CHAPTER 50: TRIPS AND ITEMS

As soon as my hand touched Zara’s I was instantly reminded of my touch of lust skill as I was suddenly informed about how Zara would like me to date her apparent lust. And oh boy, it was quite the doozey. It turns out that whilst Zara might look from the outside as a strong woman it turns out that she has quite the masochistic streak on her!

Realising that I had frozen mid handshake I looked up at the confused an embarrassed wolf only to lean in close and whispered into her ear. "I’m definitely looking forward to seeing you again, I have plenty of ideas about what you can do for me." I watched in satisfaction as a full body shiver broke out of the woman causing me to grin at her. Then I let go of her hand and turned around saying over my shoulder as I left. "Be seeing you soon. Zara."

Once outside I got a raised eyebrow from Kana to which I just answered with a wide innocent smile causing her to just roll her eyes at me in exasperation. Chuckling I grabbed ahold of both ladies hands as I asked. "So what do you fancy doing with the rest of the day?" It was past mid day now and approaching early evening.

It was Amanda who gave a suggestion. "I heard there is a entertainment district not too far away we could go have a look?" Finding that just as good an option as anything else we decided to head in that direction, both ladies tried to get more info about Zara but I kept changing the subject wanting to keep it as my little secret for now, but I did let them know that she would be a lot of fun which seemed to keep them mostly content for now.

Before long we arrived at a wide street that was full of people moving from one establishment to another, I even spotted what could only be a couple of brothels given the red lanterns I saw hanging in front of their door and the provocative sign hanging next to them. We however were content with the tamer establishments for now.

Spotting what looked to be a nice looking bar we made our way over to it and made our way inside. It looked like a typical upscale cocktail bar from back on Earth to me with small segmented booths and tables with a band playing something similar to jazz over in one corner setting the mood to be both relaxed and inviting. We were quickly flagged down by a passing waitress how guilded us to a set and handed us a menu and promised to come over soon.

Looking through it I recognised not a single one of the drinks. I did however recognise the price which caused my eyes to widen in shock at how expensive everything was. We could buy maybe 4 drinks for the price of the magical staff I just bought! Seeing as we all noticed the price were hesitant to get anything but decided we would splurge on at least one drink. And so we each made a choice, not really knowing what anything was.

When we placed our order we were provided with some complimentary snacks which were quickly devoured and before long our drinks arrived. Mine was in a tall champagne flute, Kanas was in a whiskey tumbler and Amanda’s was in a martini glass. All the drinks were multicoloured and even more surprisingly they all seemed to have the whiff of magic about them!

Now truly excited we took our first sips, my mouth was assaulted by a sweet tartness and a feeling of jubilant joy overtook me with that first sip alone. It was a truly wonderous feeling that left me with just a dumb grin on my face as I watched the varied reaction of my two lovers. I lost track of time whilst drinking just enjoying the company I was with. I hardly even remembered anything that happened there past nailing dumbly for a while before I felt myself being let out of the establishment.

I vaguely remember being told to heal myself but couldn’t understand why, after all all the colours were starting to blur together and Amanda was now upside down and she was somehow purple! I did however get nipped on the ear by something which made me instincivly heal myself. And suddenly everything snapped back into place. My mind cleared and I gasped for air as I suddenly regained control over my thoughts and actions.

"What the fuck was that!?" I manage to gasp out.

"Apparently you didn’t react well to that drink you were left quite loopy for a while there." Kama told me.

I grimaced at the vague memory I had of that event before asking. "How long was I out for? And why did we just leave that place after I basically got drugged?" I asked with some indignation.

"Well when both we and the staff noticed how out of it you were they were very apologetic and refunded us for all the drinks. Apparently the drink you ordered was supposed to come with a warning as it has some halucanagenic effects that hit some races harder than others. Apparently elves are one race it hits pretty hard. And the waitress who took our order forgot to give that warning."

I gaped at that unable to process how a place could serve a drink that had actual halicanagenics in it. I was basically drinking condensed shrooms! "Well, that certainly ruined my mood for the evening." I muttered dryly.

"Yeah for us too it was quite scary seeing you so out of it, thankfully Dawn managed to bite your ear which got you to heal yourself, she’s a very smart little girl isn’t she!" Kana said whilst reaching over to pet the little dragon that I realised had been sending along thoughts of concern and worry to me all along. I quickly sent back my thanks and love towards her and also let her know I was okay now.

"Well don’t know about you but I think I’m ready to head back to the inn for now. Need to get some food in me and also need to check out my new staff!" I said.

This got the girls attention. "Oh yeah I saw you came away with a new staff, what does it do?" Amanda asked of me.

"I have absolutely no idea!" I merrily said a smile returning to my face. After hearing their combined groans at that I laughed before elaborating. "Whilst I may not know what it does I do know that it requires nature mana to use, and also that I felt oddly... attracted toward it? Don’t know if that’s the right word but I felt like I needed the staff somehow."

That seemed to concerns the girls even more though with Kana blurting out. "Wait so you potentially just bought a cursed item? Iv only heard of cursed items calling to people before now."

I quickly shook my head at that and elaborated. "Nono it didn’t feel cursed, it was more like it resonated with my affinity, even Dawn was drawn to the staff whilst it seemed to have no effect on Zara when she was with me." That did seem to somewhat aliviate their concern but I could tell they were both still slightly apprehensive about the item.

"Well how about we return to our inn and I can investigate the item in our room with you all with me, that way if anything goes wrong you can be there to help me." They both reluctantly accepted that. And so we headed back to the same inn as we were at previously.

Walking in the door I was greeted by a boisterous shout but non other than the lively dwarven barkeep Fuarder. "Ahoy there lassy! Back again so soon? Knew ye couldn’t resist me beautiful mug!"

Snorting as I remembered his wonderfully weird accent that mixed the incomprehensibility of Scottish and the lilt of Irish I called back out to him. "Naw just couldn’t get enough of that rat piss you call ale!" My reply seemed to shock the entire inn into silence as I had just loudly insulted the barkeep right to his face but the silence was broken when Fuarder burst into laughter and slammed his fist down into the bar!

"Hahahaha! I knew I liked ye for a reason lassy! You got some balls on ye!" He managed to get out after a moment, during which time I had made me way over to him leaving my stunned companions behind.

"No balls here only melons and ill thank you kindly for remembering." I replied whilst giving a little hop to emphasise said melons, this caused him to erupt into a fresh wave of laughter and before I even realised it a mug of something was suddenly in front of me.

"One mug o ’rat piss’ for ya there madam Mellon." He pronounced with a wink eliciting a snort from me.

"Get me 2 more of those if you will. We ok to bring them up to our room? Oh yeah also we will be needing a room for at least 4 more nights." I said with a smile.

I quickly paid and just as Kana and Amanda arrived 2 fresh mugs appeared out of nowhere in front of them causing them both to blink in surprise but just shrug and accept the drink. We then said our goodbyes for now and headed up to our room.

Once we arrived I sat down on the bed with both ladies plopping down on either side of me before I pulled out the staff and tried to inspect it.

[Staff of the Vine Golem (Gold)- When imbued with nature mana can summon a golem made of vines to do your bidding. Variying abilities will be unlocked depending on amount of mana imbued.

Passively provides a slight boost to nature mana regeneration and control.]

"Wow that is quite powerful! It’s even gold ranked!" I get out.

However both girls look at me in surprise with Amanda speaking up. "Wait you can inspect it properly? When I try I just get back question marks." Blinking in surprise at her I glance at Kana and she just nods to confir. Hu it seems like you require nature mana to even properly identify the item.

And so I quickly explained it’s effects to them both which elicited surprised gasps from them both. Apparently the ability to summon golems of any kind was quite advanced magics and based on the fact that this is a gold ranked item I can only agree. Whilst I am tempted to try use it here we decide that it’s lrobabally best to not try use it inside incase the golems break something and so we decide that tomorrow we shall head to a training room at the guild to try it out.

But for tonight, we head down for some dinner and then once we are full we head back upstairs where I am delivered as desert for my two lovers.