Feathered Creeper

Este and Gill Willpollen of the Golden Goose clan were standing in front of the store window. They both peeked in and looked at the large man with green hair and a neat mustache sitting behind the counter.

Este glanced at the display and then back into the shop before turning to her sister.

Este and Gill were good friends and also belonged to the same clan. Their families had similar statuses in the clan, though low, so there was no tension between them. This made it easier for them to be friends with each other. If it was otherwise their families wouldn't have allowed it.

Although they had the same surname they were not related, they just came from the same branch of the clan. Este was seventeen and Gill was sixteen. But even though Este was older, she looked younger than Gill.

Este was small, small enough for her age, but all the cuter for it. She had a pretty heart-shaped face with delicate features and pink lips that looked perpetually pouty. Her copper-colored hair was tied in two ponytails at the back of her head. Large blue-green eyes with long lashes gave her an innocent look and her figure was rather full, but no one would say anything bad about her. Most people tended to embrace her as if perhaps she was some sort of soft pillow. Which her friend Gill likes to do, and often. Este didn't really like it, but she also liked to make others happy, so she allowed it. She was wearing a light yellow dress with a dark yellow floral pattern that came to just above her knees, but underneath she was wearing tight pants the same dark yellow as the pattern on the dress.

Gill was a head taller than Este and slender with a swan-like graceful neck. She wore green, loose pants and a decent shirt with flared sleeves, framed by flames of azure. Her hair of the same color was combed high and tied with a green ribbon. Her eyes were narrow with golden-colored irises and her face had rather sharp edges, but they gave her a certain stern grace.

Gill returned her friend's look and nodded.

"This should be the place." She said quietly.

Este peered through the window again, startled when she noticed the man behind the counter suddenly looking at them. She jumped, grabbing Gill by the elbow and pulling them out of his sight.

Her heart raced. Both of them had only recently started cultivating, so they didn't quite know how to control their senses yet, but they felt that the cultivator in the shop was very strong. Even stronger than her parents.

"Aahhh, how scary." She gasped, patting her chest to calm her frightened heart.

Gill looked calm, but she was worried too. Unlike her friend, she was better able to control her outward emotions.

"It should be fine. I heard we're going to get into the mystery shop through him." She said.

Este nodded. "Still, it's scary. Who has such a strong cultivator as a gatekeeper? The shop owner must be even scarier."

Gill blinked, feeling doubtful about that. "Mother said that... the shop owner doesn't seem very impressive. That she looks like an ordinary grey mouse. If she wasn't connected to the Dragons & Fan store, she wouldn't have looked twice at her."

Este stared at Gill in disbelief. "Even if she was, I'm sure it's just a mask. How could someone ordinary own such a place? And employ a terrifying cultivator? You mustn't be fooled by looks!"

Gill bit her lip and nodded her head in agreement. She had to admit that Este was right. How could that be reasonable? The shop owner couldn't be simple.

"Let's go inside. Mother said as long as we don't make trouble it's okay." Gill said finally, suddenly curious about the shop owner. She had always admired strong women.

Este nodded and they both went into the shop.

Gill was braver than her smaller friend so she walked in first.

The cultivator looked up at them and stood. "Welcome to the Dragons & Fan General shop. My name is Leonid." He announced in his normal welcoming voice.

Este looked the strong man over and then blushed a little. "Hello. We are Este and Gill Willpollen of the Golden Goose clan. We.... would like to enter the shop?" she said in a hesitant voice.

Gill almost rolled her eyes. She'd known for a long time that Este had a thing for older men. She put her hand on her waist and lightly pinched her soft flesh. Este flinched and became more steady. Leonid looked them over and nodded his head. "I know the Golden Goose clan. A clan focused on mining minerals and valuable metals, right? I've never heard of them ever being involved in any difficult situations. Yes, it seems appropriate. Your identity will be protected, but if you reveal your identity, there is nothing our store can do for you. You may enter." Leonid agreed and went to the wall to open the Dragon Door for the girls.

"Please maintain decorum and do not cause trouble." He turned to the girls who were now staring at the door that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Yes. Of course." Este replied before heading for the door. Gill paused for a moment and looked at Leonid. "Will I also be able to meet the shop owner?" Gill asked before she flinched. The moment she asked, a shadow like a storm cloud passed over Leonid's face.

But then he smiled and answered in such a way that his lips barely moved. "I'm sorry. The owner of the Shop had an important job at the moment and can't interact with customers. However, I'm sure she'll be happy to meet you next time."

Gill nodded slowly and hurried after Este. Uh... hopefully she hadn't said anything wrong. Mr. Leonid looked angry for a moment.

The girls walked through the door and stared around in amazement. It was so unnatural to walk through the door and find themselves in a field of grass at a completely different time. Outside it was afternoon, here the sun was already setting. They could see the shop in front of them, but at the moment it looked less interesting than the next building. They both looked curiously at the Training Ring around which the balls were flying.

Someone was there right now. A man was standing at the edge of the sandy ring, shouting something at another man standing inside. They couldn't help but head over there to see what was going on.

"Ah!" Este exclaimed in horror when she saw that along with the other man in the ring was a beast named Ash Man-eating Moth.

"Ah!" Gill yelled as well, as the man standing outside the ring turned to look at them after Este yelled, she saw that his head was all blurry with a black rectangle where his eyes should be.

"Stop screaming chicks! You're interrupting my bro in a fight!" She could tell by the voice that it was a young man, and his language also gave some hints of that.

Este wrinkled her nose when he called them 'chick'. Gill didn't mind and instead went to look closer.

"Isn't that Ash the Man-eating Moth? What's he doing here? Is he really going up against it alone?" She asked the censored man.

"Is this your first time here? This is a new device the shop owner got. Training Ring! It can somehow summon beasts you can fight and train with! And even if you die in the fight, you won't get hurt! You'll just reappear outside the fighting ring. Amazing isn't it!?"

The girls' chins dropped and they stared at the other censored man in the ring, who was racing furiously around Man-eating Moth.

This beast looked quite mild at first glance. It was about the size of an adult human with big wings. All ashen colored and shaggy with big eyes. In reality, it was a very deadly beast that used the dust from its wings to stunning its victim before its body opened vertically on both sides, revealing a mouth with sharp teeth large across its entire body. The beast then captured the drugged victim in its fearsome jaws and digested it alive for weeks.

Este shivered. Insect beasts are really the worst.

Gill's eyes were shining. "Unbelievable. So the shop owner can make people immortal?"

The man turned slowly to look at her, scratching his head. "I guess so?" He sounded hesitant. He hadn't thought of it that way. He had seen the shop owner before and had no impression of her. But the realization that she could do something like this gave him a whole different direction of thought.

Frighteningly strong!

*****

"Damn, that's freaking scary!" Dai thought as she hid in the bushes, staring at the creature that had chased her earlier.

Once she found out the System tricked her and Stigma was running away because Dai told her to, she rushed into the bushes and used ability Camouflage on herself. She crouched in the bushes for about five minutes, when the beast appeared and chased them as soon as they entered its territory.

The beast was as big as a two-story house and resembled a Tyrannosaurus, only it had a body covered with tiny brown-colored feathers, instead of a mouth it had a beak full of twisted, sharp teeth, and on its back, it had dwarfed chicken wings. If the creature didn't give off such an ominous presence it would look almost ridiculous, like a plucked chicken. The beast had a strong cultivation and Leonid would surely be able to deal with it. But it was impossible for the weak Dai. She was already having trouble killing a stupid Armadillo that was only slightly stronger than her. She couldn't imagine being able to stand up to this monster. Dai didn't know what kind of beast this was, so she mentally named it the Feathered Creeper.... it was big, ugly, dangerous, and stalking. There was no better name.

Feathered Creeper stopped a short distance away from hidden Dai, and she got all sweaty. Why won't it go away? It's an animal, so by her experiments, it shouldn't have been seen through her camouflage! Dai felt small tremors as it took steps and watched as it lowered its head close to the ground, turning its head to one side and then the other.

What was it doing?

*Ghaaaaaiiiiih!!!* Feathered Creeper let out a sudden high-pitched screech causing Dai's heart to stop in a scare. It made her eardrums vibrate and she almost raised her hands to cover her ears. It was such an uneasy sound.

Feathered Creeper started running again after that scream, towards Stigma. The sound of thumping footsteps was fading away. Dai was a little relieved to see that the creature was no faster than her Stigma. But she was worried about Feathered Creeper's tracking ability. What was it tracking them by? Given the beak, it couldn't be smell, nor could it be sight, and hearing? She didn't see any ears. Could it be due to cultivation? Does it have senses that can reach far?

Because of that, Dai only came out of the bushes after some time, looking anxiously in the direction the monster had gone.

Dai didn't think long about what to do. She opened her map and took a good look at it.

She'd have to find a hiding place and wait for the Stigma to return. According to the System's previous explanation, her pet was completely loyal to her. So Sigma should come back to her when she could. The system also showed her a little goodwill with the location of Stigma depicted on the map. She had originally thought she would go after her herself, but with the Feathered Creeper in front of her, she didn't dare.

She zoomed in on her surroundings on the map and the map revealed more details. There should be some ruins nearby. It wasn't safe either, but still better to have some cover around than standing in the middle of the forest.

She started cautiously in that direction. Now and then she stopped and did what she was used to. She checked the nutritional values in the ground before continuing to walk.

She checked the map for the location of Stigma, who was still moving forward for now. She probably wouldn't return until she felt safe.

After some time, Dai looked up. The sun was already slowly sinking toward the horizon. Dusk was approaching. She definitely didn't want to be stuck in the middle of the wilderness, so she sped up a bit, straining all her senses and using everything she had learned in her years of going into the wilderness. She once hid from a herd of mutant wild boars passing nearby. She didn't know that variation either. These wild boars were relatively small, but they were a poisonous green color and their fur dripped a foul-smelling liquid. Dai thought she could handle one or two, but not a herd, and she was worried about poisoning. She waited for them to move away before continuing to the destination.

After another hour, she arrived at the location. The house was quite large, or used to be, probably a mansion of some sort. At one time the surrounding area must have been cut down because she saw a lot of stumps around, but over the years new trees had grown up around it. Two were even growing through the half-decayed building. Dai looked around the building. Most of it was ruined, but the other half was still passable and theoretically, she could set up a shelter there. Dai wondered who could have lived here at one time. The house was big. Maybe a clan? No... once upon a time, people didn't have clans. But she had the impression that the mansion could fit at least three families.

She cautiously stepped over the remains of the fallen iron fence, but didn't rush inside. Instead, she began to walk around the building, checking the nutritional readings to make sure nothing lived there.

She was lucky in her misfortune and discovered wild mushrooms and blackberries! Dai hasn't been a shop owner long enough to forget the joy of finding something useful. Even if it was ordinary.

She gathered everything and hid it in her inventory before deciding it was safe.

She made her way to the villa, the entrance wasn't complicated. All she had to do was walk inside through the torn-down wall. She looked around the room. It was elongated, with the remains of a wooden table in the middle on which moss and grass had long been growing. The walls were scratched, cracked, and moldy. As she went deeper into the room the air was more humid and she could smell the smell of decaying leaves.

She stopped at the opposite wall, where there was a stone fireplace, perhaps the only one that had not been exposed to the tooth of time. Dai looked up over the fireplace, where a painting lay askew. She squinted her eyes in the darkness and recognized the people in the painting. A family portrait? She counted eleven heads, but couldn't make out the details, the painting was too ruined. Dai was probably right, there was a large family that lived here. They even seemed to all have the same clothes.

Dai turned away and began to slowly search the remains of the building to find the best place to camp.

She checked the map again and watched anxiously to see how far Stigma had gotten. Then she noticed something else on the map.

A name appeared above the ruins where she was.

'Sea Breeze Mansion. Test Area 22'

Dai made a dark expression. What now?!