Hiatus Gifting This Unfortunate Guy With Blessings

'Is it wrong to look at Explosion Girls when they do indecent things to their magic staves?'

The scene playing out before me couldn't be described in any other way.

***

After we had left the sketchy merchant's stall we proceeded to actively look for magic staff for Megumin since I saw that contrary to her previous comment she was extremely interested in buying a better one than she already had.

Lo, and behold after half an hour of searching we found another four stalls with magic staves that had seemingly much better prices. At the fourth stand, the merchant mentioned that his staves aren't completely unused but there was the same type of staff Megumin previously was leering at, with sparkles in her eyes, for 'only' 8 million Eris.

It was made out of the same materials - Woodland Leshy's wood and B-ranked Coronatite Core. According to Megumin, there was no difference in its magic conductivity it and only a few scratches on the wood differentiated it from the first staff she looked at in that first stall.

It was still more pricey than she could afford. However, it was the third time in one day when this usually frugal girl really wanted to buy something but couldn't because of lacking funds and that didn't sit well with me. She needed 2 million more and I decided to lend it to her.

Megumin was extremely hesitant about borrowing money from me but I assured her I wouldn't mind even if she gave it back after 20 years. And finally, her d.e.s.i.r.e to enhance her Explosion even further won and she decided to buy the new staff with my help.

***

And that's how I ended up watching Megumin rub her whole body on her newly bought magic staff.

"Megumin, come on. Stop it."

I tried reasoning with Megumin because a few young kids noticed her weird behavior and started pointing and laughing at her.

"I can't stop when I think about how much more powerful my Explosions will be with this staff! Wha- wait!"

Fortunately, she followed me when I started slowly walking away.

At this point, I was already exhausted after lugging all those cabbages around and now also Megumin's old staff so I wanted to finally go home. The Explosion Girl seemed to share that sentiment but because of entirely different reasons.

"When we get home I am immediately going to sleep so my mana will recover faster. I can't wait until tomorrow to test out my new Explosion!"

'Did I just help an addict get a better drug?'

I shrugged off that sudden realization from my consciousness as we continued heading towards our homes. Megumin's head seemed to stay in the clouds but I, on the other hand, couldn't relax too much.

Ever since that 'S.u.c.c.u.b.u.s Incident' in the middle of the city, I was constantly looking for any hooded people walking around me while I was outside. I was probably getting paranoid at this point but I began spotting more and more of them with each consequent venture outside. Fortunately, none of those people seemed to be overly interested in approaching me.

Only a bit more nervous than a few minutes before we reached our houses without any incidents happening. Faithful to her words, Megumin excitedly said her goodbyes to me and went to 'sleep earlier'.

Before I could question the probability of her sleeping for more than 12 hours she was already closing her door. I then realized that I still was holding Megumin's old staff in my hand but I decided to not bother with giving it to her at that moment and I went back to my house.

A painful groan escaped my mouth when I finally put the bags with cabbages in them on the floor. I walked around the house and after seeing that Chris was still not back I started thinking about how to eat those cabbages in peace.

After moving the table and chairs in the living room I created enough space so my Griffin form could stand without destroying anything.

I left the cabbages unpacked on the floor and transformed. Not feeling any revulsion about the thought of eating cabbages in my Young Griffin form I decided to just take a bite. Surprisingly enough it seemed that this form seemed to even like cabbages.

But I also didn't expect that eating around 20 kilograms worth of cabbages wouldn't be enough to satiate me fully. I should've expected that my Young Griffin form would eat more than a horse which could eat 10 kilograms worth of hay per day.

But at least my Griffin's belly became somewhat calm.

With that problem out of the way, it was the time鈥?for a hunt!

But first I had to clean up the house. I didn't want Chris to walk in and see a mess that I've created with furniture and bits of cabbages lying here and there.

After taking care of cleaning I stepped out of my house, changed into my trusty owl form and flew towards the market area.

Very soon I perched on the building with a particularly good view on the most crowded part of the market.

It seemed that another Kung Fu Baby Goat performance was just starting. Fortunately, my owl form had a different set of values than my humanoid forms so I was only a little bit excited about seeing that fluffy ball kicking off various walls and doing tricks in the air.

After a few minutes, I've even managed to start doing what I was supposed to from the start. And that was thinking of a way to get to that Shinehorn creature. I just had to get that form.

If even Megumin used the word 'cute' to describe it wondered how Chris would react to it! And there was also the animal showcase I've promised to Luna-san.

But getting anywhere near it seemed hard. There was not only a two-meter tall wall made of iron bars but also I could now see a total of five scary looking guards around the pen.

Those guys were ruthless enough to sternly shout at children that petting the Shinehorn is prohibited so I doubted I could get anywhere near it.

And I would be immediately spotted if I decided to make a bold move and simply fly into that animal pen. If the crowd thought I was about to kidnap the fluffy ball I would probably get no help if the guards decided to attack me.

Even if I decided to use that desperate move I doubted I could easily catch that little Kung Fu Goat. It was small, fast, and extremely agile. Even my cat or squirrel forms probably wouldn't be able to catch it easily.

I still had no idea how to get near that Shinehorn after an hour of observation. It wasn't long until it would get dark so I decided to wait and see what the owner and guards will do for the night.

Since I had nothing else to do I decided to buy three more cabbages for my Griffin form and transport them using the part of my [Imitate] ability to store inanimate things that were close to my body. After I bought them and went into a nearby alley it took me a little bit of effort to find out that I had to keep the two cabbages under my armpits and one between my legs for them to finally disappear due to their size.

With that matter concluded I came back to my rooftop position and enjoyed鈥?observed the Shinehorn's show for some time until the little furball stopped running around and suddenly sat down.

The announcer/owner then quickly came up to the pen and exclaimed that the show is over for the day. He asked once again if anyone is interested in buying the Shinehorn for 100 million Eris and when nobody came forward with a moneybag in their hand the guards started shooing people away.

Contrary to my hopes, the Shinehorn wasn't about to be left alone in the pen under lax surveillance but instead was transported to the nearby building while calmly sitting on the owners' shoulder. I was a little bit focused because the guy seemed more than a little friendly with the Kung Fu Goat during the walk to the house 100 meters away. It definitely didn't seem like a merchant & merchandise relationship.

But that didn't change the fact that I had to somehow find a way to get to that creature and with how the guards hired by the merchant treated adventurers around I doubted he would just let me touch it, even if I mentioned my powers.

The building they went into had no alleys around it. It was one giant complex of houses joined together with a front door, backdoor and four windows per side and鈥?a chimney. To my disappointment, none of the windows or doors seemed to be open and the guards actively watched around the house.

I didn't get Santa Claus form yet but the chimney looked like the easiest way in.

The last time I've infiltrated an unknown building I was found out by a duo of friendly s.u.c.c.u.b.u.ses but this time I was planning on breaking into a building with vicious-looking muscular guards. I was wondering if it wasn't too much of a step-up.

I kept flying around for another hour while wondering about my life decisions when I suddenly noticed the target in one of the windows. I saw the Shinehorn lay down in some sort of a basket covered in blankets next to the bed and the owner guy went to sleep as well.

Seeing that two other guards went to sleep in the adjacent room I decided to at least give it a try. I didn't have bad intentions so if I were spotted and caught I could probably end up with a fine after the interrogation with a Truth Bell.

And so I flew up to the house's chimney and sat down quietly on its corner. Since no smoke was coming out of it I changed into my squirrel form and went into the chimney's flue*. A squirrel could easily scale down the vertical surfaces unlike any other of my forms so the journey down the chimney wasn't hard at all.

Though I couldn't say it was nice since it was very dirty inside. I heard guards chat in the room with the fireplace so I peeked out if someone was looking in the chimney's direction. Four men were sitting at the table but they all seemed too absorbed by the dices hitting the table.

"Yes! Four of a kind! The money is mine!" "Eh鈥ot again." "Damn鈥?I thought it was my lucky day." "Screw your luck, Dave. It's always like this..."

" Don't insult the goddess's blessing!"

"Thank the gods you have that luck, otherwise you would be dead with that stupidity!"

"I am fine with that. Care for another round?"

The man named Dave smugly answered but the rest didn't seem willing to play anymore. While they were talking I scanned the room and saw that there was a couch not too far to the left of the fireplace. While they weren't looking in my direction I quickly darted behind of it.

"Tch. Boring鈥?just like this whole quest."

The man who cursed Dave's luck g.r.o.a.n.e.d and exclaimed:

"Stop complaining about that already. I for one enjoy the change of pace. It's rather noisy but I would rather defend a weird noble in a secure city rather than fight wyverns in the mountains."

I traveled under the couch and saw the door on my left again. It was open so I could go through but one guy seemed to have eyes directly focused on the corridor so I moved back a little and waited for him to focus on something else.

Dave didn't seem done with his complaints though and he continued.

"Why is that guy even selling that fleabag when he likes it so much?"

"Rex was right, you should thank the gods for that luck because you don't seem to use your brain at all."

Another guy voiced in, seemingly annoyed by Dave's rude remark about the awesome Kung Fu Goat. This was the guy that was observing the corridor so using the moment he looked at Dave I sprinted through the door.

"No one asked a zoophile for his opinion."

Since they didn't stop insulting each other I was probably safe to assume that no one saw me. I transformed into my cat form to scale the stairs easier and started walking up while listening to the guard's quarrel.

"There must be something wrong with your head if you don't see that Shinehorn's awesomeness. But that's not news. Be thankful because I will enlighten you. Gincut-san took a quest from the guild to just show-off his Shinehorn in this city."

Before Dave asked any further questions the Rex guy interjected.

"And so you would finally shut up I am going to explain why. Axel is a rookie Town. Unlike our Xento that needs adventurers to fend off monsters from overrunning the city, it is relatively peaceful around here. After the harvest season ends there's usually a lull in the guild since all the rookie adventurers are satisfied with their bags full of money. And since it is so peaceful, the stupid adventurers don't invest in equipment and just laze around while wasting money on alcohol and such. The guild's idea to fight this is to show these idiots something that they want but can't afford so they would start working earnestly and become better adventurers."

I scaled the stairs while listening to the guy and I couldn't help but admit that what he has said made a lot of sense. Everyone in the guild today was just there to get the reward and then drink away. The guild seemed to try a different approach to motivate the adventurers.

"Huh?! That's so lame! Why is the guild wasting time and money on those idiots? They should just send those f.u.c.kers to Xento. We can always use some cannon fodder."

Dave's answer surprisingly elicited a round of silent laughter out of the remaining three guards. Their voices gradually faded away as I finally got to the door with the target behind it.

There was a small problem though. When I silently tried pushing it open after transforming into my human form I noticed that the door was locked.

Thankfully, Chris has given me a set of tools needed to use the Lockpicking skill she has taught me a few days ago.

As I crouched down with a lockpick in my hand I immediately froze when I heard a muted "Maaa" sound coming from behind the door.