Van watched as Luna had the time of her life beating the stuffing out of her challengers. None of which were anywhere near the level of Karmine, Ashina, or Seral. He wondered if it was his bad, or good, luck, that he fought such tough opponents, allowing him to learn and grow from the challenges and even gain allies.

Adela was still clinging to him happily, uncaring for the fights below when a voice called out to her, telling her it was time to leave.

“Come on Adela, we have a mission to prepare for! The sooner we get it over with, the sooner we can come back and prepare for our departure.” A voice said behind them.

Van turned his head, curious as to who was speaking to them and wondering why it sounded so familiar. In his sight was a beautiful young athletic woman with light gray wolf ears and tail, black and white tattoos on her body, with the image of a moon on her forehead, and two stubby curved horns. She wore a short skirt, the back of which was raised up thanks to her tail, and a tight shirt that made her massive breasts pop out.

“Ooh… come on sis… five more minutes…” Adela whined, making sure to get another sniff of Van into her.

“Wait… sis?” Van then looked at the women’s eyes, the same gold eyes as Ashina’s. “Holy hell… she’s a were-person!” his eyes widened in realization. “And she’s hot!” which was a bit of an understatement… Ashina was pretty attractive, even in wolf form, but now that she had a more human-like appearance, he was captivated by her beauty.

“Wait…” Van said out loud, looking between her and Adela. “Are you two… were-people?” Asking just to make sure…

Ashina gave him a smile. “What? Never seen a were-person before?”

“No, I haven’t…” he admitted, soaking in her new form.

“Well… I usually don’t parade in my downtime form unless I have the day off or the mission calls for some stealth. And It’s a lot funnier to get around like this than hulking around everywhere I go and lowering my head every time I have to enter a building. It’s not bad looking either, is it?” Showing off her body to him, taking poses.

“No, it’s not…” he admitted, nodding.

Ashina smirked and looked at her younger sister. “Sis, you should show him yours, I’m sure he will love it.” giving Adela an encouraging look.

“B-but I-” Adela stopped herself from blushing, gave Van a look, blushed harder, and just nodded her head.

Slowly, right before Van’s eyes, she changed from a beast woman, into a beastkin…

“Whoa…” Van said impressed, then was taken by surprise by how small she had become. She was now only a little taller than Luna, the clothes she was wearing now looking far to loose on her.

Adela, hugged the now loose clothing to her, embarrassed, yet oddly looking excited that Van was watching her like this.

“One of the problems of changing forms is that unless you buy enchanted clothes meant to change with you, you constantly have to change every time you do.” Ashina said, walking down the steps towards them.

Van again was taken aback, he had thought Ashina had shrunk a little when he first saw her, but now that she was closer, he could see that she was practically his height! Maybe just an inch taller… she could now look him directly in the eyes. Those very bright golden eyes now looking right into his own…

“Is it really that expensive?” he asked, feeling oddly intimidated and perhaps a little turned on for some reason.

Ashina rolled her eyes. “You have no idea… clothing enchanted to change alongside the user without losing any of its benefits can become really expensive!” sounding like she wanted to vent a little all of a sudden. “I mean, I understand why… you can’t just expect armor meant for a goblin to become so easily wearable to a half-giant, keeping all of its defensive properties intact. But technology should have at least made it a little cheaper!”

She shook her head. “Ah well… it doesn’t matter anymore anyway… Now that we have access to our soul realms, we can store all of our clothes and gear into it. So it’s not much of a big deal to change in and out of our stuff as it used to be. Just look at my sis, she’s mastered the art of changing clothes using nothing but her soul realm.” motioning with her head towards Adela.

Van turned and realized that the clothes Adela was wearing were gone, and in its place, see-through clothing appeared over her body, which quickly became non-see-through. Right before his eyes, she had switched out the clothing she was wearing with the one inside her soul realm… which by his accounts was very impressive…

“Wow… I had no idea you could do stuff like that…” Van said impressed. “The ability to so easily switch out what you're wearing… that’s impressive!” he complimented since he knew being able to accurately take the stuff off your own body and replace them back on again through using the soul realm was no easy feat. Which was why most people only took out the clothes they were going to wear and changed into them.

“I know right!” Ashina said, proudly.

Adela blushed, one for Van watching her, and two because of the praise. Her tail wagged a little as the flowery mini dress finally settled onto her.

“So, what mission are you going to do?” He asked, wondering what quest they were going on that required them to change forms.

Ashina shrugged. “Just some bug-catching mission for the herbalist guild. It might not sound like much, but it’s a lot harder than it looks. The bugs we’re catching are hard to find and spook easily. So we’ll have to go do this by stealth.”

“Huh… interesting… so you are also a part of the herbalist guild?”

Ashina laughed. “No, but the Mercenaries guild does take on commissions for them from time to time. Normally we're tasked to hunt monsters and such when we’re not hired to guard or fight. But on slow days or when there are not a lot of quests available, or when other guilds have a lot of quests backed up that they can’t take care of themselves. They will post them in other guilds if it’s similar enough to their primary job of the guild they are asking help from, in the hopes anyone would take it. And since a proper adventuring guild hasn’t been created in Alcray, that means the Mercenaries guild is usually dumped with this kind of work.”

This was new information for Van, and he thanked her for it, asking her if she couldn’t help him sign up for the Mercenaries guild.

“Sure!” Ashina said happily. “I don’t see why not! Just follow me to the receptionist counter. You can even sign up your wife if you want, though it’s fine if you don’t, but fyi, if you have help from non-merc rankers, it will affect your scoring and they won’t get points for it. We’ll also pass through the lobby, if you don’t mind, I want to show off a few of my girls to you. If that’s okay.”

“Sure, I don’t mind,” Van said, getting up to follow her. He then called out to Luna, who quickly ran over, excited about signing up with the Merc’s guild. She was battered and a little bruised, but for the most part looked very happy, beaming from ear to ear.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The group then went through the lobby and were introduced to Ashina’s team. All of which looked like they also had come from the demon lands and all of them looked like they might be the same race as Ashina and Adela. They were packed with gear and seemed ready to leave at a moment's notice.

After the quick introduction and name exchanging, Ashina brought them to the receptionist counter where they waited in line for about an hour. It was a surprisingly busy morning…

Once there, Van and Luna were signed up thanks to Stacy, and a new app was installed onto their Vespera bangle.

“Thanks Ashina.” Van said after they walked away from the counter. “I don’t know how much use this will be… But it’s nice to know that I have it. Now… Do you know a good way to earn some quick money? We only have about two weeks before we leave, and we're kinda strapped for cash…”

“Oh? I thought you two were nobles? How are you hurting for money?” Ashina asked.

Van embarrassingly explained how they lost all of their money, making Ashina laugh.

“Can’t believe that happened! Hope the underwear was worth it!” She chuckled.

After laughing for a bit longer, she finally calmed down and tried thinking of a way to help them. “Hmm… there is not much you can do without walking outside to the nearby forest… even for us we’re planning to stay the night out because the city is just so large it just takes that much time to get a good distance away… which is usually where the forest where the bugs we’re looking for are… And I doubt your guards would let you leave the city for every little thing…”

She thought about it some more. “There are a few short-term guard assignments you can take… but that seems a bit redundant since you have guards guarding you… not to mention it would look pretty silly to guard a door while your guards are guarding you…”

“Escort missions are also a no go… And there aren’t a lot of quests at the moment that you can take… both because it’s a bit of a slow day, and your rank won’t allow it… maybe you can fight in the arena? There are always people out there looking to watch a good fight. Just enter a ring, fight some people, if you win you get cash rewards and some bonus depending on the percentage of people who betted on you. What do you think?”

“I… don’t really feel like fighting anymore…” Van said.

“Oh! Me! I want to fight! Let me fight in the ring!” Luna’s eyes sparkling up at the thought of earning money while beating the crap out of other people.

Ashina chuckled and then smiled. “Sure, I guess I have some time, I’ll show you the way and guide you through it.”

The two then began talking about the challenges Luna was going to face and more. Giving Van some time to think of other ways he could earn some money while he was here.

“Sorry to interrupt you two… but do you know where the alchemist guild is?” Asking Ashina.

“Hm? Are you also an alchemist?” She asked in surprise, then tilted her head thinking about it. “Yes… I think I do… though I suppose even if I didn’t you probably could find out that information yourself.” giving him a smirk.

“Aww… Van, you're not going to watch me fight?” Luna complained.

“Sorry love, I’ve already watched enough from this morning, and I kinda want to explore around a bit more. Let’s meet back up at the castle when we are done for the day, okay?”

Luna pouted but accepted what he said. Ashina explaining where to go from here to the alchemist guild.

With that, the group split up. Luna went deeper into the guild, followed by two guards. And Van went out of the guild, followed by the remaining two guards. Luna waved at him until they were both out of sight. So was Adela, looking sad that he was leaving, but having to stay behind to help prep for the job ahead.

Van walked down the streets, and as he did so he began to play with his Vespera bangle, trying out the map function it had. Ashina had helped point out a few extra functions it had that it normally didn’t in small villages or towns. Usually, because they didn’t have the proper connection.

Using his lover’s app for reference, he decided to drop by to see what it was like. Setting the location in, he was guided to the lover’s guild’s location. And just like everything else in this city, the place was massive! Almost like a giant temple to sex and depravity, several floors high and taking up the entire block.

Walking in nervously, he checked his ranking again. One star wood ranker. Each star costs two hundred points, then you pay five times that for a trial, and then each star is four hundred points at stone. The cost of stars doubles for each rank, but the rewards and cash you can get also increases greatly…

Now taking in the sighs around him, he was surprised to see how clean everything was… this was probably the reception hall… walking up, he asked the receptionist at the counter if there were any quick jobs he could do. His heart beating fast at the thought of him doing something like this. Luna was not around to help calm his nerves and egg him on…

The receptionist raised a brow at the two guards with him, but professionally moved some papers around and checked a few informational panels. After a minute, she guided him down a few hallways and into a large room, then began explaining what it was he had to do.

“Over there on that wall is where women will stick their ass’s through. On the top is the wait time for how long they have been waiting, under it is the money to be earned, plus the expected tip, then the preference, and under that is the availability icon, which shows up as green or red and then the women… when you draw close, make sure to scan your lover’s app on the scanner, it will then lock you in. After which… well… you know what to do…”

She then turned and left, leaving Van alone.

He looked towards the other side where he found a small group of tired men sitting in chairs, half-naked, a few fanning themselves… one got up, scanned himself in, and then began to hump the bare ass in front of him. After he was done, the ass retracted, and a minute later a new one was in place with a new timer.

Van walked over to the wall and noted how since waiting a long time with your ass hanging out the wall would probably make you sore. So instead the women were laying on some sort of cushioned plank-like structure with a depression to allow them to tuck in their legs. The thing also seemed automatic, where once the women got on, the machine would move their lower half through the wall.

He checked the bare ass closest to him, both holes exposed. He checked the timer and the cash reward, expected tip, the preference, which was cum in pussy, and then availability. Once everything was in the clear, he scanned his app in and got to work.

It was a little embarrassing to do it in front of a few other dudes… though there seemed to be a partition he could use, which he took advantage of. He then pounded away and when he was done, he earned three hundred Crava's, about fifty extra in tip, and a few points.

The woman he fucked was slid out, and in a minute, new one had taken her place. The wall seemed to have a cushion surrounding the hole so as to prevent anyone seeing in or out, or moving too far onto the other side while providing comfort to the women who had to stick their ass out.

For the next two hours he went at it, much the growing awe, wonder, and fear of the other males hanging in the back. Van was just glad there were no such thing as sexually transmuted diseases he had to worry about…

By the time he was done, he had earned himself about two thousand and a two hundred fifty Crava’s in total, thanks in part to some very nice tips.

Yet despite the money, he felt a little dirty about what he had done. If he had to be honest with himself, there must have been another way. Perhaps he had just become too numb to it to care anymore… after all, he didn’t really enjoy it as much as he thought he would…

Shaking his head, he soon left afterward, leaving the room, then followed by his guards out of the lovers guild. Going down a few streets towards the herbalist guild, he bought a decent quantity of herbs from the vendors and stores that lined the street and then went to check if Chloe was available in the guild, to which she was. He asked her for a room to borrow, to which she kindly provided.

He then got to work making a few potions. It had been a while and his stock was pretty low. So he spent the next few hours making some simple potions.

Once that was done, he kept half of the herbs he bought for later and got a quick bite to eat for lunch.

From the restaurant, he went to the alchemists guild and paid the fee to sign up for the guild. Then he began to accept all the quests for the potions he had just made and turned them in for money and points. Within fifteen minutes, the money he had spent on herbs had barely repaid themselves. But with the points he earned, he ranked up and rented out a space at the alchemy labs where a bored-looking woman explained the use of all the equipment and how to clean up after himself. Warning that if he didn’t he would be fined for it, and left him to his own devices with a bunch of others.

He then checked the quest board, went to the open lab with the station he rented out, and began brewing a few more potions of better variety. By the time he was finished, he had ranked up to a two-star wood ranker alchemist using all the points he had earned and now had almost three thousand Crava’s to his name.

He wasn’t earning as much as he would’ve expected… But then again he was only allowed to access lower-tiered quests that barely paid anything at all… But he had confidence that he would be able to make some decent money from this eventually. So he put his nose to the grind until it was time to leave for the castle. Earning a few more hundred Crava’s by accepting tasks to help other alchemists and brew a few potions on behalf of the guild once they realized his talent.

Which felt nice, since it was always a good feeling to be acknowledged for your skills, so he was in a good mood when he finally arrived and went to sleep that night.