In the Bandit City of Jackcity, A large group of bandits suddenly woke up from their nightmare, they looked around and understood that they had all at some point fallen asleep.
In generals magic spells don't only do magical damage, they can also do physical, mental or elemental damage.
Meaning that unless you had a resistance to all three sorts of damage you would never be completely safe against a mage.
Some of you might of course ask, isn't mentality a must for stealth classes, well generaly speaking even craftsmen wouldn't go overboard with adding mentality having an average mentality of 30-50 is the most a common class will ever need, while their physique will range from 20-70, some don't even raise a single point in magicality, of course that's commoner talk.
Jack was rather surprised seeing that he was still alive, he immediately ordered his men to do a body count.
In the end there was only one casualty, the idiot whom had decided to anger the mage, his corpse was rather gruesome to look at, as they saw him holding his own brain and tongue and blood coming from between his legs, while what seemed to be his genitals were visible inside his mouth.
A gruesome and pathetic death that caused even Jack to shiver. He could only imagine gruesome images of torture and nighmarish anguish, of course they didn't know that nothing that they had imagined had happened, all of this was a product of an instant death and the cheat power called teleportation.
"You the orc, which of these slaves were bought by that mage?"
Jack asked as his thoughts had taken a 180degrees turn from before.
"If master is benevolent enough and spare's this ones life, this one will be happy to serve him as a slave"
The ork said as he thought he had found a lifeline for survival.
"Whatever, just make haste, I don't want some mysterious curse in my City"
Jack said seemingly panicked, saving his sister or taking rever for her was one thing, but losing everything because of his own arrogance was something he didn't want to experience.
"As you desire master, Uwik you pathetic goblin, bring the merchandise the noble mage and his pretty companion selected"
The ork shouted and funnily a goblin emerged from underneath the stage, if he hadn't been called to come out they would have probably missed the small ugly goblin, that was hiding under the stage.
It walked towards the merchandise cage and took out the four people Christopher and Tris had ordered.
Jack was somewhat surprised, unless the mage was homo, why the hell would he order two handsome common merchants, both quasi-blood fellows, one being green with pointy ears and the other fair with elven ears, then there was the quasi-beastwoman with the little horns on her head whom was a common huntress and lastly there was the only one worth looking upon, the Lizardman, a monster that would take a double SS assessment on the surface world and first floor, meaning that he was imported from at least the second floor of the dungeon pillar, the incredible thing about it however was that it had a hint of intelligence.
"What's the deal with the lizardman, I thought that you were a slave trader and not a beast tamer"
Jack asked out of curiosity.
"This one was also rather surprised, but you Should ask Krill about this matter, it was his merchandise"
The ork said somewhat sadly.
"Oi, you Krill you bastard what's with the lizardman?"
Jack didn't even care anymore about grudges as he had stumbled onto something rather strange, a monster slave, people would simply laugh at him if he told them about it, after all monsters had no intelligence and the high level monsters that had intelligence were for some reason immune to the slave curse.
"Oh, you mean that one, well a year ago I stumbled upon some stupid dwarf alchemist while acquiring drugs for my slaves, the usual stuff, that idiot was crazy enough to refuse concoting drugs for me, in the end I ended buying some strange elixir from him that could turn a person into a monster, it was only some prototype he said, but the effect was more than I had hoped for, of course I had plans to go to buy more of it, but the next time I went he had already payed off his debt and left the mine"
Krill said rather disappointed, truth was that at that time he had no slaves to try the stuff on, having already sold them all off to the dwarves, thus he bought drugs for the new party of slaves he would get when he returned to base, of course the stupid Dwarf was Kurlidandr, the innkeeper simply liked sending people his way, of course not all people cared for raising stats, especialy merchants, whom valued money above all, why would they even care to buy flawed elixirs, that most likely wouldn't even sell, since the materials to create them were too costly, to begin with they could but regular elixirs for a better price, it was cost efficiency that counted, of course the mutation, skill erase and evolution potions were rather unique and could sell, but it was too costly an investment for any regular person to invest in it as a solo, even Christopher was almost in the red as he tried to invest in its development.
"So in other words it's impossible to replicate unless we find that dwarf and buy that stuff?"
Jack asked rather interested.
"Don't bother, the potion is already in the auction houses, but the price is something that only kings can afford"
Krill said as he laughed, leading to Jack's disappointment.
That same afternoon the four slaves were escorted to the Inn, the guards stationed outside didn't want to let the bandits pass at first, but they quickly changed their minds when they saw the bandit King's insignia.
In truth if the bandits hadn't come with the intention to make up, they would have been all dead, I mean the bandits since Christopher was already locked onto them from his room at the Inn, with one wrong move heads would go flying.
"You do know that if you don't sleep your mental stress will pile up"
Tris said out of concern, since he hadn't slept for days now due to the effect of the sleep immunity ring.
"Let it go I will sleep when it's safe to do so"
Christopher said, seemingly irritated, truth was that the stress was already enough to turn his nerves to wires, a single touch would cause him great distress and agitation.
'Am I becoming paranoid?'
He thought as he begun recollecting his past, but all he could find was anger,disappointment and insecurity, even Tris whom said that she loved him was in truth with him more because he had freed her than out of true love, it the idolization of someone that made her stay by his side, as she was trying to change him from whom he was, to sculpt her ideal hero in shiny armor, some godlike Mage whom would save the world and ascend the throne to rebuild the 14th Country, which was partly their plan.
Christopher's reason to go on with the plan was because the Dungeon pillar of the 14th kingdom was a free passage without the need to pay entrance fees or pay taxes on leading.
"Master Mage our Boss wants to invite you to his estate and personaly apologize for todays misunderstanding, these four slaves you can consider as a gift from him, you you need anything please don't be shy and come to Our Bosses' estate, I'm sure that it will be worth you time"
The Bandit said politely, but his legs were trembling.
"Tell your boss that we will be visiting him in a few days, master is a little tired right now"
Tris said, not letting Christopher answer, which irritated him some more, but he was a patient man, he of course wouldn't rest just because someone else told him to, where did she think they were, some small village, this was the Bandit King's city, it was full of scum, how on earth did she want him to rest.
"You come here and drink this potion, you the lizardman drink this one as the two others they are all yours"
Christopher said as he pointed at the beastwoman and the lizardman.
"Oh, Isn't that the leftovers potions you held on, saying they were full of memories for you?"
Tris said, in truth these two potions were given to him by Kurlidandr back at the Swampy mines, they were a mutation and an evolution potion.
The two slaves were somewhat unwilling, but due to the slave brand on them, they still drunk the potion's contents. Of course since the potions were still those prototypes from long ago, they both suffered a terrifying backlush, spitting blood and falling to the ground unconcious.
The lizardman looked at him with a hostile glare full of anger and the will to kill, but the pain dulled all his emotions as he screemed once before falling unconcious.
The bandit whom were leaving were horrified as they head that shriek from hell, they could only imagine what terrifying experiments he was conducting on the slaves.
Two people appeared in their Status space, with shock they discovered that one had her Plaguebearer skill mutated and the other had evolved into a half-human.
From the outside he looked somewhat human, but he still had lizard scales all over his skin, his eyes were weird and he could barely discern a forked tongue in his image's mouth.
The important however thing was that now he could think more like a human, even his class changed from a monter to a mutant.
Of course what you think didn't happen, he was not at all thankful, in truth he was enraged as memories begun to flood his mind, he begun to flare up and woke up in cold sweat on a bed.
He begun to scream like a madman and the next moment his head went for a walk as he had unknowingly become hostile to his host, that was the end of a person whom had no past and no future for Christopher, a random NPC an unimportant peble at the side of the road in his adventure.
The one however whom was the most troubled was the beastwoman, she only had one skill and that was set to be mutated, In truth the plaguebearer skill was her Ace card, what it did, it allowed her to cast diseases on others, of course the disease isn't exactly an attack, or at least it's not a direct attack, it's more like telling someone else to do the dirty work for you.
Now however her precious skill had mutated into a useless to her skill.
"Lesser Immortality" in truth she didn't even undertand what it meant to be immortal, of course for a common person of the Axis world whose main concern was food, she didn't care at all for the godly self-healing skill, the immunity from aging, the resistance to hunger,breathing,sleep and oter strange things it stated, it was as if she had suddenly become godly or something, but to her whom was simple all she understood was that she had lost her greatest bargaining chip, that would have allowed her to blackmail her master for food.
The moment she woke up she saw a corpse sleeping in the bed next to hers, she was somewhat confused, but at most she thanked the gods that she was still alive. In her mind the wizards was simply experimenting on some potion he just made, but her mind stay for long on the corpse, what caught her eyes making it gleam was a gift from gods, there was food on the table not too far from them.
She quickly run towards it and begun wolfing it up, while crying tears of joy, she didn't care if she was going to be punished for eating it, but in her opinion it was worth it.
This was soft tasty bread, meat, juice and wine, fruits and even dessert, she couldn't even had imagined these sort of godly tastes existing in the world.
The stale bread and pieces of bony meat they were given in the slave pens and the regular threatment of slaves was giving slaves the master's leftovers to chew on.
It's often said that the hunting dogs are given better meals than slaves and it wasn't too far from the truth.
"Oh I see you have woken up"
Tris said as she entered, but her mouth went wide as she saw the table almost empty.
"I didn't think that it was possible to eat four portions worth of food by yourself, but so be it, Innkeeper, we will need a refill bring us four more portions"
Tris said, her words sounded like the chants of an angel to the beastwoman whom still trying to grind the only bone in the meals.
"Hahaha, You are really interesting, I can now understand why Master was drawn to you, you two share the same appetite"
Tris said as she brought inside the other two slaves. They were both handsome, but at the same time completely disappointed.
Tris of course hadn't buy them for fun, what she wanted was their Class and skills, they were both merchants, thus she wanted them to work for her.
This wasn't of course their most optimal choice, but still better than being the sex slave of some bandit.
Tris looked at the three slaves that sat on the table and when her eyes spotted the corpse on the bed she begun shouting.
"Christopher you idiot, that lizardman costs 2000DP, How dare you kill him!"
In part it was true that it was her whom wanted the lizardman in the first place.
The three looked as she raced up the room, five minutes later two erotic voices could be heard from upstairs.
One was hers and the other belonged to their master's.
The three were shocked out of their minds, not understanding what was going on, of course the whole act was just a plot to get inside his pant.
Tris didn't even care about the Lizardman, she cared less for him than the 2000DP, which for her were like pocket change.
On the other side Christopher felt a little sorry about acting too impulsivly, thus he had to compromise with her demands.
At first everything was fine as she had the control over the situation, but at some point Christopher begun to pull at her hair, pound at her with strength and the rough play made her want to scream from pain instead of delight.
Of course she had her fill of rough play, but he was simply too crude and unskilled in that domain, he was like a wild beast that did everything on instinct, without even thinking things through.
"Wait at least take your rings off, your are hurting me!"
She said, making the mood all weird, of course whom would wear so many rings in the first place.
Christopher wore nine rings on each hand, it was like he had barbed wire wraped around them.
"I think that's enough"
He said as he wanted to take a step back.
"But the lizardman, you killed him..."
She was so shocked that he was not even sure what she was saying anymore, just a moment ago he was so into it and now, a small comment from her had turned the situation aroud.
"No! Please pound at me! Please love me like a wild beast! Please make me yours!"
She Pleaded with words that sounded more like insults in Christopher's ears than the confession of love she tried to confer.
"You know you should sleep some more"
Christopher said but his mouth hadn't stopped moving this was the skill Swift silent casting, that Tris knew he had gained by paying a huge price in an auction.
To her this was like a sort of torture, a refusal to give her what she wanted, like refusing to give a hungry man food.
While in a bad mood she quickly returned downstairs and seeing that the table was empty once more she shouted angrily.
"Innkeeper Bring a huge Meal, bring the best stuff your have"
Her voice sounding like the Mandates of heaven to the beastwoman's ears, would she at last be able to try those godly creations she had only smelled before from a distance.
'will this mistress of hers even consider giving us the leftovers of her meal'
She thought as she glared with a hint of rivalry at the two prettybodys sitting nearby, like a wild beast whom wanted to fight them for the food, even in the last meal they only ate a small portion of the food, while she ate the lion's share.
The servants brought food to the table as they cleared it of the empty plates, the luxurious meal was composed of small pieces of meat spiced and decorated to be pleasant to the sight, accompanied by vegetables and decorated with a very expensive red sause(ketcup).
There was a bottle of elven wine to accompany it and strange pasta and some sweet that looked that it would melt any time soon(flan).
Tris looked at the beastwoman's hungry glare and thought of a strange idea.
"If any of you can help me with a problem I will threat you him to the same meal"
She said as she took a bite off the meat and gave a delighted sound as if it was the tastiest thing she had eaten in her life, inwardly cursing the chef's incompetance.
"Mistress please command me!"
The beastwoman said as she kneeled on the floor, the other two looked at her with a hint of ridicule, after all there was a huge difference between their cultural levels.
She was from Woodaria, a person whom sold herself to slavers in order to survive and have at least one meal a day.
The two of them however were from Nivava, they were criminals whom were sold to slavery to wash off their debts to society or more like the noblemen they swindled of their money.
"Oh so you want to eat good things, I think that you and me can become good friends"
Tris said making the two men suddenly fall to their knees, how could they lose a chance to kiss up to their mistress.
"Now that's better, the two of you at last remembered to conduct yourselves as slaves, What I want is to make my dear master want to hug me all day and night"
Tris said while burning with passion.
The beastwoman understood nothing at all from the things Tris said, while the other two had cold sweat running down the back of their necks.
"Mistress wants us to do what?"
The beastwoman asked without fear full of innocence.
"Oh, not much, but for starters sit down and eat, after eating you cannot go back on your words"
Tris said as she smilled with the smile of a devil.
The two swindlers didn't know what to think as in front of them they could see to demons, one of lust and the other of gluttony, they were sure that she would have even eaten them if they were made edible.
"Now Riff and Raff, the two of you will approach master and begin to plead for forgiveness, saying that you had done something to make me angry, asking him to mediate"
Tris said with a wide demonic smile on her face, knowing something that they didn't.
The two with a heavy heard begun to head towards Christopher's room.
--------------------------------------
Aquatica(more like Aqua-Tica in the local's tongue) was the last place where the final two heroes at last arrived, of course travelling by boat should have been faster than the others whom went on foot, but their final destination wasn't on solid ground, the ship stopped in the middle of the ocean and a large Serpent came out of the sea.
At firt Jones and Nicko were terrified by the monster's appearance, but they soon discovered that the strange Fishman emissary had begun to talk with it as if they were friends or something.
Riding the large Eel shaped serpent they descended underwater, a magic spell allowed them to breathe underwater and while travelling they learned lots of stuff.
There were three different Kingdoms of fishmen, One was of the Full-blood fishmen, they were the most arrogant of the three Kingdoms and the Emissary was one of theirs, they were Powerful mages and their Whole race was better known as the Sea Mage race.
The second was the Half-fish, they liked to live near the surface and they had the heads of fishes and a humanoid body, they were called fishmen by the people on the surface.
Lastly were the Mermen, they were second in arrogance only to the Sea mages, but had the skill to back it up, they were known as the enchanters of the seas, their females were known as Sirens and their males as the Kings of the sea due to their ability to use weapons since the webbed hands of the Sea mages disallowed them from using weapons skillfully and the fish-men weren't even a match for them on land, not speaking about the sea.
Of course James whom was the son of a sailor was rather romantic when it came to the Ocean, you don't even have to ask if he wanted to be the King of the sea or a Sea mage.
Nicko was somewhat slow-witted, he didn't really care about the three and hadn't decided on anything yet.
James was probably the most handsome boy in class, while Nicko was a short fatty with glasses, the contrast was rather large, but it wasn't as if Nicko had no relationship all with the ocean since Saint Nickolaus, is the saint protector of Sailors.
Of course Nicko's reason to come was Mermaids, he really wanted to see a mermaid.
"Let me tell you both, if you become a Sea mage you can have as many mermaids as you want, the only thing that matters under the sea is strength"
The emissary said, but Jones simply harked in disdain as he spit far in the distance. In his mind mermaids were something legendary, although it was more of a sign of misfortune rather than luck in the past, many sailors liked to tattoo beautiful mermaids or anchors on their arms.
"How strong is a Sea Mage?"
Nicko asked somewhat interested, after all outer appearance wasn't all that mattered, to him the faster he could become strong the faster he would return home.
He was of course sure that the others would probably be thinking the same, little did he know that by now most of the others were to immersed in this fantasy world's matters and prosperity to even care about becoming stronger fast or defeating the Demon king 2year later, truth was most of the countries had long made preparation, the only Country in trouble was Nivava and their heroes were the ones whom felt the most stress in the matter.
"We're almost At the temple remember what I told you, if you don't select the Fishman's tail you will be forced to join the fishman Kingdom"
The emissary said, making them both grow somewhat dignified. They could only imagine how awful it would be to see people with fish heads all day long.
"Also don't forget the Blood and Scale, those three are must have, also don't forget the spirit of the ocean, right that makes it four, Fish life is another good trait, but you probably won't like it"
The Emissary said as they were almost there, a huge Seashell was Growing in front of them as they approached, the lights comming from it made a huge contrast to the darkness at the bottom of the sea.
"Please come inside"
A melodious voice came from the temple, of course the little mermaid they expected hadn't appeared, what awaited them inside was a fishheaded Sea Mage, or should she be called Sea Witch.
"Come don't be afraid, all I want is your voices"
The fish-woman said as she saw their disappointed faces, making them somewhat surprised, before she begun to laugh.
"You Should have seen your faces"
She said and just a moment later the sea water in front of them begun to change shapes recreating their own faces at the moment they heard about her asking for their voices, it was rather funny as their mouths had taken the traditional 'O' shape looking more like fishes than herself.
"Don't fret, I'm also from earth, Of course the people with whom I was summoned were all asses, thus I killed them, I hope the two of you aren't some cheap bastards whom only care about return on their own, you should of course first understand that Fishmen live around 1200 years, that's at least ten times that of a human's lifespan, as for why I'm not a beautiful mermaid, you should better experience it yourselves before understanding the world under the sea, right sebastian?"
The Woman asked and a giant crab rose behind her, at first they had thought that it was some kind of decoration, or house, but it turned out to be a giant crab.
"Now I only have two advices for the two of you, first either become full fishmen or just select the Spirit of the Ocean, there's no downsides to it, but you will be deported back to the surface, second don't trust any of the Sea mages, they are old phoneys whom are almost as strong as the Demon king of the 10th floor, every one of them can easily take care of him, of course in front of us otherworlder they are still somewhat inferior, but they don't even need you as to why you were brought here, it's because I need help returning back to earth"
She said making the two of them surprised.Of course they had no idead how strong or weak she was, but the giant crab besides them was rather imposing, of course it was no dragon, but its huge pincers were enough to crush them underneath their sheer weight.
"Wait wasn't he the emissary of the whole country of Aquatica?"
Jones asked seemingly irritated.
"Emissary?"
"Did you tell them such shameless boasts, he's just my apprentice, by the way you should know that I'm paying for your evolutions so be a little more polite to me"
She said making Jones even more irritated, especialy since Nicko tried to calm him down only making him more angry, as if he needed some stupid evolution.
"Let me ask you how much do know about this world?"
"Do you know how returning to our own world works?"
"How many heroes do you think have made it back alive"
"Do you know the strength of the final boss?"
"Do you even know where the final boss is?"
She Bombarded them with questions that caught them by surprise, truth was that Jones wasn't a person whom thought things through and Nicko although you could say that he looked like a nerdy person his scores were bad and he had problems staying focused on important tasks.
"Now just do what I tell you and we can together return to our own world, it would be also good if you could persuade more of your friends to join our cause, the more we have the better"
She said, of course her fish eyes showed no emotions, but her voice was full of hope.
Jones and Nicko felt strange it was like looking at a little girl whom was just crying and suddenly became happy because she was given a candy.
"Just step into the circle in the middle, I will cast the Evolution spell on you"
She said as she regained her composure.
The two were rather perplexed but knowing that it wouldn't be strange if the crazy girl killed them, well she could just call sebastian to do so.
"I don't wish to evolve!"
Jones said as he didn't care anymore, even if he died, he was sure that the others would simply resurrect him at that place he heard called Ecclesia or something.
"Do you want to Die?"
She threatened him angrily.
"Do you think you can threaten people with death in a world where magic that can bring the dead back to life exists!"
Jones shouted back at her with disdain.
For a moment the woman stayed silent but then laughed out loud. Without chants or incantations the sea water begun to move on its own Pushing the two towards the magic circle.
She didn't seem to care anymore as she begun to chant some strange incantation, The circle on the floor begun shining and the two "Heroes" had begun to evolve, they didn't even get the chance to go to their status space and select they were forced into it.
"Now what about being revived?"
She asked the two of them whom had some problem breathing for a few seconds.
Jones looked a lot slimmer than before, or rather his torso had slimmed down due to the mutation as he no longer had lungs in his chest.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Jones head and hands were completely human but his legs had fused together into a fish tail.
You could call him a pretty and rather buffed merman with a slender but rather long fish tail, that looked more familiar to that of an eel.
Nicko however turned full Fishman, but unlike the other fishmen he now was large, while his Black and White Orca head and body made him look rather majestic.
"Oh, so you were a rogue, that explains why you were acting like an upstart"
The fishwoman said with amusement in her voice.
"What have you done to us!"
Jones shouted in outrage as he used his own power and the next moment he was already upon her.
His Cheat power was lightning step, he could travel a small distance at the speed of thunder.
Of course then his fist connected to her face, all he felt was the incredible of his bone being brocken, after all if you hit an egg on a stone it doesn't matter how fast the egg goes, it will still break, although if theoreticaly speaking he was really going at the speed of light then she too should have felt some pain right?
Well nope, their physique was simply worlds apart, in truth if she wanted to he wouldn't have even been able to approach her due to hers cheat power, the manipulation of water itself.
"Have you cooled down now, well you power's not bad, perfect for an assassin, now what's your power?"
She asked Nicko the Killer Whale.
"Miss, I think we shouldn't be fighting like that, my power is called Burning soul and I can ignite things I touch on fire"
The 4m tall giant Orca said as if afraid of being bullied or something.
Of course the result of his action was a huge burst of laughter from the woman, but as she laughed her voice begun to decline into the deeper pits of despair.
"Why must I be the only one not able to go back, why were those weak bastards resurrected!"
She shouted in outrage, making Jones and Nicko surprised, not understanding what she was saying, after all to their understanding once the Demon king died, they would all return to their own world.
"I don't need your pity, keep it for yourself!"
She shouted at Nicko whom was thinking about some way to confort her.
"You must be really happy thinking that you will just return after the others form a team and then defeat the Demon king, then let me tell you a rather nice joke, that ain't going to happen, the reason is simple, because now you are stuck here with me, you can no longer leave until you help me, hahahaha!"
The woman had begun to laugh like crazy, years of yearning to return can do that to a person.
"Now that we are partners let me heal that for you"
She said as she chanted some words and a beam of light shined on Jone's crushed arm, visibly turning it back to normal.
"Follow me, I will teach you all you need to know and if you do something stupid like what you did before you will find that I'm more than capable of making you suffer a fate worse than death"
She said as she manipulated the water around them to drag them away with her and deeper into the strange Seashell.
As they passed they could see some monstrosities that could barely be called the meremen from legends, at least the males were not so pretty to see. They had no necks and some of them had shiny scales instead of skin, their long hair looked like a wet mop with some sort of algea mixed into it, but the finishing touch was their strange eyes that looked like those of a fish.
Jones wanted to ask why they were so fucking ugly but changed his mind, after all outer appearance isn't important, what was important was what's inside.
"Do you see them, those are the strongest mermen under my command, they are responsible for guarding my Estate and the only meremen worth keeping around, if you think they are ugly you have seen nothing, once I had seen a strange mermaid whom looked even worse than those two, I even so one whom was of some blowfish or something species, she looked really beautiful at first sight, but she would inflate like a baloon the moment you approahced her or agitated her, the worst however thing about meremen is that they are really stupid, some say that it's because of the water pressure down at the bottom of the sea, I hope that you won't turn into an idiot, right?"
She asked Jones whom was rather surprised with all of this, he hadn't thought before that mermaid too would have different sorts depending on their fish species.
"By the way what species am I?"
He asked with some interest.
"Eelgar, a small time mob that we will probably fight at some time, you can think of it as a gobling variant in some games or a large Eel, rather tasty"
She said, making the two rather surprised, wasn't eating fish now that they were fishmen sort of like canibalism or something.
Of course the notion left a it came as they moved on even deeper.
"By the way you are a Billot, a monster not much different than the killer whale only bigger and it's not a mammal, but a fish"
She said as she looked at the beautiful mermaids that awaited up front.
"Mistress please give us orders!"
The pretty mermaid said as they spoke hapily.
"The six of them were let to live here to entertain your supposed urges for the opposite sex, I know that guys your age have rather strong urges"
She said as she laughed, of course the mermaids were not bashful at all they simply stood there like idiots.
"Do you take us for perverts or something, we didn't come to this world to have fun, we simply need to become strong and defeat the demon king!"
Shouted Jones, making her rather surprised, in truth she had him for a prevert. That's the opinion of many women, whom think that men are like wild animals whom will do any thing just for a little taste.
"Well it seems that I have misjudged you, but it doen't matter, since I've already brought them in, they will still be your attendants"
She said, Jones and Nicko could see a strange sense of relief on the mermaids' faces, but they couldn't understand why.
Mermaids were rather strange in a way as they had a really slim figure and huge breasts, you could even compare them to those girls in cartoons and anime, of course they weren't exactly human to begin with, as they had gills on their necks.
Funny fact is that they don't really speak in the same way humans do, they don't even open their mouths to speak, which was rather strange.
"Are we too talking that way?"
Jones asked Nicko whom was next to him, of course Jones was still opening and closing his mouth to speak.
"Don't ponder over it with time you will understand that all fishfolk speak through telepathy, we have a strange empathic bond with one another, even you whom doesn't have a fishman's head can speak that way, of course you cannot talk with fishes and humans yet, but we will get you the right skills in due time"
The fishwoman whom had gotten them there said.
"By the way I'm called Ariel, we will see each other for dinner later, the girls will escort you to your rooms"
Ariel said as she swiftly disappeared charging like a tourbine towards some direction into the darkness.
"So what do we do now?"
Jones asked Nicko, simingly he was all out of Ideas and asked if Nicko had some, after all he did wear glasses, before, meaning that he should at least be clever or something.
"I think we should do as she says and return to our own world, after all she's at least stronger than us at the moment and she's from earth too"
Nicko said, stating his own arguments, which although somewhat weak weren't exactly invalid.
Having a strong ally whom has the same target as them wasn't a bad thing, only thing was Jones didn't like the way she did stuff.
Lying about representing Aquatica to bring them there, forcing them to become fishfolk and even trying to bribe them with mermaid-prostitudes.
"Masters we will lead you to the waiting room"
one of them said and they begun to swim around them while smiling like idiots and then suddenly grabbed at their arms.
Two for Jones and four for Nicko, Jones of course wasn't some boyscout, well in truth he was, but that's not the point, the point is that to him their plumpy breasts touching his arm had no great effect, but for Nicko whom wasn't even touched by a girl it made him feel funny, in mere second a strange cloud of small stuff begun falling from his front, it of course being his sperm.
"Would you want to have a child with us?"
The four of them asked him, making him even more agitated as he saw their pretty faces and huge breasts.
His instincts said yes, but his mind said no, it was a fight against himself.
"Wait a bit, how does this thing exactly work, do we just spray you like that and you get super pregnant or something?"
Jones whom was still in his right state of mind asked.
"What is pregnant?"
One of them asked rather interested.
"I think he means have baby, right?"
Another asked.
"Wait, Mistress said they are heroes from another world so they probably don't know what sex is"
Another one said and the others agreed with her, making Jones want to hit his head on a wall, it was like being surrounded by six blondes while seeking a store one turn up the street.
"Or maybe children in the other world aren't a gift from god?"
Another said making the other six shocked.
"Or maybe they grow children like Corals in the ground?"
Another one said making them even more shocked, it was like them having fun as they were still carrying the two guys towards some room.
"How do fishmen make love?"
This time it was Nicko whom spoke with a somewhat bashful voice, he was too embarassed about his question, but he knew that it was important to know at least for his stay in this world, he wouldn't want to leave someone pregnant by mistake after all.
"What does he mean make love?"
One asked.
"I think that he means Sex"
Another said.
"No love is an emotion, sex is reproduction, how on earth would someone combine those two?"
Another said, making Nicko want to burrow his head into the sand under his feet and simply die out of shame.
"What he wants to say is how do you reproduce and I want to know how long does it take until the baby is born"
Jones asked, from a more academic standpoint of view.
"See I told you babies in the other world come from plants, they bear them"
A mermaid said as if she was clever.
"Alright, well let me show you!"
She said and then she begun to rub her tail on his own.
"Wait, I don't even know you, how can you have sex with someone you have just met?"
Jonas cried in outrage before he used his lightning step to disappear from his present location and her grasp.
"See you scared him, I told you they don't have sex in their world, remember they bear babies from the ground, like my uncle whom bears corals, you remember how they bore fruits"
The smart ones begun to debate, making Jones both uncomfortable and irritated by this misunderstanding, but mostly because of the topic of their discussion.
"Well, let me explain, when a male and a female get together, the female uses her charms to make the male give her his blessing, after gaining it and if both agree to have a child, the next day the God of the Sea will create a child for us"
Her words had so much bullshit in it, but it made no fucking sense, but seeing as she seemed to be serious, they had to believe it.
"See they didn't understand, We have to give them an example"
The one whom tied to have her way with him before said and went next to the smart one.
Her tail begun to run against the other one's tail, making a full circle around it, then she made circles around her and stoped.
"See this is sex, normaly the male will give you his blessing in between three or four tries, but since Lulu is a female, she cannot give a blessing"
You can only imagine how shocked Jones and Nicko were. Did they even have to call this thing as sex, this was simply stupid, Jones thought that there would have been some skinship or something, but all they do is rub the other's tail, no kisses, no hugs, no nothing, just shoot and go.
"Well if you want to see how children are born we could also show you, but it will be a pity if you trully don't want a child, since we will have to throw it away in this part of the sea where food is sparse and it is quite dangerous, it'll probably die fast"
The one whom had just demonstrated said, making Jones want to puke blood, he was simply too brainstormed to understand where all this was going, if this was a cartoon you would be seeing his brain exploding right around now.
"That would be such a pity, after all children are a gift of god"
Nicko said, but he meant it metaphoricaly, not literaly like them.
"So do you want to us to have a baby?"
Another mermaid said as they begun approaching the bashful giant fishman Nicko, if he was still human he would have turned red by now.
"Time for Diner!"
A sound came from far away in the distance but it was still audible, the six mermaids as if hit by lightning grabbed onto Nicko and Jones and begun to speed up at incredible speed.
Nicko and Jones were having a strange experience as if they were being shot from a cannon and flying towards the ground.
Jones especialy could feel his insides being crushed by the pressure the sea water generated, he couldn't even imagine how strong the seemingly stupid girls were, they were probably stronger than him by a lot and they were worth shit in Ariel's mind, meaning that he had still a long way to go.
Funny fact is that Nicko in contrast to Jones was alright with the speed, he could even admire the surroundings at the speed they were travelling, wheras Jones could only see darkness around him since he didn't have fish eyes like Nicko, as for how the mermaids knew where they were going, it's the question of if you knew where your house's bathroom was with the lights off or not.
Suddenly A brilliant light blinded them as they arrived at a large buffet table, everyone else were already eating, not caring about them.
"The two of you come with me"
Ariel said as she led them to another table, that was reserved personaly for them and a few others, it was another buffet table, but people were eating more like humans, in the large buffet they ate like beasts, as if this lunch would be their last.
Ariel sat a her seat and the other fishmen gave her a tiny bow before continuing to eat.
"Today I will inform you of three matters, first I will explain you about Aquatica and the three races that coexist in our country, next I will explain to you our cicrumastances and lastly I will explain to you my plans for the future"
She said and then a coral-like thingy flew and entered her mouth, of course the food was all floating, you could also call it a floating buffet, but for some reason most of the food that was not taken remained stuck on the table.
"But first lets eat"
She said to them as he begun to enjoy her meal.
Around them they could see only fishmen, there were no meremen on their table other than Jones.
The people at the large table at some point begun to disperse, leaving only the six mermaids behind.
"Now lets begin to talk"
she said and at that moment all the fishmen at their table took the dishes away and left.
"Aquatica as you know is considered as the country of Fishmen, but in reality it's composed of countless small countries or as we call them Domains, for example at the moment you are on my domain, There are three types of domains, the Surface domains that are left to the fishpeople, you might have already heard about them they are fishmen with human feet and no Gills, meaning that they cannot breath in the sea, but they still like to live near the sea, of course they are divided into two categories, those with gills and those without, those with Gills work as servants to the Mermen and are like the lifeline of their kin on the surface at some rather small and desolate islands"
She said which explained one of the advices her apprentice, the emissary, had given them to for the tail.
"Next we have The Mermen, in truth they can also be divided into three categories, for example the pretty dimwits awaiting for you are of the medium class, there is the upper class, like the body guards you saw at the entrance and lastly there is also the lower class or the ones they also call Serpentines or Naga, whom have a snake tail instead of a fish tail, in truth there are also surface naga, whom lack Gills, but their situation is that of Kings in front of the fishmen, now lets return to the Mermen, the middle and Higher class of course have Gills, it's sort of innate for them, Mermen like to inhabit the Shallow waters, since most of them have human eyes, only the Higher class has Fishmen eyes and are able to see in the deeper ocean and they are considered as Kings of the Meremen or their lifeline since many of them leave their domains to work as bodyguards for us Sea mages, The rulers of the Deep Domain and the Peak of the Food chain in this Surface Level Oceans, since in the dungeon pillar there are beings that even we cannot face head on"
She said explaining about domains.
"Next I will explain you what a domain is in detail and its purpose, In general each domain has a Ruler, whom is in charge for keeping the people in his domain safe from the randomly spawning monsters of the sea, Of course as a Hero I have the upper hand and control a rather large Domain, my apprentices are the rulers of the abjucent domains whom have Yielded authority to me, in return for protection, in a single world without me the domain will become rather chaotic, people will be afraid to even leave their estate and of course they will at some point run out of food, thus being forced to go out to hunt, Well of course not all domains are equal, for example there are domains called Estates, like mine, that means that I will only allow a small minority of people to live in my domain, most Mage's domains are called fort towns, they are basicaly small towns with adequate fortifications, meaning that as long as someone enters the Town he will be safe, well the domain is of the same size, only he allows for more people to stay as residents, lastly there are the fabled Underwater Cities, but they are not worth your time they are full of corruption and backstabbing, since challenging a mage's authority is a valid mean to wrestle his Domain away"
She said as she Yawned once with her Fish mouth or so it seemed.
"Now let me inform you of our situation, of course you probably know that defeating the Demon king of the 100th floor is our way out ticket, but what you don't know is that there's a second way out ticket and that is ascending the Dungeon pillar and asking Ecclesis himself to send you back, till now most of the heroes prefered the second way, since the celestials are far more lenient than the demons when facing us, thus many have made it their plan to ascend instead of descending, but both ways have a fatal problem that you haven't been told and that is the Bosses, in general every ten floors has a Demon king guarding the way or a Celestial King testing your qualifications to pass, but before you reach them you will be forced to descend the Dungeon pillar on your own, unless of course you decide to all group together and descend the same pillar which too isn't such a good idea since it will take far longer to grow, since everyone will be sharing experience and resources, at the tenth floor however all Dungeon pillars meet together, thus everyone will be faced with the same boss, let me ask you if that boss give great loot would you want to share, of course not, well this is what happens most of the time, next however the paths divide once more, I whom is strong inside the water will of course take the Aquatic path, others will decided whatever they feel confident in, lets say that I make my way to the 20th floor demon king first and then find myself alone like a fish out of the water, what do you think will happen, of course I will lose, this is what happens when I go fasing the Celestials, they don't fight inside the water, thus all my powers are turned void, thus I need other heroes with me to pass, but the other heroes, whon't be able to time with my arrival, or simply won't know that I'me ascending the tower at the same time as them, since there is no means of communication that can reach inside the ocean, if you ask about land communication, well there are those stupid dwarves and their runic magic, they simply teleport letters from one place to another for a small fee"
Ariel explained but she hadn't ended, there was more to it.
"Now that you know that there are two ways to leave, I will tell you a disappointing fact, Ecclesis will only send back the people whom asked him to be sent back, meaning that the rest will be staying behind, in other words the possibility of some of your friends having returned to your own world without you even knowing it will become higher in the future, since ascending is safer than descending, there are even Cities and countries as you go up the Tower, its also widely known that our Surface level isn't anything more than the first wall of resistance for the other Stronger Continents whom Rule the levels above"
She said making The two freeze by the thought of what they saw as Countries being but the frontline of a much bigger conflict than they thought.
"Then what about the 14th Country?"
Nicko asked, after all he did remember their teacher talk about it once.
"Oh, you know about the Desolate Wastelands, well not much really I never said that the Countries above supported us or something, they simply use us like a buffer zone in order to live peacefully, right about now the buffer zone of the 14th country was simply broken through, there's probably more defenses up above, thus they will now have to send their own heroes to take care of the Demon king's minions"
She said seemingly not caring about the others' situation.
"As you might know every 10 years the demon kings killed will respawn, causing an increase in the monster spawn rate and activity, as well as the appearance of Level Bosses"
She said, of course from a rpg game prospectives it all sounded alright, but What on earth is this supposed to mean in real life, they just named some monsters bosses and force you to kill them before advancing, was it something like that, or did the Bosses block the passage to the next level or something.
"Now lets go over the Plan, but before that a simple question, what is it that makes us special to the locals?"
Ariel asked them.
"Isn't it because of our Heroic class?"
Nicko answered the question with a question, rather typical of him, not being sure about his answer.
"No way, of course not, it's because of the Cheat powers we were given, our powers have three characteristics, first of all, they don't need chanting, you simply use them, second they evolve or rather multiply as you become stronger, lastly they are unique to your personality, for Example I have the power called Sea Queen and have unlocked its fourth evolution and from being able to spray others with concentrated water I can now freely manipulate water at a certain range"
She said as an example to them, of course they had no idea how hard it was to unlock the powers.
"To unlock your second and third power isn't so hard, all you need to do is increase your class oriented stat to 100 and next into 1000, the fourth one is rather tricky, since you need to defeat the 50th level Demon king, which is rather tricky, since you might have to wait 10 years until it revives, I've even heard that someone had unlocked his 5th power evolution by simply gaining a legendary class and raising his magicality to the unprecented 10000, of course you have to understand that if you defeat the 5th demon king without having 100in the stat, you will still unlock the second power and not jump to the fourth, there are also records of someone whom was so stupid that when he reached Ecclesis he asked for him to unlock him another cheat power evolution instead of sending him back, can you imagine the look on his face when he died of old age unable to even content with the monster at the 100th floor"
She said and then she continued.
"Our plan is to reach Ecclesis and ask him to send us back, for that we will have to face the nine Celestial Guardians in land combat, as for your friends on the surface don't even mind about them, after all in the worst state they will simply end up like, being some overpowered Ruler of some small kingdom"
She said, death wasn't exactly the worst that could happen, at least not in her vocabulary.
In reality the worst thing that could happen is losing all chances to return, meaning being imprisoned in the Axis world till your dying breath without even being able to do anything about it, you have to understand that of the two means to leave the easy way was only easy if multiple heroes cooperated, while the hard way was impossible even if all the heroes somehow cooperated, since the final Demon king was better known as the Demon God, among the citizens of Axis, there were even evil cults that worshiped him, causing trouble in the world.
"Now lets begin with your Titles, Ooble, come over here and bestow them the title of One"
Ariel said and went on explaining.
"The title of the One might not give you some great power up, but it is an evolving title, later it will turn into the Title of Two and so on, what it does is giving you the ability to have pets, like Sebastian, of course for your first Pet I have prepared two Sea serpents, they will be your mounts for travelling the Ocean, they are really fast, of course you should be somewhat careful to not pull them into shallow waters since they are still fish"
She explained them, making them somewhat disappointed, well it was a free title and to their knowledge they could have more than one titles, right?
At least in many games you have multiple titles to chose from.
The title bestowal too only a few seconds as the fishman simply bestowed the the title of One.
"Next follow me to the skill depository"
Ariel said and the two were pulled by the water behind her, a few steps behind them followed the mermaids, whom didn't seem to care very much, playfuly making circles.
Suddenly Jones spat blood on the spot as his internal wounds from before were forced into activity from the movement.
"Let's heal that first, you see, this is why middle rank mermaids are a bother, they cannot even keep up with the Deep sea's pressure"
Ariel said as she healed him, making him somewhat depressed after understanding that Nicko was alright with high speed movement under the pressure of water.
"This is the Depository, here I have some skills for you to learn they are rather basic stuff, since you won't be able to learn the advanced ones with your levels"
The place was but a small library with a bunch of bookcases one which there were stone tablets.
Jones and Nicko were somewhat disappointed to tell the truth, in reality they awaited for some gigantic library with lots of things to select from.
"The four on the left have skills you might be able to learn if you want, but remember to leave three spots open, in case we find some legendary skill later in the dungeon which you might want to learn"
She said, meaning that they could only select 3skills from the mix.
"By the way you should drink this Elixir, it will delete any unwanted skills those idiots in Nivava taught you, after all they will be mostly pointless under the sea, especialy the dodge roll"
She said as she handed the potion to Jones, whom had no idea about the worth of the potion as he tried to gulp it down underwater, a rather hard task.
"fix your lips on the neck of the bottle and then inhale, remember you no longer have lungs, thus you can inhale as much as you like"
Ariel gave him a tip as she saw him fail in his first few tries.
"As for you Nicko, in truth as a Billoter fishman you are more adept for being a warrior than a mage, in truth it would have been better if you were the merman and he the fishman, at least for me, since Eelgore are good with lightning magic and stuff, but since you are a mage we will have to force you into a close combat mage path"
She said making Nicko not just a little afraid, it wasn't like he didn't have the will to do so, it was more like he didn't like to initiate fights, of course if the conditions were right, he wouldn't stall.
The right conditions however was being one with a mob and trashing someone, only then would he have the courage to attack.
It might sound cowardly but for people whom know their own weakness well this is the only way for them to go against a stronger foe, by borrowing the courage from numbers, this is something that most of the bullied people understand, after all there is power in numbers.
"Lets begin with the most basic however, Jones you will need the Empathy skill, it will later allow you to communicate with humans and other land creatures"
Ariel said as she threw him the empathy skill, something that was given to the beast tamer in Nivava.
"Next just look around, if you don't understand something you can ask me"
Ariel said.
"I don't seem to be able to read what's written here"
Nicko said looking at the strange symbol carved at the side of the tablets.
"That's because those are not letters to begin with, the sword and shield signify physique classes, the Eye signifies mentality classes and the strange scribble signifies magic classes, as you might see most of the skills can be learned from multiple types of classes, just touch the book and you will understand what skill is hidden inside"
Ariel said and the moment Nicko touched the first tablet he saw a small image inside his mind of him chanting faster, this was the quick chanting skill, he already had, next however it evolved into an even faster chanting, faster, at some point the chant was being shortened, shorter, shorter and in the end all he could hear was himself in the image saying fire missile and shooting it out, it was much better to understand what the quick chanting did this way, of course this was something only the fishfolk could do.
Jones also experienced the same illusion inside his mind as he went through the skillbooks, he even found his martial arts skill, the demonstration was rather pathetic, he could see himself being attacked by a spear and parrying it, next he was attack by a sword and parried it, next he was attacked by an arrow and grabbed it in flight, In the last however schene he was catching bullets from a machinegun as if it was nothing, it was fucking 120 bullets per second of course this was the only way to demonstrate to someone what martial art skill did, in other words raising reflexes.
The two took hours to decide, it was worse than accompanying a woman shopping in the mall, they simply went through everything, they even went to the right side of four book cases to see what they could learn from there but they couldn't find a single skill they could learn or activate.
In truth Nicko whom was level 2 couldn't even activate some of the skills from the first four bookcases.
"I've decided!"
Jones said as he went through everything making Ariel excited, at last her torment of waiting them to decide was comming to an end.
"I want the sailing skill and the spearmanship"
The two skills made Ariel want to spit out blood, after going through everything all he decided upon were two support skills.
"Wait, you need an active skill, are you an idiot, even the dodge roll is better than spearmanship and sailing"
She shouted at him, but all he did was sigh and say.
"You don't understand anything, of course it's probably because you're a woman, things like active skills are just traps of the mind, let me ask you how many active skills do you have?"
Jones asked her seriously as if he was some high level master or something.
"4active,3passive and 1 production skill"
Arield said.
"Then let me ask you, what will happen if all you do is use active skills to attack and defend won't your openent simply see through you once he knows all four of your active skills?"
Jones said with a wide smile.
"I have 37 spells, at least 3variations of how to use each active skill, one or two skill combinations and four cheat powers, most enemies I have faced have died and even other heroes with cheat powers were like sheeps to the slaughter, if you can explain why you chose those skills maybe I can allow you to move from your spot"
She said and Jones found himself frozen where he stood, he couldn't even move, even his cheat power didn't seem to work as he felt as if he was trying to pass through a wall or somthing, causing him to suffer even more wounds.
"Sailing raises the speed of any creature or vessel I mount, meaning that I could use it like a knight of the sea, and it's stated that it's a mentality only skill, meaning that it's meant for rogue classes, I saw just how amazing it can become later on"
Jones said, Ariel thought about it and truthfully to a weak level 10 individual what he saw was probably fantastic, he was probably riding on some behemoth of the depths that regular people won't even see in their lives, but the problem was that although it might look promising, she knew full well that sailing was meant for vessels and not creatures, if you ride on a ship with the sailor skill, you will magicaly make the ship run faster even if it's only a little, of course it's a rare skill that can easily earn someone the seat of captain just by possessing the skill, but in the depths of the sea, it was as useless as it got, the reason being that because even if you went as fast as a bullet, your reflexes wouldn't be able to keep up with your speed, it was litteraly charging blindly, it would most probably lead him to his death rather than help.
"Then what about spearmanship?"
Ariel asked.
"Well I was thinking Which weapon I should be using and since I'v decided on a trident"
"Stop, Stop, no more bullshit, you two spent two hours going through everything just to select, skills that would look good or sound cool, right?"
Ariel said, of course this wasn't meant to be a question, she already knew the answer, making Jones a little embarassed.
"Since you like the spear, you hould wait until you reach level 100 and learn some spear skill, and not the crappy supplements, by that time it's better if you simply practice"
Ariel said making Jones whom thought about it, it made rather good sense, after all he could probably reproduce most of the spearmanship first two evolutions by simply practicing, in a way it was sort of a waste of skillpoints.
"For you the two most important things should be Fish language and sneak, and as for attack skills, the crippling blow wouldn't be a bad supplement"
She said and three skill tablets flew from the bookcases and towards him.
Crippling blow was a rather strange skill, it could have a multitude of effects depending on the part of the oponent you hit, of course its effect were varied, but the most common was temporarily lowering an oponent's stats, the catch however was that you had to first break through his defense, which meant that if your oponents physique was too much higher than yours it would have no effect at all.
Jones of course refused to learn them but was then hypnotized to learn them, he looked like a braindead zombie when he chose to learn them making Nicko even more afraid of Ariel.
"See it wasn't so hard"
Ariel said while laughing at the still zombified Jones.
"You know if you weren't so handsome, maybe I would have been mad at you"
The fish-headed Ariel said as she approached him to inspect his face from closer.
"You know it's been so long that I've done it with someone, maybe when you get stronger I'll consider you eligible"
Ariel said, but Jones could hear non of it since he was still in a hypnotized state.
"Now for you there, you will only need flexibility since you already have memorization and quick chanting, but you will be need the flexibility to work together with your good physique"
Nicko simply nodded like a good boy and learned the skill. A giant whale like fishman nodding affirmatively due to being threatened.
"Now lets give you your last gift"
Ariel said as she pulled them towards another area.