A Nephilim, a Monster Lord, and a Rich Cripple walked into a bar...

Everyone had their fill for the moment. Victor grabbed back the empty packages for the pizza and hamburgers and sold them at 9 and 4 Gold Coins each respectively, and the conversation they had before resumed, with Victor taking the lead. "So, what now?"

Luka blinked at him before he looked at Alice in curiosity, since the conversation was about the reason why she was in Luka's inn.

Alice scoffed at their gazes and turned her head away, but she spoke anyway after some hesitation. "...I guess I had spoken too much before."

Even if she acted like she was forced, Victor seemed to associate that gesture to shyness rather than annoyance. To be fair, he and Luka are probably the first humans she has ever seen before.

"You just sounded so childish that I couldn't help myself, that's why I wanted to clear the air on something. I know a lot of the world, and experienced many things, so your naive words took me by surprise. While your childishness is idiotic… It's a good thing to have."

"..." Luka stared at Alice dead in the eyes with a stupid expression on his face. Meanwhile, Alice glanced at his face and remained silent for a couple of seconds.

"What? I'm comforting you. What's with that face?"

"Girl, we have a lot to talk about how to comfort people." Victor commented with a cringe expression, making Alice annoyed at his answer.

"Shut up, you…" Alice glared at Victor for a moment before she turned towards Luka. "Anyway, what are you going to do after this? Surely you aren't going to give up on going on a journey?"

"Just as I planned, I'm going to defeat the Monster Lord. Even if I'm not a hero, I'll still leave." Luka spoke with a renowned determination, expecting Alice to look at him with a bit of awe. However, Alice simply glanced at Victor with a raised eyebrow, and Victor replied by shaking his head.

There was no word of their 3-seconds-conversation, but it was kind of clear if you understood the context.

Does Luka know who she is?

No, he doesn't have the slightest idea.

"Well…" Alice trailed off as she looked back at Luka. "At least you got the attitude. I didn't say it before, but I'm interested in your so-called dream."

"Interested?" Luka blinked in surprise and pointed a finger at his face. "...in me?"

Alice nodded. "That's right, you are interesting. You're able to say such a ridiculous thing as 'I want monsters and humans to coexist' so confidently, that I want to see how hard reality will hit you. I will follow you while you travel to watch when that delusion wears off

"You are really bored…" Victor commented again before he turned around his wheelchair. "Anyway, since there is nothing else to say here, I'm taking my ass out of here and finding myself a new house…"

"No." Alice said before she used her tail to block one of the wheelchair's wheels, making him tremble for a moment. He immediately glared at Alice and said.

"Hey, be careful! This wheelchair is fragile as fuck, do you know how much does a decent wheelchair cost?"

"I don't care, you are coming with us now."

"C'mon, I'm not going to snitch on you! Who will believe me, after all?" Victor complained at Alice's remark, and she replied with a scoff.

"Do you really think I'd take your words for granted?"

Victor didn't answer that question and looked down, with the answer of her question clearly visible on his face. Of course she won't believe him, he would not tell them about his origins, why would she let him go after learning that he knows her secret identity?

Victor sighed and shook his head before he glanced at Luka. "Fuck it, seems like we will go together in the end."

Luka sighed in exasperation and replied. "I don't have an opinion in this matter, do I?"

Alice let a small prideful grin appear on her face. "Oh, absolutely. With your power, there's no way you would be able to force me to do anything at all."

Luka crossed his arms and stared up to Alice. "Well then, follow me around as you like. I'll prove to you that my conviction is real! ...By the way, what's your name?"

Alice paused for a moment, and introduced herself in an elegant manner. "My name is Alipheese, Alipheese Fateburn. However, I'll allow you to simply call me Alice."

"Alice?" Luka tilted his head at the side and blinked a couple of times. "That doesn't really fit you…"

Alice threateningly lifted the tip of her tail away from Victor's wheelchair and pointed it towards Luka. "Do you want me to strangle you?"

"Sorry… Well then, shall we head out?" Luka asked and Victor sighed in relief.

"Finally, I was starting to get bored here." He muttered as he stretched his back, and the three started to head out of this inn from the main door. However, Luka stopped on his steps, was reminded out of something, and turned towards Alice.

"Hey, Alice, can you go out the back door? If the villagers see you, there will be chaos. We can meet back up once we're outside the village."

Alice stroked her chin and consequently nodded along with Luka's words. "That's fine, causing a commotion would give me a headache. I'll wait outside of the village."

And so, Victor wheeled around and followed after Alice. Seeing that Victor was picking that road, Luka asked. "Where are you going, Victor?"

Victor glanced at him from the corner of his eyes and replied. "She won't let me go anyway, so I might as well follow her so that she won't make any complaints."

"At least you are smart, let's go." Alice commented before she slithered past the counter of the inn and reached the back door, with Victor following behind her massive tail. 

When the two of them left the inn from the back door, they were welcomed by a clear field that Luka would usually use to train in his weird swordsmanship, with only a few guards standing some distance away from them. 

However, they kind of looked drunk, stumbling around with their weapons in their hands as if they were under severe drugs.

Victor and Alice went past the guards, and Victor stopped in front of one of the guards, staring up to their faces that showed a sleepy expression.

"I hypnotized them when I passed here. Hit them hard enough and they will wake up. For now, they are sleepwalking very hard." Alice commented, noticing Victor not moving in front of a guard.

"...How hard would you need to hit them?"

"A blunt hit on their head or a stab on their thighs will work, what are you thinking about?" Alice asked as she turned around and faced Victor. However, she got surprised when she saw Victor trying to stand up from his wheelchair, using a guard's spear as a support.

After standing up on one foot, Victor snatched the guard's spear and started to undress him of his armor, soon leaving the guard with only his left leg armored. Meanwhile, Victor started to dress up on the guard's armor and put the spear back in his inventory, with his other set of clothes and medical bandages.

A wry smile appeared on Alice's face. "I didn't take you for a thief, pizza boy."

"It's Victor, not pizza boy." Victor commented. "Besides, I am the one who's going to travel around the world with a broken leg now, not this guy. I need his stuff more than him."

"It seems like humanity doesn't have a single bit of pity for their own species, I never thought you'd be this ruthless."

"You say that as if monsters are any better than us, going around killing and raping humans like they are in some kind of competition for who is going to get more fatter from semen. At least the ratio between wild humans and people living in a proper society is abysmal in favor of the latter."

"...Touchè." Alice commented back at Victor and watched Victor getting back on his wheelchair. Even though she saw Victor pulling the spear somewhere unknown to her, she started to ignore that kind of thing as something unique to him. 

He also lacked a magical presence and his smell was really different compared to the other humans, much more similar than hers. Victor probably lived his life in great conditions for him to have such a clean smell.

Not only did he have a clean body, but he also looked bright on the head. He might also be a member of nobility just like her… After all, her teacher Tamamo told her about special bloodlines running through a certain group of humans, even if she wasn't clear of the identity of those groups due to her lack of attention back then.

Unfortunately, she couldn't assert that fact just because she couldn't sense him at all to begin with.

After Victor put himself in a comfortable position, he went to the store for a moment and bought a lighter and a pack of Marlboro for 303 and 47 Gold Coins respectively. He put a cigarette on his mouth and lightened up the tip, before sticking the lighter and cigarettes on his inventory.

"Alright…" Victor pulled out his cigarette and exhaled a cloud of smoke, before he put it back in his mouth. "Let's keep going."

Thus, they started to leave from the edges of Ilias Village and reach the northern side of the village, where they are more likely to encounter Luka.

The heroes that were supposed to be baptized today but weren't able to do so already headed out from the village, which is why there was absolutely no one passing through the road of soil where Victor and Alice were in.

According to Victor's memory, today he and his new group will encounter a Slug Girl along the way to Iliasburg. Their bodies are problematic, but it's very easy to solve, so he won't need a gun for the moment.

At the moment, he has… 1'376 Gold Coins… Let's upgrade some stuff for now.

[Current Production: 486 Gold/Hour]

[Basic Production: 423 Gold/Hour]

[Current Multiplier: 1.15x]

[Automatic Wood Cutter: (1 Gold/Hour)]

[Automatic Stone Retriever: (2 Gold/Hour)]

[Coal Mine: (5 Gold/Hour)]

[Copper Mine: (10 Gold/Hour)]

[Iron Mine: (15 Gold/Hour)]

[Steel Mine: (30 Gold/Hour)]

[Silver Mine: (1 Gold/Minute)]

[Gold Mine: (5 Gold/Minute)]

[Platinum Mine: 2'000 Gold]

"Oh, that's a nice result…" Victor muttered with wide eyes as he stared at the surprising increase of Gold that his system gave him.

"What?" Alice glanced at Victor, who shrugged her off.

"It's nothing important, just something between me and myself."

"..." Alice looked at Victor from the corner of her eyes for some seconds before she turned around.

Still, he almost reached a production of 500 Gold Coins for each hour! Maybe getting the True Vampire Serum without getting the treasure in the Cave of Treasures is not impossible…

Not just that, his life conditions will immensely increase soon. Well, he is now holding a Gold Mine, it would be stupid if he gets too little 'Gold' Coins from a 'Gold' Mine.

Anyway, it took him another hour for Luka to arrive at the planned spot. He looked kind of tired, with his back arched forward in exasperation. During this time, even though he wanted to play with his charged phone, he didn't want to go too far with the abnormality thing in front of Alice's presence. 

One thing was the inventory, which he could excuse himself as something that simply came up with him. But if he starts to use a highly-technological device in front of her with extreme familiarity, she is going to be annoying, and he currently doesn't have enough patience to deal with that kind of stuff now.

"*Whistle!*" Victor whistled, attracting Luka's attention. The boy lifted his head and saw Victor sitting on his wheelchair at Alice's side. He visibly perked up when he saw Victor and approached the group; but as soon as he set his gaze to Alice, he started to get a bit depressed.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Alice asked, seeing the change in Luka's behavior. Luka shook his head.

"No, nothing's wrong…" Luka sharply inhaled and let out a sigh, before he looked up on the sky and cupped his hands together. "Oh Ilias… Did you really abandon me? I waited for today for so long… and I wasn't able to be baptized in the end…"

Alice snorted at Luka's aimless prayer. "Isn't it better to not have been baptized? I don't understand why humans want to be slaves to Ilias."

"Being a Hero has a lot of perks, you know." Luka faced up to Alice and replied. "You get the respect of the society, cheap rates at inns, and you can even walk into people's houses and take stuff."

"Isn't your offer of 5 Gold already cheap?" Victor asked as this was one of the things he was left in dark from the visual novel.

Luka nodded to Victor. "Yes, my inn gives out really cheap prices, but that was something my mom already set up to get back to the villagers back in the days and it didn't change. The average price for a single night is 30 Gold Coins per person, with 3 extra Gold Coins for each meal. Even the Temple of Ilias has cheaper prices compared to the other places."

"Oh, I see… Well, if you need money, you can ask me away as long as it isn't too pricey. I'm currently saving up for my leg, you know."

"It's okay, I already brought my own savings for this journey. Besides, we will get more along the way, completing some quests and stuff like that. Maybe we can also sell something we find in our way…"

"Hmm…" Victor hummed and started to enter in his own thoughts, while him and the rest of the party started to travel away from Ilias Village, going along the path of soil below them.

That's right, he could sell something to gain more money… But what? He will have to look through it in a place like Iliasburg, to have a better idea of what could sell well and what couldn't.

Meanwhile, Alice opened her mouth. "So heroes can walk into people's houses and take things…?" She glanced at Victor and asked. "Where was the proper society you spoke of before?"

Victor raised his eyes and looked up to her yellow eyes with a calm expression. "I can tell you where that 'proper society' isn't in, your entire species as a monster…" Then Victor looked at Luka and asked. "But to be fair, Luka... who the fuck gave those people the permission to do this shit, the Pope?"

"N-No… I mean, there are people who have abused that privilege, but…"

"Please stop talking, Luka. I normally don't have any expectations in my life, which is why it's not easy to disappoint me, but cease." Victor told Luka with a severe tone, and Luka closed his mouth for a dozen of seconds.

Alice raised an eyebrow and stared at Victor, using this opportunity to get back on him in the previous verbal war they had. "You speak as if this doesn't have anything with your species as a human."

"That's because all this stuff about religion and Ilias doesn't have anything to do with me. I don't even live here to begin with, as I was born in a place away from the three continents, and I am not their representatives, unlike you." A smirk appeared on Victor's face and spoke with a hint of sarcasm. "Retry, you will be luckier next time."

Alice's fists tightened, but she didn't get violent. The moment she will lay her hands on Victor will be the time when she will lose this war, and Victor knew that, showing the expression on his face.

'You want to fight against someone who had flame wars against SJWs and brats who couldn't see the difference between being feminists and outright suppressing men? You have to go through at least 10 years of internet surfing if you want to have a chance to fight against me.'

"Please calm down, you two…" Luka butted in between the two and tried to act as a mediator.

"...I am calm…" With a bitter tone, Alice replied as her gaze turned cold. "Anyway, you are lucky for not getting baptized. Even if you lose against a monster, depending on which one defeated you, you will still have your chance of survival.

The semen of baptized humans tastes awful, so monsters aren't as likely to rape them. However, that doesn't mean they won't attack, knowing that leaving you alive will bring ruin to them somewhere in this world, and the fight will end exclusively with murder if you lose."

"That's…" Luka was left speechless at Alice's explanation of the mechanics behind the baptism, and also on a bit of terror. "...That's kind of cruel…"

"That's how it works." Alice replied with a cold voice. "You humans build up defenses so that your species won't be toyed by monsters, while we monsters make sure that the chaos your heroes bring won't spread on our gardens. In the end, it is just a silent war against each other; your idea of coexistence was already destined to fall before it even started."

Was she speaking against humans for what they did to her and her species? Or was she speaking against monsters for disobeying her order of self-defense? Even Victor, who was extremely familiar with the game of Monster Girl Quest, didn't know the answer to that. He uses his knowledge to have an upper hand in his situation, but he is by no means a fortune teller.

Luka's eyes narrowed and his tone got heavier. "I won't let that fact make me give up! I will bring coexistence in this world, and the Monster Lord will be the first step! Yes, there are many things that could or could not be related to her. I doubt that even the Monster Lord is capable of watching every spot of the world, but I will still solve any kind of conflict between humans and monsters!"

"Hmph." Alice snorted at his seemingly-empty words and faced forward. "Speaking of steps, where are you headed first? Going directly for the Monster Lord's castle?"

"Well, I'll end up there eventually…" Luka trailed off and dug through the traveling bag on his back, before retrieving a scroll out of it. He opened the scroll and showed out a large continental map with great details of biomes, lakes, rivers, and cities on each of the three continents. 

Luka pointed on the lowermost continent, at the center-southern point of the land, with some weird scribbles written on it. "Right now we're a little bit north of Ilias Village, close to the center of the Ilias Continent. The Ilias Temple is there, so pilgrims always come here on their travels to get baptized or go through a tour to this place. However, they haven't been coming by as often recently…"

"I heard there is a problem in the sea navigation between Ilias Continent and Sentora, that could be the reason for that." Victor vaguely explained what happened, and Luka nodded in understanding.

"I see… Anyway, for now, we'll stay on this continent." Luka's finger dragged on the paper and reached a central city with more unrecognizable scribbles on it. "Today's destination will be Iliasburg. If we keep up our current pace, we'll be there around this time tomorrow. Then we will head to Iliasport and take a ship to go to Sentora… Oh right!"

Luka looked at Victor and asked. "You said that you need a lot of money to fix your leg, where is the Cave of Treasures you spoke of before?"

Victor shrugged and pointed at the north of the continent. "It should be around Iliasport, but I am not clear on its location."

In Monster Girl Quest, it was in the east. In Monster Girl Quest: Paradox, it was in the ovest. For that reason, Victor kept his mouth shut on its actual location.

Alice looked at Victor with a hint of surprise and asked. "You want to fix your leg with money? I'm not clear on what kind of level human technology has reached, but I don't think fixing broken bones like a jigsaw puzzle was on their list of feats. Even with magic, it would be hard, because using healing magic will simply develop the growth of your bone fragments and they will pierce through your flesh. You need to find a willing Slime Girl of high rank to fix your leg."

"I can do that by myself when I get enough money. There's too many details to explain so let's ignore it for now." Victor replied while Luka stared at his map.

"...Alright, we'll get to the Cave of Treasures before hopping to Sentora. Since you are traveling with us, it will be hard for you to go on the journey with a wheelchair…"

"Trust me. If it wasn't for Alice, I would have gladly built a tent somewhere near Ilias Village until I get enough money to buy myself a house. At the moment, I am literally shitting almost 500 Gold Coins per hour, so it won't be a problem for me."

"Huh?!" Luka stared at Victor in surprise. "500 Gold Coins per hour?! That's almost exactly the amount of money I brought with myself for this journey!"

"Yep, so don't be shy if you have to ask money out of me, as long as you don't want me to shit large amounts of Gold Coins for some crappy stuff."

"*Sigh* Can you at least bother with your language? It's annoying hearing you spouting profanities for every sentence you say." Alice asked with an annoyed expression, and Victor sighed.

"Fair enough…"

As the group continued to walk in silence for around five or six hours, the sky started to get dark. Victor yawned in boredom as nothing eventful happened until now, and there was no interesting conversation to join in.

However, fortunately for them, they reached a spot used for frequent mass camping between Ilias Village and Iliasburg. Even more fortunate, it was empty.

"Did we reach the place?" Alice asked with a bothered tone, and Victor sighed in exasperation.

For an entire hour, Alice complained about being hungry and bored. To be fair, Victor was also getting bored by that trip from Ilias Village to here, and was simply waiting for the moment when he could buy a vehicle or horses for them to use.

However, at least he didn't complain loudly like a spoiled child.

"Yes…" With an exasperated voice, Luka replied. "Yes, we arrived here."

"Finally! Now let's set up the camp, I'm hungry, and it's getting dark… By the way, what are we having for dinner?"

"Ilias, please give me patience… Because if you lend me your strength, I might snap out…" Luka prayed to the skies while being followed by Victor.

Victor went through his Store and brought out a large and modern tent that fell on the ground like a rag, while Luka rummaged through his traveling bag and brought his own triangular and inferior tent.

The two set out their own tents… Well, not really. Due to Victor's broken leg, he couldn't do anything at all…

"Look, since you forced me to go all the way here, could you at least help me here…?" Victor turned around to ask Alice for help, but he noticed just now that Alice was absent.

Where could she have been gone…?

...Oh… Oh no.

…

Victor Luis' (future) Trivia Book: Slug Girls

Slug Girl… If you were of the old generation, you must have heard of her when you were going on a trip to Ilias Village to get baptized. They are one of the weakest monsters to exist, just somewhat stronger than imps. However, their soft bodies don't let them exert the most of their strength, which is why they push all of their weights against their prey to force them down.

However, their soft bodies aren't just a handicap for them, but also their strong point. They are land-dwellers, a category of monsters who live in the land and don't belong to any other categories like Beasts, Kitsunes, Dragons and such. 

The extreme majority of them have a heavy use of toxins, and the Slug Girls aren't any different. To compensate for their slowness, they are able to spray poisonous mucus that will greatly weaken their prey. Their poisonous mucus has a debilitating effect against the muscular system and a searing effect against skin.

Not only that, their soft bodies are able to absorb the shock of weak attacks and glue them to their bodies through their membranes and slimy mucus.

They usually walk at night and attack any men they encounter, when they are the most tired. Slug Girls also travel in groups to have a better chance to capture large quantities of men at once, and also to counter the formations of Heroes they would have to face for themselves.

Slug Girls, due to them being Land-Dwellers, are immune to poison and toxins. However, Lightning in particular seems to have a destructive effect against their bodies, frying them into charcoal.

Also, it is worth noting that because their skin is really permeable, sprinkling salt on their bodies will result in an extremely uncomfortable pain. The salt mixes up with their mucus, forming a solution which has a greater concentration of salt. For that reason, the Slug Girl's body naturally squeezes out as much water as possible to even out the solution, eventually dehydrating the Slug Girl to death.

Of course, a small bag of salt is far from enough for someone of the Slug Girl's size, but it is enough of an indicator for a warning, because Heroes and Adventurers who had their fair share of experience knows how to handle that kind of situation.