Waking up from a few hours of sleep Rex silently left the bed, making sure Irinas sleep was not disturbed, gods knew she needed it after all the exercising they had. They had laid down to sleep just a few hours ago, but with Rex's ever growing might, he needed less and less sleep. Leaving room he placed a note on the door that he would be in basement and that the maids shouldnt wake Irina up. Then he headed to basement, where he had a small room he used to perform small scale experiments with his abilities.He spent a few hours perfecting and modifying his drain chains, to improve their utility and efficiency. This time it was Lianna who came to the basement to call him for breakfast, since the maids had seen the note on his bedrooms door, and as instructed, they left Irina alone to her sleep and came to get their master. And while the food was nowhere near as exquisite as when prepeared by a professional cook, it was still tasty on the account that the ingridients were of superior quality.
Once he and the maids were done eating, Rex informed the maids he would be out for a while and that they were to continiue their schedules as ussual when he wasnt here, and left the mansion after he fed Tigra with the meat from the dungeon. He would make a quick run through the dungeon to fill up his space artifact with meat, then drop by Eredar to check on the other space artifact aquisition and then plan further from there.
It took him less than an hour to fill up his stash with fresh meat as he was lucky in encountering a herd deer on the thirty floor quite soon after he arrived there. And with no time wasted he slaughtered the pack, collected the best cuts of meat and and drained all the remaining energy, turning the remains in mana dust. And with his haul returned to the surface. Since he had gone for a quick hunt, he didnt use his blood mage disguise- the clothing Victor had provided that had special magic enchants to help conceal his identity. He was entering as a lone independant hunter, and guild had no business with him. Rex would use the disguise if he had to go to Victors mansion or when he would use his blood mage persona. he didnt have to be quite that high of a profile to meet Eredar or Brogni, since the two had provided him with tokens their personal door guards would recognise and not empede Rex's visits, and so, with his haul, Rex advanced to Eredars shop congregation.
Eredar and later Brogni had already moved with great haste and had secured a few space artifacts for Rex's use. providing him with a storage space of fifty cubic meters total, across ten storage items. It was quite hard to get ones hands on a storage space bigger than what they had prepeared on such a short notice, and what they had managed was purely because of them being part of the merchants guild and their standing in it. Rex also came to an arangement with Eredar regarding his new side money making business, which was selling the meat he was grinding. Eredar was more than happy to serve as the face of the operation, since Rex had no desire to spread his capabilities to people more than it was necesary. His three business partners were one thing, but making other greedy and petty aristocrats scared of his combat potential was more trouble than it was worth. Rex also asked Brogni to keep an eye out for a few capable maid material for Rex's personal retinue, and the dwarf was more than happy to do so.
Once Rex was done with his all that, he returned to the dungeon to gridn and make his first delivery of meat to his business partners and friends. Rex knew that their dealings were mostly business for now, but he felt the three men were reliable and decent, adn they would become quite good frends the longer they worked together. And so Rex dived in the grind once more, and spent a couple days in the dungeon filling out his storage equipment with meat and enhancing his personal strenght. Rex even encountered another great sabertooth, and while it did take him a few minutes to take down, it was nowhere near the dificulty compared with his first great sabertooth encounter, and the resulting improvement was also the same- nowhere near as much as the first one.
Once back, he visited the merchants and shared some of the meat he had aquired and promised to the two, leaving an extra portion for Victor that Eredar woul ensure would be delivered, since all this would be moving through his channels. Rex also left quitea bit to be sold by Eredar, since Rex wanted to stash up un money to buy slaves he might run into that he would find to his liking since he was sure more and more exotic specimens would start to appear here once the rumors are spread far enough adn some of the fat bastards confirm their truth.
Once done with this he would return home, unload the remaining meat, play with the cubs a bit since their were just that- cubs, ensure Tigra always had acsess to more meat if she was hungry and spent the night home. He would keep such a schedule for a couple of weeks, untill he recieved a message from Aina, requesting to speak. Eredar had provided her with the location of Rex new residence, and she had been visiting him once a week, where they would spent an hour or so conversing about all manner of things- from mundane rumors, to the state of her families sucsession war. She had informed him of her desire for him to meet the sister she was supporting for throne, and Rex had agreed, with the condition that he would be there as his reclusive blood mage persona. While he liked Aina, he didnt trust her sister, even with all her asurances, and in the end Aina gave up, understanding, that Rex had his quirks, as all specialists do. She did spend almost half an hour cuddling with the cubs, once Rex showed them to her. Being an elf she held a deeper apreciation for all creatures, be it beast or monster, and while she had no issues hunting them in the dungeon, she nevertheless shoved a great deal of love for the tamed ones. And since the preffered mounts of elven nobility were panters- another type of feline, it was little suprise that she spent what little time she had cuddling the cubs. They were so much cuter than the grown ones, and she had tried countless times to convince Rex to allow her to aquire one of them, but Rex refused every time.
When she arived, as ussual the first thing was another attempt to coax Rex into giving her one of the cubs, and Rex finaly decided to explain something he had never mentioned- namely the species of the cubs, since Aina hadnt seen great sabertooths in the dungeon herself, nor did the cubs were the size that the great sabertooths were encountered, nor were their tooth grown long enough yet, to show their species. And Tigra had showed no interest in beeing displayed for the elf, as such Aina hadnt met the mother.
"So, I am guessing you have no idea what species they belong to, since you are asking for one nonstop?" he tiredly asked.
"Huh?" she looked at Rex questioningly "Obviously, they are manaforged tigers. I have no idea how you got them so soon, since the islands they grow naturaly on cannot be reached right now. Its one of those locations that can be acessed one every five years because of monster migrations, and that is still a year or so away." she smirked, waiting for Rex to bow down to her impeccable knowledge. "They should be a few years old, and so separating them wouldnt be too dificult, but dont worry i would bring it here for visits as often as I am visiting now." she continiued, gaining more and more confidence in her nearing victory.
"Hugh." Rex sighed "You know, I should be really offended that you compared my sweet sabertooths to some lesser species like manaforged tigers, but I will let it slide, since you are a friend and their fangs havent started to properly grow yet. They are still on mothers milk after all." he continued, and gestured her to follow him "Come, ill show you their mother, so you can stop pestering me."
To Rex's words Aina tilted her head in confusion. What other tigers were like this, and when she registered Rex words regarding the fact that the cubs were still on milk, she looked at the cubs once more.
"Aint no way tigers that size are cubs that still drink milk as their main food!" she exclaimed and quickly followed after Rex who was now opening the door of one of the barns. And then she saw it. The biggets tiger she had seen in her life. Her brain shortcircuted for a moment, leaving her in daze and awe at the sight of the apex predator before her. Tigra opened one eye from her light nap and looked at the elf, then going back to her nap. Rex petetd the side of her head a bit, eliciting a slight aproving rumble from the tiger.
"Say hello to Tigra, mother of the two fellas you have been fawning over. And for your information, that you will not disclose to anyone outside this property, all three of them are great sabertooths from floor thirty of the local dungeon."
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Any movement and thoughts Aina had just planned to perform, never happened, as her jaw droped, and she just stood there for a few more minutes. Then her head moved to the cubs, stat strotted in and went to fill themseves up with a bit more food. Then Aina looked at Rex, and after a moment of silence sighed, coming to terms with the situation,finally understandting his adamance about not selling a cub.
"There was no way you would ever part with such priceless creatures." she spoke "There is no way one would just sell, let alone gift an S class potential beast." And then a lightning struck her, and her head turned in the dirrection of were cubs were feeding right now. "Wait, wouldnt that mean Snow is?" and she stopped there. Aina.exe stopped working. For the past few weeks she had been cudling a great sabertooth cub and a byakko- the terror of deep floors.
"Yep, i seem to have quite the luck." Rex chuckled "To find a mother great sabertooth with so small cubs, one of which is a byakko is indeed quite the fortune. Once they are fully grown i wouldnt have to worry about my homes safety whatsoever." he smiled and then decided to get to the point of the matter "You said something about the meeting with your sister in the note you left?" He waited for her to collect her thoughts.
"A? Yes?" she stuttered, slowly returning to her ussual self. She chalked this to another one of her friends odities, and left if at that. She will never get anything done if she keeps getting flsutered by the things he does. "Sorry. Yes. My sister should be ariving in a few weeks. The knwoledge about you has reached even the Elven Isles, and since she is one of the main contenders for the throne, who I am supporting, and since i am the representative of our family in this continent, and she knows i have some connections with the blood mage, she decided to personally come here to asess the capabilities and character of the new mage." she explained.
"I do hope she doesnt harbor any false hopes of me moving away from herejust because she might ask or anything? I have made quite a solid footing in this city and i like my asociates here." Rex spoke with a light smile "You included." There was no deeper meaning in the words, just pure apreciation.
"While i dont know the full extent of her plans, my sister is too smart to try something as foolish as that. She most likely will try to secure some sort of an agreement regarding your services. " Aina spoke after a monent of thought. "She is wery smart, and she values family and friends, but she can be a bit pushy at times."
"Just tell her I am stuborn and arogant with little patience. That woudl make her thread carefully, adn make the encounter much less annoying for all involved." Rex spoke relaxedly, to witch Aina responded
"But you nothing like that."
"Yes, but that is reserved for people i have decided are worth my time." then witha theatrical shomanship he spread his arms to the sides and spoke pompously. Aina smiled at that
"I will keep that in mind."
The rest of her visit was spent talking about miscelanious things as usual with a decent tea. Once she left Liara brought Rex a message from Brogni, that he had finaly aquired a few apropriate cook options, and he would like for Rex to visit him at his earliest convinience, and so Rex did just that. Since he was going there on official business he wore the mage disguise.
Rex didnt have any complications on the way and in no time he had reached Brogni's VIP entrance. The guards, noticing the atire, imediatly opened the door and bowed to him, welcoming him inside. The reception duo greeted him, adn grogni as always was dealing with some sort of VIP.
"Inform Brogni, I have arived, but im in no rush." Rex spoke as the duo led him to a waiting room. There, a tea was prepeared by one of the duo and served to Rex, while he waited. Some fifteen minutes later, the dwarf arived. He looked quite happy, adn more healthy than before- the meat Rex had been providing was obviously doing good the the mans health. As soon as he entered, the dwarf sent his receptionist out so he could have private conversation with the guest.
"I have aquired a few posible additions to your staff." Brogni spoke, quite satisfied with his own work "Do you wish to see them right now?" and hearing Rex aproval, they left the room, going to another part of his house complex. While they were walking the dwarf merchant spoke to him about the information he had recieved regarding the info of Rex spreading, and both were quite satisfied with how it was going. They reckoned that at the end of the week, merchants and Victor could start moving pieces to start anouncing the grand auction to entice many posible sellers to move here since they had the gem of the auction that would attract all the biggest wallets.
Soon they were in front of a door guarded by a few more guards- Brognis special wares wing. Here he kept his best slaves, and as such the condition for living was much better that most. They entered the building, and with the merchants nod, one of the guards moved closer to a wall mounted bell and rang it a few times. As soon as the bell sound spread there was a shuffling of feet and quiclky the residents one after another rushed to the hall where the bell was. In less than a few minutes in front of them were aproximately twenty people, mostly humans but there were a few other species.
"The ones with cooking skills step in front." Brogni calmly spoke, and from the group four came out nervously and stood in front. All four were girls, between the ages of fourteen to sixteen by the looks of it. Three were human girls, nothing too special about them as far as Rex was concerned, but the fourth one peaked his interest.
A beats girl. She looked sixteen, judging by her body development. Dressed in quite simple clothes, to show most of her features while maintaining a decent look. Aproximately one point six meters tall, raven black hair, two wolf ears poking from her hair, but slightly bent, obviously a response of timidness mixed with fear. She was quite slender, and looked delicate. She was very beautiflul, one would probably rate her as an eight or a nine. Her tail that poked out of her clothes, was also low, once again displaying her fear and uncertainty. And while she was growing, she had a decently developed breasts, C sized if one had to guess.
Noticing Rex focus Brogni spoke "I knew you would like her. Her name is Aisha. She ahs been trained to be a personal atendant, and as a wolfkin, with her great sense of smell and taste, she is particularily well suited to be a main cheff. Not to mention that, while she is not as gorgeous as your Irina, she si quite good looking herself." Then he added "I would suggest you take the other three as well. They have gone through maid training, and your mansion needs more hands. Your trio is capable of doing the more draining jobs in the mansion for sure, but they need guidane from what i have seen. And even if you take all four, i still owe you quitea lot of favours because of your services." Rex was well ware Brogni was talking about all the meat he had been providing to the merchants for their personal use.
"If you say so." Rex agreed. He had no reason to doubt the dwarfs judgement, And as soon as Rex agreed, the four were taken with him to a seperate room.
"Reveal the top half of your chest, so you neck and area above breasts would be bare." Rex ordered the four, and they flinched a bit, but did as told. Then Rex branded them all, knowing, and afterwards Brogni removed slavery collars as they no longer served any purpose on the girls, and once branded they clothed themselves and followed their new master. They were both scared and awed at the same time, since they newer would have expected to end up in the hands of a blood mage.
Once back in Rex's mansion, the new staff recieved the same rule breakdown as his already existing girls had recieved, and then they were handed of to the maid trio to introduce to their rooms and put to work straight away to prepare dinner since it was already late. The orc maids had not prepared dinner per Rex orders, since he was gonna bring back a cook, and Eredar had done his job as Rex had a kitchen equiped with the best of equipment aviable, adn his stock of all kidns of spices was quite incredible. Aishas eyes sparkled quite a bit whne she saw her main work place, and it her tail started swaying with excitement when she was led to the spice storeroom. The light but distinct smell of different spices permeated the air in the room, and as she was specially trained with cooking as the most important aspect due to her unique racial perks, she coudl discern an amazing quantity of different spices here.
She almost drooled when she smelled the meat she woudl be working with, and her tai lwent almost ballistic when she heard from the maids and Irina that even they would be eating the same meals as the master of the house. As the master of the house had put it, they are his, his he is exeptional, all of them shall be too. And this meat would ensure that the girls would move in his desired direction. After a few hours of work in the kitchen later, Aisha presented her new master with her first dish made with such high quality meat, and Rex enjoyed food that far surpassed the meal he had when Victor brought over the previous cheff. After his meal was finished he thanked Aisha for her wonderfull cooking and encouraged her and the other three new girls to enjoy their own food as well. He woudl often be busy and they would have to be quite independant. And besides not leaving mansion unless necesary, and no contact with people not of his household with rare few exeptions they didnt have other restrictions. With that Rex left them and returned to his room for rest. Tommorow would be the small planning of the auction, and then he would grind till the arival of Ainas sister.