The rush of air whipped against the succubi's faces, and Elina, who was so high up for the first time in her life, was on the verge of fainting from terror. The girl desperately tightened her arms around Lysandra's body, burying her face in her breasts and trembling all over.
Lysandra felt that desperate grip, and a look of slight disgust washed over her face. She winced, feeling the warmth of a hero's body against her cold skin, but merely let out a heavy sigh without throwing her passenger off.
"Did you manage to get any rewards for conquering that village?" Lysandra asked, looking at Lilith and trying to ignore the shivering rabbit.
Lilith, flying right alongside her, nodded with pride. Mid-flight, she pulled a massive, bronze-bound chest from her inventory. Focusing her will, she opened it with a single gesture, and system messages flashed before her eyes.
[You have opened a Bronze Treasure Chest!]
Gained:
Gold: 4000
Blueprint: [Obelisk of Hidden Mist] x1
Tome of Strength x1
Lilith whistled with appreciation at the sum of gold. A broad smile lit up her face - 4000 coins was a powerful injection into her budget. In her hands, an old scroll and a leather-bound book suddenly materialized.
Elina, despite her paralyzing fear, cracked an eyelid. Her eyes widened in disbelief. "So that's how Demon Kings obtain items..." she choked out under her breath.
Lysandra, hearing the comment, immediately lost her patience with the "guest." With one fluid movement of her hand, she conjured a smooth, frosty ball of ice in the air. Before Elina could react, the succubus grabbed her by the chin and, with a quick thrust, shoved the icy projectile straight into her mouth.
Elina's eyes bulged as she choked on the freezing cold. She began to thrash, trying to spit out the ball or pull it out with her hands, but Lysandra only shot her a sharp, icy glare.
"Look down, little one," she hissed.
The bunny girl glanced beneath her feet and, seeing hundreds of meters of empty space below, immediately stopped struggling. With tears in her eyes, she again clung desperately to Lysandra's shoulders, holding the ice ball in her mouth as it burned her tongue.
"Play with that ice for a bit while we handle important matters," Lysandra remarked, then glanced curiously at the scroll in Lilith's hands. "What kind of blueprint is that?"
Lilith unfurled the parchment, and the system displayed the building's description:
[Blueprint: Obelisk of Hidden Mist]
Description: The structure can generate a thick, supernatural mist across its entire area of effect. The mist drastically reduces visibility.
Lysandra's eyes shone with authentic enthusiasm when Lilith told her what the system window said.
"We must set it up as soon as possible next to the Obelisk of Cursed Spirits!" she exclaimed. "The Obelisks are our most powerful weapon, but they are vulnerable once the enemy knows their location. If we hide them in impenetrable mist, our opponents will fall to curses before they even see what's killing them!"
Lilith nodded in approval. "You're right. It will create a perfect death zone."
She stowed the mist scroll into her inventory and focused her gaze on the second item - the heavy, leather book pulsing with raw, physical energy. As her fingers touched the cover, a notification flared before her eyes:
[Tome of Strength]
Description: An ancient volume imbued with the essence of physical might. Upon use, permanently increases the user's Strength stat by 10 points.
[Do you wish to use this item? ]
[YES/NO]
Lilith almost gasped for air, and her wings twitched restlessly for a moment.
Ten points? Permanently?! she thought, shocked.
That's no joke!
Her mind instantly performed the calculation. Before advancing to level two, she had a mere 10 points of strength. Now, after her evolution, her stat had risen to 30, which already seemed like a big change. But this book offered a massive jump of another ten. It was like a free power injection.
Without a second of hesitation, Lilith nearly slammed the virtual [YES] button.
The book in her hands suddenly began to tremble, then disintegrated into thousands of tiny, golden particles of light. Before the wind could blow them away, the dust swirled around Lilith's arms and vanished straight into her skin.
"Oh..." she murmured, feeling the muscles beneath her skin tighten and thicken.
It wasn't a painful process, like the birth of the Desire Core. It was a feeling of being filled, as if her body had suddenly become heavier, more stable, and incredibly compact. She felt that if she clenched her fist now, she could crush stone.
Her strength stat officially jumped from 30 to 40.
For a succubus, whose physical strength was naturally the weakest link, such an increase was practically revolutionary. This was her first time using an item of this type, and Lilith already knew - these tomes would be her new priority. They were worth more than entire chests of gold.
"I feel... amazing," she whispered to herself in a slight daze.
After savoring the 10 new stat points for a moment, Lilith lowered her hands, feeling the new power pulsing in her wrists. In a silence broken only by the hum of wings and the muffled gibberish of Elina, who was still fighting the ice ball in her mouth, the three silhouettes crossed the forest line.
Lilith and Lysandra landed gracefully in the courtyard of the Demon King's Castle, kicking up clouds of dust. Only seconds later, Kala emerged from the interior. Her eyes immediately began scanning the group, and when she didn't see Mina, her face grew serious and her hands clenched.
"Where is the little one?!" she snapped nervously before they could even greet each other.
Lysandra, still holding Elina by her ice shackles, sighed with indulgence. "She's fine. She simply decided to stay with her new 'bunnies' and return with them on foot instead of flying with us."
"Bunnies?!" Kala's eyes bugged out, and a moment later, her worry turned into pure irritation. She pouted, snorting contemptuously. "I'm nearly out of my mind with worry here, and that horny brat is playing with some rabbits she found in the woods?"
At the same time, Elina, who had been thrown to her knees upon landing, finally managed to spit out the ice ball. The lump was mostly melted by now, but the girl winced in a painful grimace, clutching her cheeks. Her entire mouth was completely numb, and her teeth throbbed with a dull, piercing pain from the extreme cold.
Before the heroine could take even one calm breath, however, Lysandra stood over her. She extended a hand, from which a stream of frosty energy shot out, instantly forming an ice collar around Elina's neck.
"Eeeeeek!" Elina squeaked in a high-pitched voice, feeling the frost bite into her delicate skin.
Lysandra paid it not the slightest attention. A long, ice leash grew from the collar, which the succubus grabbed with a firm motion.
"Come, little one. We're going to my room. I'll show you your new home," she said in an icy tone, jerking the leash and dragging the stunned heroine behind her toward the dungeons beneath her apartment.
Kala, seeing that Lysandra had already started "playing" with the new acquisition, immediately regained her good mood. "Heyyy! Wait for me! I want to see how you set her up in there!" she called out with a predatory smile and ran after them.
Lilith stood for a moment in the courtyard, watching the group walk away. For a fraction of a second, she felt authentic sympathy for Elina - the rabbit heroine's fate in the hands of those two promised to be a series of never-ending tests of mental and physical endurance. However, the Monarch quickly shook her head, warding off those "human" thoughts.
"Well... survival of the fittest," she muttered to herself.
She felt new strength pulsing in her body, and the exhaustion from a full day of battles, advancements, and negotiations was finally starting to catch up with her. She needed rest so that tomorrow she could manage her growing empire with new energy.
She turned and, with a calm, commanding step, headed toward her chambers, leaving behind the echoes of Elina's squeaks echoing through the castle corridors.