After the old man and his two bodyguards accosted us, we managed to run away, but I was worried that they would find us again. Fortunately, moving quickly through the main street, together with Zoe, we reached the city gate without any additional trouble.

  Zoe walked beside me, hugging my arm, pressing into my side as if she wanted to disappear. She didn’t even look at the road ahead, her face buried against my biceps.

  “Zoe,” I said, stopping just in front of the gate.

  She lifted her big, pink eyes to me, wrinkling her cute nose.

  “We’ll travel to Ortas with Tori and Marcus. It should be safer this way, but we don't know them, and they could be dangerous too,” I said. “So always stay close to me and be careful, okay?”

  Zoe nodded vigorously, her white hair flying everywhere. “Yes, Master.”

  I was worried that traveling with them might be a bad idea, as they could try to rob or attack us. We could try to travel alone, but then we risked running into monsters or bandits.

  We didn't have a lot of money, but monsters didn't care about that, and bandits wouldn’t know. And they might want to harm Zoe. Was Marcus a threat to her?

  He didn't have any magic or a css, so she should be able to easily beat him. She could always drain his blood or, in the worst-case scenario, kill him during sex. But that would have to happen first, and I wouldn’t allow it—no man would touch Zoe.

  “Master,” she said, pulling my arm. “Everything will be fine. I think we’ll be safe with them. Tori seemed nice.”

  Smiling lightly, I leaned down to kiss her briefly.

  After walking through the city’s gate, I looked around, searching for our guides. They were waiting along the road, talking. Or rather, it was Marcus who was speaking, as Tori only stood there facing the gate. When our eyes met, she waved at us. Marcus immediately gnced at us with a frown.

  As we approached them, I reminded myself of my new skill and that I hadn't taken a photo of them yet. I focused on my mana and saved their image with tags: “Tori,” “Marcus,” “Caldwin,” “redhead,” and “guides to Ortas.”

  “We made it,” I said, smiling.

  Marcus only grunted, turning away from us.

  “You don't have anything with you?” Tori asked, looking from me to Zoe.

  I sighed heavily. “A few days ago, we were robbed, and they took everything. That’s why I want to travel with you—so you can protect us.”

  “So you don't have money,” Marcus accused.

  “We do, but not a lot. We can afford to pay you.”

  “And what are you going to eat?” Marcus asked.

  “Perhaps we’ll buy something from you. Also, Zoe is an amazing hunter, so maybe she’ll catch something.”

  “We don't bring a lot of food with us,” Tori said. “But we’re traveling to a vilge where we have a quest, and we’ll be there by evening, so you could buy something then.”

  I nodded. “Can we talk before we set off? Just the two of us?” I asked, gncing quickly at Marcus, then back at Tori.

  “Why?!” he asked immediately.

  I didn't answer him, looking at Tori and waiting for her response.

  “Marcus, wait, I’ll talk with him,” she said.

  We moved out of Marcus’s hearing range. He was staring at me, his hand on the sword by his belt. I focused on Tori’s face, hoping my skill to read people would help me gauge if she was telling the truth.

  “We don't have a lot of money,” I said. “So if you’re pnning to rob us, you won’t get much.”

  Tori frowned, wrinkling her nose and forehead. “We’re not thieves,” she replied firmly.

  “Is Marcus your boyfriend?”

  “No!” Tori hissed. “And it's none of your business.”

  “Do you think he could be a threat to Zoe?”

  Tori’s gaze flicked to Zoe, and she seemed to rex. Then she looked at me with firmness in her eyes. “Let him try, and I'll castrate him,” Tori said. But then she rolled her eyes. “But no, he wouldn’t do anything like that.”

  “So you honestly just want to help us?”

  “We want to earn money,” Tori replied.

  Nothing in her expression suggested she was lying or hiding something. I wasn't sure how my skill worked or if I’d even be able to detect if something was wrong, but I had a feeling that everything was fine.

  “Okay, thanks. We can go if you're ready,” I said.

  Tori nodded, and we returned to Marcus, with Zoe following by my side the whole time.

  “What did he want?” Marcus asked immediately.

  “To make sure we don't have any bad intentions toward them,” Tori replied. “Let’s go,” she added, heading along the road.

  “So, what kind of work do you do?” I asked, following her.

  “Isn't it obvious?” Tori asked. “We complete quests or explore dungeons if there’s nothing better to do.”

  “Is it safe to explore a dungeon with just two people?” I asked.

  “That depends on who’s doing the exploring,” Tori replied, looking at me and Zoe. “But on the lower floors, it’s quite safe,” she added with a shrug.

  “Is it profitable?”

  Tori gnced at me, frowning.

  “I’m not from here, and where I come from, there are no dungeons. This is the first time I’ve met someone who does this.”

  “We stay on the lower floors,” Tori replied. “So there’s no danger to us, but also the income isn’t the best. We need to spend a lot of hours farming items to earn enough.”

  “Do you like doing it, or is it just about the money?” I asked.

  Tori gnced at me. For a moment, she seemed surprised by the question, but then she smiled. “I like hunting monsters.”

  “Is it about the thrill?” I asked.

  “I like that moment when I catch my prey—when it's helpless, when it knows it has lost and been defeated.”

  Something about that answer felt off, but I couldn’t quite say why. “Have you been doing this for long?” I asked.

  “No, my parents wouldn't let me leave home until I turned eighteen. It's been about half a year since Marcus and I set out together.”

  “Do you have a css?” I asked.

  Tori looked at me, squinting her eyes. “Do you think that we would explore if I didn't have one?”

  “What css do you have?”

  “No!” Marcus interrupted. “She won’t tell you anything, and why do you even want to know?!” he asked, almost shouting.

  I stopped myself from smiling, seeing how he was getting angry over me just talking with Tori. I shrugged. “Just curious.”

  “I prefer to keep it to myself,” Tori replied.

  “Sure. Are we going to make stops along the road?” I asked.

  “No!” Marcus replied. “If that’s a problem for you, you can stay behind,” he added.

  “No problem at all,” I replied with a smile.

  “And that's enough with those questions. It’s not an interrogation,” Marcus said. “You need to go with us? Fine, but you don't need to walk so close to us. Give us some privacy.”

  I noticed a slight frown cross Tori’s face, but she pressed her lips into a line and didn't say anything.

  “Sure,” I answered, chuckling and lifting my hands.

  Marcus was clearly jealous of Tori, but she didn’t seem really interested in him, and I could sense some tension between them, which really gave me hope that Tori would end up in my bed in the end. I only needed to be careful with Marcus, as he might not take it well if he found out about it.

  Zoe and I slowed down as our guides walked in front of us. Tori had a really nice, firm ass, and with them walking ahead of us, I had a whole day to ogle it.

  Tori and Marcus widened the distance enough that I could talk to Zoe without them hearing us—unless we shouted. Marcus leaned toward Tori, speaking and gesturing while gncing in my direction, making it obvious what he was talking about.

  We were supposed to travel the whole day, and I realized that it would be a good opportunity to train my mana summoning skill, as Gemma advised me. I focused on it and summoned a small amount, watching Tori. If she reacted in any way, detecting my mana, I was ready to say that it was Zoe. But Tori didn't react at all, and I assumed she couldn’t sense it.

  For some time, I just walked with the mana in front of me, mainly focusing on Tori’s ass. A few times, the mana slipped out of my control, but each time I managed to hold my mental grip on it and didn't let it vanish.

  It was moving with me along the road, even when I wasn't focusing on it. As a test, I summoned a new portion over a stone by the road. It remained hovering over it in pce, but with every step, it became harder to control, and in the end, it slipped out of focus. It seemed that the distance between me and the mana had an impact on how hard it was to control.

  I summoned mana once again in front of me. It seemed that if I positioned it in retion to my body, it moved along with me. Perhaps I was doing this subconsciously, but I wasn't sure if that knowledge could be useful in any way.

  It didn't take long before I was able to walk and hold the mana in front of me all the time. It became too easy after some training, mostly because there was really nothing that could distract me on the road.

  “Zoe,” I said, realizing that wasn’t completely true.

  “Yes, Master?”

  “I need to practice controlling my mana. How about we py a game?”

  Zoe nodded eagerly, grinning.

  “I will summon mana. Your job will be to distract me so it slips out of my control. If you manage to do it… let's say ten times before we reach the vilge, you will get a reward.”

  “What?” Zoe asked, sounding excited.

  “Hmm… is there something you would want from me?”

  Her eyes glistened, but her cheeks reddened, and she averted her gaze.

  “I guess it’s about sex,” I said, chuckling.

  Zoe nodded slightly.

  “So?”

  “I want Master… in my… butt…”

  I snorted, grinning. “That was supposed to be a reward for you. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

  Zoe nodded firmly.

  “Sure, no problem. Ten times, and today I will take the st of your holes and make you completely mine,” I said, softly spping her ass.

  “Are there any rules?” Zoe asked.

  I considered it for a moment. “You can't use the same method twice,” I said.

  “And I can do whatever I want?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  Zoe nodded and already seemed like she was considering her options.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “Yes!”

  I took a deep breath and then focused on my mana, summoning it in front of me and concentrating to hold it there.

  “Let’s start,” I said.

  Something poked me in my side, making my whole body jerk with a gasp as pain surged through me. I gnced at Zoe, who had stabbed me hard with her finger just below my ribs.

  “Did it work?” she asked, sounding excited.

  At that moment, I realized I had seriously overestimated my abilities. Fortunately, the reward she asked for was a reward for me as well.

  “Yeah,” I replied, making Zoe grin widely.

  I sighed, summoning mana again. “Ready.”

  Zoe touched me where she had just stabbed me and rubbed the pce gently. “I’m sorry, Master,” she whispered cutely.

  Remaining focused on the mana, I gnced at her. She had wrinkled eyebrows and was watching me with her pink eyes. “It's okay,” I said.

  “Look!” she screamed, pointing between the trees on the other side of the road.

  I looked there, remaining focused on the mana, and succeeded in controlling it. As I suspected, there was nothing where she had pointed.

  Marcus and Tori in front of us stopped and looked toward us.

  “What was there?” Marcus asked.

  “A squirrel,” Zoe replied, quickly gncing at the ground.

  “Maybe don't scream next time you see a cute animal,” Tori said with a smirk, staring at me. Then she headed forward, pulling Marcus to follow.

  “Still one point,” I said.

  Zoe nodded, and for a few minutes, we walked in silence, without any attempt from her. It wasn't possible that she was out of ideas, so she must have been trying to catch me off guard. I tried to remain focused on the mana, but it wasn’t easy to concentrate on just one thing for a long time without my thoughts running in different directions.

  “Master, look!” Zoe said, this time quieter, pointing between the trees.

  I gnced there, still holding the mana in my mental grip. Then I looked at her as she was staring at me eagerly. “Did you really think that would work a second time? And you were not supposed to repeat methods.”

  Zoe pouted, focusing on the road ahead of us. I chuckled, seeing her cute expression.

  “Master, look!” Zoe said again, pointing to the side. I smiled, looking where she was pointing.

  “I already told you that—”

  I stopped when I turned toward her, and Zoe held her shirt up, exposing her naked tits pointed straight at me, as they bounced with her every step. She quickly pulled her clothes down, watching me with hope in her eyes.

  “Two, and it was worth it,” I said, gncing ahead of us. Marcus was still focused on the road in front, and I was gd he didn't see anything.

  It was a cheap trick from Zoe, one I had expected, yet she still managed to distract me. At least she wouldn’t be able to pull it off again, and I liked the direction this game was heading much more than her first attempt—when she stabbed me.