Chương 6: Chapter 6 Fortunes Scent

-A/N- I saw a lot of dislike for the slave stuff, but its not going to last long or be super "intense."

Also I saw something about how the parents were able to retire. They didn't retire from working, but from the Familia, similarly to Mia from the Freya Familia or how Bete left his former familia but still had his Status.

—

Raxif watched the young half-elf as he was pulled along with the rest of the normal slaves. It had been more than a week since they had captured them, and they had reached the Great Sand Sea two days ago.

As for why Raxif was watching the boy, from before he had even caught the boy he had noticed something off.

His skill, the whole reason he was a leader of a raiding team, was called Fortunes Scent. When activated it allowed Raxif to smell anything worth a decent amount of money. They had originally been tasked to take a small cluster of homes near the city, but when Raxif had activated his skill he had caught a faint, but potent scent.

Without hesitation he ordered his team to follow it, but it had been further than he had expected and his team had begun to doubt him. Until the group of three had crested the hill.

When he saw them he activated his skill for just a moment, using it too much could make him get a nosebleed like a hole in a bucket.

The scent had been so powerful it blurred his eyes. The moment he saw the elven woman begin to cast magic he thought it was because of her, maybe she had a skill or extremely powerful magic. or when he saw the seed the boy carried perhaps it was that, but the next day he had used his skill again next to them.

It had clearly been from the boy himself, but as far as he or any of his team that he had asked, he didn't seem to be Blessed with a Status. Just like people could tell when someone was a Deity, they could also tell when someone was in a Familia.

That was until a dogkin woman that was a part of his team told him about the boy's unusual scent. Each person had a distinct smell, but it was possible to tell one's race from their scent. According to the woman he had the smell of an elf, but not a human, instead he smelled like a dwarf.

It was a preposterous statement, but Raxif decided to take it seriously. He put the boy with the rest of the slaves, hoping that the mixed scents would stop any of the other beastkin from other teams being able to sniff him out.

If he got the boy to his goddess and it turned out the boy really was a half-elf half-dwarf then his entire team would be rewarded greatly.

Raxif also made sure to keep the elven mage and dwarf that he had captured alongside the boy close as well. He didn't know how they were able to have a kid, but if they could make more…

A grin spread across his face, his goddess had hundreds of members in the Familia, so standing out was difficult. This boy might just be the key to change it all.

—

I held Teshgars seed up to my mouth whispering his name over and over as the more than a hundred slaves sat in the dry heat of the noon desert sun. Da was next to me, but Ma had to be constantly watched because of her magic.

My wrists had been rubbed and cut by the yanking of the chains put on them, so dried blood and scabs littered them. Thankfully the harsh sun had done little to my dwarven skin, but my lips were constantly dry, and several times I had nearly collapsed before we would stop for a break.

This was the fourth town that we had come across, each time the slavers would take some of us and sell us at the market. I would have called it luck, but the man that had knocked me and Ma out had been keeping an eye on me and would make sure me or my parents were never put up for auction.

When I had told Da that his face had gone grim and he told me to never stop calling for Teshgar no matter what.

I had seen the great power that the Spirit possessed, there was no doubt in my mind that it could save us.

But what came next, we would have to kill the raider that kept looking at us, and the rest of his team. He had somehow connected the dots, and we didn't want him to report it to his goddess. If Teshgar got there after the news was already out, we would need to be on the run.

When I had been told about how I needed to keep my heritage a secret, I had sort of blown it off, after all, this was a world filled with Gods and magic. Would one anomaly really be that big of a deal?

I remembered the words that my parents used when describing how some of the Gods would treat me. I would be "collected," because of how interesting I was, the whole reason the Gods descended was because they were bored after all.

I needed to find a God or Goddess that would keep my secret and treat me well. Then I needed power, power like Teshgar, who had been able to quell an entire forest fire and kill more than a hundred slavers with a single spell.

Orario was the place to be, but I needed to figure out which Familia I could join before I got there. Ever since the fall of the Zeus and Hera Familias two others had risen to take their place. The Loki and Freya Familias. I knew that Ais or the Sword Princess was from the Loki Familia, but that didn't tell me anything. I had no idea when she joined, or even if she was a good person.

The Freya familia was out of the question. She was a goddess of beauty, which was great and all, except that it seemed like she was the type to collect interesting people. Others might want to be a sex toy for a beautiful woman, but not me.

What I actually needed was a Familia that wouldn't let me join just because of my heritage, one that would require me to be more than a display piece for them. They also needed to be powerful enough to deter others from stealing me.

This was of course, under the assumption that we escaped in the first place.

A few hours later the slavers had come back, all their wares sold. We camped outside the town for the night, the former sweltering heat replaced with a frigid chill. I fell asleep to dark thoughts on what we would have to do to escape.