I woke up the next morning. I looked around in my room. Nobody had broken in. good. I left my room and got met by Dumbass crashing into the place. It instantly got fixed with illusions.

“I tore another muscle!” still in Draconian.

Neia approached him on her fully regenerated leg. She looked a bit anemic and tired but it didn’t diminish her beauty.

I slapped my face. She told me to call her auntie. I should stop thinking about her like this.

“I had told you to only return once you can communicate. You’re disturbing all the customers here.” She pointed her fan to the exit.

“Hey, you, mean guy! What did she say?!”

She told you to learn Kaledonian or get lost.

“Can you tell her that my right wing hurts?”

Chop it off and let it regenerate, stop being such a baby, you’re supposed to be an imposing dragon.

“I am imposing! I was 12th in my class!”

Nobody asked! Go harass someone else!

“Wow! Ok Mr. grumpy pants. I will ask this sexy lady over here. I wish I had a better human form; I would love spending the night with her hehe.”

I don’t think Neia understood what he said but she did pick up on the intent and created a huge lotus which closed around the dragon. It abruptly opened, caused a pink explosion and sent the dragon flying through the roof and to who knows where. The building fixed itself again.

“I didn’t understand what he was saying but it gave me a headache so I decided to send him away. Where are your friends?”

I looked around. Raishin was chilling with some women that had come here for the bath and Greg was talking to one of Neia’s daughters that was in charge of making the scented oils.

They are being useless. Can you tell me about fixing the dimensional fabric?

“Hmm, that’s a difficult topic, do you know why you learn that at 3 years old?”

Ehh experience?

“It’s when our second maturity hits. It’s a spatiotemporal maturity. We are quite weak at using spatiotemporal skills before that age. Also, we just learn this by instinct. It is quite hard to explain something that is done by instinct, come join me in my room.”

I followed her and tried my best to not focus on her tails. Or her figure that was apparent through her kimono.

“Sit down.” I sat down on another pink couch and she did the same.

“It is a bit complicated but our growth in spatiotemporal magic makes fixing the dimensional fabric less dangerous and easier. That’s why I don’t allow my daughters to get close to it until they reach that age. There are many creatures that can be a threat to us because only spatiotemporal magic works on the dimensional fabric. Foxfires work too but spatiotemporal skills are the most effective.”

She made 3 small rifts. One was a tear; another was a hole and another one was something I hadn’t seen before. It was red. The color of danger. I just got uncomfortable looking at it.

“I can show you how they get closed but I can’t exactly explain why. I will need to think about it and I don’t think I will be able to come up with something you can do or use. These red ones, please don’t attempt anything with these. The injury on my leg is from one of those. It was my third red hole but it’s a handful for a 3-year-old vixen like me, please don’t attempt it, you will die.” I nodded; red is bad. That is easy to remember.

She showed the tear. Bridges got formed over the tear. Tails pulled on the edges of the tear and caused it to eventually close. It got blasted by a strange purple foxfire after that.

The hole had several patches laid next to each other and they also got blasted with that strange purple fire. It was like a dark purple mixed with blue.

What about reversing time on those holes and tears?

“I would not recommend that but if it had opened recently then that’s a possibility, it is going to leave an ugly dimensional scar behind and you will need a seven tailed crystal wolf to reinforce that. You will need one either way because when you fix a tear or a hole properly, it will be stronger than the fabric around it. So, you need them to make the transition in strength smooth. Look at this small rift. It’s closed and sturdy but over here it’s like the rest. A tear could form here easily.”

But they are also doing quite poorly…

“I know… Any other questions sweetie?”

How about those dimensional maggots, centipedes and beetles?

Neia leaned forward in shock. “Oh dear. You’ve seen those? Is the fabric festering? That’s not good… While they do make restoring the dimensional fabric easier, they are an indication that something has invaded from that hole or tear.”

Wait invaded? I saw it festering when there were small holes or tears. I didn’t notice anything that didn’t belong here.

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t matter, festering dimensional fabric always means something had already infiltrated from there and it will attract those bugs. You don’t want to encounter those, preferably.”

So, it would be a problem if I told you that most tears and holes I’ve encountered were festering and only a few were not? And what about the white opaque flames that attract bugs?

“Those maggots are only nearby if there was an invasion in that location. And what you said is a problem indeed. I haven’t detected any extradimensional creatures yet. So maybe it was small or some sort of energy.”

Wait do we just know when something invades?

“If it invades nearby, we will instantly know yes. We had a big one 13 years ago which most likely coincided with when Hourai disappeared. Can you tell me about what happened?”

Do you mind if I call over my friends?

“Go on ahead.”

-Guys come to Neia’s room, we might get some important information. -

Greg arrived 3 minutes after my telepathic message. Raishin arrived after 10.

Why did it take so long?

I can’t just walk away from ladies.

We explained what happened before I got knocked out and we got sold as slaves. Neia was listening the whole time and her expression didn’t give anything away but she must be upset.

“I wonder why they would need you 3. If your description is correct then the attacker was Enott from the Hing family."

Huh, you know that monkey?

“He was some sort of mentor for your mother. He became arrogant and after the vampire incident and got banished from Hourai.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Vampires? They attacked Hourai?

“No, they were part of Hourai but they demanded preferential treatment and started a rebellion. Enott had instigated it. Your mother and I had to banish them from Hourai. It was quite the challenge. We still don’t know why he suddenly turned against us. He was acting as if Hourai was in his way… Maybe… he needed that hole for something.” Neia got up.

“I’m sorry, I would love to talk more but I need to check out this hole as soon as possible. I will meet up with my daughter Saya, then find Norya and head over to that hole. Don’t worry youngsters. I will take care of this. You can stay here as long as you desire.” She looked at me and grinned.

“I don’t mind returning and find out that I have become a grandmother.” She left the room with a sense of urgency.

Guys, the way she reacted… I have a bad feeling about it…

Me too. I thought maybe they wanted to do something with Hourai or to our mothers but if he just wanted Hourai to move aside to make that hole… who knows what he was planning.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the age or experience to handle this. We will have to rely on Neia for this.

Wasn’t she weakened?

Yeah, but I think she will be fine by the time she finds Norya. Let’s wish her the best. I have more questions but Neia’s urgent task is more important.

Are you fine with this though? You might not get any answers anytime soon.

Whatever question I have isn’t more important than an enormous hole in the edge of our dimension. She has also lost her brother. Now that her leg isn’t an issue, she has all reason to go back looking for Hourai. We can’t do what she is doing so we just have to hope she can find Hourai. We have already found Hourai in theory.

We don’t know how long it will take for her to find Hourai or if she will find it at all.

But there is nothing we can do about that right?

I looked at everything in Neia’s room. I spotted an image of a young Viridian and Neia. Another one where she was holding young Hisui. A very old one with her and my mother. Both were so young. I got the feeling that Neia would go over and beyond to get Hourai back.

We have the most powerful 9t on the Mainfloor looking for Hourai. Let’s focus on getting to a point where we can be of assistance to her. We still have many problems to solve and we also have to get stronger.

So, what now? I like it here and we still need to get you and Aylena together.

Are you planning on hanging around here for long?

I would love to but I think I can get jumped at any moment. It’s good to see that at least half the members of my race are here and doing fine…

Yeah, it’s crazy that she has so many daughters!

It seems she is making sure that you don’t go extinct. And it seems that those daughters of her seem to have the same idea. I think 3 have locked on to you Agnis.

Right, I will work on my disappearing act. Is it fine if we leave the day after tomorrow?

Will you survive for that long?

Noo we only leave after you get one of the chicks here to be your girlfriend!

Maybe another time Raishin but not now!

I dropped into stealth and covered myself in a [Frostcloak] just in time because the room got blasted by charm magic. Greg was fine but Raishin was infatuated. I slipped out and fled to the jungle and sat in a tree. I was looking out on this small lake with the enormous floating lotus on it.

So, they had to live deep in the jungle to stay safe. On top of that in the country that’s the safest for beast kin. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. I talked to some people that left the Floating Lotus. And it seems that they completely forgot about the part that they got served by vixens, they only remembered the sexy ladies.

I guess this is what’s needed to stay in business. Who knows what happens if someone learns that a skulk of 9t vixens is serving and entertaining people here. They would probably come for the novelty or hunt them down.

3 of the sisters seemed to be chasing after a shadow clone of mine. Illusions are less effective against 9t but shadow clones could still work. That’s why I’m not in stealth or using illusions to hide. There is no point.

I felt an Elgards eye gaze on me. I guess one found me. I tried to push the gaze back and moved around. As long as I pushed back, they would only know my general location. It is educational though. I never had the chance to clash against Elgards eyes. Now while every 9t has Elgards eyes. It isn’t a race specific trait. It is extremely rare but humans or other races can also be born with this trait. The only race that has all members have this trait is us.

Since we keep getting unlucky, we might encounter some stupid strong enemy that uses this. Anyone who has eyes like these is bound to be strong.

I completely pushed back the gaze but it took me a lot of effort. I had developed a headache. I think they would catch me soon. My concentration dropped because my Elgards eyes dropped after pushing back that gaze. It was Medea’s gaze though so maybe she will let me off the hook.

I made a shadow clone and made him sit under a tree while I dove into the shrubbery close by.

“There you are!” Medea came running with Aylena and a sister I hadn’t had any interactions with yet.

“Do you know where mother went?”

Oh. Uhm, she realized something after talking to us about Hourai and went to get your sister Sarah…

“Saya…”

She then went to look for Norya and check out the hole Hourai left behind.

“So, she went to do something reckless again…” Aylena seemed to be the most worried out of the three.

I suddenly remembered that we seem to have a low risk assessment. She will be fine right?

“Yes, I just hope that she will get to doing what she set out to do…” Medea continued.

What do you mean?

“Are you familiar with the Sarian Goddess Biian?”

Painfully so yeah.

“Well mom and Norya had pissed her off so she will take any chance to mess with them if she spots them. I don’t think mom or Norya will lose but I can’t help to be worried.”

I can imagine. That bitch should stay on the Second Floor and leave us alone!

They looked at me who was hiding in the shrubbery because I messed up and didn’t let my shadow clone say those lines.

Woops.

Aylena approached me and fished me out of the shrubbery with her tails. “It might be instinct but what you are doing is making things worse for yourself…”

How so?

“Do you know what your female counterparts are attracted to?”

I’m not going to like the answer, will I?

Aylena smiled. “Everything that symbolizes our race is something that we find attractive, deception, trickery, pranks, being able to annoy other races and being able to escape from any situation. Partners that show those traits are unlikely to die young.”

Uhm aren’t most of those toxic traits and should be a turn off?

“Vixens love toxic traits!” Medea’s eyes flashed pink purple.

So uhh if I surrender that will turn you off right?

Pink energy started to gather around Medea. “Hmm, yes more deceit! Give us more of that”

You girls are impossible!

I teleported away. I arrived close to the Floating Lotus, connected to the air leyline currents, jumped into the lake and dove down. I hope they won’t get me here. I saw some trying to dive down. This was a bad idea; they were all in bikinis. I enjoyed the sight, that I did. But I’m not sure if I will be able to escape effectively if one gets deep enough. The surface is covered by a thick layer of charm magic. I will turn into a lovestruck zombie if I get hit by that.

So, as I understand then this is just going to make things worse for me. So, I have to be less toxic to escape them. But I can’t escape them if I’m not toxic… So I spent the night on the bottom of the lake.‎