The Adventurer

The day was damp and wet from yesterday's rain. The city of Easthaven stirs reluctantly. Alexis entered my house without knocking--or opening the door for that matter, as she had an uncanny ability to pass through thin walls and doors unobstructed. "Anything new?" I asked. Monica, ever faithful, served hot tea.

"Yes," she said. "I've found a teacher for you."

"That's good news!" I said. "Who?"

"Alaya von Schauffenberg. You won't know the name, but she's a highly influential Drow witch," Alexis said. "I've been exchanging letters with her."

"Great!" I said excitedly before seeing Alexis' smirk. "... I'm not getting free training, am I?"

"Free lunches do not exist," she said. "There's a favor you can uniquely grant to her. The Drow nobility holds annual orgies amongst themselves. Alaya happens to be this year's host, so she has to provide... a unique specimen, let's say."

"You're saying a human?" I asked.

"Yes, a human. A human with lust magic, able to satisfy the Drow, and with the stamina to last the orgy. You can do it, and if you do, she will gladly teach you."

I sighed. "Well, hardly a mad sacrifice. I'll do it."

"Damn right you are. I'm going with you--there's a shit ton I need to do with the Drow," Alexis said.

"Trying to avert war with the Elves?"

"Yes. Some strong-arming, some proper diplomacy, calling in some favors... if I play this right, the Elves should get little support from the Drow," Alexis said. "We go tomorrow. Prepare. And don't bring your slave--she can't fight, and the road to the Drow's domain is dangerous."

And with that, Alexis left my house. "She's quite peculiar, isn't she, Master?" Monica remarked.

"That she certainly is," I said. "I'm off to arrange supplies."

"Then I'll sort out your personal belongings, Master."

"Thank you."

The next day was sunny and bright. Alexis and her carriage were waiting outside the city gates. "Right, let's go," she said.

"Take care, Master," Monica said as our carriage began to leave.

"You too."

"So where are we going exactly?" I asked.

"We're swinging southeast, there's the Sylvan Midway--an area under joint management by the Kingdom, the Elves, and the Drow. From there we can enter Drow territory. You brought your weapons?"

"Of course."

"Good," she said, swinging around her oversized staff. "The Sylvan Midway is neutral ground, where all races can stay and go; this includes bandits and worse."

The journey to the Elven Forests was relatively tranquil-perhaps aided by a literal ring of black fire that Alexis conjured around our caravan. "Is that fire magic?" I asked. "I've never heard of a spell like that."

"You haven't heard of many things then," she chuckled. "But yes, it's not conventional fire magic. It's a little invention of mine."

"What does it do?"

"It weakens hostile magic," Alexis said. "Sucks the power out of them and transfers it to me."

"Now that's interesting," I said. "... it has demonic magic in it, though, yes?"

"Obviously," Alexis replied. "Almost everything I do has demonic magic involved. This one is a mix of demonic and conventional arcane magic."

"It's, uh, illegal then. Um, just like my lust magic."

"Who gives a shit?"

"The Kingdom and the Church," I chuckled.

"Those obstructive bureaucrats and elderly priests?" Alexis mocked. "All they do is hinder progress and fuck around."

"The Church's defensive spells are quite good, you know. And they do help the poor and such."

Alexis shook her head. "Wait until you see Erika's barrier. You'll know what a good defensive spell then. I'll concede the latter though."

We stopped at the neutral outpost Alexis was touting earlier. It was called the Sylvan Midway, with its main shtick being a large building to process people coming in and out of all three realms.

"I'll do our papers," Alexis said. "You stay here."

"Alright."

There was a small bazaar of sorts, so I decided to explore. The Drow did practice very curious magic; some would outright be banned by the Kingdom's authorities. I was looking at a wand made of blackwood when the Drow merchant said, "caught your fancy, didn't it?"

"Oh, certainly," I said.

"It's only a decoration, unfortunately. A replica of Paul Fischer's legendary wand," the merchant said, "and you don't look like one who has uses for a wand, forgive me."

"Haha, not really. I'm more of a sword guy."

"Yes, as expected from lust magic users. The best way to win is to bash the enemy in the head, haha!"

"You know-?"

"I might have dabbled in it in my youth," the merchant replied. "I have something for you."

He produced, from a bag made of animal skin, a few small purple potions. "When you are away, and can't have sex to fuel your powers, you can use these as replacements. I'll give you a buy two get one free promotion, how's that?"

"I'll take three then."

"Two silvers."

I took the coins from my pouch and paid the old man. As I put the pouch back into my pocket, a gust of wind went past, and the pouch was gone.

"Thief!" I shouted. I gave chase to the blurry figure as it moved seamlessly through the forest. But I was faster, slightly so, and I extended my long blade-

It swung in the air, slashing the thief's thighs. The thief turned, an unmistakable face of an Elven woman staring at me with shock, and threw a vial. The vial exploded into a thick mist, and the thief was gone.

"Damn it!" I cursed out loud.

"Now, now, no need to be too agitated." The old Drow shopkeeper walked calmly approaching me before handing me my pouch back and the potions I bought.

"Whoa, thank you!" I said. "But how?"

He laughed. "I took it back the moment she stole it, and replaced it with a pouch of rocks."

Yeah, this old geezer had to be hiding something. "You're quite good yourself," he said. "But you don't know this area well, do you? Thieves are all over the place here."

"I certainly don't," I said. "I thought a checkpoint like this would have more guards, though."

"There have always been too few of them," the Drow said, still with a friendly smile. "What business you have here?"

"Ah, I'm actually attending Alaya von Schauffenberg's orgy as a-er-courtesan, yeah."

"To study her lust magic, I see."

"How do you know?" I asked sharply.

"I happen to be friends with her," the Drow said casually. "Well, don't let me hold you up any longer."

The old man left very quickly. Thankfully, by sheer coincidence, Alexis was done with her papers. "Alright, let's go!" she called, waving the papers. Two Drow guards stood near our carriage.

"Who are they?" I asked as the carriage moved.

"Shades. Elite Drow or Elf fighters," Alexis explained. "Alaya insisted in sending a couple to escort us-not that it'd be necessary, but it's polite manners."

It was really unnecessary, because the moment we entered Drow territory, there were many more guards than even Easthaven had. Small units of Drow cavalry, some riding horses while others ride some kind of large lizard, rode past us at least five or six times before we reached the nearest walled city, Schauffenberg, our destination.

While the officer at the gate sorted out our papers (under intense gazes of the two Shades), I couldn't help but fancy at two-metre tall iron constructs that guarded the gate.

"Iron golems," Alexis chuckled. "The security sure is tough whenever there is an orgy like this. But iron golems? Seriously?"

A few minutes later, we were allowed in. I was harried off to Castle Scauffenberg immediately and put in a lavish bedroom. Before I could look around, an absurdly tall Drow woman came in along with two Shades.

"So you are Darryl?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. "I presume you are Alaya von Schauffenberg?" The Shades twitched

"I see you're Alexis' true student. You're just as blatant as her," Alaya said. "Ah, she's always like that, hm? Straightforward, pragmatic, ambitious, a little bit insane perhaps. She'd make a brilliant Drow mage."

Alaya gazed at me. "Interesting," she muttered to herself. "Very interesting."

She stood up to leave. "Show my guests a good time and I'll teach you. Good luck."

I could only catch a few hours of sleep. The next day, a Shade politely but firmly informed me that I was almost late for the orgy. I hurried to the room.

The dungeon was mind-numbingly massive and opulent. I couldn't look much at it though, as a naked Drow woman immediately jumped on me and dragged me to one of the soft beds and undressed me. "Hey, Jennifer!" an older Drow who was getting her anus licked by an Elf slave called out. "Be mindful!"

"Sorry, Mom," the Drow named Jennifer said. "It's just that I've never even seen a human before!"

Alaya, walking around as fast as a hurricane, chuckled. "Enjoy yourselves!" she said. "He's tough enough to pleasure half this dungeon... I hope."

I focused on pleasuring the Drow that threw herself at my bed. My tongue licked her dark nipples hungrily while my hands caressed her thighs. "No time for foreplay," she whispered, "fuck me, fuck me in the ass!" I obliged and put my cock inside her ass.

It was frigid.

I had used Monica's warm and comfortable anus many times before, and I expected this one to be more or less the same. But what I got was an unnatural chill-and a heap of regret.

"OHHH!" Jennifer cried, drawing the attention of half a dozen Drow. "It's so hot!"

Yet there was something so alluring in the Drow, that I drove deeper and deeper as she rambled almost insanely about how "her ass was burning from the inside".

The Drow swarmed me, and my fingers delved into their cold orifices. I quickly came, shooting my cum all over a pair of Drows' faces. Another Drow climbed atop me and shoved her humongous tits at me to fondle and play with. My cock was soon inside an even more frigid pussy.

The next few hours were a chaotic blur. I must have ejaculated at least a dozen times, and my fingers stuck in some Drow's pussy or asshole. The orgy was over and I laid there, all the potions I bought from the old man consumed, and all my energy spent. I could not move.

"Not bad at all!" Lady Alaya stood in front of me. She extended her left foot, and, with what I could only describe as an impossible feat, made me cum for the last time that day with a few twirls of her foot. "We will speak tomorrow."

The next day, Alaya brought me to her own training ground-a vast dungeon walled with stone. She carresed the buttocks of a human woman trapped in a pillory. "Lust magic is simple," she said. "Outrageously simple."

She walked around the woman, frantic and very quick in her footsteps. "When you have sex, or really experience anything sexual, you will learn to feel it. Feel the lust. Feel your lust seeping into every bone and muscle of your body."

"Uh," I said. "Feel what, exactly? Like, how?"

When I studied solar magic, I learned that a lot of it was technical. The currents of magic worked in a very unflexible way, and so controlling them required a very deep understanding.

"You will feel it yourself. I will guide you," Alaya said. I walked around to see the woman's face.

"Natalie!" I gasped.

Natalie, the corrupt mayor, mumbled a few inaudible words. "I understand you have a small history with her."

"I certainly do," I said. Some sperm and juices still flowed out of Natalie's holes. "She's certainly more docile now."

"She's a public cumdump. That broke her," Alaya said. "You'll fuck her now."

"This sure doesn't feel like the usual magic training," I said, dropping my clothes.

"And you don't look like the usual lust mage neopyhte, but I didn't complain, did I?"

I didn't need much foreplay; Natalie's naked body was enough to make my penis erect. I slapped her bouncy ass a few times before spitting at her anus. I pushed my cock inside of her loose anus.

"So, what do you like about sex?" Alaya asked as I pounded Natalie's ass. The latter could only blabber incoherently.

"I like the pleasure, of course," I said. Who could deny that? Who could say that the feeling of a nice, warm asshole hugging your cock is not pleasurable?

"Fleshly pleasures," Alaya hissed, "or something else?"

"You had a horde of women surrounding you at the orgy, I didn't see you enjoy it much."

"I didn't realize Drow orifices are that cold," I said. "And I don't like being essentially drown in an army of Drows."

"Ah," she said crisply. "You were not in power. What happened was out of your control. You don't like that. You want control, you want to be on the top, dictating things. Think about that."

Maybe she was right. I gazed at Natalie's ass. She was at my bidding. At any moment I could slap her ass, or cum inside her asshole, or switch to her appetizing pussy, or anything. Was that what I was after this whole time? The feeling of power rushed into my body. It was like that with Monica too, wasn't it? When was the last time she refused a request of mine?

I pushed my cock further. Natalie's depths remained unexplored, and she squealed loudly when my cockhead began to dig deep. The strands of lust magic became clear. Pinkish thin ribbons flew around me, and I tapped into lust.

I understood the power I wield over Monica now, and I enjoyed it. She was my slave, she was mine. It was my responsibility to protect her and fulfil her needs, and it was my right to use her body however I wished. This was lust. This was my lust.

A river of white sperm burst in Natalie's anus. "Good. Your power and vitality will only grow evermore as long as you have sex," Alaya said. My adrenaline calmed down. "I've got nothing else to teach you."

"What? That's it?" I asked, half-gasping. "Surely there are spells you can teach me?"

"I taught you to draw power from lust. That is worth the price you paid, and nothing more," Alaya said flatly. "But I'll teach you a little trick if you do me a favor."

"Oh very well."

"Good!" she exclaimed before murmuring something about humans "not knowing the ways of the Drow" or something like that. "There has been an Elf plaguing my caravans these days. She's a thief, sometimes bandit, sometimes whore--a usual desperado for money, I think. But she's a former Shade, and the men I have sent have ended up dead or injured."

"What does she look like?"

"Short black hair, very slender body. She roams the bazaar in the Sylvan Midway, mostly, but she raids caravans if they catch her eye," Alaya said. Oh, and one more thing. A good number of noblewomen was quite impressed with your conduct during the orgy and they left you some gifts and trinkets. I took the liberty of gathering them for you. Speak to-"

"I'll take him there, dear."

An old man entered the training chamber very quietly. He was the merchant I met in the Sylvan Midway!

"You shouldn't bother, Dad."

"No, no, I've been doing nothing nowadays anyways," the old man said, laughing freely. He gestured me to follow him.

"So you're her father!" I said, "do you know lust magic too?"

"Oh, I certainly do," he said as we walked down a seemingly endless hall.

"I thought, for lust mages, sex brings vitality? How could you, well, look like an old man?"

The old man grinned. "I'm retired. I only have sex to maintain some power," he said. "I'm not long for this world."

As he walked in front of me, I looked emptily at his back. This man was no small-time mage; he could have easily lived forever!

"I'm old. I've seen all I want to see and experienced all I want to experience. What else is for me but a graceful death?"

He led me to a massive chamber. There was a chest alongside a few other things set against the opulent bed. "This used to be my harem's chamber."

"Where are they now?"

He muttered unclearly before gasping, "Oh, wine!" He pointed at two bottles of red wine. "From the Fischer family up north. They always somehow manage to procure the best Elven wines."

I also spotted a shining Elven blade, similar to my own. I took it. "Good sword, that one is," he chuckled. "It'll serve you well."

There were many large pouches of coins of local currency (they called it Silverleaf coins) and small gems as well, and some silk. "Silk!" I gasped. "It's worth a fortune in the Kingdom."

"We import these from Cathay. They charge a high price," the old man said, a slight tone of annoyance opaque in his voice.

"Cathay? Where is that?"

"Far, far to the east. You'll need a good Drow or Elf warship to get there, and a good navigator, and enough supplies for months. I have gone there a few times."

"What was it like?" I asked. This man was fascinating; he must have traveled all the world!

"Oh, they are interesting! Humans, Elves, and Drow live together side by side. They have really good tea-better than we grow here. And the operas, ah, the operas."

"Where else have you been to?" I asked while rummaging through the chest carefully.

"Many places. I doubt you would be interested in stories about your own place," he said. "Ah! I went to the Southlands once."

The Southlands-a mysterious land to the, well, south. The treacherous, pirate-infested seas there meant it was hard for even a large ship to survive the voyage there.

"There is a city there called Al-Jins. It's massive brothel and slave market, essentially. It's worth visiting at least once. For now though, let's catch the little bandit. You have a plan?"

"Yeah," I said, grinning. "I think I've got one."

I went to the Sylvan Midway with a gold ring, a silk scarf, and decked myself in some silver. Flatly, I looked like a rich snob whose intelligence was inversely proportional to his wealth. I stood around my (mostly empty) wagon, drinking some kind of drink made of honey.

Alaya said the Elf was desperate, after all. I must have looked like a great snack. People around glanced at me as if I were a three-legged horse dancing with a silly hat on.

A few minutes later, a figure moved around the trees subtly. I dragged my wagon even further from the bazaar. The figure was climbing a tree-her moves were just barely visible.

A shadow lunged out, cold steel in her hands-I drew my blade, driving it into her figure. A second later, she was on the ground.

"Right, don't try anything funny," I threatened, putting my sword down her neck.

"Who sent you?" she asked weakly. "The Den?"

"The what now? No, Lady Alaya von Schauffenberg sent me. You've been screwing over her caravans."

"Your boss' caravans aren't the only thing she's been screwing over, buddy."

A group of three Elves drifted calmly from nearby bushes. "Peace, friend. She owes debts to us, and we are to bring her in," one said. He was presumably the leader-a slender young man.

"To our bosses, anyway," one other quipped-a short woman playing with knives.

"Well that's awkward, isn't it, because I also have orders to bring her to Lady Schauffenberg," I said, sword still duly at the Elf's throat. "Who are your bosses anyway?"

"They're the higher-ups at the Den... you're not from here, are you?"

"No, I'm not," I said. "So the problem is her debt, isn't it?"

"Do you think we run around for no reason like some kind of fool?" the third one, a very, very young Elf barked.

"Now, now, no need for high tones. We are all civilized people here, are we not?" the leader said with a smile.

I took off my silk scarf, to everyon's surprise. "I don't know how much debt she has, but you can take this to your bosses as a sign of good faith. Then let me finish my business with her."

"You're a very curious man," the leader said while taking the scarf. "Farewell, friend."

The trio left. "You saved me," the Elf said, breathless. "Let's go to my house. I'll... I'll explain what has been going on."

"Fine," I said. "But don't you try do anything funny."

"Of course, of course."

She led me down narrow paths and dirt tracks until we reached a shabby shack in the middle of nowhere-it kind of reminded me of my old huts.