Thud! Gojo, Arad, Jack, and Vars emerged back on the first floor of the wizard’s tower as if nothing happened.
“What? You’re already back?” The wizard that greeted them at the start approached with a confused face, “Did you meet sir Sirlon?”
Gojo smiled, “Yeah, we did,” He looked at Arad, “If you only saw the look on his face when we walked into his office,”
“I bet he was surprised if you made it to him in a few minutes.” The wizard smiled, “I won’t ask what you wanted, but was it a successful deal?”
Vars stared at the wizard with a gentle smile, “It was, albeit I think he ripped us off with a high price…”
“Typical sir Sirlon,” The wizard scratched his head, “A bad trade is only on you,” He looked at Vars, “Let’s hope next time you get a nicer outcome,”
“A deal is a deal,” Jack stretched his arms, “Let’s head back,” 𝒷𝒹ℴ𝓿𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂
“One last thing,” The wizard approached Gojo, “Did Sir Sirlon say anything about the tower, or when he will come down?”
Arad stepped forward, “He said he would come down after summoning a powerful elemental. Right now he’s testing,”
The wizard eyes lit up, “I knew it! Sir Sirlon was working on a powerful summoning spell. I only hope he doesn’t summon his death as Simon did.”
“Simon?” Arad looked at the wizard.
“In short, Simon summoned a succubus and ended up being sucked to death. A waste of talent,” He sighed.
Gojo turned around, “That’s what you get,” He looked back at the wizard, “Cubus is dangerous, kill on sight. Summoning one doesn’t make sense.”
The wizard shook his head, “Simon tried to summon a handmaiden of Gracie. A succubus that was born and raised in the mother of all life’s kingdom.”
“What’s that?” Arad remained confused, but Doma explained briefly in his head. It’s a kingdom in the abyss ruled by the goddess of Cubus, love, lust, shadows, the mother of all life. It’s only inhabited by succubus, virgon succubus, and nothing else.
Doma can only imagine how bad it would end for a wizard who pulled a starving succubus from there.
Arad shook his head, “Had it coming. A starving succubus isn’t something to mess with.”
The wizard stared at Arad, confused, “You know that? Simon spent decades digging in ancient records. He even dared to steal a book written by the accursed witch Doma. Which cursed him to always be thirsty, hungry, and infertile.”
Arad stopped, wanting to look away, ^Doma. That was your book,^
^[Everything I wrote had multiple curses. Simply because I had a habit of doodling on the side of the papers. The book should have burned after cursing him.]^
^Don’t start making cursed objects just for fun,^
^[I admit it was fun, but the book was important. What kind of witches can’t make decent love potions? I’m the one who invented the fake tears of Gracie. It might not match the original one, but it’s still quite potent. And you don’t need to get it from a goddess.]^
^So you made that one…^ Arad remembered the potion Aella got on their first night. That thing was an invention of Doma.
***
Gojo walked out of the tower, and everyone followed him. They don’t need to linger anymore. It could take months for anyone else to reach Sirlon’s floor. It could be years before they discover he’s dead, and then, they can only blame it on a failed summon.
He then looked at Arad, “Well, they won’t be finding anything since you have him.” Arad nodded. He took the corpse, and they cleaned the whole floor, erasing everything possible evidence, and then scrambled the place. Sirlon disappeared without a trace.
“I will give him to Zephyr,” Arad smiled, “He was a bigger threat than expected. She better have something more than thanks for me,”
Gojo grabbed Arad by the arm and pulled him away, “Listen, brother. I don’t suggest you get intimate with a pixie, especially the wind spirit. Those little bastards feed off mana. She would drain in no time.”
“I’m not doing that. And she can’t drain me,” Arad whispered back.
“I don’t have first-hand experience with them, but I heard a lot from other people.” Gojo whispered, staring back at Vars, “Stay away from succubus, Nymphs, and pixies. Anything else shouldn’t pose a problem for a dragon,”
“They are that bad?”
“Succubus drains your life force. That’s your HP in the system. Nymphs drain stamina, and Pixies drain mana.” Gojo stood and sighed, “I don’t want Jack or Aella to come calling, telling me you’re dead with a tiny pixie in bed.”
Arad shook his head, “That won’t happen, not in a million years.”
“I would trust you in that.” Gojo smiled, “But, if she’s willing to give you an extra reward, as for her dust or tears. They are pricy,”
“How much?” Arad asked.
“A gram of a regular pixie’s dust already sells for over twenty gold coins. And the tears are ten gold coins per drop.” Gojo looked at Arad, “If they come from the wind spirit, those prices are going to shoot up into the platinum if not more with the right buyer.”
Arad nodded with a smile. He has a little gold mind flying around his room.
***
Arad returned back to the castle, and the guards stared at him, “Sir Arad, right?”
Arad stopped and turned toward the guards, “Yes, need anything?”
The two guards stared at each other, “Well…The truth is…we wanted to ask how do you train,” One of them said.
“Yeah, we always wanted to know how could someone reach such power.” The other nodded.
Arad scratched his chin, thinking of what he did differently. “I eat a lot of meat, train on any skill I find whether it be magic or martial, I do find monsters regularly…” His eyes flashed, “Right, it must be that,”
“All of those are valid, what else could it be?” One of the guards stared at Arad.
“Women, sleep with as much as you can. The more the better.” Arad said with a smile, “Then, I need to get back,” He walked past the guards, leaving them pondering on what he said.
CLICK! Arad opened the door to Aella’s room, walking inside only to see her sitting on her desk, cleaning her bow.
“Doing maintenance?” Arad asked with a smile.
“Yes, I don’t want to trouble Mira each time,” Aella replied.
BUZZZ! Zephyr lunged from Aella’s head toward Arad, “Did you kill him?” She floated in front of his face.
Arad opened his mouth and attempted to bite her. CLACK! As his jaw clenched, Zephyr dodged with a grin on her face. “I’m quick, I’m nimble, I’m the wind,”
“Come here, I want to send you to him in my stomach,” Arad smiled, “But seriously, I can’t pull him here, he’s a mess of blood and guts.”
Zephyr stared at Arad with a smile, “I hope it wasn’t much of a problem,” She stared closely at his face, “And, did you find any pixies?”
Arad shook his head, “Sadly, all dead.” He pulled a closed box from his stomach. “More than I can count,”
“Damn it,” Zephyr growled, “That sick bastard, at least it’s over now.” She touched the box and a gust of wind rushed from her wings. “You can take the box. I sent the corpses to their families with a bit of my magic as an explanation.”
Arad opened the box and found it empty, all the dead pixies were sent away. He sucked the box back into his stomach and then looked at Zephyr. “Then, that wizard was more trouble than we expected… do you have any decent reward for the kill?”
Zephry scratched her chin, “A reward…something that no one got…” She smiled, “I have one, but you aren’t an elf. So you won’t like it,”
“Brother said your dust and tears are pricy, you can pay me with those,” Arad suggested.
“That might do it, but I want to give you something else.” She smiled, “Something far more… appropriate.”