Gryff Boxset

by Sloss, Marcus

  There was a silence at the table and very little movement. When Cyrene arrived with a steaming plate of ribs I gleefully rubbed my hands. When the plate was in front of me I started scarfing food in large messy bites.

  “So what was the big reveal?” Cyrene said as she seated herself and sipped her wine. “I am not stupid; the room is iced over as if death himself walked in.”

  “Apparently death loves ribs,” Fred said with a nervous laugh. “That elvath is saying this one is from Prox and Red is saying he is the harbinger. It is exactly as foretold in the prophecies but not in the news. That universe was destroyed, did you make it through before the Justicars erased the connection.”

  “Wrong, Gryff closed it and was trapped for a few years in purgatory. Our gods set him free to unleash some hell on the established order here. I think the Prox verse is safe; right Gryff?” Mysti asked and I nodded as I ate. “See, he closed the connection. Not the Justicars.”

  “Wait, my husband is the baby eating, soul-stealing, woman raping, and pillaging juggernaut that has the two top companies pissing themselves? Yes!” Cyrene jumped on her chair and did a jig. “Do we have to kill them or are they in?”

  Fred gulped when Cyrene pointed at our two guests. Well, I was their guest. Any loyalty he expected from Cyrene was clearly not there.

  “Fuck,” was all he managed to reply.

  “Wow, fuck indeed. Master Joran must be screaming in rage at your survival. I am impressed. Did they set traps?” Kerso asked and saw me eye him angrily while I ate. “Yes, of course they did. Here is my offer. I become a silent partner in the sense that I get a single board slot. Fred has the articles drawn up and I looked them over; the bylaws and charter are more than appropriate even for the scale you want to achieve. We never meet again. I will send my cousin’s niece’s husband Vort to be my liaison. He will sit in for me during council meetings and help with navigating city politics. I can profit immensely if the Justicars and Inquisitors lose portal mages. My fee is you donate all portal orbs you acquire to the portal guild to help bring down the cost for everybody. As in the entire universe benefits, not me personally. Do that and I can supply a company building for you to get started out of, Vort, and even some additional team members.”

  “The portal orbs are worth more, but I get why you're making that offer. If we fail, you lose some finances which I need more of to get this company going. If we win you grow in wealth and power while being able to help me, in essence, reduce the power of the others. I can work with that,” I said and tossed my finished bone onto my plate while glancing at Fred. He looked very scared. “Fred, I will make you a deal. Help me and then retire from the company when some next planetary king or queen wants your seat. You help get us off the ground, make some coins, and then fade into the background.”

  Fred exhaled and calmed with this. “Sure… Sure… You seem so normal. Sorry, I am nervous,” he said and I smiled while gripping his shoulder in a friendly manner. I let go when he panicked. “I will do some background work to help your company get off the ground and at a thousand members I can retire. You do not come to me later for help, as in ever again under any circumstances. I am moving when our transaction is complete. Always wanted to get off this humid rock.”

  “I get it, Fred, I envy you. I really do. I wish I could retire and grow old with my family. I need Shala released from the bank. Oh, and what did you name the company?”

  “Not done yet, what were you thinking?”

  Nicole raised her hand. “I had a very long time to think about this, The Annihilators.”

  “Probably taken. We have to check against a magical database. Second option?”

  “Fred chose something along these lines when you apply for our official title: Awesome ‘Adjective’ Annihilators,” I said and he took some notes down. “Pick the adjective yourself. You two sure you’re okay? If so we, the rest of us need to talk about adventuring tomorrow. Stay if you want but I am already feeling another sleep session coming on.”

  “Sorry Gryff, that one is on me. You will sleep well tonight though,” Cyrene said while she opened up a folder with flyers. She started handing out paperwork around the table. “These are all the bounties for local monsters and dungeons. We are traveling in comfort so I even picked stuff a few weeks away. Before I dive into these I want to go over something.”

  Kerso stood and raised a small hand in a wave. “Good time to excuse myself. Consider Vort a full-time employee. If he gives you shit say I will snip his wings if he misbehaves…” Kerso said and Mysti gasped. “Easy elvath, they grow back. Merely hurt. Vort is good, he will help you get multiple expeditions going and has a good network of adventurers to pull from that mainly freelance. Goodbye and may the creator speed your victory Annihilators.”

  The fairy flew to the front door and gave a secret knock. Fred excused himself as well and left when the door opened for Kerso. I saw the painting fade from the wall as Fred removed his familiar. Shala gave a humph for attention once the door closed and she raised her hand.

  “I have known Fred for decades. He is a good man and he knows what I know. So I am going to leave a note in your familiar in case I die,” Shala said with a stern expression. She was busy writing away. “I do not think he will kill me or betray you, but I also trusted a husband for a few decades and he was boinking the treemaid. Better safe than sorry. Also, probably need to hire our own cook... for like forever. Poison is the leading cause of deaths on non-warring planets.”

  “Really going to toss in with us that deeply?” I asked with a raised brow. “You can get out. I am not a conspiracy type who hunts down leads. I smash down buildings instead of turning over items looking for clues.”

  “I don’t get the reference, but yes Gryff. You are here to bring balance not mayhem. Well... maybe mayhem for a bit, but as a previous resident of a populous world in the middle of the master verse I know how much the two powers control. Barq probably even sees it on the outskirts. Yes, he is from Yariw. He mentioned while you were napping and swore me to secrecy.”

  “We are honored to have you in the company,” Nicole said and raised a salute with her wine cup that we all followed. “Please cover what you wanted to Cyrene.”

  “Thur is a jungle planet but not all of it is a jungle. Remi is the capital and of course, most capitals have more people. Which means bigger cities in proximity to the epicenter, which is where we are on Thur. All this adds up to a large population of adventuring groups going after the same loot. The top three bounty sheets are basic bounties. Before I go further, not every planet has a king, and not every king rules justly. King Ptera does and is not only loved by the populace, he is respected. He collects a tax to go into any dungeon on the planet. That tax gets fed into a pool for bounty bosses. The guards who collect the tax ensure that citizens don’t kill each other, and that they only kill non-citizens. Are you getting the picture yet? I bet Nicole gets it.”

  Nicole shuffled the paperwork for a second look through and then stood, “We killed other citizens on the way here. Those were worth a fortune. This is not a war planet. Whomever sent us here wanted a safe place for us to grow. This King Ptera has enacted laws and rules to ensure the general adventuring population plays nice with each other. This allows more people to visit and quest. I bet he has a thriving tourism tax income simply by maintaining order. I suspect he doesn’t even allow war declarations to be active here.”

  Nicole sat and Cyrene clapped as she said, “Well done. A wardeck is slang for open engagement between the two groups. On some peaceful planets if two companies hate each other they can violate the peace to kill opposing members in sanctioned war declaration areas. There are none on Thur. If you kill a citizen you are hounded and caught. Then a swift painful death follows. I wanted that out there to eliminate the number one way to get flooring. That is, killing other citizens, whether they are competitors, sentients, company members, or adventurers. Simply not going to happen here. And you all need to level
before you ever want to consider warfare against beings that fight just as smart and as well as you do. So, we know we can safely farm without worrying about another company charging up behind us while we are on a boss and killing us.

  “The question becomes do we want floors, loot, or coin?”

  “Coin,” I said and there was nodding agreement.

  “Alright pick out troll dungeon, mermaid caverns, and jungle roaming,” Cyrene said and I pulled out those three bounties. “The troll dungeon is five days sailing with another twelve on wagon. Could we do more work, for less silver, and stay closer? Sure, but the distance means the loot is worth more. I think that is common enough to grasp. There is a long chain of ice trolls to the distant mountains to our northwest. And they are not in an actual dungeon. They are in the mountain’s canyons and valleys. The area works where you kill a section and then travel a high walled corridor and enter the next valley. Almost like a dungeon except with exposed frigid air. When I say frigid, I mean five feet or higher of snow, icy cold with perma hard nipples, and constantly frozen feet.”

  There were audible gasps by everyone. Including me. “Fuck the snow,” Zoey said and we giggled.

  “Right, how many times do you think teams sit at a table and have this very discussion and it ends with ‘fuck the snow’? A bunch I would wager. The trolls are level three hundred and the boss a thousand. Tough run for us with frigid temperatures and a long journey there and back. But… we can outsmart them and win. I know it. There are more options though.”

  I looked at the bounties for the third time. The boss of the trolls was one hundred thousand silver if you brought back his head. The reward for the mermaid queen’s trident was two hundred thousand silver. The jungle reward was for a six-armed tree giant. A roaming boss named Frooska. Apparently his wood made fantastic magical staffs. If you turned in two tree branches or limbs six feet or longer with one-inch diameter for the entire length was one million silver. I let out a long whistle.

  “I can’t swim,” Barq said and Shala whispered in his ear. “Two of us can’t”

  “I don’t know how to either,” Zoey admitted with a scoff. “Yes… I do know the irony that I rowed a boat out to sea to find an island full of males when I could not swim. Perception laughed for a good five minutes at that one.”

  “You three will all take swim lessons next time we take a breather or you are on company administrative duty. Shala write me a note, you are my note taker. Give yourself a tiny raise. All new recruits must either sign on to learn to swim or know how to swim. Those who cannot due to physical limitations are excused but must be identified as a non-swimmer so team leaders know. I actually want to go kill the mermen and maids. I swim like a fish and can do work underwater. Assuming there is a way to breathe in the depths.”

  “You are seeing a pattern here. Go into the arctic get frostbite, never want to leave the covers, and struggle to even make a fire. All that before you even reach the place you need to start farming - hard pass for most teams,” Cyrene said while waving the troll flyer. “Or you go underwater and have to slot an orb for water breathing that consumes mana. Oh, and if you overexert you pass out and drown. Not to mention your skin gets soft and wrinkly. Your healer has to repair lots of torn skin over and over from armor chafe.

  “Which leaves the last option, which in my opinion is the absolute worst. I have been in the Fanni Jungles three bloody times hunting for the roaming boss. Last time forty of us went in and thirty-four came out. That is horrid for a level two hundred area. The boss is only seven hundred but he is insanely elusive. The tigers pounce in pairs or triples. Everything is poisonous, and Jerret, oh Jerret. Ate an apple that melted his face. Died before he even chewed his third bite. Who designs an apple that melts faces? Anyway, I want to kill Frooska. I really do because I want to swap to a fire mage sometimes and he drops awesome staff parts for mages. Right now I bet there are ten teams combing that jungle hunting him.”

  “Could he be a ruse?” asked Mysti with her chin tucked into her folded hands as her elbows rested on the table. “I mean if you have gone so many times and others too.”

  “I guess, I want to believe the legend though. Mainly, why would King Ptera offer this bounty if it was not true? Coincidently, every time I have gone I sell tigers to Francine that are near worthless. The last adventure I did was in the Fanni Jungle and I quit. I literally quit adventuring and worked at a bank for steady money instead of asshole tigers trying to eat my limbs.”

  “Then that answers that. As the leader of the group I get to…” I said with a yawn that interrupted my rant, “make the big calls. We go northwest and do a boring grind. The cold will be awful but we can prepare. This means more shopping and we can reduce our reserves from ten to five percent. What else would we need?”

  I yawned again. This caused Zoey to yawn and she passed it off to Barq.

  “Sorry guys and gals. How about I go to bed and let you ladies handle this?” I said giving another yawn.

  “You need a guard,” Cyrene said. All three elvath shot hands up. “You are going to help me, Nicole. We need to hire a cook, and I need to sell some stuff to raise some money. Which one of you two is staying?”

  Mysti and Zoey had a side whisper battle. When it concluded Mysti raised her hand happily.

  “He is going to pass out in a few minutes after you drain him. You know that right?” Cyrene said and I interceded.

  “Normally do,” I said with a guilty chuckle.

  “I want the snuggles. I wanted snuggles with a husband for longer than you have been alive. Thank you all for helping us prepare for this adventure and I will ensure our harbinger stays alive.” Mysti said and sauntered over to me with a hand extended. I accepted her hand and was led out of the room. The guard was gone and I summoned my spear. “You okay?”

  “Precaution,” I said while on edge. We flowed up the stairs and when our room door opened I inspected every closet and hiding spot. “Clear.”

  I was tackled onto the bed and magically my yawns stopped. Mysti stood as I watched and strip her top off in a glorious bouncing titty reveal. She shimmied out of her pants and I smelled peppermint candy. I tore off my new armor set and my torso was stuck in the tunic when I moaned as Mysti sucked my cock. My top came free and I watched as her hand worked my shaft, while her mouth enveloped my penis. I spun her sideways and connected my index and middle finger together.

  I placed my two-finger down her slit to get them nice and wet. Slow circles were placed against her clit until she started choking by unsuccessfully deep throating. Mysti was getting very passionate and started to drip. I shoved her roughly forward and she cried out in surprise.

  With her face down and ass up, I shoved my cock into her until my balls smacked into her. She did something different. She reached back and started rimming her ass with her index finger. I spat on her hole then shoved a thumb into her back door. Mysti was a quiet one and I think she was ashamed to be loud. The combo of my thumb and cock caused her to squeal in pleasure.

  “Fuck me!” she screamed out into the bunched covers as I slammed her little pussy.

  My cock dove deep as my hips slapped against her juicy booty. I spanked her round ass as I thrust for the next five minutes and when she climaxed for the third time I joined her in an erupting explosion of pleasure. I pumped a few more times until I softened. My exit resulted in a gooey mess that caused me to grin. I found the pillow at the head of the bed and laid down on my back.

  Mysti eyed me with lustful eyes and bit her lip. “Thank you, master. I am going to be a good little slut and clean you up.” She said with a mischievous grin. I watched her booty snap while she got a washrag. When she bypassed my cock I grew confused. She cleaned my thumb thoroughly. Right… That made sense. The rag never touched my dick. That mess was licked clean as I drifted off for a great night’s rest.

  ∞∞∞

  I stretched in the medium sized bed in a pile of bodies. I saw Nicole sitting in
a chair reading by candlelight. She smiled at seeing me awake and I managed something I rarely achieved. I exited the bed without waking anyone else.

  A few steps later and I joined Nicole at the two person table. When I sat down she shifted until she placed herself in my lap. I held her tightly knowing that was the exact thing she wanted more than anything else. I held her like that until the sun started to shine through the closed shutters. There was not much to our room and the other ladies started to shift from the penetrating light.

  “Good morning,” I said to groans of women wanting more sleep. I felt bad since they were pulling night shifts to guard me. “I slept great, thank you for watching over me.”

  Cyrene shifted out of the bed and her perky breasts looked fantastic as she did a long stretch. “I had my network get a feel for the rumor mill. Remi is a very organized and orderly town. Your arrival, if it was revealed, would spread quickly simply because little happens here of import. The being that sent you here was wise to pick this place. Anyway, I think… For now, we can trust Fred and Kerso. I met Vort, the fairy is a tad snarky. He said he is going to help set stuff up while we are gone. Nicole, brief him how last night went while I pee. My bladder is going to explode.” Cyrene slipped her arms into a robe and left the room for the communal pee and poo tubes.

  “We got extra blankets, cloaks, gloves, face covers, and thicker boots. We measured your feet while you slept. There is a summoning park where we got to see the Queens Bitch for an hour. We worked on loading up extra wood, our supplies, back-up weapons, and camping gear. Cyrene says Mysti will be fine to resummon the wagon by the road.