CH15: Young Mistresses Are Toxic

Red's wooden blade cut through old sinews and green fresh wood. An arm from a man spoken about in rumor and legend fell free. Sticky, bloody sap spilled on the ground, and roots struck like constrictors reaching up to entrap the source and keep them from ever leaving. A hard kick knocked a walking corpse with paper skin away before a slash split open its body, and twisted vines reached out. He punched forward, breaking the nose of a twisted blend of man and tree, clutching a spear fused to his arm. Red raised his hand, and a fireball gathered with light reflected in his foe's eyes before exploding.

Red took the latest door frame off his back and slammed it on the ground before shoving a key through the hole and escaping from Eldren Hollow.

"Go and have Rexy lick you. T-rex spit from a rare-tier spirit beast is powerful. It will keep the spores from transforming your flesh." Viviane said.

His teacher knew so much. There were many little tidbits of information that he could never guess.

Red didn't even question it. He opened the glass door, and Rexy turned her massive head to give him her full attention. The hot, muggy temperature of the other world hit him then, along with the higher-than-normal oxygen in the air. Qi was so plentiful it was heavy in the air. Spirit beasts like Rexy could cultivate by breathing.

She had grown.

Her active hunting only accelerated the process.

"I need you to lick me clean."

"Fetish" Spirit beasts just happened to develop their intelligence quickly and received enlightenment from their ancestors. Red had accelerated the process. She shouldn't be as intelligent as she was until Epic-tier or Nascent Soul realm. If she's curious, odds are good that she can find the information. In his case, she believes Red to be a deviant with a great desire to make her his woman.

"No, it's for my health."

"Definitely a fetish." She huffed in his face slowly before spreading her lips and showing off a wall of dagger-like teeth. They gleamed in the sunlight like metal instead of bone. Her breath smelled like blood and mud from the nearby stream.

She opened her mouth slowly before clacking her teeth before his face. "I really don't have a fetish." Red said.

"This isn't for you." She opened her mouth wide and inserted him between her jaws. Red stared up at the back of her throat. She lashed out and smacked his face with her tongue. Then she pulled it over his face while a shower of drool fell around him. He felt her tongue smash into his chest and push him against the roof of her mouth. He felt her pull him off his feet before she abruptly dropped him. "There is your cleaning fetish satisfied?" Rexy turned her head and lapped at her scales.

"Cleaning fetish," He heard a noise that meant she was doing the equivalent of rolling her eyes. "Some of my ancestors were dragons, and they often had their mates help them clean their scales until they shined. It is a fetish I can't indulge myself, but you're small enough to clean quickly."

Red watched T-rex drool drip off his clothes and felt anything but clean. He said his goodbyes and returned to the main lobby. Viviane watched him with her cheek resting on a hand. "You know, a shower could have worked just as well.

"Are you going to teach me how to blacksmith yet?"

"Maybe you can reach level 100 in the skill I already taught you," Viviane said.

Red groaned and checked his map. The Green Hood lived in the Eldren Hollow heartland. He was stuck on the outskirts and needed to get past the younger growth. People went to the hollow, cut a stake, and used it to kill vampires, and the curse naturally brought them back to the hollow, where they became cursed tree guardians.

The trees themselves were common-tier, nothing special except their cursed nature. Anything made with that wood must be uprooted and fully rendered to avoid harmful effects. When he said fully rendered, he also meant the roots and stump. It wasn't worth dealing with.

He changed his armor and put on a new set with some plates added for protection.

…

Red entered where he left to the smell of burning flesh. Trees swayed, and warriors gripped their trunks like rats to a sinking ship. He felt his foot hit something sticky. An almost invisible strand of silk pulled on his chainmail.

He drew his sword and touched the strand before gently stepping over it. Red smiled and took a few steps forward until another strand touched his chest. He became concerned when he ducked the latest strand and felt his arm hit something else.

Something peered down in the trees with far too many eyes for Red's comfort. He raised his crossbow and fired. The explosion revealed over 20 massive arachnid shapes. Red did the responsible thing and fired up, pumping his crossbow and sending the forest into an uproar.

Eldren Hollow was almost like a hornet nest. Kick it; every hornet will immediately swarm whatever bothered it. He did the equivalent of jamming lit pieces of dynamite into it.

He opened the door he left and closed it behind him. Red waited a good hour before returning and ventured further in with a replacement door. Ash covered the ground, and the burnt ground crunched underfoot. Flaming bodies with wood instead of bone littered the ground, and some had extra limbs that made them look like spiders.

The inner hollow wasn't much different from the outer hollow, except the trees were taller, and the cursed looked more aware instead of less.

One stepped forward wearing actual clothes and even smiled, revealing wooden teeth.

"You're causing quite a commotion, but you must want something in the hollow. Why don't you tell me what it is, and I can get it for you so you can be on your way?" The cursed man said.

He looked far more put together than the cursed people of the outer hollow. Like the others, the man's face looked made from freshly pressed paper instead of bark. It was off-putting.

"I want an audience with Green Hood and learn Sage Arts from him," Red said.

The man pointed at him and shook his head. "Now, why did you have to make such an unreasonable request? Even if you wanted one of us to help you kill a vampire, it could have been done but to see the sage. No one sees him. He's been meditating for nearly three hundred years. Someone like you won't disturb him." Red had to accept that negotiations had failed before they even began.

He raised his crossbow, and the man dashed from side to side and shot forward. Red thought he had the timing right and fired, only for the man to pause in his movements and watch the arrow fly wide.

A blow aimed for his head flew fast, and Red parried with his sword. The man looked surprised when Red slammed his palm into the man's wooden chest. When he couldn't move because his joints fused together, Red bashed his formerly cocky face with the hilt of his sword.

More of the fighters joined in, and Red quickly overwhelmed himself. He did the only thing he could and retreated. It wasn't over. He would get the skill he wanted.

…

It was hit turn to watch the lobby. There was a lull in the customers, giving him time to toss back a supplement potion from Vicky. He slammed the empty bottle on the counter before tossing it in the recycling bin. A little strength returned to his muscles from dancing with Viviane earlier. He looked around, counting 10 customers to his 4 slime queens standing at attention, watching for any hint of shoplifting. It was shaping up to be a lazy, if profitable, day.

The yellow pills sold so well they had to raise the price to keep up with demand 4 times, and people still bought them out of stock by lunch most days.

Red had fallen into a routine.

He worked for weeks dancing with Viviane, crafting crossbows to complete his order, and making strides toward his physical attribute limit. Red was careful not to turn in more crossbows than needed for his weekly quota. More concerning, some of his doors had moved to different parts of the map. All of his keys were accounted for, but he had to add them to the map to highlight the doors that had been moved.

The map of the Crimson Kingdom had a shotgun blast pattern of possible doors he could use. He wouldn't use them because they were most likely ambushes.

The door opened while he was manning the counter, and a young woman walked in with a dozen guards behind her.

"Is this the establishment that sells those disgusting pills?" Red looked up from his dragon taming for dummies book to see a woman who fit the classical jade beauty look. The men with her looked smug at all the wooden weaponry. One even smirked at the slime queen with common-tier attributes. Wearing a suit of full plate wooden armor.

He pulled his dao sword and poked at her armor. "What is this woman doing playing guard for a shop? She should be home taking care of children."

"I am Lori Pluto, first daughter of Hector Pluto, and I demand you tell me why you sold my brother such terrible pills." She threw a handful of orange pills on his counter.

"He didn't buy those from us. They aren't even the right color." Red said after glancing at them.

"You can't hide the truth from me. I know my brother had to get them somewhere, and this shop is known for selling male enhancement pills that even mortals can afford." She rolled her eyes in derision. "Tell me the truth, or you will trade pointers with this mistress of the divine fist of the underworld."

Red pulled a golden pill from behind the counter and laid it beside the one she had brought. "Someone lied to you. We don't deal in bad products here." He glanced at the two men jeering at his slime queen guards. One of them touched the boob armor of a slime queen. "Why don't you test them on two of your guards?"

Lori turned to see one of the idiots with his hand on Stacy, the slime queen's boob armor still. "Your use of spirit beasts is disgusting. This place is a den of sin. You will cease dispensing those pills or face my divine fist."

She won't see reason. No, it's worse. She had long since chosen to go against him. For all he knew, this was a scheme to sell the pills herself. He couldn't take anything she told him at face value.

Two more slime queens entered from the hallway behind him. They had all reached the common-tier in attributes. That was the equivalent of qi gathering for these people. The girl was a high-foundation establishment or uncommon-tier. Her guards were low foundation establishment. So, Red would most likely lose if it came to a fight despite the parity of numbers. Her divine fist of the underworld skill might be uncommon, rare, or epic. Though he hoped it wasn't epic-tier. If she had an epic-tier skill and had it far more practiced than his own, then with her higher attributes, he wouldn't stand a chance.

Fighting her wouldn't be a fun dance of blades like his dancing practice with Viviane. They turned on some music; it was half flirting, half combat. He discovered that fairy women are complete flirts. This situation was completely different from that. One of the guards inched closer to a crossbow on display while a slime queen shuffled behind him. A seventh had snuck in. He had a total of 8 slime queens. The eighth was only trash-tier still.

Red was sure his slime queens would win their fights. Their cores were behind two inches of the enchanted wood plate, wood chainmail, and gambeson padded jackets. They focused a lot on strength builds, and their bodies could have incredible impacts. They each had stakes that dealt light damage to their hips. Each of those stakes could pierce steel.

The armor with small steel plates sown into important locations wouldn't be much protection. Red's slime queens didn't move like humans and had skills like regeneration, absorption, and acid spray. Adding an additional number tipped the scales heavily in Red's favor.

That, of course, all hinged on if he could fight against Lori long enough for their advantages to come into play. He licked his lips. The fight wasn't certain, and his customers had already left. Red's hand had already crept to his sheathed blade. The counter between them would be to his advantage, thanks to the reach of his weapon.

A punch filled with death flew forward as he slid back and raised the flat of his blade, angled for a parry. He planned to lead her into the counter even without seeing her technique. She threw a kick slow but powerful, well practiced as his slime queens engaged the guards, and one struck a guard behind with her stake. Light flashed, blinding him momentarily as he moved to the side and raised his blade to parry the punch she threw after using her kick as a feint. She stumbled, climbing on the counter as he struck at her knee with the flat of his weapon.

Killing her would be a bad idea. Another flash of light spelled an end to another guard. Three-on-one with excellent gear would always end in his favor. His eyes adjusted to the second flash long enough to see a fist wreathed in shadows aiming for his heart. An image of a king wearing a helmet of shadows appeared behind Lori, and it decreed death in its black toga.

He felt cracks in his weapon from previous parries. Her fist technique was powerful, so he did the only thing he could think of doing. He pulled out his practice sword and blocked the attack.

Red felt his feet leave the ground, and his back hit a door, but his weapon held firm. Epic-tier equipment efficiently handled her divine fist. He returned the training sword to his bag.

"Is this worth letting your men die?"

"They knew what they signed up for. If they die in my service, then it's their honor."

Only two left, and 8 slime queens slowly replaced their damaged armor.

"Even if you have the advantage in numbers, you do not dare kill a mistress of the Pluto family. I can't lose; you will pay the price for every man who dies here." The crazy bitch said.

She lunged, and he slipped into her guard and slammed the pommel of his sword against her temple. The cultivator collapsed like a sack of potatoes. The girl might have been faster and stronger, but he had a better technique. Even at level 30/250, Lake Bed Dance was a better skill than hers.

So, he was in a lose-lose situation. For 1200, he could close the location and lose a market, or he could open another location in the same world and close this location. Red purchased a new location and then paid the price to close this one. It was just the price of doing business.

"Please have mercy."

Red raised a hand to stop his guards from killing the rest of her guards. He hopped up on the counter and crossed a leg over his knee.

"Alright, then you should know I changed the location of my shop. We're no longer in Hades City. You can go out and look if you don't believe me." One of the guards ran to the door and opened it before quickly shutting it.

"We're in Mitra City across the Back Sea. I worked as a mercenary here years ago under General Memnon during the war for the throne. How did you do this? Only those of the Nascent Soul realm should be able to teleport freely, not whole buildings."

"Well, why don't you tell me about this place while I get rid of the bodies," Red said.

"There is not much to tell; they practice the divine fist of Mithra and mostly have spirit roots of yang and fire. They don't wear the dresses of men; instead, they wear pants like the heathens they are." The man glanced at Red's pants. "You would get along well with them if not for your lying, cheating ways."

Red raised an eyebrow. "These people are the Mede. It is forbidden for their people to lie, which is considered the greatest sin imaginable."

"I haven't lied. My products do exactly as they say they do. Customers, when they enter my shop, gain the ability to appraise everything. Glance at an item and think appraise."

"What are you going to do with the bodies of the fallen?"

"I was going to feed them to my spirit beast."

"Barbarian, that is a crime against the gods."

Red stared at the long cracks running up and down his sword. "Your mistress is to blame. If she hadn't accused me of selling bad products and punished the shop responsible for the counterfeits, then none of this would have happened."

Seeing his weapon in a broken state was a weight on his spirit.

He would need to carve a new weapon. The blade was a common-tier made from trash-tier materials. Each time he tried to make a higher-tier weapon from low-tier materials, he learned something. How he sanded the wood or cut it each attempt brought more familiarity from the practice and improved his foundation in the skill. Maybe this was an opportunity to try and make an uncommon-tier weapon from trash-tier ingredients.

Making weapons for the shop that maintained trash-tier had been an important step.

The two surviving men looked at their comrades with troubling expressions. "Fine, Stacy, take them to the forge with the bodies and allow them to perform funeral rights for the fallen." One of the men dropped to their knees before him. Red shook his head. "None of that, you work for me now congratulation on being hired," Red said.

Hey guys I hope you're enjoying the chapters I have more on my patreon. There are 8 up . But 1 ahead is only $1, 3 ahead is $5, 7 ahead is $10, and 8 ahead is $20. Don't feel pressured I have a day job this just helps and its a little something for ya'll. Link