"Rember Anput, you're looking at both Draka and Leone, alright? Keep your eyes on them, and only look away if you think the rope's gone slack. We don't want to just suddenly lose ourselves in this city, not without knowing how large it is just yet."
She nodded, though the slightly annoyed expression she wore as she wrapped the rope around her wrist made click my tongue as I stared at her, waiting for her to verbally give an affirmation; I knew it wasn't the most interesting and engaging thing to do, but it was a needed task, and one that we had all voted and agreed on.
"Yes, I know, I can keep track of you two and of those two as well. Let's just get this done quickly, alright? Standing around doing nothing is just..."
Anput left it at that, and I nodded and said "I know, just be patient though. We'll be getting our fair share of action soon enough when we find the trials we want to tackle, alright?", earning another nod from her as she planted her feet and turned towards the other two 'watchers'.
Leone was already a bit of a ways away, as was Draka, so my worries weren't unfounded either since this city was clearly utterly gigantic in ways that we hadn't really comprehended just yet, and Anput knew that and understood the importance of what she was doing, but for an action oriented fighter like herself this really was quite the boring task.
However, we had agreed that she would keep watch while Mom and I explored the streets, mainly because the Demoness demanded that she be one of the two walking around the unknown area while also making it clear she had sothing she wanted to discuss with . Making sure that the ropes were secured and that we were prepared, Mom and I shared a look before glancing at Anput, who gave us a nod and watched as we dropped down onto the street below, entering the city once more and beginning our hunt for a door.
The first thing that we both noticed was that there were not trials attached to every single door, and instead it seed like a roughly one in four or five chance that there would be a trial on one of these doors.
That made question whether the trials were physically tied to these doors permanently or if they were capable of moving around whenever and however they pleased; that was sothing we would need to figure out soon since it could change everything about how we operated inside of this city.
The mont we hit the brick street both of us noticed that there were a few trials around us, and so of them were just... technically impossible, at least with how they sounded; one such trial asked for five pure blooded, Lightning Mana attuned Dragonkin to even begin the trial, and the reward was... well, it matched the impossibility, at least if I understood it properly.
"Combining all of the bloodlines and enhancing it many tis over, AND granting them access to tal Magic as well... alongside empowering their existing Core by many tis... holy hells that's an insane reward, but..."
"Quite the requirents, yes... or this one that needs one of each combined magic in order to be accessed that then allows those four to share their mana freely... quite interesting. These trials might just be well worth it."
I chuckled at that and nodded as I pointed at another door that was just a bit further down the street, the door inscribed with just a few runes that read 'Two gales fuel the flas to burn their oppressors' making us both raise a brow at how it was completely secretive about any sort of reward, but very clear about its requirents.
"They all follow a very set pattern of announcing the requirents for the trial, that's for sure. The number and then the other necessities leading into what is going to need to be done. Sotis there is a reward listed, sotis not... interesting."
We began to walk slowly down the street, taking in each door and noting down any that seed sowhat interesting or sowhat viable for our group; we were looking for ones that were at least requiring three people and nothing else on top of that, or for the four people that needed a variety of things like certain magics or blood.
Those seed to be quite focused and had rewards tied to the things that were required, which would definitely snowball our power if we kept finding and completing those trials one after another, to the point that I was actually quite curious to see just how we would compare to how strong we were right now.
How much stronger would people like Lady Fenyras and Mom get after a few of the trials were completed?
"All of this seems interesting. Really though, I was just... thinking. Kat... are you really fine with everything?"
Mom's question caught a little off guard, and the older Demoness didn't look at as she added "Back then it was done via necessity and because the headache of politics demanded this sort of thod... you being Soul Bound to Jahi to give Julie a reasonable out of what was happening to her."
"I-"
"There's no reason for it to still be that way. If you wanted your... if you wanted to be completely, truly free, you just need to ask."
Again, she barely gave ti to respond or comprehend as she instead just kept going, but instead I cut her off this ti as I said "If I really wanted to be 'free' of this, I would have asked. Back when I unlocked my Core everyone muttered the sa things; when we were at the Academy for those three months or whatever everyone said the sa things. Cali asked that, Mother asked, you and Mother Ria have now asked... the answer is the sa each ti."
Looking straight at her, I t those flawless rubies head on and grabbed her hand as I said "I am and always will be Jahi's, no matter what there is to tie us together. If she owns like she does now, or if I was 'free', there would be no difference. I belong to her, all of . So stop worrying yourself over nothing, please."
Mom stared back at for a few seconds before letting out a soft sigh as she nodded, and we left it at that as we continued to walk around, looking at the doors and leaving that mont as its own thing that didn't need any more discussion or acknowledgent.
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