Chapter 34
If audio player doesn't work, press Stop then Play button again
"This might sound stupid to the rest of you, but how do we operate these things?" I asked looking at the ten orbs in front of me.
"As the owner you just have to touch them and think about seeing inside. The orb will comply and turn the barrier transparent. Do Not Think About Letting Them Out!" Elisia told me. "Not until we are sure it is safe to do so."
I nodded then reached for the biggest one. It had the most mystery about it and I wanted to know just how much trouble Seth might have gotten us into.
Touching the orb I thought about seeing inside. To our surprise there wasn't anyone inside, instead all we could see was a great deal of water.
"I could have sworn there was someone in there." Elisia commented looking into the orb.
Several others in the room nodded their agreement.
"Maybe there is." Selia said seeming to squint at the orb, it was hard for me to understand the facial changes on a snake.
"Where?" Lilian asked curiously.
"Inside the water." I stated, "Could it be a water beast?" I asked looking to Selia.
Selia tilted her head to the side. "Maybe, can you shift the view?" she asked me.
Why hadn't I thought of that? As soon as I thought about shifting the view the view shifted. I controlled the image to go under the water to see what was swimming around inside of it.
The view that greeted us was again surprising. There was something in the water, but it was small, moving closer revealed it to be a woman standing at the bottom of the water in a transparent bubble. She had long dark brown hair with hints of red in it, pale nearly white skin, bright ruby eyes, and a figure porn stars would covet barely contained in a tan dress that revealed a great deal of cleavage and leg.
"Flame Dryad?" Selia said sounding confused.
"Aren't dryads tree girls?" I asked confused.
"About as much as humans are monkeys." Selia retorted a bit irritably.
I rolled my eyes.
"Yes dryads are women who bond to trees, but there is a lot more to it than being a tree girl." Zephirah told me. "A flame dryad is a woman who bonded to a tree that contained a lot of fire mana. They are rare, and highly coveted materials."
I nodded. "And the asshole put her inside a giant pool of water, why?" I asked. I was secretly amazed by the sheer amount of water in the orb. Unless the dryad was Lilian sized, it was a lot of water.
"Either to help contain her or to infuse the fire mana she puts off into the water." Selia replied. "Or both. The water isn't moving like it should so it shouldn't be normal water."
Looked like normal water to me, but I wasn't going to disagree with her. I had no idea what 'moving right' looked like.
"Should we release her?" I asked the important question.
Everyone seemed to hesitate.
"Release me now!" a feminine voice came out of the orb, apparently she could see and hear us as well as we could her.
"What assurance do we have you won't harm us if we release you?" Vanessa asked appearing by my side.
I turned to look at the recently reformed gemini curious to see if there was anything different about her now that she had reformed. "Could have warned me." I commented aloud.
"Did you want a countdown?" Zephirah asked.
"At least a warning." I replied.
"I give my word on Estrisia the Fiery One that I will not harm anyone who doesn't mean me harm." the fire dryad pledged.
Vanessa nodded then looked to me. Her dark blue eyes staring warmly into mine as she smiled at me happily. "We should let her out master. She has sworn on the name of her god."
Master was new. I liked it, probably more than I should have. "Are you sure it is her god?" I asked.
"It doesn't matter." Selia spoke up like I was a fool.
"She is right master, lying while swearing on any gods name, even one whom you despise, would be incredibly unwise." Vanessa told me.
"As unwise as breaking an oath of allegiance?" I asked.
"Not that bad, but she doesn't have anything to gain from lying to us." Zephirah chimed in.
I frowned then darkened the orb the fire dryad was in. Before anyone could object I summoned my mana and began to draw runes in the air creating a cage. It was larger than the cage created with the capture stone. It wouldn't constrain the prisoner unless she tried to attack us, however the moment she tried to harm any of us it would activate freezing her in place unable to move a single muscle. Unfortunately with my limited mana pool I had to pull a great deal of mana from the dungeon. Once I was finished I returned to the orb then thought about releasing only the fire dryad directly into the cage I had made for her.
"Paranoid much?" Selia asked as the fire dryad appeared in the middle of the cage which immediately activated.
"You do remember the reason why your father sent you here right?" I asked Selia.
Selia tilted her head to the side then nodded. "Fair point." she agreed.
"What is this?" the fire dryad asked seeing the runic cage she had appeared inside of.
"A cage." I replied. "It will not harm or inhibit you in any way unless you try to harm any of us." I told her.
"And if I just walk out of here?" she asked me her ruby eyes shining brightly.
"It won't stop you." I confirmed then turned my attention back to the other nine orbs.
"Seriously?" Selia asked surprised.
"What? I have no desire to keep anyone here against their will." I replied.
"We could still use her help in exchange for her freedom." Selia told me.
I shook my head. "No." I replied. "Maybe you consider me a fool, but I would prefer willing aid. Look around, except Vanessa who didn't have much of a choice before now, everyone is here willingly."
"I am here willingly master." Vanessa reassured me.
I nodded, "We can talk about that later." I told her.
"Doubt there will be much talking." Zephirah snickered.
I rolled my eyes then touched the second orb. Inside was a large dark red bull with red eyes and two sets of horns that would put a longhorn to shame.
"Blazing Bull. A strong beast, makes an excellent guardian and divine steaks." Selia commented.
"Steaks?" I asked confused.
Selia nodded her snake head while Elisia seemed to start drooling. "Because of their fire element there are no parasites in their meat and even after butchering the meat remains at a just cooked temperature despite being raw. It is expensive and popular amongst the rich." she informed us.
I nodded then continued to look into the other orbs, at the edge of my vision I could see the fire dryad hadn't left but was instead watching us closely.
I found two more blazing bulls, both smaller than the first, probably females, before I found something new, it was a group of five silver chickens, what I found to be the most unusual about them was that there was the fact that their silver feathers would occasionally emit a silver flame. It wasn't often, but I still saw it twice while trying to figure out what they were. No one else in my group seemed to recognize them either.
"Silverfire Chickens." the fire dryad spoke up. "Like the Blazing Bull they are good as defenders and dinner. They are even more expensive than the Blazing Bull due to their rarity and difficulty in raising and breeding. There should be a rooster in one of the other orbs."
I nodded to the fire dryad then found she was correct when we found the rooster in the next orb, it was much larger than the females, and more ferocious looking.
"What kinds of beasts are these bulls and chickens?" I asked curiously.
"Magic beasts." Zephirah replied. "However instead of gaining intelligence and the ability to consciously control the mana inside them, their mana has fused into them. So rather than confuse them with intelligent magic beasts like Elisia and Selia, we call them Innate beasts."
"I wonder." Selia commented staring at the world tree sprout for a few moments.
"What?" I asked.
"A rumor I had heard. I wonder if Seth was going to try it out." she replied.
"What rumor?" Elisia asked.
Selia looked to the fire dryad then back to the world tree sprout. "Each sprout has a great deal of mana inside them, residual from the world tree they fell from. This mana is incredibly pure making them a popular ingredient for medicines and magic formulas. However several beasts have been known to mutate after consuming the sprouts, if they can resist the mana tearing through their bodies. If that mana can be guided by someone, like a dryad the odds of success would be much higher." she explained.
"I do not know what my previous capture wanted from me, besides a romp in the sheets." the fire dryad spat angrily.
"Hmm, this could be interesting then." I commented reaching for then next orb. Five of the normal orbs and all we had were farm animals. The next orb had a bird that looked like a crow or raven, I was terrible at telling the difference between them. The biggest oddity was that the bird was the blackest black I had ever seen.
"Rena!" Selia cheered excitedly. "Seth must be furious!"
I looked to the amethyst snake waiting for an explanation.
"She is a Void Raven and Seth's official fiance. Seth had to pay a lot to her father for her." Selia informed me.
"Sounds more like a slave." I commented.
"Just now picked that up?" Selia asked. "Amongst the dungeon lords their children are little more than pawns to build relationships with the other dungeon lords. Elisia and my father's aren't as bad as most, but they would have never handed us over to you if you weren't a promising dungeon lord."
"Can't you refuse?" I asked.
"They can." Vanessa told me placing her hand on my shoulder. "But if they do they will be cut off from the family. Living without the support of their families is possible, but so much harder. There are similar customs in your world, are there not?" she asked.
I nodded. Not in my country, but it was there.
"Seems father left some things out." Selia commented.
"We will talk." Vanessa reassured Selia.
I groaned then looked to Selia, "Is she a danger to me?" I asked. As Seth's fiance she wouldn't be happy that I stripped him of all his possessions.
"No, she had no love for my brother." Selia replied.
I hesitated a moment then released the raven. The black bird appeared beside Selia. She looked around for a few moments then stared from me to Selia, "Seth?" she asked Selia. Her voice while feminine sounded rather dull.
"Defeated, father had to intervene to save his soul." Selia replied.
"I see." she said then looked to me. "My price had already been paid, my father will not object if you keep me here." she told me.
"We can try and send you back." I offered.
"If given a choice, I would prefer to stay." Rena replied.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.
"Why?" I asked confused.
"If I return father will just sell me to another male, and I will not have a say in who he sells me too. Here I already know and get along with Selia." she replied.
"What about me?" Elisia asked.
"Have we met?" Rena asked looking down at the wolf.
"Nope, but we can still be friends." Elisia declared wagging her tail.
I stared at the wolf for a moment as I began to wonder if she was an airhead.
Three more orbs left, the next revealed another female blazing bull.
Grabbing the next I revealed three campfires each with a different colored fire in it. One was a pretty violet, another resembled the silver fire of the Silverfire Chickens, while the last was a pure white fire.
"Foxfire, Silverflame, and Frostfire." Selia identified the flames.
"The white one is Heart Fire not Frostfire." The fire dryad corrected. "They look alike, but the beast flames wouldn't be able to burn so close to Frostfire."
"Ah, my mistake." Selia agreed.
I frowned, I had no idea what Seth had planned to use all this for, but it didn't matter to me, I would make my own plans.
Reaching for the last orb I found a bright red tailless fox laying inside the orb. Even though I didn't know a thing about animals I knew that this fox was not in good shape.
"No!" the fire dryad cried out seeing the fox tears streaming down her face. As I had guessed Seth had leverage over the dryad. Unfortunately it didn't look like he took care of it.
Unfortunately the orb the fox was in quickly disappeared ejecting the fox onto the bed in front of us.
"What did you do!" the fire dryad screamed at me then a moment later the cage I had placed her in activated. It quickly restrained her causing her to fall onto the floor.
The fox that appeared in front of us looked really bad. "What happened?" I asked looking around as I summoned my mana and started to draw some healing runes.
"She should be a Fire Tail Fox. They are rare and valuable beasts that you can harvest a beast flame from. Though this one looks like it was overharvested." Selia commented.
"Seth?" I asked as my runes activated and sent a soothing mana into the fox to heal her injuries, whatever they were.
"Maybe, he did always seem to have a lot of coin on hand, and beast flames sell well." Selia admitted.
"Can you save her?" Vanessa asked.
I shrugged then a thought crossed my mind, "Yes, I should be able to, even if my healing runes don't work." I replied.
"The runes aren't working." Lilian told me. "The damage is too her soul and even as a Mana Lord you don't have the knowledge needed to heal that." she told me.
"Do you?" I asked Lilian.
The fairy shook her head. "No, that is a level far above what I know." she admitted.
"SAVE HER!" the fire dryad forced the words out of her mouth despite the restrictions the cage had placed on her.
"Please." Vanessa pleaded too her eyes full of tears as she looked down at the fox.
I sighed then nodded. I hoped I didn't regret this.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
"This might sound stupid to the rest of you, but how do we operate these things?" I asked looking at the ten orbs in front of me.
"As the owner you just have to touch them and think about seeing inside. The orb will comply and turn the barrier transparent. Do Not Think About Letting Them Out!" Elisia told me. "Not until we are sure it is safe to do so."
I nodded then reached for the biggest one. It had the most mystery about it and I wanted to know just how much trouble Seth might have gotten us into.
Touching the orb I thought about seeing inside. To our surprise there wasn't anyone inside, instead all we could see was a great deal of water.
"I could have sworn there was someone in there." Elisia commented looking into the orb.
Several others in the room nodded their agreement.
"Maybe there is." Selia said seeming to squint at the orb, it was hard for me to understand the facial changes on a snake.
"Where?" Lilian asked curiously.
"Inside the water." I stated, "Could it be a water beast?" I asked looking to Selia.
Selia tilted her head to the side. "Maybe, can you shift the view?" she asked me.
Why hadn't I thought of that? As soon as I thought about shifting the view the view shifted. I controlled the image to go under the water to see what was swimming around inside of it.
The view that greeted us was again surprising. There was something in the water, but it was small, moving closer revealed it to be a woman standing at the bottom of the water in a transparent bubble. She had long dark brown hair with hints of red in it, pale nearly white skin, bright ruby eyes, and a figure porn stars would covet barely contained in a tan dress that revealed a great deal of cleavage and leg.
"Flame Dryad?" Selia said sounding confused.
"Aren't dryads tree girls?" I asked confused.
"About as much as humans are monkeys." Selia retorted a bit irritably.
I rolled my eyes.
"Yes dryads are women who bond to trees, but there is a lot more to it than being a tree girl." Zephirah told me. "A flame dryad is a woman who bonded to a tree that contained a lot of fire mana. They are rare, and highly coveted materials."
I nodded. "And the asshole put her inside a giant pool of water, why?" I asked. I was secretly amazed by the sheer amount of water in the orb. Unless the dryad was Lilian sized, it was a lot of water.
"Either to help contain her or to infuse the fire mana she puts off into the water." Selia replied. "Or both. The water isn't moving like it should so it shouldn't be normal water."
Looked like normal water to me, but I wasn't going to disagree with her. I had no idea what 'moving right' looked like.
"Should we release her?" I asked the important question.
Everyone seemed to hesitate.
"Release me now!" a feminine voice came out of the orb, apparently she could see and hear us as well as we could her.
"What assurance do we have you won't harm us if we release you?" Vanessa asked appearing by my side.
I turned to look at the recently reformed gemini curious to see if there was anything different about her now that she had reformed. "Could have warned me." I commented aloud.
"Did you want a countdown?" Zephirah asked.
"At least a warning." I replied.
"I give my word on Estrisia the Fiery One that I will not harm anyone who doesn't mean me harm." the fire dryad pledged.
Vanessa nodded then looked to me. Her dark blue eyes staring warmly into mine as she smiled at me happily. "We should let her out master. She has sworn on the name of her god."
Master was new. I liked it, probably more than I should have. "Are you sure it is her god?" I asked.
"It doesn't matter." Selia spoke up like I was a fool.
"She is right master, lying while swearing on any gods name, even one whom you despise, would be incredibly unwise." Vanessa told me.
"As unwise as breaking an oath of allegiance?" I asked.
"Not that bad, but she doesn't have anything to gain from lying to us." Zephirah chimed in.
I frowned then darkened the orb the fire dryad was in. Before anyone could object I summoned my mana and began to draw runes in the air creating a cage. It was larger than the cage created with the capture stone. It wouldn't constrain the prisoner unless she tried to attack us, however the moment she tried to harm any of us it would activate freezing her in place unable to move a single muscle. Unfortunately with my limited mana pool I had to pull a great deal of mana from the dungeon. Once I was finished I returned to the orb then thought about releasing only the fire dryad directly into the cage I had made for her.
"Paranoid much?" Selia asked as the fire dryad appeared in the middle of the cage which immediately activated.
"You do remember the reason why your father sent you here right?" I asked Selia.
Selia tilted her head to the side then nodded. "Fair point." she agreed.
"What is this?" the fire dryad asked seeing the runic cage she had appeared inside of.
"A cage." I replied. "It will not harm or inhibit you in any way unless you try to harm any of us." I told her.
"And if I just walk out of here?" she asked me her ruby eyes shining brightly.
"It won't stop you." I confirmed then turned my attention back to the other nine orbs.
"Seriously?" Selia asked surprised.
"What? I have no desire to keep anyone here against their will." I replied.
"We could still use her help in exchange for her freedom." Selia told me.
I shook my head. "No." I replied. "Maybe you consider me a fool, but I would prefer willing aid. Look around, except Vanessa who didn't have much of a choice before now, everyone is here willingly."
"I am here willingly master." Vanessa reassured me.
I nodded, "We can talk about that later." I told her.
"Doubt there will be much talking." Zephirah snickered.
I rolled my eyes then touched the second orb. Inside was a large dark red bull with red eyes and two sets of horns that would put a longhorn to shame.
"Blazing Bull. A strong beast, makes an excellent guardian and divine steaks." Selia commented.
"Steaks?" I asked confused.
Selia nodded her snake head while Elisia seemed to start drooling. "Because of their fire element there are no parasites in their meat and even after butchering the meat remains at a just cooked temperature despite being raw. It is expensive and popular amongst the rich." she informed us.
I nodded then continued to look into the other orbs, at the edge of my vision I could see the fire dryad hadn't left but was instead watching us closely.
I found two more blazing bulls, both smaller than the first, probably females, before I found something new, it was a group of five silver chickens, what I found to be the most unusual about them was that there was the fact that their silver feathers would occasionally emit a silver flame. It wasn't often, but I still saw it twice while trying to figure out what they were. No one else in my group seemed to recognize them either.
"Silverfire Chickens." the fire dryad spoke up. "Like the Blazing Bull they are good as defenders and dinner. They are even more expensive than the Blazing Bull due to their rarity and difficulty in raising and breeding. There should be a rooster in one of the other orbs."
I nodded to the fire dryad then found she was correct when we found the rooster in the next orb, it was much larger than the females, and more ferocious looking.
"What kinds of beasts are these bulls and chickens?" I asked curiously.
"Magic beasts." Zephirah replied. "However instead of gaining intelligence and the ability to consciously control the mana inside them, their mana has fused into them. So rather than confuse them with intelligent magic beasts like Elisia and Selia, we call them Innate beasts."
"I wonder." Selia commented staring at the world tree sprout for a few moments.
"What?" I asked.
"A rumor I had heard. I wonder if Seth was going to try it out." she replied.
"What rumor?" Elisia asked.
Selia looked to the fire dryad then back to the world tree sprout. "Each sprout has a great deal of mana inside them, residual from the world tree they fell from. This mana is incredibly pure making them a popular ingredient for medicines and magic formulas. However several beasts have been known to mutate after consuming the sprouts, if they can resist the mana tearing through their bodies. If that mana can be guided by someone, like a dryad the odds of success would be much higher." she explained.
"I do not know what my previous capture wanted from me, besides a romp in the sheets." the fire dryad spat angrily.
"Hmm, this could be interesting then." I commented reaching for then next orb. Five of the normal orbs and all we had were farm animals. The next orb had a bird that looked like a crow or raven, I was terrible at telling the difference between them. The biggest oddity was that the bird was the blackest black I had ever seen.
"Rena!" Selia cheered excitedly. "Seth must be furious!"
I looked to the amethyst snake waiting for an explanation.
"She is a Void Raven and Seth's official fiance. Seth had to pay a lot to her father for her." Selia informed me.
"Sounds more like a slave." I commented.
"Just now picked that up?" Selia asked. "Amongst the dungeon lords their children are little more than pawns to build relationships with the other dungeon lords. Elisia and my father's aren't as bad as most, but they would have never handed us over to you if you weren't a promising dungeon lord."
"Can't you refuse?" I asked.
"They can." Vanessa told me placing her hand on my shoulder. "But if they do they will be cut off from the family. Living without the support of their families is possible, but so much harder. There are similar customs in your world, are there not?" she asked.
I nodded. Not in my country, but it was there.
"Seems father left some things out." Selia commented.
"We will talk." Vanessa reassured Selia.
I groaned then looked to Selia, "Is she a danger to me?" I asked. As Seth's fiance she wouldn't be happy that I stripped him of all his possessions.
"No, she had no love for my brother." Selia replied.
I hesitated a moment then released the raven. The black bird appeared beside Selia. She looked around for a few moments then stared from me to Selia, "Seth?" she asked Selia. Her voice while feminine sounded rather dull.
"Defeated, father had to intervene to save his soul." Selia replied.
"I see." she said then looked to me. "My price had already been paid, my father will not object if you keep me here." she told me.
"We can try and send you back." I offered.
"If given a choice, I would prefer to stay." Rena replied.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.
"Why?" I asked confused.
"If I return father will just sell me to another male, and I will not have a say in who he sells me too. Here I already know and get along with Selia." she replied.
"What about me?" Elisia asked.
"Have we met?" Rena asked looking down at the wolf.
"Nope, but we can still be friends." Elisia declared wagging her tail.
I stared at the wolf for a moment as I began to wonder if she was an airhead.
Three more orbs left, the next revealed another female blazing bull.
Grabbing the next I revealed three campfires each with a different colored fire in it. One was a pretty violet, another resembled the silver fire of the Silverfire Chickens, while the last was a pure white fire.
"Foxfire, Silverflame, and Frostfire." Selia identified the flames.
"The white one is Heart Fire not Frostfire." The fire dryad corrected. "They look alike, but the beast flames wouldn't be able to burn so close to Frostfire."
"Ah, my mistake." Selia agreed.
I frowned, I had no idea what Seth had planned to use all this for, but it didn't matter to me, I would make my own plans.
Reaching for the last orb I found a bright red tailless fox laying inside the orb. Even though I didn't know a thing about animals I knew that this fox was not in good shape.
"No!" the fire dryad cried out seeing the fox tears streaming down her face. As I had guessed Seth had leverage over the dryad. Unfortunately it didn't look like he took care of it.
Unfortunately the orb the fox was in quickly disappeared ejecting the fox onto the bed in front of us.
"What did you do!" the fire dryad screamed at me then a moment later the cage I had placed her in activated. It quickly restrained her causing her to fall onto the floor.
The fox that appeared in front of us looked really bad. "What happened?" I asked looking around as I summoned my mana and started to draw some healing runes.
"She should be a Fire Tail Fox. They are rare and valuable beasts that you can harvest a beast flame from. Though this one looks like it was overharvested." Selia commented.
"Seth?" I asked as my runes activated and sent a soothing mana into the fox to heal her injuries, whatever they were.
"Maybe, he did always seem to have a lot of coin on hand, and beast flames sell well." Selia admitted.
"Can you save her?" Vanessa asked.
I shrugged then a thought crossed my mind, "Yes, I should be able to, even if my healing runes don't work." I replied.
"The runes aren't working." Lilian told me. "The damage is too her soul and even as a Mana Lord you don't have the knowledge needed to heal that." she told me.
"Do you?" I asked Lilian.
The fairy shook her head. "No, that is a level far above what I know." she admitted.
"SAVE HER!" the fire dryad forced the words out of her mouth despite the restrictions the cage had placed on her.
"Please." Vanessa pleaded too her eyes full of tears as she looked down at the fox.
I sighed then nodded. I hoped I didn't regret this.
"This might sound stupid to the rest of you, but how do we operate these things?" I asked looking at the ten orbs in front of me."As the owner you just have to touch them and think about seeing inside. The orb will comply and turn the barrier transparent. Do Not Think About Letting Them Out!" Elisia told me. "Not until we are sure it is safe to do so."I nodded then reached for the biggest one. It had the most mystery about it and I wanted to know just how much trouble Seth might have gotten us into.Touching the orb I thought about seeing inside. To our surprise there wasn't anyone inside, instead all we could see was a great deal of water."I could have sworn there was someone in there." Elisia commented looking into the orb.Several others in the room nodded their agreement."Maybe there is." Selia said seeming to squint at the orb, it was hard for me to understand the facial changes on a snake."Where?" Lilian asked curiously."Inside the water." I stated, "Could it be a water beast?" I asked looking to Selia.Selia tilted her head to the side. "Maybe, can you shift the view?" she asked me.Why hadn't I thought of that? As soon as I thought about shifting the view the view shifted. I controlled the image to go under the water to see what was swimming around inside of it.The view that greeted us was again surprising. There was something in the water, but it was small, moving closer revealed it to be a woman standing at the bottom of the water in a transparent bubble. She had long dark brown hair with hints of red in it, pale nearly white skin, bright ruby eyes, and a figure porn stars would covet barely contained in a tan dress that revealed a great deal of cleavage and leg."Flame Dryad?" Selia said sounding confused."Aren't dryads tree girls?" I asked confused."About as much as humans are monkeys." Selia retorted a bit irritably.I rolled my eyes."Yes dryads are women who bond to trees, but there is a lot more to it than being a tree girl." Zephirah told me. "A flame dryad is a woman who bonded to a tree that contained a lot of fire mana. They are rare, and highly coveted materials."I nodded. "And the asshole put her inside a giant pool of water, why?" I asked. I was secretly amazed by the sheer amount of water in the orb. Unless the dryad was Lilian sized, it was a lot of water."Either to help contain her or to infuse the fire mana she puts off into the water." Selia replied. "Or both. The water isn't moving like it should so it shouldn't be normal water."Looked like normal water to me, but I wasn't going to disagree with her. I had no idea what 'moving right' looked like."Should we release her?" I asked the important question.Everyone seemed to hesitate."Release me now!" a feminine voice came out of the orb, apparently she could see and hear us as well as we could her."What assurance do we have you won't harm us if we release you?" Vanessa asked appearing by my side.I turned to look at the recently reformed gemini curious to see if there was anything different about her now that she had reformed. "Could have warned me." I commented aloud."Did you want a countdown?" Zephirah asked."At least a warning." I replied."I give my word on Estrisia the Fiery One that I will not harm anyone who doesn't mean me harm." the fire dryad pledged.Vanessa nodded then looked to me. Her dark blue eyes staring warmly into mine as she smiled at me happily. "We should let her out master. She has sworn on the name of her god."Master was new. I liked it, probably more than I should have. "Are you sure it is her god?" I asked."It doesn't matter." Selia spoke up like I was a fool."She is right master, lying while swearing on any gods name, even one whom you despise, would be incredibly unwise." Vanessa told me."As unwise as breaking an oath of allegiance?" I asked."Not that bad, but she doesn't have anything to gain from lying to us." Zephirah chimed in.I frowned then darkened the orb the fire dryad was in. Before anyone could object I summoned my mana and began to draw runes in the air creating a cage. It was larger than the cage created with the capture stone. It wouldn't constrain the prisoner unless she tried to attack us, however the moment she tried to harm any of us it would activate freezing her in place unable to move a single muscle. Unfortunately with my limited mana pool I had to pull a great deal of mana from the dungeon. Once I was finished I returned to the orb then thought about releasing only the fire dryad directly into the cage I had made for her."Paranoid much?" Selia asked as the fire dryad appeared in the middle of the cage which immediately activated."You do remember the reason why your father sent you here right?" I asked Selia.Selia tilted her head to the side then nodded. "Fair point." she agreed."What is this?" the fire dryad asked seeing the runic cage she had appeared inside of."A cage." I replied. "It will not harm or inhibit you in any way unless you try to harm any of us." I told her."And if I just walk out of here?" she asked me her ruby eyes shining brightly."It won't stop you." I confirmed then turned my attention back to the other nine orbs."Seriously?" Selia asked surprised."What? I have no desire to keep anyone here against their will." I replied."We could still use her help in exchange for her freedom." Selia told me.I shook my head. "No." I replied. "Maybe you consider me a fool, but I would prefer willing aid. Look around, except Vanessa who didn't have much of a choice before now, everyone is here willingly.""I am here willingly master." Vanessa reassured me.I nodded, "We can talk about that later." I told her."Doubt there will be much talking." Zephirah snickered.I rolled my eyes then touched the second orb. Inside was a large dark red bull with red eyes and two sets of horns that would put a longhorn to shame."Blazing Bull. A strong beast, makes an excellent guardian and divine steaks." Selia commented."Steaks?" I asked confused.Selia nodded her snake head while Elisia seemed to start drooling. "Because of their fire element there are no parasites in their meat and even after butchering the meat remains at a just cooked temperature despite being raw. It is expensive and popular amongst the rich." she informed us.I nodded then continued to look into the other orbs, at the edge of my vision I could see the fire dryad hadn't left but was instead watching us closely.I found two more blazing bulls, both smaller than the first, probably females, before I found something new, it was a group of five silver chickens, what I found to be the most unusual about them was that there was the fact that their silver feathers would occasionally emit a silver flame. It wasn't often, but I still saw it twice while trying to figure out what they were. No one else in my group seemed to recognize them either."Silverfire Chickens." the fire dryad spoke up. "Like the Blazing Bull they are good as defenders and dinner. They are even more expensive than the Blazing Bull due to their rarity and difficulty in raising and breeding. There should be a rooster in one of the other orbs."I nodded to the fire dryad then found she was correct when we found the rooster in the next orb, it was much larger than the females, and more ferocious looking."What kinds of beasts are these bulls and chickens?" I asked curiously."Magic beasts." Zephirah replied. "However instead of gaining intelligence and the ability to consciously control the mana inside them, their mana has fused into them. So rather than confuse them with intelligent magic beasts like Elisia and Selia, we call them Innate beasts.""I wonder." Selia commented staring at the world tree sprout for a few moments."What?" I asked."A rumor I had heard. I wonder if Seth was going to try it out." she replied."What rumor?" Elisia asked.Selia looked to the fire dryad then back to the world tree sprout. "Each sprout has a great deal of mana inside them, residual from the world tree they fell from. This mana is incredibly pure making them a popular ingredient for medicines and magic formulas. However several beasts have been known to mutate after consuming the sprouts, if they can resist the mana tearing through their bodies. If that mana can be guided by someone, like a dryad the odds of success would be much higher." she explained."I do not know what my previous capture wanted from me, besides a romp in the sheets." the fire dryad spat angrily."Hmm, this could be interesting then." I commented reaching for then next orb. Five of the normal orbs and all we had were farm animals. The next orb had a bird that looked like a crow or raven, I was terrible at telling the difference between them. The biggest oddity was that the bird was the blackest black I had ever seen."Rena!" Selia cheered excitedly. "Seth must be furious!"I looked to the amethyst snake waiting for an explanation."She is a Void Raven and Seth's official fiance. Seth had to pay a lot to her father for her." Selia informed me."Sounds more like a slave." I commented."Just now picked that up?" Selia asked. "Amongst the dungeon lords their children are little more than pawns to build relationships with the other dungeon lords. Elisia and my father's aren't as bad as most, but they would have never handed us over to you if you weren't a promising dungeon lord.""Can't you refuse?" I asked."They can." Vanessa told me placing her hand on my shoulder. "But if they do they will be cut off from the family. Living without the support of their families is possible, but so much harder. There are similar customs in your world, are there not?" she asked.I nodded. Not in my country, but it was there."Seems father left some things out." Selia commented."We will talk." Vanessa reassured Selia.I groaned then looked to Selia, "Is she a danger to me?" I asked. As Seth's fiance she wouldn't be happy that I stripped him of all his possessions."No, she had no love for my brother." Selia replied.I hesitated a moment then released the raven. The black bird appeared beside Selia. She looked around for a few moments then stared from me to Selia, "Seth?" she asked Selia. Her voice while feminine sounded rather dull."Defeated, father had to intervene to save his soul." Selia replied."I see." she said then looked to me. "My price had already been paid, my father will not object if you keep me here." she told me."We can try and send you back." I offered."If given a choice, I would prefer to stay." Rena replied. Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click www.webnovel.com for visiting. "Why?" I asked confused."If I return father will just sell me to another male, and I will not have a say in who he sells me too. Here I already know and get along with Selia." she replied."What about me?" Elisia asked."Have we met?" Rena asked looking down at the wolf."Nope, but we can still be friends." Elisia declared wagging her tail.I stared at the wolf for a moment as I began to wonder if she was an airhead.Three more orbs left, the next revealed another female blazing bull.Grabbing the next I revealed three campfires each with a different colored fire in it. One was a pretty violet, another resembled the silver fire of the Silverfire Chickens, while the last was a pure white fire."Foxfire, Silverflame, and Frostfire." Selia identified the flames."The white one is Heart Fire not Frostfire." The fire dryad corrected. "They look alike, but the beast flames wouldn't be able to burn so close to Frostfire.""Ah, my mistake." Selia agreed.I frowned, I had no idea what Seth had planned to use all this for, but it didn't matter to me, I would make my own plans.Reaching for the last orb I found a bright red tailless fox laying inside the orb. Even though I didn't know a thing about animals I knew that this fox was not in good shape."No!" the fire dryad cried out seeing the fox tears streaming down her face. As I had guessed Seth had leverage over the dryad. Unfortunately it didn't look like he took care of it.Unfortunately the orb the fox was in quickly disappeared ejecting the fox onto the bed in front of us."What did you do!" the fire dryad screamed at me then a moment later the cage I had placed her in activated. It quickly restrained her causing her to fall onto the floor.The fox that appeared in front of us looked really bad. "What happened?" I asked looking around as I summoned my mana and started to draw some healing runes."She should be a Fire Tail Fox. They are rare and valuable beasts that you can harvest a beast flame from. Though this one looks like it was overharvested." Selia commented."Seth?" I asked as my runes activated and sent a soothing mana into the fox to heal her injuries, whatever they were."Maybe, he did always seem to have a lot of coin on hand, and beast flames sell well." Selia admitted."Can you save her?" Vanessa asked.I shrugged then a thought crossed my mind, "Yes, I should be able to, even if my healing runes don't work." I replied."The runes aren't working." Lilian told me. "The damage is too her soul and even as a Mana Lord you don't have the knowledge needed to heal that." she told me."Do you?" I asked Lilian.The fairy shook her head. "No, that is a level far above what I know." she admitted."SAVE HER!" the fire dryad forced the words out of her mouth despite the restrictions the cage had placed on her."Please." Vanessa pleaded too her eyes full of tears as she looked down at the fox.I sighed then nodded. I hoped I didn't regret this.
