A beautiful view

While he wasn't the kind of person to stare at someone else, the game made all these things so good looking for a reason, right? bless those perverts at the game studio that made this, Arsene relaxed on the water, it would be hard not to considering everything.

Of course, he was looking at Myrna, the bandit girl was pretty with armor, and without it she looked just as pretty, some might say more, but he liked girls in armor, she had a beautiful physique, a toned torso, and now that she left her upper half out of the water he could notice her breasts, round and firm looking C-cups with dark brown nipples decorating them, which surprised him a little bit considering the armor she was wearing looked rather tight, no idea how she did it, no time to think about that.

The serpentine man shaked his head and continued describing her in his mind, the olive skin in her chest and midriff was well cared for, but they bore the marks of battle, a few scars that only added to her looks, her short wet hair and her wolf-like ears gave her, in his opinion, a quite cute appearance, she had a small cut in one of her ears though, a bit hard to notice, he got closer on instinct, and she smiled

"i don't mind the staring but you could be more subtle about it" she says with a sigh, somewhat annoyed, moving a bit closer to the Serpentine, the Lup'ini woman was a bit embarassed, not accustomed to having someone stare at her so intently without making a move, part of her wanted a bit more, mostly because she was a bit pent up, and if he liked her body, maybe she could get something more out of this arrangement than just normal pat,

He didn't really say anything, as a lot of stuff was going through his mind, most of it was questions, some of those were perverted, but the loudest, the loudest wanted something specific, he extender his hand towards Myrna's body, but instead of going for her breasts, or in between her legs, the scaly hand of the man settled on her arm, caressing her slowly, he looked... fascinated which just further confused her, but she didn't seem to mind that much.

"your fur is very soft for a bandit, that's cute" Says the mage, he looks very pleased with just the feeling of it against his fingers, it was extremely relaxing, a dumb smile on his face, his curiosity didn't end there though, his other hand went to her face, This somewhat startled the already confused Myrna, which made her open her mouth to say something, in turn, that let the Researcher keep doing what he loved to do, research, slowly and carefully placing his thumb inside her mouth, interrupting whatever she might have wanted to say.

"keep it open, won't take too long" an order, yet a very soft spoken one, which she obeyed more on reflex than anything else, Arsene traced his thumb over the sharp teeth of the Lup'ini, marveling at how it felt "sharp and pointy yet similar enough to a humans, never reaching the uncanny valley, your canines are well taken care of, very sharp too, i wonder how strong your bite is" he said with a smile, taking his thumb of her mouth, and giving her a few pats on the check with a small smile.

"wh-what-" Myrna was accosted by the curiosity of someone not native to this world, not that she knew that of course, soon after that he took both of his hands to her ears, very careful, getting a small yelp from the strong Lup'ini, she finally managed to say something "Watch it!" her tone seemed annoyed and somewhat angry at first, but there was a small pause "they're sensitive" she said somewhat sheepishly, her ears twitched at the touch, they were soft just like the rest of her fur, which seemed to surprise the Serpentine, he started to gently stroke her hair, with his left hand, while his right went to the next part of his study, slowly, to her tail.

While Myrna actually enjoyed that, as it was a pretty nice feeling having her hair ruffled in such a gentle manner, she still was a bit weirded out, after all this was not the reaction she expected, then while finally relaxing into it, she felt a hand brushing along her tail... and just that, nothing more, it was kind of dissapointing for her, but the Serpentine man looked once again, marveled.

"it's so soft.... impressive, really impressive, magnificent even!" he had another dumb smile on his face, while he didn't really expect much on this part of the game, he was quite happy in being able to feel how everything was so.... life like, his face was one of pure joy, then he shook his head, looking at Myrna again while stepping back a bit "got carried away with it, thanks for indulging me."

"Not like i had a choice" she says with a sigh, though her annoyance seems more.... faked, the bath lasted for a while longer, in a comfortable silence, nothing really to be said more, and Arsene had satiated his own curiosity, so really not a lot to say anymore, since one person was thinking on what just happened, and the other relfecting on everything really, Wanting to know even more about this fantastical world.

it was time to get out, which he did with no real problems, using one of the bed covers of the many abandoned houses to dry himself, it wouldn't really take long since there was a warm desert sun above him, but the nice feeling of sun against skin was interrupted by a splash of water, looking at the source, Myrna was drying herself like dogs usually do, which made sense..... makes him think, maybe he too has weird quirks he has yet to notice, maybe he likes eating mice? Something to check, later though.

"Rude" Said Arsene to himself with no real hint of annoyance, he felt refreshed so not really a problem to him, and since he was planning on staying outside for a while the sun would dry the rest of him, he dressed up, and said in a mostly neutral tone of voice "you can rest now Myrna, no more requests" while the use expected from this contract was that of combat, having a servant is 10 times more useful.

And while Myrna went to relax, this place didn't have a lot of stuff to do, so she stayed near, mostly in the shade while Arsene was doing his thing, he pulled out 3 books of his bag.

The price of knowledge

Passion

And his Journal.

He picked up the first book, it had many new pages, mostly relating to how fire magic works and binding contracts, mana, etc, stuff he already knew, it also had the conversion of coins which was useful since he already forgot about it, maybe The price of knowledge is learning it? It seems fine.

He still had to decipher more than half of Passion, so he doesn't really want to do it right now, better to do it at night and all that, the sooner that he finishes it, the better.

Then the Journal, he just wants to write some stuff down before he forgets about it, he would be an awful mage if he didn't document his findings and travels, or so he says, maybe he just likes grounding himself, so it can be easier to remember.

"Metal conducts electricity pretty well, making it do nearly double or triple the damage, being wet adds to this, and being submerged in water even more, only tested on undead, but probably has the same effect on the living, on the same vein, ice does more damage when target is wet, reasonable, makes sense, so the opposite would be true, better try fire on something dry when i have learned the basics of pyromancy" He wrote, did a little drawings next to it, mostly to remind himself of what he was doing.

"While extremely tough on normal combat, most of the magic i know needs a medium to deal their maximum damage, my lightning spells deviate to the point where there are more conductors, the speed of Lightning bolt makes this unimportant, but on a slower spell it could be the difference between life and ****"

"While most enemies have a lot of hp, they do die pretty quick when stabbed in their vitals, my lastest victims were only killed due to that, stealth is very important for me at this level, should try to up my dexterity and stealth, just in case" it took him a lot longer to articulate every single thing, but it was done, small detailts to remind himself of everything he needs to do, and has done.

"¿You done with that little book?" Asked the Lup'ini, seemingly bored, which now that he noticed wore different clothing, of course, why would she wear her armor while resting? She looked very good, maybe a bit revealing but he wasn't gonna complain, he would describe it akin to sport like clothing, nothing obscene nor alluring, she just wore it well.

"Rude, but yes, done with it, im going to read the other one now" he could swear he heard a small groan from the woman, with a sigh, he said "if you are that bored, and you believe yourself more interesting than an ancient tome about pyromancy, explain msgic to me" silence... he thought about it for a few seconds, then he realized "wait that's a great idea, let's go inside it's more comfortable" he said standing up, clearly more cheerful to the dismay of the annoyed Lup'ini.

It took a few minutos to get set up, both sitting on the bed, the serpentine clearly more comfortable than his companion, but he didn't let that stop him, he was gonna learn as much as possible, book and quill in hand.

"Ok.... give me a few seconds... im not a mage, but from what i know, it's about intent, like, hmm, let's say you were more a defensive mage than an offensive mage, instead of your hand thingy, you would have a shield or something like that, you get me?" She was stumbling over herself, but it did paint a picture in his mind, gesturing for her to continue he kept writing "Really? Aren't you a mage shouldn't you know this?..... fine, well, from what i know you can learn spells through meditation, if you focus on what you want... that's all i know really, i don't have affinity towards magic, at all" she said, looking at him wondering if it's over.

"A bit dissapointing, but informative, thanks for aharing that" Said Arsene, now that he knew a little bit more about magic, he could do better, though learning so little was a bit disheartening, He sighed, but as soon as he was gonna step down, he felt a poke on the side, he looked back at Myrna, but didn't see anything but incredulity on her face.

"How are you are so weak?!" She said surprised, hurting the Ego of the Serpentine man, she continued, "ONLY LEVEL 5?! HOW?"

"W-what? (Levels are canon in this world, she can see my stats? Oh, that's incredible, game mechanics are matching with in-game Lore, oh this opens so many doors!) What's it to you? I have been busy studying!" Not a lie per se.

"Hey there's some stuff blocked here? How can you hide a singular skill.... and a singular trait? What are you hiding something-" The serpentine covers her mouth, somewhat annoyed at all the questions.... he was doing the same before.

"It's personal, stop looking at my stats and get going, surely you aren't any better in that regard!" He waves his hand to dismiss the Lup'ini woman, and since it's an order, she obeys reluctantly.

"Come on! It's not fair you oggled me in the bath you-" her protests are to far away to be understood, and now with peace and tranquility, he starts reading again.

Deciphering of occult book 100% done

Uncovering the secrets of emotion and fire, you grow closer to the understanding of magic, finishing this book gives you +1 lvl of fire magic and Control flame, as a spell, re-reading this book gives no further magical ability nor knowledge.

"That's the stuff! took me a while to finish it, but a full day of mostly reading was enough..... what hour is it?" he looked outside the window, night, there was no way to tell the hour, but it was definitely late, well, he tested Control Flame on the torch that brightened the room, and it went out, so it worked quite well, of course it's utility, he will need to learn a different spell for combat, but this was nice, accomodating himself on the bed, he went to sleep, wondering how it would work on this kind of game.

While he was asleep, a certain someone was still annoyed, nothing had happened at the bath, nor after it, and thanks to that, she was both horny and curious, and what better way to fix two problems with one stone, seducing him and gaining leverage in two different ways, it didn't work with Klaus but surely it would work on Arsene.

At the dead of night, she snuck into the house where Arsene was sleeping, and not making a single sound, she undressed and sat on top of him, waiting for the man to wake up... something he didn't do, Arsene kept on sleeping even though he had a beautiful woman on top of him, this frustrated Myrna, she tried to hit him or shake him to wake him up, but thanks to the contract that was harmful intent, therefore impossible, so she just laid on top of him, sooner or later he would notice the weight, and wake up, right?