I remembered what Pest told me. His magic abilities were awfully expensive, and useless without heavy investments. Heavy for my younger standards, that's it—right now I could afford to pour a couple hundred thousand EXP into him. At the very least, it'd be better if he could suck out my abilities faster.

'Pest, had you levelled up your EXP sucking ability yet?'

'Yes, yes, yes. Do you want anything else removed?'

'No, but suck on my,' the desire to say "dick" was almost irresistible, but I held myself. I wasn't a child anymore, 'EXP and level up the sucking ability as soon as you could until you can, hmm…' I made some calculations in my mind. 'Until you can suck thirty-two thousand EXP per hour. How much EXP that will take for you, do you know, Pest?'

'I can calculate. Just give me time!'

'Go on.'

It took Pest a dozen minutes. 'Should cost me just a little less than half a million EXP.' His voice was hopeful. 'Can I proceed?'

'Yes. And don't forget to notify me when you're done.' Half a million I could afford. But I wondered how long that will take him.

When Pest went to chomp on my EXP, I thought about things. As annoying and hateful Pest was at the beginning, and as snarky when I first bound him, he had a much better attitude now that EXP was on the menu for him. Apparently it was a source of great pleasure for him… which meant that I could use it to train him into someone… someone I could let speak whenever they wanted and they won't anger me half to death and will actually be helpful.

That was worth thinking about.

⠀⠀

I spotted Yvenna's ant-sized figure as I flew down the mountains. She was walking down a serpentine path, and as the chances were, looked up just in time to notice me flying by. She stopped to wave at me, and I found nothing better than to wave back before flying on.

I was later to return to Glesk than I originally planned, because of how hard it was to find the sneaky griffins, but it was worth it. The loot and abilities I got were worth it. Plus, all the cows I could buy after Rosha sold the eggs.

When I got to Glesk on my new magic wings (which were noticeably faster and much more comfortably in long flights), it was midnight of the same day I killed the griffins (though, technically, it was the next one). "Rosha's Weapons & Armour" didn't change at all since the last time I've seen the building, at least from the outside.

I knocked on Rosha's window. My face covered in some rags I stole from a clothesline on my way here. I didn't want to scare Rosha into screaming until she woke up the entire house and a few neighbours, and my face could have that effect.

I heard Rosha shift inside almost immediately. She had a sensitive sleep. She said nothing at first, though. I heard her approaching the window, and only then her voice came from behind the wooden shutters. "Who's there?"

"That's me, Voren. Let me in."

"Voren?" The shutters opened wide, and I was face to face with the seductive face of Rosha. She was dressed in only her nightgown, but held a long, wicked dagger pointed at me. It was a sight that forced me to swallow all the saliva that pooled in my mouth. "That's really you! Why the hell are you in my window?"

Oh, if she refused to sleep with me because I had transparent skin now, I would be furious.

"Well, the door is locked for the night," I said, squeezing myself inside the room. Rosha stepped back and lowered her dagger. "Plus, I got a new face that won't agree with most people, I imagine."

"A new face?" Rosha's face scrunched in confusion. "Damn, I can't see thing in this dark. Let me light a candle."

I did, since I couldn't see much as well on this particularly dark night. When the warm flickers of the candlelight flickered on all the skin that didn't fit inside of Rosha's light nightgown, she looked even better than I ever remembered her to be. Her beautiful fresh-blue eyes scrutinised me from top to bottom, and the confusion in them didn't clear.

"Your wings look different. And why do you have these rags on your head?"

"As I said, I have a new face." I began to pull them off. "I thought it will be better to not surprise you with it."

When the last piece of cloth fell on the floor, Rosha sucked in a sharp breath, but besides that, held admirably well. "Yeah. That's for sure. So you… evolved it? You have a new hair, too. Can't you evolve it back?"

I pinched at my cheek and shrugged. "Maybe. I was thinking about using mimicry to negate this, but the thing about creatures with mimicry is that they are quite hard to find. Meanwhile, I have what I have. There are benefits too, you know." I looked at Rosha and imagined what my new flexibility could do in bed. I already checked that I could get myself up, even with this liquid body… "And you will like them a lot, I'm sure."

"Uh…" Rosha didn't look as enthusiastic as I felt, but I knew just what would make her so.

"By the way, I didn't save you any griffin feathers, Rosha, but," without further ado, I pulled a griffin egg out of my bag and unwrapped its protective cover, "I found this. And this is just one of the three. If you sell them all in my stead, you can keep a third of the profits. How about that?"

The faint disappointment in Rosha's eyes was gone, replaced by pure joy. She moved towards me with a determination that made me harden ever more than I was, stopping only when her breasts pressed hard into my chest. The words she said… were just the sort I wanted to hear.

"Just tell me what sexual favours you want in return this time."