TDH Vol. 1 pt. 23 + New Cover!

((First off, sorry about being a day late here. I was sick yesterday and then, by the time I was done feeling like shit all day, I was exhausted and needed some sleep, so yeah. But I figured it's better to be a day late than to just call off the last two chapters for the week, so here we are! Anyways, below is the new cover for the series done by ErosPanda like usual! Also, I was originally planning on making about 30 short chapters for daily posting during the first month of posting this to SH and RR, but meh. I figured that I'll stop splitting them up into short chapters now to instead start building up the tiers. So, this is the last chapter available to all patrons for a little while. The next four chapters will be posted for the $5+ tiers. Then the five after that will be for the $10+ tiers. Once those are done, things will be back to normal and each tier will be getting a new release every week. However, I do plan on writing more than just one chapter of this a week until the tiers are finished, so it's not going to take 9 weeks to get all the ahead chapters finished for the tiers. I want to publish this story to SH and RR by the end of the month, so yeah. I have 9 more chapters to write before the month is over to accomplish that! So, that being said, you're still gonna be getting about the same amount you've been getting each week. They're just going to technically be one chapter instead of two to three.))

Once a month were the readings, as I found out. It was scheduled for my day off. The usual guard woke me up in the morning and took me down a hall I never went down before that was lined with even more prisoner cells. Our destination was at the end of the hall.

“Here we are,” the guard said. “Before you think of anything… she’s married. Trust me, every single bastard who comes in here and sees her goes through the exact same thing, so I’m telling you now that there’s no point in even thinking about. You can use her in your imagination later if you want, but stay on your best behavior while with her.”

I had no idea what the guard was talking about. Well, there were some assumptions I could make, such as me being about to see a woman who must have been incredibly attractive… but was she really that great? So incredible that she warranted a warning before seeing her?

Well, it wasn’t like I could ask to clarify, so I just nodded my head which prompted the guard to knock on the door a couple of times before opening it.

“Ah, Stefan! How are you today?” a womanly voice called out, finally telling me what the usual guard’s name was.

Stefan.

I wasn’t sure if that name fit him or not. I felt like somebody with that name deserved to look a bit more… high class rather than be some rugged guard with a pot belly.

And Stefan immediately changed his tone of voice when talking to her. “A-ah, hey, Katelyn. How uh… how are things going?” he asked while rubbing the back of his head like a shy little boy.

Stefan… it’s creepy seeing you act like this. I’d rather you go back to tugging me around on a leash. Seriously, get a grip. You’re even raising the pitch of your voice. I thought guys usually lowered their voices around women?

My opinion of Stefan continued to change. At first, I thought he was just some asshole guard. Then I discovered he was actually kind of nice and only acted like an asshole in front of the crowd. But now? Now I discovered he could act like a shy boy around women.

It was going to be hard to take him seriously the next time he dragged me to the dungeon.

“I’m good! Thank you for asking. You are as sweet as ever,” the woman, Katelyn, replied.

“Just… just doing my job, ma’am,” Stefan said before letting out a little chuckle. “A-anyways, here’s your first client for the day. Eighty-Three.”

Eighty-Three?

Eighty-Three?

I started off as Ninety. If I was Eighty-Three now… that meant seven more criminals lost their lives since I joined. Seven more lost the interest of the crowds and were disposed of.

Realizing that made me gulp.

“Oh! The beast!” Katelyn said. “Would you do me a favor and place him on the desk for me?”

“Su-sure!” Stefan said before picking me up in a hurry, planting me on the desk right in front of Katelyn.

That was when I understood.

Everything made sense.

The warning, Stefan’s personality shift—it all made sense.

Sitting in front of me behind the desk was an older woman with long, braided hair that hung down in front of her left shoulder. Her features could only be described as motherly and beautiful. I felt like calling her my mom even though my real mom was still alive, loving, and would probably be jealous of me calling another woman my mom. However, as attractive as she was, that wasn’t what really made me understand. No, what made me understand…

Were the mountains connected to her chest that she had resting on the table. Not only that, but they looked barely contained within her blouse and there was even a beauty mark just at the top of her cleavage to draw even more attention to her chest.

I looked back at Stefan, looking him directly in the eyes, and nodded.

He looked like a single tear was about to run down his cheek as he nodded back at me.

We understood one another. I might have been in the body of a tiny beast, but I still had the heart and soul of a man.

The ring around Katelyn’s left ring finger was the greatest disaster in the world for everybody except whoever put it there.

Too bad the person who read me at the holding prison didn’t have these looks.

“Ah, how precious!” Katelyn said, reaching one hand out to pet the top of my head.

This is almost better than sex, I thought.

“Oh, sorry! I need to remind myself that you are still a Chosen in there. It must be awkward to be treated like a beast. I’m sorry.”

I shook my head as quickly as possible. It’s alright! It’s seriously alright! Please don’t stop!

Katelyn cleared her throat and crushed my dreams. “I have to be professional!” She gave her cheeks a couple of gentle slaps with her hands. “Hmph! Alright! Now, I am sure you would like to enjoy the rest of your day off, so I will try to keep things quick.”

I know this isn’t fair, but whoever put that ring on your finger… I already hate him.

“This will be my first time reading a soul beast here, actually! Though… would you classify as a soul beast? Hmm, I wonder. Well, I suppose we will find out!”

Even though her chest might have been criminally large, I somehow managed to keep my eyes focused on her face instead of her breasts.

“Stay still for me, please.”

I nodded and sat down.

Katelyn smiled and pressed two fingers against my forehead. I felt our souls link to one another in that moment, and it was the same sensation I experienced when I was read prior to being transferred here.

Only those with the skill and training could read the information of one’s soul. Readers were always sought after due to their rarity, and they were never left wanting for work in any major cities. After all, being read by a reader was the only way to have one’s level, skills, and abilities officially checked.

“Interesting!” Katelyn said. “You may resemble a soul beast in that you have a soul within a beast’s body, but your soul is still that of a Chosen. Hmm. Interesting. How does that work? The dungeon did this to you, yes? I wish I could ask him about it. Well, regardless, this means that you are still living like a Chosen in case you were not sure before. You will not be able to increase your level cap by absorbing others’ souls, nor will you be able to evolve your body to better suit your desires.”

Well, I never thought about benefitting from it that way in the first place, so I can’t say I’m disappointed.

“It is more like you are still a Chosen in every way, but the appearance of your body has been altered. The only difference between you and your previous body is the appearance of it.”

I guess that’s kind of reassuring to know at least.

“If anything… I believe you are still in the same body as before. It is just that your soul has been modified to change your body. Oh! That’s it! You remind me of that Vellfalan girl! Souls that have been modified to change the physical appearance of one’s body. The causes behind such modifications may differ, but the end result is practically the same.”

So… if anything, I’m closer to a Vellfalan than a soul beast? That actually kind of makes sense.

“Anyways—sorry. You are just such a unique case that I let my excitement get the better of me.” She cleared her throat again. Every clearing of her throat caused her breasts to shake a little. I might have been focusing on her face… but I still looked down every now and then. “Let’s see… level nine! The paper here says you were only level four before, so you have made significant progress! I suppose fighting almost daily in the dungeon will do that to anybody. Alright, so, level nine… your previous skills were: Cooking, Farming, Husbandry, Gathering, Stealth, Survival, and Tracking. They are all level zero still, but it feels like Stealth will grow stronger as soon as you do. Skills can only get past level zero once your general level has reached ten, so put in a little bit more effort and you should grow your Stealth skill right away! Now, you have also acquired a couple of new skills! Combat Expertise: Unarmed; and Damage: Piercing! Makes sense considering that you must only be fighting with your fangs!”

Getting new skills is nice. Seriously nice. If I can reach level ten and then get those leveled up, that should give me a seriously nice boost. I’d probably be able to bite right through the beasts’ necks in the dungeon.

“And… congratulations! You even got your first ability. A specialization-type ability rather than an active ability, but you should still feel proud of yourself! It is the Ambush ability, which falls under your Stealth skill. If I’m remembering correctly… ah, one moment. Let me doublecheck rather than guess.”

I nodded as Katelyn pulled her fingers away from my forehead. If she was at my ability then the reading was already over anyways. That aside, she pulled out one of the drawers to her desk and lifted a heavy book with ragged pages sticking out from its side. Inside the book was page after page of details regarding what looked like every single possible skill and ability there was. She flipped through the book until she found the one relevant to me.

“Here we are! Stealth: Ambush. Let’s see… alright, so I was right that it is a specialization-type ability. It says, ‘This skill strengthens the owner when attacking a target unaware of their presence. The higher the Stealth level, the more powerful the ability is. At level zero, an iron sword that would normally struggle to penetrate a tough hide is able to cut it open, but following attacks will lose that ability as the element of surprise is gone. Research has also shown that the Ambush skill comes back into effect should the target lose awareness of the owner at any time, even if only temporarily. Breaking line of sight, hiding behind an obstacle, and disorientating the target are successful examples of forcing the target into an unaware state.’ Interesting! That sounds like it should be a useful skill to have!”

Yeah… that sounds useful. Seriously useful. So, as long as I’m able to hide or lose my target’s attention, I can deal even more damage to them over and over again. If my body stays tiny like this, something like that should actually be pretty easy. I can easily hide or get into my enemy’s blind spots. I’ll have to take advantage of that as much as possible.

“Well, that does it! Is there anything else you would like to know? I would be happy to answer any questions you might have!” Katelyn said.

You’re too nice for this place. Seriously too nice. Anyways… even if I could think of any questions, it’s not like I can ask. I shook my head.

“Oh… alright.” She sounded disappointed. “I would like to keep you around to look at you some more, but… wait! Ah, dang it!” She smacked her cheeks again. “Be professional! What would your darling think if he saw you slacking at work?!”

“Darling…” lucky bastard.

Katelyn cleared her throat one more time before signaling to Stefan. “Thank you for bringing him. We are done now, so you can take him to the hall with the others!”

Stefan picked me up and placed me back down on the ground. “I’ll be back soon with the next prisoner, ma’am.”

“Please, take your time. And make sure that you are drinking enough water as well! It is important to stay hydrated!”

Stefan grinned like an idiot as his cheeks turned a bright shade of red. “Ye-yes, ma’am!”

Seriously, I get that she’s beautiful and all, but to act like a total virgin because of that… wait, what if the reason I didn’t act like that was because I lost my virginity? I might have to thank Elanah for making me into a man or else I would have made a fool of myself without realizing it, too.

Stefan walked me out of Katelyn’s room and closed the door behind him. “I hate my life,” he groaned, sounding like he was about to cry. “Even you… even somebody younger than me in the body of a beast beat me to it… I need to go hire a whore for the night. Get it over with.”

Ah. Yeah, I was right. It’s because he’s a virgin.

Stefan might have acted like an asshole in front of the crowd, but he was a fellow man who I could relate to, so I placed a single paw on the toe of his metal boot and looked up at him. Once he looked down at me, I gave him a nod to let him know that I understood his pain.

That single tear he was holding back finally ran free from his eye.