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Rain took his first few steps back out into the grassy plain. A light rain was falling from the clouds above. Lyra scowled at him from where she hung from his paw.
“I can stand now! I promise! My legs aren’t afraid anymore!”
Rain lowered his paw a little, letting her take her own weight. Her legs held for a moment then she began to sink earthward. He pulled her up again.
“This isn’t fair! You’re not even doing anything but you're still so- so!”
Rain interrupted, “You need to fix this fear thing, but for now we’re going to have to do something you won't like.”
“Wha- Wait, hold on! N-no!”
Rain wrapped his large paws around her hips and lifted her, then ducked underneath her legs and put her on his shoulders. The sheep girl trembled in fright.
“Oh, oh gods, this is such a bad idea!”
She looked down, the ground was suddenly very far away. She swallowed and her legs shivered and shook out of her control. She sat over his shoulders, her thighs spread by his neck, her hooves hanging down over his pecs. She was literally riding this terrifying beast! Her breathing accelerated.
“P-put me d-dooowwnn! Oh goddssss!”
“No. And if you pee yourself up there I’ll go with the simplest solution and eat your legs.”
“Nuu! Don't say that! You’ll make it worse!”
She tried to curl up on herself, make herself smaller, but found herself getting closer to Rain's head. Her trembling hands found his ears and she clutched at them desperately, one large warm ear held in each hand. She could feel Rain’s powerful heartbeat through her thighs. She was so close! So close to him!
She let out a cute little helpless whimper.
“You’re fine see? There’s nothing to be scared of.”
“I’m riding an eight foot tall super strong wolf monster who loves to eat people! There's a lot to be scared of!”
The sheep girl clutched her thighs tight as she could around Rain’s neck, her hooves drawing together. She couldn't get away, everywhere she looked was predator! There was only one answer. She closed her eyes… Yes, already she felt a bit better, there was only the huge muscular mass between her thighs, the rise and fall of his breathing and- oh gods this didn't help at all!
“J-just g-go! The sooner we are done with this the sooner I can get off!”
“Hold on!” said Opal. She was looking up at Lyra with her arms crossed, clearly pretty annoyed. “Why does she get a ride? She’s taking my spot! I should be riding you!”
Rain paused and looked down at the Goblin. “She can’t walk so she can’t use her ability to make me invisible without being carried.”
“So? Who needs that shitty power. Just attack anything that approaches!”
“You don't really mean that Opal.”
“Hmphh!” the Goblin huffed and turned away. As she turned Rain saw her lip tremble slightly. He tilted his head. Was Opal... jealous of Lyra? Well, he wasn't about to let her stay feeling down. He reached out with his paws and scooped the surprised Goblin up into his arms, cradling her up against his chest, relieving her of her rucksack in the same motion. Opal looked up at him with round eyes then snuggled into his fur.
“This, this works…” she murmured softly.
Red gave the now girl-covered wolf a worried look.
“I’m not doing that! You’re not carrying me!”
“I was never going to,” said Rain flatly.
Opal waggled the Kobold’s chain. “You’re the vanguard Red, you meet the enemy head on, like a hero.”
Red put a claw to his chin, thinking. “Wait a second, that’s just a fancy way of saying I’m bait!”
“Really heroic bait yes,” murmured the Goblin.
“I’ve changed my mind, please pick me up!”
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“No.”
“C-can we go now?” said Lyra, her legs clutching ever tighter around Rain.
“Yes, make us invisible… This will hide our tracks right?”
“Oh, um, yes, well you’ll see.” The sheep girl shifted her hips and steadied her grip on Rain’s ears. “Okay, on one, two, three!”
Rain looked down to see that the Goblin held in his arms appeared as though she was cast in shadow. He glanced at Red who was staring around where Rain stood, a wary look in his eye, seeing straight through him and into the distance. Rain looked down wondering how Lyra’s ability dealt with the chain. It didn't seem to, or at least that is what he first assumed, then he noticed that the length of the chain hanging from Opal’s fist that dipped below the grass was more shadowed than the length of chain that led up from the grass to the Kobold’s collar. Partial invisibility. Imperfect but he supposed it wouldn't be that noticeable considering the length of the chain.
He experimentally shifted a foot, then lifted it up. The grass beneath his paw fuzzed and then seemed to unfold and slip back into an unflattened state, the blades straightening and arranging in such a way that it was indistinguishable from the rest of the grass around it, it was as though nothing had ever touched it. He pressed his broad foot pads down on the grass experimentally squashing it down then lifting away watching the grass blur and fuzz and shift back to normal.
“Is this an illusion or is it actually happening?”
“It’s uhm… Well I don’t understand it fully if I’m honest, when I got the Class, Rescuer, I went to see a Class scholar. They said it was only the third time they’d come across the Class and then they told me lots of complicated stuff about true manifesting illusions which went over my head. What’s left behind, in the end, is real I think.”
“...Could you use this to repair things?”
“Mmm, I don't think so, not unless you broke the thing you wanted repaired yourself while under the effect of my skill and it would have to be something that suggests you were there when left behind.”
“What happens if you accidentally drop something? Like a note that has your destination written on it?”
“I dropped a sandwich once. The Skill vaporized my sandwich after I took a few steps. It was really traumatic. Uhm, other times I have dropped coins and the skill buried them in the ground, it took forever to find and dig them up. There’s also, well this is a little embarrassing, once I dropped a pair of panties and the skill merged them into the carpet!”
“What a strange Skill.”
“Suits her, she’s strange and weird,” grumbled Opal, her face buried in Rain’s fur.
Red politely coughed into his fist. “I can't hear you three, how am I supposed to know what to do?” He looked around warily. “That is if you're still here and haven't hopefully abandoned me.”
“Silly Kobold. He thinks I’m going to abandon my walking jewellery box.”
“How do we leave the dungeon Opal? Tell us where to go.”
“Oh? Oh yes, it’s that way.”
The Goblin pointed and Rain began walking. After a moment the chain went taught around the Kobold’s neck, tugging him forward with a lurch. Red spluttered and scrambled to keep up with the invisible trio, having to jog across the grass to keep up with Rain’s long stride.
With Rain keeping pace it didn't take them long to reach the edge of the vast cavern and step into a dark crack in the wall. The cave was tall enough that he didn't need to duck with Lyra on his shoulders. He felt Lyra tense up as darkness engulfed them.
“You don't like the dark? I thought Elves had good night vision?”
“I’m not an Elf, I'm a Half-elf!”
“So you can't see in the dark?”
“I… I can, mostly, but…”
“You find it intimidating don't you.”
“...”
“Do you find the dark scarier or me?”
“You! Wait, that’s just my legs!”
“Well I’m on your side so you don’t need to be afraid of the dark anymore.”
“I- I-...”
Rain felt her fingers tense up on his ears for a moment.
“I’m not afraid, really!”
Her legs fluttered against his chest as she spoke belying her words.
“Sheepy is lying, she’s scared of monsters and the dark and big bad wolves,” murmured Opal, her eyes closed and her head resting against Rain’s chest.
Lyra’s breath hitched and she tried her best to still her trembling legs and compose herself. She took in a few deep steadying breaths.
“I’m not afraid of anything.”
Rain didn't reply to her although he felt Opal silently laughing in his arms.
After a time he felt Lyra relax a little bit, getting used to the dark perhaps.
“I’ve been thinking,” said Rain as he walked. “It seems likely that there will be levelers watching the stairs between floors if they are looking for me and you.”
“That might be true by now, yes, if they have any sense at least, but they weren't when last I checked.”
“That’s not a problem,” said Opal. “Levelers like to camp the stairs because they think they are being clever so monsters know plenty of ways to go between floors without using them.” She pulled on Rain’s fur to get his attention then pointed down a side tunnel. “This way will take us up a floor without using the main stairs.”
She led them into a network of caves, the tunnels quickly became more cramped and starting to lead upward.
“I can't fit while carrying you both…”
“Yes, please put me down!”
“Carry me more please Rain!”
They climbed upwards, ascending onto the next floor of the dungeon through the secret ways of monsters. They eventually came out on a different floor where Rain picked the girls up and Lyra made them invisible once more.
They traversed the tunnels carefully until they emerged out into a larger cavern. The grass on the ground was frosted over and Rain’s breath steamed in the air in great billows of white. A cold biome. He watched Red wander out into the cold cavern, the Kobold looked around nervously, his breath coming in short little fearful puffs. He shivered in the cold, his arms crossing and his tail wrapping around his hips.
“A-anyone th-there? U-uhm?”
Rain walked straight past him completely unseen and the Kobold had to hurry to catch up with the snaking chain that coiled through the icy grass seemingly of its own volition.
Red watched as the chain passed between the sporadic trees and he carefully picked the same path, wary of getting caught going the wrong direction and getting himself wrapped around a trunk. He was so focused on looking down and following the chain that he was caught completely by surprise when a large mossy green furred boar with frost coated bone nubs on its back tried to gore him. A yellowed tusk glanced off his shoulder as it charged past sending Red spinning like a top to land on his butt.
He blinked, the attack was so sudden he hadn’t quite processed it. He turned his head to see the boar had turned around and was pawing the ground, its breath huffing white.
The Kobold scrambled backwards on his rump, his clawed feet pushing at the ground until his back bumped up against a tree.
“H-Help! S-save meee!”
The boar’s beady murderous black eyes locked onto Red. It lowered its head, readying to charge. It leaned forward, front leg lifting, stepping-
Rain suddenly materialised behind the boar and fell upon it, Opal leaping to the side, hacking at its leg even as Lyra rolled off Rain’s shoulders and ungracefully landed on the icy grass with a yelp.
Rain linked his arms around the boar’s neck and used his raw muscular strength to crush the boar’s windpipe. The monster struggled desperately, bucking up against Rain’s weight, trying to kick him, but it was hopeless, its hooves bounced off of Rain doing nothing. He forced the boar to the ground as it began to slowly weaken, the lack of oxygen making it sluggish.
“Lyra, do it now!”
The sheep girl scrambled to her hooves and held out her hand. A black knife appeared. She grasped the hilt in both hands and charged toward the boar Rain was holding down. She plunged the blade into the boar’s neck with a cry, then again, and again, panic and fear and memories of using the knife to kill, washing over her, overwhelming her, sending adrenaline roaring through her mind.
At last the boar lay dead and still and Lyra slumped backwards onto the grass, her arms outstretched, her blue eyes staring at the cavern ceiling far overhead. She let the knife fall from her fingers.
“It worked, I leveled up.”