Gifts

The succubus timidly shook her head making sure not to take her eyes off the man. "I don't know who you are," she said loudly hoping to grab the attention of at least one of the guards or one of her fellow succubi.

Her hopes were shattered when the guards continued to diligently perform their tedious and her fellow succubi did not move even a muscle.

Ignoring her actions the man gave her a light nod, "That's to be expected, but whether you know me or not is not important," said the man while phasing through the cage and proceeding to approach the succubus who dearly wished to merge with the wall behind her.

"What is important is this," said the man as he touched the succubus on her chest and at that very moment a runic formation shining with numerous colors flashed all over the succubus' skin for an instant before fading to be replaced with a second runic formation which tried to attack the man.

"Still a monster I see," muttered the man in a low voice while looking at the flame desperately trying to burn his hand.

"How did you know about that?" asked the succubus in a terrified voice.

The man didn't bother himself to answer her question, he continued to look at the flame on his hand for a while longer before flicking his wrist to get rid of the flame after which he brought his attention back to the succubus, "Well this complicates things, seems like I'll have to trouble with a minor task."

"I don't know what you want from me. She..." the succubus tried to explain but the man's raised palm perfectly delivered the message and she didn't dare disobey. "Young ones should learn to listen," said the man, "What I want from you is to merely have what's mine at hand when I return to collect."

The succubus limited herself to only look at the man at that point which earned her a mental nod from the man as he continued, "This is how things will be," said the man as he tapped the succubus' temple twice taking care to avoid the flames. "I'll give you two gifts if you may, to help you out at your task. An insurance as well, let's have your life as collateral."

"How much time do I have?" the succubus asked the key question in a strained voice.

The man thought for a moment, "Until I decide to retrieve it from you. It'd probably be a while if nothing notable happens."

"As for the favors, one is freedom from this place since your task requires you to travel quite a bit. Second, something to help you get stronger, I can't have you dying too easily out there and you might need to guard it for me until I come get it."

"How do I find 'it'?" asked the succubus.

"Head to the Lotus Flame Domain, with a bit of luck you'll be able to find it there." answered the man after thinking for a bit.

He stood up at that point and left the succubus without paying her one more glance. The succubus was left deep in her thoughts as she tried to wrap her head around what just happened. From the look of things the other succubi didn't seem to have noticed the man. But the succubus didn't dare to think that she was merely imagining things, the terror had taken root deep in her heart, it reminded her that she'd just met unimaginably higher existence.

At that point the succubus tried to examine her body to find out what exactly had been done to it. It took her a while to find three new formations in her body, which she tried to investigated further.

'A high level eleven use teleport formation on a living being without using a medium and all it took to place it was a tap, the hell did I get dragged into? I can't even determine the uses of the other two, the best I can determine is that they're seal type formations. And I'm supposed to be a genius formations master. I'm way out of my league, I have to go to Frost Shroud, lets hope that this Lotus Flame is in the same direction.'

'I wonder how long is a 'while'' the succubus sighed loudly which caused some of her fellow succubi to look at her which pissed her off quite a bit.

She decided to try and sleep for now, she'll try come up with a proper plan tomorrow morning when she's calmed down.

She was woken up the next morning by the guards as they were preparing the demons for some guests to view through a crystal ball, it seemed that the guests in question had already picked up a sprite and a mountain goblin and the guards were pulling them along as they looked for more creatures to add to the collection. She watched as the guards approached the incubus' cage and they pulled out a light yellow stone which made almost made the succubus to gasp in shock.

'An Oculux Stone, someone is picky to use it on commoner stage monsters.'

The guards used the Oculux Stone to examine each incubus and transmitted the results to whoever was on the other side of the crystal ball, eventually one incubus was chosen. The guards pulled out an oath disk belonging to the incubus' new master which they proceeded to use to magically enslave the incubus.

An Oculux Stone was a treasure to be certain, one that the succubus wouldn't mind having. A thought that brought her attention to the sprite being pulled along with the guards. If she were to get the sprite's help she might have a chance at stealing it, and since she could teleport a little risk wouldn't hurt.

Most likely.