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While Torien lead us towards the next gathering spot I decided to check my notifications while we were walking.

[Drawing has increased from level 1 to level 6]

[Your party has defeated a small Bone Dog pack.]

[Novice Light Mage has increased from level 1 to level 5]

[Unlocked Statistic - Magic Force]

[Learned Light Magic Spell Light Orb]

[Learned Light Magic Spell Fireflies]

Magic Force - Statistic

Magic Force influences the strength and power of magical effects. As Magic Force increases, the more dangerous magical attacks will be, the more robust magical defense spells will be, and so on. Additionally, the amount of mana you are able to charge and empower spells with increases.

[Light Orb - Light Magic Spell]

Create an floating orb of light that can be targeted at an enemy or set to follow the caster as long as magic is supplied to it. Brightness and damage is affected by Magic Force, speed and color is affected by Magic Control. Light Orb generally can only directly damage dark and shadow aligned enemies.

[Fireflies - Light Magic Spell]

Create small floating lights in an area equal to Magic Force x 1 foot. Magic Control improves the ability to move and manipulate the lights, Magic Force improves the maximum brightness of the lights. Fireflies wards off shadow and dark aligned enemies if their primary combat stat is lower than your Magic Force.

I got four levels in one fight, learned two new spells, and more importantly, I finally unlocked Magic Force. I’ll put the 30 skill points I had been saving for this into Magic Force immediately, bringing my Magic Force to 40. Something I’m only now realizing is that my overall level is different from my class level. I have an overall level of 23, that hasn’t changed, but only a class level of 5. I didn’t get any unallocated stat points to put towards stuff but I am getting that magic control stat bonus based on my class level bringing it up to 40 as well.

I also got a number of levels in drawing. My ability seems to be outstripping the level I have in it and as a result the level of the skill version is raising faster than normal. It seems to be a positive feedback loop. I’m good at drawing so my level is increasing faster than normal which is contributing to me gaining experience in the skill faster, which is improving my drawing ability. It’ll likely catch up eventually but it’s pretty cool that my past life is coming into play this way.

I wonder how people normally increase their overall level, so far I’ve only leveled up from getting laid in various different ways. I also wonder how much it’s worth to stick with weaker classes until you get their base skills and spells rather than just using the advanced version of the class from the start. Just a few levels of Novice Light Mage and I already have two useful skills for utility. I suppose a limiting factor for most people is magic affinities. In that case I should probably try to learn some spells in as many low level magic classes as I can to increase my versatility.

“Over here!” Torien broke me out of my thoughts while waving us over to a field of flowers. Among the field were some peculiar looking flowers sticking up taller than the rest.

Torien pointed to the tall flowers with large white flower petals surrounding a dark purple center column. “These are Mornablooms, they grow in areas rich with nature magic and these large white petals are really useful as a magic catalyst in potions. The petals soak up all of the nature magic in the area and feed it to these surrounding wildflowers. The petals grow back pretty quickly when pulled so you can harvest new petals every few days. You have to be extra careful when harvesting them though because if you accidentally damage this purple stalk when pulling off the petals the flower can die instead of growing new petals.”

“Would it be alright for me to draw this flower too before you show me how to harvest them?”

“I don't mind.” She turns to the other girls. “Will you two keep watch while I take a break?”

I sat in the field of flowers so I can get a good angle on the Mornabloom and got started while the girls worked out a watch. I had been pretty excited to draw again after discovering how much I enjoyed it while working on the last flower. It took a little bit of concentration to get everything right but I quickly fell into a rhythm that was really pleasant. Ten minutes went by in a flash and I had a finished an ink sketch of one of the tall Mornablooms in a field of wildflowers with some notes on the properties Torien told me earlier. I also gained another two levels in my drawing skill from it.

I showed the girls the finished sketch and Morrigan walked me through harvesting them. After two more gathering spots, a small satchel full of weird magic herbs, and a few more sketches of useful plants we decided to start heading back to the city. It was late afternoon already, we could have kept gathering till sunset but we since Torien and Morrigan were mostly only pointing out some of the useful plants and didn’t need to worry about getting a quota today we decided to head back for an early dinner together.

Once we reached the road we broke from our formation and I took the chance to hang back a little to chat with Bella. “Hey Bella, how are you doing?”

She replies with a gentle smile, “I’m doing pretty well, how about you?”

“I’m good. I was wondering what you thought about those two.”

“I like them, I don’t think they’ve really opened up to us much yet but they seem like good people. Fighting those monsters in the woods was pretty scary today, I think it helped a lot to have other people we can count on.”

“I like them too and they seem pretty skilled at what they do. I think we’re pretty lucky to have found two others that specialize in different areas as us and aren’t complete jerks. I’m satisfied enough with them to invite them to party with us regularly, what do you think?”

“I think it’s a good idea. You’re the party leader though, shouldn’t it be up to you?”

I gave Bella a look. “Hey I may be the ‘leader’ but we’re a team and I want to know how you feel too. If you didn’t like them I wouldn’t invite them. Also, if they take us up on our offer I’ll ask them how they feel about things too. I’m not going to make all of the decisions on my own. We’re a party so we’ll make decisions as a party.”

“...Sorry, you’re right. I’m not really used to anyone wanting my opinion on things. Usually my father just told me what to do and I did it so I wouldn’t get beaten, I- I’ll try to be honest about things.”

I winced a bit. “I’m sorry if that brought back bad memories… But it’s important for you to know that I value your opinion. Let’s work together okay?”

“Okay.” Bella smiled at me and I gave her a quick peck on the cheek. When I turned back to the road Morrigan was looking back at us with wide eyes. Oops, I don’t really know how people feel about gay and lesbian people in this world, I really hope the twins don’t end up having a problem with it. That would be a pretty lame way to end our partnership, everything has been going well so far. I would hate for things to break down over something like that but it would probably be a deal breaker if they had an issue with it.

Morrigan had a bit of a blush on her face and whispered something to Torien who quickly snuck a glance at us as we kept walking. They didn’t immediately react negatively so here’s to hoping they’re understanding.

After a little while we made it back to the gate and grouped back up for re-entry. We all showed our guild tags and entered the city.

“Torien, do you know where to sell those core things you got from the shadow monsters?”

“The guild store next to the Adventurer's guild building takes them, otherwise we could sell them directly to an enchanter but I don’t know of any.”

“How about we go sell them to the guild and then go grab an early dinner at our tavern. My treat.”

“W-well if you’re paying I can’t really refuse.” Looks like the quickest way to Torien’s heart is through her stomach.

Selling the monster cores was quick and wasn’t particularly notable. Apparently they purchase all sorts of monster parts but the monsters we ran into this time only really had the one thing to harvest. Not that I relished the idea of carrying around a bag full of pelts, teeth, and claws. Cores seem like a relatively common thing that monsters seem to have, they are some sort of nexus that channels magic in the body of monsters. All good things to know, Bella wasn’t really aware of any of this either past vaguely knowing monster parts can be sold sometimes so the info was good for both of us.

Once we got back to the tavern the four of us sat down at a quiet table in the corner. I’m starting to realize this place really only sells stew with different things in it but considering the price I’m not really complaining, for four bowls of food it’s only 20 copper total so I’m plenty happy with the price.

“Do you two want stew with meat or without?”

“Meat please!” the two answered in unison. I could tell by looking at them they were already salivating.

“Two with meat, two without please,” I told the familiar waitress. I already goofed up by eating meat in front of Bella, it’s probably for the best to keep to vegetarian meals when in front of others. According to sexual appetite it isn’t even really necessary for me anymore but come on, food tastes good.

It wasn’t long after our food came out that I realized something, just like Bella they weren’t going to start until I told them to.

“Oh, it’s alright for you two to eat at the same time as us. I’d rather you enjoy your food when it’s nice and hot, no reason to wait for us to finish.”

They looked a little hesitant but didn’t argue. My plan was to talk a bit over dinner but they seemed so absorbed by the food that I didn’t want to interrupt them while they were enjoying themselves. Once they polished off their bowls I decided to breach the subject of joining us more regularly.

“So after checking out your gathering spots and fighting together I was wondering if you two want to party up on a more regular basis. I think I like you two and we seemed to work well in a fight so I think it would work out.”

The two looked at each other and Morrigan gave a silent nod before Torien replied for the two, “I think we would like that. Honestly, you have been so nice to us that it’s been making me nervous. You haven’t done anything mean to either me or my sister, you’re treating us to dinner, and you never treat us like… slaves. I keep expecting everything to be a mean joke but you keep being nice. If you want us to party up with you that’s fine with us. The only thing I need to ask is if you two decide to take a day off, I’d like to know in advance so we can plan to gather on our own. Oh, and we aren’t allowed to travel very far and pretty much only for guild missions.”

“Ah, well we don’t really have any plans to leave the town for a while and I’ll be sure to tell you in advance if we decide not to meet up for some reason. There is one more thing I’d like to make clear, I’d rather get it out of the way now if it’s going to be a problem.” I pulled Bella into a side hug and kissed her on the cheek, I got the exact reaction I was going for and everyone at the table started blushing, my cute doe was the brightest of all of course. “Bella and I are together so I want to make sure you don’t have a problem with that. I’d hate to be all friendly with each other only for us to get in a fight over that later.”

Surprisingly it was Morrigan that spoke up, “W-we’re fine with that but…” she looked around the tavern seeing if anyone was looking at them before leaning in and quietly continuing, “you probably shouldn’t talk about that in public. The Tamin church forbids same sex love and cross race unions. If you’re too open about it the Tamin paladins hunt you down and execute you.”

I frowned at that. Great, the local church are bigots. I didn’t expect to be on the best terms in the first place, ya know, being a demon at all, but I’m in too deep with Bella to turn back now.

“I didn’t know that, I guess I’ll have to be more cautious in public now,” I said with a frown. “Did you know about this Bella?”

She nodded hesitantly before answering, “I know it’s against their teachings but I didn’t know they would go that far. I’m not really fond of the church for other reasons though…”

“Most beastfolk and demi-beastfolk aren’t, they’re also the reason for a lot of the hatred towards beastfolk around here. The war with Zarcuda five years ago was somewhat of a holy war for the Tamin church. It’s unclear how the war actually got started but the Tamin church’s official stance is that one of the beastfolk tribes in Zarcuda killed a Tamin missionary that traveled there. The church convinced the king to send part of their army with their paladins to hunt down that tribe. However, many of the other tribes in Zarcuda took offense to an army with religious paladins marching through their lands and banded together to fight the mostly human attackers.”

“This is all pretty interesting but we should probably talk about this later.” I interjected when there was a pause. I was starting to get a little paranoid and didn’t want to draw any more attention now that I was seeing some of the grim looks from some of the other tavern goers.