The fragrance of tea was intermixing with the fragrance of the flowers in the field. It looked nice, but this illusion was quite shoddy. How do I say this without sounding like an asshole?

  “The inhabitants of this dimension have treated us quite well, besides the initial conflict, of course. I would have reacted the same if unknown entities suddenly appeared and contested my home.” He said, took a sip of his tea and put it down.

  A question, how do you know that your dimension was the one that was ‘invading’ and not vice versa?

  “The signs were quite clear, our dimension was deteriorating and unstable. It seemed as if our world was ending until we suddenly found ourselves into something that seemed like a different reality, your reality. It’s only logical that we’re the ‘invaders’ even though unintentionally.”

  Shim took another sip. The glowing rings on his limbs intrigued me, but these cookies even more. “Hey, Deca… I thought you got rid of [Gula] and can I have some too?”

  I was a big eater before I got cursed. Here, they taste great.

  So can you tell me what’s so special about the legged races?

  “While there are other races with legs, deviating from the norm, the legged races have these rings.” He pulled back his sleeves and showed the blue purple glowing rings on his arms.

  “Each leg has 8 rings, indicating I’m an eight ringed spider. My current appearance is an illusion, as what you saw before is my true form. My race specializes in capturing and manipulation of the visual perception.

  Oh is that why your illusions are so… different?

  “That is correct, races that have exceptional eyes or are not reliant on vision have an easier time dealing with us. Luckily for us, there are not many of those races.”

  So you're like the 9t! But with no tails and 8 legs instead of 2!

  That sounds nothing like the spirit foxes…

  “Well, capturing is our other specialty so only a brief moment of deception is enough for us to succeed. There are 1 up til 8 legged beasts, and we might be seen as what you deem as mythical. Although…”

  He placed an ancient looking book on the table. “According to this, the legendary and mythical races got hunted down in this dimension, we got revered and respected in ours.”

  Well you could probably wipe out a country if someone crosses you, so not surprising, it seems the races from your dimension were smarter than ours.

  Giana seemed to have eased up, but Yv and Noelle still were terrified. It was a bit rude, but fear isn’t an emotion that can be easily controlled.

  “So the amount of rings on the legs and its color give away what race they are and the danger they pose. Colors resembling blue, yellow or green indicate that they are friendly to you, the red and orange mean that they’re hostile.

  Yours are purple.

  “Purple, is more neutral. Just mind you, the color can change, look.” The color slowly shifted toward blue. “My response depended on how you would act, since I deem you friendly, I will return in kind.”

  Even though we could easily beat you up?

  Raishin!

  “Whether I will win or lose doesn’t change the fact that I will stand up for myself and defend the city.”

  I sure hope that doesn’t get you to go extinct…

  Agnis! Not you too!

  “We’re doing quite well.” He pushed the book forward. “I can’t say that about you. Are you all mythical?”

  Yes.

  Greg was doing his bullshit again. Telling everyone things they don’t need to hear. This book intrigued me. It was written in old Kaledonian. It could be called a ‘Mythology’ book, and it seemed legit for as far as I could tell. Where did he even get this?

  Yv poked me and pointed at Shim. “H…he is not going to eat us r…right?”

  Spiders don’t eat rabbits, so you’re safe.

  Not sure why, but it didn’t seem to calm Yv down.

  I see so not responsible for maintaining the dimension, but to keep certain aspects of ‘being alive’ stable.

  Huh what? I missed something.

  “The legged beasts are in charge of ‘perception’ 8 legged beasts are in charge of vision, the four legged for hearing, the 6 legged for proprioception, the one legged for smell etc. if we would disappear, those methods of perceiving the world around would fade and cease. Most races are especially fond of being able to see, that’s why the 8 legged race seems to be the most revered.”

  Ah, interesting. So if the normal races would kill you spiders off, everyone would go blind?

  Shim nodded while drinking tea. “Our power is weaker now we’re here, but there is still a chance that it would affect everyone if we were to disappear.”

  Great… more races to protect. I will warn you, the common races here are quite stupid. And as proof… well you’ve read that book, each of us here is nearing extinction. It’s not just the common races though, the gods also…

  “I see, I haven’t met one yet and I hope it stays that way. Mind if I ask you some questions?”

  Go for it, Greg!

  Allow me to educate you.

  I ate more cookies and tuned out of Greg and Shim’s nerd talk.

  A lot of people find spiders creepy, there is no doubt that these guys will be hunted down. And the gods… They might do so too. My limited knowledge tells me that spider silk is strong and can be quite useful. If a god is petty enough to come after me for my fur, one will go after the arguably more useful spider silk.

  Shim’s rings are turning green, probably indicating that he’s very friendly now. Is it like a mood ring… wow that’s a very bad pun, but it seems to work. So legged beasts have mood rings? That will be easy to remember.

  I flicked a cookie at Shim to see if the color would change if I agitated him. He caught the cookie with 2 fingers without looking at it. Damn, he’s cool.

  I fed Giana more cookies while wondering if every dimension has something like tailed beasts or legged beasts. Their role is a step-down from us, but still crucial. The planet and dimension will be fine if everyone goes blind. It’s annoying, but the planet and dimension go on.

  If team Hourai kicks the bucket, it will just be kicking this dimension while it’s still down.

  “And so, I want to introduce you to my partner, 2 ringed frost kin, they’re in charge of ‘touch’.”

  A woman appeared who looked like she was made out of frost. Another frost user? She’s in charge of touch? While being made out of frost? That’s interesting.

  She had 2 blue rings shining through her jeans. “My name is Shenah, you 5 seem quite bunched up, does it feel good?”

  Raishin’s face got red, and my face got prickly, so mine did too probably. There was no denying it, being sandwiched between hot women was enjoyable as long as we didn’t want to eat cookies, which we had stopped.

  “Y…you guys are so easy to please… I…I’m a bit envious.” Yv said with a flushed face.

  Hey, nothing wrong with that!

  Yeh!

  Greg continued nerding out and Yv was extremely uncomfortable. “D…does she have something I don’t?”

  Greg was passionately talking about something and he seemed to hit it off with Shim and Shenah.

  “I don’t know Yv, it hurts to say but… maybe he’s just not into you…”

  Hey, Deca, be a bit more considerate, will you? Shouldn’t our roles be reversed here?

  “I know but look.”

  The three of us studied Greg’s interaction with Shim and Shenah, and he was showing more emotion than I’ve seen him express in the last 17 years.

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  So how about that plan to crack his head open…

  But Noelle surely was quiet.

  Hey Raishin, what’s Noelle up to?

  Shht, she fell asleep.

  What a strange situation. Noelle seemed comfortable, though. Everyone else did. Was this Shenah’s doing?

  Greg would be put in charge of this information, as I already had too much to take care of. Not that this was agreed upon, but Greg was in a full on conversation with Shim and Shenah, and they seemed to have forgotten that we were here.

  Hey, Agnis, would it be rude to leave? Noelle fell asleep, and this isn’t a place for her to sleep.

  Raishin had gotten up and was carrying Noelle princess style.

  Whoa, getting those curses off was worth it. Hey Shim, I’m sorry, but do you mind if Raishin and Noelle leave?

  “Oh pardon my manners. We will arrange for accommodations. Do you mind if we finish this conversation another time, Gregory?"

  That is fine.

  The two headed lizardmen appeared minutes later and got us some deluxe accommodations. Raishin got a room with Noelle. I put Yv with Giana in a room and Greg and I had our separate rooms.

  They wanted to give us a tour through the city on the next day, but we declined as we wanted to explore for ourselves. We’re adventurers! We don’t do tours!

  I got my accommodation in order and went outside for some fresh air. The sun had set and the crystals in the city were glowing, illuminating the city. Nilah and I were looking at the beautiful city.

  Hey Nilah…Azu pointed out that you have 2 hearts as a sword, one as a fox and 0 as a hat. What’s that about?

  Nilah requested more treats, but wasn’t very talkative. Does she only get talkative if she's upset?

  I withheld treats from Nilah to get her to talk.

  You won't get treats if you don’t tell me!

  Nilah gave me a sad, heartbreaking look.

  Hey, that’s manipulation! That’s not fair!

  She kept it up, I gave in and gave her the treats. It was obvious, but she was faking it as she was moving around happily.

  Why am I such a loser…

  Nilah pushed her head in my lap.

  Fine fine, I’m not a loser, I’m a giga loser!

  Nilah gave me a glare and made the eerie glacial sound.

  Oh so now you're talking!

  As expected, I had no idea what she was saying. She refused to convey ideas and concepts. What a mean fox…

  I let the issue with Nilah rest and enjoyed the moonlight. It was in its waning gibbous state. It reminded me of [Moontalk]. It would mostly give me more questions than answers. [Moontalk] is a useful skill for answering 1 question and get 3 more for in return.

  Nilah got put on alert and something caught my attention.

  Can we get 1 day without getting into trouble?

  3 individuals had locked on to me. Or was that accurate?

  Come on out, you’re not fooling anyone with those shitty hiding skills.

  3 women appeared and Nilah started giving me mana.

  Sisters? You give off more a feel of being triplets…

  “You’re the Silver Torrent, right?” one of the sisters asked, who seemed the fiercest.

  No, I’m his brother, Golden Blaze. I can leave a message behind for him if you want.

  “Oh, we got the wrong person then!” The prettiest of them said and wanted to leave.

  “Mird, don’t be silly, he’s being evasive.” The fierce sister said.

  “But Kathin, what if he really has a brother?”

  The fierce and the pretty sister started to fight.

  “Excuse those two, I’m Susanga, these are my sisters Mird and Kathin. Do you mind having a chat?

  Uhh, sorry, I’m past my curfew. I should go back inside.

  “Oh, how about we talk next evening then?”

  Nilah was still hostile toward these weirdo’s as she had noticed something I picked up on too.

  Hey, isn’t this criminal, 3 women ganging up on a lone dude and his fox?

  “Oh, but we’re just 1 person.” They combined and made one hot lady. “We’re from the Treyah race, we can split ourselves in 3 individuals. I go by the name of Dehlia Star under this appearance. You must have heard of me.” She said proudly.

  Uhh, sorry, no clue who you are.

  “I see…” She got closer and I backed off. “But you must know my biggest rival, does the name Giana Kahlua sound familiar?”

  Oh! You mean that idol! Yeh she’s close to my brother, the Silver Torrent!

  I wouldn’t be intimidated normally but… this person, when she’s split up has names out of the primal language and the name of their race means ‘Three’. She might be a remnant of an ancient civilization or be ancient herself, in that case my odds don’t look so great. She set Nilah off, which means something.

  “I’ve been keeping an eye on the man my rival fell for, and I would say… you captivated my heart. I am here to ask you to leave her and become my partner.” She said and split up in 3 again. “You will get 3 for the price of 1, not a bad deal, right?” continued the fierce one.

  Well, firstly, I’m not dumping Giana so that’s a no, secondly… I’m sure your names aren’t Mird, Kathin and Susanga, as those mean ‘Soft’, ‘Hard’ and ‘Flexible’ in a certain language. You might want to be careful on what race you try to deceive.

  It was time to let the mana, Nilah gave me, flow through my body. It had been dripping into my system, but I made the dam break.

  The 3 dropped to their knees as the mana pressure got too much for them. They grabbed their throats as if suffocating.

  See this as a warning. Damn, I’ve always wanted to do something like this. Come Nilah!

  I left the strange women…woman… she was one person, right? But her race means ‘three’ so 3 people sharing one body? Did she come from the new dimension too? But she said that Giana was her rival. Giana had more or less retired when the merge happened.

  I returned to my room thinking I have another problem to deal with. Is it possible to create magic that causes problems to appear 1 by 1? I had mildly predicted that a resentful idol might go after us but… it was just a joke… and couldn’t she have gone for Greg or something?

  Giana and Yv ran out of their rooms, Giana pounced me and blasted me with charm magic. “Who was it? Who tried to charm you?”

  Wait, she has charm magic too? Ugh, she introduced herself under some bullshit names but also as Dehlia Star.

  Giana’s expression changed.

  Hey, where is your normal confidence?

  “My charm magic is this strong as it was needed to compete with her… but that’s in her combined version. When she splits up, there is nothing I can do. She is the reason that it took us so long to become the number 1 idols. She herself is a 1 woman idol group.”

  And she has set her eyes on me… wonderful. Why doesn’t she pick the millions of other men that would be happy to get her?

  “I don’t know… I also don’t know what her race is exactly. I couldn’t find anything about her race anywhere.”

  Her race means ‘Three’ in primal language. She might either be extremely ancient and survived whatever bullshit made them go extinct. Or there is a small clan of them still thriving but near extinct like we are.

  “We will be fine, right?”

  You? Yeah, me? Dunno, you’ve seen how weak I am to charm magic.

  “I won’t be fine if you’re not fine. I…I think I need to explore my mermaid side more…”

  Ooh! I will be looking forward to that!

  “Would you mind sleeping in our room? I trust you, but I don’t trust Dehlia. Someone is in your room…” Giana said as she pointed at my room across the hall.

  What a pervert, sure, unless Yv has an issue with it.

  Yv opened the door to their room. “Come in.”

  Nilah behaved and I entered. I found a comfortable corner, got my tails out and curled up.

  “Hey, what about us?” Giana protested.

  I’m sorry, I feel as if my self-control is quite weak now, I will sleep in this corner.

  I said before going to sleep.