I was lying on my stomach, and young woman was rubbing oil in my skin. I was enjoying massage inside the temple of Aphrodite. After using the oil on my body, priestess applied ointment to my hair and massaged my skull. It felt nice. My hair always looked healthier, richer and smelled good after that.

  Aphrodite's priestesses provided special services, mostly for the men of the town, in exchange for their generous donations. After providing some services and artifacts for high-priestess, I enjoyed temple's benefits for free, as well as I could receive them in any other temple of the continent.

  This temple in town of Tyco became my favorite pce in the town, and hot springs, which I could use, increased my high opinion of the pce a lot.

  Me and my party members lived in Tyco, for st two years. During my first visit I bought some expensive artifacts and acquired huge debt. I needed many years, but finally earned enough money to repay my debt. Our stay in Tyco also allowed us all to increase our levels, and our mage Nelly even increased her levels by two and reached level thirty four. We did not became famous or successful, since according to my deal, which I made with artifact maker Gremlock we had to sell him our magic gems and monster materials. Because of that our successes were unnoticed, but I even preferred things to be that way.

  I could have repaid him earlier, but I kept all magic gems, the most valuable of magic stones, since I had different pns for them, and I was in no hurry to repay my debt. Right now I had fifteen magic gems, and selling them would allow me to buy a small vilge. But I still needed more of them, and was considering to continue my partnership with Gremlock, as long as it benefited both of us.

  My thoughts were becoming slower, and I fell asleep on the table. Priestess woke me up, and I smiled at her.

  - Did you enjoy your massage my dy?

  I nodded and got up. As good as I felt and wanted to stay longer, it was time for me to leave.

  I left the temple and covered my eyes, protecting them from bright light. I yawned and sighed. I felt sleepy and did not want to leave the temple, but I had a meeting to attend to.

  I went down the hill, on which top the temple was built, and dive in the town. Streets were busy with people, among them gremlins, rare titans, beast-people and even some dwarves. Tyco was open to anyone, and many merchants, adventurers and other travelers visited it in hopes to by cheap artifacts.Tyco's economy was based on cheap artificial artifact creation, that they sold to anyone who was ready to pay for them. Town also attracted many adventurers, who were ready to risk their lives in the dungeons for generous rewards that artifact makers paid them for magic stones and monster materials.

  I was no different from those adventurers. Lured here by the promise of powerful artifacts and riches that I could earn.

  I noticed small commotion in front of me. People parted and gave way to adventurer party. They were slowly riding on horses, nodding to people who praised and waved to them.

  Party's leader was beautiful young woman. She was wearing short chainmail skirt and breastpte that covered her chest. Sandals, who's straps reached her knees, emphasized her long and slender legs. Her long bck hair fluttered behind her, and her smile was charming and full of confidence.

  She had golden bracelets on her arms and several rings. Probably every piece of her equipment and cloth was a custom made artifact.

  Girl noticed me, and her face changed for a moment. Her name was Ni. I encountered her first five years ago. Back then she stole some artifacts from Aphrodite's temple, were she was living. I was hired to find her and bring her back. I did my job, but was not gentle when I brought back the girl. I was the opposite of gentle, and Ni did not forget about that and did not forgive me. She still hold a grudge, but did not showed it openly.

  I did not knew what happened to her, but apparently she was forgiven for her misdemeanor. I heard that Ni was sent to the neighboring kingdom or Rakshasar. In the town called Opidium she spent three years in local gdiator school. After returning she registered as an adventurer and was on the rise since them. She formed her own adventurer party, and now people called her Ni Adventurer queen. One of most famous adventurers in Tyco, she was admired and beloved by citizens of Tyco.

  I stepped aside and let her pass. Ni gnced at me, but pretended that she did not see me. I waited till she passed and went to the temple of Hermes.

  Temple was covered in smell of fresh flowers. I went inside, and priest of Hermes welcomed me.

  - Lady Avone, I was expecting you.

  One of the signatures of the contract that bind me to artifact maker Gremlock was already there. Adventurer guild master Kannan smiled and nodded to me. He was tall and handsome. Kannan was former C rank adventurer, who left the dangerous profession and became a guild master. He had a reputation of a heartbreaker, and many women turned around when he walked by them. He also tried his charms on me, but I had no interest in that.

  We waited for master Gremlock to arrive, and priest nodded to us.

  - You are gathered here to fulfill the terms of contract signed before Hermes. Do you wish to complete the contract?

  - Yes, - I took out a wallet and handed it to Gremlock.

  Meter high, grumpy gremlin took the wallet and counted the coins. He nodded to the priest and pocketed the money. Gremlock was unfriendly, bad mannered old geezer, but also one of the best artifact makers in Tyco. Kannan was the one who introduced us and also witnessed and signed the contract, promising to take on my debt, in case of me not paying it or dying.

  - According to contract, it was suppose to end, once Adventurer Avone would pay master Gremlock two hundred orichalcum coins. Have you received payment in full? - continued the priest.

  Gremlock nodded and priest took out temples copy of the contract.

  - Then, may this be witnessed by Hermes. I decre that contract is fulfilled and all parties are free of their obligations.

  Priest burned the paper and it fshed before disappearing.

  - It is done. Your contract is no more.

  - Thanks, - nodded Kannan, and priest bowed to him. Priest left us alone, and Kannan sighed relieved: - Stone just fell of my heart. Possible debt of two hundred orichalcum coins, left me with several sleepless nights.

  - You worry too much, - I shrugged: - You should trust your adventurers more.

  - Sure. Easy for you to say. You are not guild master, and do not witness adventurers daily.

  - You chose the job yourself. Master Gremlock, I hope to continue our retionship in the future, just possibly not exclusively.

  - You know where to find me, - nodded Gremlock: - Wanna sell magic stones, and I will buy them.

  - Please sell at least some of them to the guild, - interfered Kannan: - Do not forget, who helped you in the past.

  - Sure. Maybe half and a half.

  - That would make us both happy, - nodded Kannan.

  We turned around to leave the temple, and I found myself facing two different people. They were sitting at the table in the meadow and drinking wine from crystal gsses. Tall handsome man in white tunic raised his gss.

  - Welcome to my humble piece of the world Avone. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Hermes, patron god of merchants, travelers and thieves. And this is my friend. Goddess of the hunt Artemis.

  Beautiful slender woman, with bow pced near hear chair, nodded to me.

  - I was expecting you sooner, - she said.

  - You declined my invitation so rudely, - shook his finger Hermes.

  I did receive several messages from Hermes high-priest, but ignored them. I tried to stay away from temples and their gods. They were nothing, but trouble, and every time I got involved with gods, my life was hanging in the bance. Reward for their requests was always generous by my standards, but job was too high risk. As a high elf I possessed the gift of eternal youth and could take things slow and steady, without unnecessary risks that requests from the gods brought with them.

  - I thought that my answer, by not coming, was obvious.

  - Do not be like that, - theatrically sighed Hermes: - Help a goddess out, will you.

  - I require your help, - said Artemis: - I need you to deal with some annoying reincarnated people. I was told that your price was blessing to one of your artifacts and enough life force for you to increase a level. I will pay your price adventurer.Just who spread those rumors. I would like to refuse, but it was Artemis. The only goddess that I was actually looking forward to working for. As long as she could grant me a small favor.

  - What kind of a problem?

  - Some adventurers are killing my sacred beasts moondeer. There were less than a thousand of them, and they killed more than a hundred already. If they continue my moondeer will go extinct. I need you to stop them. I already send my amazons to deal with them, but they turned out to be a bigger problem than I expected. That is why I need you to deal with them.I read about moondeer. They were real animals or monsters, who lived only in the kingdom of Denbing. They were sacred beast that belonged to Artemis, but I had no idea why would anyone want to kill them.

  - Why are they killing those animals?

  Artemis sighed: - They discovered that my deer have high amount of life force, which is necessary to increase their levels. They are killing them, to get stronger.

  That made sense. Life force was necessary to increase levels. Which let adventurers and warriors to acquire skills and get stronger. I was doing the same thing, by killing monsters in the dungeon.

  - Can you tell me more about these people.

  - They are adventurer party. Three of them were reincarnated, and three are of this world. They party rank is A, and...

  - Thank you, but I refuse, - I interrupted the goddess.

  - What?

  - Facing three reincarnated people is a suicide. Especially if they are ranked as A rank adventurers. Even single reincarnated adventurer could kill me and all my party members. Facing three. No, thank you. Find someone else.

  - You dare to refuse me. Even after I so generously promised to reward you and acknowledged your strength.

  Hermes ughed. He looked very amused.

  - She is not refusing you. She is bargaining, - he smiled: - Well, she is not wrong. In the past she was paid to handle one reincarnated person. So dealing with three at once, does seem to require higher reward. And do not be so concerned with their rank so much. They became A rank party by completing guild quests, not because of their levels. Their levels are around low level B rank adventurers.

  That annoying god saw right threw me. I was bargaining in my own way. I looked at him, and noted to myself to be more careful with this god.

  - Mortals and their greed. But your bargaining is pointless. Gods can only give mortals life force once, and only to increase one level. Otherwise all champions who serve us would be level hundred warriors or mages.

  That made sense. That was bad for me, since I will not be able to increase my levels, but also limited the ways that other people could get stronger.

  - Fine. I will consider your request for a different reward. As for the level increase, Hermes can cover some of the payment.

  - Me, - for the first time Hermes was surprised: - Why should I do anything?

  - Because you summoned me here. So you are involved. You can pay me, and for all I care, Artemis can pay you, instead of directly rewarding me.

  - That is devious and unexpected. But I like it, - ughed Hermes: - Fine. I will consider it, as long as you can entertain me.

  - I can give my blessing to your bow and give you life force, - said Artemis. But that is all, I can do for you.

  - There is one more small thing. I was told that you can easily do it, and I want it as partial payment.

  - What is it?

  - I have a skill, called Butchery. I was told that you were the one who gave it to humans and also can change it to something more useful.

  - What are you talking about? That skill is very useful. I blessed the humans with it, so they could honor their prey buy using all of it. My hunters consider the skill a direct blessing from me and are proud to have it.

  - Yes, that may be so, but skill is worthless in the battle. I want something that will be more of use in a fight against someone like those adventurers.

  - That skill is not meant for fighting. Changing it so it would be helpful to you in a fight against other adventurers is impossible. And changing the skill would make it novice level skill. Do you really wish it?

  - Yes. And as all powerful god, I am sure that you can grant my wish.Artemis closed her eyes and thought a while.

  - All I can do is to create an Arcane butchery skill. It will have the same abilities, but also will aid you in fights among the undead. Do not like their kind.

  That was better than nothing.

  - Agreed. But also I want great god Hermes to do something besides giving me life force. Also I need him to give me life force after the job.

  - So you can use it to increase two of your skills instead of one, - nodded Hermes: - So what else do you wish from me?

  - I read that you were the god who created Magic bags?

  - Yes, - nodded Hermes: - I did it to help merchants to transport their goods. But adventurers quickly found a way to also use them.

  - I had Magic bag before. But it got destroyed, and I lost everything that was inside it. I want you to change my Magic purse, so something like that would not happen again.

  - I am not even sure that it is possible, - he looked at my Magic purse: - Let me think, - he put his hand on his chin and thought for a while: - I cannot make it indestructible. That would go against the ws that govern this world, but I can change the leather from which your magic purse is made of. It would be as tough as the skin of the most powerful creatures. Yes, that would not make it indestructible, but very hard to damage.

  - That will be enough.

  - Then it is settled, - nodded Hermes.

  - Not yet. I have few more questions. And also I might need to kill some of your moondeer, in order stop those adventurers.

  - What! I am hiring you to stop the adventurers from killing them, not to kill more of moondeer!

  - And by the end of it you will still have eight hundred of them. Or do you prefer to have none?

  - She probably has a pn, and killing your pets is part of it, - said Hermes, who again easily read my intensions.

  - Fine, - Artemis gritted her teeth: - I will allow it, but just this once.

  - Also I will need to find out everything you know about these adventurers.

  - Soon, some of my amazons will arrive in town. They will answer your questions and take you to Denbing, to the part of the southern forest, were you will find those people.

  - That will be helpful, as long as they do not get in my way and follow my orders.

  - They will, - nodded Artemis: - That will be their punishment for failure.

  - Then it is settled. Now put your Magic purse on the ground. So I can recreate it.

  - Wait. What do you mean recreate? What will happen to the items inside it?

  - Oh. I did not think about that. Everything inside your Magic purse will disappear. You need to take out everything from it, if you want to keep your things, - smiled Hermes.

  I sighed. Geesh, those gods can be so careless. I did as he told and emptied my Magic purse. I needed several minutes to do that, since I had a lot of stuff inside it.Hermes took a look at my Magic purse.

  - What an exquisite work. A piece of art, if I might say so myself. Let us see what we can do, to make it even more beautiful.He touched the purse and it glowed for a long moment.

  - Good, - Hermes nodded: - That should do it. I also changed purse's abilities. Now, all the things that you will put inside it will be frozen in time. And anyone who will try to appraise it will only see its name - Female purse. Consider it advance payment for the future job. Now, you may put your trinkets back in it. And also I will name it Female purse. Be grateful mortal.

  - I am, a lot. Thank you.

  That was way more than I expected. I was gd about every improvement, but did not like his words about future jobs. Cannot say that I liked to owe anyone.

  Artemis approached my bow and also touched it. Bow glowed and Artemis nodded satisfied.

  - I turner your bow into an artifact. It will not break as easily as your first one and will improve the range of your arrows. You may call it Blessed elven bow.

  - Thank you, goddess.

  - You will also receive your payment from me. So do not fail and complete your task, as soon as possible.

  - As for my part. After your success, come to my temple and prey by my altar, and you will receive the remainder of your reward.

  - I will not fail you, - I bowed. I pced my stuff back into my Magic purse or Female purse. When I looked up I realized that I was inside Hermes temple.

  I shook my head and cleared my thoughts. Again I got involved with gods and again I got great reward and put my life on the line. I used my blood to personalize my improved Magic Purse. Now, no one except me will be able to use it, and I will also be able to pretend that it was just an ordinary purse.

  I went to Adventurer guild and asked permission to use leveling crystal.

  I looked at my new level and stats:

  High elf, LV 20 - 21

  Name - Avone;

  Job: Ranger;

  Status:

  Health: 133;

  Mana: 490 - 500;

  Strength: 12;

  Defense: 7 - 8 (+2=10);

  Spell power: 17;

  Luck: 1 (+1=2);

  Speed: 7 (+3=10);

  Morale: Neutral

  Skills:

  Archery (Advanced);

  Night vision (Advanced);

  Mana rapid recovery (Novice);

  Magic resistance (Advanced);

  Wisdom (Basic);

  Earth magic (Advanced);

  Arcane butchery (Novice);

  Water magic (Advanced);

  Air magic (Advanced);

  Intelligence (Advanced);

  Fire magic (Novice);

  Life magic (Basic);

  Swordsmanship (Advanced);

  Increased speed (Basic);

  Throwing (Basic);

  Hunting (Basic);

  Weapons master (Advanced);

  Primordial magic (Basic);

  Dual wielding (Advanced);

  Demon style martial arts (Basic);

  Double skill slots;

  Light magic (Basic)

  Possible skill acquirement:

  - Throwing (Advanced);

  - Light magic (Advanced);

  Please choose one skill!

  Just as Artemis said, mu useless Butchery skill was now novice Arcane butchery. Finally, I got rid of my unwanted skill. I was also able to level up my Light magic skill, which meant that I will be able to learn more powerful spells.

  My level went up to twenty one, which meant that my total level was fifty one. Another nine levels would qualify me as A rank adventurer. Not that I was interested in becoming one. I was satisfied with my current rank. It made me upper level adventurer, but not one of the legendary A or S rank adventurers.

  Now I had to convince my party members to take the job and also pay them.

  - I need to talk to guild master, - I told the receptionist.

  She was surprised, but nodded.

  - I will let him know. Please follow me, - she took me to one of the rooms that guild used for private conversations and told me to wait.

  I sat down and took out a sword from my Female purse. It changed a little. Had darker shade of red and looked more feminine. Something that woman even on my original world would like to have. It felt a little embarrassing to carry it around, but nothing I could do about it.

  I looked at the sword. Its name was Avengers sword. Several years ago my party killed powerful goblin warlord Hugo. I sold most of his artifacts and used the money to pay for our travel expenses to Northern goblin kingdom, but kept the sword. It had ability to increase all four primary stats by four. Sword was one of the most powerful artifacts that I ever saw. It was on the level of kingdoms national treasures. I was considering keeping it to myself, but now I had to sell it, so I could use the money as payment to my party members.

  Kannan came inside the room and took a seat in front of me.

  - Did not expect to see you so soon?

  - Something came up. I want to sell you this sword. As long as you can offer me proper reward. It can increase its users Health, Strength, Defense and Spell power by four.

  Kannan almost fell out of the chair.

  - You are not kidding?

  - No. Sword was upraised by sage from Ashgrin.

  - Sure that you do not want to keep it to yourself?

  - Depends on the money that you can offer me?

  - I see, - Kannan thought for a while.

  He wanted that sword. He considered the amount of coins that he could pay. He knew that I had no more debts, so I did not need money that much. So he could not use my desperation to lower the cost. He probably was thinking that I decided to sell the sword, after paying my debt, so I could get more for it.

  - You probably already know that your sword would be among the dozen of most powerful artifacts in Tyco. But guild's funds are not unlimited. I can offer you thirty orichalcum coins.

  - That is not nearly enough. I want a hundred.

  Kannan fidgeted uncomfortably: - I will need to confirm swords abilities. If they are as you say, I may be able to pay you forty coins?

  - It is worth more than that and you know it. At least ninety coins.

  - It is powerful, but set of artifacts in Tyco, could be just as powerful. Sadly it lowers the value of such powerful artifacts. How about sixty?

  - It is still probably the most powerful sword that you have ever seen. Eighty and stop wasting my time.

  - I do like you Avone, - he sighed: - As a personal favor, I will offer you seventy coins.

  - Fine. Seventy five it is.

  Kannan smiled: - Look likes we came to an agreement. I will need to confirm its abilities and gather the money. Can you come back day after tomorrow?

  - That will be fine.

  Kannan nodded and took the sword. He was stroking it and looked at the sword as at his lover.