The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!

Amethyst Hall arrived at Lograin by carriage, pulled by Titan and Petyr's now adult pegasus Glory, in the early morning. Several of their members couldn't fly after all, and Kanae would be remiss to fly ahead with the other succubi. Warm sunlight kissed each of their cheeks as they hopped onto the cobblestone road. The city of Sin and Piety remained split down the middle as ever. Over at Carnal District, the nocturnal prostitutes and drunks were beginning to turn in. Meanwhile, the religious ward was rising with the sun as clergy chanted and performed sermons outside, congregants shuffled into churches, and laborers moved quickly through the streets.

The Lograin Branch of the Eminence of Sin's church was several floors smaller than the largest ones. Of course, the temples belonging to the Supreme One and the Many remained the world's towering pillars, and Kanae's experimental religion which didn't even have a god itself could never hold a candle.

Eldora, the elven half-succubus and High Priestess of the Lograin Branch, flew out of the church to greet them.

"Queen Kanae and the Amethyst hall, I welcome you to Lograin. The Eminence of Sin shall see to your needs and wants for the remainder of your stay. Please, make use of what our humble church has to offer, be it prayer, confessions, and even… your sexual gratification." Eldora curtsied in the Eminence's sparse vestments, and in doing so, gave a glimpse of her long, shapely legs.

"They might be half-succubi, but you sure know how to pick 'em, Kanae!" Claudia bit her lower lip, clearly taken by Eldora's elven beauty.

"Eugh. I'll be at the Church of One." Petyr gagged and turned around.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kanae asked worriedly. "Ortesia kind of ransacked Lograin when they occupied the city during the war…"

That stopped Petyr cold in her tracks.

The Saint Priests, Sheena and Bocchi, had told Kanae that they were sent to Lograin during the war when Grand Eye Analise had had enough. Apparently, the occupying Ortesian forces weren't exactly well-behaved guests. The army had strong-armed shopkeepers into giving things over for free, stayed at inns without pay, and made a mess of the usually pristine streets.

It reasoned that sentiments regarding the Empire of Ortesia were at an all-time low, which was very deserved to begin with. If someone recognized the empire's greatest knight, Lord-Major Petyr Stormcloud, they were going to have a lot more problems than an ancient dragon.

"Why don't we go to Dead Man's Gamble then?" Edina suggested. "No one's going to give a shit over there. If someone does, and they see me with Petyr, it's going to shut them right up."

That was an option… Although, Kanae didn't exactly like the idea of splitting the party. It never went well. They might not have a choice.

"Alright. Edina, Petyr, and I will stay at the Dead Man's Gamble during our stay in Lograin. The rest of you stick to the church. Vice-Captain Alicia is in charge of you. My group will search for information about the dragon in the Carnal District. Alicia, you search the churches and adventurers hall here. Use your succubus charm if you think anyone's hiding something for whatever reason," Kanae instructed.

Everyone expressed their agreement, at least until Hilde whistled sharply to get Kanae's attention.

"Kanae, are you sure you wish to keep this creature around in your church? It keeps eyeing us like bags of meat," Hilde said, pointing a thumb at the ogre.

"That's Thume, and he's as much a member of the Amethyst Hall as you. But… you might be right. Come with me, Thume. I'll find you a good place to stay," Kanae said.

"Thume follow!" Thume exclaimed.

They boarded the carriage to Carnal District, crossing the wide thoroughfare which split the city in half according to ideals. However, maybe due in large part to Mayor Mallory, there was a lot more intermingling than when Kanae was first here many years back. Clerics openly crossed the threshold to fraternize with their more sinful counterparts. Likewise, denizens of Carnal District were readily welcomed into the religious ward to do business like buying food, clothing, and simply making conversation.

No one was shouting obscenities ladled with sexual tension anymore. It was mostly on the surface!

"Where in the Supreme One's name are we going?" Petyr opened the window and asked.

"The brothel," Kanae said casually, only to receive the knight's burning glare. "No, not for me! For Thume! If I don't keep him sexually satisfied, he's going to take it out on me. As much as I like sex, I won't get any work done if an ogre's screwing the daylights out of me. So, I'm going to take him to a brothel that specializes in handling rough and unconventional customers."

"I've made a mistake… I should have chosen a lifetime in prison." She sighed.

"Haha! Don't worry, Goldie. We'll square you off after a few rounds of cards and drinks!" Edina slapped Petyr on the back, but the high elf seemed resigned to her fate already.

The carriage pulled to a stop in front of a modest, brickhouse brothel. Barrels stacked three-high at most sat outside against the walls. When Kanae glanced up, the silhouette of someone riding cowgirl and bouncing energetically could be seen on the curtains. A hanging sign outside read, 'Giant's Den'.

Kanae knocked on the door, and a moment later, it swung open to a large draph woman. Large was the keyword. She was big in every asset: height, chest, and pudgy in the right places. Long, brown hair, parted by two curved horns, draped down a voluptuous body barely contained by a sexy apron that left little to the imagination.

"Hey, Madame Tanya! How's business?" Kanae greeted the draph.

"Well if it isn't Queen Kanae. Booming now without high elves butting in. Your folks from up north have finally started coming down again. Here I was getting lonely. Anywho, let me guess… You need that one satisfied?" Tanya eyed Thume in particular.

Kanae unburdened a fat sack of gold from her waist and handed it over.

"That's Thume. I'll cover any additional costs that might come up," Kanae assured the brothel owner.

"Heh." Tanya pocketed the gold and grinned. "Haven't had an ogre in a while. You got it. My girls and I are built to handle big'uns like an ogre."

Thume gladly followed Tanya in, and as soon as the door closed shut behind them, a round of gasps from a bunch of ladies erupted from within. Kanae offered a brief salute and wished them good luck.

The remaining three completed their journey at Dead Man's Gamble. It was home sweet home for Edina, especially being surrounded by the vices of the city and her longest-serving undead. A death knight stood watch as a bouncer in the middle of the gambling floor. Suited-up skeletal warriors doled out cards as dealers, and others ran around serving drinks and snacks to day-crawling patrons. The living employees from when Bardell owned the casino as Jewel were still around, too, fiercely loyal to the squirreling necromancer who secured their jobs and paid well.

Edina showed them to the rooms upstairs. Accommodations weren't as lavish as her own room, but a modest place of stay was more than enough. Petyr even grunted in approval.

"Grand Eye Analise wants us to find anything about an ancient dragon. Let's start with ourselves just to be sure. Do we know anything about a dragon? The only ones I've fought were inside Rifts, against Hilde's, and the one back in Orturic, but that was a younger one," Kanae explained.

"Beats me, but one thing's for sure: I'm killing the thing and raising it to be part of my undead army!" Edina rubbed her squirreling hands together and giggled menacingly.

Kanae and Petyr eyed the necromancer for a moment.

"From what you said, you're probably a more experienced dragon slayer than I. In Rotandrix where dragons were plentiful, I slayed a green just to prove that I could. However, if this dragon is of ancient size and only recently turned up, then that sounds like it did recently awake from hibernation," Petyr said, ignoring Edina's comment.

"Any ideas if ancients are supposed to be that much stronger?" Kanae asked.

The high elf folded her arms and fell into thought. Maybe it would have done them some good to spend a day or two at the Illuminant Repository first. They were already in Lograin now, so it was too late to go back.

"I think I recall learning that dragons undergo a sort of evolutionary transformation at a late point in their lifetime. Scholars from Rotandrix who have encountered ancients described them as intelligent and capable of speech. I haven't met one myself." Petyr shrugged.

Dealing with an intelligent dragon then. Great.

After Kanae expelled a sigh, she noticed Edina was missing.

"Where did Edina go?" Kanae asked.

"It's not my job to keep track of her," Petyr said.

They returned downstairs to find Edina having made herself comfortable at a poker table. She was joined by three other players and an undead dealer.

"What are you doing? We're supposed to be working!" Kanae hurried up to her and complained.

"I am working! There's no better way to sleuth information than being around folks. Ain't that right, boys? Any of you seen an ancient dragon flying about?" Edina asked the table.

Kanae slapped a hand to her face.

"Hah! Ya think it'd be the talk of the town if there was," an old, elven player said.

"Actually…" A human man with a red bandana rubbed his hairy chin. "I think them over at the 'venturers hall had a ruckus about a dragon a week or two ago. My nephew who takes quests from time to time for some pocket change told me something big flew northeast. Caused a big commotion."

"That had to be the ancient dragon!" Kanae gasped.

They suddenly went white as a ghost.

"Uhh… I think me mum o'er in Murkwater wanted me home. Better pack of my things! Sorry, lads." The third player, a darker-skinned man, dropped his cards and gathered his chips before bolting out of the casino.

The other two players made excuses and hightailed it away, too. Edina propped an elbow on her seat with a smirk.

"Okay, we verified that there is certainly a big dragon out here. If only we had a better idea where in the mountains it was hiding." Kanae sighed.

Lograin's jagged and unusual mountains made it difficult to search on foot. Even though they were able to fly, there were a lot of nooks and crannies due the monolithic damage done to them in the past.

While Kanae was still thinking, Petyr was already on the way out.

"Wait, where are you going?" Kanae asked.

"Your inaction and lack of leadership experience pisses me off. If we're trying to find a dragon, then we should be looking for it ourselves. You already have that succubus leading the investigation in the city. We'll investigate outside the city," Petyr said impatiently.

"I hate to be that squirreling," Edina began and picked up her staff, "but Goldie's right—"

"STOP CALLING ME GOLDIE!" a furious voice boomed from outside.

Kanae and Edina exchanged a quiet laugh. They caught up to Petyr, who was just climbing onto Glory. Kanae did the same on Titan, and Edina summoned an undead dragon to ride on. Together, the three soared from Lograin and made way for the looming mountains.

In ages past, powerful spellcasters— one of whom Kanae recently discovered was Marwin Fransk— had left a wake of destruction behind by pummeling the range with the Horn of Glentir. Powerful blasts punched holes into the cliffs and mountains, creating gaping crescents in many of them.

Others looked like gargantuan archways into other worlds. They landed on one of the arches to peer down from it. From up here, the clouds were almost within reach. Coursing winds battered and kicked their hair up aflutter.

"If I was an ancient dragon, where would I hide?" Kanae quietly wondered aloud.

"I could scour this whole place with a horde of undead if you want," Edina suggested.

"What… just how many can you summon? You know what, scratch that. This place was already destroyed once. We don't need an army of undead trampling on the wildlife," she said.

Kanae tried communing with her two young blue dragons, which she had birthed after laying with an adult blue dragon in a Rift. They might be able to help. Unfortunately, the two were much too far somewhere in the Commonwealth, likely hunting and growing at their own pace.

Something nudged Kanae from behind. Titan repeatedly pressed his snout to her butt as if trying to get in some sexy time.

"No, Titan. Now isn't the time or place for that," Kanae said.

The mighty dreadmourn huffed. Instead of pushing Kanae, he unfurled his wings and dove off.

"What's with him?" Edina asked.

"I don't know. Maybe he's pent up after pulling a carriage from Radevic to Lograin. I'll go down and give him a blowjob or something. Be right back!" Kanae jumped off and heard Petyr gag before falling too far.

Titan was on the surface of the uneven mountainous terrain. His snout was close to the ground, breathing heavily as he sniffed for something. Maybe it wasn't sex he was after. When Kanae landed, he lifted his head up for only a moment before returning to the soil.

"What did you find?" Kanae drew closer and noticed a rather large bone partially buried in the dirt. She bent down and pressed a hand to it. Smooth, like a nail or some kind of metal. Signs of age marked it with ridges along the length. Brushing some of the dirt aside revealed it to be dark in color.

It would take a crew of miners to dig whatever this thing was out. This also very well could just be a fancy-looking rock.

As Kanae got up, her ankle caught on something. She fell backwards onto her ass. After getting up, she got a good look at what tripped her. It looked just like the thing she and Titan were inspecting.

"Wait…" Kanae flew up a little to get a bird's eye view and gasped.

It wasn't just a piece of bone. It was an entire dragon's skeleton, half-buried in soil, weed, and gravel. A large boulder rested on the spine. There was no way to tell if the rock had fallen on and killed the dragon, or if it had happened posthumously.

Kanae was about to return to the others when an earthquake violently rocked mountains. She looked up as sections of the cliff came apart. Stone and rubble showered them.

"Titan, we got to go!" Kanae yelled, but something hard hit her in the back of the head, and she went plummeting to the ground.

The dreadmourn put himself between Kanae and the falling debris. Darkness. They weren't dead yet. Kanae could still feel dirt all over her, as well as Titan who was trying not to put his full weight on top of her.

"Shit, Kanae! You and Titan good down there?" Edina called from above.

"We're alive!" Kanae responded and winced at the pulsing pain on the back of her head. "What about you and Petyr?"

Light beamed through when a death knight pulled away a large rock. Edina and a few other undeads peered in, all of them looking extremely relieved.

"Yep. I'm good!" Edina offered a thumbs up.

"Stand back. I'll free them," Petyr could be heard saying out of sight.

Edina and her undead disappeared from view.

"Uh… Edina? How is Petyr planning to clear the rubble? If she's planning to hit it, tell her not to! GUYS!" Kanae panicked.

An explosion of holy energy knocked away most of the rocks on top of them. Kanae and Titan went tumbling across the ground, bruised from the strike. Petyr was standing on top of a pile of crushed stone, her felmetal maul glowing gold from being infused with a smite.

"That… hurt more than the avalanche…" Kanae groaned.

Titan shook off his daze and stood up just fine.

"That wasn't an avalanche," Petyr said, eyes fixed to the sky. "Edina and I saw it from above while you were distracted down here. A giant dragon slammed into an arch, destroying it and flying away. We saw the beast dive behind the mountains before coming down to help."

Not only did they ascertain that an ancient dragon was really here, but it also wasn't friendly then? Good to know.