The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!
Chapter 429 – Elusis, the Opal Jewel

The journey to Elusis recommenced as soon as everyone finished breakfast. Kanae had eaten her fill last night in more ways than one. On the way out of the inn, she stroked the minotaur's chest and winked. He gave her ass a swift slap leaving for work.

As everyone climbed into the carriages, Archbishop Patrice ordered Kanae to ride with her this time. Delayn, Camilla, and Kara acquiesced by trading places. She climbed into a cramped cabin. The high elf's belongings and books took up most of the space. Patrice picked up a bookmarked tome the second her butt hit the seat, burying her nose in the texts.

"There's a compartment to put all your stuff, you know?" Kanae pushed a knapsack aside to make room for herself.

"Why? They are readily accessible to me this way." Patrice pointed to the book she was reading. "On to more important matters, Amethyst. This 'Buhar' that the foreman spoke of has been mentioned many times in this journal. 73 times across 459 pages, to be exact. However, it must have been written decades ago, because there are no descriptions that paint Buhar as a huge temple."

"How is it described instead?"

The archbishop cleared her throat before continuing, "It is, 'a place where mystics and shamans seek guidance in the elements, rather than from the overseeing gods of this world. The great shaman Glentir is said to have made pilgrimage here every five years during his lifetime, to quell a raging torrent hidden precariously behind a thinning veil. Perhaps he has succeeded. Perhaps not. However, one could not have imagined a purer place of nature despite what he believed simmered underneath. Buhar is like the shell of an ancient turtle, breaching the ocean's surface. A calm stream wraps around the rigid mountain of stone, atop which a beautiful monastery hewn from the earth welcomes pious pilgrims and weary travelers.' What do you make of that, Amethyst? What can we extrapolate from this? Could the excavation that the Harpy King sought Radevic's help from have something to do with Buhar?"

"I think it's too early to tell, but I'm willing to say they're related. It might be that this 'raging torrent' and 'thinning veil' refers to the elemental plane the Harpy King somehow breached. If it wasn't a large temple then but it is now, then he's clearly built it up to guard the place for a reason. Foreman Fez did also mention that it's off-limits to commonfolk," she explained.

Archbishop Patrice applauded, her smile wide with pride.

"Very good! This would have earned 90/100 in an exam, Amethyst. I can see where Mikki inherited her underlying smarts from," Patrice said.

"Aw, thank— Wait. What about the remaining ten points?" Kanae frowned.

"You made guesswork on whether the Harpy King actually breached the elemental plane. We do not know for certain. Glentir made regular visits to Buhar. I hypothesize that he failed at what he sought to achieve in life. Perhaps… the veil was already torn asunder by the time the Harpy King found it," she explained.

Kanae and Patrice spent the rest of the journey pouring over the stack of books brought from Bravost. Other than that one journal, they couldn't find anything else in the others that spoke of Buhar at length.

Eventually, the words were beginning to melt together. Kanae put her book down and laid back on the seat. Her eyelids grew heavy. The gentle and less violent tumbling from their carriage slowly rocked her to sleep—

"And I also see where Pan gets her urge to nap in class from," Patrice scolded.

"Give me a break!" Kanae snapped awake. "I became Knight of Amethyst to fight and fuck, not read."

"Elusis, ho!" Renya shouted from outside.

They dropped the books and shoved their heads out the window. What Kanae noticed first was that the city had no walls like Bravost or Avanesse did. Unimaginably tall spires stretched into the skies, some beyond the clouds. At a glance, the shortest was maybe 50 feet, but the two had to crane their necks to see the higher ones. Every single spire boasted a mural along the sandstone length of their tower, depicting the history of their owners, families, and professions. Hundreds of harpies took to the skies at a time, flying from spire to spire. Criss-crossing walkways and bridges connected many together, usually with pavilions or terraces in between. Others were isolated without any means of reaching them except by flying.

The tallest of all gave Elusis, the Opal Jewel, its namesake. Looming over the rest in the center of the city was a trident-like spire. A giant opalescent gemstone glistened at the fork like a brooch worn around a neck.

However, the skies and spires weren't the only places teeming with life. An entire city sprawled across and around the bases of the monumental towers. There were mostly beastmen, elves, and Arkesian humans without the ability to fly on the surface. A skyborne city and its under-city beneath. At least here, it should be fine to fly around without being told off. But in order to keep their identity hidden and cover as merchants going, Kanae casted Human Form as they entered Elusis.

"Incredible." Patrice gasped. "Elusis is one of the oldest cities in the world, predating even Radevic. To see it in person, breathtaking. Some spires are as old as a thousand years, and the youngest perhaps a century."

"For such an ancient city, they left the surface out of their building plans," Kanae retorted.

Their small caravan entered through no particular gate. Townhouses built of sandstone bricks welcomed them into the cramped unpaved streets, where people loitered, sat around, or conducted trade. It took yelling and then some to get them to move out of the way. Buildings were so close together it was almost claustrophobic, and some looked like they might fall over any day now.

After an hour of aimlessly wandering the streets in search of the East Saviran Trading Association's outpost, the group was beginning to get antsy.

"Hey!" Petyr poked her head out of the carriage. "Where in three hells are we even going?"

"Beats fucking me. I've never been here before." Renya scratched her head.

Petyr let out an audibly annoyed groan.

"Hmm. Perhaps we should ask the locals." Patrice opened the carriage door and hopped down.

"Wait!" Kanae shouted.

The archbishop didn't listen. She landed on the ground and carelessly strolled up to a couple of shady men in an alleyway. Even though Patrice wasn't born in Ortesia, she still moved with the usual arrogant high elven gait.

"Gentlefolk, may I have a moment of your time? My companions and I are merchants seeking the East Saviran Trading Association's whereabouts in Elusis," Patrice explained.

"Merchants, eh?"

"Meaning ya got a nice load in the back?"

Kanae pressed a hand to her face and sighed.

"Well, yes. Naturally. What does that have to do with where the association's lodge is located?" Patrice folded her arms.

"Heh. We got a better place for you and your goods—"

The thug was about to put an arm around Patrice, but before Kanae could intervene, a gust of wind blew past and rocked the carriage. In a blink of an eye, Camilla was standing behind the four men. The glint of her drawn rapier slowly slid back into its sheath. Their tunics were severed around the upper abdomen, but without a drop of blood shed from them.

"Sorry. But my patron is in a hurry and doesn't have time to dawdle. I suggest you start running," Delayn said, descending from the carriage.

They hightailed it out of there and didn't look back. The Saint Priests escorted Archbishop Patrice and gave her a scolding about leaving the carriage.

"And you, Amethyst. Actually stop her next time! Don't just sit there and watch." Delayn groaned.

"I've learned from Arenade that the easiest way to teach a high elf is to let them make mistakes. Like children." Kanae smirked.

"That's no way to talk to your— nnh!" Patrice stopped herself short of finishing the sentence and pouted, just like Arenade.

As they were getting back into their carriages, a group of human children frolicked past. One grinded to a stop to pat the ronoa. The rest stopped to give the reptilian beast some pets. None of them looked particularly well-fed. Their clothes were in tatters, faces smudged with dirt, and cheeks gaunt.

"Kiddos, how would you like to earn a full belly?" Renya leaned down and asked.

"Whatever you're selling, lady, we don't got money," a frazzle-haired boy said.

"Oh, you got me all wrong. You are the ones selling something. A service! That I'm willing to pay for. We're looking for a place that has a four-pointed star. You recognize this?" She showed him a paper with a hastily-drawn crest of the association.

The children whispered amongst themselves until a girl came forward, holding a dirty silver token. It was the same as those exchanged between members for favors.

"How did you get something like that?" Kanae gasped.

"A man gave it to me after we scared some thugs away. It was a while ago though. He showed us the way to the… ashoshay… shun? I remember how to get there," she said.

Glad to have found some guides, Renya cloned herself and helped the kids onto the ronoas for a ride. Thank goodness, too. Elusis' under-city had many twists and turns. The lack of signs made it difficult to remember where they had gone. Some parts of the city had mounds of trash piled behind buildings.

Occasionally, refuse and garbage fell from the sky. Presumably from the residents of the spires. A half-eaten apple hit the ground in front of them. The ronoa at the front of the carriage drew closer to eat it—

"No, don't go near that!" a boy shouted.

Renya whistled sharply, yanking on the reins to pull the ronoa back. Not a moment too soon. A bunch of rotten fruits and vegetables splattered down, creating a rancid pulpy mess. Kanae glanced up and grimaced. That was almost bad. The ronoa could have been seriously injured from things falling from that height.

"The overcity likes to dump stuff down here. If we're lucky, it's bagged up food that they didn't finish. Most of the time it's just trash," he explained.

They pressed on deeper into Elusis until the streets became more spacious and buildings less crowded. The children led them to a tidy square beneath the shadow of a stone bridge, but the farthest point between the bases of two spires. A statue of a four-pointed star stood vigil in the middle of the square. Beyond it was an association tower, smaller than the ones in The Diamond and significantly dwarfed by the spires around them. Shops and residences formed a sort of enclosed block here, a far cry from the filthier blocks they had passed.

"We're here!" the girl with the token exclaimed.

"Atta kids." Renya ruffled two of the children's hair and handed them a pouch of gold. "Go get yourselves something to eat. I'm always looking for good workers, so you come find me if you wanna earn some coin."

When they opened the pouch, their eyes shined as much as the gold and silver coins inside. They wasted no time running to the nearest confectionary store.

"You guys smell something burning?" Edina started sniffing the air like a dog.

Everyone turned in the direction of the association building. Smoke billowed out from the windows of the lower floors. A dozen shrouded men in dark brown cloaks and hoods emerged from the entrance, jets of fire shooting from their hands like a drakeling's flame breath.

"The association's under attack!" Kanae shouted.

The group jumped from the carriages to help, only to be met by a rain of fire.

"Stay back if you know what's good for you!" a man growled.

"You… That crest." Petyr eyed the heraldry of a dead oak tree emblazoned on their chests. "The Dryoak Consortium. Riley is here?"

"Y-You're a high elf. Everyone, retreat! The guildmaster will want to hear about this!" he shouted.

"Not so fast!" Kanae launched forward to intercept them, but one of the Consortium goons conjured a giant wall of stone. She slammed into it, knocking the wind from her lungs.

Petyr stepped forward. With a powerful swing of her maul, she shattered it into pieces. But as the stone crumbled, the Consortium was gone. Association members rushed back and forth, fetching water from a well outside to put out the fires. They were having more success now that their attackers were gone.

"So much for our cover." Delayn sighed, shooting Petyr a mean glare.

"Yep. If the Consortium didn't know we were here yet, they know for sure now." Edina shrugged.

"No use complaining about it now," Kanae said. "Let's go help the association with the fire and ask what's going on."