Cain sends the Guild request, and Prana accepts it in an instant, receiving a round of welcomes tagged as being from all over the world. Mostly the Central Continent though.
"Now, let's go out there and show off your new look. I'm certain that the others will be impressed, you have amazing taste after all." Cain declares, opening the door and leading Prana out into the main room while she answers some of the Guild messages.
"So you poached her as one of your own, did you? Not that I think the Mayor will mind. Just having such a capable Guardian will be more than enough for him." The old witch says, looking over Prana's new form.
"Oh man, are you trying to kill me here? That is hot." Levi says, giving Cain two thumbs up, and taking another of Prana's vines to the head.
Only this time, the vine isn't rough and black, but smooth and glossy black, with cruelly barbed violet pincers. At first, Cain thought they were spikes, but once the vine extended they separated like a beak and snapped at the hapless Wrath Demon.
"What else does this class offer for skills?" Cain asks, trying to distract himself so he doesn't laugh and remind Prana that she's intending to punish Levi for his comments.
"I've got the Guild Skill, but I'm not sure what it does. And then I've got the points to pretty much fill out this class tree. It's all forest-related skills though. Better plant growth, eternal darkness, misdirection in the woods, toxic flowers, and carnivorous trees. You know, the normal sort of thing." Normal was of course a relative term. After all, most of the people around here wouldn't find a class that can create a haunted forest with carnivorous trees at all normal.
"Combine that with your Mythic Tentacles and you shouldn't have any sort of problem dealing with enemies in the woods around the city." Cain agrees, and Prana smiles at him, not realizing how absolutely heart-rendingly innocent and kind Cain made her smile look in this form since she had looked away from the mirror before he made the final tweaks and gave her the [Crushing Tentacles] Skill.
"You are actually an evil eldritch being of some sort aren't you? Forget being a small city Guardian, that face could conquer nations." Levi sighed, staring up at Prana from the floor.
"My face? What did you do to my face?" Prana asked, turning to look at the mirror in the bedroom again, and smiling when she saw her own reflection.
"Hey, did you put makeup on me? I don't remember the black eye shadow or the nail polish from before?" Prana asked as she came back out to the living room.
"I think they're a visual side effect of your aura skill like the poisoned skin was before," Cain suggested, looking her over for other signs of changes from what he had created. The rest looks the same, it's just the eye shadow and the pink nail polish that she gained when she changed classes.
They might even be a visual effect of her gauntlets and her helmet for all that Cain knows, but she can explore that later. It's not like she's going to be changing classes again for a while.
"I should report back to the Coven. they will want to know all about the events here today, especially the appearance change. I'm sure you understand Mr. Cain, the appearance thing is going to cause an uproar among the witches. They will surely offer you a wide variety of benefits if you can help them break the curses on their bodies." The old witch smiles, showing a collection of rotted and missing teeth.
"I could also just call a Record Keeper and ask them to break the curses, they're really good at it, and they work based entirely on favors," Cain suggested, but the witch made a warding symbol with her hands as if he had suggested something awful.
"I would rather owe a favor to an Ancient than a Record Keeper. At least with an Ancient, you can guess what they're going to ask for." The old woman informed him as if it was the wisdom of the ages.
"I'll keep that in mind. I used to be a Flesh Crafter, so I have the ability to cause a number of appearance changes if your coven sisters should need them while I'm here. We're planning to stay until the Guardian election anyhow, so we can cheer Prana on."
The new violet skin tone shows a very lovely shade of blush when Prana is embarrassed, unlike her old green tone, which never really changed much. Teasing her got a lot more fun after her appearance changed thanks to that one simple fact.
Cain wasn't the only one that noticed. Almost all of the companions love playing pranks and teasing, so a new friend who blushes easily was noticed by everyone. Fortunately, they do know how to keep their teasing somewhat under control, so Cain doesn't have to worry about them making Prana hate them all.
After the witch excused herself for the night, everyone else started making arrangements for the evening. There was only one small bedroom here, so it clearly wasn't suitable for everyone. Instead, Nemu went looking for a suitable hotel nearby.
There were a number of them in town, currently all but empty thanks to the lack of travelers, so she picked the closest one to the giant redwood tree and rented out the entire place. It's not like money was important to her, and the Innkeeper surely would appreciate it.
To say the demon who ran the Inn was shocked to see them would be an understatement. Though he hadn't gone personally to pick up the ingredients for the soup, since his wife volunteered in his stead, he was still well aware of who this group was once he saw Cain and Vala, the two very distinctive demons.
There should have been a plague Treant with them though, but the lovely Dryad who accompanied them was certainly no loss.
"If you come down first thing in the morning, I will have food ready. I saved some potatoes from the stew, and I have chickens here in the yard for eggs, so I will make a nice quiche." He informed the city's saviors, handing them the master key so they could pick any rooms that they wanted.
"We appreciate it. Here, take these vegetables, and add them to breakfast. I'm an actual transfer, and in my previous life, there was a custom in hard times that a traveler donates something to the pot for their meals." Levi explains, passing over a few items from his inventory.
"Thank you, I will do my very best." The man bowed politely as the group left to find a bed for the evening.
"So are we sending armed hunters as merchants, or should we assign them to guard merchants before the witches do it for us?" Vala asked once they got upstairs to the Royal Suite, as the sign on the door called the three-bedroom unit that took up half of the top floor.
"We will send hunters from the farm to the various cities. Soon enough the guards will start escorting farmers and groups again in the regions where the farms aren't overrun, so it will likely only be a stopgap measure for a month or two. Maybe we should have the tailors at the farm make them some large packs, like the ones that the Tea merchants used? Transfers are strong, they can fill them with anything they want and still make good time, plus some extra spending money." Cain suggested.
"There are stronger farmers too, but looking around here, none of them are left. I think it was just the fact that the Echoes hunted the area around the farm clean that our region is doing so well." Erin pointed out, tapping her tail on the table to emphasize her point.
"So what you're saying is that we need to expand our hunting grounds far beyond sustenance and safety levels and begin a mythical beast butchering business. Maybe with an enormous smoker, and honey glaze. A nice barbecue sauce..." Laura's voice trails off as her mind turns to food.
"Well, not in so many words, but that's not a bad idea. If they're going to be going between cities anyhow, we could have them hunt extra and sell off the Mythical Beast Meat. It's nutritious and it looks like there is more than enough supply, even after we eliminate the species that don't taste very good." Erin agreed.
"Let's talk to the witches again tomorrow. They seem to be on the same track, but changing Prana got them all sidetracked today. Tomorrow we can talk it over and get things started."
With that, everyone split up to pick a bedroom, with Levi being relegated to one of his own while the others shared since Cain was going to be up all night studying Spell Crafting. A day or two without sleep wasn't a big deal, especially after all those days of whole night naps, when his body really only needed a few hours of meditation.
