Chapter 15 - Whispers of Trouble

Seeing the notice that I had leveled up I was initially excited. I had thought it would take longer before I leveled up again. At least that was the impression I had gotten from Vanessa and seeing how little my share of the experience was. However with the number of mice attacking my barrier I must have been able to gain a lot of experience. At that rate I should even be able to make level five in a short amount of time. Then I could leave the….

Shit.

"Kill the big one!" I ordered the golems my voice revealing my panic.

"Calm down, they can't get through the barrier." Vanessa tried to reassure me.

"I level up!" I replied as I watched the golems shift their focus from the smaller mice to the larger leader.

"Still no reason to panic." Vanessa replied.

"If this keeps up I will reach level five!" I retorted.

Vanessa stared at me for a moment as she realized why I was panicking.

"We should still be fine, it takes twice as much experience to reach the next level as it did the last." Vanessa reassured me.

I nodded as I settled down a bit but I couldn't completely relax, the number of mice surrounding my farm was continuing to increase.

A loud angry screech made everyone freeze and look at the larger mouse as it angrily bit at a long sharp spike of stone that had pierced one of its back legs. While I was still trying to understand what I was seeing earth flowed up the mouse's legs to hold it in place while a large rock landed on the mouse's head. The attack resembled the very first I had witnessed except the stone golems had a new trick. Unfortunately the large mouse was stronger than the previous ones. It was able to break free of the earth clamps and pull itself off the stone spike. However where it landed, the ground had turned into very loose mud causing the larger mouse to sink into the mud up to its chest. Seemed the earth golems had a new trick too. The ground hardened around the larger mouse squeezing it tight. It whimpered in pain before a large stone spike emerged from the ground and impaled the mouse through the eye into its brain killing it instantly.

Seeing their leader killed affected the other mice. They glanced at the corpse then at the golems, then disappeared into the tall grass.

"Feel better?" Vanessa asked me.

I looked at her. "You do realize that mice on my world are all the conveniently sized to be stomped on. Right?" I asked feeling that it ended in a rather anticlimactic way. Maybe I was still hyped up on adrenaline but I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't over yet.

"So you are saying it is their size and not their sharp pointy claws and teeth, that frightened you?" Vanessa asked with a smirk.

Seemed like she had relaxed a bit. Not sure if I liked the change.

"Let's just get this harvested so we can plant the next batch. I will still have to work the silver shamrocks and blue grass later tonight." I grumbled as I peered into the tall grass nervously. I still felt like there was something else out there and wanted to get as far away from it as I could.

"Alright, let me harvest this field, the enchanted versions are a bit tougher to handle and we want to get the best price for them." Vanessa suggested reaching out her hand for the scythe.

I nodded. I wasn't in the mood to argue with her, and I had never been the kind of person to insist on doing everything to soothe my wounded pride.

I passed the scythe to Vanessa, once she had it in hand she moved closer then sneakily planted a kiss on my cheek. Her actions were completely out of character and startled me more than a little. Not that I minded but I stared at her in shock for a moment as she smiled at me impishly before running over to the field of enchanted blue dandelions.

While my anxiety hadn't disappeared I was feeling better, which I guessed was the point. Yet as I watched Vanessa kneel down to harvest the plants I couldn't help but admire her figure.

"She really is very pretty." Zephirah commented despite not being visible.

'Did you figure out whatever it was you were working on?' I asked mentally.

"Yes, thank you. We should have something to help unravel Vanessa's mystery tonight. Good job on the mice, Vanessa might not have thought they were an issue, but if you had left it as it was we would have reached level five tonight. I already took the liberty of absorbing the bodies into the dungeon. We are going to need to talk about what you can do with them later." Zephirah commented.

'Why not now?' I asked mentally.

"You need to focus more on Vanessa, getting laid would be a plus, but if you aren't willing to do that, get closer to her, see if you can get her to talk more. Though I would prefer you to get laid, you seem to be really backed up. I bet you would be a lot more pleasant to be around after some relief. Would rubbing one out in the shower help?" Zephirah rambled aloud.

I groaned but decided to ignore her. If either of us was pent up I was pretty sure it was her. Being stuck in an orb and having nothing to do but observe all her 'masters' and their assistants. I couldn't blame her, but why did she want to watch so badly?

Looking down at Vanessa I couldn't deny the attraction, but just like before I knew about the rune charm on her doppleganger's back, I was certain it was nothing more than lust. Maybe it could become more later but for now it was just a carnal desire, and maybe a psychological desire to not be alone.

I shook my head and gave myself a light tap on the forehead. I was over analyzing things again. Why couldn't I just admit I was horny and she was pretty and leave it there? I never should have taken psychology in college, I nearly failed the class and couldn't help but analyze everything everyone did since.

Trying to get my mind to behave I walked up beside Vanessa and knelt down to see how she was harvesting the blue dandelions.

"Did you get sick of staring at me already?" Vanessa asked playfully as she worked.

"Not at all, I am just better at learning with my hands." I replied with a smirk.

Vanessa paused in her work for a moment glancing in my direction for a moment before looking away and getting back to work. She was quick and effective, watching her work was almost hypnotizing. I was surprised when she finished and turned to look at me. Partly because of how fast she had accomplished the work, but more because of the look in her eyes. She looked conflicted, torn.

"Ready to talk about it?" I asked her. "No orb to observe us up here."

Vanessa quivered then stood up and faced away from me, but not before I saw the fear.

My lust and desire disappeared immediately. Vanessa was terrified of something, and I had the feeling that whatever it was, was a danger to Zephirah and I.

"Vanessa?" I called out as I moved up behind her. I took a gamble and wrapped my arms around her pulling her back to lean against my chest. She stiffened in my embrace then relaxed before I could even consider letting go.

"They can't hear me?" she asked her voice barely above a whisper.

"No, not unless they are out there in the grass." I told her.

Vanessa stiffened again as she warily scanned the grass then shook her head. "It doesn't matter. You can't stop them even if you know." she told me.

"Even if I can't, I would prefer to know." I told her.

Vanessa was quiet for a while, long enough that I was sure she wasn't going to speak about it, but I held her anyways. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and saw no reason to stop.

"They are going to come for me, me and the core." Vanessa admitted.

"Who?" I asked squeezing her tight in my arms. "That Trellion Owark guy?"

Vanessa snorted. "There is no Trellion Owark, he is just a name to blame for being isolated and forced to grow the Neglism." she told me as she twisted in my embrace to look at my face. "The one coming for me is my recruiter. He noticed that I was more than a gemini but kept it a secret from the company. I am not sure how he did it but he changed the location of your farm last minute so that the company couldn't place the normal monitoring equipment. That way they can come and get me and the core before disappearing to a world the company can't reach them. I will probably be sold off to some pervert to be his bed toy while the core gets sold to a competitor." Vanessa admitted.

"That doesn't sound very good for me." I replied after a moment of thought.

Vanessa shook her head.

"So what is it?" I asked her.

Vanessa hesitated then seemed to resolve herself. "Let's go down first." she told me glancing around at the grass worriedly.

I realized we had changed positions from earlier. Feeling mischievous despite the situation I leaned down and kissed her cheek just as she had mine. Vanessa was either faster than me or expecting it as she turned her head to meet my lips with her own. Again she quivered in my arms then as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders she seemed to melt in my embrace. The kiss wasn't long or even very passionate, but it seemed to change Vanessa's perception of me. When we parted she gave me a wide honest smile that caused her eyes to shine. It was mesmerizing.

A loud thud woke me from the trance. Looking behind us I nearly wet myself seeing an enormous cobra glaring down at me from outside of the barrier. It was too long to tell its length as it disappeared into the grass, but its head glared down at me from several feet above my own height. It was emerald green in color with golden eyes, and at least two feet wide. Rather than calling it a snake, I felt serpent was more accurate.

The golems reacted immediately, but their attacks were completely ineffective. The stone spikes couldn't pierce the snake's scales, and it was too large for the earth golem's tactics to effect. The large rocks tossed at its head seemed marginally effective, but only in the annoying sense of the word.

"Catch it!" Zephirah yelled at me excitedly.

I frowned. "I don't have the power for that!" replied aloud not bothering to worry about Vanessa.

The cobra struck at us again but was stopped by the barrier. Unfortunately the barrier did not stop me from seeing the two foot long fangs inside the cobra's mouth as it tried to bite us. Terror inducing was the nicest way I could describe them.

Zephirah appeared beside me floating by my head.

Vanessa screamed, I thought it was a delayed reaction from the cobra, but a glance at her made me realize she was staring at Zephirah.

"Not the snake, its big and strong, but not what we want." Zephirah told me. "We want the wisp!" she told me pointing at a pale green dot that floated by the cobra's head. If Zephirah hadn't pointed it out I wouldn't have even noticed it. It was even smaller than Zephirah.

"Catch it! Hurry before it gets away!" Zephirah yelled at me.

I nodded then tried to draw on the mana to form the runes I needed but it escaped me, the mana was like oil that kept slipping through my fingers.

"Now isn't the time for performance issues!" Zephirah yelled at me.

I glared at her angrily then closed my eyes to focus. Another loud thud told me the cobra was still trying to get through the barrier. Vanessa suddenly embraced me from behind and held on tight. I wasn't sure if she was trying to reassure me or herself but her presence helped me focus. I grabbed onto my mana and pulled it up from my center. Opening my eyes I could see the glow on my finger ready to be used to form runes. With the sight came a confidence I didn't normally have. Looking up at the cobra and wisp I smiled.