By the time Sue woke up, we had already gathered the spoils from the Howlers and were continuing our way to Palocaesy. She sulked that she wasn’t awake to see the action that took place, but I promised to let her know when something went on if she fell asleep again. On another note, I found how cute girls can be when they pouted. Slowly, I was starting to see why some guys like to ‘bully’ their girlfriends from time to time.

Anyway, a few hours passed since that battle and I was continuing to keep watch on our surroundings with my Insightful Mapping skill. Tyvera was still in my range and only moved to keep her distance from us. I was getting worried as this may lead to her observing us through the entirety of our trip. She had only seen Kalline, Erizora, Ren, and Mametama outside of the carriage in action so far. Knowing she’s from the Duke of Demon’s Disciples party, the same group as Gabriella who we’re meeting with our client in Palocaesy, if this is going where I think is going, then our first quest might be over with a failure before it even began once she sees Ume and I.

What’s more, we have to come to a stop a few times to let Kostos and Pantos have a break while we have lunch and snacks, which would leave us stepping out of the carriage and reveal ourselves.

That said, I quickly came up with a plan while spending some SP on the skills necessary for this task.

[You have spent 670 SP; Total remaining: 12,124]

[You have now learned ‘Slothful Slumber’ LV 10!]

[You have reached the maximum level of ‘Slothful Slumber!’]

[You have now reached ‘Cursed Magic’ LV 7!]

[You have now learned ‘Smellingsalt*’!]

I then tap Ume on the shoulder to get her attention before I lightly tug on my ear. Until the others know of my Telepathy along with the other [broken Brawler] skills, this was a tell the two of us came up with last night in case we need to speak to each other through it and not get surprised by the sudden voice in our heads.

Ume, I should tell you this since you know of my skills the most out of everyone else, but we’ve been watched by another party for a while now.

It’s Tyvera.

The very same.

That’s what I’m going to find out. Do you think you could cover for me?

Of course.

Yeah?

I shift my glance over to Ume’s direction. While we’re trying to look like we’re minding our own business and not speaking to each other telepathically, her slightly reddened cheeks while trying not to smile couldn’t be ignored. She must’ve wanted to try saying that telepathically for a while now and found it charming/embarrassing.

… I love you, too, Ume.

Nyra asks.

“Lady Umeiyon, is something a matter? You look to be a little flustered,” Ren points out.

“Uh, nothing. Just thinking of some things.”

“What kind of things?” Sue asks out of curiosity.

“… Adult things with Jin. Y-You wouldn’t understand at your age.” Ume flushes a little harder and averts her gaze after saying that.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?! I’m an adult! I’m 18 years old going on 19 soon!”

“” everyone in the carriage asks at once, even Nyra in my mind. I was surprised, too, but I had to get my plan into action while saving Ume from digging herself deeper in the grave.

“She’s the same age as me, and yet with that chest …” Ren mutters while looking deflated.

I also need to stop Ren from getting depressed over her complex, too. I make a mental note to give her chest some proper attention soon.

“Ugh, I’m starting to get cramped here,” I say while getting up and stretching. “I’m gonna step outside and stretch my legs. Maybe move on ahead and see if there’s any oncoming danger our way.”

“Oh, then shall one of us escort thee?” Kalline asks.

“Nah, it’s cool, it will only be a light run. If I spot anything that’s a little much, I’ll come to you guys for backup. Watch after Sue for me, and Mametama, you’ll notify me if something happens while I’m gone.”

“Understood. Enjoy your stroll, Milord.”

“A light run with Master … that sounds fun. I kind of want to go, too,” Ren mutters. Her tail even wags a little.

Huh, are Werewolves more like dogs than I thought if they’re thinking of runs and walks that ecstatically? Keeping that consideration in mind, I hop out of the moving carriage from the back and keep myself hidden while finding a place to hide outside of the road. I then use [Portal] numerous times to quickly move me forward through a nearby forest every couple of meters ahead from the carriage’s path while I have my Stealth skill activated and keeping Tyvera in my radar.

Once I have Tyvera’s location in my sight, I use [Portal] once more to jump me just a meter behind her and make my move.

I silently cast the new maxed-out Curse Spell I learned in the carriage, Slothful Slumber, immediately putting my target, Tyvera, to sleep on the spot without her knowing. Like other ailment-inducing spells, Slothful Slumber only works on one specified target, going into cooldown for some time after that before it’s ready to be cast again, but with my new cooldown-reduction skills, that isn’t as much of an issue for me as it is for a regular spell-caster. I could cast it back-to-back on multiple targets within seconds if I wanted to.

“Gotcha. Now, let’s see what we’re working with here.” I first take notice of her brilliant golden-blonde wings folded behind her as she lies on her stomach. I take out the feather I pulled from my MIB earlier without the others knowing and hold it up near the ones connected to her wings.

“Just as I thought. It’s a perfect match.”

<“Which means she really was at that clearing we were in the other morning,”> Nyra reminds me.

“Pardon the intrusion,” I say aloud while putting the feather away before patting her down for any hidden items and weapons and strip them off her person as I went. I then rolled her sleeping body over to her back and make mental note of her profile.

Similar to her feathers, Tyvera’s medium-short hair is blonde, wearing a tribal-like hairband to keep the bangs out of her face and revealing a light golden-brown forehead, blending well with the rest of her revealing skin. Her proportions are modest and similar to Ren’s, but after reading her measurements through Size Up, she’s just a tad bigger in the bust and hips as well as being a little taller. Like other Harpies, her arms are similar to a bird’s leg and talons up to her elbows. The legs themselves are only up to her knees before it blends to look more human with plump, yet firm thighs. The shin areas are coated with fur-like feathers in a whiter shade of blonde. Other than those specifics, the stature of them to their entirety is similar to Ren’s beast legs.

As for her attire, she’s dressed very lightly, which is to be expected of her being a unique Airborne Huntress class or any airborne race, really. She has a white tube top and a mini skirt made out of animal pelt, revealing her lean midriff.

I’m starting to become lazy with putting up everything in another person’s status with the Size Up skill, so I’ll just put what I saw like this:

~~

[Name: Tyvera

Race: Harpy

Class: Airborne Huntress

Measurements: 164 cm in height [~5 ft, 4 in], 68 kg in weight [~154 lbs], the three sizes are 80C-72-83]

~~

She’s at LV 153, her AGI is nothing to sneeze at being in the 3000s, her ATK and SP. ATK are the next strong points having between 3500-4000. She even has a strong resistance to Water attribute attacks, has ‘DRA: STORM’ listed above that, which means she could absorb Storm attribute attacks, and is surprisingly quite skilled in Storm Magic. The biggest kicker here, however, is her ability.

[Child of Thunderstorms: the user is blessed with drain resistance to Storm attribute attacks and strong resistance to Water attribute; the user’s own Storm attribute attacks and spells are increased; should the user be attacked by Storm attribute attacks, not only will she absorb those attacks, but she will receive a ‘Raised Offense’ and ‘Storm Boosted’ status bonus for a period of time.]

“It all checks out to what Kalline described of her capabilities yesterday. Seriously, ‘Child of Thunderstorms’ is something like a cheat ability in some form,” I say.

Nyra comments.

“Right. Let’s check and see what’s in her bag.”

I go to her knapsack and pour all of its contents out. “Let’s see, money pouch, food rations, spare clothes, underwear.”

“Hmm … here’s her adventurer’s card, definitely black as it said in her title and she’s only ranked 28th. According to my Street Smarts, this is a pair of Night Vision LV 3 Goggles, and this is a Messaging Crystal at LV 3?”

As part of my preparations last night, I spent some SP to learn a new Brawler class skill called Street Smarts. It’s basically like Size Up, but it only gave a vague description that read, ‘gives the user the ability to perceive and learn about the world around him.’ Apparently, this was a skill one could spend SP to learn once they reached LV 10 as a Brawler. Sure, the description was vague while the name itself sounded pretty ghetto for a gangster, but being a Brawler up to that point had given me surprises that many others might not have come across yet, so I figured, ‘why not?’

When I first learned it, one of the skills that I prepared last night actually got integrated into this and brought the level of mastery from 1 to 5. What was the prepared skill? I’ll tell you later, but I couldn’t use SP to raise its level any higher. Perhaps it’s because it’s a skill originating from the Brawler class that I couldn’t use Skill Point Conversion to max out its level of mastery right away, so I had to resort to doing it the natural way and check everything in my sight. I’ve been using it repeatedly since then but it hasn’t gone up. It may be due to the skill that integrated into Street Smarts that there are a lot of things I know about already. Right now, depending on the type of item, I could read some of an object’s description of what it is and some of its traits just from looking at it.

To demonstrate, I appraise the Night Vision Goggles and Messaging Crystal and find their descriptions to look like this:

[Night Vision LV 3 Goggles: a pair of goggles enchanted with the Night Vision skill to allow the user to see in the dark at LV 3 of its mastery; can allow the user to see 15 meters [~49 feet] ahead of him in the dark; the market price for one is 6,800 karos; status condition: good.]

[Messaging Crystal LV 3: an enchanted crystal that allows the user to apply his mana into it and connect with another activated one at the same level after recognizing its signature beforehand in order to initiate long-distance communication; can connect with other crystals at the same level 150 kilometers [~93 miles] within its range; the market price for one is 16,500 karos; status condition: great.]

“Ah, I see, so it’s like a magic cellphone. Still, 150 kilometers, huh? Isn’t that about how long it is between Dondegarm and Palocaesy?” I ask.

“And other than catching a sign of her recent whereabouts at that field with her feather, we haven’t come across anything similar in Dondegarm since yesterday morning. Which means, Tyvera’s relaying her observations to someone in Palocaesy. Who else do we know is currently waiting for us there while being in the same group as Tyvera?”

“” we say in sync.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to bring Tyvera in and report this to Eugus. I understand we’re dealing with an important noble like Lady Krauss, but it’s important that we know every single detail on the conditions before we would even accept the quest.”

“Right.”

Mametama relays to me.

Perfect timing. Tell them I’ll be there in … 10-15 minutes, and expect some interesting company coming with me.

With that, I pack up Tyvera’s things in her knapsack and bind her arms, legs, and wings together with my Shadow Tendrils before I lug both over my shoulder.

“What’s up?”

“The tanto?”

“Ah, I see, so if I use my Street Smarts on your tanto, maybe we’ll see what curse is put on it and how we can break it. Is that it?”

“I understand. I’ll see what I can do when we reach a rest area. Remind me when we’re by ourselves.”

<“Roger that. Also, if we do manage to break my curse, you can count on me to help you with any of your blacksmithing needs. I can also help with growing your harem and I will be the best goddamn living cock sleeve with the awesomely tight born-again virgin holes for use at your leisure only. Just as we’re bound by the Weapon’s Bond, my body and soul are yours for the taking.”>

“… You’d best be ready when that time comes, because I’ll blow you up like a balloon full of my seed to near bursting in every hole of yours, even if it takes all night, and I won’t let you go sleeping.”

<“Ooh yeah~, now you’re speaking my language. I’ll be looking forward to it, stud~♥.”>

With that, I do some extra prep work for what may lie ahead before opening [Portal] some distance away from the parked carriage and run over to my party waiting for me with a bound Tyvera and her knapsack in tow.