Listlessly staring at the ceiling, Urist’s face carried a frown as he felt weight on his sides and slender arms on his chest. If it was any other man, he would maybe be happy to wake up to two beautiful girls, but Urist just wanted to run away.

He really wanted to.

He could only sigh and hold back his tears over what happened.

Well, enough mulling over it’s time to get the base prepared for the event tomorrow. Still, I don’t know how we should prepare for such an event called Primal Stone. Whatever we’ll cross that bridge when we cross it.

Mustering up his courage, Urist lightly shook the two girls to wake them up and escape their clutches.

It didn’t take long for Uria and Uroa to wake up.

Rubbing her eyes, Uroa brightly smiled at Urist, “Good morning, Urist!”

“Good morning, lover. I see the coward is still here.“

“I told you I’m not a coward.”

“Until you beat me in combat you are. Now be a good little maid and get to cooking.”

Pouting, Uroa got out of bed, dressed, and headed out to join the cooks in preparing breakfast.

Urist watched her leave, then turned to Uria, “You know you don’t have to be mean to her. After all, I told them to run.”

“Oh save your breath. I’ll treat her however I want since you left it to me. If she wants to stand as my equal then she has to earn it. Heh, I forgot you were a gutless coward when it comes to commitment. Am I not enough for you?”

Leaning in, Uria whispered that last bit into Urist's ear, causing him to shiver.

“I… I just don’t want to hurt her.”

“Whatever. Just remember, although I don’t mind sharing you,”

Nibbling on his ears she continued, “I’m number one.”

Shaken, Urist stayed still as she pulled away, getting out of bed and shaking her hips as she got dressed.

She put on a little show for him before heading out of the room, then at the doorway turned her head. “Let’s get to work, dummy.”

Lying back into the bed Urist wondered, where had it all gone wrong?

Life was so simple before, just trying to survive against hulking mutated rats. Now my love life is a battlefield. I blame Thar. I should increase his punishment. Whatever, I’ll deal with this later. Let’s hope today's recruits will be easier to deal with than the previous days.

As he thought that a mighty light shone followed by a thundering roar.

With a snort Urist donned his clothing, muttering under his breath, “Fucking hell, not one day that goes by is normal anymore.”

…

Entering the civilization room, Urist soon found the source of the disturbance. Inside the room currently stood a woman with tribal tattoos all over her body. She stood on one dwarf and had her hand around the face of another, lifting them off the ground.

Dwarfs lay groaning in pain all over the room.

"You dare capture the great Slayer Snorri, leader of the Brands? You all seek death!"

Seeing as she was about to crush the spine of the dwarf below her, Urist stepped in.

"Hey now, let's not get hasty. You say your name is Snorri, right? Well why you are here, is th--"

Throwing the dwarf in her clutches away like trash, Snorri dashed straight at Urist.

"Less talk, more fighting!"

Her tattoos shifted and lit up, the cyan markings somehow causing her speed to increase exponentially. Hurryingly, Urist summoned his flame robes.

Wildly grinning, Snorri’s tattoos shifted once again, turning more savage and giving off a bloody light.

Focusing all his attention on the speeding bullet of a woman, Urist knew what to do.

And that was to DODGE.

He'd only moved a few inches when a human bullet smashed into the wall next to him.

A large pressure of air blasted out from the impact, kicking up dust. Surprisingly the civilization room held and minimized the shockwaves.

Although Urist felt relieved that the room hadn't collapsed, he was annoyed. Gritting his teeth he activated his Staff Art: Disable, intent on stopping the fight as fast as possible.

White runes spread along his body and as he readied to risk it all, the woman laughed.

"My oh my, another Slayer! Why didn't you just say so? And here I thought I'd been captured for my secrets."

Her tattoos began to recede towards her face, collapsing under her eyes forming small teardrops.

"Sorry about knocking those hooligans out~. My name is Snorri. What is your name, fellow practitioner? Also, where are we?"

Urist quickly retracted his Disable spell, inwardly relieved that he didn't have to use it. Although he would be aching for a bit he wouldn't be in such a weakened state like before. An acceptable outcome if they could resolve this peacefully.

Choosing his words carefully, Urist replied.

“My name is Urist. I’m the leader of this civilization, and we have much to discuss.”

…

“Wait. Did you say you created your own slayer art from scratch?! Man, you must be mad to attempt something like that without a senior guiding you. Most that try usually explode, though I have to admit that yours is pretty barbaric compared to my clan's standards.”

“Barbaric? But it’s so powerful? What’s so barbaric about it?”

Snorri just chuckled and shook her head, “I wanted to talk to you about that but I’ve been made to swear an oath not to spread its teachings. Well until I get married anyways. Though judging by the strength around this base, no one around here is strong enough to defeat me and take my hand anyways.”

“You can sense the strength of the people around you?”

“It’s a slayer art. I can’t go into details, but I can sense the strength of souls. The bigger and brighter the stronger. That’s all I can say. Also, now that I know that I’m stuck here I might as well make myself comfortable. I want a private room.”

“You're in luck, we’ve just finished up making those. I’ll talk to the room master and we’ll see where we can put you. Now I’d wish to discuss how you would like to use your strength to help us—”

Before he could finish that sentence, Urist was interrupted by Urmom charging into the meeting room.

“Boss! Something weird has happened with Sir Volt!”