“Where’s Tori?” Cassia asked when we approached her at the arena.

  “She’s no longer part of the team,” I replied.

  “As always,” she sighed, turning back to the training dummy she had been striking before we arrived.

  “What?”

  “It’s always like this. Well, most teams st at least a month, but it doesn’t surprise me anymore when another one falls apart.” She struck the dummy again, circling around it.

  “Nothing is falling apart. It’s just one person who left,” I said.

  “And then the next one, and another. And then once again, my team is gone.” Cassia’s tone was harsh as she smmed her bde into the dummy with full force.

  “Stop whining,” Mari hissed suddenly. “Don’t you see we don’t really have a choice?” She pointed at her neck.

  “Hey!” I gasped. “You did have a choice.”

  “Sure! Choosing whether I wanted my left hand or my right hand cut off. Amazing choice!”

  “Mari,” I said, keeping my tone calm, not wanting to argue. “Don’t pretend you only had bad options. You had good ones, and you made your decision.” I gestured at myself and the rest of the party.

  She gred at me for a moment, then groaned. “Sure! You’re the hero here, giving me such wonderful choices and saving my life!” She scoffed, then turned her back to us, sulking like a rebellious teenager who wanted to show how mad she was.

  Someone might have expected her to be nicer, with the healing ahead of her… Or perhaps that was the reason? Cutting into a conversation, even to be rude, wasn’t exactly like her.

  “Will you give us a moment?” I asked Cassia.

  “Fine. But if Mari leaves, we’re not going to the dungeon,” Cassia said, still striking at the dummy. Splinters of wood flew as her bde bit into it.

  “Let’s talk,” I said, moving past Mari. We stepped away from the group. “Are you okay?” I asked.

  She grimaced at me, arms crossed tightly over her chest.

  “Are you nervous about the healing?” I asked when she didn’t answer.

  “Why do you even care?” she hissed.

  “We’re going to the dungeon,” I said, stating the obvious. “Fighting monsters that want to kill us. And you’re the strongest among us. I need to know if you can focus.”

  “I’ll manage,” she replied. “Don’t worry about me.”

  “Fine. But if the healing ends up being too taxing, and you will need more breaks than Zelda recommends, just tell me and we’ll skip the dungeon that day, okay?”

  Mari pressed her lips into a thin line but nodded.

  I wasn’t sure if she would listen, but with nothing more to say, I walked back to the rest of the women. “We’re without Tori, so I thought we should stick to Level 2 to be safe. What do you think?” I asked, looking at Cassia.

  She stopped her training and looked at me and Mari. “We should be fine,” she sighed after a moment.

  With everyone ready, we left the arena and headed toward the dungeon. I moved to Cassia’s side. “Listen, what happened with Tori was unfortunate, but the rest of us are committed to this team. It’s not going to fall apart,” I said.

  “Every team thinks like that. Until it does,” Cassia replied.

  “But we’re not a normal team,” I said.

  “Because they’re your sves?” Cassia asked.

  “Because Zoe and Azura are my girlfriends. And Mari is… under contract, sort of.”

  Cassia smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. More like she knew something that I didn’t. “It would be better if they really were just your sves. You have no idea how many teams fall apart because of romance. I was in a team with a couple. Then the girl cheated with another party member, and once that came out, the team didn’t st a day.”

  “How many teams have you joined?” I asked.

  We walked through the gate, leaving Ortas in silence. Azura shifted into her wolf form, while Cassia still hadn’t replied. I wondered if she simply didn’t want to answer or if she was still counting.

  “Thirteen,” she said finally when we headed toward the dungeon entrance. “This one is the fourteenth.”

  “Bad luck with teams so far,” I murmured. Maybe that was why Cassia kept her distance from us. She had probably already assumed we wouldn’t st more than a month.

  “Promises that this time will be different probably don’t mean much anymore,” I said. “But you’re already with us. So why not give it a chance? Stick around, and don’t be the reason it falls apart. You’ll see that it sts.”

  Cassia looked at me, her brows furrowed and lips slightly parted as she thought over what I had said. Then she focused on a road, and we walked for a few minutes in silence.

  “You’re right,” she murmured finally. “I’ll give it a try.”

  “Great,” I replied, unsure what she was thinking so long about, but that didn't really matter. “But in the coming days, we might be forced to skip the dungeon.”

  Cassia gave me a look that clearly said, Seriously?

  “It’s a special situation, and I still want to keep training during that time. It’s just that Mari won’t always be avaible.”

  “Don’t take it personally, but losing both Tori and Mari would mean the end of this team,” Cassia replied.

  “We’re not losing Mari. She’ll explore with us whenever she’s able. It’s… it’s not hard to see she’s been hurt in the past. And someone’s going to help her heal. At least her body. That might make her unable to explore while she recovers,” I said, hoping Cassia would understand without me having to expin further.

  She looked at Mari up ahead, then slowed her steps, putting more distance between us, before turning back to me. “I didn’t want to be rude, but… what species is she?”

  “A kitsune.”

  “What happened to her?” Cassia asked, a worried frown crossing her face.

  “It’s not my story to tell,” I sighed. “But her previous owners abused and hurt her.”

  Cassia nodded, her eyes lingering on Mari ahead of us. We walked in silence until we reached the dungeon. Then we entered Level 2 and stepped into the dark byrinth.

  The fights against the monsters went smoothly. Zoe and I took most of them to practice, while Cassia and Mari only joined in when needed to make sure no one got hurt. The loot wasn’t anything special, and no one managed to level up. With time, progress would slow down, but I had hoped at least one of us would level up. At least we left without any injuries. We didn’t stay the whole day, Mari needed to return for her healing, so after a few hours, we headed back to Ortas.

  On the way back, Cassia gave me tips about my technique and pointed out the mistakes I had made, while also pnning future training sessions. After reaching Ortas, we parted ways with Cassia and headed toward our new house.

  When we entered, Hannah and her daughters were in their room, while Zelda was upstairs in the room opposite ours. In the middle stood a table with restraints, and beside it a smaller one with a few potions, some water, and towels.

  “Great, you’re back just in time,” Zelda said, looking at us. “I’m ready. Mari, you can change, but you shouldn’t eat anything, and then we can start.”

  Mari nodded and went downstairs.

  “Are those restraints necessary?” I asked, worried the kitsune might not be okay with them.

  “It’s going to be painful, and I need to stay focused,” Zelda replied with a shrug.

  I turned toward the stairs at the sound of footsteps, but it was Anna who approached me.

  “Sir, can Azura py with me?” she asked quietly.

  I crouched down to her level and smiled. “You can call me Tobias. And of course she can. You don’t need to ask me. Ask her.”

  “Yay!” Anna excimed, bouncing over to Azura and reaching for her hand. “Do you want to py hide-and-seek? Please? Alyssa said it’s for kids, but I still want to py.”

  Azura smiled, gnced from her sister to me, then gave a little hum of agreement and took Anna’s hand. They ran downstairs, while I returned to our room with Zoe and changed clothes.

  “How’s the green goo?” Zelda asked, standing in the doorway, waiting for Mari. Her eyes flicked to me as I pulled on my pants, with my chest still naked just like in the morning.

  “It’s been resting the whole time. I forgot I even had it,” I replied. When I focused on it, I knew that it was on my back, but during the exploration, I’d completely forgotten about it. “What?” I asked when Zelda didn’t answer, just watching me with a thoughtful look.

  “It behaves like a newborn. It ate, then fell asleep. I wonder if it will grow or develop in some other way,” she mused.

  “Well, I hope not too much, if it’s going to stay on my body,” I replied.

  “It might detach once it grows enough to be independent. On the other hand, if it feeds on mana, it may never be completely independent. In that case, it could stay close to you… or always on you.”

  “Always?” I asked, wondering if that wouldn’t cause problems sooner or ter.

  “I have an idea how we can remove it, if you want to try. But that will have to wait,” Zelda said, as footsteps sounded from the stairs. She turned toward Mari, who walked into the corridor. “Ready?”

  “Yeah,” Mari replied, moving into the room and sitting on the table.

  “Today, I’ll take care of your teeth. One at a time. Four in total. Unfortunately, I can’t put you to sleep because I need to see how your body reacts to my skills. I’ll give you something to dull the pain, but it’ll still hurt. For both our safety, I need to restrain you. Are you okay with that?” Zelda asked.

  It didn’t really seem like Mari had a choice, but to my surprise, she just nodded, y down on the table, and waited as Zelda fastened the restraints.

  “What?” Mari asked, turning toward me.

  “I was worried you might cause… have a problem with the restraints. Because of your past.”

  “I can get out of these in seconds if I want to,” Mari replied, tugging lightly against them.

  Right. With her skills, restraints weren’t really a problem. Back at the sve market, the cage kept her in pce, but it was its magic-blocking properties that truly held Mari locked.

  “Okay, then I’m not needed here,” I said, and Zoe and I headed downstairs. I could hear Anna giggling in the kitchen, and not wanting to interrupt, we stepped outside and made our way to the arena.

  “Just like the good old times,” Zoe said, grabbing my arm and pressing her body against me. “Just you and me, Master.”

  “The good old times?” I snorted. “That was only a few days ago. And what’s wrong with now?”

  “Nothing,” Zoe said, still hanging on my arm. “Those were good times. Now it’s a super good time,” she added with an adorable smile.

  “I’m really gd I met you, Zoe,” I said, looking at her. Without her, everything would have been so different.

  Her pink eyes locked with mine for a moment before she smiled and looked away.

  “A sex demon getting flustered,” I chuckled.

  “Master, stop. Not here,” she murmured.

  “Why not? You’d do anything for me, right? Even here?” I asked with a smirk.

  “Yes, Master,” she whispered, her irises darkening as she squeezed my biceps, looking up at me, waiting for an order.

  “Maybe another time. Right now, we’ve got training to do,” I said, nodding toward the arena ahead of us.

  “Not fair,” Zoe murmured with a pout as we stepped inside. “Teasing me like that.”

  I didn’t have time to answer before we reached Cassia, who was waiting for us.

  “Mari started her healing?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Her teeth today. And Azura’s spending time with her family,” I expined.

  After that, without needless deys, we began our training - me with the spear at first, then switching to the sword for a bit, while Zoe practiced with her css dagger and her tail as a weapon. After more than an hour of an intense session, I dropped to the ground, catching my breath.

  Zoe flopped down beside me, sweaty and panting. God, she was cute. Even now, with her white hair sticking to her flushed face, her mouth wide open, white fangs showing, and her soft pink tongue visible. It would be amazing to push my cock between those lips and feel her tongue on my tip. But the middle of the arena wasn’t the pce for that.

  Cassia sat down next to me instead of heading straight back to her room.

  “You’re making good progress,” she said. “Still a long way to go before you can cim you’re great at fighting, but you’re picking it up quickly. Against monsters, with the party's help, it should be enough.”

  “Thanks,” I replied. “It’s all thanks to my amazing teacher.”

  Cassia smiled softly. “Another session tomorrow morning?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Also, I wanted to ask, on the days Mari’s indisposed, I’ll look for jobs or quests to earn some coin. I know that before you weren’t interested, but maybe this time you’d want to join?”

  “Okay,” Cassia said.

  “Okay?” I asked, surprised she had agreed.

  “I need money,” Cassia shrugged. “And if this team is going to work out long-term, sometimes it’s good to take on other jobs.”

  “Getting convinced?” I asked.

  “It’s about what you said earlier. It reminded me of something a friend told me long ago about teams. I realized that if I want a team to stay together, I should put a little more faith into it instead of assuming from the start it’ll just fall apart. So, I’m giving it a try.”

  “I’m gd it’s with us,” I replied.

  “I don’t know what happened between you and Tori, but what happened with the loot we got?” Cassia asked. “Wasn’t Tori supposed to sell it?”

  “Yeah, she was,” I sighed. “I’ll contact her and try to get our share, but… we didn’t exactly part on friendly terms.” I was actually hoping Sage would talk to Tori and order her to hand over the money, but I hadn’t had a chance to speak with Sage yet, since she hadn’t shown up at the house that day.

  Cassia grimaced hearing that, then sighed. “Also, Amber is still with us, right?” she asked. “She’ll brew potions for us?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. She had left for Antranth, and I wasn’t really sure if she’d be back, but I hoped we could still meet from time to time, and that she’d at least sell us potions cheaper, as a favor. And Zoe and I could repay her well for it during those meetings.

  “Great,” Cassia said. “You’re getting better. And Zoe, you too. But it would be good to have more members if we want to go deeper. Azura is… not the most useful in the dungeon, and with just the four of us, we might be a bit cking. It would be good to find two more people. Preferably an archer, for consistent ranged damage. And if we go without a healer, assuming potions are enough, then maybe another warrior or a mage. Honestly… anyone, just to have more people.”

  “Do you know someone?” I asked.

  “I can look around,” Cassia replied.

  “Okay. I’ll keep my eyes open too.”

  “Great. I’ll go now. I need to rest. See you tomorrow,” Cassia said, getting up and heading back to her pce.

  “What now, Master?” Zoe purred, still lying on the ground next to me.

  I leaned over her, but instead of a kiss, I brought my lips to her ear. “Now, I’d love to tear those clothes off your amazing body and fuck you until you scream my name across the whole arena.”

  “Master!” she gasped. “Stop teasing me!” She pouted adorably.

  “Come on, let’s go,” I said, chuckling as I helped her up.

  “Home?” she asked, with hope in her voice.

  I shook my head. “We need another training session. And a visit to the library.”

  “To fuck the sea nymph, right?” Zoe asked.

  “Perhaps, one day,” I replied. “But today, we’ll focus on books.”

  Zoe groaned in disappointment, then smirked and pressed her body against mine, bringing her lips to my ear this time.

  “Master…” she purred. “I’m wet and horny. Instead of driving your hard, long cock into my tight pussy, you’d rather py with books?” she asked, then pulled back and stuck out her tongue at me.

  She was teasing me, but it was a really convincing argument. The choice not to go home immediately was hard, but we needed to get stronger in every possible way. “We’re going to train, then the library, then wild sex until we colpse from exhaustion.”

  Zoe pouted, her hands still resting on my shoulders. “Do you promise it’ll be really wild?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you’ll fill my every hole with your hot cum? Make me beg for orgasms? Pound my tight ass? Use my throat? Have me wrap my tail around your cock? And fuck my tits? They’re big enough now, Master. Imagine pushing your cock between them while I lick the tip with my tongue, looking up at you, and-”

  “Zoe,” I groaned, finally cutting her off with a kiss before she could finish. All those images were starting to make me question if we couldn’t just skip training. And the library would still be there tomorrow.

  When she broke the kiss, she giggled and rested her head against my chest. “Now we’re both horny,” she murmured, rubbing her cheek against me and sliding her thigh over the bulge in my pants.

  But the st sparks of responsibility held firm. There would be time for all of it ter, after we took care of everything else first.

  “I’ll do all of that,” I whispered, brushing her white hair back, “and you’ll regret teasing me.”

  “I can’t wait,” she whispered back.

  “Then let’s not waste any more time here. Now, I really want to get home quickly.”

  Zoe giggled as we left the arena. We moved out of Ortas and followed the road until we slipped into the forest. We needed to find a secluded pce, far enough that no one could see me using mana.

  Or catch us having sex. And Zoe clearly had the same thought. Her tail uncurled from under her skirt as she stepped in front of me, lifting the hem of her skirt to fsh me her plump ass.

  I still needed to practice controlling my mana, but sex afterward? That would count as training too. We both had sex csses. We both gained levels that way. As I followed her, watching her hips sway, her thighs shift, her firm ass bounce, and catching glimpses of her pussy, I knew there was no way we weren’t going to fuck in that forest. But first, I’d make sure we actually did the training.

  “Okay, this will be a good pce to train,” I said once we were far enough from the road.

  “Only for that, Master?” she asked, her tail swaying behind her.

  “You little minx,” I said, shaking my head. “We’ll see what happens after that.”

  She grinned, waiting for my next move. Summoning and moving mana was getting easier for me now, but there was still something I couldn’t do, something Amber had proven was possible when she bound me to the bed.

  My mana always dispersed on contact with anything, but she had been able to hold me in pce with hers. So I wondered if it was possible to move physical objects with mana - not just shove them around, like with a punch, but actually move them - levitate them or something.

  “Okay, grab a small stone. I’ll create a ft pte of mana, and you’ll put the stone on it,” I told Zoe, forcing myself to shift focus from her half-naked body to the mana inside me.

  “Yes, Master,” Zoe replied, and in the middle of the forest, it was just a second before she had a tiny stone resting in the palm of her hand.

  I summoned a ball of mana into my own hand. Immediately, the slime stirred along my back, sliding over my shoulder and down my arm, but I pushed the mana away, keeping it at a distance. The slime stopped at my palm, the same pce I had fed it before.

  “Oh, it woke up?” Zoe asked.

  “It sensed the mana,” I said, shaping the orb into a ft pte, thicker than usual. “Hold out your hand.” When she did, I shifted the pte beneath it, picturing it as solid, impenetrable - something that could stop the stone.

  “Now,” I said, focusing completely.

  The stone dropped from Zoe’s hand, passed straight through the pte, and hit the ground. At the contact, mana slipped out of my control, dispersing into the air.

  The slime clearly didn’t like it. It began darting quickly around my hand, sliding up and down, even shifting to the tips of my fingers as if trying to reach the mana, then rushing back to my wrist. It circled restlessly, moving in random directions like it was panicking.

  “Hey, hey, little guy. I’ve got more mana for you,” I said, lifting it closer to my face. Maybe it was already hungry again… or maybe it just didn’t like that I had tossed its food away.

  “Master, can I say something to it?” Zoe asked.

  “Sure,” I replied, curious what she had in mind as I reached my hand toward her.

  Zoe leaned in so close she almost pressed her nose against my hand. The slime slid back along my arm but stopped at my bicep. Zoe’s gaze followed it, and to lure it closer again, I summoned a single point of mana in my palm.

  The slime slowly crept back, getting closer to Zoe, and absorbed the mana. It wobbled and shivered afterward.

  Zoe extended a finger and lightly tapped it, but it didn’t run away this time, too occupied with… either absorbing my mana or celebrating that it had gotten some. “I don’t know if you understand, but I wanted to say I’m sorry for trying to bite you,” Zoe said. “I didn’t know you were nice and only wanted to eat. I would give you my own mana as an apology, but I can’t… so I’ll give you my Master’s mana instead, okay?”

  It was hard to tell if the slime understood, as it didn’t move at all. There was a simple way to test it, but I didn’t want to ruin Zoe’s apology at the moment.

  “Giving my mana without asking me?” I asked, smiling.

  “Oh, Master!” Zoe gasped. “It’s not like that. But…”

  “But?”

  “If it needs mana like me and has been hungry for a long time, it would be really nice of you to help it and feed it a little so it doesn’t suffer,” Zoe expined.

  “You don’t mind sharing?” I asked.

  “You should know that already, Master,” Zoe purred, her gaze sliding from the slime back to me.

  “Training,” I groaned, realizing I was getting distracted again, remembering what we had done to Amber the previous day.

  Zoe giggled, picking up the stone. To keep the slime from stressing over mana that would disperse, I summoned five points at once and let them hover in my palm.

  The slime darted straight into the ball of mana, which was rger than its body, but it still absorbed it all. Then it wobbled in pce happily. To free my hand, I pressed it to my forearm, and at least it understood what I wanted, as it clung there instead.

  Once again, I focused on forming a mana pte to catch the stone, but each attempt ended the same way. The stone passed through and fell to the ground. This time, the slime remained in pce, not reacting at all. After a few failures, I began to wonder if Amber had some special skill that allowed her to create those ropes, or if I was doing it wrong.

  On the next attempt, instead of waiting for the stone to disperse my mana, I raised the pte. The effect was different, but still not what I wanted - the stone bounced slightly upward, but the mana dispersed anyway.

  I was certain it was possible to hold the stone in pce. I just needed to hold the mana steady and stop it from slipping away. But I had no idea how. It just kept breaking free of my control every time.

  After many more attempts, I had the impression mana was dispersing a little slower, but the stone still fell to the ground, so I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t imagining it.

  I burned through more than five hundred points without any real progress before I decided to stop. I’d have to ask Gemma how to do it. Or maybe I could try learning from Zelda or Sage. Perhaps even Amber, if she returned.

  “Let’s finish for today. That was a failure,” I admitted.

  “Don’t worry, Master. You’re powerful. You’ll learn it,” Zoe said, wrapping her arms around me.

  I rested my hand on her back, then slid it lower, under her skirt, to her firm ass. She wasn’t wearing any panties, and I squeezed the naked cheek filling my palm.

  Our lips met as she pressed her tits against my chest - still separated by clothes, unfortunately. I kneaded her ass while our tongues tangled, teasing each other, both of us hungry for more.

  I spun her in my arms and pushed her against a nearby tree. She braced her hands on the bark, arching her ass back toward me as I lifted her skirt. Her tail twitched in front of me as I shoved my pants down, freeing my hard, throbbing cock.

  Guiding my dick into her body, her hot and drenched folds slid along my tip. With a groan, I smmed my hips forward. Her velvety insides engulfed me, wrapping tight around my shaft and taking it all with ease.

  “Master!” Zoe moaned, clutching the tree, pressing her ass against my thighs, her pussy clenching around my length as her tail shivered.

  The slime still clung to my forearm, either asleep or watching. I didn’t care. If it was a prude, it should’ve chosen another host.

  “Fuck me hard,” Zoe groaned, pushing forward and smming her hips back. Her pussy slid along my shaft, sending shivers of pleasure straight to my balls.

  Gripping her hips, I thrust in rhythm with her, driving deep into her soaked insides. I took her body for my pleasure, though from the way she moaned, I suspected she was enjoying it even more than me.

  Her tight, hot, dripping pussy massaged every inch of my shaft as I pounded her hard and fast. Her ass cpped against my thighs, bouncing beautifully with each thrust.

  “Master,” she moaned. “I’m close!”

  “Come for me, little slut,” I growled, smming into her harder as I used my skill to make my cock longer and thicker.

  “Master!” she whimpered as her pussy spasmed around me. Her legs gave out, but I held her up by the hips, sliding her back and forth on my cock as her body and tail twitched.

  The pleasure was overwhelming - her clenching walls so tight around me, wrapping me perfectly. It was too much in my state of arousal. Bliss erupted as my cock throbbed and spilled deep inside her.

  Filling her with my cum, I held her ass pressed against my thighs, savoring her quivering pussy around my dick.

  Even after I was spent, she kept trembling, letting out soft, cute moans. I thrust a few more times to draw out her pleasure, then finally pulled out, watching her flushed pussy twitch as it closed with my cum inside.

  “Now,” Zoe murmured, leaning against the tree, her ass still pressed toward me, “I think I can endure a few books at the library.”