Chapter 23: 23: Roast Chicken

“Ariadne, heal your wounds first, then Alpha,” you say to your sister after the fight is over.

The minotaur girl doesn’t respond at first. She glances at you with blood-red eyes and continues scanning the cave with her eyes, like a predator searching for prey. Then she notices one of the birds, still writhing on the ground, and walks toward it, dragging her greataxe behind her. She stops three steps from the wounded animal, raises her weapon over her head and, without hesitation, destroys the small creature with great prejudice.

“Ah, I’m sorry, did you say something, My Lord?” your sister asks and turns her head toward you when no more enemies are showing signs of life.

“Yes, I did. Heal your wounds. Then heal Alpha before she collapses from blood loss,” you say and point to the petite bunny girl. After wiping the blood off of her rapier she just stares off into the distance as if nothing is wrong, standing in a puddle of red that slowly keeps growing.

“No hurry,” Gamma giggles as she follows each blood drop with her eyes.

“Ah… Yes, of course!” Ariadne blinks a couple of times. Her expression is changed completely and she’s back to her usual self. “I’m sorry, I must have—”

The minotaur girl places her left hand on her wounded arm and whispers the healing enchantment. Then she rushes to Alpha, who’s eyes are even more lifeless than usual by now.

While Ariadne takes care of the automaton-like battle bunny you consider what to put your free Spell Point into. There are a lot of enticing options. From crowd control spells to defensive spells and summons, to general increase in both of your offensive and defensive capabilities. [Loss of Libido] might come in handy for… various reasons. You wonder, how much would a young princess that was forced into marriage pay to not have to fuck her smelly old husband anymore?

For now though, you decide that summon duration is the most useful, so you put your Spell Point into that, increasing the Summon duration by ten minutes. If Gamma is to be believed there are hundreds of enemies on the other side of these tunnels! Your loli imps, surprisingly, continue to impress. So, it would be useful if you didn’t have to keep summoning them over and over again and know that they will not disappear in the middle of a fight.

Eventually—you think—the time will come to take the surrounding lands. By force, if need be. I will need armies. And even if I manage to have an entire kingdom surrender to me without a fight, I will still need guards and soldiers to maintain my rule. It would be very useful if my summons would last for days, months even, without me having to be there for re-summons.

What would be the maximum duration? You wonder and open your character’s menu to search for the new trait you just acquired. In the menu, you notice a new icon appear called [Traits]. You press on it and see the highlighted small square icon of the trait you chose just before.

[Summon Duration Trait – lvl 1

Increases the time duration of your summons by 10 minutes.]

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There is a “[+]” icon next to the trait icon, grayed out, in the same way as the other two traits in this tab —[Offensive Trait] and [Defensive Trait]. No additional description. No information about how many levels there can be or what is the cap, if there is one. Not a very intuitive system, you think and frown.

There are only two other things you are able to conclude with any degree of certainty. One is that this trait, like the other two, is passive. And it doesn’t appear that it continuously consumes your energy. Or at the very least, if it does then at this level it is so minuscule that you regain it just as fast. And the other thing is that these traits apparently can only be leveled with Spell Points.

By how many minutes will the increase be at the next level? Completely linear—ten minutes each time? In that case, the usefulness of leveling such a trait would rapidly decline with each level, unless I find a way to gain hundreds of Spell Points.

Your stomach’s growl interrupts your analysis. You haven’t eaten for at least twenty-four hours. The freshly roasted birdies look more appetizing by the minute. Ask Ariadne if they’re edible? You have a feeling that the two of you don’t share the same diet. Might as well try.

“Ariadne, just in case, do you know if humans can eat these little monsters?” You ask your sister who is already finished with the healing. “Like are they poisoned or something?”

“I wouldn’t know,” she answers. “At the very least I have never seen troglodytes served as food. But they are quite rare, I’ve only heard of them before. Usually, those who encounter a flock, don’t live to tell the tale.”

That doesn’t mean “no”, you think, salivating at the thought that they might taste like roast chicken. When was the last time you haven’t eaten for so long?

"Gamma, have you eaten anything like this before?" you ask.

"Ew! No! I'm a herbivore!" the bunny girl grimaces in disgust at the very thought.

Of course! You agree that the answer should have been obvious, but who's to blame you for making sure? You don't bother insulting your sister with the same question when the answer was obvious even before.

“We should go,” Ariadne says. “Who knows how long we’ll be in these tunnels?”

How long indeed… The bandits will probably have a lot of food you could steal, when you reach them. But when? An hour? Two hours? Your stomach presses against itself, demanding food.

A few of the troglodytes look like a piece of charcoal. But that might just be the very outer layer and they are more than likely raw on the inside. You do have a source of fire...

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