55 Day of Rest: Kenji's Perspective

'My name is Kenneth Andrews, I was born in Austin, Texas in my old world of Earth. I was a shut-in that played games and watched anime instead of living my life to the fullest, I was an artist that never really got anywhere with my decent artwork, most of my career was spent making commission ero-manga, the money was fine, but I always wanted to draw my own manga series.

Unfortunately, my dreams were halted when the obligatory truck-kun ran a red light, killing me on the spot. When I woke up, I found myself in some sort of underground prison with this little girl chained to a giant glowing rock, I thought she had summoned me to this fairy-tale world with a quest to build a Harem and destroy the BBEG of the world. Little did I know, I was actually summoned by a nymphomaniac half-succubus in pursuit of love.

I've done it more times in the past 72 hours than I did in my previous lifetime of 30 years. Lia is a sweet girl but holy hell is she insatiable, normally I would never complain, and with my high level and exceptional stamina, I never would have imagined feeling this drained, but the 'Succubus' half of her drains my stamina faster than I can replenish. Thankfully, she seems satisfied and I managed to get a decent night's rest last night.'

Kenji sighed as he closed his journal, storing it in his inventory. Lia was currently speaking to the owner of the local mages store as he leaned against the building. He felt Amari's presence as he looked up and saw her jump off of the roof of the building he was leaning against and disappeared in a blur.

Blinking in confusion, he looked around and noticed the target of her stalking as Ioune walked away from a stall, putting small wooden figurines in his robe, at a glance they looked to be small carvings of the crazy barbarian sisters. 'I wonder why he wants little toys of them? Is he some kind of closet perv?'

Kenji shook his head and straightened his hakama as Lia walked out of the store in a new set of blue robes, they looked similar to her old set but had a few silver accents along the hem. "Alright, love, I got what I wanted, is there anything you want?" Lia said as she smiled with a warm glow enhancing her beauty. Kenji smiled and felt lucky for a moment before he remembered this woman could kill him one of these nights.

"Hmm. Well, I could use a new katana." He drew his katana, holding it horizontal at eye level, looking down the blade at the many scratches, chips, and cracks along the blade. He had his enchanted wakizashi that sent powerful shockwaves with each swing, and his artifact jade sword, [Wind God's Blade], but he had a normal katana just for the aesthetic of a samurai.

"But unfortunately, they don't sell this kind of weapon here. The closest that they make is a straight-bladed katana." Kenji said as he sheathed his battered katana and furrowed his brow.

"Hmm." Lia tapped her nose, she did this a lot when she was lost in thought. "Maybe there is an artifact katana somewhere in the world. We should go see Sherry at The Sunken Oak, if anyone knows about the location of artifact weapons, it would certainly be her." Lia smiled and tilted her head. Kenji was once again smitten by how cute she looked.

Blushing, Kenji nodded his head simply, making Lia giggle, as they made their way to the tavern. They passed by Amari and Ioune, Amari had a determined look as she was distracted by something and paid them no mind while Ioune smiled and waved as they passed, Kenji and Lia returning the wave.

They entered the tavern and made their way through the busy tavern as they approached the counter. "Hello Sherry, two glasses of Ale and a quick question, please." Lia said as they exchanged nods and both looked at Kenji.

'Eh?'

"This your boy-toy Lia?" Sherry said with a smirk as she poured two glasses, passing them to Lia and Kenji.

"Actually, this is the man I told you about, I finally found him~" Lia finished the sentence with a sing-song voice as Sherry looked at Kenji in pity.

'Don't tell me she knows Lia is part Succubus...'

"Alrighty, what's your question, sugar?" Sherry said as she leaned on the bar.

"We were wondering if your birds heard anything about an artifact katana at some point, my lover wants to replace his main weapon."

Sherry scratched her head as she spent a few moments thinking. "Hmm. None I can think of... wait, oh yeah! I know of one, not a katana, per se, but a nodachi is said to be the weapon of choice for a ghost pirate ship captain that haunts the Gallant Sea. The word is that the sword is the artifact blade, Fujin. Think ya might be interested in something like that, lover-boy?"

Kenji's eyes widened in shock. Fujin was the Japanese god of wind from his old world, come to think of it, Amari's sword, Freyr, also shared the name of a goddess from Norse mythology. Kenji nodded and grinned. "A nodachi might be a little on the long side, but I'm sure I can make it work."

Sherry smiled as she pulled out a small parchment of paper and wrote something down before the parchment burst into flames and a small bird made of the flame flew out through the open ceiling. "There we go, I'll have my birds look for the location of the vessel and reach out to you whenever they find it."

Kenji bowed. "Thank you for your assistance, miss Sherry."

"Not a problem, sugar, if you need to reinforce your weapon, go see Hoat'l. My birds tell me you already know him pretty well, he should be able to fix you up pretty good."

"We will do just that, thank you as always, Sherry." Lia said as she slid a few silvers to Sherry over the countertop. Sherry shook her head. "Keep it, sugar, use it to buy yourselves some more gear, I know you're going after the Empress." Lia nodded and smiled sweetly before they turned and left the tavern.

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*BOOM*

As Kenji and Lia approached Hoat'l's smithy, a loud explosion was heard inside as they both rushed in through the door just as Ai crashed into a crate next to them, sending chunks of wood flying towards them, Kenji blurred in front Lia as he drew his katana, quickly slashing the wood chunks to pieces before they hit him.

Looking over to Hoat'l, who was covered from head to toe in white flames, floated in the air wielding an engine blade that had a shimmer to it as though it were enchanted. Hoat'l looked down at Kenji and Lia with glowing white-fire eyes as he dismissed the flames and landed on the ground.

He waved and walked up to the two of them with a wide smile on his face. "Hello there, lad and lass! Pleasure seein' ye here!"

Ai crawled out of the debris, covered in cuts and dust. She coughed as she stood up and dusted herself. "T-that was fuckin' awesome, Hoat'l!" She said excitedly as she stored her own engine blade in her inventory.

"Aye, lass, I've gottae admit, I did'nae think ye could learn me flying skill that easily." Hoat'l said as he beamed with pride like a teacher proud of his student.

"The hell? Are you ok, Ai?" Kenji asked as he looked over Ai's many scratches and bruises, he noticed her new blue and white outfit.

"You look so cute in that outfit, sweety!" Lia said as she walked up to Ai and dusted off the parts of her outfit that Ai had missed.

"Heehee, thanks, Lia. I'm fine Kenny-boy, speaking of... [Heal]!" She chanted as the scratches and bruises quickly disappeared from her body, but she instantly flinched in pain. "Ah, fuck, forgot I'm not supposed to cast spells, I'm gonna get an earful later." Lia, Kenji, and Hoat'l nodded.

"So what was that all about?" Kenji asked, looking at Hoat'l.

"Well, lad, I made a new prototype engine blade with a more efficient mana engine, miss Ai was generous enough ta help me test it out and learned how ta fly ta boot." Hoat'l said with a grin as he held up his new prototype. The engine was larger than Ai's with a thicker mana core along the spine of the blade.

"He combined the Metal element with a Force enchantment that surrounds the blade with force, making it dangerous to block against, speaking of, you need to do that with mine!" Ai said excitedly with a slightly sadistic grin on her face.

"Ah, well, lass, this is still a work in progress. I cannae do it to yours since it doesn't hold enough mana, but I'm confident I can make it work on a smaller engine by th' time you all come back to Lockwood."

Ai pouted as she summoned her cloak, Lia looked at the cloak with admiration as she recognized Felicity's handiwork.

"Ah, master Hoat'l, I was wondering if I could commission you to fix and enchant my katana." He said as he drew the katana, handing it to Hoat'l.

Hoat'l looked over the blade, tracing a chubby finger along the spine. "Aye, lad, though this blade is 'bout ta be on it's last legs. I think I can do ye one better and craft ye a new blade. It'll be done by tomorrow mornin' enchantments and all. Th' cost might be a little high fer ye and seein' th' urgency of our situation, ye can just pay me when ye get the chance."

Kenji nodded and smiled. "Thanks, Hoat'l, I'll swing by before we leave in the morning."

Hoat'l grinned and nodded as he immediately hobbled over to the forge and started drawing up blueprints from mana in the air.