Chapter 117: A New Home

We found our new ability fun and useful, but my attention was drawn back to an image of a gold gift box with glowing dots in the upper right of my vision. I selected the icon and this triggered a series of ability prompts and a final one about something I had forgotten.

[Auxiliary skill upgrade "Travel": "Mass Travel" obtained]

[Skill Synchronous <Riding> and <Travel>]

[Synchro-Auxiliary: "Fast Travel"]

[Gold Gift Package: Skill Upgrade]

[Skill Upgrade <Riding>: Carriage]

I had forgotten about the gold Christmas present package. I hadn't been able to open it before, it seems I needed the mount skill and start it up.

[Mass Travel] was an upgrade that allowed me to teleport to travel points with my companions as long as they were within a certain range, and the number couldn't be too large, either. Because I was weakened that number was less, if I was in my normal state the maximum would be 10 people besides me, and in the future this number may increase with the growth of my power.

[Fast Travel] It's a cool skill. If I'm riding Elise and I take a certain race distance, I can do [Journey] instantly without having to wait for 10 minutes.

[Carriage] is the [fast travel] of [mass travel]. From now on I can assign some mount a carriage, which looks very 'rustic', and just like [fast travel], it can teleport everyone riding in it to travel points.

[Help] specified that other carriage models can be purchased from the merchant, especially on holidays, just like the costumes we buy at Christmas. The carriage can be summoned infinitely, even if it is destroyed, only you have to pay for it and there can only be one. It can also be used as a normal carriage, not just for moving between travel points.

We tried to use the carriage, but Elise didn't like it very much. She agreed to be my partner and let me ride her, but she wasn't comfortable being 'a mule', so I promised to find someone else to do this job.

...

We traveled for a while and it was not difficult at all, we got used to it and we knew what to do and what not. We stopped at the place we had wanted to get to from the beginning, the peripheral areas of the forest, but not very close to Hogwarts, to avoid being seen, a little further away.

We found a decent water source between the outer forest and the deep forest, and after searching the surroundings, we were able to find a good place to settle. As with the cave, we decided to create a safe place to return to whenever we wanted to take a break, a territory of our own.

This place was very safe, compared to the previous one, so we were able to work with great dedication. I began the ritual magic again, hoping to make this place our arcane sanctuary. This time I didn't hold back much as I didn't have to worry about calling the spiders' attention, there was still danger, but we had more chances to escape if things got ugly.

We worked passionately, collecting things from here and there, had fun in the process, and got a little creative with our new settlement. The moment I knew that the merchant had appeared, I took her to meet him, as well as buying some things that we would need to live more comfortably in our new home.

Elise found the character of Merk curious, but what interested her most was the variety of things available, which was less than what he had previously. Within the campaign not all the available sale items are kept, only some, and if I want to enable them again I have to do the same as before, sell them or visit stores that have them.

We sold many materials from the forest that we were able to collect to later buy resources and trinkets to decorate our new home. We came back with our hands full of the things we could buy with our budget, metaphorically speaking, since she had no hands and because we carried the things in my inventory.

With my partner's liking to buy things that she had never seen and the comforts that we could get with them, we plan to collect more things to sell in the future. This first interaction with this new world for Elise also made me promise to show her more interesting things.

...

We made beautiful this place, it took time, but it was worth it. We freed a space from the trees, we established tents without walls, a place to sunbathe, a bonfire for ritual dances, a workshop, rudimentary beds, even a small cultivation section, in addition to making several decorative drawings and some magical ones, made by both. It was still necessary to continue adding things, but the place already seems its own, in a mixture of civilization and savagery, each one gave its touch.

Although it was young and it wasn't the safest thing to do if we wanted to continue with this lifestyle, we took the risk of approaching Hogsmeade. Elise stayed further back as I headed into the wizarding town with the only piece of healthy clothing I had in my inventory, recently purchased, so as not to stand out like a wild child.

Innocently asked a few things like I was a forgetful child to different people to avoid raising suspicion. After that and a trip to each store in the area to expand the merchant products, I returned with the information collected.

I took this opportunity to try out fast travel, so riding Elise, we set off on a short sprint for several yards. In this little way, Elise's hooves began to give off a small bright white aurora and after a short way, as if we were going through a phantom veil, we disappeared leaving a small mist that quickly disappeared.

In an instant we were in our camp, saving us a good trip. We were happy and excited that it worked and the feeling of traveling such long distances in an instant, so much so that Elise wanted us to try it several more times, but I stopped her, as there were more important things to do and because we didn't have many teleport points activated that we can use.

With the information I was able to collect, I learned important things. I clearly knew we were in the marauders campaign, considering the four animals on the loading screen it was hard not to guess.

I had put the starting point as early as possible, so if my deductions are not wrong, plus the information I have about the campaign, I started around the year the marauders were born to attend the same year as them, as it happens with the main campaign. Under this logic, we should have appeared in this place in the 60s.

According to what I heard and from the time I can deduce, we have been inside that cave for more than two years, then, outside of it, we have lived until now which is 3 years since we arrived, if I am not mistaken.

3 years living in the wild, I think I could add it to my resume. Taking that into account, I think I can make some plans for my future here. The truth is that I wanted to see this campaign like many others, but much later, it was not the time yet.

I don't have a clear objective, but I think I can get an idea of what I can do here... I could take this as a vacation, a vacation with my partner, I promised to show her many things and I intend to fulfill it.

...

4th year since our arrival, I had noticed a small change in my appearance, I think I started to grow normally, I am still four years old but it will improve. Our camp was reinforced with magic, many rituals that changed the look of the place.

The grass in the area became greener, brighter, and full of life, and would continue to progress over time. We had a little moon well that we built and enchanted every moonnights. Arcane circles surrounded the bonfire, in which currently a spectral magical fire began to be noticed during the nights. We are also forming a natural fence of vegetation, as well as expulsion rituals.

A magical camp as we wanted it, although it was still far from the sanctuary we wanted but we couldn't wait long, we would need more time or power, maybe some advanced and exotic magical materials. If I got my power back, this would be much better.

Our bountiful and plentiful place caught the attention of nearby creatures, it was the perfect place for anyone to settle, so we had to chase away the pesky ones and allow a little company of some peaceful beings.

Fairies are one of our most common tenants, the vitality of the place made the flowers grow beautifully. The bowtruckle also settled in the nearby trees, not in the central ones of our camp, I think my presence intimidated them like many other magical creatures that came and only after a while they approached me. From time to time there were also bigger beings, such as an Occamy that passed through the area.

My ability to speak with these beings made trade possible and our camp became a trading center with the creatures of the forest, thus obtaining many resources.

We not only stay here, we also take our time to explore the forest from time to time. We would collect materials and hunt acromantulas if we came across them, there were also times when we had to run away.

In a way, we were a complementary couple. Elise was my limit, she kept me from doing things that were too perverse, evil or crazy.

Although there were times when she helped me with things that she did not agree with but that I wanted, there were also times when she prevented me from doing certain things, things that perhaps could have put us at risk, exposed our position, and that I couldn't figure it out myself. She was my light while I was the dark, a good balance.

...

5 years since our arrival, our relationship has advanced even further, or so the favorability bar says. I could tell, my alignment no longer affected anything in our relationship in the slightest. It felt as if we accepted each other, as if there was no distinction whatsoever. I considered her my family, which was not unusual considering that in addition to my parents, siblings and Luna, she was the one I spent the most time with in my life.

We bathed together in the pond and ran through the forest. Every now and then we played some games like hide and seek, which were very easy for me to win. We innovate in food by trying new things. I brushed her fur and gave her some new looks, it amused me a lot when I dyed her mane rainbow, which she didn't understand.

As promised, I took her to see some new things. With the appearance of the archmage earlier this year, we got a few more things to help us. Every once in a while we left our base in the care of some of the creatures we trusted and went out.

After camouflaging her shine and her horn, we approach Muggle villages. It was hard to hide that I was five years old, but we managed it mostly at night. With potions of invisibility and our ability to [Fast Travel] we travel through Muggle towns incognito. We look for rural towns, since a horse would not be so rare, even one as beautiful as my Elise.

She marveled a little to see the people in their lives, nothing similar to what she saw in the forest. We saw various things and on one occasion we caught a couple in the barn making babies, which started a conversation about my sex life, we had already had them, but now we were more explicit.

That day, when we saw the couple, I got a good scolding. She questioned me why I had to mate, why I had to stop being a virgin, that she would have felt more comfortable if I didn't. Now that I have the evil alignment it didn't matter her discomfort with the impure, I was completely pure in reverse, so it was a thing of the past, but the scolding still remained, perhaps as a way to release her frustration and some other emotions.

We enjoyed ourselves and we got closer and closer without noticing it... maybe too much.