Chapter 18 – Crisis At Willow

On the final stretch of the journey to Willow, Sam and Princess Jemina were entwined body and mind in their carriage. While their bodies were in the throes of passion, Sam read through her memories and learned a bit more about this realm, of which he was woefully ignorant of.

She was Princess Jemina, 17 year old sole daughter and Princess of Serendale, a neighboring nation quite a distance away. She was well known for being an incredible beauty and her abilities to mesmerize, seduce and mind control using dance and her attacking prowess using musical instruments were well known.

She was passing by this nation of Aristonia on the way back from Lathadar, where she attended the wedding of the prince. While there, she was inundated with marriage proposals from the many princes of the many different nations, which Jemina found tiresome.

Their next destination is the city of Stronghold, 200 kilometers from Willow, which had a teleportation portal that they could take to the capital of Aristonia, Aristal. From there, she can travel through another teleportation portal back to Serendale.

"What about you? Where are you going?" Jemina asked Sam, aware that he had been reading her memories.

"I only know I am going to Willow. I will see from there" he answered.

"Why don't you follow me back to Serendale? I can have you with me always" she asked seductively.

"Uh... I am unable to right now as I think I have a mission in Willow" he answered. He actually wanted to run away from Jemina as far as possible.

Even though he was smitten with her, and enjoyed being with her immensely, what would happen when the world found out that this famous beauty is in love with an unknown loser like him? Not only that, if anyone found out that she now belonged to him like a sex slave or something, he will be in great danger. It was best that he dumped her and let her go back to her home, and pretend nothing happened.

"How about we stay in Willow with you? With my influence, I am sure everything can be sorted quickly and then you can follow me back to Serendale" Jemina pleaded.

"No. I don't think that is a good idea. How about this. I will visit you once I am done. You go back and do your normal princess duties and hopefully I won't take too long" he said, lying through his teeth.

"But...I love you" she pleaded

"I love you too. But we have our duties to perform first and..." he kept trying to explain.

Suddenly, Ciera knocked on the door loudly. "We have arrived in Willow, princess!"

"That's my stop. I have to go" Sam said suddenly, giving Jemima a quick kiss and exiting the carriage. He found himself just inside the gates of Willow, which was a bustling town.

She looked at him longingly with tears in her eyes as he quickly ran off and disappearing into the crowd.

"Are you alright princess?" Ciera asked.

"No, my heart will not be complete until he enters my life again" she said as she tearfully shut the door.

Ciera was stunned. Did the princess fall in love with that pervert on the journey here? How can that be possible?

"We better move on to Stronghold. I don't know if that demon will come here, so we best get the princess home as soon as possible" she said to the rest of the guards. She quickly gave a report about the demon to the guards at the town gate and then they departed towards Stronghold.

Sam looked at the departing carriage and sighed. Jemina was so dreamy.

"Way to go pervert" Mindy's voice appeared in his head. "When is our turn?" Hermione's voice followed.

"Shut up, all of you" he said, not being in a good mood

[Journey to Willow. Mission Accomplished. XP granted]

He realized that he had barely leveled up at all. What lame mission was this?

As if answering the question in his mind, the Nexus answered

[First mission upon arriving at Willow. Now at the start of your life here]

Sam realised that this was supposed to be his first task. No wonder the points were so miserable.

"Now what?" he thought to himself

Just then, he noticed all the guards scrambling with a team of guards on horses rushing out as the gates shut, while more guards and a few mages walked out of the main hall.

"Get Merlin! He will be able to help!" yelled the mages. One of them ran to a tent in the middle of town. It looked like they were doing some recruiting in the tent.

"What's going on in there?" Sam asked a villager.

"That's where they were recruiting students for the Academy of Aristal, the premier academy for all the young talented warriors and magicians of the land" the villager answered.

A wise looking mage walked out of the tent followed by several other mages. At a quick glance, Sam was shocked to see that Merlin was a level 69, which was the highest he has seen so far.

Behind him were several other mages and warriors which Sam rightly assumed were fellow instructors. One pretty female instructor dressed in white caught his attention, mainly because she was very pretty. She was a level 42 mage.

"What is going on here?" Merlin asked. The town mayor rushed towards him in panic yelling "Demon... a demon is coming!"

Merlin looked around and saw the citizens panicking. "Calm yourself! Barricade the gates and gather everyone in the town hall, which is the most secure building in town. We will try out best" he said, heading towards the gates with the other instructors.

The townsfolk were in a panic and started scrambling to the town hall, causing a ruckus.

"Headmaster, what is going on?" came a sweet voice from the tent as two very pretty girls walked out. A muscular red headed male followed behind them.

"Arisa and Aria, please follow my instructions and head to the town hall. You too Heracles" Merlin said.

"But you know we can help" the teen named Heracles said, both his hands suddenly erupting in flames.

"I know you are talented and have abilities beyond your years. But this is something behind your abilities" Merlin said.

"Gwen, please guide the students and new recruits to the town hall" Merlin ordered. Gwen, the pretty teacher in white too charge and led them to the town.

"You too young man" Merlin said, looking directly at Sam

"Shit, why did he look at me?" Sam wondered, but nodded obediently.

He walked and turned a corner, then disappeared into the Nexus.

He looked at all his familiars who were standing ready in battle gear. They were dresses in clothes they were familiar with. Apparently with the mind link, Hermione could now conjure up clothes exactly to each girl's needs.

Selene and Natasha were dressed in their black body suits and Alice was dressed in her black body suit from Resident Evil Retribution. Tauriel was dressed in a costume similar to the one she wore in the Hobbit movies except it was all black. Mindy similarly had her costume but in black color. Only Hermione wore her Hogwarts cloak, with seemingly nothing underneath except her shoes.

"Hermione.. why aren't you wearing anything underneath?" Sam asked. Hermione was usually the most practical of them all.

"I'm a wizard, not one of the warriors. I won't be doing cartwheels and somersaults in this. Besides.... I want to be easily accessible" she said with a wink and smile.

"Uh.. you guys know that we will be facing that demon again, right? We had to run the last time as our weapons had little effect on it" Sam said.

"Yes. Only Hermione had managed to stall it for a while. Selene's silver bullets seemed to irritate it too" Alice said.

"Hermione said I needed demon hunters or banishers. I guess now is the time to clean up our mess" Sam said.

The girls knew what he meant. It meant more sharing.