Slave: "Last time on An Adventurer's Best Friend: Squire was a paladin, strong and proud. She thought that she knew everything, and had all the answers. She thought that she was in control. She was wrong. Only through the sensual cruelty of mistress Vile did she learn what was really important: true strength and the subservient bliss which can only be earned through it!"

Squire: "Is this going to become a common trend? Completely inaccurate recaps which exist purely to make me uncomfortable?"

Vile: "In her defense, it did just happen. An actual recap isn't really necessary. I agree that it isn't quite accurate, though. We're still a few arcs away from all that happening."

Squire: "Please don't joke about that. You'll scare away the readers."

Slave: "I disagree. I think that it would make for a much more compelling narrative."

---

At it turns out, cities, proper cities, are big. Really big. The fact that I could see it led me to assume that it was right there, but between the sloping fields and the fact that it was, again, really, really big meant that even after a few hours of travel, we still found ourselves only halfway between the rim of the forest and the outer wall. The trek was rather quiet and uneventful, and we took a little break, in the meantime. A little bit of rest isn't such a bad thing after the intense battle before, even if I am eager to get back to some proper questing.

As we sat around, occasionally dealing when the minor creatures which were totally outclassed yet still threw themselves at us with reckless abandon, we had some time to talk. These open plains also have some significantly larger and more menacing creatures which, fortunately we haven't had to deal with up to this point. Slave was curled up, napping, and acting as a makeshift pillow to the rat who sat against her, softly humming to herself carving a bit of wood with a small metal blade. I knew that there was something unusual about this, and although in hindsight it was quite obvious what that is, it took me a little while to figure it out.

"Where did that come from?" I ask, sniffing at the knife. It isn't really a proper knife, as Vile is obviously far too small to manage such a tool even, but it was a sharp shard of metal, seemingly broken from something larger, and it felt very unlikely she had stumbled upon it at just this moment.

"I've had it for a while. I haven't had many opportunities to work on this little project of mine, as even our spare time surrounded by the death weavers was rather tense. Now seems like as good a time as any, however." she says.

I simply stare. There's no way that the rat had been carrying that around in her paws for the entire journey. Looking back, there were a few other strange tools which had mysteriously appeared as well, namely the metal cooking pot. I didn't even need to speak up, as apparently she could read my confused expression.

"Are you seriously not familiar with portable holes?" she asks with a sigh.

"Sorry..." I meekly say, forgetting that my constant apologies are bothersome to her. I'm having trouble breaking the habit, however. I always seem to be saying something wrong, or demonstrating some new variety of unforgivable ignorance. It feels wrong to not express regret over such things, no matter how often they occur.

"Really? You carry one with you all the time. I've seen you take slime from it, which, by the way, is an absolutely terrible use for such a thing."

It takes me a little bit longer to figure out what she's talking about before I look back at the pouch strapped to my side. "Oh, this? This isn't a hole, it's a satchel." I say. "It's not magical."

"Seriously? You haven't wondered how you could fit such large objects into such a tiny space?" she asks, eyes narrowed.

"Um... sorry. As you know, I'm not very good at math." I reply, ears lowered. Is that math? It feels math adjacent anyways, determining relative areas of objects.

The rat shakes her head and sighs once again, as she reaches a paw out, and the space from it to her elbow beyond vanishes entirely. I tense up, assuming it had been somehow severed, but instead she withdraws it again, revealing it to be fully intact. In her paw, she now holds a single gold coin. I have no idea what just happened, but as I look to the space, I notice that the air around it shimmers and faintly distorts before returning to normal.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"It's a simple low-level spell, handy for inventory management." she says, spinning the coin between a pair of furless digits, "It's commonly connected to pockets and backpacks and the like, too, so that adventurers aren't forced to manually lug around all of their spoils of battle."

"Oh, neat!" I say, tail wagging. That does explain a bit. The pouch did seem rather unusual, but then I don't know much about tailoring. Maybe all pockets naturally worked that way. "So you can just permanently attach spells to physical objects?"

"It's a difficult process, and it depends on the spell, but yeah. It's easy enough for this spell, which is why adventurer's satchels are of little value, but more advanced ones such as teleportation and the like are far more difficult. They're usually connected to scrolls which burn away with a single use, and while they can be attached to physical objects which can be operated repeatedly, it's much harder and such tools are incredibly valuable."

I nod my head, thinking back. "My master would travel far and wide, yet still managed to return, every day, through a magical portal that he seemed to be able to open at will."

"You said that he was a paladin, correct? Well, it's not completely impossible that he knows some sorcery as well, but I'd say that it's pretty unlikely. It's probably not free teleportation, rather a return spell which is tethered to a specific location that you can travel back and forth from, and almost certainly comes from a magic item if he was able to use it so frequently." Vile says, continuing to work on her project.

I frown, recalling my missing master. I don't approve of how Vile had said he 'was' a paladin, either, but I figure that she doesn't mean anything by it, and it's not worth making a fuss over. In an effort to chase away such unpleasant thoughts, I look closer at the strange object she's carving. It's a short, rounded piece of wood, beginning with a broad, flat base, narrowing significantly and widening once more, before ending with a rounded tip.

"What are you making? Some sort of magic wand?" I ask.

The rat grins in the only way that she knows how, which immediately makes my blood run cold. "Oh, yes. A very powerful sort of magic." she smiles as she holds it up, the wood carved smooth and rounded at all sides. "Want me to show you how it works?"

Warning! Significant threat detected!

I can't help but shrink back. "Um, no thank you." I nervously reply. She simply shrugs, putting the last few finishing touches on it.

Clearly it's a powerful magic indeed. It must house a truly devastating spell. The rat had later taken Slave aside to test it out on her, and it was capable of actually injuring the powerful feline. I can only assume that she was injured, at least. When Slave had returned, she was walking rather funny, after all. When I offered to heal the black cat, she simply blushed and politely declined. I guess for such a self reliant creature, it's still hard to ask for help when she needs it. I didn't press the matter as we continued on our way, finally arriving at the city gates.

I briefly fear than entry could prove difficult, but the gates, while guarded, are wide open and the walls are relatively short. Clearly the defenses are more designed with monster attacks in mind than fending off intruders or invaders. I suppose even if they were particularly cautious about outsiders, such rules would still only apply to humans. We slipped past the two armored guards with no issue. I was tempted to approach one and see if I could get a head pat (it's been so long, after all), but decided that it would feel more rewarding when it was properly earned.

It became immediately and abundantly clear that earning such a thing would not be a problem. There are so many people! Even in this small square, a tiny portion of the stone city, there are more humans about than populated both of the villages I had visited combined. There are adventurers in their functional yet stylish armors, nobles wearing lavish, brightly dyed robes, children running and playing about, but the vast majority of people are dressed plain, drab and often tattered clothing.

Look at all of these quests! I say to myself, tail wagging excitedly. There's so many people to help!

Dozens, at least, of floating exclamation marks overlapping one another! There were so many, especially among the many dirtier, thinner and more shabbily dressed peasants.

Look at all of these quests, I say to myself once more, my wagging having stopped, my enthusiasm replaced with a wave of guilt. There are so many people in need of help...

It's rather disgusting that it took me until now to realize that this wasn't such a good thing.

---

Squire: "Yay! Back to questing!"

Slave: "I don't really see the appeal."

Vile: "It makes for a fairly easy formula, at least: She does some quests, which leads to an even bigger quest, which leads to a boss fight at the end of the arc. In the meanwhile, we basically can just chat and kill time."

Squire: "You're really sucking all of the magic out of this experience, you know that?"