10 Chapter 9 (1/2)

I was a patient girl though. Every morning and every night I'd take care of my needs under the blanket, even though I only got experience for one of those two. I also desperately searched for a toy but decided a wooden stick just wouldn't cut it. Even I had some places I wouldn't go. I didn't exactly have anything to polish it with and I wasn't about to get splinters in my yahoo.

{Conceal has Increased to LVL 2.}

Unsurprisingly, after our little sexual romp in the spring, Damus was keeping his distance from me. He'd occasionally glance, blush, and look away; however, he never made any attempt to approach me. I suspected he was frightened of Darius. It turned out that they had brought Damus along as some sort of apprentice adventurer as a favor to one of his relatives. He carried all their bags, did the cooking, the cleaning, and the grunt work, and they'd help him level to a second tier job. It was a common thing in this world, apparently.

I discovered that level 30 was the point at which you changed tiers. An average male adult of about 18 would be between level 20-30 whereas a female villager tended to be about ten levels lower. A skilled worker would gain a tier and spend the rest of their life approaching level 60. The masters of their crafts sat at around level 60. Most higher nobles reached over level 60, but only the best of the best reached 90. Those in this country that exceeded 90 and reached the 4th tier could be counted on one hand. At level 100, someone would undoubtedly be called a hero of legend and there might be one every century.

The first girl finally woke up after another day of travel as it was nearing evening. Min demanded she be allowed to walk, and Darius held no complaint. She traveled right alongside the rest of us. Now that she was awake and moving, I thought that the escape would put the fire back into her. That didn't seem to be the case. She still wore dead eyes and a face that was extremely expressionless. She didn't talk, even when the men tried to get her to answer her story.

Ricardo became very cross, almost hitting her in the face. It was Marvis who had prevented this from happening. Marvis, I'm going to give you the ride of your life. Throughout the entire commotion, Min remained impassive. I had grabbed her and pulled her over to my chest. For a moment, her eyes flashed with something indescribable, but she gave no other signs of acknowledgment. After that, Min seemed to stick closely with me, rarely more than a foot or two from my side. She didn't say anything, nor did she touch me, but whenever I glanced to my side, she was there. This was unfortunately very frustrating because it meant it was impossible to get Marvis in seclusion. At least her dampening mood also kept Darius from flirting as much. Even he seemed to remember how traumatizing this situation was when he looked at her emotionless face.

The other girl, Shay, woke up shortly after that. She showed a little more emotion, but she wore a haunted look in her eyes like she was a second away from collapsing in horror. She tried to hide the look with a smile. She thanked all four men profusely, reminding me that I hadn't done the same. It didn't matter; I'd thank them all individually in my own special way. Well, I might just say the words to Ricardo. His behavior was still no better than my first impression.

Shay explained that she was the daughter of a merchant and they were transporting goods out of Marxville. Min was a mercenary hired to protect the carriage. It was just them, her father, and three other male guards. A pack of fifteen goblins overtook them, killed her father and companions, and then took the pair of them.

”Thank you, thank you so much, you saved me. I'll do anything to repay you!” She said almost pleadingly.

”How big of a merchant was your father?” Ricardo suddenly asked. ”Did he have more assets in Marxville? Do you have any other relatives?”

Shay was dumbfounded for a bit but finally regained her composure. ”Um… my mom, she passed away when I was little. My dad sunk everything into his merchant caravan. We might be able to recover some of it, I know where we were attacked…”

Ricardo made an annoyed noise through his teeth. ”So nothing. And mercs aren't going to get me shit either. What about you, girl?”

He glared at me next, but there was nothing in this world for me, so I merely shook my head. ”No, sorry.”

”Damn it. Three useless twats. Here I thought there might be an award so…”

”Come on, we still might…” Darius tried to speak up but Ricardo slapped his hand.

”I guess we'll just sell them to the slavers. That'll make a decent profit.”

”Wait!” that was Damus protesting, ”You can't just…”

Ricardo backhanded Damus with barely a movement, not even bothering to look towards him. ”Listen well, boy, I may have agreed to take you along, but you certainly don't have a say. I don't do this to be some fucking hero. I do this for the money. Now, here are three useless girls. They're eating our food, wearing our clothes, using our supplies, and we aren't getting a single thing back from them. Don't act like you guys haven't realized it. At this rate, this expedition will be at a loss. Even if we dumped the girls now and just took care of ourselves, we'll still have lost money. Everything those damn goblins hoarded was trash. They didn't bother to take a thing from that merchant caravan other than the girls, so we didn't earn a damn thing on this raid.”

Damus was holding his face in shock while lying on the ground. Darius and Marvis had lowered their eyes, a guilty expression on their faces.

”We can be useful, we can be useful!” Shay begged tears in her eyes. ”Whatever I have to do, I'll make it up to you. I'll pay you back, I swear!”

Ricardo eyed her up and down, and then a dark grin popped onto his face. He took two leisurely steps forward, reached around and grabbed her, pulling her towards him. She let out a shriek, struggling to get out of his grip, and it was immediately clear that they both had different ideas on how he ought to be paid back.

”Very well. You can pay me back, but I collect a high interest and you better start now. If you three girls show us enough appreciation, I might be able to wave some of your fees.”

Although Shay was trying to pull away from him, he grabbed onto her head painfully, trying to shove his tongue down her throat. Damus looked away, a look of shame on his face. Darius wasn't looking either, but Marvis was, his hand clenched with barely controlled anger.

Before he could violate the crying Shay more, I reached forward and grabbed his arm. Holy crap, those things were hard and humongous. The second I made contact with him, I released the Seduction skill. I didn't need to touch to do it, but I wasn't going to take any risks. I was also afraid that Seduction would show some kind of physical manifestation that the men could see, but it didn't appear to be the case.

His eyes suddenly snapped over to mine. It was a look of curiosity as if he was playing with a puppy only to notice a cuter puppy on the other side of the room.

”I'm happy to show you my various uses.” I state, trying to sound provocative, ”Perhaps we can go someplace private and I can thank you thoroughly.”

{Seduce has increased to LVL 1.}

So seduce was a skill and a special ability? Well, I guess seduce is the act of trying to increase someone's affection for you, while Seduction is a special skill that uses stamina to instantly increase someone's affection for you. Was it something like that? I didn't have time to dwell on it though.

”No, give me your appreciation now, or I'll take it from her.” He threatens menacingly.