Sara moved her body carefully in a specific rhythm designed to give the young man underneath no ability to resist. The target’s eyes were glued to her softly swaying breasts while the lower half of his body was massaged into ecstasy.

As his body’s muscles started to clench in a final push, Sara leaned down low without stopping her movements to whisper, “Good Boy.”

The target’s eyes rolled back into his head as his mouth relaxed in a grin, and in the moment of utter mind-blowing pleasure, Sara struck. Dormant runes flowed over her skin, as her pre-prepared Skills and Spells held until this moment were used ruthlessly.

Pleasant Dream V a usually easily resisted Spell sent the young man into an irresistible slumber as the pleasure of orgasm ripped his mental defenses down. Succubus’s Touch V gently pulled all the mana from his body, stealing all the hard-won power the young man had accumulated over his life. Simultaneously, the target’s mind was utterly melted by constantly refreshing orgasmic bliss from the combination of both abilities. These typically easily resisted Spells were the perfect weapons for someone like Sara, thanks to her noble linage.

With the mana drained from the target and his mind turned into a pleasure addicted shell, the Skill of Serpent’s Bite V met no resistance. Sara had gracefully bit the hollow between her target's shoulder and neck, pumping a lethal set of poisons into the target’s body. They would slowly wither him to death until his body was nothing but skin and bones. Simultaneously, the Skill Equivalent Exchange V hastened the process that Serpent’s Bite V started.

Sara felt power suffuse her bones, blood, and flesh as Equivalent Exchange V forced the young man to trade the power of his body for the pleasure she had given. It was an unequal exchange, although since the target wasn’t awake to refuse, Sara was able to set the terms.

As the target’s final thrusts finished pumping into her and his body started to twitch endlessly in reaction to her attacks, she grinned a vicious smile of victory. Moving without haste, Sara dismounted the living corpse before approaching a basin of warm water set near the decadent bed of her best murder yet. She took a moment to clean her body with the linen cloth and water before using the spell Clean V to remove all traces from her body. Another Spell's use ensured no traces of her left on the bed or anywhere in the room.

Enter. Sara said, reaching out to one of her servants posted nearby as a backup plan.

A young female maid that looked strikingly similar to Sara entered the room, her dead eyes glancing only ones at the target before she approached her mistress to say, “Mistress, your mother sent an urgent message for you.” As the maid finished, she rapidly used her own Skills and Spells to equip Sara properly.

There had been no way the target would have allowed himself to slowly be enchanted by Sara if she had been wearing her standard gear. Ten emerald rings sparkled on her fingers once more, a robe of shimmering snakeskin that displayed her assets prominently, and crisp leather boots that made weak men imagine being stepped on. Her inner garments were carefully tailored to reveal without being obvious. Equally ruthless her entire wardrobe was enchanted to give a pleasant scent to any male that came close.

Sara, Young Mistress of the Snake and premier assassin in the bedroom's art, gave one final glance at the living corpse on the bed. It had taken weeks to addict Henry, the Lion’s eldest son, to her. Weeks of pretending to be a powerless maid, something she knew he preferred as prey. Weeks of patience under his pawing hands and licking tongue. Today’s kill was the accumulation of all her effort. A flicker of will removed the illusion she had maintained over her eyes. Suddenly the room had a pair of dimly glowing emerald irises within it. With a smirk, Sara dismissed the final gasping breaths of the slowly dying man.

“Let us go. First in line to succeed the Lion, Henry the Seventh requires peace in his final moments of ultimate ending.” Sara said, her voice once more taking on the hypnotic tones that could enchant a man into madness. Wearing her proper form after weeks of patient stalking was always a slight twist on the senses. The maid set a small orb that started flashing on the ground, and both women exited the room.

After they left, the orb flashed once, flooding the room in a massive pulse of power, shattering all chance of tracking, and leaving no trace of their presence behind.

Moving rapidly through the spatial treasure that was Henry’s home away from home, Sara used the spatial Spell of Blink V on both her and her maid when they exited the back door. Entering her own home was the work of a moment, and moving to her personal relaxation room took seconds.

Finally, laying back on a soft chair designed to allow penultimate comfort, as well as other more fun things, Sara gestured with one hand.

A glowing orb of pale green was placed into her palm by the maid. Pushing her mana into the sphere, Sara waited patiently. Her mother had a flair for the dramatic, and as a result, a simple call could become something much longer.

Sara. Her mother’s mental voice appeared almost instantly through the orb.

Sara straightened, as the voice was anxious. Her mother never worried. It caused wrinkles!

Mother? Sara replied.

Break from the others immediately. There has been a strike on the nearby Serpent Empire’s dungeon town by unknown human aggressors. From what little I can understand, it appears the Rat obliterated a massive portion of the town and stole the Dungeon Core. Sara’s mother replied.

Sara stared at the orb for a long moment. If she weren’t sure that the voice speaking was her mother due to their bloodline link, the young woman would have thought someone had managed to break into her home and replace the orb with a fake. As the urgency of the news settled in, her mind spun rapidly.

There is no way to evade hunters from the Serpent in their own land. Sara sent, her mind chilling. Hunters, even worse, military scouts, wouldn’t care about the thin relations between her house and the Empire. A blow like this could result in only one form of retaliation.

Annihilation.

You will have to enter the next layer. Find someone on the road traveling and join them. Hide in a village. I will contact you when the war finishes. Sara, this could take years. Her mother said, her tone somber.

Sara looked at the luxury around her and sighed. A village would not have this level of comfort. Even if she enchanted the village's chief and murdered his wife, it wouldn’t compare to even a tenth of her current luxury. She sent a small prayer to the Snake, the Serpent's female descendant, before sending a final reply.

Good hunting, mother. The oldest cub is dead. Sara sent. A wave of satisfaction flowed from the orb as her mother acknowledged the death of the one who killed Sara’s younger sister.

The old Lion had claimed it was an accident, so his eldest son paid the price for such an accident.

A mental command to the nearby maid sent her scurrying to grab the traveling disguise. Sara’s eyes shifted once more as her clothing and even skin altered themselves like a snake molting. In place of the once resplendent young mistress was a slightly beautiful young woman. Ten copper rings adorned her fingers, while brown clothing cloaked her form. Turning to the maid as she entered the room once more, Sara took the traveling harness filled with pouches. Disguising everything in a spatial ring was too risky for now. A wave of her hand stored everything in the room inside. Moving throughout the house, Sara ensured nothing was left behind. Maids scurried past her as she moved, each one heading to a male within the noble’s party that enjoyed spending time with them.

The maids would rob their targets blind after a night of pleasure before heading into the wild as decoys. Sara grimaced at the thought of how many might escape. However, they were all fanatically loyal to the Snake.

Most women who were rescued from abuse tended to be so.

After finishing emptying her house, Sara exited the spatial treasure. Turning, she made a pulling gesture before the entire device vanished into the most oversized pouch. Before anyone could take action at the disappearance of her home, Sara flickered to the edge of the camp and then directly into the forest.

There were shouts behind her as those in the camp who were her enemies realized she had escaped. Sara paid them no mind. A cast of Clean V every time she used Blink V to move forward removed all traces. Attempts to follow her mana trail would be fruitless, as the background mana would destroy any trace within moments.

Changing directions randomly, Sara ensured she was always heading towards the next layer in the Endless Forrest. The next layer rose like a wall of wood in front of her, a clear demarcation between the two layers. The stories she had heard as a small child claimed that the Endless Forest's central part was composed of World Trees, each one hosting countless Empires.

Sara had dreamed of seeing a sight like that once, but reality intruded. Her own Major World was difficult enough to survive in, much less a place filled with trees that hosted entire Worlds within them.

Sighing, she continued her trip, finally landing herself on a road that happened to be moving in the direction of the enormous wall of wood that marked the layer boundary.

Moving along the road was rapid, and she would have continued if a strange sight hadn’t distracted her.

A house? Sara thought, looking at a strange structure moving more profound in the forest. A home that the trees are making a path for?

Against her better judgment, Sara moved into the forest to trail the house. After a few hours of following it, the house suddenly stopped moving, placing itself securely in a clearing.

Sara stared at the house.

She was relatively certain the house stared back.

Deciding discretion was the better part of valor, and curiosity had a habit of killing snakes, Sara decided to retreat.

Turning around, Sara found a host of wolves had encircled her. Strangely enough, they didn’t attack. When she attempted to Blink V away, several growls deterred her. She might escape; however, Sara didn’t want to turn non-hostile creatures hostile currently. A glance at the wolf's visible Status assured her that if anything could pursue her effectively, it would be this pack. Sara figured that it would be Deep Forest Wolves with elemental alignments to fear in the Endless Forest. The stories spoke of the trees themselves aiding the animals to pursue prey.

A gesture from the lead male, who was clearly the Alpha, turned her attention back to the strange house.

“You want me to go inside?” Sara asked.

A nod from the Alpha met her curious question.

“Is it safe?” Sara asked. Granted, they could be lying to her, but she couldn’t see why they would bother with something like that. Generally, when a force had numbers, levels, and Power on its side, deception served no purpose.

A chuffing laugh from the majority of wolves was the only answer she received.

Shrugging, Sara decided to satisfy her curiosity. It wasn’t because she was being forced to. No, this was all her own decision.

Right, and I have a property in the Swamp for sale at a cut-rate deal. Sara thought sarcastically as she approached the front door. Please don’t eat me whoever is here. Snakes taste like chicken, and roast chicken tastes better than our kind.

Knocking on the door, an ancient human disguised as a Serpent opened the door. Sara could see through the attempt to cloak their humanity since the scales were far too bright. Scales denoted age, and an ancient serpent folk would have dull scales.

“Greetings, my name is Sara.” Sara said in the Common Tongue. “Could I trouble you for a night? Humans need to stick together this far into the Endless Forrest.”

The woman looked past her at the wolves crowding closer before she rolled her eyes and replied, “Sure. The name is Vee. Welcome to my traveling menagerie. Don’t harm anything, or you’ll be killed body and soul.”

Sara froze for a moment before entering behind Vee. Stepping inside the house revealed a kitchen filled with an assortment of wolf puppies, mice, a rare bird, vines, and two small Serpent children with wide eyes. Sara looked away from the bright, inquisitive children to see a strange form of a stove cooking several things at once. Paper of all shapes, sizes, and colors in various cooking implements were preparing meals.

Rank V Spells or Skill? Sara thought. No, this feels more like…

Her body chilled as she reached the logical conclusion.

Domain user, in a magical house, moving towards the next layer. Sara thought. I couldn’t find a more perfect cover short of divine mandate!

Taking a seat that formed at a suddenly larger table, Sara listened to the whispered comments from her two small companions nearby.

“Pretty!”

“Super pretty!”

“You can take that ridiculous disguise off, Sara. No one is going to hunt you down in my house.” Vee said before moving to continue cooking in her kitchen. Meals flowed in a strict hierarchy from the table to the puppies, to the adult wolves it was ordered with the ease of long habit.

Deciding that if Vee had wanted her dead, the wolves would already be eating something else, Sara dropped her disguise. Ten emerald rings sparkled on her fingers once more, a robe of shimmering snakeskin that displayed her assets prominently, and crisp leather boots that made weak men imagine being stepped on appeared once more. With a shimmer, the pouches strapped on her body vanished into a ring. A pleasant scent emanated from her body from among the many she knew tailored to be pleasing to female company.

Sara’s lips perked up in a smile as the two children next to her spoke up again in whispers between eating.

“Sparkly pretty!”

“Chocolate scent!?”

Tucking into her food, Sara started eating right as Vee dropped into her chair on the other side of the table. The shock of finding a variety of rare spices and excellent flavor hit Sara like a rampaging airship. She doubted the cooks back home could do better without extensive use of their Spells or Skills.

After several bites, Sara said, “The food is excellent. Thank you, Vee.”

Her hostess gave a brilliant smile before saying, “You followed us for several hours. Are you escaping from that disaster back at the dungeon town too?”

So, the Rat finally did lose his mind. That creepy Aitmurn family deserved whatever happened to them! Sara thought. If this group is from town, they are probably moving to settle somewhere else.

“Yes. I am looking to relocate to a safer place for a few years.” Sara said. She couldn’t afford to lie since there was no telling what ability a Domain user had.

Vee paused eating for a moment to give her a long look before saying, “If you want a place to hide for a decade, I’m willing to extend a helping hand. Your eyes showed that my disguise is not as good as I previously thought. Would you mind explaining what gave me away?”

“Scales!”

“Scales bright!”

Sara nodded at the two children as they immediately revealed the issue.

Vee covered her face with a palm before saying, “Bright means young, doesn’t it? Hard to be an old lady with a child’s scales. Bah, I should have seen that easy.”

Sara was about to continue eating when she saw two cold silver eyes gleaming at her. Paper wrapped around the two children’s heads in a flash. Vee placed both hands on the table and said, “I’ll make it simple. Normally I would execute you to prevent any future problems since you’re a noble from that clothing that would mean gutting your soul and then wiping all trace of you. Your body would be found with clear animal marks from the wolves eating you. However, I’m trying to cut back on killing unless there is no other viable path to success.”

Sara nodded, her body tense.

“As such, I’m willing to take you on. I plan on selling potions in the village, and if there is already a potion maker, well, they will be going out of business until only I’m left. I have the Skills and Spells to make documents that are perfect duplicates of whatever we need to blend in. You’ll be the face of the store, the kids will be your helpers, and I’ll be the kindly old grandmother that no one notices twice.” Vee continued.

There has to be a catch somewhere. Sara thought.

“Of course, there is a catch.” Vee said, as if reading her mind, “I’ll require a System backed Contract to ensure that you never speak of my existence, or anything starting from two days in the past, to two days after you leave us whenever that is. A few other normal safeties, but I don’t think it would be anything too difficult for someone like you.”

“Would you mind showing me the Contract?” Sara said, setting her silverware down. Nothing so far indicated anything but the most reasonable precautions from another powerhouse. As long as the contract wasn’t secretly a slave one or some other idiocy, it would work for Sara.

A piece of paper slid over to her, covered in gleaming symbols. Plain language spelled a detailed set of demands, which Sara didn’t find too strenuous. The final line of text at the bottom, though, made her breathing unsteady.

“Is this true?” Sara said, looking up.

“Of course. Two-hundred, at the maximum. Signed and sealed.” Vee said, gesturing with a spoon as she continued eating.

So the Rat wasn’t involved in the Core’s theft. Sara thought she used a nail to make a tiny cut dripping a small blood drop onto the section for her signature.

You have entered into a Contract with Eve Smith for a minimum period of ten years. You will serve according to the listed demands, and in exchange, Eve Smith will assist you in Leveling up to a maximum of Level Two Hundred. Failure of compliance to the terms set forth will see Sara, Young Mistress of the Snake, thrown into the nearby Sun for disposal.

Sara eyed the System's message before shrugging. Since she had no plan to betray such a perfect hiding spot, there was little to fear.

“Welcome to the family.” Vee, now known as Eve, said.

“Glad to be here.” Sara said, tucking back into her delicious food. Perhaps she could recover a bit of luxury here while she waited out the next several years.