JR Chapter 2.2

Sorry the stories are out of sync, they should be better after Sunday, no guarantees, lol 

Azra POV~~~~~

I knocked on the door to the bath to see if anyone was inside. When no one responded I made my way in. I looked around as it was the first time I had been in here. Master had modeled it, as he said a mix of western and eastern. There was a toilet, sink and bath tube. Only the tube had a few faucets next to it to wash before getting in. 

I undressed and unbound my chest. It was larger than I would like as it was a pain to deal with when I wore my armor. I did like my scales more since I joined the Master’s dungeon. They had turned a pretty silver color that reminded me of starlight. I finished undressing and went to the nearest faucet to rinse. While I showered, I heard a splash from next to me. I jerked my head and saw Puppet appear with his back turned to me.

“Father said to stay under for 500 counts. Too easy,” he said to himself. 

I stared at him as the water ran down my skin. My mind had blanked for a moment before I quickly covered myself and shouted, “Don’t turn around!”

Puppet jerked when he heard my voice and had turned to completely face me. While I knew he was technically an automaton created by Master, he was still modeled after a mortal. He had toned muscles, and water was dripping down his wooden pseudo skin, I would have mistaken it for regular skin had I not already known what it was. He had several knives between his fingers and was ready to throw them. 

“What did I just say!” 

He realized who he was staring at and turned back around, luckily I managed to cover myself up with my hands… I hoped anyway. 

“Azra, why didn’t you knock?” Puppet asked.

“I did!” 

“Ah, is that so. I was doing some training Father told me about and must have not heard it…” he said with what I felt was an excuse.

“Whatever, are you done?” I demanded.

“Yes, yes. I’ll make my way out then,” he said and moved to leave while he kept his back to me. He had almost made it past me when his foot stepped on my tail, which was covered in soap. He slipped and ended up with his head right in between my legs. I screamed and kicked him which sent him flying out through the door. I couldn’t take anymore and hid in the bath. 

“Pervert!” I shouted. I was sure my entire body was glowing red at the moment. 

Z2 poked her head in through the broken door, “Why is Puppet embedded in the wall out here?”

I just sank my head into the water to hide. I heard a groan from outside the door and peeked out. The door was starting to repair itself, but I still managed to see Puppet pull himself out of the hole with the help of Z2. I waited for the door to repair itself then got out and dressed quickly. 

Once I was back in my room, I buried my head in my pillows and tried not to die of embarrassment. Even when I was a slave, I had never had a man see my body. I was lucky in that regard, but Puppet had basically seen everything. 

“Don’t worry, Babe! It's not like you lost anything,” Skjold said from the wall.

“For women, their bodies are the one treasure they have to themselves. My mother always taught me that,” I said slightly muffled by the pillow. 

Skjold laughed, “Fair point, but what do you think Puppet is going to do, he’s basically a golem.”

“I know that that’s why I’m not sure how I feel about this, the others were all created by the Master. I’m the only one that had a life, a childhood before all this.” 

“Maybe that’s a good thing, wasn’t there that elf and golem in his tower?” He asked.

“Yeah, Master’s not sure what happened, but the Golem fell in love with the elf.”

“Then if you want to, make Puppet yours.”

“What?! Why?”

“Well, if you have feelings for him since he saw you naked…”

“No, just embarrassment.” 

“Then you should make him understand why you were embarrassed if he doesn’t say anything tomorrow.”

I thought that over. Puppet was a pretty strong man, errr, automaton, and I had to admit to myself that I did find him attractive when I saw him in the bath. I shook my head, that was just crazy. One incident and I had to fall for him? Just seeing me naked doesn’t mean I have to get with him.

I sighed and laid down. I tried to sleep as my thoughts kept me awake. It was ironic as this nighttime stop was for me as the only one that had to sleep in the party, even if it was only every couple of days or so. The others could if they wanted to. Apparently, it helped their cultivation slightly. 

I woke up the next day and felt much better. The use of mana and the traveling had made me more tired than I would normally be so my mind had been all over the place last night. The incident from the bath felt like a bad dream. I got ready for another day of traveling with some easy stretches before I equipped my armor and weapons. 

I was the last one out as the others hadn’t slept apparently. Natsuko and Natsuo were talking about something when I approached. 

“Sister, bad,” Natsuo said right as I reached them.

“What’s bad about it!? Puppet and Azra did it last night! We can too,” Natsuko argued.

Natsuo just shook his head.

“What are you guys talking about?” I asked though I had an inkling to the answer. 

“I want to take a bath with Natsuo, but he won’t let me!” Natsuko said and pounded her foot in the ground. 

I blushed, “Hey, me and puppet weren’t on purpose!” 

“Oh, an accident, that could work,” I almost didn’t hear Natsuko mutter.

“Bad,” Natsuo said.

Natsuko pouted but let the issue rest for now. I looked around and saw Z2 as she swung her sword in several patterns. She was an attacker, so I relied on her to get any of the stragglers off me while I hold the line. Her attacks had been getting faster as of late, and I wondered if she was about to increase in her tier level. 

Right now we were all about mid tier 2, which left around four to five levels in this tier for us. I personally had four more levels until I could start to break into tier 3, but that seemed so far away. It not only takes steady cultivation but each level required increasing your understanding of your element a bit. Not to mention breaking through to the next tier.

Puppet emerged from the surrounding forest and made his way over to the party. Once he was near enough, he said, “I still haven’t found any traces of monsters in this area. Whatever is pulling them has an enormous radius of influence.”

“At least we’re making good time because of it,” I said as I tried not to sound too awkward. 

He nodded, “We should make it to the second signal by tomorrow midday some time if we keep up a decent pace.”

Everyone nodded, and we broke camp, which took all of thirty seconds as it only required us to click a button on the House. While Z2 took care of that, Puppet made his way next to me.

“I apologize for last night. I have watched the people in town multiple times and understand that I have wronged you,” Puppet said and kneeled on the ground with his head bowed.

“No, I walked in on you,” I said while I waved my hands, “it’s alright to just drop and forget it.”

“I understand, but I wanted to let you know that I thought you were beautiful.”

“Eh, Ah, Thank… Thank you,” I stuttered.

I blushed and hoped that he couldn’t see it. He nodded before he moved to the edge of the forest. He had to lead the way; otherwise, we would all get lost, I was a hundred percent sure of that. 

“Whew! Whew!” Skjold whistled in my head.

“Shut the fuck up!” I sent back.

“You sure you’re not a fire mage? such a temper!” He said as he laughed.

I huffed and made my way after Puppet. Today was going to be a long one. We were getting used to the forest, so we made better time towards the second signal. Puppet felt we would arrive around morning, so we traveled through the night again. Luckily, Skjold kept his comments to himself for the most part. He offered an occasional snippet every now and then. 

It was halfway through the night when Puppet appeared in front of us and motioned for us to stop. I only had to wait a moment before I felt the ground rumble in the direction we were heading. I glanced at Puppet, but he motioned again to keep quiet. A few minutes of the thumping and I felt like it was headed right for us. 

Puppet seemed to think the same as he whispered, “positions everyone. I didn't get a good look before it noticed me earlier so be prepared for anything.”

I pulled skjold off my back and readied my mace. Z2 jumped back a few meters as did Natsuko and Natsuo. I looked ahead where the thumping was getting increasingly louder.

“Babe, if we don't make it through this, I just want to to know… it was fun being your backpack!” Skjold said and made me crack a smile.

“Don't worry, you'll be my backpack for a good while longer,” I retorted.

At that moment a colossal form burst through the treeline in front of us. The moon illuminated the green scales on the head that was nearly a dozen meters above my own. I had seen this creature in books before, it was a land dragon, a being that was nearly one with terra mana. I gulped at the thought of this creature trying to attack us.  It stopped when it saw us and stared as it seemed to take each of us in. 

“Puny creatures, barely worthy to be my lunch,” the dragon scuffed after a moment. 

I gulped again and asked, “Might we just go our separate ways, mighty dragon?” 

It turned it whole gaze onto me, and I flinched back a step, “I haven’t had a decent meal in weeks thanks to some puny flies to the south. Why should I pass up a meal that came into my territory?” 

“We apologize. We are trying to find some associates of ours,” I said and lowered my head to show my sincerity.

“You smell of Terra, but there is something else mixed in,” the dragon said as he moved his head closer to me. I tried not to show any fear as he sniffed the air around me, “These… associates of yours. Are they made like the one that is hiding in the trees?” I hoped I was right when I nodded my head, “Then you’ll find them a few hours that way. We made a deal so I will spare you… this time,” he finished threateningly and lifted his head back up. He turned towards the mountains in the distance and started to move away. “No matter, it would have been crunchy anyways, too much metal…” I heard the dragon muttered with not a care if we could hear or not.

Once he was a decent ways off, “That’s the first time... I’ve met anyone that was as powerful as Father,” Z2 said while she looked at the shrinking figure.

“At least we know we’re close,” Puppet said from the middle of the group. I jumped, having not realized when he appeared there.