PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

“You guys lost track of time but it took each of you around six hours to digest the plus the time you spent acting so affectionate; It’s almost time for breakfast again. “Looking at the incredulous expression on the trio, Kryzsha not only had to explain what had happened but also confess that she had been watching them from the beginning.

Even Desmond felt a bit embarrassed to learn that Kryzsha had witnessed the sorry state of the group as well as the intimate moments they shared believing they were alone; That was especially the case when the trio felt the meaningful look that Kryzsha had been giving them for a while now.

It was truly the saving grace of the group when a small group of stone maidens entered the room beckoning to Kryzsha warning the arrival of the food causing the gluttonous beast to forget what it was doing and just flapped her wings with joy making her way towards your snack.

Watching the girls look around absentmindedly with flushed cheeks, Desmond let out a helpless sigh thinking about how his life tended to get complicated around beautiful women.

The uncomfortable atmosphere lasted until the end of the meal but little by little the trio returned to their previous attitude with the closeness between them a little more noticeable.

Being bored, Kryzsha asked the group about their plans but none of them could give her an answer, too much had happened in the last twenty-four hours leaving the group without a clear direction to proceed in addition to wandering the mountains for another two days before heading back to the sect.

Hearing the group’s lack of plans and remembering some things from the day before, Kryzsha made a suggestion that quickly caught the interest of the group: “In that case, you can take the opportunity to visit some of my friends in these mountains if you are smart enough; It shouldn’t be difficult to get some unexpected treasures. ”

But it was Desmond who immediately looked skeptically at Kryzsha and replied, “By any chance any of your friends can speak?”

.....

Looking at an imaginary horizon with shame, Kryzsha replied: “Not really... but that’s not a problem, I can teach you to communicate with other sentient beings through mana; it is less efficient than the language that human beings use but at least it will help you to communicate properly with my friends ”

Trying to prove her point, Kryzsha spread her mana until she covered Desmond and conveyed her intentions using the mana as she mediated communication.

“See ... transmit ... intention ... easy ... the girls ... have you reproduced ... with them?”

Not entirely listening but feeling how certain words or ideas took shape in his mind Desmond had to recognize that this ability could be useful in some scenarios, especially when dealing with sentient creatures that could not communicate properly; this could save Desmond many misunderstandings.

Regarding Kryzsha’s prying question, Desmond didn’t even bother to give her an answer and instead simply asked to be properly taught this way of communicating through mana.

It took Desmond out of the rest of the day but using his monstrous talent and understanding he mastered the skill before dinner-time leaving even the ever arrogant Kryzsha in awe.

On the other hand, both Xiauyue and Mei spent the day training and deepening their understanding of their newfound strength and newly discovered abilities so the day could not be considered wasted.

The next morning and already being the fifth day since the harvest festival began, Desmond and his company undertook a small tour of the surroundings visiting the places indicated by Kryzsha where some of her friends were supposed to live.

Already knowing a little about Kryzsha’s strange personality and all the oddities around her, the trio didn’t even bother to turn on their common sense that morning and simply took everything that happened as the most normal thing in the world.

As a result, the group was able to harvest astonishing harvests as they bartered all the way back to Kryzsha Cave at dusk.

By exchanging some precious fruits suitable for making wine with the gorilla tribe that visited Kryzsha, the trio obtained a huge shipment of valuable bones from various beasts that the gorillas hunted.

By exchanging these bones with a bizarre underground creature whose appearance could only be the product of the fusion between a centipede and a Hercules beetle, the trio obtained a considerable quantity of precious minerals.

From these minerals, the trio gave a few pounds of a stone rich in warm Ki to the herd of sheep kangaroos, obtaining in exchange several precious herbs and some wool that according to Xiauyue was extremely valuable.

The next thing was to exchange some of those herbs with especially nutritious characteristics to the undine tarantulas who apparently needed it to lay their eggs; thus giving the group a fairly fair amount of undine silk and a beautiful aquatic pearl.

Although the most unexpected exchange came from the herd of deer that live at the foot of the Kryzsha mountain that they bumped into on their way back who only asked for a little wool in exchange for a strange book that was found in the forest several years ago.

It was Xiauyue who had some notions of medicine and alchemy who recognized the book which turned out to be a relatively old and well-maintained compendium of alchemy by some famous alchemist who was said to have died in these mountains a couple of decades ago.

In a way for Xiauyue this book was the most valuable thing they had obtained so far, it might even be more valuable than the they consumed, for the simple fact that this book would allow her family to form their own alchemists and thus stop depending on the Bai family and even being able to compete with them in the future for the alchemy market in the sect; thus strengthening the Miao family for generations.

One can imagine her surprise when Desmond asked to keep the book, as much as she could trust him, this book was too important to her family to be left in the hands of someone else but the following words left her with no choice but to hand the book to Desmond: “Xiauyue, right now I need you to trust me.”

What else could she do? Desmond’s sincere tone and warm eyes had left her completely helpless, it had spent a little less than a month since they met but Desmond had already become the second person to whom she could not say no; Especially considering what they had been through together in the last few days.

Helpless Xiauyue could only let Desmond keep the book and put the subject on the back of her head, while Mei who knew Desmond a little better looked at everything with a thoughtful expression knowing that it was weird for him to show so much interest but also decided put her trust in him.

Back in the cave of Kryzsha, the group had a small farewell feast knowing that tomorrow they would have to start their journey back to reach the sect on the seventh day in time; news that caused some sadness in Kryzsha who had quickly become fond of the group.

But looking at the stone maidens carefully pampering Kryzsha to lift her spirits, the trio figured that this holy beast whose power rivals with a god in this world would be fine, and if she really wanted to, Kryzsha could leave the mountainous region and wander at ease around the world without anyone being able to stop her.

In the end, the group ended up getting drunk on fruit liquor late into the night and didn′t even remember how they got to their room although the most reasonable thing was that the poor stone maidens would have to drag the unconscious bodies of the trio back to their bedroom.

It wasn’t until the next morning that the trio had an idea of ??the consequences of drinking so irresponsibly and it wasn’t exactly because of a hangover.

As if by art or a joke of fate, the trio turned out to wake up in unison, and by opening their eyes, resisting the headache, and adjusting their gaze; all of them encountered a rather unexpected scenario.

With their clothes barely pulled over their semi-naked bodies, Xiauyue and Mei found themselves almost completely on top of Desmond clinging to him with every available limb pressing their barely covered plump breasts against Desmond’s bare chest.

Their tangled bare thighs peeked out from between their robes and both girls had at least one hand tucked inside Desmond’s robes clinging to him around the waist.

If not for the lack of pain in a certain area, in particular, both girls feared they had made an irreparable mistake by making their relationship irreconcilably complicated but as uncomfortable as their current situation was; everyone involved encountered some internal resistance to the idea of ??separating.

With hormones pumping through their bodies and some alcohol still working in their systems, a faint pink aura filled the trio for a moment tempting everyone to simply let go and cross the boundaries that define their relationship ... but the sudden arrival of Kryzsha’s accompanied by her stone maidens completely broke the pink aura, turning it into an air of discomfort that filled the room.

Unknowingly, both Desmond and Mei, and Xiauyue gave a complicated sigh filled with a feeling of relief and disappointment.