fics I read

February 7th 2016 Gemworld 10:00 AM EDT

We made it back to the village the next morning, but this time we took a more relaxed approach. We wanted ourselves to be seen coming so they could adjust. I thought we should make a rickshaw or something and have one of our heavies pull the thing, but Barbie nixed the idea, playing the 'strategic advisor' card, and claiming we didn't know enough about Gemworld culture to know how it would be received.

After a brief discussion I conceded the point. I's fallen into the trap of assuming the technology level and language meant that these people would be culturally identical to people in Earth's middle ages, but that wasn't necessarily the case. Even slight alterations in geography and resources could drastically alter the cultural landscape of a region, and Gemworld was full of wizards and magic trees and shit.

Barbie seemed shocked that I listened to her, but I just shrugged off the questioning gaze she shot me. "Listen, I asked you to help me do this because you know what's going on more than I do. I didn't study this kind of thing back home, you clearly have a deeper understanding. I wouldn't have asked you to help me plan things if I wasn't going to listen to you. I might have my pride but I'm not an unreasonable idiot." She seemed mollified by the comment, and was clearly glowing at the praise of being told I valued her opinion.

I could understand her confusion. Given my propensity for control in most aspects of my life, it wasn't strange that my willingness to bend perplexed her. What she missed was that I considered all of my people, her included, to be my property. They were assets that I'd worked to acquire, and I wasn't in the habit of wasting assets. Besides, my father had always made a point of clarifying that delegation to competent subordinates was NOT weakness. Properly leveraging the capabilities of employees was a cornerstone of good management. As long as you were confident in the leverage you had over them, it was stupid not to make use of your peoples skills.

So we walked, which was much less impressive but also less likely to mortally offend everyone and result in us having to slaughter the whole town and start over, a solution I suspected Barbie would have been horrified with. As we approached, several farmers working out in the fields stopped to watch us pass. We made no outward sign of noticing their gazes, but I took everyone in with a thorough gaze, making sure to get a good idea of what we were dealing with in terms of the farmers here.

The people in the fields were surprisingly varied. In my head all the farmers here were that same tall burly guy with a thick beard and an amish hat, but they really ran the gamut. Unlike back on Earth in the time period I'd associated with this place, there were several women out here. Tall, short, blonde brunette, there was a large variance in appearances and builds with each person working on something a bit different.

While some farmers had rakes or were even pushing plows, some were manually pulling up weeds or planting with trowels. The farmers almost all wore tan linen clothes that were either incredibly tight or cut down to allow movement, and most of them were heavily tanned. I saw more than a few large pairs of sweaty tits that caught my attention, and even some smaller ones that weren't as voluminous but made up for it in perkiness. I knew we couldn't focus on women here because we needed the best, but I absolutely hoped some of these farm girls made the cut.

I hadn't realized that the farmers were unisex, and when I mentioned it to Barbie she shrugged. "There are a few of them out helping their husbands, but manual labor is a male dominated field here just like back home. The women mostly gather crops, pull weeds, that kind of thing." She sounded disdainful of the practice, which was zero surprise to me, so I decided to drop it, especially since we were coming up on the actual entrance to the village proper.

Waiting for us was who I could only assume was Manka, the mayor. As Barbie had mentioned Manka was a big guy with a beard. Not as big as I was, closer to six feet even, but what he lost out on in height, he made up for in width. Manka wasn't fat mind you, he was just thick, wide barrel chest, broad shoulders, overhanging brow. This guy looked less like a mayor and more like a thug, though I obviously wasn't worried about him being a threat. I still decided to appraise him just in case.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Manka-H rank Gemworlder. The Mayor of the small town of Bridhall, Manka gets his position from the absurdly thin amount of Emerald bloodline he inherited from his father, a minor noble who impregnated a tavern girl. Angry at the nobility for their casual cruelties and at the peasantry for accepting them, Manka abuses his position to leverage some of Bridhall's female residents into giving him sexual favors for minor magical solutions to problems or considerations from his political role.]

Pretty much what I'd figured based on Barbie's report. That wasn't shocking, though the confirmation was nice. It meant if I had to kill him Barbie wouldn't bitch about it. This was the kind of guy she would be glad to see gone. He was only H rank so the chances of him being a threat to me were basically zero. As we drew closer I saw that he didn't look intimidated by us as I'd expected. Instead he looked suspicious and hostile. Given his background that made sense, but I didn't want to assume how he'd react. I just kept my guard up and continued my approach.

Manka's beady green eyes glared out from under a pair of caterpillar eyebrows, and his scowl twitched enough that I could see it even through his thick bristly beard. As I came within range I saw him puff up his barrel chest and tilt his head like he was trying to look down on me. Given I was several inches taller than he was it really shouldn't have worked, but he somehow managed to stare down his nose at me from his position below my eyeline, which I had to admit was impressive. "State your names and purpose strangers!"

Manka's voice was a booming vibrato, and he had an accent that on earth I'd probably have called british. Despite obviously taking himself far too seriously he wasn't actually intimidating though, and I just looked him in the eye and gave him my best Lord sneer. "Nicholas Lord. My companion's name is none of your concern. Vulgar ears like yours are unworthy of its grace." Admittedly a little high handed, but this guy was a dick and if I was playing noble in a fantasy world I was going to be a huge asshole about it. That was like...half the point.

The big man's lip curled up in a snarl, and he stepped forward, but before he could act a deep, resonant voice said. "Enough, Manka." The bearded mayor stopped, looking hatefully to one side as a tall, serious looking man with greying hair and a salt and pepper beard stepped from behind one of the nearby houses. "If you can't keep a civil tongue in your mouth when greeting guests, perhaps this part of your duties can be left to me. A man of your position surely has more important things to do."

I was expecting him to fight that, but Manka clearly didn't want any of this guy. The out he gave him at the end let him justify the retreat to himself without sacrificing his pride, which was fairly well done. The big mayor turned to snarl at us agian, like literally snarl like a dog, and then stalked away, leaving us along with the older man. I had a decent idea who this probably was, but I decided to appraise him anyway.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Levka- G rank Gemworlder. An experienced and skilled smith, Levka occupies a position of honor in Bridhall village. Due to his rich experience and invaluable crafting skills, people come from many surrounding villages to commission work from him. His ability and even temper make him a respected figure to all residents of the nearby townships, and allows him to remain indispensable to Bridhall.]

I almost whistled at that, but I held it in. G rank was solid. Not at my level, but if he was G rank smith he should be capable of putting the new forge to good use. He smiled calmly when he saw me looking at him. "Welcome to Bridhall, my lord. My name is Levka, a humble blacksmith." He bowed deeply to me, and I nodded to him, letting him rise. His eyes were grey as granite, and piercing. "It has been some time since a noble last graced our lands, I take it from your manner of dress and the name you claim that yourself and your lady are indeed of the nobility?"

That one was easy enough to answer. Even if I hadn't been born here or given land, I owned a village, which did make me a lord in truth. "Even so. Perhaps you might bring me to your place of business." I didn't SAY that leaving me out here standing in this shitty dirt patch was an insult, but I implied it pretty heavily with my tone. Levka clearly understood how nobles worked because he didn't even look annoyed, he just smiled and led me toward one of the larger and more well maintained buildings in the city center.

We stepped inside, the smith ushering us through the door and closing it behind us. Inside was a grey haired woman in a tight dress. She was in good shape for an older lady and had a bunch of smile lines on her pretty face. Her low cut bodice showed a pair of very perky and surprisingly smooth tits. She smiled as we all came in. "Levka, if you had told me we would be having guests I would have prepared refreshments. Welcome children. How might I address you?" She had a pleasant, smooth voice and her silver hair was up in a loose bun.

Levka's face remained serious. "Apologies dear. This is Nicholas Lord and his companion. They're nobles visiting the town." Her easy demeanor straightened, clearly worried about offending us by being so casual. The action made her tits jiggle, which was nice, old style clothes really made staring at bustlines way more fun. For a woman in her sixties she was keeping it tight. Levka gestured to the woman. "This is my wife Mara, the love of my life." He shot her a warm affectionate smile, which she returned, and I mentally crossed her off my list. I'd never had a GILF but Levka was going to be important to my village. I was sure I could find another older woman to bounce on my dick for a laugh.

He gestured us to sit at one of the chairs inside the tiny shop front. I could see his forge through the door to the back. When we sat down I decided to skip the pleasantries and get down to brass tacks. "We are here because we're founding a new village. Lord village is only a few hours from here. We possess multiple magic farms that can increase growth times and yield as well as a magic forge we believe only you can properly operate. We came to you in hopes you might agree to become our town blackmith, and to suggest hard working and talented farmers that might staff our farms."

His brow furrowed, but before he could speak I held up my hands. "Please. I know you have a life here and are most likely comfortable. We didn't come to poach you right away, simply to invite yourself and your suggestions for the farm positions to tour Lord village and experience our amenities. If you choose not to accept you're free to return, though we hope you can give us another suggestion for our smith. How does that sound?"

I hoped it would sound good, it was the least offensive offer I could make. I didn't actually need to go out of my way to be convincing anyway. Once he saw the forge he would definitely be hooked. Any passionate craftsman would lose his shit over a building like that. He looked uncertain for a moment before sighing and giving one short nod. Perfect. Now I just had to put on a decent show when they all came down to look over our village and I'd have my first citizens in the bag.

February 9th 2016 Gemworld 10:00 AM EDT

Showing Levka the forge had been a strong step and he had basically drooled over the building. We managed to talk him to our side and get the farmers onboard, but they had to actually get their farms packed up and finish bringing in the last of their crops so it was going to be a few days. I could have worked on new buildings, but Levka wasn't sure how many if any of the tradesmen he would be able to bring over so I decided to pass the time by celebrating finally getting this fucking village up and running by doing a little fucking of my own.

This led to me kicking everyone out of the cottage and calling Barbie and Zee into the cottage and finally bringing my idea for making Barbie feel appreciated and disciplining her at the same time to fruition. Once they were both in the house with me I gestured for them to sit on the bed. I towered over both of them, and I could see from their dilated pupils and pounding heartbeats that they were enjoying it. "So, we have a bit of a problem here. We're in a dangerous foreign land and I can't have my girls sniping at each other."

I looked at Barbie cooly. "Zee does her best to be friendly and open with everyone, but you haven't been trying. You've started fights with Zee, fights with Cherry, you even tried to start a fight with me, and I can't have you acting up when it could put us in danger. So tonight we're going to hash out these differences once and for all, and you're going to apologize and move on like a good girl, is that understood?" To be fair Zee's 'niceness' was a passive aggressive way of making Barbie look like the bad guy, but she didn't know that and it didn't fit my narrative.

I turned to Zee. "Take off your clothes and stand in front of the bed naked." To her credit she didn't play any of her play fighting games, she just got up and stripped. She stood in front of us, strawberry nipples hard with arousal and fat heavy tits hanging. I walked over to sit behind Barbie, careful not to break her line of sight, and slid my hand into her panties. My fingers slid easily into her soaking cunt. "Now, why don't you tell me how you feel about Zee Barbie, and be honest." I pushed her with my Brand, making sure she would be truthful.

She narrowed her eyes at the other girl. "I hate her. She's so pretty and perfect and everyone loves her, she has powerful magic she was just born with, men fall all over her, everyone likes her and when I masturbate to her I come twice as hard as normal." She froze, hand going to her mouth as her eyes widened in alarm. Bingo. I knew that was coming. She hated Zee WAY too much. It wasn't reasonable or rational to be THAT angry at someone over a guy you dumped yourself and no longer really cared about.

She buried it so deep even my ability to manipulate desires had trouble finding it, but Barbie was jealous of Zee's body to such an insane degree it had become actual sexual attraction. Granted, not STRONG sexual attraction, but a bit of tweaking took care of that. This was the fastest way to get her over her hangups, if I played this right I could convince her the entire thing had been sexual and end the resentment right here. Besides. I could have some FUN too.

Barbie's breathing was quick and shallow as I fingered her, her hips rolling against my hand, and I couldn't help but enjoy myself. I'd had a threeway with Barbie before...kind of. But it hadn't been nearly this exciting. I'd wanted to fuck these two together since that night at the club. But I didn't want Barbie calm or relaxed so I didn't finish her. I pulled my hands back, earning her a whimper. "Well, it sounds like you've been very mean to Zee for quite some time because you didn't want to admit your attraction to her. Get down on your knees and apologize."

Her eyes shot to me, wide and panicked, but I could feel in her desires that she liked the idea, so I pushed those emotions up a notch. She stared for a bit before biting her lip and nodding, kneeling down on the floor and crawling over to Zatanna. She paused, swallowed hard and leaned forward to tentatively stick out her tongue. But I interrupted. "Stop." She did, instantly. "I said to apologize Barbie. Apologies that you enjoy aren't very sincere. You were gushing at the thought of eating that pretty pink pussy." I grinned wickedly. "Zatanna, turn around."

She did, looking confused, and her fat shelf of an ass protruded enough to brush against Barbie's face. I licked my lips. "Spread your cheeks." She reached back and pulled them apart, exposing her little pink asshole. "Now Barbie, you've been a consistent pain in Zee's ass for quite some time. Kiss it better." Her blue eyes went wide as she stared up at me, waffling between wanting to make me happy and humiliation at the thought of rimming a woman she'd spent literal years hating. She was on her knees leaning forward, so I leaned down and slapped an ass cheek. "Now. If you do it immediately I'll fuck you first."

Her eyes almost glowed with greed as she turned and dove between Zee's fat pale cheeks, all but jamming her tongue up the other girls asshole as her hand snaked around and stuffed her pinkie,middle, and ringer finger up the sorceress's hungry twat. The brunette mage gasped out loud. "Fuck, you bitch, that's too many fingers to start with." She reached back and grabbed Barbie's hair, shoving it into her ass harder. "Gods, you're fucking good at that, tongue my ass you self righteous little bitch. Dig your tongue in there. Clean me out. Get it!"

I felt Barbie's arousal heighten at the verbal abuse and decided it was time to make good on my promise. I knelt down behind her where her pert little booty was up in the air. I briefly debated stuffing her tight little ass for the symmetry, but I wanted that hot redheaded pussy tonight. I put the head of my cock at the lips of her dripping pussy and shoved myself into her. She sunk her fingers into Zee's thighs and screamed in shock (though not unhappy shock based on how her desires were lighting up) the way the fat jiggly ass meat muted her squeal was so hot I had to pause and get my bearings.

She felt like fucking heaven. I slapped her tight little ass. "Fuck yes, this is the pussy I've been wanting. You gonna be good for me so I can keep stuffing your little cunt?"" Barbie, whose brain had done that slut mode thing it did during sex nodded emphatically, never removing her head from between the ass cheeks of her rival. I started to fuck her in earnest, pounding away at the little slut as she squealed into Zee's ass. "Fuck you're tight like this. You must be fucking loving this." She was, though to be fair I might have pushed her there a bit. Still this was exactly what she needed.

Zee was squealing too. "Fuck! Nicky her tongue, her fingers, they're inside me and they're fucking touching. She's digging into my fucking holes so deep, this little whore fucking loves the way I taste. I...I don't, fuck I've never felt like this with a girl. This is... oh gods I love it. I love it. I love this feeling. This is so dirty. There's another girl licking out my asshole. What have you done to me? You made me such a little whore. Good girls don't love things like this. I'm bad, I'm so bad please punish me."

I reached out and slapped her ass hard enough to make a crack. "UGH! HARDER! YOU MADE ME SUCH A BAD GIRL YOU BEAST! YOU NEED TO SLAP THE WHORE OUT OF MY BIG FAT ASS!" I brought my hand down another four of five times and Zee howled in excitement as the combination of ass slaps, rim job and finger fucking made her cunt explode, squirting pussy juice across the floor as she screamed and shook. She dropped to the ground, falling to her knees and then forward, leaving her ass in the air and Barbie free.

Before I could even adjust though, Barbie grabbed her by the hips and dragged her back up before diving in again. I thought she was going back to her ass, but I realized pretty quick she'd just dove face first into just post orgasm pussy. Zee's eyes went wide as she squealed. "FUCK! No don't. Wait, please just give me a second I'm so SEnSitive, oh gods, wait, wait, WAIT, FUCK!" Barbie at that still twitching cunt like a fucking ice cream cone, laying into the squealing sorceress until she was nothing but a babbling mess.

Through the whole thing I was slamming my dick so deep into my redhead I was pretty sure she could feel the impact in her skull, not that she seemed to mind. I could feel her desires like a bonfire. She loved the chance to turn this around. As hot as she found being used by Zee, my little bitch was a switchitter and she adored the feeling of devouring that pussy until the pretty sorceress lost her fucking mind. Her pussy was tightening up and soaked and I felt like I was riding a fucking steam geyser it was so hot and wet.

As she finally came, screaming into Zee's pussy, I tossed her onto the bed, grabbed the sorceress by the hips and dragged her back to shove cock into her, getting another squeal as I hissed in enjoyment. Zee's pussy was still spasming from Barbie's attention and she felt amazing. The sight of her fat ass rippling as my hips slammed into it was fucking amazing, and I couldn't resist a few more slaps on her already reddened cheeks, though the sorceress was too brain fried from fucking to do more than moan and grunt.

I picked her up, still fucking her, and dragged her over to the bed, shove her face in Barbie's pussy, and it didn't take more than a second for her to start eating that well fucked cunt. I had to bite my cheek as I fucked her to hold back. I had staying power, but we'd been going for a while now, and seeing the pretty sorceress licking the cunt of the girl who had been such a bitch to her really did it for me. Not to mention the grip from her pussy seemed so much more frantic while she was eating Barbie.

The sound of flesh clapping against flesh, the feel of hot pussy, and the sight of the two girls laid out in front of me was so fucking hot I could barely stand it. I decided to use my ability to its fullest to get the most enjoyment out of this, and without further ado I reached into their desires and cranked the sensitivity of their pussies. Suddenly every thrust was forcing Zee to orgasm, and I had to shove her screaming face further into Barbie's cunt so she didn't jerk away.

I rode them both for about five more minutes, and I had to use the Brand to force Barbie to put a pillow over her face because she was screaming so loud at the constant orgasm I was kind of worried the windows would break. Finally, with one last shove, I creampied Zee's hot little pussy with a roar as I blew the thickest load of my entire life. As I pulled out and dropped down onto the bed next to the girls I had to grin to myself. This whole vacation thing really was pretty fucking cool.

February 9th 2016 Gemworld 5:00 PM EDT

I had a decent hope that Zee might get branded after we fucked, but whatever the thing was that would make her submit this wasn't it. Given her fanatical research obsession I was guessing it would be magic based. It made me wonder if it was harder to brand higher ranked girls. That would make sense actually, given the way rank seemed to interact with the system as a whole. Regardless since I didn't end up managing that meant I was running exceptionally low on points, and officially needed to top up.

I considered multiple possible ways to fix this, including collecting more magic shit, but in the end that most rational way I could think to manage it was to go steal a bunch of stuff. To that end I decided to consult Barbie, who had been talking to the villagers we'd managed to recruit in her capacity as the assistant mayor or whatever. I tracked her down at the berry orchard, finishing up a meeting with one of the farmers and his wife, a lithe tan woman with startlingly green eyes. As they left I headed in, dropping into a chair as I looked around the inside of the place.

Barbie had rearranged some of the furniture but mostly left it as it was. When she looked up to see me she pretended to be mildly interested, but I could see the flush in her cheeks and the way her pupils dilated. She was clearly feeling much more affectionate after our session earlier. I of course, being a gentleman, ignored that and just flashed her my usual charming grin. "So, how are the new citizens fitting in? I assume Levka loves his forge but how are the other farmers liking their accommodations?"

Clearly happy to have something to focus on Barbie cleared her throat. "Ah, well they're integrating well. I mean, we aren't anywhere close to the point where we can be considered a self sufficient settlement obviously, but those are easy enough things to fix with your abilities. There are a few more buildings I think we could use when you get a chance. I'll make a list. Until then however I think we're doing better than we could be expected to do. Did you have a timeline for this grand expansion plan? I assume you don't want to be here for years."

Given Doctor Gotham was back in my town potentially trashing my stuff and might eventually stumble on my house and pose a threat to my kids and my women I did not. "No. A few weeks or a month or two. We just need to build up enough of a visible presence to seem like a credible partner to the Amethyst noble lineage. Or at least enough for them to take a request for a meeting seriously. Once I can talk to the princess I should be able to get her on our side." My desire abilities would make it easy enough to mess with her head.

Barbie just sighed. "Honestly I would call anyone else who said that a lunatic, but given your demonstrated ability to conjure entire structures nearly from thin air getting to a point where we look like powerful nobles at least on the surface in a few weeks isn't impossible. The charade would fold like we tissue paper under any degree of scrutiny mind you, there's no viable way to get all of these people integrated into an actual functional society. At least assuming we need to recruit more of them to fill all the new buildings and such."

That went without saying, though if I branded them all I could probably force it. I might do that anyway actually, just get them all to swear their undying loyalty to me as their lord. It would probably give me a solid bump in points and it would make this whole thing more convenient. For now though I had another, better idea. Something that would not only win them over and make me some points, but spread my name and make Barbie a bit more enthused about this whole thing.

My smirk was clearly incredibly smug, because she didn't say anything else, just waiting for me to finally come out with it. I let her stew a bit before I finally revealed my master plan. "I actually had a great idea about that. This is a medieval kingdom, or some analogue, and while the nobles control their realms there's no way it's a complete dominion. Medieval methods means medieval problems. If we could take care of those problems, or at least some of them, it would go a long way to getting our names out there. So, what are the chances this forest has any...bandits?"

Her eyes flashed with interest. Bandit hunting would of course be the best case scenario for me. Not only would I be able to steal all their stolen shit to stock up on points (I couldn't spend many more of I was going to go into point withdrawl and compromise my decision making) I could even capture the bandits themselves and force them to submit so I could brand them, then repurpose them into guards. It was a win win scenario for me. Barbie herself was always thinking about normal people and all that bullshit, so clearing a menace to the populace out of the forest would salve her heroic ego.

She leaned forward. "I take it you expected me to ask them about the local environment and try to gather as much information from the farmers and Levka as I could." I didn't even bother responding to that, just staring at her drolly. She grinned. "Well you expected right. Yes, I did ask them about nearby threats, and yes, this huge ass forest DOES have a bandit problem. Not that it was that big of a reach to ask about it. The bandits in this forest are, however, not exactly independent. They're somewhat related to the local noble line."

Ah, I nodded my head. That wasn't completely unexpected. It was an old trick for nobles to sanction criminal organizations and support them behind the scenes. They got to keep any ACTUAL criminal elements out of their territory, got a weapon to use against dissidents, and could use them to manipulate trade routes and put pressure on foreign dignitaries. I may not know shit about medieval society, but the nobility were good lessons in political maneuvering for a growing Lord. My dad had given me plenty of lessons that referred to similar methods of dealing with problems.

It could cause issues depending on how the arrangement was structured. "What do we know about their relationship? Is it explicit backing? Or do they need to justify themselves to nearby allies?" Setting up a powerful puppet faction had upsides, but there were downsides too. If they used the bandits as proxies to inflict damage on nearby noble forces or other powerful local factions the Emerald nobles wouldn't be able to explicitly back their tools. They would need to maintain deniability, and even if we took the bandits down they couldn't say shit about it without admitting fault.

If the distance was in name only though, such as letting a disgraced family member take control of the organization, taking them down could result in direct intervention from the Emerald noble lineage. It would limit the external uses of the bandits, but it would also enable them to take a more active role in supporting the criminal group, having their police forces ignore them completely or even offer them help with any issues they couldn't handle themselves. In that case we would be better off finding another target rather than start a war with an established noble house too soon.

The fact that Barbie had figured their relation out within a day somewhat implied the latter, but there was a middle ground there too, and she would have pumped them for more information about it. Her eyes glittered with approval at the questions. "From what I can tell the Emerald Edge is a sort of dumping ground for the local bastards. They aren't exactly backed by the nobility, but the house of Emerald has been known to outsource certain dirty jobs to them when the need arises. In exchange for their services they've set up something of an unofficial neutral zone in the forest where the Edge is free to raid without fear of reprisal, with a few...specially designated exceptions."

That was one of the better possible setups for us. "It's a protection racket then. They let the bandits run amok in the forest in exchange for a fee or considerations from merchants or visiting nobles. Since they aren't bankrolling the bandits and they stay out of their direct influence they have deniability while still making use of them. In that case we should be free to kick some ass and steal all their shit without repercussion. Hell we might even be able to request a reward from the house of Emerald for services rendered and get paid twice."

That got a fond eyeroll from Barbie. "As much as I enjoy your optimism please keep in mind that I did say these people consist of several bastard sons of the house of Emerald. Based on what we know about Amethyst we can assume the Gemworld nobles each have a unique magical bloodline power. We have no idea exactly how powerful those abilities are. They rule this whole world. It's entirely possible for them to be a genuine threat to you."

As much as I wanted to dismiss the possibility she was right. The nobles of Gemworld might be as strong as Doctor Gotham. If that was the case their kids could be as powerful as Raven. I just wasn't in a position where I could afford to go charging off into the woods to stock up without doing any sort of recon. Of course, I could just appraise them, but that would mean getting close, which would be reckless. I sighed. "I assume you have a suggestion and aren't just poking holes on my plans for no reason?"

In actuality I was glad Barbie had brought it up. I tended to get tunnel vision when I was excited about something, even without the Greed System influencing my decisions. Granted my plans were more impatient than cartoon stupid when I did it normally, but still, it was something I needed to work on, and having my redhead to point it out in this case might have saved me from a severe ass kicking. As confident as I was in my power, I had to remember this wasn't Gotham. The same elements of Gemworld that let me build a fucking village meant I couldn't assume I was the biggest bully on the playground.

Barbie did, as it happened, have a suggestion. "I think an amended version of the spell Zatanna used to help you search for magic materials would be the best move here. We could cast it on..." Her eye twitched slightly. "Cherry. And she can use her abilities to sneak into the camp and give us a report on who and what is in there in terms of enemies. Then we can decide if they're too much for us or who we would need to bring to put down the bandits."

Her disdain when she said my phantom lady's name made it clear that while the three way with Zee had helped ease some of the tension between the two of them, she wasn't suddenly ok with everyone. Which was fair, her dislike of Cherry was more for the whole trying to kill her thing than jealousy. Still, one step at a time, she hadn't seemed upset when she mentioned Zee so that was a good sign for things to come, we could work on the rest of it. For now her plan was workable. I'd send Cherry out for recon, but when she got back, assuming it was feasible, I was gonna go fuck up some bandits.

February 10th 2016 Gemworld 3:00 PM EDT

Cherry and I, as suggested, decided to go alone to scope out the bandits. Obviously I wasn't letting her travel without protection, I had no way of getting another hand of glory, or a pretty psycho deranged enough to happily and effectively merge with it, so I decided to go with her. We weren't going to be fighting anything we didn't know we could beat after all, and Waylon and Sally weren't exactly the most stealthy bunch. So the two us made our way into the depths of the forest on foot, trying to blend in as we went.

It was actually cute how excited Cherry was to spend the day with me. She was so happy she was practically skipping, but despite that she was making even less noise than I was slowly measuring my steps. Granted that was probably at least partially because her feet weren't touching the ground but still, the absolute lack of notable disturbance as she cheerfully strolled along through the trees, feet a few inches from the grass, was impressive. She avoided not just the sound of footsteps but rustling branches and leaves too, which was better than I was managing.

In fairness to myself I wasn't being THAT loud. I was moving slowly and deliberately, keeping low, placing my feet carefully so I didn't crunch down on anything. Still, we were able to talk as long as we kept our voices low, so since I had nothing better to do than watch Cherry's tight little ass as she ranged ahead, I figured I'd check in on my pet psycho. "So, what have you been getting upto since we got here? Haven't had much time to check in with everyone. You been keeping yourself busy?"

Rather than get upset or offended by my negligence Cherry mostly just seemed amused. She giggled sweetly at the question. "Of course. I've been going out to do more scouting of nearby villages. The random peasants in the nearby towns aren't a threat to me, and I'm easily the fastest and most agile escape artist in the group, not to mention my stealth skills. I've been building up dossiers on all the nearby communities for when we can finally make our move. I've even been keeping notes."

It was easy to forget Cherry had been a dangerous crime boss who had even posed a threat to Barbie. Her nearly constant giddiness and teasing was more of a result of her current situation being exciting to her than any airheadedness or lack of lucidity. She was so perky and upbeat in her craziness I sometimes lost track of how intelligent she was. I couldn't help but smirk at her retreating form though. "Odd, Barbie is supposed to be in charge of coordinating our operations but she hasn't mentioned anything about sending you out on patrols."

I could practically hear the pout in her voice. "I don't need the bat slut coordinating me. I work best on my own. Besides, we avoid each other. We both want to claw the others eyes out and we know doing it would make you sad, so staying out of her way is the best response I could come up with. I've mostly been working with Strega actually. She's kind of fun, you should really pay more attention to her. She isn't as powerful as your massive mammaried mistress of the mystic arts but she's still smart and useful."

That...was a good point. Strega had mostly fallen by the wayside since we got here, and it seemed like Cherry had been trying to address that as well as do her own thing. It was an oversight on my part, but to be fair I had a lot of shit going on. Deep dicking the masked blood sorceress to keep her in line, while immensely entertaining to imagine, was a less than immediate priority in our current situation. I supposed Cherry was right though. I should try to spend at least some time with the masked magic user. Maybe I could start those magic lessons I'd considered. That might be a useful skill to have.

Which brought me back to Cherry herself. "I suppose I should be spending more time with you too. You must be getting jealous of the time I've been spending with Zee and Barbie. I can't imagine you enjoy seeing them get all that attention." I had zero desire to set off a tantrum like Barbie had thrown in the woods on the way to Bridhall, but if this was going to be an issue I'd rather it be here than somewhere more dangerous like in the bandit camp itself. Besides Cherry was a useful part of the team, it would be a good idea to keep her happy.

She stopped, floating in midair, then turned and glided over to me. Cherry was a tall girl, and floating a few inches off the ground she was mostly at eye level. She stared at me. Hard. Her eyes wide and gleaming. "Jealous?" Her voice was a tense whisper. "Oh daddy, you don't understand me at all. Not yet. I was jealous at first. But once I watched you with them, watched how you interact, that all changed." She grabbed my arm and shoved it down to cup her cunt with a hiss. "Watching you with them makes me rabidly fucking horny!"

I raised an eyebrow at that, but I slid two fingers up her twat, stroking her G spot as I let her continue and her head fell back with a moan as she rocked her hips into my hand. "They're tools for you. We all are. It's so...beautiful. Watching you use them, manipulate them. Dominate them. They're your fucking puppets. My sick, vicious, ruthless daddy puts his bitches in their place. It's fucking intoxicating. Seeing you work is like watching an artist. I fucking love it." She cooed as I fingered her shoving her hips against my hand.

I hadn't been expecting that answer, but it was pretty fucking hot to hear it. I was hard as a rock, though this wasn't really the place to fuck this crazy slut. Cherry was a screamer. Though to be fair, all my girls were screamers when I was done with them. I reached up and grabbed a handful of her hair, yanking her head forward for a kiss so I could muffle the growing squeals of desire, letting her pull back once she managed to choke down the noises. "So you don't mind that I'm playing with them then?"

She giggled madly. "Mind? I love it. And not just them. Me. I love how you twist me and use me. I'm daddys stupid broken little pet. That's why I know you'll never replace me. The others don't see you for what you are. They see what you show them, what you want them to see. The sorceress probably gets the closest, but even she doesn't really understand. I know what kind of monster you are daddy, and I ADORE it. I'd do anything for you. I'm exactly the kind of tool you can use best. Point at your enemies, shove me down your cock, I don't care. I need you daddy. Please use me until I break."

She came then, and I yanked her head forward against the crook of my neck so she could bite into my flesh as she screamed. It would heal pretty quickly, and it kept me from having to process what she'd said. I...didn't know how to react to almost any of that. Cherry was pretty clearly deranged. But assuming I kept my word and helped her find Trevor so she could murder the shit out of him she was mine in a way the others weren't. It was...unnerving that she'd seen through me so easily, though I suppose the whole fine line between genius and madness thing played a role.

One she finished I pulled my fingers out of her and she sucked them clean slowly before turning and resuming her forward trek. I was still hard, and I really wanted to fuck her, but there would be time for that later. For now we needed to focus in the job ahead, which was to track down the bandits. "So, all this recon give you any ideas about where the Emerald Edge might be camping out?" Best to just move past this whole weird conversation. She didn't seem to want anything from me, so I could cross one problem off my list.

I'd stick my dick up her ass tonight when we got back to the village, just to make sure she kept being so happy, but this particular problem seemed to have solved itself. Always convenient when that happens. She looked over her shoulder with a grin. "Idea? Oh I don't need an idea. I KNOW where they are. I've been leading us right to them. I just wanted it to be a surprise. Still, your timing is excellent. It just came into view."

Sure enough, as we crested the next hill a shape in the forest became visible. Or rather, a shape in a clearing. The squat but formidable looking fortress was in an open space, but still, I had to admit it was kind of imposing. The building was made of dense black rock, covered with vines in a way that made them seem more decorative than incidental. I turned to Cherry. "You knew this was here?" I felt like this should have been reported. It wasn't exactly close to the village, but it wasn't really far either.

She held up a hand, wiggling it back and forth. Well, I knew it was somewhere. I'd heard mention of a fortress. I went back through my notes before we left to string together all the bits if data I had to get a location, though really I only managed a direction. I only knew we were coming up on it because I got some air during the trip earlier and spotted it." I relaxed a bit. If she hadn't had the info until just now I didn't mind. There was nothing wrong with having a flare for the dramatic.

I could theoretically take issue with her hoarding the notes, but honestly I didn't want to sort through them, and she was writing things down so we could always go over it later if needed. She'd proven herself capable enough that I didn't need to micromanage her. "Fair enough. So can you see any actual people through that thing?" My appraisal had pretty much one major drawback, and that was the need to lay eyes on my target. Range wasn't a big deal if I could see it at all, but I did need eye contact.

Sadly, Cherry's temporary magic sight apparently had the same issue, at least in this particular instance. "Nope. The stones that thing is made of are magical, just like everything else here basically. Not very magical mind you, they're just pretty much normal rocks in Gemworld terms, but it's enough to block me from seeing any magical phenomena through them. We're going to have to go inside if we want to get a better idea of how strong everyone is." Which admittedly meant I could have done this myself, though it would have been harder without her powers.

In the end though this also gave me some deniability about my powers and confused the issue for Barbie. I wasn't sure how necessary that was, but it couldn't hurt. The less she understood my abilities the safer I would be. If she thought I could only appraise stuff I made or used directly as materials then that was one less problem for me to deal with. Which meant there was only really one thing to do. "Alright, well, that just means we need to sneak into this place and look around. So. Think the bandits have a back entrance?"

February 10th 2016 Gemworld 4:00 PM EDT

We circled around the side of the fortress before entering. I'd been leaning towards the back, but Cherry had set me straight. "First rule of being a thief is avoid any obvious entrances. People have this weird certainty that they're safe as long as they protect the designated points of entry to their house. The bias makes sneaking in through alternate routes much easier. They'll set guards on the front and back entrances, but there's no way to set guards on every single window. It's the same reason people put in security doors but don't reinforce their walls."

I hadn't really considered that before, but she was right. People had this kind of implicit surety that walls and houses would protect them. You could see it in shootouts in movies. Everyone acted like the drywall was some sort of magic shield against bullets even after they had seen it get shot through. They steered clear of doors and windows during gunfights but it was impossible to avoid walls so they just acted like the lack of visibility made them safe. It worked most of the time too. Any idiot with thermal goggles and a shot gun could cap someone through a wall, but for some reason almost no one ever did it.

My best guess was that it was one of those generally accepted things everyone grew up thinking and just took for granted. Houses made you safe right? Still, it did leave an opening, so we slipped around the side of the building and then scaled the fortress to slip in through the window. Well, I scaled, Cherry just kind of floated up, which was kind of unfair but hey, she had the ability so why not use it. I however, shifted to my lifestorm wyrmkin form and used my claws to climb the stone. Luckily the blocks were black, so the gaps weren't really visible after my passing.

Once we got up to the window I had Cherry slip in soundlessly to look around a bit. With her ghost powers she was able to go unnoticed easily (she floated up near the ceiling, no one ever looks up in an enclosed hallway) and quickly came back to let me know we were in the clear. I pulled myself up through the window (which was actually pretty fucking difficult because the damn things were so thin I had to shift back and suck in to be able to get through one. Admittedly that made sense given the medieval design but still, not fun.

Cherry, who had a much easier time getting in being about five inches shorter than me and much slimmer of frame, watched me squirm through the gap with an amused smirk, and I glared at her for a second before realizing it was pointless and rolling my eyes. Lowering my voice I asked her for a more in depth report. "Ok. So, what have you seen around here? Can your magic sight pick up anything through the interior walls? They're much thinner than the outside set."

She lowered herself down to touch the ground as she looked both ways, presumably out of habit since she knew we were clear. "Ok. This hallway leads in a few directions. I was able to check one of them. If you go that way." She pointed down a corridor that led further into the building. "You end up overlooking a really big feast room type place. It seems like it's full of people right now, I imagine eating dinner since it's like four PM. Medieval societies tend to wake with the sun or close to it, so the meals run a bit earlier."

That I had actually known, mostly because I'd been around farmers a lot recently. "Ok, that's good news. Even if we can't capture or kill them we can still rob them blind. If you saw their people what were you able to figure out about their strength? You remember what I told you about the different levels of intensity and how they relate to ranks?" I'd given her a crash course on the ranks of different items and objects by having Zee use the spell on both of us so I could show her different ranks of things, because of the practice, she had a pretty decent idea of what was what.

My psycho had a pretty sharp memory. "Of course daddy. Most of them are around what you called H rank. There were about a dozen that fit into the G rank category, and the leader was F rank, like us. I think we can take them, but I also think it's a better idea to case the place before we commit to anything. There could be more of them hidden around the upper floors. I can see through the walls a little, but only the ones I'm right next to. We should still check for things on the other side of the rooms in the immediate vicinity."

Seeing no reason to question the expert I gestured for her to lead the way and she drifted up off the ground again, skimming over the stone as I did my best to move silently behind her. As we went she filled me in on what was in each room. A few sleeping forms (H ranked enemies mostly, with one or two G's) and lots of empty rooms, until we finally reached the end of the hallway we started in. We'd passed the turnoff that was headed toward the overhanging balcony since we wanted to avoid the bulk of their force until we were done casing the place.

When we hit the end of the hallways though, we emerged into a slightly larger stone room with a much larger pair of double doors blocking the way. Cherry slipped up to the doors and stared for a bit before turning to me with a grin. "The doors are too magical to see through, but the walls aren't. I think this is their treasury. Lots of piles of random magical things and what looks like possibly magical gold coins? Want to go in and look around? There are more than a few defensive spells but they seem to triggered by forcing the door."

There was no problem there. I'd had the foresight to merge Cherry with the Hand of Glory for just such an occasion. I gestured to the massive barrier. "Well, don't be shy. Move that cute little ass and get that thing open for us so we can rob the shit out of these people." I gave her a swat on the ass, earning a cute little squeak as she skimmed across the ground without touching it, coming to a stop right in front of the double doors. She stopped and stared with a serious expression for a minute, clearly looking at...something.

One of the side effects we were still figuring out from her transition to a phantom lady was the ability to see wards and protection spells on places she was robbing. Part of the magic of the Hand of Glory allowed her to see magical protections so she could disarm them. The Hand itself was made for the task so that only made sense. She slowly lifted her hands and her fingers caught fire, just like they had back at the castle when she opened that door. She closed her eyes and focused.

Like the last time the flames started to flicker out one at a time like a countdown, but before many had a chance to snuff there was a loud click. The bolts on the door started to slide open one at a time, until finally with on last clang, the doors slowly drifted open. Cherry swayed a little, but I crossed the distance between us and caught her easily enough. I swung her around to ride on my back. "Good job. Just hang out back there for a while. We can look around and pick out something pretty for you as a reward." That got me a tired smile and a peck on the cheek.

I wasn't sure why this door had been so much more tiring for her, but I suspected it was because the castle had focused mostly on external defenses. That one small door hadn't been a priority, hell Doctor Gotham probably hadn't even warded it himself. He seemed like the type to delegate boring bullshit like setting up internal defenses after he put up the big shields. Regardless, this treasury door was pretty seriously warded judging by Cherry's current state. I'd give her a few minutes to get back on her feet and if she couldn't I'd just face fuck her to top her up.

In the meantime I stepped into the treasury and looked around in glee. I was so low on points at the moment. Thirteen thousand plus and barely that, even with the random bullshit I'd been collecting from the forest. But all the stuff in here would pad my count a ton. That should be more than enough to get the village finished and still have plenty left over, maybe even enough to merge a powerful artifact to combine with the whole town to try to speed the process up. I just didn't have any intention of staying here long term. I wanted to get back to see what kind of cool abilities my kids got.

There was only one problem...how the fuck were we supposed to carry all this? I didn't bring a whole team of people with me to lug this shit around. I didn't even have a backpack. This had been a pretty blatant fuck up on my part. It was fine though, that was what the system was for. I had over ten thousand points and was about to get a lot more. I could afford to rig something small up. I turned to look around behind us just in case before setting Cherry down on a gold pile I was sure wasn't going to explode or some shit. I swept the whole room for anything useful until I finally found something.

[Appraisal function detected. Hydra leather belt pouch-H rank. A durable and sturdy pouch for storing goods on the users belt in a stylish way. Magic insulation properties keep spells from degrading inside the pouch, excellent for storing ingredients.]

The thing was on an actual belt, which was fine, because I still had on suit pants (after this I was gearing everyone with leather armor or some shit, our formalwear was too attention grabbing, even if it was sturdy and stylish) and I had belt loops. To that end I found and emptied out the biggest chest I could find, which turned out to be an I rank box, so I emptied out another and merged them to make a bigger one, then finally merged that with the belt pouch bringing me down to twelve thousand and leaving me with this.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Maw of the man headed Hydra- G rank. A sturdy pouch that contains as many as ten spaces inside of it that measure roughly one hundred square feet. Each time the pouch is opened access is granted to a different space. The spaces can only be accessed in order, and if the pouch is destroyed the contents will be lost forever. The weight of the pouch is not affected by its contents.]

I grinned. That was exactly what I'd been hoping for. Hell it was better than I'd been hoping for. Granted one big space would have probably been more useful, but a thousand square feet of storage space. That was about half the size of a fucking house in suburban neighborhood. I strolled up to Cherry, slipping the belt pouch on. "OK, you feeling any better?" She groaned and tried to get up but couldn't manage it. I looked down at my new pouch and shrugged. Oh well, my fly was open anyway. "Fine, come here then, I have something that'll perk you up." Sometimes have magic energy cum was such a burden...not usually though.