TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 37

"If you didn't have a cure poison rune ready at all times," Kashka added.

"True, but it wasn't needed. The riddles were challenging but not insanely difficult." Kal frowned. "Then Molo and Senshu tried very hard to keep me from going on to the third challenge. They even offered to have a large orgy, with me as the main attraction. It could last as long as I wanted, just as long as I gave up reaching the tower."

"Was this your third challenge in disguise? A challenge of temptation?" asked Asahi.

"No, they were actually concerned for my safety. Given the nature of the third challenge, they were justifiably worried.

"I decided to press on, and we eventually ran into Kithana, a Fae sprite that looks very similar to Ria, except flesh and blood... or at least flesh. I don't know if Fae have blood. The Fae in our part of the world are ancient spirits composed almost entirely of magic," he explained. "Kithana's challenge was making a small cut on my hand and mixing my blood with some of her fluids."

"SHE WHAT?!" shouted Ikuno, jumping to her feet. The entire town froze and stared at the oni.

Kal reached out and put a hand on her thigh. "It's all right. I'm alive, and here with you, so you know how this challenge ends."

"But... How?" said the oni as she gradually sank back to her seat with a dazed expression. The townsfolk of Sayaka glanced at each other in confusion before resuming their meals.

"In a word. You," he replied.

"Me?"

"Your meddling in my mother's pregnancy allows me to channel far more magic than most wizards. I combined that with some stupidly inefficient spells and survived the duration."

"I guess I do not understand what happened here," said Chihiro, with nods of agreement from the others at the table.

"Remember how I said the Fae are spirits almost purely made of magic? It's so potent that when dealing with the mortal races, they consciously pull that magic into themselves so that it won't be dangerous to us. Kithana did not do that for my challenge, and a single drop of her bodily fluids contains enough mana to kill any other mage many times over. The special circumstances around my conception allowed me to withstand such a huge amount of magic."

"I'm still amazed you are even sitting here," said Ikuno.

"But I am, and that's the important part. Senshu, Molo, and the other monster girls that showed up were all ecstatic that I survived, but Kithana was pissed. That challenge was essentially how she and Prentas met, and in a thousand years, no one had survived it since. But she was more upset because this meant I was the new master of the tower."

Ikuno again stared at him. "Excuse me... what?"

"Because I passed Kithana's challenge, I became the new master of Prentas's tower and, along with it, the new master of all the original monster girls."

Kashka tapped him on the shoulder. "You may want to wait before telling her more," the cat said quietly, nodding toward the oni.

Kal agreed as he watched Ikuno's expression flit between pride, confusion, and anger. Looking down the table, he said, "I'm going to save the rest of my tale for when we get back to the shrine. Ichiro, what kinds of shipping does your family do? In a few months, I'm going to have some vessels in need of contracts..."