Their way to the next Return Tori was rather uneventfull. They had advanced deeper to fourteenth floor by the time night came. Unlike Rex, who could go seemingly for ever, as long as he was killing and draining something, the party of Silver Chains needed rest, and they had no night vision to speak of, so camping it was. While Silver chains were setting up their camp Rex turned to Aina and asked her "Can I leave my girls with you for the night? I will be out there hunting while you rest."
"i dont quite mind" she responded, having no worries of foul play by him. After all, if he wanted, he could kill their entire party with quite the ease. She remembered how he had played with the champion. "Just be back by morning. we would like start moving by then."
"No problem. Right, just remembered, we have return Tori to quicky leave the dungeons, is there some anchoring postions in the dungeons to save your progress of sorts? sound like that would be an insane amount of pain in the ass to have to slog through the low level areas for higher level adventurers." Rex responded and then questioned.
"Right, your first dungesn. U did mention that on the way. yes there are such a location. Its the Return Tori, with the caviat that only one every twenty floors do that. They are twice as big as the normal ones with a unnaturaly dark beams. the beams also have golden characters on them, so it is easly to recognize."
"Perfect, thanks." Rex responded "See you in the morning." he waved, told his slaves to remain with Ainas party for the night, and that he will be back in the morning. The night was quite peacefull for Ainas party, the peaple on the night watch were quite relaxed as well, ocasionally hearing some muffed screams off in the distance. Since the nights ussually were much more quiet, they asumed it was Rex doing, and they were right. Rex was chatching up with the kills he had to not absorb during his travel with Silver Chains, since he promised the loot to them, and lesser orcs had some body parts used in alchemy. Rex had noticed that Aina had spatial artifact. She was trying to hide its existance quite a lit, but his sharp eyes and instincts had caught on. Of course he said nothing. He had grown a liking for the elven girl, She was dirrect, straight with her questions and has treated his as an aquintance would- with a bit of respect and closeness, but not too much either. Just right, to indicate that she was quite at ease with his presence, but not entirely relaxed, still probing the depths of his character.
Closer to the morning, while Rex was still slaughtering orcs and on his way back to the campsite, Aina woke up her party nad had a litte discussion with her party members, regarding the progress, supplies they have left and other logistics related questions. During their post strategic meeting, someone raised a question
"So do you guys think he is slavery or blood mage?" One of the party members asked. The question caused the others look at Aina, as if asking for her input.
"I'd wager slavery. what are the odds for a blood mage 500 to1?" She asked and sighed. "I would love him to be a blood mage. Just imagine the looks of the elders back at home if i could say i have come to know a blood mage. It would solve all these pointless strugles. Still i can't pull Rex in my familiy politics. He has helped us enough as it is. The sword alone is incredible."
"But we could ask him, no? He has suprised us again and again. who is to say he is not gonna do that again?" Another in the party asked "We need you or you elder sister Allana to become the next heir. Your other sibblings are way too cruel and arrogant. They will bring your family to ruin." he continued. The rest of the party agreed and a heavy silence hung in the tent. A few mintues later, an orc approached the tent.
"Someone is aproaching warlord" he said and returned to his post. They could hear the footsteps of the leaving orc and some heavier footsteps, and a decent rustling of the leaves, that became more onad more pronounced. Then a rather loud voice echoed
"Rise and shine sleepyheads. We have quite the path in front of us today." Rex excaimed as he had returned, as he guessed, a dozen or so minutes late. He was supprised that nobody was up and about. Then one after another Aina and her party members exited their main tent, Rex's slaves leaving the one a bit to the side. To Rex's suprise they were all already prepeared for the most part, just collecting the tents remained.
"Strategy meeteing?" he asked, not expecting an answer "Got it, brought this boar i ran in on the way. Anyone wanna help me butcher it?" he pointed to the bear behind him. A small hill of a boar behind him dragged for who knows how long. Since they were in a dungeon they didnt have to be overly prudent with dealing with its remains, as they would be absorged by the dungeon. So they took the best and meatiest parts leaving the rest here. and cooked some right then adn there. While Rex's didnt need the traditional food, replaced with draining, he could still eat and quire nutrients that way, besides, there is no way he is gonna starve Ira and the rest of his slaves. That eleven out of ten had to treasured, and the rest could wery well be maids in his mansion, when he aquires one.
The path through floors fifteen to nineteen was rather quited, not including the screams and roars of orc parties unlucky enough to come in contact with this group of people. In the next couple of days Rex had reached a treshold of sorts. He was too strong now to gain any decent strenght from draining orcs. They now olny served as replenishment. Rex also noticed the burning gazes, filled with questions, drilling in his back. That was a weird feeling. He could ignore it , but why would he do it. If the questions were not invasive, he could very well answer them and be done with it.
"Ask away. I can feel you bursting with curiosity. I would feel a bit sad if you were to explode before we get back to Blythe." he finaly gave up and initiated. A few exchanged glances later Aina finaly roused her courage and asked
"Sooo" she streched the first word quickly going over the question, making sure she didnt sound too nosy or annoying "Your magic? Is it slavery or blood magic?" she was almost sure it was slavery. Blood was just too rare. There was nothing wrong with slavery, on the contrary it was very valuable as well, but, one can always dream, can they not?
"Blood. Of that i am sure. And since we are on the topic, care to answer a question or two of mine as well?" Rex asked. While they have had quite a bit of conversations during the days of their travel, none of them were about serious topics involving things outside the dungeon or any other serious talk. Hearing that Rex is blood mage, a collective monemt of silence with a deep breath in for Silver Chains members. An actual blood mage. Lady luck had probably drunk one too many bottles and spilled some ungodly amount of luck on their corner or land. While they were spinning in their fantasies and hopes about the posible future of their lords and leaders house, Rex proceeded to ask what was on his mind
"Where do you think i could obtain the basic knowledge regarding blood magic, and what else should i pay attention to." after his question, Silver Chains dived in a dicussion regarding Rex's question, weighting pros and cons of each option. Some fifteen minutes and an unlucky orc band later, while her party was looting the corpses Aina answered Rex
"The best choice for you would be to aproach merchants guild, since you didnt join adventurers guild. And we would advise you to do so with your identity as a blood mage revealed. While you may think it could be a hastle if that was known, but we asure you, its more of a benefit, since your slaves do not have the warlords mark on them, most peaple would asume you are an ofspring of some noble or filthy rich merchant who could afford branded slaves. And that would cause way more trouble- kidnapping attempts, spies, robberies and so on. Whereas blood mages would be avoided by all of the big groups, and you would omly have to care of some very unlucky stupid spawns of the aristocracy, or petty thieves, that you no doubt can take care of. After all no sane person with power would ever want to offend a blood mage, and such news would spread like wildfire. The services of blood mages are often reserved for years in advance, and if one happens to come upon a rather exotic and lucrative circumstances everyone wants to have a chance to grab a hold of such chances.
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"Sounds like you have quite the experience in such affairs. Care to share some of it?" Rex asked, and seeing the sudden uncomfortable silence he chucked a bit and added
"What? Dont tell me you are some sort of noble on their coming of age ceremony of proving ones worth, or better yet in the middle of a succesion war, and are aquiring merits to strengten your claim?" Rex laughed, and then his jaw went slack, met with the frown and dead silence of the party.
"You are shitting me!" Rex exclaimed, suprise evident in his voice "No way stuff like that actually happens" he spoke to himself, trying to wrap this thoughts around the issue. Aina the finaly spoke
"Im sorry, you caught me by suprise. With only a name and so far from our home islands it shoudnt matter. As for examples, you could accidentaly run across the children of your rival being enslaved, and purchase them. Then your rival would retrievd them thanking you with gifts for your generosity." She spoke, her first words being filled with sincerity and guilt over the akward situation, the example then being with inuendos and sarcasm. It was quite clear tha the aristocray played down and dirty in every world.
"Well it matters not." he then added "I grew up in the forests of the Echlisiarchy, barely having contact with any people. Dont much care for the noble families. That said i have grown to like you. I would even say i consider you a friend. And since that is the case i do believe my first gift is in order. Do tell me if you like the idea." Rex said then thought for a moment and continued "How about you being the liason of mine to the merchants guild? Im sure you can get some pretty fat favors for introducing them to a blood mage?"
"For real?" Aina exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with joy of a little kid getting to unwrap presents early. Then she tried to calm down, regaining her calm demeanor.
"I mean, im sure you woudnt fuck me over since it seems I'm a treasure trove, and if I were to go there myslelf I would be gambling, hoping not to run into super greedy and shady cunt. While with you I get someone reliable, or a shady cunt, but iI will be in the know who I am dealing with. You are free to try and get the most of it, just tell me what kind of people im getting. Hell, if you can get some limited acsess books about blood magic, you are free to borrow my existance for your family issues. I dont mind helping you out a bit." Rex spoke laid out his thoughts.
Aina, her gear spinning with incredible speed, trying to figure out the best possible way to maximize both her and Rex's gains was silent for a moment. Then she finaly processed Rex's last sentence, her mind going blank for a second, then she leaped in exitement and hugged Rex.
"Mary me!" she exclaimed. Rex just looked at her happy smile, her eyes dazed but beaming with exitement and gratitude. Rex waited for a minute for her brain to restart and looked at her party, who were rightfully confused, but there were knowing smirks appearing on their faces. Poor Aina, Rex realized, she is gonna get teased to no end for this. Elves are not that different from humans, he mused, you just have to be counted as one of theirs.
Finaly coming to, Ainas face suddenly went red, realizing she had just acted like a little girl in her excitement. "My, my" Rex spoke "Rather bold proposition, if I do say so myself. Would the lady be willing to wait and allow us to get better aquinted before we cross such a serious step?" Rex teased, and Aina went even more crimson red from Rex teasing. She never expected the man to joke in such a manner. Her party started the laugh at that and she quickly let go of Rex, hid her face and said in embarrasment
"Just kill me now, i will never hear the end of it!". She looked at Rex almost pleadingly, as if begging to be either released from suffering or saved from a mob of psychos.Rex thought for a monemt then spoke
"Then who is gonna introduce me to the right merchants?" then he turned to her party, winked and said "Besides, this is treasure, it looses its power the more it is used. So save it and use responsibly. When the time is right the effect will be so much better." He could already imagine it- Her party doing something impressive, then in celebration Aina going with speech about bravery and winning against all ods or something like that, and then someone makes a comparison with Ainas bravery proposing to the blood mage. Rex almost fell over as he started laughing. Siilver Chains, to Ainas horror, understood Rex's predicament induced by his imagination, and that led them on the same path. gears turning, commiting this moment to eternal memory, vowing to make the best use of it. Aina, her shoulders slupming resignated herself to her fate.
They continued onwards after that little bonding moment, each with their own thoughs. Rex still doing the most murdering. Now however the monsters they encountered were some sort of lizardmen. Theiir horns were often used in alchemical concoctions, so the party was quite busy collecting those. Since the lizardment were more agile than orcs, weaker physically too, Rex changed his approach to battles a bit as well. With his raised status he didnt really need to, but he was working on his battle style. It was not guaranteed that he woudn't encounter equally strong opponents where his skill would decide the outcome. he would surely grind his ass off, but one could never be sure. So he adapted, changed his approach, and tried different things to make his abilitties more refined, more deadly. Luckily it seemed that he did so almost instinctually. He reckoned that was also because of draining constantty. He auired some suconscious knowledge, but it was enough to let him improve.
Eventually they reached the twentiest floor. Aina cautioned Rex "I have never been this far, and from what i have heard there roams a greater variant of the lizardmen. A humanoid creature not of lizard origin but aligators.Its aproximately four meters tall, bulky and agressive. Its very strong as well. So i would liek to not encounter it, and if we are unlucky can i count on you to take care of it?" Rex thought for a moment and then spoke
"If that is all its special with, it should not be a problem. But i will be carefull nonetheless." With the warning out of the way, they proceeded to look for the Return Tori. Rex wanted to mark this location. He had no plans to slog through the lower floors one again. And since lizardmen were providing some sort of improvement, unlike orcs, he was willing to grind away. he also had no plans to bring his girls to the dungeon again. he would hire a tutor that would educate them into proper personal maids of his.
As luck would have it for Rex, not so much for the Silver Chains, they indeed run into the Croc- man. While Aina was shouting orders and prepearing to retreat, Rex was examining the monster. Concluding that it was only slightly stronger than the champion, Rex exclaimed
"There is not much difference between it and the Champ. THis will not take long." Then he dashed towards the monster. As Rex had stated, the monster provided Rex with no issues whatsoever. a minute later the croc-man was limbless and dead. Party quickly disecting the monster and pulling a colid monster core out of its chest. Aina offered it to Rex and he didnt refuse the gesture. They were now not only friends but also kind of a business partners. Aina would help him aquire the necesarry personell that he meight ever needed, and he could lend her his name as a blood mage and would help her out when needed. he would still get paid for his unique services, but Aina would bet discounts and she woudnt be too influenced by reservation lines. And again, when Aina mentioned thta she was getting a muc hgreater value in this exchange Rex reminded her that once her side wins her family fight he would have a powerfull elven noble families reach at his disposal. Quite the lucrative deal for his as well.
Finaly they reached the Return Tori of the twentieth floor. As expected, it was a few times larger then the previous ones, dark colour with red engravings. Once Rex touched the Tori hefelt a certain atunment to the dungeon. The feeling of familiarity was odd, but calming, as if telling him, he could find his way back anytime.
"Pretty impressive, is it not Aina asked" looking at the tori "I am always amazed by new sights in the dungeons, some can take your breath away" she continued. Rex looked at it for a while and responded
"Its okey i guess. I bet there must be so much more impressive sights out there in this wast world, hell i bet such sights can be found deeper in this same dungeon. I would not mind finding something truly magnificent, and bring my future harem there one day." Rex smiled thinking of something that calmed his soul. Aina looked at him smiled in response and jabbed at him with her words
"Finaly, i hear something normal out of your mouth. See you on the other side." she said and went through with her team. Rex looked at his four slaves apreciatinf the magnificance that was Ira, extended his hand holding a smple ribbon
"Hold to it and lets go" he spoke, and they obeyed. The group went through the mist gate and appeared at the entrance of the dungeon. As luck would have it, the same two guards that were stationed here when Rex entered had their shit again. Noticing the archon from before, for whatever reason both shuddered,feeling that he had grown stronger. The absolute bombshell of a woman and the other tree orc women slave, the guards asumed, intensified they previous thoughts. Rex paid them no mind, and left. His women trailing behind him. he had to sell some of his loot to some shops, secure lodgings for today. Gotta get some solid bath for himself and the ladies and prepeare for the next day. Aina said she would bring him to some of the merchants she had chosen. The meeting spot had been designated. But he would worry about all that tommorow. Today he would relax, rest and enjoy himself.