First of all, the beasties outside town were much easier to take on than the bugs I had to fight in the demon dungeon. Even the goblins on the upper levels provided more of a challenge to the majority of the 'mobs' Pride, Edric, and I took out in the surrounding forest.

  In a rare spurt of chattiness, Edric explained that around most towns and villages- especially cities- the monsters were relatively weak. Not only do city guards and adventurers keep the stronger monsters at bay, but the monsters themselves tend to avoid settlements. Unless they were supremely dumb and hungry, or overtly strong and angry.

  On another note, I was impressed with my new slave. Edric, the mysterious and underfed prince of the major power house kingdom of Vespertine, was far more skilled with a blade than I was. Then again, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised: I was a former Earthling degenerate, and he was a prince likely trained from a very young age with a sword.

  It was clear, even to my untrained eyes, that he was out of practice and in no way in good enough shape to fight all out like he may once have been able to. But there was a grace in the way he fought. And, as a girl who grew up seeing drunken brawls outside strip clubs and and punk ass kids ganging up on people obviously weaker than their pack, That was a sentiment I never thought I would experience.

  So, even though these monsters were weak, I didn't mind. After all, I didn't want to get him into any trouble he couldn't handle right off the bat. And, we were out here for the money anyways, not the experience.

  I didn't even bother eating any of our kills. I didn't need Pride to explain to me that these monsters wouldn't give me much of anything. Though, I expect munching on a large raw bunny with twin horns and red eyes would probably taste better than centipedes.

  God, I could not believe I was at the point that I was seriously mulling over the gourmet differences between raw monsters. I should probably just get used to it already, but I really doubted I ever would.

  Currently, we were all seated near a fairly large tree, taking a break. I wasn't too tired, and Pride could probably go indefinitely for all I knew, but Edric clearly needed a breather, even if he refused to say so. He was even doing his best to pretend he wasn't tired.

  When I called for the break a strange look passed over his face, briefly. I thought it was fear, but it was there and gone so fast that I could have been wrong. No doubt it was a scar left from his life as a slave. I was willing to bet that all sorts of punishments would be had for the person thought to be holding up the work.

  But my assertions that he didn't have to worry about that anymore would fall on deaf ears. Sure, I had full intentions of releasing him from his binds, but the fact was that I hadn't yet.

  I had asked Pride how to do it, and he had explained that- back in his day- only very specific people could remove the 'slave curse'. Normally it was an ability given to royal lines or high ranking church members.

  Apparently, the ability to make someone into a slave contractor was also given to these people. That meant that someone had purposefully given that ability to the sleezy Dagrell in the first place. Probably some corrupt person.

  Either way, it would be a process that would take some time, and travel to a large enough city that had a priest with high enough ranking to dispel the contract. No doubt someone in Edric's own family could do the same.

  But even if there was a person present who could get the job done, I would not have done it just yet. I still needed Edric. So, as good as my future intentions were, I was still working on self interest. That didn't exactly build strong, trusting, bonds between us. It may take some time before the Prince was willing to open up about how he found himself in such a predicament.

  "It will take us some time to amass any kind of fortune with drops like these." Stated Edric after taking a swig from his water bag. He had been counting the rather small mana crystals we had collected so far, today. I had put him in charge of them, hoping to show a little faith in him. Though, I guess it wasn't like he could willingly betray me and sell them for himself, so the gesture was a pretty hollow one.

  "Well, we just need enough to get a map and have a few coins left for the journey." I sighed, stretching out my wings in the sun light filtering though the trees. The spoils may be worse, but I would take this atmosphere over that dreary dungeon any day.

  Edric eyed me skeptically. "I feel you are greatly underestimating the cost of the item you desire..."

  I sighed. "You are probably right. What can I say, back in my world you could get a map for like ten bucks! Heck, you could get it Scott-free on your phone..."

  "Nyx, please keep in mind that neither of us can understand half the words you just used." Stated Pride, gnawing on a bone.

  "Didn't your previous king also come from Earth?"

  "Yes. And I did not understand his ramblings either."

  I saw that Edric was watching us closely. He was curios about Earth, and both my and Pride's pasts. I didn't mind telling him, but I figured I would wait for him to ask before getting into long winded stories. Besides, my story was not all that amazing. Depressing, really. But I knew that he would like to hear about a world so different than his own. After all, I was pretty curious about this world too.

  "Well, if a map is going to be as big a drain as you say, should we head deeper into the woods?" I asked my strange, but growing, party.

  "I see no issue with that." Agreed Pride. The deeper we went into the forest, the stronger the monsters. And, therefore, the better the loot.

  "Are you sure that is wise?" Asked Edric, eyeing me oddly again. "That landlady did warn us not to..."

  "Ah, yes... such a delightful person she is." I said, annoyed. When she had heard us talking about entering the forest today, she had warned us against going too deep. Apparently the monster levels jump drastically the farther north we went. But, I could just remember the smug, hopeful look on her face as she relayed her news. That bitch totally wanted us to go get eaten. "Still, given the nasties we had to get through back in the dungeon, I'm sure we will be fine."

  "I'm not so sure." Why was it this prince suddenly got chatty when disparaging my hunting prowess?

  The truth was, Edric's physical deficit at the moment not withstanding, I was probably the weakest here. I was getting the physical power now that I gobbled up so many of those bugs. Heck, I could probably stand up to many of my fellow Summoned, not including the real monsters among them. But I had zero skills. Edric may be emaciated and warn out, but his swords skills were evident, even to me.

  And Pride was Pride. That demon has been stupid strong since ancient times.

  I was the week link. And it wasn't like that was anything new for me, but it still didn't exactly make me feel good either.

  "I'm sure we will manage." Was all I said, not convincing the prince in the slightest.

  Three hours later we were pretty deep into the forest, and it was clear that our landlady had been right: the monsters did appear to jump in strength. We could not always take them down with a single blow anymore, and often times all of us would need to take on a single monster.

  On the bright side, my appraisal skill had been getting a good work out. There was a hell of a lot of variety here, from big bunnies, several wolf species, a strange owl like creature the size of a horse, and more than a few massive boars.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Now, when I appraised something, I got a pretty good rundown on its stats. The damn thing was actually starting to get useful! Yay me... Now I could know just how out matched I was.

  I had been curious when it leveled and tried it out on Pride and Edric. I was pretty disappointed. I assumed that Pride was either too strong for my measly little skill to get a read on or he had his own blocking skills. When I tried to appraise him I mostly just got a bunch of question marks.

  And Edric wasn't much better. I could see his stat numbers, most of which read something like: Strength- 112/250. I assumed it was lower due to his poor physical state. But any deeper information, besides his basic title as a prince was also blocked from me. My guess was that, as a political figure, a spell had been placed on him to block out anything important from prying eyes.

  "Your appraisal can see that much?" He had asked when I brought it up with him after we took down a boar the size of a dumpster with razor tusks and hide so thick the princes sword could not penetrate. He seemed to view my claws a little more favorably when they made it through the thick hide. But it was still Pride who had to finish it off. "That's quite impressive."

  "Why?" I had asked, eyeing the pig and wondering if I should try eating it. It had to be at least as strong as the beetles we fought in the dungeon.

  "I was already surprised when you first told me you knew my name and title... All of the Vespertine royal family have strong blockers placed on them from birth to prevent prying eyes from seeing what they aught not to see. Appraisal skills may be rare, and most not very useful... but there is president for them causing problems."

  Better safe than sorry, it seemed. Apparently my weak little gift was strong after all. At least compared to other appraisal skills. But that still felt like saying that one ant was stronger than another. strong or not, it was still just an appraisal skill.

  "We should head back." Pride said, eyeing the sky we could make out between the trees. "If what we have collected is not enough, we can always come back again tomorrow. But it is getting late. It will be dark before we return if we do not hurry back now."

  "Good idea." There was a curfew for entering the town. I did not want to be stuck camping outside the walls for the night if it could be helped.

  Our landlady may be a bitch, but at least her establishment had beds. I'd really like to get back to them.

  Edric simply nodded and got to his feet.

  As it turns out, going back the way you came in real life is not quite the same as a video game. There was no cleared path, no. In fact, there were even more monsters, on account of the fact that we, oh so wisely, left a bunch of bloody corpses that drew in many other monsters.

  Getting back to a bed was looking a little less likely. But getting the money we needed appeared to be a guarantee now, given that the monsters drawn in by the corpses were bigger and nastier than the ones we had already killed.

  "What is that...?" I asked, beat and out of breath at last, about two hours after agreeing to head back.

  We had already taken down a slew of cow sized wolves and two of what looked like warty hippos, but with sharp teeth and a scaly green hide. As if regular hippos were not mean enough.

  But now we were facing off against what I would call, nightmare fuel. Sure, it was a bunny, but it was also three times my height, stood on two legs, had blood splattered white fur, and massive blood red eyes. Let us not forget the dagger like teeth and claws that put mine to shame. It was a dang monster from a B-Rated Halloween thriller! I half expected the thing to wield a chainsaw.

  "It's corrupted..." Said Edric, standing at the ready but looking unsure.

  "Er, corrupted?" I asked as the rabbit seemed to be eyeing us up, other wise adorable nose twitching.

  "It happens when a monster is over run with mana." Said Edric, readjusting his grip on his sword. "Unlike with most humanoids, it mutates them. They go crazy and kill everything, before eventually dying."

  I was about to ask if we left it alone, would it just die. But the monster did not give me the chance. Apparently it decided that we were, indeed, worth abandoning the rotting corpse of a wolf for.

  The rabbit made a snarling noise that I was pretty sure no Earth rabbit had ever made. Edric stepped in front of me, as if to guard me, thought better of it, and moved so that I had an unobstructed view of our foe, and shot me a worried glance.

  He had, instinctively I think, tried to protect me a few times now, but found out pretty quickly that I was able to defend myself fairly well at this point. Even if I couldn't do it as gracefully as he did.

  "In coming!" Barked Pride, causing Edric and I to jump out of the way, just in time to avoid a clawed rabbit paw from eviscerating us.

  Edric rolled to the left, some how avoiding stabbing himself with the sword. He immediately got to his feat and faced off with the bunny.

  Me?

  I was in the god damn air! The air!

  Some, psychotic, in born, demon instinct decided to kick in at the thought of becoming bunny chow, and now I was fifteen feet up. Eye level with R.L Stine's deranged pet Moopsy, who couldn't decide if it wanted to eat the boney man with the pointy stick, or the purple haired demon having a panic attack while hovering around his deceptively soft ears.

  Mean while, Pride was stealthily flanking the rabbit while also shooting me worried glances. Fifteen feet was not a drop that would do any damage to the new me, but maybe he thought- as I kind of feared- that I might, accidentally, make a break for the clouds where I would suddenly forget how this whole flight thing worked. The result being a fresh, demon queen, pancake on the hard packed forest floor.

  In the end, bunny-zilla, decided that Edric, though less meaty, was the easier meal, and dove the prince's way.

  He dodged the blow quite nimbly, spinning aside before bringing his blade down on one of its white furred arms. I watched as the rabbit roared and a new bloody line soaked its fur. It did not retreat, however, and made to swipe at Edric again.

  Pride pounced, expanding his size as he did. He went from a rather large rottweiler, to a real monster. Eight feet tall at the shoulder, massive paws, claws and teeth, and a pair of glowing red eyes. He had to weigh a ton or more, and all that mass landed on the back of the rabbit.

  I thought that would be it. But, apparently, the corrupted monster was not going to give up its life so easily. It bucked under Pride, desperate to get the dog off its back. But pride locked those huge jaws around the base of its neck. I had seen my partner do this often enough to know that he was trying to deliver the killing blow.

  However, this bunny wasn't about to roll over and die. It let out a screech that hurt my ears and began to buck, first knocking into Edric, who managed to turn and take the blow in a way that had him rolling across the earth rather than slamming into a tree, spine first. Then pride went hurling through the air, crashing through several trees before getting to his feet, hackles raised and a madness in his red eyes.

  "Tch!" I spat, angry. "Enough of this!"

  Trying not to think too much on the logistics of flight, I put my faith in instinct, and dove on the enemy. I fell through the air at quite a speed, claws extended, and slashed at the rabbit, who seemed to have forgotten me since I was in the air, choosing, instead, to advance on Edric, who was still struggling to his feet.

  "It's rabbit season!" I snarled, before lashing out, feeling my claw like nails break through the animal's thick hide and dense muscle before striking bone. Unaffected by the sight of blood, I spun midair before raking though its flesh once again.

  The monster screamed, spine bent in pain and half a shoulder now missing from where I had carved out a chunk of dark red meat.

  It tried to smack me out of the air then, but Pride was already on the case. One second I was glaring at white fur soaked red with blood, and the next my vision was blocked by the brown and black fur of my dog like companion.

  Pride sank his enormous fangs into the neck of the beast as he had before, this time succeeding in pinning it to the ground with his large body. "Now boy!" Snarled the hellhound, voice muffled with flesh and rabbit fur.

  Edric hurried forward, a wound leaking a trickle of blood on his forehead, but determination in his eyes. He raised his sword high. "Ugh-raaaah!" He shouted, his sword coming down like an axe and deftly removing the rabbit's head from its torn up neck.

  My feet touched ground- rather gracefully I might add- as Edric straighten up, breathing heavy, and Pride unlocked his jaws from his downed prey.

  He then shook out his fur.

  "Ugh!" I screeched, aggravated. "Seriously!" He had just shook a nasty, foamy, mixture of dog drool and blood all over me.

  "Er, apologies Nyx." Stated pride, looking a little mollified, at least.

  Edric fell back to the ground, his head bent between his raised knees. "That was difficult..." He sighed.

  "Are you hurt?" I asked, remembering the blood I had seen a moment before.

  "It was only a scratch M'lady." He said, sounding beat and not looking up.

  I sighed and rooted around in my bag for one of the healing potions we had bought earlier. "Call me Nyx." I said, removing the small glass bottle containing the red liquid. Could this world not have been a little less cliche? Couldn't the potion have been a different color other than red?

  "Here." I handed the prince the potion. He took it with a muttered thank you, his head still lowered.

  I was about to check on Pride, though I had no doubt that he was just fine despite the crashing through trees, when a robotic voice sounded in my head.

  [ Skill: Unwavering, is now level 2]

  Oh. Huh... I had forgotten all about that one. Though, I guess it explained how I could fight massive bugs in the dungeon, and now this mutant bunny, without really being afraid at all. I had been worried and cautious, but not afraid.

  Well, cool. I wasn't about to look poorly on a skill up.

  Then I sighed, glaring down at the rabbit, dreading the answer to the question I was about to ask.

  "I suppose I should eat this...?" I asked Pride, who had taken to sniffing the head, the rabbits red eyes still wide open.

  He seemed to contemplate it for a moment before I watched him nod, dashing all my hopes. "It would be smart. It's level is not on par with the monsters of the dungeon's lower levels by any means, but the fact that it is so rich in mana could provide you with some skill-ups."

  "I was afraid you would say that..." I sighed as the metallic scent of fresh blood filled the woods.