The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!

Ever since the war ended, life had become a lot more hectic. Kanae had expected that things would return to normal again once they won. Instead, it was 'we need help here' or 'there's something wrong there' that she needed to address. One problem cropped up after another.

Grand Eye Analise, the Saint Priests, and Will and Dalu'luna had returned to Radevic for the time being. They had their own problems to deal with in Aidenahll. Adding the fact that Queen-Mother Zariah and two of her four daughters were devil-worshipping cultists also jeopardized the Grand Eye's safety. Ehmvier stopped being safe enough for her to stay despite the desire to bridge an alliance with the Demon's Three. She promised to meet once a formal gathering of leadership had been announced.

Today, Kanae was in the middle of helping to repair a schoolhouse when a couple of adventurers, led by Nelly of all people, came asking for her.

"Kanae, I'm sorry to bother you, but can you come to the adventurers hall? We might need your help with something," Nelly said.

"It's not about Teana, is it?" Kanae asked reluctantly.

"Not this time." He shook his head. "There's a quest that adventurers have been failing at. Even veterans are coming back badly hurt."

When Kanae turned to Headmistress Marnie, she offered a sympathetic nod. The other teachers and goblin laborers were hard at work, repairing a collapsed section of the school building. They were also distracted by children who couldn't wait to play in the courtyard jungle gym.

"It's alright. You've helped us plenty here." Marnie smiled.

Kanae handed off the hammer to a goblin and wiped a coat of sweat from her forehead. She followed Nelly to the adventurers hall. The place was mostly deserted, likely because everyone had taken up quests to help around the city and perform other odd jobs.

One of the hall's receptionist was the alraune Tearal, whose vegetative growth spread from counter to counter. Vines tidied up documents and quest notices. Her coworkers unburdened fresh stacks and arranged them neatly into cabinets.

"Your Majesty!" Tearal adjusted her glasses as they entered.

"Since when did you start working here?" Kanae asked.

"Hehe! Since the start of war, if you can believe it! That I'm capable of shifting through many paperwork at once makes me a very potent desk jockey. Anyway, Nelly must have already told you, but there's an important quest that needs your attention. I say 'yours' because you're among the strongest adventurers in Ehmvier," she explained.

In a sense, that was true… However, Kanae had put those adventuring days behind her.

"Couldn't you get Shatiel and Jannie to help instead?" Kanae wondered aloud.

"They left for Lograin a few days ago," Nelly said.

Oh, right. Probably to see Talis and Clara. The war had separated them for a long time, so they were likely eager to see each other again.

"Okay, I'll bite. What's so important about this quest that you need my help?" Kanae relented.

"A quarry," Tearal began and slid a quest notice across the counter, "has been attacked by unseen monsters. Whatever they are, the last three adventuring parties have come back defeated enough to abandon the quest. Ehmvier sources most of its stone from that quarry, so repairs across the Commonwealth will slow if we're unable to secure it."

"Hrm… I can see why that's a problem. Alright, I'll do it. Who put up this quest anyway?" She scanned the bottom of the notice and saw that it was by Rown Company.

Renya, huh. That woman went right back to constructing the Commonwealth's arm of the Imperial Span after the battle at sea. She just didn't miss a beat.

It made sense why they wanted the quarry secured though. The Imperial Span used a lot of stone, and connecting the Commonwealth's major cities together was a monumental task.

"By the way, Nelly. How come you aren't with Teana and them today?" Kanae asked.

"It's kind of awkward being the only elf around an entire goblin family. I think they picked up a quest to go to Toadstool Forest earlier. I'm staying behind to look after Suvee, Kanade, and Feraline. Also… can you please stop having children? I feel like it's my responsibility as the older brother to look after them… and it happens a lot since you and Mother are almost always gone." Nelly sighed heavily.

"S-Sorry…" she apologized.

They went to the castle together, then split up to go their separate way. Nelly ascended the castle to find the kids, and Kanae searched for Arenade. The high elf was in the pantry, directing cook servants like the head chef of a Michelin star restaurant.

"There isn't enough salt in this stew! It tastes blander than your lives! Is someone checking the ovens? I swear to the Supreme One, if the loaves of bread get burnt because of your incompetence, then it's to the mines with you!" Arenade hounded the poor servants to death and wasn't letting up.

"You don't think you're being a little too hard on them?" Kanae asked on the way in.

"I'm not being hard enough! After Ortesia pillaged the countryside, folks are going hungry. Not on my watch! I'll turn this entire castle into a soup kitchen to make sure everyone's fed!" she exclaimed

Kanae caught a dark elven servant boy, who was carrying a pot of gruel, from tripping over his own feet. She steadied him and gave an encouraging smile. He blushed before running off back to work.

"You can spare half a day, Arenade. I have a quest from the adventurers hall that need help with a monster problem at the quarry." Kanae waved a notice between two fingers.

"Are you kidding me? I put that quest up at Renya's behest days ago! Those useless adventurers couldn't slay a dire wolf even if they tried. Can't we get someone else to do it instead? I'm swamped here," Arenade complained.

"Claudia's still sulking, Esta's with Manabe directing the repairs at the city barracks, I'd rather not interrupt Labelle's orgy, and Gretchen's hunting renegade Ortesians. We can get Edina to help," she suggested.

Arenade groaned aloud, but her body language couldn't be more obvious about wanting to leave the castle. Kanae could see it in her eyes, too, that she was getting tired of ruling. She tossed her apron and pulled her staff off the ladle rack.

"Wait… Is that sanitary?" Kanae gagged.

"Who do you think you're talking to? Come on, let's go already!" Arenade pushed her out from behind.

The two briskly made their way to find their third party member, Edina Hackett. The necromancer's had been demolished during Ortesia's attack. However, thanks to the tireless undead army, she rebuilt her home in record time. But it looked a lot different than the shoddy, run down cabin. It was more… foreboding…

A monstrous skull with tusks served as the entrance. The stone lanterns that framed the path up to the two-story house were topped with cracked bones fashioned into a fetish or cairn. A thin trail of purple smoke billowed out from the chimney. The aesthetic looked completely out of place to its surroundings.

"We sure Edina is still right in the head?" Arenade asked.

Y-Yeah! At least I think so…" Kanae walked up to the door, and an undead standing guard opened it for them.

The succubus squirreling necromancer was standing inside a glowing magic circle. Three charmed high elven men channeled magic into it. Her eyes were like beams of light from a lighthouse illuminating a dark sea. One blink and the energy subsided. Edina returned to normal and waved to them.

"What's up, guys! Didn't expect either of you to pay a visit," Edina said.

"Edina, what were you doing? Summoning another soul into a death knight?" Kanae asked.

"Nah. My max upkeep is eight death knights and two dragons. I ain't as powerful compared to before we booted Hax'gorah from the Pillar of the Damned. I was, however, using a spell called Soul Search to look for potentially strong souls to replace my weaker death knights with," she explained.

"Ugh… I want to exorcise this place so bad, and… is that a soul cairn? Isn't that illegal?!" Arenade pointed to a neatly-stacked pile of skulls, spewing out a mist of necromantic energy.

"I'll stick a femur up your ass if you start firing your exorcising beam in here!" The necromancer put herself between Arenade and the soul cairn.

The high elven priest put her hands up in resignation and backed away. Threats of one of the biggest bones in the body going up her ass seemed effective.

"What's a soul cairn do anyway?" Kanae asked.

"It's one of the first steps to becoming a lich," Arenade began in the tone of a lesson. "Soul cairns serve as a conduit from the afterlife to the necromancer. It's a lot of work to make one functioning soul cairn, but after creating ten, a necromaner can separate their own soul and place it in a phylactery to achieve lich status."

"Thus becoming virtually immortal and all-powerful!" Edina added eagerly.

Both of them stared at her in disbelief.

"Why is it that everything you do have to stradle the line of being evil?" Kanae narrowed her eyes.

"I'm not evil. You know me, I'm even on your side!" Edina insisted.

"Am I evil…?" she asked herself.

"When it comes to demanding sex, yes!" Arenade answered right away.

After explaining to Edina what they needed her help for, she was more than happy to lend a hand. The necromancer summoned her dracolich, and they boarded the massive beast to fly northeast. Three quarries supplied nearly all of the Commonwealth and Radevic with building stones. For just one to cease operations, both nations would feel the hurt from it. Not to mention, an agreement with Rown Company gave them an absurd discount when buying stone in bulk.

They arrived at the abandoned quarry by noon. White stone was collected in mass here, and much of it went into building the Imperial Span. Cuts that could have only been man-made and done by magic carved almost a hundred feet into the earth. Pickaxes and other tools laid strewn about, wagons with the Rown crest collected dust instead of stone, and not a single worker was around. 

"You sure there are monsters down there? I don't see shit," Edina said.

"Do you think those adventurers didn't hurt themselves? I'm going down!" Kanae leaped off and spread her wings.

"We'll be up here then!" Arenade hollered, only for the undead dragon to vanish a second later. "AAHHHH— EDINA, YOU BITCH!"

Edina cackled as Arenade plummeted. She fell half-way down before sprouting wings using with her swiss army knife of a skill, Holy Armament.

"Maybe you should take Kanae's offer of becoming a succubus— arrgghh!" Edina couldn't finish her sentence on account of Arenade choking her with both hands.

"How about I just holy beam you right here, right now?" Arenade threatened.

"Stop… I can't breathe… I ain't even a lich yet… you're going to suffocate me to death…" she squeaked in panic.

While those two were messing around, Kanae went around searching for signs of monsters and battle. Tearal described the creatures as unseen. So, were they invisible?

"I wish I had a skill to see invisibility… Maybe we should have visited Rosaline's atelier for a potion like that first. Arenade, Edina. Would you two quit fighting and help me already? The sooner we deal with the monsters, we sooner we can get home!" Kanae yelled at them.

"I got my Magic Sight," Arenade said and let go of Edina, who dropped to the ground gasping for breath.

Kanae felt something warm dripping onto her shoes. When she looked up, the skies were too clear for rain. Looking down, there was nothing there. However, she couldn't so much as lift her foot, then—

"Holy shit, this place is covered in camoflage slime! Everyone up!" Arenade shouted, flying just off the ground.

"Camo slimes? Hey, I hear they make for great smoothies when killed and— mmrph?!" Edina's mouth remained agape as something kept it open.

Kanae fell trying to fly. Something anchored her feet to the ground. She threw her hands out in time to avoid face-planting to the ground. Howevever, both hands entered a gelatinous substance. Now she was on all fours and unable to move.

"Uhh… Some help would be nice, Arenade!" Kanae snapped at her future wife.

"What do you want me to do? Camo slimes are weak to elemental magic, and we're not exactly a well-rounded party!" Arenade fired back while swinging wildly at something seemingly reaching for her.

Elemental magic… the Ring of Scorching Ray!

Kanae tried to pull her hand with the ring out of the slime, but it wouldn't budge. A slimy feeling brushed against her inner thighs. The warm sensation spread across her body and sent shivers up her spine.

"You know what? Maybe these things will let us go once it has enough. I mean… the other adventurers came back alive!" Kanae said.

"Stop letting everything monster you encounter fuck you!" Arenade exclaimed in exasperation.

"Well, it's not like I can get out of here!"

The slimes attacking Edina had stripped her bare naked. Their barely transluscent body shimmered under the sunlight, flicking at the squirreling's perky nipples. Meanwhile, Kanae jolted when a slime entered her pussy, another in her ass, and a third prying her tail open.

They were relentless, and Kanae sensed more coming just from the sounds of their squishy approach. Her eyes followed a slime tentacle extending out from the body. It came down hard on her cheek. The impact brought her incredible pleasure.

Smack! Smack! Smack! SMACK!

"Mmmmh! Oh, god… At this rate… I don't need to turn Masochist on to like pain anymore!" Kanae gasped.

"Three hells, if you turn into that weirdo masochist succubus, Claudia, I'm breaking up with you!" Arenade incanted Holy Armament: Lasso and tied it around Kanae's arm.

Together, they pulled until her hand was freed.

Kanae fired a single blast of Scorching Ray from her ring, and the camo slimes screeched. They slipped out her holes and retreated. She fired another at Edina and missed. The spell struck the necromancer right in the face.

"Oops…" Kanae gritted her teeth because that must have burned.

"Seriously? Damn it, Kanae! You beat the Knight of Gold, but you can't aim a fucking spell?!" Edina's charred face contorted into an unamused glare.

"Look, you're mouth is free! Just summon some undead mages and help us already!" Arenade implored.

Edina did just that. A short incantation later, and half a dozen undead mages came into existence. They casted a hailstorm of fire across the quarry, slaying countless camo slimes. In death, their bodies became just a little bit more visible. Actually, they looked like they were cooked into being visible.

"Whew." The three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

The stone of the upper layer of the quarry was burned beyond practical use, but at least the slimes weren't a problem anymore. Although…

"I think it's going to take some time before we get into the hang of adventuring again," Kanae said.

"You said it." Arenade sighed, slumping down onto a toppled piece of white stone.