Just as we were about to leave, a party of adventurers suddenly teleported from the gates.

Two dwarves were just your typical warriors with heavy armor, one of the two humans was an archer, while another probably a mage, but unlike other mages I saw, this one was wearing white robes. When I noticed a silver sword emblem on his robe I recalled what I heard about 'Silver Sword Order', a priest maybe? A single cat beastkin seemed to be a scout or some agility based warrior. The only woman in the group was an elf and judging from her brown robe and a staff, probably a mage. Hmm maybe saying that she was the only woman was incorrect, on her shoulder was sitting a small pixie who seemed to be a girl.

We looked at them for a moment and then started walking deeper into the dungeon. Soon they started walking as well and for some time we were walking in the same direction not too far from one another.

"You know them Ash?" beaskin asked human archer.

The archer was staring at Master for a while now, so I kept my attention to their group as well.

"Yes, I saw that elf once. The infamous 'Fake Mage'. He should be the one Blaze was talking about." replied the guy.

"Never heard of him." beastkin looked at Master more closely.

"Well, he isn't dangerous or anything. He is Space-Time Mage and Blaze has said that he cheats everyone out of their stuff if you entrust him to carry anything in his pocket dimension." continued Archer.

I noticed that Reveon was getting angry and slightly increased our pace. He was an elf and heard every single word. The distance between us started to increase but with our enhanced senses, it was still easy to overhear their conversation.

"You shouldn't trust the words of that scum." an elf mage in their midst spat with disgust.

"You are just angry at him for buying that elf slave, Eraviel." the archer replied.

"Of course I am. And so should you. I can't believe I am in the same party with you guys. That poor girl had a terrible experience, and all you did was congratulate that scum for a 'nice catch'. Disgusting." I heard the elf replly.

Their talk then has changed the direction to that about the slaves and I stopped paying attention to them. An elf girl, Blaze... maybe it was the same guy who has bought that elf just the day before I was bought? Well, if it was really him then I know his scent and how he looks, if Reveon wanted revenge for spreading the rumors probably could track him. An 'accident' should be also quite easy to arrange... Oops... I probably should put more effort into keeping my old habits in check.

When we were far away from them, I decided to ask about all of this.

"Master... those rumors... are they a reason why you needed a slave? Now that I think about it, even without an attack magic, with your healing and Space Time magic you should have easily found a spot in a party." I asked while leading us to the largest group of monsters I could sense.

"Yes, in a way... I just couldn't trust anyone after a few conflicts in a row," he replied and after a short pause continued, "It has all started with some idiots incapable of simple math. My pocket dimension doesn't work the same way as a bag of holding and essentially I am the only one who can 'check' what's inside. But I am no thief. The next party I have joined was even worse, they knew exactly what I have stored inside but used the badmouthing of those idiots as an excuse to take my share... Back then my biggest contribution was healing, but it's not always needed if you are careful. And I am not backed like the priests of 'Silver Sword Order' so it was easy for them to paint the story to their liking. Worst yet they have not stopped just with that and continued to spread those rumors even when we parted. Eventually, I have stopped from even trying to find a party and did my things solo."

"But as you can guess it was not very efficient, which is why a slave seemed like a perfect solution. You have no idea how long it took me to get all the gold with the bow as my only means to deal some damage. Not that it was all in vain, mind you... the moment I saw you, something inside me was screaming that I must get you no matter what. There was something special about you..."

As I heard him saying that, I hoped it wasn't just from pheromones I released back then.

"Aww, you are so sweet... but we should stop with the flirt, I can sense the monsters ahead of us," I said while looking ahead.

*

We were in the middle of a fight against oversized ants and spiders. Spiders just like the ones I saw earlier were almost one meter tall and were quite fast. They also could release a thread from their bottom to entangle their prey. Master called them 'Greater Spiders'.

Ants or 'Killer Ants' as Master called them, were a bit smaller than spiders. They had thick chitin armor and mainly attacked with their large jaws.

When we approached them, a group of spiders were actually fighting against a group of ants. Some turf wars maybe? Well, it made no difference and I simply charged at them. At first, they still attacked one another, but with more and more of them dying by our hands, eventually started to unite against the common enemy.

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With a sweep of my phantom tail, six of them lost their limbs and fell to the ground. I followed that by slashing ant from the left and then captured a spider with my phantom claws by its head when he jumped at me. I tossed his body into a group of charging ants, of course, I didn't forget to crush his head before I did that, and then jumped four meters high into the air.

*Boom*

A fireball launched by Master exploded in the middle of their group, and five of them died instantly, while at least four more were injured. It took some convincing that Master has no need to fear for my safety when using his magic. I could easily dodge anything without a warning, And that loud shout of spell name was a dead giveaway.

Still, in the air from the jump, I materialized my phantom tail and with a spin of my body, turned it into a whirlwind of death, slashing two more spiders into half, when they tried to jump at me. I also used it to prevent threads shoot by other spiders from reaching me.

With a splash, I landed on the spider, sinking phantom claws into his body. It appears I could create phantom claws with legs as well, but they normally had little use as would make my movements awkward. Unless I use them to stab my prey while landing like now.

I severed heads of two more ants with my claws, and sliced in half one spider and ant with my phantom tail. With one more sweep with the tail to the side, I increased that number by few more.

If we were fighting only spiders, I could use the tail to kill all around me with one sweep, but thick chitin armor of ants prevented me from killing more than two at a time.

I quickly captured two more spiders with my phantom claws. They wanted to disengage from group attacking me, and attack Master instead. As I devoured their mana, and crushed their bodies into meat paste, another spider was pierced with my phantom tail as if using a spear, he tried to attack me from behind. Then with a sweep of tail, I tossed his body at few ants who wanted charge at Master as well.

After that I intensified pheromones I released, to keep their attention only on me. All this time I was working on the right combination that worked on killer ants and greater spiders at the same time.

Skill "Scent manipulation" learned.

Scent manipulation - Ability to take advantage of body scent, be it in attracting or hiding from others.

"Fireball !" launched another spell Reveon.

Soon another group of oversized insects died from the explosion. All this time I managed to keep monsters of his back and gather them in one place, making his magic quite effective in reducing their numbers.

"Master! Few more are approaching you from North-East." I shouted while stoping threads of spiders from reaching me by materializing phantom claw for a split second and then releasing.

I really would like to have guns. With right positioning, I could have attracted the attention of these ants on me as well, but a group of adventurers watching us from afar was ruining everything. I wanted to be between them and Master, so I could react in time if they attacked us with arrows or spells. This created a gap allowing for few of ants to approach from the other side.

I started to seriously consider using money from my share to buy tools for blacksmithing. But .. I have a feeling that my days as a virgin could be counted on one hand. I need money to get my freedom fast as well. If I delay, I will have my first time as a slave.

"Fireball !" Master targeted approaching ants I mentioned.

They weren't surrounded by their brethren, like in a group I was fighting, and could dodge to the sides.

Master aimed at the ground so even with their dodge both were affected by an explosion. Both of them were now crippled and the next spell of Master will finish the job.

I started using only my claws to kill and refill mana with devour, while a sweep of my phantom tail was used to remove limbs for six or seven at once. When Master or I am freer, we can finish them off. And by aiming only for limbs, I am not limited to only a few targets at one time. Even chitin armor of ants makes little difference when my target is their thin legs.

*

Finally, all of them were dealt with, save for few that managed to escape when there was only ten of them left.

You have gained 2875 experience points for overcoming your adversary.

Level Up.

You have reached level 11.

Level Up.

You have reached level 12.

"That was easy." I said while looking at the sea of corpses surrounding us.

Thanks to 'devour mana' my mana was almost full even before level up, as for stamina, I replenished it by using a bit of nutrient reserves during the battle. That devour mana is very useful, could devour even trough phantom claws or tail, and would be fully ready for an another battle even if there was no level up.

"Ha ha ha. If others heard you saying this, they would think you are crazy. I didn't expect you to lead us to the group of this size. It's very likely that just now we killed most of them in this entire floor." said Reveon while storing corpses in his pocket dimension.

"What ?! But .. that's actually disappointing." I said while looking at the departing adventurers.

It was a different group from the ones we meet at the gates. What were their intentions? Did they wanted to kill us, or were just curious how we fare against those numbers? I doubt they had any intentions to help.

"Mmm Master, I understand ants, they have their chitin and it's probably used for making some armors, but what's the use of spiders? Actually forget I asked, it's their silk glands isn't?" I asked while looking at Master leaving nothing behind.

"That's right Kitty." smiled Master.

"Any other monsters on this floor ?" I asked while looking around.

I could sense few small groups of ants or spiders here or there, but their numbers were tiny if compared to the group we just fought. I could smell some other species.

"Direrats." answered Reveon.

"Ewww. Are they as big as these ants and spiders ?" I asked imagining rats the size of ponies.

"No, they are usually one meter long and are mostly just a food source for others. They could be dangerous if managed to gather enough of numbers, but rarely have that chance, as they are constantly hunted." he said.

"I see .. Let's go to the next floor Master. It's boring there." I said forcing a laugh from Master.