"So, the daggers," Karina insisted for the umpteenth time. "They're elven, right?"
After that incident, we were fighting deeper and deeper in the Dungeon for a few days. Cedric had a Perk called {Even Experience Split} that did what it said on the tin. We all got 20% of all the kills' base Exp value and then applied our own multipliers. The asshole didn't include me on the first day before I mob-trained them.
"They are ordinary kitchen knives," I deadpanned. Doing a neutral expression was the easiest thing, being blind. "You are hallucinating."
The team had no tank or healer. Cedric was a sword-and-board front-liner but he was squishy and dodged like his mom. Karina was an agility fighter and she was fancying my daggers too much. Josie used a bow, and Marta was a magician. As for me, I was shooting for the jungler position.
The girls were bent on prying my secrets off of me. I had to admit, this Pinocchio was still struggling to fit in with the women. Apricot had her cool groove and people gave me space. Rose was treated almost like a toy by the harem trio. I was afraid they would discover the fae silk suit underneath my clothes.
Yeah, they fucked almost every night. Cedric had a perk called... I-don't-care-but-he-still-fucks-all-night that did what it did. He never fooled around me again. I promised that he would discover if my not-elven kitchen knives were enchanted with sharpness. Spoiler alert, they were.
I raised a hand. "Six people ahead. Two humans."
They'd just entered my detection range of four hundred meters but the tunnel they were coming from was the same we were going to. Meeting them was inevitable.
"That's scary," Marta said about my senses. "I have elven blood and I didn't hear them."
"Me neither. But they are coming all the same," I replied.
"Stand to the side. I think I know who's coming." Cedric ordered.
The other adventurers' footsteps could now be heard from behind a bend in the tunnel.
"Hail there, friends! It's Cedric here!" He shouted.
"Cedric. It's Georg here," The reply came.
"Hail, Georg. Coming through!"
"Aye. Coming through. Peace."
The six adventurers came. They were dragging their feet, obviously tired. Probably from fighting for weeks in the lower levels.
One of them stopped next to me, "New toy, Cedric? Going for the smaller size so they can feel filled?" He taunted. The others laughed.
"Hey," Cedric warned in a serious tone, "Have some respect. Rose here, she's not with me. Just a member of my party."
"Temporarily," I add.
"Is she any good?" The guy in front of me asked with a funny voice. From the air current, he was doing some movement without moving his feet.
"Hey, stop that!" Karina said.
The newcomers laughed. "C'mon. She's not bothered," the same guy added.
My guess was that they were making obscene gestures. "Let them go, Karina. They are not worth our time."
"Oh. For a level twenty, you sure have some spiff, little tyke," Another guy commented. "Anyway, what kind of moron reaches twenty? I hope this kid fucks better than she allocates Exp."
I'd adjusted my level display to match my real level. I stood my ground, not rising to their bait.
"Hey, why doesn't this kid say anything?"
"Air is too precious underground to waste on you," I replied.
"She got you," A slap on a suit of mail.
I smelled bad breath. "I could crush this kid," The rude guy said on top of me.
"I could use your blood to rinse that foul mouth of yours," I replied.
A hand touched my chin. The bad breath was close. "Is this fucking halfling blind?"
"I am grateful for such small mercies," I retorted. "I don't have to see your ugly mug."
This close, I could sense the airflow around him. He drew his hand back. I dodged the slap and kicked his leg as I moved sideways. The leg didn't buckle. I climbed the guy, lodging myself on his back. He tried to grab me but I dodged again. I brought a kitchen knife from storage and put it on his neck from the side.
"Yield!" I threatened. "Or my enchanted elven dagger will claim your life."
"She got you there, Malcolm," Georg broke his silence and said. "Little lady [Rogue] I pledge to wash this fool's mouth myself. Would you return him to me unharmed?"
"Yeah, right," I twirled the knife and pretended to palm it as I sent it to storage. Then I jumped off his back, flipped in the air, and nailed the landing.
Another guy laughed, "Elven dagger! That was a meat knife."
"I apologize. To the knife. It didn't deserve to be dulled on such a thick head," I said as I walked around Georg's party to return to our camp. "Only to find it was empty inside."
"You!" rude guy growled.
"Enough, Malcolm!" Georg said. "Can I have your name, miss?"
"Rosewise Honorcoin, master Georg," I nodded in his direction. "You might want to delve with a better company. This sausage fest must be tiresome."
"I thought you were with Cedric," Georg said cautiously.
"Nah. He too has hygiene issues. Seriously, a bar of soap is three copper in the market."
Jokester chuckled.
"Bathing in the Dungeon is troublesome. There's no water around," Geog said.
Except I could sense a subterranean river nearby. But one wrong hole and the city above would be without water in their wells and the Dungeon would flood. But his comment gave me ideas to make magic items.
After a few more jokes and good-natured ribbing, they went away.
----------------------------------------
After we met with Georg, we keep hunting for a whole week. The girls and Cedrid are committed to the grind of levels. Too bad it's to their {Nightly Debauchery} Skill than their actual levels. I have only two things to say. Those chicks are loud and the tunnels are almost perfect resonating chambers. Worse, it makes me want to be the one to make them scream like that. I'm not sure if I could even if I had the equipment.
That led me to set my camping spot away from theirs which led them to dump the guard duties to me. Which led them to indulge even more. I didn't mind because I was farming the wandering monsters that came my way at night alone.
And just for the record, "night" meant "rest time". We had no fucking idea of the time outside.
After one particularly nasty group of monsters that required me to use magic to kill, I sat to look at my notifications and found this on my Status page (the comments aren't really there):
> Name: Rosewise Honorcoin.
>
> Age: 12 years <---------- that's sixteen Earth years!
>
> Species: Eleon halfling. <-------------- Et Tu, System!
>
> Level: 20
>
> Class: none.
>
> Professions: Jeweller 20 / Enchanter 20
>
> Unallocated Exp: 79,457,200
I'd been postponing two things for too long. One, my racial rank up. Two, choosing a Class. Maybe a third, my Professions. I should begin with the easier of the three. Ranking up the professions.
Wyxnos must be hard at work all this time. Because now there are choices for the professions.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
>
>
> * High Jeweler (rare): Crafts jewelry with great skill, increasing intrinsic value, and properties.
> * Spirit Jeweler (very rare): Can mix soul essences into the jewelry, allowing for wider combinations of enchantments.
> * Core Jeweler (ultra-rare): Can cut Magic Cores to use the making of wondrous jewelry.
>
>
Damn. I wanted all three. I discarded the Core jeweler. I didn't have many magic cores and it looked like the most expensive of them all.
> You became a Spirit Jeweller. As a Fae Jeweller, you gain 5 Skill Points and 2 SP per level.
Next, enchanter.
>
>
> * High Enchanter (very rare): Allows for stronger enchantments and better use of the material properties.
> * Fae Enchanter (ultra-rare): Weaves the very fabric of reality, creating fantastic and inexplicable effects.
>
>
I picked Fae Enchanter.
> You became a Fae Enchanter. As a Soul Enchanter, you gain 5 Skill Points per level and 1 MP and 1 SP per level.
I set apart enough Exp to level my ranked-up Species to level ten and split the rest between the professions.
> You reached Fae Enchanter level 9.
>
> You reached Spirit Jeweller level 9.
>
> You gained 144 Skill Points
>
> You gained 27 SP
>
> You gained 9 MP
I purchased the first level of a lot of Skills that apparently made sense but I didn't pay much attention to them.
Now, my species rank up. I had three choices.
> * High Eleon (common): A stronger Eleon
> * Featherstep Eleon (uncommon): Light on their foot and nimble.
> * Ghostsight Eleon (very rare): Able to see the unseen.
The latter called to me. It wasn't the rarity. But the word "sight".
> You became a Ghostsight Eleon. You gain:
>
> 1 Attribute point every level.
>
> 1 Dexterity every odd level.
>
> 1 Soul every even level.
>
> 1 Endurance every five levels.
>
> 1 Charisma every five levels.
>
> 1 Luck every five levels.
>
> 4 (+3) Skill Points every level.
>
> 4 HP, 2 (+2) MP, 2 (+2) SP every level.
>
> 1 Perk every 3 levels.
>
> You reached Ghostsight Eleon level 10.
>
> You gained 10 Attribute Points.
>
> You gained 5 Dexterity.
>
> You gained 5 Soul.
>
> You gained 2 Endurance.
>
> You gained 2 Charisma.
>
> You gained 2 Luck.
>
> You gained 70 Skill Points.
>
> YOu gained 40 HP, 40 MP, 40 SP.
>
> You gained 4 Ghostsight Eleon perks.
>
> Attributes above the cap have been redistributed.
>
> You have 100 / 100 withheld Attribute Points.
>
> You gained the Surpasser II (ultra-rare) perk. All your Attribute maximums are increased by 20.
Pretty standard fare but... why the heck did I get four perks? It should be only on levels three, six, and nine... But the fourth perk was obtained on level ten. The rank-up cutoff at level twenty robbed the "one every three" perk holders from gaining another one at twenty-one. That's it. The progression now carries over to the ranked-up levels. So I should get new perks at levels thirteen, sixteen, and nineteen.
I'm never going to complain about free perks. I spent the Skill points on the professional Skills that would be hard or too expensive to level up through grinding and opened up the perk list.
> Silent Voice (very rare): You can send messages without sound to any creature which shares a language with you at a range of twenty meters. This ability is blocked by physical obstructions. The creature must use its own means to answer.
>
> Soul Sight (ultra-rare): You can perceive souls and spiritual energy in a range of twenty meters. This ability is blocked by physical obstructions.
>
> Skin Sight (very rare): You can perceive objects and creatures around you without light at a range of one meter. You have a rudimentary notion of texture and color. This ability is blocked by physical obstructions, including clothing and equipment.
>
> Fade unto Darkness (very rare): As the level of illumination lowers, it becomes progressively harder to notice your presence.
Matt Murdock, here I come. Hailing from Hell's Kitchen myself, I was rather biased toward the red devil. Oh, well. One funny thing about my perk, I could see dead people. Or monsters. The Dungeon had wisps of dead souls all around. I understood how the monsters spawned as i "watched" these wisps absorbing one another and the intrinsic energy of the Dungeon. The same magical energy I once hungered for as a banshee. I was sure that once these wisps had enough energy, they would gain substance and become a new "spawned" monster.
The prospect of some depth perception, even if it was limited to one meter put a smile on my face.
I sensed a human approaching. Given how light the steps were, It was either Karina or Josie. Marta was not that sure with their steps.
"Hey, Rosie? Where are you?" It was Karina's voice.
"I'm here," I answered.
She approached and froze for a moment, "Wow, girl! I didn't see you there! Were you hiding?"
"Nope. Just enjoying the eternal darkness," I grinned in her general direction.
"Can I... sit with you?" She was insecure about something.
"Sure, why not?"
When she came closer, I noticed she was carrying a candle lamp, a blanket, and a cushion. She put the cushion underneath and sat, hissing in pain.
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"Nothing!" She dismissed in haste. "Listen, why don't you camp nearer us?"
"Two reasons. One, you are too damn loud, and two, that guy will try to rape me. It seems three beautiful women are not enough for him," I complain with a very grumpy mood. There was a third reason, to farm the wandering monsters that came at night, but since they didn't see the corpses or hear the fights, I was in the clear.
She fidgeted for a bit her lip and asked, "You don't like Cedric, do you?"
I huffed, "What's to like in the guy? I was inclined to but he had to come and dangle his dirty dong in front of me and order me to suck him."
Karina rolled her eyes. That perception was only one meter and it wasn't anything like sight. For example, I could perceive a bit round the objects or inside her thinner layers of clothing. She had a gold coin in a secret pouch of her skirt, for example.
"He was drunk! And he apologized later, didn't he?"
"Not to me," I said with a firm voice.
"What? He swore to us he did!"
"Asshole," I grumbled. "My deal with Cedric was simple. He got me past the Dungeon gate, I carried his bag. That deal is over."
"You sound like you're going away tomorrow," She commented, worried.
"I could. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't go."
Karina nudged me with an elbow, "You know the answer to that, don't you?"
"Yes, I do. I intend to collect that 'life-debt' you have with me when we get out to make you put out a good word for me. I want to delve solo next time."
"Don't say that!" Karina threw an arm around me and winced in pain with a yelp.
"There's something wrong with you. What happened? Why are you hurt?"
She sighed and confessed, "Cedric was a bit too rough today."
"Seriously?"
She shot with a straight face, "He's been pestering me to fuck me in the ass for days. I finally gave in today."
Karina's words were so candid I was left without words for a couple minutes. When I regained control of my mental faculties, all I could think of was, "Why did you? I mean, let him fuck you in the ass?"
She snorted, "You virgin maidens, you don't know what you're missing on," she finished with a sigh. "Even if it hurts like hell."
I had to respect that. "Uh-hum!" I hummed in agreement. She nudged me again.
"You can have a go if you want, you know? The three of us don't have him exclusively for us."
"Hard pass," I said as I rummaged inside my bag to disguise the use of my storage. I took two flasks. "But now, lie down on your stomach on my bedroll. I'm going to look at how bad was the damage."
She widened her eyes. "I'm... not clean. It's hard to..." She paused. "In fact, that's one thing I wanted to ask! You go with your 'not-elven' daggers slicing the monsters up close, how's your equipment and clothes always clean? I'm going to throw these leathers I'm wearing away when I return to surface."
I chuckled and shook my head. "Trade secret. Now, put that cushion under your navel and stick that round tasty butt up for me."
She yelped as I pulled her down and exposed her rearguard. "Please be gentle," She moaned in jest.
"I'm going to slap this sore ass if you don't stop joking, milady. Now be quiet and let me check."
Karina had some lacerations that weren't unusual for rough sex. Especially one done without the proper implements. I took some ointment from the first flask and rubbed her wounded areas, applying my Skills. {Anesthetic Touch}, {First Aid}, {Prophylaxis }, and {Tissue Regeneration}. I could heal everything but I didn't. The ointment had soothing and healing alchemical properties but it wasn't miraculous. I did only what I knew that could be disguised. I also cleaned her with {Cleansing Scrub} from the silkie toolkit.
She moaned, sighed, and giggled in relief, "Oh, dear Zacheia! You have the hands of an angel."
Zacheia was the Goddess of love and the Arts. She was in pain before the anesthesia hit. The dumb girl was playing strong. There was even a bit of blood.
I didn't let her stand up. She stayed there, with her butt and privates exposed to the Dungeon while the ointment soaked and worked on her skin. Karina didn't seem to mind. I asked her about the city and places to visit and go, shops, bakeries, and she rambled on, proud of her hometown. An hour later, she was yawning and I too was a bit tired. Karina bucked up her pants and hugged me.
"Thank you, Rosie. I owe you a big one. I'm feeling so good I think I might go wake up Cedric for another go."
I facepalmed and laughed. "You're a grown woman. But if you are going to play again, take this,." I handed her the second flask.
"More ointment? Isn't it expensive?"
I never tried to sell it but I think the answer is yes. The ointment I used would be rather expensive. Especially because the herbs only grew in another continent. But the second flask had another thing.
"No. It's a lubricant for intimate use."
She frowned. "I know some cheap girls in the brothels use them, but they are too smelly and greasy. Disgusting. And sometimes they cause a nasty rash. Thank you, anyway, but I think I'll pass."
I huffed and shook my head, "As if I would even carry that shit with me. Look, Rub some on your hand," I uncorked the flask and poured a small dollop on her palm. "This is clean, has a slightly herbal scent, dries without getting oily or sticky, moisturizes your skin, and is clear." It also had a slightly stimulant effect on the circulation, but I left that one out.
She was speechless. After the test ended, she squealed. "Rosie, I love you."
She took off in the dark, without even carrying her candle lamp, blanket, or cushion. I pinched the wick and stowed her things to the side.
Later that night, Karina was extra loud in her purring and moaning. Atta, girl!
----------------------------------------
Georg listened to Malcolm grumble while their party decompressed in the tavern with rivers of ale after a very profitable delve.
"That stupid halfling! I'm going to pop her tiny head. After I pop her tiny pussy and show her what it feels like to be with a real man."
Georg downed his mug of ale and slammed it on the table, "Your funeral," He said out loud. The rest of the party looked at their leader. "She's going to kill you so dead even Rabhorktaar will be sorry for you."
Malcolm sputtered his drink and guffawed. "Ha! Funny one, Georg!" His mirth drained when he saw the serious look Georg was giving him. "You are joking, aren't you?"
Georg kept staring deep into Malcolm's soul and shook his head slowly. "She's blind. I'm sure you noticed it. Yet she climbed you and put a knife that came out of nowhere in your throat without a single tremble or twitch."
Malcolm lowered his head, a bit embarrassed. "Damn right," he grumbled in a low and threatening tone.
"You got me wrong. I know all of you here sitting at my table are capable delvers. But you are underestimating the girl. She's a natural killer. She reminded me of some [Assassins] from the Scorched Continent. Putting a knife on a person's throat is not easy to do for a young person. Yet she did as if it was nothing. Her movements were all coordinated, practiced. She's deadly, and knows what she's doing."
"She was level twenty!" Malcolm protested, "That was a stroke of luck. I was tired, okay?"
Georg leaned forward, "Malcolm. Listen to me. I'm going to speak slowly so it gets in your thick skull. You are a powerful warrior. You weren't tired. I'm telling you she's that skilled. And as your leader, I'm ordering you to forget her. Don't go after her, don't harass her. Leave her alone."
"Georg is right," Tailor added. "The only reason Cedric would take a blind girl to the Dungeon would be to fuck her brains out. Yet I could tell he hadn't laid a finger on her. Also, she was obviously fighting but her armor and clothes were clean. She's not level eleven."
"Hear, hear," Georg said. "Leave her alone."