Chapter 487 486: Field Test (1)



Wiping the sweat from my brow, I glanced around the dimly lit cavern before looking back down towards the corpse of the Firefang that had pounced towards us, trying to catch us off guard and slice us to shreds with those giant claws it has.

Already we were finding monsters that could, at the very least, last longer than a few seconds against us and giving us a chance to practice our skills against real opponents.

Of course, this was still just a normal Firefang, nothing special about it and nothing impressive about it, but still, it gave experience and it provided us with some materials.

Anput was declawing the feline monster, tearing the giant claws out with her hands and creating a small pile of bloodied keratin, while Jahi added the Firefang's equally large fangs to the pile.

Leone was rummaging around the monsters opened torso, digging around for anything useful whilst also breaking off any of the more thick or hardened bones, wanting to add some more to the material pile.

We were down here with a quest for Firefang parts, since Jahi wanted to get us back into the groove of adventuring and rank our party up so that we could begin to make our own coin, though the Demoness didn't tell us exactly why she wanted to begin pooling together a large quantity of money.

Though, as I stood guard over everyone, a lance of ice resting on my shoulder, I could certainly think of a few options.

I had never asked, but I knew the Marquess' age was above a century, just not exactly where; she always spoke in relative terms, and to her, everything that's happened feels like it happened yesterday.

So if she was already in the triple digits and still considered 'young' by the Empress, well, there is a high likelihood that she's going to hold that position for centuries to come, meaning...

Jahi wants to create her own house, since that was one of the 'options' that her Mom had given her during the talk about the Asmodeucian's, and considering how Jahi had gone completely quiet regarding that talk, well...

I didn't need to be a genius to know that if you put two and two together, you get four.

With Mother's twins on the way in a week or so, Jahi was likely going to be looking to see if her half sibling with the Demon blood would be a futa or not, since that could certainly make everything easier on her end for starting her own House, or stop that plan in its tracks.

Like we had seen with the Countess, it was more often than not that women were married away to men or futa's, just like in most other medieval situations; it was just easier to do that then get a man or futa to marry into a family, so it continued to be the norm here.

Of course, I have no doubt that the Countess, and other women as powerful as her, could just say 'no' due to their own power, so it isn't as terrible... I don't think, anyways...

Either way, if Jahi really was looking to eventually restart the Asmodeucian Clan, that would pull her from being the Heir to House Asmodia and instead make her the Matriarch of the Asmodeucian Clan, though the Marquess certainly had a few options there too...

Tapping the ice lance against my shoulder, I scanned the surrounding area before glancing back at the others, getting a grasp on their progress.

Seeing that they were done, I took one last look around before dropping quietly from the tree I had been resting in, landing beside them and helping them clean everything off.

We had a large section of the reddish orange pelt, a bundle of bones, a few fangs, and all twenty claws, which we began to wrap in special cloth before distributing amongst our various packs and pouches, spreading the load evenly.I think you should take a look at

After that was done, I doused us all with Water Mana and got us clean from the blood, allowing us to resume making our way down towards the giant magma lake which was our objective for today.

"This is a good haul so far... quite a few materials that could make some decent gear to help us go further. Those fangs especially..."

Leone nodded, glancing at Anput as she said "Split them 50 - 50? I need the venom for some potions..."

The Jackalkin narrowed her eyes at that, before sighing as she nodded, muttering "I better get some compensation tonight, Leone..."

That made the Vampire blush slightly before she too nodded, making Jahi smirk as she slipped beside me, whispering "Me as well, Kat... I'll need some payment for the emotional distress you caused me this morning~!"

I gave her a dry look, only to roll my eyes as she smirked at me, the Demoness' hand roaming my back before dropping lower.

Right as she was about to get too comfortable, I stepped forwards and said "We still have to get the Magma Wyrm's spines, so let's get going. I don't want to be here all night."

Everyone nodded, and we resumed our trek through the stuffy Plains of Yama of Zhu'Rong Caverns; though, I did notice that compared to my time spent inside the Gobo Desert, this was much more bearable.

The difference lied in the lack of a sun and the scent of the air; here it was ashy and burnt, whilst Gobo Desert was just straight heat, each breath scorching your lungs.

Without a giant ball of fire warming up an enormous swathe of golden sand, I would imagine that Gobo Desert would have been much more bearable...

And the Plains of Yama would be infinitely worse considering it was a giant expanse of black sand and rocks.

Smiling wryly at that small observation, I walked over the Plains and led us towards the giant lake comprised of magma, where our target would be found lurking beneath the burning liquid.

We had been here once before, and it felt weird coming back after so long and after so much had changed...

A beach of black sand littered with bones and monsters led into the orange-red expanse of magma, which a few monsters waded through to get from one place to another.

This would be where we got a decent grasp of how much we had improved, as the monster we were hunting was one of the more dangerous ones lurking beneath that lake's surface, to the point that the Guild had almost refused to give us the quest based on our party rank.

Of course, a double check of who we were made them rethink that decision, and here we were, ready to hunt ourselves a Magma Wyrm and make a profit.