Chapter 91: Give the devil a finger.

Chapter 91 - Give the devil a finger."Do you think the earth spark is the most appropriate for her?" Lee attempted to start a discussion.

"Why not? It's the easiest to absorb. Thorax has one." Arax said, and his brother agreed with a loud mhm.

"No, I mean, is it the best for her?" Lee said, "Thorax can utilize it to make him more ... ehmm ... bulky, but with how slim Jiraxa is, shouldn't it be more effective for her to get a wind spark to make her more nimble, or a fire spark to make her attacks more effective?"

"Maybe, but it's not that easy to get a good fire spark." Arax said, "She could use one of those we have in the chest, but ... well, I don't think she should. And the wind sparks are hard to get."

"But you both of you have green ones, right?" Lee asked, but unfortunately the discussion abruptly ended. Apparently, for some reason the subject was sensitive, and the two devils continued to carry the tortoise shell in silence.

Lee looked helplessly at the two, but then decided to make another attempt. He asked, "Jiraxa, what do you think? What spark would you want?"

But her answer was disappointing, "I'll do what the guys say."

'Thank god, Lunax has sterilized all of you!' A thought of the two devils and the bright-scale chick starting a love triangle was scary, 'Hopefully you won't eat some plant in one of these conquests that'll reignite your ... urges!'

In order to avoid unnecessary fighting, they looped the spot where they killed lizards and the tortoise yesterday, and when the sun set, the group was at most two miles from the rift. There were more treasure hunters in the vicinity, apparently also returning, and the place felt much safer compared to the creepy forest where they slept last night.



The guy they saved, the escapee, got braver and settled around ten yards away, but since he didn't attempt to introduce himself, the group ignored him. He was a weird one, though – tall and thin, and his legs were unnaturally long. Unnaturally for a human, of course. The guy was from a race Lee had rarely seen in Ashland, in fact, he was pretty certain there were none like him in the fortress or vanguard.

***

This was the best meditation session Lee had in months. While the air was much warmer compared to Ashland, after the sun set, the cool breeze felt refreshing and calming at the same time. And the air was rich and clean, but that was also probably only an illusion comparing it to Ashland's.

The filth in Lee's body degraded at a visible rate. He continued to revolve the blue mist within and through his consciousness, at least how he understood it, and when the sun rose, he was rested and full of energy.

His companions also slept well, but Thorax's shout of excitement woke up the other treasure hunters who were not thrilled by the disturbance. He ignored their curses – the leg that yesterday hurt and looked infected, was almost fine. It took quite a bit of self control for Lee to not loose his cool, but he managed to calmly nod and remind Thorax to not do stupid shit ever again.

From the looks of it, no one spent the last morning hunting, and the squads one after another gathered around the caretaker. The guy in the purple cloak sat under the shadow of a larger rock and expressionlessly observed the crowd while waiting for the rift like the rest.

It was obvious that at most half of the people didn't return, but Lee guessed that every gathering conquest couldn't be this bad. Otherwise Lunax would loose all his devotees in a couple of years, leaving over only the slaves in the mines.

"Arax! Poor guy! Didn't you hear? You needed to gather beast sparks, not pelts and carcasses!" Lee recognized the voice taunting his companion.

His words were on the dot, though, and not only Slivax's squad, now less than twenty members, the rest of the crowd also heartily laughed at the joke. The two devils with their tortoise shell full of spiked pelts were completely out of place where the people only had their weapons on them, with some carrying the wooden boxes.

"We have to make sure our Lord gets all the possible resources." While Arax was looking for the proper comeback, Lee wasn't as slow, "We had to kill the damn tortoise just so we could carry things more conveniently. Surprisingly it also had a spark, although only a yellow one. This time there were so many of those we had to pick which to take and which to leave behind."

It was obvious nonsense and everyone knew it, but it was funny nevertheless. No one was really offended by the banter – contrary to the fortress where kids could settle their disputes by sparring, regular treasure hunters didn't have such luxury.

In addition, there was a caretaker present and no matter how amused he was now, if a brawl broke out, he would be the only one left standing.

By overhearing whispers here and there Lee had learned that the guys in purple cloaks were terrifying. Some people said they wielded the power of three elements, but it seemed ridiculous.

***

As always, upon returning from a conquest the interesting part was to see how a rift appeared without the rift gate that was on the other side. The caretaker was the first to notice, but afterwards the rest of the crowd saw the strange ripples in the air, and cheered. Their lord had not forgotten about them.

No matter how excited everyone was, they flooded back in the rift quickly and orderly. To make sure nothing happened to her, the devil brothers put Jiraxa in the tortoise shell, ignoring her protests about the quills hurting her bottom. They had a strange manner of showing their care, but in the end she gave in.

On the other side the crowd split in two – the largest part directly went towards the city, but the rest, the guys holding the wooden boxes, went to turn in the sparks to tired and overworked clerks. The process was somewhat similar to what Lee experienced when the child slaves were distributed, except the official wrote down names, amount and quality of the sparks.

It was the second time seeing someone writing in this world, and only now Lee realized he had no clue how to read or write in the local language. But since it was a random minor tongue, he didn't dwell on it.

"Thirty!" Arax proudly said, and passed over the box, "Well one is not good, so ... twenty nine and a half!"

"Humph! Half ... what a joke!" Lee heard Slivax's voice behind, but no one laughed.

Even the guy himself knew Arax's score was impressive. With his own squad of over twenty people he barely got the double amount while loosing several members in the process.

"Few are not so good." The clerk ruffled the sparks in the box, quickly inspecting them, "But you did well. You can check your total contribution few days later in the office. To which squad I should register these?"



The question was followed by an awkward moment of silence. The two brothers looked at each other, then at Lee, and then at each other again. Technically they killed every beast, but without Lee it wouldn't have been possible. Maybe they even wouldn't have returned, to not speak of handing in sparks.

Lee guessed their issue, but didn't care. He was set on getting away from these two and never play a healer again. He said, "Don't you know the name of our squad?"

"You ... you trust us?" Thorax was embarrassed and surprised at the same time.

"Sure! Why not? Aren't we a team?" Obviously Lee didn't give a fuck the squad nor the reward.

He had no use for a divine weapon like Arax's sword or any kind of special armor. All he wanted was to change his appearance to the original as soon as possible.

"Uhmm ... alright then ..." Arax said, "Good Brothers. Write it to the Good Brothers."

"Alright, Good Brothers it is." The tired clerk said, but before shooing them away, added, "You'll find out it in the office, but I can already say you that in half a month there will be a special mission. Only the best squads will be allowed to take part. You probably qualify, so ... good luck! I hope you and your members will be ready!"

Both devils almost danced away in joy, while their rival who was still in the line, barely held himself together. These were huge news, and Slivax was certain his group was also to be selected.

Lee, on the other hand, was excited for a different reason. Even though he disliked Ashland with passion, he finally could look for an opportunity to get away from the squad he landed in. Unfortunately, no matter how he tried to either speed up or fall behind, it was immediately noticed.

The expression of giving the devil a finger in Lee's eyes acquired a completely new meaning.