Time moved quickly after that. Whisper, Pan, and I continued to farm Pan’s dungeon for supplies. His guardians were virtually mindless monsters, so I didn’t have any compunctions about their wholesale slaughter and harvest. I had my Oni hunter team farm the Goblin dungeon once a week for supplies. We managed to stock up on a bit of rusted steel and iron through looting the goblin dungeon and we had simple clothes made using rose petals. They weren't anything special to look at, but they held up well in combat.

During my down time I increased the size of my dungeon and due to the efforts of my Oni hunters and goblin rogues. It leveled up a few more times. Putting my defender amount to 400. I didn’t have nearly enough space to accommodate that number of defenders. Nor did I have the resources to provide for them. We were planning to go on another dungeon run close to a human civilization. The city there was called the Twin City for some reason and the earth dungeon was pretty close to it.

Before we went though, I developed some new spells to aid in my defense and offense. I learned a lesson when I fought with Pan. I created Iron Wood, Water Blade, Water Prison, Flood, Water Wall, Stone Wall, Quicksand, Lightning Blade, Lightning Bolt, Charged Lightning, Static Cling, Fire Blade, Wall of Fire, and Explosion. Once I had more spells, I got some paper and started making what they call Talismans. Similar to scrolls, Talismans are one time use spells that can be stored for later use. I use all the mana I need for its activation during its creation. Meaning that it would be much harder to interrupt the way Pan did while I was fighting him, now her.

As for Pan, her Psychic Scream skill can do far more than just interrupt spell casting. In a way it’s similar to mind control. When she screams, she decides on what she wants it to do. Muddle the mind, enrage the target, or cause it to flee in terror. Once I knew this, she became our front line. She didn’t lose her ability to shapeshift but for some reason she chose not to use it very often. Opting to use a large hardened, stone great sword inscribed with the lightning blade spell, I had to hand it to her. She was a force to be reckoned with. Cleaving down foes left and right with that thing.

I was so busy crafting and inscribing everyone's equipment that I barely had time to make a few talismans for my own use. Leading me to believe that I needed some crafters among my defenders. Sure, I had the goblin crafters, but they only dealt with shaping the wood and stone into their shapes, while I did the rest.

Not wanting to dwell on what could be, I packed up and set off for the Twin city. Whisper and Pan following behind me. During our time together, Whisper and Pan became close friends. Spending most of their free time drinking and sharing stories about their past. Both had rather sad stories, so they formed some kind of kinship. Whisper became more open and outspoken with his opinions.

As for Pan, she made almost no progress in displaying a modicum of femininity. She was always brash and loud, laughing about how crazy it was to have the body of a woman. While clearly having the mentality of a man. Eventually we had to force her to start wearing a wrap around her chest to prevent some… Unnecessary issues while dealing with the village. Pan hated clothing but she eventually agreed to minimal coverage. Which consisted of a single cloth band around her breasts and a loin cloth covering her more delicate places, complete with a pair of sandals.

The Twin City was nearly 2 weeks away on foot via the main road. During our travels to the city, we stumbled upon a strange scene. We were 2 or 3 days from reaching our destination when we spotted a fight of sorts off in a clearing not far from the road. Curious, we approached to see what was happening.

Standing there facing off against two distinct groups of people was a woman dressed in a wooden breastplate and had 8 swords strapped to her back. She had a long skirt that reached nearly to the tops of her feet and more wooden plating running along her legs. Her opponents were similarly dressed though a bit different. One group had heavy wooden plating covering nearly the entirety of their body. Each welded a long single edged sword and had a spare strapped in their belts. The other group wore light clothing and only had those wooden plates under their clothes, protecting their more vital areas. They used a variety of weapons but seemed to favor ranged and stealth based attacks.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The woman in question slashed, blocked, parried, attacked and dodged. Fighting off both groups at the same time. She was clearly an excellent fighter as the other group seemed wary of her actions. Even though they outnumbered her 10 to 1. As the battle raged on, she would score hits here and there but for the most part her opponents were out of reach. The warriors taunted and feinted her while the rogues took cheap shots at her.

Once the group's numbers had been cut in more than half they fled. Escaping the woman's deadly dance of blades. Once they were all gone the woman collapsed to the ground falling unconscious and heavily injured. Concerned We walked over to her and picked her up, bringing her back to our camp for the night. Healing her with Pan’s weak healing magic. Pan hated using healing magic, so she wasn’t very proficient with it, but it did the trick. She stabilized and started breathing easier.

In the middle of the night, I was woken up to the shouting between women. Pan was throwing her arms in the air all around her, face turning red in anger. While the woman stood there scolding Pan for how she dressed in public. Worse about how she was exposing herself promiscuously in front of men. The next thing I knew I heard a loud slap. Followed by Pan’s voice.

“Fuck you bitch! You don’t know anything about me. How dare you judge me after I healed you. Savas you’re awake right. Tell this bitch to go fuck herself. I’m going to bed.” is what she said before stomping off into the woods.

The newcomer standing there holding her cheek just staired in the direction Pan stormed off in. Concern and confusion written all over her face. Then she turned to me, eyes asking with her mouth didn’t.

“What just happened?” they said.

Letting out a deep sigh I said, “Pan is a special woman, don’t take it to heart. She has a lot going on right now. So, what do you say to getting introductions out of the way, hm?”

My calm demeanor seeming to put the woman at ease. After a moment she sat down on a log and took a steadying breath.

Exhaling she said, “Nice to meet you. My name is Busha. I’m a warrior from the Twin City. And you are?”

Smiling, I said, “Nice to meet you, Busha. My name is Savas. I’m the leader of our little rag tag group of misfits. Over there is Whisper and you’ve already met Pan. I’m sorry about that by the way. I’ll talk to her later. We saw your fight with those I’m assuming bandits earlier. Sorry we didn’t step in but we weren't sure what was going on and didn’t want to make any rash judgments.”

She lowered her head in defeat. Then explained to me that though she is a warrior from the city. She isn’t welcome among any of the clans there because she’s a woman. They do not allow women to become warriors there, so she disguised herself as a man and trained herself rigorously in both schools of combat the city provided. Once she was satisfied with her training, she planned to leave the city and wander around the world seeking glory and fame. To prove to the Twin City that women were just as good of warriors as any man was. But they found out about her before she could escape. Leading to the fight we just witnessed. I listened to her tale with rapt attention. Then she stood up bowing in front of me.

“Thank you for saving my life. I don’t want to die at the beginning of my journey. I have so much to see and it’s thanks to you my dreams will be answered. You have my gratitude.” she said.

A smile crossed her face as she lifted her head. Only to be followed by a gruesome sight. Once she stood fully an arrow struck the back of her head. Felling her instantly, before I could act Whisper took off into the woods and I could hear Pan’s roar in the distance following Whispers trail. Not long passed before both Whisper and Pan returned, covered in blood. I could see slashes closing up on Pan’s arms as she stood there looking at the woman, tears in her eyes. While Whisper just stood there looking me in the eye. Begging me to do it. With a sigh I placed my hand on Busha’s exposed stomach and took her soul.