With Ross permission, Rex and Light's Oak found themselves a decent spot to plant their rears on the ground, taking a moment to rest and relax, waiting for the remaining parties to return from their own excursions into monster town. From what they had seen so far, either in the size of the wall, or the size of the parties they had to encounter, as well as the composition of said parties, Samanta noted the rather low age of the monster city. Had it been older, there would be a much larger variety of monsters present, acompanied by constant raids and dissapearance of local villages, unless of course said city is one of the outposts for high tiered monsters, like lamias, arachnes or even vampires. Though such places were mostly considered legends, since the probability of discovering one of those cities would lead to a rather quick and not at all pleasant death, at the hands of said inhabitants. Rare were the cases of encountering arachnes, lamias or, lords forbid, higher vampires. These monsters were some of the top tier monsters, though vampires could be classified as both. The classification between a monster and civilized races was mainly recognized with the lack of proper humanoid form, like the lower bodies of arachnes and lamias, or the preffered food being exactly said civilized races, like with vampires. Though since vampires did not neccessarily had to kill whomever they drank the blood from, they could still be considered as a civilized race, technically.

Regardless, Samanta, as well as the rest of her party, was quite happy with their gains, something that she did not bother to hide from Rex, even going so far as to thank him, since it was his direct guidance of the party to reach the champions home and subsequently basement. Not to mention that he was the man reason that they could so efficiently and safely take it down.

"But seriously" Meru spoke, a glint of admiration, as well as something else shining in her gaze "Those were some serious moves you pulled off in that basement cave. Would you be willing to have a spar or two with me? I could use some additional training, and who better than someone of your skill?" she asked Rex.

"You do not mean now, I hope?" Rex questioned back, his back pressed against a his hield that was held upright by his spear and sword.

"O- of course not. I am not in such a hurry." Meru lightly blushed as she stuttered a little "I meant once we are back in the city. With the haul we aquired I am sure we can take a decent break from the adventuring and enjoy a bit of off time."

"Hmm" Rex hummed a bit as he thought it over, his eyes still closed. "I suppose I could do that. Though dont expect much. Havent taught anyone before, so level your expectations once we actually get to it."

Alurial looked from the side as her party members slowly found their own comfort zones when interracting with Rex, though none did it overly much. She bit her lip, clearly wanting to join in on any of the conversations whenever they errupted, or better yet, start one of her own. There were so many things for her to ask, yet she stil had his reprimand in the carriage fresh in her mind, as well as the self reflection she had done after it. Rex's words had cut deep, however, looking back she could do nothing but agree with his assesment. Deep down, she knew that already, but just could not bring herself to trully admit it and change for the better. It was that unreasonable pull she had felt towards him, followed by her ussual and bratty attitude that had created the rift between her and Rex even before they got properly introduced.

And yet, even with his harsh and dirrect dismissal, she could not help but feel the same pull. There was simply something magical about him that Alurial could not explain. It was part of the reason she could so easily agree with his assesment, causing her to self reflect and try to change towards the mentioned desirable character. His villingness to ignore their previous disagreements and effortlesly blending in their party only made her decision so much simpler. Still, you win some and you lose some, since she had to fugure a way to actualy earn his attention and favour, as well as the need to figure out the currebt predicament she was in, what with Rias dates and whatnot that Rex had demanded for her parties spot. Yet another plus in his dirrection, as he had outright refused teh chance to enjoy Rias body, going for the romantic option of taking her blonde friend on dates instead. And sure, said dates could end up with the same carnal results, but that would already be a willing choice from both parties, instead of a sacrifice.

And yet, try as she might, she just could not bring herself to innitiate a conversation. 'Maybee another time.' she thought "With his training to Meru promised, I will have plenty of other chances to make my move." She psyched herself up mentaly as she continiued to listen.

xxxxxxxxx

Aproximately an hour after Rex and his party arrived at the temporary camp, once their conversations had died down, he once again used a rather powerfull mana sonar, yet again earning a slight headache due to the range and scope of skills range and complexity. What he learned from the sonar left him with a rather satisfied expression. Most of the kobolds had been slain, with only a few remaining, hiding in quite original and odd places. And while he could go around snuffing out said remnants of kobold life, he saw no reason to do so. During the hour he had been meditating and relaxing, more and more adventurer parties had returned, each with some loot collected in their own burglar bags, though none seemed to have had as good a haul as his party, though that was to be expected. He and Light's Oak had taken out what was the greatest authority and might around, thus claiming the largest treasury as well. The fact that the monster city was a relatively small and new one only reinforcing the thruth.

"Ross, any of yours encountered the boss of the place?" in a loud voice comander Warren questioned the guild master, who simply nodded, not bothering much with any further explanation. Not like there was much to tell either. An adventurer party took it down , and that was that. Unlike the army, they did not have any sort of promotion for exceptional performance, nor did they recieve bonuses for such acts of valour. You did what you could and stayed alive.

"Tsk." Warren clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed by the relatively lax nature of the guildmaster, as well as adventurers in general. "SOLDIERS!" he then yelled "ONE HOUR BREAK!" before finding a place to sit down himself, acompanied by the two men always keeping near him.

During the hour of soldier rest, the last few groups of adventurers returned, with Ross recieving a small briefing from some of his own aides regarding the overall status of the aadventurers. Due to the relatively low numbers, as well as the fact that this was a city of kobolds, there were only a couple of serious injuries, with shallow cuts and bruises being the majority., most of which had been cured by the healers of their respective parties. In most cases, only torn cloth or something of the like being the only evidence of an injury sustained.

Once the hour had passed, Waren walked over to Ross, and spoke for a brief period, after which he once again roared out an order, signaling the start of the raids return. With adventurers being mostly prepeared, it took only a dozen or so minutes to move out, returning the same way they had arrived. Due to the rather heavy and extensive culling they performed during the raids innitial charge, as well as the precision that they had cleared the city with, not a single encounter happened as they left the cavern and the entire underground system behind. A few scouts would be sent out at later dates, ensuring that no other creatures resettle in the city, recreating a new looming threat for the region.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

They had spent most of the day on the raid and while most adventurers were more than eager to get some proper shut eye, as well as start with the distribution of their loot, there was still a rather important tak at hand, thus, wasting no more time, the raid parties boarded their carriages once again and headed out back to the city they came from. Due to the nature of their task, as well as the size of the group, they were not stopped at the gate, having free passage up untill everyone reaached guild building, where eeveryone disembarked from their carriages and were called upon, party by party, as the guild tallied their gains and took their share from it. And while there were a rere few comments about the unfairness of such 'taxation', it was what each party had agreed upon joining the raid. It was a rule that was practised in every raid that was organized by ther guild, as well as the noble manors.

One tenth. That was the tax that the guild recieved from all the spoils. And while relatively low percentage, when combined from the gains of the entire raid, it did add up. It was from this pool that guild also paid to the city for their assistance, sending their own soldiers to acompany them and assist with the raid. As for the soldiers, who were taxed just as well by the guild, they had less reasons to celebrate, since aside from a slight bonus for their work, comander Waren made sure that their own gains were all handed in to their own quartermansters and the like, enriching the city lords manor instead of the brave men who fought with their life on the line.

Each party was brought inside a seperate room, where guildmaster and a couple of guilds workers awaited. There, with a decent amount of privacy, the aquired loot was inspected and then 'taxed'. The only item that escaped such taxation, was the necklace that Rex held, since magical items were the fortune of curse of adventurers. It would require an axpert in runes who could apraise and determine its effect, since noone would recklessly wear an unknown magical item. For all that they new, any magical item could be cursed with a multitude of nasty curses and whatnot.

With their 'tax' paid, the girls hurried along to split their loot, and once done with that they solved their own pending problem regarding the annoying noble and his scheme. Something that Ross questioned them about as well, demanding every single detail and name of the people involved. And when the girls, alongside Rex left guild building, he noticed quite a few gazes following them. And unfortunately, Rex sensed more than lecherous gazes dirrected towards the girls, something he assumed was a normal occurance for them. No, there had been plenty of greed filled ones, most likely planning some rather unscrupuluos actions to be taken later.

'Do I really want to deal with whatever annoyance that will bloom once those onlookers grow a pair?' Thought to himself Rex as he walked alongside the girls, their path towards their own inns being on the same path for a while. 'Whatever. I will just deal with it as it comes.' he came to a decision, having found the presence of Light's Oak rather pleasing and fun. Even the loli had acted in an acceptable manner after their departure from the village, something he was pleasantly suprised with.

Bidding the ladies goodbye, while not forgetting to warn them about possible actions that might be taken against them due to the countless malevolent gazes, he entered the inn he was at before being confined to the guild building. Greeting the inkeep and extending his own stay for yet another week, he ordered a rather large set for his meal. After the meal, as well as a decent bath, he retired to his room, setting up a few safety measures against possible nightly visitors, performed his daily space storage extension routine and laid to sleep.

xxxx

The next couple of days went by relatively peacefully. With the treasure he had aquired from the raid, he had a lot more leeway in how to proceed. Aside from the few spars he had with Meru, where he mercilessly broke her down time and time again, pointing out the mistakes she made every time, courtesy of his cultivator memories, he spent most of his time absorbing the surrounding mana into his body, speeding up his progress in its refinement, as well as expanding his space storage. And while he could not boast an excitingly spent time exploring the city, his gains were quite notable, even to himself. A few days slowly turned into a week, further allowing him to develop his skills- the most notable of all was the space storage. Rex had managed to had finally reach the size of a small sack, allowing him to hold all of his money in it, once he sold off his part of the treasure that is.

And yet, the greedy eyes that followed him only grew in the time, with more and more fools scheming and lusting after his fortune. Even the girls from Light's Oak mentioned the same, though they also had the additional problem of a noble scorned, who was more than displeased with his scheme failing, especially after recieving quite the heavy punishement from his father, the city lord, once Ross finished with cleaning guild from corruption said action had revealed.

"Say Rex." Samanta, who had joined Meru on her bi-daily punishement this time asked, once it was clear that Meru was out for the day "We are thinking of leaving the city, and were wondering, would you like to tag along?"

Rex though for a moment, his head moving slightly from one side to the other, his eyes catching more than one shady individual in the vicinity.

"Did not think it would get that bad so soon." he smirked lightly, some unknown spark awakening in his gaze. "I do have a standing deal with Ria that I have yet to capitalise on, so it would be quite the loss to let you ladies dissapear on me, would it not?" he hummed for a moment, his eyes glancing towards heaven, as if in deep thoughts and trying to remember something. A minute later, when Meru finally started to rise from her slumped position on the ground, he shrugged his shoulders, asking a question in return.

"Got any specific plans for now, or just shooting randomly?"

To his question, Samanta leaned in closer, whispering into his ear "We have a few ideas, yes, though I would preffer to not talk of it out in the open."

"Well, lead the way then." Rex spoke as he put away their training gear, provided by the guilds training room, kneeled down next to Meru, smiled and apologised to the warrior lady and then, like a sack of potatoes flipped her over his shoulder. Her face was stuck to his back, while her rear was on display, right next to his face. Seeing Meru handled in such a way, earned a rather strong chuckle from Samanta, followed by a an irritated 'hey' as well as 'stop laughing or I will share your embarasing stories'. Apparently, there was plenty to tell, since one small and concise threat was all it took for the leader of ladies group to become silent as a graveyard in the middle of the night. She simply walked in front, leading Rex to the location of their inn.

The inn Light's Oak stayed at was a rather intheresting place. It consisted of a group of small lodgings, each capable of housing a party of five, the average size of adventurer party. Upon theiir arival, Rex dropped Meru on a small couch in what looked to be a living room and kitchen at the same time. Every other member of the party was already present, having clearly decided on the suggestion for Rex before the training session.

With Meru out of his hand and having earned the full attention of the girls, he plopped down on a nearby chair. "So, care to explain? I doubt the idea came to you out of the blue. How much have you noticed?"

"It is getting worse than what you warned about." Veena started, "Yes, aside from the constant stalkers, that seem to follow us every day, from sunrise to sunset, there have been a few attempts at stealing our purses. And as it that was not enough, our landlady had spoken of some shady individuals wandering around this place as well. Not to mention that guildmaster Ross warned us about that young lordling and a possibility that he could hire someone to get their revenge on us. We did mess up his sleazy plan or whatnot." She squeezed out the last part through gritted teeth, though Rex was not entirely sure whether she was angry at the lordling, or guildmaster for the original situation to begin with.

"About what I expected, more or less." Rex mused, loud enough for the girls to hear "So, where do you plan to head to?" he questioned, adding yet another one after a momentary pause "And what is it that you hope to achieve with this journey of yours?" If he were to travel with these girls, it was rather crucial to understand their parties goals, as well as morality. Sure, he had a general read on each member, but that was just it. He needed to understand the reasoning and principles their party was based upon.