So, let me teach you how to make a dwarf have an orgasm. Tell him you found a huge mineral vein in a mountain that has no one to claim anywhere nearby, is less than two hundred kilometers from his home and has both gold and platinum. Then show him the high-purity ores you collected as samples. Bang! Snap! As Andy Samberg used to sing, the stout fellows "jizzed in their pants". No. They didn't actually cummed in their chain hauberks. That would've been super gross.
But that threw a wrench on all our plans. You see, the dwarves wanted to see the vein and mine it yesterday. To which I had to point the duties they had and the only way to get there was through them, so it would be safe for a long time. However, it put pressure to finish ranking up the recruits I was training. I still needed to kill thousands of monsters for that to happen. Did I ever mention how stupid the exponential Exp system of this world was?
But the dwarves were progressing at an alarming speed. By my calculations, on a standard fourteen-split, you'd need close to one hundred-twenty million Exp to rank up. Your professions would suck and lag behind on level eighteen until they were cheap again to level them but nobody cared about these. A barbarian wants what a barbarian wants, and this world's barbarians - everyone was a barbarian - wanted to kill. Professions don't help one kill faster, so they say, "fuck that" to them.
Where was I? Yes, ranking up the dwarves. To reach that much, we would need to kill more than a hundred thousand monsters. The valley had a lot of them but that was still several months away. To my surprise, the actual number was way lower than that. Comparing my own Exp log with the level growth of the dwarves, that number was off by a factor of sixteen. That only meant the dwarves were getting some sort of Exp bonus.
Lo and behold, I really got my head in the clouds with all my crazy Exp multipliers. Dwarves were considered small but they had racial perks to cancel out the damage and HP penalties which all the warriors bought. They got a free times-two Exp bonus with two perks. Then it came to the fact I was killing monsters from the lake in the center of the crater which were all on the first rank-up. That gave the dwarves a bonus species and class rank multipliers. Even it out with the fact I was also killing weaker monsters in the valley and we reached that times-sixteen multiplier.
Hooray! I could power level a group of forty first-rank dwarven warriors in a month. And that's what I did. It was cruel and gruesome with the recruits. I got very aggressive with my pulls, sparing not a single drop of MP or SP. That had the side-effect of halting completely the progression on eroding my curses but I should stay in Windemere if I was really worried about that. And what's better is that they could switch to manual Exp allocation and refrain from leveling up and ranking up so they could keep earning Exp with those bonuses for longer.
Maybe that was something that I should do in a later life. I don't need rare Classes. Each times-two multiplier means the rank-up is coming one level earlier.
Two months passed, the dwarves graduated and jumped straight to level fifty-seven because the sweetest part of a rank-up was the reset of the Exp table. Talbain, on the other hand, would need to grind much more than that if he wanted to rank up again. He gained six levels, reaching level sixty-three while he leeched Exp along with the dwarves. I got enough to spend on the enchanted walls and get out at an even balance. Those enchantments were expensive and you paid the cost per meter of the wall. [Enchanter] had some abilities to mitigate that cost and allow for more efficient structural enchantment but I didn't have any of them.
The dwarves left the ranked up guards to train the next batch of recruits and set out on an expedition to find the vein. I gave them a map and went back to Windemere with Talbain. It was time to hunt slavers.
I didn't make this detour with the dwarves for nothing. I needed to wait for Kazuyran's intelligence network to compile information on my targets. After we both transformed into dire wolves and ran all the way back to Windemere, we met with Kazuyran in one of the safehouses and he gave us a bundle of parchments with detailed information separated by country. It was going to be a long trip.
We had the location of slave dealers, nobles, even an auction house that sold highly sought slaves. Mostly women for reasons I knew very well. The last auction had three elves, each going for around forty platinum coins. A fortune, period. Not "small". I highly doubt these women were criminals. After reviewing the documents, I decided to hit the auction house first. Kazuyran had the most trouble breaching their security and no doubt they would have records of previous transactions that would unveil even more targets for us.
And if we started to go at other targets first, the auction house could step up their security or even destroy evidence. No, we should go for the big fish first.
With that in mind, Talbain and I departed from Windemere a week later. The week delay was because I had to warn McCalister that I was leaving Windemere for an extended period of time again. Maybe for months, this time. And taking the Magic Wellspring with me because I was the Wellspring. So he could weave some cover story about the ebbing of the magical confluence. Or people at the academy might panic.
On the way, I checked how {Erode Curse} had progressed.
> Major Feeblemind (very rare): Your Mental Attributes' cap is your racial average plus ten. [Erosion status: 23.6%]
The {Remove Curse} Skill didn't give me the value to break the curse, meaning it was still too expensive. Still in the billion range. With their stealthy nerf adding a ramping cost to {Surpasser}, I couldn't afford to have Attribute points withheld. Mental Stats were worth more to me than the Physical as higher mental stats would help me break curses faster. I had a long road ahead of me.
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The selfish thing to do would be just waiting and stay in Windemere, leeching MP from everyone. No, I wasn't leeching. I was doubling their MP regeneration, allowing them to do more, hunt faster, weave more silk, cast more spells. When they weren't using their MP, I took only what was going to waste.
But could I leave people to suffer the most heinous of indignities? A slave collar made one lose their freedom, their very agencies in a profound and fundamental way. As someone that grew admiring great people like Sartre, Kant, and Locke, I couldn't sit idle. I had to fight even if it hurt my goals in the short term. It reminded me of a song by Trey Parker and band.
> Freedom isn't free. It costs folks like you and me.
>
> (...)
>
> And if you don't throw in your buck 'o five, who will?
Besides, these people were Lorna's subjects. By rescuing them and punishing their tormentors, I felt I was doing her memory great honor.
I miss you, my Queen.
----------------------------------------
Sadian was a coastal country, famous for their shipwrights. It was also a major trading hub and the usual place where boats crossing the ocean toward Pekothas to the west or just going north or south following the shore. A lot of money passed there and it had a reputation for the place where everything could be found and anything had a price. And freedom costs a buck 'o five so we were going to get some.
We ran through the forests and roads. Two tireless dire wolves. We scared some merchants and travelers that noticed us passing but we were gone by the time they attempted to mount some defense. With my [Hero] and [Champion] abilities, the few arrows or spells that flew our way were targeted at me and not Talbain. Not that the werewolf needed protection but I didn't want him to slow down. I didn't retaliate and ran away. These people were only trying to defend themselves, even though they were stupid.
Once we reached an urban zone, we shifted into wolf-kin forms and walked the rest of the way on foot. We got quite the share of glares and suspicious looks from the people but nobody challenged us. I set my fake information
> [Itinerant Merchant]
>
> Level 61 werewolf female
I didn't add any additional information. Those that could see such things would believe they just failed the proficiency test to see it.
The auction house was located in the metropolis of Rerin, the heart of Sadian. I hissed as I saw the gigantic temple of Bundeus, still sporting the sigils for the Sun and War, the two domains he lost to the gods that went into our underground barrier to stop our duel from draining all his divine power. The buildings gleamed under the scarce sunlight. The most luxurious ones showed clear signs they were made with magic.
The auction house was right next to the temple. I started to get wicked ideas on how I could strike two targets at once and mask my true intentions. We walked around the central square, sampling food and buying trinkets like tourists. There were few non-humans and most of them sported a slave collar. My anger flared at the sight and I felt tempted to raze the city so I could free them.
I focused on my detection Perks to see the movement of people inside the auction house and map the well-traveled areas. As we went around, I found that we were being stalked. A plan formed in my mind. Maybe I could let them capture me. Apricot had a killer body, lean, wiry, and curvy. I needed to get more fat on my hips to be truly classified as "thicc" but it was close. Maybe I should've added Lakerta's boobs if I'd thought about infiltrating by capture earlier.
I needed to get separated from Talbain. The fact he had a combat Class would dissuade the slavers from going after him. People knew how dangerous a high leveled werewolf could be.
"But..."
"I can."
We exchanged a few words to protect our cover and he went away shouting he needed to get himself some ale before the "damn woman" spent all their coin on trinkets. I shopped for a while and then sat on a bench to rest. Minutes later some guards came to harass me.
"You can't sit on the bench, beast. It is reserved for humans!"
I argued and they arrested me. They dragged me to a back alley where our stalkers waited for me. They quickly subdued me - they were strong and I didn't resist - and one of the slavers came and activated a slave collar around me. He gave me one order.
"Obey all commands from everyone in here, do not use any Skills or Perks unless ordered, and do not attack anything. You are forbidden from hurting yourself."
Then he groped me with a knowing smirk. The other guys were slowly rubbing their crotches. I have to admit, I didn't take into account what they did to their female prisoners. A big hole in my plan, I didn't intend on letting them rape me. With a sigh, I resigned myself to showing a bit of my hand.
I summoned a glass orb to my hand and tossed it to the ground. It burst with a cloud of white smoke that quickly covered the whole alley. With sight out of the way, I tossed {Force Bindings} on all of them. A {Death Contract} plus one stab through the ear for each of them and I was three hundred thousand Exp richer. Not a drop of blood on the ground or a body to tell the story. The Master would be so proud. I left the leader alive and dragged him deeper into the alley. I used a sound ward to keep others from hearing his screams.
"Obey all commands from me, do not use any Skills or Perks unless ordered, and do not attack anything. You are forbidden from hurting yourself. That's a {Royal Geas}."
He struggled and took twenty-four thousand HP of damage. He fell on the ground convulsing and taking more damage but he stopped.
"What do you want?" He whimpered.
I healed him. "You now work for me. And that's what you're going to do. You are going to sell me to the auction house."
He scoffed, "You don't meet their standards, beast!" That prompted him to take more punishment from the geas. I added a {Princess} title to my Status.
"You captured the werewolf princess. Of course, I meet their standards. Use {Appraise} on me," I ordered.
A guy in his line of work would surely have that profession. His eyes went wide. "That can work."
"And once you sell me, you are going to donate the money to the temple of Yznera, get a one-man boat and sail into the high seas for a month. You are forbidden from talking about what happened here, the whereabouts of your coworkers, or any information about me other than what's on my Status. If someone asks, you'll say I don't know where they are. Because it is true. You don't know where they are but you don't want to go there. Understood?"
He nodded.
"And you'll tell them I'm a virgin. That's also true."
With that title, it was easy to get sold for the Auction House. The guy that bought me was rubbing his hands, already counting the platinum coins. The slaver whose name I didn't bother to learn, got five of them for his troubles.
"Now come, my beauty," the auctioneer said once the slaver went away. "You'll be the centerpiece of next week's auction. A true {Princess}! How wonderful!"