks. What a sight for sore eyes. And unfortunately, thanks to the barrier, there weren’t even any new and interesting animals skittering about to keep my attention. All I had was to enjoy mother nature’s warm embrace while listening to the sound of the endless sea of leaves rustling in the wind.

            Half tempted to once more give into my basic manly desires and fill my time by staring at Yua’s unguarded butt, I noticed something different in the monotony. Up in one of the trees nearest us was a small ball. Hanging by a stem, its shape and texture was something of a cross between an orange and an apple, but it was colored like a banana with a hint of blue around the stem.

            Seeing it, I felt my stomach rumble quietly.

Regretting not having stayed in the village long enough to have lunch, I asked, “Hey, Yua, what kind of fruit is that? Is it edible?”

            As I’m sure anyone would have, I was expecting her to turn and look at what I was pointing to, but all she did was sniff the air.

            “That’s a Poya. They’re better if you roast them first, but you can eat them. Just don’t pick any that are still blue.”

            “Why? Are they poisonous?”

            “No, they’re just really bitter when they aren’t fully ripe.”

            “I see. I’ll get us a couple.”

            Ruing the need to stand up and climb a tree out in the open when we were supposed to be hiding, I suddenly remembered one of my cheat abilities that I had been neglecting in favor of fooling around with my magic. Though that is not to say I didn’t give it a good try. Magic was just way more fun.

Smirking to myself, I laid back in the grass, propped my head up on my arm and pointed a finger at one of the less-blue poyas and silently incanted: Telekinesis.

With an invisible hand, I reached out and gave the fruit a light tug so I didn’t accidently crush it. As it was just barely within my effective range, all it did was rock back and forth a little, like all I did was give it a light tickle. The leaves of its branches fluttered with my failure.

            No longer smirking, I put a little more umph into it, but all it did was wiggle harder.

            Damn. I know I’m within range. I have the effective distance memorized at about fifty feet. The poya must only be around forty to forty-five and all I really needed to use it was a clear line of sight. Should have practiced this ability more.

            Sitting up now, I aimed my finger at the fruit again. Holding my outstretched arm like the barrel of a rifle, I put even more force into the ability. I felt a small twinge of pain just behind my forehead like that of an untrained muscle being pushed to its limits, but I had a hold of the poya.

            It stopped bouncing and was lifted by the unseen force and tugged. Its branch bent and bowed in my direction under the force, but it wasn’t enough to make its stem give way. So, I put yet more force and, with an audible snap, the fruit broke free from the branch.

            Just before I could pat myself on the back, the poya rocketed through the air towards me. I’d put way too much force into it. I threw up my hands to catch it, but it whizzed right between them and smacked me hard in the face before bouncing onto the grass. Unlike my nose, the fruit’s apparently thick skin was left undamaged.

            Reeling from the pain as I clenched my jaw to stifle a pained groan, any hopes I had in Yua not noticing my mistake were dashed when she snorted.

            “Pfft. Want me to heal you?”

            “No thanks,” I said, wincing as I rolled the fruit over to her after checking it for blood. “I was just doing a follow up test for Newton.”

            “Who?”

            “N-nobody.”

            Sighing to myself, and wishing I had a catcher’s mit on hand, I was about to try and claim a poya for myself when she called out again.

            “Oh, Alex, look. More people are coming out of the forest.”

            Ignoring the lingering pain, I scrambled back into the box and followed where she pointed. One by one, ten more men spilled out of the trees where the cave was hidden. Each looked dead tired, were covered in dirt and sweat and, as I thought, several of them carried pickaxes on their backs. I did a quick scan of their info boxes and not a single one of them held any sort of “Miner” class or subclass, but they were all between levels 10 and 15.

            I relayed this all to Yua, who furrowed her brow.

            “Strange. Can they really be stealing from us if we don’t even know we had whatever they’re stealing?”

            “Maybe. Maybe they were thieves before they got here. Right now, it doesn’t matter. Can you hear what they’re saying?”

            Lifting her ears to the sky, or rather the roof of the box, she flicked her ears. A moment or two later, she came back down.

            “Mnn… They’re just complaining about the man by the fire.”

            “Can you tell me what they’re saying?”

            Shifting my gaze from the horde of new faces, I checked on Arthur. The man that was supposed to be their lookout had at some point under Yua’s watch passed out with the wine bottle still clenched tight in his hand. One of the other men, Erhard, the only one there that was level 15, stomped over and kicked him hard in the gut, throwing him off his log-bed.

            After his understandably rude awakening, Arthur rubbed the spot that was kicked and glared back at the man.

            “… Ow!” Yua said, mimicking Arthur as she focused on their conversation. “What in the hells was that for?”

            “Because we told you to keep watch, you bastard! What if those cat-kin come back?”

            “Oh please. They know they can’t pass through the barrier, so what does it matter?”

            “Gods… Whose idea was it to leave watch duty to the drunk? Damned fool. We’re supposed to make a delivery today, right? Don’t you think the cat-kin could attack us on our way out of the barrier? Or were you searching for your brain at the bottom of that bottle?”

            “…”

            Yua’s interpreting was coming so fast that it was like she was actively dubbing over their conversation as it was happening. Like she was predicting what they were saying before they even thought the words, but hearing all that come from her peachy lips was nowhere near as threatening as Erhard’s actions made it sound.

            He kicked Arthur again, knocking him face first into the ground right beside the fire. Proving that the first two wake up calls he’d been given weren’t enough to sober him up, Arthur tried to heft himself off the ground. Gripping the wine bottle to his chest every inch of the way, he at least managed to make it to a kneeling position.

Seething at the sight of him, Erhard lifted his foot for another kick that would surely send the drunk into the blaze, but he was stopped by a third man that dropped his pickaxe to pull him away.

            Yua continued her interpreting for the third man.

            “Hold it! He may be as worthless as a man can be, but it ain’t up to you to kill him. ‘Sides, he’s the one that’s gonna introduce us to the buyer.”

            “Tch…”

            With a grumble that sounded jarringly cute when it came from Yua’s lips, Erhard snatched the bottle away and took a drink himself before tossing it to a fourth man that had been leaning on his pickaxe like a cane.

            “Whatever,” she said for Erhard. “Hey you shits! Where’s the damn crystals? You know boss is gonna want to see before we ship 'em off.”

            Crystals? Guess I was wrong about them mining metals.

            “Quit your bellyachin’. We’re coming!” yelled another. “This shit’s heavy, you know.”

            Barely breaking free of the forest line came two men. Between them they strained to drag a metal mine cart through the grass. When they stopped midway to wipe at their sweat, three more men rushed to help them drive the cart over to the campfire where they all collapsed to catch their breath.

            Arthur staggered to his feet and nearly fell into the cart when he leaned over the side to look at their haul. He managed to give them a thumbs up before plopping back down on the log when his knees began to wobble.

Erhard shook his head, no doubt mumbling expletives that even Yua couldn’t pick up on before grabbing Arthur by the collar and tossing the man like a shotput over towards the tent. He hit the ground like a deflated basketball.

            “Go be of some use for once and wake the boss!”

            Staggering again, but showing no signs of pain thanks to his intoxication, Arthur wobbled back to his feet and languidly dusted himself off before he turned the back of his hand to his attacker. Balling his fist and extending only his ring and pinky fingers, he gestured at Erhard. Incensed for reasons I didn’t quite understand, Erhard had to be restrained again so Arthur could head into the tent unbothered.

            Going so far as to mimic Erhard’s continued grumbling as he took over watch duty and scanned the forest, Yua broke character only when she turned to me.

“Should we go talk to them now? You can teleport behind those trees over there to get us in, right?”

“… No. I think that might be a bad idea.”

“Huh? Why? We found them, so let’s talk to them like you wanted.”

I shook my head. Finding out that my assumptions about them mining out here were mostly correct was great and all, but frustration compounded in my chest the more we listened to them.  And naturally, Yua had no idea why. I, however, was painfully aware.

I punched the soft soil of the forest ground, but since we were laying on our stomachs to watch them, I couldn’t put as much power into it as I wanted to relieve the stress.

“What’s wrong?”

“… I don’t think they’ll listen to us. Talking is most likely going to be pointless.”

“What makes you say that?”

“… Because each and every one of those men is a thief.”

They put up this barrier. They’re weary of the cat-kin who call this place home. And they even had someone acting as a look out in a place that should be mostly secluded. Regardless of who rightfully owns whatever is in that cart, my doubts that this would end with a simple chat like Mochi wanted nearly quadrupled.

Instead of looking pumped at the idea of this turning into a fight, Yua looked about as distraught as I was.

“They know Daddy and the others found them, but they didn’t leave. Why would they stay if they’re scared of fighting us?”

“Whatever they mined must be valuable enough to warrant the risk.”

“…”

Her ears gave another flick as she contemplated this, and her eyes shot back to the men. The drunken Arthur stumbled and nearly fell back out of the tent as though he’d been pushed. He slipped a hand through his hair, which like his clothes, was drenched from the neck up. He slipped a hand through the messy hair that had been pasted to his forehead before scowling at nobody in particular. Someone had clearly dumped a bucket of water on him.

Behind him a stocky man with enough muscle on him for two men stepped out of the tent. His thick black beard reached all the way down to his hips, where he kept it bundled in a large, messy braid. A well-worn leather apron was wrapped around his trunk in place of armor, but the short war hammer he kept dangling from his belt said he wasn’t lacking in defenses.

The man, their boss most likely, was almost abnormally short for his build, but his presence alone prompted the rest of the men to forget their exhaustion as they hurried back to their feet.

“Is that… A dwarf?” Yua asked, sniffing the wind for the answer.

Momentarily forgetting the potential trouble this man could bring us, I was awed by the mention of one of the quintessential fantasy races and jumped to read his info box.

Tillmann Ruchenbrecher was his name and he was a level 45 Blacksmith/ Adventurer combo. And yes, he was indeed a dwarf, but he was also a Thief like the rest.

Still, I guess that, even in this world, dwarves can’t escape their beards.

Tillmann completely ignored the water-logged Arthur and set out straight for the mine cart once he noticed it. Erhard took a gracious step back without complaint. If anything, he looked to have been smiling a bit. As were everyone else.

The dwarf’s head leveled out just barely above the rim of the cart, so he had to stand on his toes to reach inside and dig around the contents. Falling back onto his feet, he held up a large purple gem to the sky in looked it over will all the diligence of a gem collector.

It’s info box read that it was an "amethyst" and, at about the size of a cell phone, it was the largest gem I’d ever seen. And with its price in gold just entering the triple digit range, it was no wonder why they were mining here.

However, Tillmann shook his head with clear disappointment arcing his brow, he then swept his thick beard aside and reached into the pocket of his leather apron to pull out a small, gilded cylinder. When he pressed it to his eye and aimed it at the amethyst, the cylinder glowed faintly with a blue light. It was a magic item.

Likely confirming his earlier disappointment with the tool, he lazily tossed the gem onto the log before yanking his hammer off his belt. He hefted the large rectangular block of metal high into the air with ease and brought it back down on the gem. The monstrous strike’s force reached my ears as it splintered both the gem and the log with a gut-churning crunch before it sent up a plume of dirt, dust and grass six-feet high into the air.

Erhard and the others fell back, aghast as the assumed profits that had them all smiling a second ago rained back down in hundreds of tiny worthless pieces.

“We ain’t got time to be collecting fancy rocks, boys,” Yua said for the dwarf. “I told ye to stop wasting yer time with this crap.”

“But Boss, just one of those is enough to keep us all fed for months.”

“I don’t care. That damn rock is piddily-squat compared to what we’re here for. And if I have to tell ye this again, any of ye, it’ll be your head under my hammer next.”

His threat was no less menacing coming from Yua’s sweet voice after the display of his raw power, but having heard it first hand, the others all took a step back. All except for Erhard, who’s knees buckled beneath him. He’d been standing right next to the log before it exploded and he was now staring at the mulch that wasn’t even fit for kindling anymore.

Seeing his men turned into a bunch of whimpering dogs, Tillmann sighed, slumping his meaty shoulders before he clipped his hammer back on his belt. He extended a hand to Erhard, who took it hesitantly. Pulling the man to his feet, he gave him a hefty pat on the back, almost like he was dusting him off.

“Listen boys,” he said, twisting his moustache. “We dwarves have a sayin’ that we’s all are taught before we even pick up our first hammer. It goes something like this: A novice smith can craft a hundred blades and arm a small army. But a true master can craft a single masterpiece and arm an entire country.”

“I…” Erhard said then paused to compose himself. “I don’t understand.”

“’Course ye don’t. Yer thinking about the short-term solutions to fill yer purse, but none of ye have thought past what ye’ll be putting in yer bellies tomorrow night. Look here…”

Tillmann threw a hand into the cart again, rummaged around for less than a second, and pulled out another gem and held it out for all to see. The wide curl that took to his thick black whiskers might have made you think he was holding the holy grail itself, but all it was, was a smaller, lighter gemstone that could have been mistaken as just a sliver of the amethyst that came before it.

Curious, and just as confused as his men, I checked its info box and my jaw instantly hit the floor. Not much of a statement considering I was laying on my stomach, but the price listed by my Appraisal ability was absolutely staggering. The thing was only about the size of my pinky finger, but it was worth 1,500 gold!

“Boys, this here is an Essence Crystal. I don’t expect any of ye to know what this little darlin’ is used for, but this is what money is gonna look like to ye for as long as we’re in Vierre. Those piddilin little gems you found can fill yer bellies, no doubt. But this. Oh, this beauty can feed this lot for years. It can buy ye the whole farm and workers to run it. This here can buy ye a handful of servants to wipe yer arses for ye. I say, it can even buy ye a night with every single whore in yer favorite brothel, for an entire month! And you’d still have enough left over for a house in the city. And look!”

 

 

Tillmann pocketed the Essence Crystal and shoved his hand back into the cart. This time, he pulled out an entire fist-full of the small purple crystals. They glittered in the firelight as their abundance spilled out of his grip. Erhard and the others watched them cascade between his fingers and every one of them flinched when they fell into the grass.

“This is what I mean. A novice can gather a hundred of those gems and claim themselves rich, but a truly keen eye knows that just a handful of these here can be enough to make a king blush atop his golden throne.”

The men were all thunderstruck, and it was easy to see why. Just the idea of those tiny crystals being worth so much was simply baffling when compared to how many must be filling the cart. Had I not been able to read their value myself, I would have called him a bold-faced liar, but his men all bought it easily at the mention of whores and gold. The fear that had gripped them a moment ago had turned into raucous cheers.

To think that Yua’s people had been sitting on a gold mine that was worth more than an actual gold mine all this time. And they never even knew it existed. Just a day of mining out here could have earned them enough to buy her slave contract outright if they’d only known.

“But Boss,” Yua said for Erhard. “Why throw away the gems? Even if they don’t compare, they’re still worth a mountain of gold themselves. Just look how many we found.”

“Tch. Keep ‘em, then. Stuff ‘em in yer pockets for all I care. But I ain’t want ye digging for them. No. You focus on bringing me these crystals, got it? That’s what we were hired for and that’s what we’ll do. Once we sells these beauties, you won’t even want to look of those pretty little gems anyways. Trust me… Damn Dragma dogs only hired me because ye humans can’t tell a crystal from a rock the way a dwarf can, but I won’t be missin’ this chance now that it’s on my plate.”

 Done with his display of raw financial power, Tillmann tossed the handful of crystals back into the cart, but not without pocketing a few more first. None contested his flagrant greed. He dusted his meaty hands and continued.

“Now. Separate the crystals by size like I told ye and box ‘em up. I want the horses on their way to Guerraway before the sun takes a shit for the day.”

““Yessir!””

Nodding with what might have been a snort once the others all hurried to busy themselves with the crystals, Tillman bent down and grabbed Arthur by the collar before the drunk could collect the crystals the dwarf had dropped at his feet.

Hefting the full-bodied man up into the air with so much ease that he might as well have been a sack of air, the drunk scrambled his feet blindly, unable to tear his eyes away from the dwarf’s.

“As for ye… I’ll tell ye this once and only once. You sully our chance to line our pockets again, and I’ll show ye what a dwarf can really do with a hammer.”

“S-sorry, Boss!”

“I don’t want apologies! I want ye to do yer duties like everyone else! No get yer ass out there and scout the area! If even a single cat-kin found us while you were asleep, and ye din’t say nothing, I’ll rip yer stomach out yer arse and feed it back to ye!”

“Y-Y-You can’t. Without me, you have no connection to Dragma.”

“Ye think I care?!”

Pulling his thick arm back, Tillman launched Arthur clear across the campground where he slammed into a tree. The rest of the men paused their work for only a moment when the drunk stopped moving, but got back to it with twice the effort when the dwarf looked back to them.

Heaving, grasping at the arm that was clearly bent the wrong way, Arthur’s eyes widened as the pain sobered him. That was the only reason why he had time to throw himself out of the way when Tillmann’s hammer came flying at him.

Missing him by mere inches at best, the hammer struck the tree and its trunk exploded as if a stick of dynamite had been hidden within its bark. It toppled to the ground hard enough to make Yua wince. Seeing the way he was shaking, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Arthur had wet himself as he stared almost blankly at the hammer that had half-buried itself in the soil.

Tillmann grabbed him by the collar again and yanked him up into the air once more. Arthur bit back a cry of pain as his limp arm slapped his side. He gripped the thick wrist that held him with his free hand, but the dwarf didn’t care to notice that he was nearly choking him.

“I don’t care who ye work for, understand? I know where the crystals are headed tonight and I know what boat they’ll be on. You don’t need to smooth talk me to the captain. I know ‘im. I know that as long as I butter ‘im up with some coin or with a pretty lady, he’ll swim me wherever I want to go. And don’t kid yerself. I know the ruddy bastard in Dragma that wants these crystals, too. You understand me?”

“Y-Y-Yes, sir!”

“Good. I’ve been walking these lands fer eighty-some years now, don’t go thinkin’ you can get the better of me. Now…”

Dropping Arthur where he stood, Tillmann swept his beard out of the way and rummaged in his apron pocket. He took out a purple potion bottle whose name I couldn’t read before he grabbed Arthur’s mouth and forced it open. Crushing the bottle in hand, the syrupy liquid inside along with several shards of glass spilled down Arthur’s throat as he squirmed pointlessly.

In seconds, the “drunk” status effect in the man’s info box disappeared. Though the potion did nothing for his arm.

“Ye owe me for that bottle, ye hear?”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

“Then ye best get to movin’, ain’t ye? I better not hear ‘bout no cat-kin sneakin’ up on us.”

As if the broken arm affected him no more than a papercut might, Arthur jumped to his feet, spat out the shards of glass and took off running for the tree line while Tillmann collected his hammer and returned to the others to inspect the rest of the crystals.

At that, Yua turned to me. To my surprise, she didn’t look nearly as perturbed as I felt after what just happened.

“I think you were right about them not wanting to talk.”

“Yea. With the amount of gold backing those crystals, they’d definitely want to fight to keep the mine.”

“Then what should we do?”

“…”

That was a good question, one that I didn’t have an answer to just yet. Talking was obviously out of the question, but fighting? Even if I were sure Yua’d be willing, I could feel my face pale at just the thought of fighting Tillmann, let alone the rest.

Tama was the only non-monster I’ve fought and, even if I did okay against him, I knew he was holding back. Tillmann wouldn’t be so kind. And I wasn’t battle-hungry enough to challenge him hoping for the best.

Wiping away the sweat on my brow, as a test, I cast Dimensional Step. Aiming for a secluded spot within the trees under the barrier, I waited for the swirling blue lights to appear before us… but nothing happened.

“Shit…”

“What happened?”

“My Dimensional Step spell can’t get us close to them. The barrier must block teleportation spells, too.”

Guess the thought of teleporting Tama and the rest inside to help clean them up wasn’t going to happen.

“Then we can just attack them as they leave for the city, right?”

“Yua…”

“I’m serious,” she said, backing out of the box to sit on her knees. “They’re all Thieves, right? And you’re an Adventurer. You have the right to fight and capture them for the guild.”

“And if Tillmann shows up?”

“Who?”

I pressed my eyes shut and sighed. I forgot I only knew his name because I read his info box. I quickly explained all I knew of him to her, including his level, but all she did was shrug.

“That’s not too bad, right? If you can cast your Slave Binding spell on him and the others, they’ll be forced to obey you. You can just order them to surrender.”

“… Please tell me that someone that used to hate being a slave didn’t just suggest I try to win a fight by forcefully enslaving a bunch of people? Accepting life as my slave to gain strength was one thing, but that’s just…”

“They’re clearly bad people, Alex. At least, this Tillmann is. And anything goes in a fight when your life is on the line. If you managed to catch just him, you could…”

“I’m not doing that,” I said, climbing back to my feet.

Yua opened her mouth to protest my immediate decision, but it wasn’t up for debate. Not as my slave or as my wife and mate.

“Yua, I’ve made my peace with how we met and I’m really, really happy you forgave me for that. But I don’t like that you’re a slave. I don’t like the concept of slavery in the first place. The only reason why I…”

I put my hands up to try and explain, but even I felt as though I was grasping at nothing.

“Look, I’m not going to use that ability just to win a fight.”

Yua drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. I don’t know if she considered that particular ability as just another part of my repertoire, but the twitch in her ears must have alerted her to the fact that I didn’t need to hold her the way her people demanded to know I was serious.

“… Then what do you want to do? Should we tell Daddy?”

“No. Not yet, anyways. I don’t want to go reporting to him every time we learn something. I think… We should investigate these Essence Crystals and that boat they were talking about before that.”

My Merchant class may just be sniffing out gold, but it was telling me looking into those two things first was much more important.

“After that, we can look for a way around the barrier. Think you can track these guys once they’re in the city?”

“Hmm. Maybe. They’re too far away to really smell them. If they talk a lot, I can follow their voices, but… Why don’t we just wait for them to leave? Even if Tillmann’s there, we can at least follow them.”

“We can’t. You repeated what they said yourself. They’re searching for…”

“Found you!”

Before I could parse the timbre of the voice that rang out loudly behind us, something heavy tackled me to the ground. Pain shot through me, or at least it should have as when I opened my eyes, I found I had fallen right between Yua’s thighs. Unnaturally startled herself, she apparently hadn’t heard our attacker approach and tried to stand, only to fall with me.

However, once she found the person sitting on my back pinning me to the grass, she didn’t jump into attack mode. She just sighed.

“Hey, Big Bro, did you talk to the humans yet?”

“What…?”

Turning, realizing that the weight bearing down on me belonged to that of a petite girl, I set my hands on the grass and pushed myself up to find Mana straddling my back. She was just as we left her, meaning that she was completely nude and unashamedly showing off her tiny bustline as she grinned, beaming at me, her tail flailing about happily.

“Hey, so did you talk to them?”

“What? Not yet… What are you doing here? How did you even find us?”

            “Eh? My Daddy’s a Hunter. He taught me how to track animals, but it works for humans too. Did you think I wouldn’t be able to find you?”

            “Yea, actually I did. We teleported away. There shouldn’t’ have been a trail left for you to follow.”

            “Hmph!” Mana huffed, proudly puffing out her tiny chest before crossing her arms. “Daddy said the humans stole the spriggan’s cave and I knew you were going to meet with them. So, I just had to go to the cave and search for you there. It was easy. So, when are you going to talk to them? Oh, what’s that thing? Is that the barrier?”

            Impatient as always, Mana threw herself off of me and crawled on her hands and knees into the camouflage box to look at the wall of light. As she did, and as her hips swayed back and forth in tandem with her tail, I was forced to watch as two very important parts of hers unashamedly stared back at me.

Though I couldn’t no longer see the pure cuteness that was her face, I could almost feel her smiling. This alone was almost enough for me not to notice all the dirt marks on her body.

            “Hey,” she said without looking back, but with her ears flicking. “I think you should hurry and talk to them now. They sound pretty happy. They’re just talking about coins and stuff.”

            Feeling my face heat up at the sight of her swaying backside, a feat I was honestly glad to know I was still capable of after spending so long in their village, I pinched my eyes shut and shook off the sight of her the best I could.

            “We can’t talk to them.”

            “Eh? Why not? They look nice. They’re smiling even though all they’re doing is putting tiny rocks in a box. If you say you’ll help them, I’m sure they’ll… Eep!”

            Before she could finish, I grabbed her by the hips and pulled her out of the box to sit her on my lap. Startled about as much as I was a moment ago, she eased up almost instantly as she leaned into me. Yua sighed at the sight of her straddling my thigh with a contented smile.

            “Mana, I told you I’d come back for you. Why did you go through all the trouble of tracking us down?”

            “B-Because the village was so lonely and boring without you and Big Sis.”

            I pressed my lips shut, not because the pout she turned on me was too powerful, but because I was unwilling to acknowledge that her only just now showing up after all the time that had passed since we left the village meant that she hadn’t waited all that long before leaving herself. And why should I knowing that she left to find me of all people? But I can’t just do what she wants here. She clearly hadn’t been paying attention to what was going on in the barrier as she looked for us.

            I took a breath, letting her ears tickle my chin before hugging her tight.

            “Mana, we can’t talk to them. They’re too dangerous.”

            “Eh, but they…”

            “They look happy because those rocks are worth a lot of money, but they stole them. They’re bad people.”

            Yua and I may be jumping to conclusions there, but the alternative wasn’t worth the risk.

            “… Yua, I think you may be right. We should head back to the village and let your father know what’s going on.”

            If Mana so brazenly showed up and started yelling, she clearly didn’t understand the danger these men posed. And they were apparently on high alert, specifically for the cat-kin. They know the cat-kin know about the barrier, but Tama may not know that they were noticed. Otherwise, I’d like to think he’d forget his stories of wild animal attacks happening in the area in favor of telling his people the truth.

            Mana being here means that he either didn’t or that he doesn’t know. And she may not be the only one to show up, given how many people must have heard our conversation last night.

            “N-no way!” Mana barked. I quickly clamped a hand over her mouth to silence her, but she yanked it away. She continued, quieter. “If you take me back, Daddy will just get mad and make me stay.”

            “Well, we can’t just leave you here. I’m not about to risk leaving you alone while we head back.”

            “Then let me stay with you! Mates should be together. And, and the Chief already said nobody but the Hunters can go into this part of the forest, so you don’t need to go warn them.”

            Mana’s lips puckered into a pout that nearly broke my heart, but she all but completely ruined the effect it had on me when she crammed her hand down the front of my pants to grab hold of my monster.

            “Please,” she said, her big blue eyes all but daring me to refute her. She sniffled, but I knew the tears forming in the corners of her eyes were honest.

            Facing her powerful pleading gaze head on, I recalled the last thing she said to me before we left.

            How could a girl this cute ever be so lonely that she’d break away from her father’s and her chief’s commands when she’s already proven willing to obey them? If she did so for my sake, I should be happy, but if things here turn violent…

            I know enough of her past to know she probably can’t protect herself. Not in terms of strength or level, at least and we were most definitely out-classed here.

            I looked to Yua for the answer as she was just as much a reason for this girl coming here.

            “What do you think?”

            “She’s right about Daddy’s orders, but… I don’t know. Maybe we could…!”

            Yua’s eyes widened and all the fur on her ears stood on end. She jumped to her feet and started pulling on the both of us to get us stand as well.

            “Alex, teleport us out of here now! Someone’s coming!”

            “Shit!”

            Without time to think of a plan, I threw open a portal to the grasslands beyond the forest. Yua rushed through and, after pulling Mana’s hand out of my pants and lifting her into a princess carry, I followed.