After a while of waiting, the appraiser walks in on me petting Kiki’s head. She freezes and watches us as Kiki purrs loudly. I don’t react and motion for her to take a seat across from us. She looks to me and blinks for a few seconds before clearing her throat and going into business mode,
“Ahem… Apologies. So, I’ve been informed that the two of you have some magic crystals you wish to sell to us?”
She sits down at the desk in front of us and leans on it slightly. I nod my head and use gravity magic to pull out all of the crystals and set them on the desk. Counting quickly, I see 74 red, 28 orange, 6 green, and 1 purple.
The appraiser’s eyes go wide behind her glasses as she sees the massive amount of crystals piled onto the table in front of her.
In particular, the purple crystal catches her eyes the most. She reaches forwards and slowly lifts the crystal up to her face, looking into it. She holds it up to the light, seeing it shining through slightly, as the crystal is nearly completely clear. Her breath trembles as she asks me,
“A-are you the one that hunted this?”
I look at her. Honestly, I find no merit in hiding it. Sure, people will know my strength, but why would I care? If anything, it’ll make it easier to get money quickly.
“Yes, I did. I found it in a dungeon to the south west of the city.”
She furrows her brows and thinks out loud,
“Southwest… That’s where the Great Forest Orakus is… Wait. You don’t mean the Cursed Labyrinth do you?!”
I smile and nod to her,
“That’s the one. A bunch of undead deeper in? I cleared it. The boss dropped that.”
She stares down at the crystal and gulps before slowly putting it back down on the desk. She looks at me with a different look now. No longer looking at me like an everyday customer. I smirk at her slightly as I pet Kiki like a villain in a spy movie. She bows her head slightly and asks,
“I’m sorry, would you mind if I went to fetch someone higher up?”
I shake my head,
“Not at all.”
Kinda saw that coming. The second she saw that purple crystal, I could tell she didn’t really know how much it would be worth.
As she leaves the room, Kiki practically jumps out of his chair and climbs onto me, burying his face in my neck.
“Jeez… Couldn’t wait could you, little kitty?”
He purrs and squeezes my shirt in his hands before looking up at me,
“Mmmmmnyah… Not my fault you’re so cute… I just wanna hug you all the time and never let you go…”
I smile and kiss him before letting him rest his head on my shoulder while we wait. As we wait, I suddenly feel something that makes the hair on my arms stand straight. Goosebumps grow across my skin, and I can’t help but smile slightly. I let out a soft chuckle and lean back in the seat while petting Kiki’s thigh.
“Well, things might have just gotten interesting…”
He looks up at me and tilts his head slightly while asking,
“What’s interesting?”
I lean down and kiss his forehead before saying,
“All the other mages were a bit of a letdown here. I dunno about their potential, but their current strength was… Lackluster… The person coming in, though? They’re quite strong. At least as strong as me, possibly moreso.”
His ears stand straight up and I can see he’s starting to get nervous. I scratch behind his ear to calm him down before saying,
“Don’t worry, baby. He’s just here to appraise the crystals I brought them.”
The pets and my words calm him down as he nods his head and leans back against my shoulder again.
A few seconds later, the door opens to reveal an older man. Long grey beard, long grey hair, wearing a dark blue robe with golden embellishments along the sleeves and collar. He wears several items as well, as I can feel the magic pulsing off of them. A few of them feel a bit off, likely synthetic items, but the others give off the same energy as the ones I’m wearing.
When he sees me, his eyes go wide for a second before he schools his expression back to a neutral one. The stave in his hand, similar to mine but far more embellished, clicks against the ground as he walks over. He sits down, the leather of the seat letting out a crunching sound as he does.
He looks to me and nods his head slightly before speaking,
“Greetings. I am Magus Yularne Medici. I must say, it is quite the treat to meet a fellow Magus at such a young age. Might I inquire about which tower you belong to?”
Ah. Shit. Didn’t think about that. Well, I suppose there’s no harm in just telling the truth… Wait… There definitely is… I don’t want them to try to rope me into this tower… Let’s just make up some bullshit…
“I am Arthur Simmons. You most likely haven’t heard of it. It’s a fairly new mage tower set up in the middle of nowhere.”
He chuckles softly, his voice raspy and deep enough to shake my chest,
“Hohoho! Even if I may not know it, I still have a desire to know. After all, if they’re capable of raising such a young man to magus rank, t’would be quite the shame to never have heard of them.”
I chuckle as well. Well shit. Guess I gotta come up with something… Huh… That may just work, actually…
“It’s known as the White Cat Tower.”
… Cat tower… Shit… Yeah that kinda sucks… Well, it’s named after Kiki, so I like it! The old magus strokes his beard in thought. After a few seconds of his closing his eyes he eventually nods his head and says,
“I assume, based on this name, that the tower is quite far up north, correct? Most likely near the Caitherian lands. Quite a fitting name, in that case. I take it the two of you are students of this tower?”
I nod my head, bullshitting completely… Well, not completely. It’s kinda true…
“Correct. Well, I’m not a student any longer. Kiki here is technically my student, but he’s also my lover. Anyways, what we’re here for is to see about the sale of these crystals.”
I steer the conversation away and point to the pile of crystal on the desk. He nods his head with a hearty chuckle and puts on a pair of glasses,
“Apologies. My inquisitive nature rears its head again! Alright, let’s see about these…”
He looks over the pile, never showing a single bit of surprise, even when picking up the purple crystal. The lady from earlier stands behind him, watching him work. After about thirty seconds, he finally speaks,
“For the basic crystals, the red ones, I’m willing to offer one gold apiece for them. The orange, I’m willing to offer three apiece. The green, 20, and the purple one I’m willing to offer five hundred for. Apologies, but it is clear that these crystals have been gathered inside of a dungeon, and thus are quite low quality. I would love to offer more, but this is all I can offer you.”
That’s 778 gold coins, hmm? Not bad. At least, I assume so. Looking over at Kiki, whose mouth is completely wide at this number, I chuckle and nod my head.
“That’ll do. Thank you.”
He nods his head slightly and reaches out, shaking hands with me. His hands are wrinkled and old, but still have a decent bit of muscle underneath them. His eyes close in a smile hidden by his beard.
“Tis not a problem. I am quite happy to have met such a young magus. I look forward to seeing you again in the future. You may take your coins from the desk at the counter, they have already been made aware of the sale.”
I nod my head and take Kiki’s hand as we walk out of the room to grab our money and leave.
Still within the office, the woman behind Magus Yularne speaks up,
“Tower master, should we look into this new tower he mentioned? If they already have such a capable young mage… I can only image how powerful the master would be…”
The wizened man closes his eyes and looks up towards the ceiling for a few seconds, eventually shaking his head and saying,
“No need. For said tower does not exist yet. The young magus was telling half-truths. He likely aims to create his own tower eventually. T’would be prudent of us to aim towards good relations with him. I could not sense the end of his potential… He may be weaker than I for now, but that shall not last for long.”
A look of shock crosses the woman’s face as she takes in the words of the tower master. A look that doesn’t leave her face even after the two of them exit the room.
After picking up our money, Kiki and I decide to grab something to eat. Honestly, those manga fucking lie to you dude. The food around here is fucking amazing. Sure, not as sanitary as back on earth, but damn do these people know how to season their food! We just got some sandwiches from a street stall, wrapped in lettuce or something. Dunno what meat they used, but it’s delicious!
Now that we’ve sold the crystals, we have enough money to get a room in an inn. After that, we’ll probably go to the adventurer’s guild and sign up.
The inn we choose is a pretty small one on the outskirts of the city. Despite that, it’s not in a bad part of town or anything. The room we chose was just a small one with a single bed, obviously. I mean, I’m gonna cuddle my little kitty boy no matter what.
After getting in the room, Kiki runs and jumps onto the bed, nuzzling into the fabric and letting out a sigh. I chuckle and walk over, sitting on the edge of the bed and petting his head. He looks up to my and says in a defeated voice,
“This bed sucks… Open the portal! Your bed has spoiled me!”
I giggle and run my fingers through his hair,
“Alright, baby boy. I’ll open it up… for a kiss!”
I smile as he giggles and reaches up, wrapping his arms around my neck and pulling me down into a kiss on the bed. I smile and giggle against his lips as I run my fingers through his hair, earning a soft flick of his ear. I pull back slightly, seeing him staring up at me with flushed cheeks and a smug little grin. I kiss the tip of his nose before sitting back up and calling the portal. He jumps up and yells out,
“Yaaaay!”
I walk in after him and flinch as I get a pair of underwear thrown at me… yup… kitty’s naked again…
After getting a shower, we watch some anime and relax together for a bit, snuggling naked on the couch. After a few hours pass, we start to get sleepy and decide to head to bed. I stand up and head over to my closet to grab a sleep mask… Only to run crotch first into something… No, someone?
I see a head full of red hair, and one fluffy fox ear. They’re bent over slightly, having caused their face to be perfectly crotch level…
Wait… Why does my dick feel wet?
I slowly pull myself back… Seeing that my cock had perfectly slid right into their mouth…
“What kind of anime bullshit is this?”