Taldur

As I relaxed lying flat on a table, an excitable voice kept repeating the same number aloud.

"3250!"

"3250!"

"3250!"

"Three thousand two hundred and fifty freaking dubine!"

An ecstatic girl squealed in front of me as I sat on the plain wooden table of our rented housing, the girl hopped up and down on the balls of her feet as she excitedly clutched at her mouth, eyes focused on the wealth lain out next to me.

Of course, it was Lescar who was so enthusiastically celebrating our successful sting operation, an operation I too was pleased had pulled through cleanly.

Lescar, while she had been in sight of the adventurers guild, had been sure to maintain an air of nonchalance and levity as I had instructed, but when we arrived back into the guild house we had rented out with the money we had stripped from the dead adventurers, along with the map that had led us to the surface, she had an outburst of elation, which she was still burning off thanks to the recent arrival of her negotiated pay. 

Only minutes ago, a masked manservant or more accurately a small group of masked manservants had arrived at our front door with the satchels of Lescar's 'Hazard pay.'

They had said very little, one simply saying something like, "keep your word," before the whole lot of them disappeared into the shadows.

'A creepy bunch of assassins I'm sure' I had remarked to myself at the time.

The display of stealth these 'manservants' had demonstrated was impressive, I could barely feel them with my motion-sensitive hairs, and these hairs could pick up the movement of a careless fanged mouse from 20 meters away.

It was a good thing I had reeled Lescar back in earlier when she had been ribbing that Joel noble kid for more cash, or those same manservants may have instead snuck up on us and gotten the better of me.

I turned my head to eyeball our hard-earned cash, a veritable pile of treasure.

Right next to me, the large pile of coinage bedecked the table, a mix of brass and what looked like silver being the vast majority of the shiny currency with the occasional gold coins and one weirdly black coin.

Each coin was eight-pointed, meaning the coins were octagons, an image of a winding maze on one side and a depiction of a very dour looking man on the other that read under it, 'Kairrn the stoic,' or so Lescar told me, I being unable to read this worlds foreign script.

It was a good thing Lescar could read, it was an apparently rare skill among the poor, one Lescar was fortunate her brother had been able to teach her before disappearing.

I looked back towards the remaining coins examining them with some interest.

While most of these coins had the image of the grumpy man, some had images of a petulant woman or a smug long-nosed man.

'Even here in another world the human ego knew no boundaries,' I snorted 'they had to put their faces on everything,' I flipped a coin over myself impulsively before looking on.

The amount here was a good haul, but I was uncertain of exactly how much was on the table, it was 3250 dubine according to Lescar but that wasn't very helpful to me, as the individual worth of each coin would remain a mystery to me until I got to see more of it spent in action,

The economy and worth of currency of every land differ from country to country, and here in this world, the same likely held true, although, Lescar seemed to feel that this was a massive amount of money, which to be honest it did look somewhat impressive.

Still bubbly with rapture before me, Lescar gushed on, not really talking to anyone in particular, just happily rambling to herself.

"Did you see his face when I said 5000!" Lescar giggled, "I didn't expect to get even half of that, and yet here we are with 3250! I'm so fired up right now! eeeeeeeeeeeee!" Lescar trilled as she ran on the spot, her nervous excitement having to be spent somehow.

Lescar had enjoyed putting the squeeze on that noble kid, the notable glee in her voice being sourced from her still present resentment, even if she had wanted to do more.

Lescar essentially being betrayed and left as troll bait by that noble Joel, was still angry and held a grudge against the noble boy, if we had been utterly alone and out out of earshot with that noble, I might have considered letting her have her revenge, but even then, the level of heat and scrutiny that would be heaped upon us would be too great.

While I had ensured we were noticed by at least the local guild with Lescars tall and only slightly fake tale of her taming me and all the other familiars to fight off a troll, I did not want her or myself to be noticed by the higher powers, thus blackmailing Joel had been the best course of action.

Both Joel and Lescar were compelled to silence as a result of the deal, and that was the best outcome for us, if he did not move against us, Lescar wouldn't speak out and stain his family name.

It was a terse and volatile deal, but still the best available option for what I wanted to achieve, Joel wouldn't send attackers after us, we wouldn't drag his houses name through the dirt and my little posey of monsters would go largely unnoticed by the greater powers in the city.

Many things were riding on this one deal, if it fell through than the crap would hit the metaphorical fan and then we would be down shit creek without a paddle.

But the risk was worth it, the stacks of wealth on the table supported that idea.

I watched Lescar jump on the spot for a few seconds as I carefully washed my feelers, a habit I can only assume is part of my insectoid biology, as unless I consciously stop it, I often automatically do it when undisturbed.

Cleaning my sensory organs, I shifted my head slightly to the side hearing a scratching sound, observing Roulette who had been sitting at an open window, trundle up to the still jumping Lescar before raising herself up on her hind legs and joining Lescar in her celebrations.

Now beside Lescar, standing on her hind legs as she pawed at the tabletop, Roulette, looked on curiously at the pile of shiny metal, not quite understanding why Lescar was so excited as she also jumped for joy.

"Yaaaaaaaaaay!" Roulette squeaked before pausing and preening her long whiskers in confusion, "why are we so happy sis? 3250? 3250 what?"

"I'm happy because," Lescar began breathlessly, "we just got a whole life's worth of dubine, money! over 3000 of it!" Lescar said blissfully still running on the spot as she clenched her fists together.

"Dubine? money? I still don't get it!" Roulette said still not understanding, "You mean those metal circle thingies?"

Roulette prodded a coin with her now fully regrown tail, Apparently, my daughter had never heard of the concept of currency, unsurprising, she had been but a regular retarded rat in the sewers only a short while ago.

Although she seemed to understand the concept of numbers somewhat... curious.

Silently, I watched as Lescar gave Roulette a slightly absent look before returning to fawning over the pile of riches.

Clearly she had no intention of enlightening Roulette on the topic of economy, leaving Roulette sitting around looking lost as she prodded a couple of wayward coins with a claw.

I watched my clueless daughter fumble around then sighed to myself, briefly considering whether or not teaching a rat was a waste of time before I dismissed that thought.

The more knowledge my familiars had, the more capable they would be in the future,  knowledge allowed for the proper application of power after all.

And power was everything, money being a type of power in itself.

I gazed down upon my rat, even the basic concept of trade could prove useful at some point.

Additionally... as her supposed parental figure, educating her was kind of par for the course.

Having come to a decision, I rapped a feathery antenna on Roulette's snout softly, getting her attention before I began to widen the horizon of her understanding.

"Money or Dubine as it seems to be called here in part," I said addressing Roulette directly, "Is a sort of substance that people exchange in lieu of acquiring other items that they may want."

I finished aptly and waited expectantly for a look of cognition and realization to bloom on Roulette's long face.

Sadly I was disappointed on that front.

"Umm..." Roulette scratched behind her ears at my sentence, "I... still... don't get it..."

I turned my entire head to face the sheepish Roulette, my consternation procking, 'how had she failed to understand? I'd said it very plainly,'

My antenna twitched and I was about to lecture Roulette further on the nature of currency when Dwayne spoke up, butting into the telepathic discussion having risen from the floor where he'd been watching without a word.

"'I' understand, your majesty," Dwayne's deep voice rumbled, the large bat nodding sagely, with his eyes closed, "this money substance is a material that substitutes for something else's worth, yes?"

"Yes," I said surprised, turning to face Dwayne, forgetting about lecturing Roulette as the newcomer to the discussion revealed his understanding, I had not expected Dwayne to grasp the concept so easily, especially when I had not even been talking to him.

Dwayne gestured at the piled currency, ignoring Lescar who was still jabbering away about the large sum.

"And this stuff," Dwane picked up a fistful of coins, "can be given to other beings in a trade or mutual deal, correct?"

"Correct," I said still taken aback, "how did you figure that out?"

Dwayne blinked then what I assume was a smile lined his wide face, although it resembled more of a snarl.

"Your majesty," Dwayne said gravely even as his protruding fangs glistened in a fang-filled grin, "I have made it my life's devotion to defend and fulfill your will."

I said nothing to this, Dwayne had always been strangely awed and ingratiated with me, perhaps it had something to do with the fact he had looked pretty terrible before I made him a familiar, even so, his unyielding faith in me was... mmm a little uncomfortable.

Dwayne tossed the fistful of coins back on the table with clink before he continued.

"And to do that I need to be on alert at all times," Dwayne grunted, going back to his haunches, "and so today while we were at that smelly human den, I noticed something," Dwayne's orange eyes flared as he continued, "I was keeping an eye on all of the potential threats in the room when I saw the humans giving those bits of metal to each other and receiving nourishment in return, it was obvious to me at that point that these little pieces of metal were important."

I nodded wordlessly and waited for the large bat to continue, still surprised.

"So your majesty it only makes sense now that you wanted a whole heap of this 'dubine,'" Dwayne rolled a claw towards the cash decking the table leisurely as if enjoying my attention, which, perhaps he was.

Dwayne paused for a second glancing in my direction before he concluded slowly.

"That dubine could be used to get us a lot of food and... maybe even other things?" Dwayne finished looking thoughtfully at the table of assorted coins as he completed the sentence. 

'He picked up on it, just from that?' I thought impressed, I had never given an explanation on economy before to my familiars, and figuring out the basics of currency was no easy task for a creature born of the sewers.

I stared hard at my giant man-eating bat, he was my most powerful asset in battle, my early warning for attackers and now it turned out he was also sharper than he had been letting on.

It was a good thing, but it still astonished me.

Dwayne had pieced this together from a single outing with humans and had come to an accurate conclusion.

'Perhaps it would be prudent to add Bruce to the front of his name,' I snickered to myself internally, not at all displeased.

As I chortled at my own joke, a certain white rat tried to get my attention, a look of confusion still palpable on her features.

"Um, Dad I still don't get it?" Roulette said in a puzzled and pleading tone, tugging at one of my legs from the floor as she stood upright.

"Ahhh," I said, reminded my less intellectually gifted daughter was still present, as I turned to face her, "yes what is it you don't understand daughter of mine?"

"Daddy," Roulette began, voice growing higher pitched and slightly sulky, "I don't get it! I don't get any of it! Why is this metal stuff so valuable? it's kind of shiny and pretty, but it smells funny and tastes even worse! why would anyone want this?"

I scratched at my hard plated head with a spiked forcep, brushing back my antennae, it seemed despite hearing the entire conversation between me and Dwayne, Roulette had still not caught on to the concept of money, this would require a more intensive lecture.

Preparing myself with a deep breath from my multiple pairs of lungs I began pointedly, "Well, you see daughter of mine, money or dubine is a..."

I waxed on and on about the importance and various uses of the substance/concept but achieved very little, it took three separate attempts and the efforts of the entirety of my group, (save Lescar who was still occupied fawning over the cash), to teach Roulette the very basics of economy, even Dewey who had been hiding under the table pitched in, demonstrating a trade deal in action by pretending to trade Dwayne two coins for a dry husk of bread while hopping up and down.

'How did Dewey figure that out!' I had thought, 'his mental stats are worse than Roulettes, and he doesn't even have a brain!'

It was a mystery, just another to add to the ever-growing mountain of them, something I was growing used to, if grudgingly, this world followed principles and laws of reality that did not exist back on earth, so all I could do was shrug off the unknowns and do my best to take advantage of it.

Working in tandem, I with the aid of Dwayne my sub teacher, and Dewey the morale support, constructed a makeshift lesson for my rodent daughter, finally nailing the 'apparently' very difficult concept of trade and economics into Roulettes mind.

"Oh, I get it now!" Roulette said hopping back on forth on the tips of her clawed toes gleefully as she clapped her claws together, having finally absorbed the information, "I give these metal thingies to people who like them for some reason, and they give me food in return."

I lifted a forcep and facepalmed rubbing my faceplates wearily, this was the best we could do.

It looked as if the combined lessons of me, Dewey and Dwanye was only so effective, exasperated, I cocked my head in frustration even as I said praisingly to Roulette, an antenna stroking her head "yes that's correct, just remember that those 'metal thingies.'" I emphasized, "are to be kept safe, because other people might want to steal it and then we won't be able to buy any food, and we don't want that, do we?"

"No! these are our metal thingies!" Roulette said shrilly her eyes narrowing at imaginary thieves, bladed tail whipping about as she looked under the scarce furniture for any hiding robbers.

"Good girl," I patted Roulette firmly on the head as she began single-mindedly rummaging around for intruders under the table before spotting a bucket and checking that too.

Shaking my head as I looked away from Roulette in her quest for potential purse pinchers, I clicked my jaws together, the multi-segmented blades coming apart before returning to a closed state, feeling tired as I observed the rest of my familiars.

I had given up on enlightening Roulette for now, it was hard work, It was a shame that I could not mold her in one go, but this was the best I could manage with Roulette on short notice, her full education would have to wait for a later date lest her mishaps exhaust me before night even fell.

Shaking off the sidetracking thoughts I reoriented myself on my goals, I had a whole host of things to do, I needed to do some reconnaissance, I needed to get the lay of the land and needed to acquire a lot of manpower quickly but discretely.

Now that I had a large kickstarter worth of money it was possible for all of these things to occur, It was time to take a day out on the town.

First, however, I had to delegate roles and positions, or at the very least whoever I would be taking with me when I went out.

I looked around the plain unadorned room, eyeing each familiar separately trying to decide who would come with me, and who would stay here and babysit the money.

Speaking openly to everyone I said loudly, "Familiars of mine that is enough relaxing, for now, I think it's about time we got to work."

Everyone's ears perked up and Lescar stopped rambling about the money.

"What kind of work exactly though?" Lescar asked, licking her lips as she tore her eyes away from the pile of metal savings.

"Oh nothing too taxing little girl," I said casually as I waved an antenna. "Just a bit of sightseeing and opportunistic recruiting."

Lescar raised a brow when she heard the phrase 'opportunistic recruiting' but said nothing.

"I aim to have a good understanding of this city by the end of this month," I stated factually, "I want to know the ins and outs of everything, how this society functions from base to spire, and what is profitable or popular here."

No one said anything at my declarations, but Lescar had a questioning look in her eyes, a look that said 'what are you really planning?'

I would have rolled my eyes at this were I able to, but having immobile compound eyes made that impossible.

Did Lescar really still think I was hiding things from her? I certainly was keeping certain elements of my plan to myself for now, but that was no reason for her to be suspicious.

While Lescar had become more open to discourse and discussion after I saved her from that shield mage, she still occasionally shot me a watchful look.

Well if she wanted a bit more information she could have some, presently, it did not really affect my plans in any way, she would come to know of them one way or another.

Speaking craftily, I added onto my sentence.

"And... I want some new... associates," I directed my gaze at Lescar when I said that last part and her eyes widened slightly before they narrowed again and she nodded.

She knew exactly what I was talking about, we had discussed this back in my glade, she had some contacts I wanted to meet and she also knew some other desperate characters who might be persuaded to swell my fledgling ranks.

Lescar had not come from a clean and proper background, she was a thief, and from what I knew of him, her brother had been a robber and a thug, Lescar had been running with a small crew of pickpockets or junior gangsters before she became an adventurer, and while she said her relationship with its boss, a young man called Fabran, was now tenuous at best, she still had friendly ties within that group.

At the time when Lescar mentioned the boss of her last gang her face darkened briefly before it lightened when we discussed some of the other prominent members of her ex-gang.

Obviously she was holding some emotional baggage from some previous encounter with the boss, perhaps looking for her brother and wanting to become an adventurer were not the only reasons Lescar had joined the guild.

Hopefully, that baggage wouldn't get in the way when we entered the discussions with the young pickpockets, that could be a mess, even now Lescar refused to tell me why she held something against her previous leader, but it was clear she had strong feelings about him, and was not afraid to meet him face to face, it being one of the few things aside from her brother, revenge and money that been on her mind.

I would have to be exact with Lescar when we finally came to meeting the minor criminals, I did not want to scare off or antagonize the little brats.

Child pickpockets might not sound like the best recruits for my budding plans, but at my current stage, even that would suffice, children were small and often not noticed in this city unless they got too close to stalls or someone else's money pouch, they were fast learners too, and finally, they were the only force not already being tapped by the powers that be.

From what I understood from Lescars words back in the glade, when we discussed the surface, aside from the more legitimate parts of the human landscape which was controlled by the city officials and nobles, a large swath of the more poverty-stricken area's of the city were under the thumb of multiple separate gangs that constantly wrestled for control.

These gangs numbered in the hundreds but only a few were of any notable size, that being the Targuda clan, the Botchy boys and the Steal enclave.

These gangs recruited from smaller gangs, usually picking the more promising or well-developed adults, gangs of minors like Lescar's old crew were generally ignored or chased away, understandable, children were pretty flimsy fighters and not very intimidating which left them as easy pickings for one as un-picky as I.

While I would certainly prefer some loyal adults, acquiring such an ideal thing was unlikely, it was more likely that I would simply get a shill or some sort of con artist.

'Of course,' I thought, glancing at the gleaming pile of dubine, 'I could always just buy some, I'd heard about a promising slave market... but then that had its own issues associated with it.'

Slaves were a common sight here, I had already seen dozens of the sods on the way to and from the adventurers guild, heavy shackles weighing them down, large black metal collars circling their necks as they toiled or carried things for their masters.

The collars all those slaves had been wearing, had seemed very different from the ones that bound my familiars to me, for one, they were visible.

Not a single one of my familiars collars could be seen, in fact, I had already confirmed that not one of my familiars, save for Lescar, even had a trace of their collars left, only Lescar had a collar that could be visibly seen and touched, but even then, only if I wanted it to be seen, the option for it to manifest physically being tied to my familiar menu.

The second thing I had noticed about these slaves was the fact that their collars were big and clunky often making it difficult for the slave to move freely.

And thirdly most of these slaves were oddly abnormal in appearance, looking primarily and mostly human save for a few alien or exotic traits normal people certainly did not possess, were all slaves mutants? or was there different races of humans unique to this world?

I suppose if races outside of humanity existed, it made more sense for them to enslave the other races over their own.

I would have thought the main slave trade would be done with regular humans, but the reality was different, most of the slaves I had seen so far had been obviously abnormal in some way, some having horns, while others had long talons for fingers some even had large bushy tails sticking out the back of their ragged pants, When I had asked Lescar about these strange humans, she had whispered without looking at the slaves that those were ab-humans, an inferior group of subspecies that traced their ancestry back to humanity.

It did not sound like Lescar really thought that ab-humans were inferior, but she didn't stop to bemoan or empathize with the chained ab-humans either, simply moving past the staring slavers who were dragging the beaten-down slaves behind them, as briskly as she could without breaking pace, the slaver's watching her pass with watchful and keen eyes.

Or had they been looking at me? it certainly felt like some of them had been staring a little too high towards Lescars shoulders, where I was perched to be studying her, at the time, however, none of those hungrily watching slavers had made a move.

Perhaps going to the slave market wasn't the best option for now, but something for consideration if Lescar's ex-gang did not pan out, although, before even that, I still wanted to discover the more important landmarks and disperse the fog of war shrouding my surroundings, as well as purchase some supplies for myself, Lescar, and my posey of monsters.

Coming back to myself in the present after a short moment of contemplation, I looked up and clicked,

"Lescar, I still want to meet those friends of yours, but for now I would rather we collect some supplies and familiarize ourselves with the local landscape."

"But I already know the landscape-" Lescar began somewhat impatiently before I interrupted her.

"Yes, I know you do, but I don't, and I want that to change, if I am to make my promise a reality I need to know these things myself, you understand partner?"

"yes..." Lescar said slowly her lips tilted down a slight pout.

It did indeed appear that Lescar was still eager to reunite with her old gang, perhaps her enthusiasm sprang from her improved physical prowess and my back up, as, while I was now smaller and physically less imposing, I had gained a whole slew of neat tricks for my trouble.

I brought up my menu and stats just to reconfirm, a necessary action that reassured me.

Level 0 Manticore cockroach- juvenile (Blatta Dermaptera venenum)

MIND- 0080 (accurate)

BODY- 0012 (accurate)

SOUL- 2676 (estimated)

Current traits/abilities

- Greatly heightened gross motor control

- Hydraulic force-based legs (hind)

- Filtered/aerobic tracheae (primitive lungs)

- Fortify mind

- Condensed mandibles

- Analysis+

- Familiar synergy

- Bolstered pincer cerci

- Stinger/venom glands (neurotoxin)

- Omni-dexterous plated tail

- Mana infused carapace

- Pragmatic

- Light infused soul bed

- Amplify

 

The list of changes and new traits had been staggering at first, and even now it made me quiver in excitement, this was the most I had accrued in a single level up ever, ascension had been no joke.

I dived deeper into trait descriptions both freshly overhauled and new, I may have already read it earlier, but the contents were still surprising. 

Some of the changes were only slight or made little difference, merely being an altered version of the original trait for the purpose of suiting my differing race better, condensed mandibles, and greatly heightened gross motor control were like this.

The heavier mandibles I wielded as my last race being too large for my current one and the motor control of this species already being very good had been pushed to new heights to remain relevant.

Two other traits had been further altered drastically or removed altogether, my second favorite trait that had saved my life many times in the past was no more, camouflage was gone.

It was unsurprising as It had been a racial trait of my previous species and so was lost when the change happened, I would shed a tear in respect if I had any tear ducts.

I looked over my brightly colored plumage like crest, hiding was no longer an option during trying times, a real shame.

I looked back at the second vastly altered trait, this one was a much happier occurrence if a little bitter at the same time.

Analysis+

Improved version of Analysis allows users to more easily view skills, descriptions, and outstanding traits of relevance, improved version further penetrates soul bed revealing hidden or dormant skills of both user and targets, analysis also keeps a basic compendium of recorded creatures and history.

It was a good thing that it was upgraded but bad news that it had to, It meant that there could be a lot more information that I would not be getting from this trait till it was fully upgraded, which I seriously doubted it was.

The upgraded trait had also revealed with its new potency another trait I had possessed for a long time.

Pragmatic

This individual is practical in the way they think and will not often hesitate to do what is most effective to achieve their goals, they are hard to convince of anything unless it holds obvious use, minor resistance to all mental attacks as a result.

Something I already knew about myself, so not terribly useful, although, the boost to my mental resistance sounds pleasant.

I looked at my older traits then at my newer ones, there were a lot of them, and many were fairly potent.

flexible pincer cerci

Rear forceps (tail pincers) can move freely and locomote in a full 360 degree's, are capeable of holding and manipulating items.

Stinger/venom glands (neurotoxin)

Small stinger located in between the pincers can inject venom rapidly, venom causes nerves to fire endlessly causing seizures and heart attacks as well as suffocation.

Omni-dexterous plated tail

Powerful banded plated tail can move fluidly around the entire body, helps maintain balance and increase kinetic awareness.

Mana infused carapace

The carapace is coursing with mana that helps shield the user from harm and can be used as a casting conduit at the cost of a loss of defensive power, adds some resistance to all magical attacks, extreme temperatures and a sizeable resistance to kinetic energy.

Amplify

Spiritual energies are run through a system dynamo, spiritual presence and force greatly increased.

This particular trait was the one that had boosted and multiplied my innate ability to radiate a sort of... Aura of fear? Domination...? Something I had been doing unconsciously for some time now and had only really noticed when I used it on Roulette earlier, I, believing the feeling to be nothing more than my own emotions flowing before that event.

I had a few abilities that were unexplained by the system and the ability to radiate fear and terror was one of them, my control and the unnatural spread of the forest being another.

Were these simply too high tier for analysis+ to pick them up? or was it something else? It was a mystery.

'Just another to chuck on the pile,' I said whimsically to myself before moving onto a trait that also had big ramifications and payout written all over it.

I couldn't spend all day thinking about things I had no clear answers to, I was a very busy cockroach.

I flicked down to the last trait of interest and read it carefully, the second time being just as disappointingly short on details as the first time.

Light infused soul bed (Awakened)

Users soulbed is seeded with Light.

'Ahhhh another vague description, this was the system I knew and learned to put up with,' I  had muttered the first time I saw this sentence.

Again, the system was imprecise or nonspecific on the fine details, but I knew that it had something to do with magic, the question was how to use that magic.

I had already tried back in my glade to create those same laser attacks that those adventurers had flung at me, and had failed miserably, the best I could do was make a ball of light that followed me around that was unstable and prone to exploding in a flash of blinding light.

I had not tried anything else since then, and likely wouldn't while we were present on the surface, a magic casting insect was sure to catch unwanted attention. 

I stopped perusing my menu, and flicked my antenna about as I readdressed my familiars, it had only taken me a couple of seconds to reread all of it, and my familiars still needed me to give them their orders.

Playing with my magic would have to wait, although, that did remind me... I would need to find some sort of teacher for Lescar both for swordplay and magic while I was up here...

But that could wait though, I would scout out the city first then come back for that.

The question was, who would I bring with me when I went out?

I studied each member of my band with scrutiny, gradually coming to a decision as I weighed up the best options, both for guarding the loot here and following me.

My eyes first came to rest upon a bony tailed rat.

While Roulette had become very protective of money now that she had associated it with food, leaving the playful and easily fooled Roulette alone to guard the treasure seemed a mite unwise.

She was more likely to get distracted by something and wander off, then while she was absent let all the treasure get stolen, she was not a good choice to leave behind.

On the flip side, Dwayne was not much of a viable option for taking with me, he was large, obvious, hard to miss, even harder to forget, and in general, attracted too much attention.

Even him fitting through doorways was a problem, he had barely squeezed his way past the front door of this rented house, almost ripping the frame out in the process.

And Dewey... as full of moxie and spunk as the little snot was, he could not pull his weight in either category, it was best if he simply stayed here as a support. 

That just left Lescar, the obvious choice, Lescar simply had to come with me, my whole plan was riding both figuratively and literally on her shoulders.

Not a single one of us except Lescar could actually speak words, meaning she was the only one capable of spreading my intentions, as indirect as that would be.

I had not been able to understand a single word out of any humans mouth save for Lescar, the noise sounding like meaningless dribble to me, it didn't help either, that, as a cockroach, I don't have conventional hearing, the hairs on my body acting as a sort of sound receptor.

All of this was likely due to some interference from the system or maybe just my own innate powers? regardless, my ability to comprehend Lescar's words was perhaps one of my most important abilities, as through her I could, in turn, understand the words of others and once I had that, I could manipulate and control the scenario, albeit all through Lescar in an indirect way.

It was a no brainer, Lescar was coming, I myself would not even be able to leave without her, someone would probably trample me.

That just left a second familiar, and I already had decided who I would take.

Roulette.

She was a bit of an invalid, but she was otherwise a good choice for accompanying me and Lescar.

She was flexible, and as seen earlier back in the sewers, a surprisingly deadly fighter, and additionally would not attract too much attention from others while maintaining a decent level of security.

Her major flaw being her naivety and general carelessness was largely abolished by my own presence, so long as I kept her in line, she was a great pick.

I clamped my jaws together with an audible clack, drawing all attention to me, 

"Lescar, Roulette, you two are with me, were going on a little field trip"

Roulette, who, even while still searching for coin snatching enemies looked up at this and said in a worried tone of voice.

"But the shiny things..." she began glancing at the coins in anguish before I cut her off.

"Dwayne and Dewey will guard those," I assured her before turning to face the bat and blue slug in question, "won't you?"

"Of course your majesty," Dwayne said calmly before he turned and said in a less calmly voice.

"Won't we soldier!?"

Dewey hopped up and down once before his single stalk bent around to his side and his gelatinous mass contorted into a sort of impromptu salute as the little slime stood to attention.

"!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!" Dewey pinged professionally, his blobular body still and stoic as a living jelly could be.

I rubbed my compound eyes with my feelers, 'where the heck had Dewey learned how or what a salute was? and why did Dwanye know what a soldier was? I had never told either of them about such things,' I questioned internally before dismissing it.

'Doesn't matter,' I thought, shaking my head, the two of them seemed plenty pumped for the job.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Dwane bellowed suddenly pounding his chest as Dewey beside him imitated him with a moist smack to his own round form with his eyestalk.

"!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!"

It looked like I could leave the house and earnings in Dwane's capable claws, and Dewey's enthusiastic stalk.

Shaking my head in amused exasperation, I scuttled across the table before crawling up Lescar's proffered arm and coming to rest coiled around Lescar's neck like a feathery scarf, Roulette cantering over to sit by Lescar's feet.

"Got everything," I whispered in Lescar's mind as she filled a coin pouch with dubine, we would need some for the little adventure we would be embarking on.

Checking herself over before quickly smoothing down her hair, Lescar said, "I think so."

I turned a critical eye to Lescar's appearance, she certainly looked a sight better than when I first saw her, she was now fleshed out, toned (if very slim) and overall the image of a very healthy looking young women.

Lescar was now openly attractive, which in itself could be a problem but also a blessing, beautiful people were usually treated better and favored over unattractive people, that was just the way humans were.

As I gazed appreciatively at Lescar, I realized something.

'I think she may have even grown a few inches over the past few days' I remarked to myself as I looked her up and down, it was hard to tell considering my own shrunken size, but Lescar had definitely grown taller. 

I wondered whether Lescar herself had noticed this briefly before Lescar looked at me questioningly, a slight look of alarm on her face as she checked herself over again.

"What is it? is something on my face?" Lescar said concernedly.

"Oh, no its nothing," I said quickly flicking my antennae about, "you just look a lot better than when I first met you."

Lescar blinked and didn't say anything, not sure how to respond to the praise before she said hesitantly.

"Um, thanks?"

An awkward silence filled the room and for a few seconds I felt the strangeness of my own words, 'why did I say that?' I covered my eyes with my frontal forceps.

The off-kilter atmosphere dispersed when Roulette impatiently said.

"Daddy? are we going or not?"

Snapping out of the embarrassment, another emotion that seemed new and fresh somehow despite my clouded human recollection, I answered swiftly, seizing the opportunity to put this behind me.

"Ahem! yes, it is about time we leave," I coughed, "Shall we, partner?" I said lightly touching an antenna to Lescar's shoulder.

The look of surprise and uncertainty on Lescar's face turned into one of a warm if unsure smile.

"Yeah, ok... partner," Lescar said pulling up the large hood she was wearing, hiding me inside its voluminous depths.

"Let's go sightseeing," Lescar said aloud with her real voice.

With a spry energy to her step, Lescar pushed open the front door, Roulette following behind her, the smile on her lips widening slightly as she left.