Megumi opened her eyes as the warm morning light streamed in through the window onto her face. She sat up and yawned before she climbed out of the large bed of her room in the guild hall and then she went over to look outside. It appeared to be another mostly cloudy day and she could tell by the position of the sun that she had once again slept in. She knew she was getting too comfortable at this place, but it was one of the nicest places she had lived in a long time now. After returning from the orphanage quest, she had spent the last few weeks relaxing after finding all the kids homes. She really had needed to recharge.

Mass murder is exhausting!

Her free time had been spent at The Golden Neko and at the orphanage where Lydia, Jack, and Nell were now at, while her evenings had been spent soaking in the hot springs. From what she could tell, her threats against the matron of the place had worked out. The kids reported that the place was like heaven compared to the orphanage up in the mountains. They still had to perform chores, but they were not forced into hard labor and even Taris had even arranged for the newly arrived orphans to be enrolled in a few of the schools that were scattered around Rivean. 

It made Megumi feel good that those kids would have an actual chance at life now. It didn't bring Miki back, but helping them had filled a small part of the gaping hole in her heart. She stepped away from the window and headed over to her closet, grabbing her clothes for the day before she began the routine of brushing her hair. She felt like it would be nice to put it into a braid today, so she spent some extra time doing that rather than just brushing it out straight.

Once she was satisfied with that, she decided that she wanted to go have breakfast at Tara's cafe instead of eating at the guild hall. The chef here was quite good, but he had nothing on the various confections that Tara's aunt made regularly. 

Megu wonder's what Poro-tan is up to today.

She had recently made the decision that it was fine for him to be kept on a longer leash than she had been generally keeping him on. He wasn't going to reveal himself as an undead to anybody and she felt that she could trust him after the events at the orphanage. In her opinion, he seemed to be changing for the better and he was finally coming around to seeing things from her perspective.

He had been spending most of the past week doing his own thing, which mostly consisted of him hitting on the other girls in the guild and sparring with people in the training area. None of this really mattered to her, so long as he was available when she wanted him for something, he could live his life as he pleased until they left the city.

A huge perk that came along with saving all those kids was that they had both earned promotions. Megumi was now a Rank C adventurer, and Poro-tan had been upgraded to Rank B. When she was ready to move on, they would at least be able to take on a request that could make them some decent money.

When she got to the common room she decided that it would be a good idea to check if there were any good requests on the board. Thus far, nothing had caught her eye. She wanted a job that would take them in the direction of the capital. There wasn't really a huge rush to get there, it wasn't like she was getting any older, and she wanted to make sure that she did things the right way when it came time to kill the king.

Ideally, they could find a job in or around the capital that would allow her to cut loose and harvest more TPs without getting her kicked out of the guild with a bounty on her head. Unfortunately, she was still just a small fry compared to some of the truly terrifying people in the world, but she was definitely getting stronger at an incredible rate compared to the average person.

Since there still wasn't much of anything that caught her eye, she decided it was time to be on her way. Megumi's stomach grumbled slightly as she exited the guild hall. 

Megu is starving! Better to take the shortcut again today.

The streets were as busy as ever with people scurrying about like ants around her doing various tasks. She hated it when people bumped into her, which happened more often than not here when it was busy. She shoved her way through the crowds and entered the quiet alleyway that would get her to her breakfast faster.

Megu really needs to find work to do soon, all this time spent being lazy here is making me soft. When Megu gets back to the guild hall, she'll have another look at the board and choose something no matter what. Even if it isn't ideal, at least we can earn some money and some experience.

The alleyways were always somewhat dark, even during the middle of the day as tall buildings stood to either side. She saw the usual homeless people laying around on the ground, but ever since that first night where she had been attacked, they all cowered in fear whenever they saw her coming. It made her happy that the fools could learn to fear her power, but at the same time it would be fun if some of them got the nerve up to try something against her again. 

Megumi was about halfway through the last alleyway before reaching the street where her destination was when a figure blurred into existence out of a deep shadow and startled her. She reflexively took a step back and began the mental preparations to cast offensive magic. The figure stepped out into the dim light and she immediately calmed down, just a little bit though. The woman who Megumi had spent years around stepped towards her with her hands held out to the sides, palms facing her, to show that she had no weapons and meant no harm.

"What do you want, Revia?"

Cerberus' assassin stopped several paces away and scoffed at her. The black clad woman stared at her dejectedly for a moment before replying, "Is that the way you greet an old friend, Megumi?"

Megumi relaxed a little, but still kept her mind ready to cast at a moment's notice. She knew that she had pissed off the upper echelons of the guild by betraying the NorthPost guild hall. It honestly surprised her that this was the first time where someone from the guild had potentially tracked her down to kill her. She couldn't let her guard down completely, even with Revia, could she?

Cerberus wouldn't have sent her to kill me, would he? No... that's not what's going on here. She would've attacked me before I knew she was here.

"Sorry... How have you been? I'm on my way to grab some breakfast, want to come with me? We can catch up. There's a place nearby that sells really good cakes."

"I'm not here on a social call, Megumi. I've been sent here by Cerberus. You've really stepped in it this time, you know that, right? The Council of Nine wants you dead and specificially, Thera wants your head on a pike. Cerberus can't protect you this time, you're not in his territory anymore. I'm not permitted to help you openly, the most we can do right now is let you know that they will be coming for you."

That fucking snake woman. 

Megumi frowned thinking about what she had done to gain the ire of Thera, but there was only one thing that it could be. "The alchemist in Feng?"

Revia nodded. "Apparently she's been selling Chimeras to other villains for a large profit. You just royally fucked up one of her biggest revenue streams. I'm sure she's absolutely livid. Officially, you're out of the guild. Cerberus' forces will not move against you, but that's it. You can consider anyone outside of our home territory to be an enemy."

Megu doesn't care about the conseqences. I still would have saved those orphans. Fuck Thera if she was profiting off of what was happening in that place.

"What's the bounty on my head?"

"20,000 GP."

It was hard to hide the shock that passed over her at hearing that number. She would have everyone and their mother popping out of the woodwork for that sum. She would no longer be able to relax and take it easy. She needed to get stronger, and she need to do so as soon as possible. The woman would never call off the bounty and her path had now been set. She would either have to kill Thera and the other Council of Nine members, or she would be hunted down like a dog. Even so, she tried to play everything off smoothly. It would not be good to show weakness to this woman, everything she said would be reported back to him, and if there was one thing that the vampire lord hated, it was weakness.

"Okay. Thanks for the info, Revia. Let them come, I'll handle anything that the bitch can throw at me. Are you absolutely sure you don't want to come have cake with me for old times sake?"

"It would... be bad to be seen with you right now by the wrong people. If you weren't one of his favorites, then I'm sure I wouldn't have even been asked to warn you. I have other work to be about now and must set off immediately. Good luck, Megumi. I hope we can meet again." The woman stepped back into the shadows and disappeared.

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This settled things, she absolutely had to leave the city and Poro-tan would need to be back on his tight leash. She needed someone to be guarding her at all times, even when she slept from now on if she could manage it. She decided that today would not be a good day for cake after all. She could eat on the road. It was time to stop fucking around and get much stronger. Once she entered the guild hall she ordered some food and sat down at one of the tables. It was time to allocate her large influx of TPs. She pulled up her list of skills.

Passive

Necromancy

Offensive Spells Summoning Defensive Spells Curses Mage's Essence Sanguine Infusion Raise Undead Spirit Barrier Decay Fortify MP Corpse Explosion Soul Trap Magic Skin Siphon ???? Eldritch Blast Undead Mastery ???? ???? ???? Corpse Absorption Soul Trap Mastery ???? ???? ???? ???? Summon Blood Golem ???? ???? ???? ???? Blood Golem Mastery ???? ????

She had twelve TPs at her disposal and she needed to increase her power dramatically with that kind of bounty on her head. What to do? Making Poro-tan stronger needed to be a priority. He was her primary line of defense against attackers. As such, she placed three points into Soul Trap Mastery. The next most powerful minion she could summon was the blood golem. The creature had been absolutely invaluable up in the mountains and she wanted to make that creature more powerful as well, so she put two points into Blood Golem Mastery. The latter skill not only increased the strength of her summoned creature, but it increased the duration of the spell as well.

Seven points left. Considering the last battle and how that went, Megu needs to also consider the fact that her mana kept running out.

Two points went into Fortify MP and one point went into Mage's Essence.

Beyond that, defense is always said to be the best offense and Megu has been slacking on that front.

She placed one point into Spirit Barrier and one point into Magic Skin. Magic Skin in particular had saved her life a lot recently. Being able to take a heavy blow and have it not drain her mana completely would be fantastic. She needed to level it more to increase its efficiency, but now was not the time for that. She needed to spread her TPs out.

It was time for some more offense, so she put a point into Eldritch Blast and also unlocked the Siphon curse. She would now be able to heal herself in a pinch and that would also be invaluable. All in all, things were looking pretty good. If she could find another job where she could get this kind of haul, then she wouldn't have much to worry about for now.

Poro-tan came into the guild hall joking around with some female adventurer that he had been spending some time with as of late, and when he saw her he said goodbye to the woman and came over.

"Not doing your usual routine today? You have a serious look on your face, everything okay?"

"Poro-tan, we're about to have a lot more problems on our hands soon. We need to take a job today and get out of the city."

"What do you mean by... problems?"

"Megu will explain later. Go grab your things. Megu will go pack soon as well."

"Fine." He turned and headed back towards the dormitories.

Once again she stood up and went over to the request board. Play time was over, she had important things to do before she left this corner of the world. She still didn't see anything particularly interesting, and just as she was about to rip one of the requests off the board, Beera apparoched with a fresh stack of papers.

"Anything interesting in there that would take us towards the capital?"

Beera smiled at her and adjusted her large glasses before shuffling through the papers. "Good morning to you too, Megumi. Ummm... I think there was something that came in today. Just a second."

Megumi shifted back and forth of her feet while the woman flipped through the pages for a few moments before pulling one out and handing it over to you.

"This one is a Class B quest, and it actually pays pretty well. Is Hideki going to go with you? If so you can take it."

Megumi scanned the sheet of paper and it was perfect for what she wanted. "He is. We'll do it!"

"Okay. When do you want to leave?"

"Today. Thanks, Beera!"

Megumi ran off to her room and hastily packed up her belongings. She had folded the request and put it into her bag for safe keeping. Once she was done packing, she met Poro-tan back in the main hall and he waved hello as she appraoched.

"Where we headed now, oh fearless leader?"

"The capital. A thieves guild has surfaced recently and is causing all kinds of trouble. We're going to exterminate them and Megu is going to hopefully gain a lot more TP doing it. Let's go."

The two of them once again bid farewell to their temporary home and headed out into the city. Megumi didn't have a ton of cash, but decided that they should rent a horse again to make the journey go faster. They could afford one with what they had made off the orphanage at least. Despite what had happened to the horse she had rented the last time, Malon was more than happy to rent to them again.

After selecting the horse she had ridden upon last time, she parted ways with the majority of their money and the two of them headed for the gate.They had a long road ahead of them.

Even on horseback, the capital was quite a ways off and there were several towns along the way. Judging from the distance on the map that she had bought in town, the journey would take just over a week on horseback; much longer than she had originally thought it would. Once they got outside the gates, she explained the basic situation with the Villain's Guild to Poro-tan, and was surprised when he took it in stride. He agreed that despite the consequences, saving those kids had been well worth it. Megumi was glad for that and couldn't help but wonder what types of enemies would soon be coming after them.

Spoiler: Poro-kun

Name Hideki (Poro-kun) Level 024 (32,999/39,903 EXP to next Level) Class Warrior HP 1475/1475 MP 50/50 TP 1 Adventurer Rank B Attributes Vitality 53 Magic 12 Endurance 40 Magic Resistance 18 Strength 37 Luck 7 Agility 29   Dexterity 26 Passive Skills • Warrior's Essence - Level 5 (+60 HP regeneration/min)

• Sword Mastery - Level 7 (+70% proficiency with swords)

• Tiger Style - Level 2

• Turtle Style - Level 2

• Stalwart - Level 1 (+10% natural defense)

• Fortify Health - Level 3 (+150 HP) Active Skills • Holy Blade - Level 1 (Envelope blade in holy aura for 15 seconds)

• Shockwave - Level 2 (Release shockwave from blade)

Spoiler: Megumi

Name Megumi Level 026 (46,805/49,541 EXP to next Level) Class Necromancer HP 475/475 MP 1350/1350 TP 0 Villain Rank C     Adventurer Rank D Attributes Vitality 19 Magic 75 Endurance 10 Magic Resistance 50 Strength 6 Luck 18 Agility 9   Dexterity 10 Passive Skills • Mage's Essence - Level 6 (+180 MP regeneration/min)

• Fortify MP - Level 2 (+100 MP) Active Skills • None Necromancer Magic

• Sanguine Infusion (50 MP) - Level 15 (Absorb life essence of recently deceased, 15% chance to gain +1 TP from human victims [Cap reached. Lvl Requirement for Lvl 16, (50)])

• Corpse Explosion (30 MP) - Level 7 - (+70% damage from explosion)

• Corpse Absorbtion (10 MP) - Level 1 (Absorb a corpse's essence. Recover 80 MP)

• Raise Undead (20 MP) - Level 10 (Raise weak undead to fight for you. Max: 50)

• Summon Blood Golem (500 MP) - Level 1 (Raise a Golem to fight by your side by using the blood of the fallen. Max: 1)

• Blood Golem Mastery - Level 2 (+8 Minutes to summon duration. +10% defense, +10% attack power)

• Soul Trap (350 MP) - Level 1 (Trap soul of a recently defeated foe. Max: 1 [Cap reached. Lvl Requirement for Lvl 2: (30)] )

• Soul Trap Mastery - Level 4 (+10 to all stats, excluding Luck, of Summoned Soul)

• Spirit Barrier (100 MP) - Level 2 (Erect a barrier using souls of the dead for fuel. Blocks spells and projectiles)

• Magic Skin - Level 3 (Actively consumes MP to negate physical and magical damage. Higher levels lower the MP cost)

• Decay (120 MP) - Level 5 - (25% chance of success. Causes body to rot from the inside out causing extreme pain and slowing movement at joints)

• Siphon (70 MP) - Level 1 - (Drain health of enemy at a rate of 10 HP/second for up to 5 seconds. 30% chance of success.)

• Eldritch Blast (75 MP) - Level 13 (Unleashes a roiling ball of Eldritch energy that burns its subject on contact for 5 seconds)