“Would you like some help with your hair?” I asked after noticing that it didn’t look like her hair was completely dry.

  Levia glanced my way and softly shook her head. “Thank you for the offer but I prefer to leave my hair to dry naturally over time after removing the excessive water. If I use towels, it curls way too much and becomes too tangled. I am pretty sure I wiped it off enough not to drip onto the floor so there should be no problems with that.”

  “Ah. I see. If towels aren’t good, would a hair dryer be fine?” I wondered.

  “Hair dryer?” Her brows knitted together lightly.

  “I guess Aisha didn’t exactly show you how to use it since she usually enjoys towels more.” I nodded to myself. “It’s a simple device that blows hot air at your hair to speed up the process. I can show you if you would like. It’s simple enough for you to even use it on your own.”

  “If you offer, I will kindly oblige,” Levia agreed and turned around to walk back into the bathroom.

  “You can make yourself comfortable on the bed. I’ll bring it here since you don’t have to use it only in there.” I passed by her side and patted her shoulder on my way.

  Quickly locating the dryer exactly where it always was, I fished out a fresh, unopened comb from the bottom drawer under the sink. It would certainly come in useful and Levia could use some more personal belongings. Grabbing everything I needed, I got back into the apartment and found the pretty Witch sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, with my lovely Pixie familiar hovering around her.

  I connected the plug to the socket by the edge of the headboard and crawled to Levia on my knees.

  “This is it. I’ll turn it on first so that you don’t get startled. It does make some noise, depending on how hard you want it to go,” I explained and flipped the switch to the lowest mode.

  Even though I’d warned her, Levia still jumped a little when the device began buzzing and whooshing. I couldn’t stop a small smirk from creeping onto my lips but tried my best to remain collected and respectful.

  “See? It’s like this.” I directed the air outlet at her face and slowly twirled my wrist around to target more than just one point.

  “It truly is warm.” Levia closed her eyes as I kept bathing her in the heated wind. “Such a pleasant sensation.”

  The corners of her mouth rose into a tiny smile again and I admired her relaxed expression for a little while. It was hard to break that peaceful scene but I turned the dryer off to bring the calm Witch back to me.

  “Turn around and I’ll dry your hair for you. I got you a new comb too. Later, you can use both to get it done by yourself. I’ll show you how,” I instructed her.

  Levia listened obediently and turned her back to me. I switched the dryer on again, this time without spooking her. I took my time to gently brush through her hair with my fingers first, directing the flow of warm air at the white strands from a safe distance. Then, after most of the hidden moisture was dealt with, I made use of the comb I’d brought with me. Levia remained still during my careful caresses and I was fairly sure a faint smile decorated her adorable face the entire time.

  At one point, I heard the door closing behind my back and saw Aisha creeping out of the workshop, heading for the toilet, most likely. Noticing me, she sent a thumbs up my way and disappeared into the bathroom. I shook my head and chose to ignore her since I knew she wouldn’t let go of the fact that I’d technically done exactly what she’d suggested earlier, just in a slightly different manner. It was obvious that her version required me to join our silent friend under the shower.

  Soon, we were finished, and I turned the dryer off. “Alright. That should be all. How does it feel? I hope I didn’t ruin your hair.”

  Levia pulled a bigger lock of her dazzling white hair to the front and brushed through it with her fingers. “No, you have not. Thank you for your assistance, Lucas. It feels amazing. My hair is so smooth and fine.”

  “Glad to hear that. Humans in this realm have this old misconception that blow drying your hair is much worse than air drying it, which is what you were doing, but it’s not like that. It actually can be a bit worse to air dry a lot since you let the moisture sit on your head for a long time. But, in the end, both methods are more or less equally good and bad, depending on how you do it,” I replied with a smile.

  “I was unaware of that fact. I appreciate you sharing this information with me. I might start making use of this hair dryer from now on if you do not mind.” She glanced at me over her shoulder.

  “Naturally. Come. We will do a dry test for the future.” I snickered. “Get it?”

  And once more, I was blessed with that vague curve of her dainty lips, announcing that she had in fact gotten it. I reached out to assist Levia in stepping off the bed and we went to the bathroom, already freed by the previous visitor. Giving the dryer to her, I positioned Levia in front of a mirror and started the tutorial, sharing my experience of using this very useful tool. In a flash, she mastered it even better than I had and I was certain that she would have no issues further ahead.

  Afterward, we returned both the dryer and the comb to their respective places and walked back into the apartment. Levia dressed up into comfy shorts, a t-shirt, and threw one of my hoodies onto herself, which naturally, was at least partially oversized for her. It was the same one I had lent her some time ago.

  It seemed like she found it very cozy and perhaps her preference for clothing was showing more. If so, I guess I had to get us to shop together a bit soon so she would pick up a few pieces on her own without being influenced by Aisha. I would lie if I said that I didn’t want Levia to keep using these hoodies. She looked great in them.

  In any case, we headed back to the workshop to check the results of Levia’s examination and maybe set everything up for production before we attempted to lure the killer into our grasp.

  Chapter 22

  The Hunter and the Prey

  We returned to Levia’s workshop and found Aisha sitting on a small stool in front of the testing appliances. She rested her elbows on the counter and watched the colorful tubes from up close. Her long, thick tail swayed gently from side to side as its tip grazed the floor with quiet swishing. I wasn’t sure if she was bored out of her mind or just so entranced by the alchemical reactions.

  When her ears registered our arrival, her tail stopped abruptly and she raised herself from her position to take a peek at us.

  “Finished with your toiletries?” She grinned mischievously.

  “Yes. My hair is now perfectly dry. Thank you for waiting,” Levia replied matter-of-factly, effectively shutting down any chances for the drakan lady’s mischief.

  Aisha clearly hadn’t expected such a bold statement and was thrown slightly off the course as she stared at the calm Witch approaching the appliances right in front of her. I chuckled quietly and joined them by the counter.

  “So, do these tell you anything?” Aisha asked as Levia began collecting the test tubes.

  “That is exactly what I am going to check right now,” Levia answered and we followed her to a different corner of the workshop.

  She set the tubes down on the side and opened a cupboard under the counter to bring out a few clay plates with complex formations carved on their surface. She placed them next to each other and touched every single one, making the patterns light up in different colors. We spotted orange, blue, green, and purple.

  The two of us observed as the wise Witch hovered each tube over every single plate, examining the substance inside with utmost focus and attention. After the first round, we realized that those plates were supposed to create different environments with various conditions above the arrays. Orange was heat, blue was cold, green was some kind of nature, and purple was some weird energy that caused the contents of the tubes to glow like under ultraviolet light.

  We waited patiently for Levia to finish her work and she turned to us after about fifteen minutes of observing the samples and noting down her observations.

  “First of all, I can rule out the possibility of the use of poison,” she stated calmly. “I tested for various types of harmful substances and did not get even a single reaction out of them.”

  “Wait. Does that mean there was no poison on the weapon that killed the Assassin dude?” Aisha furrowed her brows.

  Levia nodded. “That would be my assumption. There is still a chance that it is something out of the range of my tests, but it is highly unlikely at the current level of the Dungeon that we are clearing. The assigned Defenders would have a hard time financing the purchase or even production of the stronger substances at this point in their career.”

  “Damn. So he died just from the stab?” My fierce mate frowned even harder.

  “I did not say that.” Our blue-skinned friend shook her head. “Even though I did not find any traces of poisonous and toxic elements, there still was something that did in fact give me a reaction.”

  “Sounds like we have a lead. What was it?” I rubbed my chin while curiously watching as Levia picked up one of the test tubes.

  “The tests showed the presence of foreign mana in the deceased man’s blood. In simple words, it means that the weapon was coated with enough of it for the energy to make it into the target’s circulatory system. That usually means the use of magic. Some kind of a spell was cast onto the dagger, which prevented the victim from being able to treat the wound or seek help. It might have been something that can cause paralysis, perhaps,” she explained.

  “Well, that doesn’t bode well for our priestly friend, does it?” Aisha chuckled wryly. “I don’t think the techniques Lulu uses can be categorized as spells. Even I know that abilities that use mana do it differently than actual magic. There is still a chance that she might know something on the side, of course, but we do have a specialized mage on the list.”

  “What if they are actually both in it rather than together as we earlier pondered?” I spoke my thoughts out loud. “The first case might have been an attempt at getting rid of the Priest by Lulu, failed because he noticed due to his intentions being the same. Then, the second case being him targeting Ashmel to direct our attention away from him and onto her. Both know that each other is a killer and are wary of making any more attempts, plotting to use us to deal with their rival.”

  “It is not impossible.” Levia twirled a lock of her mesmerizing hair in her fingers. “Albeit very unlikely, I can not deny that possibility. It would both complicate and make things easier for us at the same time.”

  Aisha sighed heavily. “Why do people like them have to exist? As if we couldn’t just all happily cooperate and earn riches together. It’s not like we will ever go out of commission with what our profession is. There will always be another chance at striking gold as long as you survive.”

  “Nothing we can do about such greed.” I patted her on the shoulder. “But we will have to do something about this situation we’ve found ourselves in. Do we all agree to try and bait the killer or one of the killers out into the open?”

  “It’s our best shot. Having a drop on them will be an immense advantage. They are so slimy that we might not get another opportunity and will have to continue dealing with the Dungeon while constantly watching our backs for sneak attacks,” my drakan mate replied.

  “Yes. We should strike as soon as we are able to make a proper judgment.” Levia nodded lightly.

  “To hell with that, honestly. There’s so much doubt. It might be inevitable to go after them both. The Dungeon is no joke. As barbaric as it might sound, in the end, it’s them or us. We need to steel ourselves for that possibility,” Aisha added.

  “We shall cross that bridge whenever it comes. I can only promise you that I won’t hesitate. As your master, I’m responsible for your current lives, not just my own. I can’t consciously put you in intentional danger just so my morals can remain perfectly clean,” I replied, taking a glance at each of them.

  A big grin curled Aisha’s lips up and she stepped closer to me, brushing her fingers under my chin, angling it up a bit as she hovered right in front of my face.

  “I’ve said it many times but you are so sexy when you are all protective like that. Or maybe it’s possessive?” She chuckled breathily.

  “You can pick whichever you like more.” I smirked at her and pecked her lips. “Now, let’s wrap things up with the arcanas so that we can go out hunting without any remaining worries.”

  “Sure, boss. I’ll leave the two of you to it, then.” Aisha winked at me and sauntered away with a clearly seductive step, wiggling her ass and tail as she walked.

  I sighed and brought my attention to Levia. “Shall we?”

  “With pleasure.” She made a faint nod.

  I felt like she stared at me for a little while after I turned around and started cleaning the appliances up. She soon joined me and we made quick work of it together. Perhaps I was just imagining things or something.

  After everything was back in its place, we began talking business. Since she was much more knowledgeable about the magic cards of her invention, Levia suggested the initial price per piece. We would also offer them in packs of either the same spell or containing mixed sets of different, decently harmonized magic.

  Just to make sure, we of course scouted the D-Market and D-Shop again to see how our pricing compared to the available alternatives. This time, we weren’t targeting the very beginners so the final price ended up notably higher at about a hundred D-Dollars per card. That value varied depending on the spell imbued into the arcana, of course, and could oscillate greatly. It was just the average.

  With that thing set, we began printing copies of the arcanas our artist had sent back to us to ascertain quality. After it was confirmed, we adjusted the engraver and let it slowly do its job while we moved to the side and started drawing more designs together.

  I was more or less familiar with the inner workings of the circuit creation and could actually offer suggestions, observations, and insights to Levia. With my knowledge of modern coding languages coming in decently handy, we were able to streamline some of the patterns to increase their efficiency and power. It was a bizarre thing for the weird lines and symbols to relate to functions and algorithms so much, to be perfectly honest.

  It felt a bit unusual being able to teach the expert new ways of doing things she had perfected over many years but Levia didn’t show any discontent or envy. She often praised my solutions and absorbed the points I made like a sponge. She was a true artisan with an open mind. Thanks to that, we created more arcanas side by side faster than ever.

  That entire day and the next one were spent exactly on those things. We sent out more designs, received more formatted files, printed more arcanas, tested them, created more patterns in the meanwhile, and prepared market pages for each product. The last one was mostly done by me but Aisha volunteered to have a try, wondering if she could be of use after seeing me take care of it during our previous little scam. It turned out that she could imitate my writing style decently well, with me only needing to edit it a tiny bit afterward.

  Whenever she wasn’t involved in the grand operation to earn us a shitload of money, Aisha wandered the Dungeon in the close vicinity of our apartment with Rose by her side. I didn’t want to let her out any further just on her own and she didn’t argue. There was a high chance that the killer knew where we lived anyway so she could potentially lure them out by that and gain more intel.

  On the evening of the second day, we agreed that we’d done enough and started up the giant earning machine before going to sleep. Depending on the demand, we would keep setting our engraver to print more arcanas of the ones that were out of stock whenever we would be around. I’d trained both girls in the use of all the devices so that any of us could take care of that. We’d also added a note on every product’s page that the restock would happen in waves since the production was supposedly very complex.

  Then, we went to sleep and let the business nature take its own course. We didn’t really have the leeway to worry about results. Even if they weren’t that good, we didn’t lose that much. The stainless steel didn’t cost millions and only the ingredients needed for the ink would eat at our budget after we ran out of the liquefied pylon crystals.

  Before we dozed off, we discussed all the details regarding the murder case from start to finish. Freshly after going through everything, each of us shared our opinions on each possibility we had come up with the last time and chose who we believed to be the culprit and why. The girls brought up a few strong points and our picks were pretty much unanimous. We just needed a piece of proper evidence to fully confirm our guess and fully get rid of any doubts.

  In the morning, we washed up, ate well, warmed up, geared up, and headed into the Dungeon without looking back. Utilizing the information provided by the tracking lines drawn on the canvas by the app Zeke had made for us, we made a few guesses as to where the remaining pylons could be located and were on our way to smash them, hoping that our prey would approach us in the meanwhile.

  Then, about two hours into our expedition, we heard the sounds of battle that definitely weren’t caused by us. We shared a look and warily moved forward, inching towards the entrance to a chamber at the end of the stone corridor. Making sure to cover our backs, we peeked into the room to see what was happening.

  It turned out that the Priest whom we knew all too well was clearing it out of Skeleton Soldiers and Skeleton Archers. There was also one Skeleton Wizard amongst the monsters. But, our friend stood inside a golden, glowing circle that seemed to ward off any enemies from approaching him, rendering the efforts of the melee Skeletons futile. A shimmering barrier surrounded his body, blocking arrows and spells too.

  While protected by those quite strong techniques, he shot a ray of light into the skeletal crowd, coming out of the tip of his priestly staff. After the holy radiance fell onto his target for a few seconds, it burned through the monster’s body and caused it to fall down and scatter, most likely disabling its nucleus too. It didn’t look like he needed any help and he seemed to be in his element, so we didn’t intervene, watching from the sidelines.