Chapter 11 – Working Girls

The village was pretty small, situated as it was on the border of the corrupted wildlands. As we walked through town, I asked my guide, the dashingly pretty Adam, all sorts of questions about the town and the kingdom he lived in.

Apparently, the last remnants of Untainted civilization lived in divinely protected enclaves, each a hundred or so kilometers across. There were nine other human enclaves nearby, but those were only the ones they knew about, a sort of local cluster of small human nations. There could be hundreds more scattered through the continent, made inaccessible by the monsters roving the wilds, nobody knew for sure. The deeper one went into the wilderness, the stronger the monsters became, and there was a point beyond which no explorers ever returned.

This particular enclave was a monarchy, ruled by a single royal family. At the centre of the kingdom, protected inside a holy temple in the capital city of Baltour was an artifact, projecting an aura that weakened all Tainted creatures inside its radius, and dulled their instincts, driving them away from Untainted lands, or at least making them easier for normal guards to catch and kill.

Inside that bubble of magical protection, Untainted civilization survived more-or-less unmolested by the rape monsters outside. But the corrupted wildlands fought back, gathering strength and building up forces along the outer edge of the protective bubble. The very presence of these creatures lingering nearby ate away at the magic, slowly shrinking the borders of the artifact’s protective aura.

To prevent this, Tainted creatures living near the border had to be culled. The Kingdom of Baltour had a small royal army to keep the peace and respond to large invasions, but most of the day-to-day monster hunting was done by mercenary adventurers, via the Royal Adventurer’s Guild.

This little town of Rothvale was one of several situated along the outskirts of the kingdom, a trading hub and staging ground for adventuring parties looking to claim the Kingdom’s bounty on Tainted monsters.

A few full-time adventurers lived here as actual residents, but most were only temporary visitors, staying at one of the many inns, boarding houses, or even renting entire homes for themselves. Most of the town’s income came from provisioning these adventurers with weapons, armour, supplies, and potions. That made it comparatively wealthy and prosperous for a town its size.

“We also make a lot of income providing places to unwind after a successful expedition into the Wildlands. We have quite a few taverns, catering to different tastes, and… there’s also a pretty big market for um… compensated affection… with the local brothels,” Adam admitted with a blush.

Made sense I supposed. A bunch of dudes, pumped full of adrenaline and testosterone, freshly paid, and having been surrounded by only other men for days at a time… There would indeed be a pretty big market for feminine stress relievers.

“Oh ho! You visit them often?” I teased.

Adam blushed red, “Well yes, um… I mean I go there to Purify disease sometimes. It’s sort of a regular stop on my usual route…”

“And I’m sure the girls show you their appreciation,” I said, smiling knowingly.

Adam continued to blush, “Well umm… I’m suppose some of them are grateful, but the cleansing of disease and the healing of the sick is just part of the duties I perform for the Church.”

Bah! What a boring answer. I looked at the boy, confused. Was he oblivious to my innuendo? He was blushing, so maybe not. Perhaps he was just trying to be respectful of my feminine modesty. Too bad I wasn’t respectable.

“If I were you, I’d take advantage and get them to pay you with blowjobs.”

“Blowjobs?” Adam asked, confused by the term.

“Fellatio? Sucking dick? Licking your penis…” I explained.

Adam turned completely red, and continued walking in silence for a bit, “…T-they do that?” he whispered.

“Yeah dude!” I replied. “Well, I don’t know what their blowjob policy is, maybe you’d need to pay them first. Come to think of it, they might just get pissed off at you if you ask them to work for free. Oh wait, do you have some sort of celibacy thing because you’re an acolyte?”

“Celibacy?” he asked, not sure of the term.

“Like, swearing an oath banning you from sex,” I answered.

“No… not really… Not human women anyway. We’re cannot lay with someone impure, like your slave for example. But if I found a human girl that liked me then… maybe…”

“Ah, I see,” I replied. “Well then, play your cards right and you could totally get a free suck from the whores. Just like… don’t ask them directly. Maybe try to hint you’re interested, flirt a little, and accept if they offer. You might get lucky.”

“Um… but isn’t it like… dirty down there?” he muttered.

“If you take a bath once in a while, it’s no dirtier than kissing someone,” I replied. “But if you’re concerned about your smell or whatever you could always Purify yourself first. You probably don’t need to worry too much though, some girls like a little bit of man-smell. Right?”

I looked over my shoulder, and caught Chloe’s eye. She nodded. “Yes Mistress.”

“But… pee?” he whispered quietly.

“Probably not a big factor?” I said, a bit uncertainly, glancing at Chloe again.

I still hadn’t blown an actual penis yet, only a tentacle. I was pretty sure tentacles didn’t pee. It still tasted nasty at first, but after the first shot it mostly just tasted like monster spooge. My ex girlfriend hadn’t complained about smell or pee residue or whatever when she went down on me before. I didn’t taste anything weird while licking her pussy either, just normal pussy juice flavour. Maybe Chloe, submissive queen of blowjobs, had more insight?

“Um… if the boy is like… on the toilet, or just finished peeing right before putting it in my mouth, then I taste it a little. It’s usually all gone in a few licks though,” Chloe explained.

“You blew a guy while he was sitting on the toilet?” I asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ve done worse than that, Mistress,” Chloe replied with a smirk. “I’ve been the toilet. Or well, a urinal at least.”

“Wow… I don’t know what to say to that,” I said, wrinkling my nose in disgust.

“Only one of the boys was into it,” Chloe explained, with a shrug. “He made me drink his pee a few times, but then the other boys caught him in the act, and got mad at him for giving me nasty pee breath. They sent me home early to go brush my teeth. It didn’t happen again after that.”

“Yeah, I agree, let’s keep watersports off the table for now.” I said.

“Thank you, Mistress,” Chloe replied, with a subtle smile. It seemed she didn’t like it much either.

Adam was still walking next to us, red faced. He was steadfastly ignoring our depraved little conversation about urine play.

“Sorry about ruining your innocence there, Adam,” I chuckled, slapping him on the back.

Adam flinched, caught my eye, and looked away shyly. We continued walking in silence.

The first stop was at a large public square. There seemed to be a few people waiting for us already, and they perked up and looked our way when they saw Adam in his white acolyte robe. I supposed this was a scheduled thing, with them knowing to come here today for magical healing.

“So, where do we start?” I asked, rubbing my hands together.

The next few hours passed quickly. I got into a rhythm. Most people weren’t injured, merely sick, requiring only a quick Purify spell from Adam or me, and nothing else. For anyone who had an injury of some sort, old or new, I passed them over to Chloe to let her get some healing practice.

I didn’t count how many times my mana tank emptied and filled again. Adam maintained a slow pace, controlling his Purify output, spending exactly as much mana per second as he regained. Chloe and I just went full speed, then took regular meditation breaks to recharge. It was more efficient for us that way.

I asked Adam about the specifics of mana regeneration, and he helpfully explained that the rate was based on Willpower. Specifically, one would regain a tenth of their Willpower score in mana points, every minute. I had sixteen willpower, so that was 1.6 mana per minute, or 96 mana per hour when I wasn’t meditating.

By the time the crowds finally cleared out, it was early afternoon, and we’d fixed up fifty people at least. I glanced around the empty town square with pride, and I stopped to catch my breath.

[Mana Manipulation] Skill has reached rank 6[Mana Manipulation] Skill has reached rank 7[Mana Manipulation] Skill has reached rank 8

[Holy Magic I] Skill has reached rank 5[Holy Magic I] Skill has reached rank 6[Holy Magic I] Skill has reached rank 7

[Meditation] Skill has reached rank 3[Meditation] Skill has reached rank 4[Meditation] Skill has reached rank 5[Meditation] Skill has reached rank 6

Whew… that was a lot of skill levels, and the day wasn’t even over yet. If I continued at this rate, I’d hit my level caps before sundown. My legs were tired. I looked around for somewhere to sit.

New Holy Spell learned: [Hardlight Construct]

Wait what? Shit! I’d had this strange nagging feeling in the back of my head for a while, every since Holy magic reached rank seven. I’d been ignoring it, focusing on Purifying people. It seemed that if I didn’t pick a spell in a timely fashion, it would pick one for me. Damnit, I could have gotten like… a super holy shield or golden holy lasers, or something else awesome. Oh well, I focused on the ability and tried to figure out what it would do.

My jaw dropped. Holy shit! This spell was versatile!

It let me make a construct of hard light. Sword, shield, rope, manacles, crowbar, hacksaw, key for a lock, there were all sorts of useful options. Basically, I was a Green Lantern, except with a golden light instead of green. I could create almost anything I could imagine, the only limit seemed to be my Magic stat for size, my Willpower and [Mana Manipulation] skill for precision, and my mana pool for duration and durability. Everything I created cost a trickle of mana and a sliver of focus to maintain. Bigger things required more mana. The stuff I made seemed to be pretty brittle, stressing the material in any way caused its mana cost per second to skyrocket. With my mana pool as it was now, if I made a sword or shield out of this stuff and tried to use it, I’d drain myself dry in seconds.

“Got a new spell,” I announced cheerfully, showing the others.

I wove the spell and caused a magical glowing cube to pop into existence. It was sized to fit in my palm, partially transparent. The hard light walls looked like a glowing smoke, swirls of white and gold light, mixing and blending on the surface.

“That looks neat, Mistress,” Chloe said.

It took about one mana per second to maintain. I let it drop from my hand and clatter on the cobblestone ground. It clacked and bounced one before settling. I checked my mana and found that the small impact cost me ten mana. I cut off my connection to the cube, and it vanished in a puff of golden mist.

I conjured another cube in my hand. This time, with different material properties. It looked exactly the same, but now instead of being a hard glassy substance, I could squish and deform it in my hand, like a stress ball. Squeezing and deforming it cost me some mana, but less than a hard impact, maybe two or three mana per squeeze?

I suddenly tossed it at Chloe’s face. She squeaked and flinched. Mid travel, I cut off my connection to it, and it turned into a trail of smoke that puffed against Chloe painlessly, and faded away into nothing a second later. Chloe gave me an unamused frown.

Chloe and I made eye contact for a moment, and we shared a special deep connection that only two deeply perverted sluts could. I watched the recognition appear in her eyes. We both came to a wordless understanding.

“Magical dildoes,” I said.

Chloe nodded, “Yes Mistress, I was thinking the exact same thing.”

I nodded. I could probably conjure a whole strapon harness too. It was a shame I couldn’t feel sensations through it, or make anything capable of vibrating. The spell wouldn’t let me make mechanical parts.

“Also maybe handcuffs or rope?” Chloe suggested shyly.

“Indeed,” I nodded again. “I might need to buff up my mana pool though, if you wanted to struggle against them without breaking them.”

Chloe nodded in agreement.

“So, Adam, what’s next?” I asked.

“What’s a dildo?” he asked me in return. I could see the horrified curiosity on his face.

“A fake penis, made to simulate a real one,” I explained.

“What… w-why would you use your divine gift for that?” he gasped.

I looked at him incredulously, it should’ve been obvious, “So I can fuck myself and my female friends with it… why else?”

Adam stared at me wide eyed. What? Did he think women never masturbated?

Hmm… perhaps they didn’t. Was the female orgasm common knowledge back in the middle ages? I couldn’t remember. This fantasy version of the middle ages seemed less sexually repressed, but I had no doubt that most women weren’t expected to enjoy sex all that much. In fact, given that most girls grew up with the knowledge they could be viciously raped to a Tainted death by monsters any time they let their guard down, I suspected they’d learn to see sex as a terrifying and scary thing rather than a good thing.

Poor girls, I’d have to make Lysander take up enchanting. She could probably wizard up some magical enchanted vibrators and put a smile on some of these deprived people’s faces.

“So where next,” I asked again.

“Um… next?” he stammered. “I suppose Violet Palace brothel would be next on my list… I haven’t Purified the girls there in a while.”

“Ooh, sounds fun!” I replied.

Adam led us through town, towards the river. The brothel was in a less desirable part of town, near the river docks and close to the wall, where the risk of a sneaky rape monster creeping around the outer wall was the highest.

I wasn’t really paying attention to where we were going, focused as I was on manipulating my mana with perfect pinpoint precision.

“I can’t make the vein look right,” I grumbled.

Chloe looked over at the glowing golden phallus in my hand. I’d settled on something just slightly above average for my first project, a nice normal six incher. Getting the feel right was actually quite difficult. Too stiff and it felt wrong to the touch, like hard rubber, too soft and it flopped around and bent unrealistically. I had to create a sort of density gradient, stiffer in the middle, and softer near the edges.

“What do you think?” I asked, tossing the dick over to Chloe.

She caught and inspected the dildo, giving it a squeeze, holding it out and letting it flop around. “Make the vein softer than the rest of the outer skin, that might help… also I think it’s still a bit too floppy. Maybe make the stiff part in the middle a little wider?” she suggested.

“Hmm, okay,” I said.

“Also… maybe add some balls?” Chloe suggested. “I-I like the balls… they slap against the outside when they fuck you and it feels good…”

“Hmm… doing realistic feeling balls would be hard…” I mumbled.

I let the Cockinator Version 0.16 vanish, and got to work on Cockinator Version 0.17…

[Mana Manipulation] Skill has reached rank 9

Hah! I guess the challenge was good for my Skill levels.

“This is it…” Adam sighed. He’d been doing a very impressive job ignoring our pervy antics.

I looked up and saw a large house. It was uncharacteristically big and fancy for this part of town, more like a mansion. A pair of thick double doors stood at the entrance. Carved into the door was a beautiful relief of a pair of naked women on their knees, one on each door, reaching up to the middle and arching their backs.

Even more impressive, the windows had actual glass in them. Lysander told me that glass used to be incredibly expensive back in medieval times, which was why none of the houses I saw so far had any. Assuming glass was just as expensive in this world, that made this place downright opulent despite its shady location. There was no sign labeling it as the Violet Palace, but the drawn curtains behind the windows were the right colour.

Standing next to the door was an elven girl wearing a pale violet outfit of fine flowing silks, looking like a middle eastern bedlah. She had a caramel brown, Persian skin tone to match, and black hair completing the whole harem slave look. Chloe, by contrast was as pale as milk, and wearing far less impressive sackcloth rags. The dark skinned harem elf had a bit more meat to her hips and breasts, but both girls had a lot in common, including the same long elf ears and bizarre feel of magical lightness. Like Chloe, this girl wore a metal slave collar around her neck.

“Welcome to the Violet Palace, Master Adam,” the elf said demurely, bowing deeply at the waist. “Are you here for business or pleasure? Oh, and I see you’ve brought along a guest. I don’t believe I’ve met you yet.”

“Um… yes, we’re um… business I guess…” Adam mumbled, blushing. He respectfully kept his eyes off the elf’s cleavage, trying to his very best to focus on her face and not her gloriously displayed boobs.

The elf seemed to be inviting me to introduce myself. “Hi, I’m Tyler. I’m a bit of a Holy mage too, and I’m Adam’s hired helper today, helping him make his rounds. I do Purifying and healing, mostly. I must say, this is a nice looking place you have here…”

“My Mistress will surely appreciate your compliment, and you are most welcome here as well, Mistress Tyler,” the elf replied. “I should mention that we only have girls working here, and we mostly cater to male clients. But we do have a few girls here who… sharpen their sword on both edges, shall we say? They would be happy to accommodate you, if you’re interested in spending some coin.”

“Ah, good to know. I’ll keep that in mind,” I said with a grin.

“As for the Purification, we have a few girls who could probably use your touch, though we weren’t expecting you until tomorrow. Still, I’m sure my Mistress will be happy for your help.”

“Ah… good…” Adam mumbled. “Could you uuh…”

The elf gave him a sultry smile, obviously finding his shyness cute, “Yes, I can bring you to see the Mistress,”

The elf led us through the doors. She didn’t acknowledge Chloe at all, which I supposed was proper etiquette? I had no idea. In my mind, treating someone like a worthless piece of furniture wasn’t good manners, but here? That seemed to be the norm.

The doors led into a wide open hall, smelling of perfume, with a bar at the back, and plenty of soft velvety couches for seating. Beautiful women of every size, shape, colour, and species were present, standing or laying around in various states of undress. There were more rooms to either side, similarly filled with seating areas and sexy girls.

I quickly noticed a recurring theme. Each girl had her own outfit and style, but all of them were dressed in violet. That was good, I supposed. Nobody would accidentally try to buy me, I was wearing a cheap baggy dress of drab grey that most definitely did not match the ladies’ work uniform.

Overlooking the open area below, was a second floor balcony, and dozens of doors. To each side was a long hallway, filled with even more doors. The first floor was obviously where you picked your girl, and the second floor rooms were where the love happened.

The Madam’s office was on the lower floor, through a plain brown door tucked away in the corner. The harem-elf knocked on the door, explained that she had visitors, and then we were invited inside.

The office was richly decorated like the rest of the brothel, with red velvet chairs, wooden panelling on the walls, and a plush red carpet. Behind a rich mahogany desk sat a beautiful woman in a deep violet dress. She was reaching middle age, but she was aging with grace.

“Oh Adam,” she said, warmly. “I wasn’t expecting you so soon!”

“Yes well uuh… I had some help today, and we finished cleansing everyone at the Briar Market a little early.” Adam explained.

I waved, “Hi, I’m Tyler. I’m the help, I guess, along with my slave, Chloe,”

“I’m Madam Orchid, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” The Madam gave me a warm smile, but that smile didn’t reach her eyes. Her cold gaze pierced through me, and she looked over at my slave appraisingly, scanning down her body.

“Not for sale,” I said flatly.

The Madam’s eyes returned to me, and she gave me her scary smile again. “Oh of course, I wouldn’t dare disrespect a guest with such an uncouth offer like that.”

“So uuh… where should we start?” Adam asked, obliviously cutting through the strange tension.

The Madam glanced over at Adam with a much warmer smile, a genuine one, and thought for a second, “I’ve got my own work to do, so… Let’s have Mitsy guide you.”

The Madam stood from her desk and led us out into the main hall again. We followed her into one of the side rooms, and she brought us to a young brunette human girl. She was a little plain, a sort of relaxed girl next door type in a modest violet dress. There was also no slave collar around her neck, and she didn’t seem to be all that intimidated by the Madam or us. I guessed that she was probably here of her own free will.

The Madam gave Mitsy her task, offering to pay for her time. She would accompany us and guide us to anyone who needed healing. I made sure to mention we could fix injuries, and even old scars too. Mitsy’s eyes went wide, and she smiled appreciatively. The Madam left us alone.

I took Mitsy by the hand, and started Purifying her.

“So, I get the impression Madam Orchid doesn’t like me.” I said in a conversational tone.

“Really? Why?” Adam asked. Typical dude, completely oblivious.

“The uuh… elf is yours?” Mitsy asked, glancing over at Chloe.

“Yep.”

“She uuh… gets a little protective sometimes,” Mitsy said nervously. “She probably doesn’t mean offense, but uuh… some slave owners don’t treat their slaves so well…”

“Oh! Was that what it was?” I said, suddenly relieved, “No problem there, I think Chloe’s pretty happy with me as her mistress, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Mistress,” Chloe replied obediently.

“I only abuse her a little bit,” I admitted slyly.

“Abuse her?” Mitsy looked at me accusingly.

“Mistress plays sexual games with me,” Chloe explained, leaping to my defense, “Games that I believe we both enjoy, in our own ways.”

“Games?” Mitsy asked, suddenly intrigued.

“Mistress, permission to speak freely of last night’s events?” Chloe asked, like a good girl.

“Sure, gossip away,” I said.

Chloe went up next to Mitsy and spoke to her in a quiet voice. I couldn’t hear exactly what she was talking about, but I heard the words ‘sat on my face’ and ‘desperately wanted to cum’ being muttered at one point. Mitsy started to blush.

Soon, I was content that Mitsy was disease free, and I interrupted the conversation to ask her to lead us to the next person.

Mitsy led us upstairs, and brought us from room to room. Most everyone we saw was an off-duty slave, lounging around their bedrooms reading books or sleeping. They seemed relaxed and unafraid around Adam and Chloe, though since I was a slave owner they were guarded and respectful around me.

Any girl who thought she might have caught something wasn’t allowed to work until Adam purified them. The slaves all obviously had to stay here with their Mistress, though the free girls were allowed to go home when not working. There were still a few free girls staying here too, likely ones who had nowhere else to stay.

We purified each of them, and I even discovered that my Purify magic was able to cure That Time of the Month. Instant period cure! It wasn’t a problem for me yet, but I was happy to have an answer for it when it did come. All blood and bits of uterine lining just went poof, and the girl was good until next month.

There were a few girls with minor injuries, usually soreness from very rough vaginal sex, or anal sex without enough lube. There were lots of old half-healed injuries, however… Bad ones… The free girls were mostly okay, but a lot of truly scary shit had happened to the slave girls.

There was an adorable black haired catgirl, with triangular ears, a long furry tail, fuzzy cat paws with fur going up to the elbow, and fuzzy cat feet with fur reaching just below her knees. She had repeated fractures in her arms, broken and partially healed, over and over again. She said it was from guarding her head while her old master kicked the shit out of her.

There was another elf, a purple one this time. She had grey-violet skin, ghost white hair, and red eyes. She was covered, head to toe, in old whip marks and burns from red hot branding irons. She cried when I made the scars disappear.

There was one halfling girl who had a horrifically torn vagina that hadn’t healed quite right. She explained that she’d lost her virginity at the age of seven to her old master’s dog. It was a big dog, endowed with a penis slightly larger than an average human man. To this day, her damaged vagina caused her immense pain whenever she had sex, which unfortunately for her, was multiple times every day. She usually tried to coax the clients into doing her mouth or butt instead.

Yikes! This adult halfling was already the size of kid, like three feet tall. Presumably she had the same tiny proportions down below too. But that meant a young halfling would be even smaller… A finger would be enough to stretch her, and yet… a dog with a big dick and no ability to understand how much pain it was causing? Double yikes! And wasn’t there like, an extra thick knot at the base they stuffed inside too?

I swallowed a bit of bile… some of these girls had gone through some shit. No wonder the Madam was so protective of them. Chloe’s magic could fix maybe 60% of what was wrong, causing anything that wasn’t completely healed to regenerate without flaws, but it didn’t get rid of scars or anything that healed imperfectly. This was one case where my Healing Hands spell actually worked better, even though it was slow. Chloe would do the first pass of healing, with her fast speed, and I would do the finishing touches, removing old scar tissue.

Adam continued on, purifying the other uninjured girls while Chloe and I switched our focus to exclusively healing old wounds. Soon, word got around, and a few girls, taking a break between clients came to visit us and get their old wounds looked after too.

It was dark outside by the time we were almost done. Madam Orchid came upstairs during our last healing session of the night.

“Dolly tells me you fixed her… damage. Completely,” The Madam said.

“Maybe?” I replied. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember which one Dolly was, I healed a few people.”

“She’s one of the halflings I happen to own, the redhead,” the Madam explained.

That was the one with the gruesomely torn up vagina. “Oh yes, that one. The one with the… damage,” I replied.

The Madam sighed, “On behalf of my girls, I’d like to personally thank you. You have no idea how much this means to some of them.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, with a proud smile.

“I’d like to apologize for my… demeanour earlier tonight. I saw you with your slave, wearing sackcloth rags and no shoes, and I assumed the worst about her treatment. Since then, me and the other girls have noticed how she behaves around you, and that our fears were unwarranted. She’s likely as well treated as my own girls, despite appearances,” the Madam explained.

“Oh… yeah the lousy clothes are mostly just because we’re broke,” I said with a wry chuckle. “I’ll be getting Chloe some proper shoes and clothes once I can afford it. My dress and her… potato sack, were just freebies that Father Jacob gave us when we got here.”

“You’re with the church?” she asked, with a hint of suspicion.

“Well we’re staying there for now, but we’re more of a charity case than actually devout. My friends and I are a little bit destitute, and Father Jacob was nice enough to give us a place to stay for a while to get on our feet. I’m actually getting paid a little to help out today, I’m not a volunteer like Adam.”

The Madam cocked an eyebrow, “How much?” she asked.

“Seven and a half silver? Including Chloe’s contribution,” I said, not sure whether that was a lot or a little.

“That’s criminal,” the Madam grumbled. “The work you did today for all my girls would have cost me at least ten gold.”

“Shit, really?” I gasped.

“The Church doesn’t give charity to slaves, and actually hiring a skilled healer to fix your slaves is… rather expensive.” The Madam said.

She stared at me blankly for a bit, then she sighed and walked away, “Be right back.”

A couple minutes later, I’d finally finished my healing spell. The wolfgirl, who’d once had a vicious sword wound across her chest from when she was first captured, smiled and thanked me. The Madam returned to the room, and handed me a purple velvet bag, filled with jingling coins.

“Here, consider it a bonus,” she said.

For a second, I almost decided to be modest and try to refuse the charity. Except… I kinda actually needed the money. I took the bag, “Thank you.”

“That’s fifty silver,” she said quietly. “It’s not what you’re worth, but it’s what I can afford to pay you.”

“Oh wow, thanks!”

“Buy yourself and your slave some better clothes,” she said. “I know a place, Tilly’s Tailor. She makes the clothes for most of my girls. She’ll give you a good deal if you tell her I sent you.”

I chuckled, “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

“One more thing,” she said, looking nervous. “I’m not the only brothel in town. We’ve got two more, but they don’t exactly… treat their girls as well as I do. One of them isn’t worth mentioning, but the other… They’re not the types to pay to heal their girls, yet I still feel bad for them.”

“Want me to fix them up too?” I said. “I don’t really mind all that much, I need to grind out my skill levels anyway.”

“I’d appreciate it. The girls in that brothel could certainly use your help.”

“So why not both brothels?” I asked.

“My Palace specializes in… higher class girls. Experts at the art of pleasure. Happy and willing.” The Madam explained. “The Sword’s Sheathe, is a rival of sorts. They specialize in… lower cost affection. Their girls there are basically just holes to use. Willing, but not enthusiastic or well paid. They tend to get roughed up by clients sometimes. These are the girls who could probably use your help.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll see if I can coax Adam into bringing me there. What about the third brothel?”

The Madam frowned, “You… really don’t want to go there.”

“Well now you’ve just got me curious.”

The Madam sighed. “The Scarlet Thorn, or sometimes just the Thorn. They don’t hire free girls, slave only, and they specialize in… darker tastes. They target the same price point as me, but there are nearly no rules or limits. They have their own healers on staff to handle the aftermath.”

“Darker tastes?” I asked. That sounded ominous as fuck.

“Basically, anything a free girl wouldn’t agree to. Rape and torture, mostly. That, or just unpalatable fetishes, unconventional requests, smaller slave species whose bodies can’t handle sex with a human without needing healing after, or just younger slaves with undeveloped bodies. The only rule is to keep things non-lethal, though a wealthy enough client could probably pay extra for the privilege of killing their victim. There are also weekly monster shows, which the girls rarely survive. Needless to say, none of the girls are there willingly.”

Rape? Torture? Even death? Shit… if the girls were slaves, it was totally legal, wasn’t it? Yep. I could do that to Chloe if I wanted, burn her nipples off or whatever, so of course there would be a business specializing in that sort of thing.

“Yikes… that sounds pretty fucked up.” I replied.

“You have no idea,” the Madam grumbled. “Plus, there have been… disappearances. Girls go missing from time to time, free girls. A missing slave I could request an investigation, for stolen property if nothing else, but a free human girl? Nobody cares about a missing prostitute. I’ve got a bit of a theory about where they end up, if you’re catching my innuendo. You don’t want to go anywhere near that place if you have a vagina.”

“Fuck…” I grumbled.

“Right, so watch your butt,” the Madam said.

“Yeah, will do.”

I left the room, and followed the Madam down to the main floor, done with my healing for the day.

[Mana Manipulation] Skill has reached rank 10 (MAX)

[Holy Magic I] Skill has reached rank 8[Holy Magic I] Skill has reached rank 9

I’d made some good Skill progress with all my delicate healing. I didn’t do any meditating, since I was healing so slowly, but I’d finally completed my first skill, and was almost done my second. Before I forgot, I checked my Skill list for [Advanced Mana Manipulation], but I couldn’t find it. I did find [Sense Mana] however. Acting on a hunch, I bought that first, and then, sure enough, [Advanced Mana Manipulation] appeared on the list for purchase.

You have unlocked the skill: [Sense Mana].You have upgraded the skill: [Mana Manipulation] to [Advanced Mana Manipulation].

Interestingly enough, my upgrade to the [Mana Manipulation] Skill seemed to do way more than just make my mana use more efficient. I found I could tweak and fine tune my spells, adjusting them slightly in subtle ways. For example, I could Purify a person faster or slower, or clean only their clothes, but not their skin. It was a wonderfully flexible skill.

Adam was waiting for me downstairs, blushing a deep red and refusing to look me in the eye. Mitsy was standing proudly by his side, grinning deviously. She was holding onto his arm, pressing her chest against him, hugging his bicep between her boobs.

“Aww… Did somebody get their cherry popped?” I asked, with a smirk.

“What…? What do you mean by cherry?” he stammered.

“No cherry, just a blowjob, a little freebie to show my appreciation,” Mitsy confirmed. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, speaking seductively in his ear, “You can get the rest of me next time. Ten silver, a special price just for you.”

Her voice was an adorably seductive singsong. She acted innocent, but she knew how to use her sexuality to her advantage. I felt a pang of jealousy, both for her seduction skills, and also the fact she’d make more money on her back with a single fuck than I’d been paid for my entire day’s work. Not counting Madam Orchid’s bonus, at least.

“Maybe I should take up whoring…” I muttered to myself.

“No stealing his cherry before I do, I wanna be his first pussy,” Mitsy playfully chided, and grabbed his arm possessively.

I chucked, “Okay then, you can be his first.”

“Um… right? Okay then. Let’s umm… go home,” Adam mumbled awkwardly, and led the way home, back to the church.