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Jahi's eyes were golden as she stared down at me, a heat permeating her expression as she grasped my shoulder.

I tilted my head the other way, but my tail thumped to the side as her words entered my ears, making my heart race.

"Why… Why do I find this so hot?"

Gritting my teeth slightly, I tried to hold in my emotions, reining in the thought of pulling her away to satisfy my rising lust…

This dangerous mood that fell between us was only amplified due to what had happened earlier, when she watched me dance through the Ghoul Horde.

She knew she was playing with fire, and yet the Demoness before me simply couldn't help herself; if she pushed me anymore, she'd get burnt.

Hearing someone cough behind her, I broke the gaze that we were sharing, instantly able to control my heat a little easier.

Anput was smirking as she stared at us, while Leone was crimson, her fangs slipping from under her upper lip as she looked between Jahi and I.

"Could you two maybe… save that for later? We are still in a monster infested cavern."

Jahi released my shoulder and dragged in a sharp breath.

When she lifted her hand, I held in a whine as her warmth and weight left my body, leaving my shoulder feeling colder than normal.

Swallowing hard, I stared at Anput for a moment before nodding, turning back to the butchered corpse of the gray Coal Serpent.

As I turned, I held out my hand and used my water magic to wash away the blood, cleaning myself off in moments.

The body was slowly decaying away, and I set about to descaling it as much as I could, wanting to capitalize on this chance to earn some extra coin.

While I worked on that, the others picked the remaining materials off the ground before joining me.

When we finished, what lay before us was a large pile of meat and bone, which made Anput glance at Leone and ask "Can we grill that meat and eat it?"

The Vampire nodded, lifting a chunk of the bloody Serpent meat and using her flames to roast it.

The smell of cooked meat entered our noses, and Anput blushed as her stomach rumbled.

"Leone, what does Magma Nettle and Obsidian Grass taste like?"

She stared at me in confusion, prompting me to gesture at the meat.

"If we're all hungry, we mind as well use the meat now; Anput can make a pot, either of you can make a flame, and I can add water; we can make an impromptu stew, or just grill it."

Letting out an 'ah!', Leone told me that the Obsidian Grass was bitter, but Magma Nettle had sharp, spicy flavor, which made me grin.

Getting everything set up, I sliced the bloody meat into cubes and rubbed in some crushed up Obsidian Grass, using it as seasoning.

Leone said that, while it was bitter, it was incredibly useful as a mana regenerator, letting your Core absorb more of the worlds mana.

I wasn't going for flavor as much as I wanted to get the benefits of each herb, so I set to making the stew.

Glancing over at the few bits of bone that was scattered around, I broke that open and added some marrow and dropped the bones inside, seeing if I could still get a healthy, medicinal broth that tasted good.

Sounds impossible, but…

Stirring the stew, I worked as quickly as I could while everyone else checked their equipment and spoils, cleaning what they needed while organizing the rest.

It didn't take too long, and eventually we had a large pot of stew, and after Anput created some bowls foreach of us, we started eating.

A smug grin appeared on my face as I tasted the broth, enjoying the flavor.

The meat had a bitter tang, but it still tasted good; the Coal Serpent meat was slightly reminiscent of pork, and the heat that the Magma Nettle added was incredible.

Each of us downed two bowls each, with Anput going for thirds and Jahi on sixths…

Rolling my eyes at that, I wanted to remind them not to eat too much before remembering that, for some reason, neither of them ever actually had problems eating large meals before instantly going to harsh training.

Maybe it was something that our mana counteracted?

No idea, but I watched on with glee as everyone enjoyed our impromptu meal.

When we finished up, I double checked my own equipment before scanning the ground around us again, making sure we were leaving nothing valuable.

Now that we had the ribs of a Coal Serpent, there was only one more Request that we needed to complete; Leone's.

She was currently leading us deeper into the Plains of Yama, her head constantly on a swivel as she took in the features of the Plain.

According to her books, the Obsidian Crabs lived more near the center of the Plains, where a lava lake resided.

They would submerge themselves in the black sand and prey on any of the unsuspecting Lava Goblins that made their way down to the shore, erupting from the ground and using their large claws to tear through the Goblins flesh and bone.

Like always, we made sure to give wide berths to monsters and Adventurers alike here on the Plains; most monsters remained close to their 'territories', while the Adventurers would give us wary glances as we traveled.

Some would blatantly put their guard up as we 'passed' by them, while others would start slowly moving in another direction, widening the distance between us.

I was under no false impressions that they knew who we were, nor did I think they were truly scared of us; I had a good feeling that they were just being cautious, not wanting to have their kills stolen, materials stolen, or worse, engage in a fight that might lead to their own deaths.

So we ignored them, just like they avoided us, creating a healthy balance between all parties involved.

It took a few more minutes, but we eventually managed to reach the lake area, Anput and I noticing it first due to the hydrogen sulfide, making the air smell like rotten eggs.

Glancing at one another, we both scrunched our noses up before tying a loose cloth in front of our faces, blocking the worst of the smell.

Moments later, we crested a small hill, which gave us a great view of the gigantic orange lake before us.

When paired with the black sands, stalagmites and stalactites, fire crystals embedded on the ceiling, and the sound of the lava bubbling…

It really did look like hell.

Glancing at one another, we all nodded before carefully walking down to the shoreline, Leone and I scanning the black sands for our prey.

Seeing a smooth, rounded black mound a few feet away, I stopped and pointed at it, alerting Leone to its presence.

When we found the first one, we found more quickly enough, multiple different Obsidian Crabs hiding in the shoreline of this lava lake.

Leone stepped closer to me, whispering "They have tough outer shells, much stronger than the Coal Serpents Scales, but they aren't as lethal. So…"

I nodded, staring at the mounds.

My dagger could pierce through the Coal Serpents, sure, but I needed momentum, precision, power, and more to do so.

Could I manage to get enough out of each aspect on a stronger shell?

Pursing my lips, I steadily approached one, before raising the dagger and lunging down, grunting as my blade just barely managed to stab through the Obsidian Crab's shell.

It squealed as a thick steel blade entered its body, before falling silent as I twisted the dagger around.

The others, hearing one squeal, erupted from the ground and turned towards us, only to squeal as well when Jahi's Light Discs and Anput's Lances flew forwards, picking them off one by one.

It was no where near as difficult as the Coal Serpents, but each of us had strong piercing attacks, so that might be why…

Crouching in front of my kill, I stared at it for a few moments before asking "So… am I just breaking the shell and harvesting the pieces?"

Leone grabbed one as well, staring at it before shrugging.

"I think that'd be easiest; unless we each want to lug a few back to the surface?"

All of us shook our heads; each Crab was around three feet across, and when I tried lifting it…

Well, they were heavy as well, so…

No.

Using the pommel of my dagger, I started cracking the shell and grabbing large chunks of the chitinous shell, before asking "Are the claws or legs worth something?"

Leone nodded, her small fiery blade severing the Crabs legs as she tossed them to the side, creating a small pile.

"Yup; market value is somewhere in the 1 Gold range per leg, and 2 Gold per claw. They have some medicinal use, but they apparently just taste really good."

Hearing that, Jahi looked over at me and asked "Kat, do you know how to prepare Crab Legs?"

Anput also stared at me, her obsidian eyes boring a hole in me as she waited for an answer.

Shrugging, I said "I should be able to…"

Both women grinned at me, before returning to harvesting the Crabs with gusto.

When we were about to finish up, having sorted everything into piles and divvying it up between us to distribute the load, we heard something above us.

Turning, we all grabbed our weapons and stared at the ridge that we had come from.