"Good evening Zephyr."

Greeting the magic beast laying lazely outside the tent as a guard dog Dax expected to pa.s.s right by it, but was blocked from entering by the wolf like creature.

"What?"

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Looking into the large golden eyes of the creature Dax reached out and started patting Zephyr's head.

"Have you received your payment, o n.o.ble gatekeeper?"

a.s.sessing that the n.o.ble wolf had accepted his bribe Dax once more tried pa.s.sing Zephyr, but was blocked when a presence behind the proud wolf reminded its what its job was.

"Grrrrrr!"

"... Really?"

Looking at the proud wolf that was simultaneously letting out a threatening growl and enthusiastically wagging its tail from Dax scratching it he was at a momentary loss for words. Even as he couldn't see her Dax clearly felt Lilly's pressure influencing Zephyr, as if she was saying 'absolutely don't let Dax enter I hate him'.

"Lilly you there?"

"..."

With silence as his only response Dax clearly felt he had Lilly's attention, and a small smile slowly crept onto his face.

"I've brought a worthy gift for you my lady."

"..."

"It has come into my possession trough great personal sacrifice."

"..."

"Truly it is a priceless relic of my world."

"..."

"The distiller doesn't even exist anymore."

"...Leave it outside."

The moment Dax hinted at what he was carrying Lilly couldn't keep silent any longer, just as expected.

"But my lady this is something extremely valuable, I simply can't let it out of my sight for even a split second."

"..."

"Please bless me with your presence."

Bowing down in the sand Dax lowered his head then simply started waiting, and so 10 minutes pa.s.sed like that.

"Is he still here Zephyr?"

"Arf!~"

"Truly such a hopeless creature… You may enter."

Finally obtaining permission to enter Lilly's tent Dax quickly rose to his feet and patted Zephyr goodbye and entered to find the small eye haired elver sitting square center in the tent looking at him with a frown.

"So what did you bring me?"

Going straight to the point Lilly displayed her cold att.i.tude and didn't even look at Dax as she asked him to reveal his goods.

"I bring with me a small part of my prized personal collection. From the planet Centurs-3a, famous for their agriculture and production of high proof spirits."

Setting down the metal container he had been carrying with him Dax started explaining the product like he was a salesman.

"In the tropical highlands a specific and one of a kind mutated sugar cane grows at an extremely slow rate due to the atmospheric composition and alt.i.tude. The so called crystal sugar cane yields a mola.s.ses with an extremely high sugar content and a strong natural flavor is then fermented to wine and distilled to a 70% ABV, then spends at least 100 years in a highly secure orbital facility on oak casks before it is blended and finished to form an extremely rare and expensive product one usually have to wait at least 500 years to get a hold of."

"... Then how the h.e.l.l did you get it?"

Finding the entire explanation hard to believe Lilly looked skeptically at Dax and demanded he explained himself.

"I lead the force that liberated that system from occupation, and personally freed the station in question without any collateral damage, something the rightful owners were quite happy about."

"Okay… But what is this?"

Now gesturing to Dax's att.i.tude as she still wore a frown Lilly directly asked what Dax was doing.

"Where I'm from we call it an olive branch."

"So a bribe?"

"Do you want a drink or not? I promise to be more open and honest than I have been in the past few days once I've had a gla.s.s myself."

"Fineee. Bring it over."

---

After a few gla.s.ses of what proved to be some extremely delicious alcohol Lilly proved more willing to talk as her mood improved Dax desired it was time to come clean.

"I got beaten quite badly fighting something I still don't completely understand."

"That is quite obvious, looking at the state of your body. You also have a few new scars."

"Yeah I made a few blunders that worrinted record so I let them stay on my body. But that's not the real issue. Body parts can be printed, nerves can be fused back together, and strength can be regained."

"The real problem is the curse."

Finis.h.i.+ng up Dax's explanation for him Lilly's eyes turned serious as Dax was surprised.

"You knew?"

"You think these eyes are mere decorations child?"

Displaying a haughty att.i.tude along with a smug smile Lilly drew attention to her completely golden and slightly glowing eyes, a feature Dax only had seen in her and Zephyr.

"So you can see the flow of mana?"

"Indeed, that's why you caught my attention in the first place."

Thinking back to when she first met Dax Lilly described the impression she had of him at that time.

"Unlike other living beings were mana is an important part of them, mana only enters and leaves you it didn't interact at all, as if you were a rock or something yet you were clearly alive. It was a great mystery for me at the time so I wanted to learn more about you."

"And what do you see now?"

"Something strange has inserted itself into your core. It seems to slowly absorb the surrounding mana and uses it to affect your body in some strange way… What are the effects?"

Acting like a doctor tring to diagnose a patient Lilly drew closer to Dax and looked intensely at his chest.

"Pain and difficulty moving, plus the connection I have with ICI seems disrupted somehow."

Answering honestly Dax waited patiently while Lilly walked around him for a few minutes, occasionally touching his chest and back while injecting small amounts of mana as if probing for something.

"... What the h.e.l.l did you face?"

Having come to some sort of conclusion Lilly sat back down in front of Dax and asked him frankly. Sensing a hint of fear in Lilly's voice Dax judged she had learned something from examining the curse.

"What do you think I faced? Based on what you see."

"Something ancient and extremely dangerous, how did it look?"

"To be honest I still don't know. It was an amalgamation of rotting flesh, extreme cybernetic implants, rune stones and some kind of flesh eating fungi. When facing it the creature completely snuck up on both me and Solaris without any of us noticing it. It didn't feel alive, but at the same time it certainly wasn't dead."

"... That sounds frightening, but also explains the curse I'm seeing. A normal curse is like a runic formation, static and easily disrupted even if there is a few traps added into it, whatever this is is nothing like that. This curse is moving as if it's alive, constantly altering its structure and even observing me while trying to look easy to deal with so it can draw me in."

"So it's alive?"

"Not exactly, but it is extremely intelligent. If anything the structure looks like a cursed weapon, like that sword you obtained in the elven capital."

Giving her honest a.s.sessment Lilly made it clear she had no way of removing the curse Dax had been inflicted with, it was truly out of her area of expertise.