258 (II)

Extraction [V]

She chuckled to herself and made her way to the bar. Unlike the Dragon’s Biscuit, which had a countertop built as a circle at the corner of the room, the bar here was fixed into the wall to their left, sticking out from jagged crags. It was also made from adamantine and had over two dozen Pathbearers working to slake the thirst of High-Tier clientele.

To Shiv’s surprise, he saw what looked to be a hydra working behind the counter as well. It spewed venom into various glasses, spraying caustic fluid all over the cups. It was at that moment Shiv realized the mugs were also made from adamantine.

“I suspect the only breakable things here are the people,” Adam commented dryly.

As Shiv took in the sight of the hydra, he grunted as he realized it’d been a little while since he’d seen Solzimort. According to Adam, the Legendary hydra was running an errand for the orcs. Shiv really didn’t like the sound of that, but he also didn’t have the time to stop whatever scheme they were concocting in its tracks.

Got other bullshit I need to worry about first.

The Deathless crept along the ground, his moving patch of shadow going unnoticed, gliding closer to Jessica. She took a seat in front of the bar and held up a single finger. The tenders here nodded at her, not even bothering to ask what she wanted.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Shiv could barely hear the gruff voice yelling at Jessica from behind. To Shiv’s surprise, the muscular elf he’d used to aid in his stealth was staggering up to the Legend. “That’s my seat. You’re sitting in my fucking seat, bitch.”

Jessica placed both hands under her chin and kicked both legs out girlishly. She wasn’t even tall enough for her feet to reach all the way down to the ground, and she watched as the tenders made her beverage with gleeful delight, either not having heard the elf or, more likely, not caring.

The muscular elf, ignorant of who she was or just too drunk to care, reached out for her. An automaton on the seat next to Jessica tried holding him back, but he shoved the interloper aside. Before he could ever touch Jessica, her drink was made. She picked it up, took a sip, and let out a loud sigh of relief along with a puff of steam. “Love it. Love. It. Love that beautiful, beautiful Hydra Bomb.”

And suddenly she spun in her chair. In her hand was a mug the size of her head, molded from adamantine and overflowing with what Shiv would describe as caustic sludge, sludge that had slightly eroded the edges of said adamantine mug.

“I love the taste of this,” she said, pointing at it with her eyes wide. “It’s got a pretty wild kick. Oh, I took your chair, huh? Sorry about that. Here, have a sip. It’s on me.”

Rather than offering the mug over to him, she poured a glass’s worth in her mouth—and spat it all over his chest. The elf screamed; he staggered backward, and where his flesh had remained unharmed by the river of lava, it was melted all the way through to the ribcage by whatever the hell Jessica was drinking.

He stumbled backward, clawing at his chest as he toppled over a nearby table. The patrons there let out groans and curses. They dumped their drinks on him too, adding their liquor to his open wound.

His howls of misery reached new heights, but were still mostly drowned out by the music and goblin screams.

Jessica rolled her eyes and simply snorted. She went back to nursing herself on her beverage, as if she didn’t just melt a hole into a Master-Tier Pathbearer.

“This place is felling awesome,” Shiv said with genuine wonder in his voice.

“I think I’m in one of the System’s many hells,” Adam disagreed.

They kept an eye on Jessica for a while, and she managed to finish the entire mug in a scant period of time. To Shiv’s surprise, she asked for another, and another after that, and another after that. It got to the point where the hydra needed to switch heads, offering double the dose of venom for her already exaggerated tub of absinthe and System-knew what else.

“No wonder that melted through the poor bastard,” Helix said. “What she’s drinking is the equivalent of industrial waste mixed in with hydra-acid.”

“She doesn’t even seem drunk at all,” Shiv noted. And he was starting to worry that he would run out of his shadow state before she got done doing whatever she was doing in the bar. But after her seventh drink, she suddenly looked up and let out a sigh. She swept the room, and he read something on her face. Regret? No, it wasn’t truly regret. It was more like indifference mixed with sorrow. She didn’t really want to be here. She wanted stimulus. She wanted something to distract her…

Sage of the Enkindled Heart: The drug is not enough for her. All those drinks, and it is not enough. The violence was a passing amusement, but it wasn’t enough. The people in this room, most of them know who she is. Most of them are wise enough to fear her. She cannot get her due stimulus from them either. She cannot find what she’s looking for. She came here to hide in the noise, to use the chaos to drown herself, but she’s too powerful for that. She will not drown; she cannot hide from whatever she is seeking to avoid.

And in that moment, Jessica’s body vibrated. It vibrated so hard that Shiv could feel the doubt echoing from her very soul. Her jaw moved, but she said nothing.

Gardener of Doubt: There is nothing she can do to be who she wants to be again. Nothing. Never.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Without any fuss at all, Jessica hopped off the barstool and strode across the room. As she did, she walked past the earlier two, still-brawling Pathbearers, who suddenly froze and halted mid-fight as they noticed her.

The automaton and the woman didn’t have any issues unleashing shockwaves that swept tables clean of dishes or slamming each other into other Pathbearers or against the walls, but they were deathly afraid of Jessica Hawgrave, and Shiv could see Fear Chains flowing into her, chains that were denser than the adamantine composing most of this place.

Wherever she went, more scenes of submission played out. Eyes were averted. Heads were lowered. People got out of her way. And that seemed to bug Hawgrave. Shiv almost felt bad for her, but then the memory of her cutting her way up his ass returned, and he was back to the “fuck Jessica Hawgrave” school of thought.

She returned to that tunnel she’d come through. Shiv followed. He melted into her shadow and squeezed down the cramped path with her. This place truly was a dungeon. The path was too tight, too small even for her. Hawgrave didn’t bother using her size-shifting skill to accommodate.

Seemed like she didn’t care at all. After a bit of twitching and shaking, she managed to push herself out through the other side, and suddenly, the hall swelled wide again. After passing a cross section of wider hallways, there were several dozen doors looming to her left and right. They were bolted roughly into the stone walls, framed so grotesquely that it offended even those lacking a sense for aesthetics.

And the theme of naked debauchery and Master-Tier indifference played on in this place as well. A goblin woman and two human men were… getting to know each other right outside an open door. They barely reacted as Jessica walked right by them. The intensity of the three-way coupling left dents in the alloyed walls as well. Not even adamantine could withstand their passion.

“Well, I see another reason why you would like this place,” Adam said. “No one cares about any decency. Like you.” The Gate Lord coughed awkwardly. “They’re all just rutting like animals in the open.”

Shiv eyed the mating trio and moved on. “I mean, technically, they’re like halfway in their room, and Jessica doesn’t seem to care.”

A loud, derisive snort came from Kura. “This is nothing. Where I come from, on the night of the Grand Harvest, a grand orgy is announced, and the entire city is made to participate.”

“Made to?” Adam whispered.

“There is no choice in the orgy,” Kura said, her voice deathly serious. “All will participate, and the firstborn resulting from the great mingling will all be offered to the Scar-Tongued Ones as thanks for the bounty they provide us.”

Suddenly, the Republic really didn’t seem like that much of a messed-up place anymore.

As Jessica got to the end of the hallway, she turned left and went down a set of winding stairs that led a good further thirty stories downward. She kept going down until she was at the very bottom. Upon reaching the nadir of the Lusty Eunuch, she found herself fumbling through her vest pockets, looking for a set of keys to open the grand adamantine gateway blocking her way. Shiv could only assume this to be her in-house residence.

Biggest den for the shortest girl…

“Can’t remember where I fucking put it…” Jessica grumbled aloud. “Godsdamn no-good memory-skill-having, near-goblin-sized bitch…”

Jessica cursed herself, and with a sigh, she smacked her right ear. Suddenly, Rusty appeared. The blade flew out from her left ear and tumbled through the air as it expanded in size. Instead of using it to cut down the door, she sliced open a rift in space and simply stepped through. Shiv, however, took advantage of the moment and cast himself across as well.

They arrived in her room, and Shiv saw a colossal—well, it was far larger than even a queen-size bed—10 full meters of bed with a frame made out of Orichalcum. Across from the bed was a pillory, along with several other stations that carried various tools presumably intended for bondage and actual torture.

“What in the hells?” Adam breathed.

In the left-most corner of the room, a transparent curtain swayed before a shower. And that was where Jessica was heading. She began fumbling with the zipper on her half-open vest, and Shiv grunted uncomfortably. “Alright, time for me to say hi.”

“I recommend that you wait until she’s fully nude,” Whisper suggested casually. “Humans are often awkward about these things; their social norms get in the way.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to work with her. Also, I’m not a godsdamn pervert. Adam, be ready to execute plans B-F if everything goes to shit.”

“Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?” the Gate Lord asked. “We could still contact Veronica. We can try striking a bargain with her to find out where one of these gates is.”

“Yeah, I’d rather open my throat than rely on her too much. She’ll be squeezing us too. And frankly, I’d rather deal with the Brokers than I’d ever want to let her hold my leash. She’s a last resort. She will always be a last resort. Alright, I’m surfacing. Get ready.”

Shiv rose out from the shadows without saying a word. Jessica froze mid-step. Rusty scythed through the air, coming to a stop a hair’s breadth away from Shiv’s throat. The Deathless didn’t react. He held his hands out by his sides and projected an aura of diplomacy.

He gave her a nod. “Giantsbane. We got some unfinished business. There’s some stuff we got to talk about, some stuff you should know, some stuff I want to know.”

“Seriously?” Hawgrave said, looking over her shoulder. She seemed exasperated more than anything. “For real? You’re going to jump me here? What, were you waiting for me to strip before you hopped out?”

“Pretty much the opposite,” Shiv said honestly. “I hopped out so you wouldn’t fully strip. Makes things less awkward for the both of us.”

She looked him up and down and pulled her zipper all the way back up. “You weren’t planning on leering at me at all?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“…Yeah?”

“Really? Not even a little?” She sounded almost hurt.

“The fuck do you want me to say, lady? No, I didn’t want to sneak a peek. I just want to talk.” Shiv paused. “Alright, maybe I want to jam something up your ass and rip you in half afterward too. But mainly to talk. The revenge ass-ripping can happen if or when the talking breaks down.”

Jessica regarded him for a moment and then let out a short laugh. She gestured for Rusty to move away, and the blade slowly floated aside. “I am watching you, Deathless.”

“Yeah, feeling’s mutual, sword,” Shiv sneered.

“Alright, so, start flapping those lips of yours. Let’s hear it. What do you want to say?” Jessica rubbed her nose and took a seat on her bed. She grew a little bit larger, just enough for her feet to touch the ground this time.

“I think I want to start with Heather,” Shiv said. “I think I want to start by asking why you’re playing on the same side as the people who tortured one of your relatives to the brink of death…”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep