<~> Chapter 26While Torien lead us towards the gathering spot I decided to check my notifications while we were walking.

  [Drawing has increased from level 1 to level 6][Your party has defeated a small Bone Dog pack.][Novice Light Mage has increased from level 1 to level 5][Unlocked Statistic - Magic Force][Learned Light Magic Spell Light Orb][Learned Light Magic Spell Fireflies]

  Magic Force - StatisticMagic Forfluehe strength and power of magical effects. As Magic Forcreases, the more dangerous magical attacks will be, the more robust magical defense spells will be, and so on. Additionally, the amount of mana you are able to charge and empower spells with increases.

  [Light Orb - Light Magic Spell]Create an floating orb of light that be targeted at an enemy or set to follow the caster as long as magic is supplied to it. Brightness and damage is affected by Magic Force, speed and color is affected by Magitrol. Light enerally only directly damage dark and shadow aligned enemies.

  [Fireflies - Light Magic Spell]Create small floating lights in an area equal to Magic Force x 1 foot. Magitrol improves the ability to move and manipute the lights, Magic Force improves the maximum brightness of the lights. Fireflies wards off shadow and dark aligned enemies if their primary bat stat is lower than yic Force.

  I got four levels in one fight, learwo new spells, and more importantly, I finally unlocked Magic Force. I’ll put the 30 skill points I had been saving for this into Magic Force immediately, bringing my Magic Force to 40. Something I’m only now realizing is that my overall level is different from my css level. I have an overall level of 23, that hasn’t ged, but only a css level of 5. I didn’t get any unallocated stat points to put towards stuff but I am getting that magitrol stat bonus based on my css level bringing it up to 40 as well.

  I also got a number of levels in drawing. My ability seems to be outstripping the level I have in it and as a result the level of the skill version is raising faster than normal. It seems to be a positive feedback loop. I’m good at drawing so my level is increasing faster than normal which is tributing to me gaining experien the skill faster, which is improving my drawing ability. It’ll likely catch up eventually but it’s pretty cool that my past life is ing into py this way.

  I wonder how people normally increase their overall level, so far I’ve only leveled up from getting id in various different ways. I also wonder how much it’s worth to stick with weaker csses until you get their base skills and spells rather than just using the advanced version of the css from the start. Just a few levels of Novice Light Mage and I already have two useful skills for utility. I suppose a limiting factor for most people is magic affinities. In that case I should probably try to learn some spells in as many low level magic csses as I to increase my versatility.

  “Over here!” Torien broke me out of my thoughts while waving us over to a field of flowers. Among the field were some peculiar looking flowers stig up taller than the rest.

  Torien poio the tall flowers with rge white flower petals surrounding a dark purple ter n. “These are Mornablooms, they grow in areas rich with nature magid these rge white petals are really useful as a magic catalyst in potions. The petals soak up all of the nature magi the area and feed it to these surrounding wildflowers. The petals groretty quickly when pulled so you harvest new petals every few days. You have to be extra careful when harvesting them though because if you actally damage this purple stalk when pulling off the petals the flower die instead of growing new petals.”

  “Would it be alright for me to draw this flower too before you show me how to harvest them?”

  “I don't mind.” She turns to the irls. “Will you two keep watch while I take a break?”

  I sat in the field of flowers so I get a good angle on the Mornabloom and got started while the girls worked out a watch. I had beey excited to draw again after disc how much I e while w o flower. It took a little bit of tration to get everything right but I quickly fell into a rhythm that was really pleasant. Ten minutes went by in a fsh and I had a finished an ink sketch of one of the tall Mornablooms in a field of wildflowers with some notes on the properties Torien told me earlier. I also gained awo levels in my drawing skill from it.

  I showed the girls the finished sketd Man walked me through harvesting them. After twathering spots, a small satchel full of weird magic herbs, and a few more sketches of useful pnts we decided to start heading back to the city. It was te afternoon already, we could have kept gathering till su but we siorien and Man were mostly only pointing out some of the useful pnts and didn’t o worry about getting a quota today we decided to head back for an early diogether.

  Once we reached the road we broke from our formation and I took the ce to hang back a little to chat with Bel. “Hey Bel, how are you doing?”

  She replies with a gentle smile, “I’m doing pretty well, how about you?”

  “I’m good. I was w what you thought about those two.”

  “I like them, I don’t think they’ve really opened up to us much yet but they seem like good people. Fighting those monsters in the woods retty scary today, I think it helped a lot to have other people we t on.”

  “I like them too and they seem pretty skilled at what they do. I think we’re pretty lucky to have found two others that specialize in different areas as us and aren’t plete jerks. I’m satisfied enough with them to ihem to party with us regurly, what do you think?”

  “I think it’s a good idea. You’re the party leader though, shouldn’t it be up to you?”

  I gave Bel a look. “Hey I may be the ‘leader’ but we’re a team and I want to know how you feel too. If you didn’t like them I wouldn’t ihem. Also, if they take us up on our offer I’ll ask them how they feel about things too. I’m not going to make all of the decisions on my own. We’re a party so we’ll make decisions as a party.”

  “...Sorry, you’re right. I’m not really used to anyone wanting my opinion on things. Usually my father just told me what to do and I did it so I wouldn’t get beaten, I- I’ll try to be ho about things.”

  I winced a bit. “I’m sorry if that brought back bad memories… But it’s important for you to know that I value your opinio’s work together okay?”

  “Okay.” Bel smiled at me and I gave her a quick pe the cheek. When I turned back to the road Man was looking back at us with wide eyes. Oops, I don’t really know how people feel about gay and lesbian people in this world, I really hope the twins don’t end up having a problem with it. That would be a pretty me way to end our partnership, everything has been going well so far. I would hate for things to break down over something like that but it would probably be a deal breaker if they had an issue with it.

  Man had a bit of a blush on her fad whispered something to Torien who quickly snuck a g us as we kept walking. They didn’t immediately reaegatively so here’s to hoping they’re uanding.

  After a little while we made it back to the gate and grouped back up for re-entry. We all showed uild tags aered the city.

  “Torien, do you know where to sell those core things you got from the shadow monsters?”

  “The guild store o the Adventurer's guild building takes them, otherwise we could sell them directly to an enter but I don’t know of any.”

  “How about we go sell them to the guild and then go grab an early di our tavern. My treat.”

  “W-well if you’re paying I ’t really refuse.” Looks like the quickest way to Torien’s heart is through her stomach.

  Selling the monster cores was quid wasn’t particurly notable. Apparently they purchase all sorts of monster parts but the monsters we ran into this time only really had the ohing to harvest. Not that I relished the idea of carrying around a bag full of pelts, teeth, and cws. Cores seem like a retively on thing that monsters seem to have, they are some sort of nexus that els magi the body of monsters. All good things to know, Bel wasn’t really aware of any of this either past vaguely knowing monster parts be sold sometimes so the info was good for both of us.

  Once we got back to the tavern the four of us sat down at a quiet table in the er. I’m starting to realize this pce really only sells stew with different things in it but sidering the price I’m not really pining, for four bowls of food it’s only 20 copper total so I’m plenty happy with the price.

  “Do you two want stew with meat or without?”

  “Meat please!” the two answered in unison. I could tell by looking at them they were already salivating.

  “Two with meat, two without please,” I told the familiar waitress. I already goofed up by eati in front of Bel, it’s probably for the best to keep to vegetarian meals when in front of others. Acc to sexual appetite it isn’t even really necessary for me anymore but e on, food tastes good.

  It wasn’t long after our food came out that I realized something, just like Bel they weren’t going to start until I told them to.

  “Oh, it’s alright for you two to eat at the same time as us. I’d rather you enjoy your food when it’s nid hot, no reason to wait for us to finish.”

  They looked a little hesitant but didn’t argue. My pn was to talk a bit over dinner but they seemed so absorbed by the food that I didn’t want to interrupt them while they were enjoying themselves. Ohey polished off their bowls I decided to breach the subject of joining us murly.

  “So after cheg out yathering spots and fighting together I was w if you two want to party up on a mur basis. I think I like you two and we seemed to work well in a fight so I think it would work out.”

  The two looked at each other and Man gave a silent nod before Torien replied for the two, “I think we would like that. Holy, you have been so o us that it’s been making me nervous. You haven’t done anythio either me or my sister, you’re treating us to dinner, and you reat us like… sves. I keep expeg everything to be a mean joke but you keep being nice. If you want us to party up with you that’s fih us. The only thing I o ask is if you two decide to take a day off, I’d like to know in advance so n to gather on our own. Oh, and we aren’t allowed to travel very far and pretty muly fuild missions.”

  “Ah, well we don’t really have any pns to leave the town for a while and I’ll be sure to tell you in advance if we decide not to meet up for some reason. There is one more thing I’d like to make clear, I’d rather get it out of the way now if it’s going to be a problem.” I pulled Bel into a side hug and kissed her on the cheek, I got the exact rea I was going for and everyo the table started blushing, my cute doe was the brightest of all of course. “Bel and I are together so I want to make sure you don’t have a problem with that. I’d hate to be all friendly with each other only for us to get in a fight over that ter.”

  Surprisingly it was Man that spoke up, “W-we’re fih that but…” she looked around the tavern seeing if anyone was looking at them before leaning in and quietly tinuing, “you probably shouldn’t talk about that in public. The Tamin church forbids same sex love and cross raions. If you’re too open about it the Tamin padins hunt you down and execute you.”

  I frow that. Great, the local church are bigots. I didn’t expect to be on the best terms in the first pbsp;ya know, being a demon at all, but I’m in too deep with Bel to turn baow.

  “I didn’t know that, I guess I’ll have to be more cautious in publiow,” I said with a frown. “Did you know about this Bel?”

  She nodded hesitantly before answering, “I know it’s against their teags but I didn’t know they would go that far. I’m not really fond of the church for other reasons though…”

  “Most beastfolk and demi-beastfolk aren’t, they’re also the reason for a lot of the hatred towards beastfolk around here. The war with Zarcuda five years ago was somewhat of a holy war for the Tamin church. It’s unclear how the war actually got started but the Tamin church’s official stance is that one of the beastfolk tribes in Zarcuda killed a Tamin missionary that traveled there. The church vihe king to send part of their army with their padins to hunt down that tribe. However, many of the other tribes in Zarcuda took offeo an army with religious padins marg through their nds and baogether to fight the mostly human attackers.”

  “This is all pretty iing but we should probably talk about this ter.” I interjected when there ause. I was starting to get a little paranoid and didn’t want to draw any more attention now that I was seeing some of the grim looks from some of the other tavern goers.

  Saine

  Hello! A bit of character development for the twins and some world building thrown in food measure! Always fun stuff to write but it be a bit hard to put in without turning a chapter into a lore dump. I hope I've struck a good bahanks again for reading! I hope you ehe chapter.

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