Now that I have time, I realize that all of these women are deimos. They each have features like furry ears and tails. They are also more human-like than had been described in the books that I have read. Or, how they were explained by the avatar. They also have wildly different hair colors, with one even being a silver color. Outside of the tails and ears, they looked mostly human to me.

“I hope he kills us fast if he feeds us to that snake our death will be long and painful,” one of the women says. I can hear the fear in her voice I can also tell she is quietly crying.

“Lord mage I only beg that you make our deaths swift and painless. We did not mean to offend you with our presence” the voice came from the one who had been wounded the worst. Her voice was very smooth and melodic. I could also tell she was fighting back her own terror to keep it together for the others. I found her strength admirable. Her plea almost broke me out of the plan I had set up for myself. She was speaking Edabi the demiosan language. For my story to work I would need to act like I didn’t speak the language.

“I no speak good Edabi you speak Akamean yes,” I asked in broken Edabi as I stored my armor. I also noticed that I had new notifications.

She looked up at me nervously and I heard whispers of “human” through the group. I also heard them whisper “male”. Her nose twitched as she noticed that I saw her looking and she immediately dipped her head again.

“I was pleading for the mercy of a swift death for my sisters in arms. If you feel you must torture someone let it be me” she said nervously her voice had less strength in it this time. She had switched to Akamean this time.

I was worried about the status of relations between humans and the demios at this point.

“I have no intention to kill you. If I wished you dead, I could have just let the rats have you.”

“If you had the rats would have gotten the kill instead of you. Then they would have gotten the XP instead” she says nervously. I hear whimpers coming from the others.

“Yes, but if that was the case, I did not need to heal you. I could have just killed you then. Or I could have just let Akurra eat you he is my familiar so I would get the XP. I know our races have issues with each other but out here that animosity will get you killed.”

While she was mulling over her response, I decided to check my notifications.

Hidden quest completed, Help the helpless: Six helpless demios were chased into the forgotten forest. They have been trapped by forest beasts save them from the beasts. Completion requirements six parties made it into the forest save at least one of them. Quest rewards improve based on how many are saved 6/6 Quest difficulty/ Common, Chain part 1. Complete!

Calculating Quest rewards: +1 levels, quest bonus +1/2 skill levels for each saved party 6/6 +3 skill levels.

LEVEL UP! You have increased your level. You have attained level Forty-Eight. You have received 16 attribute points you have 114 unspent attribute points.

LEVEL UP! You have increased your subclasses level. You have attained level Six/ Six. You have received 26 attribute points you have 132 unspent attribute points.

Even if they don’t trust me this little exercise was worth the effort. When I come out of my menu, I can see she is watching me from her place on the ground.

“Do you give me your word that you don’t intend to kill us” she asks I can tell she is fighting getting her hopes up?

“I give you my word as a mage that I have no intent on harming you or anyone with you,” I say seriously.

This causes a gasp from the group. I knew that I might have to do this to gain entry into a demios town or city. I did not feel the weight of the oath like it had been described in the book I had read. But it had been enough to them that I had been willing to make the oath. I could see them starting to relax some. They did not move though!

“We should probably move along before more dangerous beasts are drawn here.”

That stirred them into motion as they all got up nervously. I proceeded to take stock of their condition. It was immediately obvious to me that they had not been eating well, as they were all malnourished and skinny. It was also obvious that they were extremely poor or this world was farther behind than I thought. Their clothing, what little of there was. Is very basic. Most of it was skins used to make bikini bottoms with some skins to cover. The tops were large scraps of leather. The one I pegged for the leader had a huge hole in the center of the scrap on her chest. The hole in her chest was showing a large amount of skin.

“So why are you out here? Not to be rude but you are not equipped to be in this forest.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The leader looked at me nervously. As she did so my identity resolved with her name.

Sarisol Demios lvl 22 No Class. Unclaimed??

I would not address her as such until she told me her name. But it was good to know that my skill would give me more information the more I interacted with them.

“We were only supposed to go a short distance outside of our village. A beast surprised us and we ran much farther into the forest than we had intended. By the time we realized our mistake, it was too late and we had been set upon by those dire rats” she said meekly.

I could tell that they still didn’t fully trust me but there was not much I could do about it right now.

“Lord mage may I ask why you saved us,” she asked me nervously.

“I was hunting and I heard screams. When I found you, I didn’t realize that you weren’t human. All the descriptions I had of demios said that you looked very different from humans. So, it was a surprise to me to find out that you look so human.”

“Lord mage you have never met a cursed one before,” one of the other women asked shyly?

“What is a cursed one? The books I have never brought it up before.”

I could feel the tension in the group as a few of them slumped. I felt a few of them fidget nervously.

“After the great betrayal and the cataclysm that followed it, there was a time of immense upheaval. It took the world almost a thousand arcs to stabilize” Sarisol said like she was quoting a fairy tale.

“Yes, I know about the great betrayal. I know the Alvairans, Demons, And Demios betrayed Humanity. From what I read the population of the Demios was not aware of the betrayal.” I noticed a few of them perk up when I said this.

“Well just as the world was starting to recover it was struck by a plague. People got sick and died but the worst part of the plague was not understood until later. It did something to us internally. We as a species have become more human-like. Though normal demios are still closer to our bestial relatives than to humans. Every so often one of us is born a cursed one. Too human for our own kind, and too demiosan for the humans. Cursed to be in-between both, but accepted by neither. If that was not bad enough, when others turn ten, they get their class. We never get our classes as the others do. So, we are weaker than normal” Sarisol says the frustration leaking into her voice.

“On top of that we are hunted by our own regularly,” one of the other girls says roughly before nervously putting her hand on her mouth.

The others eye her angrily. It was like they thought she told me something I shouldn’t know.

“Well, you don’t bother me. I find you interesting.”

As we continue to walk, I get a new notification.

Hidden quest, Help the helpless: Part 2 Escort! Six helpless demios were chased into the forgotten forest. Completion requirements six parties survived part one, see to it at least one makes it home alive. Quest rewards improve based on how many are saved Quest difficulty/ Common, Chain part 2.

I look at the quest, and while it is my least favorite quest type, it’s not like I was not already doing it.

The group pulls to the side there are a few minutes of animated conversation they come back. When we head off, they are obviously nervous. Every snap in the bushes causes them to stir nervously. This gives me a chance to assess them as they are not watching me. I know where the threats are so I am not worried about the beasts of the forest. Akurra’s presence keeps most beasts from wanting to tangle with us.

Outside of them all being on the skinny side from not eating. They are all dirty and bruised from their mad dash through the forest. The bruises are disappearing along with the worst parts of being malnourished due to the healing magic. I am glad that I hunted earlier when I realize just how many mouths, I have to feed tonight. I also notice just how attractive they all are. Even dirty, malnourished, and in tattered ratty clothes, all of them are distinctively attractive. Two of them possess cat-like ears and tails. While three of them have more canine ears and tails. The leader was one of the ones with the canine ears and tail. Her hair was silver while her ears were black and her tail was black with a silver streak. She was also the tallest and strongest of the group. She is tall at over five nine, and back home she would have been classified as a model. She had long legs with a pert tight ass that her ratty clothes did little to hide. Her top with the hole in it is showing a decent amount of cleavage. The last member of the group is the most out of place of the group. Her ears are round, with little tufts of hair at the base and puffs sticking out of the center of her ears. She is also the smallest of the group at five-five. The others all seem to be very protective of her. She gives off the vibe that she would not have normally left their village. I try not to think about just how attractive the group is. That thought will make this trip more uncomfortable.

We continue for a few more hours before they are about to collapse from exhaustion. During our walk, I kept to half of my previous pace slowing to accommodate them. Even so, I am surprised at just how far they got away from their home in their fear. We are attacked twice during our travels once by five more dire rats. The second attack came from a weird-looking cat creature.

Glieberfang lvl 15.

The Glieberfang was a weird amalgam of a cat and some kind of lizard. When it came out of the tree it was perched on and hissed loudly. The women all screeched in terror the five women all circled the smaller one with their spears out. Before they could draw more attention. I cast Flame Strike and hit the beast with three pillars of flame. I hear the beast screeching as it dies. I have to hit the area around it with Elemental Orb’s of water, to keep the forest from catching fire. The group looks from the pillars of fire to me before looking back at the flames. It took a considerable amount of time and a fair bit of mana before I got the notification that the beast was dead. The beast was either resistant to magic or had a large amount of other damage resistance. Once I got the notification that the creature had died, I let the spell drop. The beast or what was left of it was largely intact. While the fur had been burned off the beast the scales were largely intact and undamaged. As I got closer, I saw that there had been little actual damage to the beast’s outer body. From what I could tell the creature had died from one of two likely things. The beast had either died from smoke inhalation or lack of oxygen.

The women looked at the beast’s corpse as well. They all looked at the beast’s corpse and then at me.

“What you all reacted like the beast was dangerous. So, I took care of it” I said with a chuckle. “That’s is what I do to those who threaten my friends. So, would you rather consider yourself my friends” I asked jokingly?