Chapter 110 - The Confession And The Rescue

I started fuming again at the mention of that golden scaled asshole, but to think that he actually owes this other necromantic prick a favor is even worse. Just what did he need that was worth getting in bed with Necro? I was a mix of confused, intrigued, and pissed off.

"Hey, asswipe, how am I supposed to know where to find Aurum? I haven't seen him or his lackeys, oh I mean siblings, in quite a while. You can't expect me to just saunter off into the woods looking for a clue like I'm looking for breadcrumbs do you?"

The next second a sickly green flash of energy later and in Hannah's hands was a rolled up piece of paper. I grabbed it with a frown since as I was grabbing it Hannah's body was colder than ice, her soul has been gone for so long, I don't know how long her body will last.

I unrolled the paper and on it was a single word in blood red letters.

PRIDE

"..."

"Dammit." I rolled it back up and walked out of the tent and back to the others. I did a quick scan and found that Liosa and Howy were in their tent and so was Sondar and Kona. It looked...Athletic, so I quickly disabled Detection and went to chat with some of the others for a little bit. I walked into the medical tent and saw as Shorunt and Sylvania were busy wrapping up the leg of Gaia, huh what a coincidence.

"Hey guys, what happened?" I said as the initial shock wore off.

"Hey brother, and nothing really, I got scratched up from fighting a creature while on patrol duty, nothing to worry about." Gaia said shortly before wincing in pain as Shorunt tightened the bandages around an obviously still bleeding wound.

"Shorunt.... Wanna let me know how he is really doing?" 

"It's pretty bad, whatever it was actually shredded his scales and went all the way to the bone. He says it had claws but this kind of damage is beyond what a normal claw can do. It's like it was serrated and was laced with poison aswell. His insides were slowly starting to rot before he got here." Shorunt looked at me with a worried look as Sylvania covered Gaia's leg with a bright green light.

"Dammit.... Well let me see if I can help out a little I need to work on my healing magic anyway." I walk over and place my hands over Sylvania's and focus activating my Regen powers while at the same time pouring magic through and into her hands. I might not be able to heal with normal means but I can certainly pull some crazy shit.

Her hands started to light up and small engravings started to appear over her hands. She started to wince but powered through since she could see Gaia's leg starting to heal at a rapid pace. It ended several seconds later as even with my magic running through her, the green light still faded away. 

*hmm, something to look into later.*

"As much as I appreciate the help, just what the hell was that and why did it hurt... Oh and what the hell is this marking that is now permanently on my hand." Sylvania then raised her hand and on the back was a damn near perfect imitation of the brand I have. Just then a Ding went off and I got a surprise.

[Branding Complete. Subject [Sylvania Frostglow] has been branded as your subordinate.]

[Permanent increase of +200 MP. +20 Magic, +20 Int]

[New skills available to learn.]

[Healing touch] - Able to heal light wounds by placing your hands on someone and infusing your healing energy into them.

[Ice magic] - Able to control the element of Ice.

[Unique Magic: Healing Blizzard] - Sealed.

I was shocked beyond belief as the windows kept popping up. The increase in stats were good since I mostly relied on my mana regen to carry me through the more difficult fights. I mostly just pumped huge amounts of mana into a spell to make the result seem like a stronger tier.

But what had me confused was the last one. [Healing Blizzard]? Now what was that? I've never seen Sylvania use that skill before and it even says sealed in the description. Does that mean that even she doesn't know about this power? Plus this may have been a dick move on my part but wow what a cool last name.

"Soooo, it looks like my brand activated and when my magic passed through you, it branded you as one of my official subordinates." I smiled meekly after I said this hoping the resulting lash out wasn't to severe.

But she just stared at the brand for a second and I saw as her eyes seemed to light up as she used her other hand to seemingly swipe at something invisible in front of her. My eyes went wide as I realized what she was doing.... She was fucking navigating a menu screen. SHE got a freaking screen infront of her face.

"Sylvania! are you looking at a system screen right now?!" I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked in her eyes. She smiled and nodded.

"Yes, as soon as you told me about the brand I had what felt like a rush of information hit my head and when I looked at the brand I could see a screen pop up. Is this what you see?"

HOLY FFFFF.... I mean wow this is incredible, does this mean I can give a system to everybody? and if so do I get permanent increases and skills everytime? This was an insane discovery.

"I don't know what you see right now but for me the screen pops up in front of my face. It appears that you got a watered down version, but either way holy shit this is awesome. Tell me what your seeing." I was getting so excited that so many ideas were popping into my head and I stopped caring about how others saw me. Sylvania seemed to catch the same emotions and she was bouncing with energy along with me as she explained what she saw.

"I see my name, my current stats, and my skills.... Wait, what is this?" She asked as she looked confused and started staring at something with intensity. A look of realization emerged in her eyes before she gasped.

"I-I-I have this inside me?" She said as she looked up towards the sky. She started to silently cry, Shorunt was concerned throughout this whole thing but as soon as he saw the tears he hopped into action and came up to console her.

"Sylvy, what's wrong? Why are you crying. Master what did you do." He then looked at me with a look of anger, it surprised me but it made me smile all the same.

Before I said anything Sylvania reached up and grabbed his hands with a smile. "He didn't do anything but give me hope Darling. He gave me hope."

She then hugged Shorunt as she cried more. I could only assume it had something to do with her sealed skill. But seeing as how right now they were having a moment I turned, picked up Gaia, through him over my shoulders, and walked out and towards the food pit. I've been noticing that I've been growing hungrier lately, especially after using the power of Wrath. It's like something inside me is burning through everything I have stored and is still craving more. 

I walked up to the pit and picked a nice spot to put Gaia down as Romeo walked up and handed me and Gaia a plate filled with roasted boar meat. It smelled heavenly as the meat was coated with a honey sauce and next to it were sliced up pieces of tubers that were fried in the leftover boar fat. To say that I devoured that meal in 5 seconds flat would be an overstatement, It went from his hand to my hand and from my hand down my throat before I could blink. It was so good and afterwards I felt a slight warmth radiate through my arms.

I looked up at Romeo and he smiled as he already knew what I was about to ask.

"That dad, would be the effects of the food activating. This dish gives the usual buff of heat resistance since it's made from the Fire Boar meat, but also using a little creativity when making the honey sauce, I was able to add in the bonus of increasing your health by a little bit. I think this one is going to be amazing and I've already had Mom start me a cookbook of sorts."

I was nodding and smiling like an idiot until that last sentence.

"Hold on... Mom? Whose that? Digger killed your mom?" I was starting to get worried, maybe he got possessed somehow and was spouting nonsense but what he said next warmed my heart a little.

"No no no, fuck that ant bitch. I'm happy she took a dirt nap. I'm talking about Kitsoma, She is so loving and caring to all us Dragonants. She radiates total mom energy that alot of us having even started calling her mom, and let me tell you she is eating it up faster than you ate this dish. She loves it every single time, so we just roll with it, I figure if you two are in love and she loves us then why not commit to it and love her back."

"Dude.... Romeo that is so awesome, your making your old man shed a tear over here."

I couldn't help but smile at how heartwarming that was, This whole time that I was dealing with my own bullcrap, there she was getting to know my children, growing closer to them and showing them the love that they need.

"Gaia, stay here, I'll be back." I took off towards where I knew Kitsoma was after a quick use of detection. I pushed the flaps of the tents and grabbed Kitsoma surprising her.

"Wha.." Before she could speak I passionately kiss her. I hold her tightly as the emotions in my chest rise to uncontrollable levels. Our bodies together created heat enough to spark fires, further deepening our relationship. I couldn't continue my life without letting this gorgeous woman know how amazing she is. Even with losing her power she still did the best she could and even took over the most hectic and mentally stressful jobs with out so much as a complaint. She gives my children the loving mother that they never knew they needed. After realizing all that she's done I couldn't just let these emotions go to waste.

After a few minutes we seperate while panting. Puffs of steam can be seen as we exhale. 

"You're amazing Kitsoma, you do everything for me and my children, for this base, for our friends. You deserve the world and.... I love you. I knew I loved you from the moment my body forced itself to risk life and limb for your soul back in that dungeon. I know I'm not the most attentive, but these moments I swear will be spent with you, no matter where you are in this world I will spend these intense moments of emotion with you."

She stares at me with a loving smile and a tear as it rolls down her face. She grabs me and hugs me as hard as she can. 

"I love you to, I've loved you for a long time, I'm so happy that we can share this moment together."

She releases me while still smiling, Just looking at her filled me with more joy than anything I've ever done in this world. I decided there and then to spend this second life making sure she had everything she desired. With her by my side this world's worries were nothing in comparison.

"As much as I want this moment to continue, I have to get back to work my dear. Why don't you go find something to hunt and make Romeo cook up something special just for us tonight? We can have a special dinner with just the two of us." She kissed me again before turning and grabbing a clipboard that was thrown hastily in my rush. 

"Ofcourse my love." I turned to walk away but soon stopped. I turned back around and I softly reached around her body from behind in a loving embrace as I placed my head on her shoulders. 

"What would I have done without you Kitsome."

She laid her head onto mine as we stayed like that for a few seconds. "You probably would have not suffered as much, but then again you wouldn't have been blessed with all of those wonderful children if you hadn't."

"I heard they call you mom now."

"Hehe, yes they do and I absolutely love it..." She turned to me and looked me in the eyes with seriousness.

"Do you think this world would ever let me be a real mom?" She seemed a bit saddened at the thought. I knew it was because we were different species, I knew things like that didn't have the best results... But dammit I couldn't just stand there and let the woman I love think she would never be able to have her own children just because she fell in love with a creature like me.

I lifted her chin and wiped a tear that threatened to escape. "Honey, no matter what I have to do.... I will make sure you're wish is granted. You are my family, you are the mother to quite alot of children now, I know it's not the same but they love you just the same as they love me. Hell probably even more, But nevertheless, you will have your own."

"Thank you so much, that's just what I wanted to hear." We kissed again before I finally let her go back to doing what she was doing before I bullrushed in here and interuppted her.

I walked out and sent a message to Sondar that I was going to be hunting for a little bit and that I'll be back shortly. I felt a nod as a reply and took off into the forest.

I felt that if I wanted something special that I would more than likely have to find a powerful beast to hunt. A quick Detection wave later and I find a huge amount of power surge from far, far in the north. It looks like the further north I went the thicker the forest got around me and the heavier the magic in the air felt. Something was abnormal about this area of the forest. Why hadn't I felt this before? Was something intentionally blocking me or was it invisible to me up until recently? 

A few questions rose up in my mind as I started wondering through this part of the forest. Nothing came out to attack me but I did run into things that stopped me in my tracks. I couldn't see anything in front of me but something was obviously there since everytime I moved it felt like something was wrapping around me more and more until eventually I was stuck. 

That was when a slight breeze came through the canopy above and let some of the sunlight through. There all around me was the faintest flash of caught sunlight as thread was seen all around me. I was covered in invisible thread that was so strong I doubted even Wrath could break. Cold sweat started to form as I remembered something. Don't threads usually lead back to the ones who created it? Aren't the strewn about threads used as a web to entangle and trap prey?

WEll what the fuck created these invisible, stronger than hell THREADS DAMMIT!

That's when I felt a tug and was lifted off the ground. I was being lifted off the ground and towards the top of the trees.

Using detection was useless as the pure concentration of mana shown nothing but blotted out vision all around me. Even Aura vision was mostly useless as everything seemed to have an aura in this particular area. Even the damn trees were showing emotion.

Click, Clack,  Click

I was getting nervous as I started to hear something above me. I knew what that noise was..... It was the sound of mandibles smacking together. Something above me had mandibles and more than likely had the power to kill things of my level.

I was starting to get scared as the lifting started to slow down and the canopy started to darken as the sun was going down above it. The world was turning dark and whatever had captured me was mere moments away from a scaly meal.

"CLOSE YOUR EYES!" A voice shouted shortly before a flash of brilliant white light erupted just in front of me and for a split second I could see, and it was horrifying.

10 sets of purplish eyes all glared down at me as they set above 2 large grasping mandibles covered in thick fibrous like hair, they were inches away from my face and beyond them was a maw dripping with saliva and within was rows and rows of serrated fangs ready to grind and devour. 

"IT'S A FUCKING SPIDER HEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP!!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs like a little girl. I. Did. Not. Care. Fuck Spiders and the horrible monster that spawned them. My calm cool demeanor vanished as I was inches away from the face of a horrific spider monster.

SNAP

I felt the tension that was holding me release and I was then free falling from the canopy of the trees all the way to the forest floor. I had about a good 10-12 seconds of air time before I slammed into the ground as the air was knocked out of me.

"Shut the hell up and I'll save you, this area is home to the Greater Spiders you idiot. Not even silver ranked adventurers take jobs around this area."

I tried looking at who was talking but since my dumbass didn't close my eyes, I was now completely blind. I couldn't see jack shit as it was completely dark all around me.. Thankfully the dark was starting to brighten up as my healing was taking effect but I could tell I was screwed atleast for a day if I didn't do something more.