Day 320 came and we said goodbye to Vinny and I carried Kyle to Saluk.


    “Hey, you still have to show me those leyline techniques! You only show your assassin stuff! I guess showing your 9t stuff would be too much to ask.”  Well, I can''t get better at this assassin stuff if I don''t use it. Just like I mainly used leyline last year I will mainly use assassin stuff this year although I have more flexibility.


    “I still can''t believe that you could run this fast, no wonder you have no idea how long humans take to travel between places. Look I think that’s Saluk there!”  Still sandy as ever…  We got close to Saluk and we walked.


    This place has changed a bit since the last time I was here. The big purple house is gone.


    “Didn''t you say that you assassinated the owner of that house?”  Ah right, the fat guy!


    “Wow look at that! That’s one fancy shop, let''s check it out.” Kyle said, pointing to an unfamiliar building. We stepped inside and it was some very fancy… this wasn''t a shop it was a restaurant.


    A woman in an intricate fancy dress walked up to us. “Excuse me do you have reservations?”  Uhh, sorry, we just came to take a look.


    “I’m sorry but you can’t come inside if you don’t have reservations, Please leave if you don’t have a reservation.”


    Kyle got a bit angry. “Whoa, humans have no chill.”  But you’re a human…


    Kyle pointed at me. “Well, I don''t feel like one now and it''s your and Vinny’s fault!”  You could have left whenever you wanted though…


    “Excuse me, you’re interrupting business here, please leave else I will have to call my manager.”


    Kyle started to give off an intimidating aura. “Do it! What is he going to do eh?”  Right, that’s enough Kyle.


    “But she started it!” Kyle said while pointing at the woman.


    “Hello, manager? Yeah, we have 2 men at the front that are causing problems.”  Well, you could have asked it more nicely…


    A familiar guy appeared. He wore a nice suit. In the desert... “Heyhey, have you any idea who this is Jonelle?! How is it, my friend!”  Wait Meatguy? This is your place? Wow! You really outdid yourself!


    “Wait you know this guy?” Kyle said confused.


    “Is this your friend? Come on in come! Come and eat free of charge! I promised right? I’m so happy to see you''re doing well.”  You too, every time I come here your business gets crazier.


    “Achmedi, Sayid, cancel the 2 most recent VIP reservations, we’re full! Come come! Take these VIP seats.” I looked at 2 dudes running around serving meat, they seem familiar. They looked like the 2 rich guys but that can''t be right.


    “So, care to tell the story about this guy?”  Uhh, I bought meat from him once or twice and he never forgot it.  The Meatguy turned around.


    “Just once or twice? Let me tell you the story of Waleed.”


    He told us in detail how much he earned whenever I bought all the meat of his stall how he used it to grow bigger, the influence Thalia had on his business, how he clashed with 2 rich guys, and how he and Thalia bankrupt them and took over their assets and the last step of hiring the Yttroz Industries to build this restaurant that in a short time became famous for its high-quality meat but also relaxing baths.


    “You really do have a strange effect on people around you, don’t you? And who is Thalia?” Kyle said while wolfing down his food.


    “That would be me, hello sweetheart.” A familiar voice said before familiar boobs... a familiar face appeared.


    Kyle got out of his seat and stared. “Holy shit she’s hot!”  Oh hello, Thalia.


    “I’ve heard you came by Saluk several times this year and you never stopped by." Thalia said as she sat down next to me.  Uhm, I assumed you were busy!


    Kyle looked at me and Thalia and put up a mischievous smile.


    Kyle don’t! I will kick your ass!


    “Hehe, Thalia, what I know from this guy, he probably didn''t visit you because he was afraid that he would fall for you!”  You brat you''re so dead!


    Kyle slipped into stealth and escaped and I chased him down.


    “Sayid, Achmedi, prepare the luxurious bath! It is time to help our two biggest benefactors!” Meatguy said cheerfully.


    ”Yessir!”


    It took some effort but I finally caught Kyle. I got you now! You’re still too young to escape from me!


    “Ugh this speed, you’re just cheating!”  Well, I''m sorry for being born fast as fuck!


    “Do you care for a relaxing bath after your meal?” Meatguy asked.


    He didn''t seem to care that Kyle and I were making a ruckus. “Do it!”  Wow Kyle, chill, of course, I will do it, there’s sand everywhere… hey any plans on relocating to a place without sand?


    “We already have 3 branches over Zanyr. One on near the beach and 2 others spread over the desert.”  So still sand…


    Meatguy smiled. “Come come wash the sand away.“  You have a strange smile, I sense deception.


    “Shit he noticed, get him!”  Whud? Kyle what the?!  Kyle and one of the familiar guys picked me up and carried me away.


    Hey, this is kidnapping! Thalia help! Hey, where did she go?  Kyle and the guy carried me through the corridors of the bathhouse and threw me in some huge luxe bath.


    I will remember this! I will leave a negative review!


    The bath was relaxing though. I got rid of my sandy clothes and left a shadow clone at the entrance in case Kyle was planning to pull more stunts.


    “Just like our first meeting.” The voice scared the living shit out of me.  Who’s there? Show yourself!


    “I’m right here… you really don’t change.” I turned around and saw Thalia about to enter the bath. There was a door behind her. I looked over to where I entered the room and saw my shadow clone shrug and gesture that this wasn''t his fault. I facepalmed. Didn''t I make this mistake before?


    “Haha, thank you for re-enacting our meeting.”  Uh, I didn''t do that on purpose…


    “I know, so what have you been up to?” She came closer and I tried to keep my distance. Her sweet smell was intoxicating and it made my head spin and my thoughts foggy.  Uhh, not much just chillin’ killin’ and training Kyle.


    She ran her finger over my chest. “So, it was you who assassinated Dominique? He disappeared overnight.”  Oh, so the fatty is dead? I didn''t know! I tried to back off but it was relatively unsuccessful.


    “Have people ever told you that you’re a terrible liar?”  Uhh, I’m good at it when it counts!


    “Then I’m glad that the lies you tell me are terrible, that means hiding this from me isn''t important for you.” I backed off because Thalia was getting really close.  I am so sorry; I know what you want but I can’t…


    “That’s ok, I’m patient.”  No, it’s not that…


    I was unsure if I should tell her. Kyle thinks similar to her so I could, the problem is just… she puts a lot of value on beauty. Another problem; this chick is oozing charm magic. It’s quite rare under humans. She could easily get anyone she wanted with this or without the charm magic. I sighed.


    I guess I owe you an explanation because I don’t know if you will get it if I don''t. And Kyle you asshole! I can see you peeping!


    “Oh shit! Go for it!”  This brat!


    “You’re only 1 year older than me!” Kyle protested.


    “You two seem to be close… I’m a bit envious." I really like you but this is never going to work and I will explain why.  The shadow clone kicked Kyle out of the bathhouse and froze all the doors shut.


    “Yeah, go get her!” This guy is so annoying.


    I covered the bath in illusions to make sure nobody could peep.  The reason this isn''t going to work is this.  I got my tails out.


    I remember you talking about immortality and stuff, I’m one of them. My sense of time is just different. I could literally go out for a walk get distracted and be away for 40 years because time has a different meaning for me. And even if I won''t. One blink and suddenly 70 years have passed. And that is assuming my life will be quiet which it won''t be. I’m sorry to say but humans are too fragile to live in our frame.


    Thalia cried. “You’re so beautiful!” She stroked my tails. “So soft”  Uhm, did you hear what I said?


    “Yes, and I understand, I have always thought about what life would be like as an immortal or what if I fell in love with one. My beauty would fade in a blink for them. Like a flower, just beautiful for a moment before it wilts… Why did I have to be born as a human?” She cried even more and I was at a loss to do so I just held her. “I understand, I will not press the issue on you any longer but I won''t give up. I’m close to reaching my first goal. I was always wondering what should I do afterward. I now have my answer. You will see, I will find a way!”  As long as you don''t hurt others… you know, I have this, it won’t make you immortal but it increases your lifespan.


    I said as I took out some vials of the liquid I had made during poison synthesis.


    “What is this? Why is it red?” She was curious and looked at me.  Uhm, my blood can cause you to live longer.  She pushed the potion away.


    “Please don''t ever tell anyone that! I don''t want your blood and I don''t want to take away from you to reach my goal. I’ve only taken stuff from you and never given anything of value back. Please destroy it, I don''t need it and the world doesn''t need it!”  You seem upset…


    “I’m sorry, I don''t know what your race is but as you said immortals aren''t common and there must be a good reason for that. The effects of your blood could be one. I don''t want to be like them, extracting from those that protect us for selfish gains. I could be ok with hurting humans but not immortals.” She got up, grabbed my head and kissed me. I sat stunned as she pulled away.


    “I will get there you’ll see. It seems I have a lot to do.” She got up. “I’m sorry that this meeting is so short but unfortunately for me, life is short. I’m still young so I should make use of it. Your silver tails are beautiful by the way.“ I regained my senses and turned them black and lifted the illusion and thawed the ice.


    “Thank you for telling me this, I will not forget this and please, come visit me when you can, I am planning to move to Gittrian, more opportunities there and especially for you, no sand.” She blew a kiss and disappeared into the dressing room.


    I have no idea what just happened… I tried to dissuade her but she just got even stronger. I am so bad with people...


    I got up and picked up my sandy clothes and burnt them. I felt like wearing my fox onesie so I did just that.


    “Hehe, so am I going to get a sister in law? Nice onesie, do you have one for me too?”  Shut up, Kyle!


    I took out a donkey onesie, swapped his clothes with it, and burnt his sandy clothes too. “Hey! Why a donkey?!”


    We thanked Waleed for the food and bath and we left the restaurant.


    “Hey, these onesies are pretty comfy and sand-repelling.”  Jarn technology at its finest, they’re weirdos but at least they know how to make clothing.


    We walked around, did some light shopping and afterwards headed toward the Adventurer’s Association as probably the worst assassins ever but we weren''t on a mission so that was fine.


    Kyle pointed. “Look it''s your wife.”  She’s not my wife…  Thalia was talking to the receptionist about something.


    Now go register, I need to check something.


    I looked through my personal messages, there were a lot and most of them have expired. Somehow none of them filed a complaint or anything negative.


    I found a fresh one, it got sent minutes ago. The sender was… Thalia Resha…I looked back and she winked at me.


    This is awkward, it''s awkward to accept and awkward to decline. I guess it would be more awkward to decline so I accepted it. She hasn''t caused me headaches so far so I''m willing to hear what she has to say, even though we had a conversation 30 minutes ago…


    I then looked at my public info. Still no role but oof what are all these things? I don''t remember any of these. Wait I do, I helped the fishermen in Gavin and I saved Healerguy’s daughter and all the other things that got reported to the Adventurers Association, also the incident in Yttroz Industries, and because I don''t have a role everyone is going to see these achievements. Most were on accident!


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    “When looking at all the stuff you’ve done it’s strange to see that you’re still without a role and a C-rank.” Thalia said after sneaking up on me.   I haven''t taken any official requests from the Adventurers Association for almost 3 years. You needed to discuss something with me? We talked half an hour ago.


    “That was personal, this is business. I’m one mission away from getting S-rank. I’m requesting you and Kyle as party members.”  Wait weren''t you B rank?


    “I told you life is short right? I don’t have time to take things slowly."  Kyle is a noob though, he just registered.


    “Well, you trained him, right? I doubt that he will hold us back, it could also boost his rank by a lot.”


    “Sup mom and dad, what''s up.” I shot an icicle at Kyle. “Whoa watch out! This is the first time I see you use water magic though.”  Be careful else it will be your last.


    “I kind of want to see it now.” Kyle said with a smirk on his face. It looked less annoying as he was wearing a silly donkey onesie.  Well, Thalia has a mission for us so you might, she’s about to hit rank S so I probably can''t get away with doing things half-assed.


    Thalia clapped her hands. “Ooh, do I get to see those beautiful tails again?”  If you see them that means we probably fucked up somewhere and are in deep shit.


    “Yeah, you should hear about the shit he has done! Half of the things that were in the news a year ago were something he was related to.”  Hey, you were a street rat! How do you know that!?


    “The cult had tv’s”  Of course…


    Thalia got closer. “Ooh, I would love to hear them sometime.”  Anyways we have a Silent Night and a Grumpy Blowfish… hahaha I’m sorry I can’t!


    “Hey! You know that I’m working hard to change that!”


    “Wait your role is Grumpy Blowfish? Hahaha” Kyle and I were rolling on the floor laughing like idiots.


    Thalia started to give off a pink glow. “Hey Agnis, do you want to see my new charm attack?”  Shit how do you know about that! No thanks!


    She smiled. “Well, I’m not stupid, I noticed that you seem to be more susceptible to charm magic than other men, Kyle for example seems fine but you seem to be fighting against my aura.”  Meh charm users are so troublesome.


    “Ohh so you do have a weakness, a weakness to women, Thalia finish him off hehe!” Kyle said while pointing with his donkey hoof. It was already hard to take him seriously but even less with that donkey onesie.  I seemed to have picked up an asshole from the streets, not a street rat!


    “I learned from the best!”


    “Come on guys, don’t fight, and don''t worry Kyle, I will finish him off in due time, I just have a lot to do before I can do that.”  Hey guys can you stop talking about my demise…


    “So where do we need to go?” Kyle ignored me. This cheeky brat.


    “First we register as a temporary party and then rest up.”


    “Oh, let''s go find a hotel then.” Kyle got up and ready to leave.  We don''t need to; were all adventurers they have rooms here.


    “So, 2 or 3 rooms.” Kyle moved his eyebrows up and down.  Oh, so you want to sleep in the sand! In that case we can take 2 rooms then.


    “Noo please no sand!”


    “What do you guys have against sand? I have no issues with it.”


    I looked at Thalia.  You don''t wear enough for sand to get stuck in…


    “Yeah! Although this donkey suit is super comfy, I don''t even feel hot in it. People look weird at me but at least I’m comfy.”  I like my fox onesie.


    Kyle pointed. “Hey your tail is moving, don''t tell me…”  Ssst are you trying to get us killed? You donkey!


    We got 3 rooms. I had to fight back because both Thalia and Kyle thought 2 rooms were a better idea. But these rooms are cheap and Thalia and I are rich so there is no reason to cheap out on rooms. The next day we got the details of this supposedly super-hard mission.


    Kyle and I met up with Thalia. “Are you guys still wearing those onesies?”


    “They’re comfy,”  It''s my identity.


    “...”


    “He''s not wrong.”


    “Our mission is to investigate a cave.” Thalia gave us the details of the mission.


    “So why was this a hard mission again?” Kyle asked after he summarized the details.  Caves always contain dangerous stuff; caves are a threat to humanity and other races.


    “That stuff only happens to you…” Kyle said as he shook his head.


    “There have been reports of crunching sounds near the Aurelia river not too far from Gittrian. A team has been sent but they never returned, a party of B-ranks went in an attempt to save them and find out what happened but they have disappeared too.”


    “So, they’re sending a fox, a donkey and a half-naked chick as a response? Thalia, you don''t need those clowns, how about you take us, we’re all A-rank.” A handsome guy in a purple suit approached us with 2 people that looked like they came from Jarn. They were dressed weirdly and seemed to emphasize their looks. “Haha, what''s with that getup? And didn''t this donkey apply for becoming an adventurer yesterday? She’s taking a fresh donkey and a fox on an A-rank+ mission, it will be a waste if you die, take us, and we’ll take good care of you.”  I hope you know that this donkey here could body all of you before you can blink.


    “Haha imposi…”


    Kyle floored all of them and threw daggers that stuck in the ground next to their faces. “If this is what A-rank is about it’s quite disappointing, so why are you C-rank again Agnis?”


    Thalia seemed impressed by Kyle''s performance. “He is C rank for lack of trying I assume.”


    “That sounds so like him yeh.” Kyle pushed the dagger closer to the clown''s face.  Hey guys! I just haven''t done any quest and rank says nothing as you can see here.


    “You guys will pay for this!” The clowns ran away.  Why do higher rank people always have bad attitudes, it''s even worse than yours Kyle.


    “I think you have the worst attitude out of us all…”


    “It is so refreshing this!” Thalia said. She seemed invigorated.


    “Huh, what is?”


    “I’m used to men fighting about me or trying to court me but none of you are doing such,”


    “Even though you wish Agnis would do that?” Thalia blushed.


    I smacked Kyle. “Hey! I’m not wrong!”  So besides 2 teams disappearing what else do we know, since it''s in Hjuva there is no sand at least.


    Kyle fist pumped and made a strange dance. “Thank god!”


    “Well, there is a lot of water, and that’s all we know.”  Hmm, this sounds familiar, my friend Raishin and I had a quest similar to this on the part of the Aurelia river that goes through the Igrini Kingdom.


    “If that is the case it must be an S rank quest then, nothing good will be there, I’m going to quickly prepare more poisons.” Kyle quickly went to his room.


    “Can you tell me a bit more about that mission?”  Just like this, it was a cave near the Aurelia river, it flooded for some reason and we found 2 creatures inside that shouldn''t exist, one of which was a winged lobster that could create water out of nothing. I actually wondered what they did with it, we got a lot of passive income from catching it. Let me check how much unclaimed money they have for me.  I went to the magic terminal where I first checked my private requests.


    “Ooh, I’m curious.” I opened the unclaimed payments section. “Ooh, 17 gold, what did you do?”  I have no idea… is this what they mean by the rich get richer?


    “I don’t know.”


    I collected the gold and the donkey; I mean Kyle returned. “Alright, I’m ready.”


    “Guess who’s back! We took the same mission but we also have a ride! We will have finished the mission way before you guys even arrive hahahaha!” Kyle struck an intimidating pose and the 3 clowns backed off a bit.


    “Wimps!”


    The clowns walked away and started flinging slurs at us.


    “Hmm, this is a problem, it will take a while to get there, and even though I have the money I don’t think using the teleport is worth it.” Thalia said while inspecting the contents of her dimensional box. She doesn''t have the luxury of having tails that keep track of what''s in it so I can''t relate to that problem.


    Kyle looked at me. “Oh, she doesn''t know!”  Teleports are a waste of money; We can be there by tomorrow.


    “Huh?”  I had enough of this sand anyways, Thalia get all your stuff!


    “I have a dimensional box remember.” She said as she showed off the purple box.  Right, let''s go out of this sandy city first, I don''t want to get any more attention than this comfy onesie gets me.  We saw the clowns hop in a strange-looking coffin on wheels and they rode off.


    Hmm, this is a problem.


    “What is?”  There is no room for my other tails.


    “That is your problem? Just wear something else.” I got into some other comfy clothes I got from Jarn. I picked Thalia and Kyle up with my tails.  I am not responsible for any sand that flies in your eyes.


    “Let’s leave those clowns in the dust!” Kyle pointed at the clowns that were driving in their coffin on wheels.


    “So fluffy!” I sped up and dashed. It only took me 3 seconds to pass the coffin on wheels. “So fast!”


    “Aagh! I got sand in my eyes! I hate sand!” Kyle was rubbing his eyes.


    Didn''t I warn you?  The desert flashed by, although it all looked the same.


    We reached Texiha at sundown.


    “I think I’m going to hang out with my brother for a bit. You two go enjoy yourself.” Kyle ran off with an annoying smirk on his face.


    “I want to meet this Rubert.”  Ugh, fine let''s go visit Healerguy.


    We went to the Adventurers Association but Healerguy didn''t seem to be there, he was helping out on a mission. Kyle’s brother was here though. Apparently, his name is Josh. They were happy to see each other and shared stories. He did keep it a secret that I was a 9t and that he met a dragon.


    “Thank you for saving Kyle and me, I think it’s a good thing Rubert is not here though, he has a lot to say to you about how you handled that cult.”


    Kyle seemed to remember something. “Oh right, what did you actually do? He seemed quite upset when we left.”  Uhm, I forgot.


    “He flushed the cult through the sewer system and the corpses started to clog certain parts and they had to be removed. It was a long and painful process.” Josh said with a tired look on his face.  Oh really? I did that? Haha! Woops?


    “...”


    “You are a menace.”  Anyways, I’m going to practice some Dragonvein and turn in early, I’m sure tomorrow will be a pain in the ass.


    “Can we watch? You always do that super early in the morning and I always miss it!”  Then don''t sleep so long! it''s not my fault that you''re lazy!


    “Hey humans need their sleep!” Kyle''s protest fell on deaf fox ears as I didn''t care.  What an awfully convenient excuse.


    “It''s true!”


    I found a small park and recalibrated with the leyline energy. 4.0% affinity and 3.4% authority. Not a big upgrade but it''s something. Since it wasn''t early in the morning and I was in public I only went with water. It felt that I felt the weight of the water less and less as the affinity increased. The weight was still there as I demonstrated by blowing a hole in a tree. It’s just that I don’t have to physically move all of it around. I wonder if it will feel weightless if my affinity nears 100%.


    Thalia had an interesting expression on her face as she watched me. “It''s fascinating, you’re doing all that without magic.”


    “He explained to me how it works, it is actually way harder than it seems, he spent a year getting the basics down and ‘Master’ it as he says but he just meant with that he won''t make simple mistakes.”  I’m still working on one of my ultimate techniques.


    “Didn''t you say you had 2 in the working?”  I finished one, I just need something to test it out on.


    “Good luck finding something that lives long enough for you to test that out…” Kyle said as he was going through the pockets of the donkey onesie.


    “I’m just curious since I never have seen you fight, isn''t creating an ultimate skill as an immortal… overkill?” Thalia said as her eyes followed my movements.


    I would have agreed with you 5 years ago but there are some very tenacious and stubborn creatures in this world. I could nuke a city and that creature would still be alive and kicking.


    “You haven''t done any of that right?”  Not yet…


    “At least he’s honest.”


    I stopped with the basic practice and started making ice and water ramps and skating and sliding over them.


    “Hey that looks fun let me try too!” Kyle did his best to not make a fool out of himself but he wasn''t used to moving on slippery surfaces. “Why does everything you do seem so effortless but is actually tricky?!”


    Git Gud donkey!  He managed to get decent at it when It was time to head to bed.


    “Huff, I’m exhausted, you are a monster!”  0 stamina donkey!


    I brought them all the way to the Aurelia river the next day.


    “Hey Agnis, I realized this yesterday but this onesie has like a million pockets!” Kyle said as he went through more of his inner pockets.


    Yeah, these onesies have no business being this good.


    Thalia shook her head. “You guys are special…”  So, this is the cave that is probably almost going to kill us.


    “Yup, be careful Agnis, it would look weird if only the humans make it out alive.”  Your skills in poison suit you, you’re so toxic, a Toxic Donkey! I will survive, I have an advantage that you don''t have!


    “What being able to die 42 times instead of one?”  Heh, you''ll see.