The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!

The group returned to the Museum of History and Relics to help Seif and Panner. They forbade museum staff from entering the back for fear of it getting out that something was stolen on their watch. With the help of Edina's undead, they cleaned the mess and pushed the fallen shelf back into place.

Panner mulled through a journal, while Seif sifted through the items that were near the vicinity of the pile. Whenever Kanae offered to help, they pushed her away and told her to wait. She and her companions did just that corner of the room, bored out of their minds. Alicia had picked up an ornate baton to twirl around for fun. Claudia grabbed a couple of ancient, porcelain masks from a box and held them up to her face. In doing so, however, she fumbled and lost hold of one. It smashed the ground, sending shards of porcelain all over.

"What was that?" Panner exclaimed from afar.

"Nothing!" Claudia used her foot to scoot the mess under a shelf and put the other masks away.

"We've finally accounted for everything," he said, coming around the corner with Seif, snout buried in the journal, in tow.

"What did you find?" Kanae asked.

Seif put the book down on a table and gathered everyone around. It was opened to a page depicting the cylindrical stone object Kanae saw Seven holding. Whoever did the sketch had paid very close attention to its details. The surface of the strange thing did have symbols on it, and now that she got a closer look, they turned into a language she understood. Judging by Claudia and Alicia's shocked expressions, the sisters also recognized it.

"We still don't know much about it," Seif started curiously. "Panner thinks this is just an ornamental object, but I believe it's a key!"

"What makes you think that?" Claudia drew closer and made the kobold man nervous.

"Another one of his wild theories. They rarely turn out to be true." Panner shrugged.

"A better theory than this being just decoration! Y-You see these grooves along the surface? It is very possible this slots into a door. A heavy one," he explained.

Both Panner and Seif eventually had to leave. They needed to report to Ordane University about what happened at the museum, including what was stolen. Neither of them looked particularly thrilled, probably because the theft occurred under their watch.

Kanae and her companions came away from the museum with a revelation though. She and the other two true succubi of the group agreed those texts were related to the devil Satine. The words written were just a simple phrase repeated over and over again.

Vault key. Her chosen disciples only.

"Seif's hunch was right. That thing is a key. We had similar ones when we were living underground. Usually led to big chambers. They didn't have those symbols though," Claudia explained.

"Do you suppose that child knows what he has stolen?" Alicia asked.

"I don't know." Kanae shook her head. "Whatever Seven is doing, he genuinely believes it's going to save Theena. We won't know more until we find Kara. She's another one of his adventuring companions. Before leaving, he told me Kara was in Ashneedle. I think we'll find more answers from her."

Renya could wait. She was resourceful enough to survive on her own. Bravost was also too vast of a city to search for a single person.

For the time being, they visited the closest marketplace to stock up on supplies. The journey from The Diamond to Bravost had exhausted their rations. They only had their waterskins on them, and even those needed refilling.

The bazaar in Ordane's Rise sold all sorts of trinkets and oddities, some of which came from the university itself. Merchants, who chanced on what they thought were incredibly exotic and rare artifacts, came in droves hoping to make some hefty pocket change. Kanae's party got caught up in browsing merchandise rather than preparing for a trek across the desert again. Before long, the unnatural ebb and flow of the crowds led everyone in different directions. 

"Hey, lady! You look like you have an eye for precious jewels. This emerald necklace would suit you nicely!" A dark elven vendor waved Kanae over to his stall displaying unfaceted gemstones. Some jewels were still embedded in the stones. He himself held a silver chain with a green crystal on it. "Whaddya think? You're in Bravost, so it only makes sense you pick yourself up a nice souvenir straight from the Emerald Jewel itself!"

"Arenade is probably expecting me to bring home souvenirs. How much is it?" Kanae leaned in and asked.

"Normally, 5,000 for a piece of such size! But for you? 1,000. You're getting a good deal, I'll tell ya. It's going to look great on you or anyone you gift it to." He winked.

"That's a fake," Petyr said on her way up to the stall.

"Fake? Nonsense! I picked these up from a dirt pile next to a mining town. The foremen needs their eyes checked, because I spotted the goodies from a kilometer away!" the vendor exclaimed defensively.

Petyr snatched the necklace.

"G-Give that back, thief!" he snapped.

"I didn't realize you can scratch the green off of an emerald." Petyr scraped her thumbnail across the 'jewel' and revealed a cloudy white surface under. Quartz, dyed green.

"Guh… How in the hells did that get mixed in with my merchandise? It must have been a mistake! Please, leave. I shall have to inspect each and every one of my jewels to check their authenticity!" The elf drew a curtain around his stall to hide.

"Don't forget your bootlegged piece of rock." She flicked it flying past the curtain, and the man inside yelped loudly from getting struck.

"How the heck did you know it was fake? I couldn't even tell," Kanae said.

Petyr sneered. "When you've draped yourself in the finest jewels, it becomes second nature to know what's real and what isn't. I wouldn't expect rabble like you to realize."

Kanae regretted asking and rolled her eyes.

Souvenirs would have to come later. They purchased a few days' worth of food and water, hired a guide, and set off from Bravost. Ashneedle was due northeast, situated at the bottom of a gorge. It would have taken the entire afternoon if it weren't for Edina's restless undead beasts cutting the journey by half.

No one wanted to play cards to pass time. Edina was going to win anyway. Disappointed, the necromancer left the cabin to sit outside on the back steps. She brought with her a black book that didn't look like the for pleasure-reading kind. It also emitted an odd aura of magic that piqued her curiosity.

"Since when did you start reading?" Kanae asked, joining her friend on the step and watching the scenery pass by them.

"Hey, I read pretty good! Picked this up from a dude selling ancient tomes. He sold me this, saying it's got the deets on some powerful necromantic equipment. I'm starting to think it was a scam though. All I see are a bunch of cooking recipes!" Edina exclaimed and was about to chuck the tome.

"Wait, I think there's a spell on it! Let me see." She grabbed the strange grimoire, fetched her wand, and casted Dispel.

The magic from a ward enchantment vanished. Its cover and bindings stayed the same, but the pages didn't. Recipes that Edina had been looking at transformed into blocks upon blocks of paragraphs. Other pages contained clear illustrations of an item.

With its secrets revealed to them, they were even able to find the Pillar of the Damned and Scythe of Soul Reaping in it. But those two, Edina already possessed.

"Oooh! Guehehehe… It doesn't give the locations, but there sure as hell is a lot of info on necromantic equipment in here." Edina rubbed her paws like an evil villain.

Worried, Kanae leaned in to see. Some were mundane enchanted items, like a Bone Ring that granted a lesser undead as a permanent minion without consuming mana, or a Moth Torch which slightly raised the effectiveness of necromantic spells.

"We've arrived!" their centaur guide exclaimed from the front. "Something seems a little off though…"

The gorge was a deep trench in the earth. Winding canyons had cliffs jutting out like swords crossing blades with one another. Some were so close, one might be tempted to jump from cliff to cliff. Down below, a large town rested next to a thin creek that eventually disappeared into a cavern. Maybe because there was water nearby, but small trees with thick trunks sparsely dotted the surface.

They were about to descend along a slope when several wagons blocked the way down. Beastmen and elven men, armed to the teeth, yelled for them to stop.

"Not one step further! If you have any weapons, toss them to the ground and step out with your hands in the air!" one shouted.

Kanae and Edina poked their heads out the side.

"They don't look like guards," Edina said.

"My guess is mercenaries." Kanae hopped off the wagon to confront them. "Are you hired by Sultana Dudula?"

A couple of them laughed and nudged each other.

"Yeah. The sultana's paying us to keep this place peaceful," the same elf said in the most unconvincing manner possible.

"Listen, we don't want any trouble. You move aside, or you can take your pick of what messes you up: an Ortesian with a short temper, a succubus that gets off to inflicting pain, or a necromancer in need of fresh bodies," Kanae explained.

"Oh? Big scary necromancer is gonna sic these dead dire beasts on us?" he asked, drawing another round of laughter.

"What's so funny?" Edina revealed herself, only to make them laugh even louder and poke fun of her short stature.

It wasn't until the necromancer summoned a death knight that they choked on their own spit. The hulking undead towered over them and wielded a bone-crushing mace. Their jaws dropped. They dropped to their knees to beg for forgiveness. Some even tried to flee. However, the death knight barreled through the barricade, knocking the wagons aside and one plummeting off the cliff.

The trampled highwaymen groaned in pain and lured Claudia out of the carriage.

"What do I smell? Some agony in need of seasoning!" Claudia brandished her paddle.

"Hold on. I need to question them before you beat them senseless," Kanae said, picking up an injured harpy man and charming him. "You're not really working for Sultana Dudula, are you? What are you doing here?"

"Working for… the Unbreakable Dervish. Told to keep watch… scare away anyone who gets too close…" he groaned.

"A Dervish? Like that tornado bitch!" the Mistress of Pain exclaimed.

Kanae shoved the thug aside, and they jumped back into the carriage to race down to Ashneedle. The town was much wealthier than Watering Hole. Buildings were buttressed up against the side of the cliff. Enormous white ribbons stretched from rooftops to rooftops, offering shade and a cooler surface to citizens below. 

Many were going about their days with the heads down, their expressions unreadable behind the head cowls that protected them from the sun. Large wagons with full cargo sat idle when they should be on their way to Bravost. When Kanae's carriage rolled to a stop at the threshold of the city, citizens retreated and unsavory thugs emerged to greet them.

"It appears we aren't welcome here." Alicia drew her knives and casually drenched them in a toxin.

"You aren't. I'm offering you a chance to leave now. Otherwise, I can't guarantee your safety." A beefy centaur man parted the crowd with his very presence. Red and white war paint covered most of his body, including the brilliant black coat of fur of his equestrian half. He wielded a long, double-sided glaive. His full beard reached down his chest, braided and woven with intricate wooden beads.

"You're the Unbreakable Dervish, aren't you? We met Sofisa a while back," Kanae said.

"Are you perhaps the succubus she warned us about? You may have defeated her, but I am not so easily beaten. Yes, I am Grahib of the Dervish Five. I'm going to ask you again to leave. There won't be a third," he explained.

Before anyone else uttered another word, Alicia flung a knife in Grahib's direction. The blade embedded itself into his skin— or so they had thought. A rigid and almost rocky surface covered the area of impact. He laughed, wrenched the knife out, and tossed it to the ground. A layer of stone spread across the rest of his body like armor until he looked completely made of rock.

"Hahaha! Now, you can't hurt me at all!" Grahib bellowed.

"Is that so?" Claudia taunted. "Maybe we should put that to the test. I am more durable than you. No amount of pain anyone inflicts on me will keep me down for long. I bet you'll fold like a wet piece of paper from someone just sneezing on you! How about it?" She threw an arm around Petyr's shoulders. "We take a hit each from this cunt's Smite."

"Get your hand off me." Petyr shrugged her off.

"This isn't a competition… Get them!" he ordered.

Nearly forty bandits jumped them all at once. Kanae, Claudia, and Alicia placed each and every one of them under their control. They turned them against Grahib, whose shock lasted for only a brief moment.

Swords and pikes landed harmlessly on the centaur. The shoddier weapons broke on impact. Kanae struck the ground with Lust and switched on Sadist. She cracked her whip on him, and the tail end phased through his earthen armor. Since her strikes in Sadist were naturally infused with Turn Horny, the attacks left him reeling in pain and pleasure.

"Are you trying to turn me on? Stop that and fight me seriously!" Grahib growled, stampeding through and knocking away his charmed fellows.

Kanae flew out of reach. At least, she thought so. The centaur kicked his rear legs, shooting up a volley of stones. She ducked behind a building, just barely dodging them.

"Claudia!" Alicia signaled to her sister.

They circled Grahib, entangling him in steel wires which embedded into the ground to hold him in place.

"Let's see if you take a spanking!" Claudia darted behind him and landed a devastating ass-clap of a blow to his rear.

The ground fissured from the hit. A rippling shockwave knocked everyone off their feet. Kanae included, who plummeted to the ground. However, Grahib was still standing. He kicked Claudia with his back legs, and she skidded back into Kanae.

"Shit. It's like getting hit by a mountain." Claudia cursed under her breath.

Kanae switched off Sadist and said, "We're going to have to get creative. Like Sofisa, it's like he has power over elemental magic. In his case, it's earth. We need to whittle him down somehow."

"Allow me!" Petyr infused her warhammer with Smite and caved Grahib's rocky chestplate in.

The centaur heaved as the blow knocked him back a few steps. Pieces of stone chipped off, revealing the muscular chest underneath, but it was quickly regenerating a new layer.

"Petyr, bear down on him! Alicia, wait for an opening!" Kanae instructed.

"You're not going to beat me that easily." Grahib dashed away to put space between them, then erected a barrier of earth around himself.

They thought the centaur was going to escape until the barrier blasted outwards, showering everyone with sharpened stone. His broken chest armor had fully repaired itself.

"Tch. Kneel, you glorified talking horse!" Petyr ordered with a Command skill, causing not just Grahib, but the rest of Amethyst Hall to drop to their knees. Kanae and Alicia were the only ones unaffected due to Steel Mind.

"Hey! Whaddya think you're doing? We can't move!" Edina complained.

"I'll make this quick." The paladin hoisted the hammer above her head, but a pillar of stone pushed her into the sky.

Control of their bodies returned to everyone.

"Hailstorm!" Kanae casted a sleet of ice beneath Grahib, and his stone hooves gave out from under him.

"Gotcha!" Edina flew on top of the centaur. Her hands, glowing with necrotic energies, passed through his earthen armor.

Grahib howled in pain, and the armor disintegrated to reveal festering skin under it. He backhanded the squirreling away and erected another dome over himself.

"I'll break it open." Claudia flexed her arms to give it a spanking, but Kanae yanked her back.

"I wouldn't if I were you." Kanae pointed to the sky, where Petyr descended like a meteor.

An explosion rocked the entire gorge when the warhammer made contact with the dome. As the dust cleared, Grahib was without his earthen armor. Petyr stood over him with a foot over him. A dagger whizzed past Kanae and Claudia's heads, biting into the centaur's shoulder and rendering him immobilized.

"Paralytic toxin. That should keep him still for a while. Unfortunately, he cannot talk in this state." Alicia clapped her hands for a job well done.

Townsfolk came out of their homes one by one. They cheered as soon as they saw the Unbreakable Dervish defeated on the ground.

"These Dervishes are a lot more trouble than you described them. Fighting one alone might even prove difficult for me." Petyr spat on the ground.

"Wow. So, you can admit when you get beat?" Kanae teased.

"I said difficult, not impossible." She scoffed.

They rounded up the mercenaries and Grahib to be questioned later. There must be a good reason for them being here, and Kanae wanted to find out.

"Kanae… is that… you?" a timid voice asked from behind.

Kanae whipped around to find a feline beastman woman. Her orange hair was stained and matted by dirt. The once hopeful eyes of an adventurer were replaced by that of disillusionment. Instead of weapons, she held a pickaxe close to her chest.

"Kara! I've been looking all over for you. How have you been?" Kanae smiled.

The girl choked up. Without a word, Kara rushed into Kanae's arms. She stroked the back of Kara's head as though comforting her own daughters.