Chapter One Hundred and Ten The Trouble with Jelly Dragons
Phillip tucked the sleeping dungeon girl into her spare bed. The guild had been quite hectic after the announcement and she had ended up spending some time bonding with Misaki. She was so cute laying there as she slept. A part of her was tempted to shed the dress she was wearing and join her.
Instead she turned away, catching a glimpse of her outfit in the mirror. A visible reminder of her lack of pants. She sighed, wondering if she would ever get a pair of pants again. It didn’t help that Melisa had taken it upon herself to make sure she was properly dressed. While Phillip couldn’t say they looked bad on her, the outfits just felt... childish. She really looked adorable in the outfit, it was a very cute one with plenty of ribbons and frills. Far too many for her own comfort, she would have preferred something more plain, even better if it didn’t have a skirt. Strangely the skirt didn’t seem to bother her as much as it had at first. Something she tried not to think about.
Instead she took a moment to look over one of her latest notifications. A smile graced her lips. It seemed Mira, Michael and Delilah were doing well. Even better they were showing some promise as adventurers, as they had defeated a Regional Boss. A newborn one to be sure, but it was still an achievement.
Stepping out of the room, she found Melisa waiting outside the door. She started walking back to the office and after a moment began, “I presume you saw the notification?”
“I did, do you have something in mind?”
She nodded, “I’d like you to prepare a rank up exam for those three. I’m sure they have gained a few levels from their encounter and they will need a suitable reward for the task. The original quest reward is completely inadequate since the target evolved.”
“I agree, which is why I already got started on increasing the reward to a level suitable for the difficulty.”
Phillip blinked, she remembered that Melisa came recommended to her by fellow Guild Mistress Sierra. She was talented indeed, anticipating problems like that and moving to solve them. It was a shame she wouldn’t let her wear pants though. Sadly, not even her patron Timura would let her wear pants. That thought reminded her that she still needed to visit a shrine to Timura. There was one recently finished in the town, a temple ground with shrines to the many gods, but she had not gone. Phillip was afraid to go, she wasn’t certain that she should.
Pushing the fears, uncertainty, and pain aside, she focused on her own job. It was the best she could do. Regardless, she found herself thinking that maybe she should stop hesitating and visit the temple. Just not right now, she was too busy for that.
Mira blinked the evening light out of her eyes. Shifting, she sat up and soon noticed she wasn’t as naked as she recalled. Her armor was gone, but someone had wrapped her breasts and found her something to cover her crotch. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to protect her modesty.
A moment later Emiri came into view, the girly elf smiled, “Ah the hero is awake. Sleep well?”
She frowned, “Well enough, and I am not a hero.”
He chuckled, “Sure you don’t have the title, or the blood, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t one. You are to me, I was in a tight spot when you killed that Slime Emperor. Thankfully, the slimes dispersed after he went down.”
“Oh, um, you’re welcome?”
A pair of figures entered her view. They were her pets and she smiled, happy to see them. She noticed that Michael had replaced her ruined armor with an outfit similar to the one she herself was wearing. Basically little more than a breast wrap and a makeshift skirt. Regardless, beggars couldn’t be choosers, and Michael seemed okay in her new outfit. Delilah however was still wearing the robe she had gotten from the demon. The outfit seemed no worse for the wear. Looking around she noticed that plenty of other people had traded their armor for something else. That naked elf didn’t stand out as much now that most of them were now half-naked.
Delilah smiled, “Glad to see you are up, we were getting ready to head back.”
She glanced to Emiri, who said “I don’t want to set camp up here, I’d rather we get back to town. If we leave now we should get there just after dark.”
Mira glanced around, they had been hit hard thanks to Flamewind forcing them into a reckless frontal assault. She had to admit it would be difficult to make camp given the supplies and equipment they lost. If anything strong showed up they would likely be in trouble. “I understand, in that case we better get going.”
“Before we leave, I do have a question for you.”
She gave Emiri a look, “A question?”
“What are you going to do with your new slaves?” he said pointing to three girls sitting off to the side staring at the hill. One of them was the Vampire girl that spoke to her earlier. “Since you killed Flamewind, they are yours by right now.”
Mira knew what Emiri was talking about. There were many old laws regarding slaves. A dead master did not make them free, but rather left them to be inherited by others. Either by family or the hand that killed the master. There was more to it than that, but she had never really paid attention to the slave laws. Mostly due to her having little reason to pay attention to them, she never owned slaves before and she wasn’t from a place where slavery was widely practiced. The Theocracy was very involved in the slave trade, but other places weren’t. In the Empire, the only forms of legal slavery were debt slavery and criminal slavery. “I’m not really sure. I guess I will send them to my mother. She could use a couple of attendants now that I think about it.”
“Well you have time to think about it. Honestly I feel a little sorry for those girls having heard their stories. Perhaps you should talk to them first before you make a decision.”
She smiled, “I will.”
Moments later the group started heading back. By now the healers had gotten everyone to the point they could travel, if they had needed it. Thankfully, aside from Flamewind, injuries were light. Most of the damage was taken in the form of clothing and minor acid burns. The second was easily treated with a healing spell. The first however would require visiting town and buying new outfits. Mira just wasn’t sure about visiting Carol, but sadly she was the only tailor in town.
Nothing could be done about that. As the town grew, more people would come and the number of tailors would grow. Until then they would either have to buy from Carol or travel to other towns. The closest was the town of Sunblossom, but that was still several day’s travel away.
For a while they traveled in silence. Mira guided the way with her skills. There wasn’t much to talk about that couldn’t wait and they did need to reach town soon. The fading light of the day cast long shadows as they passed, a reminder that they needed to either reach town or make shelter for the night. Honestly, if they were going to camp they should have started already.
They were just entering a clearing when they heard powerful wingbeats. That was the only warning they had before a dragon of all things landed before them. It was large with powerful looking legs, thick wings and covered with aquamarine scales, but what Mira noticed most was how translucent the wings were. How its body looked, it was one of the rarer dragon species. A fucking Jelly Dragon of all things. How were they supposed to fight that? They were exhausted from their recent battle with the Slime Emperor, worse Dragons tended to be fairly high in level. With strong bodies and powerful skills, where would they even run? It could fly faster than they could march, its sight could see them anywhere in the forest and it had the power to easily smash trees to reach them.
She froze, not sure what to do. Someone shouted, “Dragon!”
Then it opened its mouth a powerful breath of magic gathering. Her mind realizing the danger, she did the only thing she could think of, “DOWN!!!”
Shouting loudly just before falling to the ground. Rocks and soil greeted her and others as a Jelly Dragon’s breath sprayed above her. Regardless she felt some of it hit her and her world turned dark. A notification popped, but she wouldn’t read it for hours to come.
The two wagons rumbled down the path as the evening sun started to dip down the horizon. The young girl stretched and suppressed a yawn. She knew she could go to sleep on her roll, but she was too excited to sleep. Even if her body was telling her it was time she got to bed, how could she when she was finally so close to seeing her savior, her knight again?
It had been a long journey, the lack of roads leading here and Mommy not wanting to cross Theocracy lands had meant traveling through the Empire into Elven lands. Namely into the kingdom of Stormwind. They had made a stop at Sunblossom where a second wagon and a few elves had joined them on this trip. The young girl was not sure who the elves were, but she had the feeling they were important. Why else would they be dressed the way they were? Well the one only wore panties, but the others looked like nobles and their guards. Four of them in fancy enchanted armor.
Moving from her seat, she walked towards the front and looked out at the town growing in the distance. As it was bathed in the evening light, she watched it. It was her knight’s town and she could not wait to see him again. Mommy didn’t even tell him she was coming, so this was going to be quite the surprise. Something she was already imagining in her mind. It was going to be real fun. She giggled to herself imagining the encounter. One that had taken far too long to come to bear, but now she was here on the cusp of seeing her knight again.
Lily and her friend walked up the steps to her Manor. She was coming home after a long day of play with her friends. Ira and her were planning a bit of a sleepover, which Mom had approved. As they entered the door, Ira chittered excitedly, about the games they were about to play. It was going to be a fun evening, Lily just knew it.
A moment later, her Mother Ivy stepped out from behind a corner, a smile on her face and as Lily was still getting used to she was still quite naked. Yet her mother seemed more comfortable today then she had in the past. In fact whatever had happened between her and her father seemed to have done a great deal for her mood. Even if Lily now had to get used to having two mothers. “Ira! Glad you could make it. I have Lily’s room all set up for the sleep over. Do make yourself at home.