Demon's Virtue

It was relatively early in the morning, and Eiro was just sitting there while trying to make more nature magic flow through his body so that he could make use of this special slab as much as possible. He would need to wait a little while and then do another affinity test later to see how strongly his nature elemental affinity increased by doing this. It probably did increase quite a bit, but Eiro couldn't be completely sure.

Either way, he was soon 'woken up' as someone tapped on his shoulder. Eiro slowly opened his eyes with a ripping sound as the bark that had covered his eyes broke apart.

"Yes?" Eiro asked, looking through the thin slits before placing the nature magic stone onto the ground and letting the nature magic simple disappear from inside of him. Because the one that tapped on his shoulder was Jess, who was there to let him know that everyone was ready to go by now.

The Demon stood up and stretched out properly, trying to get rid of that stiffness that he already got last time by infusing himself with nature magic, "Alright, then let's go." He said and stepped down from the slab, before putting on his cloak and mask. Eiro picked up Leon and Avalin and put them onto Lugo's back again.

"But how are we doing this now? We can't just waltz all the way back to the Capital with all these materials and living monsters. That would be basically impossible." James pointed out with his arms crossed, but Eiro just looked back at him with a smirk on his face, "You think so?" The Demon said, "Well, good thing that we've got an extra carrier with us." Eiro pointed out as he looked over toward a certain one of the Hobgoblins, and Krog groaned loudly.

"You don't seriously want to take it with us, right?" Krog asked, and Eiro looked back at him and spoke without hesitation, "Yes, I do. The spiders are a bit risky, since they're currently only kept under control by Leon, but it shouldn't be an issue with Gobo. We're just heading to the nearest town, and then you three will head inside and get us some transport carts."

"Oh... Fair enough then." Jess replied, "What exactly will we need?" 

"I think we should be with a single large cart. And then we just need individual cages for all the spiders. I'll leave the size-judgement to you, it shouldn't be too hard. But make sure you get a cart with enough space to also put all the other materials in there. Then we can head back to the capital like that." Eiro pointed out, "Oh, and obviously we'll also need some tubs for the blood. Get as many of those as you can, I'll make do with magic for the rest."

"We're not putting Gobo in a cage?" Jess inquired, and Eiro just shook his head, "No, we're not. I want to see how he can handle being around people. If I need to, I'll tie him up before we enter the capital, but otherwise he'll walk."

As Eiro was saying that, he quickly handed Gobo his old cloak and made sure that he had the hood over his head so that his ugly goblin face was harder to see, and then looked at the other Hobgoblins.

"You four, protect this town, and keep talking to each other in 'Common' as much as you can." The Demon told them, and the four other Hobgoblins quickly nodded their heads while the group started heading off. They picked up the spiders on the way, and then left through the caves.

Once they were outside, the group split into two. Since it would take a little while to properly make sure the spiders were really following behind properly, which would consequently slow them down, James, Krog and Jess went ahead toward town to buy the cart they needed already and have it brought out to a slightly hidden area right ouside of town where they could meet up with Eiro again.

As their stats increased a bit through them leveling up this much, they would get to town rather quickly. They actually managed to get there quickly enough that both groups were at the meetup spot at roughly the same time. Eiro and the others got there first, sure, but only a few minutes later the others got there as well. It seemed like Krog was actually pulling the cart for now, since they would make use of Lugo instead of a horse for pulling the cart, and Lugo was still with Eiro, so they had nothing to pull the cart back to the meetup spot.

Krog did a pretty good job at it, though, so it wasn't really an issue in the end. All that they then had to do was properly load everything onto the cart. The spiders were a little annoying after they were put into the cages, since Eiro let Leon stop trying to manipulate only them and instead helped him deactivate his skills altogether again.

That meant that there was nothing keeping them calm anymore, so they slowly started freaking out. But it wasn't an issue, they just covered the cart in a large sheet of cloth and then it was fine.

All that they now had to do was really just have the cart pulled toward town. They could cut down on the time a bit by having the children and Jess sit on Lugo's back and having him accelerate, while Eiro, James, Krog and Gobo were just running.

It was pretty good practice for Gobo as well, since he never had to run like this. Instead he was usually just sitting around somewhere in the Goblin village. The most he did was during the occasional hunt.

Either way, like this, they managed to reach the capital within the next few days. Eiro was glad that they managed to get back this quickly, since Avalin was getting a bit more cranky the longer they went on. She wanted to be back with the others, but when Eiro could start telling her that they would be there soon, she calmed down a bit, which made the rest of the trip a bit more bearable.

And then, they finally reached the capital again. At the gate into town, they were stopped so that they could take a look at the cart.

"So, why exactly are you here?" One of the guards asked suspiciously, since he could hear some sounds from the cart. It was the spiders being even more bothersome than usual due to the monster-repellants usually incorporated into town walls. Even Gobo, despite his sealed monstrosity, was a bit bothered by it. Although that made Eiro just the more impressed of the slime, since he didn't seem bothered by this in the slightest. He was just being annoying because of the cold again.

"We're adventurers that live in this town. We just came back from a trip, and came back with a few things we want to hand in at the guild." James said clearly, while Eiro was trying to calm down Gobo properly so that he wouldn't cause any issues from here on out.

"Aha... And does that include monsters?" The Guard asked with a frown as he started lifting up the cover on the cart, and James quickly nodded his head as he openly pulled the cover off the cart, seemingly surprising the guard a fair bit.

"Yes, actually. We prepared a full list of our materials beforehand. You can double-check if you want, but I doubt you'll find any mistakes." James added, and the Guard took the piece of paper into his hands and looked it over with a frown, before turning toward the cart.

"Well there's a mistake right here, it says you have a 'Mountain Hobgoblin' with you, but that's obviously not the case." The Guard said with a frown, "Or is that masked fella over there it?" He laughed, and his colleague swiftly laughed together with him.

"Seems fair, look at'im! Someone hiding their face must be as ugly as a motherfucking Goblin!" He exclaimed, and Eiro sighed annoyedly and stepped up to the guards.

"Heh? What'd'ya want, little guy?" The guard, who stood a head taller than Eiro, asked with a light grin, "Listen, we can't let you in either way. To get monsters into town, you need a special permit, and that ain't the kinda thing some low-rank adventurers like you can get. So bugger off now." The Guard said quickly, and without a moment's hesitation, Eiro pushed his hand forward and punched the man in front of him into the stomach, making him fall over while heaving for air.

Once the other guard realized what was happening, he properly held his spear toward Eiro, but when he did, he could already see the King's brooch being held toward him, "This a good enough permit for you?"

"I-I'm sorry, my Lord! Please, proceed!" The Guard exclaimed, and Eiro looked at him with a deep glare. The others just proceeded through while Eiro stayed there for a little longer. The two guards were a little confused, although the one that just barely managed to stand up again after being punched so painfully without even being dealt that much damage just glared at Eiro.

"Hey, Moron." Eiro said with a deep glare from under his mask, and both of the guards immediately looked back at Eiro, "Yes?" Both of them replied as they stood up straight, and Eiro just smirked a bit, "Since you two know that you're morons, I'm sure you'll appreciate it if I educate the two of you a little, right?" Eiro asked, "For one, alcohol is flammable, so be careful not to make your liver instantaneously combust while you're supposed to protect the town that my children live in. Two, if either of you even thinks about causing random issues like this that are going to reflect badly on my friend and benefactor, your King, then make sure that you're really doing it to people without the power to kill you and your whole families without anyone knowing, or even caring. And lastly..." Eiro said, before extending his hands upward to grab the two guards by their armors' collars, pulling them down and hitting their heads together.

"Stop swearing in front of children. What is wrong with people these days? Don't you know that especially a child's language comprehension skill will develop poorly when they only hear damn idiots like you speak the few words they actually know? You're better off not saying anything in front of children from now on. Do I make myself already?" The Demon asked with a glare, and the two guards slowly nodded their heads. 

With a satisfied expression under his mask, Eiro let go of the two guards and then started heading through the gate himself.. It seemed like his <Mark of Wrath> got a bit stronger again.