Chapter 114. Trip to town

The three days passed in a blur.

Voras spent the whole time making silk and catching Kobolds for herself and Madu though a lot of them were wrapped up for later as she had gone a bit overboard. A few were shared with Tarakona although my Dragon made many complaints about their taste. Apparently they got stuck in her teeth too easily to actually be enjoyable as well.

Madu did what she could to milk her venom? Yeah. Let's go with that. Madu spent her time milking her fangs for as much venom as possible and ended up giving us over the required amount.

I had thought about giving some to Tilty just to heal her fully but decided to wait unto after town. Not like fixing her would complete my quest anyway and Madu we would be healing once we sold her venom.

Zeldi enjoyed her milking every morning and night with us filling one of the empty barrels from our grains. It was classed as one item in my inventory so taking it all at once was easy. We also had a second one partly filled with the milk from her back teats just in case there was a difference but I highly doubted it. Again we had more than enough for her quest though that was never in question as her production had always been high.

And with Tarakona's eggs we actually didn't need a cart at all as my inventory carried it all.

That didn't stop Zeldi from making sure I had spare spaces in case I wanted to buy anything as even if something happened my inventory couldn't be stolen from... And it came back with me if I died, not that anyone said that out loud.

This left my inventory looking like this.

Void inventory

Unfortunately Tilty hadn't been able to give me another one of her antlers so I couldn't complete her quest but I think she was just happy to be helpful with the whole teleporting. It was a small part in her attempt to find out where she belongs.

With a final wave to Zeldi as she had come to the edge of the lands range to send us off Voras and I had set off.

In the three days we'd found the teleportation stones so we weren't just searching around on the final day while also getting enough points to allow Voras four hours outside the boundary of the farm.

This had been an expensive endeavor as each additional hour had doubled the previous price requirement. So the original two hundred had become four hundred, then eight hundred before finally getting to one thousand and six hundred.

A price that we wouldn't have been able to achieve in a small amount of time but Voras had decided she wanted to throw everything she had into proving to Zeldi that just because she had slept with me did not mean she was done supporting us. And her method of showing that had been allowing me to consume both her nests to make up the points on top of everything she could produce in the three days. Dríade had been the final push with her own fruit.

I didn't eat any of them to see what her buff was as she promised there would be many non toxic ones when we got back.

That had given me more than enough points to cover it as well as an extra three hundred to buy any emergency supplies while we were gone. Not that we planned to be gone for long.

The only downside to all of this was that Voras was still extremely shy. She was no longer back talking me like she use to but there were still a few strange quirks of her's.

Like the current one I was experiencing now.

Voras had asked to hold hands while we walked under the disguise of my protection and it had resulted in her blushing up a storm and unable to meet my gaze. Though she was holding on extra tight to make sure I didn't let go.

I so wanted to tease her but held back. There would be opportunities on our return trip as completely embarrassing her before we got to town was an easy way to distract her from her job of being my guard.

A stray thought came to me as I remembered about the dragon hunters armour. I could have worn that and said I was an adventurer. Though I would have had to find it as I put it in a very secure and secret place. So secret that not even I remembered where that was.

"Have you been to this town before?" I tried to start a conversation as we came up to the teleportation stones. It was almost like a fairy circle but instead of mushrooms it was rocks.

Apparently the Kobolds had also been using it to resupply themselves so it hadn't been destroyed. They were also horrible at actually guarding it as no one was around.

"No." Voras replied turning to face me before blushing even harder and turning away. "Zeldi had said it was a majority beastkin town so we shouldn't have a problem with anything but I do want us to take all precautions."

Those precautions included hugging me tightly as we activated the stones and found ourselves in a different location with a wall visible through the trees.

Even afterwards Voras was loathe to let me go but made do with our simple hand holding.

Over the last few days Voras had been testing the water as to how much Zeldi would let her get away with when it came to me. She had been delighted to find out that apart from outright demanding to have sex Zeldi was okay with her doing anything she wanted. So long as she kept producing as much silk as possible.

Voras was also horrible at being subtle. Which I found strange for an ambush predator like she was. Guess I just threw her off her game.

"Ooow does that mean I'll see a cat girl in town?" There might have been a bit too much excitement in my voice.

"Yes. There will most definitely be some of the catkin as well as a lot of wolfkin. Some of the other kin will also be there but those two seem to dominate the population." Voras answered without mentioning my increased interest.

"Will you not have a problem getting into town?" This was a question if asked on multiple occasions but everyone always replied the same.

"Yes. I'll get a few odd looks but no one will stop me unless I actively start causing trouble. And that will only happen if someone decides to steal from us."

"What are the chances of that happening?"

Voras pulled me in close as if that alone would stop anyone from doing anything.

"There will always be those that try Master Clovek. It is inevitable. Someone will want it and won't be afraid to take it. Especially when it becomes known how valuable each item can be."

Again I was glad for my inventory and it's uses.

We left the cover of her trees and joined the road only having to move out of the way of a single cart being pulled by two horses. As they passed I got my first look at some of the townfolk from the coach.

He was a catkin at least I thought so from his ears but apart from that and noticing he had the slightest orange around them he was gone before I could make anything else out.

"May I ask you a question Clovek? Something that I wish not for Zeldi to know about?" Voras broke through my thoughts on catkin.

"Go for it." What could Voras not want Zeldi to know about?

"What would be your thoughts on killing? I ask because Zeldi has an aversion to unnecessary violence and while she is accepting of the Kobolds. If a trader or something does become a problem..." She trailed off.

I couldn't help chuckling a little much to her dismay. I had to get myself under control before I could respond. "Voras you have no need to fear. I killed a Kobold that was trying to steal in my first week in this world. So it would be a bit hypocritical for me to suddenly say I don't like it."

Voras tried to say something else but I stopped her. "To give you an easy answer I don't like needless killing but I personally will not hesitate to protect my family no matter the cost. Is that good enough?"

Voras gave it a second before pursuing her lips. "And if hypothetically someone did try and steal from us would you be okay with repeating that, or at least watching me do that?"

That was a good one. I think it largely depends on the town right? Like if the guards did something if you told them then that was fine. I didn't want to make a problem for ourselves later.

Then again. Voras had been raised in the Underdark. Didn't seem like there was a lot of law besides the powerful rules down there.

"I think we notify the guards if that does happen. Let them do the work so we are not banned from coming back." I said hoping that covered it.

"They will have very little choice when it becomes known what you are selling. It's not like they can refuse any of your items as traders will just make the choice to go to your farm instead. They can't tax you over there as easily as they can here in town." Voras replied.

She made an excellent point. Though I did have a Dragon to deal with any tax issues if it was a problem.

"Then what is the punishment for a thief in this world?"

"They lose a finger." Voras said casually. "If they continue to steal them eventually they will run out of fingers to steal with."

Ah yes. If you try the five fingered discount you risk said fingers.

The gate was rapidly approaching so I was running out of time to give Voras a proper answer.

"Then I suggest we capture any thief's with your silk first and hand them over to the guards. No reason to be uncivilized but I like the idea of punishing thief's back at the farm like they do in town. It would probably be a mercy if you or I caught them. I doubt Tarakona has any reservations with killing just to prove a point. And if you're worried I will think less of you if you did then don't. I don't believe those that live of others misery should have an easy life."

Voras gave a nod happy with the answer.