Trip to the Tournament
Clair POV
I´m near the main gate of the city, where we will depart in half an hour and a lot of people are here to wish us luck.
We have a convoy of 20 coaches, 10 for the teams and 2 for the teachers which will come with us. Each carriage will have 5 people and 8 carriages for supplies. Around 100 guards are also coming with us, for protection against bandits.
The other four teams are well balanced but not really noteworthy. The student council has way better stats and skill levels. Most of my team members have one stat over 5.000 and only two have a stat over 10.000 Ley and Alfred are the only ones. Each leader of the other four teams also have one stat in the 10.000.
"Clair?" Ilza, who is standing next to me, asked. Bringing me out of my thoughts.
"Yes?" I replied.
"Is everything right? You looked lost," She asked worriedly.
"Nothing important," I said.
"Could you please say again, why I´m not allowed to come with you?" Ilza asked.
"Because you have to train," I said.
"But I´ll be lonely without you," She pouted and tried a doggy eyes attack.
"That won´t help," I said while flicking her forehead and then continued, " And you´re not alone. Gerd and a clone will be with you," I said while she looked at me with faked teary eyes.
"But a clone is not you," She said.
"A clone is an exact copy from me," I said again. We had this conversation for at least 4 times.
"Mumumu, but you´ll be gone for at least 4 months," she protested.
"Look, I need someone who´ll look after the mansion," I said, trying to sound logical.
"Drull can do that, he´s stronger than me," she said, destroying my argument.
"But Drull would surely try to eat Uri if no one stops him," I said, now using arguments that are not really correct.
"But, but," Ilza tried to say something else but was interrupted by Lilia,
"Let it be Ilza, we aren´t allowed to bring guests and it would not bring anything if you come with us because we have no time. The whole tournament has a tight schedule."
"I´ll grant you a wish when we´re back okay?" I offered.
"Okay," she finally said. But still looked against the idea of leaving me.
"Good, then stay safe and eat enough," I said while hugging her.
"You have no right to say that," Lilia said smiling.
"Yes, you´re the one who isn´t eating healthy," Ilza said, to which I made a face that shows utter disbelieve and both began to laugh.
Shortly later we were in our coaches and we began to move to the tournament.
The first month of our journey was boring, to say the least, no monster attacked and no bandits as well, all we did was sitting in our coach and waiting for the end of the day. The only things that kept me motivated were the games I played with the people who were in my coach and my rune headphones. Hilde was really interested in them but didn´t like the EDM music I heard.
And we´re now inside an inn of a larger city, where we will stay for the day.
"Okay folks, we´ll stay here until tomorrow morning, you're free to roam the city but be back at night," Lilia said as we began to get our rooms.
""Okay ""
"I´ll be in my room, sleeping," I said and walked upstairs to my room, where I locked the door and changed into Dex. I then jumped out of the window and walked back inside the inn.
Where I walked up to Lilia.
"Hey, Lilia what are you doing here?" I asked with a grin.
"D..Dex what? Why?" She asked puzzled.
"Are you free?" I further asked.
"Yes, no, yes, what?" The still stunned Lilia said, not knowing why I changed into Dex.
"Good, then let´s go out shopping," I said smiling and put my arm around her waist, pulling her out of the inn, leaving a few similar stunned students behind.
We walked a few moments until Lilia was able to process the situation.
"Dex, why did you do this?" She then asked.
"Simple, this trip is boring and I want to spend time with you, which is not possible if I have to stay in my coach. So now we are on a date," I said, kissing her shortly, after my last words.
"But what about the students?" She asked.
"What about them? They are free for the day, as you said and there are 9 other teachers with us," I said, moving with her further into the direction to the shops.
"So where do you want to go first? Clothes? Books or something else?" Me
"Books...," She said, accepting her situation.
"Good," I said cheerfully. Many looked at us, understandable, a really stunning beauty as Lilia and then a custom made me.
We reached the bookstore, which was guarded by two guards, and were greeted by an elderly woman.
The store smelled like old books. Bookcases were left and right with a counter at the front.
"Good day, how can I help you in my humble store?" She asked with a smile.
"Hello, we´re just looking for a few books which he haven´t already in our small library," I said.
"What kind of genre do you seek?" She further asked.
"Dear, what kind of genre do you want?" I asked Lilia.
"Well maybe some books about the history of the Eisenberge or Schwarswald," Lilia said.
"Ah yes, I have a few about them. Interesting folk those dwarfs and elfs. Especially their habits, completely different from humans, "The elderly woman said and led us to a bookcase.
"These are all the books I have about elfs and there are the books about dwarfs," She said and pointed at the bookcase right next to the elfen bookcase.
"The books about humans are to the left and the books about beastkin are next of the dwarfs," She further said.
"What about monster and demons? Or religion?" I asked and she motioned me to follow her.
"Dear I´ll look for books about demons, choose whatever you like," I said and followed the woman, to which Lilia just nodded. She´s now completely in her own little world of books.
The elderly woman led me to a bookcase with only a few books and said with an apologetic face,
"Sorry, but there aren´t many books about demons, the border is closed and a constant war zone. These are all the books I have about demons."
"No thank you," I said and began to look through the books, looking for a few we do not have yet.
And even found one. I then proceed with looking for a few story books and then looked for Lilia, who I found indulged in a book.
"Found anything?" I asked while hugging her from behind, to which she jumped a little bit.
"Don´t sneak at me. And yes, a few books but this one is especially interesting," She said with a faked pouting face.
"What is it about?" I asked while looking at the book.
"It´s about the theses of an elfen researcher, he thinks that there was a different elfen race before the elfs. He calls them origin elfs," She said.
"He must mean the high elfs," I said to which Lilia turned around looking in my eyes.
"High elfs? You mean these elfs that Drull mentioned? Do you know more?" She asked inquiringly.
I smirked and said, "Only if I get a kiss."
"Here?" She asked. She´s not used to affections in the public, it´s not common to show this. Prude society, every little thing that goes over holding hands is expected to be done behind closed doors.
"Of course, where else?" I said, trying to show my handsomest smile.
She got a little red but tiptoed and kissed me.
"Now speak," She demanded eagerly, still a little red.
"Drull spoke about them, you know of the god in my inventory?" I asked and she nodded.
"Well the high elfs did some kind of ritual, that trapped him inside an orb, Drull got himself tricked to which he had to protect said orb and the high elfs lost almost all of their power and their children become the now known elfs. These high elfs also build the school dungeon and I think they invented the restoration rune," I explained.
"When was that?" Lilia asked.
"Don´t really know but Drull said something about being trapped for over 2500 years," I said.
Lilias eyes got wide.
"That´s old, how old is he?" She asked.
"Apparently 3040 years," I said.
"He must have a huge amount of mana to become so old," Lilia said.
"Yeah, over 9 million," I mumbled and Lilias mouth opened a little, which I closed with a kiss.
She glared at me but said nothing.
We then grabbed around 30 books and walked to the elderly woman.
"We´d like to buy these," I said.
"My these are a lot, hmm that would be 20 gold, "She said and I gave her the gold.
"Thank you and have a nice day," She said as we walked out.
"Now let´s look for some clothes," I said.
"But your clothes are way better than the ones we can buy here," Lilia said.
"True but I want to see my girlfriend dressing up for me in clothes which I didn´t know," I said to which she mumbled something about " Me your girlfriend? Hihihi".
"Yes you´re my girlfriend," I said with a smile and she stopped moving.
"You heard that?" She asked now beet red.
"If you don´t want me to hear something, you should stop to speak, my eavesdropping skill is LV 10, I´m able to hear everything that happens in a distance of 50 meters," I said with a teasing smile.
"Meanie," She said and quickly walked inside a small clothing shop.
I followed her with a smirk and was greeted by a slightly stunned young woman.
"Hi, did you saw a blond and beautiful woman rushing inside?" I asked the young woman.
"Y..yes, she grabbed some dresses and stormed inside the locker room," She said.
"Good," I said, walked around and found some Dessous, sadly only panties.
"Could you give these to her?" I asked the young woman. She got a little red and walked quickly to the locker room, from where I heard her saying.
"The good looking elfen man asked me to give you these," I ignored Lilias ranting about Dessous in the public and looked for some inspirations.
The young woman came back, followed by Lilia in a green dress.
"Looks good on you," I said with a smile and the young woman got red from seeing my smile.
The people in this world are easy to get red.
"Thanks," She said and mumbled, " but yours are better, and your "other" clothes are way better."
"We´ll buy it, can you show me the other dresses you grabbed?" I asked Lilia and she turned around to change.
"Do you also have some fabrics?" I asked the young woman.
"Y..yes, what colour and material do you want?" She asked.
"Red would be good and the softest you have, also is this your shop?" I said.
"Yes, it´s not much but I love to make clothes," She said and then moved to the back, fetching some fabrics.
She came back with a patch of red silk like fabric.
"This is the softest I have, it´s Mururi silk," She said proudly.
"How much?" I asked.
"I can´t sell it for less than one gold," She said, not expecting to sell it for this much money.
"Bought, I myself have the hobby to make clothes, do you want to see one of my creations?" I said and gave her a gold coin, which she took wide-eyed.
"Yes I´d love to," She said and I gave her a bra in her size.
"This is one of my creations. I noticed the distress after running, women have with their breasts. It should be your size, ask my girlfriend how you put it on, " I said and she looked at the skilfully made black bra.
"Such fine craftsmanship," She said marvelling the bra. Moving with her fingers along the seams.
"Try it," I said and she nodded and rushed to the locker room, from where I then heard Lilia protesting about my habit of showing off.
Both came back, Lilia, this time, wearing a black dress with some frills. The young woman wears the same clothes as before.
"I think it doesn´t matter which clothes you wear. You look good in everything," I said smiling. Such poor lines somehow work easily in this world. That or she is simply just too pure. And I think both might be the case because both get red.
I turned to the young woman and asked, " Did you get it on? How does it feel?"
"Yes, it fits perfect and feels great," She said.
"These bras are for the breasts of women, they hold them and can reduce the back pain you´ll get after running. They also prevent sagging breasts," I explained, to which both got red, don´t know why, this is an expert discussion.
"They are also good for bed games," I said and gave her a sexier variation. She looked at Lilia and got beet red, to which Lilia got red.
"You can keep them and if you´re good enough you can reproduce them. And how much for both dresses?" I said and asked.
"You don´t have to pay for them, these "bras" are enough payment. Thank you, may I know your name?" She said while bowing.
"My name is Dex, you don´t have to thank me, I want to spread this fashion, " I said and walked out with Lilia.
"Why did you do that?" She asked me as we were out.
"Just for fun, don´t ya also think that the clothes for women are way too boring?" I said.
"They are in comparison with yours," Lilia agreed.
"Then why not spreading my clothes? But more important I´m hungry let´s find a restaurant," I said and we walked searched for a restaurant, which we found shortly after.
The waiter got our order and we both began to eat while speaking about the tournament.
"Please keep the causality to a minimum," Lilia said.
"Fine, but I´m allowed to break some bones if they attack me," I argued.
"Can´t you just make them unconscious with your mana pressure?" She asked with pleading eyes.
I sighed and said, "fine, but I will kill the monster in the survival round and am allowed to fight normally in the normal tournament," I stated.
"That´s fine, they´ll get reconstructed inside the arena," Lilia agreed.
"How long do we need to travel anyway?" I asked.
"Around a month, maybe a little shorter," She answered.
"Boring," I said.
Lilia then excused herself, she had to go to the toilet.
I kept eating and finished my meal, but she didn´t come back. To which I got worried.
I paid and walked to the toilets, where I changed into Clair and walked inside.
"Lilia are you here?" I asked but got no reply.
I looked into the stalls and at the last one, two windows popped up.
You got poisoned by Furngu Sleeping Powder
You resisted Furngu Sleeping Powder
"Really?" I asked out loud and checked for her mana, which surprisingly was under me.
She must be in the sewers, I thought and looked for a hidden door but found none. I then looked for the back-door which was right behind the toilets.
I changed back to Dex, rushed out of the restaurant looking for an entry way into the sewers.
And found one in a dark side way.
I jumped down, turned my smelling skill off and began to run in the direction of Lilias mana signature.
Which led me to a wall. Which quickly turned out as a moving wall as I saw it with my trap skill. Apparently this kind of walls are stated as traps, am I then also able to see human traps?
If so I wished I had this skill before I saw Boku no Pico.
I looked for the mechanism that opens the wall and found a small hole for some sort of key, which I have not. So I simply kicked the wall in.
I was greeted by zombies and skeletons.
"Seriously? Don´t say that she was kidnapped for some necrophiliac," I said but only got a groaned "OAHR" as an answer.
I conjured some lights and willed a few holy spears into existence which then attacked the zombies and skeletons. Both quickly died at the onslaught of their nemesis attribute.
Yes, necromancy spells are existent and from the dark attribute. Normal zombies are a Tier 4 spell and skeletons are a Tier 5 spell. There are higher spells for flesh Golem or bone monster but these are not here. So I can safely conclude that the caster is not from a higher Tier than the fifth.
I rushed along the path and noticed that all of the zombies were females, which further strengthened my worries about a necrophiliac.
Twenty zombies and around the same mass of skeletons later I heard someone speaking.
"Soon my dear, soon we´ll be finally back together," a male person said.
I began to sneak and found a large room with a few more skeletons and zombies and Lilia on a desk, next to a female corpse which has a lot of seam stitches on her body.
The room is dark and there is blood on the floor and I´m also able to see a bloody mountain of body parts and flesh in the corner.
"This woman has the last peace for you, my dear," a now visible man said. He looked deadly pale and has sunken cheeks and large dark eye backs. He took a knife from a table and began to move to Lilia. Which was the moment I stepped in and conjured earth shackles to bind him while destroying his guards with holy spears.
"Who are you?" The man demanded.
I simply ignored him and walked up to Lilia checking for her pulse which was in the same rate as if she was sleeping.
"Did you give her something else than the Furungu Sleeping Powder?" I asked.
"What are you doing in my sanctuary? Are you here to stop me from regaining my love?!" He screamed in a crazy tone, saliva dripping from his mouth.
I ignored him and conjured a Tier 10 light spell, " Heilige Siria, reinige diese Person mit deinem Licht und Extrahiere alle Gifte in ihr, [Heilige Reinigung]"
A light enveloped Lilia and a white mist flowed out of her mouth. But I kept her sleeping with my own magic, so that she won��t wake up in this environment.
The man looked at me with a hateful gaze and tried to shout something but I shut his mouth with another earth shackle.
Then I looked at the corpse and saw that it was a woman build out of different women, the arms match each other, as well as the legs. It seems like he used each part that is double from one woman but not four things were the same. The nose, lips, hair and ears are all different and don´t match the original face. But there are no eyes, which I conclude to his first sentence. Seems like this corpse should get Lilias eyes.
"So you tried to kidnap my girlfriend and for her, as I have to agree, beautiful eyes?" I asked in a threatening voice.
The man tried to say something only muffled things came out of his sealed mouth.
"And it looks like you killed quite a lot of women for this corpse," I said and conjured a flame over the corpse, to which he start to muffle in a pleading tone.
I then start to slowly burn the corpse. The man began to cry and muffled more pleading things, which I ignored.
I finished burning the corpse and released the man from his mouth shackle.
"Why? All the work I did for my love, gone.... gone!" He screamed and looked hatefully at me.
"You had it coming, no one is allowed to kidnap my girlfriend," I said.
"You could have simply taken her and leave," He said between sobs.
"Yeah but you ruined my date," I said sternly.
"So what? I just wanted to resurrect my love!" He screamed.
"Why couldn´t you have taken corpses from the graveyard?" I asked him.
"They have to be fresh, a corpse from the graveyard is too old," he said.
"Well then tough luck you for meeting me," I said and picked Lilia up.
"You monster," the man said.
"Yes, I´m a monster but you´re the one who´s killing women for their body parts, which makes you the same. And monster have to be killed haven´t they?" I said.
"I don´t care, all the work I did is gone," he said and I ended his life with an earth spear.
I then walked back to the surface and back to our Inn, where I was seen by a few students. They looked at me with curiosity but didn´t say anything while I carried Lilia in a princess carry up to her room.
I laid her down at her bed and then gently nudged her and she woke up.
"Dex? What happened? I... I touched the toilet cabin and then... I don´t know what happened afterwards." She said confused.
"Everything is fine, someone made a joke by applying sleep powder on the cabin door. I found you sleeping and carried you back, where I healed you," I lied, not wanting to say the truth.
Only someone desperate or a complete psycho, like me, would do something like this guy.
"Thank you," Lilia softly said and hugged me. I returned the hug.
"I have to go, it´s gotten late and the students will come back," I said and took the bought books out of my inventory, which I put on a desk.
I gave Lilia a short kiss before I left, meeting a few interested students as I walked out of the door.
I went around the Inn, changed into Clair and came back trough the window.
And heard the students as they bombarded Lilia with questions about Dex as I walked out or dinner.
I walked up to their desk and asked," Hey, what´s so interesting?"
"A really hot elfen guy came inside, with Miss Malinda in his arms, he brought her up to her room and then left," A female student said.
"Yeah and I saw them both in a clothes shop this noon," Another female said.
"Who was that?" The first one asked Lilia.
"That was Dex, my... my boyfriend," Lilia said shyly and was then bombarded by another wave of questions about his origins, how they met and so on. I simply smiled at her misfortune.
"Ask Clair, it´s her brother," Lilia suddenly said and rushed upstairs.
Both girls then slowly turned their head in my direction with a creepy grin on their faces.
"Huh?" was the last thing I was able to say before the questions began....