Chapter 620: Memory and Transaction

"Call me Master—what's with the 'you'!"

Tally transformed into a loyal guard-dog, correcting him with displeasure.

The moment she finished, she turned her head back and fawningly smiled at Rod: "Right, Master?"

Seeing her master smile and indulgently pat her little head, her mood instantly brightened.

She even felt her master had completely forgiven her.

Rod, unaware of the succubus's little thoughts, also paid no mind to the vampire Vanessa for the moment, and looked at Selina.

"Not bad at all."

The Young Lady zombie wore an expressionless face that gave nothing away; most of the time she barely looked at Rod.

Faced with his praise now, she didn't even lift her head, continuing to calibrate the magic power supply stones.

But Rod didn't mind—after all, she was the only employee in the forest with productive value, so anything could be forgiven.

"It wasn't my idea; you could almost say Teacher Vanessa did it all on her own."

Selina said as much.

In the gaze she turned toward Vanessa, a hint of worship or the like flickered faintly.

"Teacher?"

"I was once a student at Bahadur Academy of Magic—is there any problem with me knowing Professor Vanessa as my teacher? You haven't forgotten my background, have you, my master?"

"How could I." Rod rattled off the lie without a flicker of guilt.

Selina's gaze turned gloomy: "Studies have proven that frequent large-scale breeding behavior may lead to memory decline—my master, you didn't send your brain along with it, did you?"

"You little—"

Rod laughed.

His palm left Hart's chest and moved to the top of Selina's head, giving it a vigorous rub.

The mind flayer's skin surface had a thin layer of mucus.

Sticking to his palm, it instantly tangled her hair into a bird's nest.

"I can make a few more pieces of magic equipment like this for you all."

Beside them, Vanessa pulled off her headscarf.

A cascade of blood-red long hair tumbled down, her ravishingly beautiful face carrying a sickly pallor, layered with a faint, scholarly elegance.

Bearing a kind of inhuman grace and beauty.

Her expression remained fairly calm, as if she had already accepted her enslaved state.

"I can be enslaved by you too—twenty years, fifty years, it doesn't matter. Whatever you want, I can devote myself wholeheartedly to helping you. After all, you humans don't live long. But as a transaction, I hope you, Roger, will return the Memory Wish Stone to me."

This half-vampire was deeply tormented by her scrambled memories, and held an intense obsession with the Memory Wish Stone.

"It's Rod."

Tally couldn't help but correct her.

"Rosa."

"It's Rod."

"Roro."

Tally looked toward her master: "She's doing it on purpose."

Rod was amused into laughter.

The command force of the Nu Yi Zhou was hard to make comprehensive, while a willing, wholehearted cooperation from a mage professor was clearly better.

"Then it's settled—after I die, I'll release you. The rest of you are the same."

Hart gave a slight tremble, somewhat thrilled and excited.

Selina's face remained expressionless, showing little reaction.

Perhaps for this Young Lady zombie, there was no difference between before and after being enslaved—either way, she just buried herself in magical research.

Tally, however, knew her master was almost certainly not going to follow a normal human lifespan.

She immediately began declaring her stance:

"If Master dies, I'll die with him—a lovers' suicide."

Vanessa glanced at her: "Your succubus is lying, Roan."

Tally froze for a beat, guiltily sneaking a glance at Rod, then only began to retort:

"You dare question my love for Master!?"

Rod, however, didn't much care: "That's one of Tally's cute points."

His words instantly settled the matter.

Tally, meanwhile, shrank her neck and giggled foolishly, playing dumb.

"Is that so."

Vanessa made no comment either way. "Succubi betray their masters nearly one hundred percent of the time—it's simply in their race's nature. As a transaction partner serving you long-term, I suggest you discard her first."

Tally grew anxious.

Somewhat embarrassed, she said: "If Master dies, I'll cut off Master's thing, and every night I'll think of Master's face, and starve myself to death!"

Vanessa was stunned.

Then, astonished: "That statement, however, is true. Strange—Romeo, is your succubus impure or something?"

Rod gave Tally a strange look.

What's the difference between a lover's suicide and the death you just described? Perhaps the places succubi feel shy about aren't the same as ordinary girls'?

And Tally, catching his gaze, lowered her head with a faintly blushing face.

"In a succubus's eyes, dying for some man is the most foolish way to die—it's as ridiculous as you humans being willing to die for a steak. I—I was actually just kidding earlier~~"

"Steak?"

The voice of the female beastfolk Aimy suddenly appeared at the cave entrance; she was hanging upside down, poking her head inside.

"Where is there steak?"

That girl is a regular street loafer, and lately, having been let off the leash, it's even more so—she goes to the Twilight Hills every day looking for someone to fight.

Rod flicked her a Jin Along: "Go eat it yourself on New Lanke Street."

"Yay! Master, you're awesome!"

Coming fast and leaving fast, Aimy happily snatched up the Jin Along, hoisted her crystal greatsword onto her shoulder, and ran off toward Shi Ying Town.

The brief interlude did not affect the negotiations inside the underground chamber.

Vanessa straightened her expression.

"Besides that, unlike the succubus beside you and the female beastfolk just now, I do not trade in my charms. What I'm offering is a transaction of knowledge and strength—I hope you understand that."

"Then your food is blood."

"That's none of your concern. I'll find other girls in the forest to trade with, rest assured. I belong to the Jinshi Sect—I still need to let it sit for a day or two before consuming it. I won't take blood personally."

"Suit yourself."

Rod didn't care one way or another, but as a reward, he planned to occasionally gift this academy professor some of his own blood.

After all, she had said his blood was delicious.

He looked toward the machine that crafted the magic ring blanks: "What's wrong with it?"

Vanessa pointed with her chin at the orb that had fallen to the ground: "The output frequency isn't stable enough, which makes the quality of the ring blanks unstable too. It's a troublesome problem—might have to take the whole machine apart again."

"What kind of trouble is that?"

Rod gave a single-handed gravity-wave pull, drawing the purple glass orb into his hand.

Under the effect of 【Sustaining Domain】, the magic-power supply stone, which already had only faint fluctuations, was held steady at a single frequency.

Vanessa's blood-red pupils widened as she exclaimed in surprise:

"Domain? What domain is this? Why have I never seen it before?"

Zombie Selina took the supply stone, observed the power of the domain, and a hint of envy showed in the eyes beneath her bird's-nest hair:

"With this, the machine can run—at least five hundred ring blanks a day."

Unexpectedly, Vanessa's expression changed: "When you encounter a difficulty, you should overcome it, not blindly rely on external power. I refuse to use Rodsha's domain."

"It's Rod."

Tally corrected her again.

Rod said with a smile: "Your refusal is invalid. I can understand your dedication to spellcraft, but I'm short on money over here too."

So saying.

He asked Tally for an empty essence tube with a freshness-preserving effect. Although there was a bit of residue clinging to the walls, it didn't matter—Vanessa's charm resistance was high anyway.

He slit his wrist, and blood dripped and pattered until it filled the tube.

"A reward for you."

Vanessa looked at the bright red blood, her small pale nose twitching slightly, and she gulped down a large mouthful of saliva.

In her wide eyes, red light overflowed, filled with longing.

Then she forced her gaze away with difficulty, hands clasped behind her back: "I don't need it!"

"No need for politeness—just let it sit for a day or two before you use it."

Rod laughed.

But the other party simply refused to extend her hand, so he simply pinched the test tube—

Vanessa was already slim-waisted; with a single full-body shudder, she swayed and trembled, the motion all the more intense.

Snap!

The thin thread of the already overburdened button could no longer hold, and with a sharp zip it shot onto Rod's face.

Large expanses of pale skin were exposed, sagging slightly under the pull of gravity.

The broken button made the little vest loose and slouchy, unable to clamp the blood-filled test tube in place.

Vanessa panicked, snatched the test tube of blood in one swift grab, paying no heed at all to her largely exposed chest.

She froze for a moment before she realized, then ground her teeth.

"This is sexual harassment! Roosevelt! This is not part of our deal!"

". Before you say that, I'd hope you could spare a moment to cover yourself up, instead of being busy putting the blood into your own spell pouch."

(End of chapter)