Mage And Wolf
Chapter 124

Chapter 124: Chapter 124

"Relax, it’s not all that glamorous. I’m just less formal than most clergy." I smile trying to make myself look less threatening.

"You’re an odd one aren’t you Highness?" The inscriptionist asks with a straight face.

"Maybe. But we should do introductions. You all know me and Karl already"

"I am Kel’Lina and this is Kel’Dai" one of the Nature God’s acolytes introduces them both.

"I am Akira and this is Phil" Akira introduces both black robed acolytes.

"I’m not familiar with Empire’s naming standards, what is the significance of the Kal and Kel prefixes? I hear them a lot." Karl asks.

"Kal is the child of a High priest or High Priestess, Kel denotes the child of a Full Priest or Priestess. Just a tradition the clergy likes when picking names, it’s not mandatory." Akira informs him.

"What about other ones? My personal disciple is named Hui’Jin" I ask and they all laugh.

"Hui’Jin means ashes in the old Dragon tongue. It’s the sort of thing you might name a child with immense talent for fire magic." Phil explains.

"I’ve met her, the Dragonewt Junior Priestess with the grey and black scales and beautiful black wings. She’s got to be far more Dragon than kin, likely a pure blooded Dragon’s child." Akira adds.

"Well, she is a very strong fire mage, the name fits." I laugh.

"But enough of that, Phil, you will be doing exchanges tomorrow. Akira, you make any requested Talismans and help Phil. Our volunteer alchemists know their tasks, pick different recipes from each other and I’ll get the ingredients ready."

The new arrivals start setting up camp, and the Green Acolytes decide on Soul Condensing and Regeneration pills for tomorrow.

"We’ve got a pretty good setup here" Karl notes "We should have Mary and Jake set something more permanent up to keep the area supplied if we can’t solve the curse right away"

"It’s such a good training grounds it would be a shame to fix it, but we do need to know what’s causing it." I agree.

The merchant truckers guards are taking watch tonight, not trusting the camp patrol with the entirety of their safety either, so we all retire for the night. Tents got split boys girls, Akira sending Phil to Karl’s tent so we could "Talk about tail maintenance" as she put it.

She’s super excited to not be surrounded by Dragonkin in this planet, the one she comes from is 90 percent of Dragon lineage. We do really end up talking about tails for much of the night. Shampoo, Conditioner, oils, best brushes, brushing techniques. The list goes on and on.

She’s an aspiring intelligence officer. Fox Kin have an innate affinity for illusions and Talismans, with some even gaining innate invisibility talents, so misdirection as a combat technique is their Forte.

She tells me that most clergy don’t actually pick who they serve. The seminary schools have a divining orb and sort by which Gods might favor you. If the answer is none, you are sent packing. She’s never heard of a Full blooded Dragon not matching their scale color, but for Dragonkin, it can be almost anything.

Her hair and fur are silver like the moon, with black ends. The effect is amazing, especially on the long fox ears. She’s startled to find out I’m a shape shifter and can make mine disappear, the concept of not having a tail is so alien to her she doesn’t know what to think. After all, where she’s from, almost everyone has a tail.

By morning we’re fast friends, and an old conversation with Elder Song about Omega Lycans naturally making friends comes into my mind unbidden. Maybe he was right, I’m unnaturally good at making friends.

Breakfast is a hit again today, the merchant swearing one day he will steal my oatmeal recipe before heading back laden with a third of our common alchemy resources.

Karl has decided we will skirt to the far side of the zone and see what’s up over there. It’s less patrolled, as it’s further from the cities and the other territories are a mess, so it’s best if we keep it from getting overrun.

There are portals everywhere. We can see three as soon as we get into the zone, miles of monster infested grassland visible from our vantage atop a hill. It almost looks like a zoo. Bears and pigs and all manner of wild beasts roaming the area.

"Hey Karl, that spell you used on Washington, it’ll deal with Category 1 magical beasts, right?"

"Yeah, no problem. I can do a smaller version, Clear out a couple square kilometers then we can close any remaining portals."

I hand him a category 3 core for the requisite mana to cast the spell and it’s not long before the glowing energy ball explodes, lighting up the sky with a mushroom cloud and sending a Shockwave out that knocks us off our feet.

I’m about to suggest a couple more, just clear this whole side, when a huge, red, winged humanoid appears in the sky in front of us.

"I’m certain I heard this guy told he could not pass" Karl jokes, starting to draw his mana back full from the core in his hands.

"Who dares use a forbidden spell in the territory of the Demon Lord Prim?" The giant demon bellows.

"Territory of the Demon Lord Prim? This territory belongs to the Dragon Gods. We were simply clearing a monster infestation from the rural areas." I yell back with the full on authority voice my robes grant.

"Dark Priestess." The huge demon nods at me. "It seems we have come into conflict. Demon Lord Prim claimed this city and surrounding areas when the portal opened. It was already in ruins."

"Dissidents destroyed the area a short time ago." Karl tells it. "There wasn’t time to secure it with the rapidly opening portals."

"Shall we solve this with politics, or with might?" The demon asks.

"Politics first, violence second?" I suggest and it makes a noise I interpret as laughter.

"Fine, meet here in 2 hours and we can solve this dilemma." it growls before disappearing.

"Sounds like there’s a full on Demon City in the Fallen City" I tell Karl. Fallen City Zone being the base moniker for the monster infested area, as Sioux Falls was the only city fallen to the portals, or otherwise lost to us, within the purview of our protection zone.

"And they believe in politics, so maybe we can come to an agreement?" Karl sounds doubtful.

"Let’s see what they have to say. Worst comes to worst, we nuke them. Then do it again so they know we’re not sorry."

We both change to fancier formal robes and await their delegation in the now very open grassland. They phase in promptly at the scheduled time. 4 of the giant winged humanoids led by a young looking Succubus.

"Greetings representatives of the Dragon God of Death, I am The Demon Lord Prim. As I am well aware of the negotiating tactics of your Goddess, I would like to suggest a compromise."

We’re off to a great start. Does that mean we don’t get to nuke the Demon City?

"Already disappointed you might lose the chance at slaughtering a city?" The Demon Lord raises an eyebrow at me and I shrug.

"Just an idle thought, please don’t let it interrupt our negotiations." I dip my head politely.

"My territories in the Hell dimensions are small and crowded, with a lack of diversity to feed upon. This world is vast and under powered. I wish to sign a non aggression agreement between our kingdoms, granting my people rule of this city"

"What of the surrounding areas? The portals are a problem for the surrounding lands and we wish to have them cleared as much as possible." Karl demands.

"You may not touch the five stable portals around the city limits, nor the Four within the city itself."

"Do all 9 reset daily? Or just the five outside the city?" I ask, wondering how many dungeons this area has.

"Just the five outside the city. The other four we stabilized to travel to and from the demon Realms" Prim informs me.

There’s memories of demons in Elder Song’s transfered memories. It seems he learned alchemy for many years in a demon realm. It reminds me of a non human filled cultivator realm, the strong oppress the weak, but the strongest enforce rules to keep things stable.

According to his memory, their nature makes agreements binding, much like the Divine Pact I accidentally formed with Sect Master Sun. Which makes this negotiation very important.

I send a mental communication to Kal’Elouet to come and bring the highest rank Bronze Dragon available for a pact with the Fallen City, or maybe we should call it the Demon City now. She sounds shocked, but insists they’re on their way.

True to form, the Bronze Dragon has a template agreement ready when they arrive.

Most of it works, but eliminating the monsters does not. It is in their cursed nature to cause monsters to rise around them, so the area will always be full of them, in an increasing range as the population rises and restrictions on the planet’s power levels ease.

A zone is mapped out, detailing likely monster areas, and a clause written that our Adventurers may hunt them at will, as long as we don’t attack the demons.

The agreement is extended to require any Demon entering in the future to agree to abide by it as long as it’s still in force.

Trade team safety is negotiated, in case at some point the two Empires are on good enough terms for that.

As with the Vampires, the final sticking point proves to be slaves. Many demons enslave the mind of their victims, and it goes against Dragon law. The Bronze initially doesn’t want any leeway, but that would bring negotiations to a halt, as always happens between the species.

"How about terms of treatment?" I suggest "Prohibiting abuse, requiring proper nutrition and housing and banning the purchase, sale or taking of mentally or physically bound servants on this planet?"

"So we would have to be nice to our slaves and not take any more while we’re here?" Demon Lord Prim asks with disdain. "We would starve"

"You feed on lust, right?" I ask and she nods the affirmative "We have humans who cultivate by sexual activities without mental binding here. Is that possible for your species?"

"Certainly, but who would willingly couple with a demon?" she asks confused.

"Does it actually steal their soul or life force?" I wonder out loud, knowing nothing about Succubus as a species.

"No, when done to purebred humans it just drains their Qi and makes them feel like they’ll die." Lelou clarifies for me. "They bind their targets so they don’t run away or hurt themselves to get away from the pain. Other species the process is known to kill."

"Karl is giving me a look that suggests he might have a plan we won’t like" I tell Lelou and the Bronze. "One minute while we confer"

We move to the side and I poke him in the chest "Out with it"

"Neither non Succubus Demons nor Dragonkin dual cultivate the way humans do, I looked it up when the Forbidden Treasure Sect arrived. Their internal Qi is different, there’s no need for such techniques" he informs me. "I think if they did, the problem would go away"

"So you’re saying, you should take her for a roll in the hay and test the theory before signing the treaty?"

"We could find a volunteer instead, someone experienced?" Karl suggests.

That would be much better, yes.

"Lady Kal’Elouet we require a human dual cultivator, a male of the highest available cultivation to test a theory. Demon Lord Prim, might you help us with this? We believe we may have a solution to the Succubus food source problem on this planet."

The Demon Lord looks intrigued and is happy to set up a tent in preparation for our experiment. Lelou brings back a middle aged cultivator at the 14th stage of Condensation, only one breakthrough away from peak Condensation Realm.

"Have you been informed of the experiment good sir?" I ask him.

"Aye, wee lass. As soon as yer Dragon told me there would be wings and cultivation I near flew here on my own" he grins with a half unintelligible accent.

"Now, Demon Lord Prim, you may experiment as you like, but no serious harm is to come to the volunteer, is that understood?"

"Agreed, we will see what levels of demonic depravity this human species is capable of. If they can sate even a Demon Lord we have an agreement"

Two hours later, I sense a breakthrough occurring inside the experiment tent. An hour after that, Demon Lord Prim comes out smoking a cigarette, the cultivator standing looking proud of himself behind her.

"Get that agreement done and signed. I’ve got important things to get back to" She insists. "And include these burning sticks in the trade agreement"

Well, I guess that’s one problem solved. I wonder when we’ll get our volunteer back?