Chapter 77: Murderous Murderpillars

S-So... um...

It took me a little while to pull myself out of that one... but Master and I agreed that we’d talk about everything going on between me and him tonight... It looks like there’s finally gonna be some progress...!

Not that... you know... kissing each other wasn’t progress or anything...

Gods, I could drone on and on about how exciting that kiss just was b-but... if I did that I’d be here all day! I have more important things to do. For now, it’s time for my first kill quest in Dewhurst! Or near Dewhurst at least...

Sam and I head to the storage room to suit up. The Princess just has to grab her sword, and I gotta strap on all my armor. Normally that’d take me a while, but Sam promised she’d give a helping hand. Hee hee, I feel like I have my own squire!

Before we even start though, as soon as we enter and are out of the view of the others I reach out and hug Sam as hard as I can.

“GAH?!” She looks at me in surprise.

“Thank you...”

Sam smiles as her cheeks turn a pretty red color a-and she hugs me back. “Thank Zuzu, she suggested it. But yeah I prolly woulda done something. You two are starting to get painful to watch if I’m being honest.”

“P-P-Painful?”

“Well both of us fucked Boss the day we met him so it's kinda just like... rrrgh do it already!!!” She laughs and winks, “You know?”

“Nuh... no...?”

Sam sighs and shakes her head, pulling away from our hug. “Course not. Besides, I didn’t just do it for you and him...” H-Her smile takes on that creepy, predator-like feel to it that it does whenever she teases me...

“Um, w-what do you mean...?”

Sam leans in closer to me a-and I step back.

THUD.

Oh no. M-my back hit the wall... It can’t be... not again, not so SOON-

SLAM.

Sam’s red gloves hit the wood on each side of my neck... she’s... pinned me to the wall...

“The sooner Boss gets you in bed, the sooner I get to play with you, too. Understood?”

I bite my lip and stare into her pretty, sparkling green eyes... it's hard to believe this is the same girl who gets treated like comic relief by Boss and Zutiria... she’s... so strong and... and...

“Meri?”

“Y-Yes, Sam...! Understood!!”

The Princess licks her lips and stares at me with barely restrained lust before backing away and laughing. “Good girl.”

“T-Thank you...”

“Come on, let’s get you all ready for your big day out.” Sam enthusiastically runs towards the chest we keep all my armor in when I’m not using it and smiles as she waits for me.

Um... for some reason this Princess wants my body, but s-still... it really is nice to have friends... I don’t think I’ll get over this warm, fuzzy feeling any time soon. And not having to put on my armor all by myself is like a dream come true! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to doing it on my own...

Ok... just a little bit more... mm... there we go!

I got my armor, my shield, and I got my friend with her big sword and I got my other friend with her magic staff and I got my... um... my Guild Master...?

I’m ready to go on a kill quest! Watch out M-Murderpillars, I’m a brand new Merille Tillot! I’ll be the one murdering y-you!

But first we have to walk through town to get to the south gate... I’m gonna have to admit something here.

Except for training, I haven’t left the Guild a single time since I moved in. I know that sounds bad, b-but... Dewhurst... there’s no mincing words. This place is scary. Like REALLY scary.

When I first arrived I was so terrified I thought I’d never make it through town, let alone to the Adventurer’s Guild, and it’s a wonder I even did without being accosted by c-creepy thugs... Master may look thuggish but... um... it’s not the same kind of thuggish? If that makes sense?

L-Like he just has sharp features, dark glasses and piercing eyes... it’s not like he has the word ‘rape’ tattoed to his forehead comically mispelled or anything over the top like that...

And speaking of shady characters Sam and Zutiria have both referenced a crazy sounding butcher as well... I’m worried just thinking about what other crazy denizens this d-disgusting pit of crime is hiding in its alleys... let alone the shadowy forces watching Master...

Siiigh... I-I may be in a little over my head but when I said I felt welcomed and at home here, I was really only talking about the Guild. N-NOT Dewhurst itself.

I-I can’t believe Sam walks around in town wearing ‘armor’ like that... not only is it impractical b-but... w-well, lets just say I feel a little bit embarrassed that I ever compared Master to the rest of the men in this town.

I’ve seen dogs staring at meat more respectfully than the way they look at her.

Thankfully we’re all packed close together and no one gives us any trouble on our way out of town... just... lots of evil glares. I’d heard that Master was hated in the town b-but I don’t think they’re very happy that more adventurer girls keep showing up by his side by the looks of things.

I almost feel bad about it...

Finally, we all reach the southern gate and head down the path a little ways until we reach a creepy looking forest. It’s dark and although I can’t see the sky above us thanks to all the dense trees, this scary place still runs thick with the dreadful, heavy air of Dewhurst...

It feels like a monster could pop out of the bushes at any second...

“How much longer till we find any, Boss?” Sam asks as she grows impatient.

“Murderpillars should be around this general area actually. Let’s just all walk together till we find some.”

‘And what are the details for this quest, exactly?’

“300G per kill, and you’ll all have to cut off the main horn on their head to send in as proof of elimination. Everyone have their trophy bags?”

“Y-yes!” I reach back and hold up the burlap sack he gave me before we left.

‘Naturally.’ Zutiria is hanging hers off the end of her staff, she tied part of it to the big heart motif up at the top.

“Of course, Boss!” Sam smirks and points to her belt where she’s strapped it on nicely.

He smiles and crosses his arms proudly. “Good. Now we just need to go around searching for just a little while longer and-” He stops and looks to the side towards some bushes that have begun to rustle.

A HUGE caterpillar skulks out of them. Like... bigger than me. It’s pale green, has black bristly looking spikes running down its segmented body. Its big ugly head has a bunch of big impressive looking black-tipped red horns... along with one really, really big one in the middle. I’m guessing t-that’s the one we need to cut off to send into the association?

I-It’s still about twenty feet away so we should have plenty of time to react.

“Well that sure was convenient.” Sam whistles at the sheer size of the thing.

“Please, Sam. We’re in a monster infested forest. It’s a wonder we didn’t run into one sooner. Think you can step up to the plate, Meri?” Master steps over to me and pats me on my big metal shoulder pauldrons and I bite my lip and nod.

“Y-Yes! I can go k-k-kill it... I’m an adventurer. Killing monsters is what I do!” Or it will be when I finally learn to do it right, b-but I keep that part to myself. I want to try and sound confident...

“Good answer.” Master adjusts his glasses and smirks at my response. “Go do it.”

Everyone moves out of the way to give me enough room to walk towards the monster. “So, just to be sure you’re REALLY sure it’s not actually that dangerous...? What about all those horns...?”

“They’re really more like antennae. They look dangerous but they aren’t really horns.”

“C’mon Meri, squash that bug!” Sam cheers. 

She’s right, I need to treat this thing like it’s just some bug! I’m not afraid of bugs! Not even huge people sized ones!! I inch closer bit by bit until it notices me. It doesn’t take long since I’m a big, clunky suit of armor with a huge tower shield. I-It’s kind of hard not to notice me walking towards you, bug or no bug...

Just like Master said, as soon as it lays eyes on me it rears its elongated body back and spews thread toward me. T-This sticky stuff must be what it uses to make its cocoon! And catch prey, I’m assuming. This is no normal caterpillar... it’s a monster one, so it probably eats people if it’s given a chance...

W-Wait just a sec. I’m a people!! It wants me to be its prey!

Well too bad, Mr. Murderpillar. I’m here to stop you from ever eating someone ever again!

I throw up mom’s tower shield in front of my body to block the oncoming thread, but that turns out bad very quickly. Once the big ugly buggo has enough of its stuff on my shield it starts pulling backwards and it almost sends me off balance!

“HWAA!” I spread my legs wide apart and dig my feet into the forest floor beneath me, sinking them in place. I-I can’t let this thing topple me!

“Meri, don’t let it distract you! There’s an easy way out of this!” Master calls out to me with a firm, resolute voice.

Sam and Zutiria also chime in with some advice, too.

‘It’s only as scary as you make it out to be. You can do this.’

“SQUASH. THAT. BUG!”

T-They’re all right! I can’t get overwhelmed here by such a basic attack... think Meri, think and stand firm...!!

AH! I’ve got it!

I concentrate all my physical energy into my power gem and silently ask it to change its form. It responds with a pulsing hum and a small red light shining bright, before the tower shield morphs into a buckler strapped to my gauntlet. As always, a thick and sharp blade comes out from underneath.

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It’s time for my counterattack!

The thread that was clinging to my shield mostly falls off during the transformation and what bit of it was left is easy to cut off with my buckler’s sword. I’m free! For future reference, don’t just stand there while thread gets shot straight at you... t-that was a dumb move on my part but I was nervous.

But I’m not nervous anymore!

I run at the Murderpillar with everything I’ve got, my arm raised to do a downwards slash- but then I see its big horn twitch a-and I get a bad feeling about this! It’s the same kind of feeling I get when Nikita is about to charge at me with no holds barred...! If that’s the case, then I need to...

CLANG!

The Murderpillar leaps into the air and tries to headbutt me but I raise my shield with more than enough time to spare. This is nowhere near as scary as training with Nikita, honestly...! I-I’m hardly scared at all!! Even better, this is my big chance! It won’t be as strong as it is in my tower shield form, but...

“REFLECT!” I shout as loud as I can, pouring my physical energy into the gem and forcing out the bottled up impact of the Murderpillar’s headbutt right back at it. A tiny burst of force shoots out directly onto its face like I just rung a gong straight against its head. Not very damaging, but it’s more than enough to disorient it and give me all the time I need.

“G-GET SQUASHED!!” I wish I could think of something cooler to say as I slash my buckler’s sword horizontally across the icky bug’s face, b-but I’m new at this. All that matters is that I did it!

It screeches and green blood gushes out, coating my sword as the twitchy, writhing corpse of the Murderpillar flops onto the forest floor, taking a few seconds to still completely... I’m a little out of breath, but... for the most part I’m ok. I thought I would be so scared, yet... I wasn’t... Not at all! M-mostly.

I really need to thank Nikita the next time she visits the Guild... I see what all that training was for now. Nothing’s as scary as a Grekkan mercenary attacking you from everywhere at once for hours on end... any fear I felt in comparison to Nikita just... feels rather tame in comparison...

“GOOD SHIT, MERI! GOOD SHIT!” Sam suddenly jumps me from behind while I was still mentally celebrating my victory. The huge great blade on her back causes her to almost unintentionally topple me with her weight b-but I’m able to stand firm.

“HYAA! I-I almost forgot you guys were here... I was so focused...!”

“That’s good, but you need to still keep up awareness of your surroundings. Trancing into a battle state can be a double edged sword if you focus only on what’s in front of you. Sneak attacks become all the more deadly if you’re suffering from tunnel vision.” Master approaches as well and even though his words are stern he’s very happy looking... did I... make him proud? I blush at the thought and nod my head meekly at his advice.

“U-understood, thank you.”

‘Let her have this one, Sir. She’s earned it.’ Zutiria looks coldly towards him and teasingly pokes him with the tip of her staff.

“Of course I’m proud of you, Meri. But as far as I’m concerned my job is to nurture and grow you into a proper adventurer so I’ll do my best to give feedback and make sure you keep learning as best as I can.” He smiles really wide a-and blushes a bit.

I get the feeling he wants to get closer to me but is holding himself back... I think I understand why. If I got any closer I don’t think I’d be able to hold myself back from k-kissing him again...

“Of course! Don’t ever hold back, p-please. I want to keep improving from here on out!” I slightly bow out of respect and partly so that I have a polite excuse to look away before my heart gives out from beating too fast whenever I look at him...

‘Plenty more work to be done, Meri. Don’t forget to collect your trophy.’ 

“O-Oh! Right, I almost forgot!” I lean over the fallen insect and using my buckler sword I neatly slice off the biggest one of its horns, the one in the center of its forehead. It wasn’t in the angle of my slash so it’s still perfectly preserved.

“Are you gonna stick around, Boss? It’s been a while since you’ve come with us on any quests. You got three chicks who can protect you now so a light day out in the creepy crawly infested woods would do you some good I think!” Sam smiles and moves over to Master, looking at him pleadingly but not too desperately.

“Yeah, I have a Returner on hand if I need to bail out in a hurry but I was planning on staying this time. I can carry some trophy bags if need be, and while Meri pulled off her first battle with aplomb I still want to be here to see how she holds up throughout the day.”

‘I’m glad to hear that. I’ve honestly missed having you around when we’re out and about...’ Zutiria frowns. I’m just really surprised... he seems kinda... um.

Well I knew he went on quests with them before but I can’t believe how much they both rely on him. Sam and Zutiria are both really strong in their own way, e-even if they have some quirks that hold them back a little... so I thought they were mostly self reliant.

Master sighs and takes out a small flask from within his blue-black vest. At first the Mage gives him a skeptical look, but he offers it to her and she confirms its water. Hehe. He takes a small sip and shakes his head. “It’s not like I don’t want to be guiding you all on the front lines. It’s just... not possible. Or...”

“Or?” I ask with interest.

“Maybe I should say it’d be too expensive. And even then I’m not sure if my idea is realistic or not as I only have a layman’s understanding of arcane tech. I’ve thought about this conundrum for weeks now, especially after a certain quest the three of us shared.”

Sam looks down at her feet as he says this, and Zutiria looks away. I-I’m guessing this topic is a bit of a sour spot for them...

‘We can talk about it later, Sir. I’m by no means an expert in the subject of arcane tech but perhaps I can look into creating a magical alternative to whatever you have in mind. I’m not just your adventurer, I’m your woman. I will do anything in my power to bend the rules of magic itself if it should please my man.’

...

I blush really hard. So does Sam, and so does Master...

...

Sam awkwardly coughs. “Yeah because that’s totally fair competition to the rest of us.”

Everyone snaps out of the tense, romantic atmosphere Zutiria just sucked us all into and laughs. “Y-you’re not much better, Sam! If he married you he’d become royalty!” I blurt out.

“S-SHUT UP! I CHANGED MY MIND, I’M NOT WAITING FOR BOSS TO MAKE THE FIRST MOVE ON YOU! C’MERE YOU SQUISHY SLUT!” Sam starts running after me with a fierce, angry blush on her face.
“KYAAA!?”

After I narrowly manage to escape the gropey Princess, we all come together and start on the quest properly. Sticking to the shallower outskirts of the forest, the three of us adventurers start working together to slay any Murderpillars we come across.

Fighting as a group is exhilarating! Sam seems just a tiny bit more relaxed than when she was attacking me as part of my training, and she elegantly dodges and attacks the bugs with her massive sword.

Zutiria switches back and forth between a couple of different spells, mostly shooting small orbs of scary looking darkness at the caterpillars that suck the color out of them and... o-ok, Dark magic is really creepy... I’m really glad she’s on my side. She doesn’t just stick to that type of magic either, Zutiria uses some wind here and there to blow away oncoming thread and a few times she’s used ice to open up new attacks for me and Sam.

As for me, I just keep doing what I’m doing. I don’t have many combat options when my Shield forms are so limited... But I’m mostly sticking close to Zutiria. Her condition as I’ve been told limits her magic severely, so if she doesn’t pace herself she’ll be useless. It’s my job to protect my teammates and Sam doesn’t need the protection as much as Zutiria does. I tank a couple blows here and there that were aimed at the Mage, and I am swift to return a quick Reflect!

Every now and then Master will bark out advice, or a command for us to follow and his insight is perfect pretty much every time. I can definitely see why they both would want him around on each and every quest if that was an option! Even though we’d be fine without him, I think, his presence makes things go that much more smoothly...

With him at our side we fight... and we fight... and we fight some more!

Whew... We’ve been at it for hours now... 

Everyone’s starting to get tired, even Master who hasn’t really done much physical activity besides following along and keeping out of the way. We count up all the trophies we’ve collected and it totals up to a whopping 42. Wow! The three of us just made 12,600G in a couple of hours!! That’s... more gold than I’ve ever seen in a whole month of doing fetch quests...

Just as we’re about to celebrate our good haul, something goes wrong. Master notices it first. No surprise there. He picks up on some rustling in the trees overhead and reflexively changes his position to run if something goes wrong.

Then, something amazing flies out of the trees in the distance.

It’s... a huge moth. About twice as big as the Murderpillars and with an impressive wingspan to boot. What strikes me most is the amazing coloring it has! It... It’s PINK! Whaaat? That’s so weird! It has a little bit of green mixed in here and there but there’s no denying this thing is primarily pink.

It’s also kinda cute if I’m being honest- it’s really fluffy and peaceful looking, like the guardian of a tranquil magical forest or something.

“Wow! Master, what’s that thing?!” I smile and ask him without looking away.

“T-That’s... shit... a Greater Murdermoth...!!” His voice shakes just a tiny bit... but it’s more than enough to freak me the heck out. “It’s the final form... no, it’s more like the FINAL final form of a Murderpillar. Something not even one in ten thousand Murderpillars will have the chance to grow into!”

“Huh. Those ugly fuckers grow up pretty cute, huh?” Sam tilts her head as she studies it.

‘You were a very rough child yourself and you managed to pull it around, Sammy.’

“HEY!”

“Oh!” I let out a sigh of relief. “So it’s just like the Murderpillars then right? The name is just a joke and it’s actually no big deal!”

“No, it’s named Murdermoth because it will fucking kill you if given the slightest opportunity.” Master takes a step back behind the three of us.

“Ah.” I say.

‘Ah.’ Zutiria says.

“Ah!” Sam says.

...

“W-W-W-WHAT DO WE DO?!” I instantly turn to face Master with panicked tears in my eyes. Cute or not cute, this thing is just as scary as Nikita now that he said that!!

Then, something happens.

The huge, beautiful pink moth looks directly at us and its long antennae perk right up. T-Then it somehow changes color, patterns and wing shape... oh... oh no. Now it’s red, black and white, and it looks aggressive... a-and scariest of all is that its tail-end thingy now splits apart and reveals four black, hairy t-t-t-tentacles like in some of those f-fallen adventurer books I found in Master’s closet.

He doesn’t have many of those, I... I think it hits too close to home, but maybe they were out of books he was interested in... or he just reads them en masse whether he likes the topic or not...

“It’s noticed the three of you...” He spits out with great worry.

“Hey Boss, can’t help but notice ya kinda left yourself out of that equation there.”

Master coughs awkwardly and looks away. “It’s... a male.”

‘Figures.’ Zutiria sighs and shakes her head. ‘You boys and your floppy, wiggling tendrils.’

“Can we take it?!” Sam draws her great blade still coated with the blood of many a Murderpillar- I sure hope that this thing w-wasn’t their parent or something...

‘Best not to test it. I’m not into the implications here at ALL. Everyone, use your Returners in 10 second intervals. Sir, you go first.’

“No. You can take it.”

Everyone looks at Master briefly, before making a conflicted expression.

“W-W-WHAT?!” I shout. This was supposed to be my first successful kill quest! It wasn’t supposed to go like this!! S-STAND FIRM... STAND FIRM...!!

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