Chapter 147
“The calm before the storm.” Part 2
“Do it again!” Ordered Artemis standing just a step behind her as she checked Kalysto’s progress with excessive attention and timed her progress with an hourglass.
The fairy turned over one of the three hourglasses on the table, the one that indicated the passing of a minute. Leaving running the one that indicated an hour, and the other one, whose sand indicated when ten minutes had passed.
Taking advantage of the fact that Kalysto now had a circle of mana, Artemis did not rest until she forced her to run almost out of mana again and again and again for the next five hours without any rest, making sure that her skills went up in level according to what she considered a proper way. As she checked to see if it was possible for her new pupil to level up a low-ranked skill in ten minutes, a new theory she had come up with while training that the fairy was excited to test.
But to her great disappointment, Kalysto had not satisfied her curiosity.
“For someone who has a circle of mana at the start of this profession, your progress is quite disappointing," she commented, her excitement fading as she saw the lack of results from her pupil.
“Try to fight for your life for days and then undergo this training after having slept only a couple of hours while your whole body aches. You feel hungry and your head feels like it’s going to explode at any second. Then come and tell me how it goes," grunted Kalysto, annoyed by Artemis’ constant orders, the fact that she wouldn’t allow her to drink revitalizing potions because according to Artemis it ruined the rhythm for the mana potions and because for some reason her progress had stopped more than half an hour ago. That and it was getting harder and harder to concentrate and her head felt heavy.
“Concentrate!” Artemis scolded her, banging the table next to her. Kalysto frowned as her headache worsened and inwardly prayed that all this unwarranted torment would end quickly.
I should be looking for Alice instead of being here wasting my time. She grunted to herself, but she wanted the reward. Besides, she was too exhausted to stop fantasizing about her warm, comfortable bed. The idea of her pillow and blanket sounded as tempting as a porn movie to a horny teenager.
That, and she was dying to go to the bathroom. With urgency.
Her stomach growled at that moment reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything for over five hours.
Then Kalysto stopped and closed her eyelids, the pain behind her eyes felt like it was going to crack her skull into a thousand pieces at any moment.
This is as far as I go! She decided. Unwilling to continue to tolerate the screams of the fairy that only allowed her to rest during the seconds it took her to drink another mana potion.
“What are you doing? Start over!” Artemis ordered her, after placing another bottle of mana potion in front of her.
But contrary to what Artemis expected, Kalysto, instead of drinking the bottle, got up from the hard wooden chair she had been sitting in for five and a half hours straight and walked away from the table.
My butt hurts and my legs are numb. She complained. Regeneration! Regeneration!
“Where do you think you’re going?” Artemis was annoyed, still standing in front of the huge table with two thousand enchanted stones on it.
“To the bathroom. I think the teacher has forgotten that if a person only consumes liquids for five hours in a row, it is obvious that her body needs to expel the excess liquid. She gets tired and hungry. That and my contract stipulates that meals and sleeping hours must be respected. Besides, I haven’t eaten for five and a half hours. A fairy’s body could withstand this kind of labor exploitation, but not a human’s!” She growled before opening the door. “And my fatigue level has been at a hundred for a while now. I need a rest!” She added before leaving the room and taking out a bottle of revitalizing potion from her inventory.
By the time she reached her room and locked herself in the bathroom, her mind ceased to seem like a thick swamp in which thinking clearly was an odyssey worthy of a Greek god. As soon as she finished, she took a hot shower, drank a whole bottle of holy water and came out of the bath wrapped in a towel, only to find Tsuki excitedly barking at the door and Alynn entering with a tray full of food and freshly baked bread.
“Good afternoon champion, I heard that your training was over for the day, so I decided to bring you something to eat. I also brought some of the bread that you like, freshly baked and some theles.”
“Thank you so much Alynn,” said Kalysto immediately took one of the breads and put it in her mouth. The soft and delicious texture melted on her palate as she enjoyed the taste of the melted butter that Alynn spread on them. “Mmm...” she delighted”. delicious as always," she complimented her.
“I appreciate the compliment, champ.”
“Believe me, it’s well deserved," Alynn smiled in satisfaction at the compliment and placed the tray of food on the bedside table next to Kalysto’s bed and then took Tsuki’s food dish out of her inventory and set it on the floor.
The puppy was so excited that he pounced on the food dish before it hit the floor, wagging his tail from side to side, excited by the delicious smell.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I see someone has made friends while I was gone," Kalysto muttered after coming out of the bathroom, dressed in her black sweatshirt while drying her hair. Tsuki’s body froze on the spot.
“Sorry, master," apologized the puppy in her mind. And this time it was Kalysto’s turn to freeze, realizing that she had forgotten to raise her defenses again since the day before.
Come on Kalysto, concentrate!
She scolded herself, and immediately the familiar coldness enveloped her body from head to toe. A soft whine came from Tsuki’s throat, who thought she was angry with him.
“I have to go out after lunch," she explained as she looked at him. To her surprise, it was Alynn who answered.
“If it’s not presumptuous to ask, would you like me to have your dinner ready early?”
“That would be great, Alynn. Thank you very much," she smiled at her as she sat down to eat. “Just leave it protected, and I’ll eat it as soon as I get here.”
“I’ll do that.”
“And can I ask you a favor?” As soon as Alynn nodded, she continued, “Could you inform Artemis that I’ll be gone for the rest of the day? Tell her that we will continue with the training tomorrow, as we had agreed.”
“Of course.”
It was only after lunch and Alynn took away the dirty dishes that Kalysto pulled out the communication crystal.
“Caranthir, answer me!” A few seconds passed without receiving an answer, and after calling him a couple more times while she stroked Tsuki’s soft fur, he finally answered.
“Saintess?”
“How is the search going?”
“... Still no results. In the morning, I was able to contact the guild in Solis that was recommended to us. Then I went to Thaluz, but neither the adventurer’s guild nor one of the informer’s guilds had any information about them. They still said they would contact me as soon as they knew anything. However, they suggested me to go and ask at the main office of the hunter’s guild in Zeer. Since Bhallys has free trade agreements with them and both kingdoms have had a strong alliance since several years ago, it is possible that, unlike the other kingdoms, they share information between the guilds,” the elf informed. “I’m heading there right now.”
“I will go with you!” Kalysto interrupted him immediately, “Go to your house and pick me up there in a minute!” Then she put away the communication crystal and took out her favorite comfortable black sneakers and the gender change ring. As she finished putting them on, she looked at her pet. “Tsuki, will you come with me and help me look for my friend?”
“Arff!” The puppy got excited.
“Ok, come here. I’ll get you into the Batcave.”
“Arf?” Tsuki tilted his head and looked at her without understanding what she was talking about.
“Forget it, just agree to enter my inventory so I can take you” then she took the hearthstone out of her inventory, and when she finished tying her sneakers, she put Tsuki in and activated the hearthstone, appearing seconds later in front of Caranthir’s house, where the elf was already waiting for her.
“Good afternoon, saintess. I hope you had a good rest last night.”
“Hello, Caranthir. How are you?” She greeted him, remembering again that she hadn’t done it before when she called him. “I barely slept last night, and it’s been quite a busy day so far. How are you?” The elf looked back at her, weary with fatigue.
“It was a long night too, but I managed to finish all the potions.”
“Great! Let’s go look for Alice and then you deliver them to me” after the elf transported them to the entrance of the capital, where it was forbidden to teleport, Kalysto took Tsuki out of the inventory as soon as they got into a carriage. “Very well, Tsuki. From now on, you must be very aware of your surroundings and never separate from me. I don’t want you to get lost and I don’t want you to get close to strangers, either.”
“I didn’t know you had a sacred beast as a pet. Maybe it would be wiser to put it back in storage and not take it out until we get to a safe place, someone might try to kidnap it and sell it on the black market” The puppy in Kalysto’s arms trembled at the elf’s words.
“Tsuki, if anyone comes near you, electrocute him!” she ordered.
“Arff!” Tsuki immediately answered, fully agreeing with the order given.
“We have arrived” announced the coachman and Caranthir paid for the trip, but as soon as they got off, with Kalysto carrying Tsuki in her arms, they noticed that the wide office of the adventurers’ guild was full of people.
“I think we have come at the wrong time," muttered the elf after observing the huge line at the three stands offering information and quests for the adventurers. “Perhaps it would be more convenient to go first for the information. I know a guild I have worked with before on several occasions. It’s called Grethel. They are kind and honest people, plus they have good prices. You can buy or sell practically anything with them and they are two blocks from here," commented the elf, pointing to his left.
“Does that mean you buy the materials for your potions from them and then sell them to them once they are made?” Kalysto questioned, causing the elf’s ears to turn red. And although she sneered at him as if she had made a joke, the truth was that her alarms went on as soon as he said that they bought or sold almost anything. And she immediately put Tsuki into her inventory.
So that’s where he sells the holy water I give him as payment? She couldn’t avoid wondering.
“There I bought the materials for my potions, yes…” then she saw him hesitate for a few seconds and look towards the opposite street where he had indicated where the guild was located.
“Then let’s go immediately to Grethel," she said with conviction as she walked in the direction he had indicated at the beginning.
Five minutes later, a very organized reception welcomed them. And a cat-eared receptionist welcomed them with a broad smile on her lips as soon as she recognized the elf.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Caranthir. What can we do for you today? If you are looking for a buyer for...”
“We are here for something else," the elf interrupted her immediately, which caught Kalysto’s attention right away. “We are looking for a couple of missing young ladies.”
“I see. We’ve been getting a lot of that kind of errands lately. Where did the girls disappear to?”
“They were in the capital of Bhallys a month ago," Kalysto interrupted.
“Do you have any drawings of the girls?” At the words of the young customer service girl, Caranthir took out the crystal with which he had copied the picture of Alice and her grandparents. As soon as they finished and paid 30 silver coins for the commission, the girl handed them a scroll in which she sent them relevant information about the case. Kalysto hurried to pick it up. “Is there anything else you want our help with?” added the shapeshifter as she stared at Caranthir, who seemed to become nervous.
“No, that’s all.”
“In fact, there is something else I’d like to do," Kalytso interrupted just after Caranthir turned around to leave, as she took out a small vial of holy water. “How much for this?” she asked with a smile, noticing how Caranthir’s eyes widened like dinner plates and his face turned pale at once.