A Roegadyn in Equestria

A Roegadyn in Equestria.

Chapter 34: Late Night Dance.

*Point of view: Brex Mith*
*Location: Fancy Pants Manor*
*Time: Two in the afternoon*

He had just finished thinking to himself, “Why do I feel like I'm gonna be in for a long night...” After seeing the two attendants from last night as he came in through the front door while following Fleur de Lis and Blaze Caster when they had returned from their outing.

It didn't escape his notice how the of them were immediately showing a set of blushes on their cheeks for a few seconds before immediately getting back into their roles as servants.

For the rest of the day, Brex pretty much went into relaxation mode. He didn't have to lift the finger, considering that he had a set of dedicated Changelings following is every movement as if waiting for that one small sign to jump into action before a word was even muttered.

All the while making him even more uncomfortable with being treated so well. A part of Brex wanted to just up and go into the woods to do some training, but as soon as he had even considered the idea, he could feel Rory beginning to stir.

He did mention that this was a sort of getaway before and it seemed that Rory was intending to make sure that he at least tried to relax while in Canterlot by the looks of things.

So, without being able to do any training for Blaze Caster or himself, Brex resorted to going over to their small library that was located in one of the other rooms on the bottom floor. A number of the books that were on hand, were ones that he had already gone through before during his travels. But it turns out that there were a couple of rare versions that were not in the stores, which caught his attention.

There was a mix of folklore and more magic textbooks that seemed to have been printed within the last two hundred years. He had even brought one of them to Fancy Pants to ask about it and was notified that those were discontinued and very hard to locate out in the public.

When he inquired as to why, the Unicorn relayed that the princess ordered no more copies to be made. It was to Fancy Pants’s understanding that the spells within were far too dangerous for the public. Many of which could have dire consequences to the caster if even one mistake was made.

When he found out this, he began to think to himself, “So, it seems that Sun-Butt, with a stick stuck in her butt, has been stunting her pony's growth when it comes to spells. I suppose she's just being cautious and looking out for their safety. But still, she could have at least looked into these more and had them refined to be stable enough to use.

While flipping through the book before bringing it to Fancy Pants's attention, Brex caught sight of a number of spells within that would be very useful in and out of combat. Those being a revised version of a fireball spell that a Unicorn could use. The current ones that are in the books given to the public and in some of the special shops that he had come across, we're basically a dumbed down version, with less than a tenth of its power.

He then sighed to himself as he began to think further on how he might be able to help with altering the spell for better use. If he could only use them to begin with. He had the basic knowledge down, but no practical ability whatsoever. In a sense, he could be compared to a pistol that was specifically designed to be able to shoot a particular bullet. However, with his inability to cast the magics that the Unicorns could, he was without bullets to load into the chamber so to speak.

It wouldn't matter if he had to spell down to the point that he himself could be considered its original creator. but it meant nothing to him. He just didn’t have a grasp on their type of spell craft to even get a warm spot to build on the end of his finger.

A few more hours passed sense then. It was now getting close to dinner time and Brex had gone through pretty much every book in the library which consisted of a grand total of seventy-seven books.

During his little hunt for knowledge to keep himself occupied. He had failed to notice how the Changelings would peak in on him occasionally. Seeing as he was so engrossed in reading, they did not dare to bother him. But it didn’t stop them from gawking had him with open mouths with how he was breezing through all of the tomes in their library.

He had just finished the very last book and had gone over to one of the lounge chairs and carefully sat down. Brex could see just how immaculate and expensive it was, so he was very cautious about just plopping down on it with how big he was.

He glanced to his clock and found it to be a good eight minutes until six. Which should be around the time that they serve dinner. He then leaned back into the chair and rested the back of his head on the top while staring up at the ceiling. Which had a small chandelier hanging in the middle with some finely decorated crystals lining it in a circular pattern. After letting out a content sigh, he finally closed his eyes to wait until he was called.

After some time, he was finally awoken by somebody that was lightly shaking his left shoulder. He then glanced over to see that it was the maid with the short black hair standing at attention near his side. After giving him a little bow, she respectfully said, “I am very sorry for waking my Lord up, but dinner is now served.”

After he nodded, she started to make her way out of the room. But Brex called out to her by saying, “Please wait.” To which caused her to stop in place almost immediately and turn back towards him just as she was halfway across the room.

He then got up from the chair and approached the Changeling maid. When he had gotten close enough, Brex leaned in and began to whisper into her right ear, “I would like to talk to the both of you tonight regarding this morning.”

He got a nervous gulp from her before she quickly answered by saying, “O-Of course my Lord. We shall be there tonight.” After he had gotten that response, he began making his way to the dining room with the maid closely following behind.

Dinner itself went pretty much the same way it did before. With the only key difference was how Brex was no longer being as shy as last time with his mind completely focused on what he was going to need to talk to the girls about later rather than what they were doing right then and there as they were serving him food.

When the meal was over, Fleur de Lis approached both Brex and Blaze Caster and asked, “If the both of you are ready, we can get the bath going for you.” Brex was surprised by this and had nearly facepalmed himself when he remembered that they had not had one since the day before coming here. They had been using the hot spring that was carefully hidden a way behind their house in the mountains and it didn't even cross his mind to take a bath while here.

Brex was trying to come up with a way to say that he didn't want to, but Blaze Caster was the first to act by saying, “I can take a bath. Although, I prefer the hot spring one that big bro built.” This only got Fleur de Lis tilt her head in confusion as she looked towards Brex with a face that begged an answer.

Before he could so much as open his mouth, Blaze Caster went on and started saying, “Oh yeah! Big bro went and built us a hot spring behind our house. I saw him laying down the rocks for the flooring and where to sit. Pretty much have hot water all the time.”

The kid then began to scratch at the back of his head while looking up at Rex. This was followed with him saying, “He even put a door up so that when he goes in, he won't be seen. I've been living with big bro for a while now and I don't even know what he looks like underneath the mask.”

Fleur de Lis then glanced up at Brex and gave him a mocking, flirtatious grim before saying, “Now that's just too bad. I could just tell that my two sisters behind you were looking forward to helping with your bathing.” That was when she began to glance past the disguised Roegadyn.

Even without the use of Rory’s advanced senses, Brex was beginning to familiarize himself with their presence and was already aware of the pair standing directly behind himself right now.

Brex took this point in the conversation to add his two cents in by saying, “I appreciate the offer. However, I-.” Fleur de Lis quickly stepped in and had managed to cut off his excuse before he was able to get it out by saying, “Now don't be like that. If privacy is what you want, then you will have privacy. Now I can promise you that none of us will see you in the bath. You have my word.” That was when she brought her right hand up and placed it over her own heart.

Internally, Brex was grumbling to himself that he couldn't seem to bring himself to argue with this mare. Reluctantly, he slowly nodded once, but that was enough to snap Fleur de Lis into action. She went over to Blaze Caster and hurriedly ushered him up the steps to the bathroom on the next floor.

Just before they had completely ascended the steps, she then called out and said, Blaze will take his now and then you can go in after. We’ll let you know when it's ready. You can use the guest bathroom for this. There is a tub that’s big enough for you to fit inside.”

Now that was a first for Rex. Everywhere he had stayed before had a tub that could barely even fit his form inside of it. So, he had to rely primarily on showers. His hot springs were the only way for him to get an actual bath in this world as far as he knew that didn't require him to jump into a river that just barely made its way past his upper arms.

After waiting for his turn, which took a good half an hour. Brex was finally called by one of the maids and informed that his bath had been prepared. After walking up the steps and finding what he assumed to be the guest bathroom, did he open the door to find a steam filled room with what appeared to be a large marble tub that was surrounded by a tiled floor. His eyes went wide when he saw that it was more than twice what was needed for him to fit inside.

Brex then thought to himself in astonishment, “OK, this is something! I would expect this to be on the bottom floor. Just how did they make it so this thing doesn't fall through?” He had paused and adopted a thousand-yard stare as he continued that thought with, “Oh, right, magic. Of course, everything is solved by magic. Why do I keep falling back on basic physics while in this world anymore?”

After recovering, he took a more detailed glance about the room. A countertop with two sets of sinks and a long row of bottles that he assumed to be hair and mane care products. As he went to lock the door to make sure that he had privacy, he found that there was no locking mechanism whatsoever that was a part of the door itself.

Letting out a disgruntled grown, Brex thought to himself, “Really? Really now? You would think the bathroom of all places would have a lock on it.” He then heard Rory speaking in his head in her usual sing song voice as she said, “What's the problem? Fleur de Lis did say that none in the house would see you. So, I don't see the point of needing to lock the door if we already got a promise.”

After letting out another grunt, Brex lowered his head as he slumped his shoulders. In a defeated tone he uttered to Rory within his mind, “What I wouldn't give for a spell to lock doors. And before you ask, I'm glad that I don't know that Hex spell of yours. Wouldn't want some unfortunate soul to go touching the doorknob, only to die but a moment later.”

After letting out a playful grumble of her own, Rory replied to that by saying, “Master, you would appreciate it a lot more if we were on the battlefield. Then you wouldn’t want our supplies taken.”

While Rory was speaking, Brex had already made his way back to the bath. He had passed on using the provided hair care products for those that he was more accustomed to using within his item box. He knew that this being the Fancy Pants Manor and all, there was no doubt that whatever was on those shelves, were extremely expensive and Brex didn't feel comfortable with using such extravagant luxuries as he didn't see himself as someone who would even be deserving of their use.

So instead, he brought out some generic body wash and shampoo. It had taken him a number of tries, but he managed to find something that would work for him seeing as most of their bathing products revolved around the user being covered in hair. It was all thanks to his alchemy class that he was able to even come up with a mixture that used a combination of one of their shampoos with some plant extract.

When he had taken them out and placed them securely on the edge of the bathtub, Brex opened up his character window and began the process of un-equipping all of his gear. one by one, did items on his person vanish from sight. Which consisted of his one ring on each hand, The two bracers, one of them being the final fantasy seven item. Then there was the necklace. Next came the rest of his gear up until he had finally gotten to the head section of his character window.

While keeping a fixed gaze on to the screen, The Roegadyn brought up his left hand which was no longer gloved. His index and middle finger glided across the mask and he felt the smooth wooden surface on his fingertips. After some hesitation, he mentally clicked on the icon for the head gear. As soon as he had done that, the one that he was wearing in the real world vanished within a blink of an eye.

Immediately, his long black hair with the silver highlights fell over his shoulders and back. Now giving a very tired expression, Brex made his way over and stepped into the tub of water. When he had fully immersed himself down to his lower waste after sitting, did he finally release a relaxed sigh of relief.

It was hardly any surprise to him that the water level didn't go any higher seeing as his stature was far larger than an average pony. He was sure that if one of them was in here and had taken the same seating position, then the water would easily be up to their shoulders.

After a little bit, he looked down and caught sight of his reflection in the still water that only had a few ripples that were being caused by the subtle body movements of his own. He began to muse to himself about how this has to be the first time that he has been able to see himself while taking a bath. All the other times that he had used the hot springs while with Blaze Caster had been taken during the night. Also, without any sources of light.

His eyes were drawn towards the scratch marks on his right cheek. He then began to wonder as to why he chose to have his character wearing such a thing. He felt that it had nothing to do with making himself appear to be more rugged or tougher. It was just something that he felt he needed to have. Almost as if it was meant to remind him of something.

He soon blinked himself free from the sight and continued with his preparations. It had taken a little while to work in the lather through his long locks and after several attempts of leaning in to dunk his hair in the water, did he finally get it all out.

Next came washing his body. The arms and legs were no problem, even with the seemingly large muscles in the way. He was just really glad that he wasn't one of those body builder types where they were stuck in a certain pose with their arms out to their sides and unable to move because of so much muscle mass.

His face and chest area didn't take much time at all. He had found out early on during his early bathing that his form was essentially waxed clean of most body hair. It appeared the only places that had any was on both his head and his privates. He had no idea if this was what a Roegadyn really is like or if it was just a byproduct of his character being from a game.

When he had gotten past his abs and was about to work on his private area, did Rory finally speak up after exiting one of her doorways off to the right-hand side of him. With a relaxed tone, she walked towards him while he was still preoccupied and said, “Master, you know we could answer one of those questions of yours right now.”

At that point, Brex had just finished with cleaning himself up down below and without looking in her direction, he mentally asked, “Oh and what question would that be?”

He didn't get a reply other than hearing Rory coming up from behind as she walked around the tub. Thanks to how he was practically leaning against the edge of the tub, Rory was able to lean over and press herself on to his backside.

Thanks to them both sharing the same mind, along with a combination of his imagination added into the mix. Did he feel her warm body against his own. He suddenly looked straight up ahead as his eyes went wide upon finally noticing how he was able to feel the warmth of skin on his back. After looking over his left shoulder, he confirmed his suspicions upon seeing Rory butt naked and pushing her breasts up against him.

Rather hesitantly, Brex asked, “You didn't exactly answer my question.” To which got him a small giggle from the girl before she leaned in a little more to have her lips near his left ear. She then whispered using her alluring voice, “I'm pretty sure that my Master knows exactly what I'm talking about.”

Afterwards, she released him and started to climb into the tub and situate herself so that she would be sitting facing him while on his lap. Rory's skillful manipulation of his imagination was making this extremely difficult to discern from something in his mind and reality with how things looked and felt.

Her hands began to grasp his biceps as she peered into his eyes with a hungry look behind them. With her eyes shifting to those of being half lidded, she leaned forward and began to rub her chest onto his while not breaking eye contact.

After swallowing a small lump in his throat, Brex found that he couldn't look away. There was the subtle dripping of water from him lifting both of his hands out of the bath before they were placed on both of Rory’s shoulders. He was sure that he was able to feel himself coming into contact with her, all be it a far weaker sensation than touching a physical object in the real world.

There was a part of him that said screw it and have a little fun. However, there was an opposing faction that said that this was not a good idea and it needed to stop. At the moment, it would seem that the foremost thought was beginning to win with how Brex was shifting his hands down the sides of Rory’s body as they came increasingly closer towards her hips.

When he did this, she parted her legs and situated herself better so that they were hung over both of his. Brex could feel his arousal beginning to spike through the situation and it did not escape his notice when his member below the water line was beginning to become more active. With the position that Rory was in, he couldn't tell exactly what was going on below, but he was sure that he began to feel the sensation of pressing it against something.

As soon as he had felt that sensation, Rory's eyes went wide for about a second before turning back to what they were before and giving him a small smirk that showed her approval of what had just transpired.

Rory then went in and began to kiss his chest a few times before saying, “Master, I can't really do things like this back at home with how dark it is whenever you take your bath.”

She then glanced over to the center of the tub where there was a drain before bringing her sight back to Brex as she continued on with saying, “Also, when the bath is done, it would just simply get drained away. So, we wouldn't really have to worry about cleaning up afterwards if there was to be a mess.” When she had finished, she began to lightly lick her lips in a suggestive manner.

All Brex could hear after that, was the subtle sound of his heart beating harder and quicker. It didn't take long until it became similar to a hunting drum being hit repeatedly. His hands lightly gripped onto her waist from the sides and began to lift her several inches. If he had a mirror, he would have been able to see a nearly predatory like expression on his face. Rory seemed rather surprised by the sudden movement, but quickly recovered as she gave him a very hungry, almost a manic grin of anticipation.

It had been months since he and Rory had done anything with Blaze Caster always around. Brex had been trying to keep Rory at bay whenever she tried to pull one of her antics. But right now, he was beginning to feel a rush of all of those times that she had tried to push at his buttons in order to get him to do something to her. He knew that this was all his imagination at work, so he was focusing a lot on not disrupting her form by putting too much pressure and moving his hands through her body.

A sudden low growl escaped his mouth as he opened his lips to show his clenched teeth. This was apparently enough to get Rory to start breathing heavily as her cheeks turned flushed red and her smile grew even wider. A flood of images and thoughts came to mind of things he would do to her if she was only there with him in reality. They would start off with that being on the tender side. But would quickly progress from what would be considered vanilla, to those of being a rougher nature.

Brex did not try in the least to hide these thoughts from Rory and this was evident with her appearing to be panting and more bothered as they evolved. Because of all of this, Brex could feel himself getting worked up to the point that he didn't care about anything anymore, other than doing it with Rory, right then and there.

He looked down in order to see if he could line himself up, to just go straight into Rory who was nodding furiously at that thought. Due to how the water was still soapy and had a small layer of bubbles from him just washing only a short while ago. Brex couldn't see too well so there was no telling just how big his member was down there without first reaching down to feel for it. However, his hands were currently busy and wanting to find out his real length was not exactly on the top of his list right now.

He began to lower Rory who is looking down into the water while biting down on her lower lip. Just as he began to feel the sensation of something touching the tip of his erection. Did he hear a noise coming from the door that was situated right behind him.

As if someone had just dumped an entire bucket's worth of ice down in the front of his pants, The Roegadyn was snapped back to full reality and the image of Rory just blinked out of existence. Right now, he was stuck in position with his hands just barely coming out of the water while outstretched.

As if halfway coming out of a daze, he was essentially paralyzed with not knowing what to do. The sound of the door's hinges lightly squeaking brought him out of his stupor and he quickly reached out with his right hand towards a large white towel that was folded neatly on one of the counters and used his Rescue spell to pull towards himself.

Well, that's what he intended to happen, but at the moment he was not currently one of his healing classes, so that ability was not usable. He had neglected to switch out from his Rogue class and was now scrambling to bring up his character window to switch over to something else.

Unfortunately, he was fumbling too much with his thoughts while in a panic that he was having a hard time with doing anything with his windows, as his thoughts caused the cursor to swing about wildly.

He then heard a feminine voice coming from behind that sounded eerily familiar as it said, “My Lord, are you in need of any assistance?” Brex was positive, he was one hundred percent positive that this came from one of the two maids that were constantly doting on him.

Hearing her voice caused him to completely lock up his body and hold a perfectly still position with him having both of his arms up in a frozen pose as they were in mid flailing.

Inside of his head, Brex was screaming, “WHAT THE FUCK! WHY DID THEY COME IN? DIDN’T FLEUR DE LIS SAY THAT I WAS NOT GOING TO BE SEEN?” He then heard her saying, “My Lord, did you hear me?” Right now, Brex was on the verge of hyperventilating at the thought of being found out. But as soon as he knew who it was that came in, he had instinctually cut off his emotions from no longer being felt.

While trying to keep his voice steady as if nothing was wrong. He began to turn his head to the right, ever so slowly with subtle jerks every few centimeters. Not unlike a gear in a clock slowly turning. Eventually he was able to get out the words, “Everything, is OK.”

By the time he had fully turned enough to get a view of her, he went from a terrified expression to that of confusion when he saw that it was not only her. But the other one as well, standing side-by-side with the door closed behind them.

Instead of wearing their usual maid attire, they were instead in a pair of black bathing suits that left very little to the imagination. The tops could have slipped in either up or down and the nubs underneath would have come into view. The bottom peace’s were practically strings. Because of this, Brex was near the edge of a nose bleed that was threatening to pull off one of those anime moves where he could have been sent flying.

But what really got him to look at more closely, was the fact that they were both wearing blindfolds. While still not lowering his arms, he asked hesitantly, “I have some questions. first is why are you both in the bath while I'm in here? The other question has to do with why you have those outfits along with the blindfolds that you're wearing.”

The one with the dark hair began to nervously move in place as she had her right arm partly covering up the lower section of her breasts, while the other was modestly covering the front of the panties.

During this, she spoke in a submissive tone when she said, “It-It's just that... We felt your arousal earlier and... And we thought that… You might want some, help with it. As for the outfits... Our sister Fleur de Lis mentioned that this would be appropriate when entering the bath to help you. In regards to the blindfolds, it was due to the promise earlier of no pony seeing you while you were bathing.”

It didn't take any time at all for Brex to process everything that had just been said. His eyes went wide and he was frantically trying to keep hold on his hidden emotions from slipping out as his face turned beat red within seconds.

He realized that while in that state with Rory, he had mistakenly lowered his mental defenses and allowed his emotions to come flooding out. This meant that he was giving off the strong feeling of arousal it had literally called out to these two.

He then thought to himself while in a panic, “So that must mean that I... And they... So that must mean? I'm in a house full of emotion sensing girls and they just felt me... Then what do they think about me now? Oh, by the twelve! They must think I'm some sort of an animal. This is just so awkward.”

He then lowered his arms and was about to ask them about just what they felt when his thoughts came to a halt when he caught sight of them both rubbing their thighs together and wearing a set of heavy blushes on their faces, just underneath the blindfolds.

This made it painfully obvious as to what they felt coming from him. It became more apparent when the smells that came from his bathing products was beginning to be overpowered by a familiar sweet aroma.

Closing his eyes for a few seconds, he mustered up the courage to turn back around to face away before saying, “Thank you for your concern. I take it that the both of you picked up on my emotions. Correct?”

He then got an immediate reply from the one with the pig tails when she spoke in a needy voice that was being desperately hidden, but with very little Success. “We both thought that you… Huh... May need an extra set of hands to, umm. Reach the... Hard spots.”

Inside, Brex was nearly brought to the point of being amused at hearing a Changeling who was speaking as if they had never been around a male when he knew that they had actively went out and had fun with both sides of the gender ratio.

He was about to tell them to leave, but Rory quickly spoke up in his head and said, “Master, don't tell me you're about to just tell them to go? At least take them up on their offer to help. Now please, before you say anything, I'm letting you know I'm not talking about getting you off. You still haven't gotten your back. Just ask them to help wash it, they can't see you anyway. Also, this will help you in getting used to being around others while not in a disguise. Think of it as, slowly desensitizing you.”

Brex was literally a fraction of a second from imagining Rory dropping into a deep, dark pit for a while, just as he heard one of the maids speaking up in a tone that made him think that she was on the verge of crying. “Sister the Lord doesn't wish for our help, we should, we should just go. Please accept our apologies for coming in unannounced.”

After hearing that, Brex began to feel a pit in his stomach and he halted in mid image of Rory falling. After letting out a very small sigh, he lowered his head a little and spoke in a gentle voice as he said, “It's quite alright. If it is all the same to you, I... Do require some assistance in washing my back, that's all I have left to do.”

He could have sworn that he heard Rory deep in his head letting out a few loud claps of excitement and the sounds of her jumping in place as her boots landed on some surface to produce an echoing sound. No doubt from the wooden floors in his mentally constructed house.

Brex was worried that he may have still messed up, but stop to those thoughts when he heard them approaching from behind. Somehow, even without Rory’s situational awareness being turned on, he could tell that they were right behind him and had kneeled down to sit on their knees. After some maneuvering, Brex handed them both one of the sponges lining the edge of the tub and instructed them to proceed.

As soon as they began to make contact with his back, did his senses start to scream that he needed to get out of there. But he fought those urges. It wasn't the fact that he had two beautiful ladies washing his back to be the problem. It was simply because he was without any type of covering and had literally put himself in an exposed situation that he had been trying to avoid at pretty much all costs since the beginning of his arrival.

His entire body was in essence, trembling no matter how hard he was fighting it. But it seemed that the maids were having issues of their own, which was preventing them from noticing it. He only knew this due to how they were heavily panting while shifting around on the spot as they worked on his large back with the set of sponges. This only made things a little more difficult on his end, as he was beginning to get a little stimulated down below thanks to their gentle touches.

He just knew that if anything happened at all, no matter how small it was, he wouldn't have been able to control his body in just throwing these two off and making a break for the front door. Months of keeping himself at arm's length have been ingrained into his psyche. So, at this very moment, he was fighting those reflexes.

Rex's eyes were staring straight ahead at the far wall with a nearly blank expression. Inside his mind, he kept repeating the following thoughts, “It's fine. They're only washing my back. They can't see me. They can't see me.”

During this time, Rory was attempting to whisper encouraging and calming words to him in order to calm down, even if it was just a little. She reminded him about how they shared a bed that very night and this shouldn't be any different. Unfortunately, she didn't get a direct response from him as she continued to hear him repeating the previous thoughts over and over again, in what seemed like an endless loop.

To Brex, this entire ordeal was going on for what seemed like ours in his head. But in reality, it only took just over a minute before one of them had informed him that they had finished.

From the feel of things, they were taking their time and making sure to get his whole back, which was quite larger than an average stallion's. After peeking over his shoulder to make sure that they still had their blindfolds on, which they did. He said to them, “Thank you for helping me. I am going to get dressed now, so please wait till I leave before you take those blindfolds off.” Thankfully, there was no other words exchanged other than them both simply nodding.

It literally didn't take him any time at all. For as soon as he got out of the tub, did his body begin to dry almost immediately. This was another gaming mechanic where, as soon as he got out of any body of water, he would begin to dry off within seconds. As soon as that was done, Brex went into his character window and re-equipped his Mysterious Butler attire and switched over to his Monk class for now, seeing as he would need its new passive ability to calm himself After going through all of that.

The instant he did that, did all the anxiety from earlier vanish with hardly any trace. Now thinking clearly, he went over to the door of the bathroom and just as he was about to grab onto the handle to exit. He turns towards the two that were still knelt down on the floor and said, “Could you please come to my room tonight. I would like to discuss with you both about what happened this morning. After hearing them both reply with a set of yes’s in unison, did he leave.

Brex had just gone around the bend that would lead him towards his room, when he nearly bumped into Fleur De Lis. Who was standing in the middle of the hallway. She had just let out a small startled welp and staggered back a few feet. As soon as her eyes met his, did she adopt a wide-eyed expression that could have been seen coming from a small child who had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

While giving him a crooked smile that was threatening to leave her face, Fleur De Lis waved with her left hand sheepishly before turning on the spot and running at high speeds down the hallway until she disappeared around the nearby corner. During all of this, Brex was watching her from behind his mask with a very, unamused, flat expression. He then thought, “Rory, you know what I said about thinking that she's kind of like what a sister would be?”

Rory heard this and replied with a sing song voice that just had a hint of mischievousness behind it as she said, “Hmm-mmm, Master I believe I remember you thinking that while out today. Why do you ask?” Brex then answered her while using a emotionless tone as he said, “I think she just tried to prank me?” He then released a small sigh as he continued with, “She has no idea why it is, that I don't show my face. If she did, then I doubt she would have done that.”

He then brought his right hand and cupped his mask as if he was about to remove it. But instead, he carefully grasped it in his fingertips as he squeezed on it a little. He then went on to think, “I have no idea when I'll be able to show my face. As far as things are going right now, I can't afford to cause a panic with revealing my true identity. I nearly freaked out when those maids came in the bath. Rory, what do you think I should have done if they had seen the real me?”

There was a short pause before Rory replied with a serious tone in her voice as she said, “Master, I really don't think it's healthy for you to be beating yourself up over this. I won't tell you to just show your face and get it over with. But you do have that one thing that you've neglected to use. If they had seen you, then you could have just forced them into-.”

Rory was unable to finish that sentence when Brex threw down his hand from his face and exclaimed in his head, “Force them into what?! Just because they're sent in on someone else's orders when they're only trying to help. You expect me to use that on them?! I told you before, if I start using it, even once, then the odds of me using it again will only skyrocket! Having that kind of power is addictive. I've seen it in so many stories where the hero does something and can't bring himself to stop because it's so convenient!”

Rory then replied by saying, “Master, are you telling me that if they did see you, then you wouldn't have used it?” Brex stumbled in his thoughts for a moment before he said, “No! I-I mean yes. I mean… It wasn't their fault, even if they did see me. It doesn't give me the right to use it on them like that when they were the ones that were sent in by Fleur De Lis.”

To this, Rory quickly replied with, “Then are you saying that the one responsible would be the one that gets punished? By that logic, then you would have to end up using it on Fleur De Lis instead.

Brex was obviously pushed into a corner with how Rory was able to pick up on what he was saying and turning it on him. Just thinking of robbing any of those within this very house of their freedom, was something he couldn't bring himself to even consider doing. They were the only ones in this world that he knew that treated him so well. Even though he has yet to expose his true identity they, trust him well enough to allow him to come and go as he pleases.

Brex then shouted loudly in his head out of frustration, “I DON’T EVER WANT TO DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT TO ANY OF THEM! IF THEY EVER FOUND OUT ABOUT MY IDENTITY ON ACCIDENT, THEN I WOULD SO RATHER LEAVE EQUESTRIA AND ISOLATE MYSELF FOR ALL TIME IN SOME REMOTE LOCATION INSTEAD!!!”

Rory was obviously taken aback by the sudden internal shouting. But instead of retreating, she gently said, “I'm sorry if I made you angry Master. It's just a suggestion is all. We did talk about it before and using it to keep secrets, was something that we agreed on. I suppose it's one thing if it's a complete stranger. Using it on those that you know, especially those that are trying to take care of you, would no doubt cause you stress and hesitation. I'm sure that whoever you intend to use that skill on for the first time, will be something that you want to do.”

As soon as Rory had finished, Brex felt like a complete ass and spoke to Rory with a defeated tone. “I apologize for yelling. I… Don't know what it is, but I think it stems from me not being in control. I can see myself in other shoes, and taking away their freedom just doesn't sit too well with me. It would be one thing if they had done something that deserved it but... Just to protect my privacy is not enough for me to do that to those that have earned my trust.”

With that, their little discussion came to an end and Brex made his way back to his room. While inside, he started on keeping himself busy until the maids came by later that evening. Brex went into his item box and began to peruse his collection of potions. By doing this, he recalled that he was in desperate need of some mana potions before and went to start on making more.

After switching over to his alchemist job, Brex went into his windows and brought up the list of items to make while in this class. After a bit of clicking here and there, he finally came across the potion section and began to create more. Since he didn't have access to any materials to use out in the world such as beakers and other types of grinding tools.

Brex went ahead and knelt down. When he did this, a weird type of mechanism appeared before him that came up just past his knee and height, with an air pump on one side and some valves situated in different areas of a large container.

( Here is a picture of the Alchemist tool. )

As an added surprise, another item appeared next to that, which was a small table with a stone wheel meant to crush herbs that was set up neatly for immediate use. There was even, what appeared to be a few metal flask with a valve on top, in which to hold alchemic brews before they were cooled, seeing as there was a weird type of temperature gauge on the top.

( Here is the picture of the Grinding tools and containers. )

All the other times that he had gone and started to make something while in this class, had only produced one of the needed items depending on what he was making. He began to wonder if this was some type of a glitch. So, after poking around at both of the objects for a few minutes, he found that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

After giving it a shrug, Brex went back to his list and selected the mana potion. As soon as he selected the synthesizing option. He found himself pretty much on auto pilot as he started to produce one after another. Back in the game he would simply use one of these large tools but it appeared that this time around he was alternating between them both. After he ground up the necessary ingredients with the wheel, he immediately added them to the large pot and began fiddling with the valves and pressure gauges.

He wasn't all that troubled about using the materials, seeing as he had so much in this supply. If anyone was to ask how much he had, then Brex would have replied by saying that he had enough to fill a large warehouse if he had dumped it all out.

Whenever he had finished one batch, he would pour it into one of the metal containers and watched as the thermometer showed it to have cooled to a stable level in poured it straight into a glass vile to be used later on. Even though it was showing him to be doing more than what was shown while in the game, Brex was still producing them at a speed that would make any medical professional spin their heads.

So, after a good hour had passed, Brex had produced nearly six hundred potions of varying classes. About half were considered low grade. While the other half was divided into medium and high-grade mana potions. With being so engrossed in his activity, he had neglected in putting them straight into his item box and had just placed the bottle wherever he found an open spot before going back to work on the next. A few had even had to find a place on the floor nearby.

When he had finally finished and looked around, he was slightly surprised by the way his room looked as if it was covered in nothing but blue, aside from the walls and ceilings with how every flat surface was covered was by many little blue bottles. He had blinked and thought quickly about where those glass bottles had come from, but was thankful he didn't have to worry about making those ahead of time and they just came whenever he made a potion.

He had dismissed the Items needed and they disappeared into nothing. Just as he was about to reach for one of the bottles to begin putting them into his item box, did he hear a small knock coming from the door. He then heard one of the maids calling out to him from beyond the wooden door as she said, “My Lord, we have come as you requested. Please pardon our intrusion.”

He saw that the door handle was already halfway turning and his eyes shot open as he realized that when he had switched over to his alchemy job, his head was completely exposed and he was wearing a set of glasses that had attachments to add more lenses has to zoom in on things.

( Here is a picture of Crafting outfit here. )

So, in a frantic panic, he brought up his character window. Unfortunately, with so little time and being in such a rush, he had missed the monk icon that he had wanted and had gone back to his rogue instead.

His entire outfit had gone away in a flash and was replaced with his usual Mysterious Butler attire. Just then, the door was swung open and the pair of maids from before stepped in. They only taken a half of a step beyond the door frame when they came to halt and stared wide eyed at all the blue potion bottles littering the room.

Seeing their expressions caused Brex to think, “I might need to tone it down with what I do around them. That really can't be good for their eyes to do that so often.” When he was done with that thought, he motioned with his hand for them to enter.

They both blinked a few times before doing what was silently asked and fully close the door. It was the silver haired one that spoke while eyeing all of the bottles as she asked, “My Lord, just what is all of this?”

He was about to come out and just say that they were mana potions. But stopped with that thought when he recalled what he had done when giving that health potion to that one young changeling. However, he wasn't going to be able downplay that he didn't have much when it came to this stuff. So, from behind his mask, Brex was sweating up bullets while darting his eyes around for some clue to somehow mysteriously guide him in what he should be saying next.

After a few seconds, he finally relented and decided to just come out with it. After all, he shared so much with them already, this much should be fine. Well, that's what ran through his head anyway.

Brex kneeled down and grabbed on to one of the weaker versions of his potions, which had golden colored metal band encircling the mouth of a long, thin glass vial with a cork firmly in place to hold the liquid inside.

The inside was comprised of a liquid that was blue and color and was giving off a very faint glow with no more than two ounces of the liquid inside. At a cursory glance, they all appear to be exactly identical, with the only discernible appearances that was changing among them, was the number of rings at the top of the container. One ring, being the low grade, while three rings meant that it was the max grade.

He went over and carefully handed the one ring vial over to the silver haired maid. Who graciously took it and began to hold it above her head while examining the liquid as it sloshed around inside of the clear glass container. While this was happening, the other maid it was apparently taking stock in just how many there were all around, with a clear look of disbelief in what she was seeing.

Going back to putting away the bottles and having his back towards them. Brex replied to their earlier question with saying, “These are called mana potions. I know that you all don't have this here in your lands, but it is quite common from where I came from.”

While Brex was pretty much a third of the way done. He heard the one that was playing around with the potion in hand saying, “I don't know what that is. This mana, is new to me. What exactly does it do?”

Brex had just picked up another one off of the floor when he answered in a tone that just made them sound uninteresting as he said, “If you start to run low on magic, just drink one of those and you'll recover a portion of it, if not all. It depends on how much you have as a whole and the grade of the potion that is consumed.” He was about to say more when he began to hear the two behind letting out a sudden gasp.

At this point, he was pretty much over the whole, surprising them thing for right now and was now rolling his eyes. He knew about their society having medicine which helps with Unicorns when they have magic exhaustion, so this was just a better version of it if one thought about it. what they had out now, merely assisted in one’s natural recovery rate.

He had just finished putting everything away after a few more moments of silence and turn to look at the maids. Only to find them doing something very odd, while inching their way over to one of the tables.

Apparently, the silver haired one was shaking like a leaf while carefully coddling the vial that was within her palms as if it was a snowflake. As for the dark-haired maid, she was constantly hovering around the other one as she was giving words of encouragement as to be careful.

With the way that the maids were acting around this one vile, Brex couldn’t help but see them as a pair of scientists handling an extremely volatile substance. The image of one of them holding a pair of long metal tongs with a nuclear substance at the end, came to his mind.

He just stood there a few feet away and watched the spectacle with his arms crossed, along with a small smile creeping onto his lips. By the time they had finally made it to the table, a good eleven seconds had passed. If they had been walking normally, it would have taken less than a few to make the distance.

They apparently were trying to come up with a way to put it down, without so much as jostling the liquid inside. When they had finally gotten to putting it down with a small clank, they finally let out a pair of relieved sighs.

Brex then gave a light cough as to get their attention and when they turned to him, he pointed towards the vial on the table and asked, “Mind explaining your reactions?”

The both of them suddenly got into an attention posture while side-by-side. Their eyes were fixed straight ahead and unblinking while showing expressions that he quickly identified as intense fear. Upon seeing this, Brex was fearful that he had done something horrible.

He was about to say something when he finally got a response from them both as they began to shake in place. The silver haired one began to speak in a stuttering voice as she said, “I-I I'm sorry! I'm so sorry. I missed handled such a precious object. I'm so sorry… P-Please don't be mad.”

Brex was just about to open his mouth to tell her that he wasn't mad, but the other one quickly spoke up in her defense and said, “Please my Lord, if you have to be mad at any pony, be mad at me. I'm the older one, I should have stopped her when she started to play with it!”

At this point, they both had closed their eyes tightly and were apparently awaiting a harsh punishment to be delivered by him. Brex just remained there dumbfounded as he was watching what was happening before him. He then thought to himself, “Seriously? Do they really think I'm gonna punish them for something that I just handed over? Also, what's with those reactions?”

He then went back into his memories and recalled the reactions he had gotten from Swirl Sugar when he had used that health potion on that wound on her head. From that, he got a pretty good idea that these two were acting this way because of its effectiveness.

After letting out a small sigh, Brex approached them both. He was about to do that thing with placing his hand on their heads, just like he does with Blaze Caster when he does something wrong to assure them that things were alright.

But as soon as his hands came into contact with their heads, did they both start to shake even more while letting out a constant stream of whimpers.

Inside his head, Brex was shocked at the reaction. This had the complete opposite effect of what he had intended. He couldn't even bring himself to move his hands out of fear of causing them to be more terrified of him.

Seeing this, was causing a swell of emotions to bubble up within and a small amount of moisture to build-up within his eyes, as he was on the verge of releasing a tear. Brex slowly began to think the following. “Just why are they so scared of me? Could it be that they've been scared of me this entire time? Is that why I've been treated so well? Then, calling me Lord. All of the attending to my needs... Even them coming to my room last night? Was all of this done just to make sure I don't get angry with them?”

There was this sudden sinking feeling that was forming in his chest. This was the last thing he wanted. It all made perfect sense to him now thanks to his current mindset. Brex was sure this was because he shared too much about himself. That he had gotten too close to them. This was nothing but the early signs of the point where a displaced in one of their stories, where everything would be turned upside down and they would be hunted down.

He had finally started to slowly backup and had lifted his hands off of their heads. Just as he had gotten maybe a step or two back, did the pair of maid’s eyes suddenly shoot open and were now staring straight at him.

Brex was beginning to be overcome with the urge to want to make a break for it and run as fast and as long as he possibly could. He had no doubt that, along with his nearly endless amount of stamina, he could very well get to the other side of the world without stopping with the way he was feeling right now. He didn't know why, but seeing those two being so terrified of him for something that he didn't even do, was resonating throughout his body.

From deep within his mind, he began to hear an odd sound that was beginning to grow in volume. Because of this, his vision was beginning to darken and he couldn't help but to look straight ahead past the maids with a blank expression and unfocused eyes. He was almost sure that he could start to hear Rory’s voice, but it was beginning to fade, and fast.

The unknown sound that was growing, was beginning to become clearer as Brex could make out a voice. Soon it was accompanied by many more of different pitches. Soon it became a group that was spouting pretty much the same thing over and over again, in angry accusatory tones. They would repeat things such as, “You're a monster! I should have known. Oh, I knew from the starts. You deserve to die. How could you! Just kill him already!”

Each thing that was said, was obviously from a different person. Within seconds, Brex was beginning to copy what they are saying over and over in his own voice while within his mind. It didn't take long until he himself was beginning to believe their words.

He was just on the edge of losing all of his vision when he suddenly felt that he was being tackled. Whatever it was, he didn't care anymore. He didn't feel the need to fight back. He didn't see the point in doing so. Whatever happens now, he must have had it coming. Those were his thoughts right now.

Oddly enough, whatever had collided with him wasn't enough to send him falling and the voices that were taunting him, were beginning to fade almost as quickly as they came. The next thing he noticed, was how his vision was slowly returning to expose a faintly lit room, to which he quickly recognized as the guest room inside of the Fancy Pants Manor.

The next thing to catch's attention, was how he was feeling the sensation of something wrapping around his waist. This caused him to slowly lower his head to look down and what he saw were both of the maids. They were both clutching at him while burying their faces into his jacket. They were apparently crying as he can tell by the moistness building up through his clothing.

While still having a hard time with coming to forming coherent thoughts. He slowly asked Rory within his head, “What... Happened?” This earned him a relieved sigh from Rory as she answered by saying, “You had another one of your panic attacks. I don't know what it was, but this is the worst I've seen. Even back with the princess showing up while we were in her room wasn't anywhere near this severe.”

Brex shakily spoken his mind as he said in a very slow and scared tone. “Rory.... I-I think I may have done something in my past life, that was very bad... I might have been a bad person...” Just thinking those words was beginning to make him more emotional. At the same time, the two that were holding him had started to tighten their hold in response.

Rory then spoke up and said, “Master, you need to breathe and calm down, it's OK. You're not a bad person. Also, you need to bring back up your emotional wall. Everything is laid out for them, so you need to bring it up again.” Seeing as this was something that Rory was very insistent on. Brex went ahead and focused on the task to get his mind off of what he was feeling.

Soon, he heard Rory speaking up again as she said, “OK. That’s good, just a little more. And… that's enough, hold it right there. You don't want to go too far.” To which he complied. If it wasn't for Rory giving him advice and guiding him along, he would have gone too far with cutting off his emotions and became a blank slate with no emotions at all with the way he was going.

It had taken him a few minutes of slow breathing to finally bring himself back to a more manageable state to witch he could even put together thoughts. During all of this, the ones that were holding on to his waistline had not let go, for even for a second. They hadn’t even uttered a single word through the event.

Brex had his eyes closed as he spoke to Rory within his mind in a tired tone. “I think I'm doing better now. For some reason, my anxiety is leaving me a whole lot quicker than the previous times. To this, Rory replied with saying, “I wish I could take the credit. But it would seem you have them to thank for bringing you out of it. I don't believe that you're in a state to feel it, but they've been pouring magic into you from the moment they grabbed on. From the looks of things, it’s having a positive effect on your emotions.”

He then opened his eyes again and tilted his head down to look at the maids. From what he could see, they had their faces buried in his coat while tightly grasping onto the clothing with their balled-up hands.

After thinking about what Rory had just said about them giving magic. He brought up their status bars and saw how they both had an icon next to their names that he hadn’t seen before. It depicted two stick figures holding hands, with a green background.

When he went to closely examine what it was called. It brought up the name of effect being called, Soothing link. Apparently, they both had this effect happening next to their names and it was obvious to Brex that they were both using it on him.

Judging from what it was called, he didn't think it was something that would be harmful. But just to be on the safe side. Brex quickly brought up heaven's computer and went to the section that displayed the Changelings. From there, it showed a list of abilities and the one that they were currently using had just been right there at the bottom of the list. What got his attention about it, was how there was a star icon next to it to show that it was something newly added.

He quickly asked Rory, “Huh? Hold on, if I'm reading this correctly, then this means that they just learn the skill. Give me a sec, let me see what it does.” From there, he clicked on it and it began to show a row of texts.

Changeling exclusive skill. Soothing link, this is a previously unknown skill that is capable of fundamentally linking the Changeling to an intended target to share their emotions and energy in order to assist in the physical and/or mental recovery. The effects and strength vary depending on how familiar the user and the target are to one another. The deeper the feel

Warning, this skill is not recommended to use on an unwilling target. Attempting to do so will have negative effects on the caster.

After reading this, Brex closed the window and dismissed the status bars from view. He was just about to say something when he felt their grip suddenly becoming weaker until their hands released his clothing and they began to fall. But before they could hit the ground, he had reached down and caught them both in his arms.

Letting out a relieve sigh, the Roegadyn shifted his hold and carefully brought them over to the bed and laid them down so their heads were now resting on the fluffy pillows. From what he could tell, they were breathing normally but were out like a light. Rory then spoke in a concerned tone, “Master, do you want to fill me in on just what you're going through? You started to freak out and it seemed as if you weren't hearing me at all. When I tried to use your imagination to interact with you, I wasn't able to form any type of image.”

He stayed silent for a few seconds as he continued to watch over the maids. After finding a chair at the one desk in the room, Brex went over and sat down in it. He then crossed his arms and laid his head in them as he silently began to weep on the wooden surface.

Rory had used the door and came out into the world and was now laying her right hand on to his left shoulder in a calming fashion. While at the same time, remaining silent and patiently waiting. After several minutes had passed with Brex causing his body to convulse with each shudder, did he finally bring himself to begin talking to Rory in his head.

While using an extremely depressed inner voice. He began to say, “I could hear them. There were a bunch of different people screaming at me. Honestly, I don't know why. All I know is, this was not a part of my imagination. It had to have been something from my previous life.”

“Rory… from what they were saying, I must have done something really bad, something that deserved being outright told to die. From what I can tell, most of them seem to sound as if they were from people around the age of twenty. There were even a few that sounded as if they were from the elderly.”

He began to shudder again as his voice began to sound more panicked as he continued on. “Rory, what if I was a psychopath in my past life. I might have killed someone. Was I on the run? Or was I killed and sent here after doing the deed? Whoever it was that sent me to this world… They made a mistake!”

He then pulled his head out of his arms and gripped on to both sides of his head as he stared blankly ahead at the empty wall before him. Brex then continued to say, “If this is meant to be a form of torture for something I've done, then it hasn't been doing its job. Everything I've done so far seems to be running smoothly, so that can't be the case. Sure, I was killed once, but I still came back.”

As soon as he had finished that sentence, he quickly twisted his head to look straight at the imaginary image of Rory before he began to speak in a more frantic tone. “Rory, what if somebody else was meant to come here? What if I cheated somebody else out of a better life? What if you were meant to be with... a… another person?”

Those last few words had really struck Brex as he really did begin to believe the nonsense that was coming out. While turn sideways on his chair, Brex was now hunching over while holding his masked face with both hands.

While on the verge of crying again, he began to think further on how things might have been better if he had allowed himself to be discovered in the past and turned to stone like so many others have. He then moved a few of the fingers on his left hand to allow himself to peak through and look at the two on his bed.

Brex then started to think, “It's because of me that they're like that right now. If I wasn't here then... Then they-.” Brex couldn't even finish that thought when he felt Rory tackling him into a tight hug as she herself was beginning to cry with her face close to his.

Through sobs of her own, Rory began to speak with her tone being that of a mix of anger and sorrow. “MASTER! PLEASE! Don't let me hear you say something like that again. I don't know what it is, but I don’t think that you are a bad person. No! I know! that you're not a bad person. Would a bad person go around helping those that they can't even fully trust enough to show his own face?”

“Would a bad person help the Changelings and show them a better life. Do you really think a bad person would have simply just knocked them all out, instead of just out like killing them when they had a chance on that night?”

“Do you think a bad person would be eaten up about their first kill? Even if the one that they ended up taking out, was a really bad pony who did horrific things? Would a bad person hold themselves for an imaginary girl like me, instead of having fun with the many available partners that have obviously been showing signs of interest? Do you really think that those girls over there are better off without you ever showing up?”

“Right now, they're resting, but what they did was completely up to them. All they wanted to do was help you when they obviously sensed that something was really wrong! They don't have to scrounge around and do what the rest of their kind have been doing anymore. Fleur de Lis’s family was on the edge of dying from starvation due to that one that took control. Also, you could have killed that Changeling out of anger, but cared more about doing something horrible in front of a little girl.”

She then tightened her grip, which surprised Brex with how real it felt as she began to slowly whisper to the spot on his head where his ear should be right underneath the hood. “I told you before that I'm with you no matter what you decide to do. However, I will not tolerate my Master to demean himself in such a way.”

Afterward, she remained silent and just held onto Brex as he just sat there in silence. The words that Rory had used, were echoing in his mind as he replayed them over and over again. Even though he was still fully believing what he had previously thought. Deep down, he knew what she was saying was the truth and it was beginning to slowly take hold.

He didn't know how long had passed. By the time he had opened his eyes again, he looked to see that the light shining through the window had nearly crossed all the way over to the other side of the room. That was when he glanced up at the clock in his view and saw that it was already getting close to two-thirty in the morning. What surprise him the most, was how Rory had not left aside even once and was still holding onto him as tightly as she could without a real form to do so.

While trying to give a playful tone to his inner voice. He said, “Rory aren't you ashamed to have a push over like me as a Master?” This earned him a somewhat tired giggle from the girl as she replied with, “To tell you the truth, I'm all for you being strong and everything. I want to see you be more confident. But at the same time, it relieves me to know that you have a caring heart. Now, how about you go to bed, you must be exhausted after going through all of that.”

Brex had thought about it, but shook his head immediately when he answered with. “No, I'm fine. I think I might step out for a stroll. You know, for a little fresh air.” That was when he brought up his windows and selected his dragoon soul stone. He had yet to come up with any uses for this class, so he had neglected in glamouring any of its gear to look less threatening.

( Here are picture's of the Dragoon Gear. )

So, right now he was wearing a very imposing set of armor that made him resemble a dragon. Especially when it came to the helmet itself. Rory had immediately asked in a confused tone, “Why are you using this one? Also, doesn't wielding a big Lance like that tend to draw a lot of eyes if you were to go out in the city, especially at this time of night?”

Brex only shook his helmeted head that made a few small clanks when he did so. He then answered with saying, “No, I think I'm gonna go into the Everfree woods. It'll do me some good to run around and stretch my legs a bit. Maybe doing some practice swings and the gorge or some out of the way spot will help me in clearing my head. I don't know why, but not doing anything seems to make me feel all cooped up.”

Rory only gave a small shrug as she relented. She then pointed towards the bed and said, “Well? What are you going to do about them? I'm sure they’ll freak out if you don't return by the time they wake up.” About halfway through, Brex was already at the table with the office supplies and was now writing a short note that said, he was going out and to get a good night's sleep and not wait for him.

After he'd put the finishing touches on the letter, he placed it on the nightstand next to the bed and stepped into one of the large shadows being cast on the corner of the room.

When Brex had exited the other side of the shadow realm, he found himself in the middle of the Everfree forest, near the old castle. From where he stood, it was in plain view, just off to the East. Perhaps within fifteen minutes of walking would reach it. But instead, his destination was nearby a spot with a large clearing for him to swing his long lance around.

When he had found it, the moon was a good two thirds of the way in completing its crossing of the sky. The space in which he stood, was a good forty meters wide. In the middle, was just a single, large tree in the center that could have been as tall of Fancy Pants’s house.

As he was taking in the sights, he began to remember his first day when coming into this new world. The clearing that he had appeared from, was no different from this one, aside from the tree. The wind was softly blowing there was a nice, gentle chill in the air.

Brex expanded his mini map and turned back on, Rory’s Situational Awareness once again. He may be strong in all when it came to the standards, but he was not stupid enough to be out here without some foreseeable warning as to danger approaching.

He then took a ready stance with his lance in hand pointing straight ahead and his body shifted sideways. After closing his eyes for a few seconds, he opened them and began his series of movements. There were many thrusting motions that transition to a low sweep.

Then he would twirl the lance around a few times behind his back, before unleashing a powerful thrust forward. He would continue this last set with the attack being launched at different points of the spin. Brex was trying to get into the motions of being able to launch any type of counter offensive, no matter what position his weapon was in at any given time.

After several minutes, he began going into some even wider sweeps with his weapon. This would transform to him doing some backflips and landing on either the sharp end, or the blunt end. While taking a hanging pose as he used it to balance on. This would then be when the Dragoon would launch himself from there and land with a powerful, downward piercing attack to the ground.

At one point, there was a heavy gust which launched a wave of loose leaves that were coming off of the trees nearby, along with those from the ground. Seeing this, he took it as an opportunity and began to unleash a flurry of attacks with his lance.

With the sounds of swishing and slicing filling the air. Brex would stab and cleanly cleave every one of the leaves as they tried to pass by. Some would be hit with the full force, while others were merely taken out along with others in one sweep. Even though he himself had never really done such a thing that he knew of, the Soul Stone, along with the adapted memories that Rory gave him, had essentially transformed him into a seasoned master when it came to the weapon that came with the stone.

But the time he had taken at least his thirtieth leaf, he was taking a second to catch his breath. Although he wasn't tired and really didn't need to, it was more of an instinctual reaction to doing something at high speeds.

After doing the initial warm up exercises. He was about to start practicing his weapon skills when he began to sense something off about where he was. His mini map didn't pick up any life signs nearby, but his situational awareness was giving something else. Unlike all the other times it would tip him off, this one was very subtle. If he had been in the middle of doing one of his weapons skills, he may not have even picked it up.

Swinging his lance until it was pointed perpendicular to the ground on his left side, behind his back. He took on a waiting stance with his legs partially spread in order to react to a sudden attack. Still not knowing where this odd sensation was being eliminated from, the Roegadyn narrowed his eyes as he shifted his gaze across the open area.

Inside, he was cautiously asking Rory, “Say, am I just being overly paranoid, or is there something going on? I never had a reaction like this from your senses before. It's almost identical to what happened with the elementals, but this time I'm feeling this sensation that I'm being watched. It's coming from all directions. Yet, at the same time, I just know it's coming from a single target.”

Rory then answered in a hushed tone as she said, “You better be on your guard Master. I can't pin it down either, whatever it is, it's dangerous.” This only cemented Rex’s thoughts on the situation. Rory had never been this cautious before.

Several seconds turned into minutes, then nearly half an hour. To which Brex was standing in place as a statue. It didn't matter if it was caused by the wind or the rustle of a random woodland creature stirring, but he did not move even an inch. The feeling that he was getting through Rory’s situational awareness had not faded at the least. In fact, it was getting suddenly stronger to indicate that whoever was watching him, was coming closer.

From under his helmet, Brex could feel the hairs standing up on the back of his neck. His palms began to feel sweaty and moist from within his gloves as they tightened around his weapon. Brex and Rory had not exchanged a single word during this time out of fear of missing that crucial opening.

Even though nothing had been going on in this quiet clearing, it was obvious to him that this was already a battlefield. This meant that the first one to lose their focus, was obviously going to be taken down.

Off in the distance, there was the sound of a howling pack of Timberwolves that echoed through the cool night air and being carried by the wind. Somehow, the forest itself was becoming darker and more foreboding than usual. Brex began to feel the sensation of something breathing onto the back of his neck, but knew it was just as imagination playing with him with how long he had been there for.

There was then the sound of a branch breaking just off to the South. When he slightly turned his head barely a hair in that direction, did he hear something else coming from the opposite direction, towards the North. The second sound was emanating a low whistle, along with a weird hum as it traveled through the dense trees.

He was so fixated on it, that he failed to notice another sound that had just been produced that was coming from were the first came from. By the time he realized it, his senses were pretty much screaming bloody murder, that he needed to move to the left or right, or his life would be at risk.

He was about to jump to the right, but his instincts caused him to jump left instead at the very last instant. When he had done this, a figure landed where he was about to go and had a long, thin object that was coming out of their sleeves already embedded itself into the ground. Whoever it was, raised their other arm and pointed it towards him. Without so much as turning their hood in his direction, caught something that was whizzing by.

Brex couldn't tell exactly what type of weapon was first shown, but this one that was just caught, appeared to be a large ring, with four points sticking out at even spacings on the outer edge. The object itself appeared to be easily four to five inches thick, while the center had a gap that was nearly a full meter wide. It looked like a black, demonic looking Hula-Hoop with spikes.

The figure was holding perfectly still in their current pose, while there were some falling trees off in the distance that indicated where the weapon had been previously coming in from. Brex knew that since he didn't hear anything being bashed apart, meant that the weapon itself was not meant for bludgeoning, but more for slicing through whatever was in its path.

Brex already had his lance’s tip pointed towards the ground, the edge of the bladed end only being a few inches from touching the dirt. Trying to get any type of info on his attacker, Brex brought up the status bar and had to prevent himself from blinking in shock when he couldn't get any information on this attacker. Both the name and level had question marks all over.

In his head. He carefully thought, “Well, this is something new. The only time this ever happened was in the game, when you had to go on a quest to keep an Non-player character from being hurt or going up against an enemy that was a far higher level than the player.”

While he could, he tried to examine whoever this was in the moonlight. They appear to have a slim build and might have stood up to five feet tall. The robes themselves appear to be jet black, with no discernible markings. The hands that were exposed from the wide-open sleeves were wearing gloves that appeared to be of cloth.

However, on the tips of the fingers were apparently metal claws that were sewn into the fabric. But what drew his attention instantly, was how the figure turned their head towards him and exposed a black mask that was covering the upper part of their face and a veil that was obscuring the rest of the face underneath.