Today is the 13th.

-

Alissa's "Charisma" has increased by 1 (now 13). What the hell is Carmen teaching her?

"Is it weird to have sex with Alissa's fox form?" I ask to the girls.

Hana shrugs, "It's part of her, if I turned into a dragon would you stop loving me?"

"Unlikely," I answer.

"Some of the demon race have some very different body parts," Roxanne says and pats her horns. "It would be very sad for them not to be loved because they look weird."

Lina simply shrugs.

"I'm only a little surprised you managed to, uh, get it up," Ciel says, "A fox doesn't really have a woman's body parts to get you excited doesn't she?"

"What, didn't you ever imagine yourself being pounded by a huge wolf?" Hana says with a grin.

Unfortunately, my name doesn't translate to wolf in Andraste.

"That sounds..." Ciel frowns.

"Hot," Roxanne completes, "If Wolfy could change into a fox too then..." She shudders.

"I know, right?" Hana says and grabs my hand, "Wolfy, please develop that soul changing magic thing so we can be fucked by huge dragons."

"Kweh!"

Oh Gods! Too far!

I simply cannot look into Aoi's expectant eyes.

"Let's talk about something else, anything else," I plead.

I start writing my thesis. I have a pretty good idea of how much information I should share with the university. This magic school is incredibly powerful, smart-turrets or smart-bombs are the cutting edge of technology in my world and I can do it here with much less effort, I know very well how dangerous this is. [Golemancy] will certainly revolutionize warfare, I can't be careless with how I introduce it into the world.

Part of the ethics of science is how to introduce technology to the world. For an extreme example imagine if the atom bomb was introduced during World War 1? The results would have changed the outcome of a war. The US ended a war with nukes and then the scenario changed, anyone who had it was almost immune to being attacked due to Mutually Assured Destruction, M.A.D. changed the world.

If I introduce this technology in Bestiaram they would reignite their genocidal wars. If the heretics had monopoly on it a massive wave of suicidal golems would be the least of our problems.

What this technology needs is time. I need to be very careful, very vague with how it works so it takes time for everyone to acquire it. Level the playing field so there's no one side with an advantage doesn't crush any resistance.

The empire doesn't conquer Bestiaram outright since even the average beastfolk has the strength of a soldier, it's just too difficult to subjugate a race where even the civilians are a danger.

Maoka is in a weird place since they are very pious towards the Gods which gives them a rather friendly relation to the empire. The real deterrent against invasion is that they have a mutual defense pact in relation to their Holy Lands, if any Holy Land is invaded the whole continent bands together to remove the invaders.

The golems could give the empire enough power to subjugate a whole continent with little losses. Disposable, mass-produced soldiers are the worst enemy of a country that is on a war of attrition, and if anything the empire is patient.

The current emperor may be focused on the inner affairs of the empire but it's not like he abandoned conquering the other two continents. I'm sure his agents continue to work to weaken the other continents.

Even inside the empire, if I give this technology to the elves I can be damn sure the separatist movement will flourish again. Sommerland and Dyrmorder are two other conquered kingdoms that would be incredibly happy to have independence again.

"Let's go make lunch," Alissa whispers in my ear.

I leave my magic pen and clipboard on the table and join her.

I pick up a knife and start to remove the organs of the Blopish, a poisonous monster fish with a very delicate and deep flavor. It looks like an anglerfish, it has a huge jaw, some large teeth as sharp as a piranha's, dark beady eyes that see in the dark, and lots of "feelers" all over its body, which are long thin whisker-like protrusions that allow it to sense anything that gets close and spew poison through them.

I slowly cut the belly and expose the organs. I find the slightly discolored sacs and slice them off at the base. I even put [Sharp Blades] on my knife, it's so sharp that it just slides through the flesh and the sacs fall off.

The worse ones are near the tail, they are very small and require a lot of precision not to burst them open just by stretching the meat.

In total there should be 18 of these sacks. They cause some very bad paralysis and it's the chemical kind, meaning that your heart can stop if you get poisoned.

I carefully cut off the feelers at the base so it gets easier to scrape off the scales. You can't bruise the skin too much, the fat is just below it and you don't want the skin to break apart during frying, making the fat spew all over.

When I'm done the smell of fish is deep into my skin, thank the Gods for our gnomic [Clean] magic tool as it takes off even the smell. I can't stand having smelly hands.

We fry it a la Milanese. Some pseudo-Worcestershire and it tastes heavenly. Leafy greens, some cereals, and a squishy vegetable. Tastes very refreshing on this rising heat.

We must be at the southern hemisphere of the world since summer is at the end of the year. Quite nostalgic for me.

The fish has a deep taste, it sticks to your tongue and you keep tasting it long after swallowing.

"De-li-ci-os!" Aoi licks her lips and nabs another piece.

I pat her head with a smile.

"Wolfy, do you want to visit Selina tomorrow?" Alissa asks.

"Hm. Sure, I might not see her again," I say.

"Hana should come too, she's fascinated by her."

"Who isn't?" Hana smirks.

After lunch I go back to my thesis.

Even my [Sense Soul] and [Redirect Mana] are dangerous. Being able to see the name and other characteristics of fighters just by looking at them is incredibly powerful, espionage becomes incredibly more difficult when you can't easily hide. Avoiding customs and identity checks is doable, avoiding being seen by just anybody that could have [Sense Soul] is not. And [Redirect Mana] could be incredibly dangerous, it's a potential that even I don't know much but I'm sure it could be a powerful weapon if wielded properly.

I could introduce this technology to Maoka through Roxanne's parents, but how can I do it to Bestiaram? I will have to go there and improvise. I would have preferred to avoid going deeper in there but I may have no other choice.

Now I have to create a chant. I ask Lina for help since she seems the one who would be most compatible with [Golemancy]. I give her a point on it and ask her to cast [Infuse] repeatedly while I observe the mana flow.

"Wow, was that the soul?" She asks and blinks repeatedly.

"Yes. Chaotic, no?"

"Yes, but also filled with, uh, 'structures'?"

"Indeed, you could also think it's something like 'organs'. The mana organ that I gave Ted and Suzy are just like that. You can play around inside the 'soul building' or whatever that is but don't try to actually infuse it on anything. I don't know what could happen with a randomized soul."

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She nods repeatedly.

[Golemancy] gives me a cold, emotionless, feeling when I sense Lina using the spell. I enter a sort of trance as I try to copy what I felt, I will myself to the same cold and emotionless state as the feeling the spell emits. Like when you want to dance to a song I feel words trying to come out of my lips, heavy, alien words. Truly an odd magic school.

This is very tiring. I open my eyes to see Hana hugging Alissa tight, she's nibbling on Alissa's neck -.

"Are you two practicing or flirting?" I ask.

Alissa snaps to reality and blushes. Hana smirks and gives one last kiss on Alissa's neck, then she returns to meditating and focusing on copying Alissa's [Double Image].

I sigh and rest for a while, waiting for my heart to recover. Then I close it again and continue.

Warmth fills my cold heart and my concentration is disrupted.

"It's getting late, let's take a bath," Ciel whispers on my ears.

They all know how stimulating their voice is when they whisper directly on my ears.

Lina seems normal while I'm emotionally tired again. The skill system omits from the caster the chanting and all the feelings that come from it.

-

At night, Alissa and I tell of Katasko to the others.

"I don't know what we did this time that got their attention," Ciel says with a frown.

Her sentiment is reflected in the others. The behavior of that company is odd, we don't even understand why they want to intimidate us into joining.

Today is the 14th.

-

My "Dexterity", [Dismantling], and [Cooking] increased by 1 (now 11, 0+4, 0+2). Lina's "Wisdom" increased by 1 (now 13). Hana's "Perception" increased by 1 (now 10).

I notice something odd. There's the nagging feeling of something incongruent.

"Do you girls… menstruate?" I ask.

"What?" Hana asks.

"Once a month you feel odd, weird, sluggish, or angry, then your, uh, vagina bleeds. The egg inside your ovaries is ready for pregnancy during this period and at the end it slouches off with a small piece of the uterus, causing bleeding."

Lina and Alissa frown and look at each other.

"Oh!" Ciel claps her hands, "You mean the Gynaimeres?"

"No idea what that means," I say.

"The days a woman can get pregnant."

"Yeah, you should bleed after the period ends, well, some women bleed."

Hana, Lina, and Alissa raise their eyebrows and look at their own uteri.

"Your body absorbs the egg if it's not used just like a potion so I guess this is why we don't bleed," Roxanne says, "If you pay attention to the mana on your body on these days you'll notice how there's a hint of foreign mana on your uterus."

"But there's no other things like mood swings, cramps, or change in libido?" I ask.

"Not that I know of," Ciel says and shrugs.

Wow, I know a few women who would love to live here then.

"You said foreign mana, this means it already has a soul?" I ask.

"Yes," Ciel says and nods, "Every month our child dies due to the lack of sperm to complete the soul, the sperm also has a soul."

Holy fucking shit I kill millions of my children every time I ejaculate.

"It's why breeder-type of monsters want humanoid sperms or eggs," she continues, "Our soul is much stronger than a monster's but theirs can dominate ours when the egg and the sperm fuse. Also some horrible abominations can be made using eggs and sperm," she shudders, "The sperm ones are quite weak due to the small soul in them but the ones made of women's eggs are quite horrifying."

"I'm sorry but what the fuck?" I ask.

"Necromancy, you can grow an abomination using the egg or sperm. It's wicked magic, of course, but it doesn't stop certain people in wanting the emotionless soldiers that defiling a womb can create. Eggs and sperm are powerful, they are the creators of life."

"It's why women are more often mages," Roxanne says, "Our womb produces more life than a man's testicles."

"Is it, is it not like I'm killing my children by throwing away so much semen?" I ask with worried a frown.

"A child is only a child when it's born," Ciel shrugs, "Anything before birth is not important."

"What about premature birth?"

"Still a birth, premature or not."

"Abortion?"

"That's only for children of rape."

"Abortion from accidental pregnancies?"

"Questionable. If you carelessly make a woman pregnant, then you deserve castration," she narrows her eyes, and the others nod.

I open my eyes wide and look away. This topic is too uncomfortable to me.

"Gih."

"Yeah you are kind of blowing my mind."

Ciel chuckles and pats my head. "The way you question things always amuses me," she says, "It's kind of your charm."

I recruit Lina again and spend my morning developing a chant.

Genesis, birth, artificial, imitation, automata, modification, adaptation. These words float into my mind like a soup, stirring, mixing, transforming into other words. There's a line somewhere, a start, a continuum, a sequence of words that leads me somewhere.

The words blur together and turn into an amorphous soup, a sludge that refuses to budge.

I exhale a sigh.

"I'm tired, let's go do something else," I say.

"Hm? Ah," Lina regains lucidity, "sure."

We spar for fun and rope in Alissa too. When you live and die by the sword, turning your means of survival into an enjoyable activity and also a way to train is a logical step. It's why the Coliseum is so popular here.

"You look cool when you slide through the ground like that," Alissa says.

"A bit frightening too," Lina says.

I smile and slide forward with [Telekinesis] to strike.

Roxanne comes down and Aoi drops from her head.

"How's her training?" I ask.

Lina picks up a spear and starts chasing Aoi.

"[Item Box] is quite the odd spell for her to start with," Roxanne answers, "I also trained her in [Clean] so it helps her with mana control. She should learn it in a month or so."

"Isn't that fast? Alissa told me she took three months to learn it."

"Wasn't she a child? A monster like Aoi has more affinity to magic than a humanoid."

"Then once we leave I will start teaching her [Fly]."

"Kweh!" She stops on her tracks and looks at me wide-eyed, then she receives a blunt spear to her ass, "Kwah! Li! No, fair!"

"Don't get distracted so easily, even if it's sparring," she says with an impish smile. "We are pretend fighting, after all."

"Hmph!" She puffs a large cloud of smoke on Lina's face, making her cough.

We start to make lunch and Ciel and Hana come back.

"So, I have been looking at some escort companies out there," Hana says, "I think we could make a tons of gold coins by escorting one from here to Goldport by the scenic way."

"Oh, you mean going through the west side first?" Roxanne asks, clapping the tip of her fingers in excitement.

"Yeah, the main towns we will pass would be fort Erda, Goldcross, Escanso, Goloria, and then Goldport. There's a lot of merchants leaving next month through this route, they are going to take alcohol and dragon meat and distribute it to the other towns for the Turn of the Year celebrations."

Lina's Trivia: Calendars here are made in the shape of wheels. When the year ends you just "turn" the wheel a little for the next month.

"I'll look for the smaller companies," Hana continues, "The bigger ones all have their own hunters for escorting. And I'll make sure I stay away from Katasko."

At 1 PM we leave for Selina's.

The 2 storeys timber-framed house is just as the same as before. Actually the blue bricks and dark wood seem brighter, they could have been washed. There are multiple rolls of cloth outside, most of them are thin and embroidered. And of course at least half of them are velvet.

"I actually feel like buying a few drapes, now," Alissa murmurs.

"You could, but we might not use it since we are leaving," I say.

"That's the problem."

"Maybe we could buy a rug for our tent."

"Ah yes."

"Buy a fluffy one, I want to be able to sit down and relax," Hana says.

We enter the store and the smell of textiles fill our nose. A well-dressed attendant is currently in behind the counter, working on some paperwork. She lifts her head and adjusts her glasses.

"Ah, Miss Alissa. Came to visit Mistress Selina again?"

Lina's Trivia: Miss is for single women, Mistress is for married women, "Madam" is mostly used for nobility. You only use Madam for commoners when you want to show respect to older women. "Gentleman" and "Signeur" are the male equivalent to Mistress and Madam. Dame and Sir are shortened versions used for knights and other people related to military.

"Yes," Alissa smiles and nods.

"Oh, Alissa?" I hear the soft voice of a petite woman.

Down the stairs come the pretty blonde girl. Hair loose and straight, longer than last time. She wears a long loose white summer dress and some pretty small red shoes. Her face is as cute as ever.

"Ah, Mr. Ryder, Miss Hana," she smiles brightly when she sees us.

She takes us to the small veranda on the second floor, it has a table with comfy chairs similar to the one on our house. We have a good view of the busy streets.

She leaves us for a minute and comes back with a plate of tea and scones. Very sweet and fluffy, they go well with strong bitter tea.

"Oh, so you are leaving," Selina says and smiles sadly.

"We will come back one day," Hana says with a warm smile.

"Then you better write down everything you did, I want a book, not just a second-hand story," Selina smiles brightly again.

"That's a good idea," Alissa says, "I could write down what we do in a diary and then send to you."

"We could pay for a scribe to compile everything in a more exciting way, a simple diary would be boring," Hana says.

"Yes. Tell me the all the interesting details, even the saucy ones," Selina smirks.

"You sure you want to know?" Hana asks, "You must have heard some rumors about my people."

"I'm not so innocent," Selina giggles, "Oh, now that we are talking about it I remembered I heard a saucy story. Do you know Carmen, from the hunter's guild?"

I suppress my smirk and simply nod along with the other girls.

"So my neighbor swears that she saw Carmen enter Ganto's cafe, the one right in front," she continues. We look behind us and see a tall and fierce-looking man with graying hair serving people on tables on the street. "This was well past closing time, then, the little vixen, sneaked up near a window and she swears she heard a woman moaning, and it wasn't Carmen's voice."

And at this moment Thomas comes in, he's wearing a rather formal thick cotton yellow doublet, black pants and some high boots.

"Greetings," he says, his silky black hair sways as he bows lightly. He has an enviable stubble and he's not even that much older than me.

"Welcome back, my love," Selina says with a wide smile.

"I'm back," he sits down and relaxes on the chair, "Sorry I'm a little late to receive the guests."

"We just started talking. I'm telling them Carmen's story."

Thomas sits downs and looks at me, we holds the same expression. Discomfort.

After some very excited gossiping about Carmen's escapades that me and Thomas do not really participate, we return to talking about our trip to the High Forest.

"Wow, you are stronger than I thought," Thomas says, holding his blocky chin with his hand.

"Position three is not joke, position one might as well be a knight," Selina says.

"Forgive me but I do not really envy your fellowship. I would rather never meet the undead," he smiles and nods respectfully, "Having to trudge through the rotting orc husks was enough for me."

He must own a warehouse on the Crafter's Corner.

"Well not everything is that unpleasant," Alissa smiles wryly.

"The Symbol of Darkness was unpleasant but the experience is something you never forget, it changes you and hopefully for the better," Hana says.

"Even the Symbol of Envy was stressful to run from but now it feels quite the fun memory," I say.

"You are all addicted," Thomas says with a sigh and then smiles, "My father always says this about adventurers and now I really understand it."

"Oh, come on, it really seems like an exciting lifestyle," Selina slaps his arm lightly.

"Fun to hear about," he grabs her hand and kisses it.

"That I won't deny."