Chapter 147

--- 24th Day, Morning ---

After preparing for the dungeon and eating a quick breakfast, we headed to meet with Cassia and Marcy, who were already waiting for us on the road leading to the dungeon. The two of them were talking rather vividly about something until their conversation was cut short when the lioness grabbed Cassia’s arm and turned them both toward us.

Marcy had a smirk on her face while Cassia was frowning, but soon the lioness joined the other woman, her gaze locked on me as she tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Hey, I hope we’re not late,” I said, greeting the two of them while at the same time giving Azura a nod, letting her know she could shift into her wolf form.

“No, no,” Marcy replied, shaking her head. “Cassia just wants to ask you for a favor.”

“Marcy!” the other woman gasped, looking at the lioness before sighing and turning toward me.

“I’ll help as much as I can,” I said.

“Can we talk alone?” Cassia asked, nodding her head to the side.

“Sure. Zoe?” I asked, stepping away slightly.

“Yes, Master,” she replied, and a second later, the Silent Dome appeared around me and Cassia.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“God…” she sighed deeply.

“Is it that bad?” I asked, frowning, worried that she had somehow gotten herself into serious trouble.

“Yes and no,” she replied. “It’s not like I’m going to die or end up in prison, but maybe that would be better anyway.”

“Just say it and I’ll help you,” I offered.

“It’s super embarrassing,” Cassia replied. “You remember that I was supposed to meet with my parents yesterday?”

“Yeah.”

Cassia sighed deeply again, staring at me before continuing, speaking quickly “A few years ago, I told my mother that I’m interested in women. In a romantic way. She didn’t really take it well because I’m her only child, and she has some fixation on having grandkids. She basically made it her mission to find me a guy who would convince me that men are better than women, and when I’d had enough, I moved to another city to get away from her. But now she followed me here, and I thought everything would be fine, but apparently she has a whole list of guys she wants to send here to try again, hoping that, as she said, I’ve had my fun and matured enough to finally find myself a husband who would put a kid in me. And as she started listing them and praising how amazing they are, I kind of panicked and told her that I already have someone, and that she really shouldn’t send anyone here.”

Cassia took a really deep breath after the torrent of words that had poured out of her. At least she confirmed my suspicions about her preferences, and despite having so many women around me, I still felt a slight sense of disappointment because Cassia was quite attractive and had an amazing body sculpted through hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of training.

“And now she wants to meet him?” I guessed.

“Yes…” Cassia sighed. “But he doesn’t exist, and if I don’t bring a guy to dinner today, she’s going to send a barrage of men to try and date me, telling them that I’m interested but playing hard to get. She’s done it before. Do you realize how hard it is to get rid of a guy like that after she convinces him that it’s just my way of flirting?”

“I can only imagine,” I snorted.

“So… Marcy suggested that I could ask you to come with me and pretend,” Cassia replied. “But I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. We’re together on the same team, and it might make things… weird.”

“I’m already dating two members of our team, and it’s not that weird.”

“Sure, but I don’t want you to think there could be something between us. Like taking it as a sign that I’m interested and actually want it to happen. I’m not going to become another one of your girlfriends added to the collection. We would just pretend for an hour and forget it ever happened when my parents leave Ortas.”

“I’m not collecting girlfriends,” I replied with a smile. “Are you cooking?”

“What?” Cassia asked, frowning.

“Are you cooking dinner?” I clarified. “A potential wife should at least know how to cook.”

Cassia stared at me in confused shock.

“I’m joking,” I said with a laugh. “Sure, why not? I can pretend to be your boyfriend for an hour.”

“I’ll cook something, but don’t expect anything amazing,” Cassia murmured.

“Sure,” I shrugged. “Should we discuss some backstory? How we met or something?”

“My mother already asked me about it, and I more or less told her the truth about how we met,” Cassia replied.

“Wasn’t it Marcy’s idea today to pretend I’m your fake boyfriend?” I asked with a smile.

“Ugh…” Cassia muttered, averting her gaze, and for the first time I saw her blushing.

“You look cute when you get flustered, baby,” I murmured, brushing her blonde hair out of her face and cupping her chin to lift her gaze back toward me.

She stared at me with confusion and shock. “W-What?” she stammered.

“We should practice,” I replied, letting go of her with a chuckle. “You can’t look shocked every time I compliment you in front of your mother.”

“I…” Cassia paused, staring at me silently for a moment. “When I was coming up with that fake boyfriend story, mom asked why I didn’t tell her about him earlier, and I said it was something new. Then she started asking questions, and you came to mind because we haven’t known each other for that long, so it was easier to come up with a story while talking about a real person.”

“So the story is basically what actually happened, except something developed between us?”

“Exactly. We got closer during those training sessions, then you asked me out, and it happened,” Cassia replied.

“Okay. What about Zoe and Azura?”

“Are you nuts?” Cassia asked. “Don’t even mention that. This is supposed to convince my mom not to send potential boyfriend candidates here, so you need to make… at least a bearable impression. Which honestly shouldn’t be that hard since you’re a man.”

“If her standards are that high, I’m not surprised you don’t like the guys she suggests.”

“They’re not that bad,” Cassia murmured. “In the end, they’re supposed to turn me normal,” she added with a frown.

“When’s the dinner?” I asked.

“Something about an hour after the exploration,” Cassia replied. “So… you’ll help me?”

“Sure.”

“And you’re not going to be weird about it afterward?” she asked hesitantly.

“Only if you won’t be,” I replied with a smirk.

Cassia snorted, shaking her head before sighing, looking as if she had finally relaxed and a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

“Now we just need to survive an hour with my parents, and she should be gone for at least a few months,” Cassia said.

“And what are you going to tell her then?”

“I’ll come up with something. Maybe I’ll tell her the truth.”

“That you lied to her?”

“That you were sleeping with other women,” Cassia replied.

“Sure,” I snorted. “Put all the blame on me.”

“Just the truth,” Cassia shrugged.

“The dinner’s at your place?” I asked.

“Yeah. Do you remember where?”

“I think so,” I replied. “Anything else I should know?”

“Umm…” Cassia muttered thoughtfully. “I think it’ll be better if you just go with the flow and see how things develop.”

“Fine by me,” I replied.

Cassia nodded with a sigh. “Let’s focus on exploring now.”

Stepping out of the Silent Dome, we joined the rest of the team, and while I could tell Zoe was barely holding herself back from asking what all of this was about, we headed toward the dungeon with her holding my hand while Cassia walked ahead, keeping some distance between us.

“I’ll tell you all about it later,” I murmured to the succubus at my side, who pouted in disappointment but didn’t pressure me.

“Are you okay?” Marcy asked, walking at my side and looking at me.

“Yeah, perfectly fine. Why?”

“Hm…” she hummed.

“What can you sense?” I asked.

“You don’t know?” she replied with a question of her own.

“I can guess, but you can just tell me,” I replied, suspecting it was about Peri’s feelings, not mine.

“Aren’t you worried that might shine a light on your secrets?” Marcy asked with a smile. “Talking with me about them?”

“I’d like to talk with you anyway,” I replied. “After the dungeon.”

“Oh…” she said, the smile vanishing from her face. “Sure,” she shrugged. “Am I getting kicked out of the team?”

“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “Unless there’s a good reason for it.”

“So it’s a test?” Marcy asked with a smile.

“I want to clarify a few things.”

“Thanks for the warning. Now I’ll have the whole exploration to prepare my lies,” she replied, before snorting. “I’m joking. It’s so easy to make you stressed. Almost as if you were hiding some amazingly huge secrets.”

“Right now it would be weird if I wasn’t,” I replied.

“Maybe you’re stressing about them more than necessary,” Marcy said.

I only hummed in response, not wanting to go deeper into the topic, as it was once again steering into territory where I could easily say too much. We continued toward the dungeon and headed straight into Level 2 in search of monsters to kill.

It didn’t take long before we stumbled upon our first enemy.

A single skeleton was coming toward us, but before it could even get close, Marcy struck it with an arrow, hitting somewhere around the shoulder. Zoe and I stepped forward, and when the skeleton got within range, she slammed her tail into the same shoulder, making the skeleton spin halfway around. With its side exposed to me, I thrust my spear into its neck, separating its head from its body.

The bones fell apart as the monster died, turning into black sludge that got absorbed into the dungeon floor.

“It’s starting to get way too easy,” I said.

“That’s the goal,” Cassia replied. “But on a level that would bring decent profit at the same time.”

“I think we could head into Level Three right now and wouldn’t struggle much either way,” I replied.

“Or you could stop being impatient and just wait a day or two until Mari can come with us,” Cassia countered.

“I guess…” I sighed.

The amount of money we were getting from those dungeon trips was really disappointing, especially when split between so many people. It wasn't much better with experience either, even if it wasn't shared between all of us. We were still gaining steady progress, but it barely brought any level-ups anymore.

And through the entire exploration, none of us leveled up, not even my Mage class, which hadn’t leveled for quite a while now, especially compared to my other two classes. But Mage was the only normal class I had. The other two were special and leveled faster because of that, thanks to sex and forming bonds with women.

After killing dozens of monsters in the dungeon, we left and headed toward Ortas, but not long after we got back on the road, I told Terra and Cassia to go ahead without us because I needed to talk with Marcy.

While the orc didn’t ask any questions, Cassia only wanted to make sure I would make it in time for our fake date with her parents. Once the two of them vanished from sight, the rest of us stepped off the road and moved a bit deeper into the nearby forest for privacy, though I still asked Zoe to cover the four of us with Silent Dome.

“Let’s talk,” Marcy said. “Hopefully it will help you relax, and I won’t get kicked out of the team,” she added with a snort.

I sighed, wondering how to bring up the subject without scaring her away at the same time.

“You’re hiding some big secrets, and you’re worried that because of my empath class I’ll discover them,” she said.

“Not only because of your class. Just being on the same team might do that too. But your class certainly doesn’t help.”

“You don’t trust me, and whatever I say, you won’t trust it’s true. So unless you can give me a chance, it’s a pretty difficult situation,” Marcy replied.

“Well… there is a way you could answer my questions and I’d be certain you weren’t lying,” I replied, pulling out the Truth Seeking Stone and showing it to her.

Marcy snorted when she saw it. “You really are full of surprises. On one hand, you claim you are broke, yet you have five slaves, managed to organize insanely expensive healing for Mari, and own an item like that.”

“I really don’t have much money. It all just kind of happens,” I replied.

“So what? You’re going to interrogate me with that, and then you’re going to trust me with your secrets?” Marcy asked, picking up the stone from my hand.

“It would certainly help,” I replied. “But I’m not sure if I’d share my secrets with you yet.”

“Well, go on. I’m an open book now,” Marcellina replied, holding the Truth Seeking Stone.

“Do you have any bad intentions toward me?”

“No,” Marcy replied, then tossed the black stone back to me. “Do you have any bad intentions toward me?” she asked, repeating my question.

“So it’s question for question?” I asked.

“That seems fair,” Marcy replied with a shrug.

“No, I don’t have any bad intentions toward you,” I replied.

“Any good ones?” she asked with a smirk.

“My turn,” I replied, passing her the stone again, glad she hadn’t taken offense to the fact that I wanted to test her like that. “Did you join my team by coincidence?”

“That’s a badly phrased question,” Marcy replied. “It’s not like I tripped and suddenly ended up in your team. I was looking for one, and you were looking for a teammate, so no, it wasn’t a coincidence that I joined. But if you’re asking whether I was specifically trying to join your team, then no. I was looking for any team that would accept me and start with lower-level dungeons so I could get stronger.”

The stone remained dark, confirming her words. Then she passed it back to me.

“You have a woman inside you,” Marcellina stated, rather than asked.

“What?”

“You know, one body, two souls trapped together,” she explained.

“And that’s why you can sense two presences coming from me?”

“That would explain everything,” Marcy replied. “Well, almost everything.”

“Almost?”

“That woman inside you is… developing is probably the best word. Her emotions are becoming more developed. At first, it was pretty much just hunger, and I thought you were possessed by some ghost or something. But then more emotions started showing up. And a ghost wouldn’t explain the other things. So the theory about two souls trapped in one body seemed perfect, but if that’s not true…” she paused, smiling faintly, “then it seems you’re even more special than I thought.”

“Am I?” I asked, wondering what she meant.

“You’re asking that as if you don’t already know,” Marcy replied with a giggle.

“I’m asking because I want to know how much you know.”

“And what’s that going to change?”

I sighed. It looked like we were starting to play games with Marcy too, but before I could say anything, she spoke first while pulling the Truth Seeking Stone from my hand at the same time.

“I know your secret, and I promise I’m not going to use it in any way that could harm you,” she said.

The stone confirmed she was telling the truth, but that still didn’t answer the main question - which of my secrets did she think she knew?

“A moment ago, you thought I had two souls trapped inside one body,” I replied.

“And if that’s not true, then I assume that you, despite being a man, have mana,” Marcy replied, a grin crossing her face.

“Denying it probably doesn’t make much sense, right?” I asked. “You know the truth from my emotions?”

“Yup. Yours and theirs too,” she added, gesturing toward Zoe and Azura.

“Do you know this because of your class?” I asked. “You couldn’t have concluded that just from those two presences.”

“Oh no,” Marcy replied. “That was just one possible explanation for a very confusing situation involving you and Zoe.”

“Would you mind explaining?”

“It’s a bit of a guessing game because succubi are pretty mysterious and there are a lot of myths and legends about them, but one thing is certain - they feed on men’s life force. If they take too much, they can kill, and it’s common knowledge that one succubus usually feeds on multiple men. So it’s probably because one man alone isn’t enough to sustain them without eventually killing him,” Marcy explained, looking at Zoe.

Zoe frowned, but nodded hesitantly. “Draining one man constantly could kill him,” she murmured. “If not immediately, he would grow weak and sick.”

Marcy snapped her fingers. “Exactly. And you are far from weak or sick,” she said. “And you’re not exactly the type to share Zoe with other men so she could drain them too. Which means she’s feeding only on you, but it’s not affecting you the way it should. It’s almost like she isn’t really draining your life force. So then the question becomes… what is she draining?”

“Blood, because she’s a half vampire?” I suggested.

“I was thinking about that possibility, but she seems leaning more toward her succubus half.”

“Still, maybe she doesn’t need to drain mana or drink blood at all.”

“I caught her staring at you with hunger a few times,” the lioness replied.

“Marcy!” Zoe gasped.

“Sorry,” she replied, with a shrug. “Then a kiss and suddenly she’s not hungry anymore. As for someone who tries to hide that you have mana, letting her drain you just in front of me wasn’t the best idea. I was thinking that maybe, because of those two souls in your body - one male and one female - the female soul had mana, but your souls were connected enough for Zoe to drain that mana through you, even if it technically belonged to a woman. Like you were some kind of proxy. Which, in a weird way, would still mean you had mana, just not your own. I kept going back and forth between that theory and the possibility that you simply had your own mana.”

“So all this time, you knew. One way or another,” I noted.

“Yes, and I didn’t tell anyone, and I don’t plan to,” Marcy replied, still holding the stone. “I kind of understand why you’re so distrustful about it, but at the same time, I don’t think I’ve given you any reasons not to trust me.”

“It’s just that you appeared out of nowhere right after we got rid of one team member who was selling information about me. And you seem really determined to stay with this team even though we barely know each other,” I said.

“A guy with mana, a half-succubus half-vampire, a human who dreams about becoming a demon, a completely emotionally unstable kitsune and shapeshifter who’s deeply connected to their animal soul sounds like a team of weirdos that might accept an empath who’s too curious for her own good.”

“Is it really that hard for you to find a team?” I asked.

“It’s hard to find a low-level team in general. Established teams usually don’t want to spend time helping you get stronger unless you have some special class that makes it worthwhile, or unless they don’t have another choice. And my class definitely isn’t special enough, especially once I explain that people around me lose their privacy because I end up poking around in their heads.”

“You say it like it’s a joke,” Zoe said, joining the conversation. “But just like there are myths about succubi, there are myths about empaths and what they can do once they become strong enough.”

“I’m not strong, and I don’t know what skills I’ll get,” Marcy replied. “Just like I don’t know if you won’t use your succubus magic to turn me into a sex doll for him,” she added, gesturing my way. “Especially when you grin like that at the idea,” Marcy added with a snort.

Zoe blushed, flicking her gaze toward me while still smiling.

“What are the myths about empaths and what they can supposedly do to people?” I asked.

“That they can control people, their thoughts, and their actions,” Marcy replied. “But I doubt it’s actually true. It’s just that empaths can be extremely manipulative because they’re able to read people’s thoughts and desires so well. It’s not that hard to convince someone to do something if you have a manual to their mind, and then later they blame the empath’s class and claim they were somehow forced, when really they were just manipulated and played.”

“You’re not exactly easing my worries.”

“Are you scared that a cute young girl like me could manipulate you?” she asked sweetly, blinking rapidly while giving me an adorable look.

“That’s manipulative on a deeper level,” I groaned.

“Or maybe I was just teasing you,” Marcy replied with a smile. “But because I’m an empath, it must have been manipulation, right? It’s like assuming that just because she’s a succubus, she goes around seducing everyone,” she added, gesturing toward Zoe.

“When it comes to women,” I said with a smirk, glancing at the succubus.

“Master!” Zoe pouted.

“I already promised that I don’t have any bad intentions toward you,” Marcy said. “I would like to stay on this team, but if my presence is going to keep bothering you, then we should probably part ways.”

I stared at her silently, wondering what to do. Having the Truth Seeking Stone confirm her words definitely helped. Though she had analyzed far more than I expected, and I wasn’t sure whether her figuring out I had mana was because she was genuinely clever or because it was simply obvious to anyone who knew I was with Zoe.

And now that she knew I had mana, perhaps it was better to actually keep her close instead of throwing her out of the team.

Especially since Cassia would demand explanations and she might just find someone else to replace Marcy, which would only introduce another person who might figure things out just like the lioness had. And there was also the matter of Cassia herself. She either already knew or would eventually figure it out because of how unnaturally strong and fast I was.

“I don’t see a reason to kick you out of the team,” I finally said.

“Yay!” Marcy gasped, sounding only slightly fake. “I passed the test,” she added more seriously, smiling.

“Sorry for the interrogation,” I said.

“I understand,” Marcy replied with a shrug. “But I’d prefer if that was the last time we used that thing,” she added, gesturing toward the Truth Seeking Stone.

“Sure. It’s not even mine,” I replied.

Marcy smiled before speaking again. “Any more questions, or can we head back?”

“Let’s go,” I replied, hiding the stone and leading the way back toward the road.

“Cassia wants to become a demon?” I asked almost immediately, thinking back to what Marcy had said earlier.

“She wants mana and a class, and since she was born without them, there’s no way for her to ever obtain either naturally. But there are legends that demons weren’t created out of nowhere by the gods. Supposedly, humans were infused with so much mana that they transformed into demons, gaining mana and classes in the process. Since one god is still alive, that’s basically the only path she could imagine for herself. Though it’s just a dream. It’s not like she could actually do it. Unless whatever happened to you could somehow be done to her too.”

“I was born like this,” I replied.

“Then she’ll just have to accept being human,” Marcy said.

“She still manages in the dungeon pretty well,” I noted.

“Is your lack of trust in me the reason you haven’t made a move on me yet?” Marcy suddenly changed the topic.

“Do you want me to make a move on you?”

“No,” she replied with a smirk, shaking her head.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t holding the stone anymore, so I had no idea whether she truly meant it or was simply teasing me again.

“Are you going to share what that second presence inside you actually is?” Marcy asked.

“And reveal all my secrets in one day?” I replied. “That would be boring, wouldn’t it?”

“Fine. I’ll figure it out eventually anyway. Just like I figured out the other thing.”

I only shook my head with a smile, though if Peri continued to grow, it was probably inevitable that Marcy would eventually discover her too. Still, Marcy already knew a lot. Some things could remain hidden a little longer.

As we approached the city, we all fell silent while passing the guards and the people moving in and out through the gates.

“Have fun on your date with Cassia,” Marcy said just before splitting off from the group while we headed back home.

“A date with Cassia?!” Zoe gasped, looking at me surprised.