Kazuma snuck into the cave as quietly as he could. He'd already activated Vanish, but that didn't effect sound. He crept inside the massive hole in the mountain and looked around, he already knew there were no traps. It took almost no time to spot a cyclops sleeping on his side atop a mound of fur blankets. He was lying there, single eye shut and unmoving.
I guess that's why Detect Enemy didn't show me anything, Kazuma thought. He'd used he ability plenty of times to ambush enemy monsters who has no idea he was in the area. So, the ability worked whether the monsters had hostile intent or not. But apparently it didn't if there was no chance the enemy could be a threat in their current state. So even a twenty foot tall cyclops wouldn't trip his ability so long as it was fast asleep and no danger to him.
Along with the blankets there were huge wooden clubs, stone spears, and piles of equipment, weapons, and other goods that has probably been scavenged from the travelers who'd been attacked. Kazuma activated his Identify skill. Eyeing the cyclops he saw a lust of information pop up in his eyesight, like a menu on a computer screen.
RACE - Cyclops
LVL – 25
HP – 410
STR – 103
CON – 67
DEX – 20
INT – 15
WIS – 21
CHM - 4
LCK – 24
EXP – 288,145 / 310,000
Kazuma looked about the cave, it was a disorganized mess with piles of stolen equipment and gear and what not spread all over the place. His Farseeing ability let him spot everything even though it was dim. Combined with his Identify ability when he focused on anything he would see a pop up stating a basic description of the item followed by: Estimated Value X,XXX.
Iron Spear – 8,000
Iron Sword – 5,000
Bronze Dagger – 1,000
Round Shield – 3,000
Longbow (Good Quality) – 30,000
Iron tip arrows x 12 – 200 x 12
Small Buckler – 1,500
Iron Sword (Poor Quality) – 3,200
Chainmail (Damaged) – 2,500
Magical Broadsword – 1,200,000
A huge grin split Kazuma's face. Chris, I love you! Thief skills rock so damn hard! Sneaking as quickly and quietly as he could over to the weapons stash he grabbed the broadsword. He then noted that where he was now let him look into an alcove he hadn't spotted from his previous angle. There were a pile of about twenty purses, each one had a value running from 12,140 to 2,750.000. Kazuma hurried over and picked up the one worth over two million Eris. He opened it and saw it contained gold and silver coins. Kazuma forced himself not to laugh out loud he didn't want to accidentally wake up the cyclops. He snatched up every single purse and stuffed them into special pockets he'd had sewn into his cloak for this exact purpose. (A suggestion from Chris.) The purses and the broadsword all disappeared as did anything in physical contact with him when he has Vanish active. Not seeing anything else worth grabbing Kazuma got out without making any great noise.
His teammates were waiting on him behind a boulder about a thousand yards from the cave entrance. Kazuma ended the Vanish ability and appeared in front of them.
"The way you're smiling," Megumin said. "I bet you found the cyclops."
"Yep, and I found a few other things too." Kazuma dropped the broadsword and pulled out all the purses too. Even though he was thinking of himself more and more as a rogue he had no intention of ever stealing from or cheating his party members.
"Nice!" Megumin said eying all those purses. "Do you know how much they're worth?"
"Not exactly, but somewhere north of four million." The reward for exterminating the cyclops was one and a half million. With the sale price of the broadsword this one day's work would earn them close to seven million eris total!
Darkness ignored the purses and instead picked up the broadsword. She held it before her eyes and carefully inspected it. "This is a magnificent weapon, the finest I've ever seen." She glanced at Kazuma. "What are we going to do with it?"
"Sell it, what else."
She looked away and dug a foot into the ground. "You know, it would make a fine weapon for a crusader to wield in battle. Any skilled swordsman would love a blade like this."
Kazuma sent her a flat look. "You know anyone like that?"
She gasped. "So cruel! You really have no mercy!"
"If she wants it, I don't mind her having it," Megumin said. "I mean if it makes her stronger in combat isn't that good for us as a party?"
"Well that's sort of the problem, isn't it? If she could use the thing, I'd give it to her too. But she's worthless with a sword in her hand. She'd be as dangerous holding a stick."
Darkness gasped and shuddered. "K… K… Kazuma how can you be so vicious right to my face?"
Kazuma gave an exasperated sigh. "You really want to keep that sword? Fine," he pointed to the boulder they were standing in front of. It was twelve feet high and about six feet wide. "Hit this thing one time and you can have it."
"You really think I could miss such a ridiculous target?"
"I'll give you three swings."
"Fine! I'm sure I can manage to hit something so huge!" She held the magical blade in a fighting stance and strode forward.
Thirty seconds later a red faced Darkness handed the sword back to Kazuma.
"Okay Megumin, do your thing."
"Right!" She held up her staff. "Forces of ruin hear my call! Show me the power of destruction! Show me the fiery end deserved by all my foes! Show me Explooooooooosion!"
The inside of the cave blew apart sending chunks of rock flying in all direction and triggering a minor landslide. Kazuma and party hid behind the boulder. When the ground stopped shaking Kazuma peered around the boulder to see the side of the hill was now nothing but smoking rock and debris.
A limp but smiling Megumin sighed. "That was awesome."
"Well mission accomplished," he slid the archwizard onto his back. "Time to go home."
XXX
As they tromped back towards the guild Darkness brought up the rear. She was much quieter than usual. As they entered the city she spoke up.
"Kazuma?"
"Yes, I'm Kazuma."
"Are really going to just sell the sword?"
"Yep."
She took a deep breath. "Kazuma, I really want this sword! It would be perfect for me!"
He looked over at her. "I didn't realize it was made out of rubber."
She gasped. "You're savage."
"No, I'm not. I'm just sensible. If you wanted it as a weapon, I'd be happy to give it to you. But you only want it as a decoration. Buy some earrings or a necklace or something instead."
Her cheeks blushed. "Y… You don't see me as a proper crusader at all do you?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Does anybody?"
Darkness put her head back and gave a cry that sounded so erotic a nearby mother covered up her child's ears.
When they reached the guild they received the reward for their mission. They also counted out all the coins in the purses and divided everything up. Each share came to a little under one point nine million eris. It was late afternoon, so Kazuma decided to have dinner at the guild and then just head home. He would visit the weapon shops tomorrow and see who would give him the best price for the sword.
On his way home he felt a heavy hand slap down on his shoulder. "Hey, youngster! I've heard about how well you've been doing lately. Congratulations."
Kazuma looked up and saw it was Mohawk Guy. He was a regular at the guild and seemed like a really good friendly person. Though Kazuma had never actually learned his name. "Oh, well thanks."
"A man should celebrate his good fortune you know?" The guy had a big smile on his face. "You know what I'm saying?"
"Oh, sure, I just had good dinner and some ale."
"That's not what I mean, youngster." He suddenly pulled Kazuma close and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Have you ever visited Hell's Door?"
"Huh? What, are you talking about almost dying?"
Mohawk Guy shook his head. "Come with me, youngster. I'll show you a special place made for just us men."
"Uh…" Kazuma wasn't sure how to respond. On the one hand that sounded kind of intriguing, but he didn't really know this guy that well. And going to any place called the, 'Hell's Door' didn't sound appealing.
"No need to be shy youngster, a man works hard and plays hard!" With an iron grip around his shoulder Kazuma was led down an alley way towards a non-descript door.
Before he knew it he was in a lounge filled with gorgeous half naked succubi! He was sat down and handed a form to fill out. A sexy blonde succubus with massive tits and a minimum of black thread explained the rules. As she spoke she kept touching herself seductively right in front of him.
"We succubi have a mutually beneficial relationship with the male adventurers of this city."
"Uh huh." He was staring at her as she massaged her own breasts. Kazuma wasn't sure but the thought he might be drooling.
"We provide our customers release, from certain, frustrations they may not otherwise be able to relieve."
Kazuma gulped and nodded.
"We can enter your dreams and fulfill any desire you may have." She motioned to the form. "It can be literally anyone you want, real or imagined, and she'll behave however you desire. She will do anything you want, no matter how perverted or wicked or immoral." The girl put both hands between her legs right in front of Kazuma's face. "Nothing is forbidden or off limits, after all it's all just a dream."
Kazuma stared at what she was doing. "Anything?"
"Anything," she said in a sultry whisper and rubbing her hands along a certain spot.
Kazuma swallowed and struggled to speak. "Uh, how much does this cost?"
The blonde succubus shook her head. "We don't take payment in coin. What we ask for is just a tiny bit of your vitality." She took a hand away and held thumb near forefinger. "We won't take so much as to shorten your lifespan or inconvenience you on your adventures. It's a fine bargain don't you think?"
Kazuma shook his head so hard it might have fallen off.
"Write down your desires in detail and some time tonight one of us will pay you a visit and fulfill them within your dreams. My only caution is that you not drink heavily before going to sleep tonight. If you fall into a stupor or very deep sleep, you won't be able to experience our dream manipulation."
"G… Got it, no problem." He paused. "I can ask for anything?"
"Anything," she told him bending over to give him a nice view. "We are here to satisfy our customers every desire. So please, don't hold back."
Kazuma quickly write down what he wanted and then hurried back to his cottage. He was lying in bed before it was even completely dark outside. He shut his eyes and tried to force himself to go to sleep. He was too excited for that, but eventually he did fall asleep.
XXX
He woke up to a pounding at his door. He threw back the sheet and ran to open it. There before him was his succubus. She looked exactly like Darkness. Huh. I wanted it to be Chris except with huge tits. I guess maybe deep down I wanted to do this even more.
"Kazuma, I really need to talk to you!"
With a huge smile he opened the door wide. "Come on in then."