Vex and her two ‘sisters’ were different. They ticked both boxes, thus I was instantly interested. I didn’t fall head over heels for them or anything like that, but I wanted to know more about them to see if they were compatible partners.
As for my audacity in saying this to the face of this legendary creature, I did it only because I’d gotten to know her well enough to be sure that she would not take offense. She didn’t care even when she caught Soren saying he wanted to do her back when we met for the first time.
Vex paused for a second as if she needed a moment to process what I had just uttered. Surely no one dared to say this to her face unless they were of the same or higher rank. Vex then suddenly erupted into a merry giggling session. Once she was done, she raised her hands to clean her eyes from the tears that formed.
“Hehe! I like you more and more, Devil. I’m on your ‘to-do’ list, huh? I only really have one requirement for the man who will one day earn my favor, which is to beat me in a fair duel. I knooooow, so boring and archaic, but I’m an old lady, alright? I find it romantic. Also, you have to be very handsome.” She quickly added a second requirement as she pondered her words.
“I find it strange, with these two loose requirements, I’m sure some of the older Veil Walkers or even Circle Members must’ve eyed you. Why are you not with any of them? Heretic for example was quite handsome and from what I know he is older and likely stronger than you.” I asked, referencing the Veil Walker-ranked man who stepped in to end the first round of the Phenom trials when he stopped me from killing Cedric and Selene.
She dismissively flicked her wrist, “I’m pretty sure Heretic takes it up the ass… As for the question, that’s because I forgot to mention that my prince-to-be must also not be an old man. It’s fine if they’re slightly older but I’m not into grandpas. I’m a young lady, after all.”
“Didn’t you just call yourself an old lady a few seconds ago?” She started whistling and completely ignored my words when I called her out on her bullshit. “Also, you started with only one requirement and after a few exchanges we’re already at the third.”
She shamelessly changed the topic, “Listen to this big sis! I’ll let you in on how to tame my sisters. Raika is like a wild animal, you have to put her into her place. Unlike me, she will not accept defeat until you thoroughly pummel your supremacy into her over multiple battles where she gets to exhaust all strategies she can come up with. You have to outright overpower her in all her attempts. Honestly, she might ask for duels even after that, but at least she will also be your girl. After all, the winner takes it all, that’s the law of the jungle. As for my elder sis… I don’t know. She is a complete goner. All that I can say is that she is heavily into flowers, maybe you can find a beautiful rare specimen in the wilds or something. However, I don’t think that much would be enough to earn her favor.”
“So I have to beat you in a fair duel, beat Raika into a bloody pulp over multiple duels, and find my own way to deal with Orianna. Got it.” I nodded once I memorized her words. She cheerily smiled and nodded at my statement.
“I’ll leave you to it. You have to gain a lot of levels to even have the right to dream of seeing me in nothing but my birthday suit, so you better do your best. From now on, this big sister will examine you with careful eyes to see if you can fill the romantic image she has of her ideal partner in her head.” And with that, Vex was gone.
A wide grin was plastered across my face under my mask. This talk went a lot better than I ever could’ve hoped. I never expected her to just say ‘okay then. I’m yours’ when I told her my wishes, so the knowledge that she was open to the idea of being with me in the future was already a big win. To beat her and Raika I needed to reach level 40 at the minimum, and that was just a random lowballed number I threw out there. I didn’t know how strong these two women really were. Furthermore, at the point the journies of these old creatures were, your systemic levels didn’t mean everything.
I didn’t know their exact ages, but my information sources estimated Raika to be around ~175 while Vex was slightly older. Since they were still very youthful in their appearances, they must’ve started leveling in their teens, which means they had nearly two centuries of combat experience under their belts.
Unlike me, they only had a single class to their names so in those long years they must’ve honed their craft to the utmost. I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that a level 40 combatant with a similar age and experience could easily beat a level 70 guy who suddenly gained those levels without earning them through hardcore grinding.
All that was to say that mindlessly leveling was not the way. I had to master my arsenal, which in my case was much harder due to the many tools to my name.
With my musings done, I returned my attention to the hordes of monsters I spied from the corner of my eyes.
It was time to hone my swordsmanship.
…
Read latest stories on empire
In the meantime, the observation room that was occupied by the Obsidian Circle Members was eerily quiet as they sat in their ornate seats with dumbfounded expressions. None of them had ever seen an Elemental Sovereign in action, they only heard bard’s tales of their achievements.
However, only six people were dumbfounded. The seventh one, a gorgeous oriental woman with lush, straight long black hair, was feeling emotions her ancient heart had never known.