Chapter 30

“We should leave them here!” Marcus said with a raised voice from behind a wall.

I murmured, pulling Zoe’s naked body against me, holding her in my arms.

“They’re going with us,” Tori replied calmly, or perhaps even bored.

Opening my eyes, I looked into big pink eyes staring into mine. It was dark, but the first weak rays of sunlight allowed me to see Zoe’s beautiful face.

“Didn't you hear what they did at night? This asshole is forcing his **** to have sex with him!” Marcus screamed.

“From what I heard, Marcus, Zoe was actually begging him,” Tori replied.

Zoe blushed cutely and turned her face, hiding it in a pillow.

“That doesn't change a thing. They should be quiet! They knew that we were just behind the wall!”

“You're just jealous,” Tori replied. “Once we get to Ortas, find yourself some girl, have a good fuck, and you'll loosen up,” she said.

The door of one of the rooms closed, and steps echoed through the corridor until someone left the house. A moment later, the second person also left, leaving us in complete silence as I lay with Zoe, face to face.

“How do you feel?” I asked, whispering.

She glanced at me, smiling, then shifted closer, pressing herself to my chest. I rolled onto my back, pulling her on top of me. She hugged me closely, rubbing her cheek against my naked skin.

I chuckled. “I guess that means good.”

Zoe didn't reply, just hugged me with a soft smile on her sweet lips. I put my hand on her back and shifted lower, stopping when I reached her firm ass.

“How is your ass? Does it hurt?”

“A bit,” Zoe whispered.

“Did you like it?” I asked.

“Master, anything you would do with me, I would like,” Zoe answered, staring me straight in the eyes.

Her tail, which had been wrapped around my thigh the whole night, untwined. Brushing my skin, it shifted to my cock, which it started to massage.

“Should I take care of you?” Zoe asked quietly, staring into my eyes, her lips slightly parted, her pupils dilated, and her tail wrapped around my dick.

I only nodded, and a wide grin appeared on her face. Zoe shifted over my body, kneeling between my legs and immediately wrapping her sweet lips around my shaft.

She immediately started to bob her head, licking my whole length and massaging my balls. It wasn't long before I exploded into her hot mouth, flooding her with my cum. Zoe licked me clean and then headed to the bathroom to wash herself after our fun the previous night.

I lay there for a minute longer, basking in the afterglow of my orgasm. That was life—much better than the one I had back in my old world.

I wasn't sure what hour it was; generally, in this world, it seemed like it wasn't so important. I had no idea what month it was or even what day of the week it was. But perhaps it was like that for me only because I didn't have any job.

As pleasant as it was to just lie there, Tori and Marcus wanted to set off early and had already left the house. She said she wouldn’t leave us behind, but I didn’t want to give them any more reasons, so I needed to get up.

Walking through the corridor, I knocked on the bathroom door and glanced inside. Zoe was sitting in the bathtub, washing herself.

“Will you join me?” she asked.

I bit my lower lip, watching her naked, wet body, but shook my head. “We don't have time for that. I’ll go look for Tori. When you finish, collect our items and join me.”

Then I left the house and glanced around, looking for our guides.

Wait. I didn't have a dream today. Gemma didn't visit me. I doubted that she could just forget, but I had no way to contact her to check if something had happened.

Perhaps I could try to find her and check if everything was alright, but that would probably take me a few days, if not more. Who knows how far away she was? And she had mentioned that she didn't want any connections between us.

It was better to just wait—maybe she would contact me. In the meantime, I could go on with my normal life. If she didn’t reach out for a few more nights, then I could start thinking about whether I should do something about it.

I slowly walked around the house that our host was living in. Tori and Marcus stood there on the road, talking with him. Tori glanced at me and nodded while still talking. I headed toward them, but it looked like they had already finished, as the older man walked toward his house, greeting me on the way.

“I bought food for breakfast, but we will eat it on the road,” Tori said to me. “And we will stop in a bigger town around noon, so we can eat a warm meal and rest there.”

“How much for the food?” I asked.

“Two ryns.”

“Zoe has all the money. I’ll give it back to you later,” I said. “When are we leaving?” I asked.

“Soon. Are you ready to go?”

“Zoe is still washing, but she will be ready soon.”

Tori smiled softly, nodding. “I need to take care of something. Let’s meet here in twenty minutes, and then we will go,” she said, and then, without waiting for my answer, she turned around and headed toward the forest.

Marcus and I followed her with our gazes. What was she going to do in the forest?

Marcus snorted and turned toward one of the other houses in the village. I went back to the house that we had slept in. Zoe was coming out of the bedroom, clothed in her new clothes that were clearly too big for her.

“Master,” she whined, lifting her arms and pouting. “These clothes are terrible. They’re hiding my whole body.”

I stepped close to her and wrapped my arms around her, pressing her slim form against my body and groping her ass.

“And who do you want to show your body to?”

“You, obviously.”

“You don't need to do it. I can see it in full glory every night. And every morning,” I said, and pecked her lips as she was still pouting. “But we can buy you new ones when we reach Ortas and earn some money.”

Zoe nodded, smiling softly.

“We are going soon,” I added.

Instead of answering, Zoe kissed me again, pressing her body tighter against me. My cock hardened extremely quickly, and I had to stop our kiss, taking a step back, because otherwise we would be late. Probably by a lot.

“Tease,” I murmured, making Zoe grin. “Let’s go,” I added.

We left the house and walked back on the road where I had talked with Tori. Marcus was already waiting there, but I didn't approach him and stood to the side. With nothing better to do as we were waiting for Tori, I grabbed Zoe and kissed her.

“I’m ready, lovebirds,” Tori said after coming back from the forest. “Let’s go.”

We headed out of the small village. Beyond the stop in the town for food, we were supposed to be on the road the whole day again, to reach a small town in the evening, spend the night there, and reach Ortas the next day around noon. It wasn't a lot of time to seduce Tori, and it seemed that it wouldn't be as easy as it was with Amelia or Samara.

Both of them were almost immediately ready to spread their legs for me. Tori, on the other hand, didn’t seem really interested. It seemed that Gemma was right—women without a class were easy targets for me with my skills. Tori, with her magical class, had higher resistance, and my skills didn't work on her.

I didn't know what her abilities were, so being too pushy could be a bad idea too. And there was Marcus—he didn't have a class, but he still fought against monsters and could use his sword.

He was attracted to Tori and would certainly not like it if I started to flirt with her. Perhaps it would be better to wait until we reached Ortas and then try something with her.

I decided that this way would be the safest, and I wouldn't risk losing my guides. There, we should have many more opportunities to meet without Marcus close. I decided not to try on the road and to wait for a better moment in the city.

We walked in silence, much closer to each other this time, with Tori and Marcus still ahead of us, but Zoe and I were just behind them. I wondered if I should train my mana skill again, but as I summoned it, I felt that it didn’t come up easily, and it was hard to focus on it to control it.

Perhaps it was like with muscles, and I needed time to regenerate, and I shouldn’t train so hard day after day. Could I actually get injured that way? Those were questions for Gemma when I had an opportunity to ask them.

Instead of practicing mana summoning, I started considering how to organize my life in this new world. I needed a job—or rather, a way to make money. It would also be useful to learn more about this world. Normally, I’d just look it up on the internet, but here, I’d have to go back to old-school methods and find a library.

I hoped that Ortas would be a place where I could start to organize my life.

After a few hours, we got close to a small town. Looking at the sun, I would say it was actually around noon. As Tori had said, we were supposed to make a short stop there to eat a fresh and hot meal, rest for a moment, and then head toward the town where we were supposed to spend the night.

This town was bigger than the village that we had stopped at before, but it was smaller than Caldwin. There were a few dozen houses there, shops, and a tavern that we walked into.

We sat at the table and didn't even manage to order before an older man approached us. He was tall but slim, and in old, shabby clothes.

“Sorry to bother you,” he said, drawing the attention of everyone at the table. “Are you, by any chance, adventurers?”

“Yes,” Tori replied immediately.

“Then maybe you could help me. My brother is missing. He headed to a nearby swamp, hunting alligators. I told him that’s a stupid idea, and it's more likely those beasts would eat him than he would catch one of them. But that stubborn old fool went there anyway,” the man said with a sigh.

“It’s been two days, and he hasn’t come back. I’m worried that something happened to him. Maybe he’s wounded or something,” the man said, lowering his head. “I know that after two days… it's more likely… But even if so, I want to know,” he finished. “I don't want to worry that maybe he’s somewhere out there, waiting for help, while I’m holding his funeral here.”

He stopped for a moment with a sigh. “I don't have a lot, but I will pay you to go to those swamps and look for him, or at least some traces of him.”

“How far away are those swamps?” Tori asked.

“Less than an hour,” he replied.

“We were about to continue our journey. If we decide to help, we’ll have to stay here longer—that means an extra night at the inn, food for four people, and on top of that, we’ll have to go into the swamps,” Tori said.

The man frowned, and his shoulders slumped. “I only have forty ryns. I can't give you more,” he murmured.

“Don’t you have anything that you can sell or give us additionally?” Tori asked.

The man frowned again and sighed heavily. “I have a dagger, but it's not worth a lot,” he said and pulled a short dagger from behind his belt. It was clearly used for years. Tori grabbed it and looked it over before returning it to the old man.

“Forty ryns and this dagger, and we will go look for your brother.”

The man didn't seem happy but sighed. “The old fool,” he murmured, and then nodded. “Fine, but you need to take care of this quickly. He’s been there too long already.”

“We will eat and head there, but you need to show us the way,” Tori said.

“When you leave the tavern, go left along the road to the end of town. There is a smaller road in the forest, but I live in the last house along this road on the right, so knock when you are ready, and I will show you the way.”

Tori agreed, and the man left. Then she looked at me.

“Do you want to earn some money?” she asked.

“You don’t know what you’ll meet there,” I replied.

“Another wild animal or a weak monster. Or that man just got lost. Twenty ryns if you help us.”

“That's not even half of what you get for that job,” I answered.

“Are you going to fight against a monster if we stumble upon something? Zoe will look for any tracks of the man, and we will kill anything that can be there. You will just stand there and watch. Do you think you should get half?”

“Twenty-five,” I replied, ignoring her arguments.

“Fine,” Tori answered immediately.

Marcus frowned but didn't say anything, staring at her.

We ordered food, and for the first time in this world, I ate something without Zoe sitting in my lap, but she still sat next to me as close as possible, pressing her body against me.

After we finished our meal, for which I paid two ryns, we left the tavern, heading toward the house that the man had told us about.

“Can we borrow a dagger for Zoe?” I asked Tori.

She looked at me and, without a word, pulled out her dagger and gave it to me. Marcus snorted, clearly unhappy, but it seemed like Tori didn’t care about his opinion at all, and I wasn’t going to either. I walked back to Zoe and passed her the weapon, and we continued along the road holding hands.

When we knocked on the door, the man came out of the house and pointed to a small forest path. He said that we just needed to follow it, and we would reach the swamps.

We walked along it, and it wasn’t even an hour—perhaps closer to thirty minutes—when we reached the swamps, but it was probably because of the quick pace that Tori set, going first.

The trees grew sparse, and the ground turned wetter. I’d say the swamp truly began when we passed a very shallow pond, mostly covered by grass and cane.

Ahead of us stretched wide expanses of the same—ponds, soggy ground, tall grass, cane, and the occasional short, solitary tree. But I couldn’t see far; a light mist hovered just above the ground.

I didn't like this place, but Tori didn't even hesitate as she headed through the swamps. We walked for a moment. I must have let go of Zoe’s hand because the path was too narrow. The shoes that I had gotten from Samara were leaking as they were sinking into the soggy ground.

The mist around us was getting thicker, and there was not a single track of the lost man we were looking for. We had no chance to find him.

“Tori,” I said, wanting to convince her to drop it, as we would never find him. But she wasn't in front of me—just like Zoe, or even Marcus.

I looked around. I was there alone. What happened? They were there just moments ago.

“Zoe?!” I shouted.

“Toby,” a female voice said from somewhere in front of me, spreading like an echo. There was only one person who called me that. And I was able to recognize the voice. But that was impossible.

“What the fuck?” I murmured as none other than my ex-wife emerged from the fog. She was covered in mud, slowly walking toward me. I started backing away, but behind me was a pond—I had nowhere left to go.

“Toby, Toby, Toby,” she was repeating, walking toward me, but when she was halfway, she dropped to her knees, crying. Tears streamed down her cheeks, leaving streaks in the dirt covering her face.

“I’m sorry, Toby, I’m sorry,” she murmured, staring at me.

“What are you?” I asked, taking a step back, entering the pond, making my whole shoes wet.

“It’s me, Fiona, your wife.”

“No, she can't be here.”

“Toby, I'm sorry. I was so stupid. He… he left me a week after we signed the papers. I was so devastated… I tried to find you… but you vanished. And then this witch showed up in my house, and we made a deal, and she helped me find you again.”

“Gemma, that was her name. She told me that you know her, and she knows where you are. The blonde in the blue dress. I made a deal with her. Tobias, I’m so sorry, I was so stupid. Please forgive me. I still love you, please,” Fiona said, shifting toward me on her knees.

“The witch… she told me that there’s still a chance for us,” Fiona mumbled.

Could Gemma really do something like that? But why? And why here?

No, it wasn't the truth. It wasn't Fiona. But how did it know all of that? That didn't matter. It was a magical world—maybe it could read memories from my mind or something.

Whatever. I needed to run away. I turned around and started to head through the swamp. In places, it reached to my waist, and it was really hard to move forward, but I was not stopping.

I reached the solid ground and took two steps, finally feeling the hard ground under me. I immediately started to run, but something grabbed my ankle, and I fell.

Fiona had grabbed me by the ankle and pulled me really hard, which only confirmed even more that it wasn't my ex-wife. It was impossible for her to move so quickly in the swamp and to be so strong. She turned me over so I was on my back. I tried to kick, but I didn't even notice as it jumped on top of me, holding my legs with her own and my hands pinned over my head.

She was hovering over me as I tried to fight, but I couldn't out-strength her, as she was holding me. I tried to twist my body, but she was unnaturally heavy and was pressing my thighs to the ground. I was struggling, but she was just holding me, seeming completely at ease as if it wasn't any bother for her.

She was leaning closer and closer toward me.

It was going to eat me.

Alive.

When her face was close, I tried to strike her with my head, aiming my forehead at her nose, but she immediately backed off too quickly for me to do anything.

She pressed harder on my hands, and suddenly I couldn't move them even when she was not holding me anymore. Something wet and cold was surrounding them, and it seemed like she had somehow wrapped my hands with ground.

She grabbed my hair and held me in place. I tried to attack her again with my head, but I couldn't move it at all. As she was leaning down toward me, I spat in her eye, trying anything, but she didn't care about it at all and leaned down further.

I needed to throw her off me, but as I tried to push my hips up, I couldn't even shift them a little. That thing was too heavy. I couldn't even roll, and I had no way to grab something or hit it, as my hands were completely immobilized.

As I felt her breath on my mouth, I tried to bite her first, but she was just inches out of my reach. I struggled as hard as I could, panting, but I was completely immobilized as more and more of this wet and cold substance was wrapping around my body. I couldn't move at all, only watching as this creature that looked like my ex-wife was getting close to my face again.

Then the creature pecked my lips. “Now we will be together forever. I made a deal with this witch,” the monster said. Why was it still pretending? Then the monster leaned down again. I tried to bite her again, but she held my chin, making it impossible.

She brushed her lips against mine and then licked my whole face, from my chin to my forehead, leaving a wet trace of her saliva all over my face.

What the fuck?!