I landed the wooden pew rollercoaster car with forty people inside on the outskirts of Rerin. This method of flight is too damn expensive. Nevermind I'm carrying five or six tons of cargo through the air. Still expensive.
I avoided the road and picked a forest clearing. The sun will be up soon and it will be easy to see us. Maintaining invisibility along with the force barrier lifting the car will be even more strenuous.
I dumped a middle-sized house from Storage. Then I took out a table, chairs, forty sets of cutlery and dishes. I dump some raw food on the table and firewood on the ground.
"We can cook," one of the former auction house hostesses offered.
"Good. I'm taking the sled while we don't need it," I replied and sent the pew car to the storage.
Other volunteers assembled and they made themselves busy. With the display of power, I showed them, I don't think they regret the choice of coming with me. While they are working, I check the house. It is one from Perenneth during the Third Demon Lord's rampage. The house is still furnished but it doesn't have enough for forty people. I drop a pile of bedrolls. I know some of them to need to sleep but maybe not all of them.
After my guests are provided for, I call for their attention. "We are resting and recovering here while I regenerate my MP. We'll depart in ten hours, so make yourselves comfortable. Don't worry about monsters or any kind of attack. This place is safe. Talbain, come with me for a walk, please."
I take the werewolf away and we walk deeper into the forest.
"What is the matter, Matriarch?"
Deflated, I explained to him what happened with the trophy slave waifus I've met and why they refused to come with me.
"That was expected. Between what they know and an unknown person, what would they pick? It was a jump in the dark. The auction house people only came with you because you killed some of them and they were afraid of what you'd do if they refused to come with you."
I felt a pang of pain, "Why would someone willingly keep using that collar, Talbain? They had some kin among them!"
The werewolf shook his head, "They made their choice. Let's see how they fare with their masters dead."
"I'm going back,' I said. "At least the kin I'm going to take with me."
The werewolf smiled - more like a toothy snark actually - and nodded, "They should obey their Matriarch. Lead the pack with strength and wisdom," he advised me.
"Take care of our 'pack' while I'm out, Talbain."
He growled a chuckle, "As the Matriarch wills."
You had to know werewolf physiology to avoid misunderstandings. He was amazed, excited, and the [Wolf Radier]'s advice was very welcome. I shifted into the needletail and flew back at full speed.
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The castle was in siege mode. A guard for every three meters of walls. Spells painted the sky in a rainbow of colors, illuminating around and searching for intruders. I slowed down to almost a stall and glided down into the palace's basement, squeezing myself between cracks in the wards. No bolts of lightning came to fry this chicken this time.
I tiptoed down and went to the most guarded place in the basement. By the number of knights and the heavy steel doors, this was the treasury. Using invisibility, chameleon - in case any of them had some fae blood, I wasn't sure if it would work, I scuttled down the corridor as an Etruscan shrew.
My reason to come here first was simple. If they had no money they would have no money to spend on luxuries, especially trophy sex slaves. I was also motivated by greed and the need to defend Windemere. If I took the kin women with me, they would surely connect the dots.
The door was heavily warded. I chewed a hole in the magic and crossed into the treasure room. The amount of wealth stored would shame the auctioneer. I vacuumed everything into my storage and assumed the shape of a black jaguar with the disguise kit covering me with midnight black fur. I dug a tunnel connecting to the courtyard and went to the harem. It was empty. A quick scan with my detection Perks revealed a group of non-humans in the basement with a group of humans a few meters away. Ten gold coins that were where the Queen put the women.
A squad of knights sat on a table and played cards, obviously guarding a door at the end of the corridor. I heard sobs and whimpering coming from the other side. I stared at them and used {Force Binding}. Once they were dealt with, I became ethereal and entered the room.
The room wasn't a dark and damp dungeon cell as I expected. Far from the luxuries of the above-ground harem but modest and comfortable by peasant standards. It wasn't damp and it didn't smell like shit. The previously vivacious and ornery odalisques were sad and quiet, sitting on large pillows and talking in hushed tones between themselves. Oil lamps on the walls shrouded the room in an eerie and somber twilight.
The women weren't physically hurt. Why would the Queen damage such valuable merchandise? Torturing these women was akin to grinding gold to dust and tossing it to the ocean's waves.
I used a privacy ward and a wall of Force blocking the door before I made myself visible. I made a show of sitting on my haunches licking my paws, not a care in the world. The women screamed and scurried off to the far corners of the room, soiling at least one of the large pillows.
One were-fox in her beast-kin form approached carefully. You could tell she was a were-fox because she had some fur running down the back of her neck mixed with the hair. Pure beastkin necks were bare skin like humans. Her chest quivered with those muffled sobs when one desperately tried to rein in their fears.
"Matriarch?" She tentatively whispered.
I stretched my back, my tail playfully swaying in the shape of an interrogation mark. I met her gaze and calmly sashayed next to her. She was frozen. I rubbed my cheeks on her leg then walked across, rubbing my flank and slapping her belly with my tail. Behind her, I pawed her tail once. After I did a full turn, I sat in front of her. She released her breath in a huff.
Kneeling, she reached with a hand. I met it halfway with the top of my head. She held my chin and raised my eyes. "Matriarch, is it you?"
"So you heard of me, cub," I said sagely. "What's your name?"
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"Laika," She said. A tear rolled down her cheek, "Did you come to take us?"
I scolded her out loud, gazing at the other women still cowering in the corners, "After you so adamantly and foolishly refused my agent's help, I had to come here in person. Come closer, those of my kin."
A show of buxom hips adorned with shiny, fluffy, and silky tails - a testament to the luxury they lived in - came my way. I pigeonholed my sexuality between a gay woman and the straight man I once was, locked the door, and never looked back. I knew what I liked and what I disliked. And I couldn't lie. What I saw turned me on.
It was still too early to seek solace in someone else's bosom, though. I could feel Nenandil disapprove of my hesitation and attachment deep in my soul.
"Is she really the Matriarch? THE Matriarch?" A rabbit-kin woman disbelieved.
I growled, "Doubt my power?" I rubbed the were-fox. "Bring your collar down here, kit. I'll bite that devilish contraption off of your neck."
The women stared with shock, disbelief, and horror. The fox-girl knelt and tilted her head, offering her neck to me. I created the Force band under the collar as a precaution and chomped down on the metal. Once the magic binding it was gone, my jaws broke through. I took a step back and let the were-fox rub her now free neck.
"Last chance, girls. Now that your illusion of wealth and a life of luxury is over, here's your LAST CHANCE. You can stay here and be at the Queen's mercy or come with me. We have little time. Who wants to come to do as Laika did and show me your pretty necks so I can bite off the collar. Who wants to stay, go to that corner with all the pillows."
I used a spell to throw the pillows to the far corner away from where I wanted my escape route. All the girls knelt on the floor. I removed their collars one by one with {Magic Eater}.
I blocked the door with a boulder, carved a section of the wall, and dug a room. The excavation debris was welded shut to the boulder and walls blocking the door but leaving space for airflow above.
It took me two hours to tunnel out of the castle with all the harem girls behind me. Once we were outside, I brought the pew car and got them seated. The number of people I'd rescued in this operation doubled. With my MP pool full, we flew back to the clearing.
I repeated the operation with all the previous slave harems I visited in the noble houses. Some needed more coercion than the others and in most, I only took the kin and elves with me. Strangely, gnomes, halflings, and other smaller species were conspicuously missing from such harems. Why the discrimination? I didn't bother to find out.
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One hundred and thirty-seven women, six men. One cathedral, one auction house, and a hoard of yet-to-be-accounted valuables from a few treasure rooms. Not to mention furniture, books, and other decorative articles I took from the noble Houses that tortured their slaves. Those were the souvenirs from my trip to Sadian. With that came pressing trouble. How to take these people to Windemere? Ice train again? King Locksley was supposed to be dead.
The solution I found wasn't at all dignifying. I discovered that a dire buffalo with eighty-one Strength could pull a wagon train easily. Slowly (even with the double move rate Perk) but easily. The accommodations were cramped but nobody complained to my face. I just put my hooves to the beaten path and pulled. Amazingly, I found the physical exertion to be quite rewarding. It took my mind away from brooding and thinking of other things.
That's probably why I missed the bandits hiding in the treeline.
Arrows flew and struck me. The damage each did was in the ten thousand ballparks, showing that these bandits were trouble. Ignoring the projectiles stuck in me, I rose a Force Cage around the wagon train, leaving me and Talbain outside.
I took another volley of arrows and remembered I could remove them from my body by simply willing them into my item box. Some hit the force cage but just the amount I got from the passengers via Wellspring was enough to sustain the barrier.
"Come out, merchant!" A two-meter tall rugged bandit wearing a battered brigandine with rips in the leather exterior, showing the segmented metal plates studded to it came to block the road in front of me. He shouldered a huge ax and threatened, "We'll kill your beast of burden if you don't. We only want to collect our toll."
I tapped the road with my hoof.
"Easy boy. Or you'll become barbecue tonight," He threatened with a grin showing his yellowed rotten teeth.
> [Man-At-Arms]
>
> Level 57 half-ogre male.
>
> Strength 70
>
> Dexterity 30
>
> Endurance 60
>
> HP 1,181,952
Half-ogre? That was a first. No wonder he was so tall. Quite the HP pool too.
Shouts and cries for help rang from the forest. I kept staring at the brigand. A scared guy came out of the woods on the side where Talbain was prowling,
And killing.
> You were tithed 4 million Exp (Base 137 x 30,500 multipliers)
>
> (...)
"Hey, Spiff!" The half-ogre shouted at the bandit. "What is going on out there?"
Spiff ran away from the treeline along with other bandits that just appeared, crossed the road, and entered the forest on the other side.
"Werewolf!" A straggler shouted.
The leader groaned, "Do I have to do everything here myself?"
"Hey, what happened to the barbecue?" I asked.
He spared a glance, "I'm coming back to deal with you... Did the cow talk?"
"Hey, rude. I'm a dire buffalo, you stupid half-ogre. Your father's courage is commendable, he fucked your ugly ogre mother."
"He rose his great ax in one hand, preparing to strike. "Show yourself, magician!"
"Dude, I'm right here," I told him. "Hold on for a second, let me remove this harness. If you want a fight, I'll give you one."
I sent the harness to the storage and walked a few steps away from the wagon. The women were peeking through the tarp, too afraid to reveal themselves.
"You are a cow mage? A mage transformed into a cow?" He scoffed. "I wonder how magical beef taste."
He charged and brought his ax down. I dodged jumping to the side. I wasn't just a buffalo with eighty-one Strength, I was a buffalo that moved at double speed and had eighty-two Dexterity.
I struck with a horn, dealing a reasonable amount of damage.
> You gored [Man-at-Arms for 944 HP. (Base 75 x2 Size x2,62 Strength x3 Mana Strike x0,8 armor)
Reasonable for someone without any skill at goring people.
> You learned the Skill: Gore (uncommon): Adds damage and accuracy to attacks using horns.
>
> Your rank with Gore is novice 2.
He struck me with his great ax, dealing forty thousand damage. The half-ogre laughed when he saw the translucid shimmer of the {Mana Shield}. "So you ARE a mage!"
"Yes, kind of," I replied. "Do you mind if I use you for an experiment? {Champion's Duel}!"
> Contested Willpower check won.
"A [Champion] cow? That's a first," he laughed.
But it was just a facade. He knew he caused forty thousand HP of damage and he saw the tiny gash his blow opened. There was even a Perk to measure an enemy's HP with increasing precision as you struck them. I never bothered to pick that. The only thing that mattered was the kill.
"Sixty-three million HP, if you are wondering," I told him.
"Bullshit," He spat back.
"Not happening," I flicked my tail.
He struck again and I just dodged or threatened to gore him. I was stalling for time. Talbain crossed the road after the bandits that fled, including Timmy. Poor Timmy. We're gonna need another Timmy.
The guy was skilled with that ax and a buffalo's body was not the easiest form to maneuver and dodge. He got a few good hits in but my passive HP recovery was seventy-two thousand HP per second [footnote]. I felt like Kirito on the 42nd-floor bridge.
Finally, Talbain came. The half-ogre was panting for air.
"Talbain, finish this guy. I yield the challenge."
The bandit saw the message that now he could flee. He looked at me and then at the werewolf. He ran and vanished behind the trees. Talbain was on his heels. I heard him scream and then the sounds of a werewolf killing someone.
> You were tithed 10 million Exp (Base 325 x 30,500 multipliers)
Talbain returned. He had the decency of cleaning himself. Maybe he had a Perk for that. "Matriarch. I am honored you invested one of your Perks for your people!" He gushed with admiration.
"What? Would you explain while you help me attach my harness back, please?"
"My pleasure," He came and latched my harness to the wagon. "I got a twenty-five percent Exp bonus during this encounter."
Eh? Was Boosted Exp Split working for the tithes? It did read, "Those who share Exp with you..."
I burned my blood on the road - you never know when it can be used against you - and we resumed our trip.