We take a bath together and this time there's only light playing. We need to establish a proper rotation on my bed, we have to switch Roxanne and Hana since Alissa can't leave but Hana and Roxanne also wanna sleep together once in a while. So tonight is Hana and Alissa, then tomorrow it's gonna be only me and Alissa. Good luck, Roxanne, I hope you survive a night with the freak.
Hana is satisfied so we only do it slowly and lovingly while Alissa helps herself, then I use my fingers on her until she's satisfied. I wonder when I will get [Hand Technique], I know I'm at least competent with it since I've done Alissa many times with only my hands.
I slept well again.
Today is the 24th.
I wake up to two mouths on my lower member, I think this should be a morning routine.
I feel like trying one last time to sleep without Alissa but I'm scared of the nightmares.
In the morning me and Alissa go to the dungeoneering guild to search for dungeons to explore. Alissa slips out for a bit and goes to look for basil and more spices to bring. I know there's cinnamon, cloves, and curry around so maybe she can find something good.
It's rather lonely without her, she's quiet, unlike Hana and Roxanne, so I don't mind always being near her. I delve into the books and focus on the descriptions. I find one that piqued my interest, it's the Roulette of the Morning Dew, a dungeon with a large variety of monsters, mostly huge animals, mutations and the base magic elements. Monster Hunter story arc begin!
The dungeon is a variety of forest and mountain environments and rather pleasant to walk through. The monsters are a variety of large predators which the corpses fetch some good money, we can even use them for cooking since the meat here is a little limited. There's a minotaur that we can kill for meat and the female version we can extract milk, weird to think it like this since it's a half-person but everyone in this world does it so when in Rome do as the Romans do.
The plants are mana solidifications, unfortunately. There's plenty of interesting plants there but they disappear quickly after you cut them, you can taste them briefly if you eat them as soon as you cut them, though.
The dungeon is another dimensional door with an "elevator" but the levels are even more massive than Royd's Kerfuffle's and have quite the height variance too. The ceiling is filled with enough mana crystals that it looks like day at most of the floors.
"Hana will like this dungeon," Alissa says.
"Yeah, she will likely be the one working the hardest since the monsters all have a lot of strength."
"Which will make her like this even more."
We go back home for lunch. On the trip I hear my name being screamed around town, the criers are already divulgating the names of the fellowships involved in the subjugation. Well, now everyone around town will have heard about me, nothing I could have done about that one except failing on the subjugation.
After lunch Roxanne went to the bakery and ordered a cake that will get ready at the end of the day. I spend the afternoon sparring with Hana and Alissa, as we get tired the sparring turns into mere play and even Roxanne joins.
"Oh, actually I forgot to look at your status Roxanne," I say, "I will put some of your extra points into [Sword Use] so we can play."
"I guess these days were just a bit hectic, eh?" She says.
I take a look at Roxanne stats:
Info
Name: Roxanne Succubus Age: 21 Race: Succubus-Type Demon HP: 100 MP: 1105 Magic Power: 359 Level: 30 Experience: 7059/9000
Stats
Strength: 8 Endurance: 8 Dexterity: 11 Speed: 8 Intelligence: 18 Wisdom: 17 Willpower: 14 Charisma: 15 Piety: 10 Perception: 10 Sanity: 12
Other
Status Effects: NONE Titles: NONE Affiliations: Helios (Fellowship), Wolf Ryder (Fiance) Companions: Wolf Ryder, Alissa, Hanafuria Crimes: NONE
Roxanne Succubus Skill Report
Physical
Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Dagger Use 2
Magical
Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Sense Mana 3 Mana Control 24 Reduced Mana Cost 3 Mana Efficiency 9 Fire Magic 22 Water Magic 20 Light Magic 1 Space Magic 8 Conjuring Magic 5 Alchemy 3 Potion Brewing 9 Poison Brewing 2
Miscellaneous
Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Housework 1 Cooking 1 Cleaning 1 Washing 1 Riding 1 4 Remaining Skill Points OBS: Level means (free point)+(trained point)
Spells
Explosion Melt Skin Fireball Fire Whip Fire Arrow Firestorm Fire Wall Torrent Water Wall Water Blade Water Breathing Drown Clean Spirit Light (weak) Synthesize Extract Ichor Extract Pus Conjure Water Conjure Bland Meal Telekinesis Item Box (weak)
"Oh, it shows here that you are my fiancee already. Even on the other girls."
"Even the gods recognize us," Roxanne says with a smile.
"You are quite the high-level, you are close to Hana.
"I spent most of my time escorting caravans, they don't give that much experience," says Hana.
"And I spent most of my life hunting monsters for ingredients," says Roxanne.
"Huh, you have quite a high [Mana Control]."
"That's my talent! Without it I can't cast my explosion magic," Roxanne looks proud.
"I guess [Extract Nectar] and [Extract Pus] is from [Potion Brewing] and [Poison Brewing], right?"
"Yeah, kind of an unpleasant name."
"Agreed."
I reduced my points in [Sword Use] and we had some fun playing around. I need to setup a strength training regimen, I ask Hana to help me train my muscles, I need more strength to last a proper amount of time in melee.
When the sun was coming down we all took a relaxing bath together, too tired for anything sexual. Roxanne went to get the cake and we roasted a large rib of Grey Berserker that Alisa bought, we ate it with garlic bread. After we were done we took out the cake, a meringue and not-strawberry cake with a very sweet and creamy filling.
"To glory in battle!" Hana raises her cup.
"To great achievements!" Alissa raises her cup a bit tipsy.
"To happiness!" Roxanne raises her cup and laughed.
"To a long life!" I raise my cup.
I'm a bit dizzy.
"Waaait, what's this, iit's… lemon?"
"The cake? There should be a hint of Tonsel in it," Roxanne says.
"Aaaah, Alissa, buy Tonsel and put it into black tea, it's gonna be great!" I say.
"Tonsel? Okaay, we put it on fishh tooo, heh," Alissa responds, her voice is garbling.
"Yes! Fish! We should eat fishhh! Fish with lemon, now we need shoyu too!"
"Masteeerr-he-he-he-herr~… I love youu, I-I will do anything, because... be-because I love youu! Ok?" Alissa hugs me, I can see tears in her eyes.
"That's enough drinking for you two," Hana says and grabs out cups.
"Thanks Hana, wine sucks, I want my chocolate miiilk!"
"Okay, okay we will get chocolate one day, alright?" Roxanne strokes my head.
Alissa starts crying and hugs me harder.
My head hurts, I'm still dizzy. We are in the bed and Alissa is hugging me hard, she drank waay more than me. I hated the taste so I just drank a few cups but that's enough to make me dizzy since I never drunk before, literally.
I wanted to watch Hana and Roxanne doing it on the table, Hana gets more even more hornier when she drinks. Next time they drink I will join, I just wanna cuddle with Alissa now.
Today is the 25th.
I wake up first and Alissa goes for the blowjob immediately once she awakes.
"So, could this be a morning thing for us? I really like it."
Alissa smiles with my dick in her mouth.
"Okay," she says after taking it out.
She didn't feel like doing it so we stopped at this. I kinda feel bad that I abused her so much when it was only the two of us but she says she never felt like she was forced, but I'm still conflicted.
Roxanne walks slowly and without energy, Hana is the opposite and she seems even more energetic.
"How was it Roxanne?" I ask.
"She rubbed my tail and outlasted me," Roxanne answers with a sigh, "I would be in bliss if my muscles didn't hurt. I also have a hangover, that's the only reason she won, I get weak when I'm drunk."
Not even magic can heal that, I just smile and give my thumbs up to Hana who grins with pride.
"Hangovers are caused because you didn't drink enough water, alcohol steals water from the body and the lack of water causes the headache."
"Oh, is that knowledge from your Earth?" Roxanne asks.
"Yes, you can trust me on that one."
"Heheh, thanks, now I can drink more without problem," Roxanne gives an innocent smile.
I facepalm but I know she's joking, I hope. Thankfully Hana and Roxanne don't drink much because I don't really like it.
Alissa had a few Tonsels she wanted to use in a salad but she put it in the tea, it really is lemon. It comes from the High Forest so the supply varies, it seems it's not part of the culture here to drink it cold.
At the morning we clean the house, Roxanne is even worse than me at cleaning but now that they are all (soon to be) wives Alissa organized us all to work together and clean.
I have some free time and so I analyze the summoned bird's soul again. The patterns are really complex and I'm trying to find a way to write and describe them more precisely but it's almost insanity, really, the soul is a complete psychedelic mushroom trip. How the hell did that mage manage to complete an experiment without trial and error? His research notes on the soul were lost, unfortunately.
I spend all my time just scanning the soul little by little, maybe I can make some sense out of the madness one day.
We have some simple lunch, yesterday's dinner was a little too heavy on our stomachs.
At the afternoon there's not much to do. Alissa and Hana go out to buy books and see what's new, even Hana enjoys shopping around. I want Roxanne to go with them but she wants to finish her work with the Moonlight Moss. I keep scanning the bird's soul, no real progress.
"Wolf, a letter came to you," Roxanne whispers.
I snap out of the meditation and open my eyes. I reflexively kiss her since she tickled my ears with her voice and her face is so close. She chuckles.
"The town pass is gonna be ready tomorrow, the guildmaster will deliver it to me," I say.
"Oh, that's amazing, let's go explore a dungeon tomorrow then!"
"What about the Moonlight Moss?"
"I did it!"
"What?!"
"I did iiiiiiit!"
She jumps and hugs me. We cuddle and kiss until the other girls come back. Then there's more kissing coming from Hana.
"So what does the potion do?" Alissa asks.
"It's a performance enhancer. It boosts speed, strength and endurance for a whole hour, I believe, gotta time that. It also doubles as a strong health potion. There's also another potion that I made with it that heals a massive amount of MP but it seems it makes the person unable to move..." She looks away and cleans her throat.
"Well. That's interesting, when we can use [Gate] the second potion will certainly be useful," I say.
"Yes, right now it's not that great but maybe until then I can refine the potion."
"We should all carry the booster potion, in case of emergency a boost of speed is a life-saver," says Hana.
"Understood, I will prepare at least 2 for each of us. The MP super-potions use a lot less ingredients so they will last a while, but if we keep using the booster a lot I think I can make only 30 more potions out of the moss."
"I don't think we should be relying on the booster a lot, it should only be kept as a trump card so you shouldn't have to use all the moss on it," I say.
"Yes, consumables like this aren't reliable for long use," Hana adds.
"Ah, when we get [Gate] we could teleport directly to the floor of the turtles," Roxanne says.
"Another good idea," I say, "Well, then. With the pass let's go to the Roulette of the Morning Dew. Tomorrow in the morning I will report my progress to the university then after that let's prepare in the afternoon and depart after tomorrow."
We all agree to the schedule.
The bookcase is getting a few more books. Alissa and Hana found a few tapestries to put on the walls and windows. We only had black curtains to cover our diamond-shaped leaded panes windows. Now there's a few with single colors like crimson red and a few embroidered with simple patterns. We are putting a carpet in every room and 2 potted plants on the entrance to the living room, they are peace lilies. I suggested to Alissa to get some ivy-like plant to put on the walls.
Tonight again I go to sleep with Hana and Roxanne but I call Alissa to play in bed. Since the two exhausted each other last night it's just me relaxing in a sea of breasts, tongues, and hands. We need oil for some proper tit loving, but still, this is heaven.
The goblin woman and her child killed me again. Twice, I woke up from the nightmare and then had it again.
Today is the 26th.
"Alissa, today it happened again, it was worse."
"I told you I don't mind, we will just keep sleeping together."
I cringe. This stupid curse.
"We will find help one day for this, perhaps when Ciel joins she could help, the priests help with problems in the mind too."
That's true, Ciel might help.
Today I can't take a nap in the morning. I drink a lot of lemon ice tea hoping for a caffeine boost and go to the university with Alissa.
"This is amazing, Mr. Ryder, if you can create your [Sense Soul] skill I believe we can fully remove the need for your tuition fee," Mathias says.
Now that Roxanne is pooling her money with ours we have even less money problems, but I guess this is nice.
"I will focus on [Sense Soul] for a while, I want to at least be able to use [Infuse] successfully once."
"Yes, yes. Your progress is great and your skills are very interesting, at this point you are free to research as you please. I will report this to the council but I see no reason they will ask you to prove yourself further."
I waste no more time and come back home to take a nap until Alissa wakes me for lunch. Simple vegetable soup with fried not-potatoes and blanched Dragolite milanese.
Then we all go to the guild, in there they inspect our crystal ID tablets. I made sure I removed any odd skill first but I still saw the attendants mouth twitch for a moment. Then she pulls a flask and let a single drop of ink fall into each of our tablets.
Now when we touch that drop of ink the tablet changes and some writing can be seen: "The adventurer named Wolf Ryder has gained the favor and trust of the True Noble Alaraste Anara, Lord of Rabanara, and therefore has no need to stay in line or pass by customs. If known that the adventurer in question is smuggling trade goods from or to a town then this pass is to be immediately removed".
"Congratulations to you all," Silas says, "This pass works on the entirety of the empire so there's no need to worry about how other towns will react. In any case it also works to prove your reputation, if you show it to any other guildmaster they should know you are a reliable person."
That's good and that's bad, if we are known to be reliable more people are going to come running asking for help.
"Thank you for your help, guildmaster, we will not misuse it."
We take our leave and go back home. Hana and Alissa are going out to refill our traveling necessities while Roxanne stays to replenish our potions. Honestly, there's so many potions that Roxanne can do that it's amazing how well prepared we can be now, "a potion for every occasion" she says.
I work into [Soul Sense] without much progress. There's so much information it's like trying to rewrite a book just from memory. I can't reproduce the birds soul using [Infuse], it's too much info to write at once. I need to find the overall pattern on how this soul is constructed.
"It's time," Hana whispers.
I reflexively kiss her since Hana tickled my ears with her voice and her face is so close. She stops for a second then kisses back. I have to stop her, it's time for my strength training.
We start with jumping jacks then jogging. She prepared dumbbells and makes me do the usual biceps, triceps and forearm, then legs and calves, then abdominal, and then I don't even know the name of the muscles that we are exercising. I just know my muscles hurt and they are sore.
Hana makes my exercises be fast and heavy. Right after it we take a bath and Hana rewards me by sucking my soul through my dick. I have to teach her how to use her breasts though.
Lots of meat for dinner for my muscles. I cuddle with Roxanne this time and Hana puts Alissa to sleep with her gift of stroking heads. Then I go to sleep with Roxanne and Alissa.
"Well, uh. I can't really move too much right now," I say.
Roxanne grins. She throws her clothes away and jumps, my view is obscured and the typical smell of a woman invades my nose.
"Careful not to suffocate him like this," Alissa says.
I can barely move right now so I use my last functioning muscle, my tongue.
Today is the 27th.
Woken up by Alissa while being deeply kissed by Roxanne, heaven.
I'm a little sore but it's okay. We have a quick breakfast and we close the house. This time I'm flying the dinghy.
If an aircraft engineer finds the one who built this dinghy he will kill him. The biggest problem with this dinghy is how ridiculously over-maneuverable it is. What's the point in being able to do 2 barrel rolls per second if you are going to destroy the structure of the vehicle with this amount of force? You can easily destroy the entire boat if you fly at full speed because a small change in pitch will suddenly increase the air pressure and it simply will break a part.
Bottom line, this world has no concept of aerodynamics. It's not my area but now I feel like I will have to be the one to jump-start it.
We pass by the castle to our right and reach the north gate. You are going to get shot down if you fly over the gate so we land and show the new function of our ID's, the guard reads each one and escorts us outside immediately. I wonder what's the literacy rate of this world.
Once we cross the gate we pull out the dinghy and start flying again. The environment is a little different, I can see the water wheels and the large river crossing the farms, it comes from the north, turns to the east and disappears in the horizon. The farms continue for a long time until they reach the horizon. There's barely any guard patrols over this side but we see a lot of archers around, it seems this area is most often attacked by the Dragolites.
I concentrate on flying. Slowly the mountain range on the horizon gets closer and the end of the farmland appears. We reach the edge of the valley at 11AM.
The valley is called The Smirk, it is a deep scar in the land. The well-made road we are on suddenly stops and only a beaten serpentine path goes downwards until it disappears into a Sea of Trees. We can see the mountain range so close to us, on the other side of that range is the elven wetlands, much further than that is the elven High Forest.
The valley is not wide but it's deep and long. The ground level the Sea of Trees is completely dark, it's normally a dangerous part of the forest but we will walk only a small distance to the entrance of the dungeon. To our left and right the valley goes on until it disappears in the horizon, eventually the valley ramps upwards and the land returns to normal elevation.
Sea of Trees is both the name of the area south of Rabanara and a type of forest, it's a land so filled with mana that the trees themselves also use it as a form of energy.
We lower the dinghy and fly close to the ground on the serpentine path. There's a small fortification there with a squad of 10 guards at the entrance lazing about, very rarely something comes out of that path, but when it does it's always something really bad. The lord takes great care in keeping this valley always culled so the farms nearby aren't in danger.
We nod towards the guards and I feel an envious gaze on me. Yep, stare all you want you will never get something close to my heaven.
I put my skills like this:
Wolf Ryder Skill Report
Physical
Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Sword Use 10+5 Dodge 4+5 Parry 4+5 Block 2+7 Shield Bash 0+1
Magical
Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Sense Mana 0+5 Mana Control 0+5 Mana Recovery 7+0 Mana Efficiency 3+4 Reduced Mana Cost 5+0 Mana Overuse Resistance 0+2 Blessing Magic 10+0 Light Magic 9+2 Summoning Magic 15+5 Redirect Mana (creator) 2
Miscellaneous
Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Skill Name Level Andraste Language 10+0 Dismantling 0+1 Enhanced Semen Recharge 0+2 OBS: Level means (free point)+(trained point)
The remaining 5 points will be left for magic resistances.
We reach the entrance of the Sea of Trees and get out of the dinghy. We all cast our [Spirit Light] and move on. We still need to go lower on the path until we reach the ground, the total height of the valley might be around 100 meters.
This Sea of Trees is damper, stinkier and has no small plants, only the trees and a moss covered ground. The complete darkness and our magical lights makes the scenery very creepy.
Another 20 minutes walking and we find the dungeon entrance, it's a simple floating ominous black rectangle. There's no point waiting, we are safer inside, so we cross.
All 4 of us enter the dark room and the familiar menu appears with the options, "1st floor" and "Exit". I see the girls disappear in front of me, then I press "1st floor".
"It looks like a starry night sky," Roxanne says with wonder.
"Yep, it's quite beautiful," I say.
The sky looks black with innumerable little shining points, these mana crystals that give so much light it seems we are under the sun. We are in a boreal forest, there's coniferous trees, hints of snow, freezing cold wind, and two extremely steep mountains, one blue and the other red.
We take out our winter clothes and put them on, Hana only needs a jacket since her brigandine is quite hot already.
The dungeon drops us randomly into one of the dozens of random exit points. Now we have to find ourselves in the map by first using the two landmark mountains and then we move towards the nearest stair. There's no exit behind us.
Roxanne had supplied the mana for the dinghy while I flew, I had enough time to cast most of our buffs so now I just finish casting the last ones and we both meditate to refill our mana. I still have 10 points in [Blessing Magic] so we all have [Wind Armor], [Sharp Blade] (except Roxanne) and [Swift Foot]. Then we have lunch.
Not even 5 minutes into the dungeon and Alissa detects the first monster. We sneak close to it and take a look.
It's a Zinotue, threat level 3. A nearly two meters tall bengal tiger with spikes on his stripes, this is an electric type monster. It's much more muscular than a normal tiger. I put all of my wives extra points in [Electric Resistance], I have 5 unused points that I put in resistance.
Hana takes out a spear and stands in front of Roxanne while I summon an earth elemental and have it guard Alissa. The training with the bird went well, I can still use the bird's and the elemental's sight without making me dizzy, it's all about focus. The bird is currently on Roxanne's shoulder.
The Zinotue is on a small clearing walking slowly towards us, Alissa fires the first shot from the bushes and it goes directly to the eyes. This monster is incredibly fast, it's reflexes allow it to dodge the shot but it still hits the side of its face.
"I'll thrust my spear up your ass!" Taunts Hana.
It gets up on its hind legs and roars, with that I can already feel a slight tingling in my body. Its base attack is making the air electrified, small shocks occur on the body regardless of where you are as long as the Zinotue keeps pumping mana to its fur.
A normal arrow hits its chest, Roxanne is casting magic.
It leaps and lands near Hana, it tries to charge but a quick jab on its face gives it a wound deep enough for it think twice. It tries to swipe the spear but it misses, the second swipe gets closer but just slides off the scale shield. Meanwhile I jump forward, slash the front left leg and jump back near Hana. Alissa puts two arrows on it's lower flank.
The monster turns towards Alissa and leaps. It receives a stone mace to the face and stops midair. The elemental's hand-mace is inside the Zinotue's mouth, you could hear the sound of rock being scraped by the monster's fangs. Then the elemental kicks the monster and it flies away a few meters.
At that distance Alissa's arrows can be dodged. The monster starts charging mana and keeps its distance. Roxanne jumps on Hana's back and dragon wings appear from the slits on Hana's brigandine.
The monster stops for a moment and opens it's huge mouth towards Alissa. Alissa dodges and on the place she was a lightning bolt hits, it wasn't at the speed of a normal lightning so it's dodgeable.
Then he turns to Hana and she uses the wings to dodge the bolt. Then he looks at the elemental and the bolt hits it right on but it causes only a small scorch mark on the chest of the elemental.
The monster gets angry and roars again with much more strength. Roxanne drops from Hana's back and then the monster charges Hana. He doesn't care about the spear and jumps towards her.
"[Water Blade]!"
The entire left flank of the monster gets a deep cut. It doesn't stop and crashes on Hana, she uses her wings to counter the momentum but she still gets her feet dragged on the ground. The monster huge mouth bites the shield and he gets a spear deep on his right side. Hana is splashed with blood.
Stolen story; please report.
I jump and slash at the neck, the wound is shallow. The monster disengaged from Hana to dodged me but he still received two arrows on his flank for this. He runs away to the trees. Enraged monsters don't run away, he's preparing something. His spikes point up.
"Roxanne! [Drown]!" I yell.
We scatter. Hana and the elemental go forward, I stay still and Roxanna and Alissa run back. Water droplets start appearing floating around the monster. Sparks appear from the spikes. The water droplets all congregate and surround the monsters body in a bubble. The sound of thunder can be heard.
"AAH!" I scream, I got shocked heavily but it's only pain, it didn't burn or even decrease my HP.
That was [Lightning Strike], that one is instant and can't be dodged. But [Drown] surrounds the target with water so it can't breathe, this water disrupts the strike and lowered its power greatly. Only I got hit, luckily or rather, unluckily I got chosen.
The monster is twitching, the water caused it to also get shocked. It turns towards us and an arrow enters it's eye, the monster twitched and falls, it's dead.
I cast [Clean] on Hana.
"W-what? That's the first thing you do?" She asks, amused.
I shrug.
"I would rather not let my wife's clothes get stained with monster blood," I say.
Hana laughs.
"I would do the same," Roxanne says and shrugs.
Alissa seems in deep thought, I don't know if she agrees or not with me.
We pick the fangs of the monster and help Roxanne harvest the best spikes. The meat of this monster tastes ok but it's not too valuable. We still have to be cautious and selective with the corpses we bring back so people won't suspect of my infinite "Items".
I feel something change within me, [Dismantling] increased by 1 (now 0+2).
I guess skills are a combination of technical knowledge and real life experience, that's why just reading the books on anatomy won't increase my skill immediately.
I dismiss the earth elemental then we stop for me and Hana to rest a bit. The elemental costs a considerable amount of mana but it's the perfect defense against this kind of monster. I don't have enough strength like Hana to take on a charge and keep standing so Alissa needs better protection than just me.
We start moving again and Alissa steers us away from the smell of an adventurer party. This place is somewhat popular for hunting so it's not uncommon to meet others but it's just unnecessary to get close to each other.
After an hour of walking we reach the end of our plateau and we are faced with a gentle slope of a valley, we are going towards the river at the bottom. Alissa senses a group of small enemies.
"Wysalites," I say.
The Wysarie is a large but thin velocir-... Wyvern. It has feathered wings and a scaled body but it does not fly, it uses the wings to increase it's land speed and mobility. The Wysalite is a smaller version of the Wysarie.
"I'll get them," Hana says.
We can't hide our approach, there are no bushes this time so they notice us from afar. We stand in place and let them come towards us, charging upwards is less effective.
There's 6 half-meter tall Wysalites approaching and letting out high pitched screams. Hana lowers her shield and puffs her chest, I hear the sound of someone breathing in.
*FOOOM~*, Hana breathes out and flames violently spew from her mouth. The fire covers a large area in front of us, dozens of trees go up in flames, the high pitched screams of rage become even higher-pitched screams of pain. A terrifying barbecue happens in front of us.
One survived the hellfire and Alissa ends its misery. They are the goblins of this dungeon so it's barely worth it to get their proof of extermination. We just move on from the bonfire we created, the snow and the good distance between each tree will make sure the fire doesn't spread on this forest.
"Isn't your [Fire Breath] tiring?" I ask.
"Not really, I can use once every 2 hours or so, if I used less then it would recharge faster," Hana says.
"I think it was a good use, [Firestorm] is somewhat inefficient," Roxanne says.
"It seems so," I finish.
We reach the river and move along the valley, we will be reaching the stairs soon. The advantage of going through the river is the higher encounter rate, we are here to fight monsters, the more the merrier.
Soon enough we find another Zinotue, it's smaller but I still summon an earth elemental again. Same strategy. We move closer to it and fail to sneak attack first, it was wary of something and spotted us from far away. Immediately it casts the lightning bolt.
The monster is quite far.
"Hey! Hide behind the elemental!" I yell.
We all share a "why not?" look and shrug, we form a line behind the elemental and keep walking forward. The elemental takes 3 bolt hits like it's nothing, it didn't even flinch. Earth is rather strong against [Electric Magic], [Fire Magic] is much more effective at melting earth and metals than electricity.
The monster immediately enrages and charges at the elemental. We just keep hiding behind it and Hana readies her spear from behind the elemental. As the monster jumps and bites the head of the elemental it hugs the monster and doesn't let it escape.
We stab and slash and shoot at his throat until Roxanne finishes [Water Blade] and decapitates it.
"Pff…" I let out a chuckle.
"Guess it was young and dumb," Roxanne says.
We move on.
We meet another group of 7 Wysalites and Hana creates another bonfire, it wasn't full strength so Alissa finished 2 of them. The smell is that of roasted chicken and it opens my appetite, but the meat isn't good, so I have heard.
We reach the stairs, it's like a ruin in the middle of the forest. A half"ruined mossy arch stands alone in the forest and past it is a set of stairs the leads to the expected rectangular black barrier. We cross it.
We reach the 2nd floor.
This floor is another boreal forest but the mountains are many and not easily identifiable, I bring my bird to the sky and survey the area. We are at the foot of a snow covered mountain to our east, there's a v-shaped valley without a river to the west of us that turns around and goes south, a prairie surrounded by mountains to the north, and to our south is a steep and impassable mountain. Again the best option is following the valley and then going south.
The prairie is infested with Wysalites, it's not worth our time. The snow-covered mountain has strong monsters but no stairs. These lower floors don't have many strong monsters so we have to use a balance of progress speed and encounter rate to test our strength on the new level.
We start moving again and meet 2 even smaller Zinotues.
"Probably siblings, they work together until they are strong enough to be independent," says Hana.
"Don't taunt them, Hana, I will take one."
"Is that really necessary?" Alissa says.
She does not approve, they are still 1-meter tall monsters.
"Not really, but I wanna test coordination with a dog, you can fire an arrow at it and it will disrupt the charge."
Alissa pouts.
"Fine..." She mutters.
We move forward and they spot us. I start to feel bad for them, until I see them both stupidly charge towards us with their fangs bared. I summon a pitbull and steel myself for the charge.
The small Zinotue leaps at me and hits my shield and my arm explodes in pain. Shit they are heavy. I try to counter stab during the defense but it's quick enough to dodge my sword.
It's quick but not enough to dodge everything, a second after it hits my shield the summoned dog leaps at it's throat and latches on. The monster is strong but it can't get out of the bite, it thrashes about and gives me enough of an opening to split its head open, ew.
I look at Hana and she's playing whack-a-mole with the other monster. The smaller it is the faster it becomes, that's the advantage they have to compensate for their stupidity and inexperience. It retreats away from Hana's reach, she changes grip on the spear and throws it at the monster. It hit its flank and pins it to the ground. Hana dashes with her wings, then draws her sword and slashes it's head off in a single movement.
"Ohohoh, that looked so cool!" Exclaims Roxanne.
I nod.
"Say that again during the bath," Hana responds.
"No, thank you," and she smirks.
We move along the valley and encounter a group of 5 Wysalites, no fire breath this time. I bring out a fire elemental, it's weak physically but it has good ranged magic. The fire of the elemental burns in a very specific form that resembles the shape of tall, busty woman with mane like hair. Hana smirks at me when she sees this.
I pull my shield besides Hana and we wait for the charge. The bottom of the valley has very little trees so we spotted each other from afar.
1 monster already falls to Alissa, they get wary of the accurate arrows and focus on evading them. But that means they don't focus as much on the magic and a fire arrow pierces one, who falls to the ground and receives a normal arrow as a follow up. 3 left.
They enrage and increase speed.
"Whips!" I yell.
"Here, chicken-chicken, heeere chicken-chicken," taunts Hana while hitting her shield with her spear.
As they are getting close 2 [Flame Whips] grab 1 Wysalite each. They fall and trash around trying to undo the burning whip. I dash and stab the heart of one, the other one receives an arrow to the chest. 1 left.
I look at Hana and she's proudly waving about her chicken on a stick.
The light from the mana crystals is dwindling, it must be sunset on the surface. We move away from the valley and find a place to camp, we settle on a small clearing with a thicker amount of trees around us that provides good cover for us. I pull out the already-built tent and the bathtub with the partition, then I summon 2 dobermans and tell them plus the bird to patrol. I'm actually feeling safe with these dogs around me.
We got a new bathtub, it's just a wood tub with a step so we can sit. We all enter and Roxanne brushes Hana's mane, it's my request because otherwise she might let that glorious hair get ruined. Alissa mounts me and we slowly enjoy each other.
"Hey… Are you two fucking?" Hana asks.
"Well, yeah," I answer.
"Alissa, finish him soon, I want my turn."
She closes her eyes and pouts.
"Don't wanna," she says, bashfully.
And she didn't.
We have dinner then we cuddle inside the tent, Roxanne pulled out her personal magic stone air warmer so it's kinda cozy inside but a little stuffy.
Alissa reads her book while Roxanne cuddles me and strikes my hair and Hana rides me twice. The skill is working, I'm barely tired.
Hana grabs me on one side, on the other I grab Alissa and we go to sleep. Unfortunately this bed only holds 3 people but we managed to fit a smaller bed for Roxanne to sleep besides us.
I summoned another bird and made it guard the entrance to our tent.
Today is the 28th.
I wake up to an awkward triple. There's too many heads and too little space, but Alissa and Hana teach Roxanne how to do it. It seems she doesn't like the taste.
We eat breakfast and break camp. The stairs are nearby, only an hour to reach them.
We reach the 3rd floor.
This floor is the last boreal forest for a while. We exit on the shore of a fjord, two mountains cover our surroundings. There's only one way and it's to go between the mountains. Behind us there is only a dark sea that ends on a black cave wall.
Most exits end here and since it's a cramped space it doesn't have many monsters so this ends up being a popular camping spot. For us who are searching for enemies while delving deeper, this fjord is just a waste of time. We change Hana's brigandine for her spare leather jacket and start jogging, with [Swift Foot] we can clear this fjord in an hour.
Alissa leads us away from crashing into 3 adventurer camps and we finally reach the valley. There's only small hills and a dense forest ahead, we have to follow the compass closely so we can find the stairs.
"This one is huge, it's another Zinotue," Warns Alissa.
I think for a moment.
"Means lots of experience," says Hana.
"We can go all out once in a while, maybe we could give the Moonlight Elixir to Hana?" Says Roxanne.
"Agreed, let's go with the Elixir, it's gonna be a trial run. First sign of trouble and we use the Escape Bomb, understood?" I say.
"Yes, yes," Hana surrenders.
"Alissa and I will hide behind the elemental, I will make it heavier. Alissa, can you hit it through the trees from this distance?"
"Yes, but I can't guarantee where it will hit."
"That's enough for a first strike."
Roxanne gives a glass flask with a shining silver fluid for Hana to drink.
I concentrate and start casting [Summon Elemental]. The summoning can be influenced by your [Mana Control] skill and your will so I imagine this one has a lead metal core, with this it's extra heavy and can hold on against such a huge monster. It's not gonna be super agile but it will have enough strength to not be crushed in a single strike.
A heavy *toon~* sound is produced when the earth elemental appears.
"Do it," I say.
An arrow flies, a roar is heard and the uncomfortable little shocks start.
Heavy footsteps are approaching. Hana readies her shield and her spear, her wings are spread wide in wait. She looks fearsome in this posture, her gaze has a mix of anger and amusement. I hide cowardly behind the golem, Alissa is to the side so she can fire an arrow, Roxanne is gathering mana.
"WROOOO~!" Screams the monster.
A 3-meters tall Zinotue leaps from the trees, it has 50 cm long spikes coming out of its stripes and they are already letting out sparks. It has an arrow on it's left flank.
"HAAAAAAAAA!" Hana screams back. Her scream makes my bones tremble.
What is this? A battle between monsters?
Mountains collide. Hana didn't bashed its snout so it so he couldn't eat her shield. She didn't even flinch and her feet got dug into the ground. What is this elixir? Her spear comes out of the chest of the monster completely bloodied, it didn't even care.
It steps back once and swipes at Hana. She bashes the huge paw and it flies backwards, her feet dig deeper into the ground. She thrusts again and the spear cuts the skin of the cheek as the monster tries to dodge the stab.
It goes in its hind legs and strikes Hana downwards with both paws. She blocks both and is forced on her knees but she gets another stab, this time below the mouth but it was not enough to reach the brain.
Meanwhile Alissa put 4 arrows on it's flank and it just ignores it, I slashed at the left paw but it barely cuts through. Then I jump and try to slash at its neck but it's too massive, my sword won't reach for a proper wound. It's all on you Roxanne.
The monster jumps backwards and start charging a lighting strike, my muscles start to cramp a little just from the increased power to the shocking aura. This one is going to hurt.
"[Water Blade]!"
A massive cut appears on the monsters body, it's right ear is cut, it's shoulder bleeds profusely, and the cut goes up to his back. The electricity it was charging disperses, it shocks and burns anything nearby, luckily we are far away.
It roars, it gets ready to charge again and this time it's aim is Roxanne.
I have an idea.
"Roxanne! [Explosion]! We will hold it!" I yell.
I tell the elemental to stand besides Hana while I stand on the other side. The monster charges. It's gaze is so powerful it sends chills to my spine. Hana readies herself again with all her might.
"WROOOOOAR!"
"HAAAAAAA!"
They compete in who can hurt my ears the most.
This time Hana jumps and her wings make the air behind her kick up a storm. She meets the monster and stabs him in the mouth just as an arrow also pierces him there, now it can't close it so it just uses its snout to tackle Hana's shield. They both stand still mid-air, then they fall down with perfect posture.
The monster prepares its legs to jump over Hana, she won't be able to stop it. The monster jumps and falls back to the ground.
The slow elemental threw itself into the body of the monster and grabbed it, its massive weight doesn't allow the monster to run. An arrow pierces its tongue, ensuring his mouth doesn't close down so soon.
I slash at its right side while Hana stabs it in the face. It tries to wiggle out of the grip but it's failing. I feel the mana level reaching dangerous levels.
"Back!" I yell.
"[EXPLOSION]!"
I go back a few steps and my vision goes red, my body gets hit by something wet and warm and I hear a loud explosion half a second later, I lose my hearing after that.
I cast [Heal] on myself and I get my hearing back, I rub my eyes and now I can see again. The Zinotue's body was divided in two, one part has the hind legs and the other has the forelegs and the head. Much of its midsection is gone, it's entrails are all over the place. I turn around immediately.
I cast [Heal] on the women so they can hear again and move behind a tree so I can clean myself. It's actually so much blood [Clean] doesn't cut it anymore. I call them and we get Roxanne to throw hot water on all of us so we can remove the blood. Walking around with bloodied clothes is not a good idea and we don't have time to remove it and wash it properly. Doing it like this it's much faster but rather unpleasant.
A few minutes of frantic scrubbing and many heavy [Clean] spells and Alissa tells us the scent of blood is gone from us. Alissa guides me towards the body while I keep my view down and I store both parts inside "Items". There's no comment from them towards my weak stomach but I'm still quite ashamed.
"Wolfy, it's okay," Alissa says and grabs my hand.
Oof, calling me that makes me happier.
"Thanks..." I say.
We leave the horrifying scene of blood and gut stained trees and move on.
Once we get far away enough so that Alissa can't smell the blood anymore we sit down and rest.
"That elixir is insane, Roxanne," I say.
"Praise me more," she responds.
"I felt invincible," says Hana.
"That's a bit much..." I mutter.
"More!" Roxanne asks.
"It looked glorious seeing Hana fly, even she looked small against that monster and she stopped it mid-air," Alissa says.
"Hohohoh, yes, glorious indeed!" And she hits her cheeks with her palms.
Of all of us, Hana seems the most happy in this expedition while I'm still feeling sick. I remember the fight with the Symbol and I think Alissa must have cleaned the place, it wasn't as horrifying as this.
Alissa hugs me from behind while I meditate. A few seconds later Hana hugs my left arm and Roxanne my right.
"Uh… sorry Wolfy, my spells make you ill," Roxanne mutters with a hint of sadness.
"Don't be sad for me, go back to being happy for your elixir. I have to deal with this, it's a problem that I have, not you."
She hugs me tighter and I get a kiss on the cheek. I really didn't wanna bring down the mood.
We meet a group of 4 Wysalites going towards the smell of blood.
"I'll make each of you give a blowjob to my sword!" Yells Hana.
They all enrage and charge blindly towards her, it seems this one was a critical success.
"[Fire Wall]!"
The 4 of them start burning and running around like headless chickens, target practice for Alissa. I didn't even do anything, I was going to call a fire elemental but they all bunched up like this so it's pretty much Christmas for us.
We keep moving and finally reach the stairs, it's another ruin.
We reach the 4th floor.
This floor is divided into a jungle on one side and a volcano on the other. The jungle has plenty of Giant Dragonflies so I don't want to go there and the volcano has an interesting enemy we have to fight.
The jungle is simply a large are covered by thick jungle and a few hills, rivers run between the hills so there's plenty of space for the Giant Dragonflies to live around. The volcano is a series of canyons and caves surrounding the very steep chimney, the map is quite serpentine and we will have to be careful not to get lost.
We are on the border of the jungle, a few steps and we touch the hard volcanic soil. A minute of walking and we reach a cliff with the first cave.
The cave is dry and hot, very unpleasant. You see bones and feces scattered about every 10 meters or so, this cave is the nest of monsters.
I put Roxanne's 5 free skill points in [Water Magic] and that allows her to cast [Filling Waters]. It recovers mana, stamina and gives a small regeneration, but the best is that it prevents us from getting our cavities too dry.
The Wysalites turned into Wyqualites, smaller versions of the Wyquasy. These are slightly bigger than Wysalites, they don't have feathers but they spit out fireballs and cook their prey alive. They are red colored because color-coding is a thing for monsters it seems.
We meet a few of them but since they aren't fast enough me and Hana simply block the fireballs, Alissa uses them for target practice, and Roxanne knocks them out with a simple [Torrent].
We find a relatively safe and not smelly cave and have our lunch. It's a proto-hamburger again, a piece of a cheesy not-eggplant casserole I taught Alissa and a large not-pear.
"I don't praise you enough for being so good at cooking," I say.
"You don't," Alissa mutters and then looks away.
Getting sassy, eh?
"I don't. You are an amazing cook Alissa."
She blushes, so easy.
"Agreed, I never ate such good food during my trips," says Hana.
"I feel like I should have proposed to her too," says Roxanne.
She gets silent and fidgety, she's holding her tail still deliberately.
"Alissa, you are perfect, the perfect wife," I whisper to her.
She starts shaking, her eyes lose focus, and her tail wags uncontrollably.
"Too far, you broke her," Roxanne smiles.
We continue our journey and Alissa smells something peculiar.
"There's only one other enemy here," I say.
We all let out a smile. We are close.
Alissa follows the smell and soon enough we find the monster. Alissa sneaks into its nest and confirms it, it's the Burkanolf, threat level 4, almost 5. This monster is a 2-meters tall black wolf with a very long snout and very thin, sharp fangs. It's tail is made of fire like a fire elemental and its claws are magically made of lava.
"Alissa, you are in charge of the Escape Bomb," I say, she nods.
I sit down and concentrate, this is a powerful enemy and I need a good elemental against it. It needs to protect against fire breath so I make it extra wide, the body itself will be a shield. On heat resistance I make it so it has a titanium coating so it protects against melting, followed by a cement layer so it insulates against heat, and the bones I make them out of onyx for hardness.
The weight of the body is carried by the skeleton, if the bones break it loses its power. If the entire body is considered "bones" then it moves faster but it also gradually loses power with every crack or piece of rock that gets scraped off. If I make only the internal parts considered bones then it can maintain performance while losing pieces of the outer layer at the cost of speed. The onyx is much more costly mana wise than the titanium or cement so I have to use it sparingly.
"Bring it," I say.
Alissa sneaks into the next cave, shoots an arrow, and comes running back. I hear a yelp, a growl, and the footsteps of something heavy coming. Roxanne is already charging mana.
The tunnel lights up in red light and out of it comes the Burkanolf with it's mouth already open, I see an arrow sticking out of where his genitals should be, wow Alissa.
We line up behind the elemental and a huge fire breath flows around us. It hits the chest of the elemental, and it didn't even flinch. A whole minute goes by and the breath dies out. The elemental is red hot but completely unharmed, I can feel that not a single point of HP dropped.
Immediately the monster jumps and bites the head of the elemental.
"[Torrent]!"
The monster is hit on the shoulder and flies backwards while spinning, it lands on its legs perfectly. The elemental only has small dents where it was bitten. Alissa lets out an arrow.
A fire wall appears in front of the monster, only its amber eyes are visible behind it. Alissa's arrow gets burned and disintegrates when it touches the fire wall. The monster stops and starts circling around us, its firewall moving along it.
"Hana, bait," I say.
She moves away and gets ready to receive a charge. Roxanne gathers mana.
"Hahahah, what a little candle, I can extinguish your tail with my spit!" She taunts.
The monster howls, critical success. The fire wall extinguishes and he charges. Hana meets his charge with a bash and stab, she pushes his huge mouth sideways and tabs his chest. An arrow appears on his flank and then he jumps back.
The fire wall appears again and his eyes gaze at Hana with malice.
"Oooh, doggy is scared? Come here, let me pat your cute ears," she taunts again.
The fire wall extinguishes and he charges again. This time he goes low and Hana has to use her wings to fly upwards and away from his bite. An arrow appears on his neck and he jumps backwards again.
"Bad doggy! No biting allowed!"
The flames of the fire wall grow uncontrollably, he's enraged now.
"Roxanne," I whisper.
He charges.
"[Water Wall]!"
He leaps and his whole body meets a huge, thick wall of water. He gets stuck in the middle of the whirlpool, his flame tail extinguishes, his lava claws crumble, and he writhes about trying to escape the wall. The water stops gushing from thin air and the monster jumps back to regain its composure.
Without its tail it can't create a fire wall, Alissa pumps arrow after arrow. The monster starts feeling the pain and gets desperate. I sense he's going to attack so I make the elemental shed its outer layers, now only a thin, strong, and fast black onyx skeleton is visible, I tell it to charge.
The monster tries to bite the bones but they are made of onyx and withstand it easily. This was a mistake for the monster, now the elemental grabs it and does not allow it to run. The arrows on its flank are making it harder for it to breathe and it chokes on blood.
"Now!" I yell.
Hana draws her sword and flies. Her long sword is raised high and without caring for her own safety she slashes off half the neck of the monster and crashes into it. Now again she's covered in blood.
The monster trashes but quickly loses power and gets choked by the elemental. It slows down, weakened allowing Alissa to finish it off with an arrow through the eye and into the brain.
"[Clean]!" I cast.
"Thanks," Hana says with a bitter smile.
"Oh, I leveled up," Roxanne says, "I got 1 point into [Potion Brewing] and 2 in [Water Magic]."
"You got the points now?" I ask while storing the body of the Burkanolf and quickly moving away from the small blood lake, "Now that I think about it, when does the skills level up, exactly? I know it's not instant most of the time."
"Yeah, most of the time it happens when you sleep, sometimes it happens after you level up or you reach a certain condition. Perhaps it's part of your knowledge that resting helps the brain develop?"
"Could be," I shrug.
We continue moving and soon we find the stairs.
We reach the 5th floor.
This floor has a huge cliff in the middle where a waterfall feeds into a river, along this river are a large amount of hot springs and a few lava lakes. Since we take a hot bath everyday thanks to Roxanne we don't waste any time on the springs.
Roxanne was a little disappointed, she heard that dungeon-created hot springs have special properties that help with beauty, as if they all already didn't have perfect skin. Wait, was the hot spring for me then?
We move along the river towards the closest stair. This also means we have to face a considerable number of Giant Dragonflies.
"This is a bit ridiculous," Said Roxanne while throwing a [Fire Arrow] through the body of a Dragonfly.
"What do you mean?" I ask while putting a dragonfly body inside the [Item Box].
"It took me a huge effort to find a fellowship big enough to handle a hunt for the dragonflies, then it took us hours to dismantle everything and the profits were so disgustingly low," she says and starts to charge another arrow.
"And now we are just casually strolling around through them," I say while collecting a Dragonfly body with 2 arrows pierced through it.
"[Fire Arrow]. Exactly! It wasn't even two months ago!"
"All thanks to our precious little Wolfy," Hana says, she didn't even draw her sword.
"Well… it's just that the elementals are too effective," I say, a little embarrassed.
"A little..." Alissa mutters and fires another arrow.
Another Giant Dragonfly appears and darts forward with his pointy legs aimed at us. 2 Semi-transparent green women with fox tails, fox ears, and a bob cut graciously floating around swing their arms, causing the Dragonfly to veer of course. It ends up stuck on the ground, then an arrow pierces its body and it dies before it can get itself free. I go towards it and collect the body.
"We still have to dismantle them," I say.
"But we can do it at our own pace, safe and sound. This is ridiculous, there's barely any danger in hunting anymore," Roxanne says and throws her hands in the air.
"Don't say such things, we shouldn't grow overconfident," Alissa says while a staring at the elementals, "Wolfy… aren't theirs bigger than mine…?"
"N-no… also, I'm not controlling their appearances, this is not my fault!" I hurriedly answer.
I can control the appearances of the elementals to a certain extent but they cost more mana if I do so.
We continue casually strolling until the Dragonflies stop appearing. Then we meet a group of 4 Wysalites. Hana uses [Fire Breath] and we start a small forest fire.
"What's this smell?" I say, feeling nostalgic.
"There's some aromatic fruit burning," Alissa responds.
"Yes… it's… it's… coffee," I say with pleasure.
None of the girls ever felt this heavenly smell.
"Smells kinda good though, if you ignore the smell of burnt flesh and plants," Roxanne says with a wry smile.
I look around us and find an unburnt bush with small red berries hanging. I grab one and open it up, the characteristic 2 little coffee beans are inside.
"Wow, it's really fucking coffee," I say as the fruit melts and disappears on my hand.
I eat one and it tastes sweet but very acidic, doesn't taste like coffee…
"Alissa, remember this smell. If you ever find it again in town follow it until you find the source.
"As you wish, ma-Wolfy," Alissa responds, almost relapsing at my strong command.
We reach the 6th floor.
It's the last jungle before the roman-style overgrown ruins of the 7th to 9th floors. There we will find minotaurs and there we will… milk them…
This floor is divided into a canyon that opens up and various mesa's appear, the mesa's are popular camping spots. They are safe since there's only one entrance and no flying monsters here but they can become crowded. With 3 women in this group I prefer risking a night attack so we can have full privacy.
The sun is setting so we find a low-traffic area near a mesa and set up camp. Before noon tomorrow we will have reached the 7th floor. Our progress is amazing.
After dismantling disgusting giant insect dragonflies Hana makes me do my strength routine, not as hard since we are still inside a dungeon but still hard enough that I feel like sleeping during the bath. But Hana doesn't let me, we exercised together and she got excited, she does the same as Alissa yesterday and slowly rides me during the whole bath. I kiss Roxanne and Alissa plays with my hair, this is my daily piece of heaven.
Today Alissa decided to cook a few of the Wysalites we didn't burn. They taste like chicken but they have a note of something fresh, almost minty, deep on it.
Near the bed Hana maintains our equipment, Alissa reads her book, and Roxanne slowly caresses my body, her slightly wet hair caresses my chest and the lack of ponytail gives her a new sensuality. Quiet moans fill the tent as I slowly tease her, Roxanne bites her finger and moves her hips. She closes her eyes and enjoys all of it while her horns shake about uncontrollably.
"Uh, Roxanne… your horns are a bit… soft?" I ask.
"Hm? Ah… I can… ah… soften them…ah… and move them around..." She says between soft moans.
I grab her horns and spin them around so they are facing backwards, they sway like they are made of rubber. I fail to suppress a chuckle. Roxanne punches me in the chest and kisses me to stop me from laughing.
I use Alissa's mouth to not make a mess and help her a bit since she was slowly touching herself while reading.
Tonight Roxanne wraps her tail on my leg, I feel scared to touch it but she says it makes her feel safe.
I wake up in the night, the dogs found Wyqualites roaming nearby. They are not strong enough to bypass my monster repellent stone but they can attract other monsters that could. This floor has the Burkanolf and a few rare Zinotues that can hunt at night, they could bypass the stone if old and strong enough so they could stumble upon us if they chase the Wyqualites.
I wake them up and we spend an hour on guard until neither Alissa nor the dogs can smell the Wyqualites. We sleep until a little later to compensate.
Today is the 29th.
My wake up alarm is having my soul leaving through my dick, today Hana seems extra proud of my surprised reaction.
Alissa cooks the remaining Wysalites again. She feels she could make a proper dish of it but they are annoying to hunt them on their own so it's gonna be a rarity.
We break camp and move on, we avoid the adventurers coming out of the mesas and create another small coffee-scented forest fire with a few Wysalites. At 10AM we reach the stairs.
We reach the 7th floor.
We are on an overgrown city ruins. There's partially destroyed concrete buildings, arches, and domes, with an overuse of columns. There's also ivies, vines, and moss covering any still-standing wall. Tall grass everywhere that's not a paved road, pieces of rubble spread all over. This town is called Tigurum.
At the distance we can see a very steep blue mountain surrounding us while a small sea is at the north of the town. On the outskirts there's an oak forest where the stairs of this floor lie.
We could hunt for minotaurs at the town, but since most exits end up here many other adventurers also hunt on this place so I prefer to have some privacy. We move west where the oak forest is the thickest.
We bump into a few fellowships on the way, these roads are tight and there's not many routes we can take to avoid them. All of these adventurers groups look like dirty brigands, they likely stay a long time here to collect valuable parts like proofs of exterminations and harvest organs. This dungeon is one of the easiest ones to overflow, if not for the constant number of hunters here there would certainly be a few Zinotues roaming The Smirk.
When we pass by the hunters I can feel gazes of envy on my back. That's right, they are all mine.
We leave town and enter the oak forest. It's quite beautiful. Large, mossy oaks and plenty of shrubs and flowers compose this forest. I feel like having a picnic here and enjoying the breeze and smells.
"Oh look, it's the morning dew. The monsters are weakened on this floor," I say.
This is why this dungeon got this name, the morning dew is the sign the monsters are weaker and slower, so people would pick a random floor and hope there's dew.
We walk a little happy, but Alissa starts frowning the more we walk.
"Ah! We are surrounded, nine people are coming," she exclaims.
My heart sinks, you can easily discern monsters and humanoids with [Sense Presence]. Adventurers don't come surrounding people, that's an extremely threatening move, there's only group of people that do this, brigands.
How do I deal with them? The advice book told me that thieves sometimes prey on smaller fellowships exploring dungeons, but a well maintained dungeon is rare to have thieves. The Orc Headhunter problem was a single mistake, they happen in every region. This doesn't mean that this is a badly managed region, we are just unlucky, again.
The problem with thieves is that you never know what they have. Poison, archers, mages, berserkers, magic tools, whatever you think someone somewhere is gonna use it, they might have it. Thieves are the masters of ingenuity, a horrible surprise box. If they have a mage how do I deal with him? We are outnumbered and they are not orcs, it's gonna be difficult for Hana to hold off more than one. I have to protect Alissa, she doesn't have a shield but she can keep the enemy at bay. What if they have Spirit or [Dark Magic]? Those are incredibly nasty schools of magic, I never encountered a monster that uses it, actually I never even fought against a single mage, not even for practice. How do I deal with mages? Interrupt chanting? But some chant super fast. My shield is my best friend now, but I'm still not very strong, I could get thrown away by [Torrent] easily. If they have poison I will have to use [Diagnosis] to know which, or maybe I should just drink a few of Roxanne's potions and hope of the best, I don't have time to put points in [Diagnosis]. What if they have archers? Wind elementals work but [Wind Wall] would be much more mana efficient, what points do I take out for it? Support magic can't go, all my buffs are working and they are very useful. What if I just put a point into some magic? I don't have [Fireball], [Lightning Bolt] is useful and I can get them by surprise with [Entangling Vines], even [Dark Magic]'s [Torment] could work. But we are surrounded and outnumbered, I need something to hold them off, how do I judge when to help Hana or Alissa? Roxanne can't get into melee at any cost so she's easy to judge but if I make a mistake and a blade pierces a chest it's over, a decapitation and it's over, anything on the brain and it's over. How about our formation? Should we fight back to back or should we charge the enemy? Our flanks get exposed if we charge but if we stay we can be more easily crushed and we have no place to fall back. I don't have eyes on my back I can't deal with the-...
"Wolfy," Alissa grabs my face and she looks into my eyes.
I'm hyperventilating, my heart race is racing, and my mind is dizzy.
"We will deal with them, Wolfy," Hana says.
"Everyone, drink the Moonlight Elixir," Roxanne reminds us.
"Wolfy, bring two wind elementals and give control to us," Hana says.
I obey.
"Block projectiles first and if there's an opening strike the enemy with the [Air Hammer] to disrupt them," Hana orders the elementals.
"Wolfy, you have to stand in front of me, understand? You don't have to kill but you have to defend me, okay?" Alissa tells me while looking into my eyes.
"Okay..." I mutter.
"Take a point out of [Sword Use] and put it into [Electric Magic], Wolfy, you need [Lighting Bolt] for a surprise stun, okay?" Roxanne says.
"Okay," I obey.
I'm slowing down, things are okay, things will be okay. Hana dealt with thieves all the time, she used to do lots of escorts. Roxanne dealt with bad people once in a while, she will be fine. Alissa is here to protect me and I will protect her. Everything will be fine, everything will be fine, everything will be fine, everything will be fine.
We drink our potions and draw our weapons. I'm facing east, Hana is west, Alissa north and Roxanne south. Alissa is close to me and Roxanne is closer to Hana. The elementals are in front of Alissa and Roxanne, I have to block arrows coming to me or they might hit Hana.
I hear footsteps and soon after a man comes walking out of a bush ahead. He's a golden"blond man with a square jaw, disheveled hair, and a stubble. He would be handsome if he did not have dirt all over his body. He loosely hangs a shield and walks forward with his head down. He notices us and looks up, he freezes for a moment, he looks confused.
"Ah! Uh… c-can you help me? My fellowship met a really strong minotaur and we lost. I-I wanna go find them but I'm alone and this floor is dangerous," he says, almost crying.
"What about the other eight guys around us? Aren't they part of your fellowship?" Hana says with a mocking tone.
The man frowns.
"Well shit, I tried. Dunno how but they noticed us."
"Oi! No one mentioned a summoner, these two elementals are trouble," Says another man coming from another bush in another direction.
"It's the mage girl. She shouldn't have much mana left with two elementals out, she's scared," Says another man coming from another direction.
"Whatever, just don't waste arrows on them then," says another man.
"If you lay down your weapons and the whores spread their legs we won't kill any of you. We gotta cut the hands of the mage lass, though," Says another man.
The last man comes forth besides the blond man. He is big and wears chain armor that barely makes a sound when he moves, he has a bastard sword and a round metal shield. His face is covered by a hood, I can see an ugly burn mark on the little skin he shows.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. They are not here for money, a scout on the city must have seen us and caught their attention. 3 goddesses walking around with me? NAIVE, I was so fucking naive to think I wouldn't attract attention!
"You dare try to rape adventurers? Is that really worth your life?" Hana says.
Rape? That's right, that's what they are going to do. This is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
"You might be strong but you can't deal with all of us. A single fucking dragon a fucking archer and a fucking mage, we killed worse," the hooded man answers.
"You underestimate us, we are Helios and this is Wolf Ryder. You wanna blow up like the Symbol of Hate did?" Hana says and laughs.
"No fucking way that little twat is Ryder."
"You want him to pull out his ID?"
"Like fuck the 'oh so glorious' town hero is going to let his women do the talking. Look at that fucking scared piece of shit."
I can't speak, I just can't, my body doesn't move, I'm shaking. I can't control the shaking, my heart is in my mouth. I'm sorry, I'm frozen, I'm weak, I'm a coward. I won't let you near my women.
"You pieces of orc cum, I will rape your asses with my spear and make you give a blowjob to my sword then I will peel the skin out of your dick and roast it to give it as a treat to the dogs! Come at me if you are men!" Hana taunts, "NOW!"
I hear a sound of someone breathing in. I feel mana being gathered and the blonde man falls dead with an arrow on his head. The hooded man raises his shield just in time to defend himself from an arrow.
I won't let you touch my women.
"FUCK! GET THE MAGE!" The hooded man screams and charges towards me.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Defend! I hear the sound of fire running loose.
I block his slash, my shield arm explodes in pain. That was a bad block.
"Fuckin whores…"
He slashes again and again and again and again.
I parry, I block, I deflect, and I block again. I hear screams.
I won't let you hurt my women!
"Just, fucking, die!"
I parry, I bash, I deflect and I slash.
I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!
I charge my mana.
"You gotta be fucking…"
"[LIGHTNING BOLT]!"
"AAAH!"
The hooded man twitches, I slash at his shin, I cut some bone. The men continues screaming and bashes my shield, I fall backwards.
"DIIIIEE!"
I block with my shield and my arm hurts again. I lose power in my arm. I throw my shield at him and kick the ground up.
"RAAAAH!" I scream.
I charge my spell and slash and slash and slash and slash and slash and slash.
"[LIGHTNING BOLT]!" I scream again and use all the mana that I can on the spell.
The man convulses and I cut one of his legs off. He falls on the ground and I jump and stab him with my sword, it goes through his chain mail and gets stuck on him. I grab my knife and stab and stab and stab and stab.
"You are now level 17."
"YOU WON'T TOUCH HER."
And stab and stab and stab and stab.
"I'LL KILL YOU."
And stab and stab and-...
Something held my hand. I lose the dagger.
"Ah…"
I get hugged from behind and carried. I want to struggle but it's too strong, the hug is crushing me. I need to get away, he's still alive, he's still alive! I GOTTA FUCKING KILL HIM!
I struggle until my strength goes away, then I accept death. Just cut me down and end this, please.
I get lowered on the ground and forced to keep down. A sweet scent fills my nose as another shadow gets up on my body and holds me.
I can feel the shaking of my body, I can feel the pain in my shield arm, I can feel the dryness of my throat, I can feel the pain in my heart, I can feel the lack of air in my lungs. My breathing regulates and my heart slows down. I'm feeling dizzy right now, too dizzy.
I force myself to the side and puke. I feel something pleasant on my mouth and the bitterness of the vomit goes away. My body is so tired and heavy, I close my eyes.
Slowly my hearing comes back and I understand the words again. "Wolfy, calm down, I love you. Calm down please", I hear those words being repeated into my ear.
"Yes…"
I smell Alissa's hair perfume and see her nearly orange hair on the side of my vision, I feel the warmth of her body pressed into mine. I let the tears run through my face.
"Wolfy, we have to leave, now," I hear Roxanne, there's hurry in her voice.
"I'll carry him," Hana says.
I'm lifted up and carried like a princess for a few minutes. I stop crying and my heart calms down. Then I feel like puking again.
"Put me down… I'm feeling sick."
I hastily struggle and nearly fall down, immediately I bend and retch but barely anything comes out this time.
"[Clean]," Alissa casts and my mouth gets cleaned again.
I walk a few steps and sit down besides a tree. Alissa comes and hugs me again. Hana sits besides me and strokes my hair. Roxanne gets on the other side and grabs my hand.
A few minutes passes.
"I'm sorry..." I mutter.
"Don't be," Alissa responds.
Hana sighs.
"Didn't you say there were no monsters in your realm? No fighting, no killing, no wars? Even a scholar on this world would react worse than you, I saw men get cut down without even lifting a finger," Hana says.
"Once I had to... kill a man who tried to push me down once, I exploded his head and don't remember what I did after that. My next memory was taking a bath back at home," Roxanne says, she looks away and Hana pulls her into a hug.
"I had to train by executing criminals, I puked the first few times. Now I don't feel anything anymore," Alissa says.
"Thank you..." I let out a weak voice, I'm holding back my tears.
I feel dirty, disgusted, sick. I feel angry, I feel like killing again, I want to make him suffer. Those feelings bring a storm inside me, I killed a human, what if that was me? What if I was killed and my wives had to suffer? What if it were them that were killed?
Why did you make me do this? Why did you have to be such a shitty human being that you just fucking had to try and take these women by force? How can such evil people exist? Why did you make me dot this!? Even though you didn't succeed you still hurt me so much. Why?!
It's because they are evil, that's why. Evil people need to die, that's all that there's to it. That's all, they need to die.
I look at the girls, I smell blood.
"Are you all okay...? Do you need healing?" I ask in a weak voice.
"You don't have to do anything, just rest."
"I will… after. I smell blood."
They break down the hug. Hana shows me her hand, it's reddish and swollen, it's broken. Her shield arm is hurting a lot and she has a bruise on her left flank. I remember the elementals are still out so I dismiss them and heal her.
Alissa shows a slash on her left shoulder, it penetrated the Grey Berserker armor. Roxanne was unscathed.
"I'm sorry… someone got near you Alissa."
"Don't be!" She answers immediately.
"I barely helped, if it happens again y-..."
"We will deal with it again!"
"I was useless i-..."
"You weren't! Stop it! You aren't trained like us, you didn't go through the same things we did! It's unfair to think you would react well on the first time, we still love you and we will protect you."
"I don't want to be protected like this."
"Isn't this part of my vow?" Hana says.
"So is mine," Roxanne helps.
"Your body and soul is mine, I won't let you die," Alissa ends.
I'm cornered, there's no way out. I'm blessed to be loved by these women. Next time I will protect them better, they keep me safe and I will keep them safer!
Intermission 4
We are a team now, we can't be selfish and childish, we have to put our pride aside and work together, to treat each other with respect and fairness. We all have a desire to monopolize him but we can't act upon it, Wolfy loves us all and to exclude one of us would only serve to hurt him, in the end it would just come back and hurt us all.
More than that we know that we are not enough. We give our all, we do not put each other down, we know we are not useless, but still, we know, we agree. that we are not enough.
Even our experience and effort combined is not enough to match someone with a life in a different realm. We need to understand the points in which we fall short so we can understand where he needs help and then accept whatever help we can get.
We vowed to him to live together forever and help each other, and we will do just that, we will all rise together. We know he has the potential to go far and even though he doesn't want the tile of hero we vowed to each other we will do our best to help him achieve great heights.