I felt a soft vibration as a small bell note hung like silk in my ears.
"About time," I muttered, bringing up the notification.
Quest: The Corner Store
Objective: Gain control of the city's Aetherite market.
"Nice."
Skye glanced at me. Her hands were still tight on the wheel. "What is?"
"I got a quest." I felt my phone buzz at the same time. Shadowpaw had sent only a single word.
Now.
"Time to leave," I said, giving Skye a pat on the leg. "Keep the motor running just in case. We shouldn't be long."
"Yes, Master." The words had come automatically to her lips. I didn't say anything. Even in Neyteria, Nekos would call me Master when in battle or stressed.
Or had they?
I had a sudden realisation that I couldn't remember a time when Jade had called me by name. She'd always called me Master. Minxi, too. I felt a twinge in my head and looked away from Skye as I gently kicked the door open.
"Good girl," I said, knowing it would make her happy.
I left her purring and crossed the road. Most shops were closing or closed. It was a relatively quiet street, so few people were walking past.
A couple of bums had congregated near the liquor store. One was shouting. Something about one of the other bums not sharing his cigarettes.
I shook my head. There hadn't been any bums in Neyteria. The streets had been clean, and no one smoked cigarettes. Here, there was a definitely rancid stench coming out of the drains and the roads looked cracked and old.
Everything and everyone looked worn.
Weary.
Or just plain broken.
The System would fix it, I told myself.
As I reached the front door, Shadowpaw jerked it open and pulled me inside. Her eyes were wild, but there was a manic grin on her face. She was enjoying herself.
"There were two guards," she told me. "They weren't leaving and kept asking me questions. Both male, so I killed them. Is that okay?"
"It might raise some questions," I said, wincing. "They work here, don't they? They'll have families."
She shook her head. "No, they were just here to pick up some stones, but got nosy. Their truck is still out back."
"Okay," I said, thinking. I remembered a time, when I only had a dozen Nekos in Neyteria. We'd done something similar and taken over the local Adventurer's Guild. We'd had to kill some guards. We didn't want anyone poking around and asking too many questions, so we tried to make it look like someone else had done it. "How did you kill them?"
She held up a small handgun equipped with her new favourite toy. A suppressor. "Bullets."
"Good." I shot a quick look to the front of the store. No one was around. "Put them in the truck. Drive it a couple of blocks away and dump it somewhere out of the way. Make it look like a robbery gone wrong. Take anything which looks useful. Maybe fire off a few shots before you leave. Then we'll clean up any mess here when you get back."
She nodded. "Okay."
"You did good," I told her, leaning in and kissing her. She kissed me back with a greedy lunge and a flick of her tail.
We looked at each other breathlessly for a few seconds after.
I wanted to snatch her up and take her right there.
But we didn't have time. And Skye was waiting.
Instead, I licked the taste of her off my lips and smiled. "Where is she?"
"I tied her up in the office."
"Okay. Show me the way, then you can take care of the bodies."
"Yes, Master."
The store was only small. Its owner had been running it for the past five years mostly with herself and a couple of casual staff. I'd deal with the staff one by one, but the owner was my priority.
She was in a heavy-looking office chair where Shadowpaw had left her.
My Neko rogue had used more rope than she'd needed to and stuffed the woman's own stockings into her mouth as a gag. As I walked in, she freaked out. I could see her mind was filling with horror as she ran a thousand potential future scenarios through her head.
None of them were nice.
I took one of the other chairs and sat in front of her, trying to look as friendly as possible. This wasn't how I normally wanted to meet a new Neko.
"I'm sorry about the rope," I said. "And the gag. But we needed you to be quiet while Shadowpaw locked up the shop for you. I'm not going to harm you, though. So, you can relax. Really."
She didn't believe me.
They never do.
I remembered the Adventurer's Guild. There'd been a woman who worked the counter. Human. She hadn't believed me. She'd spat at and cursed me. Then kicked me as soon as I got close. Her Strength stat must have been fairly respectable.
Over the years, I'd learnt there was no point engaging in conversation at times like this. It was all a waste of effort. They won't understand. They can't understand.
The only thing I could do was show them.
I looked her in the eyes as I put my hand on her cheek. She flinched from my touch. I found that amusing in a sad way.
"Transform to Neko."
Her scream was muffled by her stockings as everything went black.
After a few minutes, she still hadn't stopped screaming so, like with Licorice, I had to turn the volume down. She had already been quite slim, so I didn't do much other than smooth out her curves and lift her breasts a little. Just this made her look ten years younger.
I made her nipples a little lighter in colour and her legs slightly longer. Not too much to be out of proportion.
I thought her eyes were already a nice hazel, but I amplified them so they looked richer in colour. Continuing with the brown theme, I shifted her hair from blonde to a luxurious dark chocolate colour. Selecting York Chocolate as her breed, I watched as her ears and tail took on the colour of her hair and sprouted nice fluffy fur.
"You're so beautiful," I told her. "Do you feel beautiful?"
She was screaming in horror at her tail. I don't know why. I thought it was magnificent.
I sighed. It was too early. She was still processing the change. I looked at her other options while she adjusted.
Merchant was a class option, and I selected it. This is what I needed.
She'd be able to run the jewellery store and, as she gained more merchant skills, she'd unlock access to the System Store. I couldn't wait to see what the System was going to let her sell to us.
More importantly, she had contacts in the gemstone industry. She'd be able to get more Aetherite. Hopefully as much as I needed. I'd need to follow back her suppliers to find the mining companies dealing with it. Maybe I could accumulate the wealth needed to buy them out.
If I could actually corner the global supply before the System took over, I'd be the richest man on the planet.
But that wasn't today's problems. If the System had taught me anything, it was to never count my loot until the quest was completed.
I then had to pick her name.
She wasn't being helpful, so I had to think of one on my own. I didn't want to be lame and pick something chocolate related, but I couldn't think of anything in the spur of the moment, so I just went with Caramel.
It felt right. She looked like a Caramel.
As soon as I'd submitted my changes, I closed the Workshop and we appeared back in her office. She was still tied up with stockings in her mouth. Her eyes were gazing at me, wide in adoration. I untied the stockings and pulled them out of her mouth.
"Are you alright, Caramel?"
She nodded, working her dry mouth before answering. "Yes, Master." Her voice was like liquid sugar and I knew I'd picked the right name.
"I'll untie you now," I said. "Sorry for the rope."
"That's okay," she said. "I understand. Master?"
"Yes?"
"My tummy feels funny."
I took a hurried step back as she threw up.