Half Breed Adventurer

Disclaimer: Sex, violence, incest, prostitution and general oddness.

Chapter 30 Derby Double Dealing

I need to be stronger, faster, tougher, but most of all I need to be smarter, I should stop acting like any other Adventurer and think my way through my problems like an Alchemist. Instead of endangering myself and my friend, I should have worked harder in making better golems, brought goblins as cannon fodder, hired some Adventurers from Essex to escort us instead of prioritising speed over safety. Anything to prevent what happened.

I looked over at Kered and Edward on the horse trailing the Thieves along with all the other former captives, some of whom are being helped to walk by my minions. Kered's gaze is still blank and empty, he's withdrawn deep within and the guilt eats away at me. I should have set up a watch, I should have prepared a trap or a trip wire or anything to alert us of danger. Then again, would any of it really helped against 50 bandits who had a Water Mage with them? Probably not, it would have just gotten us killed if we caused them too much trouble, or maybe they'd just have hobbled us more effectively, chained in place instead of pinned down by human hands.

Submission and surrender are better than death, death leaves you with no more opportunities, while life no matter how dismal the circumstances are at that moment still leaves you with the possibility of things getting better. The hope that tomorrow you'll find your way out of the hole you've dug yourself and you'll be better, do better the next day.

If I hadn't been an incubi, I would have ended up like all those other men in the cages, used just enough to have their spirits broken before being set aside for sale later. Then again maybe being an incubi made things worse for Kered, maybe if I wasn't leaking out Charm and causing the bandits inherent lust to be more active, they would have taken it easier on him. Maybe not, judging by how empty and broken at least half of their captives were.

UGH!

Recriminations are useless, the past is past, it cannot be changed and those who made Kered suffer are dead, turned into fuel for my growth and corpses to feed the land. It is time to move on, be better, be smarter, regroup and rebuild, learn from my mistakes and do better.

Regnauld tastes like the desire for power. A new talent if one could call it that has evolved from my time with the bandits, instead of just sensing base desire for my body, I sense the desires of those around me. Or at least those strong enough to develop a flavor. It's a taste on the air, like the taste of the sea in the air of Essex, I can taste Regnauld's desire for power. He lusts for it.

Lust is my superpower. I can cause it, I can feed from it and I can learn from it.

Regnauld is leading us to a trap. That's fine, this time I'm expecting it and I'm much stronger than I was and this time I won't have to pretend to be meek to kill him in the night when he's asleep and defenceless. When he turns against me, I'll just burn him with my newly discovered fire and teach him his place beneath me.

I made use of the walk to draw in mana with [Energy Drain], [Meditation] helped me better understand and utilise [Energy Drain], I could restore my mana pool faster this way. In normal circumstances, a Mage with my wisdom and mana pool relying solely on his passive mana regeneration would require nearly five hours to restore from empty to full but I'm not normal. I'm abnormal and proud of it. I could convert a single mana point into ten, by absorbing the mana within the air around us as I walked using [Energy Drain]. It'd be faster if I could stop and close my eyes and Meditate while using [Energy Drain] as it would effectively drain most if not all the mana around me within a certain distance but that's not really an option at the moment.

After an hour or so, we arrive at Derby and Regnauld got us through the city gate through the age old method of slipping some coins to the Guard Captain.

Regnauld and his thieves took us to the Thief's Guild Central, a tavern called the Rusty Fork, located in the slums of the outer ring, where he separated me from my people to have a `chat'. We went into a small cluttered room which I assumed was his office, the desk littered with papers which was kind of surprising but I didn't really have a chance to comment on his paperwork.

"Now where is the dungeon?"

"Why would I tell you that?" I asked as I leaned back on my chair.

It's nice to sit down again, to rest for a moment, the bandits had been an ordeal and so had my own accidental poisoning and even the walk back was tiresome. I wanted to sleep but there were still so many things left to get done first. It was still early morning. Most of the fighting and killing had been done during the night and the walk back had been completed as the sun rose higher in the sky. It looked to be a long day ahead.

"Well I've got your friends and if you don't cooperate, I'll have my men gut them for the experience, or just send them off to be sold in the black market." Regnauld threatened.

I thought about it for a second, using my vastly increased intelligence to process through the options before selecting the obvious choice, feigned submission. "Fine, it's about an hour's walk west of a small village called Talon's peak a week's walk from Essex, you can probably get one of them to walk you there."

"Smart decision, cooperating with me." He stood up, gesturing with a lift of his hand for me to get up too. I got up with a sigh, I wanted to sink into the chair, it wasn't that comfortable, but it was much better than the cold stone floor and I could do with a short nap to restore my mental state. Regnauld must have noticed my reluctance to get up because the next thing he said as he took my hand in his and pulled me to my feet was "Don't worry you'll be able to rest soon."

Then he stabbed me with a concealed dagger right in the centre of my chest.

"Oww." I said, the dagger's point sunk into the cartilage covering my heart, reducing the momentum and stopping what could have been a fatal strike from reaching my heart. "That stings."

"What?" He said, his eyes widening in surprise as he looked down at the dagger stalled in my chest and my mild response "Are you?"

"I already told you I am death." I slapped him in the face, sending him staggering, his face on fire.

At some point without me even thinking about it my hand had burst into flame, a notification that I had learned [Flaming hands] lingering in the back of my thoughts.

His screams were distracting, another of the thieves raced in, armed with a dagger with one hand, he looked between his former boss, desperately trying to put out the fire on his face then back at me, still with the dagger lodged in my chest and then back at his boss fearfully. He dropped his dagger and said "I'm just going to put him out."

I shrugged, moving my hand about with curiosity, watching the flames coating my hand with single minded fascination, it was weird, I hadn't really planned on setting the guy on fire, I hadn't even thought about fire. Maybe it was a response to perceived danger, a defence mechanism from my instincts now that I had unlocked fire magic. Or a result of my momentary rage.

Another notification specifying that Fire Mage had been unlocked as a class option was of interest too. It had a bunch of interesting Perks and Spells suitable for a Fire Mage, sadly it would be a long time before I could pick that as option. I'd need another 22 levels as an Alchemist before I could pick another subclass and after level 25 it got exponentially harder to gain experience.

The sight of the now shirtless thief distracted me from my musings about fire and the Fire Mage class. He had taken it off to smother the flames on his former boss's face, pretty smart and resourceful and his torso looked good, lean and wiry with just a bit of hair on his chest and trailing downwards into his thin trousers..

The look on his face as he turned to look at me, was thrilling to the darker parts of me. He was afraid of me and what I would do next, I could taste it, or maybe it was my mind affinity coming into effect. So many new things to work through. Watching him shirtless on his knees in front of me was getting me hard and horny, his fear intoxicating, the thought of taking out my hardening cock and shoving it in his open mouth very tempting.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Ah Adrian, aren't you going to take that out of you?" He asked pointing at the dagger still in my chest, I had kind of forgotten about it, my hard cock straining against a dead man's trousers distracting me. It stung a little but it was a mild itch compared to other injuries I've had.

I shook off the burning flames from my hand with a thought and a shake of my right hand and grabbed at the dagger. "Typically you don't want to pull out something inside of you until you're sure you can deal with it." I said glancing downwards suggestively at my cock which had spilled forth, Adrian's eyes followed mine, widening at the sight of my thick hard cock, I grabbed it with my left hand giving it an idle stroke as I used my right hand to grab onto the hilt of the dagger and yank the blade from my chest. It hurt more going out than it did going in, the withdrawal causing blood to gush forth.

"I'll go get you a clean bandage, he said getting to his feet hastily."

"Stay put, there's no need, I've got other ways of dealing with wounds." I said before closing my eyes for a moment, dropping the dagger onto the wooden floor. I placed my right hand over my chest as I focused for a second, triggering [Flaming hands] for a moment, causing my flesh to burn and sizzle, it BURNED. I couldn't let my discomfort show as I was playing a dangerous game with Adrian and to a lesser extent Regnauld, I had to display my utter superiority to them and demonstrate that they had no choice but to obey me.

I gritted my teeth at the surge of pain and focused on my flesh, using the stored mana and internal energy to [Shapeshift] my wounds into normal unmarked flesh. It was mana expensive and costly to my internal energy, making me even more tired and hungry again.

Blood Mage was unlocked, another Class I couldn't take right now, I guess selecting Mage, made it easier for me to gain other Magic classes. Interesting.

I opened my eyes, glancing at the open mouthed expression on Adrian's face, he's kind of cute, good teeth, could do with a haircut and a shave, his hair unkempt and long and his beard scruffy. "Please don't kill us demon sir?" He pleaded, having dropped to his knees again, I looked back at where his eyes were looking and noticed my tail had come free and my trousers had completely given up the fight against gravity and were pooled around my ankles.

I kicked off the dead man's trousers, boots and the charred remains of the shirt, enjoying the light breeze coming from the window to the side of the desk on my naked body. I felt up my body, I had grown bigger in the caves, more beefy than before, from the neck down I looked more like Badrick, even my cock had grown, I hadn't really paid much attention to my transformation before. I don't even know where the tail had come from, it was just there like the thought of large demonic bat wings but I went with the tail so I would have another weapon, large wings of little value in cramped caves. My cock mirrored Badrick's and measured 12 inches and was nice and girthy.

"Now why would I kill you if you serve me faithfully? You will serve me faithfully wont you?" I asked stroking my new cock with greater speed as I watched a shirtless Adrian kneeling in front of me, thinking of all the interesting ways I could use him. The defeated Regnauld groaning in misery clutching his ruined face on the floor just made the tableau even more thrilling to me.

"Yes, I will, I'll do anything for you."

I smiled evilly "Good to hear, you'll swear a blood oath to me to serve me loyally, wont you?."

"Yes I will."

"Good repeat after me, I Adrian, hereby swear my eternal loyalty to Lucius upon my blood, body and soul."

"I Adrian, swear my eternal loyalty to Lucius upon my blood, body and soul"

Close enough. "To your feet." He did so quickly, his face looking concerned as he realised that my commands were mandatory for him to follow.

Mmm a well fed and attractive minion, I wrapped my arms around him, enjoying the faint trembling of his body against mine and the warmth of his half naked body against my fully naked body and bit him lightly on the neck drawing a bit of blood into my mouth, he tasted good, I licked his blood and stopped. I had more than enough of cannibalism to last a life time, I wanted a proper meal, I'd play with Adrian later. Having tasted his blood, finalised the pact, previously it had only bound him to me, this bound me to him, at least a little bit.

"Um, is there anything I can get you Sir Lucius?"

I licked my bloody lips, savouring the taste of him, as I squeezed his firm buttocks some more, rubbing my cock against his cloth covered cock. "I am kind of hungry and horny. I was thinking you might help me with that."

"I'll organise you a meal and a sweet boy. Do you have a favourite food? Or boy?"

I smiled, he wanted to avoid my cock, I could taste his fear of my cock and also his stifled interest in it. Adrian interested me, but the groans from the floor were becoming irritating. "Bring me meat, preferably monster meat and someone that can take a hard pounding." I said slapping Adrian's butt.

"Um could you let me go please?" He asked a quaver in his voice, I could feel his heart racing and his cock straining, he was fighting his desires.

"Sure, take out the trash on your way out." I said stepping back and pointing to the curled up and miserable sight of Regnauld, the former thief king. "By the by, you're now the new king of the thieves, backed by my power."

"Uh yes," He said with a nod in my direction. "Come on." He said to Regnauld as he pulled the burned and bleeding man to his feet, "we'll get you a healer, fix your face."

"I'll get my revenge." Regnauld whispered not quietly enough for me not to overhear it.

"Quiet before you get us both killed" Adrian replied even quieter than his former boss as he dragged him away.

I made myself comfortable in Regnauld's former chair, whereas the chair for guests was a simple wooden chair, this one while also wooden, had a comfortable cushioned back and seat, so that my bare back and butt was comfortable.

It felt a little weird, this new body, especially the tail which seemed to have a mind of it's own wrapping around the chair's back.

I flicked through the papers on Regnauld's desk out of idle curiosity as to what it'd be, it was reports from his underlings about intakes, potential threats and targets, along with some correspondence between other factions.

It was interesting reading, my higher intelligence making it trivially easy to memorise all the information with a single glance at a page. I'd have to make use of that newfound ability later in a library but for now, taking over the Derby's Thief's Guild via Adrian was a good first step. I could use the tavern as a new base of operations while I get myself sorted. I still needed to visit the Adventurer's Guild but maybe this would be a better place to lay low until everything was in place. The Thief's Guild also had an intelligence network that could be of great use to me.

My diabolical scheming was interrupted by a naked male bringing me a tray of horned rabbit.

A quick [Identify] marked him as a level 15 Thief, level 10 Prostitute and his name Jim. Roughly 5'8 tall, short black hair, youthful face, slim and hairless torso, cock small and soft.

"Your meal sir and I've been told to tell you that your companions are being taken care of, sent to the local healers." He approached slowly, holding out the tray in front of him like an offering and a shield against me.

Adorable. Like a lamb to the slaughter. "I take it you've been told of my needs."

He was a prostitute delivering food naked to me, it was kind of obvious that he was sent to get me off and lower my hostility at the same time, maybe save Adrian's virtue too. The real question was whether I should get him to suck my cock while I ate or to have him sit on my lap and feed me food. Yet he looked anxious, it made me wonder if he could take me, I had asked for someone that could take a pounding, he didn't look like he'd do well under me, if I got too worked up. Then again I didn't really know much of anything about the Prostitute Class, it wasn't really talked about or written about with any great detail other than the more sordid actions undertaken by the professionals.

"Yes sir, I can help you with both food and that." He said pointing at my stiff cock, it had deflated during my reading but at the sight of his slim supple body, it had risen to the occasion.

"Are you sure? I can be quite a demanding lover."

He looked at me directly, showing confidence briefly, "I can take it." Then lowering his head again in submission, so that it didn't come off as arrogance or defiance.

"Well then I'll take this," I said grabbing the tray from his hands "and you can take this" while glancing down at my stiff foot long cock.

"Yes as you desire." He said coming around the table to stroke my cock.

I could tell he had dexterous hands as he worked my stiff cock with both hands.

"Suck it." I said between bites of roasted horned rabbit. It wasn't quite up to my usual standards but I was hungry and it would do.

Jim's mouth was even better than his hands, warm and wet where his hands were cool and caressing, his mouth opened up to swallow my cock whole, while not leaving an inch of cock unloved. His mouth suctioned on my cock as his hands worked my balls, caressing and squeezing them gently, his finger tips grazing my butt.

I spread my legs, allowing him easier access to my butt as I grabbed at his head with one hand while stuffing my face with the other.

We were both stuffing our faces with meat, though he was less messy about it than I was, my face greasy with juices from the meat. Jim was neat even as his face was pressed against my pelvis, while somehow maintaining his movements on my lower end, pressing his fingers into me. His slim fingers sunk easily into me.

I had only eaten half of my meal but I wanted to devour Jim, wanted to fuck him stupid and break him open and eat his soul.

I put Furtado in a cage in my mind, lessening the more insane aspects of my demonic half, though the horniness remained. I yanked Jim off of my cock quite forcefully. "Too much?" Jim asked, taking advantage of the pause to stroke his own 5 inch cock, eyeing up the foot long cock slathered in his saliva with barely concealed longing. Three fingers on his right hand were slick and wet from being up inside my ass.

"Not enough, sit on my cock, I want to fuck you."

"Fuck yes." He said, practically jumping on my hard lap, trying to kiss me.

"No, turn around, I want to fuck and eat,"

He pouted and said "I'll feed you then." He shifted his weight forward so that half of my cock disappeared into his sweet hole as he grabbed a handful of meat and brought it to my lips. "Fuck me hard."

So I pushed forward, burying the rest of my cock into him, he accepted it with a smile, stroking his cock and palming his bare chest. He felt amazing, his insides squeezing me so tightly and yet fucking him was so easy.

I lost myself for a moment, pushing him face first on the table next to the half filled platter of meat, I fucked him as I leaned forward and crunched on Horned rabbit torso, bones and all. Sanity had been lost, as I fucked and feasted on flesh.

I rammed his insides, lost in pleasure as I fucked and fed.

I came back to myself as I came hard inside him, cum surging out of me in waves of bliss. When I stood up, pulling out of a splayed out and somewhat bloodied Jim. I had bitten him in my lustful frenzy, a bloody imprint of my teeth left behind on his left shoulder. My mouth tasted faintly of copper.

I poked him with a finger concerned at my loss of control "You still with me?"

He turned to me, sending a wave of relief through me that he wasn't dead, before confusion took it's place as he looked at me and smiled. "That was amazing, can we do it again?"

I had a weird flashback to me and Arnie. Was this how Arnie felt as he pulverised my body with his iron constitution and I just asked for more?

"Why are you happy?"

"I have this Perk, called Makes a man out of you, the rougher a client is during sex the better my stats get, I got like a massive stat gain to constitution from that."

I smiled, relieved and intrigued. "I think we're going to have some fun you and I, what other perks do you have?"

"I've got Open Holes, which means that no matter how big the guy may be, I don't gag or break from it, Nimble hands for thieving and pleasing and Quick Escape, boosting my speed for getaways."

"Nice, very nice, I think this is the start of a beautiful fucking relationship. I turned him over, so that he was on his back scattering the remains of my meal and the papers to the floor and drove my stiff cock into his open hole. I grabbed the back of his neck and kissed him roughly, while reaching between us to grab his stiff cock to stroke it.

He moaned and clutched at my back, his fingers pressing hard on my skin, his legs soon followed, wrapping around my waist, locking me into place as I kissed and fucked him.

Some time later, there was a knock on the door and I said "COME IN". Adrian walked in, looking even better than before, clean shaven, with a new hair cut and better clothing.

He looked at me and at Jim who was still very naked and still very fucked on my hard cock "I'm not here at a bad time am I?" He asked nervously.

"No it's great, I'm very happy to see you, Jim and I have made some excellent discoveries haven't we?" I said still rocking him back and forth on my hard cock.

"Mmm yeah." Jim was a lot less enthused than he had been when we first started, his voice tired and drained, like the rest of him.

"Last one, then you can have a little sleep."

"Thank the gods."

My stomach clenched just a little at that. "Almost done." I clutched at Jim's body as I fucking slammed my body into his, until a wave of bliss and sleepiness washed over me as I emptied myself once again into him. I slapped his ass. "Off you go. Time to talk with my second in command."

Jim gingerly eased off my stiff cock, walking very slowly away, giving me more than enough time to admire my handiwork, Jim was the perfect chew toy, his back covered in bruises and bloody furrows. Still he had gained so much from me, extra constitution from the injuries, extra stamina and intelligence from the repeated [Energy drain] every time he came.

From what I had learned in the brief periods between orgasm and the next round, he only gained stamina when he was working hard all night under many clients. With me, he gained extra stamina and even intelligence the more he came, though I could drain him at any time, it was just a lot easier when he came.

I had even cajoled him into a blood pact with me, while I was fucking him particularly hard so that I was now his primary client. He was a lot more excited during the first orgasm, than he was after the tenth. Poor boy.

Still I had never realised the sheer potential of the Prostitute Class before. I had even picked up a weaker variant of the Make a man out of you perk, Enduring. Sadly I hadn't had much use for it as Jim was not strong enough to pin me down and inflict enough damage on me for any kind of improvements to my stats. He did leave some marks on my back when he got really worked up which I healed through the use of [Shapeshifting].

Still my time with Jim had been thoroughly enjoyable, helping to work out some tensions I had been holding onto. I would need to find a Legendary lover to serve as a top to make full use of the new quasi Perk and to avoid potential overdrainage.

I had kind of stuffed Jim with potions when he started to flag too much, he needed some more time before I could test the limits of his Perk again.

Adrian interrupted my internal gloating and scheming by saying "I've sent those you've freed to the Temples and I'll have my men, I mean your men collect them after they've been healed."

I looked him over, on the one hand he had taken care of all my immediate problems, on the other hand I had been isolated from all my potential allies. I shrugged, paranoia was so unbecoming, all I could taste from Adrian was concern, part fear, part worry. "You look good like that."

"Uh thanks, um I can have another one brought to you if you like." He said as I walked over to stand in front of him "If you're not fully satisfied."

I was still rock hard and still kind of horny, I had taken care of one itch, but I still longed for something else, something I could really sink my teeth into. "But you're already here."

I slipped my hands beneath his tunic and into his breeches, gripping something warm and hard, dropping to my knees to yank down his new and more expensive breeches to expose his 7.5 inch curved upwards cock and swallow it whole. "Uh sir, the other thief commanders have gathered to meet you and uh um you should get dressed and uh meet them if you would um fuck I'm going to..."

His hands clutched at me as he groaned out his bliss as I swallowed his essence, absorbing a portion of his health, stamina and mana as well to fill the endless void within.

My body and soul were a bucket with a hole in it, no matter how often it was filled, there would always be a leakage, the hole had shrunk a lot since my birth but it was still there making things difficult.

I was kind of impressed that he could still say all that as I bobbed up and down on his hard cock while groping his firm backside and sliding a sneaky finger past his back door to press his pleasure button. While he was cute, he wasn't big enough or strong enough to give me what I really needed. I'd have to visit Badrick once I was done with these idiots and maybe hunt down Minos if he's not in the dungeon. Maybe have the both of them to double team me, really stretch me out and work me over to test the new ability I picked up.

"Great, let's go." I grabbed my mother's spatial bag and walked out the door still naked while Adrian tried to call me back.

When I got out the door, I was greeted by the sight of about twenty men, with various builds and clothing styles, all of them seemed to favour easily concealable daggers. Several of them pulled out daggers at the sight of me, still sweaty and reeking of cum, with my demon tail swinging behind me.

"Hello new minions, you now work for me, I'm sure we'll either have a long and mutually profitable relationship or a short but profitable relationship where you resist and I eat you."

"Who the hells are you? Thinking you can just walk in and take over, there's twenty of us and one of you. What's stopping us from stabbing you and taking over." Complained a well built man, that towered over some of his compatriots. 6'2 dark hair, broad shoulders muscular, dressed in expensive looking clothes. A quick [Identify] tagged him as a level 20 Warrior, level 10 thief, no name or stats provided.

"Well I just ate, so I'm going to skip the chewing on your bones for now and show you why." I burst into flames and demonic bat wings popped out from my back.

[Immolation] has been learned.

I rolled my eyes at the system announcement while pondering why my wings popped out, they were admittedly intimidating, the wingspan reaching past my hands as I spread out my hands to show them my power. Originally I had intended to show them [Flaming hands] but it had spread all over my body instead. My control over flames seems to be a little underwhelming, as it comes a little too easily to me, responding with a bit too much power to be convenient. Luckily my mother's bag is undamaged by the flames which isn't that surprising as it wouldn't have lasted this long if it wasn't highly fire resistant. Mom was a high levelled Fire Mage back in the day.

I really needed to learn some water magic at some point. Mage level upped to level 6 for some reason. I gained a stat point to wisdom and intelligence and 3 free points to use later. Yay.

The desire for a fight from the thieves seems to subside for a moment but a lingering taste of hatred and vengeance hangs in the air. They're cowed for the moment but that doesn't mean they won't strike out if they think they can bypass my fire magic. It makes me worry about Kered and the other former captives but there's not much I can do at the moment. The important thing was to fake absolute confidence until I could secure all weak points from retaliation.

"You, get naked." I said pointing to the guy who questioned me who had a similar build to my current body.

"What? Why?" He asked in increasing rage.

"I need new clothes, the last batch were off a dead man and they were of low quality, yours is much nicer, hand it over before I set your face on fire."

The guy looked around for support but it appeared he had no friends in this crowd willing to risk my ire. "You bunch of cowards." He said stripping down to his small clothes.

I held out my hand, palm first and stopped him before he took off any more. "That's enough thanks, nobody wants to see what you're packing downstairs."

The guy was beefy and in other circumstances I wouldn't mind letting him pin me down and fuck me but I had other priorities. Mostly I wanted to undermine him in front of his peers as an abject lesson in getting on my bad side. There was some muttering from some and some jeering from others at his expense.

These were the captains of each section of the outer ring of the city, they were all responsible for a certain territory and managing the thieves and the people within. In a way they were rulers of their own territories but they all reported to Regnauld, who worked with the bandits, who all worked under the Assassin Guild's who worked under the grey guild. It was a big old web and they were just the middle managers of the lowest tier of the group, the eyes and sticky fingers of a much larger organisation.

Regnauld's reports proved very useful in understanding the dynamics at play. These guys were comrades but they were also competitors for territory and prestige. They could be turned against each other with a little effort. A pack of hungry dogs, has little loyalty to those that stand in the way of their next meal.

I turned to Adrian standing to the side a few steps behind me and asked "Where's somewhere to wash up? I need to clean up before I get paid for killing all those bandits who got in my way."

"Uh follow me sir." Adrian said.

The thief captains were not pleased by that remark or the reminder of how I slaughtered their much better armed and more murderous contingent. I didn't really care. They needed to be reminded of the new hierarchy where I was in charge and they would obey or die.

Adrian took me a washroom of sorts where Jim was being washed by another boyish lad whose first response at seeing me in all my demonic glory was, "Is that him?" with a very eager expression on his face.

Jim let out a weary "yeah".

Watching how thoroughly the boy was washing Jim, got my cock hard again, a quick [Identify] gave me his name, classes and stats.

[Identify] was weird.

Melville, Level 10 Thief, level 5 Prostitute.

Strength: 10, Constitution: 20 Dexterity 20, Agility: 20, Endurance: 15, Charisma: 15, Intelligence: 8, Wisdom 15, Luck: 5.

His Stats were kind of underwhelming.

"Would you like to help me wash up too?" I asked shamelessly.

"Yes." He raced over to drop to his knees in front of me "Can I?" he said, eyes looking unblinking at my cock.

I nodded and his mouth swallowed my hard length quickly. "I'm guessing he's got Open Holes too?" I asked Jim who just nodded, lazing in a half filled tub of water, watching his young friend working on my stiff cock with half lidded interest. "Does he have Make a man out of you too?"

"No, he's not high levelled enough for that, he's only 14."

"Me too." I said distracted by how good a job Melville was doing sucking my cock to keep secrets.

"WHAT?" Both Jim and Adrian shouted in surprise. Melville was too busy making my cock disappear down his throat to care about the conversation we were having, grabbing onto my meaty butt to give him better leverage as he bobbed up and down on it with single minded devotion.

Melville was doing a great job and I was distracted by thinking of pounding his tiny little butt. It was one thing to see my cock disappear down into his small mouth, it would be another to rail him from behind. I didn't really trust myself to do so after fucking Jim stupid, but it was definitely on my to do list for when I gained greater self control.

I kept my hands clenched behind my back to resist the urge to fuck the boy's face, my iron enhanced bones would be troublesome. "What? I'm a growing boy, what's the big deal, I had a growth spurt or three."

Adrian and Jim shared a look... and just stopped talking, the sounds of Melville's slurping on my stiff prick getting louder as he stroked his small 4 inch cock in time with his efforts.

I groaned as I pumped a meagre load down the boy's throat. Jim had drained my balls quite a bit but Regeneration made my down time short. I could cum a lot and frequently when I wanted to.

"Are you going to fuck me now?" Melville asked with equal excitement and concern.

"Not right now, maybe when I get back."

"Oh. Are you going to pay me?" His puppy dog eyes as he looked up at me made me laugh. I had forgotten that he wasn't just an eager slut looking to get some cock, he was a whore and he wanted to get paid.

I shrugged and said "Adrian, pay him and Jim, I'll be making use of them both later too."

"Woo" and Melville jumped into the tub with Jim and started hugging and kissing him and I watched with amusement as Melville got Jim hard and sat on his cock and maniacally rode Jim to a noisy climax, shooting his load all over Jim's abs.

Adorable, Melville was a little bit of a slut after all. Watching them go at it, reminded me of Dale. I wondered if Dale was still having fun being the cock sucker of the Swords of Destiny. Probably.

I quickly washed up, the day's grime, sweat and cum off my naked body. I used [Shapeshifting] to make further alterations to my flesh, binding my tail to my spine and retracted my wings into my shoulder blades. My back was lumpier as a result, it kind of looked like I had a hunch as I glanced at my reflection in the water, the demonic wings took a lot of layering to get contained and the end result still looked odd. Removing them altogether would be a waste of energy.

I got dressed in the thief captain's clothes, they were made from Wyvern skin, a high price material for clothing with decent resistance to physical damage and fire damage. The shirt was a little tight around the chest due to my lumpy back. It showed off the definition of my torso, the sleeves clinging to my bigger biceps while the rest clung to my front, showing off hard pecs and abs. The trousers also clung tightly to my cock and thighs.

I picked my third milestone Skill and Perk for Magical Assassin, [Disguise] and [Cloak of Shadows]. [Disguise] allowed me to project a particular image into other's mind at the cost of mana, the more complicated, the higher the mana cost, with each skill level reducing the cost. [Cloak of Shadows] provides a passive magical defence during night time and in shadowy areas against physical and magical damage. A weaker and more conditional [Mana Shield] for the Magical Assassin.

I may have teased Adrian a little about needing his services later on my way out. I left the Rusty Fork and head towards the Adventurer's Guild to get what I'm owed.

After more tiresome walking where I make note of the people and places of interest as I practiced [Disguise] to test out its limitations, I finally arrived at my destination. I really needed to see if I could learn some teleportation spells from Michael when I returned to the Dungeon, walking is tedious.

I walked in and strode forth through a mostly empty Adventurer's Guild, not much business happens at ten am over to the female receptionist whose name I'm fairly sure is Sandra.

"Paul working?" I asked.

She looks me up and down curiously, eyeing me up with interest. A quick [Identify] reveals her as a level 30 Mage, ??Water Mage, ??Blood Mage. "You don't look much like a Mage."

I had no idea what she was on about. "Is that a yes or a no?" I asked quickly losing patience with her.

"Sure, I'll call him. PAUL!"

"What?"

"You have someone who wants to talk to you."

"Who is it?" He asked from the back office.

"He didn't give his name, looks kind of familiar though."

Paul appears from the back finally and asked "Can I help you?" in a completely dry and impersonal way.

"It's Lucius, don't you remember me?"

"Wow, you look a lot bigger than I remember, what have you been eating?"

"Bandits mostly" I say with a shrug and a wicked smile. I shove the thoughts of the bandits and the very fucked up things that happened into a metaphorical freak show, contained within a very large cube next to the cage containing a crazy/horny Furtado. My mind is getting weirder and weirder as of late. I already have a whole section that I ignore with Dungeon Paul's memories, in the shape of a high tech otherworldly library. Where Furtados' box is a cage trapping a demon within, the bandit's box is a circus of horrors.

"Well you're still strange as ever, what brings you back into town, I thought you had decided to stay in Essex."

"Found a dungeon."

"You what?" Both Paul and Sandra react.

"Yeah interestingly enough his name is also Paul."

"What?" Human Paul asked again in mounting confusion.

"Yeah he's another Champion, things are going to get messy some time soon, anyway I also eradicated a group of bandits so I've come to collect the bounties on their heads too."

"Um. I'm going to need to bring in the Manager for that one, um not that I don't believe you -" Paul prevaricated.

"You sound crazy." Sandra said, solidifying my dislike for her presence even more firmly in my mind.

I smiled, "I'm sorry I was kind of too busy to collect their heads for verification, was a bit touch and go there for a bit, especially when I nearly killed myself with some mushroom poison. Fun times. I brought a bunch of former captives to corroborate my story, along with a bunch of Thieves who very kindly offered to escort us back, though one of them had an unfortunate accident causing his face to get a little burned up." My hands burst into flames again to illustrate my point.

Sandra became a lot more conciliatory all of a sudden. "Oneus will be able to verify your claim, if you provide further details."

"Good, go fetch him, he owes me an apology."

Sandra looked to Paul who simply waved her away with his one good hand. She scurried off like a frightened mouse, along with her staff. "You're acting like a real bastard these days."

"Well it's been a very tiresome couple of days and I still haven't had any sleep, makes me a tad grumpy."

"What's all this commotion about?" Oneus asked, followed by his loyal lapdog Abus.

"Hello again, been a while, I've got so much to tell you. Did you miss me? I've missed our little get togethers, they're so mentally stimulating."

They all looked at me like I was crazy, then again maybe I was, sanity is so elusive sometimes. I put my frustrations and anger with Oneus in a different box and took a deep breath and closed my eyes and meditated for a second to settle myself. Anger isn't useful, calm calculated vengeance is so much more fun.

"Do I know you?" Oneus asked.

"Lucius, we met a month ago, you messed with my memories and now I'm back for compensation."

"Ahhhh." Oneus exclaimed in sudden understanding. "I think we should talk in private."

"Good idea, we can discuss terms."

I followed a retreating Oneus and Abus back into their spider's lair. "I don't know what you think happened but I can assure you-"

"I don't really care for your lies or your pretence, I've come to get paid."

"You insolent monster." Then his mind crashed upon mine but this time I was ready for him and I threw my metaphorical boxes at his mind, sending him reeling as a freed Furtado and the festival of horrors in the bandit's cave played havoc on his mind. Maybe it wasn't the most elaborate or well crafted counter offensives but Oneus shock and fear resonated beautifully.

I wasn't the weak gullible fool I was before, my intelligence and wisdom was much higher, my mind was fully alert and prepared for an attack and I had the element of surprise on my side. Duggan had taught me a few tricks to inflict and counter mental manipulations during our little lessons. One of them was simply being alert for attack, another was to know your enemy.

Oneus was a powerful mind mage, compared to me, but he was still just a branch manager in an out of the way city, instead of someone influential in the capital and that said everything. Oneus was a big fish in a small pond but he wasn't invincible, he relied far too heavily on his mind magic. The advantage didn't last long and he fought off my counter attack after a moment, leaving me alone again in my mind.

"I wouldn't try that again, I've gained a lot of levels since last time and picked up several new tricks." I said acting super confident, even though it was all a bluff, surprise works well once but he had a lot more experience than I did with this mind magic shit and a second victory would be a lot harder to pull off.

"What do you want?" Oneus said wearily, eyeing me up with a certain wariness.

Remembering the taste of bandits on my lips I build new boxes in my mind around the scattered memories.

Boxing them up didn't stop me from remembering them, it just took away the emotional attachments to the memories.

Caging Furtado didn't stop my instincts they just dampened them. It wasn't a good long term solution but it was a coping strategy that would have to do until I was back in the dungeon and could work up a better one.

"Simple, I want to be paid for the elimination of the bandits, my memories should be proof enough of that, and if you need physical verification you know where the bodies are or what's left of them anyway."

"Is that all?"

"Of course not, that's just the start, I want you to arrange the sale of a certain section of land for me, so that I can own the lands around a newly discovered sentient dungeon, along with the bounty for finding it." "You can't think to hold that land against everyone-"

"That's my problem, I also want your cooperation in building an Adventurer's Guild outpost, I'll even give you good terms setting up there."

"You think to give me terms -"

"I'll want Paul to run the outpost and Abus and Sandra will help and provide me with magical training."

"You've got to be kidding me. Why in the Gods names would I do all of that?" "If you don't do what I want, I'll tear your little territory into pieces and you along with it."

"You impudent little shit, you can't really think to -" Then he attacked again, his mind crashing over mine and I sunk into [Meditation], wrapping myself in bad memories, I had a lot of them, that I could recall with perfect clarity now, along with a second set to throw at him too. A decade's worth of my bad memories, of being weak and fragile, being bed ridden and feeling like dying for days on end, the last couple of years of dealing with strange impulses and thoughts.

Then I pulled out the big guns and swamped him with thirty years of knowledge that I had gained from Dungeon Paul, that had been quarantined in a separate section of my thoughts within a library. Every memory of violence, pain, suffering, conflict and death, real or imagined and there was a lot of it was dumped onto Oneus mind at once, giving him little time to process it as I directly attacked his body with a [Flaming Hand].

The combination of a physical attack and psychic attacks caused Oneus to retreat behind a barrier of mana, the much vaunted [Mana Shield] and a [Mental Shield] cutting the telepathic link between us.

The combination of magical skills used in conjunction against a much higher level opponent, caused my Mage level to rise to level 10.

I made use of the momentary pause in hostility to pick a second milestone Skill & Perk for Mage, Mana Manipulation & Magical proficiency. Mana Manipulation, made it easier to manipulate mana directly and indirectly, lowering spell costs by reducing inefficiencies and allowing for greater spell control. Magical proficiency allowed for a twenty percent increase (per milestone) in the speed of learning new spells.

Mental Resistance rose to level 3 too.

You don't have to kill to gain experience, pushing past your preconceived limits and achieving an impressive result, can also give you significant Class experience. The fact that I was pushing my magical talents to the limits didn't hurt.

It didn't come without cost, my head hurt and Dungeon Paul's memories were littered around my thoughts and my mana pool had been thoroughly exhausted from all the fucking around in a mental space against a superior mage. I definitely couldn't go another round with him. I had to stall and bluff.

"Fuck, why are you such an evil mind raping bastard."

My head fucking hurt, think of your worst migraine and mix it with all your worst memories from childhood and every violent scene from every horror movie you've ever watched and every documentary about the depravities of the human race and mix it all in a blender after not sleeping for days and you might get an impression as to what my mind was like in that moment. Suffice to say, I wasn't feeling very cheerful or diplomatic, too busy shoving everything into boxes in my thoughts to be sorted out later to hold back my vitriol.

"What even was that?" Oneus asked, his [Mana Shield] having fallen at some point as he clutched at his head.

I had the feeling that Oneus was doing the same thing I was doing, shoving everything into boxes in his head, walling his Self off from all the foreign influences. I'd imagine he had a lot more practice with it than I had and was doing a much better job at it.

"Ceasefire?" I asked, wanting to avoid another round, I'd definitely not win another engagement, the effort would probably leave me a fucked up mess. Sanity was already precarious enough.

"You have my word that I don't want to get back into that cesspit of a mind."

"Good." I said slumping into a chair, while Abus just watched us in confusion.

I guess from his view point, we just had a weird conversation before I tried to kill him with a [Flaming Hand]. Telepathic battles are a lot less flashy than most mage battles and a lot more confusing.

I sunk deep into [Meditation], pulling in all the mana around me, into my craven psychic maw to refill my mana supply and rebuild the walls around my Self and putting everything into the right space in my thoughts. It was tiresome work, giving thoughts substance through magic was exhausting.

I had learned a few new skills/spells from Uneous incidentally [Mental Probe], [Mental Shield] and [Mana Shield].

The benefit of a psychic link is that when you're connected you can learn more about the other person than can be expressed with mere words. Allowing you to gain more knowledge in a moment than hours of mere conversation could provide. The problem is that it's really fucking dangerous as a mental assault is essentially sending a sliver of your Self into someone else's Mind and trying to tear it apart from the inside out.

It's fine if you're stronger and can dominate them, you can rewrite their memories, adding and subtracting them with little effort, or at least the recent ones. If you're not stronger than them, their thoughts can infect your mind, corrupting your thoughts with echoes of theirs, subtly or not so subtly changing your very thoughts and personality. There's a reason Mind Mages are a rarity, while they can be powerful, their efforts are often too esoteric and or extreme to be utilised on a battlefield easily or effectively.

When Oneus had been in my mind I had dumped the worst things of my life and Dungeon Paul's into him and while he was distracted I had incidentally picked up echoes from his mind. Knowledge of how to perform certain spells and techniques, namely the ones he was using or planning to use in the near future.

Fighting within the Mindscape is fucking retarded.

Eventually Oneus will unravel the memories and use them to become even stronger. I hadn't been that selective with the memories I had dumped on him, he'll have questions about the things within the memories. Some of the gorier stuff included things like gas chambers, mass graves being dug with a mechanical monstrosity called a backhoe and a tree shredder grinding up a living person.

A Mind Mage has certain skills that make them annoying, one of them being knowledge is fuel for their mental growth and spell casting.

"I'll arrange the payment for the bandits, as for the other things, I'll have to think about the logistics involved. It's not a small expense to set up an outpost for a dungeon and I'll have to consider if it's worth the expense."

"Whatever, do it or suffer the consequences. I'm out of here." I stomped off before he could attack me again, I didn't trust the bastard and the further away from him the better. Mind magics were less effective the further you were away from the Mind Mage, though some things had potency even from great distances.

Illusions and communications were the main two that were useful over longish distances.

Abus just stood to the side, presumably communicating telepathically with his boss.

By the time I had walked over to Paul, he was already counting out the gold coins for the payment. When he saw me coming he said "Did you really kill all the bandits?"

"Yes. I also want to commission a couple of things, I want a runner to send a message to my father and I want an open call to Adventurers for a caravan mission to Essex, with additional payments for those who join in setting up a dungeon town under my command."

"You were serious about finding a dungeon?" Sandra asked, having returned from somewhere, I assume the bathroom of Oneus office.

"Yes, it's only got goblins at the moment but I'm sure it's going to be the centre of a lot of development in the future."

Sandra fluffed her hair, "You'll need someone experienced to help you deal with the Adventurers that will come running once word of a new dungeon gets out, there will be some who will want to try and claim the dungeon for themselves, one way or another."

"Yes, I'm well aware of that, that's why I'm putting Paul in charge of the future outpost and you and Abus can help him run things."

"What?" They both asked in varying volumes and frequencies. Sandra's voice was particularly high pitched and piercing.

"I trust Paul to do a decent job and follow my requests -"

Sandra interrupted me. "He is a one armed retired Adventurer and I'm an experienced Mage, if anyone should run a new Adventurer's Guild it should be me, I'm powerful and respected."

I moved closer to her, as she fluffed her hair and puffed out her chest to better display the size and shape of her breasts. "I don't care about your reputation, the only thing I care about is trustworthiness and I trust Paul more than you."

"How dare you speak to me like that I'll show you." Sandra said drawing on the mana in the air around her to manifest water and control it and redirect it at me with [Water Wave].

I used my new found knowledge to sink into [Meditation] to become more alert, casting [Energy Drain] around to destabilise her spell casting efforts, then sunk a [Mental probe] into her mind and rip knowledge from her thoughts while casting [Mana shield] around myself.

My high intelligence allowed me to cast multiple techniques at once and made subjective time slow down so I could accomplish more faster.

Her efforts failed, her [Water Wave] collapsed into itself, splashing harmlessly around her and I gained the knowledge as to how to cast [Water Wave] directly from her mind. I also got a bitter aftertaste of greed, rage, resentment and a bout of insecurity due to my not reacting to her appearance.

[Mental probes] can have unexpected and inconvenient backlashes. Ugh. I now know far too much about her. Never again, I shove all her thoughts, memories, neuroses in yet another box and leave only her memory of [Water Wave] as a spell book on a shelf in my mind. Note to self, defensive use of mind magic only. That was incredibly dumb.

I raise a [Mental shield] around my Mind and note with amusement that my Mage class rose to level 11. Battles with other Mages do wonders for levelling up my Mage class apparently. Shame the experience gain is already dropping drastically due to the level difference being less substantial this time around. I had also unlocked Mind Mage as a Class option, I had an abundance of new magic classes that I couldn't select.

There's a reason Mages don't dominate a battlefield, they all compete for the same mana pool, the more Mages around, the less mana to go around. Smart battle mages work around that problem with mana batteries or blood bound magic items and keep far apart from each other so they don't step on each other's metaphysical toes.

As a more experienced Mage she could probably wreck me at a distance with water magic but I have an advantage over most Mages, I can use [Energy Drain]. It gives me a certain advantage over Mages at close range as I can drain mana from the air and people around me.

Paul hands me bags of gold and I deposit them directly into my spatial bag, 50 gold for discovering the dungeon and 1000 for eradicating the Bandits. The merchant's Guild had put a high bounty after several lower levelled merchants had either lost their cargoes or disappeared. I suddenly remembered that someone still has the unbound spatial bag I had brought with me from Essex. I'd have to get Adrian to hunt them down later.

So much left to do.

I give Paul the details of the various quests I'm issuing and hand over nearly half the gold back to him. 500 gold gone in a second. Hard won and gone so quickly. 5 gold for the prompt delivery of the message that I'd write shortly which needed to be delivered as quickly as possible to Dominic, 100 gold to spread around for hiring of Adventurers to escort the caravan to Essex, with different values assigned for the level of participants, based on their relative level and ranking in the Guild. The remaining amount was assigned for a three month contract for assorted positions within the dungeon town, ranging from low rewards for general laborers to high rewards for high level crafters and Adventurers to defend the town. The rest I planned on saving for the purchase of the land around the dungeon and on other expenses.

Sandra had gone silent, my mental probe having wreaked havoc on her. After sorting out some other stuff with Paul, namely my increase in rank as an Adventurer and as a Quest giver within the Adventurer's Guild rankings. Uneous had recommended me as a B Class Adventurer since I had killed so many mid to low level bandits by myself. I'm due to get a silver tag for my feats and for dungeon discovery.

"I'm going upstairs for a shower, have you seen my friends as of late?" "Yeah, they're still around, think they went dungeon delving today." Paul said completely ignoring Sandra.

"Thanks, talk later."

I go upstairs sorting out all the stuff in my head, there's a lot of mess still, that last mental battle had not gone well. I mean sure it was educational but I had been so clumsy, crashing through and into her inner level of her mind. Knowledge of how to do something isn't the same thing as practical experience doing something.

Just because I knew how to theoretically use [Mental Probe] didn't mean I was good at it. I had made a mess of her and myself in the process. Apparently defending a mental attack is easier for me to do than performing one, though that may be a result of a lack of finesse, rather than lack of power, like with my fire spells.

"Hey Sam, how have you been?" I ask as I see another former lover.

"Lucius is that you?"

"You remember me, I'm so glad, nice to see a friendly face."

Sam was looking over my enhanced body with wonder and interest, I could taste his desire. "What happened to you?"

"Growth spurt."

He didn't look convinced, which wasn't surprising, I had gained like 30 pounds of muscle since the last time he saw me a little over a month ago, it was highly unusual. "So are you staying here tonight?"

"Nah, just going to make use of the facilities, say hello to Badrick and my friends and visit the library and the slave markets but I'll probably be back later tonight for a visit. Think you could get me a pencil and some parchment, I've got messages to send."

"Sure whatever you need."

I leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. "You're sweet, be good to spend some time with you tonight if you're free."

"I'd like that a lot." He said with a grin.

I left to go shower up. Noone was around so I could practise some things in absolute peace. I made use of the time to play around with water magic, Sandra & Oneus had each given me pieces of a giant puzzle, now I was left to put it all together or try to at least.

Sandra had provided me with [Water Wave] but more than that she gave me the component parts of [Water Wave], which included the minor spells of [Call Water] [Water Manifestation], [Water shaping] and [Command Water]. I used that to manipulate the water around me into a spike, like the mental probe, a wave, like Sandra's Water Wave, on a smaller scale and a shield, like Uneous [Mana shield] around me.

It was surprisingly easy and fun and I gained yet another level as a Mage. The joys of a basic Class. I also unlocked Water Mage as a class specialisation option, not that it provides any benefit to me at all with no free Class slots available. All the options makes me more annoyed about the long wait until I can pick another Class, though I have no idea which one to pick even if I could pick one right now. Too many options recently and I had screwed myself out of picking any of the well trodden Legendary Classes available for Alchemists when I picked Magical Assassin. Needs must and what not.

I got dressed, picked up the items from Sam, jotted down a quite note for Dominic advising him that I found a dungeon and needed reinforcements sent to the Derby Adventurer's guild as soon as possible.

I dropped off the note with Paul, and checked the details of the missions he's had written up on my behalf. I sign off on the quests and the missions are posted and should gain a lot of attention during the lunch time rush. The caravan mission is due to set off in the morning, three days hence.

Paul assured me that the note would be delivered to Respite within the day and he'd think about whether he'd be able to run an Adventurer's Guild outpost.

I left the Guild and travelled the very short distance to the Adventurer's guild market.

I hugged Badrick from behind, the moment I saw him and he threw me over his shoulder and pointed his huge battle ax to my throat.

"Hey Badrick, looking sexy as always." I said with a smile, looking up at him from my position on the ground.

Badrick's brows furrowed in confusion for a second. "Lucius, is that you?"

"Yes." Repeatedly having this same conversation was getting tiresome. I should find a way to slim down while keeping the option of bulking up again. A visit to the library would be necessary, I needed to find a work around.

Half the day was already gone, it'd be a waste of a silver, but I could get a lot done in half a day of reading. More so than ever before.

Ideally I would visit the Mage Guild to learn more magic but that was a dangerous proposition, there's no telling what kind of defences they'd have or how quickly they could discover my true identity. The library would have to do for now.

"Sorry about that, thought you were trying to attack me." He said moving his ax away from my throat. I may be beefier than I was but he was still the original and an experienced combatant and I was a pale imitation, I'd need to learn some hand to hand combat skills too.

I'd need to get Arnie to come with me, have him train my new minions. I had high hopes that Jim could become a very slutty assassin if I could properly fuck some high stats into him, maybe Melville too if I could get him half a dozen levels as a Prostitute quickly. I didn't even know how prostitutes levelled, amount of sex, price paid for their services, quality of sex? I'd have to ask Jim when I saw him next if I didn't get too distracted fucking him stupid.

"No worries, just wanted to say hello, I'm organising something big tonight, I'd like for you to make some time tonight to chat and you know fuck me stupid."

"You look different but you still talk the same, sex on the brain." He pulled me to my feet one handed as if I weighed nothing, now with a smile on his face and a significant bulge in his loin cloth.

"If it ain't broke why fix it?" I said glibly, though in truth, I should probably figure out a less messy way to feed my sexual addictions. Maybe just limit myself to a few people, instead of dozens...

Maybe just Jim and Badrick and Minos and maybe Melville. Four people is maybe too many, maybe just Jim and Badrick, Jim to fuck and Badrick to fuck me. Still I would like to fuck Sam once more and Minos and Alec and Sammy and Dean while I'm here and then maybe try cold turkey? What's cold turkey? Stupid Dungeon Paul and his stupid memories, stupid weird bird, stupid otherworld sayings.

I'd need to cut back, my sex life is too messy and dangerous. If I limit myself to Badrick and Jim, Badrick can take the repeated drainings if I don't overnight with him and Jim will only gain stats from my constant abuse so net positive. I had a much larger mana pool but it also meant when I went dry, I'd instinctively and unconsciously drain more while asleep, that could be dangerous to anyone sleeping next to me. There was also the fact that increased intelligence and wisdom effected the magical damage of spells, which had never really been a priority of mine as Alchemy is all about avoiding battles in the first place.

"Lucius?"

"Yes?" I asked, I must have missed a step in the conversation while I was trying to think of a way to deal with my increased danger rating.

"Are you doing well?"

"Um, just a little sleep deprived but too many things to do, can't sleep."

"Story as old as time then. Go do what you have to then sleep. I'll meet you tonight at the tavern after the sun sets."

"Good, see you then." I hugged him, enjoying his warmth and abundant life energy.

"Goodbye."

I left to the library handing over a silver and my bag to the guards and going inside.

I flick through the library books, memorising each page with a glance. I pay particular attention to the books written by and for Alchemists, Mages and Assassins. Unsurprisingly information on assassins is a little thin on the ground, with only Maximus Bellos having done extensive research into them, though most of it was of dubious merit as it was based off historical data from second hand witnesses.

Still I pick up some interesting theories about magic from the books on Mages, along with interesting potential Perks and Skills. I'm thinking I'll get Enchanting as a Skill and Magical potency as a perk. Enchanting allows for increased effectiveness of Runic work and direct application of magic to items. Magical potency increases the effect of magic by twenty percent per milestone, a simple but powerful boost to all my various magical abilities. Still over a dozen levels away though.

I've gotten a whole bunch of different recipes to try out as an Alchemist, including those that require super rare ingredients, mana infused items and different types of magically created golems. Of particular interest are the different types of chimera and the varying uses of Humonculi.

The next milestone skill and perk I'm thinking I'll get for Alchemist is Transmutation and Replication. Transmutation would allow me to use my magic to change the nature of one material in various ways based on the skill level. Replication, simply would allow me to copy things at the expense of mana, each milestone allowing for a reduced mana cost. Having both would mark me as a powerful Alchemist as they allow for some really powerful potions and products to be produced. In some ways it could be seen as a waste as I plan to live in a Dungeon for a while and Dungeon Paul could do both so much faster and easier than me but that just makes me want to do it more.

I leave when I run out of time and collect my bag from the guards and leave to the Adventurer's Guild to collect some allies. I'd have to visit the slave market another time to pick up a permanent bodyguard, I'm thinking a nice muscular War Slave would be of great use.

7pm I visit the Adventurer's Guild and meet up with the guys, (Alec, Minos, Sammy, Dean and Badrick) and tell them the short and heavily censored of the shit show of the last week over a couple pints of ale and asked them for their help.

They agree to accompany me back to the tavern to meet up with Adrian and to collect the lost and broken again. I trust Adrian because he's bound to me but I don't trust the other thieves at all, if I can leave them with Alec and the gang, I'd be able to sleep easily.

Head off to the tavern, expecting a trap and find none, just a busy night of business as the tavern is filled with drunk and horny patrons. I can taste their desire on the air as easily as I can taste the spilled drink and body odour of the unwashed masses. When Adrian sees me and my crew he says that word has gotten around a new Dungeon and these people are eager to find out more.

I tell Adrian that I plan to head off with as many people as can be gathered after 3 days. I expect it'll take Dad one day to get the message, a day to gather a good group and a day to get to Derby from Respite.

Adrian shares the news which get thunderous applause.

Opportunities for profit for those of the lower social strata are limited, with so many Farmers, the amount of people needed to farm the land is reduced which sounds good but it means a lot of people don't have jobs and rely on rations to get by. They're fed but there's nothing really to look forward to. The only way to climb up the ranks and achieve something worthwhile is to risk their lives Adventuring and with limited access to potions, elixirs and magical items their chances of success is low.

A new dungeon town offers them new opportunities, from simple labour jobs to dungeon delving somewhere less crowded.

Before I left the Rusty Fork I got the location of Kered and the rest of my minions from Adrian. As a group (Alec and the gang plus Jim) come with me to the temples to pick up the lost sheep. I stay outside the Temple of Lumos for obvious reasons as the others gather them up. Their bodies are healed but the minds of those broken are not so easily healed.

9pm We return as a large group to the Adventurer's Guild and I leave them with Alec, having arranged adjoining rooms for the twenty survivors with (inn) Sam. They've bonded through shared suffering and they don't really want to be split up if possible.

After settling the more vulnerable members of the group, I try to take my mind off my problems by moving over to Alec's room for some naked sexy times with the guys. There's Alec, Dean, (guard) Sammy, Minos, (inn worker) Sam, Badrick, Jim and me. Sammy and Dean are the first to get naked and with Sam on his knees sucking on their dicks. I guess they've made use of Sam while I've been away for their sexual gratification before so they're all very casual about it.

I strip off my clothes, using [Disguise] to hide my lumpy back from attention and kneel in front of my friends Minos and Alec.

They're quick to strip naked, revealing their hard cocks, which I suck and stroke.

"Yeah, that's what I've been missing" Minos says as he fucks my throat with his cock.

"Yeah, it's been quieter since Dale left." Alec said having moved around to kneel behind me, his hands on his hips remind me of old times and of less pleasant recent events. He penetrates me with his hard 9 inch cock and I groan as he rams all the way in, my groan muffled by Minos cock ramming into my throat.

"Yeah fuck him hard." Minos said.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Jim on his knees naked getting face fucked by Badrick while Sam is sandwiched between Sammy whose fucking his ass and Dean whose fucking his throat.

I'm a little distracted by the need to maintain concentration on shifting my teeth to be less sharp, shifting the bone density into thickness rather than sharpness and keeping the image needed for [Disguise] clear in my thoughts.

Alec slams away at my insides with his hard cock as does Minos...

They switch positions, Alec fucking my face while Minos fucks my ass. Minos is not gentle and it brings up bad memories which I stifle as I concentrate of increasing fatty tissue to hide the increased density of my bones. Everything is a lie and a pretence now. I have so many things to hide and bury.

Meanwhile Jim is having a fun time getting his ass fucked by Badrick, while (worker) Sam is getting fucked by Dean, while Sammy face fucks him.

After Minos and Alec cum in me, they move over to say hello to Jim, Badrick makes a move on Sam and Sammy and Dean move over to me.

I end up getting double penetrated by the two Guard brothers, Sam is bent over by Badrick and Jim is double teamed by Alec and Minos.

Next round I get railed by Badrick, while Alec and Minos move over to Sam, Sammy and Dean move over to Jim.

I feel conflicted after the guys are done, I'm not sure if I'm sad or content, I think I may be depressed. Sex made things better and worse for me, it scratched an itch for fucking but it made me feel lonelier somehow. All the lies and secrets and bad memories probably doesn't help. The lack of Kered in our little sex party reminds me of better times that are now lost to me.

I make my excuses and leave.

I have a little fun at Alec's expense before I head off, telling him he now owes Jim for all the fucking since he's a whore and he should be paid for his services. As Jim's new owner/friend I feel obliged to make sure he levels up his prostitute Class as quickly and pleasantly as possible.

Alec is less than amused. Minos finds it hilarious, Sammy, Dean and other Sam stay quiet about their opinions out of self preservation.

Alec still hands over a gold with a sigh to a very pleased Jim.

10:30pm

Badrick escorts Jim and I to the inn he sometimes stays at in the merchant district and pounds both of our asses thoroughly. Sam chose to stay behind to `entertain' the others.

The memories aren't so bad when it's just Badrick, it's easier to handle than when I'm surrounded by guys with hard cocks, which is a problem.

I love my friends and I used to love getting fucked by them but it's not the same any more. Fucking bandits, messing with my life, at least they won't be subjecting anyone else to that shit ever again.

Badrick doesn't ask about the strange lumps on my back, neither did the other guys, I'm not sure if it's a result of the [Disguise] skill or politeness and I couldn't really ask about it, in fear of the answer.

At least having sex with Badrick is still enjoyable as ever and fucking Jim while Badrick fucks me is hot, as is the both of us double teaming his ass at the same time.

Badrick leaves late at night or very early morning around 3 am when it's still pitch black outside.

Afterwards Jim and I have a chat while we recover from all the sexing and he tells me more about the Prostitute Class.

Turns out the Prostitute Class wasn't that different from a lot of other Classes, you gained Class experience from doing what the name of the Class implied. In the case of prostitution it was based on how well you performed as a Prostitute, your use of skills in pleasuring a client, whether they became repeat customers, how much your services are priced at and how often you sexed for money.

I learned that there was a particular Legendary Class for prostitutes, though it was typically known as being female orientated, Black Widow, combination of Thief, Prostitute, Warrior and Assassin. The male version sounded dumber, Black-Hearted Lothario, combining Thief, Prostitute, Warrior and Assassin.

We fall asleep with Jim in my arms, my cock lodged deep inside him.

Derby Second Day

Morning

I wake up screaming from a nightmare about the bandits, featuring more blood and carnage than I like to remember. What's worse is that I wake up hard. I take out my conflicted feelings on Jim's butt. He doesn't seem to mind that much, though he is a little worried about my night terror. I brush it off and fuck him more until I can bury all the bad thoughts again.

I leave him naked and sleepy on the bed with a recovery and stamina potion on the bedside drawer and head off to the Adventurer's Guild to take care of business.

Upon arrival at the Adventurer's Guild I talk with Paul to arrange a meeting with Arnie, to ask for his help in training the survivors of the bandits. Arnie agreed to train them after I gave him the whole fucked up story about what they went through and the reason they needed more personal strength. Most of them had been low levelled adventurers hired by a young merchant woman to guard her products, which obviously didn't go well.

I met up with Oneus to discuss terms and we came to an agreement that worked for the both of us. He agreed to arrange for the sale of the land to me, along with the borrowing of his employees for a maximum of three months in exchange for me never visiting his Branch again and for any future interactions be through a third party, either Paul or Abus.

I didn't have a problem with that. I wasn't keen on spending any more time with him or in Derby in the future anyway. The meeting was a lot more amicable than the last one, probably due to the fact that I had a [Mental Shield] up the entire time.

Those that were mentally damaged were sent to Oneus to receive some higher end attention to bring them a semblance of sanity.

I had lunch at the Adventurer's Guild, then picked up a lot of alchemical supplies in the Adventurer's Guild market including a small crucible and a lot of Slime Cores. I also bought a potion belt so I could use potions quicker and a whole bunch of higher end herbs and plants to make use of later.

Then I went to the slave markets located in the merchant's district.

There are three types of legal slaves.

Debt slaves – those who sell themselves to pay off their debts – they typically pay off through working in various industries that are very dangerous but lucrative and require lots of unskilled labour. This often means being dungeon porters, miners and mercenary work.

War slaves – those captured during battle, typically during skirmishes upon the borders – they tend to be sent to the Pit to fight for the amusement of others, either against other warriors or various magical beasts.

Criminal slaves – those who've committed crimes sufficient enough to be denied their freedom – they tend to be fodder for the pits or the mines. Depending on the severity of the crimes their treatment varies, typically they are considered the worst of the three types of slaves.

There's a black market for slaves where I would have been sold off to if I didn't... do the thing I did. Apparently it's in Essex as it serves as a central hub for a lot of people and things. The black market sells a lot of other rare and dangerous items. It is said you can buy anything there if you have enough money for it.

The illegal slaves are treated as if they have no rights and are used and discarded at whims. Due to their higher costs due to the methods of acquisition, they are typically bought by bored nobles looking for a pleasure slave or those looking to raise their own prize fighters in death matches. Some are also just bought for commercial purposes, prostitution with less sanitary conditions and higher turn overs.

After a short walk around the area looking through the mostly human merchandise I pick up a lovely if brooding muscular man, named Sven who comes from one of the border kingdoms to the west. Blonde haired and bulky he's perfect for a body guard/tank. He was only dressed in a loin cloth, like a lot of the men on display and I was suitably impressed by his levels and his bulges.

I had a brief chat with him where I offer to release him after three months if he serves me well. He accepts that and I buy him, allowing me to acquire the services of a level 30 Warrior, level 15 Spearman, level 10 Shield bearer for 50 gold. The price included the cost to bind him with a Blood Oath which prohibited him from attacking me or letting harm come to me deliberately and compelling him to obey all orders within reason. I then spent another 20 gold buying him some quality armor, spear and shield along with some spare clothes for less militaristic purposes.

All up he costs me 70 gold and I still need to feed and house the man. Along with all my other minions. A lord's work is never done.

I visit the library again, with Sven in tow (minus weapons due to their regulations) and read as much as I can before nightfall. Even just flicking through the pages, glancing at a page to memorise it, there are still so many books and not nearly enough time to get through them all.

I pick up Jim and Badrick for another night of fun at a different inn within the Merchant's district. Badrick makes use of the both of us, he finds Jim's perks fascinating.

Badrick helps to test out the limits of my Enduring Ability.

Enduring: the greater the torment you suffer in silence, the greater you'll become.

The description is decidedly vague, so it requires rigorous testing, Badrick fucks me very thoroughly but I don't gain any improvements to my stats. I think my constitution is too high to benefit from the Trait.

I'll have to think of a different way to push myself, maybe with some stamina training, since my perk isn't bound to a particular Class I might be able to get around the inherent restriction with Jim's perk.

Sven meanwhile serves his duty and stands guard outside my room serving as my first line of defence against potential attackers. He declines my invitation to join in.

Derby Third day.

More training with fire and water magic at the Adventurer's Guild bathing facilities in the morning. Visited the library with Sven and read from early morning to early evening.

When I returned I got two pieces of good news from Paul. Dominic had come and Oneus had secured the land around the dungeon for me.

Dominic comes with a small party of militia men, a group of ten veteran adventurers and with the Swords of Destiny that had been staying at Frederic's farm.

When I see him I hug him, he must have heard the news about my physical growth from the guys as he doesn't seem surprised by my bulking up and hugs me back.

They were drinking along with a lot of other adventurers downstairs waiting on my return. Dad was well into his cups by that point and openly groped my butt in front of his men. "Look my boy's all grown up and about to be thrown right in the deep end."

"Yeah he is." Frederic agrees also drinking at the table.

I remembered most of the guys from my time that one night getting fucked by all the guys in the town's only bar. I'd changed a lot since then, even though it wasn't really that long ago. Time changes everything.

"Ah thanks." I could feel my cheeks heating up as Dominic slid his hands down the back of my pants, fingering my hole. "Could you not?"

"Oh look the little slut's embarrassed." Dad said slurring his words a little as he shoved a second finger into me.

We had become a spectacle, where before I would have encouraged and basked in the attention from all the men that were now looking at me with lust in their eyes and their hands on their crotches, I didn't feel that way any more. "STOP IT!" I shouted right in his face.

I unconsciously used [Demonic Command] and Dominic's eyes go blank before he obeys, pulling out and away from me backing up a step to grab the hilt of his sword, strapped to his waist.

Frederic salvages the situation by saying "Let's take this upstairs and talk."

Dominic blinks rapidly and gets a hold of himself and shakes his head and said to the crowd of watching Adventurers "Sorry about that, just a little disagreement, get back to your drinking."

The crowd returns to it's drinking though eyes continue to drift our way.

Frederic escorts Dad and me upstairs where Frederic pushes him up against a wall. "What were you thinking? Undermining him before he tries to set himself up as someone to be respected."

"Ah fuck it, I thought he'd want some dick in him, didn't think he'd go all demon on me." Dad wasn't always a pleasant drunk and our relationship was complicated and fucked up. I had sort of killed his wife after all, or at least I made the situation worse. I couldn't really blame him for not liking me sometimes.

Sven was watching us from behind, he hadn't interfered as I wasn't in danger but he had been nearby, one of the many reasons that I had been aggravated by Dad's drunken behaviour. "I'm sorry too, things got a little out of hand, I'm different now, I prefer to keep my sex life private and limited in number. I don't want a bunch of guys all over me."

"Look he's all mature now, last thing I remember was him banging half the men in the village and now he's all private and uptight."

Frederic was trying to be the peacemaker "Children grow up fast. I know we did."

I got up in between them before the conversation could spiral down any more. "How about the three of us go in and you can show me what I've been missing." I said groping both their cocks, through their trousers.

"See he hasn't changed that much." Frederic said with a smile, his cock stiffening up against my hand.

"Let's have some good old father son bonding then." Dad said, pulling me into a room.

"He joining in?" Frederic asked pointing at Sven who was following us into Frederic's room.

"Nah, he has a wife and kid back home and he just watches."

"Meh, so do I and if I'm not wrong Fred's balls deep in his mom right now. Fucking chip off the old block."

Before I could ask more about that Dominic had already pushed me down onto the bed face down and stuck his hard cock in my butt and Frederic's big cock was soon after lodged in my throat making conversation basically impossible.

Sven came in the room, closing the door behind him and relaxed against the door, watching as I was stuffed with cock in both ends. Dad was not gentle, fucking me roughly, slamming into me relentlessly with his cock, grip hard on my hips as he hammered my backside. Frederic was less intense, keeping my mouth full and idly fucking my face.

Once Dad came in me, he took over Sven's position and told him to join in. Frederic by that point was already balls deep in me at that point and I was begging him to fuck me hard.

Sven surprisingly took Dad up on his offer and started fucking my face with his nine inch cock.

The three of them took turns double teaming me and guarding the door. At one point both Sven and Frederic were both fucking my ass as Dad fucked my face.

Then things settled down for a bit and I feel the need to fuck someone stupid, Jim's too far away at that moment, so we hunt down Dale for a good time.

When we find him, he's in the middle of a free for all, the 7 other members of Swords of Destiny around him as Minos and Alec double fuck his ass. As soon as Alec pulls out, I push my way into his wet sloppy hole, still tight when I ram all my cock into him and kiss him.

Someone starts fucking me from behind, one of the 7 swordsmen and I get a momentary flash of bad memory before I push it down and fuck Dale harder. As long as I'm fucking him, everything is still alright. Once I've blown my load inside of Dale, I'm repulsed by the idea of getting fucked and make my excuses and leave early to meet up with Jim. Someone I can fuck without worrying too much.

The guys aren't too concerned and continue stroking their cock while waiting on their turn on Dale. When I leave, Frederic and Minos are double fucking his ass while two guys are taking turns fucking his face while he strokes another two guys cocks. It reminds me of simpler times and terrible times.

I make a quick visit to Uneous' office to hand over 200 gold for the 10000 hectares of land around the dungeon, including the rights and control over Talon's Peak. I'm the equivalent of a Duke in terms of land, though I don't have much of a standing army to defend it.

Sven escorts me now fully dressed and somewhat embarrassed about his earlier behaviour. I don't hold it against him, I have that kind of effect on guys, I'm surprised he held out that long considering he's a warrior.

I return to the Rusty Fork to check on the preparations made by Adrian as to who has chosen to come with us and collect their dues. While I paid Adventurers to escort us to Essex, I charged the thieves and others a toll for travel. I gain about 20 gold, it's a pittance considering what I've spent so far but the masses would pay off one way or another once we arrived at the dungeon.

I snuggle up to Jim and Melville in one of the private rooms upstairs, letting them take turns sucking my cock before I fuck Jim again while Melville makes himself useful beneath him, sucking while getting sucked.

Later Jim fucks Melvilles ass while I fuck his.

I fall asleep cuddled up to Jim, who cuddles up to Melville. We're all sweaty and gross from all the sex but too lazy to move out of bed to clean up. A problem for the morning.

Derby fourth day

I wake up earlier than the other two and I wash up and get dressed and drag the worn out whores from bed and get them respectable looking, or at least as respectable as a couple of boy whores can get.

There are a lot of people waiting downstairs within the Rusty Fork and even more that had camped outside to come along. As we travel more and more people follow us.

There's a lot of people waiting outside the city gates when we leave Derby behind us. A lot more than I expected or bargained for. I'm mounted on my horse Penrith, with Jim behind me on the horse holding me tightly, trailed by Adrian and a lot of his people.

Dad comes up to me looking a little frazzled and asked what kind of preparations I made for the group.

I shrugged and said "They'll walk to Essex and then we'll walk to the dungeon."

"Oh Gods, why must you test me so?" Dad asked rhetorically.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked a little defensively, with Jim squeezing me tighter out of increasing nervousness.

"These people need supplies to get there and we need to organise rotations of whose sleeping and eating and fighting. Hand over your money." Dominic said.

I sighed. Of course everything would be more complicated than I expected. I handed over my remaining gold to dad, who then takes control of the situation and madly starts organising carriages and supplies for all the people. I let him take over as he has experience building a place up from the ground up. He asks me if I have anyone I trust to pick up supplies and I tell him about Adrian and my blood bound minions. He shakes his head at that before using the information to gather more people to go fetch things for him.

A couple of hours go by and more and more people show up to come along as the word spreads as to our purpose and eventual destination. Dalton, Badrick's employer and the operator of the Derby market disappears for a bit to fetch another carriage and bring even more supplies with him.

After a delayed start, the Caravan leaves with over a couple thousand people.

There are all sorts of people; Adventurers, common folk, craftsmen, prostitutes and thieves. It's an odd bunch of people.

There are a lot of familiar faces coming along too. The more cynical part of me thinks of rats abandoning a sinking ship. Only time will tell who wins and loses from this.

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Author's Notes: There's a lot of moving pieces in this chapter and I didn't get into as much detail as I would have liked on some aspects but such is life.

Next Chapter, Training Wheels: Lucius has a lot to learn and little time to do it.

Maybe I'll get around to posting Appendix A some time soon, which will include all the characters and some general details about them such as the character description, build, relevance, chapter they appeared in. Not sure, haven't finished it yet, keep getting distracted on writing more notes on the upcoming chapters.