We lingered in bed for a while after waking up, cuddling and enjoying the warmth of each other's presence. Elyra had tried to hide herself, not wanting to show Vespera the signs of last night's activities, but the demon girl simply laughed and traced the angel's wings with her claws, making her shiver.
She stopped before it could spiral down any further.
"Don't look at me like that, little angel. The collar looks good on you, by the way," she said.
Elyra gasped, hands immediately going to her neck. Before they could reach there, I snapped my fingers and make it disappear, smirking.
"I… it is not what it seems," the angel began.
"Shh," Vespera said. "It's okay. I also think it's rather hot. Heavens, you're hot."
She gave Elyra a little boop on the nose, making her flush a deep red.
"See?" I said, clearly amused. "You were worrying about Vespera so much last night, but you shouldn't have."
This made her freeze, while the demon in question turned towards her with a playful grin on her face. "Oh my, you did what now? You thought about me while getting all steamy with Sol?"
She leaned in, still nude, and I enjoyed seeing Elyra's brain freeze.
"What?" Vespera pouted, using her finger to trace the angel's face. "Not even a little kiss after thinking about me so much?"
"You really…" Elyra stammered, her brain still all flustered and not working properly. "You really want a kiss from me?"
"Only if you want it too. We both tasted Sol already, but I haven't tasted you, and you havent—mmf—"
"There," Elyra said as she pulled back. "Do I taste good?"
Vespera grinned. "Did I feel a little tongue there? Daring~"
Licking her lips, she grabbed the little angel's face and proceeded to thoroughly kiss her. Then, the two both turned towards me at the same time, hunger in their eyes.
"I think it's unfair someone didn't get to finish last night," Vespera purred. "How about I teach your little pet cat-angel some moves, huh?"
It didn't matter that Vespera herself had only a tiny bit more experience than Elyra. Their enthusiasm was more than enough to make up for it.
We only left the room a couple hours later.
◈◈◈
"Why a cat though?" Vespera asked as we got ready to go down to the main Guild rooms.
"I don't know," I said. "She made me think about cats, the way she leaned in for scritches."
The demon thought about it before frowning, clearly not convinced. "But cats also scratch back. Dogs don't. Cats don't like collars. Dogs do. Why a cat and not a dog?"
"I don't know." I shrugged.
"I don't like dogs. And I am right here." Elyra hissed.
I laughed. "See? She's feisty. She hides it but she really is."
That seemed to be enough to convince the demon. "What about me?" she asked as we left our room, walking backwards while ahead of me, not caring about her surroundings.
"Also a cat," I said.
She pouted. "Really? You have no imagination."
"No, listen. You two are like, different kinds of cats, but cats nonetheless. Looks like I'm collecting strays."
Elyra perked up at the word strays, looking at me with indignation in her eyes. "Hey!"
Vespera and I laughed, before she leaned towards me with a dangerous expression. Her red irises seemed to glow against the darkness of her scleras, twin orbs of blood in the dark. "Do not go around collecting girls, Sol. I will be watching you."
The tension dissipated as quickly as it came. I gulped.
"That was never my intention," I said, then tried to change the subject. "So, what's the plan for the day? Between paying off two days of interest and breakfast, we are out of coin."
"We could go dumpster diving."
I stopped in place. "Vespera?"
She laughed. "It's better than it sounds! You have [Matter Reclamation]! I bet it can turn garbage into sellable stuff."
It actually wasn't a bad idea at all. But, we didn't know the rules in Perseverance's End and it wasn't like we could get out of here and spend a few days in the wild in case people looked at us sideways and needed to to forget about us.
"Maybe there are guild sanctioned jobs where we can do something similar?" Elyra offered, pointing at the board with fliers at the center of the room. It was not too crowded, mostly because we had slept in.
"Good idea."
As we approached, we noticed all sorts of requests. Mainly they were about town work, but there were others that required a worker to go outside, and they paid handsomely. We ignored them, of course. None of us was crazy enough to even entertain the notion of going outside. Right at that moment, almost on cue, a loud explosion rattled the walls of the lithos right above us.
We were the only ones who looked up, though. I guess it was a common occurrence. It still set us on edge, and soon we began to hear screeches, howls and barks right outside. The stone-slash-concrete was at least a meter thick, if not more, and yet we could hear the sounds of monsters as if they were right there with us.
Everyone else kept on going about their day like nothing was wrong. They grumbled about having to do humble work in the city, but most people were in worse debt than even us, and couldn't afford to be picky. Apparently I wasn't too far off with my assessment of debt in this city, looking an awful lot like my old life.
Whatever. We had magic, levels, stats and, most importantly, I wasn't alone. There were similarities, but they were just faint echoes of a hollow life.
Vespera finally saw something that caught her eye. "Hey, that request there. Demolition Debris Waste-to-Resource Specialist? Sounds like the exact sort of thing we could use the skill for."
"Huh," I hummed as I read the job description.
It was interesting. In a cramped city like Perserverance's End, build codes were quite restrictive, especially in certain lithos blocks near the center. You couldn't just leave rubble lying around, and with how rare processed resources were…
My skill could be quite lucrative.
"It is a jobmade for you." Elyra said after I passed her the job sheet.
Vespera poked me in the side. "Alright, let's go make money!"
Her voice was way too loud and I saw that our antics were beginning to draw attention.
I debated with myself whether I should do something about it, whether to care about it or not, and landed squarely in the middle. There was merit to both approaches but, for now, it was probably better to be cautious.
I still couldn't help but make a joke. "See? I might be useless out in a fight, but I'm useful in the city," I said, stealthily moving away from the board.
Elyra's wings twitched. "Do not say that, Sol. You are—"
I wasn't finished, however. "While you two are utterly useless here. You depend on me! Hehe!"
"Ha!" Vespera shouted, pointing at Elyra. "He got you!"
So much for not drawing attention. Between their looks and behavior—no, our looks and behavior, there was no way we could go unnoticed. My bad for even assuming we could, and then doing the opposite not a minute later. Maybe it was better to lean into our odd behaviors, rather than trying to hide them and fail.
Anyway. Once again, we found ourselves going to Bib, who handled the requests as well as the bar and rooms. Then I spotted Buck roaming around, looking at the various work postings, and noticed that his dog was missing. Good, it gave me an opening to interrogate him about slaves, since I knew virtually nothing about them. I was only pretending to have slaves, but I could see that one of the reason we were attracting attention was because nobody else bantered with them at all, even if they were sentient.
"Where is your dog?" I asked him. "What was his name?"
The man barked a laugh. I wasn't trying to make a pun. He really did bark a laugh, and said: "I consumed it."
I recoiled. "The fuck? You consumed it? Like System sort of consuming?"
He laughed again, before his face fell and he began to speak in low rumbles. "I know it's unorthodox to do it when the monster is so weak, but I'm done risking. And, I needed the boost."
"You did?" I asked. I wasn't sure what the deal was.
"Why the fuck did you think I was drowning myself in booze every night? I am—no, I was shit at fighting. My class wasn't suited for it. I got lucky with the dog, a blind buy at an auction."
"Then why consume him?"
"I told you, I needed the power boost before the tide. Dogs aren't very good for city work, are they? If I let it grow its power some more, I might have gotten a C-grade class, but as I said, I'm done risking. Sure, I might have gotten a C class, or the dog could have broken the slave spell and killed me. D is fine. New classes are easy to level, and I spent all day hunting. I got plenty of stats and even saved enough energy for one skill.
I didn't really know what to say so I settled for a lame: "That's good."
It was more than enough to keep the man talking, which was what I needed. Free exposition.
"Now I can maybe scrounge up enough work enough to get a loan. If I last through this tide, I swear I'm going to be a new man. No more alcohol and stupid expenses. I'll keep the cores I hunt and use them to unlock skills, and I'm going to pay off my debts. Yes. A new man."
"And your class. D-tier?"
"It's what I got dealt with, alright? I used to be like you," he said, eyeing my two slaves. "And now I'm here."
"No, no, I'm sorry. I didn't meant to pry. I just wanted to ask… where do you see the class tier?"
"In the status, of course. Wait, you don't see it? then it means—"
"Nothing. It means nothing. I don't have a class yet."
Buck eyed the two girls. "Well, you'll see it when you get around to consuming them. A word of advice. I saw you banter and joke around with them. I'm pretty sure you fuck them too, don't you?"
I said nothing.
"Don't get too attached. Even normal slaved beasts know that you're only using them. Sentients, however? They'll fuck you up. That's how I got here. I thought I was big stuff, smarter than the other assholes. Balls deep in my water spirit every night, drinking and fucking and gambling. She swore she was going to marry me, that she loved me. And I… well."
"What happened?"
"She almost killed me, is what happened. Did plenty of damage before they put her down. I learned my lesson. Better to consume them early than let them grow more powerful than you. The slave bond makes you think you have power of life and death over them, but you don't. Well, fuck me. I'm going to need a drink after all this."
"Tell Bib your next drink's on me, alright? I'm sorry I made you relive those memories."
Buck grinned, his crooked teeth and oversized canines showing. He really did look like a deformed dog.