The entrance to the caverns below.
The clearing was heavily fortified. Numerous dugouts in the mountain side with muskets and acid tipped cross bows aiming through slits.
Hikari peered into the dimly lit cave with apprehension.
"Don't worry." Rey popped his head out of the steam tank.
"Cavern raids do not end in the entire structure caving in. Besides, I got Sheela to train you to dig yourself out of it if you ever found yourself in one."
Rey disappeared into his hatch and reappeared, holding up one of Hikari's steel balls with both hands.
"Herda's tits! This thing is heavy."
Donk! He placed it on the steam tank and leaned on it.
"You carry a dozen of these things around? I can barely carry one."
"Yep."
"Oh my, this entire steam tank is filled with supplies just for you. Did your lady ever complain about how you eat? I can tell you it's way more than a platoon of line infantry."
Hikari leaned towards him. The gaze of her massive eyes made him nervous.
"You look tasty." Hikari licked her lips.
"Umm…! Forget what I said. I'll order more shipments and mine carts to make sure you're well fed."
Hikari leaned back, allowing Rey to heave a sign of relief.
"Anyways, I have some new gear for you."
There was a group of engineers wielding together large sheets of metal into a shield.
"Gonna need you to tank. You don't need much mobility down there so the extra weight is fine."
Another group of engineers were welding together a hammer.
"A blunt weapon. Those underground creatures have hard mineral carapaces. A sword would be ill suited to fight them."
"They're nice."
"But just a bit of trivia." Rey winks. "The mana veins have a big hole at the top. That's how the wyverns get in."
"Interesting"
A man in robes and a straw hat approaches them.
"Interesting indeed."
"Slayer master, what brings you here?" Rey's voice was tense.
"Relax. After all, who cares about having legal rights to a mana vein from which nobody has ever mined an ounce of mana." The man casually shrugs.
"Slayer master, the frontline is not safe. Please return to the main encampment. "
"Ha! You are one to talk. You don't even have a sword."
Hikari was befuddled by the straw hat man's appearance. His sword was impressive. Sharp edge, perfectly balanced, a series of intricate runes.
But the man clearly has no mana, nor is his body built of the rigors of sword fighting.
"You are no good at fighting."
The slayer master turned and looked at her, his face full of intrigue.
"You can tell? Hmm.. It's impressive enough for a subject to retain even a fraction of their original cognitive functions after mutations. I must study this more…"
He excitedly paced around her, excitedly examining her from head to toe.
"Slayer master! She needs some rest."
"Hrmp! How uneducated." Annoyed, he turned and walked off. Rey heaving a sign of relief.
"You seem scared of him." Hikari places her finger on Rey's head.
"He has already disposed of two generals that crossed him. His slayers berserked for a brief moment in both cases, causing an unfortunate death to befall them."
"I see."
"Be careful Hikari. He seems to have taken an interest in you. He's probably inching to dissect you and study every bit of your insides.
"Hmm"
"The man is obsessed with drawing blood samples out of all kinds of exotic creatures and studying them. He would pay heaps of gold for the rarest samples."
Hikari paused and thought for a bit.
"I know"
She dashed off after the slayer master.
With a skip and a hop, she caught up to him.
His bodyguards were so startled that they drew their swords.
"Ah! Hikari, what can I do for you?" He was pleasantly surprised.
"My underwear. Buy it."
"Umm What!? come again!? Your underwear? Surely you can't be serious?"
Hikari nods.
"It has my period"
For a brief moment, Hikari saw his eyes open wider than a mutant goldfish, before his face turned back to outrage.
"What do you take me for!? Some kind of pervert? I had good impressions of you when I first heard of your achievements! Begone now!"
He turned around and stormed off.
Hikari shrugged.