The room at The Abyss Anchorage inn was modest, but clean. There was a reinforced straw bed with thick linen sheets, a rustic wooden table with a chair, a small wooden bathtub in the back, and an oil lamp emitting a warm, cozy yellow light.
As soon as Diana locked the iron door from the inside, she turned around and encountered a sight that made her scowl instantly.
Rhea hadn't approached the bed, nor the table, nor anywhere that suggested comfort. The wolf-eared hybrid girl was curled up in the darkest corner of the room, right between the cold wall and the table leg, knees hugged to her chest and head lowered.
She was standing still there, motionless, barely breathing, exactly as she had been trained to do in the slavers' cages.
"What are you doing down there on the floor?" Diana asked, crossing her arms and staring at the girl.
Rhea flinched slightly, her silver ears flattening against her head in an involuntary gesture of fear.
"I-I… am waiting for orders, Diana…" Rhea spoke softly, her voice trembling, not daring to look the black-haired girl directly in the eye. "I… I cannot take up space in the room without permission…"
Diana let out a heavy sigh, bringing her hand to her forehead. The ingrained servitude, constant fear of punishment, and slave mindset were so deeply etched into Rhea's mind that the simple idea of sitting on a chair seemed like a crime punishable by death.
This is going to be a pain in the ass. Diana thought, feeling irritation bubble up. She looks like a dog that's been beaten her whole life. If I don't fix this, she'll freeze in her first real fight.
"Get up from there." Diana ordered, her tone firm, but without shouting. "Now."
Rhea stood up that very second, her movements swift and robotic, coming to a halt straight in front of Diana with her eyes fixed on the floor.
"The bathtub is back there." Diana pointed with her chin. "The water is still warm. Take off those dirty rags you're wearing, get in the water, and clean yourself up. There's a bar of ash soap on the shelf."
Rhea blinked, her amber eyes wide in pure shock. "A B-Bath…? But… the hot water is for you…"
"I already took a bath before you came." Diana lied without blinking, simply to avoid arguing. "And you stink of old sweat and cage mold. I'm not sharing my room with someone who smells like a decomposing corpse. Move it."
Rhea swallowed hard. Hesitant, as if expecting it to be a trap or a sick joke, she walked with slow steps to the bathtub at the back of the room.
Diana sat down on the table's sole chair, pulling the new leather pouch from her belt to do what she loved most: Count her money.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
[DIANA'S FINANCIAL AUDIT]
Starting Coins (Vex Loot + Rats): 3 Silver, 30 Bronze.
Sales to Malakor (Materials + Old Weapons): +1 Silver, +65 Bronze.
Subtotal: 4 Silver, 95 Bronze (495 Bronze equivalent).
EXPENSES:
- Light Hunter Armor Set: -1 Silver (100 Bronze).
- 2 Minor Healing Potions + Throwing Knife + Sheath: -30 Bronze.
- Inn Stay (3 Nights): -50 Bronze.
- Full Meal: -15 Bronze.
- Purchase of Rhea at Slave Fair: -1 Silver (100 Bronze).
[CURRENT BALANCE IN POCKET: 2 SILVER COINS (200 Bronze)]
Diana stared at the two gleaming silver coins in the palm of her hand.
Two silver. Exactly two hundred bronze coins.
It seemed a reasonable amount for someone who had started from scratch a few hours ago, but in the grand scheme of Hell, where a mid-quality suit of metal armor easily cost ten silver coins and a basic skill book ran over fifty, that was nothing more than pocket change.
I have to invest smartly. Diana reasoned, stashing the coins back into her reinforced pouch. Rhea has Agility 12 at Level 2. She's a raw talent of speed, but she's naked and weaponless. If I don't gear her up, she dies on the first hit from a Level 3 monster.
—Look at that…
The System's voice sounded lazily, the golden screen floating near her head.
—The accounting is spot on, not a single math error. What a miracle. But tell me, my dear venture capitalist: you spent half your fortune to buy a traumatized girl, and now you're gonna spend the rest to dress her up? You're looking more like a charity than a villain candidate.
"Shut up, you broken calculator." Diana responded mentally, her eyes cold. "This isn't charity, it's capital investment. A strong subordinate pays back ten times the cost of her gear in loot and protection. A weak subordinate is just an unnecessary expense who dies and leaves you hanging."
—Aha. Right. Keep telling yourself that while you spend your little money.
The sound of sloshing water at the back of the room quieted down.
Rhea stepped out from behind the wooden tub divider. She was wearing the large clean linen towel provided by the inn, wrapped timidly around her body.
With the dirt and soot washed away, the hybrid girl's true appearance became clear: fair, almost pale skin with small shallow scars that were starting to heal thanks to the healing potion, and long silver hair falling in damp waves down her back. Her wolf ears, now clean, twitched softly at every sound in the room.
She looked incredibly young, fragile… but her amber eyes possessed a focus far livelier than when she was in the cage.
Diana opened one of the room's dresser drawers and pulled out a simple gray cotton tunic left by the inn for guests, tossing it onto the table.
"Wear this for now." Diana said. "Tomorrow morning we go to the market to buy combat clothes and weapons for you."
Rhea picked up the tunic carefully, slipping it on quickly. The fabric was oversized on her, falling to knee length like an improvised dress.
She walked over to the table and gave a small nod of her head. "Thank you… Diana."
"Don't thank me." Diana said, adjusting the dagger at her waist. "Tomorrow you'll have to pay back every single cent of this investment by working hard on the hunts. Now go to sleep. We leave as soon as it darkens again."
Rhea looked at the soft bed with clean sheets. She hesitated for five long seconds, as if stepping on the mattress were a sacrilege, until Diana's stern glare spurred her to hurry, lying down on the corner of the bed with a rigid body, ears perked up, attentive to every noise in the room.
Diana lay down on the other side of the bed, her back to the girl, keeping the dark steel dagger beneath her pillow.
In Hell, trust was a luxury she couldn't yet afford. Not even with the one she had just saved.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The next "day" in the Central Market began with a quick visit to a used armaments stall in the north sector.
Diana made sure to haggle over every item with the aggressiveness of a hungry predator, rejecting the sector merchants' inflated prices.
[EQUIPMENT PURCHASES FOR RHEA]
- Pair of Wrought Iron Twin Daggers (Attack +2 each, Agility +1): -50 Bronze.
- Flexible Leather Hunter Tunic and Pants (Defense +4, Agility +1): -30 Bronze.
[DISCOUNT HAGGLED BY DIANA: -10 Bronze on the bundle]
[TOTAL SPENT: 70 BRONZE COINS]
[DIANA'S NEW BALANCE: 1 SILVER COIN AND 30 BRONZE COINS (130 Bronze)]
Now equipped with the flexible leather set that fitted perfectly to her slender, agile body, with the two iron daggers strapped to the sides of her waist, Rhea looked like a true shadow rogue.
[RHEA'S STATUS PANEL (UPDATED)]
Name: Rhea
Level: 2 (10 / 250 EXP)
Class: None (Aptitude: Assassin / Scout)
Strength: 8
Agility: 12 (+2 from Equipment) -> 14
Vitality: 6
Intelligence: 5
Luck: 1
HP: 45 / 45
MP: 20 / 20
Agility 14.
Even the System let out a mental whistle at the sight of the number.
—Damn. Agility 14 at Level 2 is a freak show. This girl is lightning in wolf form. If you teach her to strike from behind, monsters won't even see where the blade came from.
Diana looked at Rhea, who was adjusting the leather straps of the daggers on her belt with nimble fingers, practicing her quick draw.
"Your main attribute is Agility." Diana said as they walked toward the exit of the central sector. "That means you NEVER attempt to block an attack head-on. Your job in battle isn't to be a shield. It's to move through the shadows, flank the enemy while they're focused on me, and slit their throat from behind."
Rhea nodded firmly, her wolf ears perked. "Understood… I draw their attention from the sides and strike their weak points."
"Exactly." Diana smiled, a small, cold, predatory grin. "We're heading to the entrance sector of the Abandoned Coal Mines. There are Level 3 to 5 monsters there. If we work properly, we'll level up and make this money back in loot by the end of the day."
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Subterranean Sector - Abandoned Coal Mine Entrances
The mine entrance was a gaping maw of dark, damp rock supported by rotted wooden beams. The smell of sulfur and coal dust was heavy, and the sound of dripping water echoed through the cold underground galleries.
The Mines were known in the Dust District as the prime hunting ground for low-level adventurers and rookie mercenary groups.
Diana held her dark steel dagger ready in her right hand, the oil lantern in her left illuminating the black rock walls. Rhea walked three steps behind her, her steps so light and quiet that she seemed to float over the dust on the ground.
—Heads up, shock duo.
The System warned, the screen flashing yellow.
—Three life signatures ahead. Level 3. No cute rats this time.
Diana stopped in her tracks, gesturing with her hand for Rhea to halt behind a broken wooden structure.
In the lantern light, three creatures emerged from the gallery shadows. They looked like grotesque humanoids with grayish, gelatinous skin, eyeless, possessing giant mouths filled with curved, razor-sharp teeth. Their claws were long, made of hardened bone.
[Ash Spawn - Lesser Necrophage]
Level: 3
HP: 65 / 65
Main Stat: Strength / Vitality
Note: Blind, but possesses extremely keen hearing and smell.
Three Lesser Necrophages. Level 3.
They're blind. Diana thought quickly, her mind recording the data from [Analysis Vision]. They guide themselves by sound and smell.
She turned to Rhea, whispering close to the girl's wolf ear, which twitched slightly at the feel of Diana's cold breath.
"Rhea."
"Y-Yes…?"
"You go around to the left behind the tracks." Diana instructed, her tone calm and imperious. "I'll draw the attention of the front two by making noise. As soon as the third one in the rear turns to come at me, you use your agility, leap onto his back, and drive both daggers into the nape of his neck."
Rhea looked at the three grotesque monsters. Her hands trembled slightly on the handles of her iron daggers, the fear of past trauma trying to claw up her throat.
Diana noticed the hesitation and gripped Rhea's shoulder tightly, her dark eyes locked onto hers.
"Remember what I told you." Diana said, her voice hard as iron. "You are no longer a slave cowering in a cage. You are my ally. And I didn't buy you so you could be afraid of three pieces of gray flesh. Go!"
Those words, rude, arrogant, but loaded with blind confidence in her potential, acted like a jolt to Rhea's mind.
The hesitation vanished from the wolf's amber eyes.
"Yes, Diana!"
With an incredibly swift and totally silent movement, driven by her 14 points of Agility, Rhea vanished into the rock shadows on the left side of the mine.
Diana smiled.
She picked up a loose stone from the ground and hurled it hard against the iron rail on the right side.
CLANG!
The metallic clang echoed loudly through the underground gallery.
The three Lesser Necrophages whipped their misshapen heads instantly toward the noise, letting out high-pitched, screeching roars before sprinting toward the sound.
"OVER HERE, YOU SHIT MONSTERS!"
Diana shouted, stepping out from behind the wooden cover and charging head-on against the first two necrophages with her dark steel dagger raised.
PREDATORY STRIKE!
She side-stepped the claws of the first monster with a quick dodge, plunging her dagger straight into the beast's chest.
STAB! DAMAGE: 32!
While Diana held the attention of the first two monsters in a violent exchange of strikes and tight dodges, the third Necrophage, coming up right behind, prepared to leap onto Diana's back.
But it never got the chance.
Coming from high atop the mine ceiling's wooden beams, a silver shadow plunged down like a blade falling from the sky.
Rhea landed flawlessly onto the back of the third Necrophage.
With the surgical precision of Agility 14, the hybrid girl drove both iron daggers simultaneously into the sides of the monster's neck, twisting the blades with her body's full weight.
CRUNCH!
[Perfect Stealth Attack! (Rhea)]
[Damage Dealt: 55! (Critical Strike)]
[Enemy [Lesser Necrophage] Instantly Defeated!]
The gray monster collapsed dead into the dust before even letting out a roar.
Rhea rolled gracefully across the ground, rising into a flawless combat stance, her daggers slick with black blood, her amber eyes glowing in the dark with a ferocity stashed away for years.
Diana, who had just finished off the second Necrophage with a deep skull thrust, looked back and saw the third monster dead at Rhea's feet.
A smile tore across Diana's face.
"Good job, wolf." Diana said, her voice carrying genuine approval. "I told you you weren't useless."
Rhea looked at the dead monster before her, then at her own hands covered in enemy blood. Her silver ears perked atop her head, and a faint glimmer of pure pride, the first in her entire life, surfaced on her face.
"I… I did it…" Rhea murmured, looking at Diana with an admiration verging on absolute devotion. "I did it, Diana!"
[Battle Concluded!]
[Experience Gained: 240 EXP]
[Party Shared Experience: Diana +120 EXP / Rhea +120 EXP]
[Rhea Leveled Up! Level 2 -> 3]
[Loot Obtained: 25 Bronze Coins, 2 Necrophage Claws]
—Look at that…
The System commented, the golden interface flashing with ironic text.
—The combination is working better than I expected. The wolf kills from the shadows, and you kill from the front with your giant ego. You two are gonna go far… if you don't die in the next corridor.
Diana gathered the 25 bronze coins from the ground along with the monster materials.
[DIANA'S BALANCE UPDATE]
Previous Balance: 1 Silver, 30 Bronze.
Battle Loot: +25 Bronze.
NEW BALANCE: 1 SILVER COIN AND 55 BRONZE COINS (155 Bronze).
"We're just getting started." Diana stashed the money in her pouch and pointed her dagger toward the deeper corridor of the subterranean mine. "There are dozens more of these monsters in here. And we're taking every point of experience and every bronze coin this place has to offer."
Rhea took two steps forward, positioning herself at Diana's side, ready to follow her leader into the depths of Hell's darkness.
Final Notes:
This chapter was focused on preparation and Rhea's reconstruction! And as you can see, I take the monetary side of things seriously, we're gonna make it super clear how much money they're earning and spending here.
Anyway, they're starting to get some cash. A little bit of cash-