Thozronnath was in a difficult position now that his traumatic past had reared its metaphorical head. Conceited as he was, being a devil and everything, he wanted to constantly put forward a brave (read: arrogant) face for his minions. It was actually something he learned from watching Varekoth. Intimidating presence of a leader was the only way he knew how to operate.

Thankfully though, he had enough common sense at this point that he fully realized his minions couldn’t handle a situation they weren’t told about. He had to come clean or suffer the resulting ignorance from his own summons being his fault. So, with a deep breath and a steadying moment, he began to explain.

Thozronnath ran through all of his memories, every horrific instance of torture, every humiliating abuse. Sparing no detail as he went, he recounted thousands of years of torment at the hands of the other devils, and eventually Varekoth. He explained the removal of his soul debt, and the punishments he received whether he did bad, or did too good. When he finally finished, the team of monsters had a detailed understanding of not only the machinations of hell itself, but the impact it had on Thoz’s mind. Not Zildoxoxi though, he just sort of vaguely wiggled in the background. To be fair he was there for most of it, but it’s not clear if he even has memories.

Going through the details of his traumatic past with the summons at his command was difficult for Thoz, especially as each of them (minus the slime) had questions. Things they wanted to know or felt pertinent to the situation. Prisaela was curious if Varekoth had any known weaknesses, things he cared about, or things that could be exploited. The recently summoned Uzdaax wanted to know more about the pit fiends powers and potential allies that could be expected to still work with him.

Thoz did his best to answer them each in turn, especially given that he hadn’t seen the pit fiend in hundreds of years, mind prison and all. It was clear as he answered each question in turn that neither Pride nor Sloth had even considered giving up or fleeing. They couldn’t of course, the summon contract bound them to their master, but the unwavering loyalty that seemed to radiate through their words was inspiring to Thoz.

Thousands of years spent scraping and suffering through hell, fighting tooth and nail for every literal crumb and scrap of comfort and power he could, was hard. Right now, for the first time since he climbed out of that pit and looked up at his creator, Thozronnath felt like someone truly cared for him. He knew of course they had their own motivations and that true caring, true unconditional love for another being did not exist in the heart of any monster, but having a friend in his corner was still a moving feeling for the ancient being.

In fact it kind of hurts? Like his insides were moving, the feeling was shifting through Thoz’s entire body.

New Skill Unlocked!

Sword of Sin.

Your summoned minions have granted you a fraction of their unique powers. On command you can summon a sword of your preference and have it take on an aspect from any of your currently active minions of sin.

“Loyalty is hard to comeby. Treat them well.” - Vz

This freshly awakened power seemed to send a shudder through the minions around Thozronnath as well. Visibly causing even the oozey Zildoxoxi to shudder more than normal.

Over the next few minutes, Thoz continued to expound on his plan with his minions. His immediate goal was to find a way to get Zild into the city, as leaving the slime unsupervised in the forest was clearly not working out in their favor. When he said this outloud, the gluttonous gelatin in question let out a strange bubbling sound.

“What?” Thozronnath sighed.

Zild answered by drawing all of it’s slime into the same spot, creating a large mound and then, making it smaller? The ooze seemed to be attempting to compress himself into a smaller area, and for the most part it was working. It’s hard to describe something that can span several cubic meters as “smaller” when it only shrinks a few centimeters at most, but it was noticeable to the naked eye still.

The bubbling noise came from Zild again, this time much louder. Almost as if on cue, the slime shrunk dramatically. Unbeknownst to the rest of the assembled monsters he had successfully acquired a lock ooze skill called Compression. It wasn’t enough to make the ooze tiny by any means, but his new absolutely massive form could be compressed down until it was just slightly bigger than his original form as an Absorption Ooze. He had shrunk by more than half and now fit easily inside a single cubic meter.

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“Well, it’s not perfect but that does make things a lot easier. Good job Zild?” Thoz said skeptically, unsure if the ooze could even truly comprehend what he was saying or if he operated off some strange empathetic system.

The “Pfffft” sound he got from Zild in response did not clarify much.

“I think he could fit in a backpack if we sold some of this extra clothing and bought one second hand” Prisaela suggested, slowly strapping the recently recovered shortsword to her belt. Their assailant's loss was her gain, and in this specific instance it might make other adventurers less suspicious of the unarmed woman in their ranks as well.

“I wanted to save some of this money and buy some armor,” Thoz admitted, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “That’s still a long way off though and this has more immediate benefit anyway. Fine.” he sighed in defeat, pivoting to giving out orders for the rest of his group.

“Uzdaax. You earned your time off, but if you want an easy assignment I’ll give you some more. Stay here with Zild and keep an eye on him. You don’t have to do anything else but watch, if someone attacks him or he gets into trouble I want you to slip into the city and find me. Do that and I’ll give you three days off this time” The devil commanded.

“Yessssir!’ An ephemeral voice responded immediately and with gusto, no one present could see into the ethereal realm of ghosts, but the promise of such a juicy vacation had lit a metaphorical fire underneath the specter, his vague misty form standing at full attention and saluting his master from the land of the dead.

“Prisaela and I will head into the city” Thoz continued. “We’re going to pawn off this extra set of clothes, and attempt to get enough materials on the way back to turn in our quests. Once we buy a pack that we can actually afford, we’ll head straight back here. We have to make sure we’re sleeping inside tonight and if that means Zild has to spend a few more nights in the forest then I’ll have to come up with another plan. Either way, we will be back before sundown”

The assembled monsters each gave their confirmation, and the party split up to carry out their various tasks. Except for Zild. Zild did not get orders so he wandered around the forest while his master was gone trying to squeeze into small spaces to practice his new skill.

***

Team “Run errands in the city” as Thoz had begun referring to them in his head made their quick jaunt back through the gates at a comfortable yet hurried pace. They had successfully managed to find just enough forest herbs to turn in the quest they had both taken at its minimum requirement. They would not be getting any bonuses for additional herbs, but each of them turning it in would provide them with a reward and a contribution towards the guild. Completing quests would allow them to set aside a portion of their income as guild fees while simultaneously progressing them towards the next rank where they could earn better rewards. Win-Win all around.

The original reward for the quest was two silver pieces for a bundle of herbs weighing approximately one kilogram. It had been increased by one silver coin twice since then. With each of them turning in one bundle, they stood to earn 8 silver coins in one fell swoop. Noting how much currency seemed to transfer hands in the guild, Prisaela asked the kind clerk on duty today to make some change for them.

Ten of the fifteen copper coins they looted from their attackers earlier in the day were exchanged for a single silver coin, that along with one from the same bag of loot and the eight from their reward rounded their entire transaction into one nice shiny gold piece.

A gold piece that was then immediately spent. They needed a backpack no two ways about it, and even at the second hand store, getting a slightly worn yet sturdy leather pack had cost them an entire coin. A price that the shopkeeper had assured them was half the normal rate for a new one.

Thankfully though, since they made a relatively sizable purchase from the shop, they had been given a deal on the clothes they were selling. The entire outfit was barely worth two silver coins when given its quality and minor damage, but they had received three for it.

With six silver coins in the metaphorical bank, they could afford another night of room and board for the two human-presenting members of the party, buying them another day’s chance at completing quests while well rested.

They could afford it either way, they still had an extra gold piece laying around, but Thozronnath was very particular about trying to save money for a suit of armor and Prisaela couldn’t talk him out of it. It seemed like a personal hangup.

It was of course, like most things for the former imp, rooted in trauma. Hellsmiths didn’t make armor for imps and the smallest of the devils were made to do combat anyway. The number of times Thoz had been beaten, stabbed, cut, burned, poisoned, and otherwise tortured made him incredibly envyous of the armor other devils wore. He desperately wanted a suit of armor of his own, even if it was cheap and offered minor protection, it was a status symbol in his mind.

With the supplies well in hand, Thozronnath was able to smuggle his entire group of minions into the city for the first time. Having Zild sit still in the pack and covering him with wild herbs allowed the Slime to pass through the rudimentary gate inspection without issue. No one could even see Uzdaax so the ghostly slacker wasn’t an issue.

That night the monsters held their first strategy meeting in the drafty room of the cheapest Inn the city had to offer. The following day had originally been planned for questing, but if Thoz and Prisaela sat through a beginners course at the academy in the back of the guild, they’d be offered a shared room and a hot meal for the night for their trouble.

The class in question only took a few hours, but it meant most newby adventurers couldn’t safely leave the city for a day-long quest afterwards. In This case it lowered his commute and freed up his afternoon to hunt down some of the lackeys of Varekoth that seemed to think that he was still a punching bag.

That would come in the morning though, in the meantime he let Uz slack off wherever ghosts went, and shut Zildoxoxi in the closet. He needed the privacy to help Prisaela level up her new Doppelganger class. Prisaela knew it was an excuse but she didn’t seem to mind. Thoz was a strange combination of pent up and angry, and pounding the brains out of his shapeshifting minion seemed to make him more pleasant to be around. If she played her cards right Prisaela could get some levels and a release at the same time. Motivation enough for the embodiment of lust.