Goobriella's eyes glazed over, they literally became blank, blue orbs staring at a point far behind the man as if he was as transparent as the slime girl. This was beyond her, but she fell into an almost hypontic trance, nodding and humming at appropriate points in the conversation and simply letting him fill the silence with his incomprehensible and certainly made-up words. They had to be. When he shifted to his field, something was nagging there, probably something important but couldn't quite put a finger on it. It felt like hours before it ended. She jolted back after it had been quiet for a few seconds. "Um, interesting. Guess that means you're a good guy, putting so much effort into the lives of your subjects is really admirable." Had understood that much and it was the same for his friend who was helping him. Goobriella pumped her fist and gave a vigorous nod, resolving to do everything she could to help them. Then, the slime girl took his hand in hers to shake it, pressing her self close to the vampire. "Slime Knight, Goobriella. I'll do my utmost to see to your dear lady friend's safety. Although if you want to deliver any longer messages, it might be best to write it down. Have a goo way to keep them safe, but it's a secret." She knew her limits, but she also had a surprising number of strengths. Being a slime was quite handy at times.
He gave a slight laugh, while looking over Mogmak, eyeing her, but mostly focused on her muscles as if accessing her strength. "Don't think you're too big that I can't spank you." He held his smile, though the friendliness with it was limited with his natural fearsome look. "He ain't too hard to find. He works the general shop. It's also his house, so he spends almost all his time there. He's been short changing mercs. I like mercs. They work hard, fight hard and when they're done, they spend all their money here. When somebody's off killing the clientele, the boss really doesn't like it, and when my boys can't get the things they need, I'm not happy about it either. He's your typical merchant noble asshole. Just smack him and he'll fold like paper...but it might be too easy to break him. He knows that the boss has it out for him, but nobody wants to work for him so he can only buy off some cheap thugs instead of anything serious. I don't care what happens to them, but the guards here still do their job and a full investigation is a lot of money to spend. If there's no other option, you do, what you gotta do."
"Spanking? Might have to try that out some time." She flirts openly. "All right, then. I'll head down. If things don't go wrong, I'll keep him at his shop, so just pop over when your shift is done, and you can take care of him." Mogmak gives the oni another flirtatious look, before walking out of the casino, hips swinging as she does. Heading out into the city, the half troll heads to the general store where her target is.
"Ungrateful oafs or not, I have a duty to take care of them." His motives might be ultimately in the right place, but the villagers were definitely right for seeing him as something of a jerk. But he clearly isn't the obstructive bureaucrat they think he is either. He looked just a slight bit confused by the simple gesture of friendliness, but ultimately took her hand the best he could, feeling it squish as the partial non solid mass it was, but holding eye contact with her as he shook it. "Count Wolf....don't ask." His face was hard to read. It looked like he sort of doubted the abilities of one lone slime, but he wasn't making fun of her or openly ridiculing the idea like some of the other "strong" races did. Hearing her suggestion, he gave a brief nod. "Letters...yes. Just give me a moment here..." Taking his black book back out, he began to compose his letter before suddenly stopping and ripping out the page, crumpling it and putting it in his pocket, obviously not satisfied with whatever he had. After what felt even longer than listening to his lecture, he finally seemed to have composed a letter he was happy with and neatly ripped the page with a clean tear, folding it and handing it to the slime. He then proceeded to start scribbling something down again before handing it to Goobriella. "Leviathys is kind of a hike from here and through the forest, if you don't know exactly where you're going, you can get lost even with the road signs. It's quite a lot nicer than our end of these parts, but almost entirely water. I haven't seen how slimes interact with being submerged myself, though I partially want to see for myself....but I can't be leaving my own work unprotected." He then offered the second note he written up. "I tried to make the directions as clear as possible, if you wind up off road." "It's a simple village, but it does have the Ivy League. That's where you want to go. Head out soon, or you might want to properly prepare first. The road isn't that dangerous, just long. None of the rogue monsters are that strong, but there's still the risk of being in trouble by attrition. The person you're looking for is Candice Cross....don't ask." There must have been a story to it, but he wouldn't share it. Having given the slime everything she'd need, she could be on her way, if she wanted or stop to prepare a little, though it didn't look anyone would have anything too good for sale here with supplies stretched as thin as they were.
Yuuto could only shrug, his half-frown hopefully showing his own growing impatience with the situation. It was true that protecting the villagers, scholar and fisherman alike, had been something that made him feel confident and fulfilled for a while now. Yet the nagging feeling that he was needed elsewhere had started to become too hard to ignore anymore and he worried that it meant some ill wind was blowing. He did not know if this was due to some scheme of Mortamor that was brewing or if it was the first sign Estark might actually be stirring but he knew he could not stay much longer. He understood Diana's frustration, even though sometimes he wished he could just say that he admired her obvious intelligence instead of simply remaining by her side when everyone else acted as if she needed to be kept at a distance. It was a feeling of isolation he could sympathize with. He had been considering something for a while, as this had not been the first time she had mentioned wanting more out of life than what the school and village seemed to be offering her, but somehow today seemed the day to do it. Reaching into his backpack he pulled out a book he had... borrowed from his mother's personal bookshelf, a tome she had apparently collected to study schools of thought beyond her own in order to show them more compassion for their ways as a servant of the Goddess should. The title read Ka-Kracking Black Magic Vol 1 and he hoped it was clear what he was wordlessly saying. If she wanted a life like his, it was not impossible... but it would still require study.
After folding the letter neatly without reading it, she reached for a small leather pouch that she had strung to a belt and put it inside. Should be fine to let the Count see her technique, he was a nice guy after all and was entrusting her with the letter in the first place. She rolled up one of her sleeves, pressing the pouch lightly against her exposed arm. The slime parted, swallowing the pouch and forming a protective bubble of air around it and soon fell out of sight as Goobriella manipulated the pocket deeper inside to the clothed parts of her body. Although not visible, the coloration around her chest shifted, becoming a more uniformly solid and opaque blue to help disguise the package. It also made her breasts swell and strain against her clothes with the additional mass pressing against the fabric. This had been something she had taught herself after Goomps had said to 'Keep what's important close to your heart', and this had surely been what he had meant. Since she never had to worry about forgetting things. "Leviathys. Ivy League. Candice Cross." She repeated to the key things she had to keep in mind. Shouldn't be too hard to remember, not with the second note she put into a pocket. He had said Leviathys was a place with a lot of water, so maybe there would be a beach to relax on. Slimes didn't tan, but laid out on a nice rock with the sun shining on her always gave Goobriella a warm, and bubbly feeling. Like she was floating away, slowly disappearing and becoming part of the air. It was pleasant. "Water is fine for us. Heavy currents are less so. But I can ask miss Cross to take notes if I decide to take a swim." She thought about it some more, furrowing her brows. Strange place to conduct farming experiments. What would you grow? Fish? Plankton? Probably not, but Candice had to be smarter than her, so maybe there was a reason although Goobriella had no idea what it would be. "Setting off now, Count Woof. I'll bring back any response from your friend." She bowed and left and the administrator. There wasn't anything too important that she needed to replace, or buy, so started to head toward the gate out of town. It'd be nice to be back on the road, and with a clearer purpose than simply picking a direction and walking. That was nice too, but not quite up to the feeling of being able to help others.
Finding the store was easy, since it was lined up right beside the shops for weapons and armor. The shops were all two floors, one for the shop area and the upper being where the merchants probably slept. All were constructed with a fairly large window to work as a counter for them to sell things to people walking by. Her target didn't look any different than a typical merchant, if it was him. It was hard to say just by looking, since he looked like literally anyone else she ever saw running one of these shops. However, his was the only one with people outside of it that didn't look like customers. Cloaked in leather, so nobody could see their faces, but obviously just some thugs. They looked like they'd be relatively weak, but even a troll knew about strategy and realized it would be a problem if the four all attacked at once even if they would be nothing on their own.
Not visibly paying heed to the guards, she walks to the counter. "Hey." She nods in way of greeting. "I'm in the market for some potions."
"W-what?" She looked a little awkward at watching him stare until he reached for the book and then eyed it curiously. "That's...a magic book. But where'd you get that from?" She still slowly reached for the book, and started lightly thumbing through the contents. "...I see. But you had this for a while, didn't you?" Surprisingly, it didn't take her long to reach a stopping point, having flipped through the pages maybe only for a few seconds each. "They really hate getting to the point in this. So...what? I just..." Standing up straight, she opened her palm while taking aim at the wall. The ignition happened quickly, sparking energy from the flames being ignited and them shaping into a ball that launched against the tree. There was a flash against the wood, as a wall of magical light emerged to shield the bark from the blast, the scholars having had the foresight to ensure the trees they were holed up in wouldn't be easily burnt down. But it made things clear as she gave a childish arm pump of excitement. It was a simple fireball, but one that only took her no real effort to learn. "Ah, wow. So I can just do that now? Cool. And..." She opened the book again, excited to learn something else, but her facial expression gradually toned down as it took her much longer to read. "Hmm." She was silent for a long amount of time before suddenly shaking her head. "Nah. This is too complicated." Closing the book, she handed it back to Yuuto, repeating the same pattern as usual. Showing lot's of promise, but unwilling to do much with it if something looked like it was getting too hard. "Besides. I don't need to study this stuff. I'm not the chosen one. You're the one whose going to go beat up the bad guys. I'm just some village girl. What can I do?" Already having given up on her dreams of adventure before they even started, she brushed it off and began gathering her stuff. "Anyway, even if I can't help, I still want to see this whole "final test" thing Beijon was talking about."
The journey down the path, starts off easy. However, as soon as the road starts to deviate into the woods, it becomes more of a complicated mess. It was a wonder if even animals could find their way around here. Following the path, the dead forest woods began to slow change. Somewhat more well light by the glow of bugs, but far from looking welcoming. The wooden sign posted along the pathway gave simple instruction. Leviathys. Straight ahead. Even though it said that, it didn't look like the clearing of the woods was anytime soon and any of the light came from some kind of eerie magical glow that hung around the place. It was starting to become apparent the whole area really wasn't meant for regular people. https://cdna.artstation.com/p/asset...edium/raven-malevolent-final-2.jpg?1528929982 This could be a problem.
The lights were quite pretty, their green light reflected on her exposed skin turned it a lovely shade of cyan. Goobriella had tried chasing after a few of the insects without much success for fear of straying too far from the road. Not that it was much of a road to begin with, an observation becoming more true as she continued to walk further into the wild woods. And it was pretty rude of the sign to not give an indication of how much further the destination was. She shielded her eyes as she ducked under a low hanging branch with the thick strands of lichen hanging from it getting caught up in her gooey hand. The crowns were so thick here that she doubted that the ground had seen any sunlight for years, it was like she was in a cave only made of trees and vegetation instead of stone. Even the iridescent, ever-present light reminded her a little of the glow from certain kinds of mushrooms that grew underground. She was glad for it, in any case, despite the slimecurdling effect it had on the place's homey atmosphere. Waving away the lichen stuck to her hand, the slime knight pulled out her sword and used the point to lift away anything else that hung from the branches. She left the road, walking carefully toward the small lake in front of her. Goobriella didn't want to sink into boggy ground, so tried putting some pressure with her feet before taking each step just to make sure. It hadn't been that far away, but had still taken a good few minutes. She knelt before the lake, pulling and uncorking out a waterskin, taking a quick refreshing swig before reaching down to refill it.
"Sure thing." The shopkeeper doesn't say anything weird and the thugs keeping close by take a quick look at the troll, but overall don't bother reacting to her yet. As he places one of the potions on the counter though, it's hard to notice at first. If she hadn't been already aware of it, she probably wouldn't have really paid that much attention, but being aware of the quality of the potions, it's noticeable that they don't look like the same bright red shade they should be. A bit duller in color, but not something people would just pay attention to normally when grabbing supplies. The man didn't seem to think the troll would notice though, leaving it on the counter and carrying on with business as usual. "Anything else?"
The murky underground didn't mesh too well with the slimes body in the places she could feel it. Some of the ground was definitely more solid than others, and it would be easy for someone to accidentally sink in. At least being a slime, she didn't really weigh all that much other than her armor. Heading to the lake, she scoops the water that's quality was hard to tell in the light. It looked fine enough, at least from what she could tell. As she knelt, to fill the waterskin, she could catch a different kind of coloration of light in her peripheral vision. An orangish glow of light that contrasted against the greenish hues, but slowly flickering away away as the source of the light moved, the sound of the underbrush rustling as it moved away and a strange metallic jingling following it.
Yuuto watched in amazement as Diana effortlessly cast her first fireball, a little bit of hope entering into his heart. Had she finally found something she would want to apply herself to?! She had so much talent and this was more proof of that! And if he truly was to hunt down Estark one day, he wanted at least one companion by his side who he knew, trusted, and (if he allowed himself to be a little un-heroic in his mindset for a moment) had become quite the spunky beauty that he certainly would not mind sharing the same tent with for warmth when they reached colder climates. He started to wonder what spell she would try next... and then he saw the disinterest enter her eyes. And the pattern he had seen too many times repeated itself. He sighed when she shook her head and handed the book back to him, visibly pouting. She could be so much more than she let herself be. It was just a matter of finding SOME way of motivating her and keeping her motivated, even if the process left him a little frustrated with his failures sometimes. He started to consider finding some way of pointing out even the greatest of Legendary Heroes had never slain past Demon Kings alone. One such legend even spoke of how the Hero had done so alongside his parents and twin sibling, like it had been some kind of family vacation! Then she mentioned this "final test thing" and he suddenly looked very curious, tilting his head at her in a way he used to indicate he wanted to hear more about what she meant.
"What? I don't know what it's all about. You'd know better than I would. I'm just going to watch." Diana seemed interested in it, though Yuuto had an idea what it meant. Since Beijon was pretty much among the few people in the village who could actually fight, he had been something of a mentor. Though that was....he wasn't a bad teacher exactly, but obviously he still had his limits. The idea of a final trial was confusing. It wasn't just a month ago that he openly told Yuuto to his face he was nowhere near ready. It wasn't like he wouldn't just say what he was thinking. Whatever brought this on, Diana opened the door to leave, waiting for Yuuto to come along.
Mogmak leans forwards on the counter, giving the man a good look at her curvy, busty body, as she grins up at him. "I was thinking that maybe we could find an 'alternate' form of payment?"
The shopkeeper eyes her a bit, obviously unsure of whether or not he's put off by the troll woman. "...maybe. You're fit, if nothing else." After a few moments to decide, he gives a nod and steps away from the counter. "Fine. At least you got a solid body." Walking away from the shop window, there's the sound of a door latch unclicking as it swings open. "Alright. Let's make this quick."
She walks inside with a smirk. "You won't regret it. Let's head upstairs." She begins walking up the stairs, ass swaying hypnotically.
Standing up, Yuuto followed Diana out the door, trying to think just exactly what Beijon was up to here. Just another strange change in the behavior of life around him to make note of. Still, he had to admit, Beijon could be surprisingly... creative at times. So it would probably be interesting to see whatever the hell it was he had in mind.
As she enters the room, it's a simple one. Decently clean and looks a little pricey, but nothing too crazy. Soon, the man follows, shutting the door behind him, seeming to still debate if he was going to go through with this. But after making his decision, he gave her a sharp look and made a pointing motion to the wooden floor, expecting her to lower herself. "Alright. I want my moneys worth. On your knees." He gave the command as he moved over to a shelf to start to search for something quickly, expecting her to comply.
