Lady of Curses

After the troll was defeated the party could relax. The battle wasn't really difficult, but it was tiring. All in all the fight went well, no one was majorly injured, except maybe Grefured, after all, he was holding on to the troll while getting bashed by it.

''We should probably take a small break before we continue.''  June was first to speak, and she suggested they take a break before they contained to their goal. The break was needed for multiple reasons for June personally. One she needed to recover the mana she spent, although she didn't spend too much it be better if she was full. The second thing was Grefured, he took a beating from the troll, and June was now considering whether would it be better to let him recover here, or to desummon him and then later summon him again.

Although it will take extra mana to summon him again, he will recover faster in his original home. After considering she decided to let Grefured recover in his home. She waved her summoned companion to her and seeing her gesture Grefured came to her with a limp. 

''See you soon budy.'' Giving the big wolf a few last scratches, she dismissed him. Slowly Grefured turned to mist until there was no more sight of him, only the mist that a few moments later fully disappeared. 

While June was saying goodbye to her companion, Kayne was on the troll digging for the troll's mana core. It wasn't hard to find as its location is known, just under the heart. The hard part was to try and get it out undamaged, and if possible cleanly. But for Kayne, it wasn't difficult he did it quickly and cleanly. 

Kayne wanted to take the troll's heart too because it was valuable, especially for an alchemist and you could get a pretty penny for it, but the party didn't have space to store it, so he left the heart alone. Kayne was a little disappointed that they couldn't take the heart with them but the disappointment didn't last long, the reason being that the troll's mana core is also valuable, and with this, they probably will be able to get an enchanted item with dimensional space. 

While Kayne and June were preoccupied, the rest of the party went to retrieve their luggage. Luckily for them, the troll attack wasn't sudden and they were able to put their backpacks down before engaging the troll. 

When they were on their way to the goal, Grefured alerted the party of danger, next was Alex as he could see better than any of them, and informed them that the threat was a troll. So knowing this information they were able to put their bags down in a somewhat safe place away from the fight.

It didn't take long before Hubert and the other two got back with their luggage. They put the luggage in one pile and then sat around it, June and Kayne joined them. They each grabbed some rations and water for themselves and started to indulge.

All of them sat on the ground, except Sam. June needed to let her mana recover, so she couldn't make seats for the party. But no one objected, they knew that June needed mana and the more she recovered the better for the whole party. But Sam took her place on Alex's lap, enjoying her lover's warmth. 

No one talked, they just ate their food in silence. ''AH~'' That is until this silence was broken by their local catkin Sam. When the party turned their gazes to Sam, they saw two things. Sam looking at Alex with a piercing gaze, and Alex smirking at Sam while having a peace of Sam's black tail in his mouth.

Sam pulled her tail out from the archer's mouth, and then leaned back in him, with some momentum. ''Ugh!'' The force from her move was enough to make Alex grunt a little. 

While the pair were having their fun, Kyane was admiring the monster core while eating, when he heard someone coming closer to him.''How much do you think it's worth?'' The sudden visitor sat down right next to him, and Kayne didn't need to take a look as he could tell it was June by her voice.

''Honestly, I don't know.'' Ripping another piece of the jerky Kayne continued. ''It should make us enough money that we could relax for some time if we wanted. But this troll was pretty young.'' Kayne didn't need much knowledge of trolls to know that this one had just recently become an adult. The troll didn't have much fighting experience, usually, the adults are a lot tougher. So knowing that this was a younger troll it would be a little less valuable, but still would give them a nice sum of money.

''We need to start moving.'' Their talk was interrupted by Alex. He was looking in one direction with a serious face. 

The party didn't ask more, they just gathered their things and got ready to on their way. It probably was other monsters, after all, they were resting near the corpse of the troll, so it was only logical that the wildlife would be attracted to it. 

***

''This is it?'' The party had finally arrived at their goal. Right now they were standing in front of what looked like a cave entrance. 

''Yes, we are here to investigate it.'' While looking at the cave's maw Kayne tried to see if he could see what's happening inside, but he couldn't see anything as it was pitch black. ''Report said that there were previous parties sent here, but none returned.'' 

''Why they were sent in the first place?'' 

''Someone reported strange noises and movements, so the guild sent some lower-ranked adventures here.'' Kayne still tried to peer inside the cave while he answered June's question. ''So we should be careful, we don't know what dangers this cave hides.'' 

''Are we ready?'' Finally turning away from the cave, Kayne asked the party if they were ready to explore this cave. 

''Almost.'' June needed to summon Grefured. Originally June thought she would need to summon him sooner when they encounter another monster, but after the troll, they didn't encounter another monster while they made their way to this location. Similar to the last time the glowing circle appeared then the mist and then the wolf. 

''Ready.'' June scratched Grefured behind the ear and announced that she was ready.

After hearing that the party made their way in the cave. They only brought the essentials and left their big backpacks behind in a safe location. June used her wood magic to reshape a big tree, she made so that this tree could store their luggage in it by making something like a room inside the tree. So the only way to get to their luggage is through something like wood magic or by destroying the tree.

The cave entrance wasn't that big so they need to go in single file. And the order was Sam, Hubert, June, Alex, and then Kayne, while Grefured was positioned next to June. All ready and prepared as they could be the party went to confront the danger of this cave.