The walk back to the Guild was uneventful. I wanted to take a bath already since the crypt took longer than I expected and I smelled a little. I'd probably have to leave my armor for repairs since a large dent formed on the side of the chest-plate. That damned skeleton.

Jane and I got in the queue for Adaline's booth. One it was our turn, we told her about the necromancer and she thanked us for doing a good job. We received ten gold as a reward. Five gold was given for clearing the crypt and another five was given for getting rid of Kanex. I was happy and split the gold with Jane. We agreed to take a break the next day and take care of some things. 

Jane and I left the guild and arrived back at the inn, where dinner was currently being served. Jane and I basically inhaled the food, once again shocking the other guests. Once we finished, we headed upstairs to bathe and sleep. After cleaning ourselves up, I sat down next to Jane on the beds and reached for her fox ears. Jane didn't try to stop me so I went ahead. 

They were really warm and soft. Jane turned red as a beet while I fondled her fox ears and got even more flustered when I started touching her tail. I couldn't stop, her ears and tail were extremely soft. This was it, the legendary mofumofu session I read about in light novels back on Earth. Once I decided that I touched her fox parts enough, she instantly went to sleep. I stared at her cute, sleeping face for a few seconds before laying down next to her and sleeping. 

I woke up to Jane curled up underneath my arm. She had a peaceful, smiling face and looked happy. I didn't want to ruin it for her so I laid there until she woke up. She looked around groggily and saw me lying there watching her.

"How long have you been up?" Jane said wearily.

"A few minutes. You looked like you were having a good dream." I responded.

"I was." Jane lightly chuckled. 

I got up and went to wash my face. Once I was done, Jane went in while I switched to a long sleeved shirt, trousers, and a pair of leather boots. I had a strap with a hook that I could wear to keep my greatsword on me at all times. Even if a thief were to take my sword, it would weight them down significantly, which would allow me an opportunity to give a beatdown if I needed to.

Once Jane came out of the bathroom, we headed downstairs for a meal. Jane was wearing a sundress and a hat to keep out the sun. Her longsword was in a sheath on her hip. Jane and I headed downstairs to have a meal. The others eating were shocked since Jane and I took our time with this meal. We didn't plan on adventuring today so we decided to eat normally. 

After we finished, the both of us left to enjoy the day. Jane and I headed to the market district in the center of the city. There, we decided to do shopping for Jane first. I would come to find out this was a good decision. She pulled me to a lingerie shop where I received awkward stares from other women and stares of sympathy from the few other men there. Jane picked out a couple of lingerie sets and dragged me in front of the changing room so I could give my opinion. 

"You don't need to do that though, your beauty is quite prevalent in anything." I tried to stop her from doing this.

"Really? I wanted you to see me in the lingerie though..." Jane said crestfallen.

"Alright alright. I'll give my opinion when you try them on." I said with no small bit of shock. Jane's boldness took me by surprise, usually, the fox-girl wouldn't try something like this. Plus, she wanted me to see her in lingerie. I was happy to oblige. 

I waited for her to get changed. Once she came out, I was instantly amazed. The black laced lingerie Jane sported showed off her ample amount of cleavage and an hourglass figure. Her normally beautiful face was magnified by her now exposed body. My heart fluttered at this moment. At this point I knew, Jane had looks that could wreck a nation. The few other men in the store switched their gazes of sympathy to envy. The usual. 

"So, what do you think?" Jane put on a smile that made my heart accelerate. 

"Stunning. Actually, more than that. I'd say god-like." I gave a rather honest opinion. 

"I'm surprised you didn't get embarrassed. Normally, a man would." Jane looked at me curiously.

"If I was embarrassed, I would avert my eyes. That's just a waste of such a good scene. Plus, I'm not weak-willed like a certain 17-year-old harem leader." I spoke honestly.

"Wow, harsh. He's just a kid you know?" Jane said with a small bit of pity for the person in question.

"Just speaking the truth, Jane. Just speaking the truth." I gave a half-hearted response.

After that, Jane tried on a few more sets of lingerie. The other men had their eyes glued to her body the whole time. I had to flare up my intimidation aura them for to stop staring. A little while later, we finished shopping at the lingerie store and moved on to the clothing store. Jane was spending her own money, we spared my share for my own expenses. Both of us had about 6 and a half gold each to go through. Jane bought a bunch of clothing sets for casual wear and combat situations. Once Jane was finished, she told me that she was down to 4 and a half gold. 

We both didn't care much, C-rank requests paid enough to recover that amount easily and we would rank up if we faced monsters that were stronger than us. We were D-rankers in name, but our abilities were on the level of B-rankers. I asked a random passerby if there were a quality leatherworker and blacksmith around here. He gave us some directions and I gave a polite 'Thank you.' before leading Jane to the place he pointed out.

The leatherworking shop was simply called 'Marlin's Leatherworking' and had a simple, one-story design. The interior had many products on display and a muscular, middle-aged man sat at the counter in the store. I walked up to the counter and pulled out some skin and scales from the basilisk. On the way to the capital, I would sneak away while everyone was asleep and process the massive corpse of the basilisk for different crafting materials. Naturally, Jane was privy to this but I digress.

The result was that I gained a skill related to skinning and gained a few stacks of materials from the basilisk. The shopkeeper looked at the items on the counter with bulging eyes.

"Where the hell did you get this?" The shopkeeper whispered to me.

"It's a secret, and I would appreciate it if you kept it that way." I whispered back to him. He nodded and introduced himself.

"The name's Marlin if you didn't get it from the shop's name." Marlin shook my hand after telling me his name.

"I'm Michael, this girl here is Jane." I gestured to Jane who was standing behind me. Marlin looked behind and his eyes bulged again once he saw Jane.

"Holy shit! She's so goddamn pretty. Tell you what, I'll give you a discount on all light armor you order for your girl. Just a little something for letting me see a girl as pretty as her." Marlin patted my shoulder while giving an honest smile. 

"Thanks. So, can you make an armor from these?" I gestured back to the basilisk parts.

"Oh, definitely. These are quality materials, I'd be happy to use them. Of course, I'll make it look as aesthetically pleasing as I can." Marlin said with a bit of excitement. "It'll cost a gold and sixty silver with Jane's discount." I thought it was pretty cheap for an armor made of that damn basilisk's hide.

"Deal." I paid him up front and he said it would be ready the next day. 

Jane and I left and headed for the blacksmith that was pointed out. Once again, another simple design. I entered the smithy and saw a woman at the counter. She had gloves on and a bored look on her face. She looked up at me when she heard the door open.

"Hey, I'm Michael. You're the smith here right?" I introduced myself and asked an important question.

"I'm Lisa. Yes, I'm the smith here." She responded with a bit of vigor in her voice. 

"I'd like to get this armor repaired if it's ok." I pulled the armor out from my inventory and placed it on the counter. Lisa inspected the armor.

"What did you get hit by? That's a pretty big dent if you ask me." Lisa asked with a hint of surprise in her voice.

"I was clearing the royal crypt with my partner Jane. A plate armor covered skeleton managed to get a hit off me when I cut him." I gestured to Jane and the greatsword I had.

"Hmm, I see. I would say a blunt weapon is more effective, but the edge of that sword is made of a metal almost every blacksmith knows of. I'm guessing you don't need repairs for a quality sword like that." Lisa said while looking at my armor. 

"How long will the repairs take?" I asked. Truthfully, I wanted it to be done tomorrow at the latest. 

"It'll be done tomorrow. I'll be replacing the chest-plate with something a little higher quality. I think I'll also add a bit of padding to cushion blunt impacts. Of course, I'll be taking care of the other parts too. Almost all of the armor is battered and weathered. I can tell this armor's braved many fights. Also, are you sure you don't want a helmet instead of this chinguard?" Lisa spoke what she gathered from inspecting the armor pieces I handed her. 

"No, I prefer to have visibility over some clunky helmet." I gave my opinion on the helmet. 

"Alright, if you say so. The repairs will cost five silvers. Pretty cheap for someone that could afford a blade like that." Lisa said with a business smile. 

'Actually, the blade was a gift.' was what I wanted to say. It would probably raise more questions though, so I didn't speak the thought. I paid Lisa the five silvers and she got to work on the armor. Jane and I had nothing else to do, so we decided to just stroll around the district together. I enjoyed spending time with Jane, whatever the activity was. She just made everything just that much better. It'd be arrogant to assume she felt the same, but maybe she did. I wouldn't know.

As we walked along, we saw a high-class jewelry shop and decided to enter. The building was fancy and had a nice carpet along with gold lined glass cases for displaying jewelry. A man and woman wearing formal clothing approached us when we entered. The man spoke first. 

"Hello, I'm Grantz and my lovely wife here is Alicia. You two seem like adventurers, we'll bring out a selection of jewelry that boosts your combat abilities for you." The man introduced himself as well as the woman beside him. He gestured for us to follow him.

Grantz had a lean build with golden blonde hair and purple eyes. I noticed he had long ears, the characteristic ears of an elf. The woman had silver hair and yellow eyes. She had bunny ears sticking out of the top of her head. We followed them to a section of the shop where they pulled out a few cases of jewelry. 

"Now, take your pick." Grantz said with a genuine smile. This guy, he had a noble demeanor and sincerely polite attitude. I assume he's very popular with ladies. Jane and I browsed the jewelry until Jane tapped my shoulder. I turned around and she held up a pair of rings that looked to be very high quality. One ring had an emerald embedded in it while the other had a ruby embedded in it.

The Emerald Crux Bonuses: Unknown A ring created as part of a set of two rings. If the color matches the eyes of your lover, bonuses are doubled. The bonus is based on your lover's highest total stat. The Garnet Wing Bonuses: Unknown A ring created as part of a set of two rings. If the color matches the eyes of your lover, bonuses are doubled. The bonus is based on your lover's highest total stat.

"Oh? Very good choice. Those rings are a set and cost two gold. I advise you to buy the rings since you two seem to experience life and death situations together. I know Grantz and I did." Alicia nodded with approval. The couple had smiles on their faces as they raised their hands to us. On their ring fingers were a similar set of rings with different color gems embedded. Alicia's ring had a purple gem while Grantz's ring had a yellow gem. Jane and I looked at each other before promptly paying for the rings.

"Put the rings on. You'll see why these rings are important soon enough." Grantz and Alicia gazed at us with warm, nostalgic smiles as we tried them on.

Jane Crimson's Emerald Crux Bonuses: +166 Strength A ring that contains a bonus based on Michael Adkins's highest total stat, Strength. This ring adds 0.25x of his Strength to yours. The bonus is doubled since you are their lover. Bound to Jane Crimson. Michael Adkins's Garnet Wing Bonuses: +70 Agility A ring that contains a bonus based on Jane Crimson's highest total stat, Agility. This ring adds 0.25x of her Agility to yours. The bonus is doubled since you are their lover. Bound to Michael Adkins.

I was surprised by the stat increases granted by the rings. These would help tremendously in combat. I already felt much lighter on my feet than before. Jane had a bigger bonus from the ring since my Strength value was abnormally high. Grantz and Alicia gazed warmly at our joyous expressions. 

"We hope you two become top notch adventurers. If you do, remember us." Grantz said with a smile on his face. 

"Definitely, these rings are way more expensive than the price you gave, aren't they?" I said with a skeptical tone at the end. 

"We don't know what you seem to be speaking of. Now that we've finished this transaction, would you like anything else?" Alicia said with the same smile as Grantz. 

"No, we're finished purchasing jewelry. Really, thank you for the gift." I considered it a gift since these rings were probably five or ten times more expensive than the price we purchased them at. Grantz and Alicia saw us off and told us to come back if we needed anything else. Really, they were rare people to find. 

Jane and I spent the rest of the day exploring the market district, which was massive and contained all kinds of wares. When it was evening, we decided to head back. On the way to the Inn, we encountered a familiar face. 

"Oh! Mary, Fukasawa, Miya! Michael and Jane are over here!" Kudo called out to the three girls that always surrounded him. They all came over and we exchanged greetings before Miya noticed the rings we just bought today. 

"Wow, are you two engaged or something? Those rings match your eyes really well!" Mary said with a large amount of misunderstanding. 

"No, we're not engaged. These rings complement each other, and give hefty bonuses in combat." I said, debunking her engagement theory.

"Oh, that's actually really practical." Miya said, slightly saddened by the engagement statement being false. Miya turned around and discussed getting similar rings with the other harem girls. 

While they were distracted, Jane and I took the opportunity to leave, "We'll be going now, we'll see you another time!" We quickly sped off with our high agility supplementing our speed. After making our grand escape, we went back to walking and arrived back at the Inn by the time it was nightfall.